[Ads-l] Antedating of "Pan-Africanist" (Noun)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is a possible lead. There is a match for "Pan-Africanist" in the
ProQuest PhD Thesis database within the following 1954 Anthropology
PhD thesis:

[Begin match information]
VALUE SYSTEMS, SOCIAL STRUCTURE, AND RACE RELATIONS IN THE BRITISH ISLES
DRAKE, ST. CLAIR.   The University of Chicago ProQuest Dissertations &
Theses, 1954. T-02389.
[End match information]

I have not accessed the full thesis, so I do not know if the match is
accurate. I downloaded the preview PDF and found "Pan-African" and
"Pan-Africanism" present; therefore, it is plausible that
"Pan-Africanist" is in the full document.

Sometimes search engines show partial matches, so this might only be a
partial match.

If "Pan-Africanist" is present in this thesis, it could be used as an
adjective or a noun. The adjective form has a 1957 citation in the
OED. The noun has a June 1958 citation found by Fred.

Garson

On Wed, Sep 9, 2026 at 7:40 PM Shapiro, Fred
<00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> Pan-Africanist (OED, n., 1958 [6 Dec.])
>
> 1958 Chicago Defender 7 June 11/8 (Newspapers.com)
>
> It was American Negroes who nursed and financed the greatest Pan-Africanist of them all, Marcus Garvey.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org