Charles Stith

Several months before Saudi Arabian terrorists bombed the United States Embassy in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, President Clinton offered Rev. Charles Stith the position of U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania. Luckily, it would be yet another month before Congress would approve Clinton’s selection, preventing the death of many personnel working for their new ambassador; unfortunately, 12 people were killed and 85 were injured in the terrorist attack.

The August 1998 bombing and subsequent appointment as Ambassador provided Stith with the challenge of a lifetime; not only to provide the Embassy with leadership after such a devastating experience, but also to advance President Clinton’s aspirations for growth in Africa.

Founder and former National President of the Organization for a New Equality (ONE), Stith was chosen by President Clinton to head his African Growth and Opportunity Initiative because of his ability to articulate and enact policy. After writing Political Religion and being published in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, Stith’s progressive liberal principles became more widely recognized, and his ideas attracted the attention of the U.S. Government.

Stith has headed the most successful trade mission by an African Head of State to the U.S., and Tanzania has become the first African country to sign an Open Skies Agreement with the United States.