The Forgotten Fight for ‘Darker Peoples’ at the Paris Peace Conference

Excerpt

The Forgotten Fight for ‘Darker Peoples’ at the Paris Peace Conference

How an alliance between Black American women and Japanese delegates paved the way for modern human rights. September 19, 2025, 2:00 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

A photo collage illustration shows vintage portraits of two African American women and a hand holding a fountain pen in front of yellow shapes, ink blots, and scrawls.

On Jan. 2, 1919, at her home in Irvington, New York, along the banks of the Hudson River, African American entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker held a meeting that represented a significant development in human rights history. Walker gathered the Jamaican Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, labor organizer A. Philip Randolph, Harlem clergyman Adam Clayton Powell Sr., and others