First Pan-African Conference

"Pan-African Conference" redirects here. For the series of events held from 1919, see Pan-African Congress.
First Pan-African Conference
Date23–25 July 1900
DurationThree days
VenueWestminster Town Hall
LocationLondon, England
ThemeAnti-racism, self-government
Participants47+ delegates and participants, inc. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor John Alcindor, Benito Sylvain, Dadabhai Naoroji, John Archer, Henry Francis Downing, W. E. B. Du Bois, George James Christian, Richard E. Phipps, Anna J. Cooper, Anna H. Jones, Bishop Alexander Walters

The First Pan-African Conference was held in London, England, from 23 to 25 July 1900 (just prior to the Paris Exhibition of 1900 "in order to allow tourists of African descent to attend both events").[1] Organized primarily by the Trinidadian barrister Henry Sylvester Williams,[2] the conference took place in Westminster Town Hall (now Caxton Hall)[3] and was attended by 37 delegates and about 10 other participants and observers[4][5] from Africa, the West Indies, the US and the UK, including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (the youngest delegate),[6] John Alcindor, Benito Sylvain, Dadabhai Naoroji, John Archer, Henry Francis Downing, Anna H. Jones, Anna Julia Cooper, and W. E. B. Du Bois, with Bishop Alexander Walters of the AME Zion Church taking the chair.[7][8]

Du Bois played a leading role, drafting a letter ("Address to the Nations of the World")[9] to European leaders appealing to them to struggle against racism, to grant colonies in Africa and the West Indies the right to self-government and demanding political and other rights for African Americans.[3][10]

Invitation to the Pan-African Conference at Westminster Town Hall, July 1900
  1. ^ Ramla Bandele, "Pan-African Conference in 1900" Archived 2013-09-22 at the Wayback Machine, Article #461, Origins of the movement for global black unity, Global Mappings.
  2. ^ "A history of Pan-Africanism", New Internationalist, 326, August 2000.
  3. ^ a b "The First Pan African Conference of 1900"[permanent dead link‍]. Global Pan African Movement.
  4. ^ Peter Fryer in Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (Pluto Press, 1984) quotes these figures from Owen Charles Mathurin, Henry Sylvester Williams and the Origins of the Pan-African Movement, 1869-1911, Greenwood Press, 1976, p. 62.
  5. ^ Marika Sherwood in "Pan-African Conferences, 1900-1953: What Did ‘Pan-Africanism’ Mean?" identifies "three Africans attending; fifteen West Indians and nine Africans temporarily in the UK mainly as students; five Black Britons and nineteen visiting African-Americans".
  6. ^ Jeffrey Green, "Do we really know Samuel Coleridge-Taylor?" Talk for the Black and Asian Studies Association Conference, London, 27 June 2009.
  7. ^ Tony Martin, Pan-African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond (Dover: Majority Press, 1985), p. 207.
  8. ^ Paul Finkelman, ed., Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 246. ISBN 9780195167795.
  9. ^ "(1900) W. E. B. Du Bois, 'To the Nations of the World'", BlackPast.org
  10. ^ Maloney, Wendi A. (19 February 2019). "African-American History Month: First Pan-African Congress | Library of Congress Blog". blogs.loc.gov. Retrieved 3 November 2021.