Council on African Affairs (CAA)
United States of America
The CAA started around 1943 and continued to operate till 1955. It worked on educating people on the history and struggle against colonialism and imperialism in Africa. It organised famine relief campaigns, legal defence funds and sit-ins and demonstrations. It organised public campaigns and fundraising for, amongst others, the ANC’s 1952 Defiance Campaign. The organisation was crippled by the emergence of the Cold War and the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was repeatedly investigated.
The Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, holds the archive of William Alphaeus Hunton, Educational Director and later Executive Secretary of the organisation.
The Centre also holds the collection of (singer and actor) Paul Robeson, one of the founders and chairman of the CAA. It covers the period 1944-1955 and contains correspondence, reports, press releases and news clippings.
