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.Under Bush s Secretary ofState George Schultz, there was very little growth in the number of black staffersor appointments to substantial foreign policy positions.Nor did circumstances improve significantly during the Clinton years.SusanRice, an articulate and forceful diplomat and scholar, was assistant secretary ofjBlack Americans and U.S.Foreign Policy21state for African affairs and ran interference for Clinton on African policy.Shedeveloped close though sometimes contentious ties with many of the NGOs andblack community groups involved with African issues.Clinton also appointed,for a short period, Rev.Jesse Jackson to be his special envoy for the president andsecretary of state for the promotion of democracy in Africa.This appointmentgave Jackson official status to represent Clinton in several matters regardingissues across the continent.In that capacity, Jackson met with Nelson Mandela,then president of South Africa, Kenya s president Arap Moi, and Zambia spresident Frederick Chiluba.While this position gave Jackson a diplomaticlegitimacy he had been accused of lacking when he intervened (successfully) inconflict situations in the Middle East and elsewhere, it also put him at odds onseveral occasions with many of the progressive activists who had disagreementswith some of Clinton s African policies.Many activists as well as some blackpolicy-makers had sharp disagreement with Clinton s proposed   Africa Growthand Opportunity Act,  a key piece of legislation aimed at providing economicassistance to certain countries in Africa but which many felt locked those countriesinto an unfavorable economic relationship with the United States while failing toaddress more fundamental issues facing the continent such as crushing debt.21There were also tensions between Jackson and some in the African policy com-munity concerning how to deal with Nigeria as it underwent regime changes.InMay 1994, Clinton also appointed former Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)member and then president of the United Negro College Fund Bill Gray to behis special advisor and secretary of state on Haiti to address work on the returnof Bertrand Aristide to the presidency of Haiti after being overthrown in Sep-tember 1991.While the Jackson and Gray appointments were celebrated by some, Clintonwas also being criticized for, first, using special envoys for short-term solutions toproblems that were long standing and required fundamental changes in U.S.polices.Overall, the administration dragged its feet on issues such as debt reliefand increased foreign aid to Africa and only moved on Haiti after a dramatichunger strike by TransAfrica s executive director Randall Robinson and pressurefrom the Congressional Black Caucus and other black and human rights orga-nizations.Second, these appointments only brought into sharp relief the dismalrecord of the State Department and Foreign Service in the hiring of blacks andother racial and ethnic minorities.By the time Young was appointed ambassador to the United Nations, thoughsmall, the number of blacks in the Foreign Service had expanded to the pointwhere black former and current Foreign Service officers formed a group thatbegan to meet regularly.In 1973, the Thursday Luncheon Group, as it becameknown, was created by two black Foreign Service officers, William B.Davis andjColin Powell and Condoleezza Rice22Roburt A.Dumas.22 The organization pushed for affirmative action, betterpostings, and it raised more than $2 million for fellowships to bring more peopleof color into the Foreign Service.By the end of the 1990s, it would have over200 members and begin to receive recognition from State Department officials.In 1998, the group was addressed by then Secretary of State Madeleine Albrightwho noted that   only 2.7 percent of all Foreign Service Officers are black.  23 Shewas the first secretary of state to speak to the group, but would not be the last.When Colin Powell rose to the position, he also spoke before the group.24 Othergroups would emerge as well including the Association of Black AmericanAmbassadors,25 which was founded in 1983, and the International Associationof Black Professionals in International Affairs (BPIA) established in 1989.26Powell sought to increase the number of blacks in the Foreign Service duringhis tenure.In 2001, when he became secretary of state, blacks constituted about5.34 percent of the Foreign Service personnel.27 In collaboration with HowardUniversity, Powell managed to secure a $1 million grant from Congress that wasgiven to Howard University s Ralph J.Bunche International Affairs Center(IAC) to prepare blacks and other minorities for careers as diplomats.The IACwas established in 1993 as a premier research and scholars center on the Howardcampus.The grant created the Charles B.Rangel International Affairs Fellow-ship Program that provides funding for graduate students who are seekingMasters in the field of International Relations or a related study.Rangel, aprominent black member of Congress who has focused on U.S.foreign policywhile in office, was the catalyst in securing the funding [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]