Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture 4 volumes

Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture

Advisory Board Kathleen E. Bethel African American Studies Librarian Northwestern University Library Evanston, Illinois Dr. William H. Wiggins Jr. Professor Emeritus of Afro-American Studies and of Folklore Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana Dr. Raymond Winbush, Director Institute of Urban Research Morgan State University Baltimore, Maryland

Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture Volume 1 A–C JESSIE CARNEY SMITH, EDITOR

Copyright 2011 by Jessie Carney Smith All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture / Jessie Carney Smith, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-313-35796-1 (hard copy : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-35797-8 (ebook) 1. African Americans—History—Encyclopedias. 2. African Americans—Social life and customs—Encyclopedias. 3. African Americans—Intellectual life—Encyclopedias. 4. African Americans—Race identity—Encyclopedias. 5. African Americans—Biography—Encyclopedias. 6. African Americans in popular culture—Encyclopedias. 7. Popular culture—United States— Encyclopedias. I. Smith, Jessie Carney. E174.E54 2011 9730 .0496073003—dc22 2010039279 ISBN: 978-0-313-35796-1 EISBN: 978-0-313-35797-8 15

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This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. Greenwood An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents Alphabetical List of Entries

vii

Guide to Related Topics

xv

Preface

xxxiii

Introduction

xxxvii

Timeline Entries A–Z

xlvii 1

Appendices Appendix A: Selected List of African American Films

1559

Appendix B: Selected List of African American Radio Shows

1581

Appendix C: Selected List of African American Television Shows

1587

Appendix D: Selected African American Pop Culture Collections at Research Centers, Libraries, and Universities

1607

Selected Bibliography

1627

Index

1655

About the Editor and Contributors

1713

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Alphabetical List of Entries Aaron, Hank Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem Activists. See Social Activists Actors and Performers Adams, Yolanda Adoptions Aerosol Art Affirmative Action Africa and the African Diaspora African American English. See Black English African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010 African Cultural Influences Afrocentric Movement Afro-Hispanic Blending Aiken, Loretta Mary. See Mabley, Moms Ailey, Alvin Ali, Laila Ali, Muhammad Anderson, Marian Angelou, Maya Apollo Theater Appropriations of Black Folklore Architecture Armstrong, Louis ‘‘Satchmo’’ Ashe, Arthur

Ashley, Maurice Association for the Study of African American Life and History Astronauts Aunt Jemima Automobile Racing. See Car Racing Baby Face. See Edmonds, Kenneth Badu, Erykah Baker, Ella Baldwin, James Bambara, Toni Cade Bands and Bandleaders Banks, Tyra BAPS (Black American Princesses) Baptisms Baraka, Amiri Barbecue Barbershops Barden, Don Barkley, Charles Baseball Basketball Beale Street Bearden, Romare Beautillions. See Cotillions and Botillions Beauty Pageants

viii

Beauty Shops BeBop Music Belafonte, Harry Berry, Chuck Berry, Halle Berry, Mary Frances Bethune, Mary McLeod Beyonc
e Big Apple (Dance) Biracialism Black Arts Movement Black Bottom, The (Dance) Black English Black Enterprise Black Entertainment Television (BET) Black Hebrews Black History Month Black Nationalism Black Panther Party Black Power Movement Black Studies Black Theology Blake, James Riley Blige, Mary J. Bling and Grillz Blues and Blues Festivals Blues, Delta. See Delta Blues Bond, Julian Bonds, Barry Bontemps, Arna Bookstores and Bibliophiles Botillions. See Cotillions and Botillions Boxing Bradley, Ed Brazile, Donna Break Dancing Brimmer, Andrew Brooke, Edward Brooks, Gwendolyn Brown, Elaine Brown, James Brown, Jim Brown, Judge Joe

Alphabetical List of Entries

Brown, Tony Brown v. Board of Education Bryant, Kobe Buffalo Soldiers Bunche, Ralph Buppies (Black Urban Professionals) Business and Commerce Caesar, Shirley Calloway, Cab Calypso Music Campanella, Roy Campbell, Naomi Canada Car Racing Carey, Mariah Caribbean Cultural Influences Carmichael, Stokely Carroll, Diahann Carson, Benjamin S. Carter, Stephen L. Cartoons and Cartoonists Carver, George Washington Catlett, Elizabeth Censorship and Offensive Language and Lyrics Chamberlain, Wilt Chaney, John Chappelle, Dave Charles, Ray Charter Schools Cheerleading Chesnutt, Charles W. Chicago Defender Children and Youth Chisholm, Shirley Chitlin Circuit Churches Circuses Civil Rights Cases Civil Rights Movement Class Structure, Upper, Middle, Underclass Clothing and Fashion Industry Collectibles, Black Color Purple, The (film)

Alphabetical List of Entries

Coltrane, John Combs, Sean (Diddy) Comedy and Comedians Comics (Books). See Graphic Novels and Books Communities, African American Composers Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Congressional Black Caucus Consciousness and Identity, African American Consumerism, Shopping, and Brands Cookbooks Cool J, LL. See LL Cool J Cooper, Anna Julia Cornrows Cosby, Bill Cosby Show, The Cosmetics Cotillions and Botillions Country Music, Black Cowboys and Rodeos Crime Crisis (magazine) Cullen, Countee Dance and Dance Companies Dandridge, Dorothy Davis, Angela Davis, Miles Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Davis, Shani Deadwood Dick. See Love, Nat Dee, Ruby. See Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Deejaying Delany, Samuel R. Delta Blues Dickerson, Chris Diddy. See Combs, Sean (Diddy) Double Dutch Douglass, Frederick Dove, Rita Dozens Dreadlocks Drugs and Popular Culture

ix

Du Bois, W. E. B. Dunbar, Paul Laurence Dungy, Tony Dupri, Jermaine Ebonics. See Black English Ebony Economic Development Edelman, Marian Wright Edmonds, Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face’’ Education: Public and Private Elder, Lee El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. See Malcolm X Ellington, Duke Elliott, Missy Ellison, Ralph Employment, Unemployment, and Income Entertainment Industry Essence Europe Evangelism. See Television Evangelism Evers, Medgar Ewing, Patrick Expos, Black Family Life Family Reunions Farrakhan, Louis Fashion. See Clothing and Fashion Industry Federal Theatre Project: Negro Theatre Unit Federal Writers’ Project Feminism Fiction 50 Cent Film and Filmmakers Film Festivals Fish Fry Fitzgerald, Ella Folk Foods Folklore Food and Cooking Food, Folk. See Folk Foods

x

Football Foreman, George Foster, Rube Fox, Vivica Foxx, Jamie Frankie and Albert/Johnny Franklin, Aretha Franklin, John Hope Franklin, Kirk Frazier, Joe Freedom Riders Freeman, Morgan Funerals Gambling and Gaming Games, Video Games, and Toys Gangs Gangsta Rap Garvey, Marcus Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Gay, Tyson Gay and Lesbian Culture Gaye, Marvin Genealogy and DNA Testing Gibson, Althea Gillespie, Dizzy Giovanni, Nikki Globalization Goldberg, Whoopi Golf Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups Governors and Mayors Graffiti Art. See Aerosol Art Graphic Novels and Books Graves, Earl G. Great Migration Greek Letter Organizations Greene, ‘‘Mean Joe’’ Gregory, Dick Gumbel, Bryant Hair and Hairstyles Haley, Alex Hamer, Fannie Lou Handy, W. C. Hansberry, Lorraine Harlem Globetrotters

Alphabetical List of Entries

Harlem Renaissance Harris, E. Lynn Harvey, Steve Hayes, Isaac Head Start Hendrix, Jimi Herc, Kool DJ Higginbotham, A. Leon Himes, Chester Hip-Hop Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Initiatives and the Black Church Holiday, Billie Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Holyfield, Evander Hooker, John Lee Hopkins, Lightnin’ Horse Racing and Jockeys Housing as Lifestyle Houston, Charles Hamilton Houston, Whitney Hudson, Jennifer Hughes, Cathy Hughes, Langston Hughley, D. L. Humor Hurston, Zora Neale Hush/Bush Harbors Ice Cube Ifill, Gwen Imes, Mo’Nique. See Mo’Nique Inventors and Inventions Iverson, Allen Jackson Five Jackson, Janet Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Mahalia Jackson, Michael Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Samuel L. Jakes, T. D. James, LeBron

Alphabetical List of Entries

Jazz and Jazz Festivals Jemison, Mae Jet Jim Crow Johnson, Jack Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, John H. Johnson, Magic Jokes Jones, James Earl Jones, Quincy Joplin, Scott Jordan, Barbara Jordan, Michael Journalism and Journalists Joyner, Tom Joyner-Kersee, Jacqueline ‘‘Jackie’’ Judges Juke Joints. See Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Jump Rope Rhymes/Games Juneteenth Keys, Alicia King, B. B. King, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther Jr. King, Martin Luther Jr., National Holiday Kwanzaa LL Cool J Labor Movement Language Latifah, Queen Law and Law Schools Law Enforcement Leadbelly Lee, Spike Legal Defense Fund Lewis, Carl Lewis, John R. Libraries and Research Centers Literature, Classic African American Literature, Contemporary African American

xi

Lorde, Audre Louis, Joe Love, Nat ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’ Lynching Mabley, Moms Madison, Joe Malcolm X March on Washington Mardi Gras Mardi Gras Costumes and Masks Marley, Bob Marley, Ziggy Marsalis, Wynton Marshall, Thurgood Marxism Mashed Potato (Dance) Mays, Willie McDaniel, Hattie McGruder, Robert G. Jr. McKay, Claude McKnight, Brian McMillan, Terry McNair, Steve Medical Schools Medicine, Folk Medicine, Health, and Healing Megachurches and Ministers Men, African American, Images of Metcalfe, Ralph H. Micheaux, Oscar Midwives and Midwifery Military Million Man March Million Woman March Minstrelsy Miscegenation Mo’Nique Modeling Monk, Thelonious Montgomery Bus Boycott Morrison, Toni Morton, Jelly Roll

xii

Moseley, Walter Motown Records Muhammad, Elijah Multiculturalism Murphy, Eddie Music. See Bebop Music; Blues and Blues Festivals; Delta Blues; HipHop; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Musicians and Singers; Popular Music; R & B; Rap Music and Rappers; Soul and Funk (Music) Musicians and Singers NAACP Nation of Islam National Association of Black Journalists National Bar Association National Black Arts Festival National Black Theater Festival National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) National Dental Association National Medical Association National Urban League Nationalism, Black. See Black Nationalism Naylor, Gloria N
egritude Negro Baseball Leagues New Orleans Newspapers and Periodicals Newton, Huey P. Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Norton, Eleanor Holmes Notorious B. I. G. Nurses and Nursing Obama, Barack Obama, Michelle Oliver, King Olympics O’Neal, Shaquille Operation PUSH Organizations and Associations Owens, Jesse

Alphabetical List of Entries

Paige, Satchel Pan-Africanism Parker, Charlie Parks, Rosa Passing Payton, Walter Pendergrass, Teddy Perry, Tyler Philanthropy Photography Pickett, Bill Pimp Walk Pinchback, P. B. S. Pippen, Scottie Pittsburgh Courier Playwrights Plessy v. Ferguson Poetry Jams Poets and Poetry Poitier, Sidney Politics and Government Politics and the Black Church Pop Music Population Powell, Adam Clayton Jr. Powell, Colin Prince Prison Reform Prophets and Spiritualists Prostitution Protest Marches Pryor, Richard Public Enemy Publishers and Publishing Quilts and Quilting Traditions R & B (Rhythm & Blues) Race and Ethnicity Race Records Race Riots Racial Profiling Radio Shows and Hosts Ragtime Rainbow Coalition Rainey, Ma Randolph, A. Philip

Alphabetical List of Entries

Rap Music and Rappers Rap, Crossover Forms Raspberry, William J. Rastafarianism Reggae, Reggaeton Reid, Antonio ‘‘L. A.’’ Religious Customs and Traditions Reparations Rice, Condoleezza Rice, Jerry Richie, Lionel Robeson, Paul Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Max Robinson, Randall Robinson, Smokey Robinson, Sugar Ray Rock and Roll Rock, Chris Rodman, Dennis Roker, Al Roots, Television Miniseries Rosewood Ross, Diana Rudolph, Wilma Russell, Bill Scat Singing Science and Scientists Scott, Jill Scott, Wendell Oliver Scottsboro, Alabama Shaft Shakur, Tupac Shange, Ntozake Sharpton, Al Shepherd, Sherri Shucking Signifying Signifying Monkey, The Simmons, Russell Simpson, O. J. Single Parenting Sit-in Movement Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

xiii

Slang and Unconventional English Slave Narratives Slim, Iceberg Smiley, Tavis Smith, Bessie Smith, Emmitt Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Todd. See L L Cool J Smith, Lovie Smith, Mamie Smith, Tubby Smith, Will Snoop Dogg Social Activists Sororities. See Greek Letter Organizations Soul Soul and Funk (Music) Soul Food Soul Train South, The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Sparks, Jordin Spirituals Sports Sports Announcers and Commentators Sports Classics Steele, Shelby Stepping Stewart, James ‘‘Bubba’’ Still, William Grant Stringer, C. Vivian Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Sullivan, Leon H. Superstitions Sykes, Wanda Tap Dance Taylor, Koko Taylor, Susan L. Technology Television Television Evangelism Tennis

xiv

Terrell, Mary Church Theater and Drama Thomas, Clarence Thompson, John R. Thornton, Big Mama Till, Emmett Louis Toni Morrison Society. See Morrison, Toni Townsend, Robert Toys. See Games, Video Games, and Toys Track and Field TransAfrica Travel and Tourism Truth, Sojourner Tubman, Harriet Tucker, Chris Turner, Tina Tuskegee Airmen Tyson, Cicely Tyson, Mike U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Uncle Tom Uncle Tom’s Cabin Underground Railroad United Negro College Fund Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Urban Culture Van Peebles, Mario Van Peebles, Melvin Vandross, Luther Vick, Michael Video Games. See Games, Video Games, and Toys Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc. Voting Patterns Walker, Aaron ‘‘T-Bone’’ Walker, Alice Walker, Madam C. J. Ward, Clara Warwick, Dionne Washington, Booker T.

Alphabetical List of Entries

Washington, Denzel Waters, Muddy Wayans Brothers Wedding Customs and Traditions Welfare Rights Movement Wells-Barnett, Ida B. West, Cornel R. West, Kanye Wheatley, Phillis Whitaker, Forest White, Walter Whitfield, Lynn Wilkens, Lenny Wilkins, Roy O. Williams, Deniece Williams, Juan Williams, Vanessa Williams, Venus and Williams, Serena Williamson, Sonny Boy I, and Williamson, Sonny Boy II Wilson, August Winans, BeBe Winans, CeCe Winfrey, Oprah Womanism Women and Sports Women and the Civil Rights Movement Women, African American, Images of Wonder, Stevie Woods, Tiger Woofing/Wolfing Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. Wright, Richard Yard Art Young, Andrew Young, Whitney Zoot Suits Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. See Hurston, Zora Neale Zydeco Music

Guide to Related Topics Art, Artists, the Arts Aerosol Art Architecture Bearden, Romare Cartoons and Cartoonists Catlett, Elizabeth National Black Arts Festival Photography Quilts and Quilting Traditions Yard Art Business, Entrepreneurs Barbershops Barden, Don Beauty Shops Bookstores and Bibliophiles Brimmer, Andrew Business and Commerce Campbell, Naomi Chitlin Circuit Clothing and Fashion Industry Combs, Sean (Diddy) Consumerism, Shopping, and Brands Cosmetics Dupri, Jermaine Economic Development Edmonds, Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face’’

Employment, Unemployment, and Income Entertainment Industry Franklin, Kirk Garvey, Marcus Graves, Earl Gregory, Dick Housing as Lifestyle Hughes, Cathy Jackson, Michael Jakes, T. D. Johnson, John H. Johnson, Magic Jones, Quincy Joyner, Tom LL Cool J Labor Movement Lee, Spike Motown Records Night Clubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Photography Pinchback, P. B. S. Prince Prostitution Publishers and Publishing Reid, Antonio ‘‘L. A.’’ Simmons, Russell

xvi

Snoop Dogg Travel and Tourism Walker, Madam C. J. Winans, BeBe Winfrey, Oprah Young, Andrew Civil Rights Baker, Ella Belafonte, Harry Berry, Mary Frances Bethune, Mary McLeod Bond, Julian Brooke, Edward Brown, Elaine Carmichael, Stokely Civil Rights Cases Civil Rights Movement Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Congressional Black Caucus Cooper, Anna Julia Davis, Angela Douglass, Frederick Edelman, Marian Wright Evers, Medgar Farrakhan, Louis Freedom Riders Garvey, Marcus Goldberg, Whoopi Gregory, Dick Hamer, Fannie Lou Higginbotham, A. Leon Houston, Charles Hamilton Hughes, Cathy Jackson, Jesse Johnson, James Weldon King, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther Jr. King, Martin Luther Jr. National Holiday Legal Defense Fund Lewis, John R. Malcolm X Marshall, Thurgood

Guide to Related Topics

Montgomery Bus Boycott Muhammad, Elijah NAACP Newton, Huey P. Norton, Eleanor Holmes Obama, Barack Obama, Michelle Parks, Rosa Powell, Adam Clayton Jr. Protest Marches Randolph, A. Philip Reparations Robeson, Paul Sharpton, Al Simmons, Russell Sit-in Movement Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Taylor, Susan L. Terrell, Mary Church Till, Emmett Louis Truth, Sojourner Tubman, Harriet U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Underground Railroad Warwick, Dionne Wells-Barnett, Ida B. West, Cornel White, Walter Wilkins, Roy O. Women and the Civil Rights Movement Young, Andrew Young, Whitney Collections Bookstores and Bibliophiles Collectibles, Black Libraries and Research Centers Cross-Cultural Influences African Cultural Influences Afrocentric Movement

Guide to Related Topics

Afro-Hispanic Blending Caribbean Cultural Influences Cultural Movements Black Arts Movement Harlem Renaissance National Black Arts Festival National Black Theater Festival N
egritude Customs, Trends, Traditions Consumerism, Shopping, and Brands Cotillions and Botillions Funerals Greek Letter Organizations Quilts and Quilting Traditions Religious Customs and Traditions Superstitions Wedding Customs and Traditions Dance, Dancers Ailey, Alvin Big Apple (Dance) Black Bottom, The (Dance) Break Dancing Dance and Dance Companies Dandridge, Dorothy Mashed Potato (Dance) Stepping Tap Dance Education, Educators Ailey, Alvin Ashley, Maurice Baraka, Amiri Berry, Mary Frances Bethune, Mary McLeod Black Studies Black Theology Bond, Julian Bontemps, Arna Brimmer, Andrew Brooks, Gwendolyn

xvii

Brown v. Board of Education Bunche, Ralph Carter, Stephen L. Charter Schools Cooper, Anna Julia Davis, Angela Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Delany, Samuel R. Edelman, Marian Wright Education: Public and Private Franklin, John Hope Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Giovanni, Nikki Harris, E. Lynn Head Start Higginbotham, A. Leon Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Houston, Charles Hamilton Hurston, Zora Neale Johnson, James Weldon Jordan, Barbara Law and Law Schools Literature, Classic African American Literature, Contemporary African American Lorde, Audre McMillan, Terry Medical Schools Morrison, Toni Pinchback, P. B. S. Plessy v. Ferguson Raspberry, William J. Steele, Shelby Washington, Booker T. West, Cornel Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. Entertainers, Entertainment Actors and Performers Apollo Theater Brown, Judge Joe Calloway, Cab Cartoons and Cartoonists

xviii

Chappelle, Dave Charles, Ray Chitlin Circuit Circuses Comedy and Comedians Comics (Books) Cosby, Bill Cosby Show, The Cotillions and Botillions Country Music, Black Dandridge, Dorothy Davis, Ossie and Dee, Ruby Deejaying Delta Blues Dozens Entertainment Industry Expos, Black Foxx, Jamie Freeman, Morgan Goldberg, Whoopi Graphic Novels and Books Gregory, Dick Harvey, Steve Hughley, D. L. Humor Jackson Five Jackson, Janet Jackson, Mahalia Jackson, Michael Jokes Mabley, Moms Minstrelsy Mo’Nique Murphy, Eddie Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Poetry Jams Pryor, Richard Race Records Rainey, Ma Rock, Chris Shepherd, Sherri Shucking Signifying Signifying Monkey, The

Guide to Related Topics

Sykes, Wanda Townsend, Robert Tucker, Chris Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc. Washington, Denzel Wayans Brothers Williams, Deniece Williams, Vanessa Winans, BeBe Winfrey, Oprah Family Adoptions Children and Youth Family Life Family Reunions Genealogy and DNA Testing Haley, Alex Single Parenting Fashion, Dress, Designers, Appearance Bling and Grillz Clothing and Fashion Industry Combs, Sean (Diddy) Cornrows Cosmetics Dreadlocks Hair and Hairstyles Modeling Pimp Walk Zoot Suits Festivals, Celebrations, Events Beauty Pageants Black History Month Blues and Blues Festivals Cotillions and Botillions Family Reunions Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Jazz and Jazz Festivals Juneteenth

Guide to Related Topics

King, Martin Luther Jr., National Holiday Kwanzaa Mardi Gras Mardi Gras Costumes and Masks National Black Arts Festival National Black Theater Festival Films, Filmmakers, Actors Bambara, Toni Cade Belafonte, Harry Berry, Halle Beyonc
e Blige, Mary J. Carey, Mariah Carroll, Diahann Chappelle, Dave Combs, Sean (Diddy) Dandridge, Dorothy 50 Cent Film and Filmmakers Film Festivals Fox, Vivica Foxx, Jamie Freeman, Morgan Goldberg, Whoopi Gregory, Dick Harvey, Steve Hayes, Isaac Holiday, Billie Houston, Whitney Hughley, D. L. Jackson, Janet Jackson, Samuel L. Jones, James Earl Jones, Quincy Latifah, Queen Lee, Spike McDaniel, Hattie Micheaux, Oscar Mo’Nique Murphy, Eddie Perry, Tyler Poitier, Sidney

xix

Prince Pryor, Richard Robeson, Paul Rock, Chris Roots, Television Miniseries Ross, Diana Scott, Jill Shaft Shakur, Tupac Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Snoop Dogg Townsend, Robert Tucker, Chris Turner, Tina Tyson, Cicely Van Peebles, Mario Van Peebles, Melvin Washington, Denzel Wayans Brothers Whitaker, Forest Whitfield, Lynn Williams, Vanessa Folklore Influences Appropriations of Black Folklore Fish Fry Folklore Frankie and Albert/Johnny Medicine, Folk Quilts and Quilting Traditions Shucking Soul Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc. Foods Barbecue Cookbooks Fish Fry Folk Foods Foods and Cooking Soul Food

xx

Games Double Dutch Dozens Gambling and Gaming Games, Video Games, and Toys Jump Rope Rhymes/Games Woofing/Wolfing Gender and Identity BAPs (Black American Princesses) Consciousness and Identity, African American Gay and Lesbian Culture Health and Healing, Medicine Carson, Benjamin S. HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS and the Black Church Jemison, Mae Medical Schools Medicine, Folk Medicine, Health, and Healing Midwives and Midwifery National Dental Association National Medical Association Nurses and Nursing Tubman, Harriet History African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010 Human Rights Affirmative Action Edelman, Marion Wright Franklin, John Hope Freedom Riders Higginbotham, A. Leon Houston, Charles Hamilton Jordan, Barbara King, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther Jr.

Guide to Related Topics

Legal Defense Fund Malcolm X Marshall, Thurgood NAACP Norton, Eleanor Holmes Robinson, Randall Sullivan, Leon H. Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Images of African Americans BAPs (Black American Princesses) Black Buppies (Black Urban Professionals) Class Structure, African American Upper, Middle, Underclass Consciousness and Identity, African American Jemima, Aunt Jim Crow Men, African American, Images of Uncle Tom Women, African American, Images of Language, the Spoken Word Black English Censorship and Offensive Language and Lyrics Language Shucking Signifying Signifying Monkey, The Slang and Unconventional English Law, Legal Issues Berry, Mary Frances Brown, Judge Joe Brown v. Board of Education Civil Rights Cases Higginbotham, A. Leon Houston, Charles Hamilton Johnson, James Weldon Jordan, Barbara Law and Law Schools Law Enforcement Marshall, Thurgood

Guide to Related Topics

Norton, Eleanor Holmes Pinchback, P. B. S. Plessy v. Ferguson Thomas, Clarence Libraries Libraries and Research Centers Magazines, Journals Black Enterprise Crisis (magazine) Ebony Essence Graves, Earl G. Jet Raspberry, William J. Material Culture Aerosol Art Architecture Bling and Grillz Cornrows Cosmetics Double Dutch Dreadlocks Hair and Hairstyles Jump Rope Rhymes/Games Kwanzaa Mardi Gras Costumes and Masks Quilting and Quilting Traditions Soul Food Yard Art Zoot Suits Military Buffalo Soldiers Military Tuskegee Airmen Models Banks, Tyra Berry, Halle Campbell, Naomi

xxi

Modeling Williams, Vanessa Music, Musicians, Composers Adams, Yolanda Armstrong, Louis ‘‘Satchmo’’ Badu, Erykah Bands and Bandleaders Banks, Tyra Bebop Music Belafonte, Harry Berry, Chuck Beyonc
e Blige, Mary J. Blues and Blues Festivals Brown, James Caesar, Shirley Calloway, Cab Calypso Music Carey, Mariah Charles, Ray Chitlin Circuit Coltrane, John Combs, Sean (Diddy) Composers Country Music, Black Dandridge, Dorothy Davis, Miles Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Deejaying Delta Blues Dupri, Jermaine Edmonds, Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face’’ Ellington, Duke Elliott, Missy 50 Cent Fitzgerald, Ella Foxx, Jamie Franklin, Aretha Franklin, Kirk Gangsta Rap Gaye, Marvin Gillespie, Dizzy Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups Handy, W. C.

xxii

Hayes, Isaac Hendrix, Jimi Herc, Kool DJ Hip-Hop Holiday, Billie Hooker, John Lee Hopkins, Lightnin’ Houston, Whitney Hudson, Jennifer Ice Cube Jackson Five Jackson, Janet Jackson, Mahalia Jackson, Michael Jazz and Jazz Festivals Jones, Quincy Joplin, Scott Keyes, Alicia King, B. B. LL Cool J Latifah, Queen Leadbelly Marley, Bob Marley, Ziggy Marsalis, Wynton McKnight, Brian Minstrelsy Monk, Theolonious Morton, Jelly Roll Motown Records Musicians and Singers Notorious B. I. G. Oliver, King Parker, Charlie Pop Music Prince Public Enemy R & B (Rhythm and Blues) Race Records Ragtime Rainey, Ma Rap Music and Rappers Rap, Crossover Forms Reggae, Reggaeton Reid, Antonio ‘‘L. A.’’

Guide to Related Topics

Richie, Lionel Robeson, Paul Robinson, Smokey Robinson, Sugar Ray Rock and Roll Ross, Diana Scott, Jill Scat Singing Shakur, Tupac Slim, Iceberg Smith, Bessie Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mamie Snoop Dogg Soul and Funk (Music) Sparks, Jordin Spirituals Still, William Grant Taylor, Koko Thornton, Big Mama Turner, Tina Tyson, Cicely Vandross, Luther Walker, Aaron ‘‘T-Bone’’ Ward, Clara Warwick, Dionne Waters, Muddy West, Kanye Williams, Deniece Williamson, Sonny Boy I and Williamson, Sonny Boy II Williams, Vanessa Winans, BeBe Winans, CeCe Wonder, Stevie Zydeco Music News Media Brazile, Donna Brown, Tony Chicago Defender Hughes, Cathy Ifill, Gwen

Guide to Related Topics

Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, John H. Journalism and Journalists McGruder, Robert G. Jr. McKay, Claude National Association of Black Journalists Newspapers and Periodicals Pittsburgh Courier Publishers and Publishing Raspberry, William J. Smiley, Tavis Taylor, Susan L. Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Wilkins, Roy O. Williams, Juan Wright, Richard Organizations, Organizational Founders and Leaders Association for the Study of African American Life and History Bond, Julian Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Congressional Black Caucus Greek Letter Organizations Jackson, Jesse NAACP National Association of Black Journalists National Bar Association National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) National Dental Association National Medical Association National Urban League Operation PUSH Organizations and Associations Rainbow Coalition Randolph, A. Philip Robinson, Randall Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

xxiii

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Sullivan, Leon H. TransAfrica U.S. Commission on Civil Rights United Negro College Fund Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Washington, Booker T. White, Walter Wilkins, Roy O. Young, Whitney Philanthropy Joyner, Tom Philanthropy Simmons, Russell Walker, Madam C. J. Winans, CeCe Winfrey, Oprah People Aaron, Hank Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem Adams, Yolanda Ailey, Alvin Ali, Laila Ali, Muhammad Anderson, Marian Angelou, Maya Armstrong, Louis ‘‘Satchmo’’ Ashe, Arthur Badu, Erykah Baker, Ella Baldwin, James Bambara, Toni Cade Banks, Tyra Baraka, Amiri Barden, Don Barkley, Charles Bearden, Romare Belafonte, Harry Berry, Halle Berry, Mary Frances

xxiv

Beyonc
e Blake, James Riley Blige, Mary J. Bonds, Barry Bradley, Ed Brooks, Gwendolyn Brown, Elaine Brown, James Brown, Jim Brown, Judge Joe Brown, Tony Bryant, Kobe Bunche, Ralph Caesar, Shirley Calloway, Cab Campanella, Roy Campbell, Naomi Carey, Mariah Carroll, Diahann Carson, Benjamin S. Carter, Stephen L. Carver, George Washington Catlett, Elizabeth Chamberlain, Wilt Chaney, John Chappelle, Dave Charles, Ray Chesnutt, Charles W. Chisholm, Shirley Coltrane, John Combs, Sean (Diddy) Cooper, Anna Julia Cosby, Bill Cullen, Countee Dandridge, Dorothy Davis, Angela Davis, Miles Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Davis, Shani Delany, Samuel R. Dickerson, Chris Douglass, Frederick Dove, Rita Du Bois, W. E. B. Dunbar, Paul Laurence

Guide to Related Topics

Dungy, Tony Dupri, Jermaine Edelman, Marian Wright Edmonds, Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face’’ Elder, Lee Ellington, Duke Elliott, Missy Ellison, Ralph Evers, Medgar Ewing, Patrick 50 Cent Fitzgerald, Ella Foreman, George Foster, Rube Fox, Vivica Foxx, Jamie Franklin, Aretha Franklin, John Hope Franklin, Kirk Frazier, Joe Freeman, Morgan Garvey, Marcus Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Gay, Tyson Gaye, Marvin Gibson, Althea Gillespie, Dizzy Giovanni, Nikki Goldberg, Whoopi Graves, Earl G. Gregory, Dick Gumbel, Bryant Haley, Alex Hamer, Fannie Lou Handy, W. C. Hansberry, Lorraine Harris, E. Lynn Harvey, Steve Hayes, Isaac Hendrix, Jimi Herc, Kool DJ Higginbotham, A. Leon Himes, Chester Holiday, Billie Holyfield, Evander

Guide to Related Topics

Hooker, John Lee Hopkins, Lightnin’ Houston, Charles Hamilton Houston, Whitney Hudson, Jennifer Hughes, Langston Hughley, D. L. Hurston, Zora Neale Ice Cube Ifill, Gwen Iverson, Allen Jackson, Janet Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Mahalia Jackson, Michael Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Samuel L. Jakes, T. D. James, LeBron Jemison, Mae Johnson, Jack Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, John H. Johnson, Magic Jones, James Earl Jones, Quincy Joplin, Scott Jordan, Barbara Jordan, Michael Joyner, Tom Joyner-Kersee, Jacqueline ‘‘Jackie’’ Keyes, Alicia King, B. B. King, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther Jr. LL Cool J Latifah, Queen Leadbelly Lee, Spike Lewis, Carl Lewis, John R. Lorde, Audre Louis, Joe Love, Nat ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’

xxv

Mabley, Moms Madison, Joe Malcolm X Marley, Bob Marley, Ziggy Marsalis, Wynton Marshall, Thurgood Mays, Willie McDaniel, Hattie McGruder, Robert G. Jr. McKay, Claude McKnight, Brian McMillan, Terry McNair, Steve Metcalfe, Ralph Micheaux, Oscar Mo’Nique Monk, Thelonious Morrison, Toni Morton, Jelly Roll Mosley, Walter Muhammad, Elijah Murphy, Eddie Naylor, Gloria Newton, Huey P. Norton, Eleanor Holmes Nortorious B. I. G. Obama, Barack Obama, Michelle Oliver, King O’Neal, Shaquille Owens, Jesse Paige, Satchel Parker, Charlie Parks, Rosa Payton, Walter Perry, Tyler Pickett, Bill Pinchback, P. B. S. Pippen, Scottie Poitier, Sidney Powell, Adam Clayton Jr. Powell, Colin Prince Pryor, Richard

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Public Enemy Rainey, Ma Randolph, A. Philip Raspberry, William J. Rice, Condoleezza Rice, Jerry Richie, Lionel Robeson, Paul Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Max Robinson, Randall Robinson, Smokey Robinson, Sugar Ray Rock, Chris Rodman, Dennis Roker, Al Ross, Diana Rudolph, Wilma Russell, Bill Scott, Jill Scott, Wendell Shakur, Tupac Shange, Ntozake Sharpton, Al Shepherd, Sherri Simmons, Russell Simpson, O. J. Slim, Iceberg Smiley, Tavis Smith, Bessie Smith, Emmit Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lovie Smith, Mamie Smith, Tubby Smith, Will Snoop Dogg Sparks, Jordin Steele, Shelby Stewart, James Bubba Still, William Grant Stringer, C. Vivian Sullivan, Leon H. Sykes, Wanda

Guide to Related Topics

Taylor, Koko Taylor, Susan L. Terrell, Mary Church Thomas, Clarence Thompson, John R. Thornton, Big Mama Till, Emmett Louis Townsend, Robert Truth, Sojourner Tubman, Harriet Tucker, Chris Turner, Tina Tyson, Cicely Tyson, Mike Van Peebles, Mario Van Peebles, Melvin Vandross, Luther Vick, Michael Walker, Aaron ‘‘T-Bone’’ Walker, Alice Walker, Madam C. J. Ward, Clara Warwick, Dionne Washington, Booker T. Washington, Denzel Waters, Muddy Wayans Brothers Wells-Barnett, Ida B. West, Cornel West, Kanye Wheatley, Phillis Whitaker, Forest White, Walter Whitfield, Lynn Wilkens, Lenny Wilkins, Roy O. Williams, Deniece Williams, Joan Williams, Sonny Boy I and Williams, Sonny Boy II Williams Vanessa Williams, Venus and Williams, Serena Wilson, August Winans, BeBe

Guide to Related Topics

Winans, CeCe Winfrey, Oprah Wonder, Stevie Woods, Tiger Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. Wright, Richard Young, Andrew Young, Whitney Places, Geography Africa and the African Diaspora Beale Street Canada Communities, African American Europe Globalization Great Migration New Orleans Pan-Africanism Population Rosewood Scottsboro, Alabama South, The Urban Culture Politics, Political Activities, Activists, Government Baraka, Amiri Bethune, Mary McLeod Black Panther Party Bond, Julian Brazile, Donna Bunche, Ralph J. Chisholm, Shirley Douglass, Frederick Governors and Mayors Hamer, Fannie Lou Higginbotham, A. Leon Houston, Charles Hamilton Jackson, Jesse Johnson, James Weldon Jordan, Barbara Judges

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Lewis, John R. Marxism Metcalfe, Ralph National Bar Association Norton, Eleanor Holmes Obama, Barack Obama, Michelle Pan-Africanism Pinchback, P. B. S. Politics and Government Politics and the Black Church Powell, Adam Clayton Powell, Colin Political Reform Rice, Condoleezza Sharpton, Al Thomas, Clarence U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Voting Patterns Young, Andrew Protests and Activists Ashe, Arthur Black Panther Party Black Power Movement Brooke, Edward Carmichael, Stokely Civil Rights Movement Davis, Angela Davis, Ossie and Dee, Ruby Douglass, Frederick Du Bois, W. E. B. Garvey, Marcus Madison, Joe Malcolm X March on Washington Marley, Bob Million Man March Million Woman March Montgomery Bus Boycott Muhammad, Elijah Newton, Huey P. Protest Marches Race Riots

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Sit-in Movement Social Activists Underground Railroad Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Women and the Civil Rights Movement Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr.

Religious Customs and Traditions Sharpton, Al Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Sullivan, Leon H. Television Evangelism Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. Young, Andrew

Race, Racial Pride

Science, Scientists

Biracialism Black Nationalism Black Power Movement Black Studies Black Theology Consciousness and Identity, African American Jim Crow Miscegenation Multiculturalism Passing Race and Ethnicity Race Records Race Riots Racial Profiling

Astronauts Carver, George Washington Inventors and Inventions Jemison, Mae Science and Scientists Technology

Religion and Spirituality Baptisms Black Hebrews Black Theology Caesar, Shirley Churches Funerals HIV/AIDS and the Black Church Hush/Bush Harbors Jackson, Jesse Jakes, T. D. Malcolm X Megachurches and Ministers Muhammad, Elijah Nation of Islam Politics and the Black Church Powell, Adam Clayton Jr. Prophets and Spiritualists Rastafarianism

Social Issues, Economic Issues Class Structure, African American Upper, Middle, Underclass Crime Drugs and Popular Culture Gangs Great Migration Labor Movement N
egritude Population Prostitution Welfare Rights Movement Social Groups BAPs (Black American Princesses) Black Buppies (Black Urban Professionals) Class Structure, African American Upper, Middle, Underclass Gangs Greek Letter Organizations Sports, Sports Figures, Gaming Aaron, Hank Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem

Guide to Related Topics

Ali, Laila Ali, Muhammad Ashe, Arthur Ashley, Maurice Barden, Don Barkley, Charles Baseball Basketball Blake, James Riley Bonds, Barry Boxing Brown, Jim Bryant, Kobe Campanella, Roy Car Racing Chamberlain, Wilt Chaney, John Cheerleading Cowboys and Rodeos Davis, Shani Dickerson, Chris Double Dutch Dungy, Tony Elder, Lee Ewing, Patrick Football Foreman, George Foster, Rube Frazier, Joe Gambling and Gaming Gay, Tyson Gibson, Althea Golf Greene, ‘‘Mean Joe’’ Harlem Globetrotters Holyfield, Evander Horse Racing and Jockeys Iverson, Allen Jackson, Reggie James, LeBron Johnson, Jack Johnson, Magic Jordan, Michael Joyner-Kersee, Jacqueline ‘‘Jackie’’ Lewis, Carl

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Louis, Joe Love, Nat ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’ Mays, Willie McNair, Steve Metcalfe, Ralph Negro Baseball Leagues Olympics O’Neil, Shaquille Owens, Jesse Paige, Satchel Payton, Walter Pickett, Bill Pippen, Scottie Rice, Jerry Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jackie Rodman, Dennis Rudolph, Wilma Russell, Bill Scott, Wendell Simpson, O. J. Smith, Emmitt Smith, Lovie Smith, Tubby Sports Sports Announcers and Commentators Sports Classics Stewart, James ‘‘Bubba’’ Stringer, C. Vivian Tennis Thompson, John R. Track and Field Tyson, Mike Vick, Michael Wilkens, Lenny Williams, Venus and Williams, Serena Women and Sports Woods, Tiger Television Shows, Radio Shows, Performers Adams, Yolanda Ali, Laila

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Banks, Tyra Barkley, Charles Black Entertainment Television (BET) Bradley, Ed Brown, Judge Joe Carroll, Diahann Cosby, Bill Cosby Show, The Deejaying Gregory, Dick Gumbel, Bryant Harvey, Steve Hayes, Isaac Hughes, Cathy Hughley, D. L. Joyner, Tom Mabley, Moms Madison, Joe Radio Shows and Hosts Robinson, Max Rock, Chris Roker, Al Shepherd, Sherri Smiley, Tavis Soul Train Television Television Evangelism Williams, Juan Winfrey, Oprah Theater, Playwrights Baraka, Amiri Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Dove, Rita Federal Theatre Project: Negro Theatre Unit Hansberry, Lorraine Hughes, Langston Hurston, Zora Neale National Black Theater Festival Perry, Tyler Playwrights Robeson, Paul

Guide to Related Topics

Shange, Ntozake Theater and Drama Wilson, August Wright, Richard Women’s Issues Cooper, Anna Julia Feminism Height, Dorothy Lorde, Audre National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) Prostitution Taylor, Susan L. Walker, Alice Womanism Women and Sports Women and the Civil Rights Movement Women, African American, Images of Writers, Writing, Authors, Poets Angelou, Maya Baldwin, James Bambara, Toni Cade Baraka, Amiri Black Arts Movement Bontemps, Arna Brooks, Gwendolyn Carter, Stephen L. Chesnutt, Charles W. Cullen, Countee Delany, Samuel R. Davis, Angela Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Douglass, Frederick Dove, Rita Du Bois, W. E. B. Dunbar, Paul Laurence Edelman, Marian Wright Ellison, Ralph Farrakhan, Louis

Guide to Related Topics

Federal Writers’ Project Fiction Franklin, John Hope Gates, Henry Louis Giovanni, Nikki Graphic Novels and Books Haley, Alex Hansberry, Lorraine Harlem Renaissance Harris, E. Lynn Himes, Chester Hughes, Langston Hurston, Zora Neale Johnson, James Weldon King, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther Jr. Lorde, Audre McKay, Claude McMillan, Terry Micheaux, Oscar Morrison, Tony Mosley, Walter

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Naylor, Gloria Perry, Tyler Playwrights Poetry Jams Poets and Poetry Publishers and Publishing Robinson, Randall Scott, Jill Shange, Ntozake Slave Narratives Steele, Shelby Taylor, Susan L. Tubman, Harriet Uncle Tom’s Cabin Walker, Alice Washington, Booker T. West, Cornel Wheatley, Phillis White, Walter Wilson, August Wright, Richard

Preface Scope and Purpose The Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture is a four-volume set that features more than six hundred entries on entertainment, history, sports, art, writing and publications, food, business, organizations, and more. Although there are other reference works that embrace African American culture, the focus is usually away from popular culture. The intent of this encyclopedia is to give a panoramic view of contemporary African American popular culture and, as much as possible, trace the history and/or impact of events that affect or involve popular culture. The entries here tell what people do, say, and wear, as well as where and how they lived or live. There are some ties to folklore as well, for that topic, too, is central to popular culture. The entries highlight the life and work of people who have contributed to the arts, education, civil rights, entertainment, the news media, music, protest, religion and spirituality, sports, and other areas, as well as provide general entries on issues, places, and topics in those areas. Although the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture strives to be comprehensive, it was not possible to include every African American who has helped to shape popular culture and every contribution that he or she made. Nor does it discuss every event that occurred in African American popular culture. The scope of this work is limited to African Americans; however, scattered references are made to other people and other cultures, with information that helps to give a full picture of the topics of discussion. Discussions of African influences are not designed to examine African culture but to elucidate the influence of Africa on the topics and people discussed here. The selection process for what to include in the encyclopedia was a challenge. An advisory board of scholars from different backgrounds—folklore and religion, urban studies and race relations, and information science—guided the process. The contributors suggested topics and people as well, which helped to ensure a

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broad coverage. Thus, the mix of individuals and group entries is deliberate. Not every hip-hop artist is listed, nor is every actor and performer included; yet, when searching various published works, especially those devoted to icons, such as Gladys L. Knight’s Icons of African American Protest, and Matthew C. Whitaker’s African American Icons of Sport, the temptation to include information on all of the stars included in those books weighed heavily on the choices made. On the other hand, topics that are important in African American culture but barely developed in the literature were certain to be selected. Examples are Cotillions and Botillions, Black Expos, and Circuses. Most of the entries are brief (five hundred to fifteen hundred words) yet a representative number of lengthy articles from five thousand to eight thousand words, such as ‘‘African Americans, 1619–2010’’; ‘‘Business and Commerce’’; and ‘‘New Orleans’’ are also included in the mix. More than one hundred and forty contributors wrote the entries in this book, most of them scholars and researchers in U.S. colleges and universities, as well as professional writers. This encyclopedia has also benefited from work done earlier by others. Many of these experts have published books in Greenwood’s and ABC-CLIO’s award-winning encyclopedias and other reference works, such as The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, edited by Anand Prahlad (2006), and their contributions were crafted from those books. Information about contributors is found in the ‘‘About the Editor and Contributors’’ section at the end of the set. This encyclopedia is intended for libraries (school, college, graduate, and public), educators, and the general public. Secondary audiences include researchers, entrepreneurs, journalists, organizations, and writers.

Arrangement of Entries The entries are arranged in alphabetical order. Since the entire work is about African Americans, few entries begin with ‘‘African American’’ or ‘‘Black,’’ unless these terms are needed for clarity or are part of a name or term, such as ‘‘Black Power Movement.’’ For entries on individuals, the listing is under the popular or best-known name of the person; for example, the comedian Moms Mabley is found under ‘‘Mabley, Moms,’’ not ‘‘Aiken, Loretta Mary,’’ her real name. Numerous cross-references are included to refer the reader to additional topics related to the subject; for example, the entry on ‘‘Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)’’ also refers the reader to ‘‘Law and Law Schools’’ and ‘‘Medical Schools.’’ In addition, words in the text are presented in boldface type to show that they are names of entries included in this encyclopedia.

Features of the Encyclopedia Special features are provided to help make the work more readable and userfriendly. In the front of the book, there is an extensive timeline, which helps the reader put names and events into a better context of when the events occurred,

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from 1619 through the present. The ‘‘Guide to Related Topics,’’ which appears in the front of the each volume is a convenient list of entries grouped under broad topics. Each entry ends with a list of ‘‘Further Reading’’ references or, for some musicians, a ‘‘Discography,’’ to help the reader find additional information. A comprehensive selected bibliography appears at the end of volume four. The appendices include four useful lists: Selected List of African American Films; Selected List of African American Radio Shows; Selected List of African American Television Shows; and Selected African American Popular Culture Collections at Research Centers, Libraries, and Universities. The encyclopedia ends with a comprehensive index.

Acknowledgments The size of this publication necessitated the work of a team of researchers/ writers who would prepare the entries according to a specific set of guidelines. I am grateful to the contributors for their work, whether they prepared one entry or multiple entries. There are those who at first agreed to write several articles yet as the need arose to extend that list, they were always willing and eager to write more. Gladys L. Knight and Delano Greenidge-Copprue are primary examples; thus, to them I frequently referred to the work as ‘‘our book.’’ Thank you Gladys and Delano for understanding, appreciating, and producing such fine entries. My loyal coworker, Cheryl Jones Hamberg, is another who never learned to say ‘‘enough is enough.’’ When asked if we could meet one deadline, then another, her response was the familiar and borrowed comment, ‘‘Yes we can!’’ Thank you, Cheryl, for your online searches, for remaining vigilant for current articles and publications, and for writing several articles as well. Jason Harrison, my assistant, photocopied materials and retrieved books from the shelves with a smile. Thank you, Jason. To my family and friends, thanks for your continuing interest in what I love to do—write. To my editor, Anne Thompson, thanks for your encouragement, guidance, patience, and suggestions for making the encyclopedia a better product. Our telephone conversations and e-mails were important to my sanity during the three years of work on this set. I am grateful to Bridget Austiguy-Preschel for production management, P. Sangeetha of KnowledgeWorks Global Limited for work on the production phase of this encyclopedia, and media editor Jason Kniser for selecting the illustrations. Jessie Carney Smith

Introduction Popular culture has many meanings. It has been defined as prevailing elements in a society preserved through language or everyday living. According to some writers, it is simply ‘‘what we do.’’ Popular culture may involve the sharing of ideas, beliefs, sayings, places, events, and customs of ordinary people as opposed to the elite, and passed on through such popular mass media as the Internet, television, movies, music, radio, newspapers, clubs, and concerts. Popular culture includes elements from entertainment, sports, music, dance, fashion, food, literature, games, transportation, and other aspects of life. However it is defined, popular culture is captured in the customs and practices that surround our lives. For African Americans, pop culture has been influenced widely by elements of mainstream American culture and by the culture of other ethnic groups. It is, in reality, group interculture. Historically, much of what that culture has embraced has been influenced by the developments within the segregated communities in which African Americans live, work, play, struggle, or prosper. It is vast in scope, depth, and reach, and, when explored, will help to define in a different detail what African American life is about. It is against this backdrop that the Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture has been developed. While the rich heritage of African Americans is well documented and much of what has been hidden about their past has been brought in full view, the approach to their lives through the lens of popular culture has yet to emerge as a published, encyclopedic work. We know that popular culture is seen, interpreted, and understood best when those elements that shape it are identified. Hence, when possible, the discussions in this encyclopedia take into account the historical development of a topic as well as the impact of that topic on African American popular culture. As Debra Newman Ham wrote in her essay ‘‘African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010,’’ ‘‘From the shores of Africa to the urban metropolises of the United States, the voice of people of color have echoed the voices of those who have been oppressed

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throughout the world.’’ We could never understand the issues we face in contemporary society without understanding the history of our African ancestors in America. Nor could we understand their resiliency after being forced from the world that they knew—Africa—to a world that was entirely new and perhaps frightening and threatening to their security—America. There was a movement of Africans to the New World after the Europeans discovered its existence and came here as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; these Africans came as free people. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, however, millions of Africans were forced into slavery in the Caribbean and Latin America, and nearly a century later, into North America. It is almost inconceivable that the slave trade could victimize from nine to twenty-five million Africans. Yet, as they came in chains, these Africans found ways to endure the harsh oppression that the slavery system forced on them. While on board the vessels of their captivity, some resorted to mutiny against their captors. Some jumped overboard in a futile attempt to regain their freedom. Still others were actors and devised ways to cope with their captivity. The cramped conditions on the large slave ships, the human disease and filth that the captured men, women, and children faced, and in general the horrific conditions associated with the journey meant loss of life for the slaves as well as for many crewmen who crossed the Atlantic with them.

Slaves Culture’s Influence on American Popular Culture There are no pleasant stories to be told about the conditions forced on slaves. Although the first twenty Africans in British America came in 1619 and were sold by a Dutch captain as indentured servants in Jamestown, Virginia, masses came later, not as indentured servants but as slaves. American planters forced them to tend to their cotton, rice, sugar, indigo, wheat, and tobacco plantations and to perform household tasks. By the end of the Revolutionary War, most northern states had emancipated their slaves and the few who did not emancipate them did so a few decades later. The enslaved population in the South remained sizeable. Some brought their talents with them to this country and were skilled artisans. In addition to toiling on cotton, tobacco, rice, and other plantations, some ran steamboats, labored as masons, became crafty with ironwork, specialized in blacksmithing, carpentry, hostelry, and coopering. Others brought specific manufacturing techniques from their native land—Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, or Zaire. Some of the female slaves became maids, cooks, hairdressers, milliners, and seamstresses; they already had knowledge of appliqu
e, embroidery, and piecework and used their talent to produce a uniquely American art form. They practiced their crafts on the plantations where they lived but were also hired out to serve other plantation owners or local businesses and may have received a small stipend for their services.

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Along with their crafts, slaves brought with them from Africa a medicine similar to that already practiced in colonial America. They found medicinal value in certain plants, minerals, and herb concoctions that they made, and though they lacked formal training, became involved in the art of healing. There were men and women self-trained practitioners, and the older women servants were wise in midwifery and folk cures. Since the slave master knew the importance of keeping his family as well as his slaves healthy, the practice of medicine was allowed. Some of the men and women became so skilled and popular that they were granted freedom. The practice of medicine and midwifery are discussed in this encyclopedia under ‘‘Medicine, Health, and Healing’’ and ‘‘Midwives and Midwifery.’’ The Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture addresses other talents of enslaved men and women; for example, the origin of African American foods is traced first to Africa and then to the plantations where the cooks lived. Frequently they used their talent to turn their food rations into tasty dishes. Gwendolyn M. Rees’s entry ‘‘African Cultural Influences’’ tells us that, ‘‘Despite Africa’s rich contributions to American culture, the misconception that Africans made no contribution to the United States or the world’s culture exists.’’ Ancient Africans used vegetables such as beets, cabbage, celery, cucumbers, garlic, greens, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, okra, onions, ground peas (peanuts), and yams; fruits such as coconuts, dates, figs, grapes, olives, plums, raisins, and watermelons; grains such as barley, rice, and wheat; and nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts, and pine nuts. They used seasonings such as cinnamon, cumin, dill, honey, mustard, salt, pepper, rosemary, and vinegar. Meats such as beef, fish, goat, and mutton were prepared, as were beer, coffee, fruit juices, wines, poultry, and dairy products. Thus, the slave cook was experienced with foods that she prepared for the master and, whenever possible, for her family. Various entries in this encyclopedia on ‘‘Food and Cooking,’’ ‘‘Folk Foods,’’ ‘‘Soul Food,’’ and ‘‘Cookbooks’’ trace the development of recipes and food preparation from Africa to the slave period in America, and to trends in African American popular culture. Slave women of necessity made quilts from scraps to provide warmth in the cold plantation cabins or, from better fabrics, to provide covering for the owner in the big house. As we see in our discussion ‘‘Quilts and Quilting Traditions,’’ Harriet Tubman (the Underground Railroad conductor who led over three hundred enslaved blacks to freedom) was a self-taught quilt-maker who in 1843 made a patchwork quilt. Musicians emerged as well, and were used to provide entertainment for the slave master’s family and for social gatherings that whites held on the plantations. Musical forms such as blues, jazz, ragtime, black gospel, and zydeco were developed in the old Louisiana Territory by West Africans and their descendants. Some of these forms originated in the West African country of Mali. Many songs that the slaves sang endured. Called ‘‘sorrow songs,’’ these songs did, in fact, remind former slaves of the suffering that they experienced, but were used as well to communicate a hidden message to fellow slaves concerning an escape or a way to freedom. We capture this experience in the discussion ‘‘Spirituals’’

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which were popularized by Fisk University’s Jubilee Singers as early as the 1880s. Many of these songs were created by African Americans held as slaves. Their exact development is unknown, as this music was not originally written down during its creation but transmitted as an oral tradition and later taught more by rote than through notated music. The majority of these songs were created between 1700 and 1865, and spoke of various subjects, such as God, heaven, and freedom. Further, this encyclopedia includes a number of discussions of various forms of music, which tell us that the music and songs of African peoples enslaved in the Deep South and their descendants had a lasting and profound impact on American and world culture. Our pop music, rap, and hip-hop of a later period owe their existence to the unique musical genres of the African American South. Early Slave Writing As harsh as the ‘‘peculiar institution’’ of slavery was, blacks managed to form their own churches, schools, benevolent societies, and businesses. Free blacks worked as domestics, draymen, barbers, innkeepers, street vendors, sailors, stevedores, blacksmiths, and liverymen. Some enslaved blacks were able to purchase their freedom and that of their families because, in time, they were paid enough to do so and saved their monies. Of those who learned to read and write, the ‘‘Slave Narratives,’’ or, as contributor Lean’tin Bracks defines here in her discussion of the topic as ‘‘the autobiographical experiences of enslaved people of African descent,’’ were born. We know also that some of these narratives were handed down orally from those who were illiterate to those who could record them. Through this medium the writer tells the reader of the inhumane and immoral conditions of slavery. According to Bracks, ‘‘This form of expression became the foundation for future literary forms such as poetry, essays, novels, and other works by African Americans. The slave narrative is America’s most indigenous literary form.’’ It is also ‘‘America’s most indigenous literary form.’’ Abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery, wrote three slave narratives: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). These works have become a part of current popular culture and they are well-studied in academic programs. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself (1861) by Harriet Jacobs, brought a new dimension to slave narratives. Jacobs addresses the immorality of slavery and her experiences as a woman. Her work, too, is studied in popular culture, especially in courses in women’s or gender studies and African American literature.

Early Black-Owned Businesses Africans were involved in business ventures long before they were brought to America. We see in the entry ‘‘Business and Commerce,’’ prepared by the editor,

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that, on coming to America, the enslaved did not lose their skills nor their will to be entrepreneurs, only their opportunity. Free blacks, of course, did become entrepreneurs and were seen in almost all southern cities working as barbers, butchers, mechanics, shoemakers, and artisans. They also manufactured furniture, pottery, and bricks. Some maintained restaurants and hotels. The fine caterers of antebellum America, the fashionable dressmakers, and the highly skilled hairdressers—most of whom worked outside the South—were black. When America’s first settlers came, they constructed laws to discourage black entrepreneurship but blacks found other ways to endure. Some, though not all, black-owned businesses survived slavery but succumbed to the changed business requirements that came during the industrial age. This encyclopedia embraces the activities of black entrepreneurs and documents when they owned and operated their businesses. Today black businesses and business leaders help to shape popular culture and promote financial independence and a sense of pride of ownership. Sports and Sporting Events Sports and sporting events are a sizeable part of American and African American popular culture. While some sporting activities emerged during contemporary times, the reverse is true of horse racing and boxing. For mainstream America, horse racing and boxing became forms of entertainment as well profitable sports. Slaves spent time training and caring for the horses that the wealthy bred on big farms and plantations, yet some were already skilled in their native land while they served West African horse tribes. It was natural, then, for them to become jockeys because they knew the horses and the horses knew them. Since much betting occurred during these events, the riders and jockeys were often more closely regarded than the horses. By the 1800s, diminutive slaves were used as jockeys in the American South. Despite the fact that the jockeys were slaves and governed by the rules of slavery that existed, they were also permitted to cross state lines to race horses in the North. The South became known for producing most of the black jockeys seen then at major races. These jockeys were seen in heralded marches between 1823 and 1883. Accounts of horse racing, including those jockeys who won astounding races between 1861 and 1911 and the early Kentucky Derbies, are presented here in Frederick D. Smith’s article, ‘‘Horse Racing and Jockeys.’’ Boxing, as a sport, has been one of the most important forms of entertainment in African American popular culture. Writer Delano Greenidge-Copprue notes that, ‘‘through the lens of boxing, the world has had the opportunity to witness the exploits of African Americans of tremendous character and of selflessness. People like Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis . . . shattered racist stereotypes, becoming figures larger than the sport.’’ These boxing icons did not invent the sport but continued to popularize it. One of the nation’s most important black boxers in the history of the ring is Tom Molineaux, a slave who ‘‘forged into a pugilist of historical significance and acclaim.’’ Following the path of some

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enterprising slaves previously noted, he ‘‘fought his way from slavery to freedom’’ by beating a fellow bondsman. While it has been said that the sport ‘‘always attracted poor and marginalized men,’’ Molineaux proved that men of color had intellect as well. A strong and powerful boxer, he also was well acquainted with science. The black race has produced many powerful prizefighters. On July 4, 2010, the nation acknowledged the anniversary of the work of a black champion who hit a racial nerve. Jack Johnson, whose life is chronicled in this encyclopedia, was victorious over white fighter and former champion Jim Jeffries in a match held in Reno, Nevada, in what was billed by the sporting world as the ‘‘Fight of the Century.’’ Although the results produced racial unrest around the country, it failed to take away the historic fact—that Johnson was America’s first African American heavyweight boxer. Sports figures seemed to have received wide public recognition early on, perhaps due to the nation’s fascination with sports. The old Negro Baseball Leagues produced a number of stars who later joined Major League teams, and then baseball’s black icons became popularly known. As an example, Jackie Robinson emerged and went on to become a legendary character. Baseball also gave us men like Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds; football gave us players O. J. Simpson and Emmitt Smith and coaches Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith. There are Olympic winners who are icons in track and field (Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolph). There are icons in golf (Lee Elder and Tiger Woods); in tennis (Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson, and multiyear Grand Slam–winners Venus Williams and Serena Williams); in basketball (Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James); in speed skating (Shani Davis) and in motorsports (James ‘‘Bubba’’ Stewart). From Celebrations to Education The majority of African Americans were emancipated in 1865. When President Abraham Lincoln read the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing slaves, many never heard his message. In Texas, for example, slavery continued for another two years. Black Texans received the news on June 19, 1865; that day became known as Juneteenth. Some contend that the president’s message was deliberately held from black Texans for the benefit of the master. Juneteenth is celebrated annually on June 19 and has become the longest running African American holiday; increasingly it has permeated African American popular culture. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s also spurred Juneteenth celebrations and blacks within and beyond Texas regard the celebrations as a symbolic day of freedom. The Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture includes an entry on Juneteenth and gives a separate entry on ‘‘Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations.’’ Many of these events have connections to the slavery period and the activities that slaves used to bring a joyous time in their lives. African Americans remained troubled in the post-Civil War period. They had expected a new era of freedom, which eluded them. Although there were gains in civil rights legislation and political representation in local and state

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governing bodies, and the U.S. Congress, the infamous Ku Klux Klan did much to thwart blacks’ progress. From the 1870s to the turn of the century and beyond, the Klan and those with similar views spurred racial unrest and violence. Lynching became commonplace, as writer Amy Kirschke discusses in her article by that title; she sees it as ‘‘a subject often revisited in popular culture.’’ In the 1890s, ‘‘lynching became an act almost exclusively focused on controlling African Americans,’’ she writes. Lynchings reminded blacks that ‘‘they had less protection under the law as citizens than they had enjoyed as slaves.’’ Those who recorded lynching statistics included Tuskegee Institute (now University), Ida B. Wells-Barnett (the renowned anti-lynching crusader and black journalist), the NAACP, and the National Urban League. Since lynchings occurred in most all of the southeast and beyond the region as well, many were secret affairs and thus not recorded. Discussions of race, race relations, and civil rights permeate this work. Neither emancipation nor Reconstruction ensured freedom for all of America’s citizens. The nation was pitifully slow to deal with the question of full citizenship for the newly freed black population. The various amendments to the Constitution (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth) were slow to be accepted, for they dealt with issues of slavery, due process of law, and citizenship. Former slaves wanted an education and schools were established for that purpose. Hence, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were founded. While those established by the American Missionary Association (such as Atlanta University, Dillard, Fisk, Hampton, LeMoyne, Tougaloo, and others) had charters that prescribed a racial mix of the student body, others, particularly the public institutions, did not. In the entry ‘‘Historically Black Colleges and Universities,’’ we see black colleges emerging as early as 1837, 1854, and 1856. Black churches and white abolitionists were largely responsible for their founding. Writer Fletcher F. Moon reports that, ‘‘The overwhelming majority of HBCUs were founded in the years immediately following the Civil War, after the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and gave blacks full citizenship, including the right to pursue higher education.’’ Without the work of independent philanthropists and organizations like the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, American Missionary Association, and the Peabody Fund, and political organizations such as the Freedmen’s Bureau, the private institutions might not have been founded when they were. The publicly supported black colleges came on the scene later, or after 1890 when the Second Morrill Act caused them to be born in southern and border states as public land-grant institutions. They offered agricultural, industrial, mechanical, normal, and technical education and attracted former slaves or their descendants who were able to hone many of the skills that they had during slavery, or that were handed down to them after slavery ended. One of the early HBCUs—Howard University, founded in 1868—provided professional studies to black people, such as medicine and law. Other black medical and law schools followed. Howard also trained many key and iconic civil rights lawyers who were

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instrumental in the passing of civil rights legislation that has a lasting and historic impact on African American and American public education. Men like Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall, whose lives are chronicled in this encyclopedia, were part of the legal team that argued and won the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education (also presented here in a separate entry.) Icons of African American Culture Luminaries Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois emerged as two of black America’s most powerful leaders. So influential were these men, as their entries in the encyclopedia reveal, that they have become icons in African American culture—Washington as educator and Du Bois as scholar and a race man. Many of their beliefs and the views that they espoused are today’s issues as well. Their works are often cited and studied to some degree throughout a black child’s educational career. Washington became a race leader during the later part of the 1800s. He founded Tuskegee Institute (now University) in Alabama and was known among U.S. presidents and influential leaders. He called for the development of industrial skills, economic and business development, and other forms of self-empowerment. Du Bois, on the other hand, had a liberal arts philosophy; he also openly fought racism, and wrote in The Souls of Black Folk the much-quoted statement, ‘‘The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.’’ As well, the voices of other black citizens would not be silenced. Organizations like the NAACP and the National Urban League emerged in the early part of the 1900s and remain active in the struggle for ‘‘freedom and justice for all.’’ The country knew the work of fiery journalists such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Others helped the race to understand and appreciate its work and worth (for example, Walter White and James Weldon Johnson), founding the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History) and Negro History Week (now Black History Month). Both the organization and the monthly celebration still give African Americans an opportunity to showcase and promote their works, and mainstream America a concentrated period to focus on such contributions. Through his work as editor of the Crisis (magazine), Du Bois was a literary benefactor of the Harlem Renaissance; it, too, is included here in a separate entry as well as referenced frequently throughout the encyclopedia. Writers of the renaissance include Arna Bontemps, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and others. Their successors included Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, and Alice Walker. The Harlem Renaissance also ushered in African American artists, including musicians and bandleaders such as Cab Calloway, and playwrights, including Lorraine Hansberry. By the 1960s, the modern Civil Rights Movement had emerged. It had been stimulated by the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and into 1956 and the heroic deed of Rosa Parks, which would set in motion a movement involving blacks and whites that brought about sweeping changes in every aspect of African American life. Following the Congress of Racial Equality (already

Introduction

xlv

established), new protest groups were born; they included the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Martin Luther King Jr. became known worldwide for his nonviolent crusade for social justice, freedom, and equality. King and his followers were active in the historic March on Washington, demonstrations in Chicago, Memphis, and elsewhere. There were numerous sit-in movements and freedom rides through the South and to some extent elsewhere. We recognized the work of women activists such as Ella Baker, and Fannie Lou Hamer; and male leaders including Andrew Young, John Lewis, and Jesse Jackson. By the time the concentrated efforts toward freedom for blacks subsided, African Americans had gained many new freedoms as well as a stronger sense of racial pride. Some called it black pride. The cultural impact of the movement continued, as works by black artists, writers, musicians, and others increased in demand and in value. Unlike what was seen in earlier periods, popular culture icons were never hard to find. Through the work of the media, the hip-hop artists, rock-and-roll musicians, stage and screen actors, filmmakers, cartoonists, playwrights, poets, and writers, African American popular culture was recognized. Today we cite such icons as comedian and philanthropist Bill Cosby; television show host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey; popular radio show host and philanthropist for HBCUs Tom Joyner; and nationally-known talk show host and media commentator Tavis Smiley. At the helm of it all is Barack Obama, America’s first African American president, and his wife, Michelle Obama, our first African American first lady and an achiever in her own right. Indeed, the election of President Obama signaled a major turning point in American and African American history—a time of unequalled achievement for the black race. Cross-Cultural Influences on Popular Culture As enduring and powerful as the African influence was, and continues, on African American popular culture, Caribbean influences helped to shape that culture as well. Writer Tomeiko Ashford Carter notes in her article ‘‘Caribbean Cultural Influences’’ that ‘‘Some Caribbean influences that have become a part of African American popular culture include those found in politics, literature, religious movements, hairstyles, clothing, geographical development, food, acting, and music.’’ Chief among the political leaders referenced is Marcus Garvey and his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), both chronicled in separate entries in this encyclopedia. Although born in Jamaica, Garvey moved to Harlem later and worked for black consciousness and mobility. The son of Jamaican immigrants, Colin Powell, also discussed in separate entry, is one of African America’s most respected military officers and statesmen. Singer and actor Harry Belafonte was born to Jamaican immigrants; later on he befriended Martin Luther King Jr. and was active in the Civil Rights Movement. He also spearheaded the ‘‘We Are the World’’ music project benefit to provide relief to those suffering from famine in Ethiopia. There are also actor Sidney Poitier, musician Bob Marley and reggae music, and writers and new wave artists. One of the

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notable Caribbean movements that impacted African American culture is the religious movement Rastafarianism, chronicled here as well. We find popular foods, such as jerk and curry spices carried over into African American culture. Added to this is Afro-Hispanic blending, now seen in African American popular culture. The contribution of African Americans and their impact on popular culture cannot be denied. Thus, the commitment, insight, and fortitude of African Americans of the past who made our culture popular must be expanded by those of the present and future who seek to explore new frontiers. As David Satcher wrote in his introductory essay to The Covenant with Black America, ‘‘America’s new frontier is not the wilderness, or the air, or the sea; it is the inner cities, the barrios, and the reservations, where disparities persist and where dreams are dim.’’

Timeline 1619

The first African settlers in North America reach Jamestown, Virginia, on a Dutch ship. The cargo of twenty is divided, with fifteen purchased as indentured servants and not as slaves.

1638

The first colony to recognize slavery as legal is Massachusetts.

1664

Maryland is the first colony to enact legislation prohibiting marriage between black men and white women. The colony also passes legislation recognizing slavery as legal.

1688 February 18

The Quakers are the first religious group to pass an antislavery resolution in Pennsylvania. This is also the first evidence of a formal antislavery resolution being passed in American history. Despite these actions, slavery is a thriving business in the state.

1706

New York is the first state to pass legislation declaring that the legal status for children is determined by that of the mother. North Carolina and Georgia soon follow with a similar measure. Other southern states enact similar laws.

1754

Benjamin Banneker, a free black, and the first African American scientist, builds a striking clock with seasoned wood, the first clock known to be constructed in the colonies.

1773

Phillis Wheatley publishes Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, and becomes the first African American and the third woman in the United States to publish a book of poetry.

1775–83

Efforts of African American philanthropists are demonstrated as early as the period of the Revolutionary War. Through mutual aid societies, they provide social services and address the economic needs of the black community. Free blacks combine their resources to purchase the freedom of

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Timeline some in bondage. Fraternal orders also join early philanthropic efforts to support their members in sickness and death.

1787

Religious leaders Richard Allen and Absalom Jones establish the Free African Society in Philadelphia; it is organized as a mutual aid society, a church, and a political entity. Prince Hall establishes the Negro Masonic Order in the United States; it is the first African American self-help fraternal institution.

1792

Benjamin Banneker publishes Benjamin Banneker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of our Lord, 1792. An astronomer, inventor, and mathematician, Banneker is the first African American to publish almanacs and continues to issue them each year for ten years.

1793 February 12

Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Law, which declares it a criminal offense to harbor a runaway slave or to interfere with the slave’s return to his or her owner.

1800s

Slave-born William Tiler Johnson, known as the ‘‘Barber of Natchez,’’ owns three barbershops and a bathhouse in Natchez, Mississippi. He establishes his first barbershop in Port Gibson. Although he hires slaves as apprentice barbers, Johnson has a predominantly white clientele. Christiana Carteaux Bannister, abolitionist and entrepreneur, is one of the earliest-known black women to run a successful hairdressing business in nineteenth-century New England. She has a predominantly white clientele.

1808

Federal legislation that prohibits the importation of new slaves into this country becomes effective.

1809

The Abyssinian Baptist Church is established in New York City, founded by Thomas Paul. Later, it becomes one of the most noted African American churches in the United States.

1816

The American Colonization Society is established for the purpose of resettling free African Americans to outside the United States.

1827

The first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, is published, by Samuel Cornish and John Brown Russworm. Robert Roberts’s The House Servant’s Directory, the first cookbook with recipes by an African American, is published. In the 1800s, three other cookbooks by African Americans are known to be published as well. One of these, What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking (1881), the second-known such cookbook, becomes popularly known.

1828

African American book collectors begin to organize reading rooms and library companies for blacks in Philadelphia, and later establish such rooms in institutional libraries.

1829 September

David Walker issues his militant antislavery pamphlet, An Appeal to the Colored People of the World. Circulated in the South, it is the first work of its kind written by an African American.

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xlix

1831

The most significant slave revolt in the United States to date is held, led by Nat Turner in Virginia. The insurrection lasts for two days, and fiftynine whites are killed. This insurrection represents the first major battle in the efforts to end slavery.

1832

Black women in Boston organize the African-American Female Intelligence Society. Its purpose is to educate ‘‘women of color.’’ The first African American woman to deliver a public lecture is Maria Millet Stewart, an abolitionist and feminist, who gives a public address in Boston.

1834

David Ruggles, abolitionist, printer, pamphleteer, and bibliophile, is the first-known African American bookseller. He opens a store in New York City.

1845

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself, is published and becomes one of the most popular and well-known slave narratives ever. In subsequent years the abolitionist and orator writes two other narratives about his life: My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881).

1849 July

1850s

1857 March 6

Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery. She returns to the South at least twenty times to lead enslaved black Americans to freedom. She rescues at least three hundred slaves from bondage. Black military regiments are organized and fight in many military campaigns, in the Ninth and Tenth Calvary and the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Infantry, popularly known as the Buffalo Soldiers. When the military is racially integrated in 1952, the men join various parts of the armed forces. They remain popular icons in African American culture. The U.S. Supreme Court makes its historic Dred Scott decision denying African Americans citizenship in the United States. The decision also denies the power of Congress to restrict slavery in any federal territory.

1860s

While the exact date of the first African American cotillion, or the presentation of young women to society, cannot be documented, some claim that the cotillion dates back to the period following the emancipation of blacks. The cotillion remains one of the most popular events held for young women of the black middle class to teach them social graces and moral values. The botillion (also beautillion), or the male counterpart of the cotillion, is a rite of passage for black males, elevating them from boyhood to manhood. Although the date of its founding is unclear, the botillion has gained in popularity in recent years.

1861

The narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself (1861), by Harriet Jacobs, brings a new dimension to slave narratives. Through its focus on the female perspective, it influences and appeals to the moral consciousness of audiences.

l 1863 January 1

1865 March

Timeline

The Emancipation Proclamation is issued, freeing slaves in those states that rebelled against the Union. Following its passage, fugitive slaves flood Union lines in Virginia, Tennessee, and the southern coast. African American men are admitted to service in the Union’s armed forces. Abolitionist Harriet Tubman becomes a spy and guide for the Union. For her work as a nurse in the Sea Islands and as an efficient scout, the secretary of war issues her a formal commendation. The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, is created and expected to last for one year. In March 1866, the permanent Freedmen’s Bureau Bill is first vetoed by President Andrew Johnson but passed in April over his veto.

June 19

Juneteenth, the most well-known freedom celebration, comes on June 19, 1865, after slaves in Texas finally learn that they are legally free. Texas makes Juneteenth an official state holiday beginning January 1, 1980. Several other states observe Juneteenth as an unpaid state holiday as well. The celebration becomes reinvigorated during the last half of the twentieth century.

December 13

Slavery is outlawed in the United States when the Thirteenth Amendment is ratified.

1866

The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 is passed, granting African Americans the rights and privileges due them as American citizens.

1870 March 30 1875 March 1

The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified and secures voting rights for all male U.S. citizens. The U.S. Congress passes a civil rights bill banning discrimination in places of public accommodation. In 1883, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the bill. When the Kentucky Derby, now America’s premiere racing event, is first held, Oliver Lewis rides the three-year-old Aristides to victory, becoming the first jockey of any race to win the event. Thirteen of the fourteen jockeys in the first race are African American. They also dominate the sport for many years.

1879

Twenty-thousand or more African Americans living in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas become exodusters, migrating to Kansas in the spring of this year.

1884

Ida B. Wells (later Wells-Barnett), a school teacher from Memphis, is taken from the first-class railroad accommodation for which she had paid and relocated to the segregated section for blacks. She sues the company, but her successful suit is later overturned.

1885 February 20

Princeville, North Carolina, is incorporated this year and is recognized by some as the oldest town incorporated by African Americans.

Timeline

li Princeville is the official successor to the community previously known as Freedom Hill, established in 1865 by freed slaves.

1888

Isaiah Thornton Montgomery and Benjamin Green establish what some also consider America’s first all-black town, Mound Bayou, located in Mississippi.

1890

Mississippi introduces a grandfather clause into its constitution to prevent blacks from voting. According to the clause, voting is restricted to the descendants of persons who voted before 1866. A poll tax and a socalled literacy test are adopted as well. Nearly all of the former Confederate states adopt similar methods of black disfranchisement by World War I.

1891

Daniel Hale Williams founds Provident Hospital in Chicago. This is the nation’s first black-owned hospital, and it is maintained by an interracial staff of doctors. Later (1893) Williams performs the first successful openheart surgery.

1892

Ida B. Wells (-Barnett) publishes articles and editorials in the Memphis Free Speech and the New York Age, beginning the first phase of the antilynching movement.

1893

Expositions that embrace African Americans are seen in the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. The exhibits demonstrate the progress of black women.

1895

The Cotton States and International Exposition is held in Atlanta. A special building features the accomplishments of African American women and the race in general. It is at this expo that Booker T. Washington gives his famous ‘‘Atlanta Compromise’’ speech on September 18, as he envisions a new Garden of Eden for whites and blacks. Some scholars say that Washington’s speech is the best statement of his philosophy on racial advancement and political accommodation with the prevailing racial ideology of this period in history.

October

Under the leadership of I. Garland Penn, the National Association of Colored Physicians, Dentists, and Pharmacists, which in 1903 becomes the National Medical Association, is founded in Atlanta. Twelve doctors are the founding members. They see a need to launch a national medical association for members of their race, who were denied membership in local and national medical associations that serve mainstream American medical doctors. In March 1909, the organization’s Journal of the National Medical Association is first published.

1895

Activist and educator Mary Church Terrell becomes the first African American member of the Washington, DC, school board. W. E. B. Du Bois receives his doctorate in history from Harvard University, becoming the first African American to do so.

1896 May 18

The U.S. Supreme Court affirms the concept of ‘‘separate but equal’’ public facilities when it decides the case Plessy v. Ferguson. The decision

lii

Timeline upholds Louisiana law providing separate railroad cars for black and white passengers and becomes the legal foundation for such segregation throughout the nation. The National Association of Colored Women is organized in Washington, DC, with Mary Church Terrell as founding president. It is formed after two leading African American women’s organizations merge—the National League of Colored Women and the National Federation of Afro-American women. The new organization supports the major women’s reform movements, including moral purity, temperance, suffrage, and self-improvement. It also advocates an end to the practice of lynching.

1897

The American Negro Academy, an organization that promotes African American literature, art, science, and higher education, is founded.

1900

The National Negro Business League is founded in Boston, with Booker T. Washington as founder and president. The league promotes business among African Americans and works through chapters established throughout the country.

1901

Poet and civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson composes the song ‘‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’’ which later becomes known as the Negro National Anthem or the Black National Anthem. His brother, John Rosamond Johnson, writes the lyrics. The song is originally intended for a group of five hundred school children in Florida. The anthem is still widely sung, especially in the African American community, during Black History Month (February).

1902

Annie Turnbo Malone runs a multimillion-dollar hair care empire in St. Louis and founds Poro, one of the first successful African American hair care businesses in the county. Later she becomes one of America’s first black woman millionaires.

1903

The Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank is founded in Richmond, Virginia, with Maggie Lena Walker as founder and president. She is the first African American woman to own and operate a bank.

1903

W. E. B. Du Bois publishes The Souls of Black Folk, which becomes a classic and monumental work in African American literature. He declares that the ‘‘problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line,’’ which remains an oft-quoted thesis.

1905 July 11–12

The Niagara Movement, the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is founded and announced in Niagara Falls, with W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter among its leaders. The leaders have to move to the Canadian side for their first meeting, due to being denied accommodations on the U.S. side. Robert Sengstacke Abbott launches the Chicago Defender, which he uses to encourage blacks to leave the oppressive South and migrate to

Timeline

liii the North. The Defender becomes one of black America’s most influential newspapers.

1906

The first African American Greek letter social fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, is founded at Cornell University. African American troops from the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Division are accused of attacking the town of Brownsville, Texas, where they are stationed, and killing civilians. Although the soldiers dispute the charges, President Theodore Roosevelt orders three companies dishonorably discharged. A race riot erupts in Atlanta, Georgia, and continues for several days. After an unsubstantiated newspaper account of black attacks on white women, gangs of white males respond by attacking African Americans. For many years afterward, race relations in the city remain tense.

1907

Educator and religious worker Nannie Helen Burroughs proposes to the Baptist Convention that an observance be held to honor women in the church. The first such celebration, called Women’s Day, is held the last Sunday in July 1907, in Nashville, Tennessee, and gains widespread popularity.

1908

Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight boxer when he defeats Tommy Burns in a match held in Sydney, Australia. The first African American Greek letter social sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, is founded at Howard University. A massive, week-long race riot occurs in Springfield, Illinois, following a white woman’s false claim that a black man raped her. Sometime later, the woman claims that a white man had beaten her instead.

1909 May 12–14

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded in New York City, in partial response to the Springfield race riot the previous year. Those who sign the original charter included Jane Addams, John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, William Dean Howells, and Oswald Garrison Villard. Moorfield Story, a Boston lawyer, is elected president. James H. Anderson founds the New York Amsterdam News, which becomes the leading black newspaper for African Americans in the twentieth century.

1910

Madam C. J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove McWilliams Walker) develops a method for caring for black hair and sets up profitable marketing strategies that revolutionize the hair care industry for blacks. She also establishes a chain of beauty parlors throughout the United Sates, the Caribbean, and South America. Later she becomes a millionaire.

November

The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is first published, with W. E. B. Du Bois as editorial leader. Its name comes from a discussion before the NAACP’s board, when member Mary White Ovington mentions James Russell Lowell’s poem, ‘‘The Present Crisis.’’ It is ‘‘first and foremost a

liv

Timeline newspaper,’’ but also reviews opinions and literature and gives information on race and other news of the day deemed important to black people. After heavyweight champion Jack Johnson defeats white boxer Jim Jeffries, race riots spring up across the nation. A film of the fight captures Johnson’s strength and spurs among whites a deep fear of black male power.

1911 October

The National Urban League (NUL) is founded when the Committee for Improving the Industrial Conditions of Negroes in New York, the National League for the Protection of Colored Women, and the Committee on Urban Conditions among Negroes merge. Its cofounders include George Edmund Haynes and Eugene Kinckle Jones. The NUL becomes a leader among African American organizations and also provides professional social services to the African American community. The Negro Society for Historical Research is founded in New York City.

1914

Inventor Garrett Morgan receives a patent for the first gas mask. The mask allows firefighters who enter smoke-filled places to breathe while performing their duties. It protects engineers, chemists, and workers whose assignments take them near noxious fumes and dust.

1915

The Negro Book Collectors Exchange is founded by a group of booklovers during a meeting of the American Negro Academy in Washington, DC. Its mission is to bring together all literature by people of color. Carter G. Woodson, known as ‘‘the Father of Black History,’’ helps to found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History at the Wabash YMCA in Chicago. The name of the organization is changed in 1972 to become the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The Great Migration begins, as African Americans leave the racially violent South, where educational and economic opportunities are poor, and settle in cities in the North and West. Some half-million blacks from the South relocate by the end of the migration in the 1960s. African Americans regain their voting rights after the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case Guinn v. United States, rules unconstitutional Oklahoma’s grandfather clause that exempts from state voting requirements any person whose ancestors voted before January 1, 1866. D. W. Griffith’s controversial film The Birth of a Nation is released. It is inspired by Thomas Dixon’s overtly racist novels. The film gives a racist interpretation of the Civil War and Reconstruction, promotes the white supremacist view of culture, and glorifies the Ku Klux Klan. Efforts to prevent its release are ignored. Following its release, the NAACP is unsuccessful in its campaign to ban the film from theaters.

1916

The Journal of Negro History, the first American black historical research journal, is published, with Carter G. Woodson as founder and first editor. For six decades the journal remains the main outlet for black and white scholars interested in African American history.

Timeline

lv

1917

The Messenger, America’s only radical black newspaper at the time, begins publication, with Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph as its founders. The journal criticizes black conservative leaders as well as the NAACP. It also publishes works of many writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance period of the 1920s. The East St. Louis race riot erupts during the massive black migration after the beginning of World War I. The bloody riot comes in the wake of failed labor strikes in the local steel and mining town of East St. Louis. Dozens of African Americans are killed and numerous others injured. Marcus Garvey founds the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and also establishes its newspaper, the New York Negro World.

1919

Some thirty-eight race riots occur in various cities this year: in Longview, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Elaine, Arkansas; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Omaha, Nebraska, marking what becomes known as ‘‘Red Summer of 1919.’’ The most serious race riot of this period occurs in Chicago on July 27, when a black man crosses an invisible color line on Chicago’s Twenty-Ninth Street beach, spurring white segregationists to stone him until he drowns. Violence erupts, leaving fifteen whites and twentythree blacks dead. Over five hundred people are injured. There is also huge property damage and, following widespread bombing and arson, thousands of blacks are left homeless. Federal troops are called into Chicago to quell the riot. The city establishes a special commission to study the problem and seek solutions for its racial problems. James Weldon Johnson, now the head of the NAACP, responds to the racial climate and activities in the nation around this time, calling it ‘‘Red Summer.’’ He warns African Americans that, although many are fighting for peace in World War I, it does not follow that white domination in the United States will end.

1920

The Negro Baseball League, comprised of eight teams from midwestern cities with sizeable black populations, is organized by Andrew Rube Foster. The league flourishes until 1948 and enables African Americans to play on their own segregated professional baseball teams. Filmmaker Oscar Micheaux responds to D. W. Griffith’s racist film The Birth of a Nation by releasing Within Our Gates, a film that depicts the violence of whites against blacks. Female citizens are granted the right to vote when the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified on August 26; nevertheless, black women of the South, like black men, for the most part remain disenfranchised. Herbert Pace founds Pace Phonographic, the first black-owned record company. It records albums in a variety of musical styles, ranging from opera to spirituals and blues, and releases them under the Black Swan label.

1921 May 31

A race riot, known as the Tulsa (Oklahoma) Riot, erupts and leaves a string of disasters. After an African American bootblack is falsely accused of raping a white woman, violence occurs and the black neighborhood is devastated, leaving from 36 to 175 black dead and 11,000 homeless.

lvi

Timeline The musical Shuffle Along, by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, is produced and performed by African Americans in New York City, and becomes one of the most popular shows on Broadway this season year. It runs for over a year, for a record 504 performances. It also launches the careers of Josephine Baker, Caterina Jarboro, and Florence Mills.

1922

The Harlem Renaissance, a cultural revolution involving African American artists, poets, writers, and musicians begins and flourishes throughout the Harlem section of New York City. While the movement has lost most of its motion by 1929, its remnants extend into the early 1930s. The first book of poetry published during the Harlem Renaissance is Claude McKay’s Harlem Shadows. James Weldon Johnson’s The Book of American Negro Poetry, an anthology, is also published.

1923

Opportunity magazine, the official organ of the National Urban League, is launched in January.

1924 March 21

July 8

1925 May 8

1926

The Civic Club dinner is organized and promotes young black writers and poets in New York City’s literary community. It also supports and helps to launch the Harlem Renaissance. The dinner tradition begins when Charles S. Johnson, called the ‘‘godfather of the Harlem Renaissance,’’ invites Jean Toomer and about a dozen young and other unknown poets and writers to dinner at the Civic Club. Although the informal gathering aims to honor Jessie Redmon Faucet and her recently published book, There is Confusion, it becomes a well-advertised literary symposium. William DeHart Hubbard is the first African American to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event, in the long jump. The first Negro League World Series is held. The Kansas City Monarchs are victorious over the Philadelphia Hilldales. A. Philip Randolph organizes and becomes founding president of the allblack Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the nation’s first African American labor union. The union seeks to bargain with the Pullman Company for improved working conditions, higher wages, and increased benefits. Later, the union merges with the American Federation of Labor. Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, and other writers of the Harlem Renaissance publish the only issue of the avantgarde literary magazine Fire! Historian Carter G. Woodson establishes Negro History Week as a way to promote the history and culture of his race. The celebration coincides with the birthdays of educator Booker T. Washington, President Abraham Lincoln, and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In 1976, the recognition becomes known as Black History Month.

Timeline

lvii

1927

The all-black basketball team known as the Savoy Big Five begins playing. They are later renamed the Harlem Globetrotters.

1928

Oscar De Priest, a Chicago Republican, is elected to the U.S. Congress, becoming the first African American elected to the federal legislature in the twentieth century.

1929 October 29

William Grant Still is the first African American composer to have a symphonic work performed by a major orchestra. The Afro-American Symphony, presented by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, is his first work. The ‘‘Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work’’ campaign is launched in Chicago as a boycott of white merchants who refuse to hire blacks. It is an outgrowth of the ‘‘Double Duty Doctrine’’ that black ministers preach from their pulpit and through mass meetings and promotional efforts in newsletters. The aim also is to assist black businesses financially and to promote the economic and social development of the black race. The strategy soon spreads to other cities, including Atlanta, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland, Washington (DC), New York, Boston, Richmond, Pittsburgh, and a number of smaller cities. The efforts are known by other titles, such as ‘‘Jobs for Negroes’’ and ‘‘Don’t Spend Where You Can’t Work.’’ The movement is sustained until World War II. Charles Hamilton Houston begins his tenure as vice dean and later dean of the law school at Howard University. Under his leadership, the law school is reorganized and becomes a major training ground for civil rights lawyers and civil rights cases. Houston is credited for laying the legal foundations of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

1930

The Temple of Islam is organized in a black community in Detroit. The organizer, Wallace D. Fard, later receives godlike status within the sect. His successors include Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan. The organization becomes known as the Nation of Islam.

1931

Nine black youths, called the Scottsboro Boys, gain international attention when, after traveling on a freight train, they are accused of raping two white women near Scottsboro, Alabama. Although credible evidence is lacking, an all-white jury convicts them anyway, resulting in the death penalty for all nine. The U.S. Supreme Court overturns their convictions, yet five of the youths serve lengthy prison sentences. Their plight, known as the Scottsboro Case, symbolizes racism and injustice against blacks in the South.

1933

President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints to his administration a group of prominent leaders who become known as the ‘‘Black Cabinet’’ and who advise him on minority or black issues. Among the members are Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph Bunche, William Henry Hastie, and Robert C. Weaver.

1935

The National Council of Negro Women is founded, with Mary McLeod Bethune as its first president.

lviii

Timeline The Federal Arts Project, an activity of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), is founded. Among those African Americans who benefit through employment are artists Aaron Douglas, Richmond Barth
e, Augusta Savage, and Archibald Motley Jr.

1936

Sprinter Jesse Owens becomes an authentic American hero as he wins four gold medals at the summer Olympics in Berlin. As he ties one record and breaks three others, he dispels the rhetoric of black inferiority espoused by Adolph Hitler, who refuses to shake his hand or to acknowledge the superior accomplishment of Owens and other black athletes. Owens wins the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter relays and breaks his own record in the long jump. Now with celebrity status, he enjoys a hero’s welcome when he returns home. Interviews with former slaves are collected between 1936 and 1938, as the Works Progress Administration holds interview sessions with 2,194 former slaves who live in seventeen states.

1937

After defeating Jim Braddock, Joe Louis becomes boxing heavyweight champion of the world. He is the second African American to hold this title as well as the first of his race permitted to fight since 1915, when Jack Johnson lost the title.

1939

Marian Anderson sings before seventy-five thousand people on Easter Sunday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, following the refusal of the Daughters of American Revolution to allow her to perform in their facility, Constitution Hall. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is so incensed with the DAR’s ruling, clearly racially inspired, that she resigns her membership from that organization. The NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDEF) is established under the direction of civil rights lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston. LDEF aims to mobilize the best legal talent to fight racial discrimination and segregation.

1940

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. becomes the first African American general when he is appointed to the rank of brigadier general. Hattie McDaniel is the first African American to win an Academy Award. She is honored for her supporting role, ‘‘Mammy,’’ which she played with dignity in the film Gone with the Wind. After her movie debut in The Golden West in 1932, she appears in over three hundred films during the next two decades. McDaniel is recognized as a singer, vaudeville performer, and actress. Frederick O’Neal and Abram Hill establish the American Negro Theater in Harlem, New York.

1941

Labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph organizes a March on Washington for jobs. He garners the support of the NAACP, the National Urban League, and other leading black organizations and threatens a massive demonstration with one hundred thousand African Americans in protest on July 1. The march is canceled when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9902 which establishes

Timeline

lix the Fair Employment Practices Commission and aims to eliminate discrimination in hiring practices for defense industries. Organized by the Army Air Corps, twelve blacks are inducted into military aviation training at a new center located near Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Later the four squadrons of the 99th Pursuit Squadron, renamed the 99th Fighter Squadron, are known as the Tuskegee Airmen. In combat, these pioneer black units build impressive records and lead the air force toward racial parity. The pilots fly their first combat mission in 1943. After Joe Louis defeated Max Schmeling in the heavyweight title bout in 1938, he had a remarkable record of wins—seventeen in four years and fifteen of them by knockouts. When he fights his only serious contender, Billy Conn, Louis comes from behind and knocks out Conn in the thirteenth round to retain his image as a powerful boxer.

1942

Founded this year as the Committee on Racial Equality and later renamed the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), CORE plays an essential role in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and remains dedicated to securing equality for people worldwide. James Farmer is one of its organizers. CORE workers later help to organize and cosponsor the 1963 March on Washington.

1943

Racial unrest erupts in several cities, including Beaumont, Texas; Mobile, Alabama; Detroit, Michigan; and Harlem, New York.

1944 April 24

Frederick D. Patterson founds the United Negro College Fund to coordinate fundraising efforts of forty-one private, accredited, four-year black colleges. Chartered in New York, and now relocated to Virginia, it continues to aid significantly in the survival of many of its member institutions.

November

Ebony magazine is first published. Founded by John H. Johnson, founder of Johnson Publishing, it is patterned after Life magazine but dedicated to African American life and culture. The next year it becomes the first advertising enterprise owned by blacks to attract advertising from whiteowned companies. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., representing Harlem, is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. The win makes him the first African American congressman from the East.

1945

Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American player to join a Major League Baseball team in modern times. He leaves the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Baseball Leagues and signs on to the Dodgers’ farm team, the Montreal Royals. He starts the season in 1947 and is chosen the first Rookie of the Year for any Major League Baseball team.

1946

William H. Hastie is appointed governor of the Virgin Islands, becoming the first black governor of any state or territory since P. B. S. Pinchback was acting governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872 to January 13, 1873.

lx

Timeline

1947

Sixteen (eight white and eight black) members of the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, stage a Journey of Reconciliation to test the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that outlawed segregated interstate bus travel which relegated blacks to the back of the bus. Four of the protestors are arrested in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, an event that puts CORE and its efforts in the national spotlight. The Cleveland Indians sign Larry Doby to their team, making him the second African American to play Major League Baseball. He is also the American League’s first African American player.

1948

President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9981 ending racial segregation in the military and requiring ‘‘equal treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.’’ The U.S. Armed Forces are integrated after President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981. Roy Campanella signs as catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Satchel Paige signs with the Cleveland Indians, further integrating Major League Baseball.

1949

Major League Baseball honors Jackie Robinson by naming him Most Valuable Player in the National League. Pitcher Don Newcomb is named Rookie of the Year.

1950 April 15

1951

1954 May 17

1955 December 1

The first African American player drafted by the National Basketball Association is Duquesne University’s Charles ‘‘Chuck’’ Cooper, who signs with the Boston Celtics. Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American writer to win a Pulitzer Prize in any category; she is awarded the poetry award for her second volume of poetry, Annie Allen, published in 1949. Althea Gibson is the first African American woman to play in the Wimbledon (England) tennis tournament. Later (1957) she wins the singles and, with Darlene Hard, the doubles, becoming the first African American woman Wimbledon champion. Activist and educator Mary Church Terrell joins the sit-ins to challenge racial segregation in Washington, DC, restaurants and public accommodations. Her actions help to persuade the Municipal Court of Appeals to outlaw racial segregation in the District of Columbia’s restaurants. The U. S. Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, rules unanimously that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling overturns the Plessy v. Ferguson decision that approved the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doctrine in public places. The United States has its first African American general in the air force, when Benjamin O. Davis Jr. is elevated to that rank. The Montgomery Bus Boycott marks the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. When Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a

Timeline

lxi white passenger and her arrest follows, the protest sparks the year-long boycott and leads to the December 13, 1956, ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court outlawing bus segregation in the city. Contralto Marian Anderson is the first African American soloist to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old from Chicago, is kidnapped and lynched in Mississippi. He is accused of whistling at a white woman. Two white men are accused of the crime but acquitted. The act influences the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and adds to the impetus on the Civil Rights Movement. The tragedy receives worldwide attention.

1956

1957 February 14

The University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) acting under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, enrolls Autherine Lucy, making her the first African American to enter the school. The university claims that her safety is at risk and then expels her after several days. Later, the NAACP protests and the federal court responds by ordering the school to reinstate her and to protect her as well. Lucy is expelled a second time on the grounds that she maligned the university’s officials when she took the school to court. By 1992, the university’s attitude has changed significantly, and it endows a fellowship in her honor. The home of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Jr. is bombed, resulting from the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Birmingham home of another minister, Fred L. Shuttlesworth, is also bombed. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is formed and becomes a network of nonviolent civil rights activists who mainly come from black churches. Martin Luther King Jr. is the founding president.

August 29

The first major civil rights legislation in over seventy-five years is passed when Congress approves the Voting Rights Bill of 1957. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 becomes law. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the act—the first of its kind since Reconstruction. The law provides for a commission to monitor violations in the area of civil rights and provides for the Justice Department to protect black voting rights through litigation against those who interfere with their voting. The Little Rock Nine receive national attention when they are escorted to class at Central High School in Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus orders the National Guard to the school under pretense of maintaining order. Although the Supreme Court has ordered school integration, Faubus blatantly defies the order and obstructs the integration process. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responds by sending one thousand federal troops to Little Rock to enforce the law, halt obstruction of justice, and to protect the nine students.

1958

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is founded. Its owner, Alvin Ailey, brings to the repertory company seven dancers who are devoted to modern dance classics as well as new works that he creates.

lxii

Timeline Berry Gordy Jr. forms Motown Records, the first record label owned and operated by an African American entrepreneur. The company plays an important role in the promotion and mainstream popularity of several notable African American recording artists and musicians of the twentieth century, including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, the Jackson Five, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, and Lionel Richie.

1959

1960 February 1

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, opens on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre; it is awarded the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for best play of 1959. Hansberry thus becomes the first African American to have a play performed on Broadway, and the first African American playwright to win the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award. The Sit-in Movement begins in Greensboro, North Carolina, when four students from nearby North Carolina A & T State University occupy seats in a whites-only lunch counter at a local F. W. Woolworth’s retail store. The students—Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair (later Jibreel Khazan), and David Richmond—come to be known as the Greensboro Four. After this, similar protests are staged at numerous sites throughout the South, including Nashville, Tennessee; Montgomery, Alabama; and Houston, Texas. The site of the sit-in is now a civil rights museum, which formally opened on February 1, 2010.

April 15–17

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. In order to assist students in structuring and publicizing their antisegregation protests in the sit-ins, Ella Baker, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, invites student activists to the conference. Martin Luther King Jr. also extends his support to the students. Thus, delegates to the conference are southern lunch-counter sit-in participants, northern college students, a few white students, and members of several organizations. Following SNCC’s establishment, student sit-ins occur throughout the South and result in desegregation of many restaurants and lunch counters. The Civil Rights Bill of 1960 is passed. Signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the ruling prohibits anyone from intimidating black voters and calls for oversight of black voter registration.

1961

Civil Rights activists launch the interracial Freedom Rides by traveling on buses into the South. They test the South’s compliance with the Interstate Commerce Commission’s order to desegregate public transportation. One of their buses is bombed in Anniston, Alabama. The riders are physically abused and harassed, and some buses set afire. Riders in Rock Hill, South Carolina, known as the ‘‘Rock Hill Four,’’ remain in jail rather than pay their fines for trespassing, thus creating the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s ‘‘jail no bail’’ policy.

1962

The Albany Movement begins in Georgia to protest discrimination in all public facilities in the city. The movement is supported by SCLC,

Timeline

lxiii SNCC, the NAACP, and CORE, and is led by Martin Luther King Jr. He and many demonstrators are beaten and jailed. The University of Mississippi admits it first African American student, James Meredith, over the objections of Governor Ross Barnett. Following Meredith’s admission under escort by federal marshals, rioting erupts.

1963 August 28

1964

The largest civil rights demonstration to date, the March on Washington, with a quarter of a million participants, is held to lobby Congress to pass a civil rights bill. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Martin Luther King Jr. and some two hundred demonstrators are arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting racial segregation. While jailed, King writes his famous ‘‘Letter from Birmingham Jail,’’ which becomes one of the most significant and most quoted of writings of the twentieth century. Four young African American girls are killed when white racists bomb the church in which they are enrolled in Sunday school—the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Martin Luther King Jr. urges African Americans to continue their struggle despite the murders. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed, outlawing discrimination in public accommodations and employment. The act also establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and aims to enforce existing civil rights laws. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party is founded. Later that year, party representatives, including Annie Devine, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Unita Blackwell, confront leaders of the Democratic Party at the national convention in Atlantic City. Hamer testifies on national television before the credentials committee, describing the physical abuse she and others suffered as they attempted to vote. Freedom Summer is held in Mississippi, initiating freedom schools and registering voters. Civil rights workers who are involved in black voter registration efforts—James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman—are killed. President Lyndon B. Johnson responds by ordering two hundred naval personnel to search for the missing young men. They are found buried near Philadelphia, Mississippi. The nation is plagued with race riots that erupt in various places. Police brutality in Harlem leads to violence that extends over four nights and spreads to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn. Other riots begin in Jersey City, Rochester, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In his acceptance speech, King expresses his dedication to ending racial injustice. Actor Sidney Poitier wins an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the film Lilies of the Field, becoming the first African American to receive that award.

lxiv 1965 January 2

Timeline

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference launches a voter drive in Selma, Alabama. The drive escalates into a nationwide student protest movement.

February 21

While speaking before the Organization of Afro-American Unity in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City, Malcolm X is shot and killed by black Muslims.

March 7

Protesters, led by Martin Luther King Jr., march peacefully from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery in a voting rights protest. They are attacked by state troopers with tear gas and clubs on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in what history records as ‘‘Bloody Sunday.’’

August 11–21 A riot in the Watts section of Los Angeles, or the Watts Riot, occurs, resulting in thirty-four deaths, nine hundred injuries, and over three thousand five hundred arrests. The riot ushers in a period of violent confrontation in inner cities. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is passed by the U.S. Congress. 1966

Activist and SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael is elected chairman of SNCC. He takes a militant stance and launches the Black Power Movement as a part of the Civil Rights Movement. His movement also embraces the ‘‘Black is Beautiful’’ concept. Carmichael’s militancy helps to separate SNCC from the moderate leadership of some civil rights organizations.

July 1–9

CORE supports the ‘‘Black Power’’ concept. Although SNCC adopts it as well, the SCLC and the NAACP refuse. Kwanzaa, a seven-day celebration from December 26 through January 1, is founded by Maulana (formerly M. Ron) Karenga. The celebration is also adopted by people of African descent worldwide as an alternative to Christmas celebrations. It is controlled by African Americans to honor and celebrate the heritage of people of African descent. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California. Constance Baker Motley is confirmed as a district court judge, becoming the first African American woman to sit on the federal bench. The first African American man to win one of the premier Grand Slam titles in tennis is Arthur Ashe. The first popularly elected African American member of the U.S. Senate is Edward W. Brooke III (Democrat), of Massachusetts.

1967

Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, becoming the first African American to hold that high post. Boxing great Muhammad Ali refuses to be drafted in the U.S. military. In consequence, he is stripped of his title of heavyweight champion of the world. Miscegenation laws are declared unconstitutional and all similar laws existing in the states are nullified. This is the result of the U.S. Supreme

Timeline

lxv Court’s ruling in the Loving v. Virginia case involving the relationship between an African American woman and a white man.

1968

President Lyndon B. Johnson, appoints the Kerner Commission, consisting of eleven members, on July 28, 1967, following numerous race riots in major northern and western cities. The Kerner Commission Report, published the same year by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, warns that the United States is becoming ‘‘two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.’’ The report is the nation’s first comprehensive study of race issues in the United States as well as the federal government’s first official document admitting that racism did, in fact, exist. If not addressed, the report predicts a major crisis within major cities. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on April 4 on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is visiting to help the sanitation workers in their strike. Following King’s death, riots erupted in 125 cities across the country. The Black Arts Movement begins, extending to 1972. Black Studies (or Afro-American Studies) programs are initiated in colleges and universities across the country. An adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s unpublished writings, To be Young, Gifted, and Black, becomes the longest-running drama off-Broadway in 1968–69. Medal-winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos give the Black Power salute when the U.S. national anthem is played at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico. In consequence, they are stripped of their medals by Olympics officials.

1969

Charles Diggs, a Democrat from Michigan, founds the Democratic Select Committee (DSC), the precursor of the Congressional Black Caucus. It works to protect the fundamentals of democracy for all Americans, especially African Americans. It remains one of the most influential voting blocs in the U.S. Congress.

1970 August 7

1971

Activist Angela Davis is implicated in a shootout in a San Rafael, California, courthouse during an attempted escape. Her name is added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List and she is finally captured and jailed. Davis is acquitted of all charges on June 4, 1972. The Congressional Black Caucus of the House of Representatives is formally organized; it aims to influence congressional party politics. At first an all-Democratic group, later it includes Republican members. Charles C. Diggs Jr., a Michigan congressman, becomes its first head. Shaft, a movie directed by Gordon Parks and including theme music by Isaac Hayes, is released. It quickly becomes the most financially successful blaxploitation film. The People United to Save Humanity (Operation PUSH) is founded by activist and religious leader Jesse Jackson. Later on the name is

lxvi

Timeline changed to People United to Serve Humanity. Through Operation PUSH, Jackson negotiates employment agreements between blacks and white businesses. The organization also advocates black educational excellence and black self-esteem.

1972

Democratic Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African American to make a serious bid for the presidency of the United States. Barbara Jordan, a Democrat from Texas, is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the first African American woman from the South to win election to Congress. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, popularly known as the Tuskegee Study, is released. It recounts the results involving several hundred black men who had syphilis but were left untreated during a U.S. Public Health Service study conducted from 1932 to 1972. The experiment, in which the men were used without their informed consent, is exposed to a national audience when a whistle-blower leaks the story to the press. Public outcry silences health officials who try to defend the study. The Brownsville (Texas) raid of 1906 is brought to light again when President Richard M. Nixon grants honorable discharges and $25,000 pensions to 153 African American soldiers accused of participating in the raid.

1973

The first African American mayor of Los Angeles is Tom Bradley, who also becomes the first of his race to head a major American city without a black majority.

1974 April 8

Henry ‘‘Hammering Hank’’ Aaron hits home run 715 and breaks the long-standing record of Babe Ruth. Frank Robinson is hired as manager of the Cleveland Indians for the next season, becoming the first African American manager in Major League Baseball. The NAACP wins a court order to desegregate the public schools in Boston. This is achieved by busing black youngsters from Roxbury to the predominantly white schools in Charlestown. Racial violence erupts.

1975

The Voting Rights Act of 1975 expands the act of 1965; it is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Gerald Ford. The law abolishes literacy requirements for voting.

1976

Barbara Jordan addresses the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first African American to serve as keynote speaker for a national political party’s convention. Olympian Jesse Owens is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford, for his ‘‘inspirational life’’ and for his success in exemplifying the ideals of freedom and democracy.

1977 January 27– February 3

The epic miniseries Roots, based on Alex Haley’s best-selling book by that title, is broadcast on ABC-TV for eight consecutive nights. The

Timeline

lxvii final episode breaks all ratings to date. Haley is also awarded the National Book Award and a special Pulitzer Prize for his book, published in 1976.

1978

The first Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival is held as a fundraiser in a small, rural community. Since then it has expanded to attract blues enthusiasts and performers from all over the world, and has included John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Muddy Waters, and Charlie Parker. Scientists Guion S. Bufford Jr., Frederick Gregory, and Ronald F. McNair join NASA’s space program and begin preparation to become astronauts in future space missions.

1979

The Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, opens its National Archives for Black Women’s History.

1981

The disease AIDS gains national attention and is regarded as a risk for African Americans. Previously the claim was that AIDS only affected gay white men.

1982

The Voting Rights Act is extended twenty-five years. States must now eliminate discriminatory practices and reconstruct electoral district lines to favor minority voting strength. Pop singer Michael Jackson releases his Thriller album, which becomes an immediate hit. More than forty million copies are sold, as it becomes the best-selling album of all time.

1983 August

Guion Stewart Bluford joins the eighth Challenger shuttle and becomes the first African American in space. Chicago elects Harold Washington as mayor, making him the first African American to hold that post. Activist, essayist, and novelist Alice Walker becomes the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for a work of fiction for The Color Purple. In 1985, the controversial book is made into a film. Later Walker coins the term ‘‘womanism,’’ which originated from the term ‘‘womanish,’’ used in black folk culture. Vanessa Williams is the first African American elected Miss America. When embarrassing photographs that she posed for early on were made public in the middle of her reign in 1984, she relinquished her crown to another African American beauty queen, Suzette Charles.

1984

The Cosby Show premieres on NBC during its fall season. Comedian Bill Cosby is featured as Cliff Huxtable, who is an obstetrician married to a lawyer, played by Phylicia Rashad. The Huxtables and their four children live in a brownstone in New York City. The show runs for eight seasons and, from 1985 to 1988, is television’s most popular show.

1985

The first African American woman appointed as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress is Gwendolyn Brooks. August Wilson wins a Pulitzer Prize for his play Fences. In 1987, Fences also wins the Tony Award for best play. The play recounts the frustrations

lxviii

Timeline of a garbage collector who once was a star player in Negro League baseball before Jackie Robinson joined the major leagues.

1986 January 16

A bronze bust of Martin Luther King Jr. is placed in the U.S. Capitol rotunda and is the first such recognition given any African American.

January 20

The first national holiday honoring an African American is celebrated in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Although President Ronald Reagan signed the bill two years earlier authorizing the holiday, the holiday is first celebrated this year. The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) initiates the largest Black Family Reunion Celebration ever; it is held on the National Mall in Washington, DC, as well as in major cities all over the country. Initiated by then NCNW chair Dorothy Height, it comes in response to growing negative publicity about the ‘‘vanishing black family.’’ Oprah Winfrey becomes the first African American woman to host a nationally syndicated weekday talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Three years later she buys her own television and motion picture studio, called Harpo, to become the first African American woman to own her own production company.

1987

The first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is ‘‘Queen of Soul’’ Aretha Franklin. General Colin L. Powell becomes the White House national security advisor.

1988

The National Black Arts Festival begins in Atlanta and grows in attendance each year. It features arts and crafts, films, lectures, plays, and cultural events to showcase the work of blacks nationwide. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community establishes the Zora Neale Hurston Festival. Held in Eatonville, Florida, the last week of January each year, it aims to preserve the Hurston legacy and to celebrate her life as writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. For her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison wins a Pulitzer Prize. Florence Griffith Joyner, popularly known as ‘‘Flo Jo,’’ wins three gold medals in track and field at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. She ties the record that Wilma Rudolph set in 1960. Jackie Joyner-Kersee wins gold at the Seoul Summer Olympics in the heptathlon event, the most demanding of all events in women’s track and field. The win makes Joyner-Kersee the best all-around female athlete in the world. Debi Thomas is the first African American to win a medal in the Winter Olympics at Calgary, Canada. She wins the bronze medal in ice skating.

1989 August 10

General Colin L. Powell is named chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush, Powell is the first African American and the youngest person to hold this post.

Timeline

lxix

November 7

David Dinkins is elected the first black mayor of New York City.

November 7

The nation’s first black elected governor is L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia. Ron Brown is the first African American to chair the Democratic Party and the first of his race to head a major political party. Larry Leon Hamlin founds the National Black Theatre Festival to unite U.S. black theater companies and ensure their survival. The festival is held biennially in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and attracts over sixty-five thousand people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes a report showing the current risks of AIDS in this country. The report shows that African Americans are twice as likely as whites to contract the disease. Further, one-fourth of men with AIDS are African American, and African American women constitute one-half of the cases of women with AIDS. Seventy percent of babies born with AIDS are black.

1990

The first African American woman and the first District of Columbia native elected mayor of Washington, DC, is Sharon Pratt Kelly. President George H. W. Bush vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1990, then reverses himself and signs this year.

1991 March 3

1992 August 3 September 7

Rodney King is arrested by police officers while driving at high speed in Los Angeles. Four officers physically abuse him, fracturing his skull and damaging one of his legs. The assault is captured on videotape and then broadcast, galvanizing international attention on police brutality in Los Angeles. Later, the offices are indicted for assault with a deadly weapon and then cleared of the charges. The verdict ignites one of the worst race riots in the history of this country. After the federal government indicts the officers for violating King’s civil rights, two are convicted and jailed. President George H. W. Bush nominates Clarence Thomas to become the 106th associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, arousing considerable controversy. The nomination draws substantial protest from organizations such as the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus. Lawyer Anita Hill, a former employee of Thomas, accuses him of sexual misconduct years before. After the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocks on his nomination and information is leaked about Hill’s complaint, the committee reopens hearings, this time to national television. When the hearings end, Thomas is confirmed and becomes the second African American associate justice of the Supreme Court. The National Civil Rights Museum, located in Memphis, is dedicated in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. The museum is the site of the former Lorraine Motel, where King was fatally shot. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois becomes the first black woman elected to the United States Senate. The nation’s first African American and first woman to serve as U.S. surgeon general is M. Joycelyn Elders.

lxx September 12

1993 October 7

1994

1995 October 16

Timeline Mae C. Jemison, America’s first African American woman astronaut, embarks on an eight-day STS-47 mission aboard the space shuttle Endeavor—a joint program of the United States and Japan. She flies from and returns to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature—the world’s highest literary prize—is Toni Morrison. When President Bill Clinton is inaugurated, poet Maya Angelou reads her poem written especially for the occasion, ‘‘On the Pulse of Morning.’’ She is also the first African American poet to participate in a presidential inauguration. A record number of African Americans are appointed to positions in President Bill Clinton’s administration. Among them are M. Joycelyn Elders, the first African woman to become surgeon general, and Hazel R. O’Leary, the first female secretary of energy. He also appoints blacks to serve as secretaries of agriculture and commerce, and as head of veterans affairs. Rita Dove becomes the first African American poet laureate of the United States. She is also the youngest person to hold that post. The case against white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, who had been tried twice previously for the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, is reopened and brought to trial again. De La Beckwith is convicted. David Levering Lewis wins the Pulitzer Prize for his seminal work, W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919, and later another Pulitzer for the second volume. Survivors of the 1923 Rosewood massacre in Florida, are approved to share $150,000 from the Florida legislature. During the massacre, a white mob which claimed it was searching for a black man for allegedly assaulting a white woman, burned the homes of all blacks who lived in the small community of Rosewood. The Million Man March—a rally held in Washington, DC, is masterminded by Louis Farrakhan, who calls it a ‘‘day of atonement.’’ The event is an opportunity for African American men to assume responsibility for their lives and communities. Among the spin-offs of the march are greater black voter registration and more political activism.

October 25

The Million Woman March, patterned after the Million Man March, in which African American women come together to demonstrate their solidarity, occurs in Philadelphia. More than three hundred thousand women meet and engage in prayers, speeches, and music, demonstrating their concerns for challenges such as women in prison, independent schools, hiring practices, women in business and politics, and human rights abuses.

1996

Sean (Diddy) Combs, hip-hop artist, sells over $100 million in recordings and is named ASCAP songwriter of the year.

Timeline

lxxi Talk show host Oprah Winfrey adds a feature on The Oprah Winfrey Show—a book club—and single-handedly creates a reading phenomenon in popular culture. Oprah’s Book Club becomes an immediate success and one of the most influential forces in publishing history. Works chosen include a number of African American writers and luminaries, such as Maya Angelou, Bill Cosby, Toni Morrison, and Ernest J. Gaines. When Winfrey announces her selection on her show, sales for the book skyrocket, sometimes into the millions, turning struggling writers into instant successes and propelling many titles to the top of the best-seller list. Some call this phenomenon ‘‘the Oprah effect.’’ Her club continues at least through 2009, and by 2010 her book club series is available on Kindle (a wireless reading device).

1997

Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter, conductor, and composer, is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music. For his compositions, he has earned nine Grammys. Marsalis was named director of jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City in 1991. Descendants of African Americans involved in the infamous Tuskegee Experiment (1932–72) receive an apology from President Bill Clinton.

1998

The first African American woman tenured professor at Harvard Law School is Lani Guinier.

2000

Donna Brazile rises to fame when she manages Al Gore’s presidential campaign and becomes the first African American woman to lead such an effort. Venus Williams is the first African American woman to win the women’s singles at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson did so in 1957. Golfer Tiger Woods wins all four major golf championships—the British Open, the Masters, the PGA Championship, and the U.S. Open. He is the youngest person ever to reach this record. In 1997, he became the first African American to win the Masters, and in 2005 he would become the fourth winner of that event. The African Methodist Episcopal Church elects its first woman bishop—Vashti Murphy McKenzie.

2001

General Colin L. Powell is named secretary of state and Rod Paige secretary of education in the George W. Bush administration, becoming the first African Americans to hold the posts. Condoleezza Rice is the first African American woman to be appointed national security adviser. The first African American woman to lead an Ivy League university is Ruth Simmons, who becomes the eighteenth president of Brown University.

2002

Halle Berry wins an Oscar for best actress for her role in Monster’s Ball. She is the first African American woman to receive the honor. At the same time, Denzel Washington wins an Oscar for best actor, making this the first time in history that the top honors awarded by the motion picture academy are given to African Americans.

lxxii 2003

2004 January

Timeline Libraries in the black colleges come together to form the HBCU Library Alliance. The consortium serves as gatekeeper for history, culture, and the African American experience. As the libraries unite, they engage in several projects that strengthen their cause, such as ‘‘A Digital Collection Celebrating the Historically Black College and University.’’ It contains scanned images of primary resources from these libraries and their archives. Oprah Winfrey becomes the first African American woman on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires. Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), is the first African American man on the list. Condoleezza Rice is confirmed as U.S. secretary of state, replacing Colin Powell and serving under President George W. Bush during his second term. She is the first African American woman to hold that post.

2005

Hurricane Katrina, the most deadly, destructive, and costly storm the United States has seen, strikes the coastal communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and devastates over ninety thousand square miles. It reaches landfall in southeastern Louisiana on August 29. After the storm hits New Orleans, the levees are breached, and by August 30, four-fifths of the city is flooded. Since New Orleans, with a heavy African American population, sustains the worst damage, the government’s tardy response symbolizes the deep racial and class divide that exists in this country. In particular, the neighborhoods in the Lower Ninth Ward are comprised largely of African Americans and the poor underclass. Between fifty thousand and one hundred thousand people become stranded on rooftops or take refuge in the Superdome and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. When evacuation finally occurs, many poor African Americans are relocated to surrounding cities and states, with Houston receiving the largest influx. Since many of the evacuees do not return, New Orleans changes from a predominantly African American city to a predominantly white city.

2006

Deval Patrick is elected governor of Massachusetts, becoming the state’s first African American leader; he is reelected to office in 2010. He is only the second elected African American governor, following L. Douglas Wilder who won that office in Virginia in 1990.

2007

Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, leads his team to win Super Bowl XLI played, becoming the first African American coach to win the honor. As the Colts defeat head coach Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears, the two coaches also become the first two African Americans to play each other in the Super Bowl. Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s record for the most lifetime home runs, hitting his 756th. He completes the season with 762 homers.

2008

Newswoman Gwen Ifill moderates the U.S. vice presidential debates aired on national television.

Timeline

lxxiii David Paterson becomes the first African American governor of New York. Though not elected to the office, as lieutenant governor, by law he automatically moves up following the resignation of Eliot Spitzer.

2009 January 20

Barack Obama is inaugurated as the first African American president of the United States and becomes its 44th leader. He is nominated for the presidency at the Democratic Party’s 2008 Convention in Denver, becoming the first African American presidential nominee of a major political party. He changes the way campaigns are conducted and raises a record-breaking $745 million, much of which is raised online in small donations. His campaign involves twenty-four-hour cable television programming, online news outlets, blogs, YouTube, Facebook, and other nontraditional media, all of which have a significant impact on the political race. His oratorical skills are a hallmark of his campaign; he calls for change in the nation’s leadership, using the slogan ‘‘Yes we can!’’ Obama wins handily over his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, with 365 electoral votes.

February

Eric Holder is confirmed and becomes the first African American attorney general in the United States, the country’s chief law enforcer.

June 25

Popular culture icon Michael Jackson collapses at his Los Angeles area mansion and dies of cardiac arrest. A memorial service is held in the singer’s honor at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7 and shown on national television. The service features performances by such well-known entertainers as Mariah Carey, Usher, John Mayer, brother Jermaine Jackson, and Stevie Wonder. It is watched by an estimated 31.1 million American viewers. The week following his death, Jackson breaks Billboard chart records as the top nine spots are for sales of Jackson-related releases. Ten weeks after his death, on September 3, Michael Jackson is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, California.

2010 February

After winning a gold medal in the thousand-meter speed skating event in the 2006 Olympics held in Turin, Italy, Shani Davis wins his second gold medal in the same race during the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada. He is the first person to win back-to-back gold medals in this winter games event.

A Aaron, Hank (1934– ), Baseball Player, Corporate Executive Henry Louis Aaron, commonly known as Hank ‘‘The Hammer’’ and ‘‘Hammering Hank’’ Aaron, is best known for breaking baseball legend Babe Ruth’s career records of home runs on April 8, 1974, while scoring his 715th run with the Atlanta Braves baseball team. As a teenager, Aaron had the opportunity to see the African American baseball player Jackie Robinson play in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. Inspired by Robinson’s presence in baseball, Aaron set a goal for himself to become a major league baseball player. He achieved his goal and went on to become a legendary baseball player and a baseball icon. Born in Mobile on February 5, 1934, he was the third child of Herbert and Estella Aaron. He grew up poor but managed to become a star high school athlete at Josephine Allen Institute. While in his junior year, he was able to play with a semiprofessional baseball team known as the Mobile Black Bears, a popular Negro Baseball Leagues team in Mobile. Aaron made the decision to leave high school during his junior year when he was offered a contract to play with the Indianapolis Clowns of the American Negro League. In 1954, Aaron joined the majors, signing with the Milwaukee Braves. Two years later he had become the most revered twenty-three-year-old in baseball. He hit three home runs in the 1957 World Series as the Braves beat the New York Yankees to take the series. By the time the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, Aaron had become a superstar. He continued his stellar career with numerous home runs, stolen bases, and Gold Glove Awards, driving in runs, throwing out runners, and maintaining a batting average over .300. After Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in the home ballpark of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a near melee erupted.

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Aaron continued to play baseball, but with the Milwaukee Brewers, until 1976, when he retired. In total, Hank Aaron’s career status was 755 home runs. It was not until 2007 that Aaron’s home run record was broken by Barry Bonds, who hit 756 home runs, though Bonds’s home run record. Aaron has received many awards for his contributions from his peers, including being recognized in 1982 in the highly coveted National Baseball Hall of Fame and respected recognition within the baseball industry. From Aaron’s experiences as a baseball player, he has been able to use his skills in corporate America, working in various capacities within upper management of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story is Hank Aaron’s autobiography; it explores Aaron’s career in baseball in addition to his personal views on the racism he endured while being one of the few African American Major League Baseball team players. His autobiography made the New York Times best-seller list in 1991. Further Reading Aaron, Hank. 1992. I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story. New York: Harper Torch. ‘‘Hank Aaron Biography.’’ Biography.com. http://www.biography.com/articles/Hank-Aaron -9173497. Schwartz, Larry. ‘‘Hank Aaron: Hammerin’ back at racism.’’ ESPN.com. http://espn.go .com/sportscentury/features/00006764.html. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale Research. [unsigned]

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem (1947– ), Basketball Player, Writer At 7 feet, 2 inches tall, he was as graceful as gifted athletes who were one foot shorter. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dominated nearly every level of Basketball: high school, college, and professional. The exception was Olympic basketball only because he boycotted the 1968 games in response to the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement struggles of that time. Abdul-Jabbar’s athletic prowess alone could make him a pop culture icon. He is the NBA all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points, and among four legends (Wilt Chamberlain, Charles Barkley, and Karl Malone are the others) who amassed about as many career points, rebounds, and assists. Under his birth name, Lew Alcindor, the collegian was a three-time Player of the Year. His UCLA Bruins won national championships each of those years. Because dunking basketballs was banned in the college sport from 1967 to 1976 by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, many observers called that period the era of the ‘‘Lew Alcindor rule’’ since those observers suspected that the change was made specifically to minimize Alcindor’s potential to dominate scoring. Instead, he is synonymous with the ‘‘sky hook,’’ the soft, short-to-mediumrange shots he rained down on helpless defenders.

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There are other pop culture dimensions to this remarkable athlete. When he changed his name from Alcindor to AbdulJabbar, he joined Muhammad Ali as a star American athlete with a non-Christian name who was practicing a form of Islam. After a remarkably long professional career, twenty seasons that ended when he was age forty-two, the intellectually curious Abdul-Jabbar wrote at least five books, including an autobiography called Giant Steps, named after a John Coltrane song and inspired by one of Abdul-Jabbar’s passions, jazz. Lew Alcindor Years Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. was born April 16, 1947, in New Kareem Abdul Jabbar brushes Boston Celtic Robert Parish aside as drives to the hoop York City to Ferdinand Lewis Sr., during first period action of game 2 of the a transit policeman, and Cora, a NBA World Championship finals on May 31, department store clerk. Lew’s 1984 at the Boston Garden. (AP/Wide World parents were tall, 6 foot 3 inches Photos) and 5 feet 11inches for father and mother respectively, and young Lewis grew much taller, to 7 feet, by high school. He was enrolled at Power Memorial Academy, a Roman Catholic school, where he averaged more than 30 points a game. Alcindor’s dominance was attributed to talent: his variety of dunk, hook, and short jump shots in the low post that made him a nightmare to guard. After a feverish courtship that was closely supervised by parents and coaches, Alcindor chose to attend UCLA in 1965. At that time freshmen were not eligible to play varsity sports, so Alcindor took time to adjust to campus studies. He averaged 30 points a game playing freshman team basketball. Number 33 (his jersey number) was as great as advertised when he began varsity play in 1966–67. Alcindor averaged 29 points per game and nearly 16 rebounds his sophomore year. His college career average was 26 points and nearly 16 rebounds in 88 varsity games. Alcindor was routinely double- and triple-teamed by opponents, yet he scored effortlessly. Just before a January 20, 1968, showdown with powerhouse Houston University at the Astrodome, Alcindor was poked in the eye and he suffered a scratched

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cornea. Alcindor played the Houston game with blurred vision and scored only 15 points. Houston’s star center Elvin Hayes scored 39 points and outplayed Alcindor. The Cougars upset the Bruins. In a rematch during the NCAA tournament that year, a healthy Alcindor and UCLA handily beat the Houston 101–69. That summer, Alcindor was among a handful of leading collegiate stars who declined to represent the United States in the Olympic Games at Mexico City. At a conference, cited in A Hard Road to Glory, Alcindor said he was acting in solidarity with the civil rights struggle: ‘‘Somewhere each of us has got to make a stand. I take my stand here.’’ Alcindor finished his college career and his Bruins were NCAA champions in 1967, 1968, and 1969. Professional Career Alcindor was drafted by the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, a new franchise with a losing record. In addition to changing from amateur to professional basketball player, Alcindor changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (which means ‘‘noble, powerful servant’’). He was an immediate force and averaged nearly 29 points and 15 rebounds per game and was named Rookie of the Year. In his second season, Abdul-Jabbar led the Bucks to the 1971 NBA title. He secured a championship ring for teammate Oscar Robertson, arguably pro basketball’s best all-round player during his prime in the 1960s. In 1971 however, an aging Robertson focused on getting the ball to his graceful young giant of a teammate. Abdul-Jabbar missed the chance to go head-to-head against Bill Russell, but he had a few titanic battles with the other giant, Wilt Chamberlain, then with the Los Angeles Lakers. Abdul-Jabbar stayed with Milwaukee until 1975 and demanded a trade to a cosmopolitan city. He returned to Los Angeles and played for the Lakers. In 1980, the seasoned superstar was paired with Magic Johnson, a lanky, exuberant rookie. That combination marked the era of ‘‘show time,’’ a 1980s run of NBA championships and the Lakers mystique–Kareem, Magic, and their talented teammates, plus the Lakers girl dancers, and movie stars like Jack Nicholson and Dyan Cannon watching from courtside seats. Sky hooking with devastating efficiency, Abdul-Jabbar averaged 20 or more points for the first 17 of 20 seasons. When he called it a career in 1989, AbdulJabbar was a member of six championship teams, was a six-time Most Valuable Player, and was a 24.6 point career average scorer. In 1980, Abdul-Jabbar, notorious for his militancy and aloofness, changed his image by appearing in the movie spoof Airplane! as a pilot. Shortly before retirement he wrote Giant Steps, an autobiography. This launched Abdul-Jabbar’s postbasketball career as an author. In A Season on the Reservation (2000), he chronicled his experience coaching White Mountain Apache Indian high school basketball players. Brothers in Arms (2005), was a tribute to the all-black 761st tank battalion in World War II. A close friend of Abdul-Jabbar’s father was a member of that unit. In 2007, Abdul-Jabbar penned On the Shoulders of Giants, which included a tribute to the pre-NBA New York Renaissance basketball team.

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Further Reading Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. 1983. Giant Steps. New York: Bantam Books. Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Alan Steinberg. 2000. Black Profiles in Courage. New York: Harper Paperbacks. Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Anthony Walton. 2005. Brothers in Arms. New York: Broadway Books. Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Raymond Obstfeld. 2007. On the Shoulders of Giants. New York: Simon & Schuster. Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Stephen Singular. 2000. A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apaches. New York: William Morrow. Ashe, Arthur. 1988. The African-American Athlete in Basketball. Vol. 3 of A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete. New York: Warner Books. Heisler, Mark. 2003. Giants: The 25 Greatest Centers of All Time. Chicago: Triumph Books. Wayne Dawkins

Activists. See Social Activists

Actors and Performers For most of the twentieth century, African Americans were limited to acting and performing in segregated spheres. The result, however, sustained rich traditions that blended African and American forms of artistic expression and developed a distinct African American popular culture. Since the mid-1960s, African Americans have gradually assimilated into mainstream culture, enjoying intermittent periods of popularity in mainstream and so-called black television series and films, and, attaining celebrity status as performers. By and large, particularly in the realm of acting, African Americans continue to be underrepresented or typecast in stereotypical roles. The art of acting and performing was not new to the African slaves who arrived in America as early as the 1600s. West African traditions highly regard storytellers who masterfully performed their tales by embodying their character’s voice, behavior, and facial expressions, sometimes with the accompaniment of music. Storytellers, or griots, were both amateurs and professionals; either way, the performance had to be riveting and convincing to win the admiration of the audience. Music, song, and dance were a daily part of social life, work, play, and sacred ceremonies and rituals. Individuals within the society frequently specialized in assorted fields of art, such as basket weaving, hairstyling, playing musical instruments such as drums and flutes, singing, and dancing. Africans in bondage in America continued the practice of oral storytelling, singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments. However, the mixing of Africans from different regions and societies during the Middle Passage, the tumultuous voyage across the Atlantic from Africa to America, and the forced acculturation process prevented the retention of original art forms. Slaves had to be resourceful when creating musical instruments; some devised instruments out

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of traditional objects, like gourds. Many Africanisms survived in such customs as clapping hands and stomping feet (an African dance style) in worship or dance styles, and dancing in a circle (ring shout). Spirituals, a form of religious singing, as well as work songs, chants, and field hollers were developed within the confines of slave life. Early Black Entertainment The earliest forms of black entertainment were remarkable considering the prevalence of racism in American society. In 1821, free blacks founded African Grove Theater in New York City; however, the group enjoyed a short run owing to racists who shut them down. In the 1850s, spirituals were popularized with the emergence of the Fisk Jubilee Singers at the historically black Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The group performed for mostly white audiences in the United States and around the world, helping to popularize spirituals and cast a positive light on black culture. Many white composers and scholars traveled the South to document spirituals. Rural spirituals in their raw, simplistic forms frequently differed from the polished, operatic style of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. In 1892, a professional African American group, Colored Opera Company, performed at Carnegie Hall. The successes of such performers as the Fisk Jubilee Singers and others were frequently overshadowed by the dominating presence of blackface minstrel shows. Minstrel shows combined acting, singing, dancing, and other activities. Among the most popular minstrel shows were those that featured white actors in blackface who parodied stereotypical images such as lazy and happy blacks and the mammy figure. The shows ridiculed black dress, speech patterns, and behavior. During the Civil War, blackface among white performers lost popularity, while black minstrel troupes emerged with gusto. Among the first black minstrels were William Henry Lane and Thomas Dilward. Many black troupes wore blackface and performed for white audiences, using the same disparaging methods as their white predecessors. Other troupes, such as the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, featuring Ma Rainey, toured black communities in the rural South. Their performances included blues singing, comedy, and other routines that were not offensive to blacks. The early nineteenth century saw the rumblings of new opportunities for black performers showcasing African-inspired jazz and blues music. Despite the scant opportunities for African Americans to obtain professional musical careers, African American composer Scott Joplin popularized ragtime music. Blues singers like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Robert Johnson, who originally performed in black troupes or vaudeville acts or in homespun enclaves for black neighborhoods, were eventually marketed by white-owned record labels. A number of white performers, singers, and musicians were influenced by African American blues and jazz music. From the start of American film history, blacks were either represented negatively or excluded from films. In the classic silent film by a white filmmaker, The Birth of a Nation (1915), Klansmen were depicted as the heroes; blacks were portrayed as villainous predators. African American film director Oscar Devereaux Micheaux produced silent films and sound films featuring all black actors, representing a broad spectrum of black life, bringing dignity and complexity to his

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characters. Mainstream films, however, restricted blacks to inferior roles. Hattie McDaniel was notoriously typecast as the overweight, dark-skinned mammy, one of few roles available to African American women. Between the 1930s and 1940s, African American popular culture experienced a surge in new artistic expression in the Harlem Renaissance and films featuring all-black actors produced by independent black studios and mainstream studios for black audiences. Harlem, a predominately black neighborhood in New York, was the home of an artistic explosion in literature, theater, art, dance, and music. Nightclubs like the Cotton Club were ablaze with activity such as all-black dance groups and performers, including Billie Holliday, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, and Louis Armstrong. Whites frequented these clubs to learn the new dance trends and hear the latest music and jazz slang. The Apollo Theater, located in Harlem, catapulted many singers such as Billie Holliday to stardom. Harlem was one of few locations blacks could see black performers without having to sit in segregated seating areas. Among the popular actors of this era were Nina Mae McKinney, Stepin Fetchit, Lorenzo Tucker, Lena Horne, and Bill Robinson (also known as Bojangles). Nina Mae McKinney was born in South Carolina in 1913. She started out as a dancer and appeared as the protagonist in the all-black film Hallelujah! (1929). She and world-renowned opera singer Paul Robeson appeared in Sanders of the River (1935). Bojangles, a popular tap dancer, appeared in The Littlest Rebel (1935), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), and One Mile From Heaven (1937). In films produced by black filmmakers, an assorted array of black actors were employed and featured as the heroes and protagonists in their own world, roles that were largely denied them in real life or mainstream media. A number of talented singers and musicians appeared in black films, such as Cabin in the Sky (1943), which featured Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, and Stormy Weather (1943) with Horne, Cab Calloway, and famed dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham. Black entertainers, such as Louis Armstrong, a trumpeter and singer, and Cab Calloway, a bandleader and singer, occasionally appeared in mainstream films featuring predominately white casts, demonstrating how music and performers in African American popular culture were gradually permeating white culture. The Civil Rights Era and Beyond Between the 1950s and 1960s (the Civil Rights Movement era), few African Americans became mainstream stars. However, some made significant impact in the music industry and in film and television history. Popular musicians like Nat King Cole broke into mainstream singing stardom. Actors such as Sydney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge also became iconic trailblazers in the centuries-old pursuit for inclusion in American society. Bill Cosby appeared in a groundbreaking role as a member of an interracial spy team in the 1960s television series, I Spy. Poitier was repeatedly depicted in a positive manner, successful, clean-cut, and authoritative. Although Dandridge challenged the all-pervasive happy-and-childlike black and presented sober portrayals, she was frequently typecast as a different stereotype—a tragic mulatto, a helpless victim of life.

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Notwithstanding the growing prestige of African American actors and performers, blacks still were largely underrepresented; they often contended with racism and discrimination in the industry and were yielded limited control in their careers. In 1958, dancer Alvin Ailey established the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, a modern dance company that incorporates moves inspired by the African American experience. The company grew in prominence over the years. Motown Records, which Berry Gordy Jr. founded in 1959, helped to eliminate some of the hassle blacks experienced trying to establish themselves as performers, launching the careers of some of the biggest names in music, such as Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, the Jackson Five, and Stephanie Mills. In the 1960s, R & B singers such as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Al Green made hit records. These artists were very popular with both black and white audiences. Black actors and artists became increasingly popular to mainstream audiences in the 1970s. Afrocentric clothes and hairstyles started out as trends in blacks communities. Eventually, black styles were appropriated by whites. Popular discos in urban centers played music by black performers as well as whites who were influenced by soulful rhythms and singing styles. Black performers, such as singer Donna Summers and actress Pam Grier, became sex symbols. African American actors were cast in films and plays produced by black playwrights. Louis Gossett Jr., who debuted in A Raisin in the Sun (1961), appeared in a number of films throughout the 1970s, and continues to act to this day. Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones were other prominent actors in the decade. Among the iconic black films were The Wiz, the all-black adaptation of The Wizard of Oz (1939), Sounder (1972), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), a film about the tragic life of singer Billie Holliday, and Roots (1977), a television miniseries. African Americans, like Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier, became the action stars of so-called blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Mainstream films occasionally featured African Americans. In television, shows like The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Sanford and Son, featured mostly black casts and appealed to both African American and white audiences. In the 1980s and beyond, African American entertainers continued to remain in the spotlight, whereas actors enjoyed intermittent success. In the 1980s, African American singers were primarily enjoyed by black audiences. The Cosby Show was considered a revolutionary television series, featuring a middle class family, headed by Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby), a doctor, and wife Claire (Phylicia Rashad), an attorney. The show was heavily criticized because it was believed that the show misrepresented blacks, although, in truth, a black middle class has existed since slavery times. The 1990s featured several black shows, such as Martin, In Living Color, and Living Single. The popular Arsenio Hall Show was hosted by an African American. The Oprah Winfrey Show, which debuted in 1986, continues to dominate ratings and heavily influence popular culture. (She also appeared in black films, such as The Color Purple and Beloved). One of the most important developments in television was the creation of Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 1980. It continues to provide black programming, movies, game shows, and videos for predominately black audiences. (Channel One, another black television network, was launched in 2004). In the new millennium, rap artists and performers such as Beyonc
e Knowles appeal to wider audiences than ever before and greatly influence the stylistic

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tones of nonblack artists. Black actors, however, appear infrequently in the media, save for networks like BET and Channel One. Tyler Perry is currently one of the biggest producers of black films. These films employ an assortment of new and prominent African American actors and actresses; the films appear in mainstream theaters but are mostly viewed by black audiences. Further Reading Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. 1996. Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Southern, Eileen. 1997. The Music of Black Americans: A History. New York: Norton. Sylvester, Melvin. ‘‘African-Americans in Motion Pictures: The Past and Present.’’ Long Island University C. W. Post Campus (October 2009). http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/ cwp/library/african/movies.htm. Time-Life Books. 1994. Creative Fire. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books. Gladys L. Knight

Adams, Yolanda (1961– ), Neo-gospel Singer, Songwriter, Radio Host When composer/producer Thomas Whitfield heard the voice of Yolanda Adams singing lead with the Southeast Inspirational Choir of Houston, his discovery would become part of the renaissance of gospel music. Their collaborative album, ‘‘Just As I Am’’ (1988), on the Sound of Gospel Label, reached number eight on the gospel charts. Since her debut, she has sold over four million albums, made music videos, recorded with the legendary Albertina Walker, and other gospel and R & B luminaries. Adams has changed labels six times. Her numerous accolades include: four Grammys, four GMA Dove Awards, seven NAACP Image Awards, two Soul Train Awards, three BET Awards, and she was the recipient of the first American Music Contemporary Gospel Artist Award. Her change from a gospel label to Elektra in 1998 resulted in the album, ‘‘Mountain High Valley Low,’’ that reached double platinum. Its crossover single, ‘‘Open My Heart,’’ reached number one on the gospel charts and number ten on the R & B charts. Elektra increased her media coverage with magazine interviews and television appearances on The View, Oprah, Rosie O’Donnell, and Tonight shows. She was inducted into the Stellar Awards Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2007, Adams was invited to the White House to perform in ‘‘The Salute to Gospel Music.’’ Her song, ‘‘Hold On,’’ was part of the ‘‘Yes We Can’’ support for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Adams infuses traditional gospel with R & B, jazz, and new jack sounds. Her appeal to crossover audiences is with lyrics that vary from biblical principles to inspirational or socially relevant messages. Along with her signature sound, her worldwide sold-out performances, including the ‘‘Sisters of the Spirit Tour’’ with Shirley Caesar, Mary Mary, and Angela Christie, also increased gospel music record sales, earning her iconic status in the industry. Adams has been criticized for hosting the Soul Train Awards, for her style of dress, and for lyrics with

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unclear messages promoting intimacy other than with God. She explains that her songs do not need standard biblical references to reach people. Yolanda Adams was born in Houston, Texas, on October 27, 1961. Major and Carolyn Adams, her parents, exposed her to a variety of musical genres and introduced her at age four to singing in church. Her marriage to ex-football player Tim Crawford in 1997 produced one child, Taylor Ayanna, but ended in divorce. Her choice to teach school and sing on the weekends resulted in her becoming one of today’s ‘‘Divas of Gospel’’ (also the title of a team-up album with Walker and others). In 2007, she began hosting the Yolanda Adams Morning Show that airs on Radio One stations. Whether performing, recording, or through her radio program, she sees her mission as breaking new ground in gospel music, helping others with their problems, and letting people know how ‘‘cool God is.’’ Further Reading Carpenter, Bil. 2005. Uncloudy Day: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. Current Biography Yearbook. 2002. New York: H. W. Wilson. Kernodie, Tammy L. ‘‘Work the Works: The Role of African-American Women in the Development of Contemporary Gospel.’’ Black Music Research Journal 26 (Spring 2006): 89–109. Simpson, Alphonso. ‘‘A Thin Line between Saturday Night and Sunday Morning: The Secularization of Sacred Song in the African American Religious Culture.’’ International Journal of African American Studies 2, no. 2. http://www.siue.edu/~mafolay/ JournalInfo/Vol-2/Issue2.pdf. ‘‘Yolanda Adams.’’ Atlantic Records. http://www/atlanticrecords.com/yolandaadams. Gloria Hamilton

Adoptions Adoptions refer to the legal process of taking a child or children as one’s own. In recent years, the number of African American adoptive parents has swelled, changing the face of African American popular culture. Transracial adoptions (adoptions involving parents who do not share the same race as their adopted children), however, continue to spur decades-long debates. Before the 1950s, formal adoptions among African Americans and transracial adoptions were virtually nonexistent. Following the emancipation of slaves in 1863, African Americans continued to be excluded from mainstream society and were denied basic rights. Although African Americans utilized many segregated services, adoption services were not extended to them. Following traditions rooted in their ancestral past, African Americans embraced the orphaned black children of biological parents who had been neighbors, friends, relatives, or church acquaintances. In Africa, familial ties extended beyond bloodlines. Because laws and societal attitudes discouraged interracial mixing of any sort, whites did not generally adopt nonwhite children. When whites did adopt black children, the family was frequently met with aggressive backlash.

