Editing Kwame Nkrumah (section)

=== United States ===

According to historian [[John Henrik Clarke]] in his article on Nkrumah's American sojourn, "the influence of the ten years that he spent in the [[United States]] had a lingering effect on the rest of his life."{{sfn|Clarke|pp=9–10}} Nkrumah had sought entry to [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]] some time before he began his studies there. On Friday, 1 March 1935, he sent the school a letter noting that his application had been pending for more than a year. When he arrived in [[New York City|New York]] in October 1935, he traveled to Pennsylvania, where he enrolled despite lacking the funds for the full [[semester]].{{sfn|Clarke|p=10}} He soon won a scholarship that provided for his tuition at Lincoln University. He remained short of funds through his time in the US.{{sfn|Rooney|p=12}} To make ends meet, he did menial jobs on roles such as a wholesaler of fish and poultries, cleaner, dishwasher and others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} University of Education, Winneba |url=https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |access-date=2023-10-02 |website=www.uew.edu.gh |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205164542/https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |url-status=dead }}</ref> On Sundays, he visited black [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] churches in Philadelphia and in New York.{{sfn|Birmingham|p=4}}

Nkrumah completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology in 1939. Lincoln then appointed him an assistant lecturer in philosophy. He began to receive invitations to be a guest preacher in Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia and New York.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=The Rhetoric of Kwame Nkrumah: an analysis of his political speeches |url=https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/9290/thesis_hum_2014_opokumensah_e.pdf?sequence=1 |last=Opoku Mensah |first=Eric |date=February 2014 |type=PhD thesis |publisher=University of Cape Town |access-date=26 May 2020 |hdl=11427/9290 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803045421/https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/9290/thesis_hum_2014_opokumensah_e.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah|url=https://www.mtkenyatimes.co.ke/auto-draft-3/ |work=The Mt Kenya Times |language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=2 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602070935/https://www.mtkenyatimes.co.ke/auto-draft-3/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1939, Nkrumah enrolled at Lincoln's seminary and at the [[Ivy League]] institution, the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in Philadelphia and in 1942, he was initiated into the Mu chapter of [[Phi Beta Sigma]] fraternity at Lincoln University.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Kwame Nkrumah, His Afro-American Network and the Pursuit of an African Personality |url=https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2067&context=etd |last=Amoh |first=Emmanuella |date=March 2019 |type=MS thesis |publisher=Illinois State University |access-date=26 May 2020 |doi=10.30707/ETD2019.Amoh.E |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205195414/https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2067&context=etd |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref> Nkrumah gained a [[Bachelor of Theology]] degree from Lincoln in 1942, the top student in the course. He earned from Penn the following year a Master of Arts degree in philosophy and a Master of Science in education.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=13–14}} While at Penn, Nkrumah worked with the linguist [[William Everett Welmers]], providing the spoken material that formed the basis of the first descriptive grammar of his native [[Fante dialect]] of the [[Akan language]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Descriptive Grammar of Fanti|last=Welmers|first=William Everett|publisher=Linguistic Society of America|year=1946|pages=7}}</ref> Nkrumah was also initiated into [[Prince Hall Freemasonry]] while living in the United States.<ref>{{Cite conference |last=Rahman |first=Ahmad |title=African American Freemasonry and African Liberation: An Unknown History |conference=American Historical Association 123rd Annual Meeting |date=January 2009 |location=New York |url=https://aha.confex.com/aha/2009/webprogram/Paper2449.html |access-date=2024-05-31 |archive-date=2 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902105232/https://aha.confex.com/aha/2009/webprogram/Paper2449.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sakyi |first=Kwesi Atta |title=Special Tribute to Dr Kwame Nkrumah |url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Special-Tribute-to-Dr-Kwame-Nkrumah-286481 |date=22 September 2013 |website=GhanaWeb}}</ref>

