Abstract
Instead of reading formal papers we thought that the three of us would share some thoughts having to do with our experience with Pan Africanism here in the United States; and then open up the panel for general discussion. I will begin, therefore, with comments and then Dr. James H. Cone and Dr. Jacquelyn Grant will speak. Probably very few of our overseas visitors are aware of the appropriateness of holding this meeting here in the city of Atlanta. There have been several meetings in the United States dealing with the question of the relationship between African Americans in the United States and people of African descent everywhere in the world. Perhaps the most important of them was held in the late 19th century right here at Gammon Theological Seminary, one of the constituent seminaries of this Interdenominational
Theological Center. It was in December of 1895 that Professor John W. Bowen, who was on the faculty at Gammon, led in the discussion of the relationship between African Christians in the United States and those in the homeland of Africa. It was a very important conference; probably the first one in which a full expression of the missionary concerns of Black Americans was brought forth. The 1895 conference had a great influence on Black churches in the United States. One of its major purposes was
to encourage Black young men and women to become missionaries to Africa. But it also had another interest closely connected to our current interest in this conference and that was the dissemination of accurate information about Black people all over the world in order that Black Americans might be disabused of illusions and distortions about their forebears and brothers and sisters in Africa, in the Caribbean and in other
parts of the Black world.