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The gradual increase in the number of interracial adoptions, beginning in the 1950s and cresting in 1970 with 2,500 adoptions, was attributed to publicizing strategies, progressive laws, the Civil Rights Movement, and the low number of available white children brought on by new birth control methods and legalized abortion. Whites, however, mostly adopted the socially more acceptable nonblack children. African American adoption (and foster care) agencies appeared concurrently with interracial adoption agencies in the 1950s. To this day, black-run agencies focus primarily on finding African American adoptive parents for black children. Many African Americans contend that African American parents are essential to the development of African American children, particularly in passing on identity and racism coping strategies. In 1972, the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) passed a resolution arguing the case for black adoptions and against transracial adoptions. In 1994, the NABSW adjusted its proposition by stating that transracial adoption should be considered only after all other efforts have been exhausted. Proponents of transracial adoptions contend that any parent can provide a healthy home and learn how to provide for the specific needs of black children. Historically, there has been a gaping need for African American parents for the large percentage of black children who were without homes. However, in recent years the number of African American adoptive parents has increased. In Illinois, for example, a survey in the late 1990s showed that 80 percent of adoptive parents were African American. According to Sarah Karp, this figure underscored the fact that, in Illinois, ‘‘more African Americans are adopting now than 10 years ago.’’ Success stories such as these do not appear in mainstream media but continue to be limited to the black press and in black communities. Further Reading Adoption History Project. ‘‘African-American Adoptions.’’ http://www.uoregon.edu/ ~adoption/topics/AfricanAmerican.htm. Fogg-Davis, Hawley. 2002. The Ethics of Transracial Adoption. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Hollingsworth, Leslie Doty. ‘‘Symbolic Interactionism, African American Families, and the Transracial Adoption Controversy.’’ Social Work 44 (September 1, 1999): 443. Gladys L. Knight

Aerosol Art This public painting tradition is associated with graffiti, which had its origins in New York City. The traditions of graffiti reached their aesthetic peak in New York in the 1970s. This movement began, though, in the 1960s, an era marked by social unrest. For example, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and the women’s liberation movement, and protest against the Vietnam War, set the tone for the times. The emergence of the graffiti tradition was

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one among many forms of social protest, as reflected in the ‘‘bombing’’ (painting) of subway trains in direct response to the bombing of Cambodia and Vietnam by the United States. As such, aerosol art is best understood in the contexts of New World African resistance movements and communities, which have historically employed coded languages and subversive tactics to break out of confined spaces. Aerosol art should further be considered in the context of the visual culture of New York City, which has, as one of its most prominent features, large-scale advertising. So aerosol artists—who traditionally refer to themselves as ‘‘writers’’ and are often offended by the term ‘‘graffiti artists’’—were simultaneously in dialogue with the corporate world, political authorities, the masses of upper- and middle-class New York inhabitants, tourists, the masses of poor people, and each other. Ivor Miller compares aerosol art to celebrations of Caribbean carnival in New York City, in that they both represent instances of New World Africans taking over public spaces that have historically been denied to them. Miller writes: ‘‘Some have compared the artwork on trains to Trojan horses, while others view it as assaults on the very nerve centers of the city.’’ Like participants in other resistance movements, New York aerosol writers had strong communities that were characterized by the construction of new identities and language and by a belief in the importance of maintaining links to ancestral spiritual traditions. In true guerrilla fashion, early artists stole their aerosol paint from stores, then stole into train lay-ups dressed in the uniforms of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and spent the night painting. Like other artists within a community, they were consistently inspired and challenged by each other’s creations. Artists renamed themselves, many being guided by the belief that names convey someone’s spiritual essence. Some of the most prominent figures in the movement were PHASE 2, DAZE, VULCAN, RIFF, BLADE, COCO 144, MICO, STAY HIGH, and CASE 2. Names were a central feature of aerosol culture, functioning in part to camouflage the identities of artists but always with some deeper significance. Many artists use several names, and signatures are an important element of the paintings; in fact, at times the art has revolved around the signature. Like many other forms of New World African expression, aerosol art is marked by syncretism, or fusion. Artists had a diversity of cultural backgrounds, although the most pervasive influences came from African American, Caribbean, and Latin American sources. Artists also drew from a wide range of influences in developing their individual styles, including calligraphy, Egyptian hieroglyphics, underground comics by authors such as R. Crumb and Vaughn Bod
e, the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets, science fiction art and literature, and advertising. The kinetic element of aerosol art is one of its distinguishing features. As Miller describes the artists, ‘‘When painting surfaces that could be reached while standing, they moved in fluid, dance-like gestures to achieve the flowing lines important to their elegant styles.’’ This does not consider the many paintings done in seemingly impossible places, while artists hung in the air. However, the motion inherent in the painting process is only a part of what is involved with the tradition. The style of aerosol art seeks to breathe rhythm into the Roman alphabet. Miller suggests parallels between patterns in African visual art, African American quilting, funk music, and Hip-Hop rhythms. There is a close association between hip-hop and aerosol cultures, including overlaps in dialect, speech, and dance forms. PHASE 2, for example, was

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the artist responsible for rap pioneer Kool DJ Herc’s posters, and he is also himself a rap artist. Aerosol painting is stylized in such a way as to suggest dynamism, motion, and rhythm, whether one imagines jazz or hip-hop. The effects of the paintings were intensified when they were viewed on moving trains. In part because of efforts made by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to stop what it saw simply as acts of vandalism, the tradition of aerosol art has moved away from the trains as a canvas of first choice. Murals painted on landscapes such as handball courts and other public, community sites represent one of the many contemporary directions in which the tradition has grown. Many of the most famous aerosol artists have by now become successful in the mainstream art world, following a trend of galleries showcasing their art—much of which is now on canvas. For example, PHASE 2, WAYNE, and MARE represent artists who have taken the reins in developing careers and businesses in publishing, videos, graphic design, fashion, and other forms of art. (Although art critics have often suggested that artists such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat were graffiti or aerosol artists, many in the aerosol communities do not claim them. For many aerosol artists, membership in the community rests in part on commitment to ideals consistent with black and Latin power movements.) The tradition of aerosol art and graffiti has by no means perished. To the contrary, like hip-hop, the music it is most associated with, aerosol art has taken the globe by storm and is popular among marginalized and counterculture groups around the world. It has even become appropriated by mainstream commercial culture and is used in advertising to appeal primarily to youth cultures. The tradition has also entered the electronic realm and is featured on many different Web sites, some of which are devoted specifically to this art form. Although art in this form is inherently temporary, photographers and fans have ensured its legacy by devoting Web sites and other publications to photographs that were taken of paintings going back to the 1970s. Aerosol art is an American art form, an innovative style and language rooted in African-derived aesthetics, now with multiethnic, multinational communities. See also: Gangs Further Reading Chalfant, Henry, and James Prigoff. 1987. Spraycan Art. London: Thames and Hudson. Miller, Ivor L. 2002. Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Anand Prahlad

Affirmative Action The term ‘‘affirmative action’’ is normally used to discuss positive actions taken to increase the representation of racial or ethnic minorities or women in areas of employment, business, and education. The spectrum of affirmative

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action programs runs from targeted outreach and recruiting to positive considerations in determining the successful job candidate, contract winner, or person awarded an admissions seat. The term ‘‘affirmative action’’ first appeared in Executive Order 10925 issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961. The Executive Order included a provision requiring federal government contractors to ‘‘take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.’’ Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act expanded the coverage of this nondiscrimination notion of affirmative action from federal contractors to most private employers and prohibited discrimination based on sex. Executive Order 11246, issued on September 24, 1965, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, superseded Executive Order 10925. This order also required federal contractors to file, and caused each of its subcontractors to file, compliance reports as prescribed by the secretary of labor. During the formative years of affirmative action, the United States considered itself principally a black or white nation. In the 1960 census, whites constituted 88.7 percent of Americans, with blacks making up another 10.6 percent of the population. No Hispanics/Latino designation existed, thus they were classified based on their race, rather than on their ethnicity. In 1960, over 99 percent of blacks were born in the United States, and because of the ‘‘one-drop’’ rule declaring that anyone with one drop of black blood in him or her was, in fact, a Negro, American society presumed that all blacks were descendants of chattel slaves. President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 commencement speech at Howard University laid out a rationale for affirmative action that went beyond assuring that blacks were not victims of discrimination and instead providing blacks with positive benefits. ‘‘You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line in a race and say, ‘you are free to compete with all others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.’’ The Nixon administration significantly expanded the use of affirmative action. Nepotism was rampant in the construction trades of Philadelphia, which led to several building trade unions being virtually all-white. Intent upon integrating these trade unions, Department of Labor administrators created the Philadelphia Plan. The plan required contractors’ bids to produce minority group representation in all trades and in all phases of federally funded construction projects. Nixon’s secretary of labor, George P. Shultz, strongly endorsed the policy. The Philadelphia Plan was subjected to several months of contentious legislative battles in Congress. Generally, the liberal Democrats lined up in support of organized labor and the Republicans sided with the president. The program won a vote of confidence from both houses of Congress in December 1969. Originally proponents justified affirmative action programs as efforts to dismantle discriminatory institutional practices in order to promote a more equitable dissemination of opportunities in society. Due to federal court decisions rejecting social justice rationales for affirmative action, since the early 1990s, the justifications for affirmative action have increasingly touted the benefits of

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diversity. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 opinion Grutter v. Bollinger upheld an affirmative action admissions plan by the University of Michigan Law School. The plan sought to assure the benefits of diversity obtained from the inclusion of a critical mass of underrepresented minorities with a history of discrimination who without this consideration would not be represented in sufficient numbers in the student body, including African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Native Americans. Affirmative action has been one of the most successful programs in American history. It significantly opened up positions at the very top of this society for blacks, women, and other minorities in education, business, and employment. Without it, white males would still almost exclusively dominate U.S. leadership positions. Further Reading Anderson, Terry H. 2004. The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action. New York: Oxford University Press. Bowen, William G., and Derek Bok. 1998. The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Johnson, Lyndon B. June 4, 1965. ‘‘To Fulfill These Rights.’’ Commencement Address at Howard University. Lemann, Nicholas. 1999. The Big Test: The Secret History of The American Meritocracy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kevin Brown

Africa and the African Diaspora African cultural heritage and African diasporic tendencies have gone through numerous changes. This is especially so since some scholars regard both as part of the Africanisms that one hears a lot about with respect to African American culture in general and black disaporic cultural heritage in particular. By intellectual cum academic implications, Africanism, according to Joseph Holloway, is seen as ‘‘those elements of culture found in the New World that are traceable to an African origin.’’ To some scholars, Africanism has, in fact, been a neglected as well as a controversial sphere of intellectual inquiry in the United States since the pioneering research study of Melville J. Herskovits. African Carryovers into American Culture In providing the impetus needed to trace or reestablish and point the way toward Africa’s diasporic implications in the Americas, it is very important to recall historical anecdotes, including the earlier scholarly debates that were fomented by Herskovits and E. Franklin Frazier. As scholars, both were established intellectual

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giants in their fields of study, at Northwestern and Howard Universities, respectively. Herskovits emphasized in his book, The Myth of the Negro Past, that very significant African contributions were known to have been made to several segments of American culture to bring about what we see today as black American or African American heritage. Frazier, in his sociological studies, opposed such notions, as he felt that black Americans (or today’s African Americans) did lose their African heritage during slavery, and that African American culture did evolve independently of any African cultural or traditional influences. While these debates were raging, other scholars postulated, with similar rich and very useful research, that what is known as the Atlantic World, which forms part of the black diasporic experiences, started to form in the last half of the fifteenth century. In subsequent years, the fortunes of four continents became intertwined and interdependent; the repercussions of the interconnections continue to be felt as the black diaspora as we know it today, which brought together elements of blackness from Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In the black diasporic sense, one is discussing or focusing attention on what has, over the years, been recorded as ‘‘African carryovers,’’ as studied and popularized in Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro, published in 1926 by Newbell Puckett. In his anthropological study, Puckett’s early excursion into these African terrains showed that several Africanisms were carried over into southern cultural and traditional heritage. Through proper research and documentation, Puckett presented not less than ten thousand folk beliefs and tales of southern blacks, with evidence of their origins as well as the preservation of African traits in African American customs that relate to burials, religiosity, customs, and such folk beliefs as the presence of ghosts, voodooism, and outright witchcraft. While Frazier, Herskovits, Puckett, Franklin and Moss, Holloway, and others were holding court in a variety of ways about African carryovers into African disaporic spheres, Carter G. Woodson and W. E. B. Du Bois carved niches for themselves with their authenticated studies of the same with much more positive intensity and factoid. In 1936, Woodson published his authoritative book, The African Background Outlined, in which he described such major African survivals as technical skills, the arts, spirituality, attitudes, folklore, and traditional hospitality and generosity. In it he also provided information on African influences in religion, music, dance, drama, poetry and, indeed, oratory. In 1939, Du Bois came out with Black Folk, Then and Now, which bore results that were similar to Woodson’s. Du Bois’s book complemented his earlier work, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), in which he pointed out that the problem of the twentieth-century would be that of the color line, a prophetic statement that has held sway till this day in the twenty-first century. As the pioneers of the debates and the intellectual arguments were becoming gray in age and scholarship, their students began to take the mantle of the research on the African diaspora, either to add to or to reduce the earlier influences that they exhibited. For example, Lorenzo Turner, a former student of Herskovits, published his own study on the African diaspora titled Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (1949). The work, which was sparked by an earlier study,

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fleshed out several aspects of a 1940 study by Guy Johnson, Drum and Shadows. Johnson made an extensive reexamination of African retentions in the Georgia Sea Islands and the nearby Gullah communities of the mainland. Turner’s work served as the earliest impetus in drawing the expected or needed direct link between Africa and the United States with linguistic retentions; he went on to cite varied spheres (or derivations) in black speech patterns from the Niger-Congo as well as Bantu family of languages with African emphasis. While slavery and the slave trade, in their dispersal of African cultural heritage, tried to do away with African ways of life and sociocultural norms, Turner’s study refuted that destruction. He paid specific attention to the identities of African ethnic groups, listing over five thousand words that had originated from Central and West Africa. Turner pointed out that, indeed, West African cultures did shape and mold black (or today’s African American) cultural heritage. Back to Africa Movement In modern times, a scholar like Claude A. Clegg III of Indiana University has done a study to show that while the black heritage did not end in the diaspora, several black leaders saw the need to return to Africa. That, in fact, is what happened with several black Americans–then called freed Negroes–who decided in the mid1800s to return to West Africa. Freed American slaves went to Liberia, where they rebuilt the capital and, in honor of the late President James Monroe, renamed it Monrovia, while the freed British slaves went to Sierra Leone, which had its capital named Freetown. Inter alia, the whole drama is summed up neatly by Clegg: Perhaps unbeknownst to Charity Hunter [of North Carolina] and many of her fellow sojourners, the idea of black Americans emigrating from the United States, voluntarily or otherwise, as solution to racial conflict was as old as the republic itself. As early as the Revolutionary period, Thomas Jefferson proposed relocating African Americans beyond the boundaries of the new nation. Similarly, as late as the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln still envisioned a great black exodus that would purge the country of African Americans [Blacks] once and for all. Colonization, as this idea became known, rested upon the contention that Blacks and whites— due to innate racial differences, polarized societal statutes, and pervasive racism— could not live together in social harmony and political equality within the same country.

Clegg, in his 2004 book’s epilogue, subtitled ‘‘Everything Is Upside Down,’’ has shown how the diaspora-based blacks returned to Liberia, styling themselves as Americo-Liberians. In April 1980, their leadership of the country was ended through a coup d’etat led by a native Liberian soldier called Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe. In the putsch, the elected president, William R. Tolbert Jr., was shot to death in his presidential mansion, and several of his top officials were taken prisoner. A few days later, on April 22, 1980, Clegg writes that ‘‘thirteen of the prisoners, mostly cabinet officials, were taken to a nearby beach, tied to posts, and executed before a group of invited journalists.’’ Several Americo-Liberians

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returned to the United States to join the diasporic black population and, since the mid-1980s, they have had a change in their racial description or identity, which used to be Negroes and black Americans, to today’s African Americans. As historians have documented, the black diasporic extension goes beyond the United States to the various areas in what was then known as the New World. In From Slavery to Freedom, John Hope Franklin and Alfred Moss Jr. document the fact that, in 1619, twenty Africans were shipped as indentured servants on a Dutch ship to Jamestown, Virginia; the rest of the story is the history that we now know as the African American experience. In The Atlantic World, 1450–2000, Falola and Roberts have shown that while connected by the Mediterranean and the Islamic world for centuries, direct contact between European and Africa (excluding North Africa) remained minimal until the mid-fifteenth century. The pursuit of gold and slaves brought the Portuguese down the coast of West Arica in the 1440s, ‘‘conducting slave raids on the islands and the archipelagos off the coasts of Mauritania and Morocco. In 1444, a group of men led by Lancarote de Lagos sailed partway up the Senegal River, attacked a settlement, and seized captives.’’ In some instances, contact between West Africans and the Portuguese involved peaceful trade rather than violence. For example, in 1442, the Tuareg people in West Africa traded with Portuguese merchants; some of the exchanged goods were slaves who would come to the New World. This is the origin of what Rutgers University professor Van Sertima has authenticated in his book, They came Before Columbus—that in St. Augustine, Florida, there were black men and women before 1619. Coming to America It is important to point out that, as Falola and Roberts have spelled out, in contrast to the experiences of European servants and Indians, whose early ordeals in the Americas were slavish in totality, African peoples shipped abroad often had greater personal and legal freedoms in the early Atlantic World than they would later on. As further explained by both scholars, as European colonialism developed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European laborers and the surviving indigenous peoples were increasingly able to exact concessions from European governments and rely on imperial policies that generally sought to rein in the excesses of colonial elites. Gradually, the shipped Africans started to be subjected to greater abuse and, in the end, to be treated as slaves by American and European slave owners. Indeed, Ira Berlin has shown that many of the earliest African peoples in the Atlantic World—what he called ‘‘Atlantic Creoles’’—were much more than brute laborers; in the 1490s, black mariners sailed with Christopher Columbus, while black soldiers aided and abetted Hernan Cortes in the conquest of the Aztec empire. It is on the record that between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, large numbers of Africans were freed unconditionally—indeed, more than 33 percent in Lima and in excess of 40 percent in Mexico City between 1524 and 1650. Also, freed blacks could be found in large numbers in North America.

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As noted by various scholars, the nineteenth century recorded the largest export of Africans into the Americas as enslaved entities than in any single period in the history of the Atlantic slave trade. That was due to the triggering of civil unrests, including outright warfare or militarism, in many places in African societies. The exported slaves provided a fresh face to the black Atlantic culture; in the late eighteenth century, the concentration of slaves to the slave or black coast in Brazil from West Africa, many of whom were of the Yoruba ethnic or tribal group, were supposedly held in great esteem. Apart from the presence of Africans—as indentured servants, outright slaves, and freed or manumitted blacks—in the New World of the black diaspora, it is also a fact that the black Atlantic, as Falola and Roberts have pointed out, experienced a demographic shift that was driven by commercial motives of the slave trade. The cultural consequences were very profound for both black and white peoples. Interestingly, as many scholars have documented in their works, the mutual benefits of the presence of blacks in the diaspora have included the fact that, just as enslaved Africans carried African religions (i.e., traditional and foreign), languages, material culture, and architectural practices in their varied forms into the New World, so did it happen that European slave traders and manumitted (or freed) African slaves, who returned to their ancestral homes on the African continent, did bring back with them literacy, mathematical knowledge (or numerics), Christianity, European languages, new consumer goods, artisan knowledge and, indeed, building styles. Former Trinidad and Tobago prime minister, Eric E. Williams, in Capitalism & Slavery (1998), showed how the black diaspora extended to the Caribbean, where slave-cultivating plantations were supervised by the wives of the male absentee owners. He made it abundantly clear that Africans were enslaved and transported to the Caribbean and other parts of the New World for economic but not racist reasons; he added that his research at University of Oxford showed that the first people to be graduated from indentured servitude to outright enslaved status were native Indians, followed by poor whites of the United States; it was when both groups died in droves because of poor diet and also from the hard labor that Africans were captured or bought to serve as suitable substitutes. In fact, Catherine Clinton of Harvard University, in The Plantation Mistress (1984), called the wives of plantation owners the plantation mistresses, further describing these hardworking white women in her book as being the ‘‘proper slaves.’’

Further Reading Assensoh, A. B., and Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh. 2001. African Military History & Politics, 1900–Present. New York: Palgrave St. Martin’s Press. Blassingame, John W. 1979. The Slave Community. New York: Oxford University Press. Clegg, Claude A., III. 2004. The Price of Liberty: African American and the Making of Liberia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Clinton, Catherine. 1984. The Plantation Mistress. New York: Knopf. Creel, Margaret Washington. 1988. A Peculiar People: Slave Religion and Community. New York: New York University Press.

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Drake, St. Clair. 1991. Black Folk Here and There. San Francisco: University of California Press. Falola, Toyin, and Kevin D. Roberts. 2008. The Atlantic World, 1450–2000. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Frazier, E. Franklin. 1963. The Negro Church in America. Boston: Beacon Press. Herskovits, Melville, J. 1958. The Myth of the Negro Past. Boston: Beacon Press. Holloway, Joseph. 1990. Africanisms In American Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Van Sertima, Ivan. 2003. They Came Before Columbus. New York: Random House. Williams, Eric E. 1998. Capitalism & Slavery. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Woodson, Carter G. 1939. The African Background Outlined. New York: Holt. A. B. Assensoh and Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh

African American English. See Black English

African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010 From the shores of Africa to the urban metropolises of the United States, the voices of people of color have echoed the voices of those who have been oppressed throughout the world. There is no way to understand the contemporary issues facing African Americans without understanding the history of Africans in the United States. During the long night of slavery, African Americans sought liberty, resisted domination, and protested by leading mutinies on board slave ships, by running away, by working with the Underground Railroad, by leading uprisings, and by participating in work slowdowns. The history of the resiliency of the people kidnapped from the African continent and brought to North America begins to emerge from the earliest documents relating to the slave trade and enslavement in the American colonies. Slavery in North America 1619–1865 The forced movement of Africans to the Western Hemisphere constituted one of the largest population shifts in the history of the world. Some scholars offer archaeological and ethnological evidence to claim that Africans traveled to the New World before the Europeans discovered its existence. Historical documents confirm that African workers and slaves sailed with the Europeans as they explored the Americas and began to conquer the peoples of the Americas in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Yet, African presence before Columbus was minuscule compared to the millions brought to the New World in chains from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Settlements utilizing the enslaved African laborers in the Caribbean and Latin America antedated North American communities by almost a century.

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The Atlantic Ocean route between Africa and the Americas was often referred to as the Middle Passage and slavery in America was called the ‘‘peculiar institution.’’ Scholars’ estimates of the number of Africans victimized by the slave trade range from nine to twenty-five million. The trade in humans and the labor of those African captives in the New World netted untold riches to their European and American captors for many generations. Ship logs and slave trading records from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries show people of color not only as victims of a cruel system of slavery and oppression but also as actors who found effective ways to cope with the or escape from the confines of enslavement. Even on board the vessels of their captivity some of the millions of captured Africans mutinied against the European crews and took command of the ships that held them. Other unsuccessfully tried to regain their freedom by jumping ship or fighting their captors. Unfortunately, the superior technology of the European slavers—both in weaponry and transportation—subdued the Africans captives as effectively as it did the Native Americans in the New World. To secure their valuable African captives, the slave trading vessels had low decks, which allowed the chained captives to sit up but not stand. Some large slave ships carried between five and nine hundred Africans of all ages and both sexes. Between the cramped conditions, human disease, and filth, many Africans (and many of the European crewmen) lost their lives as they crossed the Atlantic, but millions survived to find themselves bound in intergenerational slavery. The monetary benefits were so great to the slave traders and owners that the trade of Africans to the United States lasted from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. The first twenty Africans in British America were sold by a Dutch captain as indentured servants in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. The settlement, founded in 1607, was only a dozen years old when the Africans came. Within a few decades most of the young Atlantic seaboard colonies were importing Africans, not as workers but as slaves. As the Atlantic coastal settlements increased in number and population in North America in the seventeenth century, European ships with Africans for sale as slaves appeared regularly. Planters were interested in using Africans as forced laborers on their tobacco, rice, sugar, indigo, and wheat plantations. Africans were used in urban and rural areas to construct buildings, roads, and forts. They also performed many household tasks. Most colonial historians acknowledge the vital role played by the African workers in both the planting of settlements and their protection from Native Americans in British America. The Constitution of the United States outlawed the African slave trade on January 1, 1808, but the law was largely ignored. With the invention of the cotton gin at the turn of the nineteenth century, cotton production began to increase and the value of enslaved people of color multiplied exponentially. Cotton production intersected with the growing textile industry in Great Britain and the New England states and led to revolutionary production rates. Most slaveholders in the South had few slaves, but there were large plantations where hundreds of enslaved Africans who, by the Civil War, were producing more cotton than anywhere else in the world. As slave property

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became increasingly valuable, slaveholders were strongly determined to protect their right to hold human property. Although the government of the United States was ambivalent about the rights of free people of color and virtually unanimous in the denial of rights to slaves, the Constitution of 1787 allowed southern states to count three-fifths of the enslaved population to determine the number of members from their states in the House of Representatives. By the time George Washington was inaugurated, African Americans made up about 20 percent of the American population. By the end of the Revolutionary War most northern states had provided for the emancipation of slaves in their boundaries. The few northern states that did not accomplish this by the end of the Revolution did so within a few decades afterward. As the number of slaves was diminishing in the North, by the time of the Civil War more than half of the population of Virginia, for example, was made up of African Americans, the vast majority of whom were slaves. In South Carolina, the slave population was more than 400,000 and the white population was fewer than 300,000. The 1860 census indicates that the total number of African Americans in the United States was 4,441,83. Slaves numbered 3,953,760 and 488,070 were free, and there were 26,922,537 whites. African American Artisans Although the vast majority of African Americans—male and female—did labor in the fields, a small percentage of both slaves and free blacks in the South also worked as artisans who toiled in tobacco factories, made barrels, ran steamboats, labored as masons, and specialized in many other crafts before and during the Civil War. Although enslaved persons who were trained as artisans usually utilized their skills on their owners’ plantations, it was not uncommon for them to be hired out to other plantations. Men performed various services such as blacksmithing, carpentry, hostelry, and coopering. Women were sometimes hired out as maids, cooks, hairdressers, milliners, and seamstresses. Those who hired the bondsmen and bondswomen gave their owners payment for the slaves’ service but the artisan usually also received a small sum. Many industrious slaves would scrupulously save the small amount they received until they had earned enough to purchase their own freedom at an amount stipulated by their owners. Sometimes, because the children followed the legal status of the mother, men would purchase their wives first, and then themselves and their enslaved children. The slave had no rights, a truth U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney—himself a Maryland slaveholder— reinforced when he stated in the 1857 Dred Scott decision that blacks had no rights that whites were bound to respect. Therefore, an owner did not have to agree to sell or give the slave a percentage of their hired wages, but many did. Some owners bought enslaved laborers for the purpose of hiring them out. Striking Blows for Freedom: Slave Resistance Famous slave mutinies and revolts dispel the view that African slaves were docile or content with their fate. Fear of slave revolts was quite common in the

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British American colonies from the earliest days of settlement. A perusal of any colonial newspaper indicates that runaways, acts of slave resistance, and smallscale slave rebellions were common. For example, in the spring of 1741 a series of fires broke out in Manhattan. Many believed that these fires were the work of rebellious slaves. Hysteria in the city led to the arrest of numerous enslaved persons. Especially after the successful rebellion of Afro-Haitians over the French and Creole colonials at the turn of the nineteenth century, white slave owners experienced a widespread dread of slave reprisals. As the size of the slave population sometimes grew to equal or exceed the number of whites in some southern states, slaveholders realized that a unified revolt by those held in bondage could signal doom for their owners. Fears increased in 1829 when a free black man in Boston named David Walker wrote a pamphlet entitled (in part) Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble to the Coloured Citizens of the World. The pamphlet called for blacks to rise up and overthrow their oppressors. The pamphlet caused much alarm in the South and was outlawed in various states. The governor of Virginia, John Floyd, cited Walker’s pamphlet as one of the causes of a major slave revolt in 1831. Small-scale slave revolts and plots were relatively common. Occasionally, however, revolts reached alarming proportions. This was particularly true with the Nat Turner insurrection in Southampton, Virginia, in 1831. Turner, who felt that God revealed to him the method of liberating the slaves, told only a few trusted companions about his plan because he understood that rebellions often failed because someone informed the authorities. Turner’s strategy was to go to one household at a time, kill all the whites, free the slaves, and thereby add to the number of those who were in his rebel brigade. Before the whites stopped Turner and his followers about sixty whites had lost their lives. Subsequently, the terrified state of Virginia government hanged Turner, but not before he dictated his confessions, which were subsequently published. Probably the most famous mutiny of captured Africans was on board the Spanish vessel Amistad. After the sale of Africans in the Caribbean in 1839, Africans were loaded on board the schooner Amistad. The Africans succeeded in murdering the white crewmembers except a few who were ordered to steer the ship back to Africa. About fifty Africans led by a Mende warrior named Cinqu
e forced the crew to comply during the day but at night the crew sailed the ship to the northwest, eventually landing off the coast of New York, where local authorities captured the Africans. The Amistad case, ultimately tried in the U.S. Supreme Court, added more fuel to the controversy between the northern and southern states. Former president John Quincy Adams, who defended the Amistad captives, presented a series of arguments so cogent that the Court freed the Africans. Missionaries and well-wishers helped the Africans who had survived the litigation process return to West Africa. Although enslaved African Americans resisted slavery in many ways, the most common method was to run away. Sometimes fugitives fled into areas unsettled by Europeans; other times they were able to ally with Indians. Occasionally blacks formed runaway communities called ‘‘maroons’’ in swamps or

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backwoods areas. Many blacks ran away during the Revolutionary War. Some simply sought freedom elsewhere. Others fled to the British troops—both during the Revolution and the War of 1812—who hid them from their owners and took many blacks with them as they moved to their next battle or troop evacuation. Pennsylvania began to abolish slavery through its Gradual Abolition Act in 1780. That meant that many enslaved people in the upper South lived very close to Pennsylvania communities where there was a free black population where they could hide. White and black abolitionists helped many enslaved people through the Underground Railroad, which was, in truth, neither underground nor a railroad. It was a series of secret travel routes and hiding places established for the purpose of guiding runaways from the slaveholding states to the northern states or to Canada. Hundreds of runaways conducted to the North attempted to blend into the large free black communities in New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and cities in other states. There is little specific information about the number of runaways during the two and a half centuries of slavery. Even using a low estimate of three hundred Maryland runaways a year for two hundred-fifty years means that possibly seventy-five thousand slaves escaped from Maryland. Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman claimed to have led over three hundred slaves out of Maryland. There were thousands of runaways in northern cities and Canada. In 1850, when the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law making the penalties more severe for those who aided runaways, many fugitives living in northern cities moved into Canada. Scholars estimate that over ten thousand fugitives fled into Canada in 1850 because of the law. Yet, the exodus of runaways from the South did not cease. As northern abolitionist sentiment began to grow, accounts of daring slave escapes were extremely popular. One of the most popular related to the escape of an enslaved tobacco factory worker named Henry Brown. Henry ‘‘Box’’ Brown got his nickname ‘‘Box’’ when he mailed himself from Richmond, Virginia, to the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society office in 1849 to escape from slavery. A husband and wife team, William and Ellen Craft, also gained great celebrity for their Christmas escape in 1848. Ellen, who was very light, dressed as a man, and her husband, William, who had a brown complexion, pretended to be her slave. They took public conveyances and arrived in Philadelphia and appeared at the Underground Railroad office of William Still, safe and sound. Not all runaway accounts were successful or thrilling but all were daring. Frederick Douglass’s fianc
ee made him a sailor’s uniform; he borrowed a black sailor’s identification papers and took the train to Philadelphia. African American sailors were common in the antebellum period. Strides toward Freedom: Free Persons of Color From the seventeenth century on there was a growing free black population in the British colonies. This population grew quickly in the antebellum years. African Americans were usually emancipated for diligent work, good conduct, familial connections, or commendable service. The methods for manumission

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included court actions, instructions in owners’ wills, self purchase, purchase of one’s own family member’s freedom with money earned when hired out, governmental decrees, or rewards for military service. Several thousand gained their freedom serving alongside their owners during the colonial wars. Free blacks were rarely accorded the same privileges as white citizens. States changed their laws relating to free blacks depending on the political climate and— more importantly—the size of the African American population. Free blacks usually could not legally marry, carry firearms, or testify against whites in court. Laws relating to slavery varied from state to state. Free people of color—especially children—lived under the threat of being beaten or kidnapped by whites who would sell them into slavery. One of the reasons that whites formed the abolition societies was to try to protect free blacks from kidnappers. States passed and repealed laws prohibiting blacks from assembling as groups in public places without whites being present. State governments often vacillated about the right of free blacks to hold and bequeath property. Whites often sought to restrict the type of work blacks could do because whites did not want to compete with them. In spite of numerous restrictions, free blacks formed their own churches, schools, benevolent societies, and businesses. Many churches were a part of larger denominations, which met periodically in various states to discuss both religious and political matters. Census records indicate that increasing numbers of free blacks could read and/or write. Free persons of color worked as domestics, small farmers, innkeepers, street vendors, ship caulkers, stevedores, sailors and boatmen, draymen, barbers, teamsters, blacksmiths, and liverymen. Back to Africa? In their quest for full political rights, free people of color were extremely articulate in their protests against the ‘‘peculiar institution,’’ but they also began to explore alternative solutions to racial problems. One example was Paul Cuffe, a Massachusetts free man born in 1759 of African and Native American ancestry, who learned to articulate the doctrines of freedom for oppressed African Americans. He eventually became an active exponent of African colonization in general and of the British Sierra Leonean scheme in particular. Even when the Massachusetts courts abolished slavery in 1783, the social, economic, and political problems that blacks encountered remained complex. Cuffe reasoned that the best avenue for blacks to pursue was to reestablish contact with West Africans for the purpose of colonization and trade. Finally in 1815, at a personal expenditure of $4,000, Cuffe took nine free black families, totaling thirty-eight individuals, to settle in Sierra Leone. Some emigrationists began to formulate ideas for the colonization of black Americans along the lines that Cuffe had planned. Others envisioned trade ventures, and still others wanted to evangelize Africans. Many whites simply hoped to rid the United States of its free black population. In December 1816, Robert Finley, a New Jersey clergyman, visited Washington to see if he could get support for a colonization scheme. There he met with a number of influential

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men including Elias Caldwell, Bushrod Washington, Henry Clay, John Randolph, and Daniel Webster, as well as about forty-five others. The responses of those who met with Finley were varied. Finally, on December 28, 1816, these delegates took the title American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color in the United States. Soon the organization was known simply as the American Colonization Society (ACS). The newly formed society sought to recruit Paul Cuffe to lead their first emigrant expedition, but he died before the plans for their first group of settlers could be formulated. Black leaders in Philadelphia, led by James Forten, Richard Alien, Absalom Jones, and Robert Douglas, immediately held a protest meeting. In addition to criticism by blacks, the ACS encountered considerable resistance from the federal government to pleas for funding their projects. Consequently, funds for the colonization scheme had to be solicited from the public. Thus, the ACS had to establish an African settlement largely at its own expense. Those black Americans who joined the first expedition as emigrants also worked for the United States government. A March 3, 1819, act of Congress authorized President Monroe to deliver African captives taken from slave ships to United States agents who would be stationed on the West African coast. The emigrants were laborers hired to build shelters and to provide some shelter for the ‘‘recaptives.’’ During the entire nineteenth century, only a small minority of the free black population chose to emigrate to Liberia. The nearly unanimous rejection of the ACS plans led to a series of meetings known as the Negro Convention movement. Frederick Douglass, who felt that the whole idea of colonization was rooted in racism and Negrophobia—fear and hatred of blacks—wrote and spoke out against it on many occasions. In his antislavery newspaper, North Star, Douglass’s editorials lambasted the U. S. Senate about colonization. The vast majority of black Americans were adamant about remaining in the United States. In spite of all the doubt on the part of blacks and the suspect motives of some of the members of ACS, some blacks left almost every year after 1820 throughout the century to go to Liberia. Some blacks chose to emigrate to Haiti in the 1820s, but many were dissatisfied there and returned to the United States. Black Abolitionists and their Allies The small free black population during the period up to 1860, however, aided by sympathetic whites, was most outspoken—and most creative—in their protest against slavery, as an institution many of them knew from firsthand experience. Sermons called for liberty, hundreds of newspaper articles, books, poems, speeches, and tracts echoed a call for liberty not unlike that of the American colonies from their perceived oppressor in the eighteenth century—Great Britain. With the Declaration of Independence, doctrines of equality and the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness reached the ears of the free persons of color and slave alike, and the oppressed longed to throw off the oppressor.

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Quakers, for example, were speaking, writing, and petitioning in the national and slate legislatures against slavery from the eighteenth century until emancipation. In addition to formal methods of protest, grassroots networks emerged to fight against slavery. Members of both races acted as conductors on the Underground Railroad. There is a virtual avalanche of records relating to antislavery efforts by great abolitionists, white and black, in the United States. These include the writings of people like Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Salmon P. Chase, Martin Delaney, Theodore Weld, and Francis Ellen Watkins Harper. Antislavery and proslavery political debates divided the nation, led to violence and, ultimately, to the Civil War. Galvanized by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Stowe published ‘‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly,’’ in forty installments from June 1851 to April of 1852 in the Washington, DC, antislavery weekly, the National Era. The story riveted the attention of thousands of readers and engendered outrage in many about the institution of slavery. The furor over the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the controversy over slavery in Nebraska and Kansas, the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, and the John Brown attack on Harper’s Ferry all polarized the nation, but the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860 led southern politicians to finally do what they had been threatening for decades—secede from the Union. The Civil War and Afterwards The dawn of freedom after the Civil War ushered in a freedom struggle that has now lasted over a century and a half. It is sometimes too easy to forget how brief the time has been since the emancipation of the vast majority of the African American population in 1865. A little more than 140 years has elapsed since the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution declared slavery illegal in the United States. During this relatively brief period, African Americans have demonstrated a remarkable progress, bridging a gap from powerlessness to strength, from illiteracy to scholarship, and from plantation house to the White House. The Civil War Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 led to secession and secession to war. Lincoln hated slavery but promised during his campaign that he would work to limit slavery to the states were it existed but not abolish it completely. Southerners realized that as new states entered the union soon there would be enough votes in Congress to legally abolish slavery by outvoting southern representatives. They hated and feared what Lincoln and the Republican Party might do to the southern economy and way of life. Southern states, beginning with South Carolina, in 1860, seceded to form the Confederate States of America. Lincoln and the U. S. Congress declared war to save the federal union.

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Before and during the early years of the war, President Lincoln envisioned paying masters to free their slaves and providing freed people with education or a colonization in another country, but few of the abolitionists Lincoln consulted offered practical suggestions about future plans for a free black population. In the opening months of the war, no clear policy evolved. Free blacks who offered themselves for military service were turned away. President Lincoln remained as reluctant to allow black men to enlist as soldiers as he was to declare the slaves free, and blacks were allowed only a limited role in the war effort for the first three years. Nevertheless, when the Union soldiers entered the South, thousands of African Americans fled from their owners to Union camps. The question of slavery that had been avoided, argued, and compromised upon from the time of the Constitutional Convention could no longer be ignored. The Union officers did not immediately receive an official order on how to manage this large addition to their numbers. Some Union officials sought to return the unfortunates to their owners but others kept the blacks within their lines, dubbed them ‘‘contrabands of war’’ and put them to work on fortifications, food preparation, and a myriad of other tasks. Over five thousand contrabands greatly aided the war effort with their labor. After Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which was effective on January 1, 1863, black soldiers were officially allowed to participate in the war effort. African Americans served as support workers, spies, scouts, soldiers, and seamen. Thousands of them lost their lives in the pursuit of freedom. Some returned home as heroes basking in the praises of their officers, wearing Congressional Medals of Honor and other badges of courage, and celebrating a new day of freedom. Yet, the nation still wavered about the postwar status of African Americans. During the time the contrabands and soldiers were in the Union camps, they sought out any who could teach them how to read and write and looked for chaplains who could legally perform wedding ceremonies. Sometimes hundreds of black couples— who had been together during slavery, a system that did not sanction legal marriage—were joined in matrimony in mass ceremonies. African Americans as well as whites were outspoken about questions of race, civil rights, and full equality for the newly freed population during the Civil War era. Emancipated blacks were forced to begin their trek to full equality even without the aid of ‘‘forty acres and a mule,’’ which many believed had been promised to them. Reconstruction and Its Aftermath ‘‘Reconstruction’’ is a term used to describe the methods of reorganizing the southern states after the war, to provide the means for readmitting them into the union, and to define the means by which whites and blacks could live together in a nonslave society. During the Civil War, only African Americans in Confederate states were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, but after the war, the Thirteenth Amendment liberated all U.S. slaves wherever they were and the Fourteenth Amendment declared them to be U.S. citizens. (Some slaveholding states like Maryland had not joined the Confederacy so the slaves there were not freed in 1863.)

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The Thirteenth Amendment The Thirteenth Amendment declared that ‘‘Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.’’ It was ratified December 6, 1865. The Fourteenth Amendment In part, the Fourteenth Amendment declared ‘‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’’ It was ratified July 9, 1868. Even after the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, service by African American troops, and the defeat of the Confederacy, the nation was still unprepared to deal with the question of full citizenship for the newly freed black population. President Lincoln wanted leniency for the southern states and believed that colonization of former slaves was desirable, since he feared that blacks and whites could not live together peaceably. His efforts to find a relocation site for the black population in Mexico or on a Caribbean island were unsuccessful, and his discussions with black leaders to outline his colonization plan were fruitless. In spite of Lincoln’s hesitancy, he proposed that the rebellious states recognize the permanent freedom of ex-slaves and provide education for them. Following Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, the newly freed population found that it did not have a friend in President Andrew Johnson. He was as determined that African Americans should not gain full citizenship as they were determined to acquire it. Black and white teachers from the North and South, missionary organizations, churches, and schools united to work tirelessly to give the emancipated ones the opportunity to learn during the years after the war. The Fifteenth Amendment Immediately after the Civil War, Congress attempted to protect the newly freed African American population. The Fifteenth Amendment declared that ‘‘The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’’ It was ratified February 3, 1870. African Americans enjoyed a period when they were allowed to vote, actively participate in the political process, buy the land of former owners, seek their own employment, and use public accommodations. Enemies of the race, however, rallied against the four million people formerly in bondage and began to

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find means for eroding the gains for which many had shed their blood. Some southerners tried to impose laws that virtually reduced African Americans to slavery again, but with the aid of radical Republicans in the U. S. Congress, blacks were able to retain some of their hard-won rights. People of color were elected to national, state, and local offices during this period and many black Republicans—Lincoln’s political party—were appointed to public office. The Freedmen’s Bureau, operational from 1865 to 1872—was officially called the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. The bureau aided many black families in their efforts to farm, find family members who were sold during slavery, and get educated. As Union soldiers and northern teachers, preachers, businesspeople, and missionaries traveled into defeated areas of the Confederacy, they discovered aspects of slave life and culture hitherto unknown to them. African American Spirituals, folk songs, churches, African folk traditions, and linguistic traits caused many northern observers to reassess their views about black creative ability. Because masters and mistresses feared literate slaves, every slaveholding state had passed laws forbidding African American education. This accentuated a longing for learning among the newly freed blacks that impressed almost every chronicler of the South in the period during and after the Civil War. Freedmen’s Bureau officials and thousands of white missionaries and teachers traveled throughout the former Confederacy to teach the education-starved blacks how to read and write. Former slaves of every age took advantage of the many opportunities to unlock the shackles of ignorance. Grandfathers and grandchildren, mothers and sons sat together in classrooms seeking to obtain the tools of freedom. The old often clutched their Bibles, longing to be able to read its pages for themselves. One-room schoolhouses, poorly paid teachers, and nascent institutions of higher education sprang up throughout the South. Almost all Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)—such as Howard, Fisk, Morgan, and Spelman—were founded within five years after Confederate Commander General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox courthouse in Virginia. The 1900 census reports indicate that in the period between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, the majority of the African American population broke the bonds of illiteracy. Although the post-Civil War period seemed to promise a new era of freedom for African Americans, troubles soon set in. Gains in civil rights legislation and political representation in the state and local legislatures and in the U. S. Congress were eroded in several decades. Congressional reports chronicle the Ku Klux Klan death threats to those blacks who dared to participate actively in the political and economic arenas of the South. Tenancy, sharecropping, and peonage bound many poor African Americans in a new kind of bondage from the 1870s through the turn of the century. Blacks had to begin anew to strive for social and political rights in their homeland. Booker T. Washington Era The 1870s, the period when African American educator Booker T. Washington was gaining ascendancy as a race leader, provides a bittersweet backdrop for

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the African American quest for full citizenship. The vote proved elusive, and civil rights began to vanish through court action. Lynching, racial violence, and slavery’s twin children—peonage and sharecropping—arose as deadly quagmires on the path to full citizenship. After the presidential election of 1877, the federal government virtually turned deaf ears to the voices of African Americans. Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute in 1881 and delivered a speech at the 1895 Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, calling for blacks and whites to cooperate in the economic arena even if there was social separation. In 1896 the U. S. Supreme Court dealt a crushing blow to the struggle for freedom by declaring in the Plessy v. Ferguson case that it was legal to provide ‘‘separate but equal’’ accommodations for blacks on public conveyances. The concept of racial separation long antedated Plessy and had crept through the fabric of American life, North and South. Race riots and other types of racial violence by whites against blacks ushered in a reign of terror in much of the South. The voices of the nation’s black citizens were not silenced by the onslaught of racial repression. Black journalists like Ida B. Wells-Barnett and T. Thomas Fortune, up-and-coming scholars such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson, and educators such as Booker T. Washington, John Hope, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Kelly Miller, Mary Church Terrell, and Fanny Jackson Coppin spoke out against lynching and other forms of violence. Black leaders being trained at African American colleges and universities and a few integrated and mainstream universities formed the relentless vanguard for civil rights and equal opportunity for all in the twentieth century. African Americans were educated in unprecedented numbers; hundreds even received degrees from institutions of higher learning, and a few, like Du Bois and Woodson, earned PhD degrees. At this time, African Americans also demonstrated their genius in music, painting, sculpture, literature, and dance. Both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League (NUL) held their organizational meetings in 1909. Founded by blacks and whites, these organizations began relentless, strategic efforts to achieve full citizenship for blacks. This period at the turn of the twentieth century has been called the nadir of black history because so many of the gains earned after the Civil War seemed lost by the time of World War I and because racial violence and lynching reached an all-time high. The century of work of these organizations document the unswerving efforts on the part of blacks and their white allies to ensure that the nation provide ‘‘freedom and justice to all.’’ World War I and Postwar Society The war era galvanized the black community in its efforts to make the United States truly democratic. African American blood had been shed in every American war, yet people of color were still second-class citizens. Black soldiers who served in segregated units during World War I (and later, World War II) were leaders in protest against racial injustice, on the home front and abroad. Black soldiers who felt that they were treated better in France than they were in the United States became even more determined to struggle for their rights. Blacks and whites in

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the newly formed NAACP and other organizations continued to lead the onslaught against discrimination and segregation. Numerous NAACP protests document the efforts taken to prevent mistreatment of African American men and women in the military. Painstakingly, one case at a time, one law at a time, the civil rights groups confronted the racial inequities in U.S. legal and social systems by taking hundreds of cases to court. Great were the efforts taken during this period on the part of blacks and whites to erase the legacy of slavery. African American artists, actors, and writers led the battle against intellectual and artistic bias. Between the wars and even during the deprivations of the Great Depression, there was a crescendo of African American artistic expression in the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. Paintings, drawings, classical music, jazz, blues, poetry, drama, novels, plays, and more abounded during this era. Blacks participating in the war effort abroad gave the world a taste of African American artistic genius, and the world seemed to long for more. The United States, however, was still reluctant to award full citizenship to blacks. The Depression, the New Deal, and World War II The stock market crash of 1929 caused soup lines to become the order of the day for the skilled and unskilled alike in urban areas across the nation. African Americans in cities and rural areas, already in poverty in most areas before the Great Depression, were especially hard hit. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1932, he promised a ‘‘new deal’’ for all Americans that would provide them with security from ‘‘the cradle to the grave.’’ Although there were inequities in the New Deal programs that were established, many blacks had opportunities to receive benefits and obtain employment in an unprecedented fashion. Yet none of the New Deal programs actually ended the Depression. It was the growing storm clouds in Europe, the rise of Nazism, American aid to the Allies and, ultimately, U.S. entry into World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that sent the country into a war production level that revitalized the nation’s economy. Remembering their experiences in World War I, African American soldiers and civilians were increasingly unwilling to quietly accept a segregated military or the discriminatory conditions they had previously endured. Northern black troops sent to the South for training often had violent encounters with white citizens there. Black-owned newspapers protested segregation, mistreatment, and discrimination. Labor leader A. Philip Randolph threatened a march on Washington by more than one hundred thousand blacks in 1941 to protest discrimination in the military and in defense industries. In the face of rising protests, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 reaffirming the ‘‘policy of full participation in the defense program by all persons, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin.’’ The Civil Rights Era The postwar era marked a period of unprecedented energy against the dual system of citizenship in many parts of the nation. Resistance to racial segregation

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and discrimination with strategies such as civil disobedience, marches, protests, boycotts, Freedom Rides, and rallies received national and international attention as newspapers, radio, and television documented the raw wounds of racial repression in a way that technology had never before allowed. Beginning in 1951 with a case in Charleston, South Carolina, Thurgood Marshall and other NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (Ink Fund) attorneys and their expert witnesses became increasingly skilled in their presentations about the damaging effects of racism and segregation on black children. Before critical prosecutors, they learned how to phrase their replies, present the type of evidence that provided the strongest support for the fund’s cases, and regularly attempted to enlist well-known psychologists to testify or submit findings to strengthen their presentations in the battle against segregation. A few years after the South Carolina cases, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund brought before the U.S. Supreme Court a series of cases relating to segregated school that became collectively known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. They wanted to show that segregation should be challenged in a variety of settings throughout the nation, not just in the South. The Court heard the Brown arguments in 1953 but sent the case back to the Ink Fund with a number of detailed questions that needed to be addressed. The Court wanted to know if the Congress and the states assumed that racial segregation was the norm for American society, or if the original intent of the amendment was, among other things, to present segregation in the United States. Thurgood Marshall reargued the Brown case again in 1954. The Ink Fund submitted the reports by a committee of scholars as well as other evidence required by the Supreme Court justices. After hearing the case a second time, the justices unanimously decided that racially separate schools were inherently unequal on May 10, 1954. This paved the way for future Supreme Court decisions that would declare all racial segregation unconstitutional. Success crowned these efforts: the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 helped bring about the demise of the entangling web of legislation that seemed to inextricably bind blacks to second-class citizenship. One hundred years after the Civil War, blacks and their white allies still pursued the battle for equal rights in every area of American life. The twentieth century did not bring an end to the quest for full citizenship, but major milestones in civil rights laws are on the books for the purpose of regulating equal access to public accommodations; equal justice before the law; and equal employment, education, and housing opportunities. African Americans have taken advantage of unprecedented openings in many fields of learning and the arts. A myriad of historical resources prove that the quest for full equality on the part of African Americans has been relentless and, though fraught with difficulty to this hour, successful. With the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many blacks in the South were enfranchised. This led to the election of hundreds of African American local state and national government officials and the formation of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971. Several black leaders made unsuccessful bids for

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the presidency of the United States and a number of blacks served as members of presidential cabinets. Although there have been numerous blacks who served in the U.S. House of Representatives, there have only been five African American U.S. senators: Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce during the Reconstruction era in the nineteenth century and Edward W. Brooke, Carol Moseley-Braun, and Barack Obama. After serving only the first half of his senatorial term, Obama was elected by a wide margin of the popular and electoral votes to be the president of the United States on November 4, 2008. The quest for full citizenship on the part of African Americans is not over but a vast distance has been covered since 1619. Further Reading Blassingame, John, ed. 1977. Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews and Autobiographies. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Foner, Eric. 1996. Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction. Rev. ed. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Franklin, John Hope, and Albert A. Moss, Jr. 2004. From Slavery to Freedom. 8th ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Ham, Debra Newman, curator. 1998. Exhibit: ‘‘The African American Odyssey: Quest for Full Citizenship.’’ http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/. Ham, Debra Newman, ed. 1993. The African American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Hine, Darlene Clark, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. 2008. The African American Odyssey. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Quarles, Benjamin. 1991. Black Abolitionists. New York: Da Capo Press. ‘‘Welcome to Obama for America.’’ www.barackobama.com. Williams, Juan, with Dwayne Ashley and Shawn Rhea. 2004. I’ll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. New York: Amistad. Williams, Juan, and Julian Bond. 1987. Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–63. New York: Viking Penguin. Debra Newman Ham

African Cultural Influences U.S. culture has been strongly influenced by the enslaved Africans brought to its shores early in its history. Despite Africa’s rich contributions to American culture, the misconception that Africans made no contributions to the United States or the world’s culture exists. The contributions of African peoples have been omitted or appropriated; African names for people, concepts, nations, and entities have been replaced with European names, or renamed for those who brought them to European nations. Africa has made many unique contributions not only to American culture, but to that of the world as well.

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Foods The Nubian Ta-Seti dynasty (Sudan) preceded the first Egyptian dynasty by two hundred years. Archaeologists now know that cultivated plants from this Sudanese agricultural complex moved north into Egypt with the massive migrations of Africans during Egypt’s predynastic and early dynastic eras. During that time, no vegetable products entered early Egypt from the Mediterranean or Asia. Ancient Egypt was not a sudden, miraculous flowering of African genius; it was the center of a vast web, whose strands were comprised of Africa’s main cultures, and as such, Egypt drew foods, products, and goods from the entire African continent. Among the foods known to be used by ancient Africans are such vegetables as beets, cabbage, celery, chickpeas, cucumbers, fava beans, garlic, greens, molokhiya (jute leaves), leeks, lentils, lettuce, mushrooms, okra, onions, radishes, peas, ground peas (peanuts), and yams. In the category of fruits, they used coconuts, dates, figs, grapes, olives, plums, pomegranates, raisins, and watermelons. Grains included barley, rice, and wheat. They used nuts, such as almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts. Seasonings included benne seed (sesame seed), cinnamon, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, fenugreek, honey, marjoram, mustard, salt, pepper, rosemary, and vinegar. Their meats included beef, fish, goat, and mutton. Among their beverages were beer, coffee, fruit juices, kola beverages, tisanes, and wines. Dairy products included butter, cheese, milk and yogurt. They also used poultry and breads. The cooking method of roasting meat is many thousands of years old, and probably began in Africa. It has many African regional names; a few are: Nyama choma (East Africa), brochettes (French-speaking Africa), and Coupe-Coupe (Central Africa). In the United States it is referred to as Barbecue, from the Indian word barbecoa. African Foods and Beverages Popular in American Culture Coffee Buna, or what we now call coffee, originated in the African country Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia). Buna (coffee) and probably its requisite jebena (coffee pot) were cultivated, developed, and refined in Ethiopia long before Arab traders learned about this popular beverage. A more accurate scientific name for what we refer to as coffee would be Coffea Abyssinia or Coffea Ethiopia, to denote its place of origin; instead of being named Coffea Arabica for the traders who introduced it to Europe. Our word coffee comes from Kaffa, Ethiopia’s coffee-growing region. Folklore holds that circa AD 850 an Abyssinian (Ethiopian) goatherd named Kaldi noticed that his goats were frolicking after eating some ‘‘bright red berries.’’ He also felt a heady sense of elation after chewing the berries, so he took some home. When his wife tried the berries, she advised him to take them to monks to examine. Over time, Ethiopia’s Christian monks developed and improved methods of roasting, grinding, and brewing the beans to make a beverage.

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Another account tells coffee was introduced to Arabia by Sudanese slaves who chewed the berries along their long journey from the Sudan to Arabia. The Arabs liked coffee because it was a nonalcoholic stimulant. Coffee has also been ground and mixed with butter, and consumed like chocolate for sustenance among various African peoples. Ground coffee beans are still mixed with ghee (clarified butter) in parts of Ethiopia; in Kaffa, the drink is brewed with the addition of melted ghee, which lends a distinctive, buttery flavor. Ethiopians serve coffee with plenty of sugar, or in the countryside, salt. Coffee is traditionally served with Injera bread, barley, peanuts, or popcorn, which is an old traditional Ethiopian snack. Ethiopians have a beautiful traditional ‘‘coffee ceremony’’ when they extend hospitality to visitors, or which they perform for special occasions; the Japanese have a similar ‘‘tea ceremony.’’ Today, coffee is an integral part of the morning routines in the homes and offices of many Americans; it also has culinary uses. Strong black coffee is the defining ingredient in southern red-eye gravy. Cornmeal, Cornbread, and Grits Cornbread prepared by slaves emerged from memories of African cornmeal pones, breads, and mushes made from ground mealies. The making of cornbread by African women began in Africa, and the knowledge of it was retained by the enslaved Africans who were brought to America. Slaves would also grind dried corn (hominy) and prepare the dish we know as grits. Cornbread along with grits would leave the exclusive domain of being merely the food of slaves to become a major cuisine staple at white southern tables. Cocoa It has long been thought that cocoa was first used by the Aztecs of Mexico. Recent findings indicate that the ancient Olmecs cultivated cocoa in equatorial Mexico from 1500 to 400 BC; and that the Olmecs were the first people to develop a drink using water, crushed cocoa beans, and spices. A significant body of scientific, archeological, and linguistic evidence has further identified these ancient Olmecs (~1500 BC) as being ancient Africans of either Mende or Nubian stock. Ivan Van Sertima and others have presented much evidence that suggests these West Africans or Nubians were present in ancient Egypt. Despite the evidence of findings that point to an early African presence in the Americas, the theory that ancient Africans were present in the Americas, along with numerous findings that strongly support the theory are still being resisted by some archaeologists. Kola (Cola) The African word ‘‘kola’’ has been Europeanized to ‘‘cola.’’ West Africans made the first kola (cola) drinks with dried or fermented kola nuts and water. Kola nuts, which have a bitter taste, are also chewed in many parts of West Africa. Ancient Egypt’s pharaohs enjoyed a restorative drink made from kola

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nuts and other ingredients which they imported from West Africa. Kola nuts are native to Africa and play an important role in many African cultures. In Nigeria, etiquettes for a ‘‘kola nut ceremony’’ are observed in which Igbo hosts extend hospitality to their guests. The kola drinks we have today were preceded by the first kola beverages made by West Africans; cola drinks are extremely popular in today’s American culture. Peanut Butter Peanut butter, or as it is known in Ghana, ‘‘ground pea paste,’’ is a well-known snack or lunch staple for American children. The use of the peanut as a spread or a sauce comes from West African culinary traditions where many delicious peanut dishes abound. Today peanuts, which are also called groundpeas, pinders, or goobers, are very popular American snacks. During the U.S. Civil War, the tasty goober was celebrated in the song, ‘‘Eating Goober Peas’’ by Union soldiers fighting on southern soil. George Washington Carver, the renowned African American chemist, was able to find some three hundred uses for the peanut, including such items as cosmetic creams, shampoos, medicines, soap, and fuel. Potato Chips Potato chips were invented by the African American chef, George Crum, in Saratoga, New York, in 1853, and were first called Saratoga Chips. It is thought that Crum made the ultra-thin potato fries out of frustration with a customer’s complaint about his fries. Some references will actually omit Crum’s African ancestry by referring to him as an Indian. Potato chips and cola beverages are now as American as apple pie. Clothing: Cotton, Indigo, and Tie-Dye/Ombre Dye Patterns Africans have been making cotton and linen clothing from the earliest times. Linens have commonly been depicted and found in the tombs of the ancient pharaohs. Ethiopians and Sudanese (Nubians) who both pre-date the ancient Egyptians, possessed the skills to make fine, sheer garments from cotton. Examples of fine Ethiopian cotton clothing may be obtained today from Ethiopian specialty stores. The traditional Ethiopian cotton dresses for women are reminiscent of the attire of ancient Egyptian ladies depicted on tomb murals. Cultivation, processing, and the spinning, weaving, and dyeing of cotton and linen are old, time-honored African industries. Cotton and Indigo The popular American clothing staple, denim blue jeans, owes its existence to the long-standing African technologies involving cotton and indigo plant crop cultivation, their harvesting or processing, the extraction of indigo dye, and the

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cloth-dyeing process. When it was found that Africans of the Senegambia were adept in the cultivation and processing of their indigenous cotton and indigo, and they were expert in the extraction and use of indigo dye, Europeans, particularly the French, wanted that technology for themselves. Slave owners in Louisiana commonly sought to purchase Africans who possessed this expertise. Africans primarily used indigo as a fabric dye, which produces a deep blue color; but they also used indigo powder to brighten white fabrics. The use of powdered indigo, called ‘‘bluing’’ in laundry, became a part of American culture as well; today synthetic compounds replace the use of natural indigo as a whitening agent. Bluing water was also given penned fowls in order to clean out their digestive tracks in preparation for slaughter. Without the cotton and indigo technologies of the Mande people of West Africa, Levi Strauss could not have had made the sturdy work pants we now call blue jeans, the leading icon of American clothing today. Tie-dye and Ombre Clothing Designs West Africans originated many methods of dyeing fabrics. Two that have gained popularity around the world are the tie-dye and the dip-dye (Ombre) procedures. In the tie-dye method, fabric is wrapped or stitched tightly in various patterns, then placed into a dye bath. The portions of the fabric that were tightly bound or stitched resist or take up less dye than the unbound areas of the fabric. Depending on the number of desired final fabric colors, the fabric when dry may be re-bound in other areas and placed in dye baths for other colors. The tie-dye method is a uniquely African innovation, though credit for its innovation is erroneously attributed to other cultures. In the dip-dye method, fabric is only partially dipped into a dye bath, and held, allowing the dye to migrate upward from the fabric’s submerged edge. Progressive lowerings of the fabric in a dye bath, and the shortening time durations of fabric immersion cause a graduated effect of color intensity in the fabric, popularly called Ombre. Africa’s Contributions to the Art World Adinkra Symbols in Wrought Iron Balconies of New Orleans Africans brought rich and unique artistic contributions to the world of art in the form of African cultural traditions. Unique African designs known as Adinkra symbols still exist in the beautiful wrought iron balconies of New Orleans’ French Quarter. Adinkra symbols are the artistic representations of popular wise sayings of the Akan peoples of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. These symbols often are stamped on cotton cloth to record historical events, Furthermore, they do more than merely depict characters; they express traditional attitudes/concepts, or relate folktales in the form of abstract figures. Originally Adinkra, which means ‘‘goodbye’’ in Akan, was used for royalty only, and for funerary cloth. In West Africa, Adinkra symbols have also been used in pottery and metalwork (Absodee). Enslaved Africans, who were skilled metal craftsmen and smiths, incorporated various Adinkra designs in the wrought iron fences they built in New Orleans

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during the 1850s. Examples of these symbols worked in wrought iron are the heart-shaped Sankofa figure, which means ‘‘return to get it,’’ and symbolizes the importance of learning from the past, atop St. Louis Cathedral, and on a fence at 1301 Chartres Street; the Asase Ye Duru figure, which means ‘‘the Earth has weight,’’ and symbolizes providence and the importance of the Earth in sustaining life, on a door at 710 Royal Street; Dwennimmen (‘‘Ram’s horns’’), which symbolizes humility and strength, can be seen in the metalwork lamp in front of Tujaque’s at 823 Decatur and the fence at 910 Ursuline Street; and Eban, which means ‘‘fence’’ and symbolizes love, safety and security, can be seen on some French Quarter balconies. Artists and Sculptors African American artists have enriched and expanded the world of art by introducing new perspectives, art forms, and styles. A few outstanding African American artists and their media are: Harriet Powers, who was born a slave in 1837 and used traditional African appliqu
e techniques to create ‘‘story quilts’’; Faith Ringgold (1934– ), who advances the art form of the story quilts that appeals to and informs children; and Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), who depicted empathetic scenes of black family life in The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor. Five years after William Edmondson (1870–1951) began to sculpt limestone works, he began to receive critical acclaim from the art world, and he became the first African American to have a one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art. Selma Burke (1900–1995) completed a sculptured bas relief portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which was unveiled in the Recorder of Deeds office in Washington, DC, by President Harry Truman in 1945. In 1946, a dime was minted honoring President Franklin Roosevelt. The dime bore a striking resemblance to Burke’s 1945 Roosevelt sculpture, however it was initialed ‘‘JS’’ for Treasury Department engraver John Sinnock; Selma Burke has yet to receive official credit for her work. Cubism and Architecture Designs African Americans have not only contributed to the richness of art, but have also influenced artists with their style and point of view. The geometric style of painting that uses square and rectangular shapes is called cubism. This style was popularized by the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was directly influenced by African sculptures and art forms. Innovative uses of African-influenced geometrics are not limited to the artist’s canvas, but are seen in architecture such as the familiar futuristic theme building of Los Angeles International Airport, which was designed by the African American architect, Paul Williams. His work with the Ambassador Hotel, the renovation of the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the interior of Saks Fifth Avenue department stores all brought Williams widespread attention and even commissions from U.S. presidents Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Williams is best known as the ‘‘architect to the stars.’’ His clients included such celebrities as Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Tyrone Power,

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and Zsa Zsa Gabor. His architectural career lasted fifty years, and he completed three thousand projects. He has been acknowledged as being largely responsible for defining the architectural style of Los Angeles, and of Southern California. Permanent Body Adornments Pierced Ears Africans have been piercing their ears since the times of the Egyptian pharaohs as far back as 1400 BC. From the arrival of the first African Americans in America to the present time, the African custom of ear piercing, and the wearing of gold or silver earrings in the United States, remained in vogue with young black women. The popularity of ear piercing and the wearing of earrings also exemplifies how African customs have influenced American culture and many cultures around the world. Gold Teeth Across the African continent from Morocco to Madagascar, from West Africa to the Congo, to Ethiopia, the wearing of a gold or silver cap on a front tooth is a very old, time-honored tradition. Traditionally, acquiring a gold tooth marked a rite of passage in the life of a young African American: for example, high school graduations, attaining adulthood, entering the workforce, and so on. Music and Dance The Spirituals, the blues, jazz, Ragtime, zydeco, and black gospel music were all developed in the old Louisiana Territory by West Africans and their descendents. Some of the music forms originated in the West African country of Mali, but all of them have common roots in West Africa or central Africa. African American music has a unique characteristic called syncopation, which sets it apart from the music of all other ethnicities. The music and songs of African peoples enslaved in the U.S. Deep South and their descendents have had a profound and lasting impact on American and world culture. Much of U.S. popular music, including rap and Hip-Hop, owes its existence to the unique musical genres of the African American South. Further Reading Barton, Paul. ‘‘Black Civilizations of Ancient America (Muu-lan) Mexico (XI).’’ Gigantic Stone Head of Negritic African during the Olmec (Xi) Civilization. Race and History.com-BLACK CIViLIZATIONS OF ANCIENT AMERICA http://www .raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/ancientamerica.htm. Breneman, Judy Anne. 2009. ‘‘Harriet Powers: A Freed Slave Tells Stories Through Quilting.’’ Patches from the Past. http://www.historyofquilts.com.hpowers.html.

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Carney, Judith A. 2001. Black Rice: the African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ‘‘Dr. Selma Burke.’’ October gallery.com. http://www.octobergallery.com/artists/burke.htm. Fisher, Angela. ‘‘Africa Adorned: A Continent Speaks Through Its Decorative Art.’’ National Geographic (November 1984): 600–33. Gibbon, E. ‘‘The Congo Cookbook.’’ http://www.congocookbook.com/. Hall, Gwendolyn M. 1992. Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Holloway, James E. 2005. Africanisms in American Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Raya, Emilio. ‘‘Henry Ossawa Tanner.’’ African American History through the Arts. http://cghs.dadeschools.net/african-american/reconstruct/tanner.htm. Reese, Jennifer. ‘‘Paul Williams.’’ Via: AAA Traveler’s Companion. http://www.viamagazine .com/top_stories/articles/architecture99.asp. Ukaegbu, Fada O. ‘‘The Kola Nut: As an Igbo Cultural and Social Symbol.’’ IgboNet. http://kaleidoscope.igbonet.com/culture/kolanutseries/jukaegbu/. Van Sertima, Ivan. 1976. They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in America. New York: Random House. Wynn, Linda. ‘‘William Edmondson.’’ Tennessee State University. http://www.tnstate .edu/library/digital/EDMONDS.HTM. Gwendolyn M. Rees

Afrocentric Movement The Afrocentric Movement refers to the academic focus on African history, culture, thought, and influence that was sparked by Molefi Kete Asante after he published Afrocentricity in 1988. This movement, which spanned the 1980s and 1990s, marked a definitive moment for African American popular culture, stimulating not only academic interest and discourse in race and diversity, but inspiring African-influenced dress and paraphernalia, literature, art, and renewed interest in modern cultural traditions like Kwanzaa and celebrations like Black History Month. The term ‘‘Afrocentric’’ came to embody all things concerning African or African American culture. For example, a number of Afrocentric bookstores and gift shops emerged in this period, specializing in books and items (such as black dolls, figurines, and other knickknacks) that were not sold in mainstream stores. The Afrocentric Movement was not the first of its kind. Interest in Africa and promotion of African American history, education, culture, and viewpoint emerged as early as the nineteenth century. Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in 1816 to provide a denomination wherein blacks would not suffer the degradations of segregated worship services. The AME Church, a prominent denomination in the black community, is well known for blending Afrocentrism with religious doctrine. Henry McNeal Turner, a bishop of the AME Church and one of the first black politicians elected during Reconstruction, advocated Afrocentricity and back-to-Africa

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trips in a time when prevailing views of Africa and its inhabitants were overwhelmingly negative. In the early twentieth century, W. E. B. Du Bois, a prominent black scholar, published numerous books and articles on black topics. Marcus Garvey initiated a spectacular movement following a doctrine that emphasized black history, black economic power, and black beauty. In 1930, Wallace D. Fard Muhammad formed the Nation of Islam, creating a unique religion wherein Africans and African Americans played a figurative role. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s greatly influenced black artistic and literary expression in New York and inspired the N
egritude Movement in French-speaking countries and Negrismo in Spanish-speaking countries. Black Power and Black is Beautiful ideology framed much of the discourse, literature, films, hairstyles, and dress that were so popular in the 1960s and 1970s. It is during the Black Power Movement era that Black Studies programs emerged and spread nationwide in colleges and universities. With the publication of Afrocentricity in 1988, the Afrocentric Movement took off, yielding fresh new interest in black studies in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and predominately white institutions. HBCUs primarily led the way in Afrocentric education, providing texts by African and African American authors. Although predominately white higher education institutions incorporated some Afrocentric teaching in assorted courses, many black students had to supplement much of their education on their own. Independent black bookstores housed a number of books by Afrocentric authors, such as Asa Hillard and John Henrik Clarke. Afrocentricists promote a distinct ideology. They affirm and advocate for African and African American history and experience. In doing so, they challenge Eurocentric education and history. (Historically, American society has minimized and disregarded the narratives of Africans and African Americans.) The study of Egyptian history, the ancient kings, deities, and culture frequently play heavily in Afrocentricism. Afrocentricists tend to oppose assimilation into mainstream white culture and support efforts to sustain black culture and heritage. Many African American scholars, writers, directors, and others ascended to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, helping to bring Afrocentricism to the forefront of African American popular culture and, to a relative degree, mainstream white culture. Intellectuals, like Henry Louis Gates Jr. popularized African American history. Toni Morrison emerged as a Nobel Prize-winning, best-selling author of African American literature. Spike Lee directed hard-edged films about race and promoted Afrocentric clothing and accessories through his own notorious fashion and the styles of characters like Radio Raheem, who wore an African emblem necklace in Do the Right Thing (1989). Through Sondra, a character in the popular 1980s television series, The Cosby Show, issues such as apartheid and exploitative diamond mining practices in Africa were brought forth. In southern cities, colleges, and universities, Afrocentric dress and hairstyles could be seen everywhere as children and adults took to wearing hairstyles (Dreadocks, braids, and naturals, often embellished with cowrie shells) and clothes that reaffirmed their African roots and traditions, such as African robes

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and T-shirts imprinted with the African continent. At some HBCUs, students wore kente cloths, a Ghanaian fabric, during graduating ceremonies. In predominately white institutions, students interested in the Afrocentric Movement were sometimes deemed radical, even though multiculturalism was widely embraced on many campuses during that era. The Afrocentric Movement is not without its opponents. Some blacks perceived Africa as an insignificant and backward continent. Others contended that assimilation was the answer to African American advancement in American society. Many white critics argued that Afrocentricity is exclusionary and based on erroneous ideas. Many Afrocentricists contend that critics who diminish the movement perpetrate long-held racist ideas that white culture is superior to African culture and deny the richness, progressiveness, and value of African society. In the new millennium, Afrocentricity is not as prominent as it once was in mainstream media. African American artists, writers, musicians, and directors do not appear with the same frequency as they did in the previous decades. However, for many African Americans, the movement is not simply a trend that may have come and gone, but a way of life that blends a sense of identity and a unique lifestyle that sets African Americans apart from mainstream white culture.

Further Reading Asante, Molefi Kete. 1988. Afrocentricity. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Austin, Algernon. 2006. Achieving Blackness: Race, Black Nationalism, and Afrocentrism in the Twentieth Century. New York: New York University Press. Austin, Algernon. ‘‘Afrocentricity.’’ World Ages Archive.com. http://www.worldagesarchive .com/Reference_Links/Afrocentricity.htm. Livingston, Carmen. ‘‘Afrocentric Movement Rises, Focuses on Culture, Tradition.’’ Daily Collegian. http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1991/03/03-15-91tdc/03-15 -91dnews-04.asp. Schlesinger, Arthur M. 1992. The Disuniting of America. New York: Norton, 1992. Gladys L. Knight

Afro-Hispanic Blending Afro-Hispanic blending involves the fusion of African, African American, and Hispanic cultures. The blending is evident in religion, dance, music, Creole languages, folktales, and, in some cases, food, in regions where large populations of Africans or African Americans and Hispanics live together or in close proximity. These cultural fusions have greatly influenced African American popular culture, demonstrating how black life and culture is a fluid and dynamic force, constantly changing and adapting to its surroundings.

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South America, Central America, and the Caribbean The Atlantic slave trade, which lasted four centuries, beginning in the 1500s, brought millions of Africans to South America, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean. The forced transplantation of African slaves to these environments naturally caused a demographic and cultural transformation that melded the customs of the African slaves and their captors, indigenous inhabitants, and local residents. Brazil had one of the largest populations of slaves, numbering from 3.5 to 5 million. These slaves greatly impacted religious practices and beliefs. Candombl
e is one of several religions in Brazil that is strongly influenced by African rituals, drumming, and dancing. Vodou (Voodoo), a religion commonly practiced in parts of the Caribbean, and Santer
ıa, which is considered an Afro-Cuban belief system, share similar attributes of Hoodoo, a spiritual practice originating in the American South. Vodou, Santer
ıa, and Hoodoo have their roots in West African religions featuring deities, roots, and charms. The belief in multiple deities, or gods, originates in West African belief systems and is common in many Latin American countries. In Cuba, where a large population of slaves from Yoruba was imported, deities meld the personalities of Yoruba gods and Roman Catholic saints. Much of the music, song, and dance in Latin America also has roots in West African traditions. Among the many Afro-Hispanic dances in Latin America are the rumba and el Juego de Man
ı. Both dances have Afro-Cuban origins. El Juego de Man
ı is a martial arts dance form where a solo dancer performs in the center of a circle of individuals. The dancer, generally male, moves aggressively, kicking, flipping, stomping, and frequently wielding weapons in time with the rhythm of the drum, while dodging opponents who try to strike at him. African Folklore traditions remain strong in many Latin American countries. In Ecuador, where the population is predominately African, and in Honduras, proverbs, riddles, and oral storytelling continue to be practiced. African-derived folk heroes, such as Anancy, an African spider trickster, and Brer Rabbit, are popular in these countries. Other Afro-Hispanic blends are evident in some of the dress styles and food customs. The traditional dress of a black woman who lives in Bahia, a state in Brazil, incorporates West African, European, and Spanish styles. An example of AfroBrazilian dress ‘‘include sandals or low-heeled shoes; pano-da-costa (a shawllike embroidered cotton cloth of the West African coast); a silk skirt with laced petticoats; a large embroidered headdress; bare arms and back; ornaments such as bracelets, bangles, and gold trinkets; a waist pendant; beaded necklaces; a white starched cotton or silk ruffled blouse; earrings of turquoise, coral, silver, or gold; and a balangand~a on the waist.’’ Plantains, a fruit that resembles a banana, is a staple in Africa and one of the most popular foods in some Latin American countries. North America The African Diaspora changed the face of Latin America, as well as the United States, a country that imported millions of African slaves during the

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Atlantic slave trade. A distinct African American culture emerged during slavery. Among the earliest examples of Afro-Hispanic hybridization in the United States was in jazz. Popular African American musicians, such as Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton, utilized Latin American rhythms, which already had origins in African music. Intercultural sharing and mixing continued into the era of the Harlem Renaissance that spanned the 1920s and into 1930s. The Harlem Renaissance, a monumental artistic and literary movement of the 1920s, impacted other parts of the world, spawning N
egritude among African descendents in French-speaking countries and Negrismo in the Spanish Caribbean. Musicians of the time also fused Latin rhythms with jazz. With the influx of immigrants from Latin American countries and the Caribbean settling into or near predominately urban black neighborhoods, cultural mixing was sure to follow. Afro-Hispanic blending was evident in the disco rhythms of the 1970s, Hip-Hop culture, notably the dance style known as Break Dancing that emerged in the 1980s, and the music form known as reggaeton that originated in Puerto Rico in the 1990s. Puerto Rico Puerto Rico, an island located in the Caribbean, is a commonwealth that belongs to the United States. The population in Puerto Rico is mostly of Spanish origin. A considerable percentage of the population has African ancestry. Like other Latin American countries, Puerto Rico imported African slaves, resulting in their diverse population, which includes individuals with a varied degree of African features, dark skin, and black hair. (The majority of the population declare themselves as white.) Black hair care products, such as perms and hair grease, are commonly found in Puerto Rico. Although most Puerto Ricans are Roman Catholic, Santer
ıa and other African-based religions are practiced. Music plays a large role in Puerto Rican culture. Traditional Puerto Rican music amalgamates African, Amerindian, and Spanish music. Puerto Rican youth created a contemporary music genre called reggaeton in the 1990s. Reggaeton fuses West Indian reggae music and traditional Latin American forms, such as salsa, Latin pop, and merengue. Reggaeton is currently popular in the United States, as well, and often features rap. Further Reading Andrews, George Reid. 2004. Afro-Latin America, 1800–2000. New York: Oxford University Press. Moehn, Frederick J. 2006. ‘‘Brazil.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Pinn, Anthony B., and Benjam
ın Valent
ın, eds. 2009. Creating Ourselves: African Americans and Hispanic Americans on Popular Culture and Religious Expression. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Gladys L. Knight

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Aiken, Loretta Mary

Aiken, Loretta Mary. See Mabley, Moms

Ailey, Alvin (1931–89), Dancer, Choreographer, Educator Alvin Ailey Jr., a gifted African American, made an indelible mark in the world of dance and theater. Ailey was born January 5, 1931, in Rogers, Texas, to Lula Elizabeth Cooper and Alvin Ailey. His father left the family before Ailey’s first birthday. In 1942, Ailey and his mother moved to Los Angeles, where he attended George Washington Carver Junior High School and Jefferson High School. During high school, his career in dancing began when Ailey met Lester Horton, the founder of the first multiracial dance company in the United States. Through Horton, Ailey developed his talent as a dancer and choreographer and later became owner of Horton’s dance company in 1953 after Horton died. Ailey’s exposure to the performing arts expanded when he moved to New York. In 1954, joining high school friend, Carmen DeLavallade, on Broadway the duo performed in House of Flowers and in 1955 appeared in the film, Carmen Jones. Ailey also appeared in Broadway productions The Carefree Tree, 1955; Harry Belafonte’s Sing, Man, Sing; and Jamaica, by Lena Horne in 1957. He was also cast in the films: Call Me by My Rightful Name, Two by Saroyan, and Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright. Ailey’s talent and artistic vision continued in 1958, when he formed his dance company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in Brooklyn, New York. He collaborated with Pearl Lang in 1970, changing the school’s name to the American Dance Center, located in Manhattan. Ailey’s company performed worldwide, featuring a multicultural group that fused various dance techniques that were used to create modern dance classics for ballets and selected contemporary choreographers. Ailey choreographed approximately fifty dances for his company and other dances for the American Ballet Theater, the London Festival Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, and the Royal Danish Ballet. Ailey had several popular pieces, including, Blue Suites, produced in 1958, and Revelations, his signature piece, in 1960. His creative expression blossomed after working with dancers such as Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey, Hanya Holm, and Karel Shook. Known for his unique technique of incorporating his African American experience in his choreography, his best pieces are said to be drawn from his personal experiences. Cry, a solo performed in 1971, is one of his more significant works, depicting his sentiments for his mother’s sacrifices and as a tribute to African American women, especially mothers. The famous Revelations heavily incorporates African American experiences. Ailey’s dedication to dancing provided a stimulating experience for both audience and students. His vision realized through his school provides the opportunity for anyone to dance. Ailey’s dream came to fruition when his dance theater expanded beyond theater performances. Known as the Ailey School since 1982,

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the institution trains national and international students and holds community outreach and multidisciplinary summer workshops for inner-city children. His impressive talent won Ailey several awards, including the Dance Magazine Award (1975), NAACP Spingarn Medal (1976), Capezio Award (1979), United Nations Peace Medal (1982), Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award (1987), Kennedy Center Honor and New York City’s Handel Medallion for achievement in the arts (1988), and honorary doctorates from Princeton University, Bard College, and Adelphi University. Ailey died December 1, 1989, leaving his mother, stepfather, and a halfbrother, Calvin Walls. Further Reading Ailey, Alvin, and A. Peter Bailey. 1995. Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group. Dunning, Jennifer. 1996. Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Encyclopedia of World Biography. http://www.notablebiographies.com/A-An/Ailey-Alvin .html. Renee Latchman

Ali, Laila (1977– ), Boxer, Television Host Pioneer women’s boxing champion Laila Ali, a super middleweight, changed the course of women’s sports when she decided to enter an unknown arena for African American women and become a boxer. Her beauty, grace, charm, and privileged upbringing seemed inconsistent with those who practiced their sport in the boxing ring, yet these attributes, coupled with her ability as a pugilist, added a new dimension to popular culture. Women’s boxing, a growing sport, began to receive nearly equal fanfare as male fighters but its history is not as long as that of men. For African Americans, boxing can be traced back to 1809, when Tom Molineaux launched his professional career in England, and during slavery in the United States, when the boxing sport was popular among slaves. Yet for women, history lacks female counterparts such as Molineaux, Jack Johnson, and Joe Louis. Women’s boxing was in its heyday at least in 1908, when the Hyatt Lake Tahoe was regarded as the unofficial national headquarters for that sport—the number one arena for women’s boxing. At the time, matchmaker Bill Dickson was called the ‘‘Father of Women’s Boxing.’’ For the sport and for African American women boxers, Laila Ali, who emerged later, has helped to write a new chapter in history. Born December 30, 1977 (some sources give her birth year as 1978), in Miami Beach, Florida, Laila Ali, also known as ‘‘Lay Lay,’’ is the daughter of boxing icon and former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, and the third of his four wives, Veronica Porsche Anderson. Laila grew up in Los Angeles, where she

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lived with her mother and sister. She studied at the University of Southern California and received a BA degree in business management from Santa Monica College. Later, she owned a balloon and Halloween mask shop in California. At first a shy, quiet child, Ali became defiant, restless, and rebellious by the time she was a teenager and in 1995 spent three months in juvenile hall for shoplifting. The next year she worked at a beauty salon in Marina Del Ray and became motivated by a televised women’s boxing match featuring champion Christy Martin. Confident that she could do as well, Ali began to train for the sport. Her rigorous training included two-mile runs and two-hour workouts in a gymnasium each day. Then she sought her father’s advice in summer 1996 when she moved her training to Berrien Springs, Michigan, where Muhammad Ali had an 81-acre spread. Laila Ali impressed many when she made her boxing debut on October 8, 1999, at the Turning Stone Casino Convention Center on the Oneida Indian Nation in Verona, New York. There she beat her opponent, April Fowler, in 31 seconds. She fought under the moniker ‘‘Madame Butterfly,’’ although some writers identified her as ‘‘Laila ‘She Bee Stingin’ Ali.’’ Both nicknames are reminiscent of her famous father’s phrase, ‘‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.’’ She was called ‘‘brash, brazen and almost as pretty as her pop,’’ who often commented on his own good looks. Laila admits that she takes her confidence as a boxer from her famous father. In November 1999, Ali transitioned into mainstream women’s boxing, winning her second bout on November 10, when she scored a technical knockout against Shadina Pennybaker at the Mountaineer Race Track in Chester, Virginia. Ali’s boxing debut led to her quick success as a fighter, as the 5 foot 10 inch powerhouse gained a 15–0 record that included her June 8, 2001 majority decision over Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, a Philadelphia lawyer and the daughter of African American boxer Joe Frazier. This was the first time that two African American women fought in a pay-per-view match. The contest between the talented boxers attracted widespread pre-fight publicity, raising and achieving high hopes and expectations due as much to their lineage as to their talents. The decision of any of Ali’s children to box was reason enough for media spotlight on the fight and a focus on women in boxing. Ali and Frazier-Lyde went on to become champions and members of the Women’s International Boxing Association. Ali was Super Middleweight Champion, Women’s International Boxing Association (2002) and held the same title in the International Women’s Boxing Federation (2002). In September 2002, the Woman’s Boxing Archive Network (WBAN) named Ali Fighter of the Month, and later Fighter of the Year (1992). Her career success as a boxer gave her a record 24–0, with 21 knockouts. Laila Ali demonstrated her versatility outside the boxing ring. She appeared on several television shows, including Dancing with the Stars in mid-2007, where she came in third place. When the revived show American Gladiator premiered in January 2008, she was the new female host and worked alongside Hulk Hogan. She joined the CBS team as contributing correspondent on The Early Show in January 2008. She is coauthor (with David Ritz) of Reach! Finding Strength, Spirit, and Personal Power (2002). Ali married Johnny ‘‘Yahya’’ McClain in 2000; he became her manager and

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helped to guide her career. After their divorce in 2005 and his separation as manager, in 2007 she married former NFL player Curtis Conway. In addition to three stepchildren with Conway, Laila has a son, Curtis Muhammad Conway Jr., born in 2008. Her boxing career began in 1999 and continued until she retired in 2007. Among women boxers, Ali matured into a strong, contentious opponent who ruled the ring. She commanded serious media attention whether or not she had a familiar family name or walked in the largest possible footprints. Further Reading Ali, Laila. www.lailaali.com/. Horn, John. 2001. ‘‘Laila Ali.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 27. Detroit: Gale Group. ‘‘Laila Ali Claims Her Seventh-Straight Win with First Round Knockout in California.’’ Jet 98(July 3, 2000): 52. ‘‘Laila Ali Victorious in Battle against Jacqui Frazier-Lyde.’’ 2001. Jet 100(June 25, 2001): 51–54. ‘‘Laila Ali Biography.’’ Women Boxing Archive Network. http://www.wban.org/bio/laili.htm. Smith, Jessie Carney. 2003. Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. 2nd ed. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Who’s Who among African Americans. 2010. 24th ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage Learning. Jessie Carney Smith

Ali, Muhammad (1942– ), Boxer, Humanitarian A humanitarian and popular boxer known the world over, three-time heavyweight Boxing champion Muhammad Ali often referred to himself as ‘‘The Greatest.’’ His exploits in and outside of the ring—in a career that spanned twenty years—make him one of the most written about and popular athletes in U.S. history and culture. As noted in African Americans and Popular Culture, his contributions to popular culture are demonstrated in the way he ‘‘revolutionized sports with his supreme boxing skills’’ and his ‘‘uncompromising views on race and politics.’’ He is greatly admired and often invited before crowds at public events. Beginning of the Legend Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky to Cassius Marcellus Sr. and Odessa Clay, the younger Clay would later change his name to Muhammad Ali after converting to the Nation of Islam’s brand of Islamic-Christian Black Nationalism. The Clays provided a middle-class upbringing for Ali and his younger brother Rudy, who also competed as a professional boxer. Ali’s introduction to boxing came at the age of twelve in 1954 when someone stole his new bicycle from outside a Louisville auditorium. Crying and angry, he reported the theft to policeman Joe Martin, who invited Ali to the Columbia

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gym to learn to box. As a young boy, Ali initially took up boxing to get revenge on the perpetrator who took his bicycle. In his early years of boxing he was trained by Martin and his friend Fred Stover, both of whom recognized the youngster’s naturally quick feet, fast reflexes, and discipline as assets for his future boxing success. Ali spent most of his time talking about boxing history, training at the gym after school, and running several miles a day before school. As an amateur he amassed an incredible 100 win, 6 loss record, six Commonwealth of Kentucky Golden Glove titles, two AAU titles and two national Golden Muhammad Ali standing over a fallen Sonny Liston in a Glove titles. boxing ring, 1965. (Library of Congress) In 1960 at the age of eighteen, as a member of the U.S. boxing team, he won a gold medal as a light heavyweight at the Rome Olympics. Following the Olympics, Ali turned professional and beat his first nineteen opponents over a three-year span. Always a gregarious talker— even as a small boy, according to his mother, Odessa Clay—it was during his Olympic experience that his future theatrical, bombastic, and outspoken persona would take shape. Ali learned from the wrestler Gorgeous George that theatrics and bragging was a good strategy to bring fans out to his fights. Gorgeous George was said to taunt his opponents and loudly declare he was ‘‘the greatest.’’ A Conscientious Boxer In his first several years as a professional, Ali went through several trainers. By the time he fought reigning heavyweight champion Charles ‘‘Sonny’’ Liston, his trainer was Angelo Dundee. Dundee would remain his trainer for the balance

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of his career. Ali’s fluid style and quickness were too much for the lumbering Liston, and on February 25, 1964 at the age of twenty-two, Ali became the heavyweight champion of the world. The rematch with Liston in June 1965 saw Ali win with a first-round knockout that caused critics and aficionados to wonder whether the mafia-managed Liston ‘‘took a dive.’’ On August 14, 1964, Ali married his first wife, Sonji Roi. The couple divorced several years later. By 1964, cognizant more than ever of the racial disparities and segregation in the United States, Ali joined the pro-black, quasi-religious Nation of Islam (NOI). Ali had come under the tutelage of Nation of Islam minister Malcolm X before his first fight with Liston. After joining the NOI, the boxer had his name changed from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali by the Nation’s aged founder, Elijah Muhammad. Ali’s conversion and decision to defy a military draft board by not enlisting in the U.S. Army to fight in Vietnam caused significant anti-Ali sentiment. Ali applied for conscientious objector status in 1967. After the Selective Service Board denied his appeal, the World Boxing Association took away his championship title and boxing license. He was also sentenced to five years in prison by a federal court in Houston, Texas. For the next three years, from 1967 to 1970, Ali was out of boxing while his lawyers fought to appeal the earlier rulings. During this period Ali traveled the country giving lectures at colleges and to those in the peace movement. Returning to the Ring and Retiring Ali returned to boxing in 1970. After the long layoff his skills were rusty, but he still managed to knock out journeyman boxer Jerry Quarry in three rounds in October of that year. Some boxing observers have commented that Ali never regained his former quickness and reflexes. Shortly after his fight with Quarry, he had the first of three monumental matches with Joe Frazier. Ali won two of these matches. He had other memorable fights with boxers Ken Norton, George Foreman, and Leon Spinks. Ali had always said he would leave the sport on top and not in the poor condition of many former fighters. By the time he retired from boxing in 1981 at the age of thirty-nine, Ali was beginning to show advanced signs of neurological dysfunction. He had been hit too many times and stayed too long in boxing. In 1982 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease that has robbed him of certain motor and sensory skills. Although slowed by the illness, he travels extensively as an ambassador of goodwill and Islam. In 1996 he carried the Olympic torch in Atlanta, Georgia, on its last leg. Ali has nine children; one of his daughters, Laila Ali, boxed professionally and retired undefeated. He currently resides on a farm in Michigan with his fourth wife Lonnie and adopted son Asaad. Further Reading Boyd, Todd, ed. 2008. African Americans and Popular Culture. Vol. 2. Westport, CT: Praeger. Hauser, Thomas. 1992. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. New York: Simon & Schuster.

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Remnick, David. 1999. King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. New York: Vintage Books. Whitaker, Matthew C., ed. 2008. African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Carter B. Cue

Anderson, Marian (1897–1993), Singer Marian Anderson was considered one of the great contraltos of the twentieth century. The Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini said, ‘‘a voice like hers is heard but once in a hundred years.’’ As the first African American to sing on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Anderson was celebrated internationally and became a permanent symbol of excellence and achievement in popular culture. Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 27, 1897. The eldest of three daughters born to John Berkley Anderson and Anna Delilah Rucker, Marian’s talent was nurtured in her church choir and in the public schools of Philadelphia. It was evident that her voice was worthy of serious musical training, but her family could not afford private study. With a voice that was unusually beautiful in richness and vibrancy, she continued to perform whenever possible and she seized any opportunity to learn from whatever sources were available. The Union Baptist Church, where she was a member, made it possible for young Anderson to study privately. After being denied admission to the Philadelphia Music Academy because of her race, she was introduced to the Marian Anderson was amazingly popular despite racial discrimination in the United States. Her performance at voice teacher Giuseppe the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 remains a symbolic event Boghetti, who agreed to in the Civil Rights Movement. (Library of Congress) teach her privately.

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By the early 1920s, Anderson and her accompanist Billy King toured throughout the United States in mostly self-managed concerts. These performance dates helped her hone her artistry and provided her with financial resources with which to assist her family. In 1925, Anderson won a major competition, which resulted in her New York Philharmonic Orchestra debut. After this successful performance, she moved to Europe for further study and for artistic validation. She studied German lieder with Raimund von Zur M€uhlen in London. In 1930, she was awarded a Rosenwald Fund fellowship to study formally in Germany. Although her lieder singing dramatically improved (this was an area in which she had been criticized), the German public was more fascinated with her interpretation of African American Spirituals. Anderson successfully toured Europe for the next two years. She partnered with Finnish pianist, Kosti Vehanen, who became her regular accompanist for the next ten years. After a well-received concert in Paris, impresario Sol Hurok offered to manage Anderson and presented her in concert in the most prestigious venues throughout the United States. Her New York Town Hall recital in 1935 was reviewed favorably although she performed with a broken ankle. Over the next several years, Anderson sang as many as seventy concerts in a five-month period. By the later half of the 1930s, Anderson was a celebrated artist in Europe and in the United States, but she continued to face racial prejudice that still prevailed in her country. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) denied her use of Constitution Hall for a concert. In response, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR and arranged to have Anderson perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The concert was held on Easter Sunday morning April 9, 1939, and more than seventy-five thousand people attended. Millions more heard the recital live on radio broadcasts. This not only catapulted Marian Anderson into major stardom but made her a civil rights icon among African Americans. In 1955, Anderson made operatic history when she debuted as Ulrica in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, making her the first African American to sing at the company in a major role. Although she was past her vocal prime, the occasion was still hailed as a major achievement. Anderson continued to add to her accomplishments and honors. She sang at Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second presidential inauguration. Under the Eisenhower administration, she was sent by the State Department on a tour of India and the far east. She was also appointed as an alternate delegate to the Thirteenth General Assembly of the United Nations. Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. Marian Anderson gave her last public performance at Carnegie Hall on Easter Sunday in 1965. Her other awards include the United Nations Peace Prize in 1977, Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award of the city of New York in 1984. Marian Anderson died of congestive heart failure on April 8, 1993. She was 96 years old.

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Further Reading Anderson, Marian. 1956. My Lord, What a Morning. New York: Viking. Keiler, Alan. 2000. Marian Anderson, A Singer’s Journey. New York: Scribner. Story, Rosalyn. 1990. And So I Sing. New York: Warner Books. Robert Sims

Angelou, Maya (1928– ), Poet, Writer Maya Angelou was catapulted to fame through the publication of her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). She is also well known for her poetry. Born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Angelou’s early life was fraught with adversity. Her parents, Bailey Johnson, a doorman and naval dietician, and Vivian Johnson, a trained nurse and real estate agent, divorced when Angelou was three years old. She and her brother, Bailey (who coined the name Maya), were sent to live in Stamps, Arkansas, with their father’s mother, a religious and industrious woman named Annie Henderson who owned a store in a rural, segregated black community. In 1935, Angelou and her brother moved to San Francisco, California, to live with their mother and her boyfriend, ‘‘Mr. Freeman.’’ Tragedy ensued when Freeman raped sevenyear-old Angelou. After Freeman was sentenced for his crime, he was murdered. Angelou believed her spoken testimony at his trial caused his death; thus, she refused to talk to anyone Maya Angelou in an early photo, is one of the premier but Bailey for five years. U.S. poets of the twentieth century. (National Archives) After this double ordeal,

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Angelou and Bailey moved back to Arkansas, where a woman named Bertha Flowers coaxed Angelou back to talking with poetry and literary classics. Angelou and Bailey moved to California in 1940 to live with their mother and her new husband. Angelou was one of three blacks enrolled at George Washington High School. One summer, Angelou visited her biological father. Shortly thereafter, a physical altercation occurred between Angelou and her biological father’s girlfriend. In the aftermath, Angelou ran away and lived with several homeless teenagers. She returned to her mother at the end of the summer. In 1945, Angelou graduated from high school and gave birth to her only son, Clyde Bailey. In the ensuing years, she married three times. Her last name is a modification of Angelos, the surname of her first husband, a Greek soldier. Her third marriage ended in 1981. Angelou’s path to fame was circuitous. In the 1940s, she made a living as a busgirl, a cook, a cocktail waitress, and, for a brief time, engaged in prostitution. In the 1950s, she sang and danced professionally, including in the famous opera, Porgy and Bess. While living in Africa in the 1960s, Angelou wrote for the Ghanaian Times and the African Review. Upon her return to New York, she embarked on a literary career and participated in the Civil Rights Movement. Her six autobiographies explore both the harrowing trials and profound triumphs in her life, thus helping to bring the experiences of the racially oppressed in general, and African American women writers in particular, to the forefront of African American culture. Poems such as ‘‘Still I Rise’’ and ‘‘Phenomenal Woman’’ are celebrated for their soulful language and inspirational themes and reflect a woman who has transcended the trials and tribulations of her youth. Angelou is known for her distinctive voice and rhythmic diction, which make her live poetry readings phenomenally popular events. Angelou’s other accomplishments are numerous. She starred in the TV miniseries Roots (1977), cowrote the 1979 television version of her first autobiographical novel, and, in 1981, began teaching at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Angelou has augmented her popularity with contemporary audiences by appearing at Bill Clinton’s 1993 presidential inauguration, the Million Man March in 1995, and through her personal and professional association with television mogul Oprah Winfrey. She has also received numerous distinguished awards and honors. In 1972, Angelou was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie. Angelou was also a recipient of the Langston Hughes Medal in 1991, the Spingarn Medal in 1994, and a NAACP Image Award in 1997. Her other awards include three Grammys for her spoken word albums, the National Medal of Arts in 2000, and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. She has received thirty honorary degrees. Further Reading Angelou, Maya. 1969. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House. Angelou, Maya. 2008. Letter to My Daughter. New York: Random House.

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Angelou, Maya. 1978. Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women. New York: Random House. Angelou, Maya. 1978. Still I Rise. New York: Random House. Collins, Grace. ‘‘Maya Angelou.’’ 1991. In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Lisandrelli, Elaine Slivinski. 1996. Maya Angelou: More Than a Poet. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers. Gladys L. Knight

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater, located in Harlem, has helped launch the careers of legendary performers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Mariah Carey, and Lauryn Hill. The theater was one of the first in the United States to feature African American artists and be open to African American and other minority audiences. The classical revival building that houses the Apollo Theater was built in 1913 and designed by architect George Keister. Located at 253 West 125th Street in Harlem, the theater was operated as a burlesque and then movie theater until it was purchased by Frank Schiffman and Leo Brecher in the early 1930s. On January 26, 1934, the theater was reopened under the name 125th Street Apollo. Harlem of the 1920s and 1930s was a mecca for African American life and culture. New residents, who came from the American South as well as the Caribbean, brought new energy and influences. The Harlem Renaissance saw the flourishing of African American literature, drama, music, visual art, and dance. For many artists in Harlem, the Apollo Theater was the first outlet for their work. The famous Apollo Theater Amateur Night contest started in 1934 The Apollo Theater, located in Harlem, New York City. and was hosted by Ralph (Getty Images) Cooper. Among those

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who won the contest and went on to great careers were Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, the Jackson Five, and Luther Vandross. Besides launching careers, the contest is known for the Tree of Hope, an old tree stump performers rub for good luck; a very vocal audience that is unafraid to share its opinion, good or bad, of a performer; and the ‘‘executioner’’—the man who removes performers audiences disapprove of by sweeping them off the stage with a broom. Audiences at the Apollo Theater began to decline in the 1950s and 1960s as jazz, swing, and big band music lost popularity and Rock and Roll began to dominate the charts. The Apollo Theater did host rock-and-roll shows, most notably the James Brown concert in 1962, but continued to lose business. The growth of television also contributed to the theater’s decline. In 1975, the theater was converted to a movie theater. In 1981, former Manhattan borough president Percy E. Sutton and a group of investors bought the theater at a bankruptcy sale. The theater received state and city landmark designation and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Reopened in 1985, the theater once again hosts a variety of musical events and Amateur Night, which is part of the nationally syndicated program Showtime at the Apollo. The State of New York purchased the theater in 1991 and it is now managed by the nonprofit Apollo Theater Foundation. Multimillion dollar restoration and refurbishment work is ongoing to preserve and enhance the physical and cultural presence of the Apollo Theater. Further Reading Cooper, Ralph and Steve Dougherty. 1990. Amateur Night at the Apollo: Ralph Cooper Presents Five Decades of Great Entertainment. New York: HarperCollins. Fox, Ted. 1983. Showtime at the Apollo. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Schiffman, Jack. 1984. Harlem Heyday: A Pictorial History of Modern Black Show Business and the Apollo Theatre. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books. Mary K. Huelsbeck

Appropriations of Black Folklore In this practice, the dominant white society lifts elements of black Folklore out of their cultural contexts and uses them for profit, to enhance social status, or for a variety of other reasons. It is sometimes referred to as ‘‘cultural poaching’’ or ‘‘theft.’’ At best, appropriation does not benefit African American culture; at worst, it mocks, degrades, or economically exploits it. The processes of cultural borrowing and cross-fertilization are inherent aspects of folklore. The nature of folklore is to spread across geographical, national, ethnic, or other socially constructed boundaries. A proverb, tale, dance, or musical

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form may originate in a particular locale (or might arise independently in differing locales) and spread or diffuse to other regions and groups of people. Some methodologies are devoted to tracing the diffusion of a given item of folklore and speculating on its origin and path of diffusion (the historic-geographic method, for example). Until now, though, no methodology or theory has been concerned with the political and economic power dynamics between groups of people whose relationship involves borrowing folklore. In the United States and other parts of the African diaspora, cultural borrowing and the diffusion of folklore between peoples of African and European descent have played a critical role in the development of national, cultural, and ethnic identity. At the grassroots level, foods, beliefs, musical and dance traditions, proverbs, tale motifs, performance styles, and so on have been exchanged among Americans from many different heritages, including European and African. The banjo was borrowed from Africans by Europeans, and in turn, African Americans borrowed Scottish and Irish American tunes. Such cultural exchanges constitute the very fabric of many Western nations. They also represent some of the possibilities inherent in day-to-day interactions between people of relatively the same class. A number of elements distinguish such cultural borrowings from the phenomenon of appropriation. First, appropriation involves business and is largely driven by the impulse to make a financial profit. Elements of the subordinate culture are lifted out of the culture and used as a commodity. In the United States, the most obvious examples are music and dance, which include style and fashion. By way of illustration, Elvis Presley was reported to have frequented African American juke joints and clubs in order to fashion a persona, style, and song repertoire based on performance aesthetics and song materials of the artists he saw perform in little-known clubs and other venues. Presley went on to make millions, whereas the people upon whom he based his persona remained just as poor as always; in fact, they became poorer. For the subordinate or colonized are, in fact, poorer upon each occasion that traditions that have sustained them become trivialized, made into spectacle, or otherwise reshaped in the larger context of the dominant popular culture. Although appropriation seems to be always linked to profit motive, it serves other important needs for many in the dominant culture. Among others, bell hooks has suggested that appropriating elements of black culture fills a psychological void for members of mainstream white society, easing their modern and postmodernist angst and identity crises. She theorizes that, ‘‘Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture.’’ According to hooks, this impulse on the part of white society rests on the colonial perspective of dark-skinned people as primitive, and thus, having greater access to bodily pleasure. It is along these lines that one can view the commonplace appropriation of black folklore by white American youth culture. In some cases, such appropriation has served ideological ends that strive for freedom from the confines of mainstream American social values and lifestyles—as in the case of Deadheads wearing Dreadlocks, for example. In other cases, more materialistic values are expressed—as in the overwhelming adoption of gangster rap (Gangsta Rap) or HipHop styles by white youth culture. In all cases, however, business interests find a way of profiting from and, hence, promoting such trends.

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As more and more black artists become successful, the phenomenon becomes more complex. It is especially complicated by the eagerness with which artists seem to embrace opportunities to market themselves, their art, and elements of their culture. Despite the protest against self-commodification by such writers and thinkers as Mwalimu Haki R. Madhubuti and Amiri Baraka, the phenomenon is so widespread by now that it is sometimes difficult to separate elements of black culture and folklore from popular culture. Underlying the contemporary, surface reality, however, are the same basic power relationships that have historically existed between African Americans and mainstream white America. The embrace of commodity culture and materialism by African Americans usually reflects a simple desire to better one’s self in the most basic ways. Appropriation becomes apparent when one compares the profits gained by the individual artists and those garnered by the businesses that promote them. Some of the most damaging effects of appropriation include the distortion of cultural meanings, the reinforcement of commonly held racist notions about African Americans, and the reinforcement of the dominant/subordinate power relations between those of African and those of European descent. If the increasing prominence of the media as the major source of information and formation of ideas about history and culture is problematic for the arts of the dominant culture, it is devastating for minority groups such as African Americans. In the former case, the efforts of educational institutions are undermined by the quick and easy, usually superficial, and in many cases distorted information provided by the media. In the latter case, however, mainstream media are often the only source of information about African American culture. Thus, such televised and cinematic images as savage Vodou (Voodoo) rites, drug-smuggling Rastas, gun-toting rappers, decadent Mardi Gras revelers, buffoonish women-chasing preachers, and Santer
ıa child abductors, combined with existing stereotypes, unfortunately often comprise the entire sum of knowledge about these areas of African American culture and folklore to which many Americans are privy. See also: Appropriations of Black Folklore Further Reading hooks, bell. 1992. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press. Madhubuti, Mwalimu Haki R. 1973. Book of Life. Detroit: Broadside Press. Anand Prahlad

Architecture Mainstream or dominant notions of architecture as high art often remove it from its social context and situate it around great buildings, prestigious schools, and master architects. To write of an African American architecture then is both to redefine conventional theories and histories of architecture and to offer counterhistories that take African American architects, buildings, vernacular

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forms, and spatial environments seriously. African American architecture can be understood as concerned with both African American architects and the forms and spatialities designed, built, or occupied by African Americans. African American Barbershops, churches, schools, Beauty Shops, and other community structures would then be considered legitimate objects of study. Otherwise, a discussion of African American architecture could simply be a reductive examination of structures and spatial environments built and constructed by African American professional and nonprofessional architects and/or builders. While such an approach would be fruitful in its own right, it would also participate in a continuing erasure of blackness from architectural form and Africans and African Americans from architectural theory and history. This trend tends to implicitly diminish or exclude African American men, women, designs, vernacular, and folk forms, as architecture tends to be raced white and gendered male. The exclusion of African Americans from architectural history, theory, and practice can be traced back to the exclusion of blackness from architecture, as architectural theorist Darell W. Fields illustrates in his informative book, Architecture in Black. This erasure reflects a purposeful exclusion of the insights of the Greek historian Herodotus about Africa and its contribution to architectural theory and history. Herodotus’s recognition of the exchange of African and Greek culture was revised by the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel with his Enlightenment Era displacement of the Egyptian pyramids from the African to the Asiatic style and his erasure of Africans and African Americans from architectural history and theory, by extension, in his influential book, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History. Significantly, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History informed Hegel’s Aesthetics: Lectures on the Fine Arts. Both texts continue to have influence in contemporary architectural schools and commonplace conceptions of architecture. Africa was a symbol of a land and a people outside of history. Of course, such a continent was viewed as incapable of knowledge, theory, technology, and architecture, so Hegel defined Africa away from architecture. Hegel’s erasure is extended in the American context to the contributions of enslaved and free African American artisans in the construction of plantation mansions and churches. Slave Narratives speak to the African American contribution to the construction of buildings in both the North and the South. According to Bradford C. Grant in ‘‘Accommodation and Resistance: The Built Environment in the African American Experience,’’ free and enslaved African Americans were invaluable to the white architects in terms of the design and structure of significant projects such as the city of Washington, DC, the U.S. Capitol, and the White House. Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is a magnificent structure and landscape where the enslaved functioned as more than labor; slave designers and builders were instrumental in its construction. Monticello symbolizes the material extension of Hegel’s erasure of African architectural theory and practice to the United States. Grant provocatively illustrates how Monticello was constructed in a manner that hid or camouflaged the enslaved and their labor. African American architectural theories, forms, practices, and practitioners have been masked in a similar fashion for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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Recently, architectural writers and critics such as Melvin Mitchell, Carl Anthony, Dolores Hayden, Dell Upton, Karen Hudson, Richard K. Dozier, John Michael Vlach, bell hooks, Cornel West, and J. Yolande Daniels situate African American architecture in history, forms, and community. Mitchell’s germinal The Crisis of the African America: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black) Power provides a useful introduction and exploration of African American architectural history and theory from the late 1800s to contemporary African American architecture. Mitchell correctly situates Booker T. Washington as the primary force in the development of African American architects and an African American architecture. Washington’s power as an arbiter of black America to white patronage allowed him to be the most significant sponsor of African American architecture and architects in what is arguably the most fertile period of African American architecture (1891– 1921) since, ironically, the enslavement. Washington willed into being Tuskegee Institute and provided a space where black workers, designers, and builders could practice. Here they could make their own materials (such as bricks) and construct buildings around the needs of segments of the African American communities. Washington hired the first black graduate of an architectural school, Robert R. Taylor, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1892. Taylor would go on to be the father of African American architecture, constructing several structures and educating a number of prominent African American architects. Given the prevalence of spatial segregation, African American architects had to depend on black clients such as historically black schools and churches. Tuskegee could be thought of as architecturally African American because Washington constructed his school to meet African American needs and desires, and as spatially African American through the use of African American designs, materials, and bodies. African American architecture was not relegated to African American clients. For example, Paul R. Williams built numerous structures in the Southern California area such as the Beverly Hills and Ambassador hotels, and Harvey Gantt constructed several public and private buildings in North Carolina. While African American architectural history and African American architects are important to African American or black architecture, it is black architecture manifested through form and spatiality (the ideology and politics of space) that is most relevant to African American folk and vernacular culture. From hidden hush harbors and slave cabins to slave neighborhoods and black ghettos and suburbs, African American experience has been shaped in the race house of the United States. Yet, as with African American music and rhetoric and their impact on American expressive culture, African and African American forms influence American architecture. Bradford C. Grant writes about how theorist Carl Anthony states that ‘‘architectural characteristics such as steep hip roofs, wide overhanging roofs, central fireplaces, porches, and earth and moss construction suggest the influence of the African slave.’’ Black towns with stores, homes, and churches have been built in various parts of the United States. However, there is one African American structure that was once ubiquitous throughout the southern United States: the shotgun house. Typically consisting of three or four individual structures set side by side, the shotgun house was an elongated, narrow, ornamentally unadorned single-story structure with a forward-slanting gable roof, porch, and a single door in the front and back. It

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was thought the structure was referred to as a shotgun house because one could discharge a gun through the front of the structure and a bullet would exit unimpeded through the back. (Of course, this wouldn’t work with a shotgun, as the pellets would spread out and some would hit the interior walls.) More likely, the term emerged from the western African term ‘‘to-gun,’’ meaning a place of assembly. John Michael Vlach provides a useful cartography of the structure in ‘‘The Shotgun House: An African Architectural Legacy,’’ where he maps the form’s use in the sugar plantations of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Vlach believes the Haitian shotgun house can be traced back to the 1700s. In addition, he discovered the unique form of the shotgun house in West Africa. Hundreds of shotgun houses existed throughout the southern United States. John Biggers’s folk- and vernacular-influenced paintings such as Shotgun, Third Ward #1 gave the shotgun house iconic status and conveyed the connection of the form to Africa and African American notions of community. Remnants and variations of the shotgun house still exist, providing tangible evidence of how African American structural vernacular forms, like their musical and rhetorical counterparts, travel across material and cultural boundaries. Like the shotgun house, the porch is a form that is important to African American architecture and aesthetics. While the origin of the porch has been attributed to a number of locales, recent scholarship indicates that the antecedents of the porch originated in West Africa and then spread throughout the Caribbean and the southern United States. Architectural theorists such as Beatrice Columbia refer to the ideological contents of spatial form that reveal that unoccupied built space is not empty but instead produces a subjectivity that presupposes particular subjects, inhabitants, and values. This links the porch to African American aesthetic because, as bell hooks writes in Yearning, ‘‘Aesthetics is more than a philosophy and theory of art and beauty; it is a way of inhabiting space, a particular location, a way of looking and becoming.’’ The porch embodies an African and African American response to geography, temperature, and community. The porch reflects a valuing of communal interaction; the transmission of communal knowledge, ritual, and information through extrafamilial contact; and a different conception of the separation of private and public spheres. According to scholars interested in West African and African American cultures, porches are quasipublic spheres of communal activity outside of homes where cooking, cleaning, playing, and talking occur and are highly valued. Porch tropes permeate African American folk- and vernacular-influenced literature, song, and rhetoric. Porches serve as secular hush harbors, spaces beyond the oppressive gaze of white privilege where African Americans can speak their minds and practice some of the pleasures they usually keep to themselves. As a folk and vernacular architectural form, porches, and the way black folks occupy them, reveal the power, racial, and gender relations often overlooked in more rarefied notions of architecture as high art. Along with the slave cabin, shack, and shotgun house, the jook, or juke joint, is a black folk and vernacular form outside the official narrative that challenges what is considered architecture as well as who defines it and what purpose it serves. Jook joints in rural areas were often made of found materials and ornamented with African American signage, artifacts, posters, and information. Like

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African American beauty shops and Churches, jook joints link black architecture to black spaces, culture, needs, and desires. Jook joints were significant elements of the heavily folk-influenced black Chitlin Circuit that remains central to any notion of black culture. A study of black architecture and the chitlin circuit would make a significant contribution to the study of African American folk culture. Black architecture is about more than bodies and theories. African American vernacular architecture reflects and produces black landscapes, the African and African American construction that Rhys Isaac referred to as ‘‘an alternative territorial system.’’ These alternative territorial systems represent and produce alternative ways of being and building that reflect African American visions, knowledge, and social desires. This is why a focus on black architectural form may be more important than a singular focus on black bodies. A focus on bodies can reduce the notion of a black architecture to little more than a discussion about inclusion. If ‘‘existence is framed in space,’’ as J. Yolande Daniels argues in ‘‘Black Bodies, Black Space: A-Waiting Spectacle,’’ then to understand black existence means that one must take seriously the black architecture that frames it. Black existence then is inextricable from black architecture. Further Reading Daniels, J. Yolande. 2000. ‘‘Black Bodies, Black Space: A-Waiting Spectacle.’’ In White Papers, Black Marks: Architecture, Race, and Culture. Lesley Naa Norle Lokko, ed., 194–217. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Fields, Darrell W. 2000. Architecture in Black. London: Athlone Press. Grant, Branford C. 1996. ‘‘Accommodation and Resistance: The Built Environment and the African American Experience.’’ In Re-Constructing Architecture: Critical Discourses and Social Practices. Thomas A. Dutton and Lian Hurst Mann, eds., 202–34. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. hooks, bell. 1990. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston: South End Press. Mitchell, Melvin L. 2001. The Crisis of the African-American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black) Power. New York: Writers Club Press. Vlach, John Michael. 1986 ‘‘The Shotgun House: An African Architectural Legacy.’’ In Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture, 58–78. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Vorris Nunley

Armstrong, Louis ‘‘Satchmo’’ (1901–71), American Music Innovator, Jazz Trumpeter, Vocalist When trumpeter Wynton Marsalis arrived on the New York jazz scene in the 1980s, it was generally assumed by jazz purists, scholars, and others that he would be crowned the ‘‘heir apparent’’ to not only the long and storied legacy of New Orleans jazz but also that of the great trumpeter Louis Armstrong. There were others whom Marsalis had to move aside to assume his mantle during his early years, including

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Miles Davis who, like trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and others, took great umbrage with Armstrong’s social behavior: his grinning and smiling and what was generally considered ‘‘Uncle Toming’’ on the stage to curry favor with white audiences. Still, as biographer Terry Teachout explained in Pops, A Life of Louis Armstrong, it was Miles Davis who, acknowledging the debt all musicians owed to Armstrong, said, ‘‘You can’t play nothing on trumpet that doesn’t come from Louis Armstrong.’’ It’s an unassailable fact that Armstrong revolutionized early twentieth-century jazz music in much the same way that Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk ushered in the sound of Bebop Music in the 1940s. Armstrong’s pop culture status was assured at a time when it was assumed his best days had long passed. His recording of ‘‘Hello, Dolly,’’ a Broadway show tune, zoomed to the top of the charts in 1964 and reintroduced sixty-two-yearold Armstrong to music lovers worldwide. He appeared with Barbra Streisand in the 1969 movie version of Hello, Dolly. In 1968, at age sixty-six, Armstrong became the oldest artist to score a number one hit on the United Kingdom record charts with his recording of ‘‘What a Wonderful World.’’ Early Life in New Orleans Most of his biographers agree that Armstrong’s rise to prominence and eventual stardom was based as much on his drive to escape the poverty into which he was born as his talent. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans on August 4, 1901. He believed that he was born on July 4, 1900, and many biographies cite that date; however in the 1980s, Armstrong expert Tad Jones found a baptismal certificate in New Orleans that was compelling proof of birth one year later in August. As a boy Armstrong helped support his mother and sister by singing on the street for coins. Armstrong was especially fond of the Karnofsky family, New Orleans Jews who took him in as a child and lent him the money to buy his first horn, a cornet. At age eleven, the juvenile court sent him to the Jones Home for Colored Waifs because he fired a pistol into the air on New Year’s Eve. During his eighteen-month stay in juvenile custody, young Louis received formal music training and played in the home’s brass band. Not only did Armstrong know the sounds of the musicians of his hometown but also the gripping loneliness of an early life without a family. In many ways the story of Louis Armstrong is a classic Horatio Alger tale—the young man abandoned and alone in a city of ill repute who is trying to find his way. In 1918, and before his seventeenth birthday, Armstrong married Daisy Parker. Still searching for direction, Armstrong found guidance in King Oliver, the bandleader who would become his mentor, who led him from the streets of New Orleans onto the big musical stage. Not much is known about the bandleader Joe Oliver, a garden yard man turned musician who got his start playing in brass bands, but he is generally remembered for having brought Louis Armstrong to Chicago to play in his Creole Jazz Band in 1922 and for having—along with Armstrong—cut what is generally considered the first major body of recorded work by a black jazz ensemble. The Creole Jazz Band was the city’s most popular.

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In December 1923, Armstrong and Daisy Parker divorced. Between 1925 and 1928, Armstrong made a number of his best recordings with two combos, the Hot Five and Hot Seven. ‘‘West End Blues’’ was among the exceptionally expressive and powerful tunes. The band included Armstrong’s second wife, Lil Hardin, who was the pianist. The couple married in 1924 and divorced in 1938. In the 1930s, Armstrong’s new manager, Joe Glaser, who was a mobster wheelerdealer, helped Armstrong straighten out his legal messes, his debts, and mob troubles. Competing gangsters wanted Armstrong under contract and the musician had to briefly go underground to avoid bodily harm. His nicknames ‘‘Satchmo’’ (a combination of ‘‘satchel’’ and ‘‘mouth’’), and the less well-known ‘‘Dipper Mouth,’’ and ‘‘Gatermouth,’’ referred to his large mouth and enormous grin. Face of American Popular Music In February 1941, Armstrong became the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine. His group, the Louis Armstrong All-Stars, included such notables as Earl ‘‘Fatha’’ Hines, ‘‘Big’’ Sid Catlett, and Cozy Cole. The band made numerous recordings and appeared in over thirty films, including Cabin in the Sky (1943), Paris Blues (1961), and A Man Called Adam (1966). Armstrong invented scat singing because he often times had problems with his embouchure—the position of the lips, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument—and, regardless of singing, was unable to play the trumpet. His instrument created the problem. He had a hit with his playing of and scat singing on ‘‘Heebie Jeebies’’ when, according to legend, the sheet music fell to the floor and Armstrong started singing nonsense syllables. The sound of Armstrong’s voice was described endearingly as like iron filings or a piece of sandpaper calling to its mate. In 1942, Armstrong divorced his third wife, Alpha Smith, after a three-year marriage. In October of that year Armstrong married Lucille Wilson, who remained his wife until his death. They adopted a son, Clarence Hartfield. Life, music, and politics intersected throughout Armstrong’s life, and always there were charges that Armstrong did the race more harm than good on and off stage, but more often on. Armstrong was criticized in 1949 for accepting the title ‘‘King of the Zulus.’’ In New Orleans’ African American community, this was the honor role as head of leading a black Carnival Krewe during Mardi Gras. Armstrong, earthy and unpretentious, heartily accepted the recognition by his homeboys. During the heated battles of the Civil Rights Movement, Armstrong denounced President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s position on integration (Armstrong called Eisenhower ‘‘two-faced’’ and ‘‘gutless’’ because of his tepid stance on school integration). Still, some critics felt that ‘‘Pops’’ Armstrong shirked responsibility to his race. Musicians, including Billie Holiday, criticized Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences and for not taking a more active stand with regard to civil rights, suggesting that he was an Uncle Tom. On the other hand, the FBI kept a

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file on Armstrong after he recommended that President Eisenhower go to Little Rock and take the hands of the black students trying to integrate the high school. Armstrong also played before one hundred thousand exuberant West Africans in 1956 during a celebration of Ghanaian independence. A return trip to Africa in 1960 drew criticism from the former Soviet Union with a Moscow radio broadcast denouncing Armstrong’s trip as a ‘‘capitalist distraction.’’ According to Albin Krebs for the New York Times, Armstrong answered with a laugh: ‘‘I feel at home in Africa. I’m African-descended to the bone, and I dig the friendly ways these people go about things.’’ In 1965, when asked to comment during the Selma, Alabama, assault by police on civil rights marchers, he said, ‘‘They would beat Jesus if he was black and marched. Maybe I’m not on the front line, but I support them with my donations. My life is music. They would beat me on the mouth if I marched, and without my mouth I wouldn’t be able to blow my horn.’’ Both examples, quoted by Krebs in Armstrong’s obituary in the New York Times, suggested he was not simply a ‘‘Tom’’ but probably a race man. Louis Armstrong Forever It was not unusual for Armstrong to play more than three hundred gigs per year throughout his career, but in the late 1940s his bookings tapered off as a result of the changes in public mood and taste. Ballrooms, long the preferred venues for early jazz, closed, and along came the miracle of television. Other types of music also became more popular, and so Armstrong was unable—and one thinks he knew it unwise—to continue to front a sixteen-piece band. During the final years of his life, Armstrong’s concern with health and weight evidenced itself in songs like ‘‘Cheesecake,’’ ‘‘Coroney Chop Suey,’’ and ‘‘Struttin’ with Some Barbecue.’’ A lifelong marijuana user, Armstrong wrote down his feelings about the plant and his thoughts about life, sex, money, and almost anything else on whatever he could find at the time. Armstrong died on July 6, 1971, in his home in Corona, Queens, in New York City. He is buried in Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York. In the twenty-first century, Armstrong’s house was converted into a museum. Armstrong and his music live on in scores of popular movies and TV shows, including Harlem Nights (1989), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Something’s Gotta Give (2003), and American Gangster (2007). Further Reading Berendt, Joachim-Ernst. 1978. Jazz: A Photo History. New York: Schirmer Books. Crouch, Stanley. 1978. ‘‘Laughin’ Louis.’’ The Village Voice, August 14. Giddins, Gary. 1988. Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong. New York: Doubleday. Krebs, Albin. ‘‘Louis Armstrong, Jazz Trumpeter and Singer Dies,’’ New York Times, July 7, 1971. Louis Armstrong House Museum. www.louisarmstronghouse.org.

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National Portrait Gallery. ‘‘Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy’’ http://www.npg.si.edu /exh/armstrong/index.htm. Song facts.com. www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=10089. Teachout, Terry. 2009. Pops, A Life of Louis Armstrong. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. 2000. Jazz: A History of America’s Music. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Kip Branch and Wayne Dawkins

Ashe, Arthur (1943–93), Tennis Player, Author, Social Activist Arthur Ashe was a top-ranked Tennis player, who won both Wimbledon and the United States Open during his career. He was best known for his work to end apartheid in South Africa and for his fight against the disease HIV/AIDS that ultimately claimed his life. Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. was born in Richmond, Virginia, on July 10, 1943. His parents were Arthur Ashe Sr., a caretaker for Brook Field, part of the Richmond Parks and Recreation Department, and Mattie Cunningham Ashe. When Ashe was six, his mother passed away. Ashe began playing tennis at the age of seven and was a skilled player even at a young age. He was able to play tennis on the outdoor courts in the park where his father worked. He trained first with Ronald Charity and then with Walter Johnson, who was a mentor throughout Ashe’s tennis career. During the 1950s and 1960s, Richmond, Virginia, was still part of the segregated South and it Tennis star Arthur Ashe. (Courtesy ProServ, Arlington, VA)

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was very difficult for Ashe to play in tournaments because of his race. In order to play in more tournaments, he would travel during his summer break to areas outside of Richmond. In 1960 and 1961, he won the National Junior Indoor Singles title. It was at this time that Ashe moved from Virginia to St. Louis, Missouri, to finish his last year of high school. Ashe finished high school as the fifth-ranked junior player in the country. After graduating, he attended the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on a tennis scholarship. While still in college, Ashe became the first African American to be named to the Davis Cup Team. He graduated from UCLA in 1966 with a degree in business administration. After that, Ashe joined the U.S. Army and was stationed at West Point. He continued to play tennis while in the military and within two years of graduating, Ashe had won the U.S. Amateur Championship and the U.S. Open Championship. In 1968, he was ranked the number one tennis player in the United States. He was also very interested in social issues, including the plight of those living under the policy of apartheid in South Africa. Ashe tried several times during the early 1970s to get a visa to play in the tennis tournament held there. It was not until 1973 that he was granted the visa and won the doubles tournament with Tom Okker. While in South Africa, Ashe was able to see firsthand how apartheid affected those living under its regime. In 1975, Ashe won the Wimbledon Tennis Championship, becoming the first African American to win the tournament. Arthur Ashe: Portrait in Motion, chronicles the year leading up to Ashe’s Wimbledon victory. On February 20, 1977, Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy. In 1979, Ashe suffered a major heart attack which forced him to retire from tennis temporarily. He returned to be a major force in tennis and was captain of the Davis Cup Team from 1981 to 1985, leading the team to victory in 1981 and 1982. In 1983 Ashe suffered a second heart attack. During this time, he underwent bypass surgery. It was during this surgery that Ashe was most likely infected with the HIV virus. Almost a decade later, the newspaper USA Today received information that Ashe was living with the disease. It began working on a story about Ashe and the illness. Ashe came forward about his illness, and then he strove tirelessly to educate the public about the disease. He established the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, which campaigned to increase the amount of money spent to battle the disease. On February 6, 1993, Ashe passed away from complications due to AIDS. The foundation Ashe established has since joined forces with the Weill Cornell Medical College to fund an international health care worker HIV-training program that sends doctors and nurses to the most needed areas of the world. As a fitting tribute to Ashe’s legacy in tennis, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) named the newly built stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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Further Reading Ashe, Arthur. 1975. Arthur Ashe: Portrait in Motion. New York: Ballantine Books. Ashe, Arthur. 1993. Days of Grace: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Arthur Ashe tribute site. http://www.arthurashe.org. Theresa Mastrodonato

Ashley, Maurice (1966– ), Chess Player, Educator Maurice Ashley has reached celebrity status and is a recognized icon in popular culture: he is the first and only African American to receive the highest title in chess, International Grandmaster. As noted on his Web site, he is ‘‘an ardent spokesman and advocate of the intellectual and character building effects in young people,’’ and he uses his game to benefit young people, especially at-risk youth. He also helped to stimulate an interest in chess-playing among African Americans, to the extent that many households now own chess sets. Ashley’s high accomplishments in the intellectual field of chess have helped to shatter old stereotypes of the mental acumen of African Americans. Much has been said about African Americans in such Sports as Baseball, Football, Tennis, and Basketball, but virtually little about their involvement in certain other sports. Even so, in the 1800s, Theophilus Thompson was the earliest-documented African American chess expert. A native of Frederick, Maryland, at age seventeen Thompson learned much about the game by observing local chess matches. Then he worked on various chess problems and published articles on the game in the Dubuque (Iowa) Chess Journal as well as in a book entitled Chess Problems (1873). After that he left public view. It was not until 1960 that eighteen-year-old Walter Harris defeated several masters and placed fifth in a junior championship played in Omaha, Nebraska. He became the first African American to receive the rating of Master by the United States Chess Federation. As laudable as these accomplishments were in African American history and popular culture, they do not equal Maurice Ashley’s success. Maurice Ashley was born in Jamaica on March 6, 1966, and moved to Brooklyn with his family twelve years later. He was educated at City College of New York. Although he lived in the inner city, Ashley had a firm grounding, steered clear of the drug dealers who traded in his community, and focused on his studies. After watching his brother play chess with a friend, Ashley began to read chess books to learn the game well. By age fourteen, he had become a chess player. While in his teens, he developed game strategies as he played the game with other African Americans in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, particularly with the Black Bears School of Chess, an informal group of young black players. He also encountered Willie Johnson, a friend’s friend and an Expert-level player, which, in chess, is one step below the Masters. Johnson helped him stay focused and also

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helped him buy more chess books or to enter tournaments. Ashley’s heroes were not chess players but African American tennis greats Zina Garrison and Lori McNeil, and ice-skater Debi Thomas. By 1989, Ashley had become a coach for the Raging Rooks chess team at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Junior High School in New York City, and in 1991 led the team to the National Junior High School Championship. In 1993, Ashley became the first ever African American International Master in U.S. history. He also finished first place in the prestigious Enhance International. He opened the Harlem Chess Center in 1999 and continued to teach the game to young blacks. In addition to winning various chess competitions, in 2002, Ashley was the first African American in 157 years to qualify for the U.S. Championship. He was awarded the title Grandmaster of the Year (2004) by the U.S. Chess Federation. He became one of fewer than five hundred grandmaster in the world. Ashley has served as commentator for various chess matches, and in 2004 hosted the ESPN broadcasts of the Man vs. Machine chess competition. Continuing his tradition of sharing his talents with others, in 2005 he published Chess for Success: Using an Old Game to Build New Strengths in Children and Teens. A renowned speaker and consultant, he has received numerous awards for his work. Further Reading Maurice Ashley Web site. http://mauriceashley.com. ‘‘Brooklyn, N.Y., Chess Player Becomes First Black Grandmaster.’’ Jet 95(April 1999): 38–48. Decker, Ed. 1997. ‘‘Maurice Ashley.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale. Smith, Jessie Carney. 2003. Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. 2nd ed. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. ‘‘This Week in Black History.’’ 2004. Jet 105 (March 22): 25. Who’s Who among African Americans. 2010. 24th ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Cengage. Frederick D. Smith

Association for the Study of African American Life and History The Association for the Study of Afro American Life and History (ASALH), founded by Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950), is an organization whose primary purpose is preserving and studying the historical records of African Americans. To meet the community’s sense of identity, the name of the organization has evolved into the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The organization has also laid the foundation for the publication of the Journal of Negro History and the development of Black History Month. The Association of Negro Life and History (the original name) was founded on September 9, 1915, in Chicago, Illinois, at the Wabash YMCA by Carter G. Woodson. Woodson was the son of former slaves who taught him the importance of education, the importance of culture, and a respect for the past. In the years

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after the Civil War and into the twentieth century, racial discrimination took hold in the United States and African Americans were considered intellectually incapable of functioning on an equal level with whites. African Americans had no meaningful historical records to counter such racist concepts. Woodson got his first sense of black history when his family traveled to West Virginia to work in the mines. A black Civil War veteran owned a tavern where the miners would go to relax. The owner was very interested in black history and had several books on black life and black history. Woodson read these books and other materials about blacks with a keen interest. He went on to pursue his education, earning a PhD from Harvard University in 1912, making Woodson the second African American to receive this degree. After that, he clarified the need for research in the area of African American history, the need to encourage others to study the discipline, and to produce material that can be used to educate others. Woodson co-organized the Association of Negro Life and History, which was supported by the community and other scholars in African American Studies such as E. Franklin Frazer, Arthur Schomburg, and Alain Locke. Also to meet the organization’s goals, the Journal of Negro History began publication the following year, in 1916. Woodson was further inspired to initiate the observance of Negro History Week in 1924, which evolved into Black History Month in 1976. The name of the organization was changed to the Association for the Study of Afro American Life and History (ASALH) in 1972 and has subsequently evolved into the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. ASALH has impacted how African Americans view themselves as American citizens and their contributions to the development of the United States of America and the world. Further Reading ASALH [Association for the Study of African American Life and History]. http://www .asalh.org. McKissack, Patricia and Frederick. 2001. Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. Smith, Jessie Carney, and Joseph M. Palmisano, eds. 2000. ‘‘Association for the Study of African American Life and History.’’ In The African American Almanac. 8th ed., 49, 189, 659. Detroit: Gale Group. Lean’tin L. Bracks

Astronauts The United States inducted its first set of astronauts, people who have made a spaceflight or who have trained to make such flights, in 1959, and the first space flight occurred in 1961. Although not as widely known as sports figures and entertainers, African American astronauts enjoy near celebrity status in popular culture.

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Major Robert H. Lawrence, who never made it to space, was instrumental in the development of the American space program. He received his doctorate in chemistry from Ohio State University in 1965. Lawrence participated in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory at the age of thirty-two. Logging more than 2,500 flight hours, Lawrence was recognized for being a talented pilot scientist. Lawrence died while conducting high-speed landings during a training exercise on December 8, 1967. With an extensive U.S. Air Force background and a PhD degree in aerospace engineering/laser physics, Guion ‘‘Guy’’ Bluford Jr. is probably best remembered for being the first African American to fly in the Space Shuttle program. He entered the program in 1978 and completed his first shuttle mission on August 30, 1983. He logged 688 hours in space before retiring in 1993. Postretirement, Bluford continues to give back to the community via service on boards relating to aerospace issues. He currently travels the country as a motivational speaker. Frederick D. Gregory entered the NASA space program in the same 1978 class alongside Bluford. After having logged over 700 hours using various aircraft, Gregory piloted the orbiter Challenger in 1985. An orbiter is a spacecraft designed to orbit a celestial body without landing on its surface. Four years later, he became the first African American to serve as commander of a space shuttle flight aboard orbiter Discovery. Before retiring in 2005, Gregory served as NASA deputy administrator, associate administrator for the Office of Space Flight, and associate administrator in the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. He and his fellow classmate Bluford set the stage for other astronauts of color to follow them. In September 1992, Mae C. Jemison became the first African American woman to fly in space as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. (She was preceded by Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut to fly in the Challenger space shuttle in 1983.) Jemison was born in Alabama but grew up in Chicago. Jemison received her doctorate in medicine from Cornell University in 1981. After interning and working in California medical facilities, Jemison served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone for two years. There Jemison managed the health delivery system for U.S. Embassy and Peace Corps personnel. Jemison returned to the United States in 1985 and began training for the NASA program in 1987. After she left NASA in 1993, a charter school in Detroit was named after Jemison. Now living in Texas, Jemison is the president and chief executive officer of BioSentient Corporation, based in Houston, a medical technology company that markets and develops mobile equipment. Yvonne Cagle entered the NASA training program in August 1996, completed training in 1998, and is now qualified to travel into space as a mission specialist. Cagle received her MD degree from the University of Washington in 1985, and certification in Aerospace Medicine in 1988 from the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base. Novato, California, is her hometown but she was born in West Point, New York. Major Michael P. Anderson was the payload commander for the Space Shuttle Columbia and died when it exploded on February 1, 2003. This sixteen-day flight

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was his second space shuttle mission. Anderson earned physics degrees from the University of Washington and Creighton University. Astronauts in Current Popular Culture Although there were no African Americans candidates in the NASA program as late as September 2008, several were selected for recent ventures. Among them is Leland D. Melvin, who began training with the NASA program in August 1998. Melvin received a MS degree in materials science engineering from the University of Virginia in 1991. After exhibiting excellent wide receiver skills on the University of Richmond football team, Melvin was selected for the 1986 NFL college draft by the Detroit Lions. However, due to hamstring injuries his football career was cut short. After traveling for nearly thirteen days aboard the STS-122 and completing the mission of delivery and installation of the European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory, Melvin completed his first space flight in 2008. Melvin gives back to the profession by speaking to students and encouraging them to consider mathematics, engineering, and technology related careers. Benjamin Alvin Drew Jr. began training with NASA in August 2000. In 2007, Drew completed his first space flight aboard STS-118 and has logged over 305 hours. As a command pilot, Drew accumulated 3,300 hours in flying time. Drew received the Master of Aerospace Science from Embry Riddle University in 1995 and the Master of Strategic Studies in Political Science from the U.S. Air Force Air University in 2006. Robert L. Satcher Jr. was selected by NASA in 2004. Satcher has completed his training and is now qualified to travel into space as a mission specialist. Satcher’s zeal for learning is evident by his earning of the PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1993 and the MD degree from Harvard Medical School one year later in 1994. Currently, Satcher teaches in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Northwestern University as an assistant professor. Further Reading Astronaut Biographies. 2008. http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio_former.html. Burton, Von L. 2007. African American Astronauts. http://www.raahistory.com/. Gubert, Betty Kaplan, Miriam Sawyer, and Caroline M. Fannin. 2002. Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science. Westport, CT: Oryx Press. Hardesty, Von. 2008. Black Wings: Courageous Stories of African Americans in Aviation and Space History. New York: HarperCollins. Jemison, Mae. 2007. ‘‘Career Profile: Biomedical Engineer.’’ Journal of Chemical Education 84, no. 10: 1569–70. Jemison, Mae. 2001. Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life. New York: Scholastic Press. Orbiter. 2008. In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com /dictionary/orbiter. Angela M. Gooden

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Aunt Jemima Today, the term ‘‘Aunt Jemima’’ is often used by African Americans as a disparaging description of a black woman who disregards her African American culture and identifies with or allows herself to be measured or exploited by white cultural expectations. An Aunt Jemima, according to one definition in the online Urban Dictionary (www.urbandictionary.com) is the female counterpart to an Uncle Tom, an equally disparaging term for a black man who is said to ignore his African American roots and who appears too compliant with white culture. As an Advertising Icon This advertising character based on the antebellum slave ‘‘mammy’’ figure was used to promote Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour, the first nationally distributed ready-mixed food, and one of the earliest products to be marketed via personal appearances and advertisements featuring its namesake. The name Aunt Jemima was derived from an old slave song that was adapted to the stage by a popular minstrel show performer and brought to the world of advertising to marry advances in food production with popular nostalgia for the antebellum South. The concept of Aunt Jemima thus appropriately might be said to be a subject of white American folklore as well as African American Folklore. In 1889, a duo of speculators in St. Joseph, Missouri, named Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood created the self-rising pancake mix that would eventually bear Aunt Jemima’s name. They had purchased a bankrupt mill and planned to make it successful by developing a new product that would create demand for flour in a depressed market. Thus, they settled on developing a foolproof and less labor-intensive pancake mix that would only require the addition of water. They experimented with a variety of recipes in the summer of 1889 before settling on a mixture of wheat flour, corn flour, lime phosphate, and salt. The product was originally named ‘‘selfrising pancake flour’’ and sold in bags. In the fall of 1889, Rutt was inspired to rename the mix after attending a minstrel show, during which a popular song titled ‘‘Old Aunt Jemima’’ was performed by men in blackface, one of whom was dressed as a slave mammy of the plantation South. The song, which was written by African American singer, dancer, and acrobat Billy Kersands in 1875, was a staple of the minstrel circuit and was based on a song sung by field-hand slaves. The words to the first verse, published in Maurice Manring’s Slave in a Box, are: I went to church the other day,/ Old Aunt Jemima, Oh! Oh! Oh! /To hear them white folks sing and pray, Old Aunt Jemima, Oh! Oh! Oh! /They prayed so long I could not stay,/ Old Aunt Jemima, Oh! Oh! Oh! /I knew the Lord would come that way,/ Old Aunt Jemima, Oh! Oh! Oh!

Rutt and Underwood contributed the name but failed to market their product successfully and sold their milling company to a larger corporation owned by R. G. Davis of Chicago. He transformed the local product into a national one by

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distributing it through a network of suppliers and by creating a persona for Aunt Jemima. Davis hired Nancy Green, a Kentucky slave in her childhood, to portray Aunt Jemima at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. She served pancakes from a booth designed to look like a huge flour barrel and told stories of her ‘‘memories’’ as a cook on an ‘‘Old South’’ plantation. Her highly publicized appearance spurred thousands of orders for the product from distributors. Davis also commissioned a pamphlet detailing the ‘‘life’’ of Aunt Jemima. She was depicted as the historically real house slave of a Colonel Higbee of Louisiana, whose plantation was known across the South for its fine food and most notably its pancake breakfasts. The recipe for the pancakes was a secret known only to the slave woman. Sometime after the Civil War, the pamphlet said, Aunt Jemima was remembered by a Confederate general who had once found himself stranded at her cabin. The general recalled her pancakes and put Aunt Jemima in contact with a ‘‘large northern milling company,’’ which paid her to come North and supervise the construction of a modern factory to produce large quantities of the secret mix. This pamphlet formed the fundamental background for decades of future Aunt Jemima advertising. The story was expanded upon and illustrated in an advertising campaign in American women’s magazines during the 1920s and 1930s. The ads were the work of James Webb Young, a legendary account executive at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in Chicago. He collaborated with the great American painter N. C. Wyeth, who was famous as the illustrator of books such as Treasure Island and The Last of the Mohicans. The ads were usually full page and full color, and they ran regularly in Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and The Saturday Evening Post. They were panoramas depicting the leisure and splendor of the plantation South as the Higbee plantation hosted grand gatherings of visitors from across the region. Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour was marketed as perhaps the ultimate labor-saving product by drawing an explicit parallel between the work of a house slave and the work the product saved a housewife. A line from a 1927 advertisement read, ‘‘Make them with Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour and your family will ask where you got your wonderful southern cook.’’ Nancy Green, the original Aunt Jemima, continued in the role until her death in an auto accident in 1923. She was replaced by Anna Robinson, a heavier woman with a darker complexion. The image on the box and in ads was adjusted to resemble her more closely. Later, actresses Aylene Lewis and Edith Wilson portrayed the mammy in some advertisements, and Lewis performed as Aunt Jemima at Aunt Jemima’s Pancake House in Disneyland, which opened in 1957. However, the advertising character, which had often been the subject of criticism in the African American press, came under greater scrutiny in the 1950s and 1960s. Local chapters of the NAACP pressured schools and county fair organizers not to invite Aunt Jemima to appear. Wilson was the final woman to play Aunt Jemima in advertisements; in 1967, Quaker Oats fired her and canceled its TV ads. Quaker Oats also took Aunt Jemima’s name off the Disneyland restaurant in 1970; Lewis was the last woman to portray Aunt Jemima on the company’s behalf. Throughout the 1960s, Aunt Jemima’s skin became lighter, and Quaker Oats made her look thinner in print images. In 1968, the company replaced her

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bandanna with a headband and made her look somewhat younger. Her image still appeared in print advertisements, but for the most part the character did not speak or appear to live on a slave plantation. In 1989, Quaker Oats made the most dramatic alteration to Aunt Jemima since her introduction one hundred years earlier, removing her headband to reveal a head full of graying curls and adding earrings and a pearl necklace. The company said it was repositioning the brand icon as a ‘‘black working grandmother.’’ In 1993, Quaker Oats created a series of television ads for the pancake mix featuring the singer Gladys Knight as a spokeswoman and using Aunt Jemima’s face only as a logo. The campaign ran very briefly. While Aunt Jemima now maintains a low profile in the advertising world, the former slave continues to rank as one of the most recognizable trade names in North America. Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix and Syrup remain market leaders in the United States, and in the 1990s Quaker Oats even licensed the use of her name and image for a line of frozen breakfast products manufactured by another company. For African Americans, Aunt Jemima represents the tenacity of American racism, embodying the long-standing need for white Americans to perpetrate the mammy stereotype that romanticizes slavery and plantation life. In her essay ‘‘‘Now Then—Who Said Biscuits?’ The Black Woman Cook as Fetish in American Advertising, 1905–1953,’’ Alice Deck argues that Aunt Jemima symbolizes the white fixation on domestic, black, female bodies, a practice that invokes the magical qualities of blackness while reinforcing the subordinate position of African Americans. A close parallel would be the portrayal of Uncle Ben on rice boxes. Despite African American objections to her image dating from roughly the 1920s to current days and the wider controversy surrounding her image in the late twentieth century, Aunt Jemima remains one of the most successful advertising icons of modern times. Further Reading Deck, Alice. 2001. ‘‘‘Now Then—Who Said Biscuits?’ The Black Woman Cook as Fetish in American Advertising, 1905–1953.’’ In Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race. Sherrie A. Inness, ed., 69–94. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Kern-Foxworth, Marilyn. 1994. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Westport, CT: Praeger. Manring, Maurice M. 1998. Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. Urban Dictionary. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Aunt%20Jemima. M. M. Manring

Automobile Racing. See Car Racing

B Baby Face. See Edmonds, Kenneth

Badu, Erykah (1971– ), Singer, Songwriter Erykah Badu is a gifted and extraordinary artist who blends Soul, Hip-Hop, and jazz sounds from the past to the present and calls it soul music. Erykah Badu was born Erica Wright on February 26, 1971, in Dallas, Texas. Badu’s father, William ‘‘Toosie’’ Wright Jr., was absent from the household, thus leaving her mother, Kollen Wright, and grandmother, Thelma Gibson, both local theater actresses, to rear Badu and two younger siblings. The two women encouraged Badu’s love of music, dance, singing, painting, and acting. Not one to be afraid of the stage, Badu performed in many competitions and usually walked away with top honors. As a teen, Badu was accepted and enrolled in the theater program at the Dallas Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Later on, Badu changed from the theater program to music and dance. She became a member of the female rap crew MC Apples with a sound of freestyle rap for a local radio station. It was during this time that Badu decided to shed what she termed as the slave name, Erica Wright. Badu changed the spelling of the first name to Erykah, in which ‘‘kah’’ means inner self. The surname Badu is Arabic meaning ‘‘to manifest light and truth.’’ After high school Badu enrolled at Grambling State University in Louisiana to study theater. Four years later, she left the university and returned home to Dallas without completing the degree.

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While pursuing a music career, Badu worked various jobs to support herself including an opportunity at Steve Harvey’s Comedy House. Badu and a cousin, Robert ‘‘Free’’ Bradford, formed the band Erykah Free and produced opening acts for several hip-hop groups, namely the Wu-Tang Clan, D’Angelo, A Tribe Called Quest, and Arrested Development. As the duo became popular, only Badu would sign a record label contract with Kedar Entertainment, a division of Universal Records. Kedar Massengberg, owner of the record label, was interested in promoting only Badu, thus causing a stressful relationship between the cousins. Bradford, however, received production and songwriting credits on Badu’s debut album Baduizm. The album became number one on the Billboard R & B chart and number two on the pop album chart. Badu’s jazz sounds have been compared to earlier artists Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Nina Simone with a mixture of the R & B sounds of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Chaka Khan. Badu has received several music awards and nomination honors. In 1998, she won two Grammy Awards for Best R & B Album and Best Female R & B Performance. She was also the recipient of four Soul Train Awards, one American Music Award, and two NAACP Image Awards. She continues to be recognized for her unique style of sound and fashion attire, and was named by People magazine as one of 1998’s ‘‘50 Most Beautiful People.’’ Further Reading Badu, Erykah, as told to Michael Hall. 2010 ‘‘Growing Up.’’ Texas Monthly 38 (June 2010): 6:30–32. ‘‘Erykah Badu.’’ 1999. Contemporary Musicians. Vol. 26. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC. ‘‘Erykah Badu.’’ 2000. Newsmakers 2000, 4. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC. Phelps, Shirelle, ed. 1999. ‘‘Erykah Badu.’’ In Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 22. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center.http://galenet .galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Sharon D. Brooks

Baker, Ella (1903–86), Civil Rights Activist, Community Organizer During the modern Civil Rights Movement and beyond, the general population focused on the work of black men, virtually disregarding the contributions of all except one or two black women. Records show, however, that black American women played crucial roles in the fight for equality. One such woman was Ella Baker, a pivotal behind-the-scenes activist who refused to go unnoticed or to stay behind the scenes. She pioneered in the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and an organizer of grassroots organizations

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nationwide. Baker’s work touches many arenas in African American popular culture, particularly in human rights, women’s rights, and in the work of activists to achieve those rights. Ella Josephine Baker was born December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Blake and Georgianna Ross Baker. She grew up in Littleton, North Carolina, a racially segregated community, where her life was steeped in southern black culture. She knew the importance of self-help and sharing of economic resources throughout her community, and thus knew how to build strong community ties. The Bakers were educated and ensured that their three children were educated as well. Ella graduated from Shaw University, a historically black college located in Raleigh, with a degree in sociology. While at Shaw, she envisioned a career as a social activist and practiced activism by protesting the school’s conservative dress code. Although African Americans had difficulty finding employment and many turned to teaching, Baker vowed that she would not follow that path. Instead, she moved to Harlem on the eve of the Great Depression. Baker was disturbed by Harlem’s poverty and hunger, and immediately resolved to seek relief through political means. She developed a radical perspective, attended political meetings and rallies, and started down a political path that would become central to her life from then forward. She helped to found the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League (YNCL) to aid blacks in developing economic power by becoming involved in consumer cooperatives or buying clubs, cooperative grocery stores, and cooperative distribution networks. Later she became YNCL’s national director, serving affiliate chapters throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Baker also worked for the Worker’s Education Project, a program of the federal Works Progress Administration, which was designed to equip workers with basic skills and to teach them various topics that the working class needed to know. The workers participated in literacy and consumer education programs. Baker began a new career in 1938, with the NAACP. First she was a field secretary and later became director of branches. Her assignments took her throughout the South as she raised funds for the organization and recruited new members. The relationships that she established in the South and her familiarity with the political situation there served her well in the future, when she joined the black struggle for freedom. As time passed, Baker became conflicted over the organization’s philosophies and leadership style and, in 1946, resigned her position. She continued to serve the organization but now as a volunteer. She was elected president of the New York City branch of the NAACP in 1952, becoming its first female director. Her activism continued as she fought to desegregate the local public schools. Baker joined Stanley Levison and Bayard Rustin in founding the organization called In Friendship, which raised funds to support the emerging Civil Rights Movement in the South. After the organization folded in 1957 and the SCLC had been established, their efforts turned to the new organization which now coordinated the movement. Levison and Rustin knew Martin Luther King Jr. and the importance of his work. They persuaded him to bring Baker on board to work for SCLC, and in 1958 she relocated to Atlanta for that purpose. At first

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Baker directed the Crusade for Citizenship program and its voter registration drives in the South, and, at the same time, headed SCLC’s Atlanta headquarters. She was active in the training initiatives for movement leaders held at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. Before long, Baker became frustrated over King’s dominance in the organization and the management style of the male leadership. The men expected women to stay behind the scenes and support visibility of male leadership. They resented female leadership, especially when it came from a strong woman such as Baker. The year 1960 was a pivotal one in Baker’s life, in the Civil Rights Movement, and in African American life and culture in general. On February 1 that year, four students from North Carolina A & T State University in Greensboro shocked the nation when they staged sit-ins at the local F. W. Woolworth’s store. They were followed by well-organized sit-ins in Nashville, and by similar actions throughout the South. On Easter Sunday, Baker held a meeting at Shaw University of sit-in leaders from across the South; it was designed to strengthen the protest movement. She left SCLC and successfully encouraged the students to found their own organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Baker also believed in the independent student-oriented group rather than one that was leader-centered. Since Baker needed financial support to live, she took a job with the Young Women’s Christian Association. She also had a part in organizing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a grassroots political party that rose to fame at the 1964 Democratic National Convention by attempting to unseat Mississippi’s all-white delegates. Baker remained adviser to SNCC, serving as a role model and intellectual mentor to many young people in the organization. She also worked as a consultant for the Southern Conference Education Fund, working to gain white support of the movement. Her activism continued yet expanded to other political areas; for example, in 1972 she openly supported the Free Angela campaign and sought the release of activist Angela Davis from prison. Despite Baker’s failing health, during the 1970s and 1980s she continued to lend her support to a number of political, women’s, and other organizations, until her death in New York City on December 13, 1986. Black Women in America characterized Baker as ‘‘a historical bridge connecting the social movements of the 1950s and 1960s to the legacy of Black resistance and social protest in the decades that followed.’’ Further Reading Branch, Taylor. 1988. Parting the Waters: An American in the King Years 1954–63. New York: Simon & Schuster. Crawford, Vicki L., Jacqueline Anne Rouse, and Barbara Woods. 1993. Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941–1965. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. 1993. Black Women in America An Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing.

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Ransby, Barbara. 2003. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Ransby, Barbara. 1993. ‘‘Ella Josephine Baker.’’ In Black Women in America An Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1992. Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research. Jessie Carney Smith

Baldwin, James (1924–87), Novelist, Essayist, Playwright James Arthur Baldwin, one of the major writers and intellectuals of the twentieth century, was born in Harlem, New York, on August 2, 1924, to Emma Berdis Jones who, when her son was a toddler, married David Baldwin, an itinerant preacher from Louisiana who never accepted James as his son. The tension between Baldwin and his stepfather would form the basis of James Baldwin’s work. From a young age, Baldwin was an avid reader. By the time he entered fifth grade, he had read Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin cover to cover so much that his mother moved the book to a higher shelf beyond her son’s reach. But he was not deterred in his reading. When not in school, he could be found in the public libraries of New York City, where he read and borrowed books from the two Harlem branches before trying the main library on 42nd Street. Books had become Baldwin’s passport beyond the confines of Harlem. Rather than become a product of the world he was born into, Baldwin turned to words as a means of transforming the world around him. In school, Baldwin received praise and acceptance that could not always be found at home. Yet, to consider school a completely utopian space for Baldwin is to misread the social climate of the United States during his childhood. ‘‘When I was nine or ten,’’ Baldwin recounted in Notes of a Native Son, ‘‘I wrote a play which was directed by a young, white schoolteacher, a woman, who then took an interest in me, James Baldwin, author of the novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), wrote and gave me books to read and, in order to about the effects of race, religion, and corroborate my theatrical bent, decided to sexuality on personal identity. (Sophie take me to see what she somewhat tactlessly Bassouls/Corbis Sygma)

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referred to as ‘real plays.’’’ Despite his teacher’s condescension, Baldwin remained dedicated to writing. At Frederick Douglass Junior High School (P. S. 139), Baldwin edited the school newspaper, which gave him the opportunity to work with acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen. Baldwin’s literary leanings continued at DeWitt Clinton High School, where he contributed several pieces to the school’s magazine and served as editor-in-chief of the paper. Following his graduation in 1942, Baldwin left home and worked construction in New Jersey for a short while before being fired, returning in 1944 to New York City, this time to Greenwich Village. There he started his life as a writer in earnest by beginning work on what would become his first novel. Even so, the mark of David Baldwin remained on the artist as a young man, as Baldwin declared that the key to his work was ‘‘the rhetoric of the storefront church,’’ where, for a while in his youth, he had preached in an attempt to gain the acceptance of his indifferent stepfather. In 1945, Richard Wright helped Baldwin win a fellowship, and, the following year, Baldwin arrived on the writing scene with a review in The Nation. After having received a Rosenwald Fellowship, Baldwin decided to live a life of greater artistic and personal freedom. One symbolic move was tossing his engagement rings into the Hudson River, thereby marking his rejection of heterosexual relationships and his open acceptance of his preference for homosexual relationships. Then, on November 11, 1948, he set sail to France on a one-way ticket. While Baldwin had hoped to escape the racial prejudice he encountered in the United States, he saw in France the persistence of racial discrimination. Nevertheless, Baldwin would remain in France, aside from stints in the United States for lectureships and in support of the fight for civil rights, joining such figures as Lorraine Hansberry, Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X in the struggle for racial and social equality. During the 1950s, Baldwin published two novels, his semiautobiographical Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and Giovanni’s Room (1956), along with a collection of personal essays and reflections called Notes of a Native Son (1955). With Go Tell It on the Mountain, Baldwin established himself as a major black male contributor to American letters, putting him within conversations that included Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. The theme of personal conflict that Baldwin explored so expertly in his first novel he extended into an exploration of sexual identity in Giovanni’s Room, in which his male protagonist is torn between homosexual and heterosexual love. Notes of a Native Son dealt with the burden of race and helped establish Baldwin has one of the leading intellectuals of the twentieth century. During the 1960s, when liberal dissent was the order of the day, Baldwin continued to prod the conscience of an American culture that alienated and segregated cultural others. Within the first three years of the 1960s, Baldwin published three influential works: Nobody Knows My Name (1961), The Fire Next Time (1963), and a substantial novel, Another Country (1962). With these three works, Baldwin built upon the foundations he had created in the previous decade by analyzing the psychic costs of prejudice based on differences in race and sexual

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orientation. Despite his efforts to right the wrongs of racism, black militants waged their own campaign against Baldwin, in part the result of Baldwin’s own literary patricide in his essay ‘‘Everybody’s Protest Novel.’’ This essay grew out of Baldwin’s nearly lifelong reading of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. At the root of all protest, Baldwin argued, was sentimentality, which reduced human beings to caricatures. Baldwin then applied this theory to Richard Wright’s Native Son. In the process, he undercut the stature of Wright and his novel, the first novel by an African American that was a Book-of-the-Month-Club selection. Yet Wright was a literary lion with a loyal following, especially among black militants of the 1960s. Despite the ire Baldwin attracted from militants, he continued his persistent critique of race relations during the 1970s, turning his attention to black cinema and what he and others saw as the exploitation of black people in his The Devil Finds Work, published in 1976. Baldwin enjoyed extensive lectureships on both sides of the Atlantic and was a prominent novelist and social critic whose voice was heard. Shortly after midnight, however, on December 1, 1987, Baldwin’s voice was silenced as he passed away in St. Paul de Vence, in southern France, leaving in his wake a triumphant narrative of what it means to be a person of conscience, humility, and keen intelligence. Readers seeking an introduction to the poetic intensity of Baldwin’s writing are invited to read his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain. Baldwin himself said, ‘‘Mountain is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else.’’ Baldwin’s eloquent and elegant writing style is seen as well in novels such as Giovanni’s Room and Another Country, along with his often anthologized short stories, in particular ‘‘Sonny’s Blues.’’ Baldwin’s enduring legacy is made evident in his insightful essays, and his most powerful and influential statements are collected in a Library of America edition edited by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Further Reading Baldwin, James. 1984. Notes of a Native Son. Boston: Beacon Press. Friedrich, Otto. 1987. ‘‘Bearing Witness to the Truth James Baldwin: 1924–1987.’’ Time 30 (December 14). Harris, Trudier. 2001. ‘‘James Baldwin.’’ In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Bambara, Toni Cade (1939–95), Writer, Filmmaker, Educator Toni Cade Bambara was born Miltona Mirkin Cade in New York City on March 25, 1939. Bambara’s mother, Helen Brent Henderson Cade, was a chief influence in her development as an artist. Having grown up during the

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Harlem Renaissance, Helen Cade encouraged a similar artistic sentiment in her children. As a child, Bambara spent innumerable afternoons in the New York Public Libraries, particularly the Harlem branch, with its photograph of Gwendolyn Brooks. Bambara cited Brooks, along with Langston Hughes, who visited the library on occasion and spoke with young people, as early influences on her artistic sensibility. Following her education in a range of schools, both public and private, in New York, New Jersey, and parts of the southeastern United States, Bambara attended Queens College of the City University of New York, where, in 1959, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts. That same year, she won the John Golden Award for Fiction as well as the Long Island Star’s Pauper Press Award for nonfiction. In the fall of 1959, Bambara entered graduate school and served as a social worker for the Harlem Welfare Center. In 1960, Bambara published a second short story in the Massachusetts Review. She spent 1961 in Milan, studying at the Commedia dell’ Arte and working as a freelance writer. Upon her return to the United States in 1962, Bambara resumed work as a social worker and as a scholar, two roles that she would always see as fundamentally linked. ‘‘It’s a tremendous responsibility—responsibility and honor—to be a writer, an artist, a cultural worker . . . whatever you call this vocation,’’ Bambara said. In 1965, she graduated from the City College of New York with a master’s degree in American studies, and took on teaching duties at City College until 1969. From 1969 until 1974, she served on the faculty of Rutgers University, followed by appointments at various institutions including Duke University, Atlanta University, and Spelman College. Respected as a scholar, Bambara garnered accolades as an artist and editor as well. She was a pioneer of the black women’s fiction of the 1970s. As Bambara continued to write and to hear the stories of black women in her community, she expressed to the scholar Addison Gayle her discontent with the way black women were rendered invisible. Male experts and white feminists both, according to Bambara, failed to capture, in their sociological studies, the feelings of black women. To address this absence, Bambara published The Black Woman: An Anthology in 1970, a work that arrived on the social and cultural landscape the same year as The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker, along with the poetry of Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and others. Bambara’s two collections of short stories, Gorilla, My Love, published in 1972, and The Seabirds Are Still Alive, published in 1977, placed Bambara in the pantheon of black women writers that includes Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, Paule Marshall, and Gloria Naylor. As a writer, Bambara experimented with time, resisting linear plots and preferring flashbacks, and made use of complex imagery and black dialect. In 1980, Bambara published her first novel, The Salt Eaters, which won the American Book Award. Three years later, Bambara began work on a second novel exploring the Atlanta child murders. When she died in 1995, Bambara had written over 1,800 pages. Toni Morrison, Bambara’s close friend, edited the manuscript, making it a more streamlined 676 pages; it was published in 2000 as the posthumous Those Bones Are Not My Child. As Morrison explained, ‘‘You have ‘Gone With the Wind.’ Then you have this Tom Wolfe book. And that’s

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Atlanta. Boom. Over. . . . And I thought, ‘No, no, no.’ No one is talking about Atlanta from the point of view of these people who knew it—not the political way, not the way the marketers knew it, but on the streets, in the houses, in the schools. So, it just seemed to me, absolutely, that the history of the world was incomplete if this book wasn’t published.’’ Bambara’s novel helps expand our collective vision of the city of Atlanta. Readers seeking to learn more about Toni Cade Bambara might begin with her landmark anthology, The Black Woman. The lineup of writers collected in that anthology represents some of the most important voices in American and African American letters: Alice Walker, Paule Marshall, Nikki Giovanni, and Audre Lorde, just to name a few. Gorilla, My Love remains an important short story collection, filled with unforgettable characters and writing style. The Salt Eaters, Bambara’s first novel, offers an interesting meditation on African American identity, and her posthumous novel, Those Bones Are Not My Child, remains a powerful testament to Bambara’s devotion to the problems of the black urban United States.

Further Reading Boyd, Valerie. 1999. ‘‘Morrison Brings Friend’s ‘Bones’ To Print.’’ Books, Atlanta Journal– Constitution, October 17. Deck, Alice A. 2003. ‘‘Bambara, Toni Cade.’’ In Black Women in America. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Evans, Mari, ed. 1984. Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation. New York: Doubleday. Glickman, Simon. 1996. ‘‘Toni Cade Bambara.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 10. Detroit: Gale Research. Stanford, Ann Folwell. 2001. ‘‘Bambara, Toni Cade.’’ In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Bands and Bandleaders, 1920s–1950s African American music in the period from 1920 to the 1950s was dominated by big band jazz music. This form was produced by bands comprised of four sections: saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and rhythm, and consisting of twelve to fifteen members. Though beginning in the Jazz Age, big bands’ most prolific period was during the Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s and its peak was ended with the birth of Bebop Music in the 1940s. The bands were commonly housed at jazz clubs, including the Cotton Club and Savoy in New York and the Sunset/Grand Terrace Caf
e in Chicago. Big band music was also spread nationally through radio broadcasts and records. The African American big bands, led by individuals including

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Louis Armstrong, Don Redman, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Cab Calloway, helped define jazz and American music for three decades. Big band music’s development in the early 1920s can be partly attributed to the contributions of musician Fletcher Henderson. Born in Georgia in 1897, Fletcher Henderson grew up listening to classical European music in his household and this contributed to his eventual formation of the jazz orchestra. After attending Atlanta University, Henderson moved to New York to pursue a career in chemistry, but after struggling to find work, he entered the music scene. In 1921, Fletcher Henderson became the musical director for the black-owned record label, Black Swan, and led and performed in various groups for the label. Henderson made a good living working for the label, but after securing a position as a bandleader at the Club Alabam in Harlem, Henderson’s career took off. The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra became one of the dominant bands in New York while playing at the Alabama and the Roseland Ballroom. By the 1930s, it was one of the most important black musical groups in the United States. Although Fletcher Henderson lacked the acclaim as a bandleader of many of his contemporaries and followers, his band included many notable musicians. Among them were Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, and Roy Eldridge. While an outstanding musician and arranger, one of Henderson’s most important contributions to big band music was the development of multi-instrumentalist Don Redman, whose arrangements were vital in the transition from the jazz age to the Swing Era. Don Redman (1900–64) was raised in a middle-class household in Maryland. Redman’s father was a noted musician and music educator and his mother was a singer. As a child, Redman trained on multiple instruments; by the age of twelve, he was proficient on all wood instruments. In 1922, after studying at the Boston Conservatory and traveling with Billy Paige’s Broadway Syncopaters, Redman joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. With that orchestra, Redman was instrumental in creating a new jazz sound. While playing both clarinet and alto saxophone with the group, Redman made his mark as an arranger. Redman drew from his diverse musical background and arranged songs that combined European classical, African American brass band, and church music. More specifically, influenced by the call-and-response tradition of African and African American music, Redman created a relationship between the soloists and ensembles. In addition, Redman combined the written harmonies of European classical music with the improvised solos of African American music, creating a big band aesthetic that influenced many later bandleaders. In his arrangements, Redman left blank spaces for improvised solos. Because they were not band- or musician-specific, Redman’s arrangements became the source for the generic big band sound. In 1927, Redman left the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and became the musical director and leader of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, a Detroit-based band. While having many successful years with the group, Redman left and formed the Don Redman Orchestra, which held residence at the legendary Connie’s Inn and recorded for Brunswick Records. Although he was not as prolific as other bandleaders of the time, the Don Redman Orchestra was very popular. The early work of Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman set the stage for the birth of the Swing Era.

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Chicago bandleader Earl Hines (1903–83) also made notable contributions prior to the birth of the Swing Era. Hines was born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, on December 28, 1903. While trumpet was his first instrument, Hines eventually moved to the piano and started playing professionally in 1918. Hines moved to Chicago in 1923, playing with several bands until forming his own in 1928. From 1929 to 1948, the Earl Hines Orchestra achieved national recognition through tours and radio broadcasts. Hines’s band featured some legendary personnel including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Billy Eckstine, and Ella Fitzgerald. While an important bandleader, Hines is more known for his style of piano playing that influenced pianists for years to come. The Swing Era The Swing Era (1935–46) was the period in which swing and big band music dominated American popular music. Although swing music was performed by many bands during the 1920s and early 1930s, many scholars and fans mark big band leader Benny Goodman’s performance at the Palomar Ballroom on August 21, 1935, as the beginning of the Swing Era. Swing’s ascendance had as much to do with economic developments as it did with musical ones. The Great Depression had an extremely negative effect on the recording industry. Between 1927 and 1932, record sales declined over 90 percent. Live and movie theaters, once a popular venue for jazz music, switched their focus to the less-expensive and growing talking-movie genre, putting many musicians out of work. In addition, the end of Prohibition in 1933 affected jazz musicians as alcohol could now be purchased and consumed at home, lessening the relevance of the speakeasies that formerly employed many musicians. Alongside this was the advent of radio, whose technology allowed fewer musicians to entertain more consumers. The end result of these economic factors was that jazz musicians could be had for cheap and big bands became more commonplace. Although Benny Goodman has been credited with the origins of swing and was very much its public face, Duke Ellington (1899–1974) was the Swing Era’s most prolific bandleader and took big band music to new artistic heights. Edward Kennedy ‘‘Duke’’ Ellington was born on April 29, 1899, to James Edward and Daisy Kennedy Ellison. Unlike other African American big band leaders, Ellington had a rather modest Washington, DC, upbringing. Ellington’s parents had piano training, and before reaching his tenth birthday, Ellington received piano lessons from a local teacher. Although able to play the piano, Ellington first fell in love with the visual arts. He attended a vocational high school with dreams of one day becoming a commercial artist. After his interest in school waned, Ellington dropped about of high school and began to earn money by playing the piano locally. In the early 1920s, Ellington and his then band moved to New York in an attempt to make a mark on its thriving African American music scene. In 1923, Ellington’s band, then known as the Washingtonians, landed a permanent gig at the Hollywood Club (later renamed the Kentucky Club) near Times Square. During their four years spent at the Kentucky Club, Ellington and

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his orchestra performed and recorded prolifically. In 1927, Ellington and his band became the house band at the Cotton Club, Harlem’s most renowned club. During their years at the Cotton Club, Ellington’s twelve-piece orchestra rose to national prominence due to weekly radio broadcasts, extensive recording, movie appearances, and other types of exposure. After leaving the Cotton Club in 1931, Ellington and his orchestra continued to record and perform extensively. The Swing Era proved to be Ellington and his band’s creative peak. In this period, Ellington’s band diversified its repertoire, featuring extended works, tone poems, blues, novelty numbers, and experimental pieces along with its traditional popular works. In 1938, twenty-three-year-old Billy Strayhorn joined the orchestra and it began its most fertile period. During his time with Ellington, Strayhorn composed or collaborated on over two hundred works, including the band’s most famous song, ‘‘Take the A Train.’’ Ellington and Strayhorn’s partnership lasted nearly three decades, ending with Strayhorn’s death in 1967. Ellington’s career began to decline during the later stages of the Swing Era in the late 1940s. After experiencing a brief career resurgence in the 1950s, Ellington performed and recorded extensively until his death in 1974. Standing alongside Duke Ellington as one of the great African American big band leaders is Count Basie (1904–84). Born William Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904, Basie grew up in a working-class household. Like Henderson and Redman, Basie had a diverse musical background as he was exposed to player pianos, theater shows, traveling carnivals, and more as a youth. Growing up, Basie studied both piano and drums, actually preferring the drums until shifting his focus after failing to equal the skills of friend and future Ellington band member, Sonny Greer. Around 1924, Basie, seeking a career in music, moved to Harlem where he met Fats Waller, Willie the Lion Smith, and James P. Johnson—all notable stride piano players. Waller acted as a mentor to Basie, helping develop his piano skill and helping him get work. In 1927, Basie moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and established himself on its burgeoning jazz scene. Basie performed with Walter Page’s Blue Devils and two minor groups before joining Benny Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra. After Moten’s death, Basie became bandleader until the group dissolved. Basie then formed his own group that included many of Moten’s former musicians. This nine-piece group, known as Count Basie and the Barons of Rhythm, held residency at the Reno Club in Kansas City. After a short stint in Chicago, the band moved to New York and began headlining at the Roseland Ballroom. Initially, the band received mediocre reviews, but adjustments garnered them success. Along with their Roseland job, Basie and his orchestra recorded for the Decca label. With Decca, Basie recorded many of his blues-influenced pieces, including ‘‘One O’Clock Jump’’ and ‘‘Good Morning Blues,’’ that would prove to be his unique contribution to jazz music. Basie also performed and recorded with many of the most notable vocalists of the time, including Jimmy Rushing, Billie Holiday, and Big Joe Turner. In 1938, Basie and his orchestra moved on to the Savoy with continued success. The decline of the Swing Era caused much turnover in the Count Basie Orchestra, which once included saxophonist Lester Young and drummer Jo Jones, among others.

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Although his prominence decreased after the Swing Era, Basie continued to work extensively until the 1970s. Basie’s slide piano and penchant for the blues provided listeners with an almost exotic sound during the Big Band Era. While not reaching the musical heights of his peers, bandleader Cab Calloway (1907–94) wowed audiences with his showmanship. Cabell ‘‘Cab’’ Calloway was born on December 25, 1907, to a middle-class family in Rochester, New York. Calloway’s parents, recognizing their son’s aptitude for music, saw that Cab began taking voice lessons at a very young age. After graduating from high school and briefly attending college, Calloway moved to Chicago to pursue a career in music, eventually becoming leader of the Alabamians, an eleven-piece outfit. The Alabamians were soon hired at the Cotton Club, and after a poor opening showing, Calloway left the group, eventually becoming bandleader of the upstart Missourians. The Missourians landed at the Cotton Club and proved to be very successful. While the band was definitely comprised of good musicians, audiences were drawn to Calloway’s stage presence and enthusiasm. Calloway dressed in elaborate wardrobes, danced around the stage, and upped the energy level of typical big band shows. In addition, Cab was a dynamic vocalist who could sing all over the tonal scale. Calloway also championed Scat Singing, as evidenced by his most popular song, ‘‘Minnie the Moocher.’’ Cab Calloway remained a popular bandleader and public figure during and after the Swing Era by producing records and radio shows, and appearing in films including Stormy Weather. Calloway’s lively stage activity and vocal ability set him apart from other bandleaders during the Big Band Era and helped him become one of the legendary figures in jazz history. Bandleader Jimmie Lunceford’s (1902–47) approach to big band music differed from those of contemporaries Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, but his popularity and artistry rivaled and arguably eclipsed the two swing legends. Lunceford was born in 1902 in Fulton, Missouri, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Fisk University. While teaching high school in Memphis, Tennessee, Lunceford formed a student jazz band that turned professional in 1929, and recorded for RCA in 1930. In 1934, the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra was hired at the Cotton Club, which already housed big bands led by Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. Lunceford was able to find his niche in the big band landscape by valuing the ensemble over soloists. Lunceford’s orchestra also played a two-beat swing rather than the common four-beat. Sharp musicianship, humorous lyrics, and top-quality showmanship made the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra one of the leading black big bands in the United States. While a recording ban in 1942 damaged the orchestra as it triggered a mass exodus of musicians, Jimmie Lunceford remained a popular bandleader until his death in 1947. Bands of the Later Swing Era Lionel Hampton (1908–2002) was a popular bandleader who emerged in the later Swing Era and had a career that spanned over sixty years. Hampton was born in 1908, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. As a teenager, Hampton trained on the xylophone and drums and, when he was around 18 years old, moved to California to pursue a career in music. While in California, Hampton

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began playing the vibraphones, which became his principal instrument after playing them during a performance with Louis Armstrong. After spending four years with the Benny Goodman Orchestra in New York, Hampton formed his own band in 1940. The Lionel Hampton Orchestra quickly ascended to the top of the big band world and Lionel Hampton was known for his energy, showmanship, and musicianship. Hampton was also a noted educator as his band graduated many legendary jazz talents, including Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, Clark Terry, Quincy Jones, and Illinois Jaquet. The latter’s tenor saxophone solo on Hampton’s classic ‘‘Flying Home,’’ bridged swing with the emerging R & B genre and stands as one of jazz’s most celebrated solos. Bandleader, vibraphonist, and arranger Lionel Hampton remained active until his 2002 death and is one of the true greats in jazz music. A number of factors led to the decline of the Big Band/Swing Era. World War II had a negative effect on swing as many musicians were drafted and economic resources were geared toward the war, making big band tours and performances less economically viable. In addition, a musicians’ strike led to a recording ban that lasted two years. In this period, no swing bands were recorded, decreasing the popularity of big bands greatly. Vocalists, who were not apart of the union, were able to record in this period and they began to dominate the American musical landscape. Finally, the birth of bebop in the 1940s created a new and fresh jazz aesthetic, lessening the relevance of the more traditional and straightforward big band music. The music of these African American bandleaders had a huge impact on the United States from the 1920s into the 1950s and left a long-lasting legacy in American music. Further Reading Goia, Ted. 1998. The History of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press USA. Erenberg, Lewis A. 1998. Swingin the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Schuller, Gunther. 1991. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945. New York: Oxford University Press. Langston Collin Wilkins

Banks, Tyra (1973– ), Model, Television Host, Actress Tyra Banks, a top fashion model, was the first African American woman to grace the magazine covers of GQ (Gentlemen’s Quarterly) and the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. Such recognition kept her highly visible as an American icon. Tyra Lynne Banks was born December 4, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, and raised with an older brother Devin. Banks’s parents, Carolyn London, a medical photographer, and Don Banks, a computer consultant, divorced when Banks was six years old. Both parents have maintained a supportive role in managing Banks’s

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career. Upon graduation from Immaculate Heart High School, Banks planned to attend Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles to pursue a career in film. That plan was ultimately changed when at the age of seventeen and weeks before college enrollment she was offered an opportunity in the Modeling industry. Elite Model Management offered Banks a modeling job in Paris, France, for the fall haute show in 1991. Other designers were impressed by Banks’s grace on the catwalk and booked her to model in twenty-five shows, which was very unusual for a first-time model. After the Paris show Banks was offered several contracts representing such designers as Todd Oldham, Ralph Lauren, and Chanel. A long-term contract with Cover Girl cosmetics made Banks the second African American woman to achieve that recognition. In addition to becoming the first African American woman to achieve cover status on GQ (Gentlemen’s Quarterly) and the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, she also appeared on the cover of Victoria’s Secret catalog and Essence magazine. Another honor for Banks was to be featured in People’s magazine ‘‘50 Most Beautiful People’’ in 1994 and 1996. In 1997 she received recognition as Supermodel of the Year. She retired from modeling in 2005. The following year, Time magazine named Banks as one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People. Banks began an acting career with movie credits in Higher Learning, Love and Basketball, Coyote Ugly, Larceny, Felicity, The Apartment Complex, and the thriller Halloween: Resurrection. Along with movie credits Banks made television appearances and became the host of two very popular shows. Banks has also added television to her career. In 2003 she created and became the executive producer of the television show America’s Next Top Model. The program is open to all women without prejudice or discrimination who aspire for an opportunity to win a modeling contract. The highly rated show was nominated for a NAACP Image Award and the GLADD Media Awards. The Tyra Banks Show began in 2005 as a daytime talk show with Banks as the host. That show was also nominated for a NAACP Image Award and won several Daytime Emmy Awards. Her multifaceted career has yielded financial success. Banks established an endowment at her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School, which provides Tyra Banks Scholarships for African American girls. She founded a summer camp called ‘‘T-Zone’’ for teenage girls and provides opportunities to such girls from various backgrounds to build self-esteem. The teens participate in various discussions including relationships, diversity, stereotypes, beauty, and body image. Banks wrote the book, Tyra’s Beauty Inside and Out, which discusses beauty and health. She shares words of wisdom as a motivational speaker to bring encouragement to the daily lives of young people. Further Reading Finkleman, Abigail. 2009. ‘‘Banks, Tyra.’’ Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present. Vol. 1. Ed. Paul Finkelman. New York: Oxford University Press. Brennan, Carol, and Sara Pendergast. ‘‘Tyra Banks.’’ 2005. In Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 50. Detroit: Thomson Gale.

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Stewart, Pearl. ‘‘Tyra Banks: It All Began Right Here.’’ Black Collegian, 40, no. 2 (January 2010): 8–11. Thieme, Darius. 2003. ‘‘Tyra Banks.’’ In Notable Black American Women, Book 3. Detroit: Gale Group. Sharon D. Brooks

BAPS (Black American Princesses) The popular culture of contemporary African Americans includes discussions and experiences of a number of people who are somehow set aside from black masses. They are identified by such terms as Buppies (Black Urban Professionals), as well as BAPS, or Black American Princesses. While a Buppy is not gender-restrictive, BAP is, and by its very definition, embraces females only. Both terms, however speak to group interculture and group and selfpride. A BAP is best defined by the authors of The BAP Handbook, who call her African America’s pampered female from a middle-to-upper-class family. She feels a ‘‘sense of entitlement’’ and is accustomed to nothing but the best. She is poised and confident, giving the world the idea that she has everything. BAP culture is a journey of privileged black females from birth throughout life. Even if not born into a privileged family, one may become a BAP by engaging in hard work and observing the BAP culture. On the other hand, a princess may appear in ‘‘all shapes, sizes, and colors.’’ There are, however, cultural differences and varying intrinsic traits between a BAP and another type of princess; for example, a JAP, or Jewish American Princess. The mind-set of a BAP begins early. The parents are eager to provide the best for their little princess and give her a ‘‘solid value system.’’ She is taught to be respectful and considerate; is allowed some selfish moments; and is overindulged, spoiled, but never obnoxious or intolerable. Misconceptions of a BAP are that, like the singer Madonna’s song and nickname, she is a ‘‘Material Girl.’’ While a BAP lives a privileged life, she is far from the term ‘‘shallow’’ used to define her. There is now a Miss Black American Princess pageant for 13 to 17-year-olds. Some sources mistakenly describe a BAP as a wealthy, uncultured African American girl. As well, a 1997 film, B.A.P.S., depicts Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle—two women whose images of the black American princess cast doubt on her refinement; however the movie is considered a spoof. Self-assessment tests help blacks to determine whether or not they are a BAP or a ‘‘wannabe.’’ Sure signs of BAP-ism are insisting on parking illegally and protesting the towing of your car, insisting on the original and not a copy, habitual weekend trips to Europe, assuming that the world is your oyster, maintaining a

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standing weekend hair appointment, and insisting on cleaning the house or apartment before the cleaning lady comes. Parents arrange music lessons for their BAPS and engage them in the original BAP sports, such as tennis, skiing, horseback riding, hockey, and swimming. BAPs take ballet. They visit museums and the theater with people of the same background, wealth, and set of values. As children, they join Jack and Jill and annually attend conventions with their parents, such as the national medical, dental, or bar associations; the Links, Inc.; the Boul
e; or sororities or fraternities. BAPS have their own car, attend certain colleges, college homecomings, and churches; join a selective sorority; and visit resort areas on spring break. For lowmaintenance hairstyles and peace of mind, they wear sporty braids, locks, or twists, and remain impeccably dressed and groomed. After college, graduate, and professional school, BAPS join service organizations such as the Links, the Moles, and the Girl Friends. They converge in cities across the country to continue networking, shop, and attend professional meetings of their own. As she was taught early on, a BAP gives back to her community and recognizes her civic duty. The lifecycle for a BAP is continued with her marriage and a little BAP or two of her own. Further Reading Johnson, Kalyn, Tracey Lewis, Karla Lightfoot, and Ginger Wilson. 2001. The BAP Handbook: The Official Guide to the Black American Princess. New York: Broadway Books. Jessie Carney Smith

Baptisms Baptisms, a religious ritual, involve the immersion of a human body in water. Baptisms indicate purification, a spiritual conversion, and a spiritual rebirth. Since slavery times, baptisms, particularly those held outdoors, have played a monumental role in African American life and have functioned as a major archetypal motif in assorted mediums of African American popular culture, such as art, dance, and literature. Religious beliefs were deeply entrenched in the culture of African societies, but Christianity and practices such as baptisms, were virtually unknown in most regions in Africa. Africans, mostly from West Africa, were introduced to Christianity when they were transported to North America as slaves. Although African slaves were often prohibited from religious worship, some slaves either engaged in religious activities in secret or were permitted by their slave masters to conduct worship services in their slave quarters. The Baptist faith was one of the most prominent religions practiced by blacks in the South, and outdoor baptisms were one of the denomination’s most distinctive features.

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Outdoor baptisms were commonly practiced by blacks between the slave years and the 1950s, when racial segregation had not yet been abolished. Because blacks mostly conducted baptisms themselves in their own communities, the practice emerged as a unique cultural expression. Baptisms frequently commenced with a procession, led by the preacher and deacons, that led from the designated worship place or church building to a river or lake. Individuals in the procession sang Spirituals, like ‘‘Wade in the Water’’ and ‘‘Take Me to the Water.’’ (Popular spirituals concerning traditional black baptisms are still sung today in black churches.) The children and adults who were baptized at these gatherings commonly dressed in white robes and descended into the water, where the preacher would speak words over them and submerge them underwater. Baptisms were frequently followed by fellowship at the church. Generally, the experience was considered uplifting to all the participants and attendees and functioned as an important solidifying moment for the community. Baptisms were so much a part of the new culture of the African descendants in the New World and the collective experiences and memories of subsequent generations of African Americans that it emerged as a reoccurring theme in works that reflected black life. It should come as no surprise that the majority of these pieces were created during two critical artistic movements in African American history: the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Among the artists who explored African American baptisms in artwork were Howard Cook, Clementine Hunter, William W. Johnson, and Romare Bearden. Cook, a white artist from Springfield, Massachusetts, utilized assorted methods, such as etching, woodcutting, waterpainting, and oil painting. He produced a number of works depicting America’s diversity in New Mexico and several southern states. River Baptism (1935), a wood engraving, shows an African American woman wading in a pool of water, with arms outstretched and her face filled with spiritual bliss. Other images in this piece include a preacher who prepares to baptize another woman and a solemn crowd huddled on the shore. In 1944, African American artist William W. Johnson produced I Baptize Thee, a vibrant rendering of an outdoor baptism of an African American male in a white robe. Two males stand at his side dressed in black with their eyes closed. On the shore is a man in a white robe waiting his turn to be baptized and African Americans dressed in their Sunday best clothing. Hunter and Bearden were other vaunted artists who depicted baptisms in their artwork. Clementine Hunter chronicled her personal memories of life on a plantation in her paintings. In 1945, she created Panorama of a Baptism on Cane River, which portrayed a serene scene comprising a church, a procession, an outdoor baptism, and trees. Hunter’s Baptism (1964), an oil painting, displays a church and a procession of women shrouded in white and led by two individuals in black. Next to the procession is a woman in bright blue water flanked by two individuals facilitating her baptism. All of Hunter’s characters have no facial features; consequently, the paintings are void of the poignant emotions that are present in other artist’s works. Bearden, who specialized in abstract collage styles, created The Prevalence of Ritual: Baptism (1964). Bearden’s work is vastly different from artists like

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Johnson and Hunt. Rather than create bold caricatures of black life, he melded eclectic images within a single frame. For example, in Bearden’s 1964 treatment of an African American baptism, he combined fragmented images, such as African masks, the face of an African American boy, and a hand, within the backdrop of an outdoor scene and a church. Dance and literature were other mediums in which African Americans found creative ways to represent African American baptisms. Alvin Ailey, the celebrated African American dancer, choreographer, and founder of the eponymous dance company, drew from his upbringing in a black community in Texas to create expressive dances. In Revelations, an iconic dance performance, Ailey features a baptism scene. He uses colors and human motion to signify the baptism process. Everett LeRoi Jones, also known as Amiri Baraka, produced the play The Baptism (1964). This play was deemed controversial because of offensive language and dialogue. Afrocentric art, dance, and literature experienced a revival in the 1980s and 1990s. Among the themes that reappeared in black art, literature, and film by classic and modern artists was the outdoor baptism scene, an iconic image that played a poignant role in early black life. See also: Churches Further Reading Chapman, Abraham, ed. 1970. Black Voices: An Anthology of African-American Literature. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Gips, Terry, et al. 1998. Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection. San Francisco: Pomegranate. Jervis, Rick. ‘‘Outdoor Baptisms Dwindling.’’ USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com /news/religion/2009-08-04-riverbaptism_N.htm. Manning, Susan. 2004. Modern Dance, Negro Dance: Race in Motion. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Matthews, Terry. ‘‘The Religion of the Slaves.’’ Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/twelve.html. Gladys L. Knight

Baraka, Amiri (Everett LeRoi Jones, 1934– ), Poet, Playwright, Social and Political Activist, Educator Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones on October 7, 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Coyt LeRoy Jones, a postal worker, and Anna Lois (Russ), a social worker. Baraka grew up in a middle-class home and would go on to become recognized as one of the founding fathers of the Black Arts Movement—a cultural flowering that began around 1960 and lasted until about 1975, putting forth a black aesthetic rooted in black cultural experience.

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Following his education in the Newark public school system, Baraka attended Rutgers University in Newark before transferring to Howard University, where he graduated with his BA degree in 1954. After graduation, he served two years in the United States Air Force, followed by a stint at Columbia University where he studied comparative literature. During the 1950s and 1960s, Baraka lived and worked on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which afforded him a firsthand introduction to the world of literary arts. As a resident of the Lower East Side, Baraka forged relationships with avant-garde writers and edited Yugen and Floating Bear. ‘‘What I learned in the Village,’’ Baraka explained to Ted Wilson, ‘‘is the literary equivalent of what you’re born Amiri Baraka, poet and leading figure in the with in the first place. You can do anyBlack Arts Movement. (Library of Congress) thing you want to do. You want to write a poem this way or that way, do it. But then the idea of having to come through all that academic stuff and then rebel against that and do what those white poets were rebelling against, made me know I could do what I wanted to do in the first place.’’ As he matured as an artist, Baraka’s work acquired its leftist political edge, earning him recognition as one of the more radical writers in American and African American letters. During the 1960s, Baraka was explosive and prolific, publishing 12 works, which included five plays, three books of poetry, three works of nonfiction, and one work of fiction. Buoyed by Thurgood Marshall’s legal victory of Brown v. Board of Education, along with the progress of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing during the 1960s, and Baraka contributed to the raising of a revolutionary consciousness with his work in theater. His plays from the early 1960s, in particular The Baptism and The Toilet, feature homosexual characters who represent the burgeoning counterculture. Seeing theater as a medium for effective social change, Baraka infused his subsequent plays with a distinct black consciousness. Two of his most well-known plays from the 1960s are Dutchman (1964) and Slave Ship (1967). Both plays mark Baraka’s transition from a Beatnik sensibility to that of the Black Arts Movement. In Dutchman, Clay, a young black student,

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while riding the subway, is seduced by a white woman, who later kills him. In Slave Ship, Baraka created a play in which actors and audience alike experience a trans-Atlantic crossing in a slave vessel. Similar to Ralph Ellison, whose 1952 novel Invisible Man examines the metaphor of invisibility for humanity in general and for African Americans in particular, Baraka extended the particular black experience of the Middle Passage to a larger experience that crossed racial and cultural borders. When faced with racial injustice, audience and actors alike are, quite literally, in the same ship. Along with his work as a playwright, novelist, and poet, Baraka taught at the New School for Social Research from 1961 until 1964, with shorter appointments held at Columbia University and San Francisco State University. In 1961, with the feminist and Beat poet Diane di Prima, Baraka founded the American Theater for Poets. Even as early as the 1960s, Baraka showed the impulse to use his success to foster the success of other artists. Baraka’s move from the Village to Harlem encouraged him to reinvent the framework of his art, moving from the western classics to his vernacular roots. ‘‘But actually, when I got to Harlem, then I went back to my real model,’’ Baraka explained. ‘‘I still had a jazz model all the time but then it became clearer and clearer that I could use that; I could be James Brown if I wanted to; I could be John Coltrane if I wanted to. That was my heritage, my legacy, it wasn’t picking and choosing anonymous circumstances. That’s who I was anyway, the Blues, country blues, James Brown.’’ In an attempt to define the concept ‘‘black aesthetic,’’ Baraka collaborated with writer and filmmaker Larry Neal on the anthology Black Fire, published in 1968 and hailed a ‘‘literary landmark’’ by Hoyt Fuller. In the 1970s, Baraka returned home to Newark and officially changed his name to Amiri Baraka (‘‘Blessed Prince’’) in recognition of his adherence to the Kawaida faith, a blend of orthodox Islam with traditional African practices. He continued in his quest to foster art in his community by opening the Spirit House Theater. In 1992, with his wife Amina, Baraka opened Kimako’s Blues People, an arts space in Newark. In 2001, Baraka was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the James Weldon Johnson Medal for his significant contributions to American and African American life and culture. From 2002 until 2004, Baraka served as poet laureate of New Jersey, but refused to rest on his laurels and produced volumes of poetry that remain powerful statements of black consciousness: Somebody Blew Up America and Other Poems and Un Poco Low Coup. Readers seeking an overview of Baraka’s life might begin with his 1984 autobiography. Readers seeking to chart Baraka’s artistic development might begin with his fictional work, The System of Dante’s Hell, which will serve as a point of comparison for his play Slave Ship. Those readers seeking to explore the roots of Baraka’s artistic vision are encouraged to read his nonfiction work titled Blues People.

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Baraka’s trademark radical consciousness takes root in the possibility of what he calls a ‘‘better tomorrow.’’ As he explained to Wilson, ‘‘There are some things happening that speak of a better tomorrow. That’s my hope and I think that we all have to get clear again that the things we started to do in the 60s and 70s that are not completed have to be picked up before we leave the planet. We have to leave a clear legacy to the next generation.’’ Further Reading Bordman, Gerald, and Thomas S. Hischak, eds. 2004. ‘‘Baraka, Amiri.’’ The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Turco, Lewis. 1996. ‘‘Baraka, Amiri Imamu.’’ In The Oxford Companion to TwentiethCentury Poetry in English. Ian Hamilton, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Wilson, Ted. 2007. ‘‘Ted Wilson Interviews Amiri Baraka.’’ Black Renaissance (Fall): 8– 13, 15–23, 142. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Barbecue The story of barbecue in African American popular culture is deeply rooted in the history of black people. Although it is defined as a means of cooking meat slowly over embers, or hot, white ashes, barbecue is considered as a social gathering, festival, or cookout as well. Barbecue establishments have become a traditional business, ranging from early roadside stands to sit-down or drive-through restaurants. They have become a cultural icon for many African American entrepreneurs. There are accounts of roasting meat on sticks as far back as 1526, and some credit the Spanish for demonstrating this method. By 1668, the word ‘‘boucan’’ was used to refer to a method of preparation. Various accounts of barbecuing in different cultures occur as well. For African Americans, however, barbecuing may be traced to the Senegambia region of West Africa, where open braising of meat was a common practice. The African heritage of slaves who were relocated to the West Indies was demonstrated as they continued the practice. Thus, slaves who came from the West Indies to the South, particularly to South Carolina, brought with them their method of cooking pork. Whatever its real history, barbecuing has become a product of techniques used by different cultural groups or regions that now have blended to fit the appetites of different people. Folklorist William H. Wiggins Jr. recounts a folktale of an emancipated slave who rejected his former master’s low wages that consisted of the head, feet, entrails, and tail of a slaughtered hog. The former slave tells his master that he is ‘‘eating further up on the hog than that,’’ and now eats ribs, backbone, pork chops, and other parts. This, according to Wiggins, gave rise to the African American phrase, ‘‘eating higher on the hog.’’ Juneteenth and other freedom celebrations

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often evoke rituals of slavery time, and call for barbecue to link celebrants with their slave ancestors in rite and symbol and to acknowledge racial progress. Some celebrants also use as their Juneteenth motto: ‘‘From the pigpen to the palace.’’ Through the years, church celebrations in the African American community, whether urban or rural homecomings, revivals, or other occasions, have led to a survival of the traditional open-pit barbecue when whole hogs were cooked from eight to ten hours, turned regularly, and brushed with a specially prepared sauce. Barbecuing became popular in the South after the Civil War, when servants cooked whole hogs for special occasions for whites. As slaves were freed, they maintained their special technique for barbecuing and later opened roadside stands, or the American South’s first restaurants. They used the open-pit methods; that is, they cooked their meat over a hole in the ground. When health officials set standards for sanitation requirements as early as the late 1800s and into the 1900s, many blacks were unable to meet the standards and white barbecue businesses flourished instead. Many retained black cooks to prepare their dishes. The blending of cooking technique spread in various ways. Some claim that, as slaves were relocated from the Deep South to Texas, they took their talents for barbecuing with them and later applied them to beef—a meat in great abundance in that state. Blacks who migrated from the South to the North, Midwest, and elsewhere also may have preserved similar techniques for cooking, as black barbecue joints and Soul Food restaurants opened there. This may account for the barbecue joints tucked away in urban streets and corners that were known for their good products. A popular notion in American culture is that only blacks are able to cook ‘‘real’’ barbecue. Racial segregation in the South and beyond rarely kept whites from patronizing black barbecue establishments located in the black community. In fact, their patronage helped to make some black barbecue establishments became nationally known. This is true of both Bryant’s and Gates’s establishments located in Kansas City, Missouri. Arthur Bryant founded Bryant’s Barbecue in 1970, while George W. Gates opened Gates’s old Kentucky Bar-B-Que in 1946. In addition to his specialty, ribs, Gates offers barbecued chicken, beef, and turkey. The mail order businesses that both firms established enabled them to distribute their meats and sauces nationwide. Some elements in popular culture have a negative view of barbecue. According to Wiggins, Black Muslims, for example, believe that a slave mentality will be perpetuated among African Americans who eat pork and perceive pork as ‘‘being symbolic of the hated white man.’’ A common practice today, however, is to avoid pork and other soul foods, as well as the traditional method of cooking with pork, fat, or drippings, since they are detrimental to one’s health. Reliance on such foods leads to high blood pressure, obesity, and heart disease, thus causing many in the black community to eat healthier foods instead. While barbecue was important earlier in freedom celebrations in the African American community, it is also important today in communitywide celebrations that emerged well after the modern Civil Rights Movement. Various festivals

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and celebrations, such as blues festivals, cook-off contests, and the popular Memphis in May event each year are all racially integrated and embrace an activity long practiced in the African American community. Street fairs, family reunions, football games (especially Sports Classics and college homecomings) are times for offering up barbecue ribs for the fans. Traditionally, when blacks visit their native communities for such events, they frequent barbecue joints for the down-home style dish that they remember well. In Nashville, for example, the Untouchables, a social club for black men, has existed for over fifty years; the members get together each July 3 for an all-night barbecue. Using the open-pit method, they barbecue a whole hog which they serve the following day to their families and friends. The event is simply a Fourth of July festivity as well as a reunion for former celebrants, those who return home at that time. Further Reading Elie, Lolis Eric, ed. 2004. Cornbread Nation 2. Chapel Hill, NC: Published in Association with the Southern Folkways Alliance, Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi by the University of North Carolina Press. Smith, Jessie Carney. ‘‘Barbecue Establishments.’’ 2006. In Encyclopedia of African American Business. Vol. 1. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Thompson, Kathleen. 2006. In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, Vol. 1. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Wiggins, William H., Jr. 1987. O Freedom! Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Jessie Carney Smith

Barbershops The barbershop historically served as a center of cultural exchange and a repository of black oral expression in the African American community. They were—and are—a place for the various strata of the black community to mix. Politicians have been known to frequent these and other black businesses to solicit votes for candidates who assert their interest in the black community and its needs. Regarded as a place for gossip, more importantly they are a source of black male discourse, affirmation, and understanding. As noted in the Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folk Culture, barbershops are ‘‘repositories of African American folk culture, stock markets of cultural exchange, and schools of knowledge production.’’ In the antebellum United States, African Americans dominated the barbering business. Black barbers of this era who had an exclusive and pampered white clientele also had economic advantages. One such barber was slave-born William Tiler Johnson (1809–51), known as the ‘‘Barber of Natchez,’’ who owned three barbershops and a bathhouse in Natchez, Mississippi. He was freed in 1820. His extensive

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diary, dated 1835–51, notes his expenditures and investments. After working as an apprentice, Johnson established his first barbershop in Port Gibson and sold it when he moved to Natchez in 1830. There he purchased the shop owned by his brotherin-law, James Miller, a free black barber in the city. Johnson served a predominantly white clientele but hired slave apprentice barbers in his shops. Alonzo F. Herndon (1858–1927), was a prosperous barber, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a great economic and social leader. Born a slave near Social Circle, Georgia, and emancipated at age seven, he worked on a farm and then did odd jobs in small towns in Georgia. He also learned barbering—one of the most lucrative professions for a black man in the segregated South. Herndon opened his first shop in Jonesboro but left to practice his profession throughout the state from about 1878 to 1882. He also had short stays in Rome, Georgia, and in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but realized his dream for success in Atlanta. His determination to succeed led him to become a first-class barber. He joined the city’s most prominent black barber, Dougherty Hutchins, whose success was seen in the pre-Civil War period. Herndon soon operated a five-chair shop and by 1893 owned three more shops. Although his black clientele served him well, the shop that brought him recognition throughout the South was the Crystal Palace—his business for white clientele. Located on Peachtree Street, his elegant shop, which opened in 1902, boasted twenty-five chairs and twenty baths and showers. Herndon traveled to Europe, where he learned to enhance his skills and his service to his customers. He also upgraded his shop with elegant furnishing that he saw while in Paris, such as beveled plate glass, which he copied. He also bought gold mirrors and bronze and crystal chandeliers during his travels. He added white marble walls and floors, and porcelain barber chairs. Those who frequented the Crystal Palace included judges, lawyers, doctors, and political figures. His access to these important and prosperous white men enabled Herndon to increase his wealth, which he invested in real estate and in the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, for which he is more widely known. Despite the respect that white and black Atlantans held for Herndon, he remained vulnerable to racism. During the Atlanta race riot of 1906, the Crystal Palace was damaged, four of his barbers were injured, and a bootblack was killed. Black Leaders as Barbers Among other African American men who once operated lucrative barber shops were Cincinnati barber William Watson, a former slave who prospered enough to purchase freedom for his mother and siblings. In 1820, abolitionist and barbershop-owner John Bathan Vashon (1792–1854) opened the first public bathhouse west of the Alleghenies. Daniel Hale Williams (1856–1931), pioneer physician and hospital founder who became internationally known for performing the first open-heart surgery, spent a part of his early life working as a barber to earn a living. In 1892, John Henry Merrick (1859–1919) cofounded many businesses in North Carolina, including North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, for

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which he is best known. After a stint as co-owner, in 1892 he became sole proprietor of the Merrick and Wright Barbershop. Eventually he owned about nine racially segregated shops and accommodated white and black clients in different shops. He invested his profits in real estate. African American barbershops with a large white clientele fared well until the late nineteenth century, when Italian and German immigrants competed for their clients. Perhaps due to racial restrictions still in effect, the immigrants drove them from downtown areas where their businesses had flourished. When laws were established requiring formal training for barbers, African Americans also lost their monopoly on the business. Henry M. Morgan (1893–1961) helped to resolve this problem for blacks and established the first national chain of barber colleges for blacks. In 1934 he founded Tyler Barber College in Tyler, Texas, followed by such colleges in Houston, Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis, and New York City. The colleges soon produced 80 percent of the black barbers in the country. Barbershops and Beauty Shops have been among the most popular blackowned businesses in the black community. For example, of the ten most numerous types of such businesses in Chicago in 1938, beauty parlors headed the list with 287, grocery stores with 257, and barber shops with 207. Joseph Pierce’s study of retail stores owned and operated by blacks in sample cities in 1944, including such cities as Atlanta, Baltimore, Durham, Houston, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Washington, and others, showed 600 beauty shops and 404 barber shops. The existence and prosperity of these businesses depended largely upon a black clientele. Barber and beauty shops comprise more than one-fourth of the businesses studied and were important among the recommendations that Pierce gave for improvement of the black businesses. He called for better-trained barbers; however, the successful operators saw that ‘‘students of economic and social conditions and their record-keeping devices . . . [were] adequate and sound.’’ From the earliest accounts of African American barbering businesses to recent times, those African American barbers who were successful owned and operated several shops within a city or expanded their businesses to nearby towns. Their larger shops hired several barbers each who had a chair of his own. Many African American artists and scholars have addressed the barbershop in their works. These include Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, and Richard Wright. Barbershop talk is the subject of several separate works, including Melvin Murphy’s Barber Shop Talk: The Other Side of Black Men (1998) and Melissa Victoria Harris-Lackwell’s Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought (2004). The black barbershop was highlighted with the release in 2002 of the comedy film Barbershop, starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, and Anthony Anderson. The lively conversation included such significant issues as Rosa Parks’s contribution to the Civil Rights Movement, Arizona’s refusal to recognize the Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday, reparations for blacks, and blacks and white people who act like each other. Notwithstanding the stereotypical images in the film, Barbershop included many typical discussions that occur in a real life business venture of that type.

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Further Reading Davis, Edwin Adams, and William Ransom Hogan. 1954. The Barber of Natchez. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Dupont, Jill. ‘‘Barbershops.’’ 2009. In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present, Vol. 1. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Ingham, John N., and Lynne B. Feldman. 1994. African-American Business Leaders. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Nunley, Vorris. ‘‘The Barbershop.’’ 2006. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folk Culture, Vol. 1. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Pierce, Joseph A. 1947. Negro Business and Business Education. Repr. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971. Jessie Carney Smith

Barden, Don (1943– ), Entrepreneur, Casino Executive Don Herbert Barden, born in Inkster, Michigan, in 1943, is the first African American to own and operate a national casino company. Barden Companies, which operates casinos and develops real estate, is ranked among the ten largest African American companies in the United States. Barden’s first venture, a record store, was launched after he dropped out of college at Ohio’s Central State University in 1963. It was merely the stepping-stone to other entrepreneurial pursuits. He traded the record store for a public relations firm. When advertising failed to produce the expected financial rewards, Barden sought opportunities in real estate. He was also a popular television news anchor and a talk show host in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1972 he was elected as the first African American to serve on the Lorain City Council. Further political ambitions were deferred after an unsuccessful bid for the Ohio state senate. Barden’s vision to expand cable television to low-income urban black communities was realized through skillful negotiation with cable franchises. Barden Communications earned lucrative profits with a two percent market share. By 1981, Barden Cablevision owned the cable television franchise to black communities in Detroit, Michigan. A 1983 partnership with McLean Hunter solidified a fifteen-year cable contract for the Detroit market. Never one to rest on his laurels, Barden’s developed a keen interest in casino gambling. At the opportune moment in 1984, he sold his cablevision business and purchased the Majestic Star riverboat casino in Gary, Indiana. Barden’s proposal to build a horse track with slot machines in Detroit was opposed and abandoned. An international investment deal with General Motors to manufacture and sell GM vehicles in Namibia garnered little profit. In 2001, he acquired three casinos through bankruptcy, in Las Vegas; Tunica, Mississippi; and Black Hawk, Colorado, significantly increasing his holdings. He spent $253 million to purchase the Trump Casino-Hotel riverboat in Gary, Indiana. After lobbying heavily in Pennsylvania, he won the bid to build and operate a casino

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on the Pittsburgh waterfront. To seal the deal, Barden pledged $7.5 million a year for thirty years to fund a new hockey arena. Legal wrangling and financial woes delayed the project until 2007. Barden takes risks, but he carefully considers the stakes and weighs the bets. His foresight, wisdom, flexibility, and ability to ferret out opportunities for quick investment have contributed to his phenomenal success. He resides in Detroit with his wife Bella Marshall and son Keenan. Further Reading Bray, Hiawatha. ‘‘Wired for Success.’’ Black Enterprise 22 (June 1992): 134–37. Dingle, Derek T. 1999. Black Enterprise Titans of the B.E. 100’s: Black CEOs Who Redefined and Conquered American Business. New York: Wiley. Hamill, Sean. ‘‘For Casino Owner, Winning a License Was Not a Matter of Luck,’’ New York Times, A20, December 12, 2007. LoDico, John, and Rebecca Parker. ‘‘Don Barden.’’ 1999. Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 20. Detroit: Gale Research. Janette Prescod

Barkley, Charles (1963– ), Basketball Player, Sports Commentator Charles Barkley was named one of the National Basketball Association’s fifty greatest players during the league golden anniversary in 1996. He played sixteen professional seasons, from 1984 until 2000. In the twenty-first century, Barkley assumed new roles as commentator and pitchman. A pop culture icon because he has stretched beyond sport, Barkley is a man of strong opinions. He has the uncanny ability to offend and endear himself to fans, often at the same time. Barkley’s winning formula is unvarnished honesty. At the peak of his NBA stardom he famously counseled that children should not look to sports stars and celebrities as role models; parents and teachers, he said, were better choices. On another occasion he riled leaders of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) by saying that wildlife were fit only to eat or wear. Barkley said that as he chomped on a hamburger. He makes no apologies for his outrageous statements. Barkley corrects critics who say he speaks before his thinks. To the contrary, he insists. He makes off-color comments after pondering the consequences. His friend Michael Jordan said Barkley utters opinions that people like him are often thinking, but are too squeamish to say in public. Charles Wade Barkley was born February 20, 1963, in Leeds, Alabama, the only child of Frank and Charcey (Glenn) Barkley. The boy’s parents separated and later divorced. Young Charles was raised by his mother, a domestic worker,

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and a grandmother, a beautician who also worked in a meat packing plant. At age nine, Charles spent most of his spare time playing basketball. He failed, however, to make his high school basketball team on the initial try. Charles succeeded by his junior year. At that time he was oddly shaped for basketball, 5 feet 10 inches tall but wide at 220 pounds. By senior year, he grew to 6 feet 4inches and 240 pounds. During his senior year, Barkley’s rebounding and scoring talent earned him a scholarship offer from Auburn University in his home state. At Auburn, Barkley’s notoriety took root. His weight ballooned to 300 pounds and there he was tagged with nicknames such as ‘‘Boy Gorge’’ and ‘‘round mound Phoenix Suns forward Charles Barkley shoots over of rebound.’’ Nevertheless, Houston Rockets forward Robert Horry during the Barkley led the Southeastern first quarter in their playoff game May 11, 1995, in Phoenix. (AP/Wide World Photos) Conference in rebounding his freshman, sophomore, and junior years, and led his Auburn team to its first appearance in the NCAA tournament. Barkley skipped his senior year to try and make it in the NBA. In 1984, Barkley was an intriguing prospect. He was often listed as 6 feet 6 inches tall, a laughable claim since his credible height was 6 feet 4 inches. Barkley routinely outjumped and outmuscled much taller opponents. He rejected a $75,000 contract offer from the Philadelphia 76ers and reported to camp unsigned, a risky ploy for an unheralded rookie. But after an outstanding tryout, Barkley agreed to a $2 million, four-year contract. He was mentored on the court by Julius ‘‘Dr. J’’ Erving, whose team had won the championship a year before Barkley’s arrival. In his rookie season, Barkley was the only 76er to play in every regular season game and he averaged 14 points and nearly 9 rebounds per game. Barkley also racked up numerous technical fouls

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and fines for haranguing officials. The next season, Barkley became a starter and his scoring and rebounding averages improved. In 1987, Erving retired and the 76ers became Barkley’s team. Management acquired talented players to complement their leader and the 76ers won more games and pushed deeper into the playoffs. In 1989–90, Barkley’s team won its division with a 53–29 record. After winning the first round of the playoffs, they succumbed in the second round to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. That year Barkley averaged 25 points, nearly 12 rebounds, and he rung up a record $36,000 in fines for offenses that included allegedly spitting on a referee, making a bet with an opponent over who would score a winning basket, and fighting during a game against the Detroit Pistons that escalated into a bench-clearing brawl. That year a vote by his peers got him named Sporting News Player of the Year. Barkley narrowly lost NBA Most Valuable Player to Los Angeles Laker Magic Johnson. By the early 1990s, Barkley was an established NBA all-star. Former taunts about his girth like ‘‘round mound’’ and ‘‘Boy Gorge’’ were replaced with ‘‘Sir Charles.’’ He was also an incorrigible bad boy. More than thirty people picketed the 76ers arena when Barkley joked after a hard-fought overtime win: ‘‘This is a game that if you lose, you go home and beat your wife and kids.’’ He defended his remark as a jocular aside that was not intended for the newspapers. Four months later in March 1991, Barkley spit in the direction of an adult spectator who yelled racial epithets, but missed and splattered an eight-year-old girl. Barkley was chagrined and he apologized. MVP, Reluctant Role Model Barkley’s eight-year run with the 76ers ended in 1992. He was traded to the Phoenix Suns. In Philadelphia, Barkley had been the shortest player ever to win an NBA rebounding title, averaging 14.6 in 1986–87. His productivity continued as a Phoenix Sun. Barkley earned the NBA Most Valuable Player Award during the 1992–93 season. He led the Suns deep into the playoffs twice, but championships eluded him. In 1993, Barkley recorded his ‘‘I am not a role model’’ commercial for Nike sporting goods. He was a member of the gold medal-winning 1992 and 1996 U.S. Olympic ‘‘Dream Teams’’ of NBA stars. In movies, Barkley played a hulking adversary in Space Jam, the 1996 animated feature that starred Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. Injuries began to take a toll on Barkley’s body and productivity. In the summer of 1996, he was traded to the Houston Rockets. A devastating knee injury—torn quadriceps tendon—ended Barkley’s playing career. When he was done, in 2000, Barkley joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Karl Malone as the only superstars who recorded at least 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds, and 4,000 assists. Reliably, Barkley joked about his forced retirement from professional sport: ‘‘Now I’m just what America needs—another unemployed black man.’’ Barkley would not be unemployed for long. He deftly used humor as a blunt-talking analyst with Turner Network Television and CNN. He became cohost with NBA champion Kenny Smith and moderator Ernie Johnson on Inside the NBA, a TNT network postgame show.

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Barkley has been fodder for several autobiographies and books, including Outrageous: The Fine Life and Flagrant Good Times of Basketball’s Irresistible Force (1992), written with Roy S. Johnson; I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It (2002), by Barkley and with an introduction and edited by Michael Wilbon; and Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man: Race, Power, Fame, Identity, and Why Everyone Should Read My Book (2006), a collection of interviews of notable people on the subject of race, conducted by Barkley and edited by Michael Wilbon. All has not been rosy with Charles Barkley’s image in recent years, however. He has acknowledged being a compulsive gambler and was charged with a civil suit to repay $400,000 he owed to a Las Vegas Casino. He told the New York Times on May 20, 2008, that he had paid the debt. He also said that he planned to quit at that point, at least for a few years. In late 2008, he was arrested for drunken driving and served three days in the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2009 and was required to attend an alcohol treatment program. Despite his problems, Barkley was still able to get work as an advertising pitchman, which emphasized his sense of humor. For example, a 2010 Taco Bell box meal advertisement showed Sir Charles at this clowning best, strutting through a crowd and reciting a verse. He is also the set-up and punchline in T-Mobile cellular telephone commercials with twenty-first century NBA superstars Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat) and Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic). Wade and Howard took turns poking fun at Barkley’s awkward golf swings or ineptitude at playing video games. Barkley self-effacingly asked for doughnuts or virtually pulled Howard’s hamstring while playing a video basketball game. Charles Barkley, an NBA legend, retired from his sport at the end of the twentieth century, yet he remains fresh and visible in the twenty-first century as a commentator and funny man. Further Reading Barkley, Charles, W. 2002. I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It. Michael Wilbon, ed. New York: Random House. Barkley, Charles W., and Roy S. Johnson. 1992. Outrageous: The Fine Life and Flagrant Good Times of Basketball’s Irresistible Force. New York: Simon & Schuster. Fifty Greatest NBA Players. http://www.nba.com/history/players/50greatest.html. Malone, Karl. ‘‘One Role Model to Another: Whether He Likes It or Not, Charles Barkley Sets an Example that Many will Follow.’’ Sports Illustrated 78 (June 14, 1993): 84. Sandomir, Richard. ‘‘Barkley Says Gambling Debt Is Paid.’’ New York Times, May 20, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/sports/basketball/20barkley.html?refbasketball. Wayne Dawkins

Baseball The African American experience or deeply woven into the game of baseball from its inception. During slavery, African Americans in bondage played baseball during time away from the concentrated labor of southern plantations, and

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in the antebellum northeastern United States, African Americans participated in white amateur baseball. All-black teams, too, can be found in the early landscape of baseball, where teams such as the Colored Union Club, the Monitors, the Philadelphia Pythians, the Brooklyn Uniques, and the Philadelphia Excelsiors served as harbingers for the Negro Baseball Leagues of the twentieth century. In the 1870s, predominantly white colleges had black baseball players. John L. Harrison played for Marietta College; the Walker brothers, Moses Fleetwood ‘‘Fleet’’ and Weldy, played for Oberlin College; and Julius P. Haynes for Dartmouth. In the 1890s, Amherst College was led by their African American captain, James Frances Gregory, whose brother, Eugene, pitched for Harvard. Formed in 1876, the National League practiced a ‘‘tacit prohibition’’ of black players. Black players could be found in minor league clubs, but they were denied the opportunity to play against the best white players. Of John ‘‘Bud’’ Fowler, who began his professional career in 1878, a journalist from Sporting Life noted in Rogosin and Riess, ‘‘He is one of the best general players in the country, and if he had a white face would be playing with the best of them.’’ Despite the odds against him, in 1883, ‘‘Fleet’’ Walker, of Oberlin fame, entered the highest ranks of white baseball as a catcher for Toledo. In a career spanning fifty-one games, he batted .253 and established himself as an outstanding defensive catcher. Yet, for all his skill, ‘‘Fleet’’ Walker suffered indignities at the hands of white fans and players, even teammates, including one of his pitchers, who said, according to Rogosin and Riess, that Walker was ‘‘the best catcher I ever worked with, but I dislike a Negro and whenever I had to pitch to him I used anything I wanted without looking at his signals.’’ Toward the end of the 1883 season, ‘‘Fleet’’ Walker’s brother, Weldy, joined him on the Toledo team, making the Walker brothers pioneers across baseball’s color line over a half century before Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Despite individual achievements by African Americans, such as pitcher George Stovey of Newark setting an International League record with thirty-four wins in one season and Frank Grant of Buffalo batting .366 in 1887 and leading the league in extra-base hits, white resentment against black success mounted to the extent that after 1889, no black players could be found in the International League. One of the results of this embargo was the formation of black professional clubs such as the Philadelphia Orions, the St. Louis Black Stockings, and the Cuban Giants, who became a famous barnstorming club, playing against allblack teams, college teams, even professional white teams. The ‘‘Cuban’’ part of their name was used to reduce racial prejudice and ‘‘Giants’’ was homage to the National League team in New York City. Twentieth-Century Black Baseball By the turn of the twentieth century, black participation in baseball was particularly pronounced. African Americans played baseball in sandlots, while enrolled in colleges and universities, even while enlisted in the armed services. The sport, too, was popular among many of the leaders of the race, such as the activist

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Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and the diplomat, writer, and educator, James Weldon Johnson. Johnson had attended Atlanta University, and the city of Atlanta became known as one of the hotbeds of black college baseball. Along the way, a bumper crop of talented black players were making the game their own. Andrew ‘‘Rube’’ Foster, born in Calvert, Texas, in 1879, was an outstanding pitcher, compiling back-to-back fifty-win seasons, and an entrepreneur who founded the Chicago American Giants in 1911 and the National Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, or the Negro National League (NNL), in 1920. Launching with six teams in the Midwestern United States, the NNL was a financial success but began to suffer with Foster’s failing health. With the onset of the Great Depression and Foster’s death in 1930, the NNL folded in the following year. Gus Greenlee revived the Negro National League in 1933 on the strength of money he had gained through running illegal lotteries. Greenlee owned the Pittsburgh Crawfords, a club that featured some of the greatest players of alltime. Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, James ‘‘Cool Papa’’ Bell, and Judy Johnson would all go on to become inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a result of their skill and perseverance. In 1937, the white-owned Negro American League (NAL), featuring the Kansas City Monarchs from Foster’s day, began operations. As a result, Negro League baseball became divided geographically into eastern (NNL) and western (NAL) clubs with a highly celebrated and well-attended East-West All-Star Game. To remain financially solvent during the Great Depression, Negro League baseball was innovative. Night games were played to encourage day laborers to attend games after work. Even so, the game itself faced labor struggles as players would jump teams, often during the same season, for higher wages. Some of the better players would travel to the Caribbean for winter ball for additional income. It was a barnstorming life for Negro League baseball players. As Gloria Naylor wrote in her 1993 novel, Bailey’s Caf
e, with prose that bristles with a jazz-like cadence: ‘‘so the Northern games are where he goes all out and hopefully gets himself voted into the East-West Classics and his team into the Negro World Series, which makes it September but not quitting time because with all of this the pay hasn’t been too great and there’s always winter ball in Florida for the tourists or maybe Cuba, leaving just enough time to start preseason barnstorming again in February.’’ While George Herman ‘‘Babe’’ Ruth revolutionized white professional baseball, making it a game of power as he blasted behemoth homeruns at Yankee Stadium (known in the lore as ‘‘The House That Ruth Built’’), Negro League baseball was a game of speed, defense, and pitching. Lacking the economic resources of white professional baseball, the Negro Leagues favored pitchers because the baseballs were often scuffed, allowing hurlers to challenge the laws of physics with their offerings. Growing up in Gasoline Point, near Mobile, Alabama, author Albert Murray as a boy watched Satchel Paige pitch, and in his novel Train Whistle Guitar, he offers readers a near-mythic account of Paige. After securing two outs in the bottom of the ninth with a one-run lead, Gator Gus (modeled after Satchel Paige) waved all players off the field and struck out

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the final batter with an array of ‘‘mess-merizing curves followed by his special of specials the fadeaway.’’ As the case of Satchel Paige indicates, showmanship was one of the hallmarks of Negro League. Pitchers and batters might engage in prolonged bouts of playing the Dozens; batters would turn their backs to home plate, pivoting just as the pitch was delivered and displaying vicious torque with their swings. The Indianapolis Clowns, too, became baseball’s equivalent of basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters. By the 1940s, Negro League baseball had become a lucrative cultural institution filled with civic pride. The players themselves were heroes, demigods, symbols of hope. The Color Line is Broken Then came April 15, 1947, and Jackie Robinson. Robinson’s crossing of Major League Baseball’s color line spelled the end of the Negro Leagues. In 1951, the NNL folded. The NAL, with its western orientation, (the eastern seaboard of the United States had been designated as ‘‘Jackie Robinson Country’’) lasted until 1960. In 1990, the Negro League Baseball Museum opened in Kansas City, Missouri, and has proven instrumental in conserving the lore, legacy, and legends of Negro League baseball. In the summer of 1945, Wesley Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, began scouting for talent in the Negro Leagues, and in October 1945, he signed Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs, not necessarily for his skill, but for his character. Robinson opened the 1946 season with the Montreal Royals and led the league with a .349 batting average and runs scored. In 1947, Robinson conducted spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers in Cuba, where race relations were less strained, and went on to garner Rookie of the Year honors, along with leading the Dodgers to the National League pennant. Along the way, Robinson showcased the speed, defense, and timely hitting that characterized Negro League baseball. ‘‘When Jackie Robinson first started playing, everyone was surprised at his antics. He stole second base. He stole third. Jackie Robinson stole home! It was something unheard of,’’ observed Curt Flood, former outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball’s National League. Rhoden notes in Forty Million Dollar Slaves: ‘‘Jackie Robinson dancing off the base, dancing and worrying the pitcher, and wanting him to throw to first base, and saying things. That style of baseball came from the old Negro Leagues, that is the way they played. Now you add to it the hit and run, the sacrifice, the stolen base, the hit behind the runner, the jockeying on and off base, that’s the style that Jackie Robinson brought.’’ When black athletes began integrating white professional sports, they brought with them a dynamic combination of ingenuity and innovation that transformed both the sporting and the social landscapes of the United States. With Robinson’s success, the door was open, but not wide, for black baseball players to play in the major leagues. By 1953, six of the sixteen teams in Major League Baseball had black players. But change was coming. As the historian David Halberstam has noted in his study of the October 1964 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League and the New York

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Yankees of the American League, ‘‘most astute baseball observers believed now that the entire American League was inferior to the National League because it had lagged behind in signing black players.’’ The effect of black players on National League baseball in the early years of integration was undeniable—five consecutive Rookie of the Year awards (1949–53), seven consecutive Most Valuable Player awards (1953–59). They brought speed with Lou Brock, Maury Wills, and Rickey Henderson, the all-time stolen base leader; they brought power with Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, and Barry Bonds, the all-time homerun leader; they brought pitching with the likes of Paige and Bob Gibson, whose 1.12 earned run average in 1968 remains an unsurpassed mark of excellence. In 1975, Frank Robinson, former player, became the first African American manger in Major League Baseball when he took the helm for the Cleveland Indians. Strides continue to be made in the front office of ball clubs as well as league administrative offices. Baseball, in all, is full of innovative African Americans who have shaped the national pastime in ways both measurable and immeasurable. To this day, Jackie Robinson’s jersey number from his days with the Dodgers, 42, is the only number retired in all of Major League Baseball, to commemorate his achievement as a player and as a cultural icon, ushering in a wave of acceptance and appreciation that transcends the game to the larger American cultural experience. Readers seeking to form a foundation for the Negro Leagues are invited to explore Robert Peterson’s Only the Ball Was White as well as Don Rogosin’s Invisible Men: Life in Baseball’s Negro Leagues. Full of in-depth research and deep insight, one of the finest studies on Jackie Robinson remains Arnold Rampersad’s Jackie Robinson: A Biography. See also: Negro Baseball Leagues Further Reading Halberstam, David. 1995. October 1964. New York: Random House. Murray, Albert. 1998. Train Whistle Guitar. New York: Vintage. Naylor, Gloria. 1993. Bailey’s Caf
e. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Riess, Steven A., and Donn Rogosin. 1996. ‘‘Baseball.’’ In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, and Cornel West, eds. New York: Macmillan Library Reference. Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Basketball The game of basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian of Scottish descent, at the Springfield, Massachusetts, Young Men’s Christian Association Training School in 1891. Naismith’s game, one of humble origins,

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beginning with thirteen rules, two peach baskets, and a soccer ball, and designed to keep children fit during winters in Massachusetts, has grown into a multibillion dollar sporting spectacle full of narratives of triumph. It did not take long for basketball to gain popularity in the United States. By the turn of the twentieth century, public schools and churches alike began to incorporate basketball into their educational programs because it was physically vigorous, safer than boxing, and cost less than American football. During its nascent years, basketball was dominated by Jews and second-generation Eastern European immigrants. As a result of its popularity among Jewish immigrants, New York University (NYU) and City College of New York (CCNY) both enjoyed highly successful basketball programs. In 1934, NYU, with its Jewish starting five, won the basketball national championship. CCNY, with a student body that was predominantly (over 85 percent) of Jewish descent, featured some of the most important figures in the history of the game. Bernard ‘‘Barney’’ Sedran, who stood at 5 feet 4 inches and weighed 115 pounds, small even for his era, earning him the nickname ‘‘Mighty Mite,’’ was a CCNY basketball standout who went on to a thirteen-year professional career; he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1962. Long-time CCNY coach Nathan ‘‘Nat’’ Holmes, for his skill as a technician of the game, earned a berth in the Basketball Hall of Fame as well. African American Players Emerge The postwar boom of the American 1950s brought with it a move to the suburbs for people of Jewish descent, and this move meant a transition in the population of the urban game of basketball. While African Americans did play basketball at predominantly white universities before the 1950s, as was more often the case, they played basketball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). As African American players became increasingly recruited by predominantly white institutions of higher learning following the boom of the suburbs, the style of the game itself evolved. ‘‘Whereas white players had for decades run, passed, and shot in predictably set patterns, blacks jazzed up the game with the faster, louder, more explosive improvisations that came right off the urban ghetto courts,’’ wrote scholar William J. Baker. ‘‘In order to compete, whites have had to adapt to a more imaginative, innovative style of play that features the cross-over, between-the-legs dribble, the look-off pass, the double-pump move to the basket, and the demonstrative slam dunk.’’ Some combination of Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan constitutes the black style at its best; it is, according to Kirsch, ‘‘an artistry that borders on wizardry, a hard-won, practiced accuracy that is nevertheless full of surprises.’’ One of the results of basketball being developed in a nation itself divided by the color line was two different styles of play. Films like Hoosiers (1986) and Glory Road (2006) both illustrate the difference in styles of play. African American players have a long tradition of court magic, beginning with two barnstorming professional teams that began during America’s Jazz Age and the Harlem

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Renaissance. The Harlem Globetrotters and the New York (Harlem) Renaissance ‘‘Rens’’ Big Five both took the game of basketball and transformed it into an African American art form: ‘‘Alongside jazz, blues, rap, and various types of dance, basketball,’’ according to Ostrom, ‘‘has begun to be considered not just a sport but also part of African American popular cultural expression, a link to understanding innovation and experimentation in other aspects of culture, such as literature.’’ The Rens and the Globetrotters alike took on all-white teams, often outclassing their competition. While the Rens and the Globetrotters ruled the ranks of black professional basketball, some black student-athletes played at white institutions in a racially divided United States. Paul Robeson, valedictorian of the Rutgers College Class of 1919, played hoops for the Scarlet Knights. During the end of the 1920s, Columbia University in the City of New York and the University of Southern California both had rosters with black players. Yet, integration was not without its struggles. In the Southeastern Conference, Perry Wallace of Vanderbilt University was the only African American to play varsity basketball until the 1969–70 season, his senior year. ‘‘College sports in the twentieth-century American South,’’ Martin explained, ‘‘did not exist in a social and cultural vacuum. The region’s pervasive system of white supremacy and racial segregation controlled athletic policy just as tightly as it did university admissions.’’ This dynamic would later be shattered with University of Southern California fullback Sam Cunningham, the older brother of Randall Cunningham, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, who rushed for three touchdowns in a 1970 Football contest against the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama. At a convention the following year, a white football coach told Eddie Robinson, the legendary Grambling coach, that ‘‘Sam Cunningham made more progress in integrating the races than anybody else. More than any of your leaders have ever done.’’ Social and political factors aside, Cunningham’s performance did signal the significant value of black athletes in the sports industry. The increased visibility of African Americans in basketball is particularly pronounced at the professional ranks. The National Basketball Association (NBA), started in 1949, was 20 percent black in 1960 and 75 percent black by 1995, and in 2010, over 80 percent of the players are people of color, suggesting the value of the innovative play of African Americans in a sport that continues to generate billions of dollars globally each year. Develops Along Gender Lines Basketball, too, developed along gender lines. A year following the invention of basketball by Naismith, Senda Berenson, a physical education instructor at Smith College, modified Naismith’s rules, making her the founder of woman’s basketball. According to Davis, Berenson’s ‘‘womanly and vigorous’’ version of basketball disallowed ‘‘batting or stealing the ball’’ and ‘‘holding the ball for longer than three seconds.’’ On April 4, 1896, the first intercollegiate women’s basketball occurred between California and Stanford, and by 1925, thirty-seven states

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boasted tournaments for female basketball players. Mildred ‘‘Babe’’ Didrikson, celebrated and vilified for her athletic prowess in Track and Field as well as Golf, was prominent on the basketball court as well, leading her team to the Amateur Athletic Union Championship in 1931. Along with track and field, basketball was deemed an appropriate sport for women at black colleges. Three-time All-American and three-time national champion, Lusia Harris, standing at 6 feet 3 inches, dominated the landscape of women’s college basketball during the 1970s as a member of the Delta State Lady Statesmen. During her four-year tenure, the Lady Statesmen won 109 games against only 6 losses, and Harris scored 2,981 points, averaging nearly 26 points per game, to go along with 1,662 career rebounds, or 14.4 boards per game. She was the dominant player on the dominant women’s college basketball team of the 1970s. Harris’s stellar play and leadership earned her a spot on the first-ever U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team, and, in the 1976 Olympiad, she made history by scoring the first points ever recorded in women’s Olympic basketball competition. ‘‘[Lusia] broke ground for women’s basketball and paved the way for so many other players who are playing today,’’ Pat Summit, the legendary head coach at the University of Tennessee and Harris’s teammate on the 1976 team said. According to Rhoden, ‘‘Without the success, the international success, that we enjoyed, without the college game growing and growing each year, there’s not a WNBA, and so many times people forget about the pioneers in sports. Lucy as a player was a great pioneer.’’ Harris was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992, where she is recognized as ‘‘[o]ne of the greatest centers ever to play women’s basketball.’’ Following in the path forged by Lusia Harris was Cheryl DeAnne ‘‘Silk’’ Miller, a basketball prodigy who dominated high school and college basketball. During her four years at Riverside Polytechnic High School, from 1979 until 1982, ‘‘Silk’’ Miller, the sister of former NBA All-Star Reggie Miller, averaged nearly 33 points per game, and led her school to 132 wins against 4 losses. During her senior year, Miller became the first woman ever to dunk a basketball during a regulation game. Following high school, the highly recruited Miller took her game to the University of Southern California, where she led the Trojans to national championship titles in 1983 and 1984, along with setting the school record in points, boards, and free throws. As a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, Miller earned a gold medal. In 1986, her jersey number at USC was retired, and in 1995, she was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. At 6 feet 3 inches, Miller was a force. Ann Meyers said, ‘‘Cheryl plays like a man, and that’s the highest compliment I can give her.’’ Meyers herself is a standout player at University of California at Los Angeles who faced Miller in competition, along with being the first woman to receive a basketball scholarship to a major university, as well as the first captain of the U.S. women’s Olympic team and the first woman to sign an NBA contract. Miller accepted the compliment for what it was, but also, with a laugh, pointed out one of the glaring disparities between male and female basketball players. ‘‘The only thing missing,’’ Miller said, ‘‘is a paycheck.’’ Currently, women playing

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basketball in the United States have two professional leagues, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the American Basketball League (ABL). Both leagues, however, do not generate the amount of revenue as the NBA, which has invited considerable speculation about gender equity in sports. The growing popularity of basketball throughout the United States, along with its international reach, has brought black men into heightened visibility. Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man and cultural commentator, wrote in a 1970 article for Time magazine ‘‘Without the presence of Negro American style, our jokes, tall tales, even our sports would be lacking in the sudden turns, the shocks, the swift changes of pace (all jazz-shaped) that serve to remind us that the world is ever unexplored, and that while a complete mastery of life is mere illusion, the real secret of the game is to make life swing.’’ The jazz or seemingly improvisational nature of basketball has been captured by a number of stars that have graced the hardwood of the professional game. Whether we consider the play of big men like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Bill Russell, or Shaquille O’Neal, or the dynamic guard play of Jerry West, Earvin ‘‘Magic’’ Johnson, Michael ‘‘Air’’ Jordan, or his ‘‘Air’’ apparent Kobe Bryant, the game of basketball remains one of possibility, one that encourages inner-city and rural child alike to dream of life on the court. As a metaphor, basketball is a game that, at its best, represents the transcending of limitations and demonstrates the dynamic nature of teamwork and individual success. Because its professional practitioners enjoy celebrity status, the game itself embodies the virtues of the Horatio Alger myth of struggling upward through hard work. ‘‘Black sports heroes transcended the narrow boundaries of specific sports activities and garnered importance as icons of cultural excellence; symbolic figures who embodied social possibilities of success denied to other people of color,’’ writes scholar Michael Dyson in his influential study of Michael Jordan. ‘‘But they also captured and catalyzed the black cultural fetishization of sports as a means of expressing black cultural style, as a means of valoring craft as a marker of racial and self-expression, and as a means of pursuing social and economic mobility.’’ Dyson points to the limitations that occur when sports are made a fetish. While the lucrative world of professional sports feeds into the popularly held view of the United States as a land of possibility, dreams are undone with a misstep, with an injury. For this reason, Harry Edwards encourages dreaming with open eyes. ‘‘Today it is desirable, even necessary that black youths and black society as a whole continue to harbor dreams of achieving excellence in sports . . . ,’’ he writes. ‘‘But all involved must learn to dream with their eyes open, always remaining fully cognizant of participation’s pitfalls no less than its positive possibilities, of its potential as a dead end trap no less than its promise as a vehicle for outreach and advancement.’’ The tales of success, of excess, and of failure that come with basketball should serve as a cautionary tale of the pitfalls and possibilities of the game that began in a gym with two peach baskets and a soccer ball to while away a winter’s day. See also: Olympics; Women and Sports

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Further Reading Canepa, Nick. 1984. ‘‘Two Women Who Are . . . Just Slightly Ahead of Their Time: Cheryl Miller Plays Her Game ‘Like a Man.’ ’’ San Diego Evening Tribune, OLYMPICS-3. Edwards, Harry. 2004. ‘‘Crisis of Black Athletes at the Outset of the Twenty-First Century.’’ In Black Athletes and Race Relations in Twentieth-Century America. Patrick B. Miller and David K. Wiggins, eds. New York: Routledge. Kirsch, George B., Othello Harris, and Claire E. Nolte, eds. 2000. Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Martin, Charles H. 2004. ‘‘Jim Crow in the Gymnasium: The Integration of College Basketball in the American South.’’ In Black Athletes and Race Relations in Twentieth-Century America. Patrick B. Miller and David K. Wiggins, eds. New York and London: Routledge. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. http://www.hoophall.com/hallof-famers/ tag/lusia-harris-stewart. Ostrom, Hans, and J. David Macey, Jr., eds. 2005. ‘‘Basketball.’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown. Robinson, Eddie and Richard Lapchick. 1999. Never Before, Never Again: The Stirring Autobiography of Eddie Robinson, the Winningest Coach in the History of College Football. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Beale Street In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Beale Street, first known as Beale Avenue, became a hub of the Memphis, Tennessee, African American community, playing a crucial role in the development and popularizing of the blues, and later in the development of jazz, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock and Roll. (Sun Records is located in Memphis, as was Stax Records and Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland.) In 1909, W. C. Handy composed ‘‘Memphis Blues,’’ which was first titled ‘‘Boss Crump Blues,’’ referring to a powerful politician of the era. ‘‘Memphis Blues’’ is often considered the first written blues composition. Beale Street went downhill after the Great Depression, but in 1966, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and eventually through commercial development was rebuilt into a tourist attraction, with many nightclubs and restaurants, including one owned by blues great B. B. King. In the decades after 1966, during the process of revitalizing the neighborhood, however, many African American businesses were displaced from the area. Further Reading Beale Street. ‘‘Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame.’’ www.bealestreet.com. Lovett, Bobby L. 2002. ‘‘Beale Street.’’ In Encyclopedia of Tennessee. University of Tennessee Press, 2002. [Online version.] http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php ?EntryID=B019.

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McKee, Margaret, and Fred Chisenhall. 1981. Beale Black and Blue: Life and Music on Black America’s Main Street. Baton Rouge: Louisana State University Press. Hans Ostrom

Bearden, Romare (1911–88), Painter, Printmaker, Collagist, Author, Composer Of all the artists of his generation, Romare Bearden ranks high among those who had an intensely analytical and intellectual approach to the process of making art. Going by the social status of his family in New York—his family’s love of the arts, and the company of artists and performers with whom he grew up—it appeared inevitable that Bearden’s art would reflect an intellectualization that places him high in the hierarchy of those who favor a cerebral, rather than intuitive, approach to form. His disciplined, contemplative approach to art, his embrace of art that is grounded in enduring principles and syntax, bears that out. Fred Romare Howard Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on September 2, 1911, to Bessye and Richard Howard Bearden. Both of his parents were college-educated, and many members of the extended Bearden family were passionate about the arts. Bearden’s great grandparents, Henry B. Kennedy and Rosa Kennedy, and his grandmother, Rosa Catherine (Cattie) Bearden, were into painting. His maternal grandmother, Carrie Banks, gave Bearden a lesson in art that he would later put to good use: she advised him to simplify his efforts. Growing up in Charlotte, Bearden had the good company of another member of the extended family, one who was a source of creative inspiration—Charles Alston—who was some years older. Bearden’s father was a pianist and friend of jazz artists such as Duke Ellington. Bearden’s uncle Harry was a good pianola player who loved opera, while his aunt, Anna, was a church organist in Greensboro who also taught piano and organ. Add to this the activities of a gregarious and politically active mother, and it was clear that Bearden, an only child, had no excuse not to become an artist. Bessye wielded considerable clout in her capacity as editor of the Chicago Defender, a newspaper that was acknowledged as the most powerful voice for blacks nationwide. The Bearden household at 140th Street in Harlem was a social fulcrum for writers, musicians, and artists, including African American artists Aaron Douglas and Charles Alston, Duke Ellington, the writer Countee Cullen, poet Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, and social activist, actor, singer, and athlete Paul Robeson. In his last year in high school, Bearden developed an interest in cartooning. Until his high school years, his interest was mainly in sports; he cared little for art and took only those art courses that were mandatory. His mother wanted him to become a physician. In 1929, Bearden entered Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, from which he transferred to Boston University. In 1932, he transferred again, this time to New York University, where he declared a major in

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mathematics. He would eventually graduate in 1935 with a degree in education, although he continued drawing cartoons and had his work published in the Medley, a monthly journal at New York University, on which he later worked as art editor. His cartoons also appeared in other national publications such sources as the Crisis (magazine) [the major political publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)], and the Baltimore Afro American, a weekly publication on which he served as editorial cartoonist from 1935 to 1937. One of the earliest influences on Bearden was Elmer Simms Campbell, the popular African American cartoonist whose cartoons had appeared in Esquire, the Saturday Evening Post, and the New Yorker among others. Upon being advised by Campbell, Bearden studied art with the German
emigr
e George Grosz at the Art Students League in New York. Grosz was a superb draftsman, caricaturist, and painter, credentials that were obviously not lost on Campbell nor, as it turned out, on Bearden. Through Grosz, Bearden was exposed to a new world of neoclassical art and, in particular, the work of Dominique Ingres and William Hogarth. New York of the 1930s was not the most comfortable zone for African American artists to operate. It was bad enough to be black in the years before the Civil Rights Movement. To be a black artist during the Great Depression needed more than commitment: it demanded fortitude and a cohesive network of kindred spirits. Bearden depended on a coterie of friends, among whom were the writers Claude McKay and Bill Attaway, and a fellow artist, Jacob Lawrence, through whom Bearden secured his first studio at 33 West 125th Street. For regular income, Bearden got employment as a caseworker with the New York City Department of Social Services in 1938, a job that he held on to full-time until 1966 when he chose to work part-time, which he did until 1969. In 1940, Bearden had his first solo exhibition at the 306 Studios. His work in the 1940s was executed in a variety of media, which ranged from watercolor or gouache and casein on paper to oil on canvas, with a style that oscillated between representational and abstract rendition. The multinuanced and storied collage works that would become his stylistic hallmark would become more fully developed in the 1960s. Meanwhile, in 1942, Bearden joined the U.S. Army and served with the all-black 372nd Infantry Division in the 15th Regiment, from which he was honorably discharged in 1945. Soon after, Bearden became a member of artists in the stable of the gallerist Samuel Kootz, who exhibited his work alongside others like Carl Holty, Robert Motherwell, Fernand Leger, and Alexander Calder. In a way, working with such a team deepened Bearden’s commitment and his quest for enduring art. Among those that his association with Kootz brought him in contact with was Carl Holty, who became one of Bearden’s closest friends and a teacher who exerted enormous influence on him. The two eventually coauthored a book, The Painter’s Mind: A Study of the Relations of Structure and Space in Painting (1969). In 1950, Bearden took a two-year leave from his employment and, using the G.I. Bill, traveled to Paris, France; there, for nine months, he studied philosophy,

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French, and Buddhism. While he did not produce work in Paris, the totality of his experience had a significant impact on his perspectives about art, his own American culture, and, most importantly, his creative approach. In the early 1950s, Bearden went into music and wrote a number of songs. He collaborated with Dave Ellis, founded Bluebird Music, and became a member of American Society of Music Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1955. But it was apparent that his prospects lay more in making art than in writing music. While Bearden continued to write music and exhibit in the 1950s, perhaps one of the most significant moves he made was his marriage to Nanette Rohan, a dancer and choreographer, in 1954. In the 1950s, Bearden had utilized collage in his work. But it was in the 1960s that he developed collage to a style that radically changed Bearden’s stylistic trajectory. The style that would typify Bearden began in 1963 when a group of African Americans, including Hale Woodruff, Charles Alston, Emma Amos, and Richard Mayhew met in Bearden’s studio and formed the Spiral, which was meant to provide the group a common platform from which to address bothersome sociopolitical issues of the day. Bearden’s idea that Spiral produce a collaborative piece from a pile of cutout pictures having been met with little enthusiasm, he turned them into a series called ‘‘Projections’’ with the encouragement of Codler and Ekstrom, the gallery that represented him for the rest of his professional life. The resultant exhibition brought Bearden to the national limelight. Bearden’s compositions are built from fragments: of faces, bodies, limbs, and dresses, arranged in a choreographed medley akin to the improvisations of jazz music. Using a smorgasbord of materials—patterned fabrics, pieces of magazine cutouts, glossy and matte paper, and spray paint, among others—Bearden portrayed subjects that reflect his own world. His published works include A History of African-American Artists (Bearden and Henderson, 1993) and Six Black Masters of American Art (Bearden and Henderson, 1972). He contributed to asserting African American presence in the art world with his involvement with a number of causes, which included the formation of the Spiral group, the establishment of Harlem Cultural Council, the founding of Cinque Gallery, and the founding of the Studio Museum in Harlem. He exhibited in major museums and spaces across continents and was elected to the American Academy of Design, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. President Ronald Reagan presented him with the National Medal of Arts. Bearden died in New York in 1988. Places to See Bearden’s work include, among others, the Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Howard University Art Collection, Washington, DC; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

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Further Reading Bearden, Romare. 1934. ‘‘The Negro Artist and Modern Art.’’ Opportunity (December): 371–72. Bearden, Romare, and Harry Henderson. 1972. Six Black Masters of American Art. Garden City, NY: Zenith Books, Doubleday. Bearden, Romare, and Harry Henderson. 1993. A History of African-American Artists from 1792 to the Present. New York: Pantheon Books. Bearden, Romare, and Carl Holty. 1969. The Painter’s Mind: A Study of the Relations of Structure and Space in Painting. New York: Crown. Driskell, David. 1976. Two Centuries of Black American Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum. Fine, Elsa Honig. 1973. The Afro-American Artist: Search for Identity. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Glazer, Lee Stephens. 1994. ‘‘Signifying Identity: Art and Race in Romare Bearden’s Projections.’’ Art Bulletin 76, no. 3 (September): 411–26. Schwartzman, Myron. 1990. Romare Bearden: His Life and His Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams. dele jegede

Beautillions. See Cotillions and Botillions

Beauty Pageants The African American community has long recognized the beauty of its women by electing them queens of various beauty pageants. In fact, such pageants are historically important and have served to bring communities together in a common area of interest. Once beauty pageants were well-established, they grew in popularity and became an important event in the African American community. The racial climate in America would keep beauty pageants segregated until the 1940s; before and since then, African Americans have hosted their own as a means of promoting racial pride and preserving elements of African American culture. Beauty contests generally occur annually, beginning with local competitions and moving on to national and even international ones. They range from contests for children to those for young women, from those for married women to those for plus-sized women. They may offer a variety of benefits other than the honor of having won the contest, such as scholarships, speaking tours, wardrobes, and so on. In beauty contests, beauty may come in the form one’s physical appeal, but more importantly in the demonstration of a talent, personality, or intelligence. For a number of years, many such contests have been shown to broad audiences via television.

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Black Is Beautiful, Too As early as the 1890s, black beauty contests were held as a means of promoting the dignity of the race. The black press must be credited with some of the efforts to promote black culture as it printed and distributed in the black community photographs of glamorous and beautiful women and, as Maxine Leeds Craig notes in Ain’t I a Beauty Queen?, they showed that ‘‘black women are beautiful, too.’’ Such actions led to the promotion of black beauty pageants. An early effort was seen in 1891, when a black newspaper, published in Chicago and called the Appeal, opened a contest under the heading ‘‘Who is the Most Beautiful Afro-American Woman?’’ Clearly the effort was designed to increase the newspaper’s circulation, for it printed ballots in each issue, encouraged readers to vote, and asked them to distribute copies of the paper to their friends. Newspaper readers continued to support black beauty pageants from the 1890s well into the twentieth century. Other black newspapers followed the efforts of the Appeal; for example, in 1914 the New York Age, then one of black America’s most popular newspapers, sponsored a contest called ‘‘Chosen Fifteen Most Beautiful Negro Women in the United States.’’ Selections came from photographs that readers submitted. The ‘‘Chosen Fifteen’’ were selected on October 14, and winners from the local area were given a solid gold pin which read ‘‘One of the Chosen Fifteen.’’ Their photographs were published on the front page of the Age and also displayed in the Manhattan Casino where the final ceremony was held. Craig notes: ‘‘The winners were all, not surprisingly, light-skinned women.’’ Complexion became an important issue for contest judges, whether they served on panels or constituted audiences who submitted ballots. Other contests followed; for example, the Chicago Defender for May 2, 1925, identified a black beauty contest held in Baltimore, referring to it as the city’s first. The Defender had its own beauty contest, as it sought the ‘‘Prettiest Girl.’’ In 1925 as well, the Golden Brown Chemical Company, which marketed its line of cosmetics for black women, sponsored its first and only National Golden Brown Beauty Contest. Through the contest, the company aimed to promote its beauty products line as well as racial pride. Over one thousand mail-in entries were received. The winner, Josephine Leggett, star of the play Shuffle Along, received more than three hundred thousand votes. She, too, was light-skinned, which caused some consternation among those who questioned the complexion of such winners as a means of promoting racial pride among so many who were not fair. In the 1920s, fraternal groups sponsored black beauty contests as well; among such groups was the Knights of Pythias. There were also Mardi Gras queens, sponsored by Louisiana’s migrants and crowned at the Mardi Gras ball. In 1927, the black press was still active in promoting beauty contests to boost its sales and promote racial pride, as seen, for example, in the Oakland (California) Western American’s Miss Golden State contest. When the contest ended, Mrs. Richard York, a pale-skinned beauty, won the popularity contest after her supporters

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bought the largest number of subscriptions, while light-brown Marilyn Adams won the beauty prize. In 1947, the Miss Fine Brown Frame contest was held in Harlem’s Golden Gate Ballroom. Bandleader Buddy Johnson, who wrote the hit ‘‘Miss Fine Brown Frame,’’ presided. Controversy arose over the complexion of two contestants: Evelyn Sanders, a dark-complexioned woman whom the audience favored, and a light-skinned contestant. In the end, Sanders won. In 1940, the black journal, Our World, launched its ‘‘Most Beautiful Negro Woman’’ contest, offering the winner a one-thousand-dollar wardrobe, a gown by a noted Paris designer, and a trip to Paris and other places abroad. During the 1950s and early 1960s, such contests continued. Craig identifies some of them accordingly: Miss Negro Press Photographer’s Ball (mid-1940s), Miss Bronze California (1960s), and its spin-off, Miss Bronze Northern California. The latter two developed into annual staple affairs. At times, the issue of skin color in the selection of beauty queens was still a problem. For many years, the black community continued to hold its own segregated black beauty contests, and some continue. When the forty-eighth Miss America contest was held in September 1968, two protests were underway as well. One condemned the very idea of beauty contests while the other was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s event at the nearby Ritz Carlton Hotel, where the NAACP staged its first Miss Black America contest— a competition similar to that for the Miss America contest. It was open to young African American women to showcase their gifts in such areas as speech, talent, style, and poise. Saundra Williams was the first winner. Laren Arrington founded the Miss Black USA pageant in 1986 and held its first event in Washington, DC, the next year. A celebrity panel of judges who served the contest came from the fields of sports, entertainment, the fashion industry, and media. The twenty-one talented contestants who came from across the nation were said to represent the dreams of African Americans, from those of our ancestors to the Harlem Renaissance, and to the present day. Tamiko Gibson, who was Miss Maryland, was elected the first Miss Black USA. The contest continues and also provides scholarships, as it celebrates scholastic achievement of its winners. Miss Black USA Princess Program, a component of the Miss Black USA Program, was announced in 2009 and comes in response to the development of Walt Disney’s first black American princess, Tiana, in a Disney animated film, The Princess and the Frog. The Princess Program planners knew that becoming Miss Black USA was the dream of many little girls, their parents, and grandparents, and thus offer the program to help shape their dreams. The competition is open to young ladies who, by August 8, 2010, are between the ages of five and ten and live within the continental United States. The successful candidate receives an official Miss Black USA tiara, a chance to be mentored by a young woman in the contest for older girls, and an opportunity to appear on stage during the Miss Black USA finals.

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College queens, such as Miss Fisk, Miss Spelman, and Miss Howard University, represent another category of beauty contest winners. Supporting the queens from the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and some of the traditionally white schools as well is Ebony magazine’s publication of the photographs of their queens in one of its issues each year. Campus queens may also include homecoming queens and those representing classes, such as Miss Freshman and Miss Sophomore. While by 2010 there have been a number of black homecoming or school queens on traditionally white college campuses, the reverse has occurred as well. For example, in 2010, Miss Hampton University elected its first white student to that post. Beauty and the Racial Mountain In 1921, during the Roaring Twenties, several hoteliers in Atlantic City staged a local ‘‘bathing beauty’’ contest, or the ‘‘Inter-City Beauty Contest,’’ the forerunner of the Miss America contest. The contest was postponed during the early years of the Great Depression and reestablished in 1932. It was suspended again and resurrected in 1935. By the 1950s, the Miss America contest was mainstream and included pomp and pageantry reminsicent of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England. The Civil Rights Movement and the various human rights movements of the 1960s spurred women of all races to become more politically active and vocal about what they considered fair treatment for themselves. They were adamant about the secondary role in which society put them and protested the gender bias that they received. They also resented the fact that their appearances in beauty contests often cast them in a demeaning role, causing society to see them as ‘‘sex objects’’ rather than beauty queens. Jennifer Lee describes the trailblazing beauty pageant that finally involved a black winner, the Miss Subways pageant. It was held from the 1940s to 1977, and was ‘‘one of the first integrated beauty pageants in the country.’’ Lee called the pageant ‘‘a cutting-edge civil rights battleground.’’ Success came only after black groups protested the contest’s racial exclusion practices. According to Lee, some historians regard the pageant as important, though symbolic, for it was a ‘‘stepping stone for racial integration. Just as activists would go on to organized discrimination or exclusion in transportation and in the work place, black women chose beauty pageants as a battleground.’’ It was not until 1948, however, that the first black Miss Subways was chosen. She was Brooklyn College student and psychology major Thelma Porter; her photograph was featured in national black newspapers as well as on the cover of Crisis (magazine) and other black journals. As was the practice, a photograph of the contest winner was also prominently displayed on the thousands of subway cars in such urban cores as New York, the Midwest, and much later in the Deep South. Maxine Leeds Craig calls the subway pageant ‘‘one of many struggles that were going on in local ways to end discrimination,’’ and helped to end ‘‘formal and informal segregation.’’

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In 1974 and 1975, when Marcia Hocker, who had straight hair and fairly light skin, held the Miss Subways title for several months, she asked subways pageant officials to shade her image on the subway posters because she did not want to be mistaken for white. After Thelma Porter’s election, black women did, in fact, begin to enter and win traditionally white beauty contests throughout the country. In 1962, for example twenty-year-old Clintona Jackson won such a contest in Detroit—the International Freedom Festival Pageant. This coincided with their gain in acceptance ‘‘as models, movie actresses and as Miss America, America’s ultimate symbol of beauty and womanhood,’’ writes Sue Jewell in From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond. Jewell is among those who question whether or not this occurrence was the result of mainstream America’s acceptance of those cultural images that are unique to black culture, or whether the black queens approximated the traditional standards of beauty set by white America. Whatever the case, in 1960 Corinne Huff, who was Miss Ohio, was the first black woman to win a state title and then enter the Miss USA contest. It was not until 1970, however, that the Miss America pageant had its first African American contestant—Cheryl Adrienne Brown—who entered as Miss Iowa. In 1984, the country finally had its first African American Miss America—Vanessa Williams—who represented New York. Williams did, in fact, present a positive cultural image but was also the first to resign her title amid scandal. Provocative photographs taken of Williams the previous year emerged during the middle of her reign. Despite this turn of events, Williams remained a popular culture icon as singer and actress. Since Williams left that post, six African American women have held that title: they are Suzette Charles (1984, from New Jersey and the runner-up contestant who replaced Williams), Debbye Turner (1990, Missouri), Marjorie Judith Vincent (1991, Illinois), Kimberly Clarice Aiken (1994, South Carolina), Erica Dunlap (2004, Florida), and Caressa Cameron (2010, Indiana). Black women won other beauty pageants. Miss World (established in 1951), went to Grenada native Jennifer Josephine Hosten on December 3, 1970; and the title Miss Universe (established in 1952) went to Trinidad-Tobago’s Janelle Commissiong in 1977. By 1999, two other black women had held the title. There were Ms. Senior America (1989, Josephine Gentry-Huyghe) and Miss USA, Carol Anne-Marie Gist (1990, Michigan). Chant
e Laree Griffin was elected Miss Teen of America for 1996–97. She had been crowned Miss Teen of California in 1995. In 2002, four of the five teen finalists were black. The modern Civil Rights Movement did much to arouse an interest in black pride. To demonstrate their pride, many who sponsored black beauty pageants rejected what they considered white America’s views of beauty, such as fair skin and straight hair. They selected as their queens young women who reflected the elements of black pride, such as darker skin color and afro hair styles. In fact, this was commonplace on many historically black college campuses. Still, in recent times critics of the black-only beauty contests argue that, while the American dream is within the grasp of African Americans (if they would seize it), and many racial barriers have been removed, some blacks self-segregate socially.

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What if we had a white pageant, they ask. Then there are those who question the need for pageants at all. Further Reading Bargzie, Simah. 2002 ‘‘African American Beauty Pageants: Beauty Contests with a Difference.’’ Pioneer, A&E, March 7. Craig, Maxine Leeds. 2002. Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Jewell, K. Sue. 1993. From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond. New York: Routledge. Lee, Jennifer. ‘‘There She Is, from a Trailblazing Beauty Pageant.’’ New York Times, City Room, April 21, 2009. http:www.cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/21. ‘‘People & Events: Breaking the Color Line at the Pageant.’’ PBS: American Experience, Miss America. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/missamerica/peopleevents/ e_inclusion.html. Smith, Jessie Carney. 2000. ‘‘Beauty Industry and Models.’’ In Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. 2d ed. Detroit: Visible Ink Press: 466–470. Sones, Michael. ‘‘History of the Beauty Pageant.’’ http://www.beautyworlds.com/ beautypageant.htm. Stewart, Dodai. ‘‘Black Beauty Pageants Raise Many Questions.’’ Jezebel.com. http://jezebel .com/5240756/black-beauty-pageants-raise-many-questions. Jessie Carney Smith

Beauty Shops The beauty parlor industry in the African American community has successfully lifted most of its owners—and most of them women—from the clutches of racial segregation, prejudice, and poverty to economic independence, self-reliance, and self-acceptance. The industry embraces small shop owners, large enterprises, training, and beauty products for African American women. Its work is still important in African American popular culture. Many of the fine artisans in the antebellum United States worked outside the South; they were also African American. Catering, hairdressing, barbering, and fashionable dressmaking were the popular businesses for blacks of that era. A few of these businesses catered to blacks, but to survive in the racially segregated United States, they catered to whites. It was not until self-help activities for blacks were encouraged and observed that black economic development occurred and these professions began to thrive in the black community. One of the earliest-known black woman artisans was Christiana Carteaux Bannister (1819–1902), an abolitionist and entrepreneur who ran a successful hairdressing business in nineteenth-century New England. Born in North Kingston, Rhode Island, she moved to Boston while still a young woman and worked as a wigmaker. With a natural ability for styling hair, she opened a hairdressing

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salon there when she was thirty years old. Soon she opened salons in Worcester, Massachusetts, as well as in Providence, Rhode Island, and maintained a white clientele. In 1853, she married Edward Bannister, who worked in her shop as a barber and became a celebrated landscape painter later on. Their salons became popular meeting places for white and black abolitionists. As the century progressed, there was a phenomenal increase in beauty shops owned by black women. Much of this came in response to the revolution in black hair care, the emergence of several leading hair care enterprises, and products created especially for black women. Icons of the Beauty Industry African American beauty parlors have been shaped by the work of several black entrepreneurs who are still celebrated as icons in the beauty culture industry: Annie Turnbo Malone, Madam C. J. Walker, and Sarah Spencer Washington. They owned manufacturing companies and some established beauty parlors as well, where their products were showcased and sold. Annie Turnbo Malone (1869–1957) ran a multimillion-dollar empire in St. Louis and founded the Poro Company, one of the first successful African American hair care businesses. Madam C. J. Walker (1867–1919) developed a method for caring for black hair, founded a manufacturing company, set up beauty schools, developed profitable marketing strategies, and established a chain of beauty parlors throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and South America. Both Malone and Walker became millionaires. Between 1913 and 1915, Sarah Spencer Washington (1889–1953) owned a small hair salon in Atlantic City, where she worked as a beauty operator. In 1919, she founded a firm later known as Apex Beauty Products. The company operated eleven beauty schools. Other leading hair salon owners and stylists of the twentieth century were the Cardozo sisters. Elizabeth Cardozo Barker (1900–81) opened her shop in her Washington, DC, apartment in 1929. Four years later, her sister, Margaret Cardozo Holmes (1898–1991) joined her. In 1937 they relocated the shop and renamed it the Cardozo Sisters Hair Stylists. Sisters Emmeta Cardozo Hurley and Catherine Cardozo Lewis joined them in the mid-1940s. The already thriving enterprise expanded to five storefronts and occupied a city block near Howard University’s campus. They had twenty-five employees and served as many as two hundred clients daily. At times Barker and Holmes passed for white in order to visit white salons and trade shows to learn new hair techniques, procedures, and business operations. They also had a tremendous influence on the hairdressing industry and pressured the industry to meet the needs of African American clients and cease discriminatory practices. By the time the salon was sold in 1971, the sisters had grossed over $325,000 annually. Their business was called one of the best-equipped and most popular salons in the city and was a prototype that subsequent generations of salon operators emulated. Among those who helped to revolutionize the industry was Christine Moore Howell (1899–1972), manufacturer and cosmetologist. She became successful in

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the two unique businesses that she opened in Princeton, New Jersey—Christine’s Beauty Salon and in 1936, Christine Moore Corporation—a modern laboratory that produced her line of beauty and hair care products. Moore served an interracial clientele. Only highly trained, creative women, regardless of race, were hired in her salon. Her customers included middle-class black women as well as white and black women who were on the social register and arrived for their appointments in chauffeur-driven limousines. Although black customers were few in number for a while, when she began to specialize in the permanent wave, the numbers increased. Howell served on the first New Jersey Board of Beauty Culture Control, which regulated beauty shops and beauty culture training for all salons, whether white- or black-owned and operated. Other icons of the beauty industry include Rose Morgan and Joe L. Dudley. In the 1940s, Rose Morgan’s Rose Meta House of Beauty, located in New York City, was this country’s largest black-owned beauty shop. She opened a second salon in Harlem in 1955—a flamboyant and elaborate shop. In 1976, Joe L. Dudley (1937– ) founded Dudley Products in Greensboro, NC. He began to manufacture black beauty products and became owner of a chain of beauty supply stores and beauty shops, and a beauty college. African American Barbershops, beauty shops, and other businesses played a vital role in the modern Civil Rights Movement. In the 1950s and 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. used these political incubators as a recruiting ground for civil rights workers. Customers spent several hours in beauty parlors, for example, and were a captive audience. While they received service, the women spent their time discussing political and social issues without the threat of white backlash. Their clientele was black and consisted of a full cross section of the black community. The one-room shops attached to homes as well as those housed in their own buildings were almost always black-owned. When campaigning to become the Democratic nominee for the U.S. presidency in January 2008, Barack Obama made deep inroads into the black areas of South Carolina. He visited Salon Fabulous located in a trailer park on the outskirts of Columbia, as owner Danyelle America, an Obama campaign volunteer, wove extensions into a client’s hair and, at the same time, discussed the Democratic primary. The walls of her small shop were decorated with Obama posters, including one of Obama sitting in a barber’s chair under the banner ‘‘The Future is Now.’’ The campaign had targeted black beauty shops and barbershops. This political strategy continued historical traditions in the black community, where beauty parlors serve as a place for social meetings, informal discussions, and debates for local blacks. Beauty shop and barbershop culture is also embraced in the literary works of black writers. Hortense Thornton addresses this matter in ‘‘The Barbershop and Beauty Parlor in Afro-American Literature.’’ In such literature, readers meet all strata of the black community and become aware of the unlimited range of subjects that are discussed. The businesses provide ‘‘an environment conducive to unrestrained community expression.’’ The black beauty shop was highlighted with the release in 2005 of the comedy film Beauty Parlor, a spin-off of the successful

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Barbershop comedies and starring Queen Latifah and a colorful cabaret of stock supporting players, including Alfre Woodward, Kevin Bacon, and Andie MacDowell. Further Reading Blackwelder, Julia Kirk. 2003. Styling Jim Crow: African American Beauty Training during Segregation. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. Pilkington, Ed. ‘‘Obama Has Given People a Little More Hope.’’ Guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jan/23/usa.uselections2008. Thornton, Hortense. 1979 ‘‘The Barbershop and Beauty Parlor in Afro-American Literature.’’ Pacific Coast Philology 14 (October): 76–83. Walker, Juliet E. K., ed. 1999. Encyclopedia of African American Business History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Jessie Carney Smith

BeBop Music A style of jazz music, bebop, or bop, emerged shortly after World War II (WWII) and was a reaction against the dance tunes of Swing Era jazz produced by big bands. As a music form, bop thrived from about 1945 until 1955, with its prominence particularly pronounced from 1947 until 1951, with the transatlantic touring of one of its leading figures, Charlie Parker, the alto saxophone player from Kansas City, Kansas. Bop musicians insisted that their music be taken seriously, and as a result they created music with complex chord progressions that made their music very difficult to dance to. Bop music in its uniqueness and speed created a cult of personality where individual style was especially celebrated. Along with Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, the major ‘‘cast of cats’’ who took bop music to soaring levels include Theolonius Monk on piano, the drummer Art Blakely, and vocalists Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Louis Armstrong, by the time of the bop artists an elder statesman of jazz, dismissed bop musicians as ‘‘young cats playing them weird melodies,’’ wrote Sellman. Because of the war rationing of shellac, the recording material used to create vinyl albums, early bop is largely unrecorded. It developed in small nightclubs in New York City, with Harlem serving as the hub of the bebop landscape. Charlie Parker’s early impressions on bop offer strong insight into the goal of bop musicians—to speed up the pace of music to be commensurate with their experiences of New York City. According to Eric Lott, Parker described bebop as ‘‘the music of today’’ with ‘‘a sort of combination of the Midwestern beat and the fast New York tempos.’’ Along with Parker, Dizzy Gillespie was instrumental in making use of Afro-Cuban elements in his music. The insistence upon experimentation and intellectualism were hallmarks of this new style of jazz. To highlight the shift in jazz that occurred after WWII, compare the wideranging and epic pieces of Duke Ellington with the short ballad structures of

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bop artists, where music becomes, especially by the emergence of John Coltrane, ‘‘sheets of sound.’’ As Daniel Linden notes, ‘‘If Duke represents the broad, communal sense of Harlem and its humanity that is made up of individual characters, Charlie Parker, or Bird, represents a highly focused zoom-in on the plight of the individual.’’ Along with this ‘‘plight of the individual,’’ we hear a younger generation of artists improvising on canonical jazz pieces. The style of Bird and the larger bop culture became perfectly suited for the counterculture that was occurring in the United States with members of the Beat generation. Dizzy Gillespie, in particular, with his iconic beret, glasses, soul patch, and up-turned bell on his trumpet, represented the type of intellectualism that began to bloom among postwar youths who longed to rebel against social convention. This trademark of music’s bebop generation had its literary equivalent in the writings of the Beat generation. One of the leaders of the Beat generation was Jack Kerouac, a young writer who dropped out of Columbia University to pursue a life of writing and adventure. In his most famous novel, On the Road, Kerouac offers a sketch of Charlie Parker that explores what bop music meant to the Beats: ‘‘Here’s a guy and everybody’s there, right? Up to him to put down what’s on everybody else’s mind. He starts the first chorus, then lines up his ideas, people, yeah, yeah, but get it, and then rises to his fate and has to blow equal to it. . . . He’s filling empty space with the substance of our lives, confessions of his bellybottom strain, remembrance of ideas, rehashes of old blowing.’’ Bop musicians spoke to and for the postwar youth, and their statements, much like music in general, crossed color lines. ‘‘The Beats identified with what they found in Bird’s music,’’ Daniel Linden notes, ‘‘and the common pulse of a wider range of people became increasingly evident.’’ Yet for all the romantic idealism that surrounds a figure such as Charlie Parker, his life, for all its soaring greatness in terms of artistic achievement, came to an end in the apartment of Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, sister of Lord Rothschild, following a long struggle with drugs, particularly heroin, and alcoholism. In his own remembrance of the short lives of jazz musicians, Ralph Ellison, in his essay ‘‘The Golden Age, Time Past,’’ observers that ‘‘we feel guilt that the fury of their passing was the price paid for the art they left us to enjoy. . . . most notably of all, Charlie Parker, called ‘Bird,’ now deified, worshipped, and studied and, like any fertility god, mangled by his admirers and imitators.’’ Following the passing of Bird on March 12, 1955, bop contended with the growing presence of cool jazz, a style embodied in the album Birth of the Cool by trumpeter Miles Davis. Cool jazz featured slower tempos and aimed to soften the dissonances of the high modernist bop era music. The backlash came with hard bop, a return to the dissonant tones of bop but infused with elements of blues and gospel. The conversation occurring between cool jazz and hard bop created broader avenues for jazz musicians to develop their art. Towards the end of the 1950s, jazz musicians were beginning to find work in Hollywood. Duke Ellington composed original music for Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Paris Blues (1961), and Quincy Jones showcased his mastery of the jazz idiom by composing music

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for In the Heat of the Night (1967) and The Wiz (1978), starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Nipsey Smith. The young cats who created bop music challenged the old guard of jazz artists, much as the old guard itself had challenged social convention as they developed their own style of playing. American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, The American Scholar, originally delivered as a Phi Beta Kappa address at Harvard in 1838, insisted that ‘‘Each generation must write its own books,’’ and the same sentiment can be seen in the evolution of bop. According to Sellman, Louis Armstrong lamented that bop offered ‘‘no melody to remember and no beat to dance to,’’ yet the bop artists and intellectuals were charting a course that was moving away from minstrelsy to a profound expression of their very beings. Further Reading Ellison, Ralph. 1998. ‘‘The Golden Age, Time Past.’’ The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. Robert G. O’Meally, ed. New York: Columbia University Press. Hodeir, Andr
e. 1976. ‘‘Bop.’’ Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. www .oxfordmusiconline.com. Kerouac, Jack. 1976. On the Road. New York: Penguin. Linden, Daniel. 2009. ‘‘The Jazz Cadence of Duke and Bird.’’ Literature of the Jazz Age Seminar paper. Manhattan School of Music. Lott, Eric. 1998. ‘‘Double V, Double-Time: Bebop’s Politics of Style.’’ In The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. Robert G. O’Meally, ed. New York: Columbia University Press. Patrick, James. ‘‘Parker, Charlie.’’ Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. www .oxfordmusiconline.com. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Jazz.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Belafonte, Harry (1927– ), Singer, Actor, Social Activist Harry Belafonte has been a singer, actor, and an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes since the early 1950s. During the 1950s, Belafonte experienced success on the pop music charts as well as at the Hollywood box office. This success enabled Belafonte to record music and introduce artists who otherwise would be overlooked, like Miriam Makeba, and make films, such as Island in the Sun (1957), deemed controversial for their time. Belafonte also used his visibility and influence to support the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and continues to support humanitarian missions to Africa today. Born Harold George Belafonte Jr. on March 1, 1927, in New York City, Belafonte lived in Jamaica with his grandmother from 1935 to 1940. After attending

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high school in New York City, Belafonte joined the navy and served during World War II. After the war, he studied at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School with the likes of Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Mathau, and Sidney Poitier. While Poitier and Belafonte competed for roles at the American Negro Theater, it was Belafonte who won a Tony Award for his performance in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac in 1953. Belafonte began singing in clubs to help pay for acting classes. Signed by RCA Victor in 1952, Belafonte found success quickly with the single, ‘‘Matilda,’’ in 1953. ‘‘Banana Boat Song,’’ Belafonte’s signature song, appeared on the millionselling album Calypso in 1956. Belafonte received Grammy Awards for two albums: Swing Dat Hammer (1960) and An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965). Besides debuting on the pop charts in 1953, Belafonte also made his film debut in Bright Road (1953). Other notable film roles during the 1950s include Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). In 1959, Belafonte was the first African American man to win an Emmy Award for the television special Tonight with Belafonte. Frustrated with the roles offered, or lack thereof, he quit making films until the early 1970s. Belafonte produced and starred with Sidney Poitier in Buck and the Preacher (1972). Along with Bill Cosby, Belafonte and Poitier starred in Uptown Saturday Night (1974). Belafonte produced the film Beat Street in 1984 but did not have another starring role in a film until White Man’s Burden (1995) and Kansas City (1996). The 2006 film Bobby was Belafonte’s last film role. In the late 1940s, Belafonte met Paul Robeson, who greatly influenced his political activism. In 1956, Belafonte met and became close friends with Martin Luther King Jr., who would also have a great impact on his life. When King was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, Belafonte bailed King out. Belafonte spoke at the civil rights March on Washington in 1963 and financially supported the Freedom Rides and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1964. President John F. Kennedy appointed Belafonte as a cultural advisor to the Peace Corps in the early 1960s. Belafonte was honored with the Martin Luther King Non-Violent Peace Prize in 1982. In 1985, he was one of the organizers of the ‘‘We Are the World’’ song used to raise funds and awareness to the plight of famine-stricken Africans. UNICEF named Belafonte a goodwill ambassador in 1987, and in 2002, Africare awarded him the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for his work in Africa. Along with being honored for humanitarian work, Belafonte has also been recognized for his artistic achievements, including a Kennedy Center Honor in 1989, the National Medal of Arts in 1994, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. Further Reading Belafonte, Harry. 2001. The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music. New York: Buddha Records.

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Fogelson, Genia. 1991. Harry Belafonte. Los Angeles: Melrose Square Publishing. Lakin, Pat, and Sheffield Abella. 2002. Harry Belafonte. New York: McGraw-Hill School Division. Mary K. Huelsbeck

Berry, Chuck (1926– ), Singer, Composer, Guitarist A highly imaginative and creative pioneer of Rock and Roll, Chuck Berry is considered by many to be the first great rock star. He put the essential music pieces together in the 1950s to help invent rock and roll and was one of Chicago-based Chess Records’ most successful artists in the mid-to-late part of the decade. Berry was one of rock music’s first great lyricists, having written numerous songs with brilliant lyrics about American culture, especially teenagers’ lives: cars, school, and young love. He gave rock and roll some of its first trademark guitar licks, such as the riff in ‘‘Johnny B. Goode,’’ a staple of every rock guitarist’s repertoire. Berry grafted blues, R & B, country music, and swing jazz into his music and became one of rock and roll’s first great stylistic innovators. He combined country and western with the blues in his first hit, ‘‘Maybellene’’ (1955), and overcame the racial divide of the 1950s while allowing rock music to acknowledge its black roots. In his autobiography, Berry states his marketing intentions: ‘‘The songs of Muddy Waters impelled me to deliver the down-home blues in the language they came from, Negro dialect. When I played hillbilly songs, I stressed my diction so that it was harder and whiter. All in all it was my intention to hold both the black and the white clientele by voicing the different kinds of songs in their customary tongues.’’ Born in 1926 into a black working-class family in St. Louis, Charles Edward Anderson Berry was active in the Baptist church, where he sang in the choir. The guitar fascinated him at an early age. As a teenager, he was taught to play a four-string acoustic guitar by St. Louis jazz guitarist Ira Harris. In the mid-1940s, he served three years of a ten-year sentence for robbery. In prison he began a gospel quartet and blues group whose performances brought them occasional performance privileges outside the gates. After marrying Themetta Suggs in 1948, Berry studied cosmetology and worked a variety of jobs, including beautician, prior to embarking on his music career. In 1950, he purchased his first electric guitar from Joe Sherman, who had a show on radio station WEW, where Berry was caretaker. Berry began performing professionally in St. Louis clubs with the Stevens Trio and then Sir John’s Trio (also known as the Johnnie Johnson Trio) in 1952. Led by pianist Johnnie Johnson and with drummer Eddie Hardy, this trio became one of the top mid-1950s club bands in the St. Louis area. While performing mainly blues with the combo, Berry incorporated country music characteristics from his background as a child listening to country radio stations. The trio’s unique sound made many take notice of their music and caused their original black audience to become desegregated. Initially bluesmen at heart,

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Berry and Johnson took the blues into previously uncharted territory with this unique blend of blues and country styles, turning it into the new rock-and-roll sound. Rooted in swing jazz and urban blues, Berry’s definitive guitar style was as widely imitated as were his witty lyrics. He was one of the first brilliant guitarists of rock and roll; his expert playing set the standard by which later guitarists have been judged. Famous for his duckwalk, one of the most recognizable stage moves in rock and roll, Berry has performed it for years, sliding in a crouched position while playing his guitar. Though he claims he started doing the move to cover wrinkles on his only suit during a multinight booking at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater in 1956, it soon became his trademark. Berry was highly influenced by T-Bone Walker, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, and Louis Jordan, and particularly by Jordan’s guitarist, Carl Hogan. Through Ira Harris’s teaching, Berry was indirectly exposed to Charlie Christian’s guitar style. Muddy Waters, who thought highly of Berry’s talent, introduced him to Leonard Chess, head of Chess Records. Berry traveled to Chicago to perform for Chess, but it was a song on his audition tape, ‘‘Ida Red,’’ that convinced Chess to sign Berry to the label. Berry later reworked the song into ‘‘Maybellene,’’ the first of his string of hits from the 1950s, and followed with other classics, such as ‘‘Roll Over Beethoven’’ (1956), ‘‘School Day’’ (1957), ‘‘Rock and Roll Music’’ (1957), ‘‘Sweet Little Sixteen’’ (1958), and ‘‘Johnny B. Goode’’ (1958). Consisting of witty lyrics full of clever insinuations about cars and girls, ‘‘Maybellene’’ helped lay the groundwork not only for the new rock-and-roll sound, but also for the new music’s stance. Released on August 20, 1955, ‘‘Maybellene’’ became a number one hit (for eleven weeks) on the R & B charts and a number five hit on the pop charts, allowing Berry to cross over successfully to the largely white pop charts, a rarity for black artists at that time. Berry claims that he was able to make the transition to the pop charts because of his clear diction, which allowed the white pop audience to understand what he was saying (unlike other black artists). According to James Heneke, he also attributes his crossover success to his knack for language, since his songs depicted the experience of being a teenager in the changing 1950s society, whether he was describing boredom in the classroom, as in ‘‘School Day,’’ or the liberating appeal of rock music, in ‘‘Rock and Roll Music.’’ Berry’s success on the charts continued throughout the 1950s with such other classics as the number one R & B hits ‘‘School Day’’ and ‘‘Sweet Little Sixteen.’’ With lyrics about the boredom and frustration of the routine of school, ‘‘School Day’’ became very popular with teenagers as it cashed in on their desire to escape and hear music on the jukebox. Recorded at Chess on January 21, 1957, the song used the twelve-bar blues pattern and call-and-response with guitar fills imitating the voice throughout, thus establishing Berry not only as an R & B or a rockand-roll musician, but also as a true pop star. As big a breakthrough as ‘‘Maybellene,’’ ‘‘School Day’’ inaugurated a period when every single by Chuck Berry made the charts, an achievement that carried him successfully into the next decade. ‘‘Sweet Little Sixteen,’’ released in February 1958, was Berry’s biggest hit to

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date. It reached number one on the R & B charts and number two on the pop charts. The song’s lyrics cleverly referred to Boston, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, St. Louis, and New Orleans, in the hope that residents of those cities would identify with the song. In addition, Berry shrewdly mentioned American Bandstand and was booked by Dick Clark to perform it on the show—one of his many Bandstand appearances over the years. As Berry combined his rockabilly style guitar with a lively backbeat rhythm and high, youthful, clear tenor voice, he enjoyed multiple mid-1950s hits that became rock-and-roll standards, including ‘‘Johnny B. Goode,’’ with which he gave the new music an archetypal character in addition to a classic sound. With an urgent, fast-paced tempo and strong rhythmic emphasis, ‘‘Johnny B. Goode’’ utilized blues elements: bent pitches (especially during the guitar introduction and solo); call-and-response (with his trademark interplay between guitar and exciting piano parts); and twelve-bar blues pattern. ‘‘Johnny B. Goode,’’ a highly influential song, became one of the first anthems of rock and roll. Its guitar-solo introduction has been one of the most copied riffs in rock-and-roll history. Berry’s classic songs, numerous cross-country tours with rock-and-roll package shows, and appearances in early rock-and-roll films—Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956), Mister Rock and Roll (1957), and Go, Johnny, Go! (1958)—made Berry a major star. He profoundly influenced many musicians who followed, including some of the most popular rock and pop artists and groups of the 1960s and thereafter: the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan. Having greatly influenced many of the best early rock-and-roll guitarists, including Buddy Holly, Carl Wilson, George Harrison, and Keith Richards, Berry is sometimes referred to as the ‘‘Father of Rock Guitar.’’ He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 1984 and was cited as one of the most influential and creative innovators in the history of American popular music. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Berry was the first musician inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the inaugural induction ceremony in 1986; his longtime pianist and friend, Johnnie Johnson, was inducted in 2001 in the sidemen category. On September 2, 1995, backed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Berry performed at the opening concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. He released Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, in 1987, and that same year a documentary film, Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll, was released. It included guest appearances by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and heartland rocker Bruce Springsteen. President Bill Clinton acknowledged Berry, who on occasion still performs today, as one of the twentieth century’s most influential musicians, and presented him the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors Award in December 2000. Further Reading Berry, Chuck. 1987. Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, 90–91. New York: Harmony Books.

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Henke, James, ed. 2000. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Guidebook, 74. Cleveland, OH: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Lisa Scrivani-Tidd

Berry, Halle (1966– ), Actress, Producer, Model Halle Berry is talented, beautiful, and versatile; she charts her own course in choosing roles in both television and movies, and has broken new ground for roles for black actresses. For her 2001 performance in Monster’s Ball she became the first and remains the only African American woman to win an Oscar for best performance by an actress. For that performance she also won awards from the Berlin International Film Festival, the National Board of Review, and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). She is one of the highest-paid actors in the motion picture industry, commanding eight figures. Her name on the marquee guarantees audiences. In 2007 she received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Since 1992 People magazine has acknowledged her as one of the most beautiful and best-dressed women in the world. At age forty-two, she was named the sexiest woman alive by Esquire, and in 2009 Ebony featured her as one of twenty-five African American women ‘‘who make everyone stand up and take notice.’’ Named Halle Maria, she spent her first four years in Cleveland’s inner city but grew up in the suburbs. Her African American father, Jerome, and white mother, Judith, divorced when Halle was four. Growing up, she identified herself as black, excelled in her classes, and overcame shyness by participating in many school activities. From her early childhood she dreamed of being an actress but chose broadcast journalism when she enrolled at Cuyahoga Community College. Berry arrived on the public stage by winning the Miss Teen Ohio and the Miss Ohio USA contests. She was the first black American to enter the Miss World contest. Her pageant success allowed her to join Bob Hope for a USO tour. Her road to stardom began in Chicago, where she studied acting and pursued a Modeling career. A talent agent encouraged her to move to New York. One of her early roles was a teenaged model on a weekly ABC television show, Living Dolls, that was cancelled after thirteen episodes. She moved to Los Angeles, where she earned parts that showcased her beauty. Determined to be taken seriously, she has evolved from being typecast as cute and cuddly and ‘‘window dressing.’’ Her first critical acclaim came as a crack addict in Jungle Fever, a film by Spike Lee. Her filmography includes roles in action movies and comedies, and characters with historical significance. Berry was the first black woman to play the Queen of Sheba; she won her first NAACP Image Award for the miniseries ‘‘Queen.’’ She made HBO ratings history, won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and a SAG Award for her starring role and also executive produced Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She has won Essence magazine, Bambi, two Black Reels, People’s Choice, MTV, and three BET awards. In 2005, she won a worst actress Razzie Award for her performance in Catwoman. She attended the ceremony, accepted the award,

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and determined to never to appear there again. She is a popular guest on talk shows. Her celebrity status has brought scrutiny of her private life in news magazines and tabloids, especially her failed marriages to baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benet. Separated from Canadian model Gabriel Aubry resulted in a daughter. Berry uses her iconic status to advance causes for diabetes and ovarian cancer. Further Reading Burgess, Marjorie, Ashyia N. Henderson, and Sara Pendergast. 2007. ‘‘Halle Berry.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 57. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Johnson, Melissa Ewery. 2010. Halle Berry: A Biography. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Mask, Mia. 2009. Divas on Screen: Black Women in Film. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. McCann, Bob. 2010. Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Niven, Steven J. 2008. ‘‘Halle Berry.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 1. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Gloria Hamilton

Berry, Mary Frances (1938– ), Educator, Historian, Lawyer, Civil and Human Rights Activist During the 1970s, Mary Frances Berry became the first black woman to lead a major American research university and soon after became the first black woman to serve as the chief educational officer in the United States. Still, Berry is perhaps best well known for her tenure on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and for her work with other human rights activists to call for the release of South African political prisoner Nelson Mandela. Born to George and Frances (Southall) Berry on February 17, 1938, in Nashville, Tennessee, Mary Frances Berry was reared in the city. While extenuating economic conditions forced the family to place Berry and her older brother into an orphanage for a period, her matriculation at then all-black Pearl High School provided a haven from the poverty and the cruelty of the racist South and offered her a lifelong mentor in teacher Minerva Hawkins. Following Berry’s graduation from Pearl in 1956, she attended Fisk and Howard universities. Having received her bachelor’s degree from Howard in 1961, she began her graduate studies there before transferring to the University of Michigan. She was awarded a PhD in 1966, and then solidified her expertise in U.S. constitutional law history by earning her JD in 1970. Berry’s long and distinguished administrative career began at the University of Maryland, where she eventually served as director of the Department of AfroAmerican Studies. By 1974, she had been promoted to provost of the school’s

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Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences. While the position made her the highest-ranking black woman on the University of Maryland’s College Park campus, Berry’s next appointment was the earliest in a series of firsts for an African American woman. In 1976, she became the president of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the following year she was tapped by President Jimmy Carter to serve as assistant secretary for education. Three years later, Carter once again called on Berry, this time to serve as a member of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. However, the recommendations of an Affirmative Action report Carter commissioned her and Blandina Cardenas Ramirez to conduct were not welcomed by incoming president Ronald Reagan. His opposition to the report’s recommendations to set timelines for amending historic racial and gender discrimination in the workplace led to Reagan’s unsuccessful attempt to remove Berry. Dubbed ‘‘the woman the president could not fire,’’ Berry, much to the dismay of the Reagan administration, remained steadfast in her commitment to the commission’s role as a Washington watchdog. She also assumed the co-leadership of the Free South Africa Movement (FSAM) with TransAfrica executive director Randall Robinson and Congressman Walter Fauntroy in 1984. FSAM built a powerful coalition of government and corporate opposition to South African apartheid and was instrumental in the release of Mandela and the end of apartheid. Since then, Berry has remained involved in the struggle to secure racial and economic justice as well as women’s rights and family welfare. She served as chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights during a six-year term from 1999 to 2004. A widely respected academician and activist, Berry has received over thirty honorary degrees and was named one of the women of the century by the Women’s Hall of Fame. Further Reading Berry, Mary Frances. 2009. And Justice for All: The United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Continuing Struggle for Freedom in America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Berry, Mary Frances. 1993. The Politics of Parenthood: Child Care, Women’s Rights, and the Myth of the Good Mother, New York: Viking. Harroun, Debra G. 2006. ‘‘Mary Frances Berry.’’ In Contemporary Black Biography: Profiles from the International Black Community. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Crystal A. deGregory

Bethune, Mary McLeod (1875–1955), Educator, Activist, Presidential Advisor, Organization Leader Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, renowned race leader, was the most influential African American woman during the first half of the twentieth century. She founded a school that evolved into Bethune-Cookman University, led organizations

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dedicated to improving African American lives, advised at least four presidents of the United States, and was the first African American woman to head a federal agency. Bethune was born on July 10, 1875, near Mayesville, South Carolina; she was the third youngest of Samuel and Patsy McLeod’s seventeen children. Bethune’s parents and most of her siblings were former slaves. She was born in a log cabin built by her father and brothers on land that the McLeods owned and farmed. Bethune had no opportunity to begin her formal education until a school for African American children, the Trinity Presbyterian Mission School, near Mayesville, opened in 1885. Three years later she received a scholarship to attend Scotia Seminary for Negro Girls (now Barber-Scotia College) in Concord, North Carolina. After graduating in 1894 and desiring to become a missionary in Africa, Bethune matriculated at the Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute). Once Bethune completed a two-year course of study, however, the Presbyterian Mission Board in New York rejected her request to do missionary work. In 1896, the Mission Board sent Bethune to Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, in Augusta, Georgia; Bethune taught at the school founded by Lucy Craft Laney for one year. Laney, who was also the principal of Haines, served as a mentor to Bethune. Bethune then transferred to Kindall Institute in Sumter, South Carolina. On May 6, 1898, she married Albertus Bethune (who also taught at Kindall before finding other employment), and gave birth to Albert McLeod Bethune Sr. on February 3, 1899 (Bethune’s grandson and legally adopted son, Albert McLeod Bethune Jr., was born in 1920). The couple separated eight years later. Bethune taught at Palatka Mission School in Palatka, Florida, for five years. In October 1904, with an initial enrollment of five girls, Bethune founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona, Florida. In less than two years, the elementary school’s enrollment, with Bethune as principal, grew to 250 students. In 1907, the school moved from a rented house to its permanent location on Second Avenue (now Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard). In 1912, the institute opened the McLeod Hospital and Training School for Nurses; the hospital closed in 1927. A high school, the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute, was established in 1918, and in 1923 the school became coeducational when it merged with Cookman Institute. By 1931 the school became a junior college known as Bethune-Cookman College, and it became a four-year college (now Bethune-Cookman University) in 1942, the same year that Bethune resigned from the presidency. Four years later she accepted the presidency again for a term of one year. Bethune, a member of various educational organizations, served as president of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools (1923–24) before it was renamed the American Teachers Association, Florida State Teachers Organization (1919), and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (1936–50). Bethune’s involvement with additional organizations enhanced her reputation as a women’s rights and civil rights activist. She was president of the Florida Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (1917–25), founder and president of the

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Southeastern Federation of Colored Women (1920–25), and president of the National Association of Colored Women (1924–28). At that time, the NACW was the leading secular organization for African American women, and the NACW presidency was considered the highest office for an African American woman. During Bethune’s tenure, the NACW became the first national African American organization to establish its national headquarters in Washington, DC; the location reflected two of Bethune’s objectives for the NACW: to increase the organization’s national visibility and to become involved in international issues. Expanding upon her goals for the NACW and recognizing the need to bring the various African American women’s organizations together, Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in 1935. Bethune served as the organization’s president until 1949, established national headquarters in Washington, and welcomed twenty-two national African American women’s occupational and professional organizations, eighty-two metropolitan councils, and many life members. Bethune, who consistently strove to empower African American women and concurrently sought civil rights for women and men, was also vice-president of the National Urban League (1920) and vice president of the NAACP (1940–55). Bethune used politics to advance her causes. She advised Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman, and served on national commissions as early as the Coolidge Administration in the 1920s, when she was appointed to the National Child Welfare Commission. Bethune was appointed as an administrative assistant in the Division of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration in June 1936, and on August 1936 she organized the Federal Council on Negro Affairs (the Black Cabinet) which brought together African American officials to advocate social change. When Bethune was promoted to director of the Division of Negro Affairs, National Youth Administration in January 1939, she became the highest-ranking African American woman in a federal agency. In April 1945 President Truman appointed Bethune, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Walter White as associate consultants to the United States delegation at the organizational meeting of the United Nations. Bethune’s work cited above and her many additional efforts to improve African American lives continue to benefit subsequent generations. Bethune’s legacy includes her well known ‘‘My Last Will and Testament,’’ written shortly before her death on May 18, 1955. The document, originally published in Ebony (1955), encourages African Americans to continue to advance the race. Further Reading Bennett, Lerone, Jr. ‘‘Chronicles of Black Courage: Mary McLeod Bethune Started College with ‘1.50 and Faith.’’’ Ebony 57(February 2002): 156, 158, 160–61. Hanson, Joyce A. 2003. Mary McLeod Bethune and Black Women’s Political Activism. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.

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Hine, Darlene Clark. 2008. ‘‘Mary McLeod Bethune.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 1. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. McCluskey, Audrey Thomas, and Elaine M. Smith, eds. 2001. Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World, Essays and Selected Documents. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Smith, Elaine M. ‘‘Mary McLeod Bethune.’’ 1993. In Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing. Linda M. Carter

Beyonc
e (1981– ), Singer, Songwriter, Actress, Entrepreneur Beyonc
e Knowles is a multitalented singer, songwriter, and actress who has a tremendous vocal range which allows her to perform a variety of songs, although her roots are in the rhythm and blues genre. Beyonc
e Gisele Knowles was born September 4, 1981, to Matthew Knowles, a medical equipment salesman and later her manager, and Tina Beyince, a hairdresser. Beyonc
e was named after her mother in an effort to make sure the Beyince family’s Creole name did not die out. Beyonc
e has a younger sister Solange. Much of Beyonc
e schooling was accomplished via tutors. In 2000, Knowles’ received a high school diploma. Beyonc
e’s interest in music began as a child. She was active on the Houston, Texas, beauty pageant circuit singing for the talent portion of the shows. Beyonc
e sang as soloist for two years in the church choir of St. John’s United Method Church. In 1990, Beyonc
e partnered with La Tavia Roberson, appearing as Girls’ Tyme. The pair added Kelendria Rowland in 1992. The group performed under several names including Somethin’ Fresh, Borderline, Clich
e, the Dolls, and Destiny. In 1993, LeToya Tuckett joined the group, which began performing under the name Destiny’s Child. Destiny’s Child signed with the Silent Productions branch of Elektra Records in 1995. Elektra dropped the group in 1996, but the group signed with Columbia Records the same year. Their first album, Destiny’s Child, sold over a million copies. It was followed in 1999 by The Writing’s On the Wall, for which the group won two Grammy Awards. The group’s success was bittersweet as Luckett and Roberson left the group claiming Matthew Knowles was biased in his treatment of Beyonc
e. Michelle Williams joined Destiny’s Child and in 2001 the trio went on to release The Platinum’s On the Wall (2001), Survivor (2001), 8 Days of Christmas (2001), This Is the Remix (2002), and Destiny Fulfilled (2004). Beyonc
e released her first solo album Dangerously in Love in 2003. The album went multiplatinum. This album was listed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 200 definitive albums in music history. Beyonc
e released B’Day in 2006 and I Am . . . Sasha Fierce in 2008.

