From Minneapolis to Moscow and Back: Chatwood Hall and the International Politics of Race

In 1932, Homer Smith, an aspiring African American journalist living in Minneapolis, traveled to Moscow. Writing under the penname Chatwood Hall, Smith became the only African American member of the foreign press corps in Moscow. Smith, however, was not an ordinary journalist, and worked as a propagandist for the Comintern. This talk explores Smith’s incredible journey from Minneapolis to Moscow and back in the context of American and Soviet political debates concerning race.