1943 – Kwame Nkrumah Earns Theology Degree in the U.S.

On May 19, 1943, future Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah earned a theology degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, marking a pivotal moment in his intellectual and political development. While in the U.S., Nkrumah was influenced by Pan-African thought, the Harlem Renaissance, and figures like W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. This cross-pollination laid the ideological foundation for his later leadership in Ghana’s independence from British colonial rule in 1957. Nkrumah\’s studies in America infused his activism with both spiritual grounding and radical vision. His return to Africa was not as a nationalist alone, but as a global strategist committed to uniting the continent through socialism and African unity. May 19 stands as a reminder of how transatlantic Black intellectual exchange shaped the course of African freedom movements.