In Panama in Black, Kaysha Corinealdi traces the multigenerational activism of Afro-Caribbean Panamanians as they forged diasporic communities in Panama and the United States throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on a rich array of sources including speeches, yearbooks, photographs, government reports, radio broadcasts, newspaper editorials, and oral histories, Corinealdi presents the Panamanian isthmus as a crucial site in the making of an Afro-diasporic world that linked cities and towns like Colón, Kingston, Panamá City, Brooklyn, Bridgetown, and La Boca. In Panama, Afro-Caribbean Panamanians created a diasporic worldview of the Caribbean that privileged the potential of Black innovation. Corinealdi maps this innovation by examining the longest-running Black newspaper in Central America, the rise of civic associations created to counter policies that stripped Afro-Caribbean Panamanians of citizenship, the creation of scholarship-granting organizations that supported the education of Black students, and the emergence of national conferences and organizations that linked anti-imperialism and Black liberation. By showing how Afro-Caribbean Panamanians used these methods to navigate anti-Blackness, xenophobia, and white supremacy, Corinealdi offers a new mode of understanding activism, community, and diaspora formation.

"A widely appealing and valuable addition to diaspora studies, Central American and Caribbean historiography, and scholarly understandings of how individuals and groups navigate belonging in and beyond the nation." - The Americas

"Panama in Black uncovers the complexities of Afro-Caribbean Panamanian identity across class, gender, and generational lines. Corinealdi’s account of Afro-diasporic world making reveals an ongoing practice in which Afro-Caribbean migrants shaped ideas of citizenship on the isthmus and throughout the Americas. As a result, this book is essential reading for those interested in the history of Caribbean migrations, the African diaspora, the Canal Zone, Panamanian nation formation, and citizenship in Latin America." - H-Caribbean

"Panama in Black demonstrates some of the reasons researchers, including myself, were drawn to these immigrants and their descendants. . . . I salute Kaysha Corinealdi for this latest addition to the bookshelf and look forward to more." - ReVista

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"This is a terrific book. Scholars of not only the African diaspora but other diasporas in different geographic contexts and historical periods would benefit from taking it very seriously. ... [Corinealdi's] sophisticated grasp of the much broader concerns of diasporic studies should make this short book a must for those studying regions beyond the Americas."