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Beyonc
e has performed with many singers including Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, Missy Elliott, Luther Vandross, Shakira, and Kanye West. Beyonc
e has written and produced over sixty-five songs. She has had three albums and twelve singles hit number one on the Billboard charts including the 2009 singles ‘‘Diva’’ and ‘‘Halo.’’ Beyonc
e cites as the high point of her career her performing ’’At Last,’’ to which President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama danced at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in January 2009. Beyonc
e has contributed to several movie soundtracks including: Men in Black (1997), Charlie’s Angels (2000), Osmosis Jones (2001), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), and Dreamgirls (2006). Her talent has resulted in numerous awards including four MTV Music Awards, fourteen Grammy Awards, and nine Billboard Music Awards. Beyonc
e is also the first African American and only the second woman to win the American Society of Composer, Artists, and Performers Songwriter of the Year Award (2001). She is also the first woman to win the International Artist Award at the American Music Awards (2007). Beyonc
e made her acting debut in the 2001 MTV Production of Carmen: A Hip Hopera, in which she played Carmen. Beyonc
e went on to perform in a variety of movies including Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), The Fighting Temptations (2003), the 2004 documentary Fade to Black, The Pink Panther (2006), Dreamgirls (2006), Cadillac Records (2008), and Obsessed (2009). Beyonc
e and her mother designed the clothes worn by Beyonc
e and Destiny’s Child since the start of Beyonc
e’s career. In 2005, the pair entered into a licensing agreement with Tarrant Apparel to produce the House of Dereon couture line and Dereon ready-to-wear clothing. Beyonc
e has endorsed several products including L’Oreal, Pepsi, the perfume ‘‘True Star’’ for Tommy Hilfiger, and Armani. An active philanthropist, in 2004, Beyonc
e founded the Survivor Foundation to provide temporary housing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. She also provided relief for survivors of Hurricane Ike, and established the Houston based Knowles-Roland Center for Youth. Most recently Beyonc
e donated her salary from the movie Cadillac Records to the nationwide drug Singer and actress, Beyonc
e Knowles. (Shurehabilitation centers Phoenix House. tterstock)

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Beyonc
e has had managed to keep her personal life very private. Her stage persona is nothing like her private life. On stage Beyonc
e becomes Sasha Fierce, but in private she is quiet and shy. Beyonc
e admitted in 2006 to suffering from severe depression following the breakup of the original members of Destiny’s Child. Beyonc
e has had only two serious personal relationships. A seven-year relationship as a Houston teen and the second with rapper and businessman Shawn Corey Carter aka Jay-Z. Beyonc
e dated him from 2002 before marrying him in April 4, 2008 in a small private ceremony attended by close family and friends in New York City. See also: Entertainment Industry; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Beyonc
e Knowles. (Homepage.) http://www.beyonc
eonline.com. Knowles, Beyonc
e, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, and James Patrick Herman. 2002. Soul Survivors: The Official Autobiography of ‘‘Destiny’s Child.’’ New York: Reagan Books. Sanchez, Brenna, and Bob Jacobson. 2009. ‘‘Beyonc
e.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 70. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Anne K. Driscoll

Big Apple (Dance) This African American group social dance was briefly popular in the late 1930s. Related to the ring shout and the cakewalk in form, the dance begins with couples marching in a counterclockwise circular formation. A caller directs steps to the dancers, and at times, allows couples to enter the center of the circle to ‘‘shine,’’ or demonstrate spontaneous virtuosic movements. The big apple derived its name from the Big Apple Night Club located on Park Street in Columbia, South Carolina, where it first gained popularity. The dance spread across the country when it became the centerpiece of traveling stage shows featuring teenage dancers. By 1937, the dance reached the Savoy Ballroom in New York, where its format solidified further to include comic, eccentric steps from earlier dances, including a modified version of the Charleston; the Suzy-Q, in which dancers traveled sideways while twisting their feet with one foot on the toe and the other on the heel; the ‘‘spank the baby,’’ in which dancers fanned their bottoms with one hand as if scolding an errant child; the peck, in which dancers facing each other thrust their necks forward, imitating the pecking motion of chickens; the shorty George, in which dancers slinked from side to side with their arms pointing downward at the sides of their bodies; and truckin,’ an exaggerated walking style in which dancers traveled around the circle with one admonitory finger raised upward. Black choreographer Frankie Manning staged performance versions of the dance at the Savoy that emphasized both its playful and its virtuosic possibilities. White songwriter and bandleader Tommy Dorsey penned ‘‘The Big Apple’’ in

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1937, and the song quickly became a number one hit. The dance also became a commodity, as it was disseminated by teachers at the Arthur Murray dance studios. By the spring of 1938, the big apple achieved its maximum visibility as a cottage industry of sorts, producing distinctive fashions sold in department stores, special-event dance parties at nightclubs, and a widely reported big apple event in Washington, DC, at the White House. Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, a troupe of professional dances, performed the big apple in the 1939 film Keep Punching. The dance faded quickly from the national scene. Filmmaker Mura Dehn documented versions of the big apple in her 1950 film The Spirit Moves. See also: Dance and Dance Companies

Further Reading Courlander, Harold. 1963. Negro Folk Music, U.S.A. New York: Columbia University Press. Emery, Lynne Fauley. 1988. Black Dance from 1619 to Today. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Books. Malone, Jaqui. 1996. Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Thomas F. DeFrantz

Biracialism Biracialism, or ‘‘mixed race,’’ is a term used to specify a racial ancestry of two races. In particular, mixed race has often been associated with colonialism and slavery. Although our society has become more liberated and accepting towards biracialism, two centuries later those with black and white ancestry, in particular, remain the most discriminated mixed race in the twenty-first century. Despite barriers from the past regarding issue of biracialism, today the United States continues to become more liberated and diverse. In addition, according to Lee and Bean, today 1 in 40 people acknowledge being multiracial; by 2050, 1 in 5 people will identify themselves as being multiracial. Those who are biracial, who once dealt with personal identity and group categorization issues, benefit from being biracial today. ‘‘Along with increased immigration are rises in the rates of racial/ethnic intermarriages, which in turn have led to a sizeable and rowing multiracial population.’’ Indeed, with the increase in biracialism today, the nation’s one black and white society is diminishing rapidly. Today a majority of people from mixed races do not have to deal with issues regarding personal identity. Instead, they represent and acknowledge their racial ethnicities. Many African Americans who are biracial are mixed with, but not limited to, European, Asian, Latin America, Native American, and Creole. Currently, the DNA Print Genomics performs DNA analysis to determine the percentage of a person’s genetic makeup to determine if they fit in the narrow categories, which consist of white, black, East Asian, Native American, or other mixed race. Because the options for one’s selection of race are so parochial, many

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people who are biracial often are offended when they have to classify themselves as ‘‘mixed race’’ because their options are limited to four choices. As an example, President Barack Obama revealed that when he applied to Harvard’s law school, he did not provide his race on his application to the school. While in the past many biracial people were advised not to claim all ethnic backgrounds and instead select one racial identity, if the person had a black genetic element they were considered black, which meant the biracial person had to abandon the rest of their genetic makeup. However, issues regarding one’s biracial identity create problems in the United States. Today, DNA testing confirms there are people who look white yet their genetics verify that a majority of their recent ancestors were African. In addition, people who look black possess genes clarifying that the majority of their recent ancestors were European. This particular DNA test is known as biogeographical ancestry assessment. When individuals have their DNA tested, the majority of the samples reveal that the most Americans are biracial. In American Psychologist, cited in Racial Science Now, sociologist Troy Duster contends, ‘‘Some percentage of people who look white will possess genetic markers indicating that a significant majority of their recent ancestors were African. Some percentage of people who look black will possess genetic markers indicating the majority of their recent ancestors were European.’’ Although there are many types of biracial people in the United States, some of the genetic makeup includes Afro-Asians, Afro-Arabs, and Afro-Latino Americans. The culture of Afro-Asians dates back to 1882, when the Chinese Exclusion Act limited their immigration. Many Chinese men worked in the United States, but had left Chinese wives behind in China and now could not bring their wives to join them. Although the men had relocated to the United States for opportunities to advance in life, many whites were upset about Chinese being employed in their country and taking some positions that whites desired. As a result, the Chinese were often treated poorly and discriminated against. Many Chinese lived in black communities and had children with black women. As an example famous golfer Tiger Woods has a genetic makeup that consists of black, Chinese, Native American, and Thai descent. His mother is Thai and his father was half-black. Afro-Arab refers to people who are mixed with black and Arab ancestry. A large number of Afro-Arabs live in North Africa, East Africa, and Middle Eastern countries. Currently, more than half of the Arab population resides in Africa. As a result, many of the people of African descent who reside in the United States marry and produce biracial children. Afro-Latin Americans in the United States who are Afro-Latin American are also biracial; however, those in Latin America simply refer to such people as black. This particular group, which is composed of millions of blacks, varies from diverse countries such as Nicaragua, Honduras, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Brazil, for example, is the second-largest nation with inhabitants of African ancestry; there are currently 90 million people of African descent out of their 190 million population. Overall, biracialism, which was once viewed negatively, is now becoming more socially accepted in the United States. As this nation continues to advance towards diversity, interracial marriages and biracialism will continue to flourish.

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Further Reading Abraham, Carolyn. ‘‘Molecular Eyewitness: DNA Gets a Human Face.’’ Racial Science Now. 2007. Lee, Jennifer, and Frank D. Bean. 2004. ‘‘America’s Changing Color Lines: Immigration, Race/Ethnicity, and Multiracial Identification.’’ Annual Review of Sociology 3:221–42. Mason, Ernest. 1979. ‘‘Alain Locke on Race and Race Relations.’’ Phylon 40 (4th Quarter): 342–50. O’Hearn, Claudine O. 1998. Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural. New York: Pantheon Books. Root, Maria P. 1992. Racially Mixed People in America. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Monique Leslie-Akassi

Black Arts Movement The Black Arts Movement (BAM) or Black Aesthetic Movement is the 1960s and 1970s literary counterpart of the Black Power Movement; it reflects anger and nationalism, a revolutionary stance, and independence. BAM as a continuation of the development of African American literature and culture calls for an art that is by the people, functional, political, and one focused on black people without seeking white validation. The attitude and thrust are found historically in the literature since its beginning with such writers as Martin Delany, James Whitfield, David Walker, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Sterling Brown. The critical stance of BAM was articulated and defined by such writers as Addison Gayle Jr. in Black Expression and the Black Aesthetic, a collections of essays; Larry Neal, who advocated and explained this artistic revolution which was culturally relevant and original; both Neal and Amiri Baraka, who recognized the African essence of the aesthetic; and Ron Karenga, who connected African roots with black culture in the institution of Kwanzaa. The artist and works, even those using the more ‘‘acceptable’’ European forms and subjects, continued to be exploited with little or no recognition of his ability and genius. However, it became more and more apparent that black writers were no longer willing to accommodate to the exclusion of their own individuality. This dissatisfaction with the status quo and emphasis on black cultural pride, identity, and the people parallels the sentiment in the Black Power Movement. Additionally, BAM reexamined many of the issues prevalent in the Harlem Renaissance. Like the renaissance, much of the artistic revolution was in the same place; for BAM the city was Chicago. BAM addressed renaissance themes such as art, African American identity, history and folk tradition, urban setting, and color. The question in the renaissance was who should judge black art; BAM answered: black people. Thus, the guidelines for art and the criteria for

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judging reflected the political focus of the times. Major critical voices and articulators of BAM were Tom Dent, David Henderson, Calvin Hernton, Askia Tour
e, Leroi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka), Larry Neal, Addison Gayle, Jr., Hoyt Fuller, and Ron Karenga. The generally agreed upon formal beginning of BAM is with the assassination of Malcolm X and Jones’s name change to Baraka and his establishing of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre School (BART). However, preceding BART, black writers like Dent, Hernton, Henderson, and Tour
e had been members of the Umbra Workshop, a group of writers who espoused the same ideology as BART. Baraka was better known than the others; he was an acclaimed writer whose works were often integrationist, but which illustrated his contention that art should be a weapon. Poetry and the oral tradition were dominant in this period as in the renaissance. Drama was second in influence and popularity, and prose, which was least accessible, followed. This period also saw, as was apparent in the renaissance, a proliferation of literary and art periodicals, most of them short-lived. Major critics, poets, and spoken word artists of the period include Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee), Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Carolyn Rodgers, Gil Scott Heron, and the Last Poets. A poem of the movement that became a manifesto, written by Baraka, ‘‘Black Art,’’ presents BAM militancy and theory in both language and the message. He indicates that poems are to be political weapons and a call to action. The urgency of this call is sounded in his poem ‘‘SOS.’’ Madhubuti’s ideology reflects the independence of the movement as does the fact that he began by publishing and selling his own poetry. Sonia Sanchez, like Larry Neal, demonstrated the movement’s demand for the artist’s language to be the language of the streets or the vernacular, in the African oral tradition. Like Giovanni and others, Sanchez called for poetry that was germane to black people and black life. Critical analysis of the poetry was presented by Stephen Henderson in Understanding the New Black Poetry, which discussed the form, language usage, and symbols, and essays by such critic/poets as Carolyn Rodgers in her essays ‘‘Black Poetry—Where It’s At’’ and ‘‘The Literature of Black,’’ which analyze form, language, and European art versus black art. The Last Poets were a group of black poets who combined poetry and music that demonstrated the militancy of the period both in live/street performances and on their spoken word albums. Like the poetry that promoted the oral and street guerrilla warfare, BAM promoted plays to speak directly to the needs and hopes of black Americans. BAM playwrights, critics, and directors include Ron Milner, Ed Bullins, Sonia Sanchez, John Walker, Barbara Ann Teer, and Woodie King. This period saw theater groups, publishers, and periodicals, not all long-lived. Thus, there were publishers such as Dudley Randall, Broadside Press, who published such poets as Gwendolyn Brooks; Hoyt Fuller, managing editor of Black World, a publication of the Johnson Publishing Company; and Haki Madhubuti, Third World Press. Periodicals included Umbra Magazine, Black Dialogue, Black Drama, Liberator, Freedomways, and Negro Digest/Black World. BAM was criticized for being misogynistic, for reducing the black experience to the vernacular, and for confrontation. In spite of the criticism and its short life, it had a major impact. Black writers who wrote about their own identity without

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apologies to other groups opened the doors for other racial groups such as Native Americans, Asians, and Latinos to explore their own identities. Even though men were dominant in the 1960s, there is a proliferation of women writers who surfaced in the 1970s. The emphasis on the language of the street/vernacular has led to a burgeoning of spoken word poets, Hip-Hop, and urban literature. See also: Harlem Renaissance Further Reading Bambara, Toni Cade, ed. 1970. The Black Woman: An Anthology New York: New American Library. Baraka, Amiri, and Larry Neal, eds. 1968. Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing. New York: William Morrow. Gayle, Addison, Jr., ed. 1971. The Black Aesthetic. New York: Anchor Books. Gayle, Addison, Jr. 1976. The Way of the New World: The Black Novel in America. New York: Anchor Books. Napier, Winston, ed. 2000. African American Literary Theory: A Reader. New York: New York University Press. Helen R. Houston

Black Bottom, The (Dance) The black bottom is a jazz dance contemporaneous in origin with the Charleston. It is performed to a fast tempo and danced on the off beat. It includes forward and backward motion, some shimmying and light slaps on the bottom. Trying to pin down the first appearance of a social dance is virtually impossible, and in the case of the black bottom claims have been made for New Orleans, Nashville, and Detroit. The claim for New Orleans seems to have no other basis than the jazz connection. The Detroit claim is based on the fact that a section of that city is called Black Bottom. Nashville enters the competition because Nashville-based black musician Perry Bradford introduced the song to the white community with his recording of ‘‘The Original Black Bottom Dance,’’ which was issued with dance instructions. Bradford himself said that he invented the dance, but his autobiography also claimed that he discovered Bessie Smith and that his recording of ‘‘Crazy Blues’’ with Mamie Smith sold a million copies, among other things. His claims may all be true, but there’s no verification of most of them. What is certain is that the popularity of all jazz dance rocketed with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle’s black revue Shuffle Along (1921), a landmark production in many ways. Its choreography included virtually all of the popular jazz dances of the time, which was a major reason for its enormous popularity. Some music historians say that the show established the Tap Dance as a legitimate theatrical form. It also introduced a number of important black performers, including Florence Mills and Josephine Baker. With Shuffle Along, white New York began to dance the Charleston and the shimmy and other black dances to the hot jazz of

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the 1920s. Then, in 1924, the black bottom was featured in Irving Miller’s 1924 production Dinah. It was added to the dance repertoire in nightclubs and speakeasies, but it did not reach its full popularity until 1926. In that year it was performed in George White’s Scandals of 1926 by diminutive white dancer Ann Pennington to the song ‘‘Black Bottom,’’ which was written by white songwriters Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva, and Lew Brown. It became the rage in the United States and even in Europe. In 1927, for example, the Roseland Ballroom in New York hosted a black bottom dance marathon. A number of black performers wrote and recorded black bottom songs, from ‘‘Black Bottom Stomp’’ by Jelly Roll Morton, to Blind Boy Fuller’s ‘‘Black Bottom Blues I Crave My Pig Meat.’’ Although the black bottom lasted only about two years as a popular social dance, it was incorporated into tap routines as a solo challenge dance, and the influence of it is still seen on the tap stage. See also: Dance and Dance Companies Further Reading Emery, Lynne Fauley. 1988. Black Dance in the United States from 1619 to 1970, 2nd rev. ed., new chapter by Brenda Dixon-Stowell, foreword by Katherine Dunham. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Co. Norton, Pauline. ‘‘Black Bottom.’’ Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press. http://www.grovemusiconline.com. Stearns, Marshall, and Jean Stearns. 1968. Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance. New York: Macmillan. Kathleen Thompson

Black English Black English, or African American English, is the vernacular English spoken by many people of African descent. The word ‘‘Ebonics,’’ another term for language spoken by African Americans, is itself a blend of ‘‘ebony’’ and ‘‘phonics’’ (literally defined, ‘‘black sounds’’). Ebonics is known by several evolutionary nomenclatures—Negro speech, Negro English, Negro American dialect, ‘‘bad English,’’ African American Vernacular English, Black English, African American English, and Pan African Communication Behaviors, among others. Of all the names associated with Ebonics, current scholars most often use African American English (AAE) when referring to language spoken by many persons of African descent. It should be noted that all black people do not speak Ebonics. Conversely, there are non-African Americans who speak the language because they have grown up in communities in which Ebonics was the primary vernacular. In addition, nonblack entertainers use Ebonics as a means to connect to black audiences and to adopt Hip-Hop vernacular into entertainment routines.

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The term ‘‘Ebonics’’ was coined in 1973 by Robert Williams, noted psychologist and critic of racial and cultural biases, when he spoke at the Cognitive Language Development of Black Children conference. However, the word catapulted into the national consciousness in 1996 when the Oakland Board of Education declared that Ebonics is a language of its own; it is not a dialect of English, and teachers would use Ebonics to teach Standard English in the Oakland schools. Because the general public misunderstood the proposal and thought that teachers would be ‘‘teaching’’ Ebonics, a firestorm of controversy was ignited. The scholarly community had a problem deciding upon a definition for AAE. Persons from several disciplines have been interested in Ebonics—educators, researchers, linguists, anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, politicians, and, of course, English teachers. It has been a challenge to classify Ebonics since parties involved cannot agree upon the status of AAE. Some have called Ebonics ‘‘bad English.’’ Others have referred to it as slang, dialect, and language. Even the Urban Dictionary, which allows the community to define its own language, offers ninety definitions for Ebonics. When scholars looked at Ebonics objectively—void of racial biases, negative value judgments, and other prejudices that cloaked hypotheses ‘‘experts’’ in various fields voiced about the language—they discarded anecdotal theories and formed two plausible hypotheses about the evolution of Black English. The first one, the dialect hypothesis, is based upon the oral tradition. When slaves were brought from Africa to the United States, they were not taught the English language because laws forbade anyone from educating slaves. So without formal training slaves learned the language as well as they could. It was natural for them to employ their own native sounds and speech patterns to the new language to which they were exposed. Thus, Ebonics was passed from generation to generation and became the speech of some African American families and black communities. The second hypothesis indicates that Ebonics began as a pidgin language, a vernacular with a very limited vocabulary and simple grammar that permitted communication between groups of people who have no common language. For example, pidgins developed with the slave trade in Africa and with the importation of West African slaves to Caribbean plantations. Over time, Black English became a Creole language, the blend of English and several West African languages that became the primary speech spoken. Prior to the 1960s, noncomplimentary anecdotal theories about AAE were bantered around. However, the 1960s saw the birth of the Black Arts Movement, which spawned a respect for the study of Ebonics. The movement celebrated various facets of black culture, which included Black English. During this same decade, William Labov, J. L. Dillard, Geneva Smitherman, and other linguists argued vehemently in defense of Ebonics. Close examination revealed grammar, structure, and sound rules in West African languages that are apparent in Ebonics. For instance, the absence of the verb ‘‘to be’’ in West African languages is also absent in Ebonics. Standard English, ‘‘They are speaking about jazz’’ becomes ‘‘They speakin’ about jazz’’ in Ebonics code. Other commonalities between the two languages include the repetition of a noun subject with a

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pronoun (My boss, he is a hard taskmaster); the same form of the noun for singular and plural usage (one book; seven book); and the same verb form for all subjects (I know; you know; he know; we know; they know). Relative to sound, the absence of consonant pairs in the West African vernacular is true in Ebonics (pronounced jus instead of just and mus instead of must). The /r/ sound is dropped from words (pronounced mow instead of more; flo instead of floor), and the absence of the /th/ sound in West African languages and Ebonics is substituted with the /d/ sound in words with the initial /th/ spelling (pronounced dis instead of this, dat instead of that) and is substituted for the /f/ sound in words ending with / th/ (pronounced earf instead of earth, wif instead of with, fif instead of fifth). The connection of Ebonics to West African languages solves the dilemma of AAE being regarded as a deficient language. Scholarly research revealed two plausible theories that account for the history and evolution of Ebonics. Linguists acknowledge that nonstandard dialects are highly structured language systems. So now that many linguists admit that Black English has the tenets that make it a bona fide language, more and more educators and other professionals view Ebonics with a newfound respect for what the language means to African Americans and Black culture. See also: Slang and Unconventional English Further Reading CNN Interactive. 1997. ‘‘Amended Resolution of the Oakland Board of Education: Oakland School.’’ Board Amends Ebonics Policy. http://www.cnn.com/US/9701/ 16/black.english/ebonics.amend.html. Lewis, Bryan C. 1996. ‘‘Black English: Its History and Its Role in the Education of Our Children.’’ http://www.geocities.com/athens/ithaca/3638/blacktalk.html?200911. Monaghan, Leila. 1997. ‘‘Views of Linguists and Anthropologists on the Ebonics Issue (Part 1).’’ http://www.stanford.edu/~rickford/ebonics/LingAnthro1.html. Rickford, John R. ‘‘The Oakland Ebonics Decision: Commendable Attack on the Problem.’’ San Jose Mercury News, Op Ed, December 26, 1996. http://www.stanford.edu/ ~rickford/ebonics/SJMN-OpEd.html. Rubba, Johanna. 1997. ‘‘Ebonics: Q & A.’’ http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/Ebonics.html. Jewell B. Parham

Black Enterprise (1970) With a belief that civil rights must include economic access, Earl G. Graves founded Black Enterprise (BE) with the mission of helping African Americans close the wealth gap. Since August 1970, the magazine has played a vital role in educating black readers on financial matters and empowering black businesses, entrepreneurs, professionals, and families. When BE was launched, Graves had no previous publishing or journalism experience. He had a degree from Morgan

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State University in business, served in the army achieving the rank of captain, sold real estate, and worked three years as an administrative assistant to Senator Robert Kennedy until Kennedy’s assassination. With the determination to equip the black community with the skills to expand their participation in the American marketplace, in 1968, he established Earl G. Graves, a management consulting firm. In 1970, his subsidiary, Earl Graves Publishing, published Black Enterprise. The first issue featured the achievements of businessman and mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, Charles Evers. Through the years, Graves has provided practical ‘‘how to’’ business information to subscribers, and convinced Wall Street and Madison Avenue of the value of black consumers. After ten issues, the company posted revenues of $900,000. By its twentieth year, the business finance magazine targeted to an African American audience earned $15.1 million. It has become a staple in the African American community. In 1973 the magazine published a market analysis of advertising responsiveness among upscale blacks and upscale whites and its first list of top one hundred black businesses. Through scholarly research articles, recurring lists, surveys, and statistics, the magazine has chronicled and documented the changing landscape of black businesses and the growth of black professionals and politicians in American popular culture. In 1999, a compilation of the lists was the basis of a book by Derek T. Dingle entitled Black Enterprise Titans of the B.E. 100s: Black CEOs Who Redefined and Conquered American Business. Articles in the journal inspire readers to follow Graves’s leadership model and accept his message that it is possible to ‘‘succeed in business without being white.’’ Black Enterprise has evolved into a multimedia company with wealth creation and empowerment tools available in print, via radio, television, and online at blackenterprise.com. The Web site provides access to current information on business, politics, careers, entrepreneurs, B.E. 100s, and lifestyles. The parent company hosts networking entrepreneurs’ conferences. The magazine gives awards for community champions, business innovators, and teen entrepreneurs. BE has a circulation of over 3.7 million, mostly upscale, college-educated readers, and 500,000 annual subscribers. Earl Graves Sr. still writes the publisher’s page. President and CEO Earl Graves Jr. continues the legacy of his father, celebrating black advancements in corporate and political America and preaching wealth building and business ownership. A company or individual featured in BE has reached a pinnacle of success. During the presidential primaries, BE was the first national magazine to endorse Barack Obama. In February 2009, the president’s first exclusive print interview was with Derek T. Dingle, BE editor in chief. In July 2009, Dingle was one of seven black journalists invited on Air Force One for a roundtable with the president. Further Reading
Bell, Gregory S. ‘‘Earl Graves.’’ 2009. In African American National Biography, vo. 3. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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Dingle, Derek. 2009. ‘‘Black Enterprise Exclusive: Interview with President Barack Obama.’’ Black Enterprise 40 (April): 62. Dingle, Derek. 2009. ‘‘Our Historic Flight on Air Force One with President Obama.’’ Black Enterprise 40 (September): 10. Gates, Henry Louis Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. 2008. African American National Biography, Vol. 3. New York: Oxford University Press. Graves, Earl G. Sr., and Earl G. Graves Jr. 2005. ‘‘Black Enterprise 35.’’ Black Enterprise 36 (August): 81–83. Whigham, Marjorie. 1990. ‘‘20 Years of Black Enterprise: A Portrait of Earl G. Graves Ltd.’’ Black Enterprise 21 (August): 63. Gloria Hamilton

Black Entertainment Television (BET) Black Entertainment Television (BET) was launched in 1980 by Robert Louis Johnson (born April 8, 1946, in Hickory, Mississippi). Targeting African American audiences, BET provides music, entertainment, and news. This leading cable channel began with limited airtime, showing music videos for only two hours on Friday. Many of these neophyte videos brought once-regional groups to a national audience and introduced a diversity of talent never before seen on mainstream television and in popular culture. Video Soul started in 1981 as BET’s first music program with Donnie Simpson as host for fourteen years. Here viewers got to see mostly Rhythm and Blues (R & B) performers and performances not seen on other music channels. Johnson picked up the longstanding Bobby Jones Gospel show from a Nashville affiliate in 1980 and it continues to remain popular today. On any given Sunday, viewers are exposed to a range of performers, from seasoned gospel singers to up-and-coming Hip-Hop gospel artists during the one-hour show. Five days a week, urban music lovers can tune in to the latest as they countdown the hits on 106 & Park. Guests who have appeared on 106 & Park since it premiered on September 11, 2000, include Jamie Foxx, Janet Jackson, Tom Cruise, and Fifty (50) Cent. Programming includes nonmusic shows as well. One such show is the successful Comic View, which has been on the air for over fifteen years. This standup comedy show allows numerous unknown comedians an opportunity to perform in front of a live audience in various venues. Well-known hosts of Comic View include Cedric ‘‘The Entertainer’’ Kyles, D. L. Hughley, and Gary Owen (distinguished as the first white male to host). News programming included BET Tonight (hosted by Ed Gordon and later Tavis Smiley). Both shows presented news and commentary often not seen elsewhere with a black focus. Memorable shows include Gordon’s interview with O. J. Simpson shortly after his civil trial related to his wife’s murder and Smiley’s interview with Fidel Castro. Other networks affiliated with BET include BET J

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(programming targeting the multicultural and more sophisticated audiences) and BET Gospel (featuring gospel talent and programming). Ready to focus on other ventures and with an offer he could not refuse, Johnson sold the black-owned BET to Viacom in 2001 for $3 billion. With this deal, Johnson made history by becoming the first black billionaire. Not everyone shared the same delight about this exchange. Viewers expressed their dismay at the loss of the only black-owned network by writing letters to Viacom and through dialogue on various radio talk shows. Debra L. Lee, BET veteran for over twenty years, was promoted to Chief Executive Officer in 2005 and remains at the helm. In 2008, BET switched gears and began to offer more original shows to further satisfy the diverse interests of viewers and increase advertising sales. Reality shows such as Baldwin Hills (spotlighting wealthy African American Los Angeles teens) and College Hill (focused on eight African American college students who share a home for a semester) have received favorable viewership. BET series include Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is, American Gangster, and Sunday Best. According to Nielsen Media Research, BET now reaches eighty-seven million homes.

Further Reading Bramhall, Joe. Black Entertainment Television. Hoover’s Company Records database. University of Texas at Austin Library. July 19, 2010. http://premium.hoovers. com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/subscribe/co/people/bio.xhtml?ID=ffffrfsrjfffffffff&OID= 1108877. Pulley, Brett. 2004. The Billion Dollar BET: Robert Johnson and the Inside Story of Black Entertainment Television. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Tait, Alice A., and John T. Barber. 1996. ‘‘Black Entertainment Television: Breaking New Ground and Accepting New Responsibilities?’’ In Mediated Messages and African-American Culture: Contemporary Issues, ed. Venise T. Berry and Carmen L. Manning-Miller. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Angela M. Gooden

Black Hebrews The emergence of Black Hebrews as a religious sect can best be understood within the context of the African American cultural and religious experience in the United States as it was being shaped by slavery and continuing discrimination. However, neither their presence nor their influence could be contained solely on the shores of North America because of the visionary leadership of this sect. Often misunderstood and maligned, Black Hebrews continue to practice their faith today, sometimes being referred to as Black Hebrew Israelites or Hebrew Israelites, Black Jews, or African Hebrew Israelites. Ultimately, some members of this

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religious group felt led to go on a pilgrimage that later found them and others reconsidering what it really meant to be a black or a Jew. Black Hebrews are a religious group with their own particular set of rituals that have developed over a long history emanating from the 1880s in such unlikely places as Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Lawrence, Kansas. Their Jewish congregations were also seen in northern urban centers as well. Some early leaders believed in a godhead that was black, others thought of themselves as heirs of the ten lost tribes of Israel, while some attempted to link Black Nationalism with their religious ideology. Early converts formed a deep spiritual identity with the struggles of the Hebrew biblical Israelites. Paradoxically, it was the introduction of Christianity to black slaves that drew many of them to develop an affinity for the Hebrew scripture even while rejecting the Christian religion of their masters. In later years, the real life drama of the Jewish community who survived the Holocaust and sought refuge in a newly formed nation called Israel provided the kind of symbolism sought by many blacks in the United States at that time. These later converts had become disillusioned with the political, economic, and social systems of their day and yearned for a more authentic religious experience that could transform them and their society. The continued blatant discrimination against blacks prompted some Black Hebrews in later years to support leaders who envisioned traveling to a land that would welcome them, allowing them to practice their Jewish faith as the true followers of God, believing that the United States offered no hope for a better or brighter future than what the present afforded them. Finding such a land, they reasoned, would allow them to shed their old ‘‘servant’’ identity and reclaim their heritage as the ‘‘chosen’’ people. Because the early 1960s in the United States was a tumultuous time of selfdetermination by blacks, it became an opportune time for the Ben Ammi sect of the Hebrew Israelites to propose moving to Israel. A small group of them did travel to Liberia on their trek to the ‘‘promised land,’’ but during the acclimation to their new surroundings and the resultant loneliness, many became discouraged. Nevertheless, this new Black Hebrew Israelite Nation did eventually plant its feet on Israeli soil but not without generating a huge controversy about what it meant to be a Jew. At first unwanted and unwelcome, some were able to obtain Israeli citizenship many years later. Today, there are thousands of persons who claim identity as some form of Black Hebrews in the United States and in Israel. Dressing in African styles, following some Hebrew customs and traditions, and maintaining a vegan diet, they represent a religious sect that seeks to positively influence the communities in which they reside by living healthy, honorable lives. Further Reading Chireau, Yvonne and Nathaniel Deutsh, eds. 2000. Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press. Cohen, Benyamin. ‘‘The Prince and I: to many, the African Hebrew Israelites are just an offbeat fringe cult with odd customs. No meat! No caffeine! No medicine!

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No Chanukah! Multiple Wives! But spend the day with them and you’ll find out a whole lot more.’’ American Jewish Life Magazine (March–April, 2007). http:// 0-find.galegroup.comwaldo.library.nashville.org:80/ips/start.do/prodId=IPS. Nemerofsky, Jesse. ‘‘The Black Hebrews.’’ Society 1, no. 32 (Nov–Dec, 1994). http:// 0-find.galegroup.com.waldo.library.nashvile.org/ips/start.do/prodId=IPS. Vivian C. Martin

Black History Month Black History Month is widely celebrated in American popular culture. While African Americans call for continued recognition of the achievements of their people, the widespread attention given to black history and culture that emerged after the Black Arts Movement of late 1960s and 1970s, and the 1976 bicentennial celebration spurred white Americans to join the recognition at least during each February, when Black History Month is celebrated. Historian, educator, and publisher Carter Godwin Woodson is heralded as the ‘‘Father of Black History’’ and a pioneer in multiculturalism due to his success in forging an intellectual movement to teach Americans, both white and black, about cultural diversity and the history of black people. In 1915, he helped to found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), as it was known then, and the next year established and began his term as life editor of the Journal of Negro History. He promoted black scholarship and the contributions of blacks through the journal as well as through the Associated Publishers, a subsidiary of ASNLH founded in 1921. Still, Woodson felt that his efforts were incomplete. Woodson realized that young people, teachers, and lay persons needed to know more about their own history and culture. He was disturbed that blacks were generally excluded from textbooks, or if included, their lives were couched in their participation in American culture as slaves but not for the heroic deeds of some who were enslaved. He realized that many blacks knew little about their history and whites knew even less; they also placed little value on learning more about African American history. Many textbooks indoctrinated readers in the inferiority of blacks and the humiliation surrounding slave experiences. With other components of ASALH in place, in February 1926, Woodson established Negro History Week as a way to reach young people, teachers, and lay persons who, in his view, should know their history and culture. He believed that Negro History Week would at least give churches, schools, and organizations a time to concentrate on and commemorate black culture by holding special events of historical significance. The celebration deliberately coincided with the birthdays of three important leaders who were influential in the lives of black people—educator Booker T. Washington, President Abraham Lincoln, and orator and freedom fighter Frederick Douglass. To aid in the celebration, ASALH published history kits equipped with useful items for exhibits, lectures, pageants, and curriculum

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development. Woodson’s efforts gained attention in the African American community but were slow to be used in mainstream America. The bicentennial year 1976 called attention to elements of African American culture not yet recognized, appreciated, or celebrated by others. In that year, Black History Week was replaced by Black History Month, providing a longer period of concentration on black achievement. At the same time, ASALH changed its name to become the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History and still later the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Black History Month celebrations and the acknowledgments of black achievement are now widespread occurrences in popular culture. In February in particular, businesses, government offices, schools, colleges, churches, organizations, and other entities prepare displays, provide featured speakers, publish brochures, and engage in a variety of means of recognizing the contributions of blacks and the black tradition. Each annual celebration focuses on a specific theme that ASALH determines. Woodson’s efforts have been successful, both in building the foundation for rethinking American identity and in the promotion of multiculturalism. Further Reading ASALH: Founders of Black History Month. http://asalh.org. Jaynes, Gerald D., ed. 2005. Encyclopedia of African American Society. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. ‘‘Carter G. Woodson.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale. Jessie Carney Smith

Black Nationalism Black Nationalism is the belief that African Americans should have social, economic, and political institutions that are separate from those of whites. It is a belief that runs counter to the achievement of Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle for civil rights, and it is unlike the accommodation practices of Booker T. Washington. Black Nationalists, above all else, exhibit strong racial pride, and this belief is a thread that runs through the African American experience. Because of its strident radicalism, Black Nationalism is sometimes referred to as Black Separatism, and this belief we find during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the United States. One of the debates that raged during the early nineteenth century was over African Colonization, a movement to return blacks in the United States to Africa. Before the establishment of the American Colonization Society in 1817, a white-led organization that officially disbanded in 1912, black America debated the idea of colonization. One of the leading advocates of African Colonization was the African American mariner and entrepreneur Paul Cuffe (1759–1817). Cuffe was a self-made man from Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts,

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the seventh son of an African father and a Wampanoag Indian mother. A man large in bearing and proficient in seafaring, Cuffe owned six ships and amassed great wealth during his lifetime. His ships were operated by all-black crews (Cuffe made it his practice to hire black mariners only), and traded commodities throughout the West Indies, London, and the United States. Nearly a century before Marcus Garvey and his Back to Africa movement, wealthy African Americans had been considering the idea. In Philadelphia in 1787, the Free African Society was established by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones to counteract the closing of the doors of white churches to people of color. The Free African Society provided African Americans a place of worship as well as a place to organize politically, thus fulfilling the function of the black church in the broader context of African American culture, where politics and religion often intersected and where the church often provided a voice for those who might otherwise have remained voiceless. Absalom Jones, too, would go on to establish the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In September 1829, African American abolitionist David Walker published his Appeal . . . to the Colored Citizens of the World, a work that, according to historian Sterling Stuckey, in James Sellman’s article, made Walker the ‘‘father of Black Nationalist theory in America,’’ according to James Clyde Sellman. As opposed to moral suasion, or arguments that called for nonviolent means towards the abolition of slavery, Walker’s Appeal called for violent measures and the immediate establishment of black civil rights. Nine months following the publication of his Appeal, a work that caused a bounty to be placed on its author’s head, $10,000 if brought in alive, $1,000 if brought in dead, Walker died, and his death remains a mystery. While not, strictly speaking, beneath the umbrella of Black Nationalism because of its interracial composition, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, is Black Nationalist in spirit because it provided an institutional presence for African Americans in the United States. One of its founders, W. E. B. Du Bois, in 1919, set up the first Pan-African Congress, held in Paris following World War I; this meeting helped foster global awareness of blackness and black consciousness. During the 1920s, with the Harlem Renaissance in full swing, and Harlem serving as the de facto center of the black world, Marcus Garvey launched his Universal Negro Improvement Association, also known as the Back to Africa movement. While Garvey’s project failed, and he was accused of fraud, his beliefs were firmly within the tradition of Black Nationalism, earning Marcus Garvey recognition as Jamaica’s first national hero. In the United States, a land where sport is integral in the popular culture and the national character, the Negro Baseball Leagues, started by Rube Foster in 1920 and revived by Gus Greenlee in 1933, were institutions of civic pride for black Americans. ‘‘As blacks were phased out of integrated sports through legislation, intimidation and coercion,’’ William C. Rhoden writes, ‘‘they relied on a sports world of their own. In some ways, though perhaps only in retrospect, the suffocating humiliation of colored only–white only was the best thing that happened to African Americans. Segregation forced African Americans into a spirit

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of cooperation and nudged them toward a hazy concept of ‘unity’ predicated as much on survival as on true kinship. Segregation forced African Americans into a spirit of interdependence that celebrated the particle of existence that mainstream society attacked: their humanity.’’ This preservation of humanity we see with the Nation of Islam, particularly one of its most famous ministers, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, or Malcolm X, a speaker whose style and whose charismatic articulation of Black Nationalist ideology made him iconic in African American popular culture. In one of his more famed speeches, ‘‘The Ballot or the Bullet,’’ originally delivered in April of 1964, Malcolm X explained, ‘‘The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community. . . . The man who’s controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesn’t look like we do. He’s a man who doesn’t even live in the community. So you and I, even when we try to spend our money in the block where we live or the area where we live, we’re spending it with a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in another part of the town.’’ Black Nationalism offered, above all else, a way for black pride to blossom in the face of institutions and individuals often geared toward crushing the humanity and dignity of African Americans. In our own age of Globalization, separatism is, at best, anachronistic, for people of color have been a part of the United States since its inception. ‘‘The fantasy of an America free of blacks,’’ Ralph Ellison wrote, ‘‘is at least as old as the dream of creating a truly democratic society.’’

Further Reading Ellison, Ralph. 1995. ‘‘What America Would Be Like Without Blacks.’’ In The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison. John F. Callahan, ed. New York: Modern Library. Malcolm X. ‘‘The Ballot or the Bullet.’’ Available at teachingamericanhistory.org. Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Black Nationalism in the United States.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Black Panther Party (1966) The Black Panther Party for Self Defense, eventually changed to the Black Panther Party, was an organization established in 1966 that existed through the late 1970s. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale were the founders of the group on October 15, 1966. This particular group focused on promoting black power and self-defense of the African American neighborhoods that suffered from police

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A teacher leads his students with the black power salute and slogans at a Black Panther liberation school, San Francisco, December 1969. (Bettmann/Corbis)

brutality through the rhetoric of agitation during the Civil Rights Movement. Their uniforms consisted of blue shirts, black pants, black leather jackets, black berets, and shotguns. The group was founded on socialist doctrine and Black Nationalist notions. In 1967 the group marched on the California State Capitol in Sacramento in protest of the ban on weapons. During this year, they also began publishing a newspaper, The Black Panther; the paper was very successful, circulating a quarter of a million copies. In 1968, the organization began metastasizing rapidly in cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Newark, and Chicago; membership reached five thousand. Although the organization only allowed African Americans to join the group initially, it eventually began to appeal to people nationally; therefore, the members began to allow people who were not African American to join. The diversity within the group led to the counterculture of the 1960s, which dealt exclusively with fighting against the American government in regards to conservative views on controversial issues during the 1960s and 1970s. Eventually the party began focusing less on racial issues and more on the black communities’ poverty and health issues. The group’s good deeds were often obscured by their militant approach and issues with the U.S. government. When the leader Huey Newton was on trial for manslaughter in 1968, the organization’s members began to dwindle. In the 1970s the organization eventually reduced significantly. As the group became fragmented, the strength of the organization began to decline. On

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August 22, 1989, Newton was shot dead in a drug dispute. His death led to a downward spiral in the Black Panther Party’s fight for the black race. The Black Panther Party’s original platform statement from its ‘‘Ten Point Plan’’ described in depth the need for all African Americans to be free from illtreatment. In addition, the Black Panthers fought for power and control over their communities. Other issues of concern were decent housing, excellent education that reveals the true American history, free health care, and fair treatment for those who are incarcerated. Overall, the Black Panthers wanted to fight for peace and fair treatment for the black race. Today the Black Panther Party is often falsely criticized as being a hate group. The party represented an organization based on love and defending the oppressed black race while effectively communicating and seeking resolution between blacks and whites in the United States. The party’s fight for equality, justice, and freedom continues today. Ultimately, the party, one of the most powerful groups for social change in the United States, has left a permanent imprint in American history. Further Reading Austin, Curtis J. 2008. Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. Seale, Bobby. 1991. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Baltimore: Black Classic Press. ‘‘The Ten Point Plan.’’ Black Panther Party. http://www.blackpanther.org/index.html. Monique Leslie-Akassi

Black Power Movement During the 1950s and 1960s Martin Luther King Jr. and others emerged as leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. For more than a decade an unprecedented number of marches, ‘‘sit-ins,’’ and other protest activities took place demanding an end to segregation. King’s nonviolent protests were predicated on an integrationist ideology in which African Americans would ‘‘not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’’ During the mid1960s, however, a different and competing philosophy emerged. The Black Power Movement advocated unity, community building, a recognition of blacks’ African heritage, and the development of independent black organizations. The integrationist goal of the Civil Rights Movement was rejected. Black Power advocates believed that African Americans should focus on improving their own communities rather than integrating into white society. Where Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers found their inspiration in the nonviolent teachings of Mohandas Ghandi, Black Power advocates preferred Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and Franz Fanon.

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The posthumously published Autobiography of Malcolm X was widely read and highly influential. During his life and after his death, Malcolm X influenced black activists. Malcolm X was a minster for the Nation of Islam. He was a separatist who believed that African Americans should control their own communities. He also rejected nonviolent protest. Malcolm X was, in many ways, the inspiration for the Black Power Movement. Kwame Ture, then known as Stokely Carmichael, was the first to utter the phrase ‘‘black power,’’ which became the movement’s slogan. Carmichael was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) charismatic leader. Frustrated by the lack of progress toward desegregation in the late 1960s, some SNCC insiders rejected Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders’ commitment to nonviolent protest. They advocated a strategy of self-determination and self-defense. During a1966 protest march in Mississippi, SNCC field workers Stokley Carmichael and Willie Ricks used the chant of ‘‘Black Power’’ to distinguish their new direction from Martin Luther King’s nonviolent approach. To them the phrase ‘‘Black Power’’ meant blacks taking political and economic control of their own communities in the Deep South and elsewhere. The 1960s was a decade of turmoil and change. Images ranging from police dogs attacking peaceful civil rights protesters to cities burning during urban riots were staples of nightly newscasts. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated. Thousands of students protested the Vietnam War on college campuses across the nation. The Black Panthers, another group associated with the Black Power Movement, were organized in Oakland, California, by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. They advocated armed confrontations with the authorities but they also focused on issues that adversely affected the black community, including access to health care, housing, and the treatment of prisoners. African American artists and writers were inspired by the Black Power Movement. They believed that the cultural heritage, history, and the African roots of black Americans were critical to redefinition of black identity. The negative connotations long associated with dark complexions were rejected. Black became beautiful. The Black Arts Movement was, as Larry Neal explained, ‘‘a cultural revolution in art and ideas.’’ Writers and artists challenged traditional western standards for art and literature and sought to develop a ‘‘black aesthetic.’’ It was, as Neal stated, the ‘‘aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept.’’ The Black Power salute, consisting of an upraised arm and a clenched fist, became a symbol of solidarity. Spiral, a collective of African American artists, was established in 1963 to discuss the commitment of African American artists to the Civil Rights Movement and to debate the necessity of defining a black aesthetic in the visual arts. Artists used protest themes in their work. Black Liberation Theology was another outgrowth of the Black Power Movement. James Cone, the originator of Black Liberation Theology, promoted the use of Christianity to advance racial consciousness and empowerment. The Black Power Movement faded almost as quickly as it appeared. By the end of the 1960s the Civil Rights Movement had achieved its goal of eliminating the legal barriers to racial equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964,

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the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 ended the era of state-sanctioned discrimination and segregation. Mass protests declined after Martin Luther King’s Jr. assassination. Ideological feuds among civil rights organizations hastened the movement’s demise. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counterintelligence Program, which used covert methods to sabotage protest activities, contributed to the Black Power Movement’s disintegration. By the early 1970s the Black Power Movement was eclipsed by antiwar protests. The Black Power Movement was short-lived but it had a lasting influence on America’s economic, political, and social institutions. The movement suffered from rhetorical excesses of some of its adherents. However, many who were seen as radicals in the 1960s used their organizational and leadership skills to become elected officials at the state, local, and national levels. Others moved into academia where they pioneered Black Studies programs. The continuing influence of the Black Power Movement can be seen in literature and the arts, on stage and on the screen. Echoes can be heard in musical genres ranging from jazz to Hip-Hop. One important legacy is the way in which African Americans view themselves: as individuals with pride and dignity comprising an integral part of the American mainstream. Further Reading Carmichael, Stokely, and Charles V. Hamilton. 1967. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America. New York: Vintage. Malcolm X, and Haley, Alex. 1965. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley, New York: Ballantine Books. Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. 2004. Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Peniel, Joseph E. 2006. Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. New York: Henry Holt. Seale, Bobby. 1996. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Baltimore: Black Classic Press. Leland Ware

Black Studies Black Studies is an interdisciplinary academic program that encompasses the study of arts, humanities, and social behavioral sciences that relate to African Americans, to gain a full understanding of their experiences. Propelled by the desire of black students and black academics who wanted to include an accurate depiction of black experience and contribution in education, Black Studies emerged as an academic program in colleges and universities in the 1960s. Many factors contributed to the development of Black Studies. The black college student population increased, and approximately two-thirds of them were enrolled in white colleges. There were also the influences of the Civil Rights Movement

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and the Black Power Movement that gave voice to their dissatisfaction with the lack of courses and the inaccurate content being taught about African Americans’ experience. Additionally, black students felt their heritage, culture, and lives were underrepresented and misrepresented in college and university curriculums. Additionally, the strong presence of the Black Student Movement influenced the rise of Black Studies. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 further intensified the desire for the establishment of Black Studies among students. Triggered by what many black students perceived to be an insensitive attitude by their colleges’ and universities’ administrations, black students in several universities protested for five months in 1968. However, from as early as 1966, Merritt College implemented Black Studies courses. In the fall of 1968, black students aligned with the Civil Rights Movement in their quest to end racial segregation and the exclusion of African American Studies from the curriculum of universities. There were several protests in both Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Traditionally White Universities (TWIs) before Black Studies programs were officially implemented. One of the first prominent advocators for Black Studies was Nathan Hare, a sociology professor at Howard University. Hare’s first book, The Black AngloSaxons (1965), disapproved of black middle-class abandonment of black culture for white culture. Hare’s belief that blacks were being assimilated into white culture prompted a five-month strike at Howard University, the strikers calling for the implementation of Black Studies in the university’s curriculum. Hare and four other professors, two of them white, were fired at the end of the semester. In 1968, he was hired by San Francisco University to coordinate the first Black Studies program in the United States. Following Hare’s success, in 1969, Robert Singleton and Molefi Asante created the Journal of Black Studies. In 1970, the University of California, Los Angeles, launched a Center for Afro-American Studies, a subset of Black Studies. There was also a National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, in 1972. In addition, in 1974, the National Council of Black Studies was founded. Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies was published in 1982. Created by Molefi Kete Asante, Temple University approved its doctoral program in African American Studies in 1988. Many other colleges and universities introduced Black Studies programs into their curriculum in the 1960s and 1970s. Black Studies are also known as African American Studies. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is one of the many African Americans who is renowned for his comprehensive research of African American studies and continually contributes to the development and expansion of the African American studies programs. Further Reading Aldridge, Delores P. 2000. ‘‘Status of Africana/Black Studies in Higher Education in the U.S.’’ In Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies. Delores P. Aldridge and Carlene Young, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

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Bobo, Jacqueline, Cynthia Hudley, and Claudine Michel, eds. 2004. The Black Studies Reader. New York: Routledge. Wolford, Gloria. The Negro Search for Identity.’’ The Bryan Times 23 April 1969: 7. The Bryan Times Online. Web. July 20, 2010 Renee Latchman

Black Theology Although the term ‘‘black theology’’ percolated in the mid-twentieth century theological discussions, its roots extend back to the time of institutionalized slavery of blacks in the United States. Though it was not called such then, black theology was fashioned out of the prevailing theology of that time, which attempted to justify slavery and then formed itself into a life-sustaining theology that gave credence and authenticity to the life and witness of Jesus as the incarnate reflection of God. In a very simplistic way, theology is about the manner in which individuals seek to understand through spiritual eyes their relationship with the known and unknown aspects of the seen and unseen world that impacts their lives. While religion for some may merely represent an inquiry into the existence or power of a deity, as important as that may be, black theology in the United States seeks to question the black experience vis-a-vis the American culture, and asserts a response that acknowledges the dignity and acceptability of blacks by God. Emerging from a convergence of African history, culture, and traditions, and the American experience of black slaves becoming chattel, black theology provided a new sense of identification for black slaves, and much later, for blacks espousing the Black Power Movement. For black slaves this identification was one that had largely been formed by an affinity with the Hebrew slaves spoken of in stories found in the Old Testament of the Protestant Bible wherein God repeatedly comes to rescue the Hebrews and provides for their physical and spiritual needs. In the New Testament of that same Bible the figure of Jesus was seen as the one sent by God to redeem God’s people. During the Black Power Movement of the 1960s, the materialization of a black theology served to affirm pride in black heritage and remind African Americans of a God who saw them as people of worth and declared them also to be God’s heirs. In the United States, the 1960s and 1970s were turbulent times of societal unrest. Blacks more vigorously clamored for equal treatment as citizens, while other segments of the American population fought vigorously to preserve the piteous racial status quo. At issue was the manner in which the races saw themselves, and the way in which they portrayed and spoke about themselves to others and to each other. The unrest also emanated from blacks in their corporate existence as the church. But the vehement protests by the black church were a demonstration of how the church viewed its role to be a witness to the life of Jesus

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Christ. By mirroring the tension inherent in this tempestuous and sometimes disconnected dialogue between the races, black theology sought to balance the themes of reconciliation and prophetic judgment. The conversation of black theology is that god’s righteousness and justice will prevail throughout history against oppressors that deny others their humanity. The proclamation of black theology is that God acts in and through the oppressed and the oppressor to liberate, restore wholeness, and bring about reconciliation. Likewise, black theology proclaims a prophetic message to the forces of oppression, recognizing and confronting the peculiar relationship others have with blacks in the United States, and seeking to make those relationships consistent with the love and truth of God. In like manner, it also turns its attention to the myriad ways in which blacks relate to each other and others, confronting hypocrisy on that front as well. It was the gospel that had first been introduced to black slaves as a way to pacify them that also demonstrated to them the contradictory manner in which one’s life can be out of sync with one’s stated beliefs. Most of the early slaves came out of an African culture that was very different from the wanton destruction of life which they witnessed every day under slavery. In their African culture, life was revered and celebrated. In various ways across the centuries, blacks took for themselves a gospel out of the one that had been thrust upon them. They made it their own in a way that became a theology of healing and empowerment. Thus, the God of the oppressed becomes one like them in their own particular bondage and liberates them to develop their whole personhood. This God could understand their need for freedom because God became like them in all of the ways they experienced the world on a daily basis. Black theology in popular culture is unapologetically a theology of hope, liberation, and the sovereignty of God. Its appropriation of American theology in a way that preserved the historic continuity of African Americans and their forebears was inevitable if blacks in the United States were to have a viable relationship with the God of their ancestors. Only by doing so were they affirmed as persons loved by God and affirmed in the knowledge that their God saw their suffering and was willing and able to relieve them of their pain. Today, black theology in popular culture recognizes the multitude of ways in which blacks still need to be freed and continues to listen for those God conversations that demonstrate god’s covenantal relationship with blacks, as well as with all persons. See also: Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. Further Reading Chireau, Yvonne and Nathaniel Deutsh, eds. 2000. Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press. Cone, James H., and Gayraud S. Wilmore, eds. 1993. Black Theology: A Documentary History. Vols I–II. New York: Orbis Books. Lincoln, Eric C., and Lawrence H. Mamiya. 1990. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

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McCall, Emmanuel L., ed. 1986. Black Church Life-styles: Rediscovering the Black Christian Experience. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press. Roberts, Deotis J. 1987. Black Theology. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. Wilmore, Gayraud S., ed. 1989. African American Religious Studies: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Vivian C. Martin

Blake, James Riley (1979– ), Tennis Player A rising international tennis star, James Blake became one of the best tennis players in the country and in the world. He was inspired by the accomplishments of his hero, the iconic tennis great Arthur Ashe. After turning professional in 1999, Blake went on to be named Rookie of the Year in 2000 and took his first American Tennis Professionals singles title in 2001. Blake is now ranked number ten in the world. His place in popular culture has been carved out as a superb tennis player and as a fashion model as well. Tennis had long been a popular sport in the African American community and organizations that endorsed and supported the game were established as early as 1916, when the American Tennis Association (ATA) was formed. The ATA’s founders sought relief for African Americans with an interest in tennis but who were denied access to white organizations, such as the Lawn Tennis Association. Several black colleges, including the former Hampton Institute (now University), Central State, and Morehouse College hosted ATA championships. African American tennis players of that period included Tally Holmes (a founder of the ATA) and Lucy Diggs Slow; they were the first to win men and women’s singles, respectively. Later, the ATA supported Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, then Lori McNeil and MaliVai Washington. Iconic tennis players Venus Williams and Serena Williams did much to promote the game in popular culture. By the time James Blake entered the scene, racial barriers in tennis matches had broken down, leaving a clear path cut for his achievements. Blake was born on December 28, 1979, in Yonkers, New York. His father introduced him to tennis. It was on the tennis court that his interracial parents met. Tom (who is African American) and Betty (a white Britton) married, and sons James and his older brother Thomas were born. The Blakes took their sons with them wherever the father played. James Blake entered the court at age five, playing with his older brother, Thomas Jr. After the Blakes moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, the brothers took tennis lessons at the Trumbull Tennis Club, where James met Brian Barker, who began coaching him when Blake was twelve. Still, the brothers maintained ties to Harlem and regularly played there. They also volunteered at the Harlem Junior Tennis League, which introduced tennis to inner-city youth, and participated in the league’s tennis clinics. There James Blake learned about Arthur Ashe, the first black man ranked number one in international tennis.

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Thomas Blake Jr., who was three years older, taller, and physically stronger than James, developed his game more quickly than his younger brother. By age thirteen, James Blake was diagnosed with a curvature of the spine popularly known as scoliosis. Rather than undergo surgery, he wore a brace, removed it when on the tennis court, and went on to be a successful player despite his problem. While a student at Harvard University with a major in economics (1997– 99), James Blake joined the tennis team. During his freshman year, he was named number one collegiate player in the country. In later years, he was named All-American (1998) and number one–ranked collegiate tennis player (1999). He was named Rookie of the Year for the World Tennis Team (2001). He dropped out of college to become a professional tennis player; he and Thomas moved to Tampa where James lived and trained with Thomas. As Blake’s game improved, he won a number of tennis titles and progressed in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). In 2001, he debuted as a Davis Cup team player. He reached number twenty-two in national rankings, then, unfortunately, broke his neck. Six weeks later he suffered yet another health catastrophe, a severe viral infection (a debilitating case of shingles) brought on by his father’s death. He recovered, but with some facial paralysis, and went back on the tennis court. Blake won the ATP singles title and was successful in the ATP doubles title in 2002, as well as the ATP doubles title in 2003. When he played but lost a thrilling five-set match in the quarter finals in 2005 against Andre Agassi, who was also his idol, he reached the national spotlight in tennis. He remains active in the sport and played in the 2010 Wimbledon matches. His good looks, affable demeanor, graciousness off the court, and fashion sense also helped to fuel his popularity; thus, in 2002 be began a career in Modeling, with GQ and Vogue magazines. People magazine also named him the Sexiest Male Athlete that year. In 2003, he changed his appearance by shaving his head. [Blake prefers to keep focused on the game of tennis.] In 2009, Blake launched a new men’s apparel collection with Fila, having switched sponsors from Nike to Fila in January. Called the Thomas Reynolds Collection (identified with an R-dot logo), his line is named as a tribute to his late father, who instilled values in him on and off court. His apparel collection is ‘‘something that I really care about for my career and hopefully beyond that,’’ he said in a Women’s Wear Daily interview. ‘‘I hope I will endure a little longer than my body.’’ His line includes tennis apparel as well as footwear, golf wear, and accessories. His blue collared shirt is a trademark for his long admiration for basketball icon Michael Jordan, while his linear Fila trademark is a nod to tennis legend Bjorn Borg. Blake remains in the national spotlight with his rank as number ten in the tennis world. Perhaps his new apparel collection will further spotlight his talent. Further Reading Payne, Maya R. 2003. ‘‘Raising a Star: Family Values Underscore James Blake’s Success in Tennis and Life.’’ Special Supplement: Golf & Tennis Challenge. Black Enterprise 34 (September): 130, 134, 138.

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Smith, Jessie Carney, and Linda T. Wynn, eds. 2009. Freedom Facts and Firsts. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Stamatel, Janet P. 2004. ‘‘James Riley Blake. Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 43. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Who’s Who among African Americans. 24th ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2010. Frederick D. Smith

Blige, Mary J. (1971– ), Singer, Record Producer, Actress Mary Jane Blige, more commonly known as ‘‘Mary J. Blige,’’ is a Grammy Award–winning recording artist who is most famous for her ability to combine soul and Hip-Hop music. This ability has earned Blige the title of ‘‘Queen of Hip-Hop Soul.’’ Born on January 11, 1971, in the Bronx, New York, Blige is the daughter of Thomas Blige, a jazz musician and Cora, a nurse. She has three siblings—an older sister, LaTonya Blige-DaCosta, a younger half-brother, Bruce Miller, and a younger sister, Jonquell. Her parents’ relationship was rocky and often physically abusive. Blige lived briefly in Savannah, Georgia, where she sang in a Pentecostal church. Her father deserted the family in 1975, which forced Blige’s mother, Blige, and sister La Tonya to move to the Schlobohm Housing Project in Yonkers, New York. The move to Yonkers was difficult. Blige’s mother struggled to support the family, Blige was molested at age five, and her mother suffered from alcoholism and depression. As a teenager, Blige began using drugs and ultimately quit high school, beginning a series of low-paying jobs. Blige’s first break came in 1988 when she recorded an Anita Baker song ‘‘Caught Up in the Rapture’’ in a recording booth at a local mall. Her mother gave the tape to a friend who passed it on to R & B recording artist/record producer Jeff Redd and Andre Harell, chief executive officer of Uptown Records. In 1989, Blige began working for Uptown, singing backup for Redd and other Uptown recording artists. She signed with Uptown Records in 1991, and with the help of Sean (Diddy) Combs, helped produced her first solo album What’s the 411?, which went multiplatinum. This was followed by the 1995 album My Life. In 1997, Blige switched from Uptown Records to MCA and hired Shuge Knight as her financial advisor. The split from Uptown led to severing of her ties with Combs. The pair did not work together again until her 2003 album Love and Life. Other Blige album releases include Mary (1997), No More Drama (2001), Reflections: A Retrospective (2006, for which Blige received eight Grammy nominations), and Growing Pains (2008). She writes many of her own songs basing them on life experiences. Blige has had ten singles reach Billboard’s top ten, including the 2008 release ‘‘Just Fine.’’ In 2001 Blige and Universal Records were accused of copyright infringement by Leonard Jones and James White. The pair claimed that Blige’s song ‘‘Family

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Affair’’ was based on similar lyrics to their ‘‘Party Ain’t Crunk.’’ The suit was dismissed in 2009 for lack of evidence. Blige has also pursued an acting career since the late 1990s, appearing on such television programs as The Jamie Foxx Show (1998), Strong Medicine (2001), Ghost Whisperer (2007); and in movies such as Prison Song (2001), I Can Do Bad By Myself (September 2009), and in the as yet untitled and unreleased biography of jazz singer Nina Simone; and the off-Broadway play The Exonerated (2004). Blige married Martin Kendu Isaacs, a record industry executive, on December 7, 2003, in a small private ceremony at her home in Bergen County, New Jersey. She credits Isaacs’s support and love as tremendous steps in eight years of being clean and sober. Through this marriage Blige became stepmother to Isaacs’s three children: Jordan, Nasir, and Briana. Prior to marrying Isaacs, she was involved with K-Ci Hailey (1991–1997) and Nas (1997–1998). In 2008, Blige and Steve Stoute founded the Mary J. Blige and Steve Stoute Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now (FFAWN). FFAWN’s purpose is to help young women gain life and job skills, confidence, and self-esteem. FFAWN focuses on single mothers in Yonkers and surrounding communities but plans on expanding to the state of New York and eventually across the country. The first step toward this goal is the opening of the Mary J. Blige Center for Women which is being built in cooperation with Westchester Jewish Community Services. The center opened October 22, 2009. See also: Soul; Soul and Funk (Music)

Further Reading Brown, Terrell. 2007. Mary J. Blige. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest Publishers. Mary J. Blige. http://www.mjblige.com. Mayo, Kierna. ‘‘Real Love: Mary J. Blige & Kendu Isaacs.’’ Essence 38 (June 2007): 136–45. Anne K. Driscoll

Bling and Grillz ‘‘Bling’’ and ‘‘grillz’’ are two slang terms that refer to flashy jewelry and accessories. From the late 1990s to the present, bling and grillz have dominated HipHop fashion in African American popular culture. Bling also may be referred to as ‘‘floss,’’ ‘‘bling bling,’’ or other slang terms. Bling specifically refers to any attention-grabbing and shiny ornamentation, such as gold, platinum, and diamond jewelry. Many terms used to describe the various types of jewelry and precious metals have also emerged. For example, gold may be referred to as ‘‘ghetto gold,’’ and diamonds may be referred to as ‘‘ice.’’ Bling may also be used to describe any flamboyant accessory or dress. Although rap artist B. G., short for

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‘‘Baby Gangsta,’’ is credited for having coined the term bling in the late 1990s and for eulogizing it in the rap song ‘‘Bling Bling’’ in 1999, the development of bling in African American popular culture extends as far back as the 1970s, if not earlier in some form or fashion. Grillz, also called ‘‘gold fronts,’’ which is considered a type of bling, refers to the precious metal or stone-studded caps or fittings which cover the top or bottom row of teeth. For a flashier effect, individuals will wear fittings on both rows of their teeth. This ornamentation may be referred to as ‘‘grill,’’ ‘‘dental grill,’’ ‘‘front,’’ and ‘‘golds.’’ The term originated in the 1980s and was popularized in rap songs, such as ‘‘Grillz’’ by Nelly, Paul Wall, and Ali & Gipp in 2005. The Development of Body Embellishments Bling and grillz are mostly associated with rappers, but the phenomenon of showy body ornamentation within African American communities stems from Africa. Body embellishments signified beauty, social and economic status, and tribal identity. In West Africa, where gold and other precious metals, stones, and jewels are abundant, men, women, and children frequently adorned their bodies with gold necklaces, arm, wrist, and ankle bracelets, and piercings. Many variables, such as shininess, quality, weight, and quantity, indicated the level of hierarchal status or esteem one could achieve within each community. Following centuries of oppression and degradation during slavery in North America, when African Americans had limited opportunities and resources to primp and groom themselves, blacks established distinctive styles and fashion trends. Many of these trends functioned as a way to express an African-based aesthetic that included vibrant colors and designs and elaborate hairstyles. (In dominant white culture, dark, somber colors, and subdued designs often were the rule.) With the development of middle- and upper-class and lower-class black communities, distinct styles emerged. Whereas middle- and upper-class blacks tended to follow fashion trends in mainstream white society, working-class blacks developed often radically different styles and preferences. The concept of showy ornamentation was linked to the lowincome and working-class black communities in the South and urban North. In these environments, reputation could be attained through flashy clothes, dress, and accessories, swaggering manner of walking, and black vernacular dexterity. Flashy styles were appropriated by black celebrities and individuals who frequented popular Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Joints. In the 1920s and 1930s, Harlem celebrities, such as jazz artist Duke Ellington, epitomized flashy style with his Zoot Suits and slang-laden communication style. In the 1940s and 1950s, black men wore glossy, processed hairstyles and brightcolored suits for a night on the town. In the 1970s, flashy sequined costume trends among black entertainers, such as Earth Wind & Fire and Donna Summers, a disco star, augmented the decoration’s popularity and appeal. In the North and South, African American men and women brandished gold dental caps and gold chains. For men, gold jewelry signaled masculinity and sex appeal. For women, gold jewelry connoted glamour, as well as urban sophistication.

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When, in the late 1970s, Rap and Hip-Hop culture emerged, gold continued to play a prominent role in fashion styles and trends. Rappers, such as Kurtis Blow, Run-DMC, Slick Rick, and L L Cool J popularized gold chains, rings, and other flashy accessories. Many rappers contend that they were largely influenced by the hustlers (and later, gang members) on the street, who were among the few in the community who ostentatiously displayed their ill-gotten wealth with expensive jewelry and clothes. As young, impressionable preteens and adolescents (sometimes younger), they wore earrings in one ear or cheap gold chain necklaces. Gold functioned as a rite of passage and a status symbol. Since the 1980s, rap stars continued to mirror and initiate fashion trends in black communities. Salt-n-Pepa, a popular all-woman rapping group, based their style, including nose piercings, doorknockers (large gold earrings), gold teeth, and oversized, boyish clothes, on fashion trends in black ghettos. Male rappers increasingly wore larger pieces and a greater amount of jewelry than ever before. The film I’m Gonna Git You Sucka! (1988), which parodied this fad, featured black characters who died from gold overdoses. Into the 1990s, male rappers added heavily jeweled Rolex watches, an assortment of religious, zodiac-influenced, and Afrocentric medallions, grills, four-finger rings, and other pieces to their collections. When, in the mid-1990s, B. J. coined the term ‘‘bling,’’ bling was already wellestablished in the rap industry. Rap stars who could not afford real bling wore borrowed or fake jewelry. Jewelry designers and sellers have capitalized on the growing trend. In this same time period, Jay-Z, a rap mogul, introduced platinum to urban fashion, temporarily replacing the massively popular gold. Another trend included large diamonds worn in each ear. In the twenty-first century, bling is a household word. In 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary added the term to its dictionary. Hip-hop stars, as well as professional black athletes and nonblack celebrities, appear in the media wearing bling. However, like most slang terms that originate in black communities and spread to mainstream society, the terms ‘‘bling’’ and ‘‘grillz’’ will eventually lose their popularity. Further Reading Daniels, Cora. 2007. Ghettonation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless. New York: Doubleday. Oh, Minya. 2005. Bling Bling: Hip Hop’s Crown Jewels. New York: Wenner Books. Gladys L. Knight

Blues and Blues Festivals The blues is a musical form and genre that was created by African Americans in the South, most likely during the wake of emancipation in the turn of the nineteenth century. Blues festivals are events that take place in cities in the United

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States and abroad that center around assorted performances of blues musicians and singers. These festivals attract large crowds and include black and nonblack performers. The immense popularity of these festivals, coupled with the mainstreaming of blues music the world over and the influence of the blues on new music forms and artists, demonstrates the prominent role blues music plays in popular culture.

Origins Scholars cannot, with certainty, identify the exact location and date in which the blues first surfaced in the South. However, it is known that the blues was created by African Americans, originally in the confines of their racially segregated communities in juke joints and other locations sometime during the period following the emancipation of slaves in 1863. East Texas, the Mississippi Delta, and the Piedmont regions were active centers wherein the blues and blues singers thrived. The blues came out of the unique life and cultural experiences of Africans in the New World. These experiences brought forth such new music forms as the slave ring shouts, the field hollers, and Spirituals. Out of these traditions, the blues was formed. Like any music form, the blues has distinct features. According to Kathleen Thompson, blues songs characteristically include ‘‘a twelve-bar form in common time, in which each stanza comprises three phrases, each four measures long . . . [and] certain characteristic chord progressions, keys, and ‘blue notes,’ which are quarter tones that lie between the minor and major third notes of the scale or between the minor and major seventh.’’ There are blues songs that do not follow these patterns. Spontaneity and individual expression were African-derived virtues that African Americans continued to embrace in the New World. Another feature of blues music may include African-derived call-and-response patterns. To be sure, blues was considered a secular form of music, and, as a result, it was not condoned by all African Americans. Some African Americans deemed blues ‘‘devil’s music,’’ owing to the frequently coarse and overtly sexual lyrics, not to mention the songs were generally performed in locales where alcohol was consumed and couples danced, sometimes provocatively. Blues lyrics are another feature that set the blues apart from other traditional African American music forms. The term ‘‘the blues’’ is synonymous with a somber, moody, and melancholy feeling; the lyrics, as well as the melodic patterns, of the music genre are characteristically plodding and gloomy. The lyrics frequently cover the subjects of unrequited love, heartbreak, poverty, sorrow, voodoo magic—themes that were relevant to African Americans. The blues largely gave voice to frustrations that concerned the vicissitudes of every day black life, as well as the oppressive forces that relegated blacks to the lowest economic, social, and political station in society. The blues, however, brought African Americans much enjoyment, as well as emotional release. Women were among the most popular blues singers, and many of them traveled the circuit of southern black towns in vaudeville shows.

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Development of the Blues as Mainstream Popular Music Field Research A few farsighted scholars and researchers recognized the cultural and artistic significance of the blues music that emerged in the early twentieth century. Generally, the study of African American life and culture was of little concern to mainstream academics at that time. However, some individuals such as Howard W. Odum, a sociologist, documented and preserved blues music in spite of the societal stigma placed on anything associated with African American life. John Lomax, a musicologist and folklorist, also played a figurative role in recording assorted original black songs, not just blues music. The early work of folklorists helped to preserve a rich and important part of American history that otherwise would have been lost. However, it was the recordings of rising blues artists for the public, beyond the world of academia, that made a greater impact on popular culture. Classic Blues Era One of the most seminal developments in blues music, in terms of bringing the music to wider audiences, was the commodification of so-called race music by white-owned record labels, beginning in the early twentieth century. Among the pioneers of published blues music were African American composers, W. C. Handy, known as the ‘‘Father of the Blues,’’ and Artie Matthews, and white musician, Hart A. Wand. Their songs were published during the first decade of the 1900s. In the 1920s, record companies like Paramount and Columbia catapulted the careers of several blues singers, most of them women. In 1920, Mamie Smith was the first blues singer to release a record. Her record generated enormous response from African Americans; consequently, blues music was initially targeted to black audiences. Smith’s popularity helped pave the way for multitudes of African American women. Among the famous blues singers of this era were Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, also known as the ‘‘Mother of Blues,’’ Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter, and Viola McCoy. Bessie Smith was born in 1892 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a child, she sang while her older brother played a guitar to make money for their family. In 1912, she joined a troupe as a dancer. Eventually, she joined Columbia Records, produced records, and continued to perform in black troupes. Ma Rainey, who was born nearly a decade before Smith in Georgia, spent most of her childhood traveling with her parents’ troupe. Like Smith and the majority of women who sang the blues, Rainey started out performing in vaudeville acts. In 1923, Rainey signed a contract with Paramount. Ethel Waters, born in Pennsylvania in 1896, emerged from an adverse childhood and abusive marriage to become one of the major blues stars of her time. She performed in Atlanta, New York, and elsewhere. Her first record was released in 1921. Over the course of her recording career, she signed on with assorted record companies, such as Cardinal Records, Black Swan (a company owned by African Americans), and Paramount. Women were not the only stars of the blues. A number of male blues singers emerged in the 1920s. Kathleen Thompson described these men as country blues

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singers who were commonly ‘‘solitary [men] with a guitar, sometimes a harmonica.’’ Among the country blues singers, many of them hailing from the South, were Blind Lemon Jefferson, Peg Leg Howell, and Charlie Patton. Blind Lemon Jefferson was born blind in Texas in 1893. He recorded for Paramount Records in Chicago in the mid 1920s. Peg Leg Howell was so-named because he lost his leg when he was shot during a fight. Howell was born in Georgia in 1988. A selftaught guitarist, he was famous, in part, for his slide guitar playing, a trademark sound of early blues music. He recorded with Columbia Records in 1926. Charlie Patton, known as the ‘‘Father of the Delta Blues,’’ was born in Mississippi in 1891 and recorded for Paramount Records in 1929. Big Band Era and Beyond Blues music continued to flourish during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s, with considerable changes. Beginning in the 1930s, many classic blues singers were either dropped by their record labels or opted out to pursue other interests. Between the late 1930s and 1940s, new blues singers like Muddy Waters and Billie Holliday emerged. By the late 1940s, B. B. King emerged and went on to become a major figure in the development of the blues. Some of these artists incorporated changes to traditional blues music. For example, Billie Holliday employed orchestras and big band ensembles that were wildly popular during the Harlem Renaissance. Blues singers in Chicago moved away from the ‘‘slow cadences of earlier country blues,’’ writes Kathleen Thompson, and employed new styles, ‘‘intense, hard-driving instrumentals and raw, shouted vocals that reflected the urgency of life in the city.’’ Progressively, blues music was becoming associated with cities in the North rather than the South. Coinciding with the surge of blues music in cities like New York and Chicago was the Great Migration, the mass movement of blacks who left the rural South to seek out work and better opportunities and to escape oppressive customs and laws. Cities like New York, home of the Harlem Renaissance, and Chicago were hotbeds for blues and other African American music traditions. Blues artists performed at black clubs and integrated venues. Singers like Billie Holliday toured the nation and the globe, popularizing blues music to wider audiences than ever before. Performances on television and in film also helped to further expose blues music, augmenting the wealth and fame of African American artists. However, these artists were still obligated to follow the strict code of Jim Crow while traveling in the South and were not impervious to the racism that was prevalent throughout the nation. Blues music continued to evolve and permeate mainstream American culture in the late 1940s and beyond. One of the new developments in blues music was the emergence of white blues singers, like Doc Pomus, who sang during the 1940s. White singers reached audiences who, because of the racial climate in the United States, refused to listen to ‘‘race music’’ by black artists. Another development, starting in the late 1940s, was the creation of Rhythm and Blues, which fused blues, jazz, and upbeat sounds which greatly appealed to younger audiences,

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black and white. (Rock and Roll eventually evolved from R & B.) During a blues resurgence in the 1960s, blues festivals appeared in several cities throughout the world. These festivals were sometimes named after iconic blues figures, and they featured an assortment of blues singers and groups; among them were locally and nationally known performers. Many of these festivals continue to appear annually to this day, while new festivals proliferate, drawing blues enthusiasts as well as new audiences. In addition to festivals, radio, television, and films played important roles in the mainstreaming of blues music. Films, in particular, have helped to rejuvenate public interest in the blues, as well as boost the careers of blues singers. Examples of popular films about the blues include Lady Sings the Blues (1972), starring singer Diana Ross as Billie Holliday, Crossroads (1986), which is based loosely on blues singer Robert Johnson, and Mo Better Blues (1990), which featured Denzel Washington as a modern day blues musician. In 2003, the documentary The Blues was released. Blues in the New Millenium Blues music has come a long way since its start as an isolated phenomenon in black communities in the South. In the new millennium, the number of blues singers and festivals continues to proliferate. Among the new blues singers are many whites whose presence divides the black community. Some welcome and support white blues artists. Others view the appropriation of the blues by whites as problematic. According to Anand Prahlad, appropriation of black folklore, like the blues, ‘‘is sometimes referred to as ‘cultural poaching’ or ‘theft’’’ and ‘‘does not benefit African American culture; at worst, it mocks, degrades, or economically exploits it.’’ Indeed, at some blues festivals and clubs, blues singers and groups are predominately white, resulting in the loss of opportunities for black blues singers, as well as misrepresenting the historical role of blacks in blues music. See also: Delta Blues Further Reading Davis, Francis. 1995. The History of the Blues: The Roots, The Music, The People. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Garon, Paul. ‘‘White Blues.’’ http://www.bluesworld.com/WHITEBLUES.html. Jackson, Buzzy. 2005. A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them. New York: Norton. Oakley, Giles. 1997. The Devil’s Music: A History of the Blues. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. The Original Blues Festival Guide. (October 2009). http://www.bluesfestivalguide.com/. Palmer, Robert. 1981. Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta. New York: Penguin Group. Prahlad, Anand, ed. 2006. ‘‘Appropriation of Black Folklore.’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

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Thompson, Kathleen. 2006. ‘‘Blues.’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gladys L. Knight

Blues, Delta. See Delta Blues

Bond, Julian (1940– ), Civil Rights Activist, Politician, Educator, Organization Official A noted public servant, Horace Julian Bond is a staunch advocate for human and civil rights. He continues to advocate social justice through his work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Bond was born on January 14, 1940, in Nashville, Tennessee. It was through his father that Bond met W. E. B. Du Bois. In 1957 Bond and his family moved to Georgia, where he first witnessed the segregation of the South. In 1960 he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. Bond and other students organized in Atlanta and kicked off their nonviolent protest with a full-page ad in the city newspaper. Bond assisted and contributed to the work, ‘‘An Appeal for Human Rights,’’ which brought attention to the lives of blacks who lacked the chance for achievement or advancement. He founded the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR). In the spring of 1960, Bond traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina, to meet with other activists; it was here that he helped to establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He would eventually become the communications director for SNCC. In 1961 Bond left Morehouse College one semester short of meeting requirements to graduate; he would return to Morehouse in 1971 to complete his requirements and earn a BA degree in English. He took a staff job on the protest paper, the Atlanta Inquirer, in 1961, where he would become the managing editor. In 1965, he ran for an open seat in Georgia’s House of Representatives; he won the one-year term. Because of Bond’s open opposition to the Vietnam War, the Georgia House of Representatives voted not to seat him. He was elected two more times to the Georgia House of Representatives before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Georgia House of Representatives had violated Bond’s right to free speech. During Bond’s tenure in the Georgia General Assembly, he sponsored more than sixty bills that became law. He established the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, which at the time was the largest black caucus in the country. Bond was cochair of the Georgia Loyal National Delegation to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. At the 1968 convention Bond was nominated for vice president of the United States; he withdrew his name because he was too young at age twenty-eight to accept the nomination. This made him the first black person nominated by a major political party.

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He has served on various boards of organizations which work for social change. In 1995 Bond was elected to a fourth term on the National Board of the NAACP. Since his election in 1998 Bond has served as chairperson of that board. Bond is also an established writer. He has published A Time to Speak, A Time to Act, a collection of essays. He has written poetry and articles that have appeared in various national publications, such as the Los Angeles Times and American Negro Poetry. Bond has narrated several documentaries, including A Time for Justice and Eyes on the Prize. These documentaries are a collection of Bond’s writings which elaborate on his life and work in the South. He won an Academy Award for A Time for Justice and received a nomination for an Academy Award for his work on The Shadow of Hate. In addition to his Academy Award and twenty-five honorary degrees, Bond received the National Freedom Award in 2002. Currently Bond lives in Washington, DC, and is a professor at American University and the University of Virginia. Further Reading Southern Poverty Law Center. http://www/splcenter.org/center/history/bond.jsp. Wallach, Jennifer Jensen. 2009. ‘‘Julian Bond.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present. Vol. 1. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Warren, Nagueyalti. 1999. ‘‘Julian Bond.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Catherine Culver

Bonds, Barry (1964– ), Baseball Player Second generation Major League Baseball player Barry Bonds has been described as one of the sports all-time great players due to his batting abilities, which culminated in breaking the all-time home run record of Hank Aaron in 2007. Bonds’s legacy has been questioned by fans and media after widespread allegations of steroid use. These allegations notwithstanding, Bonds remains an American sports icon. Barry Lamar Bonds, the oldest of three children, was born in Riverside, California on July 24, 1964, to Bobby and Patricia Howard Bonds. The son of Bobby and godson of Willie Mays (both professional baseball players with the San Francisco Giants), young Barry was groomed to be a professional baseball player. The competitive Bonds excelled in football, basketball, and baseball in high school. Bonds was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates professional baseball team but turned down the contract. Instead, he enrolled at Arizona State University where he was an All-American baseball player. At the end of his junior year in 1985, Bonds was drafted in the first round by the Pittsburgh Pirates. As a twenty-one-year-old rookie, his exceptional skills

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San Francisco Giants’s slugger Barry Bonds watches the ball flying over the right field wall after hitting his 73rd record-breaking home run on October 7, 2001, in San Francisco, California. Bonds has been linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a company that prescribes nutritional supplements to elite athletes. (AFP/Getty Images)

placed him in the starting lineup as a center fielder and lead batter. In 1990 Bonds was named league Most Valuable Player (MVP). Although a baseball player of exceptional talent, Bonds’s personal and professional life have caused problems for him and the teams for which he has played. Incidents such as arguments with coaches, physical altercations with teammates, ignoring media interview requests, and divorce have influenced how he is perceived. However, after hitting 34 home runs, Bonds won his second MVP award in 1992. Following the 1992 season Bonds became a free agent and was picked up by his father’s old team, the San Francisco Giants. Bonds’s contract with the Giants made him the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball. Bonds lived up to expectations, and from the late 1990s into 2000 he won eight Golden Glove awards, three MVPs, and became the first player in professional baseball to hit 400 home runs and steal 400 bases. But Bonds’s ultimate feat came in 2007 when he broke Henry ‘‘Hank’’ Aaron’s all-time home run record of 755. The previous year, Bonds managed to avoid being indicted by a federal grand jury for tax evasion and perjury charges stemming from alleged steroid use. Charges of widespread doping sent shockwaves throughout professional baseball, which led to Senator George Mitchell’s report (Mitchell Report) documenting doping. In

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2007, investigators and the U.S. attorney stated they planned to continue their investigation, and would have enough information to convict the beleaguered and injury-plagued Bonds. To date, Bonds has not suffered legal or professional repercussions, or come under much scrutiny from fans or the general public. Further Reading Fainaru-Wada, Mark. 2006. Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports. New York: Gotham Books. Pearlman, Jeff. 2006. Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero. New York: HarperCollins. Carter B. Cue

Bontemps, Arna (1902–73), Poet, Writer, Educator, Library Administrator A major player in shaping modern African American literature from the Harlem Renaissance forward, Arna Bontemps produced a variety of works for adults, young children, and youth, and promoted aspects of black folklore. His works ranged from a serious theme to simple stories that preserved and promoted African American culture. Born Arna Wendell Bontemps in Alexandria, Louisiana, on October 13, 1902, to Paul Bismark and Maria Caroline Bontemps, Arnaud Wendell Bontemps spent the first three years of his life in his hometown and then relocated to Los Angeles with his family. He had a passion for books. After developing a writing career, he used as the main character in his first novel, God Sends Sunday (1931), his Uncle Buddy—a drinking man who told him slave tales, preacher and ghost stories, and tales in dialect. Before attending predominantly white San Fernando Academy, a boarding school, his father cautioned him not to ‘‘go up there acting colored’’—advice that he resented during that formative part of his life. He graduated from Pacific Union College in 1923 with an AB degree; with the desire to become a writer, he moved to New York, following the cultural revolution taking place there, the Harlem Renaissance. Bontemps taught at Harlem Academy and wrote and published poetry. His literary career soon emerged, as his first creative work was published in 1924, in the Crisis (magazine), earning him a poetry prize; numerous prizes followed. He expanded his relationship with African American authors and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance, especially Langston Hughes, with whom he had a lasting relationship and collaborated on some of his writings. Bontemps’s numerous writings, published between 1931 and 1973, included, in addition to God Sends Sunday, works of fiction such as Black Thunder (1936), Drums at Dusk (1939), and The Old South (1973). His works for children and teenagers included

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Popo and Fifina (1932), Sad-Faced Boy (1938), Slappy Hooper (1946), Chariot in the Sky (1951), and Lonesome Boy (1955). He wrote biographies of Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, and Booker T. Washington. Other writings included The Poetry of the Negro, edited with Langston Hughes (1949); The Book of Negro Folklore (1958); They Seek a City, with Jack Conroy (1945); One Hundred Years of Negro Freedom (1961); The Harlem Renaissance Remembered (1972); and American Negro Poetry (1963). By 1932 Harlem’s black writers, artists, and musicians were leaving for more fertile ground. Bontemps, who had married Alberta Johnson and started a family, moved to Oakwood Junior College in Huntsville, Alabama, where he taught from 1931 to 1934. He left for Chicago, where he taught at Shiloh Academy (1935–38) and also served on the Federal Writer’s Project, Works Progress Administration (1938–42). He received his MLS from the University of Chicago in 1943, then moved to Fisk University as head librarian (1943–64) and greatly enhanced the special collections on black culture into a world-renowned research resource. After retiring, Bontemps became writer-in-residence, University of Illinois, Chicago Circle (1970–73), and professor (1966–69). While there he initiated the emphasis on black literature that took hold in Black Studies programs. He was visiting professor and curator of the James Weldon Johnson Collection at Yale University in 1969. Bontemps returned to Fisk as writer-in-residence (1970–73). He died in Nashville on June 4, 1973. Further Reading Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. 1997. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: Norton. Patti, Nicholas. 1995. ‘‘Arna Wendell Bontemps.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale Research. Smith, Jessie Carney. 1978. ‘‘Arna Wendell. Bontemps.’’ In Dictionary of American Literary Biography. Littgleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited. Smith, Jessie Carney. 1999. ‘‘Arna W. Bontemps.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale Research. Jessie Carney Smith

Bookstores and Bibliophiles African American bookstores and bibliophiles (book lovers) have played an integral part in black intellectual life. The early bibliophiles often became booksellers as well, and their collections formed the nucleus of many of the outstanding special black collections in libraries, particularly those in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The work of these pioneers continues and has been the inspiration for building numerous private collections that are in black homes today. Such collecting is a trend in African American popular culture. Two early African American booksellers were David Ruggles and Robert Adger. The first known African American bookseller was David Ruggles (1810–49),

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an abolitionist, printer, and pamphleteer of the 1830s. He was a bibliophile as well. Ruggles opened a bookstore at 67 Lispenard Street, New York City, in 1834 and sold antislavery works and stationary. Robert Mara Adger (1837–1919), a Philadelphia merchant and an abolitionist, was also involved in numerous activities for racial uplift. He built an enormous private collection and became a bookseller as well. He produced catalogs of his collection in 1894 and 1906, attracting the interest of bibliophiles. Richard B. Moore (1893–1978), was well-known in Harlem for his work as a book dealer, collector, historian, and lecturer. He came to the United States from Barbados in 1908 and began his career by selling books door to door. Moore acquired a personal collection of thousands of works that refuted the stereotypical images of blacks that many whites held. He opened a bookshop on 125th Street in Harlem in 1942 and used the space to house, but not sell, parts of his collection. His Frederick Douglass Book Center featured the works of Caribbean authors and also served as a meeting place for Caribbean political activists who lived in New York. In 1941, Alfred Ligon (1906–2002) opened Aquarian Book Shop in South Central Los Angeles; after it was destroyed during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, he reopened the store in a strip mall. Like many other black bookshops, his became an intellectual beacon and attracted many young activists during the Civil Rights Movement. Ligon introduced activists to black history and culture. The store also became a stopping place for black writers who promoted their books and held books signings there. Ligon was called the dean of black book collectors and had the oldest continuously operated black bookstore in the country. Over the years, owners of black bookstores became the keepers of black culture and continued to maintain their shops as an expression of pride, history, and cultural identify. The black consciousness movement of the 1960s and early 1970s spurred an increasing interest in publishing and purchasing black books. The largest growth years for black bookstores came between the late 1960s and through the 1990s. By 1999, there were over 500 black book-vending enterprises in the United States, ranging from mail and Web site ventures to full-service commercial stores. In 2008 only about 150 of the physical bookstores were known to exist. Examples of the older and contemporary stores are the Shrine of the Black Madonna in Detroit and in Atlanta; Black Images Book Bazaar in Dallas; Bread and Roses in Sherman Oaks, California; Third World Books in Chicago; Alkebu-Lan Images Bookstore and Gift Shop in Nashville; Liberation Books in New York City; and Drum and Spear Books in Washington, DC. In recent years, and during an uncertain economy, black booksellers have reinvented themselves and stepped up methods of competing with megaretailers. Even so, many had to make the hard decision to close their stores.

Book Collectors as Cultural Keepers ‘‘Black bibliophiles run through our history like an unseen hand,’’ wrote Tony Martin in Black Bibliophiles and Collectors. This statement holds for the early collectors in our history as well as for those of contemporary black America. African

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American book collectors are responsible for many of the major developments in our culture. They established black America’s early historical societies, its first literary and debating societies, and special collections of African Americana. By 1915, interest in collecting books by black authors had become so widespread that a group of black booklovers organized the Negro Book Collectors Exchange during a meeting of the American Negro Academy in Washington, DC. Its mission was to bring together all literature by people of color, and serious bibliophiles were elected officers. They included Henry Proctor Slaughter, Arthur Alphonso Schomburg, Charles Douglass Martin, John Edward Bruce, and Daniel Alexander Murray. These men held sizeable personal libraries that later became a part of the special African American collections at Atlanta University, Howard University, and the Library of Congress. The leading bibliophiles of 1800s and early 1900s—many of them wealthy— lived in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC. They bought private collections and also helped to build collections for organizations. Jacob C. White Jr., of Philadelphia, is an example. As secretary for many local black organizations, he gathered documents for their libraries as well as for his own. Some bibliophiles established private museums in their homes and included book collections in the museum as well. For example, William H. Dorsey, a wealthy Philadelphia bibliophile, devoted several rooms in his home to his museum. As far back as the 1820s, these collectors also organized reading rooms and library companies for blacks in Philadelphia; they also helped to build institutional libraries. Over the years, many works by and about black authors were largely ignored and sometimes discarded as worthless. Flea markets and secondhand shops often sold these works for as little as a few cents. Pathetically, white teachers often told their black students that blacks had no history and that there were no books by and about them. Because of such misinformation and unfamiliarity with black literature, the efforts of many book collectors became increasingly significant, for they preserved black history and culture and had documentation to refute the arguments of pseudo scholars. Early African American book collectors included those mentioned as booksellers, the officers and members of the American Negro Academy, and others, such as Benjamin W. Arnett, Arna Bontemps, Benjamin G. Brawley, W. Montague Cobb, Anna Julia Cooper, John Wesley Cromwell, Owen Dodson, William H. Dorsey, W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles L. Heartman, Clarence L. Holte, Harold Jackson, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, Alain LeRoy Locke, Jesse E. Moorland, Daniel Alexander Payne Murray, Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Henry Proctor Slaughter, William Grant Still, and Monroe Nathan Work. Contemporary collectors include those with a broad interest in Afro-Americana, such as Charles L. Blockson, and those with a narrow interest who collect black cookbooks, fiction by black women writers, and books on black memorabilia. Their collections enrich a number of libraries. For example, Holte sold his collection to Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria; Blockson’s collection went to Temple University; the collections of Jackman and Slaughter are at the Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center; Schomburg’s collection is at the Schomburg Center

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for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; the Moorland Collection is a part of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University; and some of the Du Bois materials are at Fisk University. Further Reading Newman, Richard. 1996. ‘‘Book Collectors and Collections.’’ In Encyclopedia of AfricanAmerican Culture and History, Vol. 1. Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, and Cornel West, eds. 398–403. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan. Rogers, Emma. ‘‘How Black Booksellers are Reinventing Themselves.’’ Black Issues Book Review (May–July, 2004). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_mOHST/is_3_6 /ai_n6059310. Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney, W. Paul Coates, and Thomas C. Battle, eds. 1990. Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History. Washington, DC: Howard University Press. Walker, Juliet E. K., ed. 1999. Encyclopedia of African American Business History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Jessie Carney Smith

Botillions. See Cotillions and Botillions

Boxing Boxing is one of the most important sports in African American popular culture; through the lens of boxing, the world has had the opportunity to witness the exploits of African Americans of tremendous character and of selflessness. People like Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis, for example, shattered racist stereotypes, becoming figures larger than the sport. Boxing, too, has afforded us the opportunity to witness epic falls from grace. In short, the elemental aspect of boxing, one of the most enduring metaphors of survival of the fittest in all the sporting landscape, continues to underscore the collective struggle of humanity to prevail in light of trying circumstances. Yet, as famed author Joyce Carol Oates has observed, ‘‘Life is like boxing in many unsettling respects. But boxing is only like boxing.’’ How, then, do we account for boxing’s appeal beyond the ring? In one of the early works of the western literary tradition, the Aeneid, from the first century BC, the Roman poet Virgil writes, ‘‘And now, if any one of you has courage, / a keen heart in his breast, let him step forward / and lift his hands bound up with leather gauntlets.’’ Nowhere in this edict is there mention of physical brute strength, but instead a ‘‘keen heart,’’ highlighting the intangible elements of character that are revealed and that endure beyond the physical aspects of boxing. In our own time, athletics have often been viewed as a way out of debilitating circumstances to a life of promise and prosperity. The struggle upward remains one of

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the strong narrative threads of the lore and lure of boxing. Gerald Early, author of The Culture of Bruising, has noted that boxing has the ‘‘longest history of black participation’’ and that it ‘‘has always attracted poor and marginalized men.’’ In this regard, one of the most important black boxers in the history of the ring is Tom Molineaux. Born a slave on March 23, 1784, Tom Molineaux was forged into a pugilist of historical significance and acclaim. He gained his freedom, along with $500, by beating a fellow bondsman in a bout. In 1809, Molineaux made his way to New York City, and from there sailed to England and launched his professional career as a boxer. Two of the most important prizefights in the history of the ring occurred between Tom Cribb and Molineaux. Cribb was the English bare-knuckle champion, a man who, in the eyes of his adoring public, represented all that was right and proper about England. Molineaux, called the ‘‘American Othello’’ and ‘‘the Great American Moor,’’ was seen as an impostor. Their first fight, which took place in December, 1810, was shrouded by blinders of racism and nationalist pride, but what became evident after the forty-round battle in which Molineaux finally conceded defeat as a result of exhaustion was a new respect for a black American who had fought his way from slavery to freedom—literally. Of Molineaux, Pierce Egan, the leading British sportswriter of the day, writes in Rhoden’s Forty Million Slaves, ‘‘Molineaux proved himself as courageous a man as ever an adversary contended with.’’ Molineaux, too, offered irrefutable evidence about the intellect of men of color; as Egan further observed, Molineaux ‘‘astonished everyone, not only by his extraordinary power of hitting and his gigantic strength, but also by his acquaintance with the science, which was far greater than any had given him credit for.’’ The second bout between Molineaux and Cribb, on September 28, 1811, was decided in the eleventh round, when Cribb knocked Molineaux to the canvas, and Molineaux was counted out. Between those two fights, Molineaux had become a celebrated boxer in England, yet word of his exploits went largely unrecorded in the United States, where the institution of slavery, geared towards crushing the hope of Africans becoming Americans, continued to hold sway, but paradoxically. As Frederick Douglass noted in his second autobiography, ‘‘It is plain, that everything like rational enjoyment among the slaves, is frowned upon; and only those wild and low sports, peculiar to semi-civilized people, are encouraged.’’ The irony here is that excellence in sport by black athletes threatened the established racial hierarchy. Forty years following Douglass’s observation, Charles Dana notes in Rhoden’ Forty Million Slaves, ‘‘We are in the midst of a growing menace. The black man is rapidly forging to the front ranks in athletics especially in the field of fisticuffs. We are in the midst of a black rise against white supremacy.’’ These words of warning, charged with the fervor of a doomsday prophet, became flesh in the form of Jack Johnson, the hard-hitting black heavyweight from Galveston, Texas, when, on December 26, 1908, he defeated Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia to become the first African American heavyweight champion of the world. While Johnson was a menace in the ring, obliterating white opponents in a racially segregated American society, he was considered a social menace outside the ring as well, enjoying a lavish lifestyle that featured dating white women.

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Johnson struggled upward his entire life. Dropping out of school in fifth grade, he took on work as a stevedore and as a cotton picker. He honed his craft as a boxer by competing in battle royals, blindfolded boxing matches that pitted a collection of fighters against one another. In 1897, Johnson began his professional career, and by 1903, he had become the ‘‘colored’’ world champion. His defeat of Tommy Burns in 1908 was as historic as it was unsettling to white supremacist ideology; the performance of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Summer Olympiad in Berlin would produce similar sentiments. With Johnson, a black man, wearing the belt of heavyweight champion of the world, promoters began searching for what they termed the ‘‘Great White Hope,’’ a boxer capable of defeating Johnson in the ring and restoring, symbolically so, the idea of white supremacy. Following five title defenses, Johnson faced Jack Jeffries in Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910, a heavily symbolic date. Johnson defeated Jeffries handedly, and race riots ensued. Johnson reigned supreme until 1919, when he lost to Jess Willard in Havana, Cuba (many historians believed that the fight was fixed). Johnson’s exploits, both in and out of the ring, continued to cast their shadows across the boxing landscape. In many ways, Joe Louis, the second black heavyweight champion of the world, was the antithesis of Jack Johnson. When Louis defeated James Braddock in 1937 and claimed the title, his reign was marked more by modesty than flamboyancy, by service to nation more than self-promotion. A hero of the Great Depression, Joe Louis grew to represent the power of American democracy over Nazi tyranny in his historic fights against Germany’s Max Schmeling. Schmeling won their first contest with a twelfth-round knockout in 1936, but before their 1938, Joe Louis, heavyweight champion of the world and a more seasoned fighter, was growing into his identity as the Brown Bomber and the people’s champion. Before his second fight against Schmeling, according to Ashby, Louis, visiting the White House, was told by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that ‘‘Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany.’’ Louis did, with a first round knockout before seventy thousand spectators in Yankee Stadium. Louis reigned as the world’s heavyweight champion until 1949, and during that twelve-year span he defended his belt twenty-five times. Like boxers, black writers and intellectuals have used violence as a creative force. In his autobiographical Black Boy, Richard Wright explored his early encounters with the critic Henry Louis Mencken, noting that he ‘‘was fighting, fighting with words. He was using words as a weapon, using them as one would use a club. Could words be weapons? Well, yes, for here they were. Then, maybe, perhaps, I could use them as a weapon?’’ Following the fall of Louis from his reign as champion, the 1950s witnessed a range of great black heavyweight champions, from Ezzard Charles to Joe Walcott to Floyd Patterson to Sonny Liston, but perhaps none of these men capture the connection between words and fighting as prominently as the boxer from Louisville, Kentucky, born Cassius Marcellus Clay, but known today as Muhammad Ali. From his self-proclaimed title as ‘‘The Greatest’’ to his seemingly spontaneous poetry with such lyrics as ‘‘Float like a butterfly / And sting like a bee,’’ Ali used his fists as well as his words to voice stirring ideas about social justice. While his

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boxing exploits continue to exist more on film than in living memories, what will remain, more than his gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympiad at Rome, more than his sixty-one professional victories, will be his words, his unrelenting sense of justice, and his courage to use his platform as heavyweight champion of the world to fight for those who could not always fight for themselves. The 2001 film Ali, directed by Michael Mann, earned an Oscar nomination for Will Smith, who plays the lead role. The film represents an interesting study of the intersections between the sport, popular culture, and American history. One of the finest books written on the sport of boxing remains Joyce Carol Oates’s On Boxing. A collection of essays, Oates’s work offers deep insight into the lives and careers of Johnson, Louis, Ali, and Mike Tyson. Along with Oates, Gerald Early’s The Culture of Bruising opens the door on the enduring significance of boxing in the African American experience. Ali Rap, produced by ESPN Films, also explores the connections between boxing and popular culture. Women, too, have set an important trend in the world of boxing as Laila Ali, daughter of Muhammad Ali, was voted, in 2006, as the second most likeable female athlete, behind Serena Williams and in front of Venus Williams (Boyd). In all, boxing, more than a fringe sport, remains an important lens through which to view African American popular culture. See also: Sports Further Reading Ashby, LeRoy. 2006. With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press. Boyd, Todd. 2008. ‘‘The Changing Face of Tennis.’’ In African Americans and Popular Culture. Vol. 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Briley, Ron. 2005. ‘‘Johnson, Jack (1878–1946).’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, Jr., eds Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Douglass, Frederick. 1994. Autobiographies. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed. New York: Library of America. Early, Gerald L. 1994. The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press. Edmonds, Anthony O. 1995. ‘‘Tom Molyneux.’’ African-American Sports Greats: A Biographical Dictionary. David L. Porter, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Oates, Joyce Carol. 2006. On Boxing. New York: Harper. Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown. ‘‘Tom Molineaux.’’ International Boxing Hall of Fame. www.ibhof.com. Virgil. Aeneid. 2004. Trans. Allen Mandelbaum. New York: Bantam. Wright, Richard. 1998. Black Boy. New York: Harper. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

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Bradley, Ed (1941–2006), Broadcast Journalist Ed Bradley was an African American journalist who was best known as a correspondent on CBS’s 60 Minutes. In recent years, he became a broadcast icon on that Sunday evening television show. Born Edward Rudolph Bradley Jr. on June 22, 1941, in Philadelphia, Bradley spent nearly forty years working in news at CBS, earning dozens of the most prestigious awards in broadcast journalism, including the lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists in 2005. Over the course of his career, Bradley won the 1995 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award grand prize and television first prize for a documentary on violence in the United States; the 1977 Alfred I. DuPont–Columbia University Award for a report on jury deliberations, America’s first report of its kind; twenty Emmy awards; and an assortment of other honors. He even received posthumous recognition—a 2007 George Foster Peabody Award—for his story on rape allegations against three members of the 2006 Duke University lacrosse team. Ed Bradley graduated from Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University) in Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1964 and taught elementary school in Philadelphia for three years afterwards. During that time, he also worked as a radio deejay and announcer at WDAS, where he got his start in news by covering the Philadelphia race riots. That assignment fueled his passion for journalism, and he soon accepted a job with New York’s WCBS radio, an allnews station. Bradley moved to Paris in 1971. Shortly thereafter, he began television reporting as a stringer for CBS News. In 1973, he was wounded by mortar fire in Cambodia. He returned to the United States and was assigned to the CBS Washington bureau. In 1976, he became the network’s White House correspondent, a post he held until 1978, and anchored the Sunday evening newscast from 1976 to 1981. Bradley joined 60 Minutes in 1981, replacing Dan Rather on the distinguished news magazine. Don Hewitt, creator of 60 Minutes, noted in his book Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television, that he hired Bradley because he was a minority, a great reporter, and a great gentleman. As a 60 Minutes correspondent, Bradley was known for developing stories on some of the most fascinating people and compelling issues in the world. His subjects included the reopening of 1995 murder case of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, an examination of the impact of nuclear testing on a town in Kazakhstan, and interviews with diverse personalities such as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and singer-actress Lena Horne. It was the Lena Horne interview, cited in ‘‘RTNDA and RTNDF Mourn Ed Bradley’’, that Bradley considered one of his best: ‘‘If I arrived at the pearly gates and St. Peter said, ‘What did you do to deserve entry?’ I’d just say, ‘Did you see my Lena Horne story?’’’ In 1994, Bradley endowed a scholarship in his name to help aspiring journalists of color. A $10,000 award is presented by the Radio-Television News Directors Association each year.

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Bradley died from complications of leukemia on November 9, 2006, in New York City. His survivors include his wife, Patricia Blanchet. See also: Journalism and Journalists Further Reading DeLuke, R. J. ‘‘Ed Bradley: Journalist and Jazzman.’’ All About Jazz. (February 23, 2004). http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=1073&pg=3. ‘‘Ed Bradley: 1941–2006.’’ CBS News.com. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/08/ 60minutes/bios/main13501.shtml. Hewitt, D. 2002. Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television. New York: Public Affairs. Klatell, J. M. ‘‘CBS remembers Ed Bradley.’’ CBS News.com (November 10, 2006). http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/09/national/main2167456.shtml. ‘‘RTNDA and RTNDF Mourn Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes, Winner of Paul White and First Amendment Awards.’’ RTDNA (November 9, 2006). http://www.rtdna.org/ pages/posts/rtnda-and-rtndf-mourn-ed-bradley-of-60-minutes-winner-of-paul-whiteand-first-amendment-awards43.php?g=11. Sullivan, Patricia. ‘‘Ed Bradley of ‘60 Minutes’ dies at 65.’’ Washington Post, November 10, 2006. Marilyn L. Roseboro

Brazile, Donna (1959– ), Political Strategist, Political Commentator, Columnist Already well-recognized in Democratic political circles, Donna Brazile was brought to greater public view in fall 1999, when Vice President Al Gore named her campaign manger for his 2000 presidential campaign. This made her the first African American woman to hold such a position in national party politics. Brazile was a veteran organizer in the Democratic Party, where she was a formidable grassroots organizer. Once she joined Gore, however, her rise to fame never wavered and she went on to become known as a powerful and formidable political strategist in American and African American popular culture. A Louisiana native who was born in New Orleans and grew up in nearby Kenner, Donna Brazile is the daughter of Lionel Brazile, a janitor who also had a moonlighting job to support his family, and his wife Jean, a domestic worker. Due to her parents’ low income and the fact that there were nine children in the family, Brazile grew up in an impoverished household. She regularly read the local newspaper and developed an interest in politics early on. When she was nine years old, Brazile distributed leaflets for a local politician who was running for the city council and who promised her neighborhood that it would get the playground that it needed. After the candidate won, Brazile continued her local community activities by organizing its first female baseball team. In 1976, while still in her teens, Brazile became a volunteer for Georgia governor Jimmy Carter, who was a Democratic presidential hopeful on the Carter-Mondale ticket. She stuffed envelopes at the local headquarters.

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After graduating from Louisiana State University with a degree in industrial psychology and much later teaching at the University of Maryland (College Park), she became a scholar at Harvard University, and now teaches at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Following college, her political activism continued as she became a lobbyist for the National Student Education Fund located in Washington, DC. Coretta Scott King hired her to work for the King Foundation and to assist with the planning and reenactment of the 1963 March on Washington, in which Martin Luther King Jr. played a prominent role and gave his famous ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech. Brazile became national director of that effort in 1983. At this time as well, civil rights supporters led a successful drive to establish King’s birthday as a national holiday. In 1984, Brazile was called for further involvement in political campaigns. Her political progress was fully ignited. Jesse Jackson tapped her to work for his presidential campaign as mobilization director and director of his Rainbow Coalition. In that year as well, Walter Mondale hired her for what became his unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. presidency. Brazile made history again in 1987, when she was hired as national field director for Dick Gephardt’s bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the U.S. presidency. This was the first time that an African American had held such a position for a mainstream American presidential candidate. It was due to her skill that Gephardt won the Iowa caucus in 1988. By now, Brazile was known for her superb organizational and persuasive skills useful to those seeking high political office. Michael Dukakis recognized her gift and in 1988 made her national field director for his presidential campaign. From 1990 to 1999, Brazile was chief of staff for Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1998, Brazile headed the Voter/Campaign Assessment Program for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. After that, she was cast in a brighter spotlight when she began her work with the Al Gore for President 2000 Campaign, first in May 1999 as deputy campaign manager and national political director, then, in October of that year as his campaign manager. When Gore lost the election and, although the vote count was questionable, Brazile was devastated: ‘‘I was the first Black person to run a major presidential campaign and that campaign ended up not going the distance to get every vote counted,’’ she wrote in her memoir. ‘‘I had sacrificed. . . . I had taken a pay cut. I had endured death threats and I kept going every day. But the campaign was now officially over.’’ Then she sat down and cried. Others cried as well, and Brazile felt that she had endured the longest political season of her life and had scars and wounds as evidence. Her ‘‘optimism about American politics was shattered,’’ and, after her experiences in that campaign, she could ‘‘no longer preach the gospel of political participation,’’ she added. Brazile spent four decades in meaningful and highly visible service to innumerable state and local campaigns. She has also worked for every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000. There is no doubt that the media has also cast Brazile in full view. The Wall Street Journal in 1987 named her among ‘‘the powers that (might) be in national politics.’’ She regularly contributes commentaries on the ‘‘Backtalk’’ section of Ms. magazine and, according to ‘‘Commentaries,’’

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provides ‘‘insightful political commentary from an insider’s perspective.’’ In 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine named her as one of its twenty ‘‘remarkable visionaries’’ on its O Power List. Recognitions of her stellar achievement continued. Washingtonian magazine named her one of the ‘‘100 Most Powerful Women;’’ Essence magazine called her one of the ‘‘Top 50 Women in America;’’ and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation gave her its highest award, the Award for Political Achievement, in 2005. Her sense of community spirit continues. After New Orleans suffered through the catastrophic hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Gustav (2008), Brazile worked for its full recovery and is credited for leading the state in its rebuilding process. She has long had a passion for encouraging young people to vote, insisting that they work through the system and do what they can to make it stronger as well. She believes that they should also run for public office. Commenting in Ms. magazine, she argued in 2006 that women candidates could benefit from the corruption scandals of that time that occurred inside Washington’s Beltway involving Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff. ‘‘Scandal and corruption first brought women into politics around the turn of the 20th century,’’ she wrote, and ‘‘women became a powerful voice for reform.’’ She advised women candidates to campaign against ‘‘the culture of corruption’’ and also to ‘‘adopt platforms that include such issues as health care, education, jobs and the environment. In that way, women can benefit from the political moment without losing the battle to avoid old gender stereotypes.’’ Influenced by women of power, Brazile credits Coretta Scott King, Shirley Chisholm, C. DeLores Tucker, Betty Friedan, and others for giving her and other women ‘‘wings to soar.’’ Brazile published her best-selling memoir, Cooking with Grease: Stirring Pots in American Politics in 2004. The book tells of the thirty years that she had spent in politics when the work was published, and the life and times of a tenacious political organizer. She is regularly seen as a Democratic Party strategist on CNN, NPR, and ABC, and is certain to appear on these networks when serious political issues arise. She is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates, based in Washington, DC, a general consulting and grassroots advocacy group as well as a training firm. Donna Brazile remains a major player in American political history. She is a woman on the radar and an icon among political strategists. Further Reading Brazile, Donna. http://donnabrazile.com/viewNews.cfm?-id=446. Brazile, Donna. 2004. Cooking with Grease: Stirring Pots in American Politics. New York: Simon & Schuster. Brennan, Carol. 2000. ‘‘Donna Brazile.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 25. Detroit: Gale Research. Commentaries by Donna Brazile. Ms. magazine. http://www.msmagazine.com/radar/ 2006-06-21.donnabrazilefull.asp. Who’s Who among African Americans. 2010. 24th ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Jessie Carney Smith

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Break Dancing Break dancing is a form of dance expression that incorporates intricate body movements, coordination, style, and aesthetics. It is the oldest known Hip-Hop style of dance. Break dancing began as a part of the hip-hop movement in New York during the early 1970s. It was an alternative to the violence of urban street gangs. Crews would challenge each other to dance and use this art form to settle neighborhood disputes. Onlookers determined the winner by choosing the team that used more difficult moves. There are four main parts of break dancing: toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. Toprock includes any movements done while standing. A dancer must be coordinated, flexible, have style and rhythm. Toprock is the ‘‘warm-up’’ for breakdancers. Downrock, or footwork, includes any movement involving the dancers’ feet and any footwork performed on the floor. Downrock is usually performed with dancers’ hands and feet simultaneously on the floor. In downrock, the dancer uses quick foot speed and control by performing fancy moves. These moves usually become more complicated and are then called power moves. Power moves require stamina and strength. The dancer must have a lot of upper-body strength because he or she is dancing on his or her hands. Power

Break dancers perform in a competition. (Bettmann/Corbis)

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moves include the windmill, swipe, and flare. Some of these moves are borrowed from martial arts and gymnastics. Break dancing usually ends with a freeze. As its name suggests, the freeze requires the dancer to stop all movement while maintaining a pose. Some freezes may require dancers to do handstands on one or both hands. A suicide, which is a kind of freeze, ends a routine. Then the dancers make viewers believe that they have lost all control by collapsing onto their stomachs or backs. During the freeze of the dance, team members and other onlookers usually begin to cheer and help bring the dancer(s) to his or her feet to show support and camaraderie. Break dancers dance to progressive jazz, soul, funk, electro, disco, and R & B. Most break dancing occurs in music where there is an actual break or where breaks in the song have been looped together. This gives a very repetitive sound and offers the dancer the opportunity to display his or her abilities. The beat of the music is fast to keep the dancer moving and the crowd entertained. Break dancers dress fashionably. In the 1980s, break dancers typically wore Adidas, Pumas, or Fila tennis shoes with wildly woven shoelaces. Some break dancing teams coordinated their outfits with the same shirts, hats, and shoes and this unity posed a threat to the opposing team. Male break dancers wore nylon track suits which allowed them to move freely and slide on the floor with ease. Male break dancers now wear baggy pants, T-shirts, Kangols ‘‘trucker’’ hats, or bucket hats. Their hats are usually tipped to the side. Young women have recently begun to break dance. As seen in many other arenas, females were originally viewed as outsiders in break dancing. Females were typically seen standing on the sidelines cheering for the crew that they wanted to win. Stars like Britney Spears use break dancing in their music videos and in their live performances. Break dancing also gave the world of social dance new ideas: full body contact with the ground became acceptable, spinning and other moves were possible through manipulation of the body, and fighting moves could become a part of dancing. This form of dancing is very free and hyped because of its moves. Break dancing has changed the life of its dancers forever. Nightclubs and other settings for break dancing will never be the same. See also: Dance and Dance Companies; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading ‘‘Breakdancing.’’ NPR. http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/breakdancing. Hager, Steve. 1984. Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music, and Graffiti. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Tanz, Jason. 2007. Other People’s Property: A Shadow of Hip-Hop in White America. New York: Bloomsbury. Jemima Buchanan

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Brimmer, Andrew (1926– ), Economist, Academic, Entrepreneur President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Andrew Brimmer as the first African American governor of the Federal Reserve Board in 1966. The Federal Reserve Board is the central bank of the United States, which attempts to provide a stable financial system for the national economy. Brimmer is an icon among economists, whether in the black community or elsewhere. His demonstrated concern for economic justice in the black community had a direct impact on black people. Brimmer has equal concern for America’s poor in general, as seen through his work as one of the developers of the federal Anti-Poverty Program. He is also an authority in the world banking system and this country’s foreign debt obligation to Third World countries. Andrew Felton Brimmer was born in Newellton, Louisiana, to sharecropper and warehouse worker Andrew Brimmer Sr., and Vella Davis Brimmer. After graduating from an all-black high school in St. Joseph, he relocated to Bremerton, Washington, and soon enlisted in the U.S. Army. After serving in the army for two years, Brimmer received an educational grant and a fellowship that allowed him to complete his BA (1950) and MA (1951) at the University of Washington, where he studied economics. In 1951 Brimmer received a Fulbright scholarship to study in India. From 1952 to 1957, Brimmer worked and completed a PhD in economics at Harvard University. While working on his PhD, Brimmer researched global economies and the American economy but he became an expert in how the American life insurance companies use money and investment policies. His expertise was shared in his book, Life Insurance Companies in the Capital Market, published in 1962. During the time he was working on his book he was teaching at Michigan State University as an assistant professor of economics. Given the opportunity to work at the U.S. Commerce Department in Washington, DC, in 1963, Brimmer was promoted as the assistant secretary for economic affairs. It was in 1966 that Brimmer peaked his U.S. federal government employment; he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to fill a vacancy on the seven-member Federal Reserve Board of Governors, on which he served until 1974. Since his time on the Federal Reserve Board, Brimmer has continued to work in academia in a variety of positions. In 1976, Brimmer created his own economic consulting firm, Brimmer and Co., an economic research and economic analysis firm that provides consulting work to diversified business. Brimmer continues to publish and lecture on economic issues relating to global and U.S. economic issues. Black Enterprise magazine has provided an outlet for Brimmer to explore and discuss economic matters in the African American business community. Brimmer is of the belief that it is not only discrimination that has been the economic problem faced by black Americans but the lack of marketable skills and education to advance in any industry being pursued. However, Brimmer believes that these marketable skills and education were a choice. In his view, African Americans

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should focus on attaining employment as salaried managers and skilled crafters with the major American companies in order to grasp the attention of the larger community. He has consistently supported black economic development and decried discrimination against black-owned businesses and in hiring practices. Further Reading ‘‘Andrew Brimmer.’’ NNDB. http://www.nndb.com/people/652/000062466/. ‘‘Andrew Brimmer Biography.’’ The History Makers. http://www.thehistorymakers.com/ biography/biography.asp?bioindex=480. ‘‘Andrew F. Brimmer, PhD: Summary of Service to Tuskegee University.’’ Tuskegee University. http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/story.asp?S=7233446. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. ‘‘Andrew F. Brimmer.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale. [unsigned]

Brooke, Edward (1919– ), Civil Rights Activist, Lawyer, Senator, Attorney General Edward William Brooke III has been known for his passion for people and justice. He spent most of his life fighting for equal rights, trying to administer change through legal means. Brooke was born October 26, 1919, in Washington, DC, to Helen Seldon and Edward W. Brooke. He had two older sisters, Edwina and Helene, deceased before his birth. After Dunbar High School in Washington he attended Howard University, earning his BS degree in 1941. Brooke followed in his father’s footsteps and became a lawyer after experiencing racial discrimination while fighting in Italy during World War II. Brooke’s experience made him increasingly sensitive to those who faced discrimination. After the war, he started his own law firm in the Roxbury section of Boston but shortly left and ran for a seat at the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Brooke garnered an upright, respectable reputation for himself despite unsuccessful attempts to win a seat in the House of Representatives. His good standing in the public’s eyes and in the political arena earned him the position of chairman of the Boston Finance Commission, assigned to him by the Republican governor of Massachusetts. This was only the beginning of Brooke’s career in politics and in his drive to improve the quality of life for African Americans and other minorities. In 1962, in another bid for a seat in the House of Representatives, Brooke, a Republican in a heavily Democratic state, won the votes and hearts of the people of Massachusetts. As a result, he became the first African American to hold a seat in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction as well as the first African American who was appointed a state attorney general in the United States. He then served as legal counsel to the NAACP, the Aeronautical and Space Sciences,

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Banking and Currency, Government Operations committees, the Armed Services, and the Joint Committee on Bicentennial Arrangements. Other committees he served on include: Appropriations, Special Aging, Banking, Housing, Urban Affairs, Select Equal Education, Select Standards and Conduct, and Joint Committee on Defense Production. Brooke used his influence in his various offices to fight corruption and segregation, and to provide better educational, housing, and health opportunities for all. He was instrumental in lobbying for the antidiscrimination amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1968; in extending the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and in proposing the celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. as a public holiday, honoring King’s life and work. In recognition of all his efforts to produce change in the lives of his fellow African Americans and other minorities, Brooke was awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for black achievement in 1967 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. He also received a Bronze Star and a Distinguished Service Award during his tenure as a captain in the army. In 1966 Brooke wrote his first book, The Challenge of Change: Crisis in Our Two-Party System, discussing his beliefs about civil rights and his political principles. His autobiography, Bridging the Divide: My Life was published in 2006. Brooke’s consistency in providing quality of life for African Americans, other minorities, and the people of his state allowed him to be seen as a symbol of hope and an opportunity for change. After being diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing two mastectomies, Brooke embarked on educating everyone, especially men, about this presumably feminine disease. Further Reading Brooke, Edward William, III. 2006. Bridging the Divide: My Life. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007. 2008. Prepared under the Direction of the Committee on House Administration of the U.S. House of Representatives, by the Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Carter, Linda M. 1999. ‘‘Edward W. Brooke.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale. Renee Latchman

Brooks, Gwendolyn (1917–2000), Poet, Writer Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, whose literary career was characterized by its prolificacy and longevity, was the first African American writer to receive the Pulitzer Prize and one of the twentieth century’s most preeminent and influential writers.

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Brooks, the eldest child of David and Keziah Brooks, was born on June 7, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas. Shortly after Brooks’s birth, the family moved to Chicago’s South Side, where Brooks and her brother, Raymond, were raised. Brooks was a frequent contributor of poetry to a column in the Chicago Defender prior to her graduation from Englewood High School in 1934 and Woodrow Wilson Junior College (now known as Kennedy-King College) in 1936. She married businessman and poet Henry L. Blakely II in 1939 and bore two children: Henry L. Blakely III and Nora Brooks Blakely. After Richard Wright recommended Brooks’s poetry to editors at Harper and Brothers, the company published her critically acclaimed first book, A Street in Bronzeville, in 1945; one of the volume’s most memorable poems is ‘‘The Mother.’’ Four years later, Brooks received even greater critical recognition upon publication of her second volume of verse, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Annie Allen; which includes ‘‘The Children of the Poor’’ and ‘‘The Anniad.’’ In 1953, Brooks showed her versatility as a writer with the publication of her first prose work, the novel Maud Martha. In subsequent years, while teaching creative writing at various colleges and universities, she published at least thirty additional books, including Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956), as well as three other children’s books; two autobiographies, Report From Part One (1972) and Report From Part Two (1996); and more volumes of verse, such as The Bean Eaters (1960), which includes ‘‘We Real Cool’’ as well as ‘‘The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till’’ and In The Mecca (1968), which includes poems honoring Medgar Evers and Malcolm X. Brooks attended an African American Writers’ Conference held at Fisk University in 1967 and then became more active in the Black Arts Movement, especially in Chicago, where she held poetry workshops as well as contests and mentored Don L. Lee (now known as Haki R. Madhubuti) and other members of the younger generation of African American poets. Brooks, who consistently portrayed African American life in her works, demonstrated an even greater commitment to the black race when she began publishing her new work through African American presses such as Broadside Press, Third World Press, and Brooks Press and began traveling across the United States as she visited institutions of higher learning, public schools, prisons, and other places. In addition to receiving the aforementioned Pulitzer in 1950, more than seventy honorary degrees as well as lifetime achievement awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Book Foundation, Brooks garnered more honors. Western Illinois University founded the Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center in 1970, and Chicago State University established the Gwendolyn Brooks Chair in Black Literature and Creative Writing in 1990. Brooks was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1976, appointed the Library of Congress poetry consultant in 1985, named the National Endowment of the Humanities’ Jefferson Lecturer in 1994, and awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1995. From 1968 until her death on December 3, 2000, in Chicago, she was the poet laureate of Illinois.

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Further Reading ‘‘Gwendolyn Brooks.’’ The Poetry Foundation. www.poetryfoundation.org. Kent, George E. 1989. A Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Sullivan, James D. 2008. ‘‘Gwendolyn Brooks.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 1. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. Linda M. Carter

Brown, Elaine (1943– ), Political Activist Elaine Brown rose from obscurity in Philadelphia’s ghetto to become head of the Black Panther Party (BPP). She ranked second-in-command to Huey P. Newton, who, along with Bobby Seale, founded the organization in Oakland, California, in 1966, to protect local communities from racism and police brutality. For a while, and especially under Brown’s leadership, the Panthers kept women at the forefront and respected their contributions. In time, however, the gender issue led to the usual complaints about the power given to women. As the highest-ranking woman in the organization, Brown occupied a highly visible position in African American popular culture and was a role model for women activists of the 1960s and beyond. Brown was born March 3, 1943, in Philadelphia, the only child of Dorothy Clark, a working-class mother. She claims that Horace Scott, the son of Emmett Scott Sr., is her father but the claim was never substantiated. Emmett Scott Sr. was secretary to Booker T. Washington, founder and president of Tuskegee Institute, as it was first known. Scott Sr. was prominent in a variety of organizations. Brown was raised by her mother and grandmother. She was exposed to many cultural activities and took ballet and private piano lessons as well. She enrolled in Temple University as a prelaw student and also pursued her musical interests at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. Brown dropped out of school and in 1965 moved to Los Angeles, where she hoped to become a professional songwriter. While working as a waitress at Hollywood’s Pink Pussycat, Brown was introduced to various political and social philosophies and began to discuss with a friend such leftist ideas as communism, socialism, Marxism, and Leninism. When serving as a volunteer piano teacher for children in the Jordon Downs projects in Watts, she became curious about the Black Power Movement. Her interest in activism was demonstrated also when she joined the Los Angeles Black Congress and in 1967 became a staff member of its newsletter, Harambee. Her involvement in other activities brought her in touch with activist Angela Davis, who became a member of the Communist Party. Brown joined the Black Panther Party (BPP) in 1968 and the next year was named minister of information for the Los Angeles chapter. She helped to found a chapter of the BPP in Bridgeport,

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Connecticut. Brown was engaged in a number of BPP activities that led to her rise in 1974 to become chair of the BPP, the first woman to hold this high post. Under her leadership, the party became an influential force in politics on Oakland. She also led its voter registration drive which, in 1977, led Oakland to elect its first black mayor, Lionel Wilson. Working through the Panther’s school, the Oakland Community Learning Center, Brown and the Panthers promoted education of black youth. In 1977, the program received a commendation from the California State Assembly. Brown also had an interest in holding a political office; however, her campaigns in 1973 and in 1976 for a seat on the city council were unsuccessful. She was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1976. In 1977, Elaine Brown left the Panthers and returned to a career in music. She also released two albums, Seized the Time (1969) and Until We’re Free (1973). Her autobiography, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story, was published in 1992. She also worked as a freelance writer for Essence magazine and as a paralegal. Brown relocated to Atlanta, where she founded Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice. In 2002, she published The Condemnation of Little B: New Age Racism in America. She has one daughter, Erica, named in honor of Ericka Huggins of the BPP. Further Reading Brown, Angela D. 1993. ‘‘Elaine Brown.’’ In Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing. Brown, Elaine. 1992. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story. New York: Pantheon Books. McClendon, John H., III. 1993. ‘‘Elaine Brown.’’ In Notable Black American Women, Book 2. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1996. Notable Black American Women, Book 2. Detroit: Gale Research. Jessie Carney Smith

Brown, James (1933–2006), Singer, Composer James Brown was born on December 3, 1933, to Susie and Joseph Gardner in Barnwell, South Carolina. Brown’s life began during the Depression Era in the Jim Crow–ridden South. He was to have been named after his father, but a mix-up during birth registration caused him to be known as James Joseph Brown Jr. He and his family lived in extreme poverty. His parents’ marriage dissolved; his father eventually sent him to live with an aunt in Augusta, Georgia, who ran a house of prostitution. Soon after this move, Brown was given up for foster care. As a seventh-grade dropout, James did several things to earn money, including shining shoes, selling and trading old stamps, and singing in talent contests. As a youngster, Brown recognized his own ability and knew that he was a natural-born entertainer.

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Brown entertained soldiers from Camp Gordon during the beginning of World War II. He taught himself to play the harmonica, and he learned to play the piano, drums, and guitar from others. Louis Jordan, a popular jazz and R & B performer, inspired Brown. After short-lived attempts at Boxing and Baseball, Brown soon focused his attention on music. Brown’s first professional musical endeavor began with Bobby Byrd and the Gospel Starlighters in 1952. This group eventually became a secular band and changed its name to the Famous Flames. They toured in Macon, Georgia, and in March 1956, they recorded ‘‘Please, Please, Please.’’ This song was number five on Billboard magazine’s Top 40 R & B Singles. It was only the beginning for Brown’s career. Brown personally financed a recording entitled The James Brown Show Live at the Apollo in 1962. Released the following year, the record was a major success. Brown’s performance was electrifying. He slid across the stage, engaging the audience to participate as fans screamed and others sang with him. This production was done against the wishes of Brown’s label manager, Syd Nathan, because Nathan saw no profitability in recording a show with songs that everyone already knew. Needless to say, Nathan was wrong. With a gift for writing songs that appealed to ‘‘the people,’’ Brown penned songs that were celebrated for years to come. Songs like ‘‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’’ and ‘‘I Got You (I Feel Good)’’ (1965); ‘‘It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World’’ (1966); and ‘‘Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)’’ (1968) all seemed to artistically express things that were going on in the minds of black Americans during that time period. The United States was entering the crowned Civil Rights Movement era and blacks were feeling a sense of pride that had for years been hidden, hushed, or absent. As an African American pop star, Brown recorded several hits and albums in the 1970s that helped to solidify his stature as the true ‘‘Godfather of Soul.’’ Some of these songs included ‘‘Hot Pants’’ (1971), ‘‘Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)’’ and ‘‘Super Bad’’ (1970), and ‘‘Soul Power’’ (1971). Brown did not limit himself to black audiences; he crossed racial barriers as he recorded ‘‘Living in America’’ for Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky IV in 1985. His last projects, Long Overdue and Star Time (a 4-CD boxed set with his career hits), were released in 1991. Brown’s contribution to the musical arena became even more evident through the years with the invention of digital sampling. Hundreds of hits in all genres sampled Brown’s drum beats, horn lines, and musical arrangements. The ‘‘Godfather of Soul’’ lived up to his title. He died on December 25, 2006, in Atlanta, Georgia, from congestive heart failure due to complications from pneumonia. He was married multiple times and fathered several children. Further Reading Brown, James. 2005. I Feel Good: A Memoir of a Life of Soul. New York: New American Library.

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George, Nelson and Alan Leeds, eds. 2008. The James Brown Reader: 50 Years of Writing about the Godfather of Soul. New York: Plume. Johns, Robert L. 1999. ‘‘James Brown.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale. Jemima Buchanan

Brown, Jim (1936– ), Professional Football Player James Nathaniel ‘‘Jim’’ Brown is considered by many to be the greatest running back to ever play professional football, if not the greatest pure athlete of our time. A National Football League Hall of Famer who played his entire professional career with the Cleveland Browns, Brown still holds the record for most yardage averaged in a single National Football League (NFL) season. Remarkably, Brown, who was born February 17, 1936, never played a single down of football in his thirties. Although Brown played in an era of 12- and 14game NFL seasons, it took other running backs who played in longer seasons more years to eclipse Brown’s career rushing yardage total of 12,312. Brown played for the Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965. In 2002, the Sporting News named him the greatest professional football player ever. True to the legacy that Brown maintains today, he quit the game in his prime at the age of 29 to pursue a movie career. Had Brown continued to play well into his prime, he likely would have set a career rushing record that no one could surpass. Brown did not fade quietly. He starred in a string of movies, some of which were controversial and others were rated X-rated. Brown has been one of the leading former athletes advocating against gang violence and advocating for athletes’ rights. He also has famously criticized two of today’s most famous athletes—Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods—for not being more outspoken for social causes. Brown currently works as a consultant for the Cleveland Browns. Brown was born on predominantly black St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, to Theresa Brown, a housekeeper and Swinton Brown, a professional boxer. Early on, the boy was raised by his grandmother, but at age eight, he moved to Roosevelt in Long Island, New York. He attended Manhasset High School, in Manhasset, New York, where he eventually starred in football, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, and track. While a student at Syracuse University, Brown played three seasons of football (1954–1956). He was a unanimous first-team All-American in his senior season, in which he finished fifth in voting for the Heisman Trophy. He set Syracuse records for highest rush average (6.2 yards per carry) and most rushing touchdowns (6). In a 61–7 season finale rout of Colgate, he ran for 197 yards, scored 6 touchdowns, and kicked 7 extra points. His total of 43 points scored set another school record. Brown also continued to be a multisport star. He was the second-leading scorer on the basketball team as a sophomore, when he also earned a letter in

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track. As a senior, he was a first-team All-American in lacrosse after scoring 43 goals to rank second in the nation. Brown’s college career was merely a sneak preview for what he would do in the NFL to make his name a household word for sports fans for generations. He was the first-round selection of the Cleveland Browns in the 1956 NFL draft, and he proceeded to become the most efficient running back in the history of professional football. When Brown left the game, he held the NFL records for most yards in a single season (1,863 in 1963), most yards in a career (12,312), rushing touchdowns (106), total touchdowns (126), and all-purpose yards (15,549). He was the first player to reach 100 touchdowns, and still one of the few who have reached that mark despite the NFL’s expansion to 16 games in 1978. Brown’s first four NFL seasons were only 12 games, and his last five seasons were 14 games. He still holds the record of leading the NFL in all-purpose yardage for five seasons, and he is the only player in NFL history to average over 100 rushing yards in a career. He was also a great pass receiver from his running back position, logging 20 touchdown receptions. He holds the NFL record for six games with at least 4 touchdowns, leading LaDainian Tomlinson and Marshall Faulk who each have five such games. Brown had a bruising running style—the likes of which had never been seen before or afterward—that enabled him to run over, around, or through would-be tacklers. He once said that his intent was to inflict more punishment on the defender than the defended inflicted on him. One of his weapons was a trademark stiff-arm blow, in which he would drop or push through a defender with his free hand, which tucking the ball away in his other hand. For his career, he averaged 5.2 yards per carry, the equivalent of gaining a first down on every two carries. Only Barry Sanders (5.0) has reached that same plateau. Brown’s 1,863 yards rushing in 1963 remains a Cleveland franchise record, the oldest franchise rushing record of any NFL team. Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971. He is also a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Acting Career Jim Brown debuted as an actor in the 1964 film Rio Conchos. He abruptly retired from football in 1965 during filming for The Dirty Dozen, a war picture in which he would star in 1967. His other notables films included 100 Rifles where he starred with Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch, in which Brown was featured in Hollywood’s first interracial love scene. He also starred in Three the Hard Way in 1974, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka in 1988, and Original Gangtas in 1996. He also appeared as a coach in Any Given Sunday (1999), a football movie, which also featured Jamie Foxx and Al Pacino. Brown solidified his role as an activist in 1988, when he founded Amer-I-Can, which aims to steer kids clear of gangs and also teaches life-management skills to youths and adults in urban areas and to adults in prison. Although he has

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had a history of violence with women, including being arrested and sentenced to six months in jail for smashing his wife’s car with a shovel, in 1999, he remains an American sports icon. Further Reading The Amer-I-Can Program. http://www.amer-i-can.org/. Brown, Jim, with Myron Cope. 1964. Off My Chest. New York: Doubleday. ‘‘Football’s 100 Greatest Players.’’ The Sporting News ‘‘Jim Brown.’’ National Football League. http://www.nfl.com. Whitaker, Matthew C., ed. 2008. African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. David Squires

Brown, Judge Joe (1947– ), Lawyer, Judge, Television Personality Judge Joe Brown is the syndicated court TV show from Big Ticket Television Productions, syndicated by CBS Television Distribution and aired during the day on various television stations. The slogan for the show is ‘‘It’s Joe Time.’’ The show is presided over by Judge Joe B. Brown, who until 2000 was a sitting judge for District 9 of the Shelby County Criminal Courts in Memphis, Tennessee. As a result of being assigned in 1997 to the appeal of the case of James Earl Ray, who was convicted for the April 4, 1968 assassination of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and an appearance on the ABC TV show Nightline, Joe B. Brown came to the attention of the producers of Court TV’s reality show Judge Judy. Feeling Joe B. Brown would play well on a television reality court show; the producers offered him the job. Judge Joe Brown, the TV court reality show that premiered in September of 1998, focuses on small claims cases. The show also has a bailiff and a reporter. The show’s cases are gleaned from applications submitted through the Judge Joe Brown TV show Web site. The Judge Joe Brown show is one of the higher-rated syndicated court reality TV shows on the air. It is filmed on a set in Los Angeles. For the first few years, Brown traveled between Memphis and Los Angeles performing both jobs. Joe B. Brown was an only child, born July 5, 1947, in Washington, DC. Brown was raised in Los Angeles and attended Dorsey High School. He later attended UCLA, earning a degree in political science, and continued on to complete law school; he received the JD from UCLA in 1973. To earn money for school, Brown loaded trucks, dug ditches, and worked as a substitute teacher. In the early 1970s, Brown moved to Tennessee, where he held positions at Legal Services and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and reportedly became the first African American prosecutor in Memphis. Brown opened a law practice in 1978 and in 1990 was elected judge of Division 9 of the State Criminal Courts for Shelby County, Tennessee, which includes Memphis.

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Before the TV series, Judge Joe B. Brown gained notoriety for the less-thanusual sentences given out to those convicted of crimes. One of the unusual sentences Brown meted out during this time on the bench was that of instructing a victim to take something from the home of the thief. Brown gave such a sentence to show the thief how it feels to have your possessions taken. Brown was assigned to the appeal of James Earl Ray and presided over testimony given by the King family in support of James Earl Ray’s appeal. Brown was later removed as judge from the case on the grounds of bias for James Earl Ray. Joe B. Brown is married and lives Los Angeles. Further Reading Blue, Rose, and Jennifer M. York. 2002. ‘‘Judge Joe Brown.’’ In Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 29. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. Judge Joe Brown. http://www.judgejoebrown.com/. Sharon D. Johnson

Brown, Tony (1933– ), Broadcaster, Producer Tony Brown’s Journal was the longest-running public affairs show in U.S. network television history and was the creation of former social worker–turned– television producer Tony Brown. Brown’s provocative and informative program focused on issues and topics relative to African American life. A proponent of self-help and economic independence, Brown has written books and published articles encouraging African Americans to take control of their economic destinies. Brown’s business model of ‘‘control of distribution’’ is commonplace today among Internet-based business owners, self-published authors, and youthful music producers. William Anthony Brown, the youngest of Royal and Catherine Davis Brown’s five children, was born April 11, 1933, in the coal mining town of Charleston, West Virginia. The effects of poverty and segregation caused Brown to be raised by family friends instead of his biological parents from the time he was two months old until he was twelve years old. After graduating from high school, Brown enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1953. He later matriculated through Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, earning a BA in 1959 and a MSW in 1961. Upon finishing graduate school, Brown worked as a psychiatric social worker, and in his spare time wrote articles for the Detroit Courier. By 1962 he had left social work completely and began working full-time as a journalist for the Courier, eventually rising through the ranks to become the city editor. As a journalist, Brown knew of the power of the media in reaching people, so in 1968 he took a position at WTVS television in Detroit. At WTVS Brown

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was asked to produce the station’s first African American public affairs show. The program was Colored Peoples Time or C.P.T. This was followed by the program Free Play. In 1970, Brown moved on to become the executive producer of the popular show Black Journal, based in New York. Black Journal, like Brown’s earlier work, focused on political, educational, and socioeconomic issues affecting African Americans. Brown married in 1971; to this union a son Byron Anthony Brown was born. Brown and his wife divorced several years later. In 1971 as well, Brown negotiated a deal with PepsiCo to underwrite Black Journal and the show was renamed Tony Brown’s Journal. In its prime, Tony Brown’s Journal was shown on eightyfive television stations across the United States. In 1980 Brown founded Black College Day to draw attention to the economic plight and long-term prospects of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In the mid-1980s, as a part of his self-help message, Brown asked people to participate in his Buy Freedom campaign, which told black consumers to shop with black business owners. In 1988 Brown combined his passion for entrepreneurship and broadcasting to produce, write, and direct a polemical film on the ills of drugs like cocaine entitled The White Girl. The film received mixed reviews from critics and theatergoers, but Brown maintained the goal of the film was to educate the masses, hinder the spread of drugs, and control the film’s distribution. In 1995 Brown wrote a book Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown. In 2004 Brown was appointed dean of the Scripps-Howard School of Journalism at Hampton University. Further Reading Bailey, Peter. 1972. ‘‘Black Excellence in the Wasteland.’’ Ebony (March):44–48. Brown, Tony. 1997. Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown. New York: HarperCollins. Carter B. Cue

Brown v. Board of Education The most significant legal decision addressing the constitutional rights of African Americans in the twentieth century, it overturned the infamous 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld the doctrine of ‘‘separate but equal.’’ In Brown v. Board of Education and its companion cases, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed equal protection challenges from four different states, Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, and Virginia. Lawyers for the NAACP spearheaded these challenges to statutes that either required or permitted local school districts to segregate black public school children from whites. A fifth companion case, Bolling v. Sharpe, involved a due process challenge under the Fifth Amendment to segregation in the public schools of the District of Columbia.

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In the Kansas case, the lower federal district court concluded that the separate black and white schools were equal in terms of facilities and other tangible resources. In two of the companion cases—Briggs v. Elliot from South Carolina and Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County from Virginia—the lower federal courts sustained the validity of segregation. Both federal district courts, however, found that the black schools were inferior to white schools in terms of resources and ordered the defendants immediately to begin to equalize the facilities. In Gebhart v. Belton, the Delaware Supreme Court decided to admit the black plaintiffs to white schools based upon a determination that the schools the black children attended were inferior in terms of resources to those of white students. Thus, the U.S. Supreme Court had a number of options available to it for resolving the issue of segregation in public education. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the unanimous opinion for the Court. Warren had recently replaced Chief Justice Fred Vinson, a known supporter of segregation, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack in September of 1953. Warren assumed that the physical facilities and other tangible factors of the public schools attended by black and white students were equal. Given the tangible equality of segregation in this context, the Court was forced to identify the harm resulting from segregation. In one of the most quoted phrases from Brown, the Court stated: ‘‘[t]o separate [African American youth] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone’’ (Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S., 494). The Court went on to quote approvingly from the district court in Kansas: Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of law; [f]or the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school.

Chief Justice Warren buttressed his conclusion that segregation in public schools inflicted psychological harm on African Americans in his (in)famous footnote number eleven, which cited studies by social scientists. The first cite in footnote number eleven was to the work of eminent black psychologist Kenneth Clark, the author of the famous ‘‘doll study.’’ A year later, the Court issued its decision on implementing the Brown ruling. In what became known as Brown II, the Court required public schools to effect a transition to a ‘‘racially nondiscriminatory school system.’’ The Court left the precise parameters of what this meant to the discretion of school authorities. Chief Justice Warren in this opinion went on to note that orders and decrees should be entered to admit the plaintiffs to public schools on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with ‘‘all deliberate speed.’’

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Despite the Court’s ‘‘all deliberate speed’’ language, school desegregation efforts met considerable resistance in the Deep South. One month after the original decision in Brown, eight governors of states that had been part of the Confederacy and three representatives sent by the governors of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas met in Virginia. They unanimously vowed not to comply voluntarily with the Supreme Court’s decision. On March 12, 1956, a group of southern senators and congressmen presented the Southern Manifesto, which was conceived by Senator Strom Thurmond. The manifesto asserted their intention to use every legal tactic possible to resist desegregation. The Deep South states implemented several measures to resist desegregation including: closing public schools instead of integrating them; delegating control of the public schools to the governor or the state legislature in hopes of frustrating federal court orders directed at local school officials; providing tuition grants to pay for segregated private schools for those who did not wish to attend integrated schools; denying state funds to schools attended by pupils of different races; abolishing compulsory schooling; criminalizing teaching in or attending an integrated school; and firing teachers who advocated desegregation. Later Supreme Court decisions seriously restricted the ability of American society to desegregate its public schools. According to reports by the Harvard Civil Rights Project, at its zenith in the 1980–81 academic year only 37.1 percent of black schoolchildren attended majority white schools. At least 32 percent of black schoolchildren always attended schools where at least 90 percent of the student body was composed of minority students. Looking back from the hindsight of so many years since the decision, while Brown did not lead to the integration of America’s public school students, it was essential to the dismantling America’s racial apartheid. The Supreme Court used its opinion in Brown to strike down segregation and racial discrimination by state government wherever it existed. In 1964, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned segregation and racial discrimination by many private entities and individuals including in employment, public accommodations, and by recipients of federal funds. There can be little doubt that much of the progress in race relations since 1954 resulted from the resolute efforts of lawyers for the NAACP and this courageous decision by the Supreme Court. Further Reading Brown, Kevin. 2005. Race, American Society and the Law: Four Perspectives on Desegregation and Resegregation. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Brown v. Board of Education I, 347 U.S. 483, 494 (quoting Brown v. Board of Educ.,) 98 F. Supp. 797 (D. Kan. 1951). http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court =us&vol=347&invol=483. Gralia, Lino. 1976. Disaster by Decree: The Supreme Court Decisions on Race and the Schools: Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Greenberg, Jack. 1994. Crusaders in the Courts: How A Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Basic Books.

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Kruger, Richard. 1976. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Ravitch, Diane. 1980. The Troubled Crusade: American Education 1945 to 1980. New York: Basic Books. Kevin Brown

Bryant, Kobe (1978– ), Basketball Player Kobe Bryant was the brash high school phenomenon who bypassed college and zoomed directly to the National Basketball Association. He could finish his career as the game’s greatest player. Bryant is a pop culture icon because of notoriety that clings to him: critics have called him arrogant, selfish and selfabsorbed. He clashed with teammate Shaquille O’Neal and the established big man superstar was moved to another team in order to accommodate the younger Bryant. A sexual assault scandal in 2003 tarnished Bryant’s reputation (and suggested he was naive and immature), yet he recovered and resumed his amazing feats on the hardwood. With four NBA championship rings and an Olympic gold medal before his thirtieth birthday, Bryant is an indisputable winner. It appears his assault on NBA records should continue for many years. Kobe Bean Bryant was born August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia to Joe ‘‘Jellybean’’ and Pam Bryant. The parents named their son after the expensive cut of Japanese beef after eyeing the entr
ee on a menu. Kobe’s father was a college basketball star, then an NBA journeyman player for eight seasons. Joe Bryant moved his family to Pistola, Italy, in order to continue playing professional basketball. Young Kobe played the game overseas and became bilingual. The Bryant family returned to Philadelphia when young Kobe was thirteen. He made the varsity of Lower Merion High School in the tony Philadelphia suburbs and led his teams to state championships. He also earned 1996 national high school player of the year honors from USA Today and Parade magazine. Bryant escorted R & B sensation Brandy to his senior prom. Bryant appeared to be a slam-dunk top college prospect. In addition to his athletic prowess, his higher-than-average SAT scores predicted academic success. Bryant, however, announced that he would skip college at age seventeen to play in the NBA. Media pundits at that time said Bryant was delusional, nevertheless he was the thirteenth prospect drafted and the first high school guard—a tall one at 6 feet, 6 inches—to be selected. Bryant was chosen by the Charlotte Hornets, and then he was immediately traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. There, Bryant was paired with another new arrival, Shaquille O’Neal, the dominating center with the outsized ego and playful persona, formerly of the Orlando Magic. During Bryant’s 1996–97 rookie season, he averaged nearly 8 points per game mostly as a reserve player, and scored the most points by a reserve–24–during a late-season victory. The next season Bryant doubled his scoring output to 15 points per game and was poised for greatness.

