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<Marika@oare.fsnet.co.uk> George Padmore, a Trinidadian, devoted his life to anti-imperialist activities and the fostering of Pan-Africanism. Until Stalin signed a pact with France, George, based in Hamburg, worked through the Comintern. Stating that if he meant his anti-imperialism Stalin could not sign a pact with an imperialist country, George left the communist world and setlled in London. He earned a living by journalism, writing for Black-owned newspapers around the world, acquainting readers with political activism around the world. His small apt. in London, shared with his White wife Dorothy who helped with the research for his books, became a centre of debate and activism, as many memoirists recall. In 1945 he organised what is usually called the 5th Pan-African Congress. (It was in fact the 6th, if we count the one in 1900 organised by yet another Trinidadian, Henry Sylvester Williams.) The recently-arrived from the USA Kwame Nkrumah helped with the organising; WEB Du Bois spoke at the opening session. When Nkrumah returned home to Ghana, Padmore became his advisor/agent in London until independence. In 1957 Padmore moved to Ghana to help organise the Independent African Heads of State conference and then the perhaps more important All African Peoples' Conference, both held in Accra in 1958. These led to the formation of the OAU. Padmore died in 1959. I am collecting material for a book on Padmore, so I would be glad of any sources of information. I know there is material in the Moorland-Spingarn library; in this one of Padmore's correspondents is Legrand Coleman - perhaps a physician, maybe in California. Does anyone know anything about this man?
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