African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement
Book talk by Vincent J. Intondi

Presented by the Nuclear Free World Committee of the Syracuse Peace Council

African Americans were among the first citizens to protest Truman’s decision to use nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a fact rarely mentioned by historians. Blacks in America saw the use of atomic bombs as a racial issue from the beginning of the nuclear age.

Author Vincent Intondi reveals the links between the black freedom movement in America and issues of global peace. Intondi will share stories from civil rights leaders, artists, clergy and politicians, “from Langston Hughes, through Lorraine Hansberry to President Obama”.

Vincent Intondi is an Associate Professor of History at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland.  He holds a BA in economics from SUNY Potsdam (1997), an MA in history from SUNY Oswego (2003), and a PhD in history from American University  (2009).  In 2009, Intondi was named the Director of Research for American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute in Washington, DC. As Director of Research, Intondi annually teaches in Hiroshima and Nagasaki alongside atomic bomb survivors, nuclear policy experts, and various dignitaries.