Seeking the Moral Imaginations of Addie Hunton, Zora Neale Hurston, and Paulette Nardal, 1918–39

This paper will examine the writing of three women during the interwar years and how their ideas about black liberation and their struggle for peace and justice was shaped by their international experiences. Addie Hunton was a social welfare professional who served in France with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.  The prejudice that she experienced there politicized her and led her to dedicate her life to global peace and justice. Zora Neale Hurston was an anthropologist and writer who traveled to Haiti on a Guggenheim fellowship to study religion.  She arrived in Haiti shortly after the departure of the US marines who had occupied the country from 1914 to 1934. Tell My Horse reported on her experiences as well as her encounter with the intellectuals and leaders that will attempt to steer Haiti toward a democratic future.  Natives of Martinique, Paulette Nardal and her sisters were students in Paris in the 1920s and 30s and were the proprietors of the Clamart Salon which brought together students and writers from Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean. Nardal was a key figure in the founding of the journal La revue du Monde Noir (1931-32), a literary journal which served as the mouthpiece for the growing movement of African and Caribbean intellectuals challenging colonialism. Nardal will eventually be censored by the Vichy regime that occupied Martinique during World War II. Emphasis will be placed on research method and theoretical perspective in understanding the internationalism of these women and the impact upon their intellectual and political work