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With O’Neal and a talented cast of role players, Bryant’s Lakers were good but not good enough to compete for championships. That condition changed when former Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson arrived. Bryant thrived and averaged 22.5 points during the 1999–2000 seasons. The Lakers won their first of three consecutive championships in the Kobe-Shaq era. The next year Bryant’s scoring average soared to 28.5 points and he was among league leaders in other offensive categories. Before the 2001 playoffs, Bryant married Vanessa Laine, an eighteen-yearold dancer he met on the set of a video shoot. During the 2002 season, when Bryant was twenty-three, he became the youngest player to win three NBA championships. Drama Unfolds Bryant’s year 2003 was tumultuous. The Lakers lost to the champion San Antonio Spurs during the playoff semifinals. Stories circulated that Bryant and O’Neal feuded, and that the younger star hogged the ball. That summer Bryant traveled to a Colorado resort in order to have knee surgery. Eagle County, Colorado, authorities issued an arrest warrant for Bryant after a nineteen-year-old female resort employee alleged that he sexually assaulted her. Bryant surrendered to police, then was released on $25,000 bond. He appeared at a news conference with his wife and admitted to the infidelity, and insisted that the sex with the employee was consensual. Three days after the arrest, Bryant bought his wife a $4 million, eight-carat, purple diamond ring. Media pundits called the rock an apology gift; Bryant denied such speculation. Soon, the employee’s sexual assault allegations unraveled because of inconsistencies, and by 2004 all charges against Bryant were dismissed. Nevertheless, his reputation was sullied. Bryant lost endorsement deals with Sprite and McDonalds. When O’Neal criticized him, Bryant retaliated by calling his teammate out of shape and undependable. During the 2004 season, the Lakers returned to the NBA finals but lost in five games to the Detroit Pistons. Bryant averaged 24 points per game but failed to make the all-star team. Instead, he was named to the All-NBA and defensive first teams. O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat, coach Jackson’s contract was not renewed, and Bryant signed a seven-year, $136 million contract extension. In season 2004–05, the Lakers had a losing record despite Bryant’s prolific scoring. The next season Jackson returned to coach the Lakers. In 2006, Bryant scored 81 points in one game that broke the team record and was the league’s second-highest output after 100 points by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. Bryant competes with fellow Philadelphian Chamberlain in another category: he became the second NBA player to score more than 50 points in four consecutive games. The 2007–08 season was rocky at the start when Bryant publicly demanded to be traded; then he retracted the request. His team advanced to the finals but lost to the Boston Celtics. In summer 2008, Bryant was a member of the U.S. Olympic

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Men’s Basketball gold medal team. Next year, Bryant had a high-scoring season— 30.2 points per game—and he was backed up by Pau Gasol, a dominating center acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies. The Lakers won the 2009 NBA championship and Bryant silenced critics who said he would not win without Shaq. The Lakers beat the Orlando Magic, but promoters and fans had anticipated a showdown between Bryant and LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers. Before the Cavaliers were derailed by the Magic, Nike sneakers ran a series of commercials with hand puppets depicting Bryant and James. The commercials returned in 2010, and many fans were able to see a championship battle of the superstars. James’s Cavaliers failed to reach the final round. Bryant’s Lakers played the Boston Celtics. Los Angeles avenged the 2008 championship loss to Boston in a nail-biting seven-game series that was not decided until the final minute. Bryant was named Finals MVP. He is now a five-time NBA champion. Further Reading Jackson, Phil, and Michael Arkush. 2004. The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul. New York: Penguin Press. Samuels, Allison. 2007. Off the Record: A Reporter Unveils the Celebrity Worlds of Hollywood, Hip-Hop & Sports. New York: Amistad. Shapiro, Jeffrey Scott. 2004. Kobe Bryant: The Game of His Life. New York: Revolution Publishing. Wayne Dawkins

Buffalo Soldiers Several thousand Buffalo Soldiers served in many military campaigns, including the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and the raids against Pancho Villa. Although they had been relegated to historical obscurity by many, increasingly they have become icons in African American history and popular culture. They were also the first African Americans to serve the military during peacetime. Their responsibilities included helping to settle the West by escorting settlers and herds of cattle, and conducting campaigns against American Indian tribes. Since colonial days, African Americans have served their country in military conflicts, yet often in segregated units. There were sixty-five regiments in the regular U.S. Army during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Six of these were comprised of black troops who reported to white officers. In spring and summer 1867, the Ninth and Tenth Calvary moved westward and some of their companies were assigned to Indian Territory; others were stationed at posts and camps along the Kansas Pacific Railroad to guard the construction underway. For many years the Ninth and Tenth fought the Indians on the Texas frontier, the Indian Territory, New Mexico, and Arizona. They also rounded up border

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scum, cattle thieves, murderous politicians, greedy land and cattle barons, and others. The black regiments were reorganized in 1869, when the number of units was reduced to four; these were the Ninth and Tenth Calvary and the Twentyfourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry. Afterward, the Buffalo Soldiers were moved to the South, where racial tensions were high, both in the community and in the segregated military bases. When the military was racially integrated in 1952, the men joined various parts of the armed forces. The western Indians, unaccustomed to seeing black soldiers, gave them the endearing nickname ‘‘Buffalo Soldiers’’; to the Indians, their hair and coloring reminded them of the coats of their buffalo. Twenty-three of these men won the nation’s highest award for military valor for their bravery during the Indian wars and the Cuban campaign—the Medal of Honor. An expanding interest in the soldiers has emerged. The Ninth and Tenth Horse Cavalry Association, founded in 1866 and still in operation, has become prominent in its research on historical data on the soldiers. The organization has chapters throughout the United States. The Buffalo Soldiers were honored in 1992, when an impressive Buffalo Solders Monument was unveiled in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, a descendant of one of the Buffalo Soldiers, was one of several forces behind the erection. Statues have also been erected on other sites. In 2000, a Buffalo Soldiers National Museum was established in their honor in Houston, Texas. A film, The Buffalo Soldiers, featuring Danny Glover, was released in 1997. There are also artists’ portrayals in paintings of actual episodes from the soldiers’ campaigns. Further Reading Buffalo Soldiers. http://www.buffalosoldiers.com/. Leckie, William H., with Shirley A. Leckie. 2003. The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Black Calvary in the West. Rev. ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Schubert, Frank N. 1997. Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, 1870–1898. Wilmington, DE: SR Books. Jessie Carney Smith

Bunche, Ralph (1904–71), Diplomat, Educator, Political Scientist Ralph Johnson Bunche earned the distinction of being the first African American to win a Nobel Peace Prize on September 22, 1950, becoming a cultural icon. The prize was awarded for his role in facilitating the mediation between Israel and Egypt in 1948. Bunche was born to Fred Bunch and Olive Agnes Johnson Bunch on August 7, 1903, in Detroit. However, the family bible

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incorrectly lists the date as 1904 and as a result, numerous publications reflect this year as the official date. After the death of his mother in 1917, Bunche and his sister Grace moved to Los Angeles with their maternal grandmother, Lucy Johnson, and she later added an ‘‘e’’ to their last name. Bunche graduated at the top of his class in 1922 but was denied the opportunity to participate in the citywide honors event because of his race. One year later, Bunche began his college career at the University of California, Southern Branch. Four years later, he gave the commencement address as valedictorian. Bunche used this platform to discuss his vision on social education. In 1928, Bunche received his masters in political science from Howard University. While working toward his As a high official of the United Nations for PhD at Harvard, Bunche taught 25 years, Ralph Bunche led peacekeeping classes at Howard. He is credited efforts in troubled areas of the world. (Carl Van Vechten Collection/Library of Congress) with organizing the political science department there. Bunche became the first African American to earn a doctorate in political science in 1934. While still at Howard University, Bunche cofounded the National Negro Congress (NNC) as an effort to ease the class divisions between black and white workers. Later, as the NNC began to grow, so did some of its missions; much to Bunche’s disgust it turned into a front for the American Communist Party. In 1941, Bunche took his political ideas outside of academia and joined the federal government’s Office of Strategic Services. There he was involved in postwar planning for the organization that would later become the United Nations. Bunche’s leadership and commitment to human equality enabled him to remain resilient during difficult times. Bunche served as president of the American Political Science Association (APSA) beginning in 1953 and they continue to honor him by hosting the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute. This intensive summer program was designed to increase the number of African American students pursuing advanced degrees in political science. Bunche served as undersecretary of the United Nations from 1955 to 1971, which afforded him the opportunity to gain international recognition. In the United States, he worked to improve the civil rights of African Americans and also marched with Martin Luther King Jr.

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Admiration for Bunche is evident by the numerous schools and institutions named after him. In May 1997, the U.S. Department of State renamed the oldest federal government library after him. Ruth Ethel Harris and Ralph Bunche married on June 23, 1930. Their children are Joan, Jane, and Ralph Jr. After a year of various health issues, including diminishing eyesight, coma, and kidney dialysis, Bunche died on December 9, 1971. Further Reading Bennett, Lerone Jr. 2007. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing. Clarkin, Thomas. 2009. ‘‘Ralph Johnson Bunch.’’ American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. Cockayne, James, and David M. Malone. ‘‘The Ralph Bunche Centennial: Peace Operations Then and Now.’’ Global Governance 11, no. 3 (2005): 331–50. International Political Science Abstracts, EBSCOhost. Greaves, William. 2001. ‘‘Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey’’ [video recording]. New York: William Greaves Productions. Henry, Charles P. ‘‘Ralph Bunche: American Diplomat.’’ Crisis (15591573) 111, no. 4 (July 2004): 20–23. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost. Angela M. Gooden

Buppies (Black Urban Professionals) Buppie is a term used to refer to middle-class blacks; it consists of variations of the term yuppies or young urban professionals and black urban professionals or black upwardly mobile professionals. The terms buppies and yuppies are used to define the middle-class socioeconomic status in terms of income and education. The individuals are top-earning Baby Boomers. Their personal income and their education defined them in the late 1980s. Enter the Generation X group in the middle 1990s. These are twenty-year-old to early thirty-year-old Americans looking for new pathways to the corporate ladder. With Affirmative Action programs gone, the buppies’ culture gone, a boost into the corporate world sent only a few to the executive suites. Generation X may be the first to embrace entrepreneurship as a primary goal in climbing the economic ladder and entering the once-closed doors to the upper executive suites. Another group of black urban professionals interested in entrepreneurship is known as YEO. The Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO) is composed of entrepreneurs under the age of forty who are founders, cofounders, owners, or majority stockholders of companies grossing $1 million or more a year. YEO provides mentoring, entrepreneurship education, and peer networking to members. Atlanta, Georgia, was profiled in 1988 as a city for black professionals, or buppies. Atlanta served as a model for urban racial harmony, power sharing, and minority opportunities. The foundation of the city’s progress was listed as the

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largest academic complexes in the nation—the seven colleges composed of Atlanta University Center. This center created the large pool of buppies. The term buppie, originally used to describe the rising socioeconomic status of young black urban professionals, is also being used to describe the economic and political conditions of blacks in Africa. After being deprived of wealth and opportunities by apartheid, signs of increased influence started appearing in South Africa. Cars and houses that are usually signs of increased wealth, dotted townships. ‘‘Black Diamonds’’ is also a term used to describe the middle class in South Africa. The University of Cape Town’s Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing states that since 2005, about fifteen thousand people a month have moved out of townships into more affluent neighborhoods. Buppies are affecting the economy and the political landscape. Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos notes on Post-Soul Black Culture is Nelson George’s 1992 collection of essays after the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960s. Buppie is one of the cultural types he wrote about that covers the late 1980s and early 1990s. George’s writing chronicles the urban life of uppermobility black Americans. His writing also serves as an edification of the meaning of black Urban Culture and the movements that influenced the black culture life styles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During that period young blacks were moving up economically through music, film, sports, city life, and politics. After two decades or more, evidence of the influence of the buppies and Generation X can be seen in the corporate world, social arena, and the political front. The past movements of upper-mobility African Americans have attracted national and international attention. These movements have brought muchneeded hope to future generations that the American dream is reachable.

Further Reading George, Nelson. 1992. Buppies, B-Boys, Baps & Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture. New York: HarperCollins. Pank, Phillip 2008. ‘‘Black Group Can Now Afford to Drive the Top Brand. Our Target Audience is the Township.’’ Times (United Kingdom), June 5. ‘‘The Rise of the Buppie.’’ 2007. Economist 385 (November): 54. Satchell, Michael, and Sandra R. Greggs. 1988. ‘‘Black Power in the Big Peach.’’ U.S. News and World Report 105 (July 25): 24. Orella Ramsey Brazile

Business and Commerce African Americans have always played a meaningful part in shaping popular culture. They were involved in business long before they were brought to North America as slaves. In their mother country, Africa, blacks had seen their own people work

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as traders. When they reached the United States, many did not lose their will to be entrepreneurs—they lost only their opportunity. Even the plantation economy demanded artisans and craftspersons to operate it, and blacks had roles that went beyond planting, hoeing, and reaping. In urban settings the enslaved worked at such jobs as artisans, musicians, and dressmakers; they enhanced or developed skills that would be economically useful to them once they were freed. Some were allowed to hire themselves out and earn the money needed to purchase their own freedom and that of their families. Many free blacks did become entrepreneurs. They were seen in almost all southern cities working as barbers, butchers, mechanics, and artisans. Some even manufactured furniture, pottery, and bricks. Both slave and free blacks produced materials for the local markets. Some maintained restaurants and hotels. The fine caterers of the antebellum United States, the fashionable dressmakers, and the hairdressers—most of whom worked outside the South—were black. Slave Narratives Have Stories to Tell African American business developments are recorded in the stories that slaves told. Later, some of these narratives were published individually or collectively. This occurred despite the restrictions that the American slave system placed on those who labored under bondage. Some slaves were known to excel in business and at times to earn enough money to buy their freedom as well as that of their families. One may note with interest the use of Slave Narratives (a source not to be overlooked) for biographical information. As examples may be cited nineteenth-century entrepreneur Lunsford Lane and his Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C. (1842), and three slave narratives by Frederick Douglass: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881), My Bondage and My Freedom (1885), and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845). Lane, of Raleigh, North Carolina, sold smoking tobacco that he and his father processed, and used the profits to purchase his freedom. Among his various notable deeds, Douglass headed the Freedman’s Bank in 1874. Other slave narratives tell of successes in such businesses as cabinetmaking, grocery store ownership, and in various enterprises. African American Enterprises and the Industrial Age Those black-owned enterprises that survived the slavery period succumbed to the changed business requirements that came during the industrial age. Business operations had to be efficient, thus calling for a positive response to the requirements for modernization. Black businesses during slavery were, for the most part, located outside the South and involved skilled trades, such as blacksmithing, painting, plumbing, and shoemaking. As noted, catering and hairdressing were also popular, as were barbering, hotel and restaurant management, and various small enterprises. While a few businesses catered to blacks, most did not, and for survival, if nothing more, fit their enterprises into the whole black and white economy instead. There were also black-owned businesses that served only white clients. A separate black and

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white economy could not coexist; however, in time, black leaders encouraged self-help activities in an effort to strengthen the black economy and weaken ties with the white economy. Historians found that almost as soon as the first settlers came to North America, they constructed laws to discourage black entrepreneurship. From the end of the Civil War to the modern civil rights era, whites drove blacks out of their trades. Even those cited earlier that slaves had practiced and dominated so well were later closed or severely curtailed. Fortunately, black businesses found other ways to survive. Many were born out of churches and fraternal societies and aimed to provide essential needs that blacks could not find otherwise. From these businesses—the fraternal societies in particular—came banking and insurance companies that clearly strengthened the black economy. The Freedman’s Savings Bank, established to serve the financial needs of blacks, was penetrated by the white banking business and, of course, led to blacks’ mistrust of the banking industry when the bank failed. That the reasons for failure lay outside the black community was hardly acceptable to the black community. The failure rate of banks during this period, however, appears to have been no greater for blacks than for whites. Some business historians suggest that the slave society shaped those businesses that blacks entered early on. The successful early businesses were primarily those that whites chose not to operate, thus leaving opportunities for blacks to become shoemakers, draymen, and liverymen. The Encyclopedia of African American Business embraces the activities of black entrepreneurs, documenting when and where blacks owned and operated their businesses. For example, in 1863, blacks owned twelve types of businesses, which included bakery, catering, dressmaking, fishing and oystering, and sailmaking. By 1913, blacks owned seventy-two types of businesses, which included automobile service and garage, architecture, banking, bottling and soda water–making, drugstore, electrical, employment bureau, haberdashery, hotel keeping, insurance, jewelry, printing and publishing, real estate, stationery, undertaking, and wood and coal. As African Americans began to take a fuller share of American prosperity, they also played a larger role in shaping the economic development of the black community. By no means, however, has the gap between white and black wealth and economic influence been bridged; rather, blacks are simply more visible in far more economic arenas than they were in the past. Economic progress continues to lag behind improvements in civil rights. After the Civil War, the South’s economy was decidedly segregated by race. Whites refused to patronize black businesses, and certainly after 1873 few black businesses in the South survived. Those that continued or emerged after that time had black clientele, and black businesses as a whole remained relatively small. The transition into the industrial age was difficult for the small, black entrepreneurs who had little capital and limited management skills—both essential to survival. As we assess the role of blacks in economic endeavors, we cannot overlook the important work of W. E. B. Du Bois and Atlanta University. Du Bois edited the proceedings of various Atlanta University conferences, specifically its conference on ‘‘The Negro in Business’’ (1899). The university was

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concerned with the extent to which blacks were entering into business life and thus devoted its fourth annual conference to that theme. The statistics, reports on various enterprises, and recommendations for strengthening black businesses have been important to the economic development of the black community. In 1907, Booker T. Washington published his seminal work The Negro in Business. He reported on many successful blacks and what they have done in the field. The aim was to encourage increasing numbers of young blacks to seize the opportunities open to them in the business field. Washington was wellpositioned to publish his work. His activities with the National Negro Business League (NNBL) often put him in contact with black entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs. He had traveled the country and noted the number of black men and women, often in remote districts or small towns, who were engaged in various lines of business. Their lives and work document black business history during this period. Persons included in his findings were engaged in such occupations as agriculturalists, bankers, caterers, hotel keepers, inventors, journalists, manufacturers, newspaper owners, realty company operators, town builders, and undertakers. As well, his book gives accounts of black entrepreneurs whose work had made them highly visible. The Negro Yearbook, published by Tuskegee Institute (as it was previously known) in Alabama from 1912 to 1947, documents black business development in the United States and to some extent in foreign countries. Much credit for the establishment of the publication is owed to Booker T. Washington, educator, the school’s president, and, as noted, a founder of the National Negro Business League—a key organization among black businessmen. The yearbooks give statistical information, biographical information, topical essays, and data on thentimely topics that relate to business history. The early yearbooks document the NNBL’s importance to black business development and the effects of World War I on business activity that peaked in the 1920s. It was at this time that building and loan associations, insurance companies, banks, real estate agents, chain stores, steamship lines, and other enterprises came on the scene. The Golden Age of Business Development Black businesses increased rapidly during much of the first half of the twentieth century, particularly during what was called the golden age, or up to the 1930s. Many of these businesses, however, followed new lines and still served segregated markets. During this time the black real estate market emerged and blacks built hotels, theaters, homes, offices buildings, and other facilities and financed them through black banks and loan associations. Transportation, leisure, and entertainment enterprises were seen as well, often in response to segregated facilities that existed, if they were available to blacks at all. Blacks, for example, built their own railroad lines, municipal transportation systems, summer resorts, car rental companies, automobile repair shops, and automobile manufacturing companies. These businesses are also documented in The Negro Handbook, a useful source on aspects of black business for the periods when the

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work was published. There are discussions on ‘‘The Negro Market’’ and lists and assets of black banking institutions; savings and loan associations; funeral and burial insurance companies; and limited life, mutual aid, assessment health, and accident companies. African American organizations have been active in the development and promotion of black business leaders and their work. Their involvement has been seen, for example, in the work that the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), later known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. ASNLH discussed the subject of blacks as entrepreneurs at a special session held during its annual meeting in Washington, DC, in 1925. The association studied the economic activities of blacks since the Civil War and reported interesting, important, and useful facts that shed light on blacks as business people. There are limitations in the results; for example, data failed to indicate which businesses that appeared to be controlled by blacks were actually owed by whites. The report discusses blacks as local entrepreneurs, developments in black banking, and the development of insurance companies. Blacks took an early interest in establishing banks and savings institutions, such as the True Reformers Bank in Richmond and Binga State Bank in Chicago; however, insurance companies were the more prosperous black business enterprises among the race. Black insurance companies helped to perpetuate the segregated economy that was seen early on. Many white-owned companies refused to insure blacks, and if they did so, premiums were decidedly higher for blacks than for whites. Among those black insurance companies discussed in The Negro as a Business Man are Standard Life Insurance in Atlanta, the first old line legal reserve corporation organized among blacks; and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance in Durham, North Carolina, which would become the nation’s largest black-owned insurance company. Among the classic publications on African American business is Abram L. Harris’s The Negro as Capitalist: A Study of Banking and Business among American Negroes (1936). The results of a study, the book explores the rise of capitalism, the accumulation of black wealth prior to 1860, the economic base of the black middle class, and black banks. Added to this is Vishnu Oak’s three-volume series, The Negro Entrepreneur; each volume approaches black business from a different perspective. Titles in the series are The Negro Newspaper, The Negro’s Adventure in General Business, and Negro Insurance and Banking. The scope of the second work is broad and includes business ventures popular in the late 1940s, when the work was completed. Studies on Business and Business Education Emerge Atlanta University and the National Urban League combined their interest in studying business and business education among blacks and on February 1, 1944, launched a study that ended on February 1, 1946. Joseph A. Pierce, of the Atlanta University faculty, directed the study and published the results in Negro Business and Business Education (1947). Pierce examined only those businesses

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owned and operated by blacks. The study reported on issues or operations, such as banking, consumer cooperatives (including the Colored Merchants Association), life insurance companies, building and loan associations, and problems of business education training among blacks. As seen throughout studies and reports of black business operations, the racial climate of the nation played an important part in making black businesses necessary as well as in causing their demise. Results of the investigation gave Atlanta University information that it needed to go forward with a proposed graduate school of business administration to serve the needs of blacks and the business community. The National Urban League and its local branches gained information to make their services more valuable to the nation and to enlarge job opportunities for blacks. Cooperating black institutions were to be linked with their communities so that they would be positioned to identify community needs and to render better service to those communities. Clearly, activities that followed this investigation helped to shape the development of black business and business education around that time. As late as 1971, when John Seder and Berkeley G. Burwell published Getting It Together: Black Businessmen in America, they found that information about successful black businessmen of that period remained incomplete. They mirror other findings, showing that, during the 1920s, thousands of black businesses were founded, many of them banks and insurance companies that survived the Great Depression and were operational in the 1970s. Some are still operational. As black businesses emerged rapidly—many short-lived—the investigators were hard put to keep up with their contributions. But they stressed an important fact—the need to interview the business leaders to gain deeper insights into their lives than had been previously known and published. Recent and important newer studies, histories, and accounts geared to black business development have made great strides in identifying trends from the 1790s through the 1990s, giving biographical sketches as well. These include John N. Ingham and Lynne B. Feldman’s African American Business Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary (1994). The authors cast their net widely, covering leaders in a broad range of southern cities, major northern centers, and the West. The most recent and comprehensive work on black business is Juliet E. K. Walker’s The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship (1998). With this work, Walker took the field of black business information in a new direction. Using hundreds of primary and secondary sources, she traced black business development from the 1600s to the 1990s, giving accounts of the work of slaves and free blacks, and then the work of black entrepreneurs later on. Stories of black millionaires, early automobile manufacturers, and others dispel the myth that black businesses were always small, unproductive, and unsuccessful. Juliet Walker continued her scholarly and comprehensive work in the field with the publication of Encyclopedia of African American Business History (1999). Walker points out a primary flaw and omission in black business scholarship: it remained on the margins of the scholarly exploration of the African American experience. An important information source, the work discusses the African American business experience from the 1600 to the 1990s, and includes

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biographies, topical issues on black business history, and business participation in certain industries. Following the trend of larger enterprises to acquire smaller ones, companies such as Motown Records (founded by Berry Gordy Jr.), Wally Amos’s Famous Cookies, Essence magazine (later owned by AOL Time Warner), Def Jam Recordings (founded by Russell Simmons (and later his clothing line Pfat Farm), are examples of black-founded enterprises that have become either wholly owned by whites, or almost so. BET (Black Entertainment Television) is another example. For students and scholars interested in primary research materials on the subject, including data relating to a wide variety of enterprises from one-to-twoperson operations such as Barbershops and Beauty Shops to multinational operations, the sources that Debra Newman Ham gives in ‘‘Federal Records for African American Business History’’ (Encyclopedia of African American Business) are worthy of pursuit. These records are available at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) headquartered in Washington, DC, and NARA II in College Park, Maryland. Regional record centers located throughout the United States are useful as well. A guide to such records is the publication Black History: A Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives. Among the bureaus, branches, and/or divisions represented in the records are the Department of Commerce (under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration); it was during this period that records relating to black businesses multiplied. Records of the Division of Negro Affairs, located in the Office of the Secretary of Commerce, are important for information on insurance companies, lending institutions, conferences on blacks in business (1940–53), architects, real estate agents, journalists, hair care producers, funeral directors, and other topics. Other insurance companies, New Deal agencies, World War II agencies, the black press, Office of War Information, and so on, are represented in the records as well. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have developed a number of entrepreneurial programs for their students. Examples are the Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business at North Carolina Agricultural State University in Greensboro, and the gender-conscious program at Tennessee State University in Nashville, the Women’s Institute for Successful Entrepreneurship. Useful sources for these data are reports from the programs published in newsletters, and, of course, write-ups in journals. The work of the African American press cannot be overemphasized as a vital source of information on black business leaders and the development of black businesses. It was that press that preserved black history when mainstream publishers, presses, and journalists failed to recognize its worth, gave no credence to developments in the black community, and found no market in disseminating the news from black people. From the antebellum newspapers, including Freedom’s Journal founded in 1827, to the present, that press has advertised black businesses, such as heat-cleaning and sewing, and products that targeted black people, such as hair care products that Madam C. J. Walker manufactured later on. More recent newspapers such as the Afro-American, Chicago Defender, and

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the Pittsburgh Courier published accounts of the black business community. Long-standing journals such as Crisis (a publication of the NAACP), Opportunity (official publication of the National Urban League), and Southern Workman provide a wealth of information on black businesses and document the lives of many black business leaders. Outside the South, the white press also advertised black businesses. Black popular publications, such as Jet and Ebony, join the scholarly ones in casting the net even wider and deeper, sometimes supplying details otherwise overlooked. For the business field, Black Enterprise magazine has been, and continues to be, the chief source of current information, whether statistical, biographical, or simply newsworthy highlights. Along with articles and sketches on well-known business leaders, magazines such as Black Enterprise and Ebony include in their monthly publications emerging black entrepreneurs—people to watch. These publications almost always identify blacks promoted to top positions in corporate America. Perhaps the decade of the 1960s ushered in a new approach to journalism by mainstream publishers, as they began to give coverage to the black community, including business leaders and business developments. Along with such highly recognized newspapers as the New York Times and the Washington Post, papers that in the past had given more than passing recognition to the black community, papers of major cities in the South expanded their coverage. Examples are the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Charlotte Observer, and the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Popular mainstream magazines, such as Time and Newsweek, and more specialized ones, such as Business Week, have helped document African American business developments. Biographies Define Business Development Increasingly, biographical information on African American business leaders is made immediately available to researchers, whether they are in academia and seek to fulfill assignments for term papers, or are part of the general public with a need to fill. The sources update the field of biographical works since William J. Simmons published his seminal work, Men of Mark (1887), Monroe A. Majors issued his Noted Negro Women (1926), and Hallie Q. Brown brought out her pioneer work on black women, Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction (1926). It was not until 1992, however, that the first major contemporary work on black women’s biography was published. At that time the editor of this encyclopedia published the first of her series of works on women, Notable Black American Women; Book II was issued in 1996, and Book III in 2003. Coverage extends to early black women entrepreneurs, such as former slave and pastry chef Quaimo, former slave and tradeswoman Eleanor Eldridge, and a hair salon owner, Christiana Carteaux Bannister. Beginning in the 1860s, Bannister, an activist in the abolition movement, ran her business in Boston where she lived with her husband, the prominent artist Edward Mitchell Bannister. As early as the 1860s, Madame Carteaux Bannister, as she was known, advertised her ‘‘Shampooing

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and Hair Dyeing’’ business in abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, the Liberator. She closed her business sometime in the 1890s. Bankers are included as well, such as Maggie Lena Walker and contemporary black women entrepreneurs, such as entertainment booking agent Ruth Jean Bowen. Added to that set are this editor’s Notable Black American Men (1999) and Book II (2007), where entries span the gamut from early furniture manufacturer Thomas Day to current corporate executive Kenneth I. Chenault. In recent years, scholars have published reference works on African Americans that provide biographical information on business leaders and business educators. Such works are comprehensive in the subject areas included yet important for the entire field of business. Examples are Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston’s Dictionary of American Negro Biography (1982); Darlene Clark Hine’s two-volume set Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (1993) and the three-volume second edition of her work (2005). In addition to biographical data, there are discussions on women in business. In 2004 Henry Louis Gates Jr. added to the biographical references on blacks by publishing African American Lives, followed by his multivolume African American National Biography (2008). There are other important biographical sources continuously published, such as Contemporary Black Biography and Who’s Who among African Americans, and the mainstream publications that have increased their coverage of blacks, such as Current Biography, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in Commerce and Industry. The multivolume American National Biography, published in 1999, is a good example of the increasingly comprehensive coverage of African Americans in standard reference works. While the earlier Dictionary of American Biography was mostly concerned with white men, its contemporary successor covers women and blacks far more inclusively. Researchers also benefit from the immediate access to information that online searches provide. There are Web sites for organizations, individuals, businesses, and so on. For example, the history of the Citizens Trust Bank in Atlanta, and the history of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund are both available online. Repositories of primary resources are essential for gathering data that may or may not be available in published sources. Those in various state libraries and archives, archives in academic institutions, and papers of historical societies are among this group. Fortunately, some of these institutions will respond to online requests without charge or provide additional and in-depth research for a fee. Special African American collections are another essential source; those at the Woodruff Library at Atlanta University, Fisk University in Nashville, the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, are among the comprehensive collections available. For example, Fisk has the papers of the McKissack and McKissack architectural firm as well as those of James Carroll Napier, a founder of Citizen’s Bank in Nashville—one of the oldest continuously operating African American banking institutions. Napier was once register of

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the U.S. Treasury and president of the National Negro Business League; he also supported black self-sufficiency. Contemporary African American Business Leaders African American business leaders continue to serve as important influences on popular culture. They have the respect of their communities and also serve to enhance the economic development of local and broader communities. In earlier times, such leaders provided employment for the black unemployed who had difficulty finding jobs in mainstream America’s businesses due to racial segregation. Some of black business leaders became well-known throughout the mainstream United States and went on to hold important positions in industry and elsewhere. John H. Johnson, founder and publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, remained a popular culture icon during most of his life until he died, while Earl G. Graves, of Black Enterprise fame, continues to make his mark as business and publishing icon. Sports figures such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson excelled on the Basketball court and afterward went on to success in several initiatives. Jordan earns income from a line of athletic shoes and owns a basketball franchise, while Johnson owns sports clubs, a Pepsi Cola distribution plant, and movie theater complexes. Recording artist, record producer, and actor Sean (Diddy) Combs blended music and urban fashion to become one of the world’s most widely known Hip-Hop artists and one of the most influential people in popular culture. Others in the music field include rap artists Dr. Dre and Ice Cube; and record industry officials such as Berry Gordy Jr. of Motown fame, Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face’’ Edmonds, Quincy Jones, Antonio ‘‘L. A.’’ Reid, and Sylvia Rhone. There are media executives, such as Cathy Hughes and Renetta McCann, television show hosts and producers such as Oprah Winfrey and Damon Wayans, and music promoters such as Suzanne de Passe. Government official and economic idol Andrew Brimmer has served the field well as economic adviser. Megachurch leaders such as T. D. Jakes are known as much for their work as preachers as for their entrepreneurial activities. The corporate world has placed a number of African Americans in top leadership posts; the leaders include Kenneth Irvine Chenault, Ann M. Fudge, Dennis Fowler Hightower, Richard Dean Parsons, Franklin Delano Raines, and Paula A. Sneed. See also: Wayans Brothers Further Reading Association for the Study of African American Life and History. http://www.asalh.org/. Finkelman, Paul, ed. 2009. Encyclopedia of African American History. 5 vols. New York: Oxford University Press. Ham, Debra Newman. 2006. ‘‘Federal Records for African American Business History.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Business, Vol. 1. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

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Harmon, J. H., Jr., Arnett G. Lindsay, and Carter G. Woodson. 1929. The Negro as a Business Man. Washington, DC: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Ingham, John N., and Lynne B. Feldman, eds. 1994. African-American Business Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. National Business League. http://www.eaglenews.com/NBL/NCPR.html (the successor to the National Negro Business League). National Urban League. http://www.nul.org/. Owens, Shelhea. 2006. ‘‘Black Businesses in Large Cities: A History.’’ In. Encyclopedia of African American Business, Vol. 1. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 2006. Encyclopedia of African American Business History. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Walker, Juliet E. K. 1999. Encyclopedia of African American Business History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Walker, Juliet E. K. 1998. The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrpreneurship. New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA. Washington, Booker T. 1907. The Negro in Business. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1971. Jessie Carney Smith

C Caesar, Shirley (1938– ), Gospel Singer Shirley Caesar, known as the ‘‘First Lady of Gospel,’’ is a pioneer in modern gospel music and one of the most renowned gospel singers in African American popular culture. Caesar’s gospel singing career began when she was just eight years old. She honed her skills in the close-knit and spiritually minded environment of her home and community in Durham, North Carolina. Deeply motivated by her strongly held religious beliefs, Caesar would credit God for her prodigious career. Hers was a voice that matured in her twenties as she toured with a professional gospel singing group, the Caravans, and she has had an extraordinary solo career spanning the 1970s to the present. Caesar tirelessly serves her church and local community as a pastor and through her outreach ministries. Born Shirley Ann Caesar on October 13, 1938 in Durham, North Carolina, her singing career and spiritual foundation had its start at home. Her father, Jim Caesar, was constantly singing, whether at home or at work. This practice was akin to the African tradition of infusing every part of life with art, song, and the spiritual. Caesar’s father and her mother, Hannah, instilled their large family, including twelve living children, with a firm spiritual foundation. The surrounding black community buffered the harsh realities of racism and segregation by providing solidarity, support, and acceptance. The Pentecostal church was the heart of community and family life. At the age of twelve, Caesar experienced a personal spiritual conversion that cemented her purpose and direction in life. This experience was supplemented with an active church and singing life. The community participated in bible studies, worship services, and singing contests, known as ‘‘quartet battles.’’ Jim Caesar and his Just Come Four Quartet were not easily beat during the quartet

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battles. Although Shirley Caesar’s father died when she was eight, he made a lasting impact on his children’s lives, many of whom got involved in singing. Shirley Caesar’s music career had its start in the early stages of the gospel industry. Black music, such as blues, jazz, and gospel, originated from the homespun Spirituals and other music forms of slavery days. Unlike blues and jazz, in the late 1940s gospel music had not yet reached mainstream audiences or developed into a major industry. Like blues music of the early twentieth century, gospel music started within the confines of black communities. Gospel singers and groups traveled locally and throughout the South, from church to church, performing at schools and other venues on small budgets, relying on their own resources and the generosity of church members. Caesar also traveled the ‘‘gospel circuit,’’ performing with several groups, including family members and Thelma Bumpass and the Royalettes. Caesar’s first break came in 1958, when she was invited to sing with the Caravans, one of the most popular gospel groups of the time. Caesar sang with this group for eight years, performing at larger venues, including the Apollo Theater in New York City. The group also appeared on the television show, Jubilee Showcase. In 1966, she signed on with Hob Records and launched a solo career. Caesar’s career was punctuated by prestigious awards from African American and mainstream establishments and high-profile gospel collaborations. In 1972, she received a Grammy Award for ‘‘Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man from Galilee.’’ In 1974, she and gospel legend James Cleveland produced two albums, King and Queen of Gospel, Volume One and King and Queen of Gospel, Volume Two. In 1975, she received the Ebony Award for Best Female Gospel Singer. Two years later, she experimented with contemporary gospel music while signed on with Roadshow Records; however, two records later, she returned to her traditional gospel roots. Into the new millennium, Caesar continues to accumulate awards for her traditional gospel music, including NAACP Image Awards, an Essence Award, Dove Awards, Stellar Gospel Awards, Grammy Awards, and others. Caesar’s musical achievements were augmented by high-profile appearances. Beginning in the 1970s, Caesar was a fixture at national and mainstream events. In 1976, she sang for armed forces in Germany. In 1978, she sang the ‘‘Star Spangled Banner’’ at a New York Knicks basketball game and a New York Giants football game. She has also performed at the Washington Monument in Washington, DC. Caesar’s musical career was not the only aspect of her life that was flourishing. In 1983, she married Harold Williams. In the same year, she embarked in a leadership role in ministry, sparking controversy. (Historically women did not enter leadership positions in the church.) In 1984, Caesar received her BS degree in business administration from Shaw University, a historically black college affiliated with the Baptist church, located in Raleigh, North Carolina, and her organization, the Shirley Caesar Outreach Ministries, celebrated nearly fifteen years. Through this organization, Caesar implements multiple programs to provide food, clothing, and other assistance to individuals and families in need. The Shirley Caesar Outreach Ministries also coordinates gospel events, as well as informative

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workshops to address social issues relevant to black communities. In 1987, Caesar successful campaigned for city council in Durham. In 1996, Caesar joined the stage with Whitney Houston and CeCe Winans at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in a tribute to gospel music. This was a crucial moment for Caesar, as well as gospel music, in being recognized by one of the most prestigious secular award shows in the nation. On that day, the Grammy Awards bestowed Caesar with yet another award; this one was for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album. Amid the changing face of gospel music, now a multibillion-dollar industry, including nontraditional music, such as Christian rap, Caesar’s career is as vibrant as ever. Further Reading Caesar, Shirley. 1998. The Lady, the Melody, and the Word: The Inspirational Story of the First Lady of Gospel Music. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. Darden, Robert. 2005. People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel Music. New York: Continuum. ‘‘Shirley Caesar: A Global Sensation.’’ http://www.shirleycaesar.com/home.html. Gladys L. Knight

Calloway, Cab (1907–94), Bandleader, Singer, Dancer, Songwriter, Author* Caben Calloway III was best known for his innovative style of scat singing and his signature song ‘‘Minnie the Moocher,’’ memorable for its ‘‘hi-de-ho’’ lyrics. Calloway’s career spanned more than sixty years, and he was one of the first African American artists to break racial barriers and perform for mostly white audiences. Calloway was born in Rochester, New York, on December 25, 1907, and was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Influenced by a family of musicians, he joined the Baltimore Melody Boys during high school and studied voice under the tutelage of a local jazz artist, William ‘‘Chick’’ Webb. After he graduated from high school, Calloway briefly pursued a law degree at Crane College in Chicago, Illinois. He realized quickly that he couldn’t resist the lure of a career as a musician, and he dropped out of school to follow his dream. He stayed in Chicago and tried playing the drums and saxophone before achieving success as a scat singer. After he appeared in the 1927 musical theater show Plantation Days, he was hired for his first solo performance. Calloway formed his first band, the Alabamians, in 1928. The group disbanded in 1929, when Calloway formed the Missourians. The Missourians began touring in 1929, and they quickly experienced great success. The band’s popularity escalated and led to Calloway’s first big musical theater gig as a cast member of the New York production of Fats Waller’s Hot Chocolates.

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In 1931, Calloway renamed his band after himself and replaced Duke Ellington as orchestra leader at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club. That same year, he made his first recordings. One of those recordings, ‘‘Minnie the Moocher,’’ was a worldwide hit and became his signature song for its nonsensical ‘‘hi-de-ho’’ lyrics. Calloway’s early music contained heavy allusions to drug use and sex, but he toned down his performances and the content of his songs in the mid-1930s. Over the years, Calloway ensemble members included jazz notables Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Hinton, and Cozy Cole. In the early 1930s, he was immortalized as an animated character in a series of Betty Boop cartoons. Calloway’s popularity continued throughout the 1930s, and he had dozens more hit singles, including ‘‘St. James Infirmary,’’ ‘‘The Jumpin’ Jive,’’ ‘‘Lady with the Fan,’’ ‘‘Zaz Zuh Zaz,’’ ‘‘Kickin’ the Gong Around,’’ ‘‘The Scat Song,’’ ‘‘Reefer Man,’’ ‘‘Are You Hep to the Jive,’’ and ‘‘Are You All Reet.’’ He went on his first of many European tours in 1934. He also appeared in several feature films, including The Big Broadcast (1932), International House (1933), The Singing Kid (1936), Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937), Stormy Weather (1943), Sensations of 1945 (1944), St. Louis Blues (1958), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and The Blues Brothers (1980). George and Ira Gershwin used Calloway as the model for the character of Sportin’ Life in their 1935 folk opera Porgy and Bess. Although he turned down the lead role in 1935, he performed in a road version of the musical in 1952 and made the soundtrack recording of the 1959 film version. After disbanding his orchestra in 1958, Calloway went solo for several years. He returned to the stage in 1974 to play the part of Horace Vandergelder in an all-black run of Hello Dolly. In 1976, Calloway wrote his autobiography, Of Minnie the Moocher and Me. His ebullient performance in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers renewed his popularity and exposed him to younger audiences. He continued to play engagements throughout the 1980s and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1992. Calloway died on November 18, 1994, at the age of 86. *Adapted from The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Thematic Encyclopedia, ed. by Daniel Leab, Kenneth J. Bindas, Alan Harris Stein, Justin Corfield, and Steven L. Danver. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Further Reading Calloway, Cab. 1976. Of Minnie the Moocher and Me. New York: Crowell. Fretner, Shaun. 1997. ‘‘Cab Calloway.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Detroit: Gale Research. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. ‘‘Cab Calloway.’’ In Notable Black American Men Vol 14. Detroit: Gale.

Calypso Music Originally a West Indian folk dance, calypso is the music that accompanies the carnival season in Trinidad and Tobago. With carnival beginning after Christmas and concluding before Ash Wednesday, the season is one that offers

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plenty of opportunity for calypsonians to ply their trade in a number of ways. With roots extending to slavery and connecting to the colonial struggle in the Caribbean, modern calypso is a dynamic and highly versatile music form with a range of influences and inflections, yet the steel pan drums make the music distinctively Trinidadian. Calypso is derived from gayup or gayap, organized communal work and work songs brought to Trinidad by Africans who labored on plantations. Gayup has a call-and-response structure, and it was a radical music, one that expressed resistance to colonialism. In the early formation of calypso, the music, both as dance and song, was an integral part of the carnival season. During slavery, French planters ushered in Lent with masquerade balls while the Africans in slavery celebrated the season with end-of-harvest rituals derived from West Africa. With time, the distinct celebrations of the French planters and the African slaves merged into canboulay (from the French cannes br^ul
ees). With Emancipation in 1834, canboulay and gayup both became integral elements of calypso. In the nineteenth century, the lyrics of calypso were often subversive in nature, offering political and satirical commentary, along with double entendres, and this subversion was underscored by many of the songs being performed in French Creole. In the battle of the tongues, English was the official language of political power in Trinidad, and as a result, French Creole was viewed as the politically subversive tongue. Calypso sung in French Creole was associated with kalendas, a form of cultural expression that includes stick-fighting and verbal jousting. The 1870s witnessed marches by stick fighters asserting their territorial dominance, their actions underscored by a war of words (piccong or mepri) as calypsonians asserted their dominance while demeaning their rivals. This type of expression thrives today in the verbal battles that play out in Hip-Hop culture, which is a variation on ‘‘playing the Dozens.’’ Toward the close of the nineteenth century, the Trinidadian middle class asserted its influence over the development of calypso, and the lyrics shifted from French Creole to British English. (Lyrics would later evolve into Trinidadian Creole.) Calypso was a urban music, one that was based in Port of Spain, although the music did develop in rural areas as well. One of the earliest calypso tunes we have on record is ‘‘Jour Ouvert,’’ which celebrates the start of carnival season. Since calypso at its inception was interested in urban matters, the early songs explore the underworld of Port of Spain, often dealing with pimps, prostitutes, and obeahmen (sorcerers). A famous calypsonian of this time was Bodicea, and her reputation was such that a fellow calypsonian said, ‘‘She disgrace every woman in Port of Spain,’’ writes John Storm Roberts. Much like Trinidad with its wide range of cultural influences, calypso reflects some of these influences. Along with the samba of Brazil, calypso and its practitioners make use of a variety of musical idioms, ranging from belairs and old kalendos, the improvised songs that accompanied French Creole drumming and dance, a tradition that began during slavery and one with roots extending to West Africa; in this music, too, there are influences from Venezuela, in particular the bongo, paseo, pastillo, and castillan, from Cuba, from Rhythm and

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Blues, as well as elements of African religious music. Calypso, too, changed with the times. In the 1920s, its instrumentation was largely Venezuelan with stringed instruments. Sam Manning was one of the stars of the 1920s, and his ‘‘My Little West Indian Girl’’ is a good example of the calypso of this era. During the 1930s, American jazz band instrumentation–dominated by brass instruments–became the vogue. During the Great Depression, calypsonians created the first calypso boom in the United States, and major record labels Decca and the American Recording Company were among those supplying the demand for calypso. During World War II, carnival was suspended, and following the war, calypso brought about the instrument that would come to typify the sound of the music today–the steel pan drum, crafted from the fifty-five-gallon oil drums of Trinidad. During the 1950s, calypso gained popularity in new and unexpected ways. Harry Belafonte, born in Harlem of West Indian parents, helped bring about the second calypso boom. His best-selling 1956 album, titled Calypso, was the singer’s third album. It spent seventy-two weeks in the American Top 40, and for thirty-one weeks was the number one selling record in the United States. Calypso featured two classic songs, ‘‘Jamaica Farewell’’ and ‘‘The Banana Boat Song (Day-O).’’ ‘‘Day-O’’ is an excellent example of the call-and-response of gayup, and ‘‘Jamaica Farewell,’’ in some regards, plays homage to the calypso of the 1920s with its Venezuelan influences. Calypso was a commercial and international success, making him the first solo artist (although he had never visited Trinidad, much to the ire of traditionalists) to sell over one million records. The following year, Belafonte released Matilda, and the single by that same name featured elements of American jazz instrumentation together with steel pan drums. Along with his husky voice, Belafonte was transformed into a sex symbol with his clean-shaven face and unbuttoned shirts, earning him the title ‘‘King of Calypso.’’ While his commercial success did create controversy, as calypso, in the purest sense, is a music meant for carnival tents, Belafonte’s success serves as a testament to the wide appeal of the music as a whole. While Belafonte rode the commercial wave of success, the Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) was emerging as a calypsonian of the highest order, one whose music has garnered him such accolades as Road March champion (most popular song) eight times along with Calypso Monarch (performer of the year) eleven times, spanning four different decades, serving as a testament to both his longevity and his creativity. According to Sellman, Caribbean scholar Peter Manuel has noted that Mighty Sparrow and Prime Minister Eric Williams, author of Capitalism and Slavery and leader of the People’s National Movement, are the ‘‘two most important figures in modern Trinidadian culture.’’ The Mighty Sparrow’s first success was his 1956 song, ‘‘Jean and Dinah.’’ The song commented on the condition of prostitutes following the closing of American military bases in Trinidad following World War II and is very much in the tradition of early calypso that offered ‘‘street news’’ on the underworld.

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For ‘‘Jean and Dinah,’’ the Mighty Sparrow was the Road March champion of 1956, and in the following year, he penned ‘‘Carnival Boycott,’’ capturing the spirit of carnival and showcasing his range as an artist, able to move from soulful social commentary to playful satire. His lines, void of political and social commentary, encourage participation by all ‘‘regardless of color, creed, or race’’ and celebrate the joyous nature of carnival. The 1950s also witnessed the emergence of Lord Kitchener and Lord Melody, Calypsonians who worked within the tradition of street news and whose innovative use of words and rhythm moved the music to new heights. During the 1970s, Lord Shorty (Garfield Blackman), who in life stood at 6 feet 4 inches, took calypso and infused it with elements of soul music, creating in the process ‘‘soul calypso’’ or soca, which introduced electronic instrumentation and moved away from lyric-based calypso. Through his innovation, Lord Shorty set into motion a conversation that continues today regarding the definition of calypso. In 1978, Lord Kitchener, one of the emerging stars of calypso during the 1950s, created controversy when he infused soca elements into his ‘‘Sugar Bum Bum.’’ Given the diversity of Trinidad, calypsonians of Indian descent have created chutney soca, ‘‘chutney’’ being a term used in Trinidad to signify Indo-Pakistani descent. And given the prevalence of rap music on the international stage, calypsonians have created rapso, and a prominent practitioner of this new calypso form is Brother Renaissance. With all the changes, showing the fluid nature of the music, calypso remains a vibrant music with a broad range of influential artists such as Tiger (Neville Marcano), Mighty Sparrow, Black Stalin (Leroy Calliste) and the Mighty Chalkdust (Hollis Liverpool) who manage to create electrifying music with political edge and humor that explores fully the range of artistic creation and human experience. See also: Reggae, Reggaeton; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Fairley, Jan. ‘‘Calypso.’’ Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. www.oxfordmusiconline.com. Larkin, Colin, ed. ‘‘Belafonte, Harry—Calypso.’’ Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. Ed. Oxford Music Online. www.oxfordmusiconline.com. Roberts, John Storm. 1998. Black Music of Two Worlds: African, Caribbean, Latin, and African-American Traditions. 2nd ed. New York: Schrimer Books. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Calypso.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Mighty Sparrow (Francisco Slinger).’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Sparrow, Mighty. 1956. ‘‘Jean and Dinah.’’ Available at Habits of Waste: A Quarterly of Popular Culture. http://www.habitsofwaste.wwu.edu. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

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Campanella, Roy (1921–93), Baseball Player Roy Campanella, whose father was Italian American and whose mother was African American, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, one year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the same club, and became one of the great catchers in the major leagues. Even more significantly, he was the first African American catcher to make it in the big leagues, establishing himself at a position analogous to quarterback in Football. The catcher calls all the pitches, and Campanella’s pitchers were white in his first year, although Don Newcombe joined the team in 1949. To assume such leadership on the top National League team of the era required not only considerable playing ability but also the right personality. Campy brought all the necessary attributes to the plate and behind it. A powerful and consistent hitter, as well as an outstanding defensive catcher, Campanella three times won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, in 1951, 1953, and 1955. His greatest season was 1953, when he set major league records for most home runs (41) and runs batted in (142) by a catcher. He also recorded the most putouts (807) by a catcher. Campanella was fond of saying, ‘‘You gotta have a lot of little boy in you to be a good ballplayer.’’ He never lost that boyish enthusiasm, which contributed to his leadership. His zest for playing and his ease in communicating with other players earned him respect. He would keep up a steady chatter with hitters and generally ignore racial comments. As Jackie Robinson was the right person to integrate the major leagues, Roy Campanella was the right man to integrate the crucial position of catcher. Unfortunately, Campanella did not necessarily gain full recognition for his accomplishments from Robinson. By 1957, Campanella’s skills were eroding. The Dodger great had started playing at fifteen in the Negro Baseball Leagues and had put in almost a full career there before signing with the Dodgers. Now in his tenth year in the majors, he was thirty-five and a veteran of two decades of playing professional Baseball, sometimes year-round. Limited to 103 games because of injuries in 1957, he hit just .242 with 13 home runs and 62 RBIs. Nonetheless, he was looking forward to joining the Dodgers for their inaugural season in Los Angeles and driving home runs over the short left-field wall in the new stadium. Tragedy, however, intervened on a January 1958 night when he lost control of his car on a slick spot and slammed into a telephone pole. The accident left him a quadriplegic permanently confined to a wheelchair. Roy Campanella compiled a ten-year record of 242 home runs, 856 RBIs, and a .276 batting average while helping the Dodgers win five National League pennants and the 1956 World Series—the Brooklyn Dodgers’ first and only world championship. He also left behind a vast storehouse of goodwill as one of the most popular Dodgers ever to play. His election to the Hall of Fame in 1969 was a tribute to his accomplishments as a player. Not to be overlooked, however, is the role he played in integrating Major League Baseball. The way that he played

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the game helped ease the transition of African Americans into the majors, setting the example for such catchers as Elston Howard, the first African American to play for the Yankees, and Johnny Roseboro, who followed Campanella behind the plate for his Dodgers. See also: Mays, Willie; Paige, Satchel; Sports Further Reading Campanella, Roy. 1959. It’s Good to Be Alive. Boston: Little, Brown. Goodwin, Doris Kearns. 1997. Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster. Kahn, Roger. 1972. The Boys of Summer. New York: Harper & Row. Edward J. Rielly

Campbell, Naomi (1970– ), Model, Entrepreneur The image of supermodel Naomi Campbell has graced the cover and pages of numerous magazines in Europe and the United States for over twenty years, making her one of the world’s most recognizable women. A top-earning model, who often was paid in excess of $10,000 a day, Campbell’s business endeavors and personal interests have gone beyond the runway and ventured into other areas such as restaurant ownership, acting in film and television, authoring a novel, developing a popular line of cosmetics, and being a vocalist on several albums. The mercurial Campbell continues to be a notable fashion diva and businesswoman who has greatly influenced contemporary popular culture. Early Life and Modeling The daughter of two Jamaican immigrants, Naomi Campbell was born May 20, 1970, in Streatham, a neighborhood in London, England. Campbell’s father (whom she has never met) was of Jamaican and Chinese ancestry; he deserted his family prior to Naomi’s birth, leaving young Naomi’s upbringing solely to her mother, Valerie Morris. During Campbell’s childhood her mother traveled extensively throughout Europe performing with the dance troupe Fantastica. Campbell and her younger brother were often left in the care of a nanny. Possessing a long, lean build plus being inspired by her dancer mother, Campbell was granted admission to the Italia Conti stage school to study ballet. Ten-year-old Naomi excelled at Italia Conti and later she did equally well at the Dunraven School. In 1979, as a seven-year-old, she appeared in a music video for the late Jamaican reggae superstar Bob Marley. Between 1981 and 1982, at the age of twelve, Campbell was cast in videos of British rock bands Culture Club and Pink Floyd. Campbell’s life would take an unexpected turn when she was fifteen years of age. In 1985 Campbell and some of her friends were hanging out at a shopping mall

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when she was approached by a woman who said she was a Modeling agent. The modeling agent was Beth Boldt, herself a former Ford model, and at the time of meeting Campbell, head of the Synchro music agency. At the end of Campbell’s school year her mother finally consented and let her go see Boldt about becoming a model. Campbell left school at fifteen and signed an exclusive contract with the Elite Model Agency. During the first years of her career Campbell did routine ‘‘catwalk’’ modeling but was eventually signed to do ad work for highconsumer-recognition American companies like Olympus and Lee Jeans. These ad campaigns introduced the British Campbell to American audiences that rarely saw models of African descent. By this time Campbell found herself working closely with some of the icons and legends of the fashion indusSupermodel and tabloid newsmaker, Naomi Campbell. try. Fashion notables such as (Shutterstock) Calvin Klein, Ozzedine Alaia, Issac Mizrahi, Ralph Lauren, and Francois Nars have helped make Campbell a household name. In 1986, less than a year after Campbell began modeling full-time, she was pictured on the cover of Elle magazine—the first black model to be so. In 1988 Campbell had another first when she was on the cover of Vogue Paris. However, this particular cover shot was not without some controversy. Vogue Paris had a long-standing practice of not putting any black models on their covers, but this all changed after Campbell friend and mentor, the designer Yves St. Laurent, threatened to cancel all of his advertising from the magazine if they did not at least consider Campbell. In short order she was on the cover of Vogue UK, Vogue Nippon, and Time magazines. In the same year, Campbell had a cameo role on the Bill Cosby–created sitcom The Cosby Show.

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Other Endeavors Because of her widespread appeal and popularity, Campbell became sought after in other fields. Having an artistic background, it was a natural transition for Campbell to move into the arts. In 1991 she was featured in the rapper Vanilla Ice’s film Cool as Ice. In 1994 she was asked by her close friend Quincy Jones to do the vocals on the single ‘‘Heaven’s Girl’’ in the album Q’s Jook Joint. However, one of Campbell’s greatest musical successes of 1994 was her collaboration with Japanese singer Toshinobu Kubota on La, La, La Love Song— the album by that title sold a million units and reached number one in the Japanese record industry. Campbell’s music never really caught on with American and British listening audiences, but she has been popular with Asian audiences. Campbell’s other artistic endeavor in 1994 was the release of her first novel Swan, about a prominent model who is blackmailed by her enemies. The book was ridiculed widely and deemed a failure by book reviewers, especially after it was revealed that the book was ghostwritten by writer Caroline Upcher. Campbell continued her quest in entrepreneurship in 1995 when she and fellow models Claudia Schiffer, Christine Turlington, Elle MacPherson, and Italian restaurateur Tommaso Buti opened the Fashion Caf
e in New York. Eventually other locations of the restaurant opened in Spain, England, Mexico, the Philippines, Louisiana, and Jakarta (Indonesia). However, the stylish restaurants with their camera lens-shaped doors and interior catwalks had all closed by 1998 due to mismanagement. In 1999 the enterprising Campbell started a perfume business, and by 2005 Design House of Naomi Campbell had released seven women’s fragrances popular the world over. Campbell has been involved in a lot of charity work and fundraisers for inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa—particularly on behalf of her close friend, former South African president Nelson Mandela. Her good works have been overshadowed by frequent, highly publicized, anger-related outbursts. In 1998 Campbell was accused of physically assaulting her personal assistant. In 2006 she was once again arrested—this time for assaulting her housekeeper. Campbell has participated in anger management and substance abuse classes. In 2008 she was charged for allegedly assaulting a Heathrow Airport policeman and threatening a British Airways staff member. See also: Reggae, Reggaeton Further Reading Frankel, Susannah. 2002. ‘‘Naomi Campbell: A Model of Privacy.’’ [Belfast, UK] Independent, People section, February 16. Gostin, Nicki. Naomi Campbell. 2007. Newsweek (March 19): 81. Jones, Lesley-Ann. 1993. Naomi: The Rise and Rise of the Girl from Nowhere. London: Vermilion. Carter B. Cue

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Canada ‘‘Among other good trades,’’ Henry Walton Bibb wrote in his 1849 autobiography, ‘‘I learned the art of running away to perfection. I made a regular business of it, and never gave it up, until I had broken the bands of slavery, and landed myself safely in Canada, where I was regarded as a man, and not as a thing.’’ These words capture some of the sentiment surrounding Canada for persons of color, particularly in the nineteenth century. In the African American collective search for a place to call home, Canada proved to be a place of promise, of progress, and of struggle. In 1628, the first African slave, a child named Olivier Le Jeune, arrived in Canada, ushering in its era of slavery. From 1628 until 1759, Canada received 1,132 black slaves who were transported from British colonies in North America and French colonies in the West Indies. The largest influx of slaves occurred in 1783, when British Loyalists, finding themselves uprooted in the new American republic, headed north to Canada, bringing with them some 2,000 black slaves. Along with those persons of color in bondage, roughly 3,500 free black Loyalists made the move north to Canada following the American Revolutionary War. The black Loyalists, former slaves who fought on the side of the Crown with the belief that, if the British won, they would be granted their freedom, settled mainly in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Slaves in Canada were permitted to learn how to read and to write, a practice that was strongly discouraged in the United States (See also: Language). And as early as 1793, the abolition of slavery began to occur in Canada, making Ontario a veritable promised land for black men, women, and children in bondage in the United States, where, in 1793 as well, the Fugitive Slave Act had been passed. In 1796, nearly 600 maroons were transported from Jamaica to Nova Scotia because their radical nature was perceived as a threat to slavery on the island. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, Canada was a place where literate black slaves and free black citizens resided, and was a place that was beginning to attract black refugees from the United States fleeing slavery. It is estimated that some 30,000 fugitives, along with some 800 free blacks, used the Underground Railroad to escape slavery on the soil of the United States for freedom beneath Canadian skies. One notable example is John Ware. Born a slave in Texas, John Ware, one of the greatest cowboys of his generation, would go on to own a ranch in Alberta, Canada (See also: Cowboys and Rodeos). Born a slave in Maryland in 1817, Samuel Ringgold Ward was able to explore the fullness of his life as a newspaper editor and pastor after he fled the United States for Canada in 1851. Canada, too, had no legacy of Jim Crow that hindered the progress of African Americans in the United States. Citizens in Canada, black and white, were equal in the eyes of the law, yet at times those eyes were jaundiced with racial prejudice. In 1850, for example, the Common School Act established separate schools for blacks and whites, and following the

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Civil War, thousands of black refugees who had fled to Canada for asylum returned to the United States, while thousands stayed; social inequalities in the United States continued to make Canada an attractive destination for many African Americans in the late nineteenth century. The twentieth century witnessed the systematic battling of racial prejudice. This battle was initially led by the black churches, and what followed was a series of victories leading to social reform. In 1906, the Niagara Movement began in Canada, leading, in 1924, to the establishment of the Canadian League, which would become the Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1960, the nation drew up a Bill of Rights that legally banned discrimination based on race, and between 1960 and 1995, some 300,000 West Indian and 150,000 African immigrants called Canada their home. As a testament to our age of Globalization, one of the largest West Indian carnivals in the world is Caribana, held in Toronto, where Calypso Music captivates over one million people every summer. Further Reading Beauchamp, Michael. (Accessed June 29, 2009) Bland, Sterling Lecater, Jr., ed. 2001. ‘‘Henry Walton Bibb (1815–1854).’’ African American Slave Narratives: An Anthology. Vol. 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Brown, Nikki, and Stentiford, Barry M. 2008. ‘‘Canada.’’ The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ‘‘Caribana 2009–Toronto Caribana.’’ www.caribanatoronto.com. Walker, James W. St. G. 1999. ‘‘Canada.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Car Racing For much of auto racing’s history, only the track was black. Yet, from Charlie ‘‘The Negro Speed King’’ Wiggins in the 1920s; to Joie Ray, ‘‘the Jackie Robinson’’ of motorsports; to entrepreneur Leonard W. Miller in the 1970s; to Willy T. Ribbs since then, African Americans have overcome countless speed bumps and left an indelible mark on the sport. Pioneers The first race held by and for African American drivers is believed to have been a relatively impromptu event staged by four mechanics driving borrowed roadsters on a half-mile dirt track in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1911. According to a 1929 article in the Indianapolis Recorder, the cars ran lap after lap with no end or winner declared.

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The famous five-hundred-mile race in Indianapolis, Indiana, headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan, was first held the same year, but African Americans would be denied participation in it for a half-century. Still, interest around the speedway remained high during the early years. Significantly, a mechanic named Charlie Wiggins began in 1923 to build his own race car. He would become known as the ‘‘Negro Speed King.’’ In 1924, African American business leaders in Indianapolis, led by William ‘‘Pres’’ Rucker, formed a racing league they named the Colored Speedway Association. That same year, they held the first Colored Speed Championship, later to be known as the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes Series, part of a professional auto racing circuit for drivers and mechanics of color. The 100-mile championship race was held on the one-mile track at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Malcolm Hannon won the first race. The series was held at first throughout the Midwest during the 1920s, and then expanded by the 1930s to Langhorne, Pennsylvania; Atlanta; Los Angeles; and Fort Worth, Texas. Top prize was $500; sometimes, qualifiers received a $200 guarantee. Wiggins, a four-time champion, dominated, winning in 1926 and then edging his brother Lawrence for a third straight and final victory in 1933. The race was not held in 1934 or 1935 and was run for the last time in 1936. The final run featured the greatest African American drivers of that first generation, including Wiggins, Wilbur Gaines, Bobby Wallace, Leon ‘‘Al’’ Warren, winner Bill Carson (who averaged 57.69 miles per hour), and runner-up Sumner ‘‘Red’’ Oliver. Wiggins was among those injured in a thirteen-car pileup on the fourth turn of the second lap. The race was shortened to 50 miles. Oliver prospered as a driver through the 1950s and as a mechanic afterward on the U.S. Auto Club (USAC) championship circuit. In the 1970s, he became a crewmember on the Patrick Petroleum-Wally Dallenbach Indy car team. Mel Leighton, meanwhile, was emerging as a top sprint-car driver on the West Coast, winning four races at the Los Angeles Carroll Speedway in 1947. He also served as treasurer of the Southern California Timing Association during much of World War II. However, the American Automobile Association (AAA), which sanctioned major races in 1902–55, would never allow Leighton to race at Indianapolis. In 1959, though, Leighton was on Rodger Ward’s Indy-winning team. One of Leighton’s contemporaries was Wendell Oliver Scott of Danville, Virginia, who became the only African American driver to win a race in what is now the Sprint Cup Series. It was actually Scott who broke the color barrier in stockcar racing on May 23, 1952, at the Danville Fairgrounds Speedway. The next year, he became the first African American to obtain a NASCAR racing license. When Scott won a NASCAR race in 1963, he was not declared the winner until hours after the race. Two decades later, Scott claimed that NASCAR officials did not want him ‘‘out there kissing any beauty queens or accepting any awards.’’ Also postwar, Joie Ray became the first African American licensed by the AAA and thus the first to compete in sanctioned open-wheel races. A promoter once billed him as the ‘‘Jackie Robinson of auto racing.’’ He drove his first race

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on Easter Sunday, 1947, in Mitchell, Indiana. His career spanned seventeen years as a sprint-, midget-, and stock-car driver. There is no record of how many featured races Ray won, but his family has reported that it was four. Ray barnstormed across the Midwest, competing in up to fifty events a year. He towed his six-cylinder Ford, ‘‘Southern Star,’’ sometimes nearly a thousand miles to the next race—once even sleeping in a jail cell along the way because he could find no other accommodations in town. Sources have reported incorrectly that he was the first African American driver to race in NASCAR’s top series, at Daytona in 1952, but also that Joie Ray was a white driver from Portland, Oregon. Taking Ownership Former drag racer Leonard W. Miller took an entrepreneurial approach to breaking down racing’s racial barriers. Born in Philadelphia, Miller tinkered with the family 1937 Ford as a teen. He built a 1940 Ford club coupe hot rod convertible in 1953, ordering custom parts from George Barris’s Kustoms of America in Southern California. Then, in the late 1950s, while serving in the Third Army’s 45th Ordinance Battalion, Direct Automotive Support Company, Miller learned to repair jeeps and trucks under extreme conditions, worthy of pit road. Mentored by Leighton and Oliver, Miller spent fifteen years directing an auto-racing organization and creating opportunities for African American drivers in NASCAR as a motorsports mogul on a miniscule budget. He found limited success marketing the idea of changing the complexion of racing to the Detroit automakers and southern racing fans, but his efforts were progressive and produced some changes. Miller also formed friendships with Wendell Scott and Malcolm Durham, who backed Miller and Benny Scott under the aegis of Black American Racers Association (BARA) and Vanguard Racing in the early 1970s. Miller founded BARA, which once counted five thousand members, in 1972. Wendell Scott was named honorary chairman. BARA secured sponsorship from Brown & Williamson Tobacco. The partnership devised an initiative called ‘‘The Road To Indy,’’ which started by entering Benny Scott in Formula Super Vee competition in Sports Club Car of America (SCCA), IMSA, and the Robert Bosch VW Gold Cup series on tracks such as Watkins Glen International, Laguna Seca, and Pocono Raceway. On May 4, 1975, at Laguna, in Monterey, California, Scott was the fastest qualifier but lost in a photo finish. Miller also signed twenty-three-year-old Coyle Peek of Long Island as Scott’s backup and sent Peek to the United Kingdom for development with S.H.A.R.P. Racing to race in British Formula Ford, a highly competitive entry-level series. It was a milestone: the first time an African American team, on its own dime, had sent an African American driver overseas for professional racing development. Peek finished frequently in the top ten, including a second place. But when he returned to the United States, Peek at first could obtain neither car nor corporate support despite Miller’s efforts.

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Brown & Williamson eventually backed Benny Scott in Formula 5000 events against racing legends such as Mario Andretti. With Grant King as chief mechanic, Scott qualified BARA’s entry 24th of 30 teams for the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix, an invitation-only event held September 28, 1975. He finished 11th. Despite BARA’s modest success, Brown & Williamson discontinued its sponsorship of all motorsports two months later. BARA failed to find a replacement sponsor. Ron Hines, BARA’s secretary for its five years, was the first Ivy League– educated African American racing engineer. He also published BARA’s monthly newsletter. He wrote half of the articles contained in the 1974 Black Racers Yearbook, the first known history covering African American racing antedating World War II. Miller attempted several more NASCAR grassroots efforts between 1994 and 1999 with his son, Leonard T. Miller, and obtained sponsorships from General Motors and Dr Pepper. In 2005, Miller Racing Group became the first African American team owners to win in NASCAR history, at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Virginia. Call Him Mr. Ribbs William ‘‘Willy’’ Theodore Ribbs, Jr. may have been the most popularly known and most versatile of African American racers, starting out as a Formula One driver and moving through NASCAR, CART, and the Indy Racing League. After graduating from high school in 1975, he competed in the Formula Ford Series in Europe. He won the Dunlop Championship his first year, and then returned to the United States, where his debut was inauspicious. He was entered to drive a Winston Cup car owned by Will Cronkite in the 1978 World 600 at Charlotte, but after skipping two practices and a traffic arrest, Ribbs was replaced by Dale Earnhardt. Ribbs moved on to Formula Atlantic, winning a pole at in 1982. The next year, he won five races in the SCCA Trans-Am Series and was named Pro Rookie of the Year. He returned to NASCAR in 1986, driving three races. His best finish was his first: 22nd place at North Wilkesboro Speedway. That same year, Ribbs became the first African American to drive a Formula One car, when he tested for Brabham, a British racing car manufacturer and team, in Portugal. In 1990, Ribbs joined the CART circuit in a car sponsored in part by comedian Bill Cosby. Ribbs finished in the top ten twice that year. During the Molson Indy Vancouver race that year, a track marshal, Jean Patrick Hein, who was pushing another car off the track, ran out in front of Ribbs’s car, which struck and killed Hein. In 1991, Ribbs became the first African American to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. He switched teams in 1994 and finished in the top ten at Michigan International Speedway and in the Denver Grand Prix. In 1999, he finished 26th after a crash in an IRL event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After three top tens in the SCCA in 2000, Ribbs signed to drive for Bobby Hamilton Racing in

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the Craftsman Truck Series. He competed in 23 of 24 races, with a best finish of 13th, and was 16th overall in points. Frustrated by racing’s racial politics, Ribbs lashed out. In 2006, Ribbs was quoted referring to NASCAR as ‘‘al-Qaeda’’ and ‘‘Neckcar,’’ the latter a pejorative reference to the ‘‘redneck’’ image of white drivers and fans. Ribbs lingers elsewhere in popular culture as the namesake of Willy T. Ribbs Middle School featured on the Disney Channel cartoon show The Proud Family. At the Vanguard Benny Scott’s story was highly unusual. He was a second-generation African American race car driver; his father, Bill ‘‘Bullet’’ Scott, raced midgets in Southern California in the 1930s. The younger Scott earned a master’s degree in psychology and taught at Los Angeles Harbor College while competing in foreign stock-car events in Southern California in the 1960s. In 1969, driving an advanced tubular chassis Renault with a Gordini engine, he won the Foreign Stock Car Association of Southern California title, his first championship. He moved into road racing, driving an Austin Healy Bug-Eyed Sprite in the H-Production class and Formula B cars at Riverside International Raceway in California and earned his SCCA license. Scott was recommended by Mel Leighton to Leonard W. Miller, who was looking for a gutsy, brainy driver. So, in 1971, Miller organized Vanguard to field Scott in Formula A and prepare him over time for Indy. Scott drove the Vanguard Formula A in the L & M Continental 5000 Championship and SCCA events. He was also featured in the first Champion Spark Plug national magazine ad featuring an African American driver. Vanguard also fielded a white driver, John Mahler, at Indy in 1972, hoping he would help develop Scott. Vanguard, however, disbanded before the plan could be carried out. In 1978, Scott returned to finish the season as a replacement for BARA’s Tommy Thompson, who had been killed in a crash in a Formula Super Vee race at Trenton Speedway in New Jersey. Scott never competed again, lacking sponsorship. Off Track NASCAR has struggled with racial issues for years; only about eight percent of its fans are African American. It has implemented several initiatives to address this, forming a diversity council, supporting a driver diversity program, and offering internships to minority students. In 2008, however, a former Nationwide series official filed a lawsuit alleging she had been subjected to racial and sexual discrimination and sexual harassment. To increase the number of African Americans in auto racing, North Carolina A&T State University’s motorsports program, directed by Thurman Exum, was established. It provides the most comprehensive racing curriculum at a historically black college. There is also the Association for Diversity in Motorsports, a

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grassroots outreach organization developed to impact and increase participation in racing among fans, racing crews and drivers, and team ownership.

Further Reading Ashe, Arthur R., Jr. 1988. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete, 1919–1945. New York: Warner Books. Donovan, Brian. 2008. Hard Driving: The Wendell Scott Story. New York: Steerforth Press. Miller, Leonard W. 2004. Silent Thunder: Breaking Through Cultural, Racial, and Class Barriers in Motorsports. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press. Miller, Leonard W. with Andrew Simon. 2010. Racing While Black: How an AfricanAmerican Stock Car Team Made Its Mark on NASCAR. New York: Seven Stories Press. Richard Kenney

Carey, Mariah (1970– ), Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer, Actress Mariah Carey, America’s best-selling female recording artist of the 1990s and the World Music Awards’ best-selling female artist of the millennium, leads all other singers (except the Beatles) with the most number one singles. Carey, who has a five-octave vocal range, writes most of her songs and produces most of her records. Carey was born on March 27, 1970, in Long Island, New York, the youngest of three children of Alfred Roy Carey, an aeronautical engineer of African American and Hispanic descent, and Patricia Carey, an Irish American vocal coach and a former soloist with the New York City Opera. Carey’s parents divorced when she was three years old. In 1987, Carey graduated from Harborfields High School in Huntington, Long Island, moved to New York City, and pursued a singing career as she held various jobs. Carey was a backup vocalist for Brenda K. Starr, and in 1988 the R & B (now salsa) singer introduced Carey to Tommy Mottola, the president and CEO of Sony/ Columbia’s music division. Mottola, after listening to Carey’s demo tape, offered her a recording contract. Her debut album, Mariah Carey (1990), earned two Grammy Awards: Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female (for ‘‘Vision of Love’’) and Best New Artist; it produced four number one singles: ‘‘Vision of Love,’’ ‘‘Love Takes Time,’’ ‘‘Someday,’’ and ‘‘I Don’t Wanna Cry.’’ The title track from Carey’s second album, Emotions (1991), is her fifth number one single. MTV Unplugged (1992), Carey’s first nonstudio album and first live album, features her sixth charttopping single, ‘‘I’ll Be There,’’ a remake of the Jackson Five hit. In 1993 Carey released her third studio album, Music Box, and two more number one songs: ‘‘Dream Lover’’ and ‘‘Hero.’’ That same year, Carey married Mottola in New York City, and the wedding reportedly cost a half million dollars. Her fourth and fifth studio albums were Merry Christmas (1994) and Daydream (1995); Daydream has

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three number one singles: ‘‘Fantasy,’’ ‘‘One Sweet Day,’’ and ‘‘Always Be My Baby.’’ The next studio album, Butterfly (1997), contains two number one singles: ‘‘Honey’’ and ‘‘My All.’’ Butterfly was released the year that Carey and Motolla separated; they divorced in 1998. Carey garnered two number one singles, ‘‘Heartbreaker’’ and ‘‘Thank God I Found You,’’ with Rainbow (1999), her seventh studio album. In 2001 Carey’s two Glitter projects (the film that marks her first starring role, and her eighth studio album) did not match her previous successes. Carey’s workaholic lifestyle led to her hospitalization for extreme exhaustion. Carey’s ninth studio album, Charmbracelet (2002), like Glitter, failed to generate a number one single, yet she returned to the top of the charts with her tenth studio album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), which was the year’s best-selling album. It received the Grammy for Best Contemporary R & B album and two additional Grammys for Mimi’s first number one single, ‘‘We Belong Together’’: Best R & B Song and Best Female R & B Vocal Performance. With the album’s second hit, ‘‘Don’t Forget About Us’’ (on the platinum edition), Carey tied Elvis Presley with seventeen number one singles. Her eleventh studio album, E = MC2, with sales of 463,000 copies in its first week, marks her biggest opening-week total. Carey’s eighteenth number one single, ‘‘Touch My Body,’’ placed her ahead of Presley and second only to the Beatles for artists with the most number one singles. In 2008 Carey appeared in two films: Tennessee and Don’t Mess with the Zohan. The following year, Carey released her twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. Mariah Carey wrapped up her (latest) ‘‘Angels Advocate’’ tour on Saturday night, February 27, 2010, at the Colosseum (Caesar’s Palace), in Las Vegas, performing to a sold-out crowd. On April 30, 2008, Carey married actor and television personality Nick Cannon at her estate in the Bahamas. Further Reading Mazurkiewicz, Margaret, ed. 2009. Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 69. Detroit: Gale. Shapiro, Marc. 2001. Mariah Carey. Toronto: ECW Press. Sischy, Ingrid. ‘‘Mariah Carey.’’ Interview (September 2007): 156 et seq. Linda M. Carter

Caribbean Cultural Influences Caribbean influences in African American culture include aspects of African American life that result from, have been shaped directly by, or are intermingled with remnant elements of Caribbean societies and their citizens found in the United States. Generally, such elements have been adopted through mass communication or have been brought over by immigrant populations from the island nations and dependencies located in the Caribbean Sea that were once or still are controlled by France, England, the Netherlands, Spain, and to a lesser degree, the United States. The contributions of Caribbeans to African American popular

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culture are significant because they confirm and augment particular black diasporal experiences in the United States since both the Caribbean and the United States share a history of enslavement and transatlantic trade of people of African descent. Some Caribbean influences that have become a part of African American popular culture include those found in politics, literature, religious movements, hairstyles, clothing, geographical development, food, acting, and music. Political Leaders Some Caribbean political leaders, like Trinidadian prime minister Eric Williams (1911–81) migrated to the United States, participated in African American culture (Williams taught at the historically black Howard University), and returned to their native countries after a brief period of residence in the United States. Still, there are Caribbean political leaders who influence(d) African American culture more obviously. One primary example is Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), called the ‘‘black Moses.’’ Garvey was born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, and is best known for his black nationalist ideas in the 1930s. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), an organization that encouraged black consciousness and mobility. Although Garvey founded UNIA in Jamaica in 1914, he later moved to Harlem to help mobilize supporters and to raise funds. Garvey’s movement gained momentum in Harlem and across the world. In 1925, however, the leader was sent to the federal penitentiary on charges related to the stock sale of his Black Star Line steamship fleet. Due to the efforts of his second wife, Amy Jacques Garvey, Garvey was released and returned to Jamaica. He continued to print his black consciousness publications in Jamaica and later in England, where he died from a stroke in 1940. Another example of a political leader is Colin Powell (1937– ). Powell is one of the most respected African American military officers and statesmen. Born in Harlem, New York, Powell is the son of Jamaican immigrants. He graduated from City College of New York in 1958. Because of his training in the Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) while at City College, he was eligible to be named second lieutenant in the U.S. Army when he graduated. Over the course of his career, Powell has held increasingly important military and political roles, including national security advisor in President Ronald Reagan’s administration (1987–89); chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–93)—Powell was the first African American and youngest person to hold this office—under Presidents George H. W. Bush and William J. Clinton; and secretary of state under President George W. Bush (2000–04). Powell is cofounder with his wife Alma of America’s Promise, an alliance to ensure the success of American youth from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Literature Several Caribbean writers have impacted African American popular culture over the decades. Established writers like Cyril Lionel Robert ‘‘CLR’’ James

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(1901–89, Trinidad), Aime Cesaire (1913, Martinique), Edward Braithwaite (1930, Barbados), Derek Walcott (1930– , St. Lucia), and Vidiadhar Surajprasad ‘‘V. S.’’ Naipaul (1932–, Trinidad) have variably contributed politically and artistically to Caribbean, European, and (African) American cultural milieus, paving the way for subsequent and other prominent Caribbean writers. Paule Marshall (1929– ), who was born Valenza Pauline Burk in Stuyvesant Heights (now Bedford Stuyvesant), New York City, to Barbadian immigrants, retains an artistic interest in the common folk sayings and practices she learned from her mother, relatives, and family friends at the kitchen table. Like many of her contemporaries, Marshall’s writing concerns issues of black diasporal connection, Caribbean ancestry, and rejections of American consumptive culture, all of which can be found in one of her most popular works that combines African American and Caribbean heritage, Praisesong for the Widow (1983). Jamaica Kincaid (1949– ) immigrated to the United States from St. John’s, Antigua. She is best known for her lyrical yet minimal writing style, which often reflects themes of familial relationships, dual national identities, and displacement. These themes can been seen in her best known work, Annie John (1985). Caryl Phillips (1958– ) was born in St. Kitts but grew up in Leeds, England. Many of Phillips’s works adopt postcolonialism, the black diaspora, and human commonalities as themes. One of his most impressive works that seeks to connect African American and (Afro) British sentiment is Crossing the River (1993). Other contemporary writers like Audre Lorde (1934–92, New York, born to Grenadan immigrants), Maryse Cond
e (1937– , Guadeloupe), Elizabeth Nunez, (1944– , Trinidad and Tobago), and Edwidge Danticat (1969– , Haiti) have contributed greatly to Caribbean, European, and (African) American literary landscapes. Religious Movements More notable Caribbean movements that have impacted African American culture include Rastafarianism, Haitian Vodou (Voodoo), and Santar
ıa. Rastafarianism is a religious, political, and cultural movement begun in Jamaica in 1930 that borrows elements of Christianity but embraces the notion of a black messiah based on biblical references made in the Song of Solomon (1:5–6); that recognizes a descendent of that messiah as Prince Tafari Makonnen, who was named emperor of Ethiopia in 1930; that embraces the black racial determination principles of Marcus Garvey and Jamaican scholar Walter Rodney; that finds reggae an acceptable form of political music; and that advocates passive resistance. The hairstyle of Dreadlocks (now more commonly called ‘‘locks’’ to remove any pejorative connation), in which hair is allowed to grow uninhibited in coils, was begun by a subgroup of Rastafari called the Youth Black Faith and has been adopted by many African and European Americans as a viable natural style. Also, the wearing of red, green, and gold (known as ‘‘Rasta colors,’’ also the colors of Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association), has at times been duplicated in the United States to symbolize black diasporal solidarity. Like

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the development of Rastafarianism, the founding of the African American Muslim sect, called the Nation of Islam, is believed to have been influenced in part by the principles of Garveyism. The most obvious influence of Caribbean religious movements on the development of geographical regions in the United States is the settling of Louisiana, particularly the city of New Orleans. New Orleans, originally a part of the French colony of Louisiana (1718–67, 1800–03), became a refuge for French-speaking Haitian immigrants after the Haitian Revolution in 1804. These immigrants brought with them religious beliefs that, at times, combined Roman Catholicism and the African-based Vodou, particular food ways, and cultural practices, all of which the New Orleans pre-Lenten celebration of Mardi Gras displays. The geographical regions of the southern and northeastern United States have had particular Spanish influences that helped to shape their unique African and Hispanic American religious cultures. Aspects of the Cuban religion Santar
ıa, which means ‘‘the way of the saints,’’ can be found in some religious practices in these American regions. Like Haitian religious influences in New Orleans, Santar
ıa also is a mixture of Roman Catholicism (as handed down by the Spanish in Cuba) and African worship of orishas, deities whom African slaves in Cuba worshipped secretly as Roman Catholic saints. Practitioners of Santar
ıa revere the orishas, develop personal relationships with them, and make offerings to them. Many black Cuban immigrants to the United States practice the religion, mainly in southern Florida and in New York City. Food Many Caribbean foodways have influenced African American cultural palates, particularly in regions where Caribbean immigrants have settled like New York and Florida. Most notable are fried plantains and ‘‘jerk’’ and curry spices. Fried plantains are the saut
eed versions of the hard-bodied cousin to the banana, which offer a sweet and crunchy alternative to traditional sides. Plantains are delicacies that can be found in many countries throughout the Caribbean (and elsewhere), including Jamaica, Cuba, and Trinidad and Tobago, for example. Jerk and curry spices also have found their way into fusion versions of African American foodstuffs. Jamaican jerk, a spice consisting of cinnamon, garlic, pimento, thyme, Scotch bonnet peppers, and nutmeg, to name a few ingredients, is rubbed onto meat before it is cooked. West Indian curry is believed to have been brought over to the Caribbean by English colonists via India. Jamaican curry, in particular, is an adaptation of the East Indian original version and can contain cumin, turmeric, and coriander, among other ingredients. Curry also can be rubbed onto meats or included in soups and stews. Actors Caribbean actors also have had lasting impressions on the (African) American dramatic scene. Harry Belafonte (1927– ), actor, singer, and political activist, was

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born Harold George Belafonte to Jamaican immigrants. In 1935, Belafonte’s mother returned to Jamaica with her son. The family moved back to Harlem in 1940. Belafonte eventually joined the U.S. Navy. While in the navy, Belafonte came to appreciate American politics. In 1948, Belafonte returned to New York, where he became involved in Harlem’s American Negro Theater. There he met Sidney Poitier, who became a lifelong friend. Belafonte won a Tony Award in 1953 for his performance in Almanac, and he starred in Carmen Jones, a remake of George Bizet’s opera Carmen (1954). He turned to music and is best known for his album Calypso (1956). During the Civil Rights Movement, Belafonte befriended Martin Luther King Jr., raising funds to bail King out of the Birmingham, Alabama, jail in 1963. Belafonte spearheaded the 1984 ‘‘We Are the World’’ music project to provide relief to famine victims in Ethiopia; costarred in White Man’s Burden (1995), a film depicting a reversal of race roles in the United States; and, most recently, appeared in a 2006 depiction of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, called Bobby. Belafonte has remained politically outspoken, in 2002 criticizing blacks serving on President George W. Bush’s cabinet. Sydney Poitier (1927– ) is an actor, director, and producer, who is known for his appeal to mainstream American audiences. Poitier grew up in the Bahamas though he was born in Miami, Florida. After joining the U.S. Army to fight in World War II, Poitier returned to New York and eventually got involved in the American Negro Theater. His work there led to impressive onstage and film roles including A Raisin in the Sun (1959); Lilies of the Field, which won him the 1963 Oscar for best actor—a first for any African American; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967). In later years, Poitier would accept more diverse roles, would start directing and producing films, and would win many awards for his lifetime work in his craft. Sheryl Lee Ralph (1956– ) was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to Jamaican immigrants. Ralph has come into her own largely through dramatic works that depict African American life. Her most notable work includes the Broadway play Dream Girls (1981), for which she garnered Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations; the film Sister Act II (1993); and the television show Moesha (1996–2001). She now writes, directs, and produces. Music Several different Caribbean musical styles have influenced and been co-opted into African American music. Latin musical styles like salsa and mambo have lent upbeat tempos and rhythmic percussions (often via various drums like the timbales, congas, and bongos) to traditional African American music and to more experimental African American music forms like jazz and Hip-Hop. These crossover Latin forms were popularized by Latin performers like Tito Puente Sr. and Sheila Escovedo. The staccatoed, easy beats that are laced with Jamaican dialect make reggae dancehall music an attractive form for African American music writers and producers to incorporate into their existing styles as well. Bob Marley was instrumental in introducing his laid-back musical style into

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European and African American popular culture; and Trinidadian Calypso and accompanying steel pan music, which was characterized by its culturally rich lyrics and its airy percussion beats, was integrated into African American popular music primarily, but not exclusively, through the musical efforts of Harry Belafonte in the 1960s. Rap Music and Caribbean Americans Rap music, a part of the totality of the creative culture called hip-hop (which includes music, Break Dancing, and art styles like graffiti), has greatly impacted African American popular music and other media genres for nearly thirty years. Rap’s innovative beats and extended verbal play owe their origins to the improvisation of African American art forms as varied as the blues, jazz, Scat Singing, jive, Rhythm and Blues, call-and-response, Signifying, toasting, funk, hand games and rhymes, and Black Arts Movement poetry, and prison chain gang and slave work songs and chants; they owe other debts though to African and Afro-Caribbean music (namely, salsa, mambo, and reggae, among others) and to samplings of other American and European music forms. Still, the development of rap music and hip-hop in the United States, particularly in New York City, is due largely to collaborations and song- and dance-styled ‘‘battles,’’ between youths of African American and Caribbean immigrant heritages. In addition, disc jockeys often ‘‘mixed’’ the melodies of the songs with Jamaicaninspired beats. Christopher (‘‘Biggie Smalls’’ or ‘‘Notorious B. I. G.’’) Wallace, for example, was a Jamaican American rapper who sang, wrote, and produced rap music. Understanding the commercial power of the rise of the artistic movement in the 1980s, Hollywood movie executives capitalized on the moment. Movies like Beat Street (1984), Breakin’ I (May 1984), and Breakin’ II (December 1984), depicted the communion between African American and Caribbean-immigrant musical and cultural creations. Recognized and contemporary Puerto Rican American musicians and hip-hop singers like Tito Puente Sr., James Whipper (‘‘Prince Whipper Whip’’), Jennifer Lopez, Christopher Lee Rios (‘‘Big Punisher’’), Angie Martinez, and Joseph Cartagena (‘‘Fat Joe’’), helped to solidify the presence of Caribbean traditions in largely African American music arenas. Contemporary Caribbean Influences on African American Popular Music Much of the widespread and consistent influence of Caribbean music and artists on the American popular culture music scene has come in recent years. Singer Rihanna is an example of this new wave of artists. Rihanna, whose real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, was born in Saint Michael, Barbados, to Ronald and Monica Fenty. Rihanna’s break onto the American music scene came in 2003 when she was introduced at the age of fifteen to American music producer Evan Rogers. Eventually Shawn Carter (‘‘Jay-Z’’) of the mostly African American R & B and hip-hop studio, Def Jam Recordings, signed her to his label.

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It is obvious that Caribbean Americans have influenced all facets of African American popular culture. See also: Aerosol Art; Reggae, Reggaeton Further Reading Candelario, Ginetta. 2007. Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Davis, Stephen, and Peter Simon. 1983. Reggae International. London: Thames and Hudson. Hirsh, Arnold R., and Joseph Logsdon. 1992. Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992. Palmer, Colin A. 2006. Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Poitier, Sidney. 2000. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography. San Francisco: HarpersCollins. Rivera, Raquel Z. 2003. New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Tomeiko Ashford Carter

Carmichael, Stokely (Kwame Ture) (1941–98), Civil Rights Activist Stokely Carmichael was an important and controversial leader during the Civil Rights Movement. He was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on November 15, 1941. When he was seven years old, he moved to New York City with his parents and four sisters. Carmichael graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1960. In the fall of 1960, he enrolled at Howard University in Washington, DC. He led the Nonviolent Action Group (NAG), a student protest organization that challenged segregation and discrimination. He participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides and was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi. Carmichael also began to collaborate with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Carmichael graduated from Howard University in 1964 and joined SNCC during the ‘‘Freedom Summer’’ project in Mississippi. Southern blacks had been effectively disenfranchised in the South since the Reconstruction Era of the late nineteenth century. A coalition of civil rights groups mounted an effort to register African American voters. Hundreds of white students from northern colleges were recruited to participate in the effort. Carmichael was appointed regional coordinator of SNCC projects in the Mississippi Delta, where he organized the voter registration drives. During the spring of 1965, Carmichael organized the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. The Black Panther was the symbol for their organization. Carmichael was the first to chant the phrase ‘‘black power,’’ which became the slogan for the Black Power Movement. In Black Power: Politics of Liberation in America Carmichael defined Black Power as ‘‘a

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call for black people in this country to unite . . . to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.’’ In May 1966, Carmichael succeeded John Lewis as chair of SNCC. Carmichael had a charismatic presence and was a mesmerizing orator. His speeches challenged the white establishment in confrontational terms. During this period an ideological rift developed inside of SNCC. Some insiders advocated separatism and Black Nationalism. Others wanted to adhere to SNCC’s commitment to nonviolence and racial integration. Carmichael’s colStokely Carmichael, an effective leader of the leagues became increasingly disturbed Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee by the excesses of his celebrity. Some (SNCC), brought the concept of black power began to refer to him as ‘‘Stokely into the U.S. civil rights struggle. In 1967, Starmichael.’’ Carmichael, an advocate of militancy rather Under Carmichael’s leadership, than nonviolent cooperation, broke with SNCC and joined the more radical Black SNCC became enmeshed in a tangle of political and personal crises, Panthers. (Library of Congress) infighting, and fatigue. SNCC was targeted by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program, in which covert efforts were employed to disrupt protest groups. In 1967, Carmichael was given a letter of expulsion from SNCC. Carmichael subsequently joined the Black Panther Party in California, where he served briefly as the prime minister of that organization. Carmichael cut a wide swath, but he burned a lot of bridges. In 1968, Carmichael began slowly to fade from the American consciousness. He married a South African singer, Miriam Makeba, and changed his name to Kwame Ture. In 1969, Ture and Mekeba moved to Conakry, Guinea, where he worked as an aide to Prime Minister Ahmed Sekou Tour
e. Ture organized the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, where he served as chair. Ture and Makeba separated in 1973 and were divorced. Ture later married Marlyatou Barry, a Guinean physician. That marriage ended in divorce after producing a son, Bokar. Ture died of prostate cancer on November 15, 1998. A radical to the end, Ture’s telephone greeting to callers was ‘‘ready for the revolution.’’ Further Reading Carmichael, Stokely, and Michael Thelwell. 2003. Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael [Kwame Ture]. New York: Scribner.

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Hogan, Wesley C. 2007. Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC’s Dream for a New America, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Peniel, Joseph. 2006. Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. New York: Henry Holt. Leland Ware

Carroll, Diahann (1935– ), Singer, Actress Diahann Carroll, born Carol Diann Johnson, is an American singer and actress whose career spans more than fifty years. Her premier parts include playing Barbara Woodruff in the 1962 Broadway production No Strings, for which she won a Tony Award; her groundbreaking role in 1968’s Julia, a prime-time television show in which she played a widowed nurse with a young son and became the first black actress to star in her own show; and the divisive diva, Dominique Deveraux, in the nighttime soap opera Dynasty. She received an Emmy nomination and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her work on Julia. Carroll also earned critical acclaim for her movie portrayal of Claudine, a single mother raising six children in Harlem, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1975. She has received numerous nominations for her dramatic and comedic performances. When Carroll was just sixteen years old, she and a friend tried out for Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts television show. She was selected to appear on the show and won first prize along with an invitation to be a guest on Arthur Godfrey’s radio program for the next three weeks. Afterwards, she continued to sing in a variety of venues. She got her first film role at nineteen, playing the friend of Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones, based on the opera Carmen. Carroll’s first starring role was House of Flowers, a Broadway musical. In 1959, the twenty-fouryear-old Carroll took on the role of Clara in the George Gershwin classic, Porgy and Bess, with Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr., and Sidney Poitier. Throughout her career, Carroll has appeared in more than one hundred television shows, films, and theatrical productions; she has more than twenty-five recordings to her credit. In recognition of her body of work, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Diahann Carroll was born Carol Diann Johnson on July 17, 1935, in the Bronx, New York, the first child of John Johnson, a subway conductor, and Mabel Faulk Johnson, a homemaker. Carroll has a younger sister, Lydia. When Carroll was ten years old, she earned a Metropolitan Opera scholarship to the High School of Music & Art, where Billy Dee Williams later joined her as a classmate. She went on to New York University for a brief time before pursuing her career full-time. Carroll married her first husband, casting director Monte Kay, in 1956. They had one child, Suzanne Kay Bamford, a media journalist. The couple divorced in 1963. Ten years later, Carroll married Las Vegas boutique owner Fredde Glusman,

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divorcing him after three months. Robert DeLeon, a managing editor for Jet magazine, was Carroll’s third husband. They were married in 1975, and he was killed in an automobile accident in 1977. She married singer Vic Damone in 1987. They were divorced in 1996. Carroll also had long-time relationships with British talk show host David Frost and Sidney Poitier, her costar in Porgy and Bess and Paris Blues. In 1998, Carroll was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent surgery and radiation treatment and has been cancer-free for more than ten years. Since her bout with cancer, she has engaged in a campaign to educate women about the disease. Further Reading Carroll, Diahann, with Bob Morris. 2008. The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way. New York: HarperCollins. Carroll, Diahann, with Ross Firestone. 1986. Diahann: An Autobiography. Boston: Little, Brown. Film Bug. http://www.filmbug.com/db/98000. Tavis Smiley Show. ‘‘Diahann Carroll.’’ http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/ 200810/20081017_carroll.html. Marilyn L. Roseboro

Carson, Benjamin S. (1951– ), Pediatric Neurosurgeon Benjamin S. Carson is a pediatric neurosurgeon whose successful career has propelled him to become one of the most important figures in medicine, as well as popular culture. Carson’s success is underscored by his humble beginnings and race. He transcended obstacles that have historically limited the future outlook of African American children and youth. He would go on to appear on television and magazine covers. Carson, the author of three books, is the subject of a documentary and made-for-television movie. He is also the recipient of prestigious awards, such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and titles, such as one of the nation’s foremost physicians and scientists. As a modern day hero, he is honored by African American media, magazines, and scholars. Benjamin Solomon Carson’s life began on September 18, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan. His early childhood was fraught with disadvantages and challenges. His mother, Sonya Carson, dropped out of school in the third grade and married, at only thirteen years old, a preacher, Robert Solomon Carson. Carson’s parents divorced when he was eight and his older brother was ten. Exacerbating Carson’s difficult life was his struggle with anger and poor academic performance. Sonya, who worked up to three jobs at a time to support her sons, nonetheless was actively involved in her children’s education. For one, she prohibited her children from watching television so they would focus on their homework. She also insisted that her sons read books in addition to their regular assigned schoolwork

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and prepare reports on what they read. Benjamin Carson attributes to his mother the subsequent positive change in his life. In the process of reading, Carson discovered that he enjoyed learning; his grades improved, and, eventually, he learned how to control his anger. Carson’s rise from poor student to academic star took place in the turbulent milieu of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement. Civil rights leaders and organizations launched protests against discriminatory laws known as Jim Crow in the South. The high-profile marches, sit-ins, and other demonstrations were chronicled by mainstream and black news nationwide. It was, however, the images of white mobs attacking black and white nonviolent activists that sparked global empathy towards the cause of civil rights. The civil rights act of 1964, which eliminated segregation, is considered one of the most important laws in American history; it launched the beginning of a new world for African Americans in the South. However, in northern cities, like Detroit, racism, poverty, unemployment, police brutality, and other social ills plagued African Americans, resulting in violent outbreaks in black ghettos. Carson was in his mid-teens when a riot erupted in Detroit in 1967. The riot was triggered by police officers who raided a nightclub where a welcome home party for Vietnam veterans was taking place. In protest, blacks rioted. Police and the National Guard intervention did not immediately alleviate the crisis. The riot lasted five days. In the aftermath, ‘‘43 people lay dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 people had been arrested,’’ according to The Detroit Riots. Detroit continues to be a city that is riddled with crime, unemployment, and other social problems. The social problems that surrounded Carson, however, did not hinder his ambitions. After graduating from high school, Carson attended college, a route in which African American youth remain largely underrepresented. Carson received a degree in psychology at the prestigious, predominately white Yale University in 1973 and then went on to the University of Michigan medical school. He married his wife, Candy Rustin, in 1975; they have three sons. In the decade of the 1970s, Carson entered the medical field when African Americans were slowly breaking into American society and advancing in professional careers. The definitive moment in Carson’s career was the surgical separation of Siamese twins, Patrick and Benjamin Binder of West Germany, in 1987. This procedure is considered highly dangerous. Successful separations were rare and usually resulted in the death of one of the siblings. Carson headed a team of seventy individuals. Planning for the procedure took five months, and the actual surgery lasted for over twenty hours. Carson’s successful surgery was a major media event; both babies survived. For African Americans, Carson’s accomplishment was an especially important moment in history. Since the nineteenth century, African Americans have honored the achievements of blacks in history. One of the most prominent icons in black history was Daniel Hale Williams, one of few African Americans in the medical field who triumphed over a racist society to become a surgeon. Born in 1856, Williams is heralded as one of the pioneers of heart surgery. He died in 1931, a hero among

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African Americans but scarcely recognized, if at all, by mainstream society. Carson represents one of the most widely recognized African American icons in history. Moreover, he is a modern role model for black youth and children. Carson’s accomplishments continued to be chronicled in mainstream news as he regularly received awards and honors for his achievements. In 1994, he received an Essence Award. In 2001, CNN, Time, and the Library of Congress recognized Carson as one of the most prominent figures in the United States. In 2006, the NAACP awarded Carson the Spingarn Medal, and, in 2008, President George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Carson remains committed to youth and the community, and vocal about his religious beliefs. In addition to public speaking, he is a cofounder of the Carson Scholars Fund. He has written three inspiring books, his autobiography, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), Think Big (1992), and The Big Picture (2000). Actor Cuban Gooding Jr. portrays him in a 2009 made-for-television movie, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. See also: Medicine, Health, and Healing

Further Reading Carson, Ben, and Murphey, Cecil. 1990. Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. Washington, DC: Review and Herald Pub. Association. Carson, Ben, and Murphey, Cecil. 1992. Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992. Rutgers.edu. The Detroit Riots–1967. http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm. Gladys L. Knight

Carter, Stephen L. (1954– ), Law Professor, Writer Stephen Lisle Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University and a popular nonfiction and fiction writer. Carter was born in Washington, DC, on October 26, 1954, one of five offspring of Emily and Lisle C. Carter Jr., a lawyer who was employed by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations prior to becoming a college professor and administrator. Carter attended public schools in New York City, Washington, and Ithaca, New York, before receiving his BA degree from Stanford University in 1976 and his JD degree from Yale Law School in 1979. From 1979 to 1980, Carter was a law clerk for Judge Spottswood Robinson III in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and from 1980 to 1981, he was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

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prior to brief employment as an associate at Shea and Gardner, a law firm in the nation’s capital. Since 1982, Carter has taught at Yale Law School. Although Carter made history at Yale in 1991 when he became the youngest faculty member to be promoted to the title of the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, and his articles appear in law reviews, he has gained even greater prominence beyond academe for his book-length publications. One of Carter’s most well known nonfiction works is his first book, Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby (1991), where he introduces the term, the ‘‘‘best black’ syndrome’’ to describe the tendency by employers and schools to seek the best African American rather than the best person. To illustrate his point, Carter recounts an ironic incident from decades earlier when he applied for admission to various law schools. He was rejected by Harvard after officials assumed he was white; yet the decision was reversed when the officials realized he was African American. Carter’s additional nonfiction includes The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion (1993); Confirmation Mess: Cleaning Up the Federal Appointments Process (1994); Integrity (1996); Dissent of the Governed: A Mediation on Law, Religion, and Loyalty (1998); Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy (1998); and God’s Name in Vain: How Religion Should and Should Not Be Involved in Politics (2000). As a widely read author, Carter is recognized as a public intellectual who generates dialogue on topics related to his aforementioned books and other timely issues; thus he continues to appear on talk shows and write for popular periodicals. In 2001 Carter received a $4.2 million advance from the Knopf Publishing Group, a division of Random House, for two novels. The advance was reported to be one of the highest for a debut novel. His first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002), stayed on the New York Times Best Sellers List for eleven weeks and was the Today show’s first book club selection. The Emperor of Ocean Park, a legal thriller, and Carter’s next two best-selling novels, New England White (2007), a campus thriller; and Palace Council (2008), a political thriller, introduce affluent, highly educated African American characters to the mainstream American reading public. His fourth novel is the spy thriller, Jericho’s Fall (2009). Carter, the recipient of various honorary degrees and other awards such as the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Fiction-Literature and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion, lives with his wife, Enola G. Aird, and their two children near New Haven, Connecticut. Further Reading Berkeley, Christopher. ‘‘Stephen L. Carter.’’ 2008. In African American National Biography, Vol. 2. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Nelson, Michael. 2003. ‘‘Stephen L. Carter: The Christian as Contrarian.’’ Virginia Quarterly Review 79 (Summer): 487–97. Linda M. Carter

Cartoons and Cartoonists Cartoons refer to drawings or illustrations with captions in newspapers and magazines and animated illustrations in film shorts and television programs. Cartoonists are individuals who draw cartoons and frequently write the storylines and captions for cartoons. For most of the twentieth century, African American cartoonists were limited to the black press, where they produced positive and relevant black images to large African American audiences. These images were critical to African American popular culture, functioning as a defense against the offensive and stereotypical depictions of African Americans in mainstream cartoons. Over time, black cartoonists and some white cartoonists helped to bring positive black characters and cartoons into the mainstream. The Civil Rights Movement also played a prominent role in the increasing number of black cartoon characters and cartoonists in the industry. Although African American cartoons and cartoonists have increasingly flourished over the years, the American cartoon industry continues to be dominated by whites. In the early twentieth century, American cartoonists portrayed Africans and African Americans in disparaging ways, reflecting the prevalence of racism in American society. Many cartoons featured white protagonists who encountered Africans. Africans were commonly illustrated in grass skirts with bulbous eyes and excessively large mouths and dark skin, and they were depicted as savages, cannibals, and inferior to whites. In Frederick Burr Opper’s cartoon strip, Happy Hooligan, his white protagonist, Happy, encounters African savages in ‘‘Alphonse, Gaston and Their Friend Leon in Darkest Africa,’’ a strip that appeared in 1903. In that strip, Happy devises a plan to save himself from the Africans’ plans to eat him or force him to be their king. Early twentieth-century cartoonists depicted African Americans in no better light than Africans. According to Str€omberg, African Americans appeared in comics with physical traits similar to Africans, ‘‘bubble-lipped,’’ bug-eyed, and dark-skinned; women, in particular, were frequently portrayed as mammies and domestics in headscarves and aprons. The ubiquitous image of blacks eating watermelon, gaping and looking buffoonish, appeared in short films as well as the printed page. Although William Marriner’s Sambo was depicted as a protagonist, his appearance, large eyes and mouth, big, wooly hair, patched pants, and antics continually reinforced negative stereotypes. In most popular cartoons, like Felix the Cat, Moon Mullins, and Hairbreadth Harry, according to Str€omberg, blacks were confined to inferior roles, such as ‘‘servants, maids, janitors, bellhops, and the like.’’ These depictions, however, reinforced the real-life inferior status of most African Americans in the early twentieth century, where racial

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segregation was the rule in the South, and African Americans, throughout the nation, were denied economic, social, and political advancement in mainstream society. The depictions also demonstrated how racism was deeply ingrained and tolerated in society. Notwithstanding the realities of blatant racism in everyday life and the oppressive conditions African Americans faced, an increasing number of African Americans attended college, entered professional careers, and made important contributions to the world. A substantial number of African Americans became cartoonists, creating positive black cartoon characters for the African American community. The 1930s signaled a wave of black cartoons and African American cartoonists. Elmer Simms Campbell, who was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, was the first African American cartoonist to publish in mainstream publications. He began his career with Esquire in 1933. The first African American woman cartoonist, Jackie Ormes, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1911, debuted in 1937 with her comic strip, Dixie to Harlem, in the African American newspaper, Pittsburgh Courier. In the same year, she created the comic strip, Torchy Brown, which, Str€ omberg writes, featured ‘‘an intelligent, self-reliant Black career woman, whose stories showed her fighting racism, sex discrimination, and environmental hazards.’’ Positive black characters like Torchy, and historic African American figures that appeared in the black press in the 1950s, served as powerful role models that helped to counteract the barrage of negative images that persisted in mainstream cartoons for several decades. The mainstreaming of black characters and cartoons and the reimagining of formerly derogatory black characters were influenced largely by the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. During this movement, the struggle for civil rights and issues such as discrimination, racism, and racial exclusion, made headlines in newspapers and on television. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a prominent civil rights organization, waged battles against segregation, as well as the rampant disparaging portrayals of blacks in films, advertisements, and other media forms. Finally, in 1965, African American cartoonist Morrie Turner published Wee Pals, a comic strip that featured diverse children, thus promoting integration and multiculturalism. In 1966, Marvel Comics featured its first major black superhero, the Black Panther. (Storm was the first major female black comic book superhero in 1975.) In 1968, Franklin, an African American character, was added to the mainstream comic strip, Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Although blacks continued to be depicted in negative ways in this period, a number of mainstream cartoonists began making progressive changes, eventually doing away with racist and stereotypical imagery. In 1972, the inner-city, all-black cartoon series, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids debuted on television and ran until 1985. Since the 1990s, African American cartoonists have appeared with increasing frequency. Robb Armstrong’s Jump Start and Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks are among the most popular cartoons to appear in mainstream. Barbara Brandon is the only African American woman cartoonist to be nationally syndicated, with

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her comic strip Where I’m Coming From, portraying the lives of young African American women. Although African American cartoonists are thriving in a climate in which images are censored more than ever before, black cartoonists, characters, and cartoons continue to be underrepresented. Further Reading ‘‘Crusaders with Pen and Ink—African American Cartoonists.’’ 1993. Ebony 58 (January): 36, 38, 40, 42. Foster, William H. 2005. Looking for a Face Like Mine. Waterbury, CT: Fine Tooth Press. Goldstein, Nancy. 2008. Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Lehman, Christopher P. 2007. The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, 1907–1954. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Str€ omberg, Frederik. 2003. Black Images in the Comics: A Visual History. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books. Walker, David. ‘‘Black Hole: Why Aren’t There More Black Superheroes?’’ MSN.com. http://paralleluniverse.msn.com/comic-con/black-superheroes/story/feature/. Gladys L. Knight

Carver, George Washington (1864–1943), Scientist, Researcher George Washington Carver remains a central figure in popular culture due to his ingenious ability to produce over four hundred products from the peanut, pecans, sweet potato, and other sources. He developed an interest in plants at an early age and through this interest he was able to help poverty-stricken African American farmers in the South later on. Carver assisted these farmers by sharing information on rotating crops and alleviating their malnutrition with the protein from the peanut. Carver was born near Diamond Grove, Missouri, in 1864, to a slave mother. Little is known about his father, who was killed before Carver’s birth, but it is commonly believed that he, too, was a slave on a neighboring farm. It is reported that Carver’s mother and sisters were kidnapped by raiders. Carver and his older brother were raised by Moses and Susan Carver, the owners of young George and his family. As was common in the nineteenth century, Carver was not permitted to attend school because of the color of his skin. He had a desire to learn and a love of plants from an early age. In the 1870s, he was sent to Neosho, Missouri, for schooling, but before long Carver realized that he knew as much as his teacher. He left and traveled to Fort Scott, Kansas, and then through out the state; he went on to Iowa and Missouri, supporting himself by working odd jobs in his quest for an education. In 1890, Carver began studying art at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. In search of a more secure future, he left Simpson College to study agriculture at Iowa

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State. He was the only African American student at Iowa State. In addition to teaching freshmen at Iowa State, Carver worked as a botany assistant and managed the greenhouse. He earned his master’s degree in agricultural science in 1896. Carver’s professors witnessed his abilities in the study of cross-fertilization and mycology. In 1896, Booker T. Washington, the founder and principal of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, asked Carver to head the agricultural department at his school. Carver accepted and not only took his knowledge to Tuskegee but he brought his contacts as well. He knew three U.S. secretaries of agriculture: James Wilson and Henry A. Wallace, both of whom taught Carver, and Wallace’s son, Henry C. Wallace. In addition to giving financial support, the secretaries granted access to presidents, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Upon Carver’s arrival at Tuskegee, he faced a number of challenges: lack of money, lack of facilities for classes and laboratories for experiments, lack of interest in agriculture, and rampant poverty and malnutrition of rural minority farmers. Booker T. Washington and Carver had numerous conflicts due to Carver’s inaptitude at administrative tasks. Carver was not fired from Tuskegee due to his contacts, teaching, and research. Despite numerous invitations to work at more affluent institutions, Carver remained at the school where he could bring the most help to his fellow African Americans. His primary goal was to assist in ending the cycle of debt and poverty brought about by the dependency on sharecropping and cash crops like cotton. In his work, Carver used then-current technology, which relied on available and renewable resources. He shared his knowledge with others who had no connection or affiliation with Tuskegee. He used outreach programs, bulletins, and a wagon set up as a mobile classroom to reach as many as people as possible throughout the rural area where the school was located. Carver used these tools to teach area farmers to improve their soil without using commercial grade fertilizers, to make paints from particular types of clay, and to grow crops that eventually replaced purchased wares. One of the crops Carver encouraged farmers to grow was peanuts. He encouraged area farmers to alternate crops in planting seasons, such as an exchange between cotton and peanuts. Due to this practice, peanut supplies were large, resulting in lower prices for the crops. This motivated Carver to develop uses for peanuts and products made from them. His knowledge of peanuts helped to alleviate malnutrition in the rural parts of the South; he shared the information with others that peanuts were a valuable source of protein. He only patented three of his five hundred inventions, reasoning that his inventions were a gift from God, therefore he could not sell them. He accepted only a part of his salary and with his thrifty spending habits he was able to donate his life savings to encourage more research in agricultural science. Carver never married. He was a role model to many Tuskegee students and provided monetary and personal support to them. As well, he was a role model to all African Americans, becoming one of the most well-known African Americans of his time. With Booker T. Washington’s death in 1915, Carver was free of Washington’s shadow and stepped into the limelight left vacant.

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In 1916, Carver was appointed to the Royal Society of Arts in London, England. In 1921, he testified at a congressional hearing on tariffs. He won the NAACP Spingarn Medal in 1923 for the vast advances he made in agriculture. Carver made quiet stands against segregation, but he never made public statements on any racial or political issue. The Commission on Interracial Cooperation and the Young Men’s Christian Association sent Carver on a lecture tour of white campuses during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite never earning more than $1,200 a year, Carver accumulated $60,000 in his lifetime—a respectable sum in those years. In 1940, he used his savings to found the George Washington Carver Foundation, whose goal is to support scientific research; this continues today at Tuskegee University. Carver died on January 5, 1943, and was buried on the Tuskegee campus. A monument was erected in his honor near Diamond Grove, Missouri, near his birth site. He was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 1948 and again in 1998; in the later series he is heralded among ‘‘the most memorable and significant people, places, events, and trends of each decade of the twentieth century.’’ Further Reading McMurray, Linda O. 2008. ‘‘Carver, George Washington.’’ In African American National Biography, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbothan, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Myers, Aaron. 1999. ‘‘George Washington Carver.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and the African American Experience, 2nd. ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. Basic Books. Smith, Jessie Carney. 1999. ‘‘George Washington Carver.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale. Catherine Culver

Catlett, Elizabeth (1915– ), Sculptor, Printmaker, Painter, Multimedia Artist Elizabeth Catlett is a consummate artist, trailblazer, and devoted student of relevant and committed art. Although she had the choice of focusing on painting, in which she majored at Howard University, Catlett’s inquisitive and exploratory spirit had the better of her and she ended up exploring other media: ceramics, lithography, and sculpture—areas in which she has left a substantial body of work, many pieces of which, like her 1968 linocut Sharecropper, have become national icons. Beyond the passion and empathy that suffuse her work and the intensity and sensitivity with which they are rendered, there is the unmistakable connection between the artist as a maestro of the various media that she works in, and Catlett as a socially astute and politically sensitive persona. It is this fusion of medium and vision that has earned Catlett the national and international recognition that she enjoys. Her role as an artist is as important as her commitment to social justice and her advocacy for using art as a causative agent of change.

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Catlett, who was born in Washington, DC, on April 15, 1915, to John and Mary Carson Catlett, is the youngest of three children. Catlett, whose grandparents on both sides were slaves, received a sound education, no doubt because both of her middle-class parents were teachers. Her father, who died soon after Catlett was born, was a multidimensional individual who demonstrated skills in both the arts and the sciences. A sculptor, musician, and composer, he taught mathematics as in Washington, and also at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Catlett received her elementary, high school, and university education in Washington. After her elementary education at the Lucretia Mott Elementary School, she attended Dunbar High School, after which she gained admission to Howard University in 1932. There she studied with Lois Mailou Jones and James A. Porter, who influenced Catlett’s decision to major in painting. Howard University during Catlett’s time was a vibrant center for creative engagement and scholarly discussions on the place of the African American artist in a society grappling with racial dissonance. It was the institutional base of Alain Locke, the intellectual power behind the emergence of the ‘‘New Negro’’ that focused on the empowerment of the African American artist. James A. Porter, a young faculty member who taught painting, would go on to write Modern Negro Art, the book that blazed the trail in chronicling the history of African American artists. At Howard University, Porter mentored Catlett, exposed her to the work of Mexican muralists, and assisted in getting her a job at the mural division of the federal Public Works of Art Project in 1934. In 1935, Catlett graduated cum laude from Howard University and secured employment as a teacher in Durham, North Carolina, where she taught art in a black high school and exercised oversight for art in eight additional elementary schools. Catlett left two years later, appalled at the prevalent socioeconomic conditions in which students learned. In 1938, Catlett went to study with Grant Wood at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where, in 1940, she became the recipient of the first MFA degree ever awarded by the university. Although Catlett’s embrace of social causes came as a result of her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the antecedents for creating relevant art dates back to the late 1930s when, as a student at the University of Iowa, she took Grant Wood’s advice to heart and began focusing on subjects that she is most familiar with: her own people. Looking back at the influence of Wood on her career, according to Bearden and Henderson, Catlett remarked that her attitude and artistic perspective were shaped by racism: ‘‘Grant Wood, one of the first white people that I had contact with, emphasized that we should paint what we knew most intimately . . . and my people have always been just that—what I know most intimately.’’ Catlett’s ‘‘people’’ would eventually include those in Mexico, to which she first traveled in 1946. Quoted in Samella Lewis’s book, she said: ‘‘I decided a long time ago that mine is with the only people in the United States that call each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister,’ and with the Mexicans who are trying to get food and freedom for everybody.’’

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Under the watchful direction of Grant Wood at Iowa, Catlett found her comfort level in sculpture, a medium that was not available while she was studying at Howard. By the time she graduated in 1940, she had become quite proficient in sculpting. Her Mother and Child, a limestone sculpture that she carved while at Iowa, won first prize in 1940 at the American Negro Exhibition in Chicago. That same year, Catlett studied ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago, married her first husband, Charles Wilbert White—an artist who is remembered for his superb draftsmanship and powerfully rendered subjects, and secured employment as chair of the department of art at Dillard University in New Orleans. After a number of other positions and studies, she received a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship in 1946 and traveled to Mexico with Charles White. She became enchanted with life in Mexico and took advantage of the presence of notable Mexican sculptors and artists—Francisco Zuniga, Jose L. Ruiz, and Jose Elarese—to expand her knowledge of sculpture and the new culture and make lithographic work at the Taller de Grafica Popular. Catlett made the acquaintance of leading Mexican artists, including David Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Leopold Mendez. In 1947, she married Francisco Mora after divorcing Charles White and decided to settle in Mexico permanently. The oeuvre of Catlett is a testimony to her staunch belief in the power of art to present and represent the fundamental tenets and socioeconomic conditions of the black and underprivileged peoples of the world. This principled stand has been a critical factor in the subject matter favored by Catlett, in the audiences that she has consistently been interested in cultivating, and in the style in which she has continued to express her concerns and apprehensions. As one who has devoted her entire life to the cause of employing art to speak for the downtrodden, her lithographic prints exert looming presences because of their ability to capture in economic lines the dignity and pride that her subjects exude despite the oppressive and brutal conditions under which they labor and toil. One of her most popular prints is Sharecropper, a 1968 linocut that depicts a compact and elegant woman who radiates strength and resoluteness even as she covers her head from the inclement weather with a large hat. In her 1975 linocut, Harriet, Catlett presents a messianic Harriet Tubman directing her people to freedom. The indomitable presence of Tubman is captured in swirling lines that symbolize her stature as a leader and catalyst. Catlett’s prints resonate with empathy for the multitude of poor, underclass, and overworked peoples, especially women workers and nursing mothers. In her life as well as in her work, Catlett has been consistent in using her art to critique the arrogant and disdainful manner in which many artists have continued to work, seemingly oblivious to the abject poverty that stares the poor in the face. It is an elitist approach that Catlett finds unacceptable: ‘‘I can’t do what white people with money want at the same time I’m doing what my people need.’’ Furthermore, Catlett believes—and, indeed, charges— that artists would benefit humanity if they would serve people’s needs. ‘‘We ought to stop thinking we have to do the art of other people. We have to create an art for liberation and for life.’’ Her sculptures are equally recognized for the fullness of their authority and presence. Whether they are full figures or busts, Catlett’s

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sculptures do not glamorize the penchant of the rich to indulge in art that induces pure contemplation at the expense of the poor. ‘‘I want the ordinary person to be able to relate to what I am doing. Working, figuratively, is the dues I must, want and am privileged to pay so that ordinary people can relate to my work at and get lost trying to figure out what it means. True art always comes from cultural necessity.’’ Catlett, who is the subject of several publications, has received numerous honors and awards in addition to having a string of solo exhibitions and group shows at national and international venues. In 1996, she was honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Iowa. In 2006, the Art Institute of Chicago made Catlett the first recipient of its Legends and Legacy Award, in addition to organizing an exhibition to commemorate its acquisition of an acquisition of five of her prints that date to the 1940s. Some of the places to see Catlett’s work include the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, Illinois; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York. Further Reading Bearden, Romare, and Harry Henderson. 1993. A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present. New York: Pantheon Books. Brenson, Michael, and Lowery Stokes Sims. 1998. Elizabeth Catlett Sculpture: A FiftyYear Retrospective. Purchase, NY: Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York. Carroll, Valinda. ‘‘Samella Lewis Catlett Collection at the Hampton University Museum.’’ International Review of African American Art 21, no. 1 (2006): 59–61. Freeman, Linda. 1999. Elizabeth Catlett: Sculpting the Truth. Video recording. Chappaqua, NY: L&S Video. Herzog, Melanie. 2000. Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Herzog, Melanie. 2005. Elizabeth Catlett: In the Image of the People. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago. LaDuke, Betty. 1991. Africa: Through the Eyes of Women Artists. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Lewis, Samella. 1994. African-American Art and Artists. Berkeley: University of California Press. University of Iowa Alumni Association. ‘‘The University of Iowa Presents: The Distinguished Alumni Awards: Elizabeth Catlett Mora.’’ July 21, 2008. http://www. iowalum.com/daa/mora.html. dele jegede

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Censorship and Offensive Language and Lyrics Needless to say, language is an essential element of African American popular culture. Language performs a variety of functions, such as serving as a vehicle for conveying information and providing entertainment. At times, readers and listeners accuse writers and speakers of crossing the line between appropriate and inappropriate expression. Thus, issues of offensive language, lyrics, and censorship continue to command attention and generate discussion. Ever since African men, women, and children were taken from their native countries, transported to North America via the traumatizing Middle Passage, and sold into slavery, African Americans have been subjected to verbal abuse. A documented example is found as early as 1773 with the publication of the first book by an African American, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Included in the book’s front matter is an attestation, signed by eighteen of Boston’s most prominent men, that Phillis Wheatley wrote Poems, yet they describe Wheatley, prior to her enslavement, as ‘‘an uncultivated Barbarian.’’ Furthermore, Wheatley’s first name may be perceived as an insult to her, for she was given the name of the slave ship Phillis that brought her to the United States. Slaves and free people of color were referred to by such derogatory terms as coon, coon jigger, darkie, mammy, pickaninny, and sambo. Although slavery was abolished, African Americans were granted voting rights, Jim Crow laws were struck down, and integration expanded opportunities for African Americans in education, employment, as well as housing, African Americans continued to hear and read disparaging racial comments throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Racist language is prevalent in the twenty-first century. On April 3, 2007, Rutgers University’s Scarlet Knights vied for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship and lost to the University of Tennessee’s Lady Volunteers, 59 to 46. The next day Don Imus, on his nationally syndicated radio show, Imus in the Morning, that was simulcast on MSNBC, stated that the African American players on the Rutgers team were ‘‘nappy-headed hos.’’ After hearing Imus’s racist and sexist comment, Bernard McGuirk, the show’s executive producer, described the championship game as ‘‘the jigaboos versus the wannabees.’’ Swift condemnation from prominent African Americans including then presidential candidate Barack Obama led to the cancellation of Imus’s show. Later that year, the Women in Sports Foundation presented the 2006–07 Rutgers team with the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award for reacting to the controversy with grace and dignity. Also in 2007, the NAACP, at its 98th Annual National Convention in Detroit, held a mock funeral and ‘‘buried’’ the N-word. On January 4, 2008, Kelley Tilghman, a Golf Channel anchor, said on air that young players attempting to challenge Tiger Woods should ‘‘lynch him in a back alley.’’ When Obama was elected the forty-fourth president of the United States on November 4, 2008, a number of political and media pundits began to proclaim that Obama’s victory ushered in a new era—postracial America. Yet less than one month after the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2009, a controversial cartoon published in the New York Post brought to the forefront the centuries-old practice of comparing African Americans to simians. The cartoonist, Sean Delonas,

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capitalized on the actual killing of a chimpanzee by Stamford, Connecticut, police after the animal attacked a woman. In the cartoon, a policeman states that the next stimulus bill will require a new writer. Many believed that the cartoonist was comparing the ape to President Obama, who had recently signed the stimulus plan. A number of individuals were indignant because they believed the cartoon was suggesting that the president should be assassinated, and protesters picketed outside the newspaper’s headquarters; ultimately, a weak apology was issued. In June 2009, another Obama family member became the victim of the simian comparison when Rusty Depass, a Republican activist and former South Carolina election commission chairman, remarked that a gorilla that escaped from the Riverbanks Zoo was Michelle Obama’s ancestor. One month later, a Boston police officer was suspended after calling Henry Louis Gates Jr. a ‘‘jungle monkey’’ in an e-mail to the Boston Globe and his fellow National Guardsmen. In August 2009, Costco, after receiving complaints from customers, removed from its shelves an African American doll wearing a cap with the words ‘‘Lil’ Monkey’’ and hugging a monkey. African Americans are not always the victims of offensive language; sometimes they are the verbal offenders. Tiger Woods, when angered on the golf course, has been known to curse. Serena Williams, during the September 12, 2009 semifinal match at the U.S. Open, reacted to a questionable call by a line judge with anger and profanity for which she was penalized a point and fined $10,000 by the U.S. Tennis Association and $82,500 by the Grand Slam Tournament Committee. Of course athletes are not the only celebrities to use offensive language. Many of today’s African American comedians, following in the footsteps of such comedic icons as Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor, frequently use profanity in their standup routines. A number of the younger comedians launched or advanced their careers on Russell Simmons’s Def Comedy Jam, which was produced by the Hip-Hop mogul, aired on HBO from 1992 to 1997, and featured an abundance of profanity. Eddie Griffin, who appeared on Def Comedy Jam, was invited to perform at the 14th Annual Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf and Tennis Challenge’s benefit concert after he agreed to refrain from using profane language. When he started using offensive language during his routine, Black Enterprise officials cut off Griffin’s microphone and terminated his performance. Legendary comedians Dick Gregory and Bill Cosby, noted for their ‘‘clean’’ routines, question the consistent use of profanity in comedy. Profanity was also used in Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam, which aired on HBO from 2002 to 2007. African Americans frowned at the use of derogatory works in the title of such works as Dick Gregory’s autobiography, Nigger (1964), and Sam Greenlee’s novel, The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1969). When Ntozake Shange published her prize-winning, controversial, and dramatic chorepoem for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (1976), many in the black community also considered the word ‘‘colored’’ offensive and archaic, and it was still used by some whites to refer to and degrade blacks. Although questionable language is a staple of African American urban novels such as Wahida Clark’s Thug Lovin’ (2009), it is more widespread in music. As early as 1988, with the release of 2 Live Crew’s sexually explicit Move Somethin’, record albums began to be released in ‘‘clean’’ and ‘‘dirty’’ versions. The group’s next album, As Nasty as They Wanna

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Be (1989), included a parental advisory label, and, in 1990, it was the first album to be proclaimed obscene by a federal court judge in the United States. Luther Campbell, a member of 2 Live Crew, mounted a media campaign complaining that the judge’s ruling violated the First Amendment. Later that year, 2 Live Crew won an acquittal of all obscenity charges. Also in the 1990s, prominent civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker began campaigning against misogynistic and sexually explicit lyrics in rap music. She protested the NAACP’s nomination of Tupac Shakur for one of the organization’s Image Awards, and she purchased Time-Warner stock so she could attend the company’s 1995 shareholders’ meeting and insist that the record executives read the rap lyrics out loud; they refused. One year later, Shakur’s All Eyez on Me album was released on February 13th, and on September 13th, the rapper was murdered in Las Vegas. After Shakur’s death, Tucker filed a slander suit against his estate claiming that songs on All Eyez on Me defamed her character. Although Shakur made derogatory comments about Tucker in several of the songs on the album, the suit was dismissed. In April 2007, Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Recordings, called on record company officials and broadcasters to remove or bleep three words: the Nword, ho, and b****. A few weeks later on May 3rd, Al Sharpton led more than three hundred individuals on a March for Decency in New York City. One of the participants was Kurtis Walker, who is better known as Kurtis Blow. His 1980 single, ‘‘The Breaks,’’ was rap music’s first certified gold record. Sharpton announced that the group was marching for standards rather than censorship, and they stopped at the offices of Sony Music, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group before ending the march at the Apollo Theater where they commemorated posthumously the 74th birthday of James Brown. Brown had asked rap artists to refrain from sampling his lyrics if their songs contained offensive language. As long as offensive language and lyrics are found in newspapers, magazines, and books as well as on television, radio, and the Internet, it seems likely that individuals will continue to question and debate issues concerning appropriateness, respect, tolerance, and censorship. See also: Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading Asante, Molefi Kete. 1998. ‘‘Identifying Racist Language: Linguistic Acts and Signs.’’ In Communicating Prejudice. Michael L. Hecht, ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Asim, Jabari. 2007. The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Kennedy, Randall. 2002. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. New York: Pantheon. Kilgore, Adam. ‘‘For Rutgers Players, a Great Run Spoiled.’’ Washington Post, E3, April 11, 2007. http://www.proquest.com. O’Connor, John J. ‘‘Television View: The Curse of Incessant Cursing.’’ New York Times, A1, July 31, 1994. http://www,proquest.com. Wright, John D. 2001. The Language of the Civil War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Linda M. Carter

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Chamberlain, Wilt (1936–99), Professional Basketball Player Wilt Chamberlain—known as ‘‘Wilt the Stilt’’ and ‘‘The Big Dipper’’—forced changes in the way basketball was played and governed because of his enormous size. He once scored 100 points in a game and averaged more than 50 that season. He also, quite notoriously, once claimed to have had sex with twenty thousand women in his lifetime. Wilton Norman Chamberlain was born August 21, 1936, in Philadelphia, but barely survived childhood. He missed a year of school because of pneumonia. He grew to 6 feet by age ten and excelled at track and field. Scoring, rebounding, and blocking shots virtually at will, even when triple-teamed, he averaged 31 points in 1953 as a 6 foot 11 inch sophomore at Overbrook High School, which lost the city championship game despite his 29 points. In his junior year, Chamberlain scored a record 71 points in one game and led undefeated Overbrook to the championship. As a senior, he scored 74, 78, and 90 points in consecutive games on the way to another title. He set a high school record with 2,252 points in three years. Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk In his debut for the Kansas University, Chamberlain scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds, both college records. He made first-team All-American and led KU to the NCAA final, where it lost 54–53 to North Carolina in overtime. Chamberlain also won the Big Eight high jump title three times. He averaged 30.1 points as a junior but decided to leave KU and turn professional. The NBA then did not accept players who left college early. Forced to wait a year, he played for the Harlem Globetrotters in 1958 for $50,000—five times the average NBA salary. Becomes Pride of Philadelphia The Philadelphia Warriors claimed homegrown Chamberlain as a territorial draft pick. His $30,000 rookie salary was the NBA’s highest. He debuted with 43 points and 28 rebounds. His fourth game was against his old NCAA nemesis, Bill Russell, now of the Boston Celtics. Chamberlain outscored Russell, 30–28, but the Celtics won. Their rivalry became arguably the NBA’s greatest of all time. They met seven times in league playoffs; Chamberlain’s team prevailed only once. He averaged 37.6 points and 27 rebounds as a rookie, regular-season records, and was Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year, but the Warriors lost to the Celtics in the playoffs. Chamberlain set several untouchable records, averaging 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds in 1961–62. On March 2, 1962, he scored 100 points. In summer 1964, Chamberlain befriended seventeen-year-old Lew Alcindor in a playground league, but Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar—as Alcindor later named himself—became unfriendly rivals as pros. The Warriors moved to San Francisco, but Chamberlain was traded back to the Philadelphia 76ers. Finally, in 1967, he outbattled Russell in a division

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series, and the 76ers defeated the Warriors for Chamberlain’s first title. He was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, who lost the 1971 conference series to rookie Abdul-Jabbar and the Milwaukee Bucks but won their 1972 playoff series. Badly injured, Chamberlain led the Lakers to their first NBA title, over the Knicks. Chamberlain retired a year later, holding numerous records for scoring, rebounding, and durability. Later on, the San Diego Conquistadors of the rival American Basketball Association signed Chamberlain as player-coach for $600,000. He was MVP four times and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978. He inspired rule changes involving lane width, offensive goaltending, and inbounding the ball. After retiring, Chamberlain played in the International Volleyball Association. He was offered $5 million to box Muhammad Ali in 1971 but refused. In his 1992 autobiography, he claimed his sexual encounters numbered about twenty thousand: ‘‘1.2 women a day, every day since I was fifteen years old.’’ He appeared in the movie Conan the Destroyer, made money in stocks and real estate, opened a popular Harlem nightclub, and invested in brood mares. After playing at 7 feet 1 inch and 300 pounds, Chamberlain remained in peak condition, though he suffered from an irregular heartbeat. In 1999, his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he lost fifty pounds. He died October 12, 1999, of congestive heart failure. Further Reading Chamberlain, Wilt. 1992. A View From Above. New York: Signet Books. Chamberlain, Wilt., and David Shaw. 1973. Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door. New York: Macmillan. Cherry, Robert. 2004. Wilt: Larger than Life. New York: Triumph Books. Pluto, Terry. 1992. Tall Tales: The Glory Years of the NBA in the Words of the Men Who Played, Coached, and Built Pro Basketball. New York: Simon & Schuster. Pomerantz, Gary M. 2005. Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era. New York: Crown. Richard Kenney

Chaney, John (1932– ), College Basketball Coach When John Chaney retired in 2006 as the men’s basketball coach at Temple University in Philadelphia, the college game lost one of its most colorful and controversial coaches. For almost twenty-five seasons it was Chaney and his raspy voice and unkempt demeanor who prowled the sidelines as his Temple Owl players went against the best and some of the finest collegiate basketball teams on the national stage. The unbuttoned shirt, the sagging eyes, and Chaney’s bullish intensity were familiar and formidable to opposing coaches and players alike. Chaney’s NCAA tournament r
esum
e places him third in the categories of most tournament games coached and most tournament games won, behind only Eddie Sutton and Guy Lewis. During his career, Chaney amassed a record of 741 wins, including a 516–252 record at Temple, where he won seven Atlantic 10

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Conference titles. Only Bob Knight, the former Indiana University coach; Eddie Sutton, formerly of Oklahoma State and Kentucky; Lute Olson of Arizona; and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, still active coaches, have more wins. Chaney guided his Owl teams to 17 NCAA tournament appearances that included five regional final Elite Eight visits, but no trips to the Final Four championship round. He was twice named National Coach of the Year and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. Chaney-coached teams played a smothering matchup zone combined with a ball-control offense that placed a premium on committing few turnovers. Throughout his career, Chaney was known to recruit and develop basketball players who came from broken homes, violent neighborhoods, and poor schools. Chaney was also known for a demanding work ethic that included having his players practicing at 5:00 a.m. for several hours, during which he lectured as much about life as basketball. ‘‘They just want to bounce the ball and dribble the ball, but I talk about things that are going to stay with them for the rest of their lives,’’ Chaney told ESPN in a documentary. ‘‘Somewhere along the line, it will reverberate and they’ll remember it.’’ Chaney had a knack for polishing mostly lightly recruited prospects into journeyman NBA players. They included Rick Brunson (1997–2005), Duane Causewell (1990–2000), Eddie Jones (1994–2007), Mark Macon (1991–98), Aaron McKie (1994–2006), and Tim Perry (1988–95). Chaney was born January 21, 1932, in Jacksonville, Florida. He played black college basketball at Bethune-Cookman College, as it was known then, before the NBA drafted from that talent pool. He played professionally in the Eastern League during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the six-time all-pro earned a reputation as a ferocious defender. In 1978, Chaney led Cheyney State College, a small black school in suburban Philadelphia (now Cheyney University), to the Division II national championship. He began coaching at Temple University in 1981. To some, Chaney the coach was also known as an intimidator. In 1984, he grabbed George Washington University coach Gerry Gimelstob by the shoulders at halftime of a game. In 1994, Chaney had a heated exchange following a game against the University of Massachusetts in which he threatened to kill University of Massachusetts coach John Calipari, who in 2010 coached the University of Kentucky. Chaney’s volcanic temper was mostly tolerated by fans and longtime observers aware of the coach’s hard-knocks life. They were not so sympathetic when, in 2005, the coach inserted a player he called a goon and instructed him to commit hard fouls because Chaney accused rival St. Joseph’s College of setting illegal screens. St. Joe’s player John Bryant was knocked in the air and he suffered a broken arm. Chaney apologized for instigating the rough play and he was suspended for five games. Further Reading Associated Press. 2006. ‘‘Longtime Temple Coach Cheney Retires.’’ March 13. http:// sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2366357.

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ESPN. 2008. ‘‘Black Magic’’ (documentary). March. Link to ‘‘All Things Considered’’ (NPR) story on this documentary: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/ mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=88206667&m=88292995. Thomas, Ron. 2002. They Cleared the Lane: The NBA’s Black Pioneers. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Kip Branch

Chappelle, Dave (1973– ), Comedian, Actor, Writer, Producer David Khari Webber Chappelle, after signing a contract to continue his hit variety show on the Comedy Central network for two additional years and $50 million, abandoned Chappelle’s Show in 2005 because he deemed his comedic sketches ‘‘socially irresponsible.’’ Chappelle, born on August 24, 1973, in Washington, DC, is one of three children born to college professors William David Chappelle III and Yvonne Chappelle Seon. Seon is also the founding director of Wright State University’s Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center, which is one of the first (if not the first) African American Studies programs, and she is the first African American woman ordained a Unitarian universalist minister. After his parents divorced, Chappelle attended elementary school in Silver Spring, Maryland; middle school in Yellow Springs, Ohio; and high school in Washington, DC, where he graduated from the Duke Ellington School for the Arts in 1991. Chappelle displayed his comedic talents as early as age fourteen when he began performing stand-up routines during open mic nights at Washington’s comedy clubs. While still a high school student, Chappelle performed during Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in New York and was booed off the stage, yet after a contest victory in the nation’s capital, he was proclaimed the ‘‘Best Comedian in D.C.’’ After graduating from high school at age seventeen, Chappelle returned to New York City, and on his first night, performed at the Boston Comedy Club in Greenwich Village where the club’s managers nicknamed him ‘‘High School.’’ In addition to performing at other clubs, Chappelle performed in Washington Square Park for passersby and spare change. Whoopi Goldberg nicknamed the nineteen-year-old Chappelle ‘‘the Kid,’’ and Mel Brooks praised Chappelle for his comedic timing. As Chappelle gained popularity in East Coast comedy clubs, he began appearing on television in shows such as Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam (1992), Six Comics in Search of a Generation (1992), and Comic Relief VI (1994). Starting with Mel Brooks’s Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Chappelle has appeared in at least seventeen films, including The Nutty Professor (1996), Con Air (1997), You’ve Got Mail (1998), Half Baked (1998), Undercover Brother (2002), and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006). Although Dave Chappelle: For What It’s Worth: Live! At the Fillmore was nominated for two Emmy Awards including Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special in 2005, to date Chappelle’s greatest professional success is the aforementioned Chappelle’s Show which debuted in 2003 and received Emmy nominations

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for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series and for Outstanding Writing for Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 2004. Chappelle was the host, writer (along with Neal Brennan), and executive producer of the satirical show with Chappelle portraying characters such as Clayton Bigsby, an African American who is blind and a white supremacist. One of the show’s most popular comedic sketches featured a parody of R & B singer Rick James (played by Chappelle). When Chappelle was taping a skit during the show’s third season, a white man’s raucous laughter caused Chappelle to question if the show’s mockery of stereotypes was being misconstrued by viewers. Chappelle, at the age of thirty-one, subsequently reevaluated his work and left the show on April 28, 2005. Chappelle and his wife, Elaine, live in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with their two sons and daughter. See also: Comedy and Comedians Further Reading Cunningham, Mark D. ‘‘Dave Chappelle.’’ 2008. In African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Gianoulis, Tina. ‘‘Dave Chappelle.’’ 2005. Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 50. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Powell, Kevin. ‘‘Heaven Hell Dave Chappelle: The Agonizing Return of the Funniest Man in America.’’ Esquire 145(May 2006): 92 et seq. http://www.esquire.com/ features/ESQ0506CHAPPELLE_92. Linda M. Carter

Charles, Ray (1930–2004), Singer, Musician Ray Charles, African American Rhythm and Blues pianist and singer, was one of the most innovative and prolific contributors to popular music. His innovative approach to R & B helped lay the groundwork for Rock and Roll and soul music. Born Ray Charles Robinson on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, to Aretha and Bailey Robinson, Ray Charles was raised in Greenville, Florida. Charles contracted glaucoma when he was four years old, and lost his sight before his seventh birthday, prompting his mother to enroll him in the School for the Deaf and Blind in Saint Augustine, Florida, where Charles studied eight years and received a formal education in music, in both instrumentation and composition. Following his mother’s death in 1945, Ray Charles found himself alone with both of his parents dead. After graduating from school, Charles made his way out into the world by playing the jook joints (juke joints) of Florida before heading west to make a living as a musician. In Seattle, Washington, Ray Charles met Quincy Jones, and the two musicians formed a tight bond. ‘‘He knew everything about ladies, music and life,’’

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Ray Charles is shown in this March 16, 1979, photo. (AP/Wide World Photos)

Quincy Jones said, reflecting on his Seattle days with Ray Charles. ‘‘He was so independent.’’ And part of Charles’s independence was made clear when he dropped the ‘‘Robinson’’ part of his name to distinguish himself from the legendary boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. In 1949, Ray Charles sought his fortune in Los Angeles, where he made his first recording. Within a year’s time, he had gained a following in the African American community, and he developed, too, an addiction to heroin, a habit that, after three arrests and seventeen years, he would manage to kick. By 1952, Ray Charles was garnering national attention, and his contract was bought by Atlantic Records. He was on his way to becoming a national and international sensation. For his innovative approach to music, Ray Charles earned during his lifetime the nickname ‘‘The Genius,’’ and his distinctive musical genius become evident to a nation of listeners in 1954 with one of his best-known hits ‘‘I Got a Woman.’’ The song spent nineteen weeks at number one on the R & B charts and established Charles as a recording giant. Musically speaking, ‘‘I Got a Woman’’ brought together gospel and R & B in a way that was innovative and daring. Using the desire of classic R & B lyrics, Ray Charles heightened the fervor through music that had the unmistakable swing of down-home church music. Part of the musical genius and creative talent of Ray Charles is his approach to music itself. A clear pattern that emerges throughout all of his music is that he makes the music his. His engagement with his art is such that he always aims to transform music into something that closely links to his own identity. This power of transformation is made patently clear in Ray Charles’s version of Hoagy

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Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell’s ‘‘Georgia on My Mind’’; his version would become the official state song of Georgia. Towards the end of the 1950s, a decade that witnessed the emergence of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley, each musician in some way indebted to the innovations of Ray Charles, Charles left Atlantic for ABC Records. In 1962, Charles ventured into country music with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, a two-volume album that produced four top ten hits and sold over three million copies. In his tribute to Ray Charles, Van Morrison wrote, ‘‘Think of how he reinvented country music in a way that worked for him. He showed there are no limitations, not for someone as good as he is. Whatever Ray Charles does, whatever he touches, he makes it his own. He’s his own genre. It’s all Ray Charles music now.’’ When we think of ‘‘Ray Charles music,’’ we have to consider the interconnections between soul, blues, and gospel because that’s what we hear in his piano playing and in his vocal phrasing. One of his more remarkable achievements is his rendition of ‘‘America the Beautiful,’’ a song that he transforms into an expression of the collective struggle of African Americans. Ray Charles performed this song at an inaugural ball for President Ronald Reagan in 1985. In Charles’s death notice, his version, particularly his voice, was called ‘‘the voice of Black America, the deep gospel blues that reflects the pain and suffering of segregation and racism, as well as the pride and perseverance of success.’’ Taking the vernacular language of blues, gospel, and R & B, Ray Charles showed the value and significance of African American popular culture in shaping the broader culture of the United States, and beyond. As an artist, he resists definition, and because of his dedication to his craft and to his own sense of self; he amassed individual success that was also a collective success, for his voice, his style, was an extension of his community. Ray Charles won twelve Grammy Awards, was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was an inaugural member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. The Playboy Hall of Fame has a bronze bust of Ray Charles, and he is in both the R & B and Jazz Halls of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Ray Charles number ten all-time in their list of immortals, just ahead of Bob Marley. ‘‘What I’d Say,’’ ‘‘Hit the Road, Jack,’’ ‘‘I Got a Woman,’’ and ‘‘Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand,’’ Charles’s first Top Ten single, all remain required listening and serve as a small introduction into the world of Ray Charles. With his impressive range of accolades crossing a number of musical genres, and with his own record label started in 1973 called Crossover, Ray Charles’s achievement is a testament to music as a universal language and an integral part of popular culture. The portrayal of Ray Charles by African American popular culture icon Jamie Foxx in the 2004 film Ray, which earned Foxx the Academy Award for Best Actor, has introduced the music and achievement of Ray Charles to a new generation of listeners, extending his musical genius into the twenty-first century. See also: Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Soul and Funk (Music)

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Further Reading Morrison, Van. ‘‘Ray Charles.’’ The Immortals—The Greatest Artists of All Time. Available at www.rollingstone.com. ‘‘Ray Charles Dies at 73.’’ New York Amsterdam News, 21, June 17, 2004. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Charles, Ray.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Charter Schools A charter school is a public school under contract that receives public money, but is not governed by the same regulations and guidelines that apply to other public schools. Instead, it is governed by its charter, which outlines how it will be accountable and productive. The ultimate goal of the charter school is to improve the educational system. Most charter schools are small. In 1996–97, the was 150 students, compared to 500 students at other public schools in states with charter schools. Created in 1992 after Minnesota passed the first charter school law, City Academy in Saint Paul was the nation’s first charter school. In 2006, it was estimated that 30 percent of students in charter schools in the United States were African American and that in larger cities, charter schools disproportionately served African Americans, Latinos, and low-income students. Proponents argue that charter schools will facilitate educational reform by stimulating innovative educational opportunities, raising educational standards, and providing parents and communities, particularly those from historically marginalized groups, with alternatives to traditional public schooling. Some educators and policy-makers view charter schools as a way to prevent the privatization of schooling through voucher programs. Parents and teachers in favor of charter schools argue that charter schools can help relieve educational bureaucracies that seem to be failing students. By 1998, there were approximately 1,100 charter schools educating over a quarter of a million children. By 2006, there were 3,400 charter schools educating a million students. While white students and those from more privileged backgrounds are more likely to attend private schools, many parents and students from historically underrepresented backgrounds such as African Americans favor the charter school concept because they believe that traditional public schools have not adequately met the needs or understood the academic challenges of all students equally. In 1996–97, about 42 percent of the students in charter schools were nonwhite and about 40 percent were nonwhite in the existing public schools of sixteen charter states. Some 36 percent of charter students were eligible for a free-or-reducedprice lunch compared to about 40 percent in regular public schools. Charter schools are popular in urban areas. A study done in 1996, which included 225 charter schools in seven states, found that minority group members

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in urban areas composed a large proportion of the student body: 63 percent. In communities of color, charter schools often offer alternative paths and approaches. These approaches are often appealing to parents of color who have often themselves had negative experiences in school and want their children to have better ones. The Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academies are examples of highly successful and nationally recognized urban charter schools. Founder Geoffery Canada advocates for building a ‘‘culture of success.’’ Promise Academies use a community-based approach to engage students in learning as well as provide after-school activities, support, and resources to nurture students and families. The Journal of Philanthropy cites that due to the success of Promise Academies the federal budget has allocated $10 million in planning grants for communities who want to replicate such charter schools. The Promise Academies are a few of many successful charter schools that serve black youth in urban areas. Another successful charter school that serves black youth in urban areas is Urban Prep Academy, founded in Chicago in 2006. It is the city’s only public all-male, all-African American high school. When they were accepted in the school located in one of Chicago’s troubled neighborhoods, only 4 percent of the young men read at grade level as freshmen. In 2010, the entire senior class, consisting of 107 students has been accepted to four-year colleges. They will attend 72 schools throughout the country. Since their inception in the 1990s, charter schools have been controversial. Although some argue that charter schools have variety, autonomy, and innovation, opponents argue that there is little accountability and question whether achievement is better than that of public schools. Moreover, opponents also view charter schools as breeding grounds for privatization and segregation as they have the potential to further stratify schools along racial, socioeconomic, and other ethnic- and class-based lines. Some argue that selective admission policies and practices might contribute to racial imbalances among schools. Opponents are also concerned with the ability of charter schools to provide services for all students, such as students with disabilities and special educational needs. Other concerns that have been voiced involve the issue of transportation, especially for inner-city students. A Carnegie Foundation report points out that for all schools, the median distance between families and their closest school is two miles, while the median distance to the next closest school is four and a half miles, and for one in four families, the next closest school is between ten and eighty miles away. Many view transportation as an issue that needs to be monitored, as it can heavily impact the amount families must pay to send their children to school and the amount of time that children are forced to spend in transit to and from these schools. When subsidized, districts have found transportation can cost thousands of dollars. Many educators leery of charter schools claim that transportation is one of those institutional issues that must be watched if charter schools are not to become an unassuming partner in a further stratification of society along racial and class lines. The concept of charter schools continues to be controversial; many argue that it is still debatable if charter schools are able to improve the

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current educational system and facilitate change. More scholarship needs to be generated to fully understand the relationship between popular culture and charter schools. Further Reading Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 1992. School Choice: A Special Report. Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. New York: Jossey-Bass. Charter Schools in Action What We Have learned. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED399671. Ethnic Segregation in Arizona Charter Schools. http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n1/. Gill, Brian P., Mike Timpane, Karen Ross, and Dominic Brewer. 2001. Rhetoric versus Reality: What We Know and What We Need to Know about Vouchers and Charter Schools. California: Rand Corporations. The Harlem Children’s Zone. http://www.hcz.org/. Hassel, Bryan. 1999. The Charter School Challenge. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press. Henig, Jeffery R. 1994. Rethinking School Choice: Limits of the Market Metaphor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. How Well Are Charter Schools Serving Urban and Minority Students? http://www .ericdigests.org/1998-1/charter.htm. Lee, Valerie E., Robert G. Croninger, and Julia B. Smith. 1996. ‘‘Equity and Choice in Detroit.’’ In Who Chooses, Who Loses? Culture, Institutions, and the Unequal Effects of School Choice. Bruce Fuller and Richard E. Elmore, eds. New York: Teachers’ College Press. Renzulli, Linda, and Lorraine Evans. ‘‘School Choice, Charter Schools, and White Flight.’’ Social Problems 52 (August 2005): 398–418. The US Charter School Moovement and Ethnic Segregation. http://www.eric.ed.gov:80 /ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/16/7d/e3.pdf. Weiher, Gregory, and Kent Tedin. ‘‘Does Choice Lead to Racially Distinctive Schools? Charter Schools and Household Preferences.’’ Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 21 (December 2005): 79–92. Wells, Amy. 2002. Where Charter School Policy Fails: The Problems of Accountability and Equity. New York: Teachers College Press. What Should Parents Know about Charter Schools. http://www.npr.org/templates/story /story.php?storyId=6081152. Stephanie Carter

Cheerleading The tradition of African American cheerleading first gained the attention of folklorists during the mid-1970s as a component of African American children’s Folklore. Urban black girls mixed the performance of cheers with hand-clapping games, jump rope rhymes, and other rhythmic, chanted play activities during

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their recesses on school playgrounds. This predominantly female play and performance tradition seems to have emerged after the 1972 Olympics and features the collective chanting of short, snappy rhymes that are coordinated with rhythmic steps and hand clapping. Kate Rinzler’s fieldwork and her gathering of others’ fieldwork for the children’s section of the Festival of American Folklife in 1975 and 1976 offers some of the earliest documentation and public presentation of this play tradition. Cheering as play is one of several African American cheering traditions engaging girls from preschool through college. As play, girls occasionally performed cheers before mostly informal audiences for the mere satisfaction of group rhythmic interaction, integrating African-derived traditional and Popular Music and dance styles into the activity. However, by the late 1970s, girls also began to view cheerleading as a sport requiring the mastery of athletic and performance skills. As girls transformed this playground tradition into a competitive form of sport and display, they formalized the criteria for participation and performance, and added expensive uniforms and complex gymnastic skills to performance requirements. By the 1980s and 1990s, cheering had grown in popularity and expanded beyond school playgrounds to become a community-based, sponsored activity, generating neighborhood- and school-based squads that performed at local, regional, and even national celebrations and competitions. The African American play tradition of cheering evolved as an offshoot of the earlier twentieth-century school-based cheerleading tradition that developed with the rise of Sports programs in American colleges and high schools. Across the country, schools recruited student cheer (or yell) leaders to guide fans in enthusiastic cheering in support of their school’s athletic teams during football and, later, basketball games. Through cheerleading, these student leaders began to build and control strong fan allegiances to the schools and local community. In turn, these allegiances developed a loyal volunteer, alumni, and economic base for the support of a particular educational institution. In the earliest days of cheerleading, a few male students led football fans in shouting cheers with megaphones and sparse arm motions at games. Cheers initially were song-based odes or short, repetitious poems. With the shortage of males during World War II, young women moved into roles as school cheerleaders, just as they took advantage of newly opened opportunities in other arenas of American life. At first they cheered with men, but by the 1950s cheerleading had been relegated to a predominantly female activity. Female cheerleaders transformed the tradition by moving it toward entertainment through the addition of dance steps and rhythmic movement and performance in squads. Within the context of athletic events, cheerleaders have cheered strategically to support a sports team, rally the fans, and comment on the team’s and the opponent’s actions during games. Cheerleading squads strive to create a unique identity for their team and their school through their cheers, one that demonstrates the prominence of the team and school in comparison to that of their opponents. The squads draw on school, local, and ethnic traditions to express these unique identities through their combinations of movement, language, and imagery.

