The African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC), a black activist organization that supported Pan Africanism, was organized at a conference in September 1972 in Detroit, Michigan. ALSC grew out of the first African Liberation Day (ALD) on May 27, 1972 that drew some 60,000 demonstrators in cities across the U.S. and Canada. The first ALD grew out of...
The African Liberation Support Committee (ALSC), a black activist organization that supported Pan Africanism, was organized at a conference in September 1972 in Detroit, Michigan. ALSC grew out of the first African Liberation Day (ALD) on May 27, 1972 that drew some 60,000 demonstrators in cities across the U.S. and Canada. The first ALD grew out of a trip of a group of black activists to Mozambique's liberated areas in the summer of 1971. One of the activists on that trip was Owusu Sadaukai who, upon his return, convened a meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina that led to the first ALD demonstration, which was designed to show support for African liberation struggles. A second ALSC conference was held in 1974 and was attended by 51 local committees from 27 states and six countries. ALSC organized African Liberation Day each May, and in 1973 demonstrations were held in more than 30 cities with an estimated 100,000 participants. The 1973 African Liberation Day included a call to boycott Portuguese products and Gulf Oil because of its operation in Angola. By 1974 ideological conflicts and other factors including class and regional differences weakened the organization. Many of those who had been involved in ALSC went on to found or join other organizations supporting African struggles against colonialism and apartheid. ALSC published a newsletter
Finally Got The News, Vol. I, No. 1, October 1974 described as the ALSC Newsletter of anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggle. It is unknown if more than one issue of this newsletter was published. The newsletter lists the ALSC National Secretariat as: International Representative - Dawolu Gene Locke, Houston, Texas; Information Coordinator - Carl Turpin, Washington, D.C.; Administrative Secretary - Jeledi Endesha, South Bend, Indiana; At-Large - Joyce Johnson, Greensboro, North Carolina; At-Large - Owusu Sadaukai, Durham, North Carolina; At-Large - Imamu Baraka, Newark, New Jersey; At-Large - Jeanette Walton, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and At-Large - Ethel Shefton, Boston, Massachusetts.(Source: "The 1970s: Expanding Networks" by Joseph F. Jordan in
No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over a Half Century, 1950-2000 Africa World Press 2008;
Inventory of the Komozi Woodard Amiri Baraka Collection; and
Finally Got The News, Vol. I, No. 1, October 1974, ALSC.)
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