The First Pan-African Conference was held in London, England, from 23 to 25 July 1900 (just prior to the Paris Exhibition of 1900 "in order to allow tourists of African descent to attend both events").Ramla Bandele, "Pan-African Conference in 1900" , Article #461, Origins of the movement for global black unity, Global Mappings. Organized primarily by the Trinidadian barrister Henry Sylvester Williams,"A history of Pan-Africanism", New Internationalist, 326, August 2000. the conference took place in Westminster Town Hall (now Caxton Hall)"The First Pan African Conference of 1900". Global Pan African Movement. and was attended by 37 delegates and about 10 other participants and observersPeter Fryer in Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (Pluto Press, 1984) quotes these figures from Owen Charles Mathurin, Henry Sylvester Williams and the Origins of the Pan-African Movement, 1869-1911, Greenwood Press, 1976, p. 62.Marika Sherwood in "Pan-African Conferences, 1900-1953: What Did ‘Pan-Africanism’ Mean?" identifies "three Africans attending; fifteen West Indians and nine Africans temporarily in the UK mainly as students; five Black Britons and nineteen visiting African-Americans". from Africa, the West Indies, the US and the UK, including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (the youngest delegate), John Alcindor, Benito Sylvain, Dadabhai Naoroji, John Archer, Henry Francis Downing, Anna H. Jones, Anna Julia Cooper, and W. E. B. Du Bois, with Bishop Alexander Walters of the AME Zion Church taking the chair.Tony Martin, Pan-African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond (Dover: Majority Press, 1985), p. 207.Paul Finkelman, ed., Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 246. .
Du Bois played a leading role, drafting a letter ("Address to the Nations of the World")"(1900) W. E. B. Du Bois, 'To the Nations of the World, BlackPast.org to European leaders appealing to them to struggle against racism, to grant colonies in Africa and the West Indies the right to self-government and demanding political and other rights for African Americans.
Background On 24 September 1897, Henry Sylvester Williams had been instrumental in founding in London the African Association (not to be confused with the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa), in response to the European partition of Africa that followed the 1884-85 Congress of Berlin. The formation of the association marked an early stage in the development of the anti-colonial movement, and was established to encourage the unity of Africans and people of African descent, particularly in territories of the British Empire,"African Association", in E. L. Bute and H. J. P. Harmer, The Black Handbook: The People, History and Politics of Africa and the African Diaspora, London & Washington: Cassell, 1997, p. 111. concerning itself with injustices in Britain's African and Caribbean colonies.Immanuel Ness and Zak Cope (eds), "The First Pan-African Conference", The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism, Volume 1, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p. 908. In March 1898, the association issued a circular calling for a pan-African conference. Booker T. Washington, who had been travelling in the UK in the summer of 1899, wrote in a letter to African-American newspapers:
Conference concerns and issues When the First Pan-African Conference opened on Monday, 23 July 1900, in London's Westminster Town Hall, Bishop Alexander Walters in his opening address, "The Trials and Tribulations of the Coloured Race in America", noted that "for the first time in history black people had gathered from all parts of the globe to discuss and improve the condition of their race, to assert their rights and organize so that they might take an equal place among nations."Fryer (1984), p. 283. The Bishop of London, Mandell Creighton, gave a speech of welcome "referring to 'the benefits of self-government' which Britain must confer on 'other races ... as soon as possible'."
Speakers over the three days addressed a variety of aspects of racial discrimination. Among the papers delivered were: "Conditions Favouring a High Standard of African Humanity" (C. W. French of St. Kitts), "The Preservation of Racial Equality" (Anna H. Jones, from Kansas City, Missouri), "The Necessary Concord to be Established between Native Races and European Colonists" (Benito Sylvain,Benito Sylvain's account of the conference, entitled "The Pan-African Association", was published in his book Du Sort des Indigènes dans les Colonies d'Exploitation (Paris: L. Boyer, 1901). See Tony Martin, "Benito Sylvain of Haiti on the Pan-African Conference of 1900", in The Pan-African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond, Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman Publishing, 1983, pp. 201–16. Haitian aide-de-camp to the Ethiopian emperor), "The Negro Problem in America" (Anna J. Cooper, from Washington), "The Progress of our People" (John E. Quinlan of St. Lucia) and "Africa, the Sphinx of History, in the Light of Unsolved Problems" (D. E. Tobias from the USA)., Spartacus Educational. Other topics included Richard Phipps' complaint of discrimination against black people in the Trinidadian civil service and an attack by William Meyer, a medical student at Edinburgh University, on pseudo-scientific racism. Discussions followed the presentation of the papers, and on the last day George James Christian, a law student from Dominica,Thomson Fontaine, "George James Christian: Pioneer in Africa", Thedominican.net, Vol. 1, Issue 32, 27 November 2002.Gabriel J. Christian, "Nelson Mandela, Dominica and the Caribbean Contribution to African Liberation", Dominica News Online, 8 December 2013. led a discussion on the subject "Organized Plunder and Human Progress Have Made Our Race Their Battlefield", saying that in the past "Africans had been kidnapped from their land, and in South Africa and Rhodesia slavery was being revived in the form of forced labour."Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, London: Pluto Press, 1984, p. 284.Bernard Magubane, The Ties that Bind: African-American Consciousness of Africa, Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2nd printing 1989, p. 140.
