American Society of African Culture
The American Society of African Culture (AMSAC) was a group of African-American writers, artists, and scholars. It grew out of the Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in 1956 and was inspired by the French Société africaine de culture. In June 1957, AMSAC was officially founded by five African-American intellectuals: John A. Davis, Horace Mann Bond, Will Mercer Cook, William T. Fontaine, and James Ivy. Thurgood Marshall and Duke Ellington were also among the founders.
In the early 1960s, AMSAC had about 400 members. Its main goal was to connect African Americans with their African heritage. It pursued this through exhibitions, lectures, music performances, and conferences in the United States (mainly New York) and Africa (occasionally).
AMSAC published several works and journals. Pan-Africanism Reconsidered and Southern Africa in Transition were edited volumes from international conferences in 1960 and 1963. Earlier, AMSAC edited and published in Presence Africaine, Africa Seen by American Negro Scholars. They also started a quarterly journal, African Forum, in the summer of 1965 with themes like African unity, African socialism, the First World Festival of Negro Arts, the military in Africa, and South Africa and its neighbors.
In 1961, AMSAC opened an African office in Lagos, Nigeria. The opening was celebrated with a two-day festival in December 1961 and the Lagos office closed in 1966. AMSAC had federal tax exemption from 1960, which allowed large grants for specific projects. These grants helped fund the Lagos festival but were later revealed to be CIA pass-throughs.
After 1967, AMSAC’s membership declined as it was identified as CIA-funded, and the organization ceased to exist in 1969.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 10:00 (CET).