Sarah Seidman

This dissertation explores transnational solidarity between the African American liberation movement and the Cuban Revolution. It examines the experiences of African Americans who visited Cuba or lived there in exile, along with African American and Cuban representations of each other in cultural discourse. African Americans viewed Cuba as a model for resisting US power and creating an anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist society, while the Cuban government considered African Americans allies against US policies and advocates of Cuba’s egalitarian program. While substantive differences and ambivalent interactions clouded their shared visions, persistent African American and Cuban convergences shed light on the nature of both Cuba's revolutionary project and the African American postwar struggle for change.