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Within the context of cheering as sport, cheerleading squads competitively display their performative competence to audiences and judges. They demonstrate their mastery of fundamental cheerleading skills and their ability to communicate creatively with their audiences. The African American aesthetic emphasizing skillful performance is celebrated in these competitive events. As a performance genre, the African American cheering tradition emphasizes multichanneled communicative competence and draws resources from African American vernacular language (Black English), popular dance, and music traditions as well as African American traditional culture and American popular culture. Among the artistic characteristics that are valued in skillful cheerleading in the African American aesthetic are the following: antiphony (call-and-response), repetition, improvisation, polyrhythmic structure, segmentation of form, the complementarity of movement and text, an increasing emotional intensity, and effective delivery. See also: Jump Rope Rhymes/Games

Further Reading Gaunt, Kyra. 1997. ‘‘The Games Black Girls Play: Music, Body and Soul,’’ PhD diss., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. May, Phyllis M., and Jean Kaplan, 1975–1976, ‘‘Children’s Handclapping Games’’ (field collection and documentation of fieldwork in Indiana), unpublished, Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University. May-Machunda, Phyllis M. 1989. ‘‘Cheerleading and Baton Twirling.’’ In The Encyclopedia of Southern Folklore. William Ferris and Charles R. Wilson, eds. Center for Southern Culture. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press. May-Machunda, Phyllis M. (forthcoming) ‘‘‘Ain’t It Funky, Now?’: African American Cheerleading as Traditional Play and Performance in Washington, D.C.,’’ PhD dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington. Soileau, Jeanne. 1980. ‘‘Children’s Cheers as Folklore.’’ Western Folklore 39 (July): 232–47. Swanson, Catherine. 1980. ‘‘We’re Gonna Win Tonight: The Rhythm of School Spirit,’’ Center for Southern Folklore Magazine 3:11. Phyllis M. May-Machunda

Chesnutt, Charles W. (1858–1932), Writer Any discussion of the development of African American fiction during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is dominated by the works of Charles Waddell Chesnutt, who is acknowledged as the first African American short story writer and novelist to gain widespread readership as well as prevalent critical acclaim. Chesnutt, the eldest of Ann Maria and Andrew Jackson Chesnutt’s six children, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 20, 1858, two years after his parents

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left Fayetteville, North Carolina, where they were among the 450 free African Americans, according to the 1850 United States census and where Ann Chesnutt taught slaves in defiance of the law prohibiting their education. Andrew Chesnutt served in the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1866 the Chesnutts moved to Fayetteville where Chesnutt’s white paternal grandfather helped his father set up a grocery store. One year later, Chesnutt began attending the Howard School, which was established by the Freedmen’s Bureau for the education of African Americans and was built on land purchased by seven African American men (including Chesnutt’s father). When the family’s financial situation deteriorated to the point that Chesnutt, at the age of fourteen, planned to leave school in order to help support his family, the Howard School’s principal hired Chesnutt as a pupil-teacher in 1872. He also spent summers teaching in North Carolina and South Carolina prior to becoming assistant principal of Fayetteville’s State Colored Normal School in 1877 and principal in 1880. In 1884, Chesnutt relocated his wife, Susan (n
ee Perry and a teacher at the Howard School whom he married on June 6, 1878) and their children to Cleveland where he worked as an office clerk and stenographer until he passed the Ohio bar examination in 1887. One year later, Chesnutt, whose law practice failed to attract clients, opened a highly successful court reporter business that he maintained until the 1920s except for a two-year stint (1899 to 1901) when he attempted to earn a living writing full-time. Chesnutt’s first published work was a short story, ‘‘Frisk’s First Rat,’’ that was published in Fayetteville’s Educator on March 20, 1875, when he was sixteen. By 1885, Chesnutt’s stories, sketches, and essays began appearing frequently in various magazines and newspapers. With the inclusion of Chesnutt’s story, ‘‘The Goophered Grapevine,’’ in the August 1887 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Chesnutt became the first African American author published in the magazine. During his lifetime, Chesnutt’s published book-length works include a biography: Frederick Douglass (1899), two short story collections: The Conjure Woman (1899) and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (1899) as well as three novels: The House Behind the Cedars (1900), The Marrow of Tradition (1901), and The Colonel’s Dream (1905). After Chesnutt’s death on November 15, 1932, five additional novels were published decades later: Mandy Oxendine (1997), Paul Marchand, F.M.C. (1999), The Quarry (1999), A Business Career (2005), and Evelyn’s Husband (2005). The last decades of the twentieth century witnessed a renewed interest in Chesnutt’s novels and many stories in which he presents realistic African American images that are in sharp contrast with the stereotypical black images in works by such white writers as Thomas Nelson Page and Thomas Dixon. Twenty-first century tributes to Chesnutt include the 2002 publication of Charles Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays by the Library of America and the Charles W. Chesnutt stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2008. Further Reading Clift-Pellow, Arlene. 1999. Charles Waddell Chesnutt. In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale.

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Izzo, David Garrett, and Maria Orban, eds. 2009. Charles Chesnutt Reappraised: Essays on the First Major African American Fiction Writer. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Mason, Julia. 2008. ‘‘Charles Waddell Chesnutt.’’ In African American National Biography. Vol. 1. Henry Louis Gates, J. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Linda M. Carter

Chicago Defender The Chicago Defender was once described as the ‘‘World’s Greatest Weekly’’ and the impetus for the Great Migration; it continues to provide an insight into the events in the black community. The newspaper was founded by Robert Sengstacke Abbott in May 1905. Abbott, a graduate of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and Chicago’s Kent College of Law, became a printer/journalist when racial discrimination prevented him from becoming a practicing attorney. Abbott began the publication of the Chicago Defender with a small investment while using his landlady’s dining room as an office for the newspaper. The newspaper was a four-page, six-column handbill that consisted of news items that Abbott wrote, printed, folded, and distributed himself. Based in Chicago, the Chicago Defender became one of the most important black newspapers that advocated black issues. The newspaper reported stories with sensational headlines and editorials pertaining to African American injustices of racial, economic, and social discrimination. Readers were enticed with featured stories of daily living in Chicago’s black community and highlighted positive stories and images centered on the black race. The Chicago Defender was distributed and read throughout the country, including the South. It voiced concerns over southern atrocities and encouraged black southerners Newsboy peddles the Chicago Defender, an AfricanAmerican newspaper on a Chicago, Illinois, street to migrate to the North. Chicago was the choice location corner, ca. 1942. (Library of Congress)

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for those willing to migrate and share in the economic opportunities and social justice found in that city. The Great Migration movement almost tripled the black population of Chicago between the years 1910–18. This mass migration led to the banning of the Chicago Defender in southern towns and cities. The Chicago Defender became the most popular and largest black-owned newspaper in the United States. In addition to containing news and editorials, it covered society events, sports, and culture. Columns written by W. E. B. Du Bois, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, and Langston Hughes were also included in the newspaper. From the birth of the newspaper in 1905 to the 1920s, circulation grew from the initial three hundred copies to over two hundred thousand copies being read throughout the country. The Chicago Defender experienced a major circulation decline during the years of the Great Depression. During those same years, as Abbott’s health began to fail, his nephew, John Sengstacke, was appointed as publisher in 1939. Under Sengstacke’s leadership the newspaper experienced a rebirth and the circulation of readers began to rise in the 1940s. It became a daily newspaper in 1956 and was then called the Chicago Daily Defender. During the Civil Rights Movement the circulation of the Chicago Defender went into decline again. The movement and the newspaper did not keep pace with one another as the movement went forward and the newspaper became more critical of social issues. Other newspaper publishers began to publish black issues, integrate its workforce, and employ experienced black journalists. The newspaper suffered a major financial loss when the publisher, John Sengstacke, died in 1977. The newspaper company, Sengstacke Enterprises, was sold to Real Times in 2003 with David Milliner as the publisher. In 2004, as editor and general manager, Roland Martin initiated major changes to revive the Chicago Defender to its present state and become a profitable newspaper. Further Reading Fay, Robert. ‘‘Chicago Defender.’’ 1999. In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, 2nd ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Johns, Robert L. ‘‘Robert Sengstacke Abbott.’’ 1999. In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Sharon D. Brooks

Children and Youth The culture of children and youth is a significant phenomenon within African American popular culture. Children’s and youth culture is marked by distinct modes of language and slang, nonverbal body language, dance styles, hairstyles,

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fashion, extracurricular activities, and interests. Although African American culture among adults, as well as the young, may vary from region to region and across socioeconomic lines, the culture of black children and youth in lowerincome urban regions has figured particularly prominently in African American popular culture. In recent years, black youth culture, specifically Hip-Hop culture, has permeated nonblack communities, as well as black communities outside urban environments. Notwithstanding the prevalence of black youth culture, this cultural phenomenon has, historically, generated controversy. Roots of Children’s and Youth Culture The culture of African American children and youth originates in the shared history and experiences of blacks in the United States. During slavery, Africans were forcibly brought to North America as slaves. In this environment, cultural and linguistic differences between the many indigenous groups represented in the New World eventually eroded. Solidarity among African slaves increased in this horrific and traumatic period. With the passage of time, some African values and traditions remained or adapted into hybrid forms of cultural expression. Some traditions were entirely unique, reflecting the new life of slaves in the New World. The resulting fusion of traditional customs and value systems with newfangled practices produced the foundation of African American culture. Some distinguishing features of African American culture are dance, music, Religious Customs and Traditions, Soul Food, fashion, hairstyles, and expressive verbal and nonverbal communication styles. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or African American English is another cultural trait that originates in slavery. Among the many factors contributing to the development of AAVE was the fact that black slaves were excluded from mainstream society and denied education. African slaves naturally developed a Creole or hybrid language, yielding a distinct form of speech, pronunciation, and vocabulary. AAVE was largely perceived by dominant white culture as inferior and defective. Most free blacks, including the black elite, lived in isolated communities and emulated the culture of white middle and upper classes, distancing themselves from anything associated with black slave culture. The majority of blacks in the United States who toiled as slaves would not easily rebound from slavery after emancipation in 1863. The legacy of slavery yielded prodigious social, economic, and political disparities for blacks, many of which directly and indirectly affect blacks today. Following emancipation, many blacks left southern plantations to pursue better opportunities. Urban ghettos that developed in the early twentieth century were popular destinations for numerous blacks. Most African Americans were unable to permanently escape poverty, racism, and discrimination. In the cities, African Americans received the lowest pay, worked menial jobs, and resided in dilapidated and unhealthy housing projects and ghettos. Within these racially segregated neighborhoods, crime, drug use, and unemployment were high; single-headed family homes, mostly led by women, were rampant.

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Children’s and Youth Culture 1930s–1950s A prominent youth culture rapidly developed in urban black neighborhoods in the early twentieth century. Among the definitive features of this culture were complex forms of street slang, fashionable clothes, like Zoot Suits for males, and fast-paced couple dance styles, like the Lindy Hop. Dances were customarily embellished with spontaneous and innovative movements. African American musicians, specializing in jazz, blues, and big band music, produced an abundance of fast, driving tunes and easy, mellow melodies. Hairstyles were equally important. Both male and female youths increasingly wore straightened hairstyles. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), social activist Malcolm X describes his personal immersion in African American urban popular culture as a youth in the 1940s, of perfecting his swaggering appearance and fast-paced slang, and straightening his hair with lye. He frequented night clubs, navigated through the gritty street life, and delved into crime. 1960s–1970s In the 1960s and 1970s, blacks continued to live in segregated communities and suffer collectively from the effects of oppression, discrimination, and racism. The Black Power Movement was a powerful influence on youth culture, as well. In this community-centered and Afrocentric environment, African Americans referred to one another as ‘‘brother’’ and ‘‘sister.’’ Music, dance, soul food, religious worship, and the practice of whipping for disciplining children, which is believed to have originated during slavery times, became some of the hallmarks of African American culture. These elements were often coupled with street culture. Black children and youth were frequently misunderstood during this period. At institutions predominately staffed by white teachers and administration, black children and youth were often labeled as ‘‘problem kids.’’ Expressions such as ‘‘low-income families,’’ ‘‘disadvantaged youth,’’ and ‘‘inner-city kids’’ became synonymous with low academic performance, behavioral problems, and dysfunctional homes. Black children and youth were stigmatized for speaking AAVE, the dominant language spoken in black homes, and African American students overwhelmingly floundered academically, unable to master Standard English or curriculums that black scholars believed were geared towards privileged white students. Black children and youth frequently acted out in classrooms when they felt they were being misunderstood, mistreated, or disrespected. Because of cultural differences, white teachers did not always know how to manage behavioral issues in the classroom; thus, children labeled as problems were shuffled to remedial classrooms, held back a year, or suspended. Other times, black children and youth were signaled out for being exclusionary. African American students frequently showed preference for students of their own race during recess and lunch time. To be sure, children and youth naturally

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gravitate towards individuals who share their value systems and culture. When at play, black children and youth engaged in culturally specific activities. During recess or while school was in session, black youth participated in activities that mainstream society frequently deemed offensive. Woofing or sounding was a popular verbal game in which black children and youths exchanged witty insults before animated crowds. Through verbal games such as woofing, children developed verbal skills and gained esteem from the approval they received from their peers. Gangs functioned as a way for youth to survive street life, cope with poverty, and develop a sense of belonging in a society from which they felt alienated. Girl play consisted of such activities as handclapping games with rhythmic, sometimes, suggestive lyrics and Double Dutch, a jump rope game wherein two individuals turn two ropes for one or more jumpers. Girls frequently accentuated handclapping games and Double Dutch jumping with lively body swaying. Distinct hairstyles were also prominent among black children and youth. Boys and girls largely wore natural hairstyles, such as afros or braids, with or without beads. Depending on the environment and the trends of the time, some blacks preferred straight hairstyles over natural, ‘‘kinky’’ styles. Hair texture and skin color were sometimes targets for insults. The champions of urban black culture were largely African American scholars. In the 1960s and 1970s, blacks attempted to dispel false and racist thinking about black culture. Academics explained how aggressiveness in black children and youth was a byproduct of, among other others, street culture, racism, and poverty. They attempted to validate AAVE as an authentic language form that followed rules and patterns like Standard English. Scholars also lambasted Eurocentric institutions that were not culturally sensitive, did not embrace diversity, or failed to adequately include black history in the curriculum. They argued that exams, like the SAT and GRE, were discriminatory. 1980s and Beyond For most of the 1980s and 1990s, verbal and nonverbal communication, certain behaviors, fads, and interests among black and white children and youth remained largely divided. The practice of identifying race by cultural markers, not by skin color, is not a new concept. Black children and youth have long differentiated between ‘‘black’’ behavior and ‘‘white’’ behavior by observing certain markers. For example, a black person who does not have rhythm, listens to rock or country and western music, speaks Standard English, or participates in activities like swimming, hiking, skiing, and skateboarding might be, derisively, called ‘‘white’’ by another black person. However, black children and youth would largely attribute certain behaviors, activities, and trends, such as certain dance styles, like Break Dancing, a strutting and swaggering walk (for males), jheri curl hairstyles, particular slang terms, speech patterns, vocal sounds and styles, and sports like Basketball, to black identity. Some white performers, like Vanilla Ice, who wore a black hairstyle and Hip-Hop clothes, and rapped during the 1990s, established their careers by emulating black culture.

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Since the new millennium, the Afro-Americanization of nonblack youths is as apparent as ever. Children and youth of assorted ethnicities use black slang terms. Some even assume rhythmic patterns of black speech. Whites and blacks in the suburbs and elsewhere listen to rap, hip-hop, and Rhythm and Blues. Some whites imitate black youth dance styles, clothing styles, and hairstyles. Hip-hop culture has also mingled with the emergence of Christian youth culture among blacks. Gospel singers like Kirk Franklin, and a host of Christian rappers, have paved the way for a modern religious youth movement that incorporates secular black fashion and music styles. Issues The culture of African American youth and children raises numerous issues. One issue concerns the cultural definition of black youth. This particular issue came to a head in the 1980s with The Cosby Show, a popular television series that featured a middle-class black family. The heads of the household included Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby), a doctor, and Clair Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad), an attorney. They had five well-spoken children who excelled in school. At least two of the children were depicted as college-educated. Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet), the second oldest daughter, appeared in the spin-off, A Different World, in which she attended a historically black college. Many African Americans argued that the television series did not realistically represent African American life and youth culture. In 2004, Cosby controversially chided black youth for wearing oversized clothing, speaking slang-laden nonstandard English, and, basically, impeding the progress that blacks during the Civil Rights Movement fought and died for. Many African Americans have agreed with Cosby’s assessment, arguing, for example, that when black youth associate academic achievement, college education, and successful careers with white youth culture, they perpetuate a cycle of underachievement within the black community. Stereotyping is another problem that is associated with black youth culture. Television, film, and other media have played a part in depicting black children and youth in stereotypical and negative ways. Although the culture among black children and youth that has been described thus far is pronounced in the African American community, it is not all-pervasive. Nonetheless, whites, whether influenced by preexisting prejudices or the media, may address blacks using slang terms or AAVE. Intentional or not, the effect can be offensive to blacks. See also: Games, Video Games, and Toys; Hair and Hairstyles; Urban Culture

Further Reading Comer, James P., and Alvin F. Poussaint. 1992. Raising Black Children. New York: Plume. Dimitriadis, Greg. 2003. Friendship, Cliques, and Gangs: Young Black Men Coming of Age in Urban America. New York: Teachers College Press.

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Hopson, Darlene Powell and Derek S. Hopson. 1990. Different and Wonderful: Raising Black Children in a Race-Conscious Society. New York: Simon & Schuster. Kitwana, Bakari. 2002. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in AfricanAmerican Culture. New York: BasicCivitas Books. Ogbu, John U. 2003. Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb. Mahwah, N: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Sidness, Jack. 2009. ‘‘African American Vernacular English (Ebonics).’’ Language Varieties. http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/definitions/aave.html#grammar-hce. Gladys L. Knight

Chisholm, Shirley (1924–2005), Political Activist, Politician, Writer Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the United States Congress. She spent much of her life agitating for change in American popular culture, particularly in the areas of racial and gender equality. Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 30, 1924. Her parents struggled financially and eventually sent Chisholm and her two sisters to live with their maternal grandmother in Barbados. She credited her grandmother for educating her on the value of a strong character and determination. In 1934 Chisholm’s mother gave birth to another daughter and Chisholm and her sisters returned to the United States. Her father nurtured Chisholm’s political interests while her mother taught her to value civility, thrift, poise, humility, education, and spirituality. In 1936 the family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. It was here that she first encountered racial slurs. She also became aware of racial discrimination when her father’s work hours were cut because he was an African American. In 1939 the shy and self-conscious Chisholm enrolled in Girls High School. An avid reader, she maintained high grades and fostered a dream of becoming a teacher. With hopes of this dream coming true, she enrolled in classes at Brooklyn College, took part in the debating society, and became an active member in the Harriet Tubman Society for Negro History. Chisholm began to question the predominantly Irish American organization that controlled Brooklyn’s old Seventeenth Assembly District about ignoring issues affecting African Americans, who made up two-thirds of the constituents. She formed a sorority for African American women called Ipothia. Chisholm was active in community service; she volunteered with the National Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as well as hospitals and homes for the elderly. In 1946 she graduated with honors but found it difficult to find a job. Chisholm eventually found employment as a teacher with Calvary Child Care Center in Harlem and went on to become the director of the center. She enrolled

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in Columbia College’s graduate program to earn her master’s degree in early childhood education. While studying there, she met fellow student Conrad Chisholm. The couple married in 1949. Conrad Chisholm was employed as an investigator for New York City and supported Chisholm through most of her political career, until they divorced in 1977. Then she married Arthur Hardwick. In 1953 Chisholm became director of the Friends in Need Nursery School in Brooklyn. She left after a year to become the director of the Harlem-Madison Child Care Center. In 1959 she became a consultant for the Division of Day Care in New York City and continued to volunteer in Bedford-Stuyvesant. She assisted in setting up youth programs and petitioned for improved Shirley Chisholm was an important civil rights postal services and sanitation. leader and the first African-American woman Chisholm served on the board of elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, directors of the Albany Houses representing the 12th New York District from 1969 to 1983. Chisholm, a Democrat, became Public Housing Project. In 1953, Chisholm worked with the first African American woman to seek a her mentor, Wesley Holder, to major political party’s nomination for the U.S. presidency in 1972. (Library of Congress) help elect the first African American judge in the history of Brooklyn; this paved the way for Chisholm and Holder to found the BedfordStuyvesant Political League (BSPL). In 1958 Chisholm ran for president of the BSPL against Holder but lost. This put a rift in their relationship for ten years. She assisted in founding the Unity Democratic Club, whose main goal was to get the white political machine out of the Seventeenth Assembly District. Unity nominated Chisholm to fill the empty seat in the New York Assembly in 1964. This election was made bittersweet with the death of her father during the campaign. Of the fifty bills she introduced, eight were passed. The most noteworthy of the eight passed bills was the creation of SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge) program, which allowed poor students the opportunity to attend college. Chisholm also worked to extend unemployment

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insurance coverage to domestic employees and to provide state aid to day care centers. Chisholm reunited with Holder in 1968 when she ran for Brooklyn’s new Twelfth District of the U.S. Congress. Her slogan was ‘‘Fighting Shirley Chisholm–Unbought and Unbossed.’’ Chisholm needed emergency surgery and lost some political ground to her opponent, James Farmer. Her fluency in Spanish, however, brought her the Hispanic vote. With nearly 60 percent of registered voters being female, Chisholm received the support of women’s organizations and won the election. In 1969 as a newly elected U.S. Representative, Chisholm wanted to be assigned to the House Education and Labor Committee, but was assigned to the House Committee for Rural Development and Forestry. She spoke out against her assignment and was reassigned to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. In 1971, she was assigned to the House Education and Labor Committee; this assignment enabled Chisholm to focus on issues affecting her constituents. Her greatest achievement came in the mid-1970s, when she successfully led the congressional opposition to President Gerald Ford’s veto of federal support for state day care services. In January 1972, she announced her candidacy for the U.S. presidency; this made Chisholm the first woman and African American to make a serious run for the office of president of the United States. In 1984, Chisholm cofounded the National Political Congress of Black Women. In 1993, President Clinton offered Chisholm the opportunity to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica. She declined due to health reasons. Chisholm retired to Florida where she died on January 1, 2005. She is remembered for being a maverick in politics and for her autobiographical works,(1970) and The Good Fight (1973). Further Reading Canson, Patricia E. 2008. ‘‘Chisholm, Shirley.’’ In African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Dalrymple, Daniel. 2005. ‘‘Shirley Chisholm.’’ Black Women in America, 2nd ed. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Duckworth, Alan. 1992. ‘‘Shirley Chisholm.’’ In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Catherine Culver

Chitlin Circuit Some reports credit a young Quincy Jones with coining the term ‘‘chitlin circuit’’ during his early days as a musician. Others simply point to the fact that the circuit consisted of a chain of small, black-owned and black-patronized nightclubs throughout the United States, mostly in the South, which featured up-and-coming

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or formerly famous black singers, dancers, musicians, and comedians. In these clubs, food was as much a feature as the entertainment. These small clubs served chitlins, fried chicken, fried fish, ham hocks, greens, and cornbread on their menus. However, the distinct smell of chitlins often came to be associated with the downhome, small, and poor atmosphere of the establishments on the tour. The circuit actually represents nightclubs or theater venues that did not enjoy the noteworthiness or grandeur of the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Although they were less organized than the bookings of the defunct Theater Owners Booking Association, they were a far stretch better than the traveling tent shows that some black performers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century had to endure on their way to fame. Performers endured low pay, out-of-the-way clubs, bouncing checks, and cheap hotel rooms. As Mel Watkins noted of the clubs on the circuit, ‘‘you usually needed a ghetto guide to find them.’’ The chitlin circuit, a result of segregation, thrived and survived in ways that its predecessors did not. Although many urban areas enjoyed a somewhat seamy and exoticized interracial socialization in the entertainment and nightlife of the 1920s, very few such scenes survived after the decade. Speakeasies and nightclubs in Harlem and Chicago and black Broadway shows, like Shuffle Along, catered to mixed but mainly white audiences. However, during the Depression, modes of socialization regressed. Around this time, the divergent interests and tastes of the white and black communities produced separate entertainment opportunities and options. While the major force behind these upstart venues was segregation, a secondary consideration was the differences in what whites and blacks wanted to see of black culture. For awhile the Theatre Owners Booking Association, a Memphis-based, Italian-owned network, sought to meet the needs of these populations by arranging performances at theaters across the nation, but in 1932 the organization could no longer survive the Depression, and it folded. In many ways, the chitlin circuit was more economically and politically empowering for African Americans. The chitlin circuit provided black performers with an incredible amount of autonomy. On Race Records, race films, and the Theatre Owners Booking Association circuit, white producers, directors, and theater owners primarily controlled and determined what material would be suitable for records, film, and audiences. Many African American Folklore traditions remain alive today because the chitlin circuit was governed by African American needs (and owners). Rather than removing crucial elements of folklore from their acts, performers were able to use folkloric material explicitly to create entertaining and socially critical routines because they were performing specifically for black audiences. Notable chitlin circuit places were the Rooster Tail, Twenty Grand in New York, Mr. D’s in Detroit, the Hurricane in Pittsburgh, and the Sunshine Club in Central Florida. Beginning in the 1930s, entertainers such as Bessie Smith, Dinah Washington, Moms Mabley, Redd Foxx, Nat King Cole, LaWanda Page, Nipsey Russell, Dick Gregory, and others received their initial show biz training on the chitlin circuit.

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Today, non-Broadway black theater plays and troupes have inspired the revival of the term to describe their efforts. These plays often rely on comedy, music, melodrama, and themes from everyday life as opposed to the tensions from social and political agendas of black life. Like members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) who criticized the chitlin circuit of the early twentieth century, critics such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. and August Wilson have been quick to view current black traveling theater shows as another disgrace in the theatrical history of black culture that already includes vaudeville and minstrels. However, others see the production and touring of a play such as Vy Higgensen’s Mama, I Want to Sing (a seminal work in the genre) as a Garveyesque model of self-determination for black cultural productions still economically disenfranchised and less represented in mainstream American fare. See also: Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Further Reading Gates, Henry L. Jr. 2000. ‘‘The Chitlin Circuit.’’ In African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader. Harry J. Elam and David Krasner, eds. New York and London: Oxford University Press. Watkins, Mel. 1994. On the Real Side: Laughing, Lying, and Signifying—The Underground Tradition of African American Humor That Transformed American Culture, from Slavery to Richard Pryor. New York: Simon & Schuster. Wilson, August. 2001. The Ground on Which I Stand (Dramatic Contexts). New York: Theater Communications Group. LaMonda Horton-Stallings

Churches Gatherings for religious purposes have always been a part of African cultures, antedating the slave trade that brought millions of Africans to the New World of North America, including the land areas that would eventually become the United States. Part of the early ‘‘processing’’ of captured and enslaved Africans included separating families, tribes, and others who spoke similar languages, and inflicting severe punishment (including death) upon those who attempted to communicate, slavers fearing the possibility of organized resistance or outright rebellion. This extended even to the use of drums, after the enslavers discovered that they could be used to communicate messages as well as music. Native religious practices were generally categorized as ‘‘heathen’’ and also strongly suppressed or totally prohibited on slave ships and in slave communities, as debates over the humanity of Africans and their fitness for conversion to Christianity (the dominant religion of slaveholders) continued. As the

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institution of slavery expanded, exposure to the ‘‘white man’s religion’’ did lead to numerous slave conversions, with many blacks becoming painfully aware of the inconsistencies and hypocrisy of the professed beliefs and actual practices of white Christian slaveholders and supporters of the plantation system and economy. This included labeling African languages and names as heathen and replacing them with Christianized names, while at the same time defining them as property (in many cases to the point of branding them as another form of livestock). Some Africans who were Muslims before their enslavement made efforts to continue their religious practices if or when allowed, or in secret.

New Faith in a New Land Even when blacks did seek to actively practice their new faith, gatherings were forbidden in many instances unless supervised and/or led by whites, again due to the possibility of organizing efforts against the ‘‘peculiar institution.’’ Despite the efforts to maintain complete control over the lives of slaves, religious gatherings (both open and secret) were used by slaves as support systems to endure as well as agitate against the hardships of chattel slavery. The ‘‘sorrow songs’’ that came to be known as Negro Spirituals documented their identification with the Hebrew slavery and liberation texts of the Old Testament; many also included double meanings when used to indicate other intentions (such as ‘‘Steal Away’’ and ‘‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’’ being sung to indicate a time to attempt an escape from a plantation). Informal and formal religious meetings continued, as some slaveholders saw them as safe outlets for expression that prevented outright rebellions and/or mass escape attempts. Others felt that by manipulating and teaching selected passages of the Bible, the continuation of slavery could be justified, along with laws, codes, severe punishments, and other restrictions in place to prevent blacks from learning to read and gain understanding of books and other written material. Despite the hypocrisy involved in the way Christianity was preached and practiced, many Africans who adopted the religion subtly and/or secretly added insights and perspectives based in their previous cultural and religious practices. In the colonial or plantation setting, African ‘‘priests’’ or ‘‘medicine men’’ evolved into ‘‘slave preachers’’ as blacks learned more about the Bible from influences including white ministers and other Christians from various groups, including the Church of England (also and later known as Anglicans or Episcopalians), Quakers, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Methodists, and Baptists, as well as from each other. Over time, more Africans also learned (from sympathetic whites and/or each other, often in secret) how to read as well as speak ‘‘the Word,’’ with the majority being attracted to the Methodist and Baptist denominations.

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In 1758 the first documented congregation of African American Baptists was established on a plantation owned by William Byrd in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, and by the 1770s black Baptist churches also existed in Silver Bluff, South Carolina; Williamsburg, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia. John Marrant, a free black, became a Methodist preacher who was among the first to do missionary and evangelism work with Native Americans in the 1770s, and later became well-known for his autobiographical writings. In the northern United States, slavery was far less prevalent, but even ‘‘free Negro’’ Christians experienced prejudice and discrimination from whites in many of the mainline churches and denominations, and responded by establishing their own religious organizations. The most well-known examples include Richard Allen, who was born a slave in Philadelphia in 1760. He eventually purchased his own freedom, and returned to his native city to begin occasional preaching at (predominantly white) St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in 1786. As a result of his ministry, black membership in the congregation dramatically increased. In November 1787, Allen, Absalom Jones, and other black members (who had recently helped in expansion of the St. George’s church facilities) were forced to pray and worship in separate sections of the building. Their response was to leave the church and worship on their own in a facility of the Free African Society, also established by Allen and Jones earlier in the same year. Jones and the majority of the group decided to stay within the Episcopal denomination, and dedicated the building as St. Thomas (African) Protestant Episcopal Church in 1794, with Jones ordained as its pastor and the first African American Episcopal priest. Allen insisted on remaining a Methodist, and established Bethel (Methodist) Church of Philadelphia in the same year. He developed the first written collection of Negro spirituals in 1801, and in 1816 he joined with black congregations from Baltimore and other cities to formally establish the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church as the first major African American religious denomination in the United States. The group elected Daniel Coker, who declined to serve, so Allen became the first bishop of the church. Allen also acknowledged the ministry of Jarena Lee in 1819, but she was never appointed to pastor a church; she served as a traveling evangelist. During the same period the first African American Presbyterian church was founded by another former slave. John Gloucester, a native of Kentucky, received early training from Presbyterian minister Gideon Blackburn in Kentucky and Tennessee, where he preached to Cherokee Indians. In 1807 Gloucester met Archibald Alexander, who convinced him to relocate to the Philadelphia area, and the First African Presbyterian Church was established during the same year. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church, based in New York City, became the second major denomination for black Americans in 1821 and

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elected James Varick as its first bishop. This was the result of earlier efforts dating back to 1796, when black Methodists in the city first petitioned to organize their own church, and in 1801, when they formally incorporated with a board of trustees. Both Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman were affiliated with the AMEZ Church; while they were political as well as spiritual activist leaders like Lee, neither held formal leadership positions in the church. Black Churches in the Nineteenth Century At the time of the 1800 Census, it was estimated that 25 percent of all Methodists and Baptists in the United States were African Americans. During the early 1800s, black congregations continued to develop independently of white churches and denominations in both the northeastern and southern United States, in locations as diverse as Fayetteville, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Wilmington, Delaware; Mobile, Alabama; and New Orleans, Louisiana. Abyssinian Baptist Church was founded in New York City by Thomas Paul in 1809, and has continued as a major African American religious institution for two centuries. As the issue of slavery became a moral and theological, as well as economic, social, and political debate with the rise of the abolitionist movement, black churches and ministers began to play significant roles in both free and slave states. The three largest slave revolts in the history of the United States were orchestrated by slave ministers: Gabriel Prosser in the area near Richmond, Virginia (1800); Denmark Vesey in Charleston, South Carolina (1822); and Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia (1831). As a result, organized black religious activity in these and other areas became suspect, as church meetings were perceived as gatherings with political as well as religious purposes. Several southern states enacted ‘‘black codes’’ to restrict nearly all forms of social, economic, and religious conduct, including strict supervision by whites of black religious services. Even in this climate, ‘‘African Baptist’’ churches thrived in places such as Savannah, Georgia, and Richmond, Virginia, in the mid-1800s. In 1829, African American Roman Catholic women formed the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, Maryland, as the first order (congregation) of black Roman Catholic nuns, and in 1834, the Providence Baptist Association in Ohio became the first independent organization of blacks in that denomination. White churches continued to evangelize the slave population in the South, but focused on passages such as ‘‘Servants be obedient to your masters . . . as unto Christ’’ (Ephesians 6:5) in order to justify the system of slavery. Their disagreement with Christians in the North over slavery led to ‘‘church splits’’ and development of denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1845. Southern white Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics also generally supported the

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slavery system and secession from the United States during the Civil War (1861–65). After the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves was issued on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln and fully enacted when the Union won the war, blacks took advantage of their spiritual as well as physical freedom by continuing to establish their own churches independently or as part of one of the existing African American denominations. As a result, the tradition of New Year’s Eve ‘‘Watch Night’’ services observed in many African American churches began as a remembrance of emancipation, as well as a celebration of the transition into a new year. With assistance from organizations such as the Freedmen’s Bureau and the American Missionary Association, many of these southern black churches also started schools to address the need for practical and spiritual education of newly freed blacks. As a result, the overwhelming number of schools which came to be known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) can trace their beginnings to African American Protestant churches during the postwar Reconstruction period. In 1864, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Baltimore, Maryland, became the first parish for African Americans in the Roman Catholic Church. Black ministers assumed new positions of leadership inside and outside religious organizations during the war years and Reconstruction. AME bishop Daniel Payne became the first black college president (at Wilberforce University, in Ohio, established by the denomination in 1863), while fellow AME bishop Henry McNeal Turner served as the first black army chaplain (1863) and first black postmaster (1869). Patrick Francis Healy became the first black Jesuit priest in 1867 and first black president of a Roman Catholic college (Georgetown University, Washington, DC, in 1874). His brother, James Augustine Healy, was ordained the first African American Roman Catholic bishop (1875) and his sister Eliza Healy became the first African American nun to become mother superior of a convent. In 1865, Presbyterian minister Henry Highland Garnet became the first African American to speak before the U.S. House of Representatives, and in 1870, AME minister Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first black U.S. senator. White southern violence and political backlash ended the brief period of black social and political empowerment, exemplified in the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding legal segregation of the races. Despite these events, by the end of the nineteenth century several additional black churches and denominations were established, including the Colored (now Christian) Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church in 1870; the Christian Faith Bands which became the Church of God (Apostolic) in 1876; St. Paul’s Colored Lutheran Church (1878); the National Baptist Convention USA (1895); and the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in 1897. Key figures and founders included CME bishops William Miles, Richard Vanderhorst, and Isaac Lane; Apostolic elder Thomas J Cox; and COGIC ministers Charles Price Jones and Charles Harrison Mason.

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Church Development in the Early Twentieth Century Other African American religious organizations formed during the early years of the twentieth century included the Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of Truth in 1903 (notable for its female founder and chief overseer/ bishop, Mary Magdalena Lewis Tate), and the National Baptist Convention of America (which split from the National Baptist Convention USA in 1915) led by Richard H. Boyd. The Azusa Street Revival, an extended series of multiracial religious meetings led by African American minister William J. Seymour in Los Angeles between 1906 and 1909, is credited as a primary source of the modern Pentecostal/Holiness religious movement in the United States. COGIC founder C. H. Mason was directly impacted by his participation at Azusa in 1907, and Seymour’s influence spread beyond the African American community as other Azusa ‘‘alumni’’ separated in 1914 to form the predominantly white Assemblies of God Pentecostal denomination. In 1914 Hampton Institute (now University) in Virginia established an annual ministers’ conference as a means to assist black churches in the development of their leadership and congregations. Its focus expanded to church/ worship music in 1934 with the addition of special annual workshops for church choir directors and musicians, and has continued and expanded this tradition well into the twenty-first century. Many other religious denominations and associations continued to convene one or more convocations, conferences, and other mass meetings of their followers on a national and international basis, and some groups supplement these events with regional, state, and local gatherings. Within the Methodist Episcopal Church (which also split north and south during the pre-Civil War period), black Methodist congregations were organized separately into eight regional conferences as of 1868. The Methodist Episcopal Church, North was instrumental in the founding of twelve HBCUs, and reunited with the other major white Methodist bodies in 1939, but black Methodists remained in a separate national Central Jurisdiction that elected its own bishops (who only served black congregations and conferences). This arrangement continued until 1968, when the present United Methodist Church (UMC) was established. After the Central Jurisdiction was dissolved, black congregations and conferences were absorbed into the white conferences by geographical region. During the same period black Methodists organized a caucus named Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) as a means to address African American issues and involvement in the denomination at large.

Black Churches in the Urban Setting The ‘‘Great Migration’’ of blacks from the South to northern, eastern, and western regions of the United States during the first half of the twentieth century was spurred by the hope of work in manufacturing and other industries, as well as escape from Jim Crow segregation and blatant discrimination. The influx of

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African Americans also impacted the overall development of churches, as they sought to continue previous religious practices or adapt to different worship settings in the urban environment. While the majority still affiliated with the established denominational churches, others took a more entrepreneurial approach by developing independent churches and religious organizations, many beginning in humble ‘‘storefront’’ settings. Religious personalities such as George ‘‘Father Divine’’ Baker, Charles Emanuel ‘‘Sweet Daddy’’ Grace, and Frederick ‘‘Reverend Ike’’ Eikerenkotter brought charismatic, entrepreneurial, and often controversial approaches to Christian doctrine and urban ministry, and developed considerable followings beyond citybased black communities. During the Great Depression, Father Divine’s Peace Mission and Daddy Grace’s United House of Prayer for All People joined mainstream churches such as Abyssinian Baptist Church in providing resources and services to assist the poor and unemployed, offsetting their perception as ‘‘cults.’’ Noble Drew Ali established the Moorish Science Temple in 1913, while Wallace D. Fard and Elijah Muhammad promoted and developed what became known as the Nation of Islam (NOI) in Chicago. Their version of the religion gained popularity, notoriety, and controversy, especially during the 1960s, through the charismatic leadership of Malcolm X and the conversion of boxing champion Cassius Clay, who changed his name to Muhammad Ali. After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 (who embraced orthodox Islam after his pilgrimage to Mecca and discovery of improprieties connected with Muhammad and the NOI), Muhammad continued to head the organization until his death in 1975. His son and designated successor Wallace/Warith Muhammad also embraced a more traditional version of Islam and created the American Muslim Mission, but lost support and eventually disbanded the organization. Louis Farrakhan revived the NOI and became its principal leader in 1978. Farrakhan generated numerous controversies, but gained attention for his role in organizing the successful Million Man March in 1995. African Americans continued to establish churches, caucuses, and sects associated with Christian denominations such as the Roman Catholic, Church of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Seventh Day Adventists, Disciples of Christ, Apostolic, Holiness, Pentecostal, and various Church of God denominations, as well as numerous independent, nondenominational, and/or ecumenical ministries. Smaller numbers of African Americans are active in other religious traditions such as Judaism, New Thought (Metaphysical), Spiritualist, Vodoun/Voodoo, Yoruba, African/Pan-African, Rastafarian, Ethiopian/Orthodox/ Coptic, and numerous others. African American Churches in Civil Rights, Politics, and Economics African American churches and ‘‘mass meetings’’ became vital locations for information, organization, training, and mobilization of communities during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and the majority of movement leaders were ministers and church pastors. Theodore J. Jemison (later president of the

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National Baptist Convention USA) led a successful bus boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana before the Alabama Montgomery Bus Boycott elevated Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence in the late 1950s. King and other ministers created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. With King as its first president, this formal organization continued activism and efforts for social change in racial laws, customs, and relations, primarily in the South but also in other parts of the nation. After King’s assassination in 1968, his closest associate and fellow Baptist minister Ralph Abernathy succeeded him as president, followed in later years by Methodist minister Joseph Lowery, Martin Luther King III, Baptist minister/activist Fred Shuttlesworth, and Charles K. Steele, Jr. (son and namesake of another original SCLC pastor/activist). SCLC actively networked with more established civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the National Urban League, and the ministers continued to provide leadership in local, regional, and national civil rights activities. Ella Baker, activist and SCLC staff member, assisted in the formal organization of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, shortly after sits-in by students in Greensboro, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee, launched the large-scale involvement of young people in the movement. While the Greensboro sit-in was a spontaneous action by four young men, the Nashville students were organized and trained in nonviolent protest over several months by ministers James Lawson, Kelly Miller Smith, and C. T. Vivian, associates of King whose Nashville Christian Leadership Conference organization (NCLC) was a local branch of the SCLC. King and his Baptist colleagues were considered radicals and troublemakers within the National Baptist Convention USA (NBC/USA). Its conservative leader, Joseph H. Jackson, maintained control after a challenge to his reelection in 1960 by Gardner C. Taylor, a King supporter. The following year the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC) was established after Jackson removed King and his supporters from leadership positions in the NBC/USA, and Taylor became president of the new organization. The National Baptist Convention of America experienced its own split in 1988 when the descendants of R. H. Boyd (who maintained control and legal ownership of the denomination’s publishing house) and their supporters formed the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America. The National Baptist Publishing Board was changed to R. H. Boyd Publishing in 1997, and continued into the twenty-first century under the leadership of T. B. Boyd III (the fourth generation of the family to head the company). Adam Clayton Powell Jr., pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, became a prominent (and often controversial) example of a minister directly involved in politics when he was elected to multiple terms as a United States Congressman representing the Harlem community. In later years Andrew Young and John Lewis, civil rights activists and associates of Martin Luther King Jr. with previous training or service in ministry both held high political offices. Young served in the U.S. Congress, as mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, and as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, while Lewis eventually succeeded Young in Congress as a representative from the Atlanta area. William ‘‘Bill’’

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Gray (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Floyd Flake (Queens, New York City), and Emmanuel Cleaver (former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri) are other examples of ministers who have served as federal elected officials in the modern era; after resigning from Congress, Gray served as president of the United Negro College Fund, while Flake also served as president of his alma mater, the AME-affiliated Wilberforce University. DeForest ‘‘Buster’’ Soaries combined his pastorate with service as New Jersey secretary of state, and was one of the first state officials on the scene after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Activist ministers Jesse Jackson (another King associate), Leon H. Sullivan (a prot
eg
e of Powell), and Al Sharpton gained attention and exerted influence through their respective organizations as well as traditional church structures. Jackson worked primarily through the Chicago-based People United to Save/ Serve Humanity and the Rainbow Coalition for economic and political concerns, while Sullivan developed the Opportunities Industrialization Center concept into a national employment training program. His ‘‘Sullivan Principles’’ were adopted as guidelines for American corporations doing business with South Africa, creating economic and political pressure that contributed to the ending of apartheid, the country’s culture of legal racial separation. Sharpton, a former Pentecostal ‘‘boy preacher,’’ later became a Baptist minister and established the National Action Network in New York City to address black issues and concerns. He received extensive media exposure as a spokesperson for individuals and cases such as murder victim Amadou Diallo, the Jena 6 in Louisiana, and entertainers James Brown and Michael Jackson. Jesse Jackson and Sharpton also entered national politics as Democratic presidential candidates (Jackson in 1984 and 1988; Sharpton in 2004), but without success. Black Megachurches and Megapreachers African American ministers and congregations became part of the megachurch phenomenon in the last two decades of the twentieth century. While some were affiliated with one of the historically African American denominations, many were developed as independent ministries. Charismatic pastors such as T. D. Jakes, Frederick K. C. Price, Keith Butler, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, and others embraced progressive approaches to worship involving contemporary gospel music, dance, drama, and other art forms to communicate the gospel alongside regular preaching and teaching. In 2000, Kenneth Ulmer made headlines when his church (Faithful Central Bible Church in Los Angeles) purchased the Forum (former home of the Los Angeles Lakers) to accommodate the size of their congregation. Former priest George A. Stallings separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1989 to found the Imani Temple African American Catholic Congregation in Washington, DC, as an African-centered alternative to traditional Roman Catholicism. He was subsequently elevated to archbishop and founded additional Imani Temple locations in the United States and Nigeria, despite his excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church. Other pastors sought to balance traditional and contemporary church doctrines and worship

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while remaining within established denominational structures. Floyd Flake (Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York), Kirbyjon Caldwell (Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston), and Charles Blake (West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles) are notable examples in this category. After the death of Gilbert O. Patterson, Blake was elected as presiding bishop and chief apostle over the entire COGIC denomination in 2007. Frequent and strategic use of television and other media also increased the growth and recognition of African American megachurches, whose membership numbered in thousands. The financial resources of these churches were often used to empower African Americans through community development initiatives, but in some instances the ‘‘prosperity gospel’’ message was perceived as primarily benefiting church pastors and leadership. As sexual and financial scandals involving ministers received widespread publicity in the 1980s and 1990s, religious organizations of all sizes and their leaders were being more highly scrutinized by not only the general public, but in some cases by government authorities including law enforcement, courts, the U.S. Congress, and the Internal Revenue Service. In 2008, the church and former pastor of Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama were in the national spotlight. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. of Trinity United Church of Christ, a megachurch in Chicago, became a major political issue after controversial statements from some of his sermons received wide publicity. Obama publicly distanced himself from the statements in a major speech on racial issues and ended his active membership of the church, but also took care to note the positive influence of Wright on his Christian faith, family, and the Chicago community. As a result, Obama maintained his political campaign’s momentum, won the Democratic nomination, and was elected as the first African American president of the United States on November 4, 2008. African American Women in Church Leadership Although the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church began ordaining women as deacons and elders as early as 1894, they were an exception to the rule, as most African American churches and denominations still resisted or officially restricted women as preachers and pastors. Some women responded by continuing to establish independent ministries and religious organizations. In addition to Mary Tate, other pioneer women pastors included Ida Robinson, bishop and founder of Mount Sinai Holy Church in Philadelphia (1924) and Lucy Smith, elder and founder of All Nations Pentecostal Church in Chicago (1930s). In more recent years, Barbara King (Hillside International Truth Center in Atlanta), Johnnie Coleman (Christ Universal Temple in Chicago), and Betty Peebles (Jericho City of Praise Church in Landover, Maryland) are notable examples of women pastors who have sustained successful ministries. Women ministers made major breakthroughs in religious leadership in the final decades of the twentieth century, and continued their influence into the new millennium. In 1984, Leontine T. C. Kelly became the first African American woman bishop in the United Methodist Church, and in 1989, Barbara Harris

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became the first woman bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion (the Episcopal Church in the United States). The AME Church became the first historically black religious denomination to elect a woman bishop when Vashti Murphy McKenzie was elevated in 2000; she went on to become the chair of the denomination’s Council of Bishops and titular head of the church in 2005. Suzan Johnson Cook became the first African American woman ordained as a senior pastor in the Baptist denomination in 1983, gained national recognition in 1996 when she was appointed to serve on President Bill Clinton’s Initiative on Race, and was the first woman president of the Hampton Ministers’ Conference. In June 2009, Alysa Stanton, who converted to Judaism after being raised in the Pentecostal tradition, became the first African American female to be ordained as a rabbi after completing rabbinical training at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Black Church Music: Freedom Songs from Spirituals to Gospel Gospel music developed as an offshoot and alternative to the ‘‘psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs’’ presented in traditional worship and concert settings by choirs, soloists, and ensembles such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, and others. Its musical pioneers included Methodist minister and songwriter Charles A. Tindley in Philadelphia, who in turn influenced Baptist composer/songwriter and choral director Thomas A. Dorsey. A former blues pianist based in Chicago known as ‘‘Georgia Tom’’ during his years with blues legend Ma Rainey, Dorsey worked closely with gospel singer Sallie Martin in promoting his compositions, and gained eventual acceptance and recognition as the ‘‘Father of Gospel Music’’ and founder of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in 1932. Roberta Martin, Lucie Campbell, and J. Herbert Brewster were some of the other notable early composers of gospel music. At first, the music was rejected by more conservative churches which disapproved of its ‘‘worldly’’ influences (blues and jazz elements), but its popularity grew over time as presented by notable singers such as Clara Ward and her sisters, Rosetta Tharpe, and Mahalia Jackson, the ‘‘Queen of Gospel Music,’’ who recorded and performed gospel music by Dorsey and other composers in international venues. Other traveling soloists, small groups including gospel quartets and ensembles, and choirs established gospel music in both church and nonchurch settings including auditoriums, theaters, and concert halls. As artists embraced new communication and entertainment technologies, their recordings and broadcasts eventually caused gospel music to become a viable segment of the entertainment industry as well as religious culture. Singer, pianist, songwriter, and Baptist minister James Cleveland became a leading figure in the next generation of gospel singers and musicians as part of the Caravans gospel group founded by Albertina Walker in 1952, which launched the musical careers/ministries of Shirley Caesar, Inez Andrews, Dorothy Norwood, Cassietta George, Bessie Griffin, James Herndon, Delores Washington, and many other notable gospel artists. Cleveland was known as the ‘‘Crown Prince’’ and

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‘‘King of Gospel,’’ founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America in 1966, and continued to travel and record extensively before his illness and death in 1991. Walker inherited the title of ‘‘Queen of Gospel’’ after the death of Mahalia Jackson in 1972; Andrews was called the ‘‘High Priestess,’’ while Caesar is often referred to as the ‘‘First Lady of Gospel Music’’ as well as a recognized evangelist and pastor. Aretha Franklin, the ‘‘Queen of Soul,’’ began her musical career in church as the daughter of influential Detroit pastor C. L. Franklin, while Sam Cooke (formerly of the Soul Stirrers gospel group) also received acclaim as a secular artist in the Rhythm and Blues and Pop Music arenas. They are two of many famous examples of church-based singers and musicians who crossed over to the secular entertainment industry, presenting material dealing with worldly concerns such as male-female relationships as well as spiritual and Christian themes. The direct incorporation of gospel elements into R & B by Ray Charles helped him to become a music icon, but also created controversy in conservative church circles, which accused him of ‘‘turning God’s music into the devil’s music.’’ Black churches were often the staging grounds for many mass meetings and protest demonstrations of the 1950s and 1960s, and also influenced the creation of ‘‘freedom songs’’ addressing civil rights issues. Sung by activists such as the Freedom Riders in 1961, and later by other student protestors including Bernice Johnson Reagon and the Freedom Singers in Albany, Georgia, the songs combined elements of spiritual, gospel, and folk music, and in some cases were the same tunes with different lyrics. In the years after the Civil Rights Movement Reagon continued to document, preserve, and perform freedom songs. She founded the female ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock to present and record older styles of black religious and folk music as well as the freedom songs. Contemporary developments in gospel music were spearheaded in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Cleveland, Franklin, and artists such as the Staples Singers and the Rance Allen Group who were affiliated with Stax Records, the soul record label based in Memphis, Tennessee. The next generation of gospel artists included persons such as the Hawkins Family (including Edwin, Walter, Tramaine, and Lynette), Andrae and Sandra Crouch, Richard Smallwood, and others. Most of these younger artists were affiliated with Baptist and Pentecostal/Holiness traditions that embraced the use of modern influences such as electric instruments and technology for worship services as well as music concerts and recordings, and were creative in using R & B, jazz, and even classical elements alongside more traditional spiritual/gospel in their presentations. Bobby Jones became a major figure in gospel music television production, as his local program became nationally syndicated on the Black Entertainment Television (BET) cable network and internationally syndicated on the U.S. Armed Forces Network. The national music director of the Church of God in Christ, Mattie Moss Clark, also moved gospel music in new directions, and her daughters would gain crossover appeal among secular as well as gospel audiences as the Clark Sisters during the 1980s, continuing the gospel tradition of sisters groups such as the Barrett Sisters and the Drinkard Sisters (which produced gospel/pop singers Dionne Warwick, Dee Dee Warwick, and Cissy Houston). Houston, also a choir/

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musical director, joined Aretha’s sisters Irma and Carolyn to form the Sweet Inspirations and provide background vocals for numerous recording artists (most notably Aretha and Elvis Presley); her daughter, Whitney Houston, became one of the top vocalists in the music industry during the 1980s and early 1990s. The Winans family of Detroit also emerged as the ‘‘First Family of Gospel Music’’ and multiple Grammy Award winners in the last two decades of the twentieth century, including the Winans (quartet of brothers Ronald, twins Marvin and Carvin, and Michael); brother-sister duo/solo artists BeBe Winans and CeCe Winans; solo artist Daniel; sister duo Angelique ‘‘Angie’’ and Deborah ‘‘Debbie’’; and parents Delores ‘‘Mom’’ and David ‘‘Pop,’’ who also recorded together, with their children, and as solo artists. Vickie Winans (former wife of Marvin) and Winans Phase Two (sons of the Winans brothers) are other family members who have received recognition as gospel artists. The male sextet Take 6 also emerged in the 1980s from Oakwood College, an HBCU affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist denomination, to combine traditional a cappella (no instrumental accompaniment) vocals dating back to the Negro spirituals with modern jazz harmonies to take gospel music in yet another direction. Artists such as Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin, Hezekiah Walker, Donald Lawrence, Israel Houghton, Tye Tribbett, the sister duo Mary Mary, and others continued progressive development of gospel music in the 1990s and first decade of the twenty-first century through the addition of Rock and Roll, rap, and Hip-Hop elements to broaden the appeal of the music and its messages to younger audiences. African American Churches in the New Millennium Numerous communication developments, including cable and satellite television networks, the Internet, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, more powerful and compact cell phones, computers, and other media applications signal that innovation and technology can be used to complement as well as challenge the traditional role of African American churches in the communities they serve. Its leaders, followers, and supporters must continue to balance the best of its historical traditions with wise adjustments to present realities in the new millennium, remembering and maintaining the ‘‘faith of our fathers,’’ mothers, and foreparents in an age of instant communication while creating new dynamics for the spiritual development of African Americans and others in their spheres of influence. See also: Black Theology; Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations; Megachurches and Ministers; Politics and the Black Church; Religious Customs and Traditions; Television Evangelism Further Reading Frazier, E. Franklin. 1964. The Negro Church in America. New York: Schocken Books. Hill, Samuel S. and Charles H. Lippy, eds. 2005. Encyclopedia of Religion in the South. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.

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Lincoln, C. Eric and Lawrence H. Mamiya. 1990. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. McNeil, W. K., ed. 2005. Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music. New York: Routledge. Murphy, Larry G. 2003. African-American Faith in America. New York: Facts on File. Payne, Wardell J., ed. 1991. Directory of African American Religious Bodies. Washington, DC: Howard University Press. Fletcher F. Moon

Circuses The form of entertainment known as the circus was first seen in the United States in 1793. Thus, for over two centuries millions of families annually flocked to the circus. Savannah, Georgia, hosted a circus as early as 1801 and the circus appeal continued throughout the state to the present, providing a window into southern taste in popular culture. Strictly an urban amusement, circuses may have stayed in a single city for several weeks, as their showmen performed in theaters, wooden structures, or canvas tents especially built for them. They may have moved from city to city by riverboat, especially if they were moving from one coastal town to another. It was not until 1825 that circuses played farther west than Louisville. As canvas tents became popular, however, the shows were presented more frequently than before and moved into Georgia’s backcountry and into interior towns. Featured entertainment at the circus shows were skilled riding, exotic animals, demonstrations of human strength and athleticism, risqu
e acts, ribald clowns, and other activities that appealed to people of all classes who came to see the performances. Blacks who were still enslaved, as well as those free, came out to the shows. Antebellum circuses had reserved seats for well-to-do white families while lowerclass whites and blacks watched while standing in a section without seats. This trend continued until well into the twentieth century. Circuses of that era, however, were said to have questionable and immoral entertainment, while the press condemned the ribald character of circus entertainment as well as the ‘‘rough crowd’’ of spectators. The criticism notwithstanding, circuses grew larger and larger in the 1870s, becoming America’s most popular form of entertainment. Racial Segregation in the Circus The circus left Georgia during the Civil War but returned in 1865. By the nineteenth century, nearly all of the circuses were northern-based. The expansion of the railroad meant that circus owners could easily transport their equipment and animals; hence circuses were built near railroad tracks. In the 1880s, African Americans in Georgia embraced the circus and the various activities it afforded on circus day, sometimes a special day set aside for them to keep them segregated from whites. Enterprising black Georgians built ‘‘snack stands’’ near

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circus grounds and sold their edibles to anyone regardless of race. Their booths also were centrally located so that African Americans had a place to gather and mingle during the day. For circus goers of limited financial means, colorful circus parades that filled some streets gave them free entertainment. For African Americans, circus day also meant a time for limited segregation practices, as white and blacks used the same ticket line, entered through the same gate, and mingled in the same viewing areas of the shows and tents. The audience was divided only under the big tops, and blacks were required to enter through the playhouse’s rear door, assigned the worse seats available, or those in what was called the ‘‘Negro gallery’’ in the balcony. This application of limited Jim Crow practices meant that African Americans consistently produced heavy turnout at circuses. In the 1881 season, when Ringling Brothers merged with Barnum & Bailey, audiences settled for events offered by only one major circus producer. By then, many smaller circus companies had merged into larger, more powerful ones. Thus, the ‘‘Greatest Show on Earth,’’ which the merged group offered, was the leading circus show to see. Although Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey integrated its show with African American performers later on, its ownership was white. Another circus with an impressive title was formed in 1884, when Wallace and Company’s Great World Menagerie, Grand International Mardi Gras, Highway Holiday Hidalgo, and Alliance of Novelties came into being. After its first season ended, the circus was renamed the Great Wallace Shows. In April that year, the show went on the road. Former livery stable owner Ben Wallace, of Peru, Indiana, formed the circus with James P. Anderson. They hired A. G. Field, an African American from Virginia who was one of the nation’s top minstrel performers. He became head clown for the new circus and equestrian director, and remained with the circus until 1886. It was rare, indeed, for an African American to fill two essential positions in the circus. After the mid-nineteenth century, black circus performers were restricted to minstrelsy, freaks, and racially segregated sideshow bands, and generally held menial jobs at the circus. Racial Barriers Gradually Break Notable among the black musicians who provided music for circus traveling shows was P. G. Lowery, who lived between 1869 and 1942; circuses billed him as the ‘‘World’s Greatest ‘Colored’ Cornettist.’’ With his P. G. Lowery’s Famous Colored Concert Band, he was known also as the best bandleader of the circus and show music. Sometime in the late 1890s, Lowery had among his friends notable black composers Scott Joplin and W. C. Handy; he went on to become one of the most celebrated leaders and managers of show bands. Around 1907, he organized P. G. Lowery’s Progressive Musical Enterprises and concentrated on training bands for various traveling shows. His bands played for the greatest shows of that era, including Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey, the Sparks Circus, and the Cole Brothers Circus. There is evidence to suggest that black women were hired for circuses as early as 1904. In that year, Ma Rainey, called ‘‘Mother of the Blues,’’ is said to have met

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comedy singer Will Rainey when he performed with one of the minstrel shows that passed through her hometown, Columbus, Georgia—one of the sites of early circus acts—and the two fell in love. They married and traveled with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, engaging in a song-and-dance routine, ‘‘Assassinators of the Blues’’ and became known as ‘‘Ma’’ and ‘‘Pa’’ Rainey. The couple worked together in tent shows, circuses, minstrel shows, and early variety acts. They continued to tour the South in the early teens. It was commonplace for circuses to include tent shows, minstrel shows, and early variety acts among their featured attractions. Toni Williams of Reading, Pennsylvania, was the first black showgirl with Ringling Brothers, in 1966. In 1968, the King Charles Troupe was signed on by promoter Irving Field. This was the first all-African American circus act in the United States. The troupe of basketball-playing unicycle players was discovered auditioning on Madison Square Garden’s sidewalk. Later they performed on television in such shows as The Tonight Show. It was Field who introduced the troupe to the circus and billed them as ‘‘the first all-black circus act in America.’’ The architect of the act, Jerry King, was influenced by a unicycle act that he saw in a small circus in Florida in 1916. Years later he taught the act to his son, Charles King, as well as others who lived in the Bronx section of New York City. The young men enriched the act by adding their basketball skills and produced an act similar to that of the Harlem Globetrotters on wheels, with Charles King as their leader. In 1977, the first black woman clown with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was Bernice Collins, of Kansas City. She had entertained the idea of becoming a clown since she was fourteen years old. In 1994, Tyrone Taylor trained and performed with tigers in the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus, becoming the first African American man to do so. He continued his act for seventeen years and worked with circus animals such as tigers and elephants; after that, he became a circus performer. Jonathan Lee Iverson joined Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey in 1998 for ‘‘The Greatest Show on Earth.’’ He was ringmaster for one of the troupe’s two traveling shows, the Red Unit. Iverson was the first African American and the youngest ringmaster in Ringling Brothers history. Born in New York City, Iverson, a young entertainer, joined the Boys’ Choir of Harlem when he was age eleven, and won several awards. He graduated from Hart High School of Music in Connecticut and landed a role in ‘‘The Fireside Christmas Show’’ presented in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. There his vocal talent caught the eye of the show’s director, one who had also directed the circus. Iverson was successful in his first audition for the ringmaster’s role. All-Black Circuses Founded The late 1880s brought a new dimension to the circus. At that time, Ephriam Williams formed a black traveling show, after getting his start by training a horse to perform mathematical tricks. Williams performed for opera houses and soon held the title the ‘‘Black P. T. Barnum.’’ A former shoeshine boy, Williams dressed in a tuxedo, donned a top hat, carried a cane, and hit the road in

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northern Wisconsin in 1885, entertaining lumberjacks along the way. Eventually, he owned three circuses and hired as many as one hundred people at the height of his success. Williams also owned fifteen cages of wild animals, eightyfive horses, and fifteen railroad cars used to transport his equipment and performers from one city to another. In 1902, however, misfortune struck as a result of bad weather and difficulty with his creditors, causing his entertainment business to close. In addition to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, other early circuses owned and operated by mainstream Americans include the popular Shrine circuses. For African Americans, however, an entirely new venue in circuses emerged. Baltimore native Cedric ‘‘Ricky’’ Walker, who had studied the history of Ephraim Williams’s circuses, saw a need for an African American circus that would showcase the culture and history of his race. As Walker developed his circus, he sought a unique showcase for black talent and in 1994 founded UniverSoul, also known as Universal Big Top Circus, which debuted in Atlanta under a rented tent in Fulton County Stadium’s parking lot. Walker’s circus is a one-ring show and the nation’s only African American-owned-and-operated touring circus in over one hundred years. He wanted to do more than simply pull together a few acts and call it a circus, as Walker had done. He wanted to showcase black heroes, groups such as the Buffalo Soldiers, and relate the biblical story of Daniel in the lion’s den. In part, he broke with circus traditions by presenting a clear and distinctive African American tradition, as his dancers perform to Rhythm and Blues, Hip-Hop, and salsa. Still, Walker included some activities seen in the antebellum circus by fusing tradition and innovation, bringing spectators into the ring to dance and sing. Walker wanted a crackerjack cast and sought the best talent that he could find, even if it meant going to other countries to find talent for some of his acts. Walker hired Nayakata, an African-Spanish contortionist, who twists her body in unbelievable positions. He hired the Ayak Brothers of South Africa, who, while suspended over forty feet above the net, catch each other with their feet, and perform acts without nets. Walker came from a musical background. Earlier he was stage manager and later production manager for the Commodores, a group of singers who had been classmates at Tuskegee University. After a successful career in concert production, showcasing the Jackson Five, the O’Jays, Run-DMC, and others, Walker entered theater production. Walker’s cast ‘‘reads like a Who’s Who in Black U.S. circus history,’’ wrote Kevin Chappell. Walker hired the King Charles Troupe of unicyclists, who integrated Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1968. By now the unicyclists are in their third generation and perform the same antics that caused Ringling to keep them for twenty years. There is also legendary performer PaMela, who was the first black female aerialist with Ringling. Joining his circus also was Danise Payne, who had been the talk of London, England, as a clown in Gerry Cottle’s Circus and in 1979 the first black female clown of Ringling Brother’s Red Unit (traveling unit). She was also the first black female clown to perform in a circus in England. Walker’s UniverSoul, or Universal Big Top Circus

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became an instant success with its gravity-defying acts, animals performing tricks on command, an obnoxious clown, and a ringmaster whose powerful orations were used to orchestrate the show. His two-hour shows reflect urban themes and are done with state-of-the-art lighting and high-energy music—features that clearly distinguish his acts from those of earlier circuses. The shows also bring together top-notch and experienced African American performers, some of whom worked in well-known white circuses. All activities are held outdoors under a colorful striped tent reminiscent of circuses of the distant past. A multimilliondollar venture, Universal Big Top Circus travels nationwide, receives rave reviews, and appears in such cities as Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, Nashville, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, frequently to soldout audiences. The circus has been a big hit among black families and schoolage children. In African American popular culture, the circus remains an affair that offers entertainment suitable for families. The wide appeal is especially seen in UniverSoul, which deliberately sets out to present acts and shows that show African Americans in a positive light, and offers audiences a celebration of life and talent. Further Reading Chappell, Kevin. ‘‘A Circus with Soul.’’ 1996. Ebony 52 (December): 68–72. ‘‘Circus of the Black Stars: African American-owned Circus Has Scheduled Six Cities in 1995 Tour.’’ http://thefreelibrary.com?Circus+of+the+black+stars%3a+African +American-owned+circus. ‘‘Ringling Bros.’ First Black Ringmaster.’’ 1999. Ebony 34 (May): 152–56. Smith, Jessie Carney. 2003. Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. 2nd ed. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Jessie Carney Smith

Civil Rights Cases Civil rights cases are legal actions or suits involving the protection of an individual’s rights as guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Civil rights cases have played an enormous and indispensable role within African American popular culture. Since the early twentieth century, African Americans have depended upon civil rights cases, as well as civil rights legislation, in the struggle to achieve racial equality in the United States. One of the most landmark and widely celebrated cases is Brown v. Board of Education (of Topeka) in 1954, which prohibited segregation in school; however, this was not the only instrumental case to affect African Americans. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization, took the lead in litigating and lobbying on behalf of African Americans who, for many centuries, had been deprived of basic rights and inclusion in American society.

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History of Inequality and Discrimination Whether slave or free, African descendents in the United States were denied full rights in the United States. To be sure, black slaves in the South suffered the worst. Black slaves were prohibited from, among other things, marrying, owning property, receiving wages for their toil, and traveling freely. Slaves were also denied education or even the right to raise their own children. (Slaves were often forced to produce offspring that were sold to other plantation owners.) Slave women, in particular, were powerless to protect themselves from sexual assault, and, furthermore, no slave could sue. Free blacks in the North enjoyed freedoms and opportunities denied slaves in the South. Northern blacks attended schools, some going on to colleges and universities. In some environments, black children and youth went to integrated schools and were accepted by their white peers. Some individuals in free black communities thrived despite the prevalence of racist attitudes towards blacks and racial discrimination. Blacks built churches, owned businesses, freely married, and traveled, and, in some regions, black males were allowed to vote. However, the North was not exempt from exclusionary practices. Jim Crow, the term that is used to describe discriminatory practices and customs, was alive and well in the North. Jim Crow was applied on public transportation. In the South, free blacks not only contended with Jim Crow but racial etiquette, informal rules of social conduct wherein blacks were expected to defer to whites. Over all, African Americans, in any region, could be discriminated against without consequence in housing, education, and other areas, and were not treated as equals to whites. After the emancipation of slaves in 1863, the South underwent numerous and dramatic changes. Early on, white southerners established discriminatory laws stringently regulating home and property ownership. ‘‘Black codes,’’ as they were called, in Mississippi forbade African Americans from owning firearms or any other weapons. Vagrancy laws made it so that homeless and unemployed blacks could be fined or forced to work. Some argued that black codes were tantamount to slave codes. Without intervention from the federal government, black codes and other discriminatory acts would have persisted. The federal government not only prevented southerners from perpetrating the abolished system of slavery, it instituted efforts to reconstruct the South and provide aid to freed slaves. The era known as Reconstruction, which lasted between 1862 and 1877, started promisingly. In 1865, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau to help provide food, shelter, and medical aid to blacks. Some of the most sweeping changes that resulted from the efforts of Reconstruction were the establishment of what is now known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), as well as the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted due process and equal protection to all citizens, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave black males the right to vote. With the help of the federal government, progress came, albeit slowly, to former black slaves; however, southern Democrats would, in 1877, effectively take back political control of the region. The rise of conservative Democrat rule

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signaled the end of progress and a drastic regression in civil rights for blacks. Blacks in the South had no other choice than to yield to oppressive laws and attitudes. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, in 1896, reinforced Jim Crowism, as long as the separate facilities and institutions were equal; however, this was not the case. Black schools were issued outdated textbooks. Public facilities for blacks were inferior compared to facilities for whites. Through intimidation and terror tactics employed by racist white organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, blacks were discouraged from challenging the system through protest or voting power. The Legal Struggle for Civil Rights The Attorneys Despite the oppressive forces and threat of violence that kept blacks in their place, African American attorneys, like Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and Fred Gray paved the way for a powerful legal front to attack segregation. Born in 1895 in Washington, DC, Houston grew up in comforts not known to blacks in the South. Still, Houston wrestled with racism and discrimination in his life. After graduating from college, he joined the military. His experiences in the military prompted his desire to eradicate segregation. In 1935, he became the NAACP’s first special counsel in New York. His job was enormous, requiring him to travel to the South, and manage several cases. His work was of extreme import, as the NAACP, as well as Houston, saw litigation was necessary in order to change the laws that oppressed blacks. Houston’s primary goal was to tackle transportation and education. Thurgood Marshall, born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908 and a former student of Houston’s while he was teaching at Howard University Law School, was hired on as an NAACP attorney in 1936. Together, the two men spearheaded numerous civil rights victories. Fred Gray was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1930, and is notable for his role in the case, Browder v. Gayle, that followed the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott in the 1950s. This case demonstrated how effectively civil rights demonstrations (the bus boycott) and litigation worked powerfully together. Murray v. Pearson (1936) The Murray v. Pearson case began when Donald Gaines Murray’s application for admission into the University of Maryland School of Law was rejected. The university justified their decision in a letter to Murray that pointed to the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision which allowed institutions to exclude blacks based on the ‘‘separate but equal’’ clause. Houston and Marshall represented Murray in this case, employing it as the first of several tests cases to systematically eliminate segregation in education. As with many cases, the NAACP attorneys used the Fourteenth Amendment to seize this landmark win. Murray would become the first African American to attend the University of Maryland and go on to participate in cases to eliminate discriminatory practices that barred other African American graduate students at the University of Maryland.

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Civil rights cases concerning discriminatory practices in university admissions abounded. Among the triumphant NAACP wins were Sweatt v. Painter (1950), which resulted in the admission of the first black, Heman Marion Sweatt, at the University of Texas School of Law, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma (1950), which enabled George McLaurin to pursue graduate work at the University of Oklahoma. Because of the Lucy v. Adams (1955) case, Autherine Lucy was admitted to the University of Alabama. In 1962, the Meredith v. Fair case brought about the desegregation of the University of Mississippi. The process of desegregating institutions was frequently difficult. Both Lucy and Meredith faced hostility. A white mob trapped Lucy in one building on campus. Meredith received a chilly and violent welcome to the University of Mississippi; whites rioted and harassed him. Chambers v. Florida (1940) Segregation was not the only concern for black attorneys in the first half of the twentieth century. Justice seemed to always elude blacks. When three black men in Florida were accused of murdering a white man, they were subsequently denied due process, and, unlawfully, compelled to give confessions, Marshall took the helm of this case. As a result of his arguments, Marshall landed a pivotal win for blacks whose rights were historically violated without consequence. Smith v. Allwright (1944) Voting was another major concern for blacks. Although blacks were legally allowed to vote, southerners established assorted barriers to impede black suffrage. In some southern states, blacks had to navigate through poll taxes, literary tests, and potential threat and intimidation by local racist white organizations. These discriminatory practices enabled white southerners to maintain political control. However, Lonnie E. Smith, a Texan, courageously sued for his right of suffrage. (Texas enforced a law that prohibited blacks from voting in the primary.) Marshall took on this case and scored another significant win. Morgan v. Virginia (1946) Irene Morgan, who was involved in the Morgan v. Virginia case, is considered a precursor to the famous Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a public bus in Alabama. Morgan was twenty-seven when, in 1944, she refused to yield her seat on a Greyhound bus in Virginia to a white person. Like Parks, Morgan was arrested. The NAACP took her case, and the Supreme Court ruled in her favor, prohibiting segregation on interstate buses. McGee v. Sipes (1948) McGee v. Sipes was one of four major court cases concerning restrictive covenants. Covenants are obligations included in deeds. Before the advent of fair housing practices, covenants prohibiting the sale of homes or property to African

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Americans were common. Marshall and an attorney named Loren Miller argued on behalf of the McGee family who were denied the sale of property in Detroit, Michigan. In all four cases, including McGee v. Sipes, Shelley v. Kraemer, Hurd v. Hodge, and Urciolo v. Hodge, the Supreme Court voted that the states could not enforce racially restrictive covenants. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) Notwithstanding the monumental importance of preceding civil rights cases that desegregated universities, the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, in one sweeping blow, ruled that separate schools were not equal. The case was won in large part by Marshall’s savvy and shrewd skills, as well as a doll test that was administered by psychologists Kenneth B. Clarke and his wife Mamie Phipps Clark. During the doll test, black children were asked several questions, such as their preference of black or white dolls. Overwhelmingly, black children chose white dolls over black dolls. The conclusions helped demonstrate that segregated schools were harmful to the mental health of black children. The case was celebrated throughout the nation by blacks and whites who supported the Civil Rights Movement. This win was covered in mainstream and black newspapers and periodicals. Not everyone was in favor of the ruling against segregated schools. A number of whites violently opposed the desegregation of white schools. Black youth, like the nine who integrated Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, often endured name calling, vicious yelling, and being spat upon. The blacks famously known as the Little Rock Nine had to be escorted to school by armed federal troops. Some blacks also opposed integration, preferring to send their children to black schools. They contended that in integrated schools, blacks would not be taught black history and would be susceptible to racism. In 2005, some fifty years after the Clarke’s test, a high school student named Kiri Davis conducted a doll test, discovering that sixteen out of twenty-one black children in New York preferred white dolls, suggesting that the mental health of black children is still being challenged. Browder v. Gayle (1956) Browder v. Gayle was the case that emerged from the Montgomery Bus Boycott that started in 1955. After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist preacher, made his debut as the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott was a success in large part due to the inspirational image of Parks, the effective leadership of King, and the massive participation of local blacks who refused to ride public buses for three hundred and eighty-six days. In the Browder v. Gayle case, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were unlawful. This landmark win spawned other blacks to wage similar boycotts elsewhere. These events greatly changed the world in which blacks lived. King would go on to become one of the most well-known and celebrated leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. As the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,

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King launched several campaigns, demonstrations that forced the world to look critically at itself. Moreover, Parks would become an enduring symbol for equality and justice. King, Parks, and other social activists contributed largely to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which eradicated Jim Crow law, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which enforced and protected black suffrage. Boynton v. Virginia (1960) Boynton v. Virginia was a case like Browder v. Gayle that challenged segregated public transportation. In Boynton v. Virginia, the Supreme Court declared that racial segregation in interstate transportation and facilities was illegal. Despite this momentous decision, many states did not enforce the Supreme Court decision. Thus, blacks were required to follow outdated discriminatory practices on interstate buses and facilities. In 1961, the Freedom Riders, a group of mostly black and white youth, members of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The Freedom Rides required the activists to sit in seats and use facilities designated for the other race. Early on, the freedom riders were subjected to violent backlash, resulting, however, in increased exposure, forcing the federal government to intervene and enforce laws prohibiting segregation in interstate travel. Loving v. Virginia (1967) Before the Supreme Court decision on Loving v. Virginia in 1967, interracial marriage was illegal in many states. After Richard Perry Loving, a white man, and Mildred Loving, an African American woman, married in the District of Columbia, they returned to Virginia and faced possible imprisonment for violating the anti-miscegenation law. In Virginia, miscegenation was a felony. The Supreme Court, however, ruled in 1967 in their favor, abolishing all antimiscegenation laws in the nation. Civil Rights and Beyond Civil rights cases, as well as important civil rights legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, have been indispensable in eliminating many of the historical inequities and injustices blacks suffered in the United States. In the 1960s, Race Riots illustrated that civil rights were not enough. In black urban neighborhoods, where the majority of race riots erupted, blacks were entangled in a complex web of racism, poverty, lack of opportunities, abuse, and alienation from mainstream society. Affirmative action and an assortment of poverty programs were established to address those needs. See also: Miscegenation; Race and Ethnicity; Social Activists Further Reading Lively, Donald E. 1999. Landmark Supreme Court Cases: A Reference Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

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Patterson, James T. 2001. Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy. New York: Oxford University Press. Tushnet, Mark V. 1994. Making Civil Rights Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1956–1961. New York: Oxford University Press. Gladys L. Knight

Civil Rights Movement The intensified effort among American blacks to gain their civil rights marked a turning point in American history. Although the focus of the long-persistent drive for those rights centered on political issues such as access to equal educational opportunities, public accommodations, the right of the franchise, better housing, increased employment opportunities, and police protection, other aspects of American culture and life were affected as well. American blacks were determined to define their own distinct culture, inclusive of politics, music, clothing, hairstyles, literature, theology, and the arts. Dubbed the Second American Revolution by some, the modern Civil Rights Movement is considered one of the most significant events in the United States. This movement ushered in a new era of race relations that had substantive effects beyond the borders of the United States as countries in Africa and the Caribbean sought independence from their colonizers. For American blacks, in part, because they were relegated as unimportant in American society and more often than not violently excluded from the realms of formal politics, popular culture was an integral and important aspect of making politics throughout the pre–civil rights era and the civil rights period itself. The cultural visual representations that conventional markets produced and disseminated—such as the minstrel shows of the nineteenth century and such twentieth century films as D. W. Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation and Victor Fleming’s 1939 Gone with the Wind. The Birth of a Nation was adapted from Thomas Dixon’s 1905 The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. This work became the basis for the pro-Klan view displayed in the second part of Birth of a Nation. Through this book, the second in a trilogy of Reconstruction novels, Dixon hoped to buttress the continuance of racial segregation, which he viewed as vital to the preservation of long-standing or status quo race relations. Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 Gone with the Wind, made into a film in 1939 was set in the American South around the Civil War. The winner of ten Academy Awards, it tells a story of the War Between the States and its aftermath from a white Southern viewpoint. Hattie McDaniel, who also appeared in Gone with the Wind, became the first black performer to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She won the award for her role as the outspoken housemaid, Mammy, for which she garnered criticism from the black community. These films, in addition to the radio transmission of Amos ‘n’ Andy repeatedly ignited condemnation and indignation by blacks who reasoned that the endorsement of such images

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and descriptions was adverse, unflattering, and an obstruction to their crusade for first-class citizenship. Premodern Civil Rights Movement Almost from the beginning of European colonization of the lands in North America and certainly from the formation of the confederated colonies that became the United States of America, whites enslaved, oppressed, and subjugated people of African ancestry. Even though the Civil War brought about the freeing of blacks from the institution of slavery, made them as citizens, and conferred upon them the constitutional right of the vote, a ruthless systematic structure of white supremacy came into existence soon after the end of Reconstruction. Although racial restrictions against blacks appeared on the law books of various states beginning in the 1880s, the United States Supreme Court with its 1896 ‘‘separate but equal’’ decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson Sentenced American blacks to a state of second-class citizenship that lasted well into the twentieth century. American blacks in the South and in many parts of nearby border states were barred from affiliating with whites in institutions and public accommodations, inclusive of schools, hospitals, rest rooms, waiting rooms, railroad cars, hotels, restaurants, lunch counters, parks and beaches, swimming pools, libraries, concert halls, and movie theaters, and other places of public accommodations. Some recreational areas placed signs denoting, ‘‘Negroes and Dogs Not Allowed.’’ Blacks and whites were segregated from the cradle to the grave. Because of such racial proscriptions, southern blacks were deprived of decent jobs, access to equal educational facilities, and the basic rights of citizenship, including the vote. White terrorization and violent behavior, including Lynching, remained an omnipresent menace. Beyond the South, blacks had legal rights, but they endured insidious discrimination in residential housing and school segregation, both of which were designed by regional custom. Black and whites struggled to improve these repressive and inhumane practices, establishing civil rights organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, and the National Urban League in 1911. Repeatedly, unsung local black civil rights activists were in the forefront of attempting to bring down the walls of segregation. People like South Carolina’s Septima Clark established citizenship schools for civil rights across the South, and North Carolina’s Ella Josephine Baker put forth an effort to improve conditions in both the North and the South. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, Baker became involved in the founding of three civil rights organizations: in 1957, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); in 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and in 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). Uphill struggles by organizations and individuals provide compelling illustrations that civil rights activism had a history before the 1940s. However, as the late 1940s approached, media and its visual representation of American blacks in venues of entertainment remained negative.

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To offset these deprecating images in venues of entertainment, American blacks made demands for equality. Black filmmakers and actors reacted to these and other racial stereotypes by creating constructive images to replace the popular ‘‘Sambo,’’ ‘‘Coon,’’ and ‘‘Mammy’’ representations that white filmmakers preferred. Among the movies depicting blacks as individuals beyond the customary stereotypes were: Home of the Brave (1949) with James Edwards, which was based on a play by Arthur Laurents; No Way Out (1950), with Sidney Poitier; and Member of the Wedding (1952) with Ethel Waters and Carmen Jones, which is the film version of Carson McCullers’s play by the same title. After World War II, social, economic, and legal demands for racial equality were not the only expressions that emerged from the soul of black Americans. Like the writers of the Harlem Renaissance who produced bold literary critiques about racism in the United States, the post-World War II era of literary realism produced writers who also tackled issues that confronted American blacks. Writers such as Richard Wright, who in his novel Native Son (1940), addresses the psychological effects of racism on American blacks and the barrage of images and innuendos from popular culture that portray whites as urbane and refined and blacks as either inferior or savage. Chester Himes, in his work, If He Hollers, Let Him Go (1945) which is set in Los Angeles, California, during the Second Word War, demonstrates that regardless of the region in which blacks reside in the nation, they are treated much the same as in the industrial South. The omnipresent Jim Crow of the South also manifested its discriminatory tendencies in the West in housing, employment, and public accommodations. The themes addressed by Himes included racism and colorisms among blacks, job discrimination, and classism among blacks and whites. Ann Petry’s inaugural novel and the second race novel of the war and postwar years, The Street (1946), addresses the distressing story of a household headed by a female single parent, whose immediate success is obstructed by racial, social, economic, and personal barriers. Ralph Ellison, in his novel Invisible Man (1952), used racial issues to express universal dilemmas of identity and self-discovery but avoided taking a straightforward political stand. The fictional account of an unidentified black American man, who lost his discernment of identity in a social order that condones bigotry, racial intolerance, and hostility, is about the sociological insights into America’s racially unjust society. Like other novelists, James Baldwin in Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) added fuel to an already smoldering conflagration for racial justice. Six years later, Lorraine Hansberry in Raisin in the Sun, the title of which comes from Langston Hughes’s poem ‘‘Harlem,’’ also known as ‘‘A Dream Deferred,’’ confronts housing discrimination Chicago’s all-white Clybourne Park neighborhood. Hansberry broaches matters that interface racial interaction and the lack of an equal and just system, roles of gender and class, as well as the prospect of American blacks being able to achieve the American dream. With this work, the novelist forecasts events that would transpire during the movement for civil rights in the next decade. Within the same decade, John H. Johnson founded and circulated Ebony (1945) and Jet (1951) magazines that addressed issues within the American black community. As the civil rights movement

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gathered momentum, Ebony and Jet reported on the movement’s leaders, covered important events, and put forth straightforward views in both their editorials and featured articles about race relations in the United States. In conjunction with the active participation of those in the popular culture, in the 1940s American black political activists took to the frontlines of the civil rights movement for equality and justice for America’s citizens of color. Precursors to Direct Nonviolent Protest In 1941, A. Philip Randolph threatened to take the struggle for equality and justice directly to the nation’s capital. Wanting President Franklin D. Roosevelt to end racial discrimination in employment and racial segregation in the armed forces, Randolph was preparing to stage an all-black March on Washington. Consequently, Roosevelt agreed to a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to investigate employment practices. The year following Randolph’s threatened March on Washington, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) came into existence. An interracial group of individuals who espoused the Gandhian philosophy of direct-nonviolent protest, CORE undertook the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation to test the South’s compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision in the Morgan v. Virginia (1946) case, which stipulated segregation on interstate buses was illegal. Although the FEPC had no real power, Randolph’s highly visible advocacy of large-scale, direct-action protest and CORE’s venture to make the South compliant with desegregation of interstate buses were signs of impending revolutionary campaigns. A further development of the war years that signaled pressure for civil rights was the exodus of American blacks from the rural South to take defense-related jobs in cities of the North and West. This migration continued into the 1950s and 1960s and increased black voting strength and organization within the black community. Because black soldiers, serving abroad in World War II, witnessed a less oppressive world of race relations than they had in their native country, especially in the South, many returned home determined to redress America’s ill-treatment and racist laws and policies against its black citizens. After World War II ended, proponents of civil rights saw further indications of attempts to transform the country’s state of race relations. President Harry S. Truman’s undertaking of the Cold War against communism recognized that racism at home was incongruent with America’s avowal to lead the ‘‘free world’’ against repression and subjugation. In an attempt to secure black votes in the 1948 election, he ordered the desegregation of the armed forces and pleaded for federal laws to advance the cause of civil rights for American blacks. The United States Congress rejected his legislative appeal to advance the cause for civil rights; however, Truman’s efforts were of note. No American president since Reconstruction had made such an attempt to put forth a legislative agenda for the cause of civil rights for American blacks. Activists operated on the grassroots level as well, pressing for an end to school segregation. They risked not only their jobs but also their lives. Whites burned

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homes and churches, and American black organizers became targets for those hoping to derail the desegregation processes. By 1950, the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1940), led by Thurgood Marshall, decided to battle racial segregation in the nation’s public schools through the courts. The Legal Defense Fund’s efforts under Marshall’s leadership led to the landmark 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Just over a year later, grassroots activism at the local level captured America’s attention. In December 1955, grassroots activists in Montgomery, Alabama, sparked a massive bus boycott. After the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1 (Parks’s action was preceded by Claudette Colvin’s March, Aurelia Browder’s April, Mary Louise Smith’s October acts of defiance, as well as Susie McDonald) for violating a city ordinance, the NAACP, led by Edgar Daniel Nixon, the Women’s Political Council, and others set the wheels in motion to end segregation on Montgomery’s public transportation. Parks’s action was the culmination of a long tradition of resistance to segregated transportation and second-class citizenship. The boycott began after James Blake, a white bus driver, had Parks arrested for refusing to obey rules that required blacks to move to the back of buses when no seats were available for whites. The Montgomery movement catapulted Martin Luther King Jr. to leadership in the modern movement for civil rights. The Modern Civil Rights Movement and Popular Culture As whites escalated violence in the South, proponents of racial justice became disheartened. American blacks, especially young blacks, became impatient with the slow and methodical court proceedings. Although the United States Congress passed the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts, to them the federal government appeared distant and the NAACP was too legalistic and traditionalist. Consequently, college-age blacks took matters into their own hands. One February 1, 1960, four male students from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College in Greensboro launched the first salvo of nonviolent direct action of the student Sit-in Movement. The sit-ins and their direct nonviolent approach spread throughout the South and became one of the most powerful phases of the modern movement. The actions of the young protesters reinvigorated older civil rights organizations like CORE and caused the establishment of organizations like SNCC. By May 1961, the first interracial freedom rides (since the 1947 Journey for Reconciliation bus ride) from Washington, DC, to New Orleans were underway, designed to compel southern officials to adhere to the enunciations of the Supreme Court decision in the 1960 Boynton v. Virginia case that called for the ending of racial segregation in interstate bus terminals. During the Freedom Ride, violence erupted as one bus was firebombed in Alabama, and the Freedom Riders were injured. These violent confrontations captured public attention. However, President Kennedy was mainly focused on Cold War issues and his upcoming summit with Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev. He was also reluctant to alienate whites in the South and their congressional members. Being occupied with

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these issues, Kennedy failed to grasp the protesters’ resolve to achieve their goals of a desegregated society and first-class citizenship. Ultimately, the administration issued an order through the Interstate Commerce Commission outlawing segregation in interstate bus travel that took effect in September 1961. Throughout the modern movement for civil rights, black and white Americans, young and old, females and males, celebrities and noncelebrities who fought for the cause through marches, rallies, sit-ins, boycotts, freedom rides, and voter registration drives, and protest actions in between, won numerous victories in the South by the late 1960s. Television captured a host of eye-catching scenes, some of which conveyed the assaults and arrests of black children and transmitted those images to a confounded national audience. As a result, many northerners became aware of American blacks’ plight in the South. As much as any single event of the modern movement, the openly cruel, malevolent, and inhumane behavior of whites in Birmingham forced the nation to contemplate federal action to advance the cause for civil rights. Between 1964 and 1968, the United States Congress passed three significant pieces of civil rights legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. During the movement, many noted celebrities became involved in the American black freedom struggle, including but not limited to Harry Belafonte and Josephine Baker. Belafonte, who was often captured by Time and Life magazines’ photographers, marched arm-in-arm with King and others in the struggle for civil rights. Because of his activism, Belafonte was named to SCLC’s board of directors. Baker, an internationally known dancer, singer, actor, author, politician, militant, philanthropist, and an expatriate, supported the movement for civil rights during the 1950s and 1960s. Due to America’s restrictive racial codes, Baker became a citizen of France in 1937. Because she was black, the Stork Club in New York City refused her service in 1951. Baker responded by crusading against segregation; she rejected offers to perform in any venue that was not desegregated. Because of her stand and strong support for the gospel of civil rights, Baker broke the color line in numerous establishments. In 1963, she attended the March on Washington and was one the persons that preceded King’s discourse about his vision for racial equality and human dignity. After the assassination of the Martin Luther King Jr., his widow, Coretta Scott King, asked Baker to take over the leadership of the movement. Other recording artists also gave of their talents to the movement. Singers like Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, the Impressions, and James Brown among others. In 1963 and 1967, Simone recorded ‘‘Mississippi Goddam’’ in reaction to extreme violence against black Americans, including the murder of a civil rights activist in Mississippi and the killing of four young girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four years later she recorded what became her signature song, ‘‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free.’’ In 1964, Sam Cooke recorded the prophetic ‘‘A Change Is Gonna Come.’’ Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions followed the next year with ‘‘People Get Ready,’’ which was inspired by the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In August 1968, four months after King’s assassination and

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two months after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy—a presidential candidate, James Brown, known as the ‘‘The Godfather of Soul’’ and ‘‘Soul Brother Number One’’ among other monikers, recorded ‘‘Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud.’’ He continued his social activism and worked with such organizations as Operation PUSH and the breakfast program of the Black Panther Party. Brown expressed the attitude of most American blacks when in 1969 he released the socially conscious single, ‘‘I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I’ll Get It Myself).’’ Another effect of the Civil Rights Movement on popular culture was the prominence of freedom songs. The all-embracing use of spirituals in the struggle for freedom during the institution of thralldom left a profound impression in the popular recollection of American blacks. During the modern era of the movement for civil rights, laborers in the social revolution’s vineyard sang numerous songs of freedom, which were modified adaptations of the spirituals with modernized lyrics that articulated the movement’s wants and desires. Songs such as ‘‘Oh Freedom,’’ ‘‘I’m Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table,’’ ‘‘Everybody Says Freedom,’’ ‘‘If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus,’’ ‘‘Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,’’ ‘‘Ain’t Scared of Your Jails,’’ ‘‘I Shall Not be Moved,’’ ‘‘This Little Light of Mine,’’ and ‘‘We Shall Overcome,’’ all expressed the sentiments of those struggling to gain civil rights for blacks in the United States. While these songs were popularized in the South, other musical renderings like ‘‘Burn, Baby Burn,’’ and the ‘‘Movement’s Moving On’’ signaled a shift from the nonviolent movement for civil rights to the Black Power Movement. As American blacks gained assurance and skills in their wherewithal to organize and to effect political change, they garnered greater pride in and appreciation for their cultural strengths and accomplishments. The productions of black artists, such as photographer Gordon Parks, painter Jacob Lawrence, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and novelist Toni Morrison, received critical acclaim. In popular culture—films, television shows, advertisements—the demeaning typecasting of black people and black culture became far less widespread. Americans blacks emerged from the movement determined to define their own distinct culture. New styles of politics, music, clothing, hairstyles, cuisine, literature, theology, and the arts were all evident. Other effects of the movement were an appreciation of black history. The movement caused black students to demand that their history and culture become a part of course offerings at institutions of higher education and black studies courses taught by black professors. They began to reject the European standard of beauty and black men and women altered their hairstyles in favor of naturals, cornrows, and beads, which many believed to be one of the most visible signs of self-expression. An end product of the modern struggle for freedom and civil rights on American black popular culture was a renewed racial consciousness about and an appreciation for that which was uniquely and distinctively black, a phenomenon not witnessed since the black intellectual and cultural awakening during the Harlem Renaissance. See also: Social Activists; Women and the Civil Rights Movement

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Further Reading Bell, Pearl K. 1990. ‘‘New Leader.’’ Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 5, 40–41. New York: Gale Research. Bennetta, Jules-Rosette. 2007. Josephine Baker in Art and Life: The Icon and the Image. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Field, Ron. 2002. Civil Rights in America, 1865–1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Iton, Richard. 2008. In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics & Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era. New York: Oxford University Press. Jimoh, A. Yemisi. ‘‘The Street.’’ The Literary Encyclopedia. October 25, 2002. http://www .litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7847. Linda T. Wynn

Class Structure, Upper, Middle, Underclass The initial formation of a class structure in the African American community came about as a byproduct of slavery. A precursor to the black class structure can be found in the antebellum period. Slaves who worked in their master’s house typically had a lighter skin complexion (also called mulattos) than the slaves who worked in the field. This system cultivated a racial hierarchy among the slaves where lighter-skinned blacks experienced differential treatment and a slightly more elevated social position than darker-skinned blacks. House slaves typically were the offspring of white slave owners and had access to better food and clothing than field slaves. Slaves who worked in the house were familiar with the idioms and customs of elite white culture. Following the Emancipation Proclamation and during the Reconstruction, the house slaves, skilled slaves, free Negroes, and the few black intelligentsias perpetuated the system of racial hierarchy and the social idioms of their white masters to demarcate the parameters of the first black middle class. Family ties and one’s ability to mimic white social etiquette were essential in dictating membership to this new class. Many in this privileged class of blacks were educated in freedmen schools and married among themselves to continue the facial features and light complexion of their white ancestry. This early black middle class worked mainly for whites as service workers: barbers, skilled workers, caterers, and tailors. During this period, there was not an established upper-class black community, and lower classes of blacks tended to be darker skinned and generally worked in the agriculture industry. This structure continued an established caste system where darker-skinned blacks tended to make lower wages and occupy the bottom rungs of the class system. Impact of the Great Migration With the closing of the nineteenth century and the entrenchment of Jim Crow, a large number of blacks moved from the rural South to the North in

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what was termed the Great Migration and changed the black class structure. Blacks came from the South to work in the war industry in the northern cities; thus improving the economic status of blacks during World War I. This increased the economic viability of blacks regardless of skin tone and family lineage, shifting the makeup of the black class structure. As a result, a different black middle class of professionals emerged: business people, teachers, doctors, and social workers. Skin complexion and historical connections to white families became less important. Many lower-class blacks were able to move into this selective black middle class by joining particular churches or social clubs and by becoming active in designated racial justice organizations. War World II brought more opportunities for blacks to work in the war industry in northern cities, and this marked another important economic gain. The opportunity for employment increased, particularly in white collar jobs, and more black businesses were created. Black soldiers integrated the armed forces and broke down racial barriers by serving in combat positions. World War II positioned the United States to challenge fascism and racism abroad and to review its policies at home. Black soldiers returning from the war turned their attention to Jim Crow laws. Attitudes toward race were continuously questioned, and culminated with the Civil Rights Movement. As a result of the Civil Rights Movement, legislation was created that was responsible for moving the largest number of blacks out of the lower and working class and into the middle class. This new black middle class formed largely because a great number of African Americans achieved white-collar jobs and had access to education. This expansion is attributed to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In 1965, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was estanlished to enforce the Civil Rights Act. These actions would serve as the cornerstone for establishing a robust black middle class. This act facilitated desegregation in government and private sector employment. It banned racial discrimination in transportation, education, and employment. Employment opportunities were important; thus, Affirmative Action policies played a crucial part in increasing the earning potential of the African American community. The other two pieces of legislation that changed the African American class structure are the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Housing Act of 1968. The Voting Rights Act helped African Americans gain political influence in local and national laws and policies. The Housing Act outlawed discrimination in renting and selling of homes. This allowed many blacks to move from urban cities to suburban neighborhoods. The New Black Middle Class and Upper Class This new black middle class was made up of educated professionals who embraced certain norms and social mores, including delayed gratification, managed consumerism, hard work, and sacrifice. This group placed great value on achievement, merit, saving money, avoiding debt, appropriate public behavior, and establishing good credit to stay ahead. By the 1960s, the black middle class grew 40 to 60 percent faster than the white middle class. The African American

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community has a wealthy middle class but not a well-defined, established upper class. An upper class is characterized by economic stability that can be traced across generations; therefore, wealth has to travel at least across two generations (although there may be some individual exceptions to this rule). For instance, if a family has wealth, their children’s children will have it as well. To maintain their class status, they must control or influence the institutions (significant corporations) and government (powerful political offices) to manipulate the economy. Wealth in the upper-class culture is connected to family assets and the estate. When the patriarch or matriarch of the family dies, the wealth is normally not divided but kept in the family; the executor of the estate or trust is the family member or relative who best reflects the values of this upper-class culture. This person has an influence on other family members’ behavior by controlling how much allowance that member will receive from the family trust or estate. Managing how much money a family member receives ensures that the family maintains the social mores, customs, and values of the upper class. The Working Class and Underclass The social configurations for the poor, working class, and underclass are also well defined. As jobs moved out of the inner cities, whites and upwardly mobile blacks left those neighborhoods, leaving the poor, working class, and underclass. The underclass has been increasing since World War II; author Benjamin Bowser attributes this to the government’s inability to reduce joblessness among African Americans. He conceives that blacks are dealing with issues such as a high rate of unemployment and not being counted in the ranks of the unemployed because they have been out of work so long. He concludes that this accounts for the growing underclass in black communities; their growth equals that of the black middle class. The underclass typically lives in communities with poor and working-class people. This group is made up of people who reject middle-class standards of behavior and values; they view church and mainstream culture as hypocritical, and openly reject civil society and those who reside in it. The underclass includes but is not limited to gangsters, drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes. They earn their money outside of the mainstream economic structure, isolate themselves from civil society, and reject black middle-class perceptions of the world. The commercialization of gangster rap has led to the popularization of black underclass culture while perceptions of the social mores of the black middle class have suffered. From 2000 through 2003, black unemployment soared. Younger, less-educated blacks fared better in this market, and older, more-educated middle-class blacks did worse. In 2000, the economic decline hit the black middle class hard; they were unemployed longer and received fewer benefits. In 2006, the National Urban League concluded that the economy was getting worse for the African Americans and that they were not closing the gaps with whites in net worth, employment, and homeownership. Economic and legislative issues will continue to influence the shape of the black class structure and will affect how well each class will evolve and thrive in the twenty-first century.

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Further Reading Anderson, Elijah. 2000. ‘‘The Emerging Philadelphia African American Class Structure.’’ The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 568: 54–77. Bowser, Benjamin P. 2007. Black Middle Class: Social Mobility and Vulnerability. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Copeland, Larry. 2006. ‘‘Blacks Family Income $6,106, Whites $67,000.’’ Miami Times, Commentary, April 5. Cunningham, David. 2005. ‘‘Middle Class, Black.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Society, Vol. 1. Gerald D. Jaynes, ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Farley, Reynolds. 1968. ‘‘The Urbanization of Negroes in the United States.’’ Journal of Social History I (Spring): 241–58. Fletcher, Michael. 2002. ‘‘The Class War in Black America.’’ Essence 38 (May): 196–201. Frazier, Edward F. 1957. Black Bourgeoisie. New York: Free Press Paperbacks. Pattillo-McCoy, Mary. 2006. ‘‘Black Middle Class.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. 2nd ed. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference. Price, Gilbert. ‘‘African American Unemployment Rate Increases Dramatically.’’ [Columbus, Ohio] Call & Post, News, November 19, 2006. Schmitt, John. 2004. ‘‘Recent Job Loss Hits the African American Middle Class Hard.’’ Center for Economic and Policy Research. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/recent-job-loss-hits-the-african-american-middle-class-hard. Tahirah Akbar-Williams

Clothing and Fashion Industry Fashion, with regard to clothing, can be defined as the various styles, fabric choices, accessories, and combinations thereof that would reflect cultural attitudes and trends or merely individual tastes from the wearing of particular garments. Many trends, particularly during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, have revolved around classical dress and casual styles that include pieces that remain contemporary in spite of their introductions into popular culture, thus illustrating the cyclic nature of fashion. However, certain decades of the twentieth century have reflected shifts towards styles that favor African-influenced designs (such as the popularity of dashikis in the mid-to-late 1960s), the exaggeration of pant cuts and collar sizes (which were particularly popular during the 1970s), bright colors that were heavily accessorized (which were a staple of the early 1980s during the rise of the Hip-Hop movement), and the looseness and oversized nature of shirts and pants alike, particularly with regard to male fashion (a style popularized in the 1990s in an effort to mimic the ill fit of prison garments due to the lack of a belt). In addition, the number of African American designers has increased, allowing for the wider commercialism of African American fashion trends and creating more opportunities for African American models to showcase them.

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Women’s Fashion African American women’s fashion underwent great evolution in the twentieth century, although many aspects have remained the same. Particularly among many fashion-oriented African American women, hairstyles, skin complexions, and body shapes have had a significant effect on many of the fashion considerations that have evolved into trends during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The increasing social acceptance of women in pants during the latter part of the twentieth century has created an increasing variety of fashion options in casual, business, and even formal wear. General Women’s Wear The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have had numerous fashion styles for typical everyday wear, including a multitude of variations on shirts, pants, blouses, dresses, jackets, coats, skirts, shoes, and the accompanying accessories. The cut of the clothing, inclusive of the cut of the neck, bust, and waist, continues to evolve with each generation. The styles and cuts of dresses, as well as the choices of accessories, displayed a great deal of variation during the cultural revolution in black America known as the Harlem Renaissance. Often such fashion was bold and flamboyant and included ornamental jewelry, animal furs, and appropriate headwear to match or complement. Because of the dance styles of that era, clothing had to be both stylish and functional, allowing for comfort and mobility, while still maintaining an air of sophistication. The 1950s brought about clothing greatly influenced by the growing culture of Rock-and-Roll music. Sweaters, knee-length skirts, and headwear, particularly beret-style hats, were worn to reflect one’s individual fashion sense. While the clothing lacked the high degree of flamboyance seen during the Harlem Renaissance period, the importance of accessories was not lost. Accessories such as handbags and eyeglass frames took on distinct designs that added to the hipness of one’s appearance. The 1960s reflected an increasing interest by the younger generation in the influences of African-inspired clothing and accessories, as well as hairstyles that emphasized the theme of embracing one’s blackness. As a result, in addition to the classical (more European influenced) fashion staples of the time, it was not uncommon for one to allow their hair to remain in a natural state, devoid of the use of relaxers or other hair care products that were commonly used to alter the texture of hair. In addition, the increasing use of earth-tone colors reflected the mood of racial pride, and it was not uncommon to make use of red, black, and green, the colors of the Pan-African flag, which, while adopted in 1920, gained increasing popularity during this period. While the 1970s brought about slimmer cuts in clothing, one of the major changes in African American style was the wider acceptance of jeans as casual fashion for women. The cuts of both blouses and pants were sometimes exaggerated, creating longer collars or looser cuts in the lower pant legs, a style commonly

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referred to as ‘‘bell bottoms.’’ Colors often ran the spectrum, as individuals sought to express the uniqueness of their personal styles, often by changing hairstyles, alternating between relaxed, natural, and braided hair. While some styles of clothing retained strong African-inspired elements, the music and films of the era had major influences on the fashion trends of that time, as well. Fashion in the latter twentieth century was most affected by the hip-hop culture, which drew its influences from b-boy/b-girls, graffiti artists, deejays, and emcees, a combination that reflected the voices of a rising young urban generation. The fabrics often consisted of bright colors and were accessorized by large ornate earrings, gold jewelry, and large rings. Fashion styles ranged from skirts to pants to spandex shorts to combinations of the three, often worn in combination with sneakers or other casual footwear. As hip-hop encouraged individual expression, it was not uncommon to wear airbrushed shirts or denim jeans with customized artwork on the pant legs. Hairstyles reflected one’s need to express individuality, often incorporating hair extensions and cuts that faded into lower lengths. In addition, particular attention was paid to fingernail designs, multiple ear piercings, and the use of gold jewelry to accentuate one’s outfit. Hip-hop’s evolution into the twenty-first century has maintained its characteristic mixture of athletic and casual wear; however, the cuts of many of the designs tend to conform more closely to the individual’s body shape. Footwear, a key staple of twentieth-century fashion, continues to remain one of the most essential fashion accessories. The vast array styles have offered enormous possibilities for self-expression. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen many different styles, including, but not confined to, pumps, slingbacks, loafers, flats, sandals, Mary Janes, tennis shoes, ankle straps, open-toe, boots, high heels, platforms, all of which reflect formalwear, casual wear, business wear, and everything in between. In addition, footwear is often available in a variety of different fabrics and animal skins and available in virtually any color. Women’s Religious Wear Religious wear that is not of a uniformed nature is often conservative and accentuated by headwear referred to affectionately as a ‘‘crown.’’ A crown is often a large, colorfully adorned hat that is worn to accentuate an outfit and is considered a representation of the woman who wears it. References to crowns have frequently appeared throughout African American literature, as the popularity of this accessory is commonplace in many African American religious environments. Men’s Fashion Many of the characteristics of traditional men’s fashion have remained intact; however, the cuts of men’s clothing often change to suit the individual’s taste or the growth of a particular fashion trend. The traditional cut of a typical singlebreasted two-piece suit, for example, would have been worn differently during the 1960s, placing an emphasis on a ‘‘thinner’’ overall look and cuffing the pants

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so that the socks are much more visible from a distance. Fashion styles and trends of the early twenty-first century reflect a variety of cuts, depending on the formal or casual nature of the clothing. General Men’s Wear The staple of men’s formal wear is the suit. Two-piece and three-piece suits (a vest making the difference in the two) continue to be commonplace for men’s formalwear, often accentuated by neckties, bowties, or other accessories, such as belts, braces, suspenders, pocket squares, headwear (such as fedoras and bowling hats), and cufflinks (which are designed to be affixed to the button-less sleeves of French cuff shirts). The parts of a suit are usually cut from the same fabric, whereas some men choose to match a pair of pants or slacks with a blazer (a solid colored coat) or a sports jacket (a coat bearing a pattern). Arguably the most visible aspect of the suit/blazer/sports jacket is whether it is single or double-breasted. Single-breasted coats have a single row of buttons, and one opening flap barely overlaps the second flap so that the jacket can be buttoned, providing a slimmer look. A double-breasted jacket, on the contrary, contains two rows of buttons, and the opening flap is pulled farther across the torso to affix to the second row of buttons, giving the jacket a fuller look. Other aspects of the suit/blazer/sports jacket are the padding of the shoulders, the shape and style of the lapels, and the length of the jacket. The number of buttons can widely alter the appearance of a jacket, as it often directly affects the length of the jacket. Throughout the twentieth century, jackets have undergone major changes based upon the aforementioned elements. This was reflected during the Harlem Renaissance by both the classic single and double-breasted jackets, as well as the more flamboyant and brightly colored ‘‘zoot (zuit) suits,’’ which often approached knee-length and were accompanied by high-waist pants that were often baggy in nature. Such modifications and exaggerations of cut and length continue to evolve and can be found in various aspects of urban fashion, from church fashion to fashion associated with pimps and players. During the late 1950s through the 1960s, many young men preferred the cut of their pants to be closer to the leg with the pant leg cut higher to reveal their socks. While many men of the later twentieth century and early twenty-first century prefer more traditional cuts and lengths, especially for professional purposes, individuality is often the cornerstone of the choices made in determining which garments to wear and how to wear them. These choices are often manifested in the selection of the dress shirts, which include various collar choices, cuts, and patterns, as well as neckwear, which, in addition to fabrics and prints, requires the selection of a knot that best reflects one’s fashion sense. Windsor, half-Windsor, and four-in-hand knots, for example, remain popular choices with regard to men’s ties, the traditional length of the tie ending at the belt buckle. There is, however, an increasing trend toward wearing neckwear with casual clothing and shortening the length of the tie for stylish effect. With casual wear, many of the elements that influenced women’s fashion had a parallel effect on men’s fashion. For example, Rock and Roll influenced men’s

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clothing, as well, bringing about such styles as cuffed denim jean pants, cardigan sweaters, leather jackets, loafers, slacks, and button-up shirts that were usually tucked into the pants. Likewise, the men’s fashion trends in the 1960s drew from the musical culture, as well as the predominant theme of racial pride. This was reflected not only in the choice of African-inspired colors or strong earth tones, but in the hairstyles of the period as well. Conks and other hairstyles that required the chemical alteration of hair were phased out, as men embraced hairstyles like the low, even Caesar haircut and the Afro, which could be of varying lengths. Such hairstyles were often accompanied with sideburns and the styling of facial hair. The later twentieth century and early twenty-first century, however, have reflected the various aspects of hip-hop culture. Largely styled to be baggy and loose, hip-hop clothing has been the center of controversy, as many young men, in their efforts to mimic the beltless ‘‘saggin’’’ of prisoner garb, have adopted a style of wearing their pants so that their undergarments are highly visible. There has, however, been an effort by certain members of the hip-hop community, particularly Russell Simmons, Sean (Diddy) Combs, Kanye West, Andre Benjamin, and Fonzworth Bentley, to return to more classic styles, reflective of the sartorial advocating of Alan Flusser in his 1996 primer on men’s fashion, Style and the Man, and the fusion of culture and style in Lloyd Boston’s Men of Color. See also: Hair and Hairstyles; Zoot Suits Further Reading Boston, Lloyd. 1998. Men of Color. New York: Artisan. Flusser, Alan. 1998. Style and the Man: How and Where to Buy Fine Men’s Clothes. New York: HarperCollins. White, Constance C. R. 1998. Style Noir: The First How-To Guide to Fashion Written With Black Women in Mind. New York: Diane Publishing. Randolph Walker

Collectibles, Black Black collectibles, also known as black memorabilia, include two- and threedimensional objects and media material that mirrors the history and culture of African Americans. Associated with these artifacts are the many perceptions and misconceptions about people of African descent. The wide variety of products, images, and stories for and about black people have been interpreted through family history items, slavery artifacts, historical documents, personal letters, commercial products, sports trading cards and related materials, entertainment paraphernalia, political items, autographs, photographs, letters, and art. Beginning in the 1800s, products made primarily in the North contained mostly negative images that ridiculed black Americans. Many of these early images created for popular consumption offered a simplistic and degrading

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portrayal of a people who had limited civil and human rights. This marketing strategy relied on long-held stereotypes that black people were lazy, superstitious, quick to steal, and physically and intellectually inferior to whites. The manufacture of these products occurred at time when such names as coon, Sambo, and darky were acceptable ways to describe black people. Following were cleansing solutions that advertised with depictions of pickaninnies, ‘‘mammy’’ cookie jars, and smiling black faces with red lips and large white teeth that appeared on castiron banks. Listed among songs and stories that offered a one-sided portrayal of blacks were minstrel-style illustrations on sheet music. The Little Black Sambo children’s book also became a popular cultural item. Racist attitudes towards blacks were not confined to the United States. The bushy-haired Golliwog image, originating in the 1890s, remains a popular doll and dinnerware item in the United Kingdom. The popular Darky toothpaste with a smiling black figure sold in some Asian countries continues to be marketed under the ‘‘Darlie’’ brand. Other products with negative images have been manufactured in Germany and Japan. Today, it is not unusual to find stereotypical items made in China. While some view black collectibles as primarily negative depictions of black America, others maintain that cultural documentation deserves a more balanced approach—as seen through items that reflected everyday life and personal aspirations of real people. For example, a special 1924 letter from poet Langston Hughes to historian Alain Locke contains a handwritten copy of the poem ‘‘I, Too (Sing America).’’ Historical photographs of a slightly earlier time show the regal bearing and graceful aging of noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass. African American images on modern-day postage stamps are examples of black achievement that have the backing of the U.S. government. There are many reasons that novices and professionals are drawn to black collectibles, which are gleaned from family collections, flea markets, estate sales, specialty stores, and trash piles. Generally, collecting is inspired by the complexities of African American history and culture. The richness and diversity of available artifacts is also a major factor. While some collectors engage in amassing products because of their aesthetics and popular appeal, others consider it a financial investment. Increasingly, those items with strong historical connections are being used as educational tools to reach the public. Discussions of toys and games are effective ways to engage audiences, especially children and youth. Support for the collecting can be found through many channels. Organized groups, found throughout the country, sponsor exhibitions and sales of many specialized items. Information is available by researching a vast network of reference sources that include libraries, exhibitions, internet sites, auctions, and conferences. Assisting collectors are the numerous like-minded organizations that offer advice, purchase and sales opportunities, and news publications. Increasingly, museum and historical institution exhibitions are displaying and preserving black cultural materials, which offer compelling stories about black America. Certainly, mass production has made it possible for a vast array of collectibles to be more available and affordable. Products made for home use can

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include a box of pancake mix, Jolly man cast iron bank, patent models, playing cards, movie posters, recordings, cereal boxes, and much more. A growing category that has special appeal includes limited editions, one-of-akind, and personalized collectibles—generally associated with noted figures and special events. One limited commemorative that has become increasingly rare is the ‘‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’’ harp figure created by artist Augusta Savage for the 1939 World’s Fair. Items that were owned or signed by celebrities, sports stars, national figures, and politicians are especially desired. Some collectors specialize in documenting the life of one person, such as Martin Luther King Jr. Still others find group personalities or popular cultural themes attractive. The scope of black collectibles has expanded to include the visual arts—paintings, prints, sculptures, crafts, and photography—that spans this country’s history. Support materials such as first-edition books, exhibition catalogs, news articles, and personal papers are also in high demand. Additionally, some art collectors find it especially important to establish a personal bond with those whose works they acquire by attending art openings and visiting artists’ studios whenever possible. The election of Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States, has rekindled an interest in collecting and preserving history. Front pages from newspapers announcing the 44th president continue to be in high demand. Other sought-after items include official and independent campaign materials—buttons, caps, bumper stickers, yard signs, magazines, books, tshirts, and programs and souvenir books of all kinds. This renewed interest in current events, combined with the urge to collect, will no doubt encourage a better understanding of political issues and the electoral process. In looking to the future, collectors of black memorabilia are exploring popular culture for products that will offer stories about today’s people, events, and popular interests. An action figure, for example, could offer valuable insights into twenty-first-century interests. The image on a food container might signal not only a noted personality but identify culinary taste. Many novice collectors are advised to ‘‘collect what you like,’’ and emphasize having fun as a primary goal. Ultimately, collectors are visionaries who understand the meaning of everyday items and their historical potential. They are keenly aware that their interest in saving tangible objects will someday provide valuable information about enduring human achievements and cultural values. Further Reading Buster, Larry Vincent. 2000. The Art and History of Black Memorabilia. New York: Clarkson Potter. Davis, Kerra. ‘‘Collecting History.’’ Antiques & Collecting Magazine 111 (February 2007): 58–61. Montgomery, Elvin, Jr. 2001. Collecting African American History: A Celebration of American’s Black Heritage through Documents, Artifacts, and Collectibles. New York: Stewart, Tabor & Chang. Robert L. Hall

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Color Purple, The (film) The film The Color Purple depicts early twentieth-century, southern rural, African American life. Based on the 1984 novel by African American writer Alice Walker, the film is now considered an American contemporary classic, spawning a Broadway play in 2005 that was produced by African American media mogul Oprah Winfrey (who also starred in the film). The various media detailing Walker’s narrative have been successful: the book made the New York Times Bestseller’s List and won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award; the film was nominated for eleven Oscars; and the play has opened to sold-out crowds across the nation. In 1985, Steven Spielberg’s filmic depiction of the story implemented important changes in plot that solidified the on-screen version as his own. The movie was criticized heavily for its introduction of nuanced images and altered subplots, particularly Spielberg’s masking both of Walker’s overt novelistic treatment of lesbianism and what Walker saw as difficult but reconcilable relationships between African American men and women. Thus Spielberg, along with movie screenwriter, Menno Meyjes, made significant changes to the story line that rightly brands the film and perhaps lends it its popularity but also poses challenges to authorial intent. While Walker opens her novel with a scene of incest, critics acknowledge that the opening of Spielberg’s film, an idyllic scene of sisters Celie and Nettie innocently playing a hand game in a field of wildflowers, serves to mitigate the subsequent incest. Furthermore, Spielberg did not depict as many scenes of marital violence as the novel, shooting lead male actor Danny Glover (who played Celie’s nemesis and husband, ‘‘Albert/Mr._____’’) at several angles that showed him towering above Celie to reinforce his control instead. Other thematic changes included Celie’s original lesbian love affair with Shug Avery (Albert’s lover) being portrayed more simplistically as a deeply bonded friendship between the women and the African American and African cultural traditions of sewing, quilting, and face and body scarring, respectively, being downplayed or omitted. Critics allege that Spielberg spends very little time developing Walker’s Africa subplot, glossing over the decisions with which Adam (Celie’s son, who is being raised by missionaries in Africa) and his African-born fianc
e, Tashi, struggle regarding Tashi’s tribal rite-of-passage of face scarring. In one of the most celebrated scenes, Spielberg shows Shug leading a group of people from a juke joint to reconcile with her estranged father while he pastors his church and while a familiar gospel song that she once led is being sung, subrating Walker’s original intent to have Shug shun traditional Judeo-Christianity by having her return to a conservative church. In the final scene of the movie, Albert’s plan to reunite Celie and Nettie is realized. But, unlike the novel, Albert does not join in the celebration and the sisters’ reunion is not complemented by a full, communal family reunion. Although Spielberg alludes to but rejects in-depth probing into many of the weighty issues of the novel, he creates a highly memorable film through selected imagery that has left an indelible mark on the African American cultural psyche.

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Further Reading Dole, Carol M. ‘‘The Return of the Father in Spielberg’s The Color Purple.’’ Literature Film Quarterly 24 (1996): 12–17. McMullen, Wayne J. and Martha Solomon. ‘‘The Politics of Adaptation: Steven Spielberg’s Appropriation of The Color Purple.’’ Text and Performance Quarterly 14 (1994): 158–74. Peacock, John. ‘‘When Folk Goes Pop: Consuming The Color Purple.’’ Literature Film Quarterly 19 (1991): 176–81. Tomeiko Ashford Carter

Coltrane, John (1926–67), Jazz Saxophonist, Composer John Coltrane is a legendary jazz saxophonist and composer whose career spanned the late 1940s and the 1960s. He remains, to this day, one of the most important icons in music history, as well as African American popular culture. Coltrane started out with assorted jazz ensembles, most notably groups led by trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As a musician, he experimented with standards and new styles, such as modal, avant-garde, and free jazz, as well as world music. In later years, Coltrane’s music became increasingly inspired by his deepening spirituality. Some critics found his evolving music harsh and discordant. Today, Coltrane is widely considered a brilliant musician, a pioneer of modern jazz. Coltrane was married to Naima Grubbs between 1955 and 1966 and Alice McCleod, a pianist and harpist, in 1966. He had two children, John William Jr. and Ravi John Coltrane. John William Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina, to John Robert and Gertrude Coltrane and raised in High Point, North Carolina. He grew up in the local African Methodist Episcopal church. His father, an amateur musician who played multiple instruments as a hobby, was his earliest musical influence. During his childhood, Coltrane played the clarinet and the alto saxophone. He was a serious student of music, relentlessly practicing and studying above all else. He eventually played with a local community band and with a music ensemble at William Penn High School. Coltrane immersed himself further in music immediately after graduation. The 1940s and 1950s was a crucial period of musical development and growth for Coltrane. He studied music at Granoff Studios and Ornstein School of Music in Philadelphia in the 1940s. In 1945, he played in the U.S. Navy jazz band. Returning to civilian life a year later, Coltrane studied jazz theory with Dennis Sandole. Between the late 1940s and 1950s, he played with assorted bands led by Eddie Vinson, Dizzie Gillespie, Earl Bostic, and Johnny Hedges. In 1955, Coltrane, who was rapidly developing into a masterful jazz musician, was invited to join Miles Davis’s group; however, Coltrane was fired in 1957 because of his heroin addiction. In 1957, he played with another iconic jazz musician, Thelonious Monk. In that same year, Coltrane debuted as a leader on Blue Train. He composed four of the songs featured on that album. In 1958, he was invited to play with Miles Davis again, only to be let go a few years later, because of his drug addiction.

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Coltrane rebounded from this disappointment with a solo career. Nurtured from his years with the jazz greats, Coltrane was steadily advancing his technique. His first album, Giant Steps, which was released in 1960, reflected his growth and prowess. In 1961, Coltrane became a household name when he released his lively and soulful version of ‘‘My Favorite Things,’’ a song from the massively popular Broadway musical The Sound of Music. Throughout the 1960s, Coltrane led his own quintet and quartet groups and ventured in experimental music utilizing avant-garde John Coltrane (photographed in 1960) possessed astonishing technical mastery, spiritual tone, lengthy sounds and tempos, modal improvisations, and multicultural influences that and free jazz. His music also stretched the boundaries of jazz and enriched its reflected his growing interest vocabulary. (Library of Congress) in spirituality as evident in several albums, such as A Love Supreme (1965), Om (1965), which refers to a term that is used in Buddhist chanting, Ascension (1965), Cosmic Music (1966), and Meditations (1966). Coltrane died on July 17, 1967, from liver cancer. Further Reading Porter, Lewis. 2000. John Coltrane: His Life and Music. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Ratliff, Ben. 2008. Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. New York: Picador. Gladys L. Knight

Combs, Sean (Diddy) (1969– ), Record Producer, Recording Artist, Fashion Designer, Actor Born November 4, 1969, in Harlem, New York, Sean John Combs, known internationally as ‘‘Diddy,’’ is an entrepreneur who has blended music and urban fashion to become one of the most widely recognized Hip-Hop moguls

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on the planet, joining the ranks of Shawn ‘‘Jay-Z’’ Carter and Russell Simmons as one of the most influential people in African American popular culture. Following the murder of his father, Combs, as a child, moved to Mount Vernon, New York, just north of New York City, where he was raised. After graduating from Mount St. Michael Academy, Combs attended Howard University in Washington, DC, where, as an undergraduate, he began an unpaid internship at Uptown Records. As a nineteen-year-old, Combs rose through the ranks and proved influential in launching the careers and crafting the ghetto-fabulous images of Jodeci and Mary J. Blige, proving his keen understanding of hip-hop as a music as well as a culture. When released by Uptown Records in 1993, Combs rebounded by beginning his own record label, Bad Boy Entertainment. The first hit released was Craig Mack’s ‘‘Flava in Your Ear,’’ yet the crown jewel of Bad Boy Entertainment was Brooklyn-born Christopher Wallace, known as Biggie Smalls or the Notorious B. I. G. The only album Biggie released in his lifetime was Ready to Die (1994), which proved to be a major artistic and commercial success, reaching double platinum, with the hit single ‘‘Juicy,’’ from the same album, reaching triple platinum status. With their meteoric rise, Combs and Biggie established themselves in the recording industry as serious rivals to the dominance of hip-hop artists from the West Coast. On the strength of Biggie’s passionate lyricism and remarkable slow flow, along with Combs’s marketing ingenuity honed while at Uptown, the Bad Boy label vied against Death Row Records, led by mogul Marion ‘‘Suge’’ Knight, creating the famed East Coast–West Coast rivalry in the world of hip-hop that declined following the fatal shootings of Tupac Shakur, in September 1996 in Las Vegas, after a Mike Tyson fight, and six months later of Christopher Wallace, following an after-party following the Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles. Both shootings remain unsolved crimes. To commemorate the life and legacy of the Notorious B. I. G., Combs produced the posthumous album Born Again, in 1999. The violence that shapes Gangsta Rap played a unique role in a New York City nightclub shooting in 2000. The stolen gun used in the shooting was found in the car of Sean ‘‘Puffy/Puff Daddy’’ Combs. While Combs was later found innocent of all charges, he underwent a name change, dropping the moniker ‘‘Puff Daddy’’ for ‘‘P. Diddy.’’ Today he is known simply as ‘‘Diddy.’’ Along with his success in the music industry, Diddy began his Sean John clothing line in 1998, and has made forays onto the silver screen with the films Made (2001) and Monster’s Ball (2001), along with his reality show called Making the Band (2002). Diddy also performed on Broadway in the 2004 production of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. In 2009, Diddy served as executive producer of the major motion picture Notorious, which chronicles the life of Christopher Wallace, played by Jamal Woolard. Combs, too, is featured in the film, played by Derek Luke, and in Luke’s performance we see the business side of the music industry.

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Diddy’s rise to wealth and fame offers us a new take on the classic Horatio Alger myth of struggling upward. In the particular case of Sean Combs, we see, too, that the broader cultural significance of hip-hop moguls resides in their business acumen that makes use of the varied frequencies of our increasingly multimedia popular culture to make the most of opportunities. In the end, Diddy offers us a fresh take on our timeless classic tales of making a name for ourselves. As Diddy himself said, ‘‘Have I read The Great Gatsby? I am the Great Gatsby!’’ Further Reading Bynoe, Yvonne. 2006. ‘‘Combs, Sean ‘P. Diddy’ (aka ‘Puffy,’ aka ‘Puff Daddy,’ aka ‘Diddy’)’’ [Sean John Combs]. In Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Hsu, Hua. ‘‘The End of White America?’’ Atlantic 303 (January/February 2009): 46–55. Morrison, Carlos D., and Celnisha L. Dangerfield. 2007. ‘‘Tupac Shakur.’’ In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Mickey Hess, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Peterson, James. 2007. ‘‘Notorious B. I. G’’ In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Mickey Hess, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 2007. Encyclopedia of African American Business, Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Comedy and Comedians ‘‘We wear the mask that grins and lies. . . .’’ (Paul Laurence Dunbar) and ‘‘laughing to keep from crying’’ (Langston Hughes) are phrases that reflect the importance of comedy as a survival mechanism in black culture. Legendary comedian and activist Dick Gregory simply defined the comedian as ‘‘someone who makes a living telling jokes’’ and making people laugh. African cultures, like other societies, included comedy and comic figures in their oral and written traditions, which were retained by those who survived the tragedy and horrors of the trans-Atlantic Middle Passage to endure lives of forced servitude in North America and the New World. Blacks used humor along with music and other forms of creativity not only to amuse themselves and find temporary relief from their hardships as slaves, but to subtly comment on ‘‘the ways of white folks.’’ One example is the ‘‘cakewalk,’’ an entertainment created by slaves mimicking white behaviors, which was humorous to whites on a surface level, while blacks gained enjoyment from poking fun at their masters without provoking their anger and putting themselves in danger. Other slaves adapted African proverbs and animal/trickster tales to their new environment, with the most famous being the plantation proverbs and Uncle

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Remus stories recorded by white journalist author Joel Chandler Harris. Much of the dialect poetry of Dunbar also documented the clever use of humor by blacks during the antebellum period. The Minstrel Era on Stage, Screen, and Radio Over time these entertainments evolved into minstrel shows that provided a platform for both black and white talent. African Americans became the victims of cruelty disguised as humor when whites donned burnt cork, coal, or other ingredients to exhibit racial stereotypes in ‘‘blackface’’ comedy. Ironically, one of the earliest professional black comedians, Bert Williams, was light-complexioned and wore blackface makeup for the majority of his entertainment career. Initially, however, blacks were forbidden from appearing on stage without such makeup. Williams, his partner George Walker, and other early African American comedians also functioned under the realities of segregation and Jim Crow during the latter part of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. Billed as the ‘‘Two Real Coons,’’ Williams and Walker performed on Broadway in 1896 and became the first black comedy team to achieve mainstream success. The traveling shows usually staged in tents were succeeded by vaudeville, which took place in theaters and other venues specifically built for entertainment purposes. The overwhelming number of black performers had to make their living by entertaining black audiences in segregated theaters. Even these venues were primarily owned by whites, with some evolving into organized structures such as the Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA), established in 1907. Williams eventually became the first crossover comedian, performing for white vaudeville audiences as part of the famed Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway, and also was one of the first to record his voice on the ‘‘talking machine’’ that gave birth to the sound recording industry. Another entertainment invention, silent moving pictures, included comedy by and about blacks during the formative years of the film industry. As on the stage, racial stereotypes portrayed by both whites in blackface and blacks were degrading, yet profitable, including titles such as A Nigger in the Woodpile, The Watermelon Contest, and the Sambo and Rastus films. William D. Foster, a publicist and promoter for Williams and Walker, sought to present alternatives with his Foster Photoplay Company in 1910, and became the first black producer with films including comedies The Railroad Porter (1912) and The Fall Guy (1913). In 1914 Williams appeared in Darktown Jubilee, one of the first movies made with an all-black cast. The release of the infamous 1915 D. W. Griffith film, Birth of a Nation, catered to racial fears as well as stereotypes, but blacks and other white producers responded by independently developing silent films incorporating positive black themes and performers. ‘‘Race movies’’ produced by the Lincoln Motion Picture Company, (Oscar) Micheaux Film Corporation, and other companies were marketed to black audiences with varying degrees of success. The next major breakthrough for black comedians came with the Broadway success of Shuffle Along, a 1921 musical comedy revue. Along with songs and

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music by Noble Sissle and James Hubert ‘‘Eubie’’ Blake, the comedy team of (Flournoy) Miller and (Aubrey) Lyles was prominently featured, as well as the comic dance routine of future star Josephine Baker. Miller and Lyles were also writers of the show’s material as well as performers, and succeeded Williams and Walker as the top black comedy team of their era along with Butterbeans and Susie, a husband-and-wife combination. White writer-comedians Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll began broadcasting with ‘‘black voices’’ for the longrunning and controversial Amos ‘n’ Andy radio show in 1928. Lincoln ‘‘Stepin Fetchit’’ Perry achieved his first major film success in the 1929 movie Hearts in Dixie, the first ‘‘talking’’ movie with an all-black cast. He parlayed his controversial, yet comic portrayal of the ‘‘shiftless darky’’ and ‘‘the World’s Laziest Man’’ into fame and fortune as one of the first black movie stars. He would be followed by a variety of screen comedians in the 1930s and 1940s, including child actors Sammy Davis Jr. (who appeared in Rufus Jones for President with Ethel Waters in 1931), Allen ‘‘Farina’’ Hoskins, Matthew ‘‘Stymie’’ Beard, and William ‘‘Buckwheat’’ Thomas (from the Our Gang and Little Rascals movies), Thelma ‘‘Butterfly’’ McQueen (best remembered as Prissy in Gone With the Wind), Willie Best, Mantan Moreland, and Eddie ‘‘Rochester’’ Anderson. While often remembered for his leading role with Ethel Waters and Lena Horne in Cabin in the Sky (1943), Anderson’s famed Rochester character was the radio (and later television) sidekick to white comic actor Jack Benny. Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel portrayed a maid on the radio comedy show, Beulah, in the late 1940s. From Stage to Records and Television Other comedians continued to emerge from nightclubs and the TOBA circuit, including the comedy dance team Buck and Bubbles, Clinton ‘‘Dusty’’ Fletcher, Dewey ‘‘Pigmeat’’ Markham, and Moms Mabley. Race Records provided another market for these and other talented comedians, and an outlet for more risqu
e material presented by future legends such as Redd Foxx and Rudy Ray Moore. Old racial stereotypes in black comedy were less successful as the age of television began in the 1950s. The TV version of Beulah (1950–53) made Ethel Waters the first African American to star in a television series, but the comedy based on the life of a black maid achieved limited success, even with other cast members including Butterfly McQueen and Louise Beavers. Amos ‘n’ Andy was also revamped for television, but only lasted from 1951 to 1953 despite the presence of an all-black cast including veteran performers Alvin Childress (‘‘Amos’’), Spencer Williams Jr. (‘‘Andy’’), Tim Moore, (‘‘Kingfish’’), Ernestine Wade (‘‘Sapphire’’), and Jester Hairston. Comedy as Commentary in the Civil Rights Era A more sophisticated approach was taken by comedians such as Nipsey Russell, Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby, Godfrey Cambridge, and others who came into

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prominence during the 1960s, including racial and social commentary which reflected the agenda of the Civil Rights Movement. Russell, Gregory, and Cosby not only worked in traditional venues for blacks, but were pioneers in the integration of black comedians into mainstream entertainment including prime-time and late-night television such as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Las Vegas hotels, casinos, and resorts, as well as recording successful comedy albums. Cambridge launched his comedy career after appearing with Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Beah Richards, and Helen Martin in the 1961 hit Broadway play, Purlie Victorious, and later appeared in comedy films Cotton Comes to Harlem and Watermelon Man (1970). Gregory would sacrifice much of his entertainment career for civil and human rights activism, but also achieved success as an author and lecturer. Cosby continued to break new ground in television during the decade, becoming the first black performer to star in a dramatic series (I Spy) in 1965, cohost the Emmy Awards (1966), and substitute host the Tonight Show. Diahann Carroll, better known as a dramatic actress and singer, played the role of nurse and single mother in her situation comedy, Julia, and became the first African American nominated for an Emmy in comedy (1968). Legendary black entertainers such as Pigmeat Markham and Sammy Davis Jr. appeared on the NBC comedy show, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Black Comedy Goes Mainstream The 1970s would see black comedy evolve in many new, surprising, and controversial directions. Clerow ‘‘Flip’’ Wilson achieved great television success early in the decade with The Flip Wilson Show (1970–74), which he also used to highlight black musical artists as well as his comic talent. Bill Cosby found new success by producing and performing animated children’s programming (Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids) beginning in 1972. Redd Foxx toned down his comic material for television and gained mainstream success with his show, Sanford and Son (1972–77), and two other veteran performers, Della Reese and Scatman Crothers, were supporting characters in Chico and the Man, the first sitcom with a Hispanic star (comedian Freddie Prinze). Two other black comedy shows, Good Times and The Jeffersons, generated controversy as well as high ratings and recognition for its African American stars. Esther Rolle, John Amos, and Ja’Net DuBois led the cast of Good Times, the first situation comedy with a two-parent black family, but comedian Jimmie Walker’s character of ‘‘J. J.’’ became the focus of the show, drawing criticism along with high viewer ratings. Many felt his portrayal and signature saying, ‘‘Dy-nomite!’’ was a step back to negative racial stereotypes, but the show lasted from 1974 to 1979 and also highlighted future music superstar Janet Jackson during its run. Sherman Hemsley was also criticized for his work as the ‘‘over the top’’ character of George Jefferson, but The Jeffersons lasted longer than any other black TV comedy series (1975–85). Isabel Sanford (first black Emmy winner as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series), Marla Gibbs, and Roxie Roker (part of the first interracial couple on prime-time television) rounded out the cast.

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Richard Pryor also exploded into the entertainment world during the 1970s. He seemed to synthesize all of the best qualities of the generations before him, but added a sense of fearlessness and danger which impacted his life as well as his performances. Pryor alarmed censors and mainstream America as he pushed boundaries in the use of the ‘‘N-word,’’ profanity, and racial/sexual/drug content as material for live performances to comedy albums to television to film. He became a superstar and the top actor in Hollywood during his peak period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and was honored with the first Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. His friend and fellow comedian Paul Mooney created material for Redd Foxx as well as Pryor, while continuing his own successful career as a stand-up performer. Pryor’s breakthrough opened doors for scores of younger comedians, as did the landmark comedy program, Saturday Night Live, which also began airing in the mid-1970s. Pryor appeared on early episodes and Garrett Morris was a member of the original cast, while Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Tim Meadows, and Tracy Morgan joined the show in later years. The abundance of black talent (and the potential for high ratings) led to inclusion in the casts of numerous other comedy shows, including Ron Glass in the multiracial cast of Barney Miller on ABC (1975–82); the black teen comedy What’s Happening (1976–79) with Ernest Thomas, Fred ‘‘Rerun’’ Berry, and Shirley Hemphill; Diff’rent Strokes (1978–86) featuring child stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges; and Robert Guillaume in Soap and his own spin-off show, Benson (1979–86). Another child star, Kim Fields, grew up on television as part of the situation comedy The Facts of Life (1979–88), while Tim Reid (part of the first integrated comedy team with Tom Dreesen in the late 1960s) costarred in WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–82). Reid would later produce and star in other sit-coms including Frank’s Place (1987–88) with wife Daphne Maxwell-Reid and Sister, Sister (1994–99), which featured Jack
ee Harry and teenage twins Tia and Tamera Mowery. Comedy films in the 1970s included Amazing Grace (1974), notable in that it was the only leading screen role for Jackie ‘‘Moms’’ Mabley and one of the last film performances of Lincoln ‘‘Stepin Fetchit’’ Perry. Oscar-wining actor Sidney Poitier directed and starred in the successful film comedies Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and its sequel, Let’s Do It Again (1975), with costars including Cosby, Wilson, Amos, Pryor, Walker, and Harry Belafonte. Car Wash (1976) included comedians Pryor, Franklin Ajaye, and Antonio Fargas in the ensemble cast, while in The Wiz (1978), Pryor played the title role in this inner-city version of the classic film The Wizard of Oz alongside Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, and fellow comedy legend Nipsey Russell (Tin Man). Poitier also directed Pryor in Stir Crazy (1980). The Next Phase of Black Comedy: The 1980s Teenage comedian Byron Allen enjoyed early television success on NBC with The Tonight Show and Real People (1979–84), and later hosted his talk show/comedy showcase, The Byron Allen Show (1989–92), and Entertainers (celebrity

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interviews). While these platforms provided opportunities and success for black comedic talent as the 1970s ended, situations such as black children being raised by whites in isolation (Webster, with child star Emmanuel Lewis), the subtle ‘‘Mammy’’ update of a black woman raising white children (Gimme a Break, with Broadway star Nell Carter), the Benson character moving from butler to lieutenant governor, and several of Pryor’s later film roles seemed to ring hollow as unrealistic portrayals of black culture. Guillaume still became the first black actor to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1985. Bill Cosby responded by continuing to make comedy recordings, as well as creating and starring in The Cosby Show, a comedy about the Huxtables, a successful upper-middle-class black family based on his real-life experiences. The show launched on NBC in 1984, and became one of the most successful television programs of all time, reigning as the highest rated show for five consecutive seasons (1985–86 to 1989–90). The show also won multiple Emmy Awards, highlighted a number of legendary actors, musicians, and other entertainers, and provided meaningful opportunities for minorities behind as well as in front of the camera. The hit ABC comedy Night Court launched the same year, with Marsha Warfield and Charlie Robinson in strong supporting roles through its long run (until 1992). Marla Gibbs parlayed her success on The Jeffersons into the leading role on 227, a sitcom about a black working-class family, which ran from 1985 to 1990. Her costars included Hal Williams, Regina King (who matured into a successful film actress), and veteran stage actress Helen Martin, but Jack
ee Harry became the breakout performer in the series. Harry won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series after the 1986–87 television season. A Different World, the successful spin-off of The Cosby Show, was launched in 1987 as the first prime-time comedy about life on a black college campus. Originally starring ‘‘Cosby Kid’’ Lisa Bonet, the show also featured upcoming talent such as Kadeem Hardison, ‘‘clean comic’’ and Cosby prot
eg
e Sinbad, as well as actresses Jasmine Guy and Jada Pinkett Smith. Cosby expanded into writing humorous books such as Fatherhood (1986), Time Flies (1987), Love and Marriage (1989), and Childhood (1991). The Next Generation of Black Comedy: The 1990s The advent of rap and Hip-Hop culture, cable television, and advances in media technology created opportunities for a new generation of black comedy talent in the 1980s and 1990s. Eddie Murphy moved from Saturday Night Live, where his comedy included an update of the controversial ‘‘Buckwheat’’ character from the Little Rascals films of the 1930s and 1940s, to succeed Pryor as a major Hollywood star with numerous hit movies including comedies such as Trading Places (1983), Coming to America (1988), Harlem Nights (1989, with Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor), Boomerang (1992), serial remakes of comedy film classics such as The Nutty Professor and Dr. Doolittle, and the animated Shrek films. His Coming to America costar, Arsenio Hall, went on to television success as host of Star Search and The Arsenio Hall Show, the first late-night talk show

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with a black host. Hall’s show drew international attention in 1992 when future president Bill Clinton appeared and performed on the saxophone. Whoopi Goldberg, whose one-woman Broadway show recording won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, was broadcast on leading cable channel Home Box Office (HBO), where she also hosted several Comic Relief specials. Goldberg went on to become a successful dramatic as well as comic actress in films such as The Color Purple (1985); her Oscar-winning supporting role in the comedy Ghost (1990); four-time host/performer on the Academy Awards broadcast; star of The Whoopi Goldberg Show (talk show), and Whoopi (sitcom); and guest/host on Hollywood Squares (game show) and The View (women’s talk show). Sherman Hemsley returned to television as star of Amen, the first television comedy based on the black church. The series ran from 1986 to 1991 on NBC, with costars including actor/minister Clifton Davis and veteran musician/actor Jester Hairston. Another successful TV sitcom based on a black family was Family Matters, which began airing in 1989. Reginald VelJohnson and JoMarie Payton were working-class parents heading an extended family, but young costar Jaleel White became the focus of the show as the ‘‘nerd next door’’ character, Steve Urkel. As a result, the series enjoyed a long run on two networks, ABC (until 1997) and CBS for its final season (1997–98). Will Smith transitioned from rap/hip-hop music to TV stardom as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a top-rated NBC sitcom produced by music mogul Quincy Jones, which lasted from 1990 to 1996. Like Pryor and Murphy, Smith also went into films and became a top box-office attraction in serious and comedic roles. Several other rap artists successfully followed in his footsteps, most notably Queen Latifah (star of Fox TV sitcom Living Single from 1993–98, costarring comedienne Kim Coles), and LL Cool J (In The House, from 1995–98). Martin Lawrence also emerged as a major comedy star with his show, Martin, on Fox from 1992 to 1997, and as the first host of Def Comedy Jam on HBO in 1992, another major venue for new black comedians produced by rap/hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. Ice Cube shed his hardcore ‘‘gangster rapper’’ image for major film success in dramatic roles as well as the Friday and Barbershop film comedies, beginning in 1995. Mark Curry starred in Hanging With Mr. Cooper, a successful TV sitcom on ABC from 1992 to 1997. Entrepreneurial actor/filmmakers such as Spike Lee, Robert Townsend, and Keenen Ivory Wayans, and the Hudlin brothers (Warrington and Reginald) also used comedy films as vehicles to establish their careers. Lee’s first commercial success was She’s Gotta Have It (1986); Townsend satirized the struggles of aspiring black actors in Hollywood Shuffle (1987) and comic book superheroes as star/ writer/director of Meteor Man (1993). Wayans produced a parody of 1970s ‘‘blaxploitation’’ movies, I’m Gonna Get You Sucka (1988), while the Hudlin brothers produced the House Party film series starring rapper/actors Kid ‘n Play, beginning in 1990. Comedian/actor Robin Harris worked with Lee, Wayans, and the Hudlin brothers, who turned his Bebe’s Kids routine into the first full-length black animated cartoon film in 1992.

