ABSTRACT
The African American quest for universal freedom began with a foreign policy—the international slave trade. Thus, from the beginning African Americans have attempted to bring their universal freedom quest to the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. They have attempted to influence foreign policy as American diplomats and citizen diplomats, as dissenters in American wars from the Mexican–American War to the war on Iraq; and as lobbyists in the corridors of power in Washington. The influence of African Americans on foreign policy has been limited, but it has been a consistent and persistent voice for human rights and freedom.
