While racial etiquette in the United States was perilous and often arbitrary in the early twentieth century, Jim Crow laws—along with word-of-mouth knowledge and community support—enabled African Americans to prepare for travel within the nation’s borders. Traveling abroad, however, introduced an added layer of uncertainty. Few had gone, and unfamiliar cultural norms and languages made these journeys even more difficult to navigate. Yet, international travel also carried a sense of possibility, and the illusion that one might, even briefly, escape the consequences of American Blackness.
In this talk, Tiffany M. Gill explores the experiences of African Americans whose pursuit of joy and respite from American racism led them to take short-term vacations abroad in the post–World War II era. Black print media served as an essential resource for travellers seeking to navigate the precarities of the international colour line. Indeed, the post-World War II Black press was captivated by the idea of international leisure travel. Not only did travellers seek advice, but an eclectic and unexpected group of travel boosters and entrepreneurs also wrote articles, staffed travel columns, and produced guides that examined and debated the complexities of being a Black consumer, cosmopolitan, and vacationer. Major Black periodicals regularly featured annual vacation sections and weekly travel advice columns—highlighting African Americans roaming the world and their place in it, and the complexity of Black internationalism and global alliances in the post-World War II era.
Tiffany M. Gill is an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University. She is the author of ‘Beauty Shop Politics: African American Activism in the Beauty Industry’, and co-editor with Keisha N. Blain of ‘To Turn the World Over: Black Women and Internationalism’. She is currently working on a book project that examines the promise and peril of African American international leisure travel since World War II.