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Wayans contributed to the early success of another cable channel, the Fox Network, as creator, writer, producer, and performer on the groundbreaking comedy series, In Living Color, also in 1990. Several of his siblings (Damon, Shawn, Marlon, Dwayne, and Kim Wayans) were in the original cast, along with David Alan Grier, Tommy Davidson, and future Hollywood heavyweights Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey. By the time the show ended in 1994, the Wayans clan was well on its way to becoming the unofficial ‘‘first family of black comedy’’ and achieved continued success in both television and film. Fox had another hit show in 1991 with Roc, starring Charles S. Dutton, which later became the first to ‘‘go live’’ for an entire season since the 1950s. Comedy Central, a cable network formed from the merger of the Comedy Channel and HA! launched in 1991 with stand-up comedians and reruns of situation comedies providing the bulk of its programming. Black Entertainment Television (BET) launched Comicview in 1992 as another showcase for promising black comedians, and helped the careers of D. L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and J. Anthony Brown, among others. Hughley would go on to star in his own show, The Hughleys (1998–2002) as well as the ‘‘Original Kings of Comedy’’ tour and Spike Lee–directed film (including Cedric, Bernie Mac, and Steve Harvey) in 2000. Cedric would costar on The Steve Harvey Show and launch a successful film career in movies such as Barbershop, The Honeymooners, and Johnson Family Vacation. Brown would help revive radio comedy as part of the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show. HBO aired the documentary, Mo’ Funny: Black Comedy in America, in 1993 featuring the talents of entertainers from the vaudeville blackface era to the 1990s, with Richard Pryor as executive producer. Other new networks relied on black-oriented situation comedies to attract viewers. The Warner Brothers (WB) network’s first hit series in 1994 was The Wayans Brothers, starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans, while Robert Townsend produced and starred in The Parent’hood (1995–99). The United Paramount Network (UPN) found success in 1996 with Moesha, starring teen music sensation Brandy Norwood, and Malcolm and Eddie, featuring former ‘‘Cosby Kid’’ Malcolm-Jamal Warner and comedian/actor Eddie Griffin, who went on to star in Undercover Brother, a 2002 film comedy. The Steve Harvey Show was another hit for WB in 1996, as well as The Jamie Foxx Show, featuring the multitalented comedian/actor/musician who went on to win an Oscar in 2004 for Ray, his film portrayal of music icon Ray Charles. New Talents and Opportunities in the New Millenium Chris Rock began enjoying great success in the mid-1990s, including his stand-up comedy specials at venues such as the Apollo Theater and Constitution Hall, and as performer/host of The Chris Rock Show on HBO. He won Emmy awards for writing as well as performance, became the voice of several animated characters, moved from costar to leading film roles, hosted the MTV Music Awards and the Academy Awards, and eventually a UPN sitcom based on his life, Everybody Hates Chris, beginning in 2005.

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Chris Tucker achieved great film success in the Rush Hour film series with Jackie Chan, beginning in 1998, while Eddie Murphy produced The PJs, the first stop-motion animated prime-time comedy series on Fox between 1999 and 2001. Little Bill, another cartoon series produced by Bill Cosby, also launched in 1999, while Wayne Brady found television success with improvisational comedy on The Wayne Brady Show, beginning in 2001, and winning two Emmys for best talk show and host in 2004. Comedienne Mo’Nique rose from comedy revue appearances to stardom on the UPN sitcom The Parkers, which ran from 1999 to 2004. She also appeared in several films, including the critically acclaimed 2009 movie, Precious, for which she won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in 2010, playing the distinctly noncomic role of a horrifyingly abusive mother. Dave Chappelle became a top new television comedian with Chappelle’s Show on the Comedy Channel in 2003 after a number of supporting roles in comedy films. He generated controversy with his use of profanity much as Foxx, Pryor, Murphy, Rock, and others had done earlier in their careers, despite being on cable television, but suddenly left his show (and $50 million contract) in 2005. Comedienne Wanda Sykes took a similar approach, but toned down her comedy for her 2003 TV series, Wanda At Large. On the opposite end of the spectrum, former child star and ‘‘Cosby Kid’’ Raven-Symon
e became a teen idol with her family-friendly TV comedy series, That’s So Raven, launched by Walt Disney Productions in 2003. The Wayans brothers continued their success in television and film, with Damon starring in the sitcom My Wife and Kids on ABC beginning in 2001, while his brothers had big box-office hits with comedies such as the Scary Movie series and with White Chicks in 2004. Keenen wrote and produced, while Marlon and Shawn reversed sexual and blackface stereotypes by portraying two white women as well as black FBI agents. Godfrey Cambridge (Watermelon Man), Richard Pryor (Which Way Is Up?), Eddie Murphy (Coming to America, Nutty Professor, The Klumps), and Martin Lawrence (Martin, Big Momma’s House) had earlier portrayed white, female, or multiple characters onscreen. Tyler Perry successfully produced and performed his original stage plays for black audiences in midsized venues around the country, with his drag comic character Madea becoming legendary in the African American community. He was able to maintain complete creative control and ownership when he transitioned his works to film and other video formats, achieving mainstream success with hit movies such as Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005) and Madea’s Family Reunion (2006). His success expanded into television with his series Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, which debuted in 2006. His first book, Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea’s Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life, was a 2006 best-seller and winner of two Quill Awards (Book of the Year and Best Humor Book). UPN found new success in 2000 with the sitcom Girlfriends, starring Tracee Ellen Ross (daughter of music icon Diana Ross), while Bernie Mac starred in his own sit-com beginning in 2001, The Bernie Mac Show on Fox. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith produced All of Us, another hit sitcom for UPN in 2003. Bernie Mac

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also enjoyed success in dramatic as well as comedic film roles including his last film, Soul Men (2008), with Samuel L. Jackson and music legend Isaac Hayes. TV One, a cable alternative to BET, launched in 2004 and built its audience with original programming as well as films by/about/starring African Americans and reruns of black-oriented sitcoms such as Good Times, 227, and Martin. Bill Cosby’s 2004 Fat Albert film featured Kenan Thompson, who went on to join the cast of Saturday Night Live. Famous nightclubs such as the Comedy Store, the Improv, Catch a Rising Star, and Zanies were joined by TV competitions such as Last Comic Standing and Who’s Got Jokes (starring comedian/actor Bill Bellamy) as showcases for new black comedy talent. With the latest technological media innovations (YouTube on the Internet, ipods, cellular telephones with streaming audio/ video, etc.), joining print, radio, film, and television resources, information and/or content involving black comedy and comedians from almost every era is widely available in one or more formats twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. See also: Men, African American, Images of; Theater and Drama; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Berry, S. Torriano, and Venise T. Berry. 2001. The Fifty Most Influential Black Films. New York: Citadel Press. Berry, S. Torriano. 2007. Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Bogle, Donald. 1988. Blacks in American Films and Television: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing. Fearn-Banks, Kathleen. 2006. Historical Dictionary of African-American Television. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Hill, George, Lorraine Raglin, and Chas Floyd Johnson. 1990. Black Women in Television: An Illustrated History and Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing. Littleton, Daryl J. 2006. Black Comedians on Black Comedy: How African-Americans Taught Us to Laugh. New York: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books. Watkins, Mel. 2005. Stepin Fetchit. New York: Pantheon Books. Watkins, Mel, ed. 2002. African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy From Slavery to Today. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. Fletcher F. Moon

Comics (Books). See Graphic Novels and Books

Communities, African American Over two hundred African American communities were developed in the United States between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth

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century. The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves but left many, after years of forced labor, to support themselves. Freed slaves, some with the help of former masters, purchased land or settled unoccupied land to earn a living and to serve as a refuge for others seeking safety after the breakdown in race relations caused by the proclamation. These families bonded together and formulated a community. Many of these unincorporated communities were in the southern states and served as a true testimony of the struggle to survive post Civil War. According to some sources, most of the early black towns were founded in the West. Some of the towns were also founded by speculators who aimed to lure blacks to the West where they might escape racial oppression and enjoy a better economy than they had in the South. ‘‘Free Frank’’ McWhorter, former slave from Kentucky, slave entrepreneur, frontier land speculator, and commercial farmer, founded the first black town in the United States in 1836. The short-lived community was New Philadelphia, Illinois. He was clear about his purpose—to sell town lots and use the profits to buy his family’s freedom. When the Civil War ended, more such communities came into being, with Texas leading the way. A number of these communities survived difficult years and are now leaving a rich legacy of independence and a fruitful heritage. California Allensworth. Following a trend that was established in some other states, white as well as black land speculators worked to settle all-black towns, this time in the West. One of these land speculators was the California Colony and Home Promoting Association (CCHPA). Lieutenant Colonel Allen Allensworth, a chaplain in the Twenty-Fourth Infantry Regiment, the highest-ranking African American in the U.S. Army, retired from the military, settled in Los Angeles, and in 1907 was founder and president of CCHPA. Since the company lacked funds needed to purchase a site, it worked with three white-owned firms, the Pacific Farming Company, the Central Land Company, and the Los Angeles Purchasing Company. Together they chose an eighty-acre site in Tulare County. Speculators knew that the railroad was important to the town’s survival; thus, their site was along the Santa Fe Railroad. They also elected a justice of the peace, built a park named for educator Booker T. Washington, and a library named for Allensworth’s wife, Josephine. Plans were developed to build a school to teach vocational skills. The town had one hundred residents in 1914; some sources claim that the population never exceeded that number while others say that nearly two hundred families settled there, and that the population began to decline when Allensworth died in 1914. The site is now known as Allensworth State Historical Park. Florida Eatonville. The town of Eatonville was founded after the Civil War by freed slaves after they cleared land for a nearby white settlement called Maitland. Two of the founders were J. E. Clark and Allan Rickett. Eatonville was founded in 1863 and incorporated in 1887. The town site was purchased from Captain Josiah Eaton, a white veteran of the Union Army and also one of the founders of

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Maitland. Eatonville was named in Captain Eaton’s honor. Notable residents of Eatonville have included folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, football hall-of-famer Deacon Jones, and Benjamin Perry, president of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Rosewood. Located sixty miles southwest of Gainesville, Rosewood was established in 1847 and named for the rosy color of freshly cut cedar. The town had been predominately white until 1890 when all the cedar, the area’s major commerce, had been depleted and the sawmills closed. By 1900, blacks were the majority population and operated and owned businesses. The townspeople of Rosewood worked and coexisted peacefully with the white community of Sumner for many years; then relations soured. On January 1, 1923, Fannie Taylor, a white woman from Sumner, claimed to have been raped by a black man. Her husband and two hundred men from Sumner, armed with guns and filled with moonshine, set out for Rosewood three miles away. Many of Rosewood’s citizens were killed and buildings burned to the ground. This incident became known as the ‘‘Massacre of Rosewood.’’ Two weeks after the massacre, blacks from Rosewood and surrounding communities were still being killed. Although an allwhite jury was convened, no one was brought to justice for the murders at Rosewood. In 1944, the Florida State Legislature passed a bill to compensate families for loss of property as a result of the state’s failure to prosecute the murderers. Kansas Nicodemus. This town became a popular place for new African American settlers from the South and other parts of the country who were moving West. It was also the first African American community to gain national attention, attracting blacks from various parts of the country. The westward movement from the South was started in 1877 by Benjamin ‘‘Pap’’ Singleton, a former slave from Tennessee who started an exodus to Kansas. Edward P. McCabe, who established Langston, Oklahoma, convinced many African Americans to live in Nicodemus, Kansas. McCabe’s offer was a fifteen-dollar fee to get any vacant lot in Nicodemus. Until 1888, Nicodemus was a thriving town. The population began to decline after a blizzard in 1885 destroyed nearly half of the wheat crop. Then three railroads changed their travel route and bypassed the town. The residents left Nicodemus and moved to the state of Oklahoma, where the greatest number of black towns would be found.

Louisiana Grambling. One of the few predominately black towns in Louisiana, Grambling is known as the first African American municipality in that state. Located in the northern part of Louisiana, it is the home of Grambling State University and was also home of legendary coach Eddie G. Robinson for over half a century. Newly freed slaves settled in Grambling after the Emancipation Proclamation to build an independent community; many bought large tracts of land from former

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slave owners. These landowners farmed the land and hired laborers from surrounding communities. They also became sharecroppers by renting some of the land to black farmers who produced the crops to pay the rent and purchase land of their own. The town is named for P. G. Grambling, a European American who leased land from one of the founding fathers of the town, named Richmond, who bought a 160-acre tract in 1875 from Jim Gipson, a former slave owner. The land is the present-day site of the town of Grambling. Three factors contributed to the growth of Grambling as an African American city during the 1900s. First, the political and social turmoil of the late 1800s helped to establish the area as an economic and cultural center for African Americans. Second, African Americans were landowners and were self-sufficient, and third, an industrial training school for the children of the area was esablished. Mississippi Mound Bayou. Founded on July 12, 1887, by two emancipated slaves, Isaiah T. Montgomery and his cousin Benjamin T. Green, the town of Mound Bayou was established in the Mississippi Delta between Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee, as a refuge for blacks during the turbulent times of the 1880s. Mound Bayou is known as one of the oldest black settlements in the United States. It was named for a large Native American mound located at the center of the settlement. Mount Bayou has a long tradition of self-government. Blacks were disfranchised in Mississippi in 1890, but Mound Bayou had a village government and held formal town meetings. Women were equal participants with men. By 1909, Mound Bayou had many businesses, including sawmills, drugstores, seamstresses, and boardinghouses. The Baptist women workers union operated a press and published the Echo, a newsletter of the Green Grove Baptist Church. Mound Bayou has survived into the twenty-first century with about seven hundred families. North Carolina Princeville. Located in Edgecombe County near Rocky Mount, on the banks of the Tar River, Princeville was established by freed slaves after the Civil War ended. The town was originally named Freedom Hill but incorporated on February 20, 1885, as Princeville. Princeville is named for one of Freedom Hill’s settlers, Turner Prince, who was born a slave. According to Frank Dexter Brown, ‘‘it is the first independently governed African American community.’’ The small and relatively unknown town made national headlines in 1999, when the flood waters of Hurricane Floyd and water from the Tar River Reservoir Dam twenty miles away was released and engulfed the town. Many of the residents were descendants of the original settlers. Princeville has yet to recover from the disaster. The heart-wrenching story of Princeville and the flood is told in the documentary This Side of the River, by Ryan Rowe and Andrew Grimes—a project of the North Carolina Language and Life at North Carolina State University.

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Oklahoma Boley. Established in 1904 as the largest predominately black town in the United States, Boley was founded by an interracial group that included Lake Mobley, a white attorney; John Boley, a white manager for the Smith and Western Railroad; and Thomas M. Haynes, a black farmer and entrepreneur from Texas. Boley experienced rapid growth because of the many businesses and institutions that were established and the migration of blacks from the South in search of better opportunities. In 1907, when Oklahoma achieved statehood, Boley started experiencing civil rights and economic setbacks. In 1910, when Democrats became the dominant political party, they immediately disenfranchised blacks, causing them to lose their right to vote. They also segregated public schools and other accommodations. As result, the town lost its appeal to blacks who wanted to settle there to escape the Jim Crow practices they had known in the South. During the late 1920s and 1930s, business started failing, and the population began to decline. Boley remained mostly black and is the home of many descendants of the early settlers of Boley. Langston. One of thirteen surviving all-black towns in Oklahoma, Langston was founded April 22, 1890, by E. P. McCabe a black man, and Charles Robbins, a white man who owned the land. McCabe started the Langston Herald in 1890 and used the paper to promote African American migration to Oklahoma and the Langston community. By 1892, the town consisted of fiftyfive retail businesses, and the first school opened the same year. In 1893, a Roman Catholic school was opened by Bishop Theophile Meerschaert and the Benedictine Sisters. In 1897, a Colored Agricultural and Normal University was established. This school is now known as Langston University. The population of Langston grew from 251 in 1890 to 339 by 1910. The college helped the population to remain almost stable until 1930. After the Great Depression, the population started to slowly increase until 1980 when the population started a decline. South Carolina Promised Land. In 1868, the Reconstruction legislature of South Carolina created the South Carolina Land Commission. The purpose of the commission was to purchase privately owned land to be subdivided and resold to freedmen on long term, low-interest loans. Samuel Marshall sold 2,742 acres of farmland to the commission that was subdivided into fifty farms in 1870. This settlement is known as Promised Land. Many of the landowners were connected by family ties. Tracts at Promised Land usually stayed in the family. Many times land was used as dowries and families usually remained close. The people were able to keep what they made and started to prosper. The people of Promised Land grew as a community, which is still surviving today, although with fewer than six hundred people, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

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Texas Cologne. Jim Smith and George Washington, two former slaves, founded Cologne, Texas, in 1870, where freedmen could settle. The original name of the settlement was Centerville. In 1889, the railroad established a depot at Centerville and renamed the stop Ira Station—a name that the settlement was called for ten years. In 1989, the settlement adopted a new name, Cologne, because the local slaughterhouse made the settlement a ‘‘sweet-smelling place.’’ The settlement was known for cattle slaughtering and as a shipping center. After 1914, the settlement saw a steady decline in population. The post office closed in 1925 and the population dropped to twenty-five. The 1970 census recorded thirty-five people and in 1990 the population was eighty-five. A part of the original settlement still exists and is the location of a large power plant. Although many of the nation’s black towns survive, they never became the important economic and cultural centers that their founders envisioned. Despite this, for the African American race these towns as well as those that failed helped to enshrine in the memories of blacks a sense of pride in the aspects of culture that their founding and existence preserved. Further Reading Brown, Frank Dexter. ‘‘The Destruction of Princeville, the Nation’s Oldest BlackGoverned Community.’’ http://www/seeingblack.com/x040901/princeville.shtml. Cantor, George. 1991. Historic Landmarks of Black America. Detroit: Gale. Gallot, Mildred B. 1985. A History of Grambling State University: A History, 1901–1977. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. Stuckley, Melissa. 2007. All Men Up: Race Rights and Power In and All Black Town of Boley, Oklahoma (1903–1939). PhD diss. Yale University Press. Taylor, Quintard. 2006. ‘‘Black Towns.’’ In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Williams, Thelma. 1980. Grambling: A Pictorial History. Grambling, LA: Williams. Orella Ramsey Brazile

Composers Composers are an integral part of African American popular culture. Since slavery, blacks in the United States have created distinct compositions, fusing elements of European- and African-based styles and traditions and reflecting the musical tastes of black communities. Throughout the decades, African American composers have continued to produce popular music, compositions that have provided a backdrop to African American cultural and religious expressions and innovative sounds that have propelled black music developments ever forward. They have also greatly influenced mainstream music genres and white composers. Black composers, however, have not restricted themselves to traditional black music, such as gospel, blues, jazz, and Rhythm and Blues. Some African

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Americans have composed music in nontraditional genres, such as classical and opera, that draw predominately white audiences. Notwithstanding the prolific compositions of African Americans, black composers, throughout history, have had to navigate through a frequently hostile and racist society. Their creations attest to extraordinary black achievement and determination. Slavery Black composers were an anomaly in the United States during the time of slavery. Indeed, blacks occupied a troublesome position in the United States. The institution of slavery kept the majority of blacks in bondage, while the so-called free blacks enjoyed limited access to social, economic, and political opportunities. From mainstream society’s standpoint, blacks were deemed, among other things, intellectually and culturally inferior. The oppressive milieu of early American society greatly impeded professional black achievement, though ordinary blacks regularly produced a rich repertoire of folk songs and Spirituals and played musical instruments, such as the fiddle, banjo, and piano. A number of black slaves were forced to perform for white landowners. Elsewhere, in international countries, some individuals of African descent garnered renown for their musical compositions. For example, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–99), the son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, was an enormously talented violinist and conductor and composed music for string quartets and symphonies. Newport Gardner, Frances B. Johnson, and Blind Tom Wiggins are considered among the first black composers in the United States. Born Occramer Marycoo in Africa, Newport Gardner (1746–1826) is documented as the first black composer in the United States. Little is known about him. Gardner arrived in the United States as a teen and was immediately sold to Caleb Gardener in Newport, Rhode Island. Although Gardner was a slave, he studied music. After winning a lottery, he purchased his freedom in 1791. He composed several compositions, including a church anthem. Frances B. Johnson (1792–1844) started composing band music before the start of the Civil War. In 1837, Johnson and his band were the first African American group to perform in Europe. Blind Tom Wiggins (1849–1908) was born into slavery on the Wiley Edward Jones Plantation in Georgia. Because he was blind, he could not perform the same tasks as other slaves. He honed his piano skills early in life. Allegedly at the tender age of five years, Wiggins composed The Rain Storm. He composed several works in his lifetime and toured extensively with various white managers. Many whites were enthralled by his talent, as well as his ability to perform several musical feats simultaneously and imitate other musicians and nature sounds. Post-Slavery Black composers began to proliferate in the years following the end of slavery. Contributing to the influx of professional musicians was the unprecedented number of African Americans who went on to colleges and universities; many of

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these predominately black institutions were established during Reconstruction. These composers mastered European-based musical compositions, as well as exposed the world to previously little known black music genres, such as Ragtime, blues, jazz, and spirituals. Annie Pauline Pindell (1834–1901), Amelia L. Tilghman (1856–1931), Ernest Hogan (1865–1909), Blind John Boone (1864– 1927), Scott Joplin (1868–1917), and W. C. Handy (1873–1958) were among some of the prominent composers of this period. Despite the seemingly abundant number of composers, blacks still faced colossal obstacles. Racial violence, inequality, and injustice were rampant in the South. the United States continued to exclude African Americans from mainstream life. Annie Pauline Pindell and Amelia L. Tilghman were pioneering African American women in music. Pindell, a former slave from Natchez, Mississippi, was a concert singer and songwriter. Like many women of her era, Tilghman wore a variety of hats, as a journalist, an educator, musician, and composer. Born in Washington, DC, where a substantial middle-class black community resided, Tilghman attended Howard University and the Boston Conservatory of Music. In 1886, she established the Musical Messenger, a musical magazine that was the first of its kind. African American women composers largely composed ‘‘sacred and secular sentimental songs,’’ and ‘‘none of the surviving solo piano music published by black women before 1910 displays black idioms,’’ writes Helen WalkerHill in From Spirituals to Symphonies. Male composers began making music that was drawn directly from popular black culture in the 1880s. Coon songs, ragtime, blues, and jazz were popular forms of secular music. While whites performed blackface minstrel shows, blacks also assembled traveling entertainers, performing degrading minstrel acts and songs. Composers, like Ernest Hogan, created coon songs, which appealed immensely to white audiences. (Most coon songs, however, were written by whites.) Hogan’s song, ‘‘All Coons Look Alike to Me,’’ was a mainstay for some time. To be sure, most black composers produced music that catered to black audiences, not racist white audiences. Dance and lively music were prominent activities of lower-class blacks (and had been important cultural traditions in Africa). To middle-class and religious blacks, popular genres, such as ragtime, blues, and jazz were considered vulgar and improper. However, a greater segment of the black population embraced this sort of music. Embedded within the music were traces of African music traditions, such as improvised embellishments, syncopated beats, and call-and-response. Instruments and vocal sounds were employed in unconventional ways. This music was the mainstay of juke joints and other popular black venues and widely performed by traveling black vaudeville entertainers. Scott Joplin, ‘‘the King of Ragtime,’’ and W. C. Handy, ‘‘the Father of the Blues,’’ were leading composers who started their careers in the 1880s. Joplin is credited for polishing the frequently crude versions of ragtime music. Born in Texarkana, Texas, Joplin was taught music by several teachers. He attended George R. Smith College, a historically black institution in Sedalia, Missouri. His most famous composition was ‘‘Maple Leaf Rag,’’ but he also composed a total of forty-four ragtime pieces, a ballet, and two operas. W. C. Handy was one

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of the first musicians to lionize traditional black music forms that had been considered inferior. Handy, who had been born in Florence, Alabama, participated in several bands, musical groups, and a minstrel group. During his travels, Handy encountered original blues songs performed by ordinary African Americans. Handy studied blues music and then composed his own. His first major hit was ‘‘Memphis Blues,’’ which was published in 1910. Early Twentieth Century In the early twentieth century, the blues, as well as spirituals and jazz were popular music genres in black communities. Racial themes were prominent. Some of the well-known composers included Harry T. Burleigh (1866–1949), Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943), John Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954), William Grant Still (1895–1978), Florence Price (1888–1953), Mary Lou Williams, (1910–81), and Duke Ellington (1899–1974). During the first decade of the twentieth century, composers like John Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954) composed several black Broadway musicals. However, one of Johnson’s most enduring achievements was the creation of the song ‘‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’’ known as the black national anthem, which is still sung at many black events today; it is especially popular in February, or Black History Month. His brother, James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), wrote the lyrics. During the next decade, Burleigh and Dett produced revolutionary compositions for spirituals, songs that were translated into classical art forms, such as opera and orchestral arrangements. Through their efforts, spirituals were exposed to the mainstream and regarded as important and immensely popular American music genres. To be sure, African American institutions, such as Fisk University, which produced the legendary Jubilee Singers in the 1870s, were among the earliest pioneers in redefining and popularizing African American spirituals. The unusual interest of prominent white and European composers in spirituals also played a key role in the genre’s acceptance in mainstream society. Burleigh, born in Erie, Pennsylvania, attended the National Conservatory of Music and was a celebrated baritone singer and composer. Burleigh worked with Anton
ın Dvor
ak (1841–1904), who composed the famous New World Symphony, which included Native American and African American music. Dett hailed from Drummondville, Ontario, and studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Eastman School of Music, where he received his masters degree. Florence Price and William Grant Still were other composers who incorporated black spirituals in many of their compositions. Florence Price, who is credited as the first African American woman symphonic composer, created numerous works, many of them featuring spirituals and other black music forms. Still, who is known as the ‘‘Dean of African American Composers’’ broke numerous color barriers when, among other things, he conducted a major American orchestra in 1936. Born in Woodville, Mississippi, Still grew up listening to classical music and spirituals. He became one of the most well-known and prolific composers of his time.

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The Harlem Renaissance, originating in New York, was a cultural, artistic, and literary movement that occurred between the 1920s and 1930s. Musically, this was the era wherein traditional black music in all its new and old forms reigned. Jazz, swing, and big band was the music of choice for many black dancers who frequented the numerous nightclubs and other entertainment spots. Although mostly men are associated with jazz music, Mary Lou Williams, a jazz composer, was one of the female pioneers in the genre. She mentored several upand-coming black jazz musicians and composers, including the always stylish and trendsetting Duke Ellington. Ellington was one of several black men who attained considerable success and fame. Mid-Twentieth Century Composers, beginning in the 1930s, drove traditional black music into new forms. Thomas A. Dorsey (1899–1993), known as ‘‘the Father of Gospel Music,’’ helped to pioneer gospel music. Gospel music is a descendent of African American spirituals. It evolved out of the large influx of black migrations from the South, where spirituals originated, into cities in the North. Dorsey, born in Villa Rica, Georgia, had deep roots in black church and song traditions. He migrated to Chicago, where, initially, he performed popular secular music of the times, jazz, and blues. He eventually started composing gospel music, spirituals infused with urban jazz and blues. One of his most notable compositions was ‘‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord.’’ Gospel music has flourished into contemporary times, taking on popular black melodies and styles with each new decade. Jazz musicians and composers, like Thelonious Monk (1917–82), Miles Davis (1926–91), and John Coltrane (1926–67), were among the progenitors of contemporary jazz. Their music dominated the jazz scene between the 1940s and 1960s. Late Twentieth Century Onward Popular composers of the late twentieth century and beyond further transitioned black music to new levels. The iconic funk-laden beats and soulful sounds of the 1970s are attributed to composers, such as Isaac Hayes and Quincy Jones. Hayes produced the landmark theme music for the immensely popular black action character, Shaft, in the eponymous 1971 film. The theme song would forever be associated with black popular culture’s definition of cool—black leather, Afro, strutting walk, and jive talk. Jones was not only a talented musician but one of the most prolific contemporary composers. He has composed for television shows, such as Roots (1970) and created the theme music for the black sitcom, Sanford and Son (1972–77). Jones has also produced scores for such films as The Color Purple (1985) and played instrumental roles in the careers of a variety of stars, such as Michael Jackson. Among the most influential composers in genres, such as R & B and pop, from the 1980s onward are Stevie Wonder (who started his career as a youth in the 1960s with Motown Records), Herbie Hancock, Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face’’ Edmonds, and Prince.

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Further Reading Floyd, Samuel A., Jr., ed. 1999. International Dictionary of Black Composers. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. Reagon, Bernice Johnson, ed. 1992. We’ll Understand it Better By and By. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. Walker-Hill, Helen. 2007. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gladys L. Knight

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) The Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, played an essential role in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and remains dedicated to securing equality for people worldwide. It was founded in 1942 as the Committee on Racial Equality by an interracial group of students in Chicago who were deeply influenced by the nonviolent teachings of Mohandas Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. Some belonged to the Chicago branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). They included George Houser, a white student, and James Farmer, a black student, both of the University of Chicago, who initially led the organization. Long known for protests against racial segregation in public accommodations, CORE initiated sit-ins in the year of its founding, and immediately expanded its work to the national level. It pioneered in nonviolent direct action by initiating sit-ins, jail-ins, and freedom rides. Farmer and Bayard Rustin, a FOR field secretary, traveled the country and recruited activists for FOR meetings. Most of the membership at this time was white, middle-class, midwestern students. CORE had a nonhierarchical system of leadership, which allowed local chapters to establish their own action programs. Some emphasized direct action while others were dominated by pacifists and focused on educational programs. In the 1940s, through sit-ins and picket lines, CORE integrated public facilities in the North. On April 9, 1947, CORE’s Journey of Reconciliation began, as teams of eight white and eight black men were sent to the upper South to test a Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional segregation in interstate travel. Rustin and three other riders were arrested in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, bringing national attention to their work. They men were sentenced to work on a chain gang. James Farmer was named CORE’s first national director in 1953. The early 1950s brought a decline in CORE’s work, but its work revived in the aftermath of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education. Its commitment to nonviolent direct action fit well with the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped to energize civil rights activities in the South. CORE provided guidance in the Sit-in Movement, launched in Greensboro, North Carolina, then in Nashville, Tennessee, and then spread to other black colleges in the 1960s. Its members followed the sit-ins with jail-ins, or the practice of serving out a jail term rather than paying the bail.

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CORE became known for the Freedom Rides that it organized in May 1961, modeled after its earlier Journey of Reconciliation. When Freedom Riders approached Birmingham, Alabama, a white mob firebombed their bus and beat the riders. Although CORE called off these rides, it continued to place field secretaries in key areas of the South to support further riders. With fifty-three chapters established across the nation by the end of 1961, CORE remained active in civil rights activities for several years. Their workers participated heavily in President John F. Kennedy’s Voter Education Project, and helped to organize and cosponsored the 1963 March on Washington. CORE helped to organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. Killed that summer were three of its members—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Meanwhile, in 1963 CORE had shifted some of its attention to the North and West. Floyd McKissack took over leadership after Farmer stepped down in 1966, and Roy Innis, chair of Harlem’s chapter of CORE, replaced him in 1968. Further Reading Congress of Racial Equality. http://www.core-online/org/. Farmer, James. 1965. Freedom–When? New York: Random House. McKay, Cassandra L. 2009. ‘‘Congress of Racial Equality’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present, Vol. 1. Paul Finkleman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Meier, August, and Elliott Rudwick. 1973. CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942–1968. New York: Oxford University Press. Robinson, Jo Ann O. 2003. ‘‘Congress of Racial Equality.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights. Charfles D. Lowery and John F, Marszalek, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Jessie Carney Smith

Congressional Black Caucus The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) works to protect the fundamentals of democracy for all Americans, but especially for African Americans who systematically have been denied access to their full rights. The Caucus is a strong and diverse group that has successfully influenced legislation that enables the organization to achieve its agenda. Black political power of the 1960s led to the founding in 1969 of the Democratic Select Committee (DSC), the precursor of the Congressional Black Caucus. Representative Charles Diggs, a Democrat from Michigan, formed the group. The members gained national attention when they boycotted President Richard Nixon’s State of the Union Address; Nixon had refused to grant members an audience. The nine blacks in the U.S. Congress had been encouraged by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act the next year, and felt a need to continue to address their common political concerns.

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The CBC held its first annual dinner in Washington, DC, on June 18, 1971. At that time Diggs became its first chairperson. The founding members, in addition to Diggs, were: Shirley Chisholm, William Clay, George Collins, John Conyers, William Dawson, Walter Fauntroy, Augustus Hawkins, Parren Mitchell, Robert Nix, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Charles Rangel, and Louis Stokes. By the time that CBC was founded, racial integration in the schools had come about, largely due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. School systems in the North resisted such integration when it meant that children would be bussed to achieve the court’s goal. Boston was violent in its resistance to bring about racial balance. The CBC spent its early years focusing on racism and racial intolerance, both where schools beyond the South were concerned, and in governmental attitudes toward equality. When Representative Louis Stokes became chair in 1973, he sought for CBC members greater seniority and chairmanship of more powerful committees. After Charles Rangel chaired CBC from 1974 to 1976, he went on to become a leading authority on urban housing and narcotics control. The CBC also established national networks of black voters and business leaders. Brain trusts were set up to address issues such as education, health, the justice system, and foreign affairs. The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation was established in 1976 for the purpose of funding studies related to politics and other concerns of the black community. Another leading component of the CBC since 1977 is TransAfrica, headed by Randall Robinson. TransAfrica soon became a major lobbying body on behalf of the South Africa Anti-Apartheid Movement. Other CBC initiatives include support of the 1977 Full Employment Act, and legislation to support the Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday. One of the most vocal and controversial CBC chairs was Kweisi Mfume, who promoted the work of the caucus and addressed concerns for Haiti by aiding refugees and urging U.S. governmental sanctions on Haiti’s military government. A nonpartisan group, the CBC remains closely allied with the Democratic Party and functions as a lobbying group within the party. Although members may be divided on some issues, the CBC remains one of the most influential voting blocks within Congress. It maintains ties with black elected officials and organizations throughout the states and publishes its agenda and the national priorities that it supports. Further Reading Congressional Black Caucus. http://www.house.gov/kilpatrick/cbc/. Fikes, Robert, Jr. 2003. In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights, Vol. 1. Charles D. Lowery and John F. Marszalek, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Taylor, Durahn. ‘‘Congressional Black Caucus.’’ 1996. In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, Vol. 2. Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, and Cornel West, eds. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan. Jessie Carney Smith

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Consciousness and Identity, African American When African American poet and Harlem Renaissance luminary Countee Cullen penned the lines ‘‘One three centuries removed / From the scenes his father loved / Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, / What is Africa to me?’’ he raised a question that is central to black consciousness and identity in the United States. How does a black American, removed from Africa, create for himself or herself a sense of Africa that is based upon pride and authenticity? Black consciousness and identity are inextricably linked because how African Americans have seen themselves has led to the way in which they have identified themselves to others. In the nineteenth century, African Americans were called Negroes, coloreds, and blacks, with the term Negro winning out until the Black Power Movement made black the term of choice. ‘‘I’m black, and I’m proud’’ and ‘‘Black is beautiful’’ were some of the phrases of the era that embraced blackness as a reason for celebration as opposed to social degradation. In the late 1980s, African American became the identifier of choice, and today black and African American are used interchangeably. Black consciousness and identity often border upon sentiments of Black Nationalism. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the 1919 Pan-African Congress held in Paris, and the 1941 March on Washington (planned but not held) all share the thread of pride and empowerment that makes Black Nationalism such an attractive and seemingly viable idea and ideal for those who have experienced, in the words of Malcolm X, ‘‘political oppression, economic exploitation, and social degradation—all of them from the same enemy.’’ Along with institutions and organized protests against injustices perpetrated by governmental agencies, black consciousness and identity is evident in arts and letters. Songs of slaves such as Spirituals and work songs, along with the cakewalk and innovations in Ragtime music, as well as the development of music forms in the twentieth-century—blues, jazz, bebop, soul, funk, rap, and Hip-Hop–as well as the work of writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling A. Brown, Richard Wright, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, and Toni Morrison, as well as the work of dancers Arthur Mitchell and Alvin Ailey, all point to the vitality of black consciousness in artistic expression. Nor should we neglect the triumph in athletics of such legends as Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos, each using his excellence as an athlete to speak out against racial injustices. As John Sekora has pointed out, ‘‘slavery for black Americans was a wordless, nameless, timeless time,’’ and the work of the artists, writers, and intellectuals creating African American culture has been taking fragments of experience and making a coherent whole. The case of Frederick Douglass offers a particularly instructive perspective on the relationship between Language and identity. Douglass’s 1845 autobiography,

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, opens in an existential void: I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or falltime. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it. He deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit.

Much like Douglass, the black writers, artists, and intellectuals who have followed in his wide wake have had to wrestle, at some level, with the act of cultural recovery, of giving a name and a face to a time long ago and never to be forgotten. Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved, a slave narrative for our time, one that Oprah Winfrey has helped make part of the lexicon of popular culture with her film version, participates in this act of cultural recovery as well, one grounded in black consciousness. Toni Morrison reimagined the life and dilemma of Margaret Garner from a magazine article she read in 1973. In giving credence to her belief that ‘‘the act of imagination is bound up with memory,’’ Morrison’s Beloved re-cast the life of slave mother Margaret Garner in epic scale. The true testament to the emotional intensity of Morrison’s novel is its premiere as an opera in 2008, with famed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves singing the title role. ‘‘No human experience, however brutalizing,’’ Morrison remarked of seeing her novel transformed into an opera, ‘‘was beyond art. If it were, then the brutalizers will have triumphed,’’ wrote Joy T. Bennett. The elevation of the life of Margaret Garner to the level of opera strikes a chord that we see in the writings of James Weldon Johnson. When Johnson studied and then formulated his theories about the early forms of black cultural expression in the United States, he was also developing his own beliefs about black consciousness and identity. Johnson’s term for black Americans was ‘‘Aframerican,’’ for he believed that the contributions of African Americans to popular culture were inseparable from American culture. ‘‘These are lower forms of art,’’ Johnson wrote, referring in this case to the cakewalk, which had gone from the plantation to the minstrel stage to the New York City Ballet, ‘‘but they give evidence of a power that will some day be applied to the higher forms.’’ Among the many nations of blackness in our global age, the concept of black consciousness and identity will always evolve. Indeed, the concept must evolve, else we run the risk of Minstrelsy, the risk of limited and limited stereotypes that fail to address the complex humanity of African Americans. But at the heart of

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the evolution will remain Countee Cullen’s question, ‘‘What is Africa to me?’’ As the writers, artists, and intellectuals working within the fabric of African American popular culture have shown in their engagement, Cullen’s question requires imagination, endurance, and pride, in both the self and broader community. See also: Bebop Music; Blues and Blues Festivals; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Rap Music and Rappers; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Bennett, Joy T. 2008. ‘‘Margaret Garner Premieres at Chicago Theater: Denyce Graves Gives Soaring Voice to Libretto by Author Toni Morrison.’’ Ebony 64 (November): 50. Cullen, Countee. 1991. My Soul’s High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance. Gerald Early, ed. New York: Doubleday. Douglass, Frederick. 1982. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. Houston A. Baker, Jr., ed. New York: Penguin. Johnson, James Weldon. 2007. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble. Martin, Waldo. 1999. ‘‘Black Consciousness in the United States.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Consumerism, Shopping, and Brands Consumerism is a way of life in the United States, and though there is much debate on whether it has good or bad consequences, there is no doubt that the buying patterns of goods and services are an important way to communicate. African Americans have significant buying power that has made them powerful consumers. This has translated into more positive representations of African Americans and a market that presents more diversity and options for them. An example of the diversity can be seen in products like Band Aid, which now makes a bandage that is actually close to the skin color of African Americans. There are certain elements of consumerism that can be seen when studying and critiquing the spending patterns of African Americans. First, shopping becomes a way of showing social solidarity through brand supports. Second, shopping allows both group and individual expression. Both elements are affected by consumerism which transmits many social, cultural, and economic meanings through marketing strategies and consumer buying patterns. This complex web of marketing and buying patterns both overtly and covertly affects African American consumerism. Factors that Affect African American Consumerism Despite the fact that the social climate has changed over the years to be inclusive of African Americans and their consumer dollars, race still is an important

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social marker in consumerism. Because of this, stratification creates a hierarchy in how goods are marketed as well as the target group of the goods marketed. Stratification, in this case, refers to the idea that certain groups are privileged by companies and are seen as the ideal consumers of the product or service. This process and other factors, such as gender, dictate how African Americans spend their money and what brands of products they support. Studies such as the one conducted by Ian Ayres and Peter Seigelman in 1995 on the quoted prices of new cars to blacks and whites and the toy study conducted by Christine Williams in 2006, both published in Inside Toyland, illuminate racial and gender bias inherent in how products and services are marketed. The retail agents also have a role in the application of corporate agendas. By controlling consumers, or aiming to give them access to products or services, determining how much they interact with a product or service, knowing how much attention a consumer receives in a store, and deciding what information to share, retail agents affect not only where to buy, but also what products to buy. During their study, Ayers and Seigelman found that more than three hundred paired audits at new-car dealerships reveal that dealers quoted significantly lower prices to white males than to black or female test buyers using identical, scripted bargaining strategies. In this way, a big part of understanding what brands are bought and supported by African Americans is understanding that where to buy, how to buy, and what to buy are in large part shaped by a complex of social, cultural, and psychological factors. Consumerism as Social Solidarity Patterns in African American shopping show racial solidarity through many of the brands supported. Since the enslavement of Africans, this solidarity and support has been a staple in the black community. While it is true that many mainstream brands like Nike or Polo are supported by African Americans, it important to highlight how shopping for black-owned or black-centered brands shows a collective conscious. From older brands like Karl Kani and Baby Phat to newer brands like Sean John and Carol’s Daughter, African Americans reinforce cultural identity through shopping, and in many ways make a statement to the mainstream culture. This statement is often one that demands alternative ideas and positive/inclusive portrayals of African Americans. Carol’s Daughter in particular embodies this sentiment with its line of beauty products that cater particularly to African American beauty. It was one of the first businesses that offered African American women products for their natural hair. This has a particular significance because it shows not only support for African American business but also African American cultural standards, in this case beauty standards that often conflict with mainstream ideals. Therefore, part of the support of these brands is out of the necessity. Not only are African American cultural values often disregarded in products, but their particular style and body types are ignored as well. Brands like Sean Jean, Apple Bottoms, and G-Unit are made to fit African American bodies and also convene a sense of style not found in mainstream brands. The support of these products demonstrates a collective consciousness as well as a political statement.

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Consumerism As a Way to Express Individuality Consumerism is used by African Americans to express individuality, and this often is an expression of personal philosophy and ideology. While there is some uniformity in what African Americans buy, there are individual choices and some of these choices are shaped as a reaction to the mainstream oppression and conformity. Constantly being racialized has influenced African Americans to buy and support products that relay a message of equality. The clothes that they buy may also reinforce their sense of self. There are also often unique trends that directly affect African Americans as a group. Though other groups may also be affected, these trends create an individual African American experience. These trends are often an attempt to reconnect with ancestry identity. From the African medallions of the 1980s to the cowrie shells of today, African Americans express a unique group individuality through many of their specific fashion trends. Online sites like zazzle.com, cafepress.com, urbanprofile.com, and artistictees.com offer black-centered paraphernalia that includes historic black figures and African icons. They also offer custom options that allow individuals to create their own products. These trends and products are often associated with a culture in Africa, so what these trends expose are a connection between cultural identity and what African Americans buy. Consumerism as a Way for Social Equalization Consumerism has also been a way to social equalization for African Americans. Social equalization is the idea that social barriers such as racism and classism have been removed and there is equal access to goods and services. Recently, there have been a greater number of people with access to products that were once only reserved for the upper class. Through examining the factors that made this possible, social equalization can clearly be seen. One factor that has affected the social equalization of African Americans is the expansion of consumer credit and the practice of ‘‘marketing down’’ (that is, making higher quality products affordable for lower-income individuals). These practices provided greater opportunities for ordinary consumers to accumulate more luxurious products. Therefore, styles and fashions have become more diverse and fragmented, and these fashions have increasingly become independent of traditional social categories and ideologies. An example of the latter would be the declining association of wearing ‘‘dreadlocks’’ (often referred to as ‘‘locks’’ or ‘‘locs’’) with the ideology and religion of Rastafari. Diverse individuals and groups now wear dreadlocks. Consumerism as a Way to Conformity There is no doubt that African Americans have more shopping freedom and options than ever before. It can be argued that this is because the nature of capitalism is not to exclude anyone and racial barriers initially presented an obstacle. Historical decisions like Plessy vs. Ferguson helped destroy the obstacles that prevented access to mass consumption by African Americans because it allowed

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capitalism to expand while still retaining race as a social marker. It is because this social marker is still present that questions still linger about whether this access is positive or negative. While greater access means greater social unity between all races, the social messages transmitted by the product often reinforce racial stereotypes and it signalizes the lack of personal freedom due to the amount of limitation and imitation. In this way, increased social freedom is matched by intense individual subjugation. Some scholars believe that this access places African Americans in danger because it creates a superficial culture dependent on consumerism for emotional bonds. The rapidity and diversity of styles and production, and their social meanings, has created a desire for immediate gratification. Consumerism is increasingly identified with instantaneous pleasure, security, and power, and threatens social relationships as the primary source of personal meaning and life satisfaction. The growth of consumerist culture has resulted in social categories, such as race and gender, being increasingly eclipsed by lifestyle affiliations. Lifestyle affiliations represent peoples’ spending preferences and the emotional bonds that connect those who prefer similar products. African American consumerism in many ways represents social progress. Through consumerism, African Americans have positioned themselves as major agents who have forced many of their values to be integrated into goods and services. Still, like other cultural artifacts, consumerism is a double-edged sword. While it allows African Americans a large amount of acceptance into the mainstream economic market, it can also represent an erosion of centuries-old cultural values. Further Reading Ayres, Ian, and Peter Siegelman. ‘‘Race and Gender Discrimination in Bargaining for a New Car.’’ American Economic Review 85 (June, 1995): 304–21. Schiele, Jerome H. ‘‘Mutations of Eurocentric Domination and Their Implications for African American Resistance.’’ Journal of Black Studies 32 (March, 2002): 439–63. Simmel, Georg. ‘‘Fashion.’’ American Journal of Sociology 62 (May, 1957): 541–58. Williams, Christine L. 2006. Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press. Wilson, Bobby M. ‘‘Race in Commodity Exchange and Consumption: Separate but Equal.’’ Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95 (September, 2005): 587–606. M. J. Strong

Cookbooks The first American cookbook published in the United States was Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery (1796). Published in Albany, New York, it contained authentic recipes for colonial favorites. It was not until 1827 that the first book with recipes by an African American was published—Robert Roberts’s The

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House Servant’s Directory. The reprint edition (1977) gives no subtitle but sources call it a cookbook. Apparently four African American cookbooks were published in the 1800s, among them a historically popular second-known cookbook, What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking (1881). A former slave from Mobile, Alabama, Fisher began cooking for San Francisco society in the late 1870s. Despite Robert’s House Servant’s Directory, Fisher’s work has also been called ‘‘the oldest known African American cookbook published in America.’’ By 1911, Rufus Estes, born a slave in Murray County, Tennessee, in 1857, and later one of Chicago’s finest chefs, worked his way up from a Pullman private car attendant to become chef for top brass at a leading steel corporation. His work, Good Things to Eat as Suggested by Rufus, with 591 recipes, made him the first African American chef to publish a cookbook. African American cookbooks present a woven tapestry of the history and culture of African American people, often tracing their roots from Africa to North America and up to the present time. From the humble origins of the race, many illustrate the renaissance that African American cuisine has quietly experienced. They show an infusion of other cultures, such as the Caribbean or French, as some of the great African American chefs traveled abroad to study in France. While early on, recipes that found themselves in cookbooks were at first oral—particularly in slavery time when blacks were forbidden to read or write—they were accepted or tested, modified, and perfected. Often measurements that were used required translations from ‘‘a handful’’ or a ‘‘right smart’’ to several tablespoons or a cup. African American culture now handily enjoys an array of cookbooks of its own. The books, published in various editions, run the gamut from cookbooks compiled for or from Family Reunions to those collected from Churches and women’s organizations; they represent social clubs as well as the compilations from famous and not-so-famous black chefs; and they represent the works of restaurant owners as well as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Those from churches and women’s organizations were often used as fund-raisers. Soul Food and recipes representing general African American cuisine are also available. They capture recent trends in African American culture, such as Kwanzaa and low-calorie soul foods. The works, which may present autobiographical as well as biographical accounts, also include art and simple drawings, stories, photographs, and prayers. African and Other Influences Out of Africa comes a variety of foods as well as methods of cooking that found their way into the cookbooks of African American popular culture. Diets consisted of all sorts of fruits and vegetables, such as yams, wild greens, watermelon, okra, and dates. Grains, such as rice, millet, and couscous were consumed, as were fish, chicken, and meats. Foods were highly seasoned, bland, or some range in between. West African fufu as well as Jolloff rice are examples of dishes that were widely consumed. Meats were cooked over a hot fire, as was seen, for example, in the preparation of Barbecue. These and other dishes, as well as the methods of preparation, carried over to the slave experience in the American

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South. As the slave woman tried to prepare meals for her family, she was ingenious and creative in her work; her resourcefulness became the core of distinctive Southern cooking enjoyed by blacks and whites as well. Some cookbooks claim that the blend of African, Indian, French, Italian, Spanish, and other ethnic culinary attitudes enabled the slave woman to embellish her cooking style. As black consciousness became popular in American culture during the 1960s, some food lovers coined the moniker ‘‘soul food’’—a far sexier term used to describe the foods that blacks had consumed all the while. It was developed out of a need for simplicity, economy, and creativity, and often called ‘‘food made with feeling and care.’’ Thus, Soul Food restaurants as well as cookbooks caught on quickly. Oral recipes handed down from slavery time were transferred verbally through folktales as well as kitchen demonstrations, and youngsters learned techniques from their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and older family friends in the community. Works such as Tuesday magazine’s Soul Food Cookbook (1969); Joyce White’s Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections from African-American Churches (1998); and Sylvia Woods’s Sylvia’s Family Soul Food Cookbook (1999) preserve some of these recipes. Family Reunions, Churches, and Heritage Collections The African influence in black America’s cuisine is preserved in cookbooks compiled especially for family reunions and gatherings. Examples are the Chavers Family Cookbook, compiled in Nashville as early as 1972 and featuring home remedies as well as dishes from relatives ‘‘Aunt Ehrai,’’ ‘‘Bigmother,’’ ‘‘Cousin Louise,’’ and others. Often space is left for the insertion of other recipes that may be added later on. For her work Soul Food, Joyce White, a native Alabamian, moved to New York to become a food editor for a major women’s magazine. On weekends, she visited churches in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant to find a taste of home. Since food has long been a part of the spiritual life of African American churches, White acknowledged the importance of preserving that part of African American culture and collected over 150 recipes for the dishes that were served at church meals. Like many others who compile cookbooks, White was a master storyteller and culinary expert, and described a recipe or a story surrounding it in minute and compelling detail. Here she reflects on the food and experiences that shaped her childhood, when church revivals and homecomings attracted many residents who returned home for the event. Sundays were most important, as were the feasts served after the main church service. Restaurateurs and Chefs Cookbooks also promote the work of African American chefs and heritage. Key among these is Joe Randall’s A Taste of Heritage: The New African-American Cuisine (1998). Randall is one of the nation’s most prominent chefs. In addition to the recipes that he collected from great black chefs, Randall briefly identifies some of the important early chefs, such James Hemings, a slave cook for Thomas Jefferson, whom Jefferson took to France to master the art of fine cooking.

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Others include Robert W. Lee (who between the 1930s and 1940s migrated to the North), Leroy Hill, Douglass Lee, and Jimmy Broton. Contemporary chefs, whose biographies and photographs are given, are Clifton Williams, Darryl Evans, Earlest Bell, Edna Lewis (cookbook author), John Harrison (of Philadelphia’s Old Original Bookbinders Restaurant), Kym Gibson (Chicago’s Omni Hotel), Leah ‘‘Dooky’’ Chase, and Patrick Clark (of Patrick’s in New York City). Among the works of restaurateurs and chefs is Alexander Small’s Grace the Table: Stories & Recipes from My Southern Revival (1997). As proprietor of the acclaimed Caf
e Beulah in Manhattan, chef Small combines his talent as storyteller with his love for food to chronicle his journey from Spartanburg, South Carolina, to cosmopolitan cities in Europe, ending in Manhattan. He also offers one hundred culinary creations that he invented during his travels, including over one hundred ways to cook white rice as well as more than one way to prepare fried chicken. African American women restaurateurs include Sylvia Woods and her work Sylvia’s Family Soul Cookbook: From Hemingway, South Carolina, to Harlem (1999). Called the ‘‘Queen of Soul Food,’’ the book tells her rags-to-riches story and the opening in 1963 of the world-famous Sylvia’s Restaurant of Harlem, and in 1997 in Atlanta. B. Smith’s Entertaining and Cooking for Friends (1995) and her Rituals & Celebrations (1999) include many recipes drawn from the African American foods tradition. Smith had her own television show and owns restaurants in Washington, DC, and in New York City. Popular chef and restaurateur Leah ‘‘Dooky’’ Chase published The Dooky Chase Cookbook (1990), offering a collection of delectable recipes from her New Orleans restaurant, Dooky Chase, as well as from her personal files. Her book is illustrated with photographs of art which hangs in her restaurant, and includes colorful stories of her heritage and the origin of various recipes. Her New Orleans landmark is widely recognized for its fine Creole food and as a political hub for black voters. A Cookbook Journey Some black culinary artists have taken cookbook journeys; that is, they traveled through sections of the United States and abroad as they collected or created recipes. In addition to Alexander Small earlier cited, there is Verta Mae (Grosvenor’s) Vibration Cooking, or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl (1970). The granddaughter of a slave, Grosvenor has worked as an actress, designer, and culinary anthropologist. Her work is an autobiography, cookbook, book of humor, travelog, a commentary on culture, and a social satire of her experiences. Grosvenor’s book reflects her heritage, describes dishes that date back to slavery, and adds what she learned in Europe, of West Indian and African foods, and from friends and relatives. Rather than measure her ingredients, she cooks by vibration and judges her work by its look and smell; thus, most of the measurements in her book are approximate. Norma Jean and Carole Darden’s Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine: Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family (1978) is a record built during seven years of research

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and recorded family lore. The sisters visited and interviewed relatives in Alabama, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia, collected traditional recipes and rare photographs, family health and beauty secrets, and special family celebrations and rituals, and produced an unusual family album. Many of the recipes give credit to the source, such as ‘‘Artelia’s Plain Biscuits,’’ ‘‘Mama Jenny’s Bread Pudding,’’ ‘‘Aunt Ruth’s Pot Roast,’’ ‘‘Bud’s Saturday Seafood Stew,’’ and ‘‘Papa Darden’s Strawberry Wine.’’ Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Carolyn Quick Tillery issued a series of cookbooks that celebrate the proud heritage of several HBCUs. These are The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Remembrances from Alabama’s Renowned Tuskegee Institute (1996); Celebrating Our Equality: A Cookbook with Recipes and Remembrances from Howard University (2003); and A Taste of Freedom: A Cookbook with Recipes and Remembrances from the Hampton Institute (2002). The books contain history, vignettes, and vintage photographs along with recipes that illustrate each school’s heritage and culture. At Tuskegee, for example, recipes of George Washington Carver, who was an accomplished cook, are starred, and personal recollections of Tuskegee’s founding president Booker T. Washington and his daughter Portia are given. The Hampton book differs in that its primary focus is on the elegant southern foods famous in the Virginia coastal region. Alumni groups representing colleges and universities have published cookbooks as fund-raisers, as seen, for example, in the Fisk Club Cookbook: Recipes Contributed by Members of the Club and Friends (n.d.). The signed recipes identify figures important in Fisk University’s history, such as Dora Scribner, Minnie Lou Crosthwaite, and Mrs. E. M. Cravath, wife of the first president. Women’s and Men’s Groups and other Organizations Among the black fraternities and sororities publishing cookbooks are the Omega Phi Fraternity, and the Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta sororities. The Real Men Cook: Rites, Rituals and Recipes for Living (2005) is the work of the Chicago-based Real Men Charities. The group sponsors food-based charitable and educational programs around the country. Perhaps better known is the work of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). In 1958 NCNW published The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, compiled and edited by one of its stellar members, Sue Bailey Thurman. Through tributes, Thurman connected these recipes to historically-valued individuals such as Carter G. Woodson, John Mercer Langston, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. The work was reprinted in 2000. NCNW in 1993 issued its seminal work, The Black Family Dinner Quilt Cookbook, which offers health conscious recipes and food memories. The work is well illustrated with images of African American quilts, using them ‘‘to explore quilting as a metaphor for communication, fellowship, and the richness of sharing between women of all races.’’ Chief among these is ‘‘The Harriet Tubman Quilt’’ which graces the back cover.

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Classics and Other Popular Cookbooks In addition to Grosvenor’s Vibration Cooking, other popular works include Edna Lewis’s several works, such as The Edna Lewis Cookbook (1972); and A Date with a Dish, A Cookbook of American Negro Recipes, by Freda De Knight (first published in 1962 and available since then in several newer editions as the Ebony Cookbook). Her work is called ‘‘the first book of its kind, a cookbook of American Negro cooking,’’ and her authentic recipes include many from black chefs. As food editor for Essence magazine, Jonell Nash published Essence Brings You Great Cooking (1994), and offers recipes from the Caribbean, Africa, South America, and the American South. She updates some traditional recipes and gives three hundred recipes that reflect a new era of health-consciousness, busy schedules, and a renewed appreciation for African American cooking. Kwanzaa and New Trends Eric V. Copage is one of several writers who prepared cookbooks to celebrate Kwanzaa—a trend created in 1966 by Maulana (Ron) Karenga for African Americans; it brings together elements from African harvest festivals for a celebration that runs from December 26 to New Year’s Day, but does not replace Christmas. His book Kwanzaa: An African-American Celebration of Culture and Cooking (1991) is a collection of recipes from caterers, cooks, and food lovers adapted to fit the focus of the celebration. His book defines and discusses the principles of Kwanzaa, tells how a celebration should occur, and includes stories and folktales and accounts of African American history. Danella Carter aimed to produce a ‘‘nutritionally correct’’ down-home, or soul cookbook in Down-Home Wholesome: 300 Low-Fat Recipes from a New Soul Kitchen (1995). Her recipes temper the unhealthy aspects of traditional cooking, replacing them with heart-friendly alternatives—an increasingly popular trend in American and African American culture. A fourth-generation cook, Carter includes a brief family portrait, her most treasured recipes, and directions for self-empowerment through proper diet and nutrition. Many celebrities have collected their favorite recipes and made them available as cookbooks. Such notables include Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Pearl Bailey, Dick Gregory, George Foreman, Isaac Hayes, Mahalia Jackson, Patti LaBelle, Johnny Mathis, and Oprah Winfrey. Early black entrepreneur Mary Ellen ‘‘Mammy’’ Pleasant, folk artist Clementine Hunter, activist Bobby Seale, black luminary and scientist George Washington Carver, religious leader Elijah Muhammad, community servant Charleszetta Waddles, and writer Ntozake Shange produced cookbooks as well. Adding to the wealth of culinary literature is Jessica B. Harris, who has documented the foods and foodways of the African diaspora in the eight critically acclaimed cookbooks that she has published. The continuing popularity of African American cookbooks may also be attributed to the cooking shows aired on the Food Network. Examples are Down Home with the Neelys, with Pat and Gina Neely; Cooking for Real, with Sunny

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Anderson; Big Daddy’s House, with Aaron McCargo, and The Chef Jeff Project, with Jeff Henderson. African American cookbooks—many in several editions—are found in private collections and in special African American collections in libraries. An important collection (dated 1827–2000) is the David Walker Lupton African American Cookbook Collection housed in the W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama. Many of the 450 works are various editions of a title; nevertheless, the collection offers a wealth of information about foods and African American history and culture. It encourages additional research into this subject. See also: Folk Foods; Food and Cooking Further Reading Copage, Eric V. 1991. Kwanzaa: An African-American Celebration of Culture and Cooking. New York: Quill/William Morrow. ‘‘The David Walker Lupton African American Cookbook Collection.’’ University of Alabama. http://www.lib.ua.edu/lupton/luptonlist.htm. National Council of Negro Women. 2000. The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro. Boston: Beacon Press. Randall, Joe, and Toni Tipton-Martin. 1998. A Taste of Heritage: The New AfricanAmerican Cuisine. New York: Macmillan. White, Joyce. 1998. Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections from African-American Churches. New York: HarperCollins. Beth Madison Howse and Jessie Carney Smith

Cool J, LL. See LL Cool J

Cooper, Anna Julia (1858–1964), Educator, Writer, Women’s Rights Advocate, Social Activist Anna Julia Cooper rose to prominence as a recognized figure in the struggle for African American civil rights, particularly women’s rights. Cooper was born Anna Julia Haywood in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Hannah Stanley, a slave owned by George Washington Haywood, who is believed to be her father. At age nine, Cooper’s love of learning won her a scholarship to St. Augustine’s Normal Institute. After graduating, she went on to teach there. She stopped teaching in 1877 to marry George Cooper, a St. Augustine faculty member who was fourteen years her senior. Two years later, after her husband’s death, Cooper resumed teaching at St. Augustine. In 1884, she earned a BA degree at Oberlin College. In 1885, she taught at Wilberforce University, and, in 1886, she

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returned to teach at St. Augustine. Later that same year, she went on to teach at Washington Colored High School (later named M Street and then Paul Laurence Dunbar) in the District of Columbia. In 1887, she earned an MS degree in mathematics also at Oberlin. In 1892, Cooper published her famous A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South, a collection of essays and speeches asserting that black women are largely responsible for the advancement of their race, given their unique positions as educators to their children, encouraging wives to their husbands, and grassroots workers in their communities, clubs, and churches— analogous sentiments to those of the contemporaneous ‘‘woman’s era.’’ In the ensuing years, Cooper became a recognized orator and activist, jointly establishing the Colored Women’s League in 1892; speaking at the World’s Congress of Representative Women in Chicago in 1893; and serving at the first Pan-African Conference in London in 1900. In 1902, Cooper became principal of M Street, which achieved national recognition for producing high-achieving and renowned African Americans students such as Charles Drew and Nannie Helen Burroughs. However, she was forced to resign after fighting the school board for preparing black students for college and amid allegations of a love affair with one of her adult foster children, John Love. Nonetheless, Cooper continued her civil rights work in Washington, DC, by establishing the local YWCA for African American women in 1905 and the all-black YMCA in 1912. After the M Street controversy, Cooper taught at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, but returned to teach at M Street in 1910. Leaving the United States to complete doctoral studies begun at Columbia University in 1911, Cooper earned a PhD degree in French from the University of Paris in 1925, becoming one of the few African American women PhDs at the time. Later, Cooper returned to the states and, in 1917, presided over Frelinghuysen University, a working-class African American college. The school eventually lost its accreditation and became a ‘‘group of schools’’ with Cooper functioning as registrar until its closing in the late 1950s. Cooper stayed in Washington, DC, until she died at the age of 105, remaining the consummate scholar/educator and advocate for African American and women’s rights. Further Reading Cooper, Anna Julia. 1988. A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South. In The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. eds., with an introduction by Mary Helen Washington. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Johnson, Karen Ann. 2000. Uplifting the Women and the Race: The Lives, Educational Philosophies, and Social Activism of Anna Julia Cooper and Nannie Helen Burroughs. New York: Garland Publishing. Vivian, May. 2007. Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge. Tomeiko Ashford Carter

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Cornrows Cornrows denote hair twisted or braided in various forms and attached to the scalp. The way African Americans and those of African descent throughout the diaspora have chosen to wear their hair has always been part of a larger racial politic. This was and is especially true in the United States, where black Americans who styled their hair in its natural state automatically were seen as making a political statement during the black consciousness movement of the 1970s. The negative perception of natural hairstyles continued into the 1980s, when black female employees of Hyatt Hotels and American Airlines challenged company policies that stated braided hair violated appropriate grooming practices. Tensions over the way African Americans wore their hair would continue into the 1990s, as many black professional women continued to encounter a negative reception when they chose to wear their hair in natural styles. Even in the twenty-first century, black hairstyling practices are still read politically, as exemplified by the white media’s fascination with the braided hairstyles of tennis stars Venus Williams and Serena Williams and the cornrows worn by NBA star Allen Iverson. These celebrities and many others are not exempt from the radical image of blackness many whites associate with black Americans who chose to wear natural hairstyles. For many black Americans, wearing their hair in a natural style is part of the enculturation process of having pride in one’s African heritage. It is also part of a bonding force in black American culture, because the ritual of styling one’s hair naturally is usually performed in one’s home by a family member or friend. While one’s hair is being styled in cornrows, Dreadlocks, braids, or into an Afro, the stylist and stylee as well as all others present in the household have a wonderful time of fellowship together, gossiping, eating, and sharing family lore. If there are two or more individuals whose hair the stylist must braid, she will often tell those who ask what her plans are for the day that she is ‘‘doing hair.’’ This signifies to the questioner that this will probably be a full-day event and a time of closeness, and it is an implied invitation to come and participate in the cultural closeness created among African American women sharing their views on how to act and how not to act, men, money, sex, and white folks. It is also in these settings where the younger generation learns how to create natural hairstyles by observing the stylist at work. They learn that the basic braiding pattern for creating cornrows begins by parting the hair into the desired sections; dividing the sectioned hair into three equal parts so that there is a left, middle, and right section; crossing the left or right section underneath the middle section, then taking the opposite side and doing the same, and, as the second sequence of this rotation begins, adding in hair equal in width to the original section and continuing the pattern until braiding is complete. In this way, the tradition of styling one’s hair naturally is passed on from one generation to the next. See also: Hair and Hairstyles

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Further Reading Banks, Ingrid. 2000. Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women’s Consciousness. New York: New York University Press. Rooks, Noliwe M. 1996. Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Shawnrece D. Miller

Cosby, Bill (1937– ), Comedian, Actor Bill Cosby, comedian and actor, has also been considered by many to be one of the most intelligent, articulate, and practical advocates of African American accomplishment. Cosby’s impact on American culture is dual. First, he continually encourages blacks to improve their quality of home life, to become involved in their children’s education, and to build strong African American communities. Second, despite the negative stereotypes of blacks in popular movies and television shows, Cosby portrays African Americans realistically. Bill Cosby was born William H. Cosby on July 12, 1937, in Philadelphia. His father left the family when Cosby was young, leaving him to be raised by his mother. Cosby, a good student, was admitted to Central High; however, in the tenth grade he left school to enlist in the U.S. Navy, where he served from 1956 to 1960. In the navy, he earned his diploma through correspondence courses and was awarded a football scholarship to Temple University. Cosby took classes during the day and worked as a bartender in the evenings; it was here that he found he could make people laugh. This led to his decision to pursue a comedy career. After obtaining a BA degree from Temple and a MA degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1972, Cosby went on to earn his Doctor of Education degree in education in 1977. Bill Cosby is one of the best-loved Cosby’s relaxed style and generally comedians in the world and has perhaps the widest appeal due to the wholesome way in presenting his warm, gentle, inoffensive nature of his comedic recollections of childhood made humor. (AP/Wide World Photos) him an enduring success. Eschewing gags,

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racial jokes, and profanity, he distinguished himself by usually making his comedy suitable for all age groups. Cosby broke comedy’s color barrier, so that others like Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy were freed from the Chitlin Circuit, and now were able to reach mainstream audiences. His success includes: Four Emmys, eight Grammy awards, seven gold albums, fourteen television series, three television movies, ten television specials, twelve films, twenty-two audio recordings, and seven publications; his latest book is titled Come on People. On October 26, 2009, Bill Cosby was presented the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Cosby has been married to Camille Hanks Cosby for more than forty-five years, since 1965. Camille and Bill Cosby had five children, but tragically lost their only son Ennis, in 1997, when Ennis Cosby was shot and killed while changing a car tire at the side of the road. In his most popular television offering, The Cosby Show, Cosby presents African American family life in a way never before seen by American television viewers. In this show black people are shown to be individuals successfully coping with universal situations within their traditional belief and value systems. Other television shows cast blacks as uneducated and inarticulate comic figures rife with conflict and rude children; or as mere black copies of white mainstream Americans. Sets for The Cosby Show often displayed African American interests and values, such as African American art and music. While The Cosby Show debunked stereotypes about blacks on screen, Cosby battled bias inside the television industry; when NBC wanted an anti-apartheid sign off of the set, he objected, saying if the sign were edited out, there would be no show. NBC’s officials relented. Apart from his entertainment work, Cosby staunchly espouses that in the face of racism, discipline, self-reliance, and morality are vital for the survival and success of African Americans. He correctly identified teen pregnancy and absentee fatherhood; the unwillingness of some to study or work yet they maintained a materialistic mindset; and irreverent, vulgar speech as abnormal behaviors which must be purged from black communities. To this end, Cosby wrote books, developed educational videos, lectured at schools and prisons, and gave millions of dollars to Fisk University and Spelman College. Some critics feel that Cosby is too harsh in his views of the problems which beset black Americans; yet comparison of the black community’s apathy toward these problems, with the attitudes of other ethnic groups towards these problems, favors Cosby’s recommendations. Critics overlook the fact that Cosby’s own childhood, his determination and hard work despite his disadvantages to complete his education, and earn an EdD degree qualify him to address these issues. The best description of Cosby would be to say that he is a race man—a person who loves his ethnicity, and who does all that he can to protect, encourage, exhort, and inspire its members. When he was running for office, presidential hopeful, Barack Obama voiced similar views as Cosby concerning the problem of absentee African American fathers in a speech that he gave on Father’s Day in 2008.

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Further Reading ‘‘Bill Cosby.’’ 2003. In Africana: The Concise Desk Reference. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed. Philadelphia: Running Press. ‘‘Bill Cosby.’’ U.S. Comedian/Actor. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/ChtmlC/ cosbybill/cosbill.htm. Coates, Ta-Nehisi. ‘‘This is How We Lost to the White Man.’’ Atlantic (May 2008). http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200805/cosby. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. ‘‘Bill Cosby.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale. Gwendolyn M. Rees

Cosby Show, The The Cosby Show, a situation comedy based on a Bill Cosby child-rearing monologue, was one of the most popular shows of the mid-1980s. It is significant because it was the first show of its type to realistically present the African American family with its richness of culture to the American mass media. Television viewers could see how many African Americans interacted with their family members, friends, and neighbors. The show was an immediate hit because its comedic situations rang true to life. Television audiences could see some of their families’ values and traditions present in the show’s African American Huxtable family, with actress Phylicia Rashad and comedian Bill Cosby as the main characters (the parents). Viewers also became privy to black family traditions and culture previously unknown to them. The biggest impact of The Cosby Show was that it confronted many stereotypes about black people by using everyday familial situations, strong parental characters, and dialogs that were authentically African American. Although the Huxtable family was an affluent upper-middle-class family, its situations and scenes resonated strongly with black families from all economic levels. Unlike many other sitcoms, the show avoided buffoonery, preferring to find humor in family situations; and it brought the African American mindset to the fore. The use of African American art on the show’s set, and the use of jazz in the show’s soundtrack gave The Cosby Show a unique and classy African American flavor. Despite the existence of wealthy, free blacks during slavery, the close nature of slave families, and the fact that spirituality has always been important to black people; some critics felt it was untrue to portray black families as being affluent, nurturing, or even possessed of spiritual and moral values. Some blacks voiced their ignorance of how physical African attributes can vary within a single family. A popular African American talk show hostess once naively remarked that she didn’t believe the wide range of skin tones of the members of the TV Huxtable family could actually exist within an African American family.

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The Cosby Show premiered on NBC on September 20, 1984, and finished its first season third in the ratings; and in its next four seasons the series finished first. In its sixth season (1989–90) it finished second behind Roseanne, another family-oriented situation comedy. The Cosby Show’s success revived the genre of the situation comedy, and enhanced NBC’s image. In April 1992, the show’s ninth season farewell episode was nearly preempted by the Los Angeles riots, but for Mayor Tom Bradley’s success in persuading KNBC-TV to broadcast the final episode of The Cosby Show as originally scheduled. Further Reading Hunt, Darnell M. ‘‘The Cosby Show.’’ http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC /cosbyshowt/cosbyshowt.htm. Inniss, Leslie B. 1995. ‘‘The Cosby Show: The View from the Black Middle Class.’’ Journal of Black Studies 25 (July): 692–711. Payne, Monica A. 1994. ‘‘The ‘Ideal’ Black Family? A Caribbean View of the Cosby Show.’’ Journal of Black Studies 25 (December): 231–49. Gwendolyn M. Rees

Cosmetics The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was characterized by a number of issues, one of them the development of the phase ‘‘Black is beautiful.’’ The concept of self-love and self-acceptance that the phrase promoted was important; it helped African Americans to dispel the long-established notions that dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair were unattractive and that only straight hair, fair skin, and thin lips defined one’s beauty. Historically, the beauty culture industry did much to promote black pride by providing for the different needs of African American women, their hairstyles, and use of cosmetics. Beauty Shops became popular in cities, towns, and villages throughout the country, for they could be operated economically in small storefronts or, until licensing prevented, in homes. Hair care became affordable, and to keep their clients satisfied, the owners began to offer cosmetics as well or to teach women how to mix their own. Thus, the beauty culture industry and its promotion of cosmetics remain important parts of African American popular culture. African American women have long had a concern for the use of cosmetics as a means of enhancing their appearance. Much of this concern may be due to the work of giants and pioneers in the beauty culture industry—Madam C. J. Walker, Annie Turnbo Malone, and Sarah Spencer Washington. Around 1900, Walker, of Walker Manufacturing Company and Malone, of Poro Products, became known for their hair care products and door-to-door sales to black women across the country. Both became millionaires. After World War I, they began to manufacture skin preparations that included face powder, rouge, skin

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lighteners, and creams for African American women and promoted them in their direct-sales contacts, in black beauty parlors, and in the black press. In 1920, another black woman entrepreneur, Sarah Spencer Washington, began her Apex Beauty System, manufacturing a line of cosmetics as well as hair care products. Like Walker and Malone, she had beauty schools across the country and abroad. Added to this group is entrepreneur and banker Anthony Overton, who in 1898 established the Overton Hygenic Manufacturing Company and created a line of beauty preparations for black women. By 1916, his was one of the largest African American businesses in the country. Since Overton believed in and ‘‘encouraged racial independence, race pride, and self-help for blacks,’’ according to Nicole Williams, he employed only black people to work in his home and branch offices. He created a High-Brown Products line, offering perfumes as well as cosmetics, but refused to manufacture then-popular items such as skin bleach. His popular High Brown Face Powder was developed especially for African American women. His products put him in direct competition with Walker and Malone and made him successful as well. Overton was the first African American to market his line in Woolworth’s stores. In 1918, Claude Barnett of the Associated Negro Press launched a line of cosmetics for African American women called Nile Queen. The short-lived company targeted an interest seen in popular culture since the turn of the century— the Cleopatra and African origins of Egyptian culture. On this theme, the New York Age for August 6, 1914, published on the front page a letter identifying the ‘‘Ideal Type of Negro Beauty,’’ identifying the ideal as ‘‘Egyptian’’ type with a small mouth, chiseled features, and of mixed racial heritage. ‘‘In the popular imagination,’’ writes Maxine Leeds Craig in Ain’t I a Beauty Queen, ‘‘Cleopatra was the Egyptian woman.’’ After World War II, African Americans increasingly moved into the cosmetics industry. Rose Morgan founded Rose Meta, in 1946, and introduced such products for black women as lipstick, rouge or blushes, and creams, becoming highly successful in her enterprise. They were the first such products for black women to be sold in a major white department store. Marguerita Ward Cosmetics Company, though founded in 1922, ceased production for a while and resumed business in the late 1940s. Popular culture icon Lena Horne founded the Lena Horne Cosmetics Company, based in Oakland, in 1959. After that, the natural look for African American women’s hair and skin emerged and, from 1959 to 1973, the market for such cosmetics manufactured was somewhat depressed. Despite this, the Flori Roberts line was launched in 1965 and maintained a blending that gives natural looking shades. It was Flori Roberts that started a trend that matched models with cosmetics lines. One of the first black runway models, Billie Blair, was a Flori Roberts model. In 1983, when Suzette Charles succeeded Vanessa Williams, who relinquished her crown, and became Miss America, the cosmetics line profiled her as well.

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Called the ‘‘world leader in the field of cosmetics for all women of color,’’ Fashion Fair cosmetics began in 1973 and was named after the popular fashion show that led to its creation. A Johnson Publishing Company creation, John H. Johnson and wife Eunice responded to the efforts of Ebony Fashion Fair ’s models to blend foundations to match their complexion. After established cosmetics companies failed to respond to John Johnson’s request to create a line especially for black women, the Johnsons did it themselves following the mixtures that their models had created. They also marketed their line to department stores in Chicago, such as Marshall Fields, and then in other up-market department stores. Fashion Fair became the largest manufacturer of cosmetics for black women and is readily available in local markets across the country. By 1985 Naomi Sims, known for her line of wigs for African American women, also began a cosmetics company, limiting her sales to the up-market department stores as well. Reaching mass markets such as drugstores and discount retail giants such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart, Carol Jackson Mouyiaris founded her Black Opal skin care products in 1993, and saw phenomenal sales. Two years later she introduced Black Opal Color Cosmetics and a skin-care line for men called Black Opal for Men. Many other companies have emerged—some of them with lines named for black women of note—but subsequently merged with other lines or ceased to operate. High-profile black women now promote the black line of cosmetics manufactured by two well-known companies. For example, Queen Latifah advertises on television and in popular journals such as Ebony and Essence the Queen Collection, a line created by Cover Girl for women of color, while actress Halle Berry is the ‘‘poster child’’ for Revlon’s line created for women of color. While many claim that black women have emulated white women in their appearance by seeking to lighten their skin with cosmetics and to make their lips appear smaller through specific methods of applying lipstick, some white women have also darkened their skin with suntans and creams and enlarged their lips through the use of injections, or made them appear larger by extending lipstick beyond their lip line. For certain, African American women have available numerous lines of cosmetics geared to different skin tones. Regardless of the line of cosmetics that women use, current trends in popular culture and fashion often dictate how they are applied. Further Reading Craig, Maxine Leeds. 2002. Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? New York: Oxford University Press. Gill, Tiffany M. 2005. ‘‘Beauty Culture.’’ In Black Women in America, 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. 81–89. New York: Oxford University Press. ‘‘JPC: Johnson Publishing Company.’’ http://www.johnsonpublishing.com/assembled/ businesses_fashionfair.html.

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Peiss, Kathy. 1993. ‘‘Beauty Culture.’’ In Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. 100–4. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing. Walker, Juliet E. K. 1999. ‘‘Women Business Enterprises.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Business History. Juliet E. K. Walker, ed. 597–612. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Williams, Nicole L. Bailey. 1999. ‘‘Anthony Overton.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale. Jessie Carney Smith

Cotillions and Botillions The cotillion is a part of African American culture rooted in the period of slavery but that evolved following emancipation. While the term is variously defined, for the African American community it means a coming-out event for young women, or a time when they are presented to society. Botillion, sometimes also written as beautillion, appears to be an event of the last half of the twentieth century and the male counterpart of cotillion, or a time to present boys to society as men. Both the cotillion and botillion suggest racial pride, uplift, and self-confidence, and aim to establish networks and to produce leaders. The Cotillion The term ‘‘cotillion’’ has several meanings, ranging from a lively dance form that originated in eighteenth-century France, to a quadrille from the nineteenth century, to music used at cotillions and quadrilles, to a formal ball held to present young women to society. In the African American community the latter definition is accepted. It may incorporate a lively dance into the final celebration. Debutante balls for young African American women sometimes appear synonymous with cotillions and a cotillion may be an elaborate debutante dance. While the exact date of the first African American cotillion cannot be documented, there are claims that, in the South, the cotillion dates back to the period following emancipation of blacks, when the budding but fragile middle class recreated activities held by plantation owners who used the event to present their single daughters to society. Blacks adopted pale imitations of their coming-out parties and cotillions. In his novel Cotillion (1971), John Oliver Killens makes a parody of the coming-out party in white society; he calls it an instrument of black revelation, as a young black woman makes the Grand Cotillion different—black and beautiful. She sports her hair au naturel. His characters call the cotillion ‘‘stupid,’’ and claim that blacks are ‘‘aping white folks’’ and are trying to be white themselves. Cotillions remain one of the most popular events held for young women of the black middle class to teach them social graces and moral values. By the late

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1930s Greek letter and professional organizations were known to sponsor cotillions. In Washington, DC, for example, what began as a small dinner and banquet with a few hundred celebrants expanded into a gigantic ball with fifteen hundred people in attendance. Surpassing that number was Philadelphia’s early cotillions, which at one time attracted over seventeen hundred celebrants; it was the largest of the coming-out affairs of this type. The season for cotillions nationwide is often springtime; it culminates a period of fund-raisers; workshops; training sessions to teach them grooming, poise, social graces, preparation for college, and other activities; and then the young women are presented to society. The cotillion, in the view of some, is characteristic of predominantly African American communities such as Mitchellville, Maryland—a census-designated place located near Bowie, in affluent Prince George’s County. According to the Washington Post, for many, Mitchellville ‘‘means having educated and successful neighborhoods; big houses with theater rooms, libraries and two-and-three-car garages; better schools; cotillions; botillions; book clubs; and art parties—all of the luxuries that middle-class status has brought to African Americans in the first generation since the Civil Rights movement.’’ Evidence of cotillions in the African American community is widespread. In 1951, the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority in Miami introduced the Annual Rose Cotillions to the community, enabling the young women to ‘‘waltz to womanhood.’’ By 2008, when the twenty-fourth annual event was held, cotillions were, with few exceptions, more than fancy balls. The young women, all honor students, were taught life lessons in advance, and for months worked on community service projects and participated in workshops that taught etiquette, finances, and leadership. Four local black sororities helped to celebrate the achievements of the young women by sponsoring a season of soir
ees. The pattern of sponsorship differs in Atlanta, where the Lambda Epsilon Omega Foundation, Inc., the fundraising arm of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, held its Silver Anniversary Debutante Cotillion in March 2010 and presented thirty young ladies to Metro Atlanta’s society. The foundation provides scholarships as well as grants to support the arts, breast cancer education, the United Negro College Fund, the NAACP, and other worthy causes. In Nashville, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority has also sponsored cotillions for over forty years. Prominent among the coming-out events for young black women is the Original Illinois Club cotillion held in New Orleans each year. Sadly, for the anxious young women who expected to attend in spring 2006, there was what the New York Times called ‘‘no Cinderella story, no ball, no black debutante.’’ Traditionally, young women of the most prominent local white families waltzed, waved their flowing gowns and tiaras, and attended formal galas held during the Carnival season by krewes Comus and Rex. Due to racial discrimination and laws preventing white krewes (or private, nonprofit clubs) from racial-mixing, early on blacks held a parallel Mardi Gras or Carnival. During Carnival, middle-class blacks formed their own celebrations, held parties, and did noticeably good deeds to

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provide racial uplift throughout the community. In 2007, after Hurricane Katrina hit two years earlier in 2005, most white families of Comus and Rex continued their tradition, while young black women who were to be announced to society at the largely black cotillions never wore their gowns. By tradition, they would have been presented by the city’s oldest black Carnival, the Original Illinois Club; since 1895, the event had been held on the Saturday night preceding Mardi Gras. By 1991, city ordinance prevented racial discrimination and, rather than integrate their parades, many of the white krewes simply stopped parading. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the African American community, it changed the demographics of the city. Where middle- and upperclass blacks are concerned carnival now means a lesser celebration and perhaps the loss of an ethnic tradition. Carnival represented an elegant part of black society that people were privileged to see. The black clubs had highlighted accomplishments and the education of young black women. While African American cotillions, regardless of where they were held throughout the country, focused on the privileged, in one African American community a popular, elite social group held a cotillion for foster girls. Although the members generally favored the idea and the act of kindness and compassion for the less fortunate was well received locally, some members feared that by mixing with ‘‘common’’ they might appear ‘‘common’’ themselves. For the most part, however, the cotillions have been so successful that organizations and groups were prompted to sponsor a similar activity for African American male youth—the botillion. The Botillion The botillion, or beautillion in some communities, is defined as a rite of passage for black males, elevating them from boyhood to manhood. Botillions appear to have gained in popularity in recent years, as various black groups began to host coming-out functions for young black males. They are often hosted by black fraternities, church groups, or other organizations, including Jack and Jill of America and the Links. A chapter of the Links in Washington, DC, has hosted botillions, which they call beautillions, and included youth as young as nine years old. The ‘‘beaux’’ or ‘‘beaus,’’ as the young men are called, are offered scholarships, as well as contacts or connections. While activities may vary from one celebration to another, typically young men who are to take the rite of passage may spend months in career, etiquette, or dress-for-success workshops; networking studies; ballroom dancing classes or attending dance performances; playing golf with their fathers; or dining in upscale restaurants. The Dayton chapter of Jack and Jill is said to have held its first Beautillion Militaire in 1968, when the Black Pride movement was at its peak; the celebration continued. Denver’s Jack and Jill held its first beautillion in 1983. In December 2003, the organization of black women and their families presented another beautillion as an awards dinner ceremony at a hotel in Denver to honor thirty-three African American male high school students, each chosen based on his values, accomplishments, and determination to succeed.

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Since 1998, the Gentlemen’s Institute in Washington, DC, a type of fraternity, has inducted nearly one hundred youth in its circle through annual beautillions. Although the candidates are usually teenagers, the organization’s founder decided to select them at an early age due to the challenges facing young black boys—interferences that chipped away at their self-esteem. The founder felt a need to ‘‘uplift the culture.’’ By 2004, the Young Gentlemen’s Circle was still functioning and held its ‘‘waltz of passage’’ in Arlington, where the beaus took their bows as gentlemen. Beautillions have been held in Anderson, South Carolina, as early as 2006, when the Omega Psi Phi fraternity’s graduate chapter sponsored the event. The second annual Young Esquire Beautillion was held at a black church in Belton in February 2007, and featured nine young men, or Esquires. The event was billed as ‘‘a celebration of the achievements of young black males who are high school juniors or seniors.’’ The beautillion’s mission ‘‘is to educate and encourage black male students from various disciplines on the vital importance of earning a college degree, and to give back to their communities.’’ The event helped to build a network of emerging black scholars who are sensitive to the needs of a developing community. The positive images of the candidates were showcased, and the Esquires transcended a rites-of-passage program called PRIDE, or Purpose, Respect, Integrity, Determination, and Enthusiasm. Phi Beta Sigma fraternity in Richmond, Virginia, held its first beautillion, as they called it, in 2001. In June 2007, the fraternity started a year of planning for the event with activities similar to those offered for cotillions. The final event was a prideful affair. Young men, all honor students, dressed in white tails and white shoes, escorted dates dressed in dainty dresses. The fathers, each holding a medallion, lined up across from their sons, while each son held a candle. A man in African dress explained the significance of the ceremony that transformed the boys into men. Each father gave encouraging words to his son and then placed the medallion around the neck of the newly crowned man. Among the recent beautillions was Jack and Jill’s 2008 activity held in Austin, Texas, at which time each participant received a laptop computer. The beaus also waltzed with their mothers and belles (their escorts). Supporters and sponsors represented a broad spectrum of the community, including black sororities and fraternities, the Links, the Sigma Pi Phi (the Boul
e), and local businesses. Cotillions and beautillions, a part of popular culture in the African American community, are committed to preparing youth for their entrance into society with cultural, social, and economic skills needed to survive. Further Reading Associated Press. ‘‘‘Beautillions,’ a Rite of Passage for Black Males.’’ MSNBC, June 17, 2007. www.msnbc.com. Saulny, Susan. ‘‘No Cinderella Story, No Ball, No Debutante,’’ New York Times, March 2, 2006. Thomas-Lester, Avis. ‘‘In Mitchellville, Home Is Where The Address Isn’t.’’ Washington Post, October 21, 2006. Jessie Carney Smith

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Country Music, Black While country and western music is often considered ‘‘white man’s blues,’’ the participation of African Americans in the genre can be seen from its earliest stirrings. Even in a United States where skin color served as a dividing line in civic life, Musicians and Singers, irrespective of color, have striven to engage one another in conversations about techniques and forms of expression. The basic tendency is present from as early as the eighteenth century when African slaves often played banjos and fiddles, and these instruments themselves were important in the early formation of country and western music. Country and western or country music developed from the folk songs of settlers from the British Isles, and these songs were modified in the Appalachian regions of the United States. In the 1920s, country music began to find its way onto the airwaves, and the music from the isolated areas of Appalachian began to shape the national character. Largely the result of the recording industry, country music was labeled as ‘‘hillbilly’’ whereas music of African American musicians and singers were labeled as Race Records, but the distinction between hillbilly and race proved ambiguous in some notable cases. Nashville, Tennessee, became the home of country and western music beginning in 1926 with the national live broadcast of The Grand Ole Opry, a weekly radio show that played hit music from the genre. Jimmie Rodgers (1897–1933), widely acknowledged as the father of country music, recording over one hundred songs in a six-year period, learned to play banjo and guitar as a child and, following an unsuccessful career working as a brakeman on the railroad, created music that made use of the blues as well as cowboy ballads. Rodgers remains one of the most imitated performers in country music, and elements of his technique can be seen and heard in the work of some of the greats who followed, such as Hank Williams and Gene Autry. Rodgers acknowledged that his music was influenced by black railroad workers and musicians, and his trademark ‘‘yodel’’ in songs like ‘‘T for Texas’’ shares a strong semblance to field hollers in the African American vernacular tradition. During the 1930s, the Jazz Age having subsided and the United States facing a global depression, black and white musicians continued to create new forms of music such as western swing, which was a blend of country and western music with swing. One of the prominent proponents of western swing, Bob Wills, as is often reported, traveled miles to hear African American singer Bessie Smith belt her blues. Along with sharing techniques, some African American musicians and singers were country singers in their own right. The first black star at the Grand Ole Opry was DeFord Bailey. Born in Smith County, Tennessee, and the grandson of an expert fiddler, DeFord Bailey (1899–1982) was a formidable harmonica player who transformed the Pan American locomotive train into music in his ‘‘Pan American Blues.’’ Along with playing harmonica, he proved a virtuoso of the guitar and banjo as well. Despite his unquestioned skill as an artist, one who played at the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night and enjoyed immense popularity while on the road, Bailey also had to contend with the psychological strain of living in a Jim Crow

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society. In 1941, when racial discrimination undermined his career as an artist, Bailey continued to play his harmonica, but never in public, and returned to shining shoes and running a Barbecue stand, along with renting rooms in his house, as means towards supporting his family. In 1974, Bailey returned to the Opry to be celebrated and to perform, and his contribution to country music remains legendary. While blacks and whites shared the stage in country music, and while artists like DeFord Bailey displayed extraordinary dignity and excellence, the world of country music was not immune to some of the more demeaning aspects of Minstrelsy. Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills had been blackface performers for a while, all with an eye towards giving their blues pieces more authenticity. Such acts were not uncommon in the late 1920s. The most popular film of the decade, The Jazz Singer, released in 1927, played for eight weeks instead of the usual three, and the protagonist, the son of a Jewish cantor, changes his name and blackens his face to sing the jazz songs of his age. While blackface minstrelsy originated in the nineteenth century as an attempt to disparage and to dehumanize African Americans, its continuation into the twentieth century offers us artistic ambiguity. Born in Sledge, Mississippi, in 1938, Charley Pride left home when he was sixteen to play in the Negro Baseball Leagues, yet became one of the most successful singers in country music, amassing some twenty-nine number one country hits between 1966 and 1989. While Pride casts a lion’s shadow over the landscape of black country music, other black musicians and singers have experienced success in the genre. Ray Charles (1930–2004) grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and began his musical career playing in a country band, the Florida Playboys. In 1962, Charles released Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, vols. 1 and 2, a notable achievement because it revealed Charles as a master synthesizer. Modern Sounds blended elements of Rhythm and Blues, jazz, and gospel with country music, and opened up the folk music from Appalachia to new listeners across the nation and abroad. Fats Domino, the Supremes, and Al Green have all produced country music. In 1984, Lionel Richie wrote ‘‘Lady,’’ a number one country song for Kenny Rogers, before hitting number ten himself in 1987 with ‘‘Deep River Woman,’’ which he performed with the group Alabama. Surveys as recent as 1995 show that some five to seven million African Americans over the age of eighteen listen to country music. The African American contribution to country music is a considerable one, for the music’s core themes run remarkably close to that of the blues, and while country music bloomed in the shadow of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and the exuberance of the Jazz Age, it remains a music deeply tied to the understanding of the American character. ‘‘I am not a black man singing white man’s music,’’ Charley Pride said. ‘‘I’m an American singing American music.’’ Further Reading Eisenbach, David. ‘‘Lecture Notes.’’ New York: Manhattan School of Music. Fong-Torres, Ben. 1998. ‘‘Ray Charles.’’ In The Encyclopedia of Country Music: The Ultimate Guide to the Music. Paul Kingsbury, ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Gammond, Peter. ‘‘Country Music.’’ The Oxford Companion to Music. Alison Latham, ed. Oxford Music Online. Larkin, Colin, ed. ‘‘Presley, Elvis (country career).’’ Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. Oxford Music Online. Millard, Bob. 1998. ‘‘Charley Pride.’’ In Kingsbury 1998. Morton, David C. 1998. ‘‘DeFord Bailey.’’ In Kingsbury 1998. Rumble, John. 1998. ‘‘Black Artists in Country Music.’’ In Kingsbury 1998. Thomson, Liz. ‘‘Rodgers, Jimmie.’’ Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. www .oxfordmusiconline.com. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Cowboys and Rodeos From the earliest days of slavery in the United States, we find record of black men in charge of herding cattle while on horseback. These men rode for thousands of miles across the North American continent, earning them recognition as the earliest cowboys on historical record. In a 1741 slave inventory cited by Prahlad, there is record of ‘‘2 negroes, excellent cattle hunters, used to the stock.’’ The industry of cattle herding in South Carolina did spread westward to the Great Plains, and black bondsmen with experience and skill in herding were an asset to white plantation owners. An examination of the origins of cowboys and rodeos reveals that the mythical Wild West of popular imagination was a multicultural world shaped by the frontier and by economic demands. The term ‘‘cowboy’’ can be used to denote hands, riders, cooks, and ropers. These men sought their fortune on the American Plains during the second half of the nineteenth century. Trail drivers moved cattle from ranges and ranches to railroad depots, where the cattle were then shipped to Chicago in boxcars for market. About 25 percent of cattle drivers, roughly eight to nine thousand men, were African American. African Americans in the Midwest found opportunity as cowboys, a profession where one’s worth was largely defined by one’s skill. John Ware, who had been a slave in Texas, was an able cattle driver. Recognized as one of the best cowboys of his time, Ware went on to own his own ranch in Alberta, Canada. ‘‘Eighty’’ John Wallace, born a slave in Texas in 1860, worked with cattle his whole life. As an astute businessman who practiced thrift and industry, Wallace, owned a ranch outright, without a mortgage by the time of the Great Depression. One of the more famed black cowboys of the late nineteenth century was Nat ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’ Love. Born a slave in Tennessee in 1854, Love earned his spot on a trail job by breaking the wildest horses owned by a group of drivers. ‘‘This proved the worst horse to ride I had ever mounted in my life,’’ Love wrote, ‘‘but I stayed with him and the cow boys were the most surprised outfit you ever saw, as they had taken me for a tenderfoot pure and simple. After the horse got tired and I dismounted the boss said he would give me a job and pay me $30.00 per month and more later on.’’ A skilled marksman, he displayed his dead aim with a pistol at a

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rodeo in Deadwood City of the Dakota Territory by hitting twelve bull’s eyes on fourteen shots. Along with his exceptional shooting, he rode horses with dexterity and speed. For his performance at Deadwood City, beating the best cowboys the West had to offer, Nat Love earned the nickname ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’ to go along with $200 in prize money. While she was not a cowboy, Mary Fields, popularly known as ‘‘Stagecoach Mary’’ and ‘‘Black Mary,’’ standing at six feet and noted for her hard drinking, welcomed the challenges of the American frontier. Born a slave in Tennessee in 1832, Fields made her way west, where she transported mail through Montana during the late nineteenth century. Often wearing two pistols and carrying a shotgun, ‘‘Stagecoach Mary’’ delivered the mail—no matter the weather— throughout Montana. Bill Pickett, an African American cowboy of South Carolina ancestry, is often credited with ‘‘bulldogging’’ or steer wrestling. One white Texas rancher of the era wrote ‘‘there was no better cowman on earth than the Negro.’’ Rodeos, from the Spanish word meaning ‘‘round up,’’ grew out of the equestrian contests of Spanish and Mexican people that were infused with Native American riding and hunting practices. When Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, cowboy culture became even more multicultural as white cowboys moved to Texas and California, where they worked with Hispanic residents in the cattle industry. (Following the U.S. victory over Mexico in the Mexican-American War, control of the cattle industry was wrested away from Hispanics.) In the early rodeos, cowboys, white and black, and Native Americans competed against one another. Bill Cody, in his Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Shows, helped to make rodeos popular, beginning with his first show on July 4, 1882. Cody’s shows included both Native Americans and African Americans. Imitators followed, and the sport of rodeo—consisting of steer wrestling, calf roping, barrel racing, and rough stock riding—bulls and broncos—became nationally organized in 1930. While African Americans had been involved in the cattle industry, and by extension cowboys and rodeos, since the days of inception, racism still occurred. Nonetheless, black cowboys have shown the resolve to keep on keeping on. Two early pioneers, Bill Pickett, the steer wrestler, and Jesse Stahl, the famed bronc rider, have both been elected into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Racism, too, in the cowboy circuit compelled African Americans to create the Southwestern Colored Cowboys Association, which during the 1940s and 1950s provided black cowboys the opportunity to hone their craft. As the United States moved towards racial integration during the 1960s, Myrtis Dightman made it to the 1966 National Finals Rodeo, marking the first time an African American had achieved that honor. In 1982, Charles Sampson became the first African American cowboy to win the world championship in bull riding. In 1991 and again in 1995, Fred Whitfield roped his way to the world championship in calf roping. And towards the end of the twentieth century, Harlem and Brooklyn served as sites for the Black World Championship Rodeo. For all the hard work and sacrifice, the idea of the cowboy continues to hold a mythic place in popular culture. As Nat Love wrote, based on years of hard-won experience, ‘‘my only ambition was to learn the business and excel in all things connected with the cow boy life that I was leading and for which I had genuine

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liking. Mounted on my favorite horse, my long horsehide lariat near my hand, and my trusty guns in my belt and the broad plains stretching away from miles and miles, every foot of which I was familiar with, I felt I could defy the world. What man with the fire of life and youth and health in his veins could not rejoice in such a life?’’ Further Reading Kirsch, George B., Othello Harris, and Claire E. Nolte, eds. 2000. ‘‘Rodeo.’’ Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Love, Nat. 2001. ‘‘Life and Adventures of Nat Love Better Known in the Cattle Country as Deadwood Dick.’’ In My Soul Has Grown Deep: Classics of Early African-American Literature. John Edgar Wideman, ed. New York: Ballantine Books. Miller, Randall M., and John David Smith, eds. 1997. ‘‘Cowboys.’’ Dictionary of AfroAmerican Slavery Updated, with a New Introduction and Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Prahlad, Anand. 2006. ‘‘Cowboys.’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Crime Crime has proven to be both a creative and a destructive force in African American popular culture. The creative element of crime is manifest in Gangsta Rap (the CNN of the Ghetto, according to Chuck D, lead rapper for Public Enemy) where notions of street cred and swagger figure prominently in establishing artistic merit and integrity. Yet the price of street ‘‘cred,’’ or credibility, often proves steep, and at times fatal. Born on December 4, 1969, and raised in the Marcy Housing Projects of Brooklyn, New York, Shawn Corey Carter, or Jay-Z, was abandoned by his father and turned to selling crack cocaine. While he hustled the streets, he also showed remarkable flow with his rhymes, earning him the nickname ‘‘Jazzy,’’ shortened to ‘‘Jay-Z.’’ He retired from crime when a rival drug dealer made an attempt on his life. Jay-Z transformed the criminal element of his past, particularly the aspects related to entrepreneurship, into a recording empire, having sold over thirty-two million records and achieving iconic status in his lifetime. Featured on ‘‘Diamonds Are Forever (The Sierra Leone Remix)’’ by Kanye West, Jay-Z gets right to the heart of the matter: ‘‘I sold kilos of coke, I’m guessin’ I could sell CDs / I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man / Let me handle my business, damn.’’ One perhaps not so obvious source of creativity for Hip-Hop artists is Brian De Palma’s 1983 film Scarface, starring Al Pacino as Antonio ‘‘Tony’’ Montana, a refugee from Cuba who experiences a meteoric rise from dishwasher to cocaine dealer in his pursuit of the American dream. Hip-hop mogul Sean (Diddy)

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Combs, by his count, has seen Scarface sixty-three times. As University of Southern California professor Todd Boyd said in Dutka’s article, ‘‘Scarface did everything so big. . . . And anyone on the bottom of the totem pole wanted to emulate Montana smoking that cigar in his sunken tub—a sign of success and an in-your-face [attitude] embodied in hip-hop. If you are a young black or Latino male who came of age at that time, Scarface was a central component in developing your identity.’’ Throughout Pacino’s performance, he touches the core of what it means to be marginal in a capitalist society, where gaining an economic foothold often comes at the highest of prices. As the king of crack cocaine distribution, Nino Brown, played by Wesley Snipes, says in the 1991 hit film New Jack City, ‘‘You gotta rob to get rich in the Reagan era.’’ Crime, we should bear in mind, has broader implications throughout American popular culture, as westerns, detective stories, and mob movies all share a peculiar fascination with the ‘‘wrongs’’ of society. In the tradition of African American literature, the crime novel is often aligned with black urban experience, as seen in the Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson stories of Chester Himes. Crime, too, is a destructive force with particular resonance for African Americans. In a 1996 study, it was shown that African Americans, while making up 13 percent of the U.S. population, account for 35 percent of arrests for serious crime. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2001 study, blacks accounted for 48.7 of arrests in murder cases, whereas whites accounted for 48.4 percent. Yet, as John Eterno, professor of sociology at Queens College in New York and an officer in the New York City Police Department, explains, ‘‘Since whites make up approximately 75 percent of the population and blacks about 12 percent of the population (based on 2000 census data for those reporting only one race), this means that blacks are overrepresented in this arrest category.’’ Race and crime, too, are often linked as the highly publicized Rodney King beating (1991) and the O. J. Simpson trial (1995) have revealed to broad audiences. Further Reading Dawson, Alma, and Connie Van Fleet, eds. 2004. ‘‘Detective and Crime Fiction.’’ African American Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Dutka, Elaine. 2003. ‘‘The Healing of ‘Scarface’; Twenty Years Ago, Critics Thrashed Brian De Palma’s Immigrant Saga. Now It’s Embraced by Hip-hop Fans.’’ Los Angeles Times, E1, September 17. Eterno, John. 2005. ‘‘Crime and Race.’’ In Encyclopedia of Racism in the United States. Gap Pyong Min, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Heaton, Tim B., Bruce A. Chadwick, and Cardell K. Jacobson. 2000. ‘‘Crime and Delinquency.’’ Statistical Handbook on Racial Groups in the United States. Westport, CT: Oryx Press. Johnson, T. Hasan. 2007. ‘‘Jay-Z.’’ In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Mickey Hess, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

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New Jack City. 1991. Dir. Mario Van Peebles. Perf. Wesley Snipes, Ice T, and Allen Payne. Warner Home Video. VHS. Scarface. 2003. Dir. Brian De Palma. Perf. Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Universal Studios Home Video. DVD. West, Kanye. 2005. Late Registration. New York: Roc-A-Fella Records. CD. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Crisis (magazine) (1910– ) From the publication of the first issue in 1910, the Crisis set the standard as a continuing resource that advocates against racial intolerance and influences social, artistic, and political thought in the United States and worldwide. The year following the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), their director of publicity and research, W. E. B. Du Bois, founded the NAACP’s official news magazine that he subtitled ‘‘A Record of the Darker Races.’’ In November 2010, the periodical date celebrate one hundred years of excellence. Throughout its existence, the Crisis has kept NAACP members and the public informed on a range of topics that include civil liberties, racism, sports, labor, health, education, environment, art, literature, science, religion, and economics. It published branch news, biographies, eulogies, interviews, obituaries, and proceedings of NAACP conferences. The inaugural issue began with a distribution of 1,000 copies. By the end of the first year, circulation climbed to 10,000 and by 1919, reached 100,000 copies making it the most prominent black journal of the time. Since its establishment ten decades ago it has been known for investigative reporting with supporting statistics, coverage of controversial topics, graphic images, special issues, and annual features such as the book reviews contributed by Arthur B. Spingarn. Its editors, contributors, and advisory board are a who’s who of the political, social, economic, artistic, and literary world. For the first twenty-four years, Du Bois, a civil rights activist, historian, and scholar, served as editor. With his newspaper experiences as editor of three publications—the Fisk Herald, the Horizon, and the Moon, the latter two organs of the Niagara Movement—he used his passionate and militant editorials to set the tone and direction for the publication. The magazine was part of the Harlem Renaissance with James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and Jessie Redmon Fauset as contributors to the first issue. It featured paintings of Aaron Douglas, poetry of Langston Hughes, and advertisements of Madam C. J. Walker’s beauty products. Other editors were Roy O. Wilkins, who served from 1935 to 1949, followed by James W. Ivy, Henry Lee Moon, and Warren Marr. In 1984, Maybell Ward became the first woman editor. Denise Crittendon began the ‘‘Yes, I Can’’ series in 1994. The NAACP published the magazine until 1933 when it was brought under Crisis Publishing, a subsidiary of the NAACP. The publishing company is now separate from the NAACP and views expressed in the journal do not represent

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the official position of the organization except for branch news published in the section called ‘‘The NAACP Today.’’ After eighty-seven years, the title changed to The New Crisis. Since 2003 it has been entitled The Crisis. It is published quarterly and is available digitally. With a circulation of two hundred and fifty thousand, the periodical still champions the struggle for human rights for all people and promotes a nonviolent society that rejects ‘‘all forms of racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, and homophobia.’’ The legacy of Du Bois continues with editor-inchief Jabari Asim, a playwright and author. Under his tenure, the election of President Barack Obama and the death of John Hope Franklin were covered. Both in the African American community and beyond, the magazine still garners wide respect for the way it presents and preserves African American history and culture and promotes and reflects the broadest definition of popular culture. Further Reading Finch, Minnie. 1981. The NAACP: Its Fight for Justice. New York: Scarecrow Press. Moon, Henry L. 1970. ‘‘History of the Crisis.’’ The Crisis (November). http://www.thecrisismagazine.com/TheCrisisHistory.html. Rodriguez, Zina. ‘‘Shaping the Crisis: 90 Years of Editorial Excellence.’’ The New Crisis 107 (Jul/Aug 2000): 72–74. Wilson, Sondra Kathryn, ed. 1999. ‘‘The Crisis’’ Reader: Stories, Poetry, and Essays from the N.A.A.C.P.’s Crisis Magazine. New York: Modern Library. Gloria Hamilton

Cullen, Countee (1903–46), Poet, Writer During the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen was one of the era’s most critically acclaimed writers. He remains an important figure in the history of African American writing. Cullen, the son of Elizabeth Lucas, was born Countee Porter on May 30, 1903, in Louisville, Kentucky; during his childhood, Cullen moved to New York City where he lived with his paternal grandmother until her death in 1918. That same year, he was adopted by Frederick Cullen, who was founder and pastor of the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in Harlem, and his wife, Carolyn. As early as Cullen’s matriculation at the predominantly white DeWitt Clinton High School, he wrote prize-winning poems that were published in various periodicals. After Cullen graduated from high school and received a New York State Regents scholarship in 1922, he matriculated at New York University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received his BA degree in 1925. Also that year, he began graduate study at Harvard University and published Color, his first volume of poetry. Color, which may be Cullen’s best literary work, contains such well known poems as ‘‘Yet Do I Marvel,’’ ‘‘Heritage,’’ and ‘‘Incident.’’ During the remainder of the decade, Cullen published three additional volumes of verse:

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Copper Sun (1927), The Ballad of the Brown Girl: An Old Ballad Retold (1927), and The Black Christ and Other Poems (1929); edited the October 1926 issue of Palms magazine which was devoted to African American poetry; wrote ‘‘The Dark Tower’’ column for Opportunity and served as Opportunity’s assistant editor from 1926 to 1928; and edited Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets (1927). Cullen, as editor, provided greater exposure for his Harlem Renaissance contemporaries. Cullen earned a MA from Harvard in 1926 and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1926 and 1927. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1928 which allowed him to extend his Parisian stay as he continued writing. Prior to beginning his Guggenheim study, Cullen married Nina Yolande Du Bois, the daughter of Nina and W. E. B. Du Bois, in April, 1928. More than one thousand people attended the ceremony held at Salem Methodist Episcopal Church and officiated by his adoptive father. The wedding was the leading social event of the Harlem Renaissance; however the couple divorced in 1930. After Cullen’s return to the United States and the publication of his novel, One Way to Heaven (1932), he rejected academic positions at various colleges and universities. From 1934 until 1946, he taught English and French at Frederick Douglass Junior High School in New York City where one of his students was James Baldwin. Cullen mentored Baldwin during his junior and senior high school years. Cullen, who married Ida Mae Parker in 1940, continued to write during his career as an educator. In 1935 he helped Arna Bontemps adapt his novel God Sends Sunday (1931) into the play St. Louis Woman. Cullen’s other works during this period include The Medea and Some Poems (1937) as well as two works for youth: The Lost Zoo (1940) and My Lives and How I Lost Them (1942). He also selected poems for his next book, On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen. He died on January 9, 1946, in New York City at the age of forty-two. Three months later, St. Louis Woman, starring Pearl Bailey and Rex Ingram, opened on Broadway, and in 1947 On These I Stand was published. The volume’s title is appropriate, for verse remains Countee Cullen’s greatest literary contribution. Further Reading Cullen, Countee. 1990. My Soul’s High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen. New York: Anchor. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. 2008. African American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ed. 2000. African American Authors, 1745–1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Watson, Steven. 1996. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920– 1930 (Circles of the Twentieth Century Series, No. 1). New York: Pantheon. Linda M. Carter

Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture Volume 2 D–J JESSIE CARNEY SMITH, EDITOR

Copyright 2011 by Jessie Carney Smith All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture / Jessie Carney Smith, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-313-35796-1 (hard copy : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-35797-8 (ebook) 1. African Americans—History—Encyclopedias. 2. African Americans—Social life and customs—Encyclopedias. 3. African Americans—Intellectual life—Encyclopedias. 4. African Americans—Race identity—Encyclopedias. 5. African Americans—Biography—Encyclopedias. 6. African Americans in popular culture—Encyclopedias. 7. Popular culture—United States— Encyclopedias. I. Smith, Jessie Carney. E174.E54 2011 9730 .0496073003—dc22 2010039279 ISBN: 978-0-313-35796-1 EISBN: 978-0-313-35797-8 15

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This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. Greenwood An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents Alphabetical List of Entries

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Guide to Related Topics

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Preface Entries A–Z

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Appendices Appendix A: Selected List of African American Films

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Appendix B: Selected List of African American Radio Shows

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Appendix C: Selected List of African American Television Shows

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Appendix D: Selected African American Pop Culture Collections at Research Centers, Libraries, and Universities

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Selected Bibliography

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Index

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About the Editor and Contributors

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D Dance and Dance Companies Dance may be classified as vernacular, or social, formal, or professional, and be performed alone (solo dance) or with others (couple or group dance). Professional dances may be performed by individual or group entertainers or dance companies. Dancers may incorporate freestyle moves, use the prescribed steps and movements of popular vernacular dances, or perform choreographed moves. To be sure, dance has figured prominently in black social and religious life since slavery, and the dances that African Americans created have deeply impacted American life. Dance is an enormous phenomenon within African American popular culture. Origins West African dance traditions have greatly influenced African American dance forms and stylistic characteristics. Dance, music, and song were deeply entrenched in traditional African societies and incorporated in religious ceremonies and rites. In these communities, everyone participated in dancing, and all dancing was considered sacred. (In Africa, distinctions were not made between the sacred and secular.) As Hazzard-Gordon explains, African dance functioned ‘‘as a mediating force between people and the world of the gods. Specific dances and rhythms were appropriate for particular deities.’’ Important characteristics of African dance, Hazzard-Gordon continued, included ‘‘musical style, ecstatic behavior, spirit possession, and holy dancing.’’ African dances frequently featured prescribed moves as well as improvisation. Many of the dances of Africa, as well as the characteristic elements that defined African dance expressions, migrated to the United States with Africans who were transported there during slavery.

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Slavery Slave Dances Many African dance traditions survived or were adapted into new forms of dance in the New World. One major development that occurred after Africans arrived in North America was the division of social (secular) and religious (sacred) dances. For many decades, slaves performed both. (After slavery, in particular, African Americans, influenced by Christianity, considered many social dances immoral.) Whites, who traditionally did not incorporate dance or bodily movement during religious worship, often mistakenly identified slave religious dances as social dances. The ring shout, also known simply as the shout, is a direct descendent of African traditions. According to Hazzard-Gordon, a shout was described by one individual in the following way: ‘‘the negroes sing a kind of chorus—three standing apart to lead and clap—and then all the others go shuffling round in a circle following one another . . . turning round occasionally and bending the knees, and stamping so that the whole floor swings.’’ One important distinction slaves made between religious dances and social dances was that in sacred dances feet did not cross. Slaves created a number of social dances. Some of the slave dances imitated popular white dances or featured African moves or new forms. Dances were performed for recreation, during special holidays, or to entertain whites. Popular slave dances included wringin’ and twistin’, the buzzard lope, the pigeon wing, the cakewalk, the Charleston, The Black Bottom, and the itch. A number of slave dances, like African dances, emulated everyday moves performed by humans or animals, as well as incorporated moves considered sexually suggestive by white puritanical standards. The cakewalk parodied the European-based couple dance style, wherein slaves promenaded down a line. This dance was often performed in a contest. Couples who strutted with the most style or elaborate steps received a cake as a prize. The itch was a dance that resembled traditional African dances. Hazzard-Gordon notes that ‘‘scratching is part of West African ceremonial dance to the god Legba . . . [and] a dance of the Winti people in Suriname in which dancers tug at their clothing as though scratching . . . became a standard routine’’ in the itch dance. Slave dances were often accompanied with handclapping and foot-stomping with or without instruments. Free Blacks Whereas distinctive African dance moves and stylistic expressions were trademarks of slave dances, free blacks in this time period emulated European-based dances. By and large, free blacks, who lived in the South, as well as the North, emulated white social life and culture in a variety of ways. Like white middleand upper-class societies, free blacks established literary clubs, associations, and schools. Black men and women wore mainstream fashions, and black women wore hairstyles that emulated the hairstyles of white women. Dances were also incorporated in free black culture. ‘‘Race improvement’’ dances were popular

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among the black elite. Economic advantage enabled blacks to purchase fancy and extravagant clothes and rent elaborate public rooms. Dance styles, as well as behavior, verbal speech, and etiquette were modeled after genteel and cultured white society. Generally, free blacks belittled the dances of black slaves. 1900–30s After slavery, beginning in the turn of the next century, African Americans evolved their social dances into spectacular productions. African Americans established vaudeville acts, performed musicals, and, initially, toured black communities in the South, performing many of the dances that were popular in slavery and in the jooks, or social establishments, that emerged after slavery. Eventually, these shows became popular with white audiences. One of the most successful musicals, Shuffle Along (1921), featured a teenaged Josephine Baker, who would become one of the most celebrated dancers in the world. Black entertainers integrated a number of popular dances, such as tap dance, featuring the buck and wing, and modernized versions of slave dances like the cakewalk, the shimmy, the Charleston, and the black bottom. The shimmy involves shaking the shoulders while bending the elbows and stretching out the forearms in front of the body. The black bottom dance originated in Nashville, Tennessee, and involved a repetitive pattern of stamping and rhythmic movement of the upper body. These dances eventually became appropriated by mainstream white celebrities; the dances appeared in films by both white and black filmmakers, performed by both white and black actors. Black migrations to major cities, such as New York, Detroit, and Chicago, helped to develop black dance culture in the North between the 1920s and 1940s. During the Harlem Renaissance era, big band music, swing, and jazz were popular music genres, and the Lindy Hop, Big Apple, twist, and tap were popular dances performed in private parties, as well as public social gatherings at nightclubs and other entertainment spots. The Lindy Hop was performed socially, as well as competitively for cash prizes, and was believed to have emerged out of the popular Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York. African Americans characteristically added their unique touches to this couple dance, incorporating acrobatic flips and other feats. The Big Apple, writes Barbara S. Glass, was performed in the following way: ‘‘dancers formed a circle, raised their arms high, and moved in a counterclockwise direction. A caller spoke the directions, and dancers responded, often with steps from other dances such as the Lindy, Shag, and Truckin’.’’ During the 1920s and 1930s, black entertainers thrived. The Cotton Club, a white-owned establishment, was founded in Harlem in 1923. It and other Harlem venues featured some of the biggest celebrities in blues, big band, and dance. The Cotton Club also featured professional chorus girls who performed choreographed dances. Television and film, in large part, brought black dances, such as the Lindy Hop, to the mainstream. Many of the dances that were popular in the 1920s and 1930s remained popular in subsequent decades.

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1960s Black dances continued to play a prominent role with white audiences in the 1960s. A number of dances that originated by blacks were appropriated by whites. In 1961 and 1963, artist Chubby Checker taught white teenagers how to perform the twist on The Ed Sullivan Show. The twist, a throwback to a slave dance, wringin’ and twistin’, was widely performed by white youths. Glass contends that some of the dance moves performed on the television program, American Bandstand, for example, the Mashed Potato, were either directly or indirectly influenced by black dance moves that ‘‘white teens, attending integrated school dances, adapted . . . from black teens.’’ The 1960s also saw the emergence of distinct black choreographed dances. Motown Records music groups, such as the Temptations, the Supremes, and the Jackson Five, employed smooth and soulful dance moves. The Temptations, for example, incorporated synchronized body rocks and turns, rather than simply standing stationary. The Supremes employed elegant choreographed movements. The Jackson Five performed livelier moves, fusing popular black urban dance styles with choreographed dance steps. 1970s Disco dominated music and dance styles in the 1970s. Disco originated in underground black, Latin, and gay dance clubs in the late 1960s. Disco music is influenced by funk, soul, and salsa. Disco popularized nightclubs, trendy fashion outfits and accessories for dancing, and new dance moves. Some of the popular dances among blacks were the bump, the bus stop, the hustle, the continental, the disco duck, the freak, and the funky chicken. These dances, along with fashion trends like long leather jackets and Afros, and 1970s black slang, were ways in which blacks defined black culture. 1980s If afros and the funky chicken exemplified the 1970s, Break Dancing was synonymous with the 1980s. Notwithstanding the popular appeal of break dancing with urban youth in the 1980s, break dancing originally developed on the East Coast by gang members in the late 1960s. By the 1980s, youth were laying down cardboard, on which they performed intricate dance moves and flips, in city parks, home garages, and a variety of public spaces. Some popular break dancing techniques included popping and locking, which involved moving the arms and the body in a controlled jerky manner, head spins, and the suicide, a move wherein individuals flip onto their backs, their stomachs, or other areas of the body. Break dancing was not the only popular dance blacks performed in the 1980s. While break dancing was mostly performed by young males in major cities, male and female black youths, from a variety of regions, danced, among other things, the cabbage patch, the smurf, and the running man. The dancing that was performed by black youth in the 1980s underscored the malleable nature of black

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dance forms. Black dances, such as the cabbage patch, the smurf, and the running man were adapted from a popular 1980s doll, an animated television series, and a 1987 action film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, respectively. Black dances were also strongly influenced by African American pop icons. Michael Jackson debuted his famous moonwalk, a dance move featuring a smooth backslide, in 1983 during a live performance on a Motown television special. The dance, however, did not originate with Jackson. It is believed that the moonwalk, or a similar move thereof, was executed as early as the 1930s by Cab Calloway and later performed by entertainers such as Bill Bailey and James Brown, and by break dancers. Janet Jackson also initiated dance trends, many of which black youth imitated without necessarily designating a name to the dances. One of the film and cultural icons of the 1980s, Spike Lee, directed the film School Daze in 1988. School Daze, a film about student life at a historically black college, was one of the first movies to bring to light the phenomenon of Stepping. Stepping is a form of dance that was created by black fraternities and sororities at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. According to Glass, stepping includes ‘‘signature steps and styles, community solidarity, percussion, polyrhythms, improvisation, use of special objects, line formation, and a host of other African American performance characteristics.’’ Stepping is believed to be rooted in the foot and stomping dances of Africa that persisted into slavery times. Since the 1960s, stepping at colleges and universities have been imitated by other black youth around the nation and is performed for entertainment, as well as competition. Since School Daze, stepping has been featured on television shows, like A Different World, as well as films, like Mac and Me (1988), Drumline (2002), and Stomp the Yard (2007). 1990s Kid ’n Play, a New York comedy duo, helped popularize a new dance form, involving usually two, sometimes more male dancers, in the 1990s. Kid ’n Play recorded Hip-Hop albums and appeared in three of the four House Party films in 1990, 1991, and 1994. House parties were popular activities for black youth. These parties included food, a live deejay or prerecorded hip-hop music, and lots of dancing, and took place at someone’s home, usually with the parents not present. In the films, Kid ’n Play often took front and center at the parties, performing a duo dance act, featuring their signature dance, the funky Charleston. The funky Charleston fused the original dance from the 1920s with new jack swing moves. A number of hip-hop artists during the 1990s incorporated one or more male or female choreographed dancers who performed in the background during live performances, concerts, and videos. Among the major developments of the 1990s was clowning and krumping. Clowning was created by Thomas Johnson, known by his performing name, Tommy the Clown, in 1992. Tommy and his dancers, the Hip Hop Clowns, wear face paint and perform distinctive dances referred to as clowning. Krumping, which stands for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise, is a free style street dance that involves spasmodic body movements, jerking, and expressive gesturing. Some point out that the movements in krumping resemble traditional

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African dances. Founded in Oakland, krumping provides an alternative to gang membership. Through krumping, black youth make full use of their bodies in convulsive motion to express anger, aggression, and other emotions. During contests, krumping and clowning groups battle it out against each other. Dance Companies Throughout the centuries, African American dance has demonstrated the vitality, creativity, and adaptability of African Americans, as well as the integral role ancestral heritage plays. African Americans, however, have not only specialized in traditional black dances. African Americans have excelled in classic Europeanbased dance forms, as well, often continuing to integrate distinct African American expressions and forming black dance companies. These dance companies are significant, because, among other reasons, blacks were excluded from mainstream dance companies for most of the twentieth century. To this day, popular dance companies are predominately white. Katherine Dunham founded the first African American modern dance company, the Ballet Negre (later known as the Negro Dance Troupe) in 1936. She founded the Katherine Dunham Dance Company in the 1940s and started a school in New York in 1945. One of her prot
eg
es, Alvin Ailey, founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958 and opened a school in 1969 in New York. Another New York–based dance company, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a ballet company, was founded by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook in 1969. Although the company closed in 2004, its Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble, which features youth and mature adults, is still active. See also: African Cultural Influences; Black Bottom, The (Dance); Great Migration; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Glass, Barbara S. 2007. African American Dance: An Illustrated History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. 2003. The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina. 1990. Jookin’: The Rise of Social Dance Formations in AfricanAmerican Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Perepener, John O. 2001. African-American Concert Dance: The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Gladys L. Knight

Dandridge, Dorothy (1922–65), Actress, Singer, Dancer Dorothy Dandridge was one of the first African American women to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, for her work in the 1954 musical

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Carmen Jones. She was regarded as a Hollywood sex symbol. Dandridge was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 9, 1922, to Cyril and Rudy Dandridge. She grew up in a performing family; her mother Ruby was an actress and brought Dorothy and sister Vivian into show business when they were children. Early in their career, Dorothy and Vivian were known as the Wonder Kids; eventually, they added singer Etta James and changed their name to the Dandridge Sisters. The Dandridge Sisters performed at many locations, including the Cotton Club in New York City. In 1942, Dorothy married Harold Nicholas, who was part of the dance troupe the Nicholas Brothers and had a daughter, Harolyn. Dorothy’s marriage to Harold was short due to his adultery and the discovery that Harolyn had a developmental disability and would require special care. After they divorced, Dandridge focused on her career and providing for Harolyn. She studied at the Actors’ Laboratory in Los Angeles and continued to work with composer Phil Moore. Moore, who worked with stars like Lena Horne, helped Dandridge develop her stage presence, which landed her work singing in white clubs. Dandridge’s movie career would span a period of over twenty years, with films like A Day at the Races (1937), Sundown (1941), and Atlantic City (1944). Although she was beautiful and talented, Dandridge was marginalized in Hollywood and given stereotypical roles due to her race. Movie roles in the 1950s became increasingly harder for black women to obtain; therefore, Dandridge worked as an actress and sang in nightclubs. Her most controversial part would not come until the film Island in the Sun (1957); this film received a great deal of attention because it focused on the subject of interracial relationships. Her two most notable roles were Carmen Jones (1954) for which she took home a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination for Best Actress; she lost that year to Grace Kelly. The second film was Otto Preminger’s movie adaptation of the Gershwin-Leland opera Porgy and Bess (1959), earning her the Hollywood Foreign Press Award. Dandridge suffered a series of failed relationships, mostly with white men. In the late 1950s she married and divorced white nightclub owner Jack Denison. In the early part of the 1960s movie offers and nightclub jobs decreased; trouble with the IRS, unscrupulous money managers, and bad investments put her in a tenuous financial situation. For years, Dandridge took the antidepressant Tofranil and abused alcohol. On September 8, 1965, at the age of forty-one, the actress was discovered dead in her apartment from an overdose of Tofranil. It was not clear if this was a suicide or an accidental overdose. In 1998, interest in Dandridge’s life was revived by actress Halle Berry in a cable network HBO biography titled Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. This role garnered Berry an Emmy Award. Dandridge remains a cultural icon in the African American community for her beauty and talent, and for her impact on the movie industry. See also: Actors and Performers; Entertainment Industry; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints

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Further Reading Bogle, Donald. 1997. Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography. New York: Amistad. Jaynes, Gerald D., ed. 2005. Encyclopedia of American Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Martin, Jonathan. 1993. ‘‘Dorothy Dandridge.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale Research. Mills, Earl. 1970. Dorothy Dandridge: A Portrait in Black. Los Angeles: Holloway House. Smith, Jessie Carney. 2003. Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. 2nd ed. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Tahirah Akbar-Williams

Davis, Angela (1944– ), Social Justice and Political Activist, Educator, Lecturer Angela Davis, with her large Afro hairstyle, is the face of militant late1960s and 1970s Black Power Movement activism. During the August 7, 1970, attempt to secure the release of George Jackson, a member of the Black Panther Party and inmate of Soledad Prison, two inmates and a judge were killed. The guns used in the attempt at a Marin County, California, courthouse by Jackson’s younger brother, Jonathan, were reportedly registered to Davis. Davis was hunted for almost two months by the FBI and, until capture, was on the FBI’s ‘‘Ten Most Wanted’’ list. During the period of her sixteen-month incarceration, people around the world mounted ‘‘Free Angela Davis’’ campaigns. In support of freeing Davis, British idols of popular music, the Rolling Stones, wrote and recorded ‘‘Sweet Black Angel’’ and John Lennon and Yoko Ono penned ‘‘Angela.’’ Davis was acquitted of all charges in 1972. An icon of the 1960s radical Black Power Movement, involved with civil rights, associated with the Black Panther Party, and a member of the Communist Party, Davis was dismissed from her position as assistant professor of political science at UCLA by the Board of Regents on the grounds that Davis was a communist. However, Davis was shortly reinstated after an outcry from colleagues and supporters. In 1980 and 1984, Davis ran for vice president on the Communist Party ticket. Angela Yvonne Davis was the first of four children born to middle-class parents in Birmingham, Alabama. Sally and B. Frank Davis were both teachers in Birmingham, but Frank Davis gave up teaching to become a mechanic and service station owner reportedly because of the low teacher pay. Davis grew up in segregated Birmingham in a racially mixed area called Dynamite Hill, referring to the bombings that occurred there. Frank and Sally Davis had integrated this white enclave when they moved there in 1948. The ensuing bombings were the efforts to encourage blacks to leave the neighborhood and to discourage any others from moving in. Davis attended the segregated and generally poorly equipped

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schools that accompanied segregation, but she learned a great deal about African American history and the people who made it. Davis attended Parker High School until age fifteen, when she went to Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York’s Greenwich Village on scholarship from the American Friends Service Committee, an organization founded by Quakers and committed to social justice and nonviolence. Davis stayed in Brooklyn with the family of an Episcopal minister. In school Davis became acquainted with socialist ideas and studied the Communist Manifesto as a matter of course. Continuing her formal education, Davis studied French at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, before spending a year at the Sorbonne in Paris. Watching the Civil rights activist and communist Angela Algerians there, Davis became aware Davis addresses the press at the University of of the similarities of maltreatment of California, Berkeley, where she received a certain segments of society around standing ovation following her first class, October 6, 1969. University regents had the world. Upon returning to Bran- banned her employment, but she had support deis, Davis studied with political the- from the school’s chancellor and faculty. orist Herbert Marcuse, a Marxist who (AP/Wide World Photos) critiqued the capitalist society. Graduating from Brandeis with a degree in French literature in 1965, Davis traveled to the University of Frankfurt, Germany. There Davis pursued a PhD degree in philosophy and studied at the Institute for Social Research. Davis returned to the United States in the summer of 1967 and received a master’s degree in philosophy in 1968 from the University of California, San Diego. She then began working on her doctorate with Marcuse as her mentor, who was at the same university. In July 1968, Davis joined the Communist Party and began her lifelong activist career in earnest. Activism had been modeled by Davis’s mother, Sally, who had participated in protests against the arrest and trial of the Scottsboro Boys. The Scottsboro Boys, so-called because the trial was in Scottsboro, Alabama, were nine African American teenaged males who were pulled from a train and accused of raping two white women. While working on her dissertation, Davis became involved with the campaign to defend the Soledad Brothers as one of the main organizers. These black men had been accused of killing a white prison guard at the Soledad Prison in California. During this period, Davis had been hired as a non-tenure track assistant

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professor by the philosophy department of UCLA. Upon learning of her affiliation with the Communist Party and involvement with the defense of the Soledad Brothers, the University of California Board of Regents, supported by then governor Ronald Reagan, used it as a reason to fire her, which Davis fought. Recognizes Black Women in the Movement A practitioner of practical politics, Davis was an anomaly in the Black Power Movement because women were very seldom seen as central figures. In articles and interviews, Davis has pointed out the disparity between the contributions and work of black women who organized and pushed the movement forward and the recognition and leadership positions they were afforded. This disparity, some believe, was encouraged by the actions of the men of the movement who believed that men should be the spokespersons, leaders, and faces of the movement. Having been thrust into the forefront by her association with one of the young men who staged the courthouse incident, Davis proved to be as committed in action and rhetoric as the men of the Black Power Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. Very few of the women involved in the movement for the rights of people of color were ever named or famous or remembered on a national level. However, Davis was known worldwide and became a lightning rod for the Black Power Movement. The ‘‘Free Angela’’ campaigns coming out of her arrest and trial produced the posters and T-shirts that made Angela an internationally known political activist and a legendary pop-culture icon. After being acquitted, Davis continued with her activism and her teaching. For the next several years, Davis lectured across the United States and the world, expanding her activism to address sexism, racism, economic inequities, and the racial, economic, and judicial inequities of the prison system. Davis has published numerous articles, written at least eight books, and has lectured on black women and the need for black women to tell their stories without the racism, sexism, and economic inequities that may have distorted earlier accounts. She believes that black women should be careful not to absorb or validate the stories told by those who view black women through the fractured lenses of racism, sexism, and negative economic and political policies that can skew the work produced. In 1991 Davis joined the faculty of the California Board of Regents University in Santa Cruz, where she was chair of the Feminist Studies Department and later served as professor in the History of Consciousness Department until her retirement in the spring of 2008. Davis continues to be a seeker of social justice and a sought-after speaker on issues of prisoner rights with a focus on women prisoners. Having firsthand knowledge of the system from her sixteen-month incarceration in the early 1970s, Davis is a critic of the prison system and advocate of Prison Reform. Davis works with Critical Resistance, an organization whose goal is to end what they refer to as the Prison Industrial Complex. They believe that society is made safer through the provision of basic needs and freedom for all people. See also: Marxism; Social Activists

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Further Reading Critical Resistance. http://www.criticalresistance.org/. Davis, Angela. 1971. If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance. New York: Third Press. Davis, Angela. 1974. Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York: Random House. Davis, Angela, and Gina Dent. 2001. ‘‘Prison as a Border: A Conversation on Gender, Globalization, and Punishment.’’ Signs 26 (Summer): 1235–41. Mostern, Kenneth. 1999. ‘‘The Political Identity ‘Woman’ as Emergent from the Space of Black Power.’’ In Autobiography and Black Identity Politics: Racialization in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Cambridge University Press. Seigner, Art. 1970. ‘‘Soul and Soledad–An Interview with Angela Davis.’’ (June). Audio recording. http://drum.ncat.edu/sister/davis.html. Younge, Gary. 2007. ‘‘Gary Younge on Angela Davis, the 70s Black Activist.’’ Guardian .co.uk. (November 8). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/08/usa.gender. Sharon D. Johnson

Davis, Miles (1926–91), Jazz Trumpeter, Bandleader By almost any measure, Miles Davis ranks as one of the most influential, stylish, and innovative musicians of the twentieth century. To an even greater extent than any other of his ilk, Davis’s personality, musical foresight, and street credentials earned him black cultural icon status almost from the time he emerged on the New York jazz scene in the 1940s. From when he first came to prominence in New York as a member of Charlie Parker’s band and up until his death in 1991, Davis’s musical voice and unending search for new ways to, as his friend composer Gil Evans said in a PBS Special, Miles Ahead (1986), ‘‘sing a song on the trumpet,’’ were examples of constant musical and personal exploration. Davis’s onstage persona, particularly his habit of leaving the bandstand while others were soloing, are legend and still make for lively discussion among music lovers regardless of the genre. Columbia Records executives, particularly Teo Macero, who produced the seminal Davis recordings of the 1950s and 1960s, knew the long-lasting value of Davis’s work and since that time have kept both his music and image alive for newer generations of jazz lovers. Few musicians other than drummer Art Blakey and pianist Horace Silver can boast of having had more leaders emerge from their bands than Davis. This ensemble of outstanding talent has included: pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Tony Williams, pianist Keith Jarrett, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and the great tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. Perhaps more than any other Davis disciple, it was Coltrane who forged the way for creation of the new modal music of the late 1950s and early 1960s, in a group that produced the 1959 recording that is acclaimed by most as a jazz classic: Kind of Blue. Kind of Blue includes the tune ‘‘So What,’’ the improvisational

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modal exploration by Davis that released the musicians from standard musical harmonic convention and structure. The second of the widely accepted Davis groups was the high-energy quintet of the mid-1960s that in addition to Hancock, Carter, and Shorter featured the work of bassist Ron Carter, who is still active on the New York jazz scene. Davis’s nationalist spirit was very much a part of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and was evidenced by his 1964 Carnegie Hall concert to benefit the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Congress of Racial Equality. At the end of the 1960s Davis Miles Davis was always at the cutting edge changed the direction of music again— of modern jazz. His extraordinary trumpet improvisations and fine ensemble work he did so at least three times during his pushed boundaries of rhythm, harmony, and career—when he joined jazz and rock melody and continuously posed musical to produce fusion and the album Bitches challenges that suggested future paths for Brew, which met scorn and critical jazz. (AP/Wide World Photos) acclaim. And while critics again tried to pigeonhole him, the ‘‘Prince of Darkness’’ as Davis had come to be called, again stayed his course and forged ahead. Throughout his life and career, critics of Davis and others went to great lengths to try and define and label Davis and his music. But nothing worked. From the first, however, one noticed the difference in Davis’s sound and approach to the trumpet, which he himself said came out of the tradition of the marching bands and blues he heard back home in East St. Louis, Illinois, before coming to New York. Writer Whitney Balliett summed up Davis’s sound and life in a piece he did for the New Yorker: Paradox holds Miles Davis together. He is a black jazz musician who has earned close to half a million dollars a year. He puts down the white people who have made him rich and famous. Although he is a trumpet player of the second rank, he is widely revered by musicians, critics and audiences. He is a highly intelligent man who talks like a drill sergeant. There is a Miles Davis mystique (the glittering sports cars, the outr
e dress, the seclusiveness, the hoarse voice, the outrageous pronouncements, the ignoring of audiences), but

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there is nothing mysterious about him. In his most lyrical moments, he gets a lost child sound on his horn, this contrary, heedless thoroughly mature man.

Balliett ends his piece with a simple explanation of a complex man by zeroing in on what critics and others found as the hallmark of Davis’s fifty-year musical career. ‘‘Davis,’’ Balliett writes, ‘‘has succeeded in making almost visible the emotions— longing, sadness, pity—that move just beneath his complex surface.’’ Davis was born May 26, 1926, in East Alton, Illinois. He died September 28, 1991, in Santa Monica, California. As a bandleader in early 1950s New York, Davis became addicted to heroin. He kicked the habit cold turkey when he was offered the chance to leave a small jazz record label for recording leader Columbia Records. Davis wrapped up a contractual obligation with lightning speed in order begin a long, lucrative stint with CBS. From 1975 to 1981, Davis took a six-year break from recording and touring because of multiple health problems, ulcers, throat nodes, hip surgery, and bursitis. Music lovers new and old were able to buy Davis’s Columbia recordings from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s because they did not go out of print, unlike jazz recordings at other labels. Davis married three times, to actress Cicely Tyson, and before her singer Betty Mabry and dancer Francis Taylor. All of the unions ended in divorce. Ever the creative force, Davis devoted his final years to his other love–painting. Davis’s works have been featured in gallery exhibitions and many are part of private collections. See also: Armstrong, Louis; Bands and Bandleaders; Musicians and Singers; Parker, Charlie Further Reading Balliett, Whitney. 1989. ‘‘Miles.’’ New Yorker 64 (December 4): 153–55. Chambers, Jack. 2002. So What: The Life of Miles Davis. New York: Simon & Schuster. Pareles, John. 1991. ‘‘Miles Davis, Trumpeter, Dies; Jazz Genius, 65, Defined Cool.’’ New York Times, (September 29) Troupe, Quincy. 1989. Miles and Me. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kip Branch

Davis, Ossie (1917–2005) and Dee, Ruby (1924– ), Actors, Directors, Writers, Social Activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were partners on stage, on screen, in politics, and in life for fifty-six years. Together, Dee and Davis challenged stereotypical portrayals of African Americans and worked tirelessly for civil rights and equality.

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Ossie Davis was born Raiford Chatman Davis on December 18, 1917, in Cogdell, Georgia. After studying with Alain Locke at Howard University for several years, Davis left in 1939 to pursue acting in New York City. His first stage role, in Joy Exceeding Glory, was in 1941 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem. After serving in the army during World War II, Davis returned to New York City and the stage. In 1950, he made his film debut alongside Sidney Poitier in the film No Way Out. Davis would replace Poitier on Broadway in the original production of the play A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, when Poitier left to pursue other roles. Davis would be nominated for Tony Awards twice: in 1958 for Featured Actor in a Musical for his work in Jamaica, and in 1970 for the musical version of Purlie. One of Davis’s major projects of the 1960s was writing and starring in the play Purlie Victorious on Broadway. The play would be made into a film in 1963, with Davis again writing the screenplay and starring in it, under the title Gone Are the Days! The story, set in Georgia, focuses on a traveling preacher who returns to the plantation he grew up on and uses some clever deceit to claim his family inheritance and save his family’s church. The play and movie addressed and satirized many of the racist attitudes still prevalent in society, especially in the South. In the 1970s, Davis began directing films. Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), which he adapted from the novel of the same title by Chester Himes, was his first foray as a director. Davis would direct four more films in the 1970s: Kongi’s Harvest (1971), Black Girl (1972), Gordon’s War (1973), and Countdown at Kusini (1976) which Davis wrote, directed, and starred in along with his wife, Ruby Dee. Davis was introduced to new audiences in the last twenty years of his life through his work with Spike Lee and on two television series. Lee featured Davis in three films: Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), and Get on the Bus (1996). From 1990 to 1994, Davis costarred with friend Burt Reynolds in the television series Evening Shade and made four appearances on the cable television series The L Word in 2004–05; his last guest appearance on this program was his last role before his death in 2005. Ruby Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 27, 1924, although she grew up in Harlem. Dee graduated from Hunter College in 1945 with two degrees, French and Spanish, but had already been appearing on stage in productions such as the nonmusical South Pacific (1943), Anna Lucasta (1944), and Jeb (1946). In 1950, she made her film debut and costarred with the real Jackie Robinson in the film The Jackie Robinson Story. Dee worked steadily throughout her career on the stage, on television, and in films. In 1965, Dee had the distinction of being the first African American actress to perform in a major role at the American Shakespeare Festival when she played Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. She received an Emmy Award in 1991 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special for her work in made for TV movie Decoration Day. In 2008, Dee added a Screen Actors Guild award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination for her work in American Gangster (2007). Davis and Dee had the opportunity to act together on stage and screen numerous times, the most notable being the Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun, the stage and film productions of Purlie Victorious/Gone Are the Days!, Black Girl,

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Countdown at Kusini, Do the Right Thing, and Jungle Fever. The couple also wrote a joint autobiography entitled With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together (1998). The audio book, which the couple recorded, won them a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2007. Davis and Dee were married in 1948 and had three children together; it was Dee’s second marriage and Davis’s first. Besides working together on stage and screen, Davis and Dee also worked together from the beginning to champion civil rights and humanitarian causes. Their political activities drew much attention in the 1950s when Dee was blacklisted for a time after being named in the publication Red Channels. The couple helped organize the March on Washington in 1963 and were good friends of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Davis spoke at both funerals and read part of his eulogy for Malcolm X at the end of Spike Lee’s film Malcolm X (1992). Besides their individual awards, the couple were honored on several occasions for their artistry and activism. In 1989, they were inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame and received the American National Medal of the Arts in 1995. Davis and Dee were recipients of the 2004 Kennedy Center Honors and in 2005 were given the Lifetime Achievement Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum. See also: Actors and Performers; Social Activists; Television

Further Reading Davis, Angela Y. 2002. ‘‘Video Oral History Interview with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.’’ HistoryMakers.com (October 18). Video. http://www.thehistorymakers .com/programs/dvl/files/Davis_Ossie_Dee_Rubyf.html. Davis, Ossie. 2006. Life Lit by Some Large Vision: Selected Speeches and Writings. New York: Atria. Davis, Ossie, and Ruby Dee. 1998. With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together. New York: William Morrow. Mary K. Huelsbeck

Davis, Shani (1982– ), Speed Skater The absence of African Americans from the sport of speed skating quickly changed in 2006, when iconic Shani Davis emerged in full public view as a dominant figure in that sport. ‘‘The color of his medal matters, not the color of his skin,’’ wrote Paul Newberry ‘‘for ABC News/ESPN Sports’’ after Shani Davis won his second straight Olympic title in 1,000-meter men’s speed skating in Vancouver on February 17, 2010, to become the first skater of any race to accomplish this feat twice at the Winter Games. The speed skating event was held at the Richmond Olympic Oval, where American skaters claimed two spots—the gold and the bronze medals.

