Drawn from his research on the first generation of African American U.S. consuls and diplomats, Allison Blakely's presentation will highlight three entrepreneurs from the 19th and early 20th century, who were widely known then but are seldom mentioned now:
- Mifflin Wistar Gibbs (1823-1915)
- John L. Waller (1850-1907), and
- Richard T. Greener (1844-1922)
Blakely offers their experiences as exemplary evidence that what is generally known about achievements in Black entrepreneurship in American history barely begins to capture the broad scope and boldness of aspirations and accomplishments in that sphere over the centuries.
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About the Speaker
Allison Blakely is a Professor Emeritus of European and Comparative History at Boston University. His doctorate, in Russian History, is from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Blacks in the Dutch World: The Evolution of Racial Imagery in a Modern Society [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994]; and Russia and the Negro: Blacks in Russian History and Thought [Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press 1986], a winner of an American Book Award. Among his numerous chapters in edited anthologies is “Blacks in the U.S. Diplomatic and Consular Services, 1869-1924,” in Linda Heywood, Allison Blakely, Charles Stith, and Joshua C. Yesnowitz, eds, African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy: From the Era of Frederick Douglass to the Age of Obama (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015), 13-29. His most recent scholarly publication is “Contested Blackness in Red Russia,” The Russian Review 75 (July, 2016): 359-67. He is a former President of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and serves on the Editorial Board of its magazine The American Scholar. He is also a member of the National Council on the Humanities, to which he was appointed by President Obama in 2010.
This is the first lecture of the 2022-2023 academic year in our ongoing series History and Legacy of Black Entrepreneurship in the United States.
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Who can attend?
Open to the public, the campus community, students, graduate students, undergraduates, postdocs, research scholars, faculty, staff, and alumni.
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