The conference culminated in the conversion of the African Association (formed by Sylvester Williams in 1897) into the Pan-African Association, and the implementation of a unanimously adopted "Address to the Nations of the World", sent to various heads of state where people of African descent were living and suffering oppression.Shivani Sivagurunathan, "Pan-Africanism", in David Dabydeen, John Gilmore, Cecily Jones (eds), The Oxford Companion to Black British History, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 259–60. The address implored the United States and the imperial European nations to "acknowledge and protect the rights of people of African descent" and to respect the integrity and independence of "the free Negro States of Abyssinia, Liberia, Haiti, etc."The Pan-African Congresses, 1900–1945, BlackPast.org. Signed by Walters (President of the Pan-African Association), the Canadian Rev. Henry B. Brown (Vice-President), Williams (General Secretary) and Du Bois (Chairman of the Committee on the Address),1900 Pan-African Conference Resolution . Source: Ayodele Langley, Ideologies of Liberation in Black Africa, London: Rex Collings, 1979, pp. 738–739. the document contained the phrase "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the colour-line", which Du Bois would use three years later in the "Forethought" of his book The Souls of Black Folk (1903).Brent Hayes Edwards, "The Practice of Diaspora", in Janice A. Radway, Kevin Gaines, Barry Shank, Penny Von Eschen (eds), American Studies: An Anthology, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, p. 33.
In September, the delegates petitioned Queen Victoria through the British government to look into the treatment of Africans in South Africa and Rhodesia, including specified acts of injustice perpetrated by whites there, namely: The degrading and illegal compound system of labour in vogue in Kimberley and Rhodesia. The so-called indenture, i.e., legalized bondage of African men and women and children to white colonists. The system of compulsory labour in public works. The "pass" or docket system used for people of colour. Local by-laws tending to segregate and degrade Africans such as the curfew; the denial to Africans of the use of footpaths; and the use of separate public conveyances. Difficulties in acquiring real property. Difficulties in obtaining the franchise.
The response eventually received by Sylvester Williams on 17 January 1901 stated: "Sir. I am directed by Mr Secretary [Joseph] Chamberlain to state that he has received the Queen's commands to inform you that the Memorial of the Pan-African Conference requesting the situation of the native races in South Africa, has been laid before Her Majesty, and that she was graciously pleased to command him to return an answer to it on behalf of her government.
2. Mr. Chamberlain accordingly desires to assure the members of the Pan-African Conference that, it settling the lines on which the administration of the conquered territories is to be conducted, Her Majesty's Government will not overlook the interests and welfare of the native races."1900 Pan African Conference Petition to Queen Victoria" . Source: Molefi K. Asante, The History of Africa, New York & London: Routledge, 2007, p. 260.
Days later, Victoria responded more personally, instructing her private secretary, Arthur Bigge, to write, which he did on 21 January — the day before the Queen died.J. R. Hooker, "The Pan-African Conference 1900", Transition, No. 46 (1974), p. 24. Although the specific injustices in South Africa continued for some time, the conference brought them to the attention of the world.Frank A. Salamone, "Pan-African Conference, London", in Paul Finkelman, Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 43.
Press coverage and local reception The conference was reported in major British newspapers, including The Times"PanAfrican Conference", The Times (London), 24 July 1900, and "PanAfrican Conference", The Times (London), 25 July 1900. and the Westminster Gazette, which commented that it "marks the initiation of a remarkable movement in history: the negro is at last awake to the potentialities of his future" and quoted Williams as saying: "Our object now is to secure throughout the world the same facilities and privileges for the black as the white man enjoys."Fryer, p. 287.
Bishop Alexander Walters recorded in his memoir, "On Monday, the 23d of July, the conference was invited to a five o'clock tea given by the Reform Cobden Club of London in honor of the delegates, at its headquarters in the St. Ermin Hotel, one of the most elegant in the city. Several members of Parliament and other notables were present. A splendid repast was served, and for two hours the delegates were delightfully entertained by the members and friends of the club.