Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Danielle Mitchell Humanities

Racial Inequality and the Moral Leadership of American Democracy in the International System

Scholars Journal

Scholars have shown that the Black American freedom struggle, while addressing racial inequality within the United States, extended into the international arena. Black Americans were constrained by domestic political realities, as they were institutionally subordinated on the basis of race. As a result, international pressure and global opinion became critical tools in advancing civil rights. Central to these efforts was a critique of the contradiction between American democratic principles and the reality of racial inequality. This project traces the origins of this critique to the nineteenth century, with particular attention to Frederick Douglass. Through analysis of his work as a political thinker and diplomat, it examines how Douglass framed racial injustice as a problem of international legitimacy, anticipating how this contradiction would later shape the credibility of the United States as a democratic power.