Following World War II, America was witness to two great struggles. The first was on
the international front and involved the fight for freedom around the globe, as millions
of people in Asia and Africa rose up to throw off their European colonial masters. In
the decades following 1945 dozens of new nations joined the ranks of independent
countries. Following the Civil War, the African-American voice in U.S. foreign affairs
continued to grow. In the late nineteenth century, a few African-Americans — such as
Frederick Douglass — even served as U.S. diplomats to the "black republics" of Liberia
and Haiti. When America began its overseas thrust during the 1890s, African-American
opinion was divided.
