A Child from Abroad

Silke Hackenesch is Associate Professor at the Institute of North American History at the University of Cologne, Germany. She is the editor of the volume Adoption Across Race and Nations: U.S. Histories and Legacies and board member of the Journal of Adoption & Culture.

"A Child from Abroad is a remarkable achievement--beautifully written, deeply researched, and historically groundbreaking. As someone whose own life story opens this volume, I am profoundly moved by the care, integrity, and scholarly rigor with which Silke Hackenesch reconstructs this overlooked history. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, she restores visibility to Black German children and the Black American families who embraced them, illuminating a pivotal chapter in the history of transnational adoption, civil rights, and the African diaspora. This is an essential work that will inform, inspire, and endure."-- "Rosemarie Pena, Founder and President, Black German Heritage & Research Association" "Hackenesch brings the little-known history of Black German children adopted into U.S. homes and embeds it within a complex landscape of shifting social welfare norms, media representations, domestic racial politics, and Cold War geopolitics. With fine-grained attention to a range of archival sources, A Child From Abroad brings keen insights into the political and social forces that created the first generation of transnationally adopted "mixed-race" children. This text will be a key resource for scholars of critical adoption studies, American civil rights in the postwar era, and social welfare history."-- "Eleana Kim, author of Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging"