Embracing Germany: Interwar German Society and Black Germans through the Eyes of African American Reporters

Abstract

This article looks at the published reports on visits made to interwar Germany by prominent black journalists Robert S. Abbot, J. A. Rogers and Lewis McMillan. Drawing on their own experiences as well as their engagement with German-based blacks, the reporters contrasted the oppressive conditions black people faced in the US with the apparent lack of colour prejudice in Germany. Their coverage serves as a critique of race relations in the US, while also providing snapshots into the conditions under which black Germans lived as well as an insight into the writers’ own perceptions of a broader black diaspora in development.