Race and Class

This paper will discuss how U.S. officials and foreign policy audiences planned to adjust to the need to accommodate new states.  Opinion makers in and out of government came to accept the principle that colonialism and racism were outmoded.  Dependent territories had to become modern states ruled by indigenous administrators, but policy makers eschewed decolonization through revolution.  How would African colonies make the transition to sovereignty?  How would they constitute their nationalities?  Who would lead and how?  What would be the leadership group’s sources of legitimacy?  The paper argues that governing elites and authorities responded to the new militancy by exploring ways to manage a peaceful transition to racial equality and maintain political stability through the careful construction and management of class.