{"id":43658,"date":"2015-11-01T16:57:51","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T16:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=43658"},"modified":"2015-11-01T16:58:48","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T16:58:48","slug":"african-american-interest-experiences-in-russia-a-brief-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=43658","title":{"rendered":"African American Interest & Experiences in Russia: A Brief History"},"content":{"rendered":"

African American Interest & Experiences in Russia: A Brief History<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Afropean: Adventures in Afro Europe<\/a>
\n2015-10-28<\/p>\n

Robert Fikes, Jr.<\/strong><\/a>, Reference Librarian
\nSan Diego State University<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert Fikes, Jr., Librarian at San Diego State University, recounts the history of the African American presence in Russia from the 19th century, noting that African Americans have had a long and prominent history in the region, continuing to the present day, with a focus on the scholarly interest in the history and language by members of the African American intelligentsia.<\/em><\/p>\n

In early February 1869, Cassius M. Clay<\/a>, the liberal American ambassador to Russia<\/a>, was uncertain how Czar Alexander II<\/a> would react to his personal request to have \u201ca colored American citizen, presented to his Imperial Majesty, as there was not precedent.\u201d He need not have worried however, as Civil War<\/a> veteran and pioneering black journalist Capt. Thomas Morris Chester<\/a> from Pennsylvania<\/a>, was then asked to accompany the czar riding alongside the monarch and his staff in the annual grand review the Imperial Guard<\/a> \u2013 stalwart men splendidly attired in tall black leather boots and gleaming gold and silver helmets crowned with a doubled-headed eagle \u2013 and following the awe-inspiring pageantry was treated to a fine meal at the dining table of the royal family. The educated and proudly erect son of an ex-slave, he gladly accepted the invitation and enjoyed an experience unparalleled for an African American in the 19th century. The black editors of the New Orleans Tribune<\/em> thought the event significant enough that the ambassador\u2019s dispatch to Washington<\/a> concerning Capt. Chester\u2019s gracious treatment in St. Petersburg<\/a> was reprinted in the newspaper, believing it would be \u201cinstructive to the (racist) white population of the Southern States<\/a>,\u201d an example of how they should, in the ambassador\u2019s words, \u201celevate the African race in America.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

African American Interest & Experiences in Russia: A Brief History Afropean: Adventures in Afro Europe 2015-10-28 Robert Fikes, Jr., Reference Librarian San Diego State University Robert Fikes, Jr., Librarian at San Diego State University, recounts the history of the African American presence in Russia from the 19th century, noting that African Americans have had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,28,459,8],"tags":[17846,18065,21729,21730,21728,21727,19141,7706,21726],"class_list":["post-43658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-europe","category-history","category-media-archive","tag-afropean","tag-afropean-adventures-in-afro-europe","tag-george-tynes","tag-herbert-c-miller","tag-ida-aldridge","tag-ida-forsythe","tag-robert-fikes-jr","tag-russia","tag-thomas-morris-chester"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43660,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43658\/revisions\/43660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}