Credit: Gary Raynaldo /   Ambassador  Linda Thomas-Greenfield , an American diplomat who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the United States Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs from 2013 to 2017, was the moderator of Honoring Dr. Ralph J. Bunche at the National Museum of Diplomacy in Washington D.C. Feb. 27, 2020. 

By Gary Raynaldo          DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Black former ambassadors have added their voices to those around the nation and world condemning the brutal deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and other unarmed Black Americans.  The Association of Black American Ambassadors (ABAA) issued a statement calling for reforms to address systemic racism and police brutality in the United States.  Nearly 60 African American former ambassadors signed the statement:

“I can’t breathe!”  These words, repeated for over eight minutes by George Floyd as a Minneapolis police officer’s knee bore down on his neck to the point of death, have become an angry protest cry for many in America. The Association of Black American Ambassadors (ABAA) joins the nation and people of conscience around the world, in mourning the brutal deaths of George Floyd, Ahmed Arbery, Breonna Taylor and other unarmed Black Americans. We offer our prayers and condolences to the Floyd, Arbery and Taylor families and for all those unjustly killed, wounded or detained. The ABAA condemns the actions that led to the death of George Floyd, which once again bring attention to the longstanding systemic and systematic discrimination against Black people. Equally, the ABAA censures and renounces the mindset and actions borne of racism, sexism and anti-immigrant attitudes that risk making it acceptable to take innocent lives which is antithetical to American and international human rights law. We believe it is time for all people of conscience to voice their opposition to legally sanctioned violence; it is tarnishing America’s image at home and abroad.”

-The Association of Black American Ambassadors

Below is a list of ABAA members who have signed the letter, along with their previous post(s) of assignment.
Sincerely,
Ambassador Edward J. Perkins
President, ABAA

Cynthia H. Akuetteh: Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe
Bernadette Allen: Niger
C. Pat Alsup: The Gambia
Shirley E. Barnes: Republic of Madagascar
Joyce Barr: US Ambassador retired
Clyde Bishop: Republic of the Marshall Islands
Carol Moseley Braun: New Zealand
Aurelia E. Brazeal: Micronesia, Kenya, Ethiopia
Pamela E. Bridgewater: The Republic of Benin and The Republic of Ghana
Reuben E. Brigety: The African Union
Sue K. Brown: Montenegro
Johnnie Carson: Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs
Cook, Suzan Johnson: Ambassador- at- Large For International Religious Freedom
Ruth A. Davis: The Republic of Benin and Director General of the Foreign Service
Horace D. Dawson: Botswana
Harriet L. Elam-Thomas: Senegal
Jendayi Frazer: The Republic of South Africa, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
James Gadsden: Iceland
Irvin Hicks Sr.: Ethiopia
Bonnie Jenkins: Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs
Howard F. Jeter: Nigeria
Mosina Jordan: Central African Republic
Kenton W. Keith: Qatar
Delano E. Lewis: The Republic of South Africa
Dennise Mathieu: Niger and Namibia
C. Steven McGann: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, The Kingdom of Tonga an Tuvalu
James McGee: Swaziland, Madagascar and the Comoros
Donald McHenry: United Nations
Elizabeth McKune: Qatar
George Moose: Career Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Bismarck Myrick: Kingdom of Lesotho
Wanda Nesbitt: adagascar, Cote d’Ivorie and Namibia
Nichols, Brian: Zimbabwe (presently serving)
Adrienne O’Neal: Republic of Cape Verde
Susan D. Page: Republic of South Sudan
Larry Palmer: Republic of Honduras and Barbados and Eastern Caribbean
Maurice Parker: Kingdom of Lesotho and Republic of Liberia
Edward J. Perkins: Republic of Liberia, United Nations, The Republic of South Africa and the Director General of the Foreign Service
June Carter Perry: Lesotho and Sierra Leone
Robert C. Perry: Central African Republic
Charles Ray: Cambodia and Zimbabwe
Helen Patricia Reed-Rowe: Republic of Palau
Reed, Frankie: Fiji, Kirbati, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu
Eunice S. Reddick: Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe and Niger
Susan Rice: United Nations and National Security Advisor
Brenda Schoonover: Togo
Mattie R. Sharpless: Central African Republic
Pamela L. Spratlen: Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan
Sylvia Stanfield: Brunei Darussalam
Charles R. Stith: Tanzania
Teddy B.Taylor: Papua New Guinea, The Soloman Islands and the Republic of Vanuatu
Linda Thomas-Greenfield: Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Harry K. Thomas: Bangladesh, The Philippines and Zimbabwe
Barry L. Wells: Republic of the Gambia and Director of the Office of Civil Rights
Sharon P. Wilkinson: Burkina Faso and Mozambique
Bisa Williams: The Republic of Niger
John L. Withers ll: Albania
Johnny Young: Sierra Leone, Togo, Bahrain, and The Republic of Slovenia

Credit: Wikipedia / Susan E. Rice, former United Nations Ambassador and US National Security Advisor, among the nearly 60 Black former Ambassadors condemning the brutal deaths of unarmed Black Americans by police. 

The ABAA  added that “while acts of violence against unarmed Black citizens are not new, we speak now to express our contempt about ongoing acts of police brutality as well as our society’s stubborn resistance to addressing institutional racism. We spent our careers looking beyond America’s borders, but these shocking events call us to look inward and join with others in opposing discrimination and oppression in all its forms.”

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield 

acknowledged there currently remains a need for more diversity in the State Department and International Affairs nearly 40 years after she began working at the Department. “We have to redouble our efforts in order to have a State Department that reflects the diversity of America,”   Thomas-Greenfield said at a panel discussion Honoring Dr. Ralph J. Bunche at the National Museum of Diplomacy in Washington D.C. Feb. 27, 2020.