Nkrumah spent his summers in [[Harlem]], a center of black life, thought and culture. He found housing and employment in [[New York City]] with difficulty and involved himself in the community.<ref>{{Cite web|title=US Speaker Nancy Pelosi & members of Congressional Black Caucus lays wreath at Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Memorial Park – Friends of the African Union|date=31 July 2019 |url=https://friendsoftheafricanunion.com/us-speaker-nancy-pelosi-members-of-congressional-black-caucus-lays-wreath-at-kwame-nkrumah-mausoleum-and-memorial-park/|language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803045352/https://friendsoftheafricanunion.com/us-speaker-nancy-pelosi-members-of-congressional-black-caucus-lays-wreath-at-kwame-nkrumah-mausoleum-and-memorial-park/|url-status=live}}</ref> He spent many evenings listening to and arguing with street orators, and according to Clarke, Kwame Nkrumah in his years in America stated;<ref name="Clarke 1974">{{Cite journal|last=Clarke|first=John Henrik|date=October 1974|title=Kwame Nkrumah: His Years in America|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|journal=The Black Scholar|volume=6|issue=2|pages=9–16|doi=10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|s2cid=141785632|jstor=41065759|issn=0006-4246|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803052005/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|These evenings were a vital part of Kwame Nkrumah's American education. He was going to a university – the university of the Harlem Streets. This was no ordinary time and these street speakers were no ordinary men&nbsp; ...The streets of Harlem were open forums, presided over [by] master speakers like Arthur Reed and his protege Ira Kemp. The young {{sic|[[Carlos A. Cooks|Carlos Cook]]}}, founder of the Garvey oriented African Pioneer Movement was on the scene, also bringing a nightly message to his street followers. Occasionally {{sic|[[Sufi Abdul Hamid|Suji Abdul Hamid]]}}, a champion of Harlem labour, held a night rally and demanded more jobs for blacks in their own community&nbsp; ...This is part of the drama on the Harlem streets as the student Kwame Nkrumah walked and watched.{{sfn|Clarke|p=11}}}}

Nkrumah was an activist student, organizing a group of expatriate African students in Pennsylvania and building it into the African Students Association of America and Canada, becoming its president.<ref name="Clarke 1974"/> Some members felt that the group should aspire for each colony to [[African independence movements|gain independence]] on its own; Nkrumah urged a [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-African]] strategy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grischow |first=Jeff D. |title=Kwame Nkrumah, Disability, and Rehabilitation in Ghana, 1957—66 |date=2011 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=179–199 |doi=10.1017/S0021853711000260|jstor=23017675|s2cid=162695973|issn=0021-8537}}</ref>{{sfn|Rooney|pp=14–15}} Nkrumah played a major role in the Pan-African conference held in New York in 1944, which urged the United States, at the end of the [[Second World War]], to help ensure Africa became developed and free.{{sfn|Rooney|p=16}}

His old teacher Aggrey had died in 1929 in the US, and in 1942, Nkrumah led traditional prayers for Aggrey at the graveside. This led to a break between him and Lincoln, though after he rose to prominence in the Gold Coast, he returned in 1951 to accept an honorary degree.{{sfn|Addo|pp=62–65}}{{sfn|Owusu-Ansah|p=32}} Nevertheless, Nkrumah's doctoral thesis remained uncompleted. He had adopted the forename Francis while at the [[Amissano]] seminary; in 1945, he took the name Kwame Nkrumah.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=14–15}}

{{Quote box
| quote = Just as in the days of the Egyptians, so today God had ordained that certain among the African race should journey westwards to equip themselves with knowledge and experience for the day when they would be called upon to return to their motherland and to use the learning they had acquired to help improve the lot of their brethren. ...I had not realised at the time that I would contribute so much towards the fulfillment of this prophecy.
| source = — Kwame Nkrumah, ''The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah'' (1957)<ref name=Hagan2>George P. Hagan, "Nkrumah's Leadership Style—An Assessment from a Cultural Perspective", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref>
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| width = 26em
}}

Nkrumah read books about politics and divinity, and tutored students in philosophy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-27 |title=Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} Biography, Education, {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah |access-date=2023-10-02 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=5 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005072546/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1943 Nkrumah met [[Trinidadians and Tobagonians|Trinidadian]] Marxist [[C. L. R. James]], Russian expatriate [[Raya Dunayevskaya]], and Chinese-American [[Grace Lee Boggs]], all of whom were members of an American-based [[Marxism|Marxist]] intellectual [[Johnson-Forest Tendency|cohort]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah • Africanglobe|url=https://www.africanglobe.net/featured/dr-kwame-nkrumah/|date=8 September 2012|website=AfricanGlobe.Net|language=en-US|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803013412/https://www.africanglobe.net/featured/dr-kwame-nkrumah/|url-status=live}}</ref> Nkrumah later credited James with teaching him "how an underground movement worked".{{sfn|Sherwood|p=114}} [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] files on Nkrumah, kept from January to May 1945, identify him as a possible communist.{{sfn|Sherwood|pp=106–107}} Nkrumah was determined to go to London, wanting to continue his education there now that the [[Second World War]] had ended.{{sfn|Addo|p=70}} James, in a 1945 letter introducing Nkrumah to Trinidad-born [[George Padmore]] in London, wrote: "This young man is coming to you. He is not very bright, but nevertheless do what you can for him because he's determined to throw Europeans out of Africa."{{sfn|Sherwood|p=114}}