The Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 inspired hundreds of black Americans--and some white Americans--to volunteer to serve in Haile Selassie's army.
Here's a report from the Getty archive, showing volunteers queuing up in Harlem. 1/3
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Recruiters hoped that thousands of men would be enlisted for service in Ethiopia.
Here's Eldridge Eastman, New Bruswick-born descendant of black loyalists, pleading with black Canadians to join Haile Selassie's army. Eastman had been the world sprint champion in 1906.
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Support for Ethiopia was not universal in the United States. Here's an interviewer talking with New Yorkers about the Italian invasion, October 1935.
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Below: Appeal for volunteers to serve in Ethiopia from Haile Selassie, 1935.
Published in the Pittsburgh Courier, the most important African-American newspaper of its day.
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Very few volunteers actually made it to Ethiopia. And--as these 1935 press reports show--some people thought the whole 'help Ethiopia' cause was a sham.
Nonetheless the enthusiasm in Harlem was real. It highlights the global reach of black American politics in the '30s.
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