I have borrowed the title of today’s article from a song by Ruth Reese, one of the first African-American, or Afro-American, singers to settle in Norway in the mid-1950s, a time when there were very few immigrants and people of colour in that country in the far north of Europe. It was the time when the Civil Rights Movement began its important work in the USA, also influencing most countries around the world, with Dr Martin Luther King Jr as its legendary leader, assassinated on 4 April 1968 at only 39 years old. But the forceful movement continued, led by Dr King’s widow, Coretta King, and others.

Ruth Reese was a pioneer in Norway and Scandinavia, receiving prizes for her work in her new homeland, as she married an ethnic Norwegian, Paul Shetelig, a bookshop owner, and settled in Oslo. She wrote many articles and a book, made a short film called Pride of Black Dreams, and gave speeches and performances at musical and other cultural events, enlightening people about the history of Afro-Americans in the USA, including in Alabama in the Deep South, where she was born, and in Chicago, where her family moved when she was a child. She was a clever student and received an education to become a school teacher, one of the few professions a Black American could enter in those days. Later, she studied classical music, and also performed what were called negro spirituals, religious songs from different Black American traditions. Before Ruth Reese settled in Norway, she had performed in many other countries in Europe and the Middle East.

Now this is history, and much has improved in race relations in the USA and most other countries, and the cruel apartheid system in South Africa is gone. Yet there is still work to be done, now also including inter-religious relations and the situation of immigrants and refugees, especially Muslims, in Europe and the West in general. In........

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