From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
African Americans (also referred to as
Black Americans or
Afro-Americans) in France are a subgroup of the larger American
population in France, it may include people of African
American heritage or black people from the United States who
are or have become residents or citizens of France as well as
students and temporary workers. Tyler Stovall, a history professor
at the University of California, is
quoted as saying,
"In many ways, African Americans came to France as a sort of
privileged minority, a kind of model minority, if you will - a
group that benefited not only from French fascination with
blackness, but a French fascination about Americanness," [2]
African American
migration to France
African Americans, who are largely descended from Africans of
the American colonial
era, have lived and worked in France since the 1800s.
Unofficial figures indicate that up to 50,000 free blacks to Paris
from Louisiana in the decades after Napoleon sold the territory to
the United States in 1803.[2]
Paris saw the beginnings of an
African-American community in the aftermath of World War I when about
200,000 were brought over to fight. Ninety per cent of these
soldiers were from the American South.[2].
Many black GIs decided to stay in France after having been well
received by the French, and others followed them. France was viewed
by many African Americans as a welcome change after incidents of
racism in the United States. It was during this time that jazz was introduced to the French and
black culture was born in Paris. African American musicians,
artists, and Harlem Renaissance writers found
1920s Paris ready to embrace them with open arms. Montmartre became
the center of the small community, with jazz clubs such as Le Grand
Duc, Chez Florence and Bricktop's thriving in Paris. World War II
brought all the fanfare to an abrupt halt. The Nazi invasion of Paris in June
1940 meant suppression of the "corrupt" influence of jazz in the
French capital and danger of imprisonment for African Americans
choosing to remain in the city. Most Americans, black as well as
white, left Paris at this time.
The political upheavals surrounding the American-American
Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War protests in the United States
were mirrored by civil unrest in France. African-American William
Gardner Smith, who worked for the French news service Agence
France-Presse, reported the events of the student uprising in May
1968. Many blacks supported this movement, which escalated into a
virtual shutdown of the entire country of France. Once order was
restored however, a notable increase in repressive tendencies was
observed in the French police and immigration authorities. In
addition, the presence of newly arrived enclaves of blacks from
many African and Caribbean nations offer African Americans the
chance to experience new forms of black culture .[3]
Notable
people in France of African American ancestry
- Tony Parker,
professional basketball player for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs
- Josephine
Baker, entertainer and actress
- Eugene
Bullard, world's first Black military pilot
- Richard Wright, author of
novels, short stories, and non-fiction
- Victor
Séjour, playwright
- Henry Ossawa Tanner, painter
- André
Action Diakité Jackson, first diamond industry administrator
and global Diamantaire of African descent [4]
- Arthur
Briggs, Jazz musician
- Marcus Brown,
Basketball player and Euroleague's all-time leading scorer
- J.
Alexander, model
- Ada "Bricktop" Smith,
dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and self-described saloon-keeper
- Dominique Wilkins, NBA Hall of
Famer
- Melvin
Sanders, Professional basketball player
- Barbara Chase-Riboud, novelist,
poet, sculptor and visual artist
- Carole
Fredericks, singer
- Johnny
Griffin, American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist
- Chloe Mortaud, Miss France, 2009
References
| Americans abroad and their
descendants |
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| Africa |
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| Americas |
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| Asia |
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| Europe |
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| Oceania |
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| Immigration to France |
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| From Asia |
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| From Europe |
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| Others |
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| See also |
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