ABSTRACT
The black American experience in the mid-twentieth century provides a unique opportunity to examine issue formation and development in the context of both rapid social change and fundamental debate about the national interest. Various conditions cited by social movement literature as prerequisite to the development of insurgence are found in the history of the emergence of a black foreign policy audience. The black foreign policy audience initially sprang from a core of politicians, clergy, press, intellectuals, and cadres from Christian, social welfare and peace organizations. The postwar situation gave rise to a host of interrelated issues that in the ensemble challenged the general direction of American foreign policy and urged a redefinition of the national interest. They included the character of the United Nations, the status of minority peoples and colonized subjects in the world as a whole, and the foreign policies of the Truman administration.