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‘‘That race depleted me 100 percent,’’ Davis told Paul Newberry, and said that ‘‘I never want to leave anything on the track.’’ While he found the last 200 of the 300 meters difficult, he successfully carried his speed without his usual practice of leaving ‘‘his left arm on his back until the last straightaway.’’ With a furious kick on the final lap, he crossed the line a winner again, posting a time of 1:8.94 seconds. It was at the Olympic race in 2006, held in Turin, Italy, that Davis became the first African American athlete to win an individual gold at the Winter Games. Born in Chicago on Friday, August 13, 1962, to Reginald Shuck and Sherry Davis, Shani was raised by his mother on Chicago’s South Side. He was educated at Northern Michigan University. When he was just two years old, he began rollerskating at local rinks. His talent as a fast skater was seen early on, for the next year, when he was three years old, guards chased him around the rink to ask him to slow down. He switched to ice skating at age six and was encouraged to try speed skating. The talented youth joined the Speedskating Club at age six and competed locally within two months. By age eight, he began to win regional competitions for his age group, and then his competitors and friends told him about the Olympics. With his mother’s encouragement, he began to build his endurance by running track. Since there were no speed skating clubs in Chicago’s inner city where he lived, when he was ten he and his mother relocated to the north side to be near Evanston, where he could have access to a rink. Success as a speed skater was immediate for Shani. He won five National Age Group Championships between 1995 and 2003, and in 1999 he won a North American Championship. Although he is unconcerned with making black history, in 2002 Shani Davis was the first black speed skater to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic Team. In 2000, 2001, and 2002, he was the first U.S. skater to earn spots on the short track and long track Junior World Teams. Among his other successes, he was the first U.S. skater on all three World Teams in one season—World Sprint, World All-Around, and World Short Track—in 2004–05. In February 2005, Davis won the World All-Around Championships held in Moscow. When the 2006 Olympics were held in Turin, Italy, he won gold and silver, and again the World-All-Around Title in Calgary that year. He won world titles in the 1,000-meter World Title in 2007–08, and the next year his first World Sprint Title in Moscow, as well as his third 1,500-meter World Title. Davis holds world records in the 1,000-meter and 1,500-meter. Now a resident of Canada, Shani Davis maintains contact with the Evanston Speedskating Club. Of his most recent win, he told Paul Newberry, ‘‘To go out there and win the 1,000 meters twice is truly amazing.’’ As amazing as it is, Davis, who shuns public interviews, wants to be known solely for his skating. See also: Track and Field

Further Reading Bryant, Christa Case. 2010. ‘‘Shani Davis Wins Olympic Gold with Flawless Form,’’ Christian Science Monitor, February 17.

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Hamilton, Brian. 2010. ‘‘Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics; Davis is Alone Again, At the Top, Los Angeles Times, February 18. Newberry, Paul. 2010. ‘‘Shani Davis Wins Gold in Men’s 1,000 Speedskating.’’ ABC News/ ESPN Sports. February 18. http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=9871176. Shani Davis Website. 2010. http://www.shanidavis.org/ Frederick D. Smith

Deadwood Dick. See Love, Nat Dee, Ruby. See Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Deejaying Deejaying has become a career path and deejays have become cultural icons and creative artists, especially in African American music. Deejaying is the art of integrating spoken word and recorded music in such a way as to seamlessly and creatively transition from one song to another. There are different styles of deejaying that have developed over the years. Deejays (or DJs, from ‘‘disk jockeys’’) can be found in a variety of settings—on the radio, at events such as weddings and parties, or in nightclubs or dancehalls. On the radio, a deejay plays music, makes announcements, and reads the weather and traffic reports. In many instances, the music is preselected by management according to a playlist and schedule of commercials and talk segments. At some stations, the on-air personality may take requests, manage contests, and interview guests. There have been some great African American personalities who have shaped the history of deejays such as Herb Kent and Frankie Crocker. In the late 1940s, Herb Kent, from Chicago, entered the radio business at an early age. His early theater training led him to create radio characters such as the ‘‘Wahoo Man,’’ ‘‘Gym Shoe Creeper,’’ and the ‘‘Electric Crazy People.’’ Kent was dubbed the ‘‘Cool Gent,’’ by his first fan club in the 1950s. Around the same time, he developed an oldies format that he called ‘‘dusty records’’ and became famous for being the ‘‘The King of the Dusties.’’ On Chicago’s WVON-AM, Kent developed a huge following in the African American community. He was also known for his activist role in the Civil Rights Movement and his ‘‘Stay in School ‘‘campaigns. Kent has been part of WVAZ-FM in Chicago since 1988. Kent was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. He currently hosts the Saturday Morning Wake-Up Club. Frankie ‘‘Hollywood’’ Crocker became famous as a deejay in New York City in the 1970s on WBLS-FM. He was showy and colorful. He coined the phrase ‘‘urban contemporary,’’ which was a blend of R & B (Rhythm & Blues), jazz, rock, Latin, and Frank Sinatra. For over thirty years, the ‘‘Chief Rocker,’’ as he was known, served as deejay and program director off and on at the Harlem-based station. He appeared on stations in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Chicago. Crocker also emceed shows at the Apollo Theater and hosted an ethnic community program. He appeared

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in five films, including Cleopatra Jones (1973) and Darktown Strutters (1975). He died October 21, 2000, from pancreatic cancer. Events and Clubs For events, in addition to the duties of playing music and making announcements in a ‘‘live’’ environment, a deejay may take requests and help to generate the celebratory mood for the occasion. However, in the nightclub setting, the live environment has even more of an influence than in any other setting. The objective of the deejay is to read the crowd and play music that pleases the audience. In order to accomplish this task, the deejay must be a music aficionado with the ability to synch genres, beats, people, and moods. While being a musician is unnecessary, knowledge of music theory and reading music can be helpful in matching beats and styles of music. A sure sign that the deejay is successfully doing his or her job is a packed dance floor or club. Club deejaying has been around for over thirty years; however, its roots can be traced back to before the disco era. Urban areas such as New York were the center of this new and exciting social dance culture. The African American and Latino gay cultures came together and grew in popularity, in part, because of the city’s renowned discotheques such as the Sanctuary, the Loft, Better Days, and Paradise Garage. Initially, clubs were categorized according to clientele. The first clubs were modeled after the French and were exclusive watering holes for the elite jet set crowd. As the social climate changed, a wider array of ethnic and socioeconomic groups started to intermingle, but the real dividing line was sexual orientation. The heterosexuals frequented clubs such as the Electric Circus or Zodiac. The music was an eclectic mix of rock, R & B and an early form of world music. Young gays and women tended to gather in neighborhood clubs or bars in homogeneous areas like Harlem, Hispanic Harlem, and the Upper West Side. Today, deejays have blurred the line between playing music and creating music. Many have taken their live performance style into the recording studio. With this move, deejays must now be concerned with where they get their content. In the clubs, if deejays are playing the original CDs or albums they purchased, then the venue, promoter, or host is responsible for paying the fees that allow the music to be performed. However, if the music used is compiled and stored on CD-Rs, computer hard drives, mini discs, or any other medium, it is considered new and must be licensed through a licensing agency. Toasting During the same time as the African American DJs were influencing the market with black-oriented radio and jive-talking, another style of deejaying was developing in the Caribbean. Reggae or dancehall musicians working with one turntable sang or rhythmically talked or chanted, as they changed records. As the art form of ‘‘toasting’’ expanded, musicians ‘‘chanted’’ over instrumental ‘‘riddims.’’ Riddims are made up of strong drum patterns and bass lines. The word ‘‘riddim’’ is from the Jamaican patois language, meaning rhythm.

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Toasting is a forerunner to rap. Generally, deejaying was performed live; however, over time deejays started recording their work and selling it. Recordings helped spread the popular genre. In the 1990s, deejaying became so popular that it crossed over into mainstream music. Some of the more well-known artists such as Chaka Demus & Pliers, Mad Cobra (Cobra), Shaggy, and Beenie Man have produced international pop hits on major labels. Rap and deejaying are evolving and coming closer together. Deejaying is covering a wider range of performance techniques from the initial melodic rhythmic sing-chanting to gravel-voiced ‘‘ragga’’ toasting. Subject matter also includes the whimsical to the hardcore. Deejaying has come to mean many things, from playing records on the radio to creating a new genre of music starting with two turntables and a microphone. Through the use of technology, the genre continues to change. See also: Break Dancing; Gangsta Rap; Herc, Kool DJ; Hip-Hop; Rap Music and Rappers; Raggae, Reggaeton

Further Reading Bastid, Skratch. 2010. ‘‘So You Wanna Be a DJ?’’ (blog), March 2. www.skratchbastid .com/so-you-wanna-be-a-dj-oh-canada/. Braunstein, Peter. 1999. ‘‘Disco.’’ American Heritage.com, November. www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1999/7/1999_7_43.shtml. Fikentscher, Kai. 2000. ‘‘The Club DJ: A Brief History of a Cultural Icon,’’ Courier (July-August). www.unesco.org/courier/2000_07/uk/doss29.htm. Frankiecocker.net. (n.d.) ‘‘We Remember Frankie Crocker’’ (Frankie Crocker tribute site). www.frankiecrocker.net/. Haus, Hasse. 2003. ‘‘Part I Performers and Performing: 3. Performance Techniques: Deejaying (DJing).’’ Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Vol. 2. London, ENG: Continuum. King, Andrew. 2009. ‘‘Tapping Into the DJ Scene.’’ Canadian Musician 31 (September/ October): 10–11. Urban Radio Nation. n.d. www.urbanradionation.com/ V103.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Herb Kent Personality Bio.’’ www.v103.com/pages/herb.html. Joy McDonald

Delany, Samuel R. (1942– ), Writer, Literary Critic, Educator Samuel Ray Delany Jr. is a prolific and preeminent author. Although other African Americans wrote science fiction as early as 1859, Delany is acknowledged as the first major African American writer of science fiction. Delany’s writing transcends science fiction, for he has also written sword and sorcery narratives, homoerotic novels, pornographic novels, memoirs, and critical works.

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Delany was born on April 1, 1942, in Harlem, New York, to businessman Samuel Delany Sr. and his wife, Margaret. He is the grandson of Henry Beard Delany, who was vice principal of St. Augustine’s School in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the first African American suffrage bishop in North Carolina and South Carolina; in addition Delany is the nephew of Sarah Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany, authors (with Amy Hill Hearth) of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years (1993), the best-seller that was transformed into a Broadway play in 1995 and a made-for-television film in 1999. During Delany’s childhood, he wrote novels and created music. Ironically when Delany was seventeen, he taught remedial reading at a community center although he was dyslexic. After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, he attended and dropped out of the City College of New York in the early 1960s. In 1961, at age nineteen, Delany married Marilyn Hacker, an eighteen-year-old Jewish student at New York University who would later become a poet, editor, and translator. Their daughter was born in the mid-1970s; the couple divorced in 1980. Delany’s first novel, The Jewels of Aptor (1962), was published when he was twenty. His other works of science fiction include the trilogy now known as The Fall of the Towers: Captives of the Flame (1963), The Towers of Toron (1964), and City of a Thousand Suns (1965) as well as Babel-17 (1966), The Einstein Intersection (1967), and Dhalgren (1975). He introduced his sword and sorcery narratives in 1979 with Tales of Never€yon, a collection of short stories that was followed by three novels in the Never€yon series. Delany ventured into homoerotic and pornographic fiction with such novels as Phallos (2004) and Hogg (1995) respectively. His memoirs include Heavenly Breakfast (1979); The Motion of Light in Water (1988); and Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999), while his works of criticism include The Jewel-hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction (1977) and About Writing (2005). To date Delany has published more than forty books. During most of his career as a prolific writer, Delany has remained active in academe. In addition to senior fellow appointments at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee, Cornell University, University of Michigan, and Atlantic Center for the Arts at Daytona Beach, Florida, Delany was a visiting writer at a variety of institutions prior to teaching at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of New York at Buffalo. In 2001 he joined the Temple University faculty where he is currently a professor of English and Creative Writing. Delany’s life and works remain of interest to scholars as well as fans of his books. In 2007 Fred Barney Taylor’s documentary film, The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman, was released. Delany, who was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002, is the recipient of additional science fiction honors including various Hugo and Nebula Awards as well as the Pilgrim Award for Excellence in Science Fiction Criticism. Delany has also received the Kessler Award for Lesbian and Gay Scholarship and the William Whitehead Memorial Award for a Lifetime’s Contribution to Lesbian and Gay Publishing. See also: Fiction; Men, African American, Images of

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Further Reading Derakhshani, Tirdad. ‘‘To Sci-Fi and Beyond.’’ http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/ 20090405_To_sci-fi_and_beyond.html?viewAll=y&c=y. Gates, Henry Louis Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. 2008. African American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordaasc.com. Steiner, K. Leslie [Samuel R. Delany]. ‘‘Samuel R. Delany.’’ http://www.pseudopodium .org/repress/KLeslieSteiner-SamuelRDelany.html. Linda M. Carter

Delta Blues The Delta region of northwest Mississippi has long fostered a blues tradition and was indeed one of the first parts of the South where the genre came to public notice around the beginning of the twentieth century. The trait most generally associated with the style is intensity. The singing and playing, usually one man accompanying himself on guitar, tends to be passionate, emotional, and serious. The music appears to be more than mere entertainment and closer to a reflection of a way of life, at times like a religious experience. The words of the songs rely heavily on traditional phrases and verses, shared and transmitted among the various performers in musical networks, and the themes of the songs often go beyond the typical blues rhetoric of man-woman relationships to explore such deep subjects as death and the state of the singer’s soul. Both the singing and playing are harsh, strident, declamatory, and percussive, and an insistent rhythm or ‘‘beat’’ is maintained. The music has a minimalist quality, often featuring pentatonic scales and few chord changes with many songs built on ‘‘riffs’’ (short repeated melodic-rhythmic phrases). Ambivalent, neutral-sounding ‘‘blue notes’’ are common and are achieved on guitar by bending strings or using the slide technique. Vocal melodies are similarly flexible and often sound close to field hollers. Some early Delta blues singer-guitarists whose music displays these traits are Charlie Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson. They also occur in the music of many performers who worked in small electric blues bands in the years following World War II, both in the Delta and as migrants to urban centers such as Memphis, Chicago, and Detroit. Among such artists are Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and John Lee Hooker. A similar harsh, intense, minimalist sound can be heard in Delta blues harmonica players such as Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck Ford ‘‘Rice’’ Miller) and pianists such as Willie Love. On the other hand, the Delta has produced and fostered a number of blues artists whose music differs from the above description. These would include guitarists Eugene Powell and Sam Chatmon, the Mississippi Sheiks string band, and Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm. Even B. B. King is largely a product of the Delta, although his big band sound is not typical of the region’s blues music. The

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situation is complicated by the fact that many blues artists passed through the Delta for a portion of their careers or were influenced by the Delta style, often through listening to phonograph records of popular Delta artists. The typical traits of Delta blues are also found over a much wider area that includes most of the states of Mississippi and Alabama, western and central Georgia, western parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, and eastern parts of Arkansas and Louisiana. Many performers from this broader region, such as Fred McDowell, have been incorrectly identified as Delta blues artists. The term ‘‘Delta blues’’ is also sometimes used incorrectly to describe all solo, guitar-accompanied blues. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations; Musicians and Singers; Williamson, Sonny Boy I, and Williamson, Sonny Boy II Further Reading Cheseborough, Steve. 2001. Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Evans, David. 1982. Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ferris, William. 1978. Blues from the Delta. Garden City, NY: Anchor. Lomax, Alan. 1993. The Land Where the Blues Began. New York: Pantheon. Palmer, Robert. 1981. Deep Blues. New York: Viking. David H. Evans

Dickerson, Chris (1939– ), Bodybuilder, Opera Singer His versatility as a bodybuilder, dramatic style of posing, and accomplishments as an opera singer led some writers to call Chris Dickerson ‘‘something of a Renaissance man.’’ In his thirty-year career Dickerson has raised the nation’s interest in the beauty of the human body, both for men and women. The cultural values that he learned in his youth were very much a part of his life after he grew up and left the Deep South. His success in his sport made Chris Dickerson an icon in popular culture while, at the same time, raised public appreciation for the body beautiful. He is a bodybuilding idol American youth. Although the first Mr. America bodybuilding contest was held in 1939 and the Mr. Olympia championship in 1965, the sport remained on the fringe of American culture for some time. Arnold Schwarzenegger helped to bring the sport to a wide audience in the 1970s. Black weightlifter Sergio Olivia, who in 1962 defected from Cuba to the United States, held the Mr. Olympia title for three consecutive years (1967–69) and thus became one of several African American men who subsequently held important amateur and professional titles. Chris Dickerson came in second in the 1969 Mr. America contest. In 1970 he

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was the first black Mr. America. African American men dominated professional bodybuilding beginning in the 1980s and into the early 1990s. Starting in the late 1970s, African American women have achieved in the sport as well. Among black male bodybuilders, Chris Dickerson is an icon, having competed in over fifty contests and becoming one of the most successful competitors of all time. Henri Christophe Dickerson, popularly known as Chris Dickerson, was born on August 25, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama, the youngest of triplets. His father, Henry Dickerson, was at first a bellhop at the Jefferson Davis Hotel; later on he headed transportation for the Cleveland Trust Company, Ohio’s largest bank. Mahala Ashley Dickerson, his mother, was Montgomery’s first African American lawyer to establish a practice in the city. She was also the state’s first black female attorney. A year after their marriage, Chris Dickerson’s parents divorced. His mother moved her family to Indianapolis when Chris was fourteen years old. Chris attended a Quaker boarding school in Ohio, where he developed an interest in the arts. He enrolled in Mannes College of Music in New York City. He also studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, pursuing acting, ballet, and voice. Chris sought to improve his singing and decided that weight training would help in the process. Chris Dickerson moved to Los Angeles in 1963 and became a prot
eg
e of Bill Pearl, the legendary bodybuilder. Chris drew on his early training in dance and theater and found that training contributed well to his physique competitions. He developed a dense, symmetrical physique with a dramatic style of posing. Dickerson’s first contest was in 1965, when he earned third place at the Mr. Long Beach (California) event. His last was in 1994, at the International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Masters Olympia, where he placed fourth. Several accomplishments help to illuminate his long career. In 1970, he was the first African American to win the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Mr. America contest. He won the IFBB Mr. Olympia contest in 1982, when he was fortythree years old, becoming the oldest winner of this most prestigious title in the bodybuilding sport. Between 1974 and 1979, Dickerson pursued a career in opera but returned to competition in 1979, beating the world’s best bodybuilders and winning various prestigious titles. So successful was Chris Dickerson that he made bodybuilding history and engaged in worldwide speaking tours. He made numerous television appearances. For example, in the 1960s, he appeared on the television show What’s My Line,’’ a weekly panel game show which ran from 1950 to 1967. The purpose of the show was to guess the occupation of the guests. He stumped the panel, however, for no one guessed that his ‘‘line’’ was bodybuilder. Dickerson barely pursued work as an opera singer. His dramatic tenor voice made him ‘‘suited for German opera,’’ he told Cheryl Hamberg in an interview. When he did perform, he sang mostly works by Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini. Dickerson also has performed very little in the theater yet he was involved in some workshop productions in classes and orchestras, where he sang works by Ziefried. Beyond this, he never performed with a major opera company.

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His success is captured in numerous journal articles. Dickerson retired in 1994 and became a security officer for a corporation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 2000 he was enshrined in the IFBB Hall of Fame. He continues his affiliation with bodybuilding events. Combining his musical talent with his sport, Dickerson sings the ‘‘Star Spangled Banner’’ at the start of bodybuilding competitions in Florida and elsewhere. In an interview with Cheryl Hamberg, he said that he ‘‘sang in Las Vegas in September 2010 during the 45th anniversary of the Mr. Olympia contest.’’ He also serves as a personal trainer and prepares bodybuilding champions. Active in the community as well, he enjoys working with the elderly. See also: Men, African American, Images of; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Chris Dickerson Bodybuilding. (Homepage.) http://www.chrisdickerson.net/. Dickerson, Chris. 2010. Interview by Cheryl Hamberg. Telephone. August 6. Fair, John D. 2007/2009. ‘‘Chris Dickerson.’’ Encyclopedia of Alabama, August 9/November 9. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org./face/Article.jsp?id=h-1265. ‘‘Mr. America.’’ 1971. Ebony 26 (May): 80–82, 84. Schilling, Peter. 1996. ‘‘Bodybuilding.’’ In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Vol. 1. Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, and Cornel West, eds. New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA. Smith, Jessie Carney. 2003. Black Firsts. 2nd ed. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Frederick D. Smith

Diddy. See Combs, Sean (Diddy) Double Dutch In jump rope, jumping Double Dutch is an activity wherein one jumps through two alternating ropes turning at the same time. More complex than one person using one rope to skip, jumping Double Dutch requires two rope turners and can have multiple rope jumpers hopping up and down in the same space at the same time. Although a popular activity in many cultures, in the United States Double Dutch jumping has been especially associated with the growingup experiences of African American girls. Segregated black schools often had very few resources to equip their playgrounds, and jumping Double Dutch required only two ropes. When ropes were not handy, clotheslines could be substituted. Jumping Double Dutch is often accompanied by the recitation of folk rhymes. Jumpers measure their skills by how well they recite and jump in and out of the

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ropes at the same time. The folk rhymes and songs tell the jumper what action to take. Several of the jumping games ask a question that can be answered numerically. How many times the jumper can jump without getting her feet entangled in the ropes becomes the answer to the posed question. These questions often deal with coming-of-age predictions: How many babies will I have? How many years before I marry? How many boyfriends do I have? Persons turning the ropes are as important as those doing the jumping. Those who cannot turn the ropes properly are referred to as ‘‘double-handed.’’ Advanced jumpers are able to do gymnastic feats while jumping, such as picking up an item before landing back on the ground, doing a jumping jack, doing a cartwheel, turning all the way around, and jumping side-by-side with a partner. Double Dutch teams compete in national competitions. Given its identification with African American girls’ experiences, Double Dutch has been proposed as a metaphor for understanding the multilayered, interdisciplinary field of African American women’s studies. Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers: Double-Dutched Readings explains how one can understand the simultaneous interplay of dual cultural performances through a methodology of reading Double Dutch: ‘‘Two sets of meanings interacting with each other . . . mov[ing] easily between two performances, much like young black girls do when jumping double dutch. . . . The greater sophistication and creativity demanded by jumping and reading double-dutch result in a more integrated performance.’’ See also: Games, Video Games, and Toys; Jump Rope Rhymes/Games

Further Reading Lee, Valerie. 1996. Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers: Double-Dutched Readings. New York: Routledge. Valerie Lee

Douglass, Frederick (1818–95), Abolitionist, Writer, Statesman, Journalist Frederick Douglass is one of the few names of African American historical giants recognized by many Americans in the twenty-first century. Although he served in many capacities during his life, most remember him as the editor of the North Star, the abolitionist newspaper he founded in 1847 and continued to publish until 1851. Schools, bridges, stamps, hospitals, and other public sites have been named in his honor. Douglass statues, photographs, posters, and portraits abound. Because he published three autobiographies, many have read about his bold escape from slavery to freedom and his relentless campaign to abolish

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slavery and ensure equal rights for African Americans and women. Douglass has been a noted historical figure among both African Americans and white Americans for over one hundred and fifty years. Even in 1845 when his first autobiography was published, Douglass immediately became a popular figure and his book met with immediate success because, for the first time, people read about slavery from the slave’s point of view. Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, a slave on Holmes Hill farm on Tuckahoe Creek, Talbot County, Maryland, probably on February 14, 1818. Douglass opens his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, with a discussion of the fact Editor, orator, abolitionist, and former slave that enslaved persons rarely knew Frederick Douglass was the foremost African their birth dates. He did not begin to American leader of the nineteenth century in learn anything about his birth year the United States. He was also an advocate until he overheard an owner say in for women’s suffrage. (National Archives) 1835 that he was seventeen years old. His mother, Harriet Bailey, who lived on another plantation, died when he was only seven years old. On one of his few meetings with her, she called Douglass her little valentine. Because of this Douglass surmised that he was born on February 14. Douglass believed that his father was a white man, possibly his master, but he was never certain. In 1825 Douglass was sent to Baltimore, Maryland, to the home of Hugh and Sophia Auld to be a companion to their child. Sophia began to teach the alphabet and three- and four-letter words to her son and Frederick. When Hugh learned of this, he was furious and ordered her to desist. He told her that education would make a slave rebellious and ruin him for slavery. Douglass overheard their argument and afterward took every opportunity he could to learn and read more because he did not want to be a slave. As he played with the young white boys in the neighborhood, he gave them bread for writing words written in chalk on the pavements. He later talked about stealing his education from the sidewalks of Baltimore. As his knowledge grew, whenever the Aulds were away he would clandestinely read their books. He purchased a textbook of which he was particularly fond, a collection of great speeches called The Columbian Orator. Little did the young man know that he was preparing himself to be a much-sought-after speaker in the future. Through Douglass’s life he never received any formal

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education but always was an avid student. He worked in a Baltimore shipyard where he was able to further hone his reading and writing skills. In Baltimore he also learned about abolitionists and the heated debates in the United States Congress between northerners and southerners about the abolition of slavery and the admission of slave and free states into the union. Douglass made friends with a number of free blacks and attended church with them both at Sharp Street Methodist and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal churches. Douglass returned to the Eastern Shore in 1833. He was intelligent and strong but was not particularly knowledgeable about farm work and he got into trouble for his clumsiness and for attempting to teach fellow slaves to read. He was then sent to Edward Covey, a farmer who had a reputation for breaking rebellious streaks in slaves. Covey beat Douglass mercilessly several times. After Douglass complained about these assaults and his master refused to do anything to help him, Douglass took matters into his own hands and fought Covey the next time he tried to whip him. Although he stayed with Covey for a few more months, Covey never tried to beat him again. Escapes Bondage In 1835 Douglass was hired out to work for William Freeland. At this farm he organized a secret Sunday school and began to teach other slaves to read. He and some of his friends attempted to escape but were discovered and jailed. Miraculously, they were released and Douglass was sent back to Baltimore. Auld hired Douglass out to work as a caulker in a Baltimore shipyard. In 1837 he joined the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society, a debating club made up of free African American males. At these gatherings he met his future wife, Anna Murray, a free woman. After an argument with Auld in 1838, Douglass decided that it was time to make another escape attempt. Many black men during this era worked as seamen. Anna Murray made Douglass a seaman’s uniform and he borrowed a seaman’s identification papers. He then boarded a train and went to Philadelphia. Anna met him there and they traveled on to New York City where they married. The newlyweds then traveled on to New Bedford, Massachusetts. There he changed his name to Frederick Douglass to escape detection. The couple had three boys and two girls—Rosetta, Charles, Louis, Frederick, and Annie. Douglass soon realized that although he was north of slavery, racial prejudice seemed to be everywhere. He tried to attend the white churches but found discrimination there also, so he became a preacher at the local African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He was able to get a job, and while he worked, he read antislavery literature, especially the Liberator, edited by William Lloyd Garrison. He subsequently began to attend antislavery meetings. Douglass found that many of those who were speaking out against slavery had no idea what the ‘‘peculiar institution’’ was really like. This motivated him to speak up in meetings. By 1841, his eloquence won him an invitation to speak

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before the Massachusetts Antislavery Society convention in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Then he joined with Garrison and other speakers to lecture before antislavery societies in various locations. Because Douglass was so articulate, people began to say that he had never really been a slave. This led him to write his Narrative. He provided so many details about his past that he needed to travel to Great Britain to escape reenslavement. His British friends raised enough money to purchase Douglass’s freedom and also to help him begin publication of the North Star. By 1847, Douglass and his family moved to Rochester, New York, where they were active in the work of the Underground Railroad. During the next year, 1848, Douglass participated in the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, and made the acquaintance of abolitionist John Brown. In 1851, the North Star merged with Gerrit Smith’s Liberty Party Paper to form the Frederick Douglass Paper. Later, from 1859 to 1863, he published Douglass’ Monthly and from 1870 to 1874 Douglass owned and operated the New National Era. Douglass’s second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, was published in 1855 and his last, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, came out in 1881. Many of Douglass’s speeches were printed in local newspapers and as pamphlets in both the United States and Great Britain. After the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1859, Douglass fled to Canada to escape arrest on charges of being Brown’s accomplice. He returned to the United States a year later, a few months before the beginning of the secession of some southern states and the start of the Civil War. The war led to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia in 1862 and President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing slaves in the Confederate states. Douglass became a recruiter for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first Civil War regiment of African American soldiers. By the end of the war about 180,000 African Americans served as Union soldiers. After the war the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution were ratified, ending slavery and granting citizenship rights and voting rights to former slaves.

Advocates Equal Rights for Blacks and Women Slavery legally ended in 1865 but Douglass continued to advocate for equal rights for African Americans and women. In 1872 after a devastating fire razed his home in Rochester, Douglass moved his family to Washington, DC. From this Washington base, eventually from his spacious Cedar Hill residence, Douglass, an ardent supporter of the Republican Party, received a number of appointments. In 1874, he became president of the ill-fated Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company and in 1877 he was appointed a United States marshal. Four years later, he became recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia. In 1889, he was appointed United States minister resident consul general to Haiti and charg
e d’affaires to Santo Domingo. Douglass also served as a trustee of Howard University for more than 20 years, from 1871 until his death.

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Two years after Anna, Douglass’s wife of forty-four years, died in 1882, he encountered much controversy when he married a much younger white woman, Helen Pitts, who was his secretary while he was recorder of deeds. Helen and Douglass toured Europe and Africa together. Douglass remained active until the day of his death, February 20, 1895. After speaking at a meeting of the National Council of Women in the morning, he went home and suddenly died of heart failure that evening. His tireless crusade for justice all of his life left him wealthy and famous at the end of his days. Because Douglass’s life was inspirational to so many, in addition to his autobiographies and speeches, there are hundreds of adult and juvenile biographies about this self-taught man. See also: Consciousness and Identity, African American; Slave Narratives Further Reading Blassingame, John, ed. 1979–1992. The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series One, Speeches, Debates, and Interviews. 5 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Blassingame, John, John R. McKivigan, and Peter P. Hinks, eds. 1999. The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series Two, Autobiographical Writings. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Douglass, Frederick. 1983. The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Reprint. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press. Douglass, Frederick. 1996. My Bondage and My Freedom. Reprint. Grand Rapids, MI: Candace Press. Douglass, Frederick. 2004. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Reprint. West Berlin, NJ: Townsend Press. The Frederick Douglass Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/doughome.html. Debra Newman Ham

Dove, Rita (1952– ), Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Composer Rita Dove has a distinguished place in the pantheon of black poets in African American popular culture. The Yellow House on the Corner, Dove’s first book of poetry, was published in 1980 and was followed by several celebrated works. Dove’s climb to literary fame during the 1980s occurred at a poignant time in African American history. Prior to the 1980s, a decades-long movement to promote black pride and achievement and establish Black Studies programs in colleges and universities swept across the nation. The 1980s saw the flowering of interest in and celebration of assorted multicultural perspectives. Popular courses on gender and race appeared throughout the nation. Academia, the media, and influential television personalities, like Oprah Winfrey, took special note of African American women writers, revitalizing interest in historic writers, like Zora Neale Hurston, and established writers, like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, and paving the way for new writers, like Dove.

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Like Morrison and Walker, Dove is regarded as a formidable talent. In 1987, she was the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Gwendolyn Brooks was the first). Between 1993 and 1995, she was the third African American to be named U.S. Poet Laureate (the first two were Robert Hayden and Gwendolyn Brooks). In 1988, she received the Ohio Governor’s Award. In 1993, she received the NAACP Great American Artist Award. In that same year, Glamour Magazine awarded Dove a Woman of the Year Award. Dove has also received a plethora of honorary doctorates and other medals and awards, such as the Charles Frankel Prize/National Medals in the Humanities and the Duke Ellington Lifetime Achievement Award. Her publications have included nine books of poetry, one novel, a book of short stories, and a musical composition. She has taught for several years at the University of Virginia. Rita Dove was born in late summer, on August 28, 1952, in Akron, Ohio, a midwestern city. Her father, Ray Dove, was a chemist for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. He and his wife, Elvira Dove, played an instrumental role in their children’s lives. All four children were encouraged to do well in school. Although discrimination and racism were realities in Akron, Ohio, Dove’s experiences were not as harsh as black life in the South where Jim Crow, rules that enforced racial segregation, was the law of the land. In the inner cities of the North, blacks were disproportionately affected by poverty, and the lack of economic and social opportunities and confrontations with racism fostered angry and violent resistance. Sheltered, Dove did not experience the black ghetto, nor was she forced to live under Jim Crow rule. A middle-class upbringing yielded plentiful opportunities, an enviable education, and broad experiences, a healthy environment in which she pursued two of her favorite hobbies: writing and playing the cello. Dove has recalled that her interest in writing began as early as the third grade when she penned her first novel, using new vocabulary words she learned in school. Dove not only showed prowess in her writing ability; she played the cello with remarkable skill. Throughout her elementary and high school education, Dove showed herself to be a bright and accomplished student, while, in the background, the climactic, troubling, and thrilling demonstrations the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to the impassioned Black Power Movement. Upon graduating from high school in 1970, Dove made her first major step towards her destiny, becoming one of a hundred students nationwide to receive the prestigious honor, Presidential Scholar. In that same year, she started her first year at Miami University. At the onset, Dove had trouble settling on a major. She considered pursing a career as an attorney, but, one day, during dinner with her family, she announced that she wanted to become a poet. After graduating in 1973, she studied modern European literature at the University of T€ubingen in Germany. In 1977, she received her master’s in fine arts from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and two years later, married Fred Viebahn, a novelist from Germany. Their daughter, Aviva Chantal Dove-Viebahn, was born in 1983. Dove has explored race-specific and universal themes and subjects in her myriad works, despite societal pressures or expectations to write exclusively on racial matters. (During the 1980s, society put great emphasis on African American literature;

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black authors who published nonracial literature were not easily categorized.) Dove does not like to be ‘‘typecast’’ or ‘‘to be put in the category of Black Poet,’’ a term she finds confining, writes Ingersoll in Conversations with Rita Dove. According to Pereira in Rita Dove’s Cosmopolitanism, Dove’s first publication contains poems that have a ‘‘global scope’’ and that address African Americans and black culture. Thomas and Beulah (1986), which was inspired by Dove’s grandparents, features poems that also deal with race-specific and universal topics. For example, the poems ‘‘Jiving,’’ ‘‘Lightnin’ Blues,’’ ‘‘Gospel,’’ and ‘‘Magic’’ allude to African American traditions and Folklore. The title of the poem ‘‘The Charm’’ alludes to a magical object used in African American folk religion for good luck or protection. The words of the poem include references to traditional black food staples, such as fried fish and hominy. Dove’s inclusion of black themes notwithstanding, scholar Malin Pereira has noted that the many of the poems in Thomas and Beulah can be read as universal, or racial, or both. Dove’s novel, Through the Ivory Gate (1992), is told from the perspective of an African American woman. This novel utilizes African American dialect and addresses issues like racist black images. On the Bus with Rosa Parks (1999) pays tribute to black culture and experience during the civil rights movement. The majority of the poems in Museum (1983) are based on universal, if not Eurocentric subjects. However, Dove’s photo on the back cover shows her sporting an Afro, a popular black hairstyle that has symbolized ethnic pride and resistance to assimilation. In this way, Dove takes control over her image, portraying herself as a woman who is secure in her identity and permits herself the freedom to explore unlimited topics. See also: African Cultural Influences; Folk Foods; Literature, Contemporary African American; Poets and Poetry Further Reading Dove, Rita. 1993. Selected Poems. New York: Vintage. Dove, Rita. http://people.virginia.edu/~rfd4b/. Ingersoll, Earl G., ed. 2003. Conversations with Rita Dove. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Pereira, Malin. 2003. Rita Dove’s Cosmopolitanism. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. Gladys L. Knight

Dozens The dozens is a game of ritual insult that is played most often by African American males, though females are also quite adept at exhibiting their verbal skills in this activity. The game’s insults usually target a victim’s relative, especially one’s mother. Showing off one’s verbal skills is one of the genre’s most salient features. The verbal exchange goes by several names, depending on the part of the country in which the participants live. In Chicago it is sometimes called ‘‘sigging’’ or Signifying, and in Washington, DC, it is referred to as

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‘‘joning.’’ Philadelphia adolescents may call it ‘‘woofing’’; on the West Coast, the common term is ‘‘capping.’’ Young Jacksonville, Florida, black people refer to it as ‘‘ranking.’’ Another variation on the term is ‘‘sounding,’’ but sounding often refers more specifically to the initial act of insulting another (i.e., ‘‘sounding’’ on somebody). No matter what it’s called, there are features of this activity that have attracted a number of scholars of African American speech play and verbal art, and they have offered interesting interpretations about the functions this type of verbal dueling tend to have among participants. The term ‘‘dozens’’ may have originated from the slavery era, when a ‘‘dirty dozen’’ of the most undesirable-looking black captives surviving the trans-Atlantic crossing were sold on the auction block at a discount. Says Quincy Jones in his foreword to Snaps, ‘‘The only thing even more degrading than slavery was to be part of this group. Insulting your mama was meant to make you feel as low as one of the dirty dozens.’’ Another explanation for the term the dozens relates to the slinging of a dozen insults from each of the contestants. Roger D. Abrahams cites other possible sources that suggest the term the dozens may have originated in reference to the misfortune of rolling a twelve in craps; he also cites Mack McCormick, in the liner notes ‘‘to his record Unexpurgated Songs of Men [who] gives the most compelling source, a formulaic song routine about the subject which began ‘I f**ked your mother one, . . .’ going up to twelve.’’ This explanation concerning the mother as a target has African antecedents, and ethnographic data bear witness to the prevalence of an affinity that Igbo (Ibo) boys have toward hurling insults about one’s mother. To reach manhood, a male must break his ties from his mother’s protection, increasingly detaching himself from hearth and home as he prepares to enter the unpredictable world of men. Similarly, the Ashanti enjoy such verbal dueling, and others have reported that it is part of an initiation ceremony among adolescent males who target one another’s mother in pornographic terms. Besides targeting a person’s close relative, the dozens requires an audience for the verbal dueling to succeed, and listeners do not hesitate to join in the fun by either praising an especially creative ‘‘snap’’ (as a one-liner is sometimes called in the United States) or ridiculing a lame response to an initial insult. There is a definite pattern that marks the ritual, one that New York City adolescents displayed to William Labov. He succinctly outlined the pattern in an article that appeared in Rappin and Stylin’ Out, edited by Thomas Kochman in 1972. Labov summed up a general rule for ritual ‘‘sounding’’ in the following formula: T(B) is so X that P, where T is the target of the sound, X is the attribute of T which is focused on, and P is a proposition that is coupled by the quantifier ‘‘so . . . that’’ to express the degree to which T has X. The target T(B) is normally B’s mother or other relative. Labov then provides examples, such as ‘‘Your mother [T(B)] so old [X] she fart dust [P].’’ (Note that, as in nearly all African American oral traditions, black dialect is an important feature of the dozens. Accordingly, verbs are either missing or, like many nouns, do not require plurality.) Most sounds, then, follow this

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T(B) is so X that P model, but a sounding situation also requires an audience, which Labov designates as ‘‘C’’ in the following rule: If A makes an utterance S in the presence of B and an audience C, which includes reference to a target related to B, T(B), in a proposition P, and (a) B believes that A believes that P is not true and (b) B believes that A believes that B knows that P is not true . . . then S is a sound, heard as T(B) is so X that P where X is a pejorative attribute, and A is said to have sounded on B.

The audience’s role is essential. The initial sounding situation is a remark that A makes in a loud voice so that others can hear, and everyone present interprets it as a ritual insult and knows that the proposition P is not true. Furthermore, Labov furnishes a second rule for responding to a sound: If A has sounded on B, B sounds on A by asserting a new proposition P’ which includes reference to a target related to A, T(A), and such that it is an AB-event that P’ is untrue. P’ may be embedded in a sentence as a quantification of a pejorative attribute X’ of T(A).

These rules make no sense without considering the shared knowledge: an A-event is known only to A, part of his biography, whereas a B-event is known only by B, so an AB-event is an event known to both. Finally, Labov identifies a third rule, which he states: The response to a sound is a sound. If either contestant loses his temper, then the ritual ends, and audience members will proclaim the other the winner. However, young African American children may not always understand the rules for ritual insults and do not take the exchanges as a game, and second and third graders may even feel compelled to tell the teacher on their classmates. When considering the themes that the dozens often include, it is not difficult to understand such a misunderstanding among young children. Some major themes of the dozens, those Labov might call attributes in the above model, include: poverty, cited in Snaps (‘‘Your mother is so poor, I saw her on the street selling loose M&Ms’’), ugliness (also in Snaps) (‘‘Your mother is so ugly, police artists are afraid to sketch her’’ ), stupidity (‘‘Your mother’s so stupid that she can’t walk and chew gum at the same time’’ [noted in ‘‘Yo Mama!’’]), sexual promiscuity (‘‘Your mother and father were so happy when you were born that they ran out and got married’’ [also in ‘‘Yo Mama!’’]), and many others that appear in such recent collections as Onwuchekwa Jemie’s ‘‘Yo Mama!’’: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes & Children’s Rhymes from Urban Black America (2003); James Percelay, Stephen Dweck, and Monteria Ivey’s Snaps (1994); and their sequel Double Snaps (1995). The latter two volumes also include a brief history of the dozens, but, unlike Labov’s earlier discourse analysis of the dozens, they devote their collections to one-liners with no contexts in which they are performed. However, they do provide a sense of the general social setting in which snaps are typically performed, and the authors offer several quotes from popular Comedians who grew up playing the dozens.

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Jemie’s collection includes many snaps that he and his students collected from 1969 to 1973, so they may seem a bit dated, but his introduction provides an insight into the function of the dozens in light of some of the earliest scholarship on this type of verbal art. John Dollard argued that the dozens exist as a result of race relations and displaced aggressions among African Americans, while Abrahams, according to Dundes, viewed them as a reflection of tensions emerging from the black family structure, from which eventually ‘‘black males find themselves in a totally male environment in which the necessity to prove one’s masculinity [and to reject the feminine principle] recurs constantly’’. Because the young boy cannot openly attack his own mother either to himself or to others, he creates a play situation which enables him to attack some other person’s mother, thereby exorcising his mother’s influence. By playing the dozens, the combatants not only develop defense mechanisms but also build up their self-images and affirm their masculinity. Building on his predecessors, Jemie explains why such disrespect is shown the mother in the dozens, suggesting that, while a mother’s intimacy is a child’s source of comfort, a boy eventually must disengage himself from that embrace. Jemie compares this African worldview with that of the African American male, who must ‘‘achieve detachment of a higher, deeper, tougher quality than his cousin in the homeland, or his counterparts elsewhere in the world,’’ particularly given the abuse black males suffered in this country and their subsequent inability to protect family members. In short, the dozens introduces a boy to manhood and the ability to deal with verbal abuse. Despite these compelling arguments and observations, such explanations do not provide an explanation for how the dozens might function among females. Nevertheless, Dollard, Abrahams, Jemie, and the references below demonstrate the significance of the dozens and related African American Folklore forms (e.g., toasts) as part of a vibrant part of traditional black culture. See also: African Cultural Influences; Comedy and Comedians; Humor; Jokes; Woofing/Wolfing Further Reading Abrahams, Roger. 1970. Deep Down in the Jungle: Negro Narrative Folklore from the Streets of Philadelphia. Chicago: Aldine Publishing. Dundes, Alan, ed. 1990. Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel: Readings in the Interpretation of Afro-American Folklore. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Jackson, Bruce. 1974. ‘‘Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me’’: Narrative Poetry from Black Oral Tradition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Jemie, Onwuchekwa, ed. 2003. ‘‘Yo’ Mama!’’: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes & Children’s Rhymes from Urban Black America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Kochman, Thomas. 1970. ‘‘Toward an Ethnography of Black American Speech Behavior.’’ In Afro-American Anthropology: Contemporary Perspectives. Norman E. Whitten Jr. and John F. Szwed, eds. New York: Free Press. Labov, William. 1972. ‘‘Rules for Ritual Insult,’’ in Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out: Communication in Urban Black America. Thomas Kochman, ed. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

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Levine, Lawrence. 1980. Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Majors, Richard, and Janet Mancini Billson. 1992. ‘‘Playing the Dozens.’’ In Cool Pose: The Dilemmas of Black Manhood in America, 91–102. New York: Lexington Books. Percelay, James, Monteria Ivey, and Stephen Dweck. 1995. Double Snaps. New York: William Morrow. Percelay, James, Monteria Ivey, and Stephen Dweck. 1994. Snaps:‘‘If Ugliness Were Bricks, Your Mother Would Be a Housing Project’’ . . . and More Than 450 Other Snaps, Caps, and Insults for Playing the Dozens. New York: William Morrow. Wepman, Dennis, Ronald B. Newman, and Murray B. Binderman. 1976. The Life: The Lore and Folk Poetry of the Black Hustler. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Richard Allen Burns

Dreadlocks ‘‘Dreadlocks’’ is a term for a natural hairstyle worn by Rastafaris in which the hair is grown and left uncombed until it forms matted strands, called dreads. Uncut, matted hair exists as a sign of spirituality in many cultures and religions from ancient Africa to modern India. However, the specific inspiration and origin of Jamaican dreadlocks has been an issue of much debate. Some people point to a biblical inspiration, others to photographs of Mau Mau warriors and Ethiopian warlords. Still others believe dreadlocks represented a return to nature or became popular because they resemble a lion’s mane. There are as many theories about when dreadlocks were first worn. Barry Chevannes, in one of the most convincing, connects the development of dreadlocks to the Youth Black Faith movement that began around 1949. According to Chevannes (1994), in the 1950s this group began to use the term ‘‘dread’’ or ‘‘dreadful’’ to indicate a member who ‘‘inspired dread in other brethren by the forthrightness . . . of his critical remarks and the defense of the principals [of] the Youth Black Faith.’’ While growing one’s hair and beard was already fairly common, the decision to leave the hair uncombed was a radical one. The issue caused the Youth Black Faith to form two groups, the House of Combsomes and the House of Dreadlocks. The importance of dreadlocks and why the style created such an enormous rift was in its symbolic meaning. Chevannes, John P. Homiak, and Leonard E. Barrett Sr., all scholars of Jamaican culture, agree that it was an overt statement of outcast status. Barrett wrote, ‘‘The hair-symbol announces that they [the Rastafari] are outside Jamaican society and do not care to enter under any circumstance other than one of radical change in the society’s attitude to the poor.’’ Many Rastafari view dreadlocks as a sign of a covenant between Jah (God) and themselves, even speaking of growing dreadlocks at times as ‘‘putting on the wedding garments’’ for a spiritual marriage with their divinity. Others emphasize biblical passages in which God forbids men to use razors or other implements to cut their hair, and ultimately view a shaven head as a sign of a ‘‘weak heart’’

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(i.e., someone who does not have the courage to follow the path of Rastafari). Those who are not dreads are known by Rastafari as ‘‘bald heads,’’ a term that is applied metaphorically and literally. Dreadlocks are an extension of a cornerstone Rastafari belief that human beings should live as naturally as possible, which includes eating natural and healthy foods, living in harmony with nature, and honoring taboos against bodily modifications or excessive adornments. Whatever the initial inspiration for dreadlocks and whenever they were first introduced, there is no question that by the 1970s the style was synonymous with the Rastafari. By the end of the twentieth century, the style had become popular among Africans and African Americans of a variety of faiths. As David France wrote in Newsweek, ‘‘Dreads signal a more spiritual self declaration, a figurative locking with African ancestors.’’ See also: African Cultural Influences; Caribbean Cultural Influences; Hair and Hairstyles; Rastafarianism Further Reading Barrett, Leonard E. 1997. The Rastafarians. Boston: Beacon Press. Chevannes, Barry. 1994. Rastafari: Roots and Ideology. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. Chevannes, Barry. 1998. ‘‘The Origin of the Dreadlocks.’’ In Rastafari and Other AfricanCaribbean Worldviews. Barry Chevannes, ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Chevannes, Barry. 1998. ‘‘The Phallus and the Outcast: The Symbolism of the Dreadlocks in Jamaica.’’ In Rastafari and Other African-Caribbean Worldviews. Barry Chevannes, ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. France, David et al. 2001. ‘‘The Dreadlock Deadlock.’’ Newsweek 138 (September 10): 54. Hilary Mac Austin

Drugs and Popular Culture Drugs, broadly defined as any substance, legal or illegal, from cigarettes to crack cocaine, have been an inextricable part of the cultural landscape of the United States. To consider art, literature, and other aspects of popular culture, at some level, involves a consideration of addiction or substance abuse, or both. It could be the alcoholism of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, or the marijuana use of Louis Armstrong, or the use of heroin when considering the art and lives of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker. The drug story could be tales of Jimi Hendrix performing with strips of LSD beneath his headband, or Miles Davis and cocaine, or the records and legacy of Track and Field star Marion Jones and tetrahydrogestrinone, popularly known as ‘‘the clear.’’ All of these examples together form just the beginning of the close, and at times inseparable, connection between drugs and popular culture.

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Jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong often spoke openly about his use of marijuana, which he referred to as ‘‘gage’’ and ‘‘his assistant.’’ As African American novelist and cultural critic Albert Murray explains it, Louis Armstrong ‘‘began to use the drug [marijuana] when he came back to Chicago from his first stay in New York. Armstrong regarded marijuana as a healthful herb that should not be classified as an illegal narcotic drug[.]’’ Armstrong’s drug use landed him in trouble with law enforcement, yet it was something he continued to discuss, and even made available for members of his band. As Armstrong is quoted in Murray’s work, ‘‘First place it’s a thousand times better than whisky. . . . It’s an Assistant—a friend a nice cheap drunk if you want to call it that.’’ Armstrong also saw marijuana as a softer drug, unlike other drugs available in the jazz world. ‘‘A dope addict,’’ Armstrong continued, ‘‘from what I noticed by watching a lot of different ‘cats’ whom I used to light up with but got so carried away they felt they could get a much bigger kick by jugging themselves in the ass with a needle—Heroin—Cocaine— etc—or some other ungodly sh*t.’’ Yet Armstrong always claimed that his work was his primary addiction. Frederick J. Spencer’s Jazz and Death: Medical Profiles of Jazz Greats, offers readers an intriguing examination of jazz music and culture by considering the true price these musicians paid for their artistic achievement: a life of suffering. African American jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915–59) led a life cut short by alcohol and drug abuse, yet she warned in Newman’s work, ‘‘Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better. All dope can do is kill you—and kill you the long, slow, hard way.’’ Charlie ‘‘Bird’’ Parker and other bebop musicians too dealt with the perception that drugs enhanced their skill as musicians. In the countercultural movement that developed in the United States following World War II, drugs became a part of cultural expression. The idea of being ‘‘hip’’ as opposed to being a ‘‘square’’ depended upon one’s awareness of drugs. One of the most important statements of the American counterculture is On the Road, the 1957 novel by Jack Kerouac of the Beat generation that pays homage to Bebop Music great Charlie ‘‘Bird’’ Parker and is full of references to drugs. Kerouac himself claimed to have been on bennies or, as John Leland reports, ‘‘weed, Benzedrine, morphine, alcohol’’ while writing the novel. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg proved even more bodacious, as the opening to his poem Howl suggests: ‘‘I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.’’ The wildness of Howl, in which a generation wanders the streets ‘‘looking for an angry fix,’’ has been a part of the cultural vocabulary for artistic creation, even with a writer as venerate and canonical as Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famed American transcendentalist philosopher. As Emerson writes in ‘‘The Poet,’’ an essay that forms a part of numerous anthologies of American literature and is read in schools throughout the nation: This is the reason why bards love wine, mead, narcotics, coffee, tea, opium, the fumes of sandal-wood and tobacco, or whatever other species of animal exhilaration. All men avail themselves of such means as they can, to add this extraordinary power to their normal powers; and to this end they prize conversation,

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music, pictures, sculpture, dancing, theatres, traveling, war, mobs, fires, gaming, politics, or love, or science, or animal intoxication, which are several coarser or finer quasi-mechanical substitutes for the true nectar, which is the ravishment of the intellect by coming nearer to the fact.

While Emerson tempers his philosophy here with the idea that the ‘‘true nectar’’ is knowledge, pure and simple, there is a sense here that chemical dependency of some sort is not completely disavowed, since he calls tobacco, wine, and so on an ‘‘extraordinary power’’ that is useful in the creative process. And this ‘‘extraordinary power’’ has manifested itself in the world of athletics, especially Baseball and track and field, where entertainment and record-breaking achievements are sometimes tinged with allegations of doping and Crime. Hip-Hop Culture and Drugs Since the emergence of Gangsta Rap in the late 1980s, along with popular films such as New Jack City, Hip-Hop culture, which began in the South Bronx in the late 1970s as a way of combating crime with block parties, music, and mixes, drug references have become an increasingly prevalent aspect of popular music. On a Kanye West track, Jay-Z spells it out in captivating rhymes: ‘‘I sold kilos of coke, I’m guessin’ I could sell CDs.’’ Or take Styles P, the gangsta rapper from Yonkers, New York, who in the summer of 2002 released ‘‘Good Times,’’ a song that with its beat and its vivid imagery became one of the most played songs of the year. At one point, Styles P rhymes, in a progression from a gun to Bob Marley to ‘‘Add to that, that I smoke like the Hippies did back in the 70s.’’ The lyrics here are a kind of epic simile, moving from the street to history books, and, all along, showing us that to the newer generation of artists with a historical perspective of music and culture, drugs—in the case of ‘‘Good Times’’ marijuana—has been a thematic link across generations. The transition from soul to funk in the 1970s was the result of psychedelic elements that the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, both out of San Francisco, and Jimi Hendrix had engineered. All artists seek to extend, elaborate, and refine what has come before. The great artists are the innovators, the risk takers, and whether drugs help or hinder the creative process is open for debate, as well as the moral responsibility of artists to a broader society. On the one hand, praised for his schoolboy image, an artist from middle-class parents, his father a former member of the Black Panther Party and a photojournalist, his mother a professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, Kanye West rhymes in his ‘‘Diamonds are Forever’’ from Late Registration about his drug use, including, ‘‘Feel the magic, Vegas on acid.’’ Do Musicians and Singers, along with athletes, some of the main influences behind the formation of popular culture, a cross-cultural enterprise that showcases Globalization at its most influential, from ring tones to sound bites on twentyfour-hour sports networks and music video stations, have a socially responsible role to play when it comes to drugs? Answering in the affirmative leads us down the slippery slope where artistic expression may become state propaganda. The truth

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of the matter is that both drugs and popular culture are big business, and popular culture, as a mirror of society, offers us a view of who we really are as a society. In ‘‘All Falls Down,’’ Kanye West spins lyrics that seem almost Black Panther– inspired, rhyming about drug dealers buying Jordans (sneakers) and crack addicts buying crack, ending with, ‘‘And a white man get paid off of all a dat.’’ The drug reference here carries with it an awareness of larger economic factors at play. In the new age of hip-hop, where alcohol becomes a valid excuse for misbehaving and club life takes precedence over social strife, there are still messages within the lyrics that are like throwback jerseys, where young artists make statements that reveal an understanding of the intellectual past of African Americans in their struggle for social equality and economic dignity (see Black Nationalism). German historian, economist, and philosopher Karl Marx believed that religion was the opium of the masses. It seems that in our increasingly secular world, popular culture, the culture of the people, where stars are born at a moment’s notice and entertainment is only a click away, is our drug of choice. See also: Pop Music; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 1957. ‘‘The Poet.’’ Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Organic Anthology. Stephen E. Whicher, ed. Boston: Houghton. Murray, Albert. 1999. ‘‘Jazz Lips.’’ New Republic (November 22): 29–35. Newman, Richard. 1998. ‘‘Drugs.’’ African American Quotations. Westport, CT: Oryx Press. Styles P. 2002. A Gangster and a Gentleman. New York: Ruff Ryders. Washington Post. 2007. ‘‘Road Trips: On the 50th Anniversary of ‘On the Road,’ a Slew of Books Celebrates Jack Kerouac, His American Classic and the Scroll That Began It All.’’ September 2. West, Kanye. 2005. Late Registration. New York: Roc-A-Fella Records. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Du Bois, W. E. B. (1868–1963), Educator, Civil Rights Pioneer, and Activist William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a world-renowned scholar, philosopher, and Social Activist. One of the most influential intellectuals of the twentieth century, he was also pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement. W. E. B. Du Bois was born and raised in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His mother, Mary Silvina Burghardt, could trace her New England roots to the American Revolution. Du Bois’ father, Alfred, married his mother on February 5, 1867. W. E. B. Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868. He was raised by his mother after Alfred Du Bois deserted the family when W. E. B. was two years old. After completing public schools in Great Barrington, Du Bois traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend Fisk University in 1885. He graduated in 1988

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and was admitted to Harvard University as a junior. Harvard questioned the adequacy of his Fisk degree. After completing his undergraduate program, Du Bois pursued graduate studies at Harvard University. He also studied at the University of Berlin and traveled extensively across Europe. Du Bois returned to the United States in 1894, married Nina Gomer in 1896, and taught at Wilberforce University in Ohio. The Du Bois’ had two children, Burghardt, who died at a very young age, and a daughter, Yolande. In 1895 Du Bois received a PhD degree from Harvard. His dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, was published by Harvard University Press. Despite his impressive academic credentials, racial barriers excluded Du Bois from employment at mainstream intuitions. He obtained a short-term appointment as an assistant instructor at the University of Pennsylvania but he was not given an office and was not allowed to have contact with faculty and students. During this period, however, Du Bois published The Philadelphia Negro, which became one of the seminal works in sociology. In 1897 Du Bois joined the faculty at Atlanta University, a black institution. In 1903, Du Bois published a book of essays, The Souls of Black Folks, which remains among the most significant contributions to twentieth-century American letters. In one essay, Du Bois famously predicted that ‘‘the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.’’ Another essay fostered a fierce debate that still reverberates in academic circles. When The Souls of Black Folks was published, Booker T. Washington was the most powerful and influential black person in the United States. He established Tuskegee Institute (now University) in Alabama in 1881, initially using space in a local church. After Washington purchased a former plantation, his students constructed buildings and classrooms and provided their own basic necessities by growing crops and raising livestock. The Tuskegee model was designed to produce workers who would provide inexpensive labor for the southern economy. Graduates would be reliable W. E. B. Du Bois, called the father of pan- workers with basic literacy skills Africanism for his work on behalf of the emerging African nations, devoted his life to and industrial training. Manual the struggle for equality for African Americans labor, rather than scholarship, was and all people of color. (Library of Congress) the goal of the Tuskegee model.

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Opposes Booker T. Washington’s Views In 1895 Washington delivered a speech in Atlanta before a large and mainly white audience. Invoking a metaphor that would be seen as the solution for race relations Washington stated, ‘‘[i]n all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet as one hand in all things essential to mutual progress.’’ Washington implicitly endorsed segregation and intimated that blacks would not demand voting rights. The speech received national acclaim and made Washington the preeminent leader of black America. In ‘‘Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,’’ Du Bois pointedly disagreed with Washington’s approach, stating, ‘‘so far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or South, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions and opposes the higher training and ambition of our brighter mind,—so far he, the South, or the nation, does this,—we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them.’’ Du Bois advocated the development of an African American ‘‘Talented Tenth,’’ an educated vanguard that would serve as teachers and leaders of the black community. These stinging critiques led to a personal animosity. Washington used his influence with philanthropists to block financial support for Atlanta University and intimated to the institution’s president that support would not be forthcoming as long as Du Bois remained on the faculty. Du Bois and a group of black militants organized the Niagara Conference in 1905 and pledged to fight racial segregation. A few years later, a race riot erupted in Springfield, Illinois; many observers feared that the ‘‘race war’’ in the South was being transported to Northern cities. Mary Ovington, a social worker who was active with the Niagara Movement, contacted William English Walling, a socialist, who supported progressive causes, and Henry Moskowitz, another progressive. After a few meetings the group issued a call for the formation of a radical political movement that would develop a program to fight segregation and promote racial equality. A steering committee was formed and a conference was convened in New York City on May 31, 1909. Within a year, another committee was created to establish a permanent, interracial organization that became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Du Bois was appointed to serve as the director of publicity and research. He recalled later that the NAACP absorbed the almost all of the members of the Niagara Movement. During his first few weeks at the NAACP, Du Bois assembled materials that would later be published as the first volume of The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races. In his autobiography, Du Bois recalled the magazine ‘‘came at a psychological moment and its success was phenomenal.’’ After the Crisis became the voice of the NAACP, Du Bois became the most well-known and highly regarded African American intellectual. When Booker T. Washington died in 1915, the influence of his Tuskegee machine faded rapidly and was replaced by the NAACP. Du Bois was introverted, and an academic who affected the manner and dress a European dandy. His Van Dyke beard and mustache were always neatly

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groomed. Du Bois was never seen in public without high-collared starched shirts, elegant suits, and a silver-headed walking cane. He was a brilliant and articulate spokesman but he was reserved and aloof. By his own admission, Du Bois was hypersensitive to slights, inordinately quarrelsome, and tactless in his dealings with colleagues. Du Bois’ prickly personality plagued him thorough his career. In 1934, a controversy erupted over an editorial Du Bois wrote. The article argued that African Americans should adopt the program of self-segregation in which black-owned and controlled economic institutions would be encouraged and developed. Frustrated with the NAACP’s inability to make progress toward eliminating segregation, Du Bois contended that integration would likely take a long time to achieve. During the interim, instead of focusing all of its energies on demands for integration, the black community would be better served by developing and relying on its own institutions. Although it was not his intention, Du Bois’ editorial was perceived as acquiescing to continued segregation. A vigorous debate ensued. To many observers, he appeared to be advocating a return to Booker T. Washington’s philosophy. Du Bois’ editorial independence was tolerated as long as the Crisis was self-supporting. But, during the Great Depression years of 1930s, the publication was rapidly losing money. In the wake of the controversy the NAACP’s board of directors took steps to reign in Du Bois. It adopted a formal resolution requiring editorials to reflect the NAACP’s institutional views. All future editorials would have to be approved in advance by the board. This was more than Du Bois could take. In June 1934 he announced his resignation in an angry letter to the board. Du Bois returned to Atlanta University as head of the sociology department. In 1944, however, he rejoined the NAACP as director of publicity and research. Du Bois’ actions and temperament soon alienated his colleagues at the NAACP. In 1948, he was discharged from his position. During this period Du Bois associated with a number of left-wing organizations. From 1949 to 1955 he was vice chairman of the Council on African Affairs, which was cited by the U.S. Attorney General as a ‘‘subversive’’ organization. In 1950 Du Bois became the chairman of Peace Information Center in New York City. That year, at the age of eighty-two, Du Bois ran for the U.S. Senate as the Progressive Party’s candidate. In 1951 Du Bois’ wife, Nina Gomer Du Bois, died. A few months later, he married Shirley Graham. In the 1950s, the United States was gripped by fears of Soviet espionage and communist influence. This was the Cold War era in which the infamous McCarthy hearings were held to root out suspected communists in the government and elsewhere. Du Bois’ association with leftist groups made him a persona non grata to the federal government. In 1951, he was indicted and tried on the flimsy charge of failing to register as a foreign agent. Although he was acquitted, Du Bois was harassed by the FBI and other government agencies. The State Department revoked his passport, preventing him from traveling abroad. In what appears to have been a final gesture of defiance, Du Bois officially joined the American Communist Party in 1961. Ghana’s president, Kwame Nkrumah, invited Du Bois to visit Africa and edit the Encyclopedia Africana. Du

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Bois accepted and later became a citizen of Ghana, where he died on August 27, 1963, at the age of ninety-five. Du Bois was given a state funeral and buried in Accra. The next day, his death was announced to the thousands of demonstrators who had gathered to participate in the historic March on Washington. See also: Consciousness and Identity, African American; Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Marxism; Organizations and Associations; Race Riots Further Reading Du Bois, W. E. B. 1968. The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century. New York: International Publishers. Du Bois, W. E. B. 1940. Dusk of Dawn: An Essay toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Lewis, David Levering. 1993. W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919. New York: Henry Holt. Lewis, David Levering. 2003. W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919–1963. New York: Kensington. Marable, Manning. 1986. W. E. B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat. New York: Twayne Publishers. Rampersad, Arnold. 1990. The Art and Imagination of W. E. B. Du Bois. New York: Schocken Books. Leland Ware

Dunbar, Paul Laurence (1872–1906), Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar was arguably the most popular poet and writer of Fiction in the United States of America during the decade between 1896 and his death in 1906—his African American ancestry notwithstanding. In addition, Dunbar was the first African American writer who was able to earn his livelihood solely from his works. Furthermore, Dunbar’s readings of his works before large, enthusiastic black and white audiences in the United States and England were much acclaimed, and attest to his widespread popularity. Indicative of the great impact his stature had on the African American culture of the period is the fact that many elementary and secondary school, literary and cultural societies, and literary prizes bore—and many still bear—his name. As a testament to his overall stature among African Americans at the turn of the twentieth century, Booker T. Washington labeled Dunbar ‘‘Poet Laureate of the Negro Race.’’ Dunbar was born during the first Reconstruction in Toledo, Ohio, in 1872, to former Kentucky slaves. Dunbar, no doubt, became acquainted with and obtained firsthand knowledge of the southern plantation speech patterns from his parents.

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These speech patterns would later figure prominently in Dunbar’s dialect poetry and some of his fictional African American characters’ speech patterns. Raised by his mother—Dunbar’s parents were divorced when he was four years old—he was a precocious lad, publishing poetry in the Toledo newspaper at sixteen years of age. Upon finishing high school in 1891, he was forced to work a job as an elevator operator from that date until 1893. Although he desired to become a lawyer, he lacked the funds necessary to attend college. Nevertheless, pursuing writing on a part-time basis, Dunbar succeeded in publishing his first collection of poems, Oak and Ivy in 1892. In 1893, the young poet migrated to Chicago, where he labored at menial jobs and clerked for Frederick Douglass, who was in charge of the Haitian Pavilion of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Dunbar met two men—Charles Thatcher and Henry Tobey—who not only provided the fledgling writer with both encouragement and financial support but also, and perhaps more importantly, introduced his poetry to the distinguished Anglo-American critic, editor, and writer, William Dean Howells. Dunbar was catapulted to fame when Howell wrote a column in Harper’s Weekly in 1896, praising the poet’s work. Dunbar’s first major collection of poems, Lyrics of a Lowly Life, was published with a glowing introduction by Howells that same year. When Dodd, Mead publishing brought out that work, Dunbar became the first African American poet to have his poems issued by a major literary house—despite the fact that the status of most African Americans was beginning to deteriorate. Dunbar’s achievement was somewhat ironical, especially when one considers that disfranchisement by amended state constitutions, the proliferation of Jim Crow laws, the removal of African Americans from positions in skilled labor, and the atmosphere of legal and extralegal violence gripped the nation. From 1897 to 1898, Dunbar, who was still unable to support himself solely on his earnings as a writer, served as an assistant at the Library of Congress and continued his writing, publishing in such highbrow and middlebrow literary magazines as Atlantic, Century, Outlook, and the Saturday Evening Post. In addition, he collaborated with Will Marion Cook in writing several musical plays featuring African American performers, including the hit musical comedy Clorindy, that was staged in New York City in 1898. By the end 1898, Dunbar had contracted pneumonia and later tuberculosis. He turned to alcohol for relief; married the writer Alice Ruth Moore (from whom he was divorced in 1902); and began receiving enough money for his publications so that he could devote all of his attention to his writings. From 1898 until 1906 he published several collections of poetry in both dialect verse and Standard English verse, plus four collections of short stories, four novels, and several miscellaneous writings. Dunbar’s medical condition continued to deteriorate during this period of high productivity; and he died of tuberculosis in his mother’s home in Toledo, Ohio. Dunbar’s legacy is a mixed picture. Some critics and writers have accused his use of dialect poetry and dialect speech patterns in his fiction as the manipulation of derogatory, happy-go-lucky stereotypes of African Americans. In fact, Dunbar himself was dismayed by the fact that his literary freedom was compromised. Other critics point to the subterranean social protest themes in some of

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his works. There is no doubt, however, that the short story, ‘‘The Lynching of Jube Benson,’’ the poems, ‘‘We Wear the Mask,’’ and ‘‘Sympathy,’’ and the novel The Sport of Gods reveal a complex, dark side of Dunbar’s work that deeply probed the predicament in the United States that no amount of editorial intervention and criticism succeeded in erasing. Furthermore, Dunbar significantly influenced his contemporaries, Charles Waddell Chesnutt and James Weldon Johnson, as well as the young writers of the Harlem Renaissance such as Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. For those writers, some of Dunbar’s works were a source of race pride. Indeed, Dunbar made stellar contribution African American letters during the age of Jim Crow. He viewed himself as a writer whose aim was ‘‘to interpret my own people through song and story and to prove to the many that after all we are more human than African.’’ See also: Black English; Literature, Classic African American; Poets and Poetry Further Reading Cunningham, Virginia. 1977. Paul Laurence Dunbar and His Song. New York: Dodd, Mead. Gayle, Addison Jr. 1971. Oak and Ivy: A Biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Doubleday. Gentry, Tony. 1989. Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Melrose Square Publishing. Martin, Jay. 1975. A Singer in the Dawn: Reinterpretations of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead. Redding, Saunders. 1939. To Make a Poet Black. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Turner, Darwin. 1967. ‘‘Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Rejected Symbol.’’ Journal of Negro History 52 (January): 1–13. Vernon J. Williams Jr.

Dungy, Tony (1955– ), Football Coach Professional football coach Tony Dungy is hailed as a coaching genius as well as the least-excitable person on the sidelines of a Football team. He is known for his ability to turn around a football program and transform struggling teams into powerhouses. His persona is as attractive to professional football fans as the many games that he won, including two trips to the Super Bowl. When he became the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl, he sealed his iconic image and reputation. America’s fascination with football, especially at the professional level, makes it easy to accept successful coaches as popular culture idols and icons. Outside sports, Dungy is known as a family man, a person of strong faith, and one of good character—all important elements in popular culture. Anthony ‘‘Tony’’ Kevin Dungy was born on October 6, 1955, in Jackson, Michigan, to Wilbur Dungy, a physiology professor, and Cleomae Dungy, an English teacher. He is married to the former Lauren Harris and they have five children.

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Their second-oldest child was found dead of an apparent suicide near Tampa in 2005. Dungy took an early interest in football, and at age six he watched the Detroit Lions’ games. Although he was a star basketball guard in high school, he was also an option quarterback. When Dungy entered the University of Minnesota, the head football coach was already familiar with his football exploits. He became a member of the starting lineup by the end of his first year and went on to become a star quarterback for the Golden Gophers (1973–76). Dungy’s record failed to seal a place for him in the NFL and he was passed over in its draft. He became a free agent for the Pittsburgh Steelers and was soon hired as a defensive back. So successful was Dungy that he helped to lead the Steelers to a Super Bowl championship in 1979. Following that, he was traded several times before retiring from active play. His understanding of the game and ability to anticipate moves of opposing teams on the field led to his appointment to various coaching posts, beginning with that of defensive coach for the University of Minnesota and then to the NFL as assistant coach for the Steelers. Dungy held various coaching positions with the Steelers, rising through the ranks in their organization. In 1984, he was defensive coach coordinator for the team and the first African American to hold that post in the NFL. Dungy left the Steelers in 1989 and held defensive coaching posts with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Minnesota Vikings. In 1996, he was at long last made head coach, with the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Then only forty-one years old, he was successful in his effort to turn the team around; at the end of the season, the Buccaneers were no longer in last place in the league. He led the team to second place in the NFL Central Division and to an unsuccessful Super Bowl match against the Green Bay Packers. Dungy also was one of the Buccaneers’ most successful head coaches, yet his repeated losses in the next five years led to his firing in 2001. The Indianapolis Colts, who were weak defensively, respected his record and made him their head coach in January 2002. In seven seasons with the Colts, on February 4, 2007, Dungy became the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl, in a match between the Chicago Bears led by his good friend, Lovie Smith. He is also the first coach to lead a team to the playoffs for ten consecutive years, the first NFL head coach to defeat all thirty-two NFL teams, the youngest assistant coach (age twenty-five), and the youngest coordinator (age twenty-eight). To the dismay of his fans, Dungy ended his thirty-one-year NFL career and announced his retirement from the Colts in January 2009. He had been one of the most admired, respected, and popular coaches in the NFL. Although no longer a coach, Dungy is still in public view, this time as a prominent analyst for NBC’s weekly Sunday Night Football pregame show, Football Night in America. He remains involved with numerous charitable organizations that are well known in popular culture. They include the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Mentors for Life, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Clubs, the Prison, the Black Coaches Association National Convention, Family Firsts, Indiana Black Expo, and the American Diabetes Association. He counseled NFL player Michael Vick, who was found guilty of engaging in dog-fighting at his home in Virginia, and, with other sports figures, convinced the Eagles owner to consider signing Vick

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to their team. In 2007, President George W. Bush appointed the devout evangelical Christian to the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. A New York Times best-selling author as well, Tony Dungy wrote Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life (2007); You Can Do It, a children’s book (2008); and Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance (2009). An independent celebrity rating service for advertisers reported that, among sports greats, Dungy ranks second only to Hank Aaron. See also: Churches; Philanthropy; Sports Announcers and Commentators Further Reading About.com. 2010. ‘‘Tony Dungy—Biography.’’ http://christianity.about.com/od/christian celebrities/p/tonydungyprofil.htm. Answers. Com. 2010. ‘‘Black Biography: Tony Dungy.’’ http://www.answers.com/topic/tony -dungy. Dungy, Tony and Nathan Whitaker. 2008. Quiet Strength. The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House. Jacobson, Robert R. 1998. ‘‘Tony Dungy.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 17. Detroit: Gale. Lumpkin, Angela. 2009. ‘‘Biographical Sketches.’’ In Modern Sports Ethics: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. Miller, Jason Philip. 2008. ‘‘Tony Dungy.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 3. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Frederick D. Smith

Dupri, Jermaine (1972– ), Record Producer, Rapper, Songwriter Jermaine Dupri is a southern-born music mogul, one of a rising number of young African Americans who dominate African American popular culture in multiple simultaneous roles as producers, songwriters, rappers, and fashion trendsetters. Dupri’s career emerged while he was just a youth during the formative years of Hip-Hop and rap music. He started out as a hip-hop dancer and evolved into a producer, songwriter, and rapper. He has produced such groups as the trendsetting rap duo Kris Kross and an all-women’s rhythm and blues group, Xscape. Dupri’s rise to mainstream popularity was due to a number of factors, such as the mainstreaming of hip-hop and rap music and multitalented producers Sean (Diddy) Combs and Jay-Z (Shawn Corey Carter). Other factors included Dupri’s high-profile relationship with singer Janet Jackson, his ubiquitous presence in the hip-hop and rap industry, and his influential role in setting trends. Dupri, who has never been married, has one daughter, Shaniah, born in 1998. Jermaine Dupri Mauldin was born on September 23, 1972, in Asheville, North Carolina, to Michael and Cecilia Mauldin. His mother worked multiple jobs, while

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his father pursued a career as a producer in the music industry. Michael Mauldin named Jermaine after one of the members of the popular Motown Records singing group, the Jackson Five. Dupri comes from Cornell Dupree, a funk guitarist. Following Jermaine’s birth, the family moved to College Park, Atlanta. Early on, Dupri expressed a vigorous interest in music and dance. At three years old, he impressed his family with his drum-playing skills. A child of the times, Dupri perfected popular 1980s dance styles, such as the dance moves of Michael Jackson, and Break Dancing, and he wore a Jheri curl. In 1982, he relished in his first opportunity in the limelight when he danced on stage during a Diana Ross concert. Following that performance, Dupri entered multiple dance contests. Dupri’s parents were extremely supportive throughout his childhood, even after they divorced in the early 1980s. His mother drove him to his contests. Although money was sometimes lacking, Dupri’s parents provided him with lessons on multiple instruments. (Dupri contended that he was often too impatient to master such skills as reading music and composing.) His father exposed him to the music industry and helped launch his career. One of the most impactful experiences of Dupri’s life was when he performed as a dancer, between 1984 and 1987, in a national tour for rappers, known as the New York Fresh Fest, an event his father helped produce. The tour featured many pioneers in rap music, such as Run-DMC, Grandmaster Flash, and Kurtis Blow. Beginning in Dupri’s second year of the tour, he performed with Chad Elliott, with whom he formed a close bond. One summer, Dupri stayed with Elliott and his family who lived in New York, where hip-hop culture and music flourished. The South was then known mostly for blues, jazz, and gospel music. While still a teenager, Dupri transitioned from dancing to other enterprises. In 1986, he started making mix tapes, a practice that was popular with youth in that decade. Shortly thereafter, he began producing, a career move that was, then, considered an anomaly, not only because Dupri was so young, but most young African Americans in the music industry pursued singing and rapping careers exclusively. Dupri produced his first singing group, Silk Tymes Leather, in 1987. Kris Kross, who debuted in the early 1990s, was Dupri’s first breakout success. Kris Kross featured adolescent rappers Chris ‘‘Mack Daddy’’ Kelly and Chris ‘‘Daddy Mack’’ Smith. As with all his prot
eg
es, Dupri meticulously groomed the young men. Dupri modeled his extensive grooming technique after Berry Gordy Jr., founder of the Motown record label and producer. Gordy played a figurative role in perfecting the appearance and developing the talents of numerous performers. Dupri was the mastermind behind Kris Kross’s trademark look, including, among other things, clothes worn in reverse and hair in Cornrows. The group’s look sparked a fashion trend in the African American community. Kris Kross’s second album, Da Bomb, however, was influential in a different way. ‘‘Da bomb’’ is a slang phrase to refer to something that is cool or appealing. The release of the album popularized the phrase in black communities, eventually spreading into predominately white suburbs. Without a doubt, Dupri emerged in the 1990s as one of the most influential players in the industry, and he continues to stay relevant year after year. Indeed,

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Dupri prides himself on being able to identify and develop talent and stay abreast of trends in popular culture. Among the ways he is able to adapt to the changing whims and interests of his audience is to observe trends in local clubs. He has also established his professional career in multiple ways. He launched So So Def Records in 1992. Since then, he has collaborated with major record labels like Columbia, and worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Mariah Carey, Elton John, TLC, Monica, Usher, Alicia Keys, and Lil’ Bow Wow, now known as Bow Wow. In 2001, Dupri worked with Janet Jackson; they developed a romantic relationship shortly afterwards. The relationship was a catalyst to Dupri’s heightened public exposure. Notwithstanding Dupri’s highly public relationship with Jackson, Dupri has become a media sensation in his own right. He has received numerous awards, such as his first Grammy for best R & B (Rhythm & Blues) song ‘‘We Belong Together’’ in 2006. In 2007, his autobiography, Young, Rich, and Dangerous: The Making of a Music Mogul, was published. Like other music moguls, Dupri has undertaken assorted ventures, such as a caf
e, his So So Def clothing line, and the Nu Pop Movement watch line. At only thirty-seven years old, Dupri continues to make a strong mark in popular culture. See also: Entertainment Industry Further Reading Deutsch, Stacia, and Hody Cohon. 2009. Jermaine Dupri Sharing the American Dream: Overcoming Adversity. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest Publishers. Dupri, Jermaine and Samantha Marshall. 2007. Young, Rich, and Dangerous: The Making of a Music Mogul. New York: Atria Books. Global 14.com. 2009. ‘‘JD’s World’’ (blog), November. http://www.global14.com/. Oliver, Richard, and Tim Leffel. 2006. Hip-Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of the Rap Moguls. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press. Sarig, Roni. 2007. Third Coast: OutKast, Timbaland, and How Hip-Hop Became a Southern Thing. Cambide: Da Capo Press. Gladys L. Knight

E Ebonics. See Black English Ebony (magazine) The story of Ebony magazine cannot be told without relating the parallel story of its founder and brain trust, John H. Johnson. Born in Arkansas City, Arkansas, in 1918, Johnson’s improbable rise to journalistic prominence began when his family migrated to Chicago in 1933. To support his college education, Johnson worked part-time at black-owned Supreme Life Insurance. One of his assignments was to comb through newspapers and magazines for articles discussing African Americans and prepare a report for the president of the company. The job gave Johnson the dream of starting his own magazine, and he soon made it a reality by borrowing $500 on his mother’s furniture to start Johnson Publishing. The Negro Digest, formatted like Reader’s Digest, made its debut in November 1942 and lasted until 1975 with the title changed to Black World. Anchored by a circulation of fifty thousand, its profitability between 1942 and 1945 enabled Johnson to realize an even greater ambition, which was to publish an African American version of Life and Look magazines. Both magazines are defunct now, but for many years their photography based on news events made them best-selling newsstand icons. Johnson’s wife, Eunice, named the magazine Ebony because to her it represented black attainment. It enjoyed an enthusiastic reception in the black community when the first issue arrived in November 1945. To this day, it remains the most successful Afrocentric magazine in history and its enduring legacy is directly attributable to Johnson’s marketing skills, business genius, hard work, and creativity. He tenaciously worked to convince advertisers to give his magazine a try.

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After he successfully landed Zenith as one of his major accounts, others corporations soon followed. Ebony became such a publishing juggernaut that Johnson was able to create a popular weekly magazine, Jet. He even expanded into niche audiences, with Ebony Jr. and Ebony Man. Johnson aggressively marketed Ebony to the black community’s aspiring middle class, by not only providing stories about entertainers and sports celebrities, but also black professionals and business people. The magazine’s popular photo features include annual lists of eligible singles looking for mates, African American community leaders, and homecoming queens from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Ebony has had its detractors, who point out that its lists of powerful Former Ebony and Jet magazine model black leaders do not include enough Joanna LaShane displays an old cover of scholars and intellectuals. They also Ebony magazine. The Ebony covers are part point out that Ebony rarely deals with of a new exhibition at the African American the negative aspects of the black expeHeritage Museum of Southern New Jersey rience in the United States. Its mass featuring 500 covers of national black magazines dating back to the 1940s. (Corbis) appeal has been carefully built on success stories and putting forth a positive image of African American culture and lifestyle. It has seldom tampered with the profile that has made it one of the most stable privately publishing empires in the nation. Fashion has always been a mainstay for Ebony and Johnson Publishing capitalized on its success by starting Ebony Fashion Fair in 1958. Under the direction by Eunice Johnson, the traveling runway show features top-notch designers and is marketed to local civic groups like the NAACP and the National Urban League, as well as fraternal organizations, as a fundraiser. The Ebony Fashion Fair is an integral part of the magazine’s success, because each ticket sold includes a one-year subscription to either Ebony or Jet. Ebony brought so much fame and fortune to John H. Johnson that he was able to select a black architect and erect his own $8-million office building. He published a bestselling autobiography, Succeeding Against the Odds in 1989. When he died in 2005, some of his numerous honors included becoming the namesake of Howard University’s School of Journalism, and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton.

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Linda Johnson Rice followed her father to become president and CEO. It is a testament to its peerless status as the preeminent African American publication, that after winning the U.S. presidency on November 4, 2008, and becoming the first American of African descent to attain that office, Barack Obama gave Ebony the honor of being the first magazine to feature a post-election interview. To return the favor, Ebony named President Obama its first ‘‘Person of the Year.’’ See also: Journalism and Journalists; Publishers and Publishing Further Reading Boyd, Herb. 2005. ‘‘Publishing Giant John H. Johnson Passes at 87.’’ New York Amsterdam News. August 11–17. Cross, Theodore L. 1996–97. ‘‘Ebony Magazine: Sometimes the Bell Curve’s Best Friend.’’ Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 10 (Winter): 75–76. Johnson Publishing.com. (n.d.) ‘‘John H. Johnson, 1918–2005, a Media Giant.’’ About JPC. http://www.johnsonpublishing.com/assembled/about_johnson_biography.html. Whigham-Desir, Majorie. 1997. ‘‘Marathon Men: 25 Years of Black Entrepreneurial Excellence.’’ Black Enterprise 27 (June): 106. Williamson, Don. 1995. ‘‘Pioneer Magazines Reach Milestones: Ebony Commemorates 50 Years Publishing Success.’’ NABJ: National Association of Black Journalists 13 (August 31): 4. Glenda Alvin

Economic Development The topic of black economic development, still widely discussed in popular culture, must begin with the truth that slavery played a major role in boosting the economies of some communities, but was severely thwarting to the economic advancement of blacks. The remnants of this two-hundred-year atrocity continue to linger today. For centuries, slaves toiled to increase the livelihood of nearly everyone except themselves. Even after emancipation, blacks did not have nor were they offered a viable way to gain a stable economic foundation. In the mid-1860s, after realizing that the much-needed economic boost of ‘‘forty acres and a mule’’ (commonly thought to be due and coming to each former slave) was not going to come to fruition, many newly freed blacks were forced to return to the plantation. Later, help came in the form of the Freedmen’s Bureau, an organization approved by Congress. The bureau aided in assisting these newly freed slaves with medical attention and food, and education through the establishment of schools, institutes, and colleges. Despite its good intentions, the bureau lasted less than a decade and failed to reach many of those who badly needed assistance. It was evident that other measures had to be taken. Activists within the black community began to emerge and offer their ideas on ways to improve the economic

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situation. Prominent leaders included W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on February 23, 1868. An educated man, Du Bois attended Fisk University, graduated from Harvard with three degrees, and studied abroad at the University of Berlin. Du Bois believed that higher education was the key to uplifting black people, much to the chagrin of Booker T. Washington. Du Bois affirmed that an elite subset of blacks should be mobilized to address the issues of racism. His opposition to accommodation and other views espoused by Booker T. Washington were made apparent in his 1903 book, The Souls of Black Folks. Du Bois continued to champion integration and improved economic opportunities for blacks through his work with the Niagara Movement and its successor, the NAACP. Booker Taliaferro Washington was born a slave in Franklin County Virginia on April 5, 1856. Founding president of Tuskegee Institute (now University), Washington believed and convinced others that if they worked hard and gained capital that they would be successful. Skilled labor proved to be a good option until southern states passed Black Codes restricting the rights of freedmen; then black workers found themselves at a loss since most of their potential employers or customers were white. Societal prejudices, limited educational opportunities, segregated schools, and housing restrictions continued to be invisible weights for the black population, especially those living in the South. During the Great Migration, blacks fled the South in large numbers in search of industrial employment in the less-oppressive North. However, there they had to compete with European immigrants; due to employer bias, blacks often were given the least-skilled jobs. After the start of World War I and the cessation of immigration, blacks were finally able to feed and educate their families as meat packers, shipyard workers, and miners. Through word of mouth and the Chicago Defender, the news spread and additional blacks began to flood cities like Chicago and New York City. Then, between 1950 and 1960, steel mills and packinghouses began to close, once again leaving those with limited education economically depressed. In the late 1960s, groups such as the National Conference on Black Power and the Black Economic Development Conference convened to discuss ways to build the economic power of blacks. Buying black, instilling black pride, and achieving job equity were themes articulated in the speeches during this time. In May 1969, James Forman, leading activist within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), presented the Black Manifesto to the Riverside Church in New York City. This document, adopted by the 1969 Black Economic Development Conference in Detroit, outlined the request for reparations in the form of $500 million. This amount would be used to compensate blacks for their involuntary enslavement in the United States. According to Robert Allen’s article on Reparations, ‘‘The Manifesto proposed that reparations be used for helping black farmers, establishing black print and electronic media, funding training, research and community organizing centers, assistance in organizing welfare recipients and black workers, funding research on black economic development and links with Africa, and funding a black university.’’ Sympathetic toward Forman’s

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plea, the Riverside Church and some other churches responded by agreeing to donate funds to causes such as antipoverty efforts, but the flame of reparations dialogue was allowed to fizzle. The United States government has not supported reparations for blacks even though it has provided payments to Japanese Americans and Native Americans for past atrocities. Currently, strategies to improve the economic situation of blacks include work force development, black-owned business development, urban revitalization, and a return to support for black-owned businesses. Researchers and economists contend that bringing jobs that offer fair wages to those living in the inner city will serve as a viable option for economic growth. Funds from private sectors and government entities are necessary to ensure that black businesses have access to credit and financial capital. Establishing business-improvement districts that promote business activity in urban areas has proven to be an effective method for urban revitalization. Much of the black buying power never reaches those that need it most—black businesses. Increasing patronage at black-owned businesses is a simple way to improve black economic and community development. See also: Employment, Unemployment, and Income; Philanthropy Further Reading Allen, Robert. 2005. ‘‘Past Due: The African American Quest for Reparations.’’ In African Americans in the U.S. Economy. Cecelia Conrad, ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Bennett, Lerone Jr. 2007. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing. Haddad, William F., and Douglas Pugh, eds. 1969. Black Economic Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Irons, Edward D. 1971. On Black Economic Development: Myths and Facts. Austin: University of Texas at Austin. Jennings, James, ed. 1992. Race, Politics, and Economic Development: Community Perspectives. London: Verso. Tabb, William K. 1988. ‘‘What Happened to Black Economic Development?’’ Review of Black Political Economy 17 (September): 65–88. Angela M. Gooden

Edelman, Marian Wright (1939– ), Lawyer, Activist, Children’s Rights Advocate Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, is a lawyer, author, civil rights activist, and advocate for the rights of children. Her contributions in these areas have brought her international acclaim. Born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, on June 6, 1939, Marian Wright Edelman was instilled with an appreciation for community service at an early age by her

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parents, Arthur and Maggie Wright. Arthur, a Baptist minister, also emphasized the importance of education to his children; after graduation from Marlboro Training High School, Edelman enrolled at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Through the course of her undergraduate studies, her commitment to and appreciation for service would expand to include an interest in the preservation of human rights. During her junior year at Spelman, Edelman received the Charles Merrill scholarship that provided for a year of study in Paris, Geneva, and several other cities in Eastern Europe. This experience was pivotal in the development of her worldview, challenging her to become more involved in the Civil Rights Movement that was rapidly spreading throughout the American South. Upon her return to Atlanta, Edelman actively participated in both local and regional protest efforts and was even arrested in the spring of 1960, along with several other students, in a sit-in modeled after those staged at North Carolina lunch counters in February of the same year. She graduated from Spelman in May 1960 as valedictorian, entering Yale Law School in the fall and beginning a career in activism that would culminate in several historical and meaningful events in American history. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1963, Edelman moved to New York, where she worked for the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) in preparation for a career as a civil rights attorney. Relocating to Jackson, Mississippi, in the summer of 1964 (also known as ‘‘Freedom Summer’’), where she became the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, Edelman was soon directing the activities for the local office of the LDF. Her work on behalf of the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM), civil rights, and poverty led to her testimony before the United States Senate, as well as a visit to Mississippi by Robert Kennedy in 1967. Kennedy’s visit facilitated the procurement of additional federal funding for welfare, and Edelman was able to open a Head Start program in her community. Additionally, Edelman met her husband, Peter, on this visit, and the two were married in July 1968. They have three sons, Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra. Edelman relocated to Washington, DC, in the summer of 1968, where she helped to organize and execute the Poor People’s Campaign and also founded the Washington Research Project—a public interest law firm that focused on children’s rights. Her growing interest in the rights of children led to the creation of her current project: the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). Founded in 1973, the CDF has assisted in the reformation of the overarching system for children’s rights and protection, including adoption, childcare, special needs services, foster care, and teenage pregnancy. As the president and spokesperson for the CDF, Edelman has become synonymous with the preservation and protection of America’s youth, frequently testifying before the United States Congress on the need for changes in the existing policies regulating child care. She has written several books on child care and development, including Stand for Children (1998) and Hold My Hand: Prayers for Building a Movement to Leave No Child Behind (2001), and has received many awards for her service, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. See also: Children and Youth; Education: Public and Private; Social Activists; Women and the Civil Rights Movement

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Further Reading Edelman, Marian Wright. 1994. The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours. Boston: Beacon Press. ‘‘Marian Wright Edelman.’’ Children’s Defense Fund (n.d.). Biography. http://www .childrensedefense.org/about-us/leadership-staff/marian-wright-edelman/. Ross, Rosetta E. 2008. ‘‘Marian Wright Edelman.’’ In African American National Biogaphyh, Vol. 3. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Sheftall, Beverly Guy. 1992. ‘‘Marian Wright Edelman.’’ In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Lynn Washington

Edmonds, Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face’’ (1958– ), Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer ‘‘Baby Face’’ Edmonds is one of the most influential artists in African American popular culture. As a major songwriter and music producer, Baby Face permeated a field that had been traditionally dominated by whites. He is most famous for his trademark soft singing style that helped to define the popular sounds of the 1980s and 1990s. He also contributed greatly as a songwriter for several artists, black and white, and, as a producer, he launched the careers of several popular singers. His brother is Kevon Edmonds who sang with the group After 7. Born Kenneth Brian Edmonds, the youngest of six boys, on April 10, 1958 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Baby Face discovered music early on. As an adolescent, he was nicknamed ‘‘Baby Face,’’ because of his boyish appearance. He joined the group Manchild as a guitarist in the 1970s. When Baby Face joined the Deele, a group including Antonio ‘‘L. A.’’ Reid, Carlos Greene, Darell Bristol, Stanley Burke, and Kevin Roberson, he played the guitar, keyboard, and synthesizer. In 1983, Baby Face cowrote ‘‘Slow-Jam’’ for Midnight Star. The late 1980s sparked new opportunities for Baby Face. After leaving the Deele, he embarked on a solo career and profitable and monumental behindthe-scenes work in the music industry. Baby Face is credited as one of the major creators of new jack swing, which fused R & B (Rhythm & Blues) and Hip-Hop. This style was considered revolutionary, as both music genres had, until then, maintained distinct and separate sounds. The hybridization of the two genres proved successful, permeating into mainstream music and film soundtracks, like Ghostbusters (1989) and the House Party film series, as well as television series such as Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Baby Face built a strong reputation as a music producer and songwriter and successful entrepreneur. In 1989, he cofounded LaFace Records, catapulting the careers of artists like Toni Braxton and TLC to success. He wrote songs for some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Bobby Brown, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Beyonc
e, Madonna, and Eric Clapton,

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and groups such as Boys II Men. Although Baby Face’s singing career was mostly limited to black radio stations and black television stations or networks like Black Entertainment Television (BET), which targeted music videos to black audiences, the artists he wrote for have largely crossed over to mainstream audiences. In the late 1990s, Baby Face expanded his career by getting involved in film producing. One of his more successful films, particularly among African American audiences, was Soul Food (1997). Notwithstanding the fact that Baby Face is mostly associated with music of the 1980s and 1990s, he continues to play a role in popular culture. He appeared on the television show, Celebrity Duets, released an album, Playlist, in 2007, and appeared on the albums of assorted artists. Generally a low-key celebrity, Baby Face’s personal life made news when, after more than a decade of marriage, he and his wife, Tracey Edmonds, divorced in 2005. They have two sons. In 2008, Baby Face and Nicole Pantenburg had a daughter. See also: Musicians and Singers; Pop Music Further Reading Glickman, Simon, Jim Henry, and Jennifer M. York. 2002. ‘‘Kenneth ‘Baby Face’ Edmonds.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale Group. Mercury Records Artists. ‘‘Kenneth (Baby Face) Edmonds.’’ 2009. Island Def Jam (publicity site) October. http://www.islanddefjam.com/artist/home.aspx?artistID=7383. Gladys L. Knight

Education: Public and Private The first schools in the United States were private and influenced by religious groups, such as the Puritans and Roman Catholics, who wanted schools that reflected their belief systems. By the middle of the eighteenth century, private schooling was the norm and catered primarily to those who were wealthy and male. Although most blacks in the United States during the eighteenth century were slaves and went unschooled, there are a few documented examples of slaves who received education by their owners, such as Phillis Wheatley, who by the age of twelve, was studying theology and fluent in Greek and Latin classics and by sixteen had published her first book. Phillis Wheatley is credited with publishing the first book by an African American. Similarly Olaudah Equiano also a slave formally educated in Britain by his owner. Equiano is credited with writing the first narrative from a slave’s perspective about the slave trade. Although private

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schools played an integral role in America’s educational system, most blacks did not benefit from early private schools. Wheatley’s and Equiano’s examples are important and begin to illustrate the persistence and intellect of blacks during the eighteenth century. Despite the early, private, elite educational system in the United States, in which blacks were often kept illiterate as a form of social control, some still managed to become educated. Today’s private schools continue to be influenced by their early predecessors. Unlike public schools, private schools are not obligated to accept every child. They can be selective in their admissions process and are not subject to the same state and federal regulations as public schools. In addition, since private schools are funded independently, they are not subject to the limitations of state education budgets and have more freedom in designing curriculum and instruction. Private schools are usually run by denominational or secular boards or operated for profit. Private schools do not receive tax revenues, but instead are funded through tuition, fundraising, donations, and private grants. According to the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the median tuition for students attending private schools in 2005–06 in the United States was close to $14,000 for grades 1 to 3, $15,000 for grades 6 to 8, and $16,600 for grades 9 to 12. Private schools usually have smaller student enrollment and class sizes than those of public schools. The Development of Public Schools While some groups support private education, early proponents of education such as Horace Mann and Henry Barnard believed that common schooling (also known today as public schools) should be available to all children since it provided an opportunity to create good citizens. As a result of their efforts, free public education at the elementary level was available for all American children by the end of the nineteenth century. Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school attendance laws in 1852, followed by New York in 1853. By 1918 all states had passed laws requiring children to attend at least elementary school. Today, in the United States, public schooling is the most common form of education. It is usually funded by local governments and receives additional funding from three levels: federal, state, and local. By law, public schools must educate all children, including students with special needs, and offer a general program designed for all children, which usually includes mathematics, English, reading, writing, science, history, and physical education. Curriculum (what students learn) and instruction (how teachers teach) usually are mandated by the state, while learning is measured through state standardized tests. Public school is normally split up into three stages: elementary school, which includes kindergarten to grade 5 or 6, middle school (also known as junior high) usually grades 6 through 8 for middle school and grades 7 through 9 for junior high, and high school (also known as secondary school) which includes grades 9 or 10 to 12.

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Although the first American public school was established in 1635, it would be some time before the idea that public school was to provide an education for all children would be realized. The first recorded free public school for blacks was opened in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1872. However, blacks continued to receive inequitable educational resources and a disproportionate education. W. E. B. Du Bois, a prolific black scholar of the twentieth century, argued that without complete intellectual equality, true social equality could never be achieved. The intellect and activism of critical thinkers like Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and others led to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Notwithstanding the court rulings, it was difficult to eliminate discrimination in practice. Many suggest that the legacy of inequity continues, as some public and private school curriculums are biased and likely to include Eurocentric values, culture, and ways of knowing. By valuing one culture over the other, curriculum marginalizes some students of color whose ways of knowing, language, and dress are informed by popular culture (currently described as Hip-Hop culture). While some students of color are able to survive their education, others are pushed out of school or eventually drop out. Increasingly, as hip-hop and popular culture have become mainstream and youth from Eurocentric backgrounds have begun to engage in aspects of popular culture, such as dress and language, scholarship on popular culture in schools has become more widely accepted, particularly in the classroom setting. There is not a large body of work analyzing and connecting the influence of hip-hop to public and private schools in general. Films might be one way to begin the conversation beyond classrooms to larger school context. Lean on Me (1989) and Stand and Deliver (1988), films based on true experiences of youth of color in public school settings, as well as Sister Act II (1993), a comedy not necessarily based on lived experiences in a private school setting, begin to depict some of the struggles of youth who are consumers of popular culture as well as the biases that are embedded in school culture and curriculum that often marginalize them. To know the full impact that popular culture has had on public or private schools, more scholarship is needed. See also: Head Start; Slave Narratives; Social Activists Further Reading Akom, Antwi A. 2009. ‘‘Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Form of Liberatory Praxis.’’ Equity and Excellence in Education 42 (January): 56–66. Braun, Henry, Frank Jenkins, and Wendy Grigg. 2006. ‘‘Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling.’’ National Assessment of Educational Progress: The Nation’s Report Card. July. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard /pubs/studies/2006461.asp. Butts, Freeman. 1978. Public Education in the United States: From Revolution to Reform. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Carey, Brycchan. 2000. ‘‘Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African.’’ Amazon. United Kingdom. April. http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/

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Creek, Tracy. 2009. ‘‘W. E. B. Du Bois.’’ Special Collections & Universiy Archives. University of Massachusetts Amherst. http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/digital/ writings.htm. Duncan-Andrade, J. 2004. ‘‘Your Best Friend or Your Worst Enemy: Youth Popular Culture, Pedagogy and Curriculum at the Dawn of the 21st Century.’’ Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies 26, 4: 313–37. Duncan-Andrade, Jeffery and Ernest Morrell. 2007. ‘‘Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom.’’ In Critical Pedagogy, Where Are We Now? Ed. P. McLaren, and J. L. Kincheloe. New York: Peter Lang. Duncan-Andrade, Jeffery and Ernest Morrell. 2005. ‘‘Turn Up That Radio, Teacher: Popular Cultural Pedagogy in New Century Urban Schools.’’ Journal of School Leadership 56 (March): 284–304. Fisher, Maisha. 2007. Writing in Rhythm: Spoken Word Poetry in Urban Classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press. Guthrie, John. 1981. ‘‘Traits of Private Schools.’’ Journal of Reading 25 (November): 188–91. Horn, Jim. 2009. Public Schools Outperform Private Schools in NAEP Math Assessments. School Matters. March. http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2009/03/public-schools -outperform-private.html. Johnson, J. A., H. W. Collins., V. L. Dupuis, and J. H. Johansen. 1985. Introduction to the Foundations of American Education. 6th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Lewis, Jane. 2010. ‘‘Phillis Wheatley Slave Poet of Colonial America: a Story of Her Life.’’ http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframerwriters/a/philliswheatley.htm. Pezzoni, Dan. 2001. ‘‘A Guide to Historical Salem.’’ The Salem Museum History Society. Spring. http://www.salemmuseum.org/guide_archives/HSV7N1.html#public %20school. Taeuber, Karl and David James. 1983. ‘‘Racial Segregation among Public and Private Schools: A Response.’’ Sociology of Education 56 (October): 204–7. Thattai, Deeptha. (n.d.) A History of Public Education in the United States http:// www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInThe UnitedStates.html. Wrinkle, Robert, Joseph Stewart, and J. L. Polinard. 1999. ‘‘Public School Quality: Private Schools and Race.’’ American Journal of Political Science 43 (October): 1248–53. Stephanie Carter

Elder, Lee (1934– ), Golfer Although the high visibility of African Americans in Golf today is due to the success of Tiger Woods, their interest in golf is long-standing. Lee Elder broke the racial barrier in 1975 by playing in the Masters Tournament held in Augusta, Georgia. At that time, his name became synonymous with the game of golf, particularly but not exclusively by those who remembered his pioneering efforts. He remains steadfast in his love for golf, having built a stellar career and achieved more firsts along the way. Elder stands tall among legendary players who collectively paved the way for others of his race to emerge and achieve on the golf course.

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Interest in the sport of golf as a game of choice in the African American community was already demonstrated as early as the 1890s, when blacks caddied for wealthy white clients. Since racial exclusion clauses in mainstream U.S. golf organizations kept African Americans from joining, blacks exercised their options and formed their own organization. A group of African American golfers met in Washington, DC, to show their strength and solidarity for the game and for a need to establish a professional golfers association. In 1925, the group formed the United Negro Golfers Association, later known as the United Golfers Association, (UGA). The next year, golfers from all over the country met at Mapledale Country Club in Stow, Massachusetts, for the association’s initial national tournament, known as the Negro National Open. After World War II, the UGA began to attract such talented players as Charlie Sifford, Calvin Peete, Ted Rhodes, and Lee Elder, several of whom went on to win national titles in the sport and each achieving historical significance. One of eight children, Robert Lee Elder was born in Dallas, Texas, on July 14, 1934, to Charles and Sadie Elder. He was orphaned at an early age and then sent to Los Angeles to live with an older sister. As was the case with many young blacks then, he spent some time serving as a caddy and in the process strengthened an interest in golf that emerged while living in his hometown. He regularly missed school to spend time on the links. At night he sneaked onto the racially segregated course, where he became a self-taught player. Elder dropped out of high school to become even more involved in the game, rapidly developing his skills as he observed those who hired him to caddy and as he practiced when he could. In 1959, Elder became a professional golfer and joined the United Golf Association tour in 1961. He joined the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) in 1967. After winning the Monsanto Open in 1974, he had an automatic invitation to play in the 1975 Masters, becoming the first African American to play in that match. His success on the links continued as he won the Houston Open in 1976 and the American Express Westchester Classic in 1978. Elders played in the Masters again in 1977 and in 1979 he was the first black to play for the Ryder Cup team, an international competition. Elder won twelve PGA tournaments and senior tours. Elder’s honors include membership in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Hall of Fame. He and his wife Sharon live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where his continuing interest in golf is seen in the Lee Elder Reunion Golf Tournament, a charitable event which he hosts to benefit underprivileged children. He remains an iconic figure in the world of golf. See also: Organizations and Associations Further Reading Ashe, Arthur R. Jr. 1988. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete Since 1946. Vol. 2. New York: Warner Books. Contemporary Black Biography. 1994. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale Research. Dawkins, Marvin P., and A. C. Tellison Jr. 2008. ‘‘Golf.’’ In African Americans and Popular Culture. Vol. 2. Todd Boyd, ed. Westport, CT: Praeger.

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Finkelman, Paul, ed. 2009. Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1990. Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale Research. Frederick D. Smith

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. See Malcolm X Ellington, Duke (1899–1974), Composer, Bandleader, Pianist Duke Ellington, born Edward Kennedy Ellington, was one of the most influential and prolific artists in the history of jazz music. He was born in Washington, DC, on April 29, 1899. His father was a butler who worked on occasion at the White House, and his mother was a piano player. Ellington remarked that he had been ‘‘pampered and spoiled rotten’’ as a child. Ellington’s father wanted his son to be an artist, and his mother followed through on this desire by making sure Ellington had formal training as a musician. Ellington’s musical education began when he was seven years old, and while Ellington’s mother was a piano player, she appointed a Mrs. Clinkscales as his music instructor. Along with his formal education in his living room parlor, Ellington found time as a young boy to make serendipitous visits to the pool hall where, among the gamblers, the lawyers, and the pickpockets, Duke received musical training from Oliver ‘‘Doc’’ Perry. Doc Perry was a pianist who, according to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, instructed Duke in the practical affairs of ‘‘reading the leads and recognizing the chords.’’ This ability would become a chief characteristic of Ellington’s style. In 1914, Ellington had completed his first compositions, ‘‘Soda Fountain Rag’’ and ‘‘What You Gonna Do When The Bed Breaks Down?’’ After making his professional debut as a seventeen-year-old, Ellington was leading bands in the nation’s capital as an eighteenyear-old, often earning more money than the musicians. By his twentieth birthday, around the time when Alain Locke, philosophy professor at Howard University, was meeting Jazz legend and bandleader Duke Ellington. with writers and intellectuals who (Library of Congress)

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would help create the foundations of the Harlem Renaissance, Duke Ellington had become a composer, pianist, and bandleader in his own right. With his hometown apprenticeship under his belt, Ellington was ready to ply his trade in the wider world where he might become a master craftsman, and what better stage than Manhattan, which was all the rage during the Jazz Age? Ellington arrived in New York City in 1923 and quickly ran out of money. Despite his financial failure, he was encouraged to stay in New York City and try his hand once again. As a member of the Washingtonians, Ellington played at the Kentucky and Hollywood clubs on Broadway and gained solvency as a musician. Working on his craft, Ellington was well-prepared when his break came in 1927, when he auditioned for a residency at the Cotton Club in Harlem. The Cotton Club, in the heart of Harlem on Lenox Avenue, was one of the premier spots for the white social elite during the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance. When Ellington auditioned and gained residency at the Cotton Club, his music was featured on regular radio broadcasts and gained exposure to a wide range of listeners. In a word, Duke Ellington had arrived. From 1927 until 1932, Ellington and his orchestra were prominent musicians at the Cotton Club and on the broader jazz scene, and during his residency, Ellington wrote over two hundred compositions in what was called the ‘‘jungle style,’’ supported in part by the growl and plunger sounds of his brass section. Despite the racist implications of jungle style, Ellington still achieved a wide range of expression as an artist. His residency at the Cotton Club became a laboratory where he experimented with dance music, with blues, and with jazz, all with an ear towards developing his own style. While he played piano, many listeners and scholars of his music insisted and continue to insist that Ellington’s true ‘‘instrument’’ was his orchestra, for Ellington as a composer showcased the unique gifts of the musicians who performed his compositions. The decade beginning in 1932, the year Ellington’s residency at the Cotton Club ended, until 1942, was arguably the height of his creativity. This decade also featured extended tours in Europe from 1933 until 1939. In 1943, Ellington wrote one of his most ambitious compositions, Black, Brown, and Beige, a work of epic scope that, in his words, was ‘‘a tone parallel’’ to the struggle of people of color in the United States. Black, Brown, and Beige marked a distinct and telling difference between the younger Ellington and the more mature artist. As Barry Ulanov explains, ‘‘Duke is Harlem’s poet; Harlem about which so many of the short pieces of the twenties boast and so many of the long ones of the forties and fifties reminisce. This is not subtle poetry.’’ Along with the shift from short to long compositions, Ellington’s band acquired a sound that comes only from longevity. The saxophonist Johnny Hodges and the trumpeter Cootie Williams, for example, played with Ellington for over thirty years, along with the pianist and composer William ‘‘Billy’’ Strayhorn, who was one of Ellington’s most important collaborators over the course of his music career. Harry Carney, the highly acclaimed jazz musician from Boston who played baritone saxophone, played with Duke Ellington for fifty years. ‘‘Think of the type of emotion that had to be passing forth in that band,’’ Grammy award– winning trumpeter and Ellington aficionado Wynton Marsalis remarked. ‘‘These men went from young manhood to being old men playing his music.’’

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With the emergence of Bebop Music following World War II, Ellington’s orchestral type of jazz music was beginning to lose its sway in the landscape of popular music, yet his performances at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival revived interest in his music. Ever the innovator, Ellington wrote his first film score, for Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder in 1959, and continued to explore the dynamic range of music, which he fondly referred to as his ‘‘mistress.’’ For his musical achievements and contributions to humanity, Ellington received honorary doctorates from Howard University in 1963 and Yale University in 1967, along with the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1969. In 1971, Ellington gained membership into the Swedish Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, making him the first jazz musician to receive this membership. Yet Ellington proved himself to be a person who could be as gracious in success as in so-called defeat. When Ellington was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1965 and did not win, although according to most scorecards he should have won, rather than call ‘‘foul,’’ according to Mark Tucker, Ellington remarked with his characteristic elegance, ‘‘Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be famous too young.’’ At that time, Ellington was sixty-seven years old, or, as the case may have been, young. Towards the close of his life, Ellington returned to the chief influences of his boyhood, composing music that was liturgical in nature. One of the more widely acclaimed compositions of Ellington’s last works is his In the Beginning God. In his lifetime, Ellington wrote over six thousand compositions. Some of the most popular and most characteristic of his style are ‘‘Mood Indigo,’’ ‘‘Solitude,’’ ‘‘Caravan,’’ ‘‘Sophisticated Lady,’’ and ‘‘Black and Tan Fantasy.’’ In a stirring testament to the significance of his life and his music, some twelve thousand people attended his funeral ceremony held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in New York City. ‘‘[Duke Ellington] was willing to sacrifice whatever he had to sacrifice for the sake of his music, and that’s what his music sounds like,’’ Wynton Marsalis said. ‘‘It’s the ultimate dedication and the ultimate gift that Duke Ellington is giving us through his music.’’ The world is richer for that sacrifice, and for the sweet thunder that bloomed and boomed out of it. See also: Bands and Bandleaders; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Further Reading ‘‘Ellington, Duke.’’ 2006. Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. Colin Larkin, ed. Oxford Music Online. ‘‘Ellington, Duke.’’ 2006. The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev. Michael Kennedy, ed. Oxford Music Online. Ellington, Edward Kennedy. 1973. Music is My Mistress. New York: Da Capo Press. Hodeir, Andr
e, and Gunther Schuller. 2001. ‘‘Ellington, Duke.’’ The New Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed., Vol. 8. Stanley Sadie, ed. New York: Macmillan. Marsalis, Wynton and Robert G. O’Meally. 1998. ‘‘Duke Ellington: ‘Music Like a Big Hot Pot of Good Gumbo.’’’ In The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. Robert G. O’Meally, ed. New York: Columbia University Press.

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Tucker, Mark, ed. 1992. The Duke Ellington Reader. New York: Oxford University Press. Ulanov, Barry. 1998. ‘‘The Ellington Programme.’’ In The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. Robert G. O’Meally, ed. New York: Columbia University Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Elliott, Missy (1971– ), Rap Singer, Songwriter, Producer Missy Elliott, who originally went by the stage name Missy Misdemeanor Elliott, is the first woman in Hip-Hop to be recognized as a talented rap artist, songwriter, and producer. Born Melissa Arnette Elliott in Portsmouth, Virginia, Missy’s career began when Devante Swing of Jodeci signed her group, Sista, to his Wing Mob record label, a subsidiary of Elektra Records. Swing Mob’s label deal fell through, as did Sista’s debut album. Thereafter, Missy contacted her friend, producer Timbaland, who at the time was working on what would become Aaliyah’s hugely successful album, One in a Million (Atlantic Records, 1996). As a songwriter, Missy scored hits with the album’s singles ‘‘One in a Million’’ and ‘‘If Your Girl Only Knew.’’ Missy continued to work with a number of artists, and made a breakthrough as an artist with her rap performance on Gina Thompson’s single, ‘‘The Things You Do’’ (Mercury Records, 1996). Despite her considerable talent, record companies did not believe that the zaftig Missy had the right image to be a female rap artist. Missy prevailed, however, and in 1996 she signed a production deal with Elektra Records. In 1997, Missy created her very own label, Gold Mind, and released her platinum-selling debut album, Supa Dupa Fly (Elektra Records), which included the hit single, ‘‘The Rain.’’ Hype Williams’s innovative music video for ‘‘The Rain’’ gave Missy even greater media exposure. Aside from selling units, Supa Dupa Fly (Elektra Records) showcased Missy’s versatility as an artist and as an industry trendsetter. Other standout singles from the album were ‘‘Sock It 2 Me,’’ ‘‘Beep Me 911,’’ ‘‘Hit ’Em Wit da Hee.’’ Missy produced eight tracks for and also appeared on the soundtrack for the film Why Do Fools Fall in Love (Warner Bros. Records, 1998). In 1999, Missy released her follow-up album, the platinum-selling, Da Real World (Elektra Records), an even more ambitious album that featured two huge hits, ‘‘She’s a Bitch’’ and ‘‘Hot Boyz,’’ and an unexpected collaboration with Eminem on the track ‘‘Busa Rhyme.’’ The album also includes performances by DaBrat, Juvenile, Beyonc
e, and reggae artist Lady Saw. In 2001, Missy released her third album, Miss E . . . So Addictive (Elektra), which featured major hit singles, ‘‘Get Ur Freak On’’ and ‘‘One Minute Man.’’ ‘‘Get Ur Freak On’’ helped Missy capture a Grammy award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Missy also produced and appeared in the MTV award–winning ‘‘Lady Marmalade’’ track, featuring Lil’ Kim, Mya, Pink, and Christina Aguilera from the Moulin Rouge (2001) film soundtrack. Missy’s Midas touch continued in late 2002 with the release of the double-platinum album, Under Construction (Elektra Records), which spawned the hit singles ‘‘Work It’’ and ‘‘Gossip Folks.’’

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In 2003, Missy released her fifth album, This is A Test (Elektra) which while generally well-received, has some detractors who thought it was a rushed effort not worthy of Missy’s talents. In 2004, Missy would win her second Grammy award, as Best Female Solo Performance for the single ‘‘Work It.’’ In each of Missy’s albums, she distinguished herself from other female rap artists by proving that she could deliver powerful and sexually charged lyrics with creativity and even humor. As a result, Missy has defied stereotypes about women rap artists without sacrificing her broad fan base. In 2001, model Iman and Missy launched Misdemeanor Lipstick, which benefits Break the Cycle, an organization dedicated to helping young people break the chain of domestic abuse. In 2003, Missy became the organization’s spokesperson. Missy has parlayed her popularity into endorsements and in 2003 the hip-hop icon appeared in Gap ads with Pop Music icon Madonna. Missy also appeared in advertisements for Sprite. In addition to the two Grammy awards, Missy has won two BET awards, and five Lady Of Soul/Soul Train awards. Twice within the past five years, Rolling Stone magazine has named her ‘‘Best Female Hip Hop Artist of the Year,’’ and twice she has ranked as Billboard’s number one year-end female hip-hop star. She was also awarded an American Music award for Favorite Rap/ Hip-Hop Female in 2003. In 2004, Missy joined with Adidas and unveiled her ‘‘Respect Me’’ clothing and footwear line. This is the first Adidas collaboration with a rap artist since Run DMC in the 1980s. In 2005, Missy launched a television reality series, The Road to Stardom, which highlighted thirteen aspiring rap artists and singers who traveled on a dingy tour bus and competed for $100,000 and a recording contract. Missy Elliott continues to record and perform around the world; her newest album, Block Party, is scheduled for a 2010 release. Chronological Discography 1997. 1999. 2001. 2001. 2003. 2005.

Supa Dupa Fly. East/West Records. Da Real World. East/West Records. Miss E . . . So Addictive. East/West Records. Under Construction. East/West Records. This Is a Test. Elektra Records. The Cookbook. Atlantic/Wea. Yvonne Bynoe

Ellison, Ralph (1914–94), Writer Ralph Waldo Ellison, American novelist, essayist, and one of the most innovative interpreters of African American culture, was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on March 1, 1914, to Lewis Ellison and Ida Millsap. Ellison was named after American transcendentalist philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Lewis Ellison always maintained that he was raising his son ‘‘to be

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a poet.’’ This fatherly injunction, along with his birthplace, fostered within Ellison a deep belief in life as one of creative possibility. Later in his life, Ellison would refer to the Oklahoma of his boyhood as the frontier or territory. (Oklahoma had been incorporated as a state for seven years by the time Ellison was born, which meant that it had no legacy of slavery.) Growing up with the deep-seated belief in the open sky of American society, Ellison trumpeted this belief in ‘‘infinite possibilities’’ throughout his writings. Lewis Ellison died when ElliRalph Ellison, whose novel Invisible Man has son was three years old, combecome a classic of modern American fiction, wrote compellingly of the experience of African pelling his mother Ida to mend Americans in a society that has tended to ignore together jobs to support the their problems. (National Archives) young Ellison and his brother Herbert. When Ida Ellison and her two sons moved to the parsonage of the Avery Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Ellison gained access to an extensive private library. While he was an avid reader growing up, Ellison devoted his early life to music. At Frederick Douglass High School in Oklahoma City, Ellison set his sights on making a living as a trumpeter. Following graduation, Ellison worked to earn tuition to Tuskegee Institute and, in the fall of 1933, he hoboed by rail from Oklahoma to the Deep South and Alabama, arriving on campus with a scar near his left eye. At Tuskegee, Ellison’s interest in jazz conflicted with the music program of his new school, which centered upon classical (European) music. Ellison turned, instead, to literature, where he found an art form that wove together his interests in the classical tradition with what he termed the ‘‘American vernacular,’’ the combination of Spirituals, blues, and jazz that would become indispensable to Ellison’s artistic vision. Particularly transforming for Ellison was his encounter with T. S. Eliot’s epic poem The Waste Land. According to Ellison, The Waste Land mirrored ‘‘the rowdy poetic flights of Louis Armstrong,’’ and the poem’s ‘‘rhythms were often closer to those of jazz than were those of the Negro poets.’’ Ellison developed a passion for Harlem when he met Alain Locke, esteemed philosophy professor at Howard University and one of the framers of the Harlem Renaissance, at Tuskegee in 1935. Ellison followed through on that passion in the summer of 1936, after completing his junior year, by traveling to New York

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City. Upon his arrival, on 125th Street, he bumped into Alain Locke, who proved instrumental in gaining Ellison introductions to Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. ‘‘The very idea of being in New York was dreamlike,’’ Ellison would write, ‘‘for like many young African-Americans of the time, I thought of it as the freest of American cities and considered Harlem as the site and symbol of Afro-American progress and hope. Indeed, I was both young and bookish enough to think of Manhattan as my substitute for Paris and of Harlem as a place of Left Bank excitement. So now that I was there in its most glamorous scene, I meant to make the most of its opportunities.’’ Ellison did not return to Tuskegee for his senior year, instead choosing to try his hand at writing for a living. Following some reviews and short stories, Ellison wrote as a member of the New York Federal Writers Project from 1938 until the end of World War II, which provided him a chance to hone his writing style and to make a living while doing so. When the Federal Writers Project ended, Ellison supported himself by joining the merchant marines, followed by stints as an amateur photographer and an installer of audio systems as he worked on the manuscript that would become Invisible Man. In 1946, after a brief first marriage, Ellison married Fanny McConnell, who would become his wife for forty-eight years as well as Ellison’s ‘‘best reader.’’ Remembering his days as a fledgling writer, Ellison wrote, ‘‘My wife did indeed provide the more dependable contributions to our income, while mine came catch-as-catch-can.’’ When Ellison’s monumental Invisible Man came to print in 1952, it was hailed as a literary hallmark, spending sixteen weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and serving as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. In the novel, the nameless protagonist undergoes a series of adventures and misadventures that explore the forces that make the achievement of identity particularly difficult for African Americans in particular and humanity in general. Morris Wright, book critic for the New York Times, called Invisible Man ‘‘a resolutely honest, tormented, profoundly American book.’’ With his first novel, Ellison entered the pantheon of American writers. From 1956 until 1958, Ellison was a fellow in the American Academy in Rome, and following his return to the United States, he held a number of professorships at schools that included the University of Chicago, Bard College, Rutgers, Harvard, and Yale. While teaching, he continued to write and to publish influential essays, along with maintaining a number of literary correspondences. From 1970 until 1979, Ellison served as the Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities at New York University. Throughout the remainder of his life, he continued to wrestle with the form of the novel that would follow Invisible Man, but which remained a manuscript when he passed away on April 16, 1994, at the age of eighty. Ralph Ellison is a towering figure in American and African American letters, and the works devoted to explicating his writings are vast. Arnold Rampersad’s Ralph Ellison: A Biography, weighing in at a hefty 672 pages, offers strong insights into Ellison’s character to both the specialist and the general reader alike. A pioneering and important work remains Robert G. O’Meally’s The Craft of Ralph Ellison, published in 1980. Between the lions of Rampersad and O’Meally is the

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young scholar Lawrence Patrick Jackson, whose Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius, published in 2002, offers a critical examination of Ellison’s early life leading up to Invisible Man. Readers are encouraged to seek out Speaking for You: The Vision of Ralph Ellison, edited by Kimberly W. Benston, which remains one of the key works for exploring the significance and influence of Ellison’s legacy to arts and letters. In his lifetime, Ellison published one novel, Invisible Man, and two collections of essays, Shadow and Act (1964) and Going to the Territory (1986), both of which rank among some of the most important statements concerning art, aesthetics, and experience. Following Ellison’s death, scholar John F. Callahan, Ellison’s literary executer, published The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison (1995), followed by a short story collection, Flying Home and Other Stories, in 1996, and the novel Juneteenth, in 1999. Tapping into the vast reservoir of letters Ellison wrote, Callahan and Murray edited and published Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison in 2000. In 2002, O’Meally compiled and edited Living with Music: Ralph Ellison’s Jazz Writings. See also: Literature, Classic African American Further Reading Ellison, Ralph. 1995. The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison. John F. Callahan, ed. New York: Modern. Morris, Wright. 1952. ‘‘The World Below.’’ Alternate title, ‘‘A Tale from the Underground’’ (review of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison), New York Times Book Review, April 13. Nash, William R. 2004. ‘‘Ellison, Ralph.’’ In The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature. Jay Parini, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Employment, Unemployment, and Income African American popular culture is concerned with entertainment, pleasure, and enjoyment; it represents the identity and beliefs of blacks in the United States, which is expressed through aesthetics and genres. This modern lifestyle has come to dominate young blacks’ thinking and practice as they try to emulate burgeoning black celebrities, whose flamboyant and often extravagant spending consistently catch the attention of African American youths. Many of these youngsters as a result aspire to build their careers in the entertainment industry and earn as much as such icons as Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and Denzel Washington. The advent of the twenty-first century could be considered as the best and the worst of times regarding African American occupational advancements. The world, but more importantly, African Americans, ceremonialized the historic election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. The mythical

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notion that African Americans lack the intelligence, sophistication, and technical and tactical wherewithal to multitask complex national and international issues was obliterated on January 20, 2009. This consequential milestone marked a new employment paradigm for African Americans. However, there appears to be a drastic disconnect between the election of the first African American president and the plight of unemployed African Americans. Andre Showell, a Black Entertainment Television (BET) correspondent, conducted a timely interview with President Obama, asking him to comment on the alarming level of African American unemployment. Showell proposed the president explain why the black unemployment rate is in the double digits. In New York, for example the black unemployment rate for men is near 50 percent. When asked what he would suggest to fix this problem, the president responded by arguing that when the economy improves, it would affect everyone including the African American community. Unemployment Addressed in the Arts, Literature, and Media Although the Obama administration might view stabilizing the economy as the priority, many rap artists over the years have articulated in their lyrics their frustrations regarding black unemployment. Rappers such as Jay Z, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls (Notorious B. I. G.), Method Man, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Public Enemy, Common, and Kanye West have waxed poetic regarding not being able to possess decent employment. African American pop culture has embraced the hustler lifestyle as a viable option whenever employment cannot be obtained. Urbantargeted movies such as Boyz n the Hood (1991), Precious (2009), Paid in Full (2002), Scarface (1983), Dead Presidents (1995), Set it Off (1996), Sugar Hill (1993), Lil’ Pimp (2005), I Got the Hookup (1998), Friday (1995), and Baby Boy (2001), have shown African American unemployment as the negative norm. Hollywood (whether white or black filmmakers) seldom makes movies that depict African Americans being gainfully employed with positive communal attributes. The overwhelming majority of popular movies depict African American males as criminals, deadbeats, or unemployed societal pariahs. Hollywood is not alone in its depiction of black unemployment; some blacks may be their own worst enemies. Popular African American authors such as Zane, E. Lynn Harris, Terry McMillan, and Tracy Brown have glorified black unemployment, particularly in black men. Bookstores are stocked with this particular seminegative genre of literature that salutes, and more importantly validates African American men being unemployed. These novels often exhibit African American women being so desperate that they enter relationships with men who are not only unemployed, but typically lack the wherewithal to obtain employment. Ironically, black women are the primary consumers of this type of literature. Several mainstream media outlets recently declared that African Americans can no longer make excuses for their unemployment woes. Fox News, an ultraconservative television program, has utilized the election of President Obama as a mandate to distill the belief that the high number of unemployed African

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Americans is no longer attributable to the United States racist past. One news commentator stated that if Obama can run for president and can be elected, then one should not complain about racism, because this is not the 1950s or 1960s. The line goes that African Americans live in the best place in the world, and if they are unable to make it in the United States it is their fault because they are not trying hard enough. In many factions of African American urban culture, becoming an athlete is another viable option to circumvent unemployment. Many black parents envision their children using sports to get them to the mythical promised land; unfortunately, many young black adults ultimately end up unemployed when their hoop dreams deflate when they fail to get a college scholarship or be drafted by a professional team. Television sports programs and networks constantly show images of Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, or LeBron James, who made the jump to the pros without attending college, or various one-year wonders. Often these media outlets fail to reveal the collateral damage of thousands of African Americans who never make the league. Writing in the New York Times, Patrick McGeehan and Mathew Warren addressed the issue of black unemployment and affirmed that there were ‘‘about 80,000 more unemployed blacks than whites,’’ according to the city comptroller’s office, ‘‘even though there are roughly 1.5 million more whites than blacks here.’’ In the first quarter of 2008, the rate of joblessness among blacks nationwide was 8.9 percent, compared with 4.8 percent for whites; in the first quarter of 2009, the rate for blacks had risen to 13.6 percent, while the rate for whites had gone to 8.2 percent. According to V. Dion Haynes, writing in the Washington Post in November 2009, ‘‘Joblessness for 16-to-24-year old black men has reached Great Depression proportions—34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population.’’ Muted within the fanfare of the election was the alarming number of unemployed African Americans, particularly males. There are several possible reasons why the African American community consistently records double-digit unemployment figures. Although every culture has its own challenges regarding how it will strategize its unemployment woes, African American challenges appear to be institutional and systemic. Several succinct genres must be teased, such as: the high dropout rate of African American youth, the lack of parental involvement, inferior school systems that fail to adequately educate black children, the disproportionate number of African American youths in the criminal justice system, and the influx of illegal aliens. These are realistic issues that have the propensity to hinder this generation’s ability to acquire decent jobs. The most significant, and to many, discouraging, theories for the reasons behind double-digit unemployment rates of African Americans must begin with parental involvement and education. Roland S. Martin expressed his concern in Essence magazine regarding the African American educational plight and noted that ‘‘The election of a black man to the White House is a huge triumph. But while we praise, worship and wear our Obama buttons and swear we have overcome, barely more than half of our kids are graduating from high school . . .,’’ according to General Colin Powell’s America’s Promise Alliance, the children’s

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advocacy organization. Many educators and parents would agree that it is important for parents to spend time in their children’s classrooms, to closely monitor homework, or to read to children at home. As Linda Jacobson reports, the National Center for Children in Poverty referenced, ‘‘More than 11 percent of kindergartners and close to 9 percent of 1st graders are chronically absent. . . . Children who are chronically absent in kindergarten have the lowest performance in reading, mathematics, and general knowledge in 1st grade.’’ There is a direct correlation between African American low proficiency scores and what some call the Prison Industrial Complex. Wendell Hutson’s article in the Chicago Defender, ‘‘African American Unemployment Outpaces Others,’’ reveals a human resource professional’s opinion why so many African Americans are unemployed. The author stresses that lack of education is the cardinal reason why so many blacks, especially men, are unemployed. This is worsened by the fact that many blacks lack the opportunity to further their education after high school, which means that they do not acquire the necessary knowledge and experience to obtain white-collar jobs. It has been repeatedly noted that the dropout rate in some minority school districts exceeds 40 percent. If minority children cannot complete high school, how can they realistically be in a position to compete in a technologically mandated and global twenty-first century? Globalization is also a factor in this regard as it has forced the vast majority of businesses and corporations to downsize, to merge, to network, and to layoff or retrain if they want to be competitive. Gone are the days when the United States ruled the export markets of the world. Fernando Reimers’s commentary in Education Week agrees with this view and stresses that the most critical challenge before schools in this century includes helping students adapt both the skills and the ethical disposition to withstand the challenges of globalization. Today, many employers are requiring that applicants have at least a bachelor’s degree or higher as a prerequisite. Race was once one of the main methods employers used to disqualify African Americans from certain occupations. Today most employers use education as a screening mechanism to eliminate applicants. Another reason why African Americans have high unemployment figures is that many are involved with the criminal justice system. Private correctional facilities have become multibillion dollar investment corporations and trade stock on the New York Stock Exchange. One correctional CEO declared that his corporation focuses on third- and fourth-grade reading and writing proficiency scores as a locator for constructing new prisons. If our children cannot master the basic comprehension skills at the primitive stages of education, many will become frustrated and drop out of school. Often this scenario will lead them to a life of crime, which ultimately will restrict their occupational opportunities. Although malfeasant behaviors may explain why a large portion of African Americans are unemployed, there are other factors that must be broached to clearly illuminate the grossly disparate unemployment figures between African Americans and whites. Devah Pager, a sociology professor at Princeton University, did a study showing that even black men with clean records do not fare better than white men just released from prison. Some pessimists believe that

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African Americans are experiencing the worst of economic times; conversely, some optimists believe that African Americans are making unprecedented economic advancements. Black Employment and Income The employment of African Americans has been disproportionately poor and remains on the fringes of the American economic system. An alarming dimension of this trend lies in the area of disproportionate gender employment. In spite of the fact that African Americans have been generally affected by this situation, black males are most at risk to earn no wages or lower wages than any other group. The white-black differential in employment in 1997 stood at 6.5 percentage points. By 2000, the gap had narrowed to 4.1 percent. But again in 2004, it rose to 5.9 percent, according to Algernon Austin. While these statistics are worrisome, a careful dissection of these figures reveals the gender dimension of the phenomenon. The white-black male employment differential for 2007 was an astronomical 9.1; among females, it was merely 1 percent. This disparity between white males and black males calls for investigation to reveal the reasons for this inclination. While some have dismissively suggested that the problem is with black males—that they lack good job ethics—others suggest that it is mainly due to their popular culture–influenced quest to try to make money quickly. Racism also has contributed in frustrating many young African American men out of school and the societal institutional systems; hence their apathy toward employment. The fact that so many black males drop out of school, unlike black females, means that black males are less competitive in the employment market even as compared with other African Americans. Dropping out has contributed tremendously to young African Americans’ lack of interest in technical education and white-collar jobs, and their focus on areas such as sports, music, and the movie industry. This has obviously been influenced by the celebrity lifestyles of many successful African Americans in these fields, and is coupled with the fact that the influx of undocumented immigrants has helped to worsen the job prospects of unskilled African Americans. According to George Borjas and others in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper Series, employers are known for their tendency to pay these undocumented workers lower than they would have paid an average American-born individual. Black Achievers and Employment Some African Americans, though, have distinguished themselves and made their marks in academe—Henry Louis Gates Jr. at Harvard and Cornel West at Princeton are notable examples. The recent emergence of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, who earned degrees at Columbia University and Harvard Law School, adds to the list. Others, like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, have served meritoriously in the U.S. government. In the entertainment field, which is the popular attraction for many young African Americans, many African

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Americans, for example, Oprah Winfrey, are self-employed entrepreneurs. These include comedians and radio and TV talk show hosts such as Steve Harvey and Tyra Banks, and filmmakers such as Spike Lee and Tyler Perry. In sports, black players have tended to increasingly dominate certain aspects of the industry in the last thirty years. Basketball, for example, has seen African Americans produce outstanding players like Michael Jordan, who played for Chicago Bulls in the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout the 1980s, Jordan inspired his team to various titles, earning endorsements with companies or products such as Coca-Cola, Gatorade, Chevrolet, Hanes, and McDonald’s. He reached celebrity status and was awarded a $25-million contract, which was record-breaking for the 1988–89 NBA season. Today, outstanding players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are making raves around the world with their dexterity, at even higher rates of pay. These feats have helped tremendously to inspire many African American youths to strive and attain similar heights. In Golf, traditionally seen as a ‘‘white game,’’ Tiger Woods proved that there is no limit to what blacks can achieve. He has dominated the game since the 1990s, which has seen him emerge as the first sports billionaire in the country. His astonishing exploits in the game have made the sport more exciting to watch and have helped to increase its audience, despite scandal in his personal life. Like basketball, which has attracted widespread attention from the African American community, especially among youth, Football is similarly popular among many African Americans both old and young. This sport can boast of numerous African American players, whose exploits in the game earned them respect, buoyant contracts, and celebrity status in the country. While these sports have produced numerous black star players, they have produced disproportionately fewer African American coaches. Consequently, many African Americans in high schools and colleges who play football intend to establish themselves as superstars like Michael Vick instead of aiming for less flashy employment. These African American professional players’ style of play and lurid lifestyle help to inspire and foster the cult and culture of celebrity among African American youngsters and the myth of being exceptional. Boxing is yet another sport that has helped to inspire and unite African Americans into believing that they could achieve success and excel. The exploits of Muhammad Ali, who won the heavyweight title several times, are well known and attest to this fact. ‘‘Iron’’ Mike Tyson is another African American who contributed immensely to the sport of boxing, beating many contemporaries and winning several heavyweight championships before losing embarrassingly to Evander Holyfield in 1996 in a match in which Tyson bit the former’s ears. Music is another popular industry that attracts a lot of attention from the African American community. Black artists have shown their talent in music and their earning power has been outstanding. Top black earners in the industry include Beyonc
e, who made $87 million between 2008 and 2009. Others are Lil Wayne, $18 million; Rihanna, $15 million; and T-Pain, $15 million. Their earnings, more than their musical talents, promote the interest of young blacks in their field.

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Many black singers, individuals and groups alike, have captivated the nation with the exuberance of their artistry. Motown Records musical groups set the stage in the 1960s by helping in the bridging of the racial divide in American music. Michael Jackson built on their effort by crossing the imaginary racial line in the 1980s and early 1990s. By early 1990s, rap was emerging as the dominant genre. Rappers like Tupac Shakur, B.I.G., and Puff Daddy [now known as Sean (Diddy) Combs] set the paradigm. By 2000s, stars like Mariah Carey, R. Kelly, and Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West emerged with their respective styles, which added variety and sophistication to the industry. Some of these African American artists aim to showcase African American cultural heritage through music. Their often extravagant displays of resources also seem to inspire some African American youths to strive to live that brand of lifestyle, which when combined with the artists’ stage displays, paints a fascinating but treacherous picture to many African Americans. Similarly, the fame and, especially, the income of African Americans in Hollywood who have achieved star status and success in movies and television tends to inspire confidence, model celebrity lifestyles, and attract the interest of African Americans. Stars like Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, and Mo’Nique, among others, inspire many African Americans to attempt careers in the film industry. At the top of the 2008 ten wealthiest blacks in Hollywood, according to Black Enterprise magazine, are the media powerhouse Oprah Winfrey at number one, followed by Shonda Rhimes, and Will Smith, who earns more than $20 million per picture; Smith’s films have earned about $4.9 billion worldwide. Others include Denzel Washington [who has featured in many movies, including American Gangster (2007), which gulped over $223 million worldwide] Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, the Wayans Brothers, Martin Lawrence, Queen Latifah (Dana Owens), and Laurence Fishburne, in that order. See also: Economic Development; Education: Public and Private; Entertainment Industry Further Reading Algernon, Austin. 2008. ‘‘Why is the Black Male Employment Rate So Low?’’ Focus. 36, no. 4. Borjas, George, Jeffrey Grogger, and Gordon H. Hanson. 2006. ‘‘Immigration and African American Employment Opportunities: The Response of Wages, Employment and Incarceration to Labor Supply Shocks.’’ National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper, September. Edmond, Alfred J. 2009. ‘‘Warmed-over Myths of Black Wealth.’’ Black Enterprise (February 27). Haynes, V. Dion. 2009. ‘‘Blacks Hit Hard by Economy’s Punch.’’ Washington Post, November 24. Holzer, Harry J., and Paul Offner. 2001. ‘‘Trends in Employment Outcomes of Young Black Men, 1979–2000.’’ Northwestern University Working Paper. November. Hutson, Wendell. 2009. ‘‘African American Unemployment Outpaces Others.’’ Chicago Defender, January 14. http://www.chicagodefender.com/article-2974-african-american -une.html.

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Jacobson, Linda. 2008. ‘‘Absences in Early Grades Tied to Learning Lags.’’ Education Week 28 (October): 12. Martin, Roland S. 2009. ‘‘A Long Way to Go.’’ Essence 40 (June): 94. McGeehan, Patrick, and Mathew Warren. 2009. ‘‘Job Losses Show Wider Racial Gap in New York.’’ New York Times, July 12. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13 /nyregion/13unemployment.html. Online Encyclopedia. (n.d.) ‘‘Intellectual Genealogy of Study of Black Popular Culture.’’ http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6008/Black-Popular-Culture.html. Reimers, Fernando. 2008. ‘‘Preparing Students for the Flat World.’’ Education Week 28 (October): 24. Streib, Lauren. 2009. ‘‘The Top Earning Young Musicians.’’ Forbes.com. July 24. http:// www.forbes.com/2009/07/24/beyonce-britney-spears-miley-cyrus-business-entertainment -young-musicians_slide_2.html?thisspeed=25000. Sylvester, Melvin, ed. (n.d.) ‘‘African-Americans in the Sports Arena.’’ Long Island University. C.W. Post Campus. Vanessa. 2009. ‘‘Andre Showell to Obama: What are you going to do to Help Black America?’’ Afroconservative (blog), April 29. http://blog.afroconservative.com/2009/04 /29/andre-showell-to-obama-what-are-you-going-to-do-to-help-black-america.aspx. Viadero, Debra. 2009. ‘‘Researchers Explore Teens, Parents, and Schools.’’ Education Week 28 (November): 1. Emeka Anaedozie and Patrick Brunson

Entertainment Industry American culture and its worldwide popularity are deeply indebted to the creative and artistic genius of the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to American shores nearly four hundred years ago. Though burdened by the hardships of slavery, the African American entertainer has persevered and enriched the American cultural landscape and enhanced the overall modern day entertainment industry through dance, music, acting, and Humor. Africa: Entertainment Origins In the context of African history and cultural life, selected entertainment values (for example, music, dance, humor, and drama) were used to signify important human events such as the birth of a child, a battle between rivals, a death, a wedding, or the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The first Africans set foot on American soil in 1619 when a Dutch ship, on its way to the Caribbean, bartered its free black passengers in exchange for owed taxes. Enslaved Africans left little actual documentation of their artistic and entertainment values but travel accounts by European explorers such as Richard Jobson document some of the significance of African entertainment characteristics. In Jacobson’s 1623 account, The Golden Trade or a Discovery of the River Gambia, he chronicles the use of music and dance among African Americans along the western coast. In 1789, freed

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African Olaudah Equiano published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African, in which he details the significance of entertainment in African life. These early (and even later) accounts also mention various indigenous lute-like musical instruments such as the kora, bandore, and various drums and horns that are African in origin. The African antecedent of today’s Hip-Hop musician, rapper, or spoken word artist can be seen in the West African jeli. The jeli, often known by the French word griot, was a storyteller and musician who told stories about kings and queens, recounted generations of family histories, and chronicled the human experiences and village life around him. African American Music in the New World Although African slaves left few of their own written records, the documentation of their Caucasian masters in the form of newspaper advertisements provides insight into the legacy of African entertainment and musical acumen. Colonial newspaper advertisements and military records in the late 1700s mention black colonial soldiers and runaway slaves that sang and played musical instruments such as French horns, trumpets, violins, banjos, guitars, and fifes. African entertainment culture was deeply engrained in the day-to-day life of the antebellum South via the slave plantation. Musical song forms like the Spirituals emanated from the African American religious experience. Most often these fervor-filled worship services took place in backwoods camp meetings beyond the watchful eye of the overseer or master. The lyrics to many of the songs (for example, spirituals) sung at camp meetings and in the fields while the slaves worked contained coded messages understood only by the slaves. The words ‘‘wade in the water, wade in the water children . . . God’s gonna trouble the water’’ might signify that the slave running away from bondage should go through a pool of water to avoid being detected by slave patrollers and dogs. Miles Mark Fisher documents thoroughly the social and spiritual significance of the spirituals in the book Negro Slave Songs. Like their African ancestors who saw no distinction between song, dance, and music, the black American slave tended to incorporate numerous entertainment values simultaneously into their secular and nonsecular lives on the plantation. The other side of antebellum music forms went beyond the spirituals. This music was very secular in nature. In plantation life, slave musicians (often fiddlers, dancers, banjo pickers, and singers) performed for the general entertainment of the masters, for plantation holiday celebrations, or a special occasion such as a slave wedding or a successful crop harvest. The music and dance of these entertainers was a part of the everyday life of slave and master alike. They provided the impetus for the exchange and sharing of entertainment culture. Purveyors of Entertainment: Celebrations and Festivals Despite the limitations and despair of slavery, African Americans maintained a strong connection with African performance traditions. This was often done via

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festivals and celebrations. These festivals also allowed African American performance traditions to be transmitted to other people of color for learning purposes. One of the earliest African festivals occurred in New England and was known as ‘‘Lection Day’’ or ‘‘Election Day.’’ From 1730 to 1780, slave populations in New England increased drastically. The first Lection Day occurred in Connecticut and had many white observers and black participants. Over a four-day period, black festival participants dressed in colorful attire paraded through public streets with ‘‘fifes, fiddles, clarinets and drums.’’ The highlight was the election of the slave’s own governor. Similar festivals took place in various geographical locales. In New York, local blacks participated in the Pinkster festival and in North Carolina black slave populations were ardent supporters of the John Canoe festivals. Some scholars have compared these uniquely African American celebrations to their African equivalents such as the Egun festival of Nigeria, which incorporates masks, music, and song and dance. The Blues: An African American Music Form As most visual and performance arts have evolved from the social, cultural, and individual experiences of their creators, this typically is true of blues and jazz. The blues have been said to commemorate the misery in the day-to-life of African Americans. W. C. Handy, the ‘‘Father of the Blues’’ became acquainted with the blues genre in 1903 after witnessing a black beggar singing and playing guitar in a Mississippi train station. His song was one of woe, sadness, and remorse. The singer Gertrude Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey popularized the blues in mainstream American culture. Rainey often claimed she originated the name ‘‘blues’’ but many musicians older than Rainey have refuted her claim. Some scholars suggests that a few aspects of the blues parallel the wailing hollers of the slaves, the mourning songs of the stevedores, and the pity songs of the spirituals. Entertainers that have become associated with the blues tradition are: Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Blind Lemon Martin, Ida Cox, Sarah Martin, Sippie Wallace, Ethel Waters, Leadbelly Ledbetter, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Boy Fuller, and Sonny Terry. Jazz: An American Idiom The music known as jazz formally came on the American entertainment scene around 1910. There are various theories about the origins of jazz. One theory attributes the name jazz to a black Mississippi honky-tonk musician by the name of Jazbo Brown. It was said his appreciative audience would shout ‘‘more jazbo! more jaz.’’ The other theory says a Chicago sign painter produced a sign for the musician Boisey James and his ‘‘jas band.’’ None of the popular theories about jazz or the origins of the word have ever been proven. Jazz can be attributed to no specific geographical locale of origin—although a large number of books and jazz lovers point to New Orleans as the music’s

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birthplace. The mass migration of African Americans to the Midwest and northern United States and to metropolitan locales like New Orleans is probably responsible for the spread of jazz. The blues are said to be a logical antecedent for jazz; however, it is very likely that following emancipation, as more blacks began to play European musical instruments, they also developed a unique musical phrasing that was incorporated into both blues and jazz. Although African American musicians are primarily associated with jazz, Caucasian bands in New Orleans introduced the genre to mainstream American culture. Some of the musicians that have made jazz popular the world over include King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, William ‘‘Count’’ Basie, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane. Some great jazz vocalists include Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Chris Connor, Dinah Washington, and Ella Fitzgerald. Make Them Laugh: The Comedic Enterprise One of the best-loved entertainment forms that usually required no specialized training or equipment was comedy. During the American slave era the first comedians were black slaves, who were called on to make the master of the plantation laugh. In American entertainment culture the impetus for the professional (e.g., paid) comedian was Minstrelsy, which comes on the American entertainment scene around 1830. Initially the minstrel performers were white men (who put burnt cork on their faