The African Progress Union (APU ) was founded in London in 1918 as "an Association of Africans from various parts of Africa, the West Indies , British Guiana , Honduras and America, representing advanced African ideas in liberal education". The first president was John Archer . He was succeeded in 1921 by John Alcindor .[ 1] Others involved as founders included John Eldred Taylor , Thomas Horatio Jackson and Dusé Mohamed Ali .[ 2]
In 1919, the Union briefly merged with the Society of Peoples of African Origin (SPAO), which had been founded in 1918.[ 3] [ 4] A short-term change of name to the Society of African Peoples was followed by the founder of the SPAO, Felix Hercules, becoming Secretary of the Union.[ 2] Also in 1919 the APU paid for Edward Theophilus Nelson as defence counsel in the Liverpool trial of 15 black men, in the aftermath of racially motivated communal violence.[ 5]
Alcindor died in 1924; he was succeeded by Kwamina Tandoh . For some years he worked closely with John Barbour-James . The Union's 1925 meeting was attended by Ethel Snowden and Gordon Guggisberg . The APU was active until 1927.[ 6] [ 7]
^ Green, Jeffrey. "Alcindor, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/57173 . (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ a b Benjamin, Ionie (1995). The Black Press in Britain . Trentham Books. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-85856-028-1 . Retrieved 27 October 2012 .
^ Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (26 July 2005). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century . Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8 . Retrieved 27 October 2012 .
^ "Society of Peoples of African Origin" . Anne Samson – Historian . 3 May 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2023 .
^ Davies, Sam. "Nelson, Edward Theophilus". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/57262 . (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Dabydeen, David ; Gilmore, John; Jones, Cecily (6 May 2010). The Oxford Companion to Black British History . Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199578771 . Retrieved 27 October 2012 . , p. 13.
^ Green, Jeffrey. "Tandoh, Kwamina Faux". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/97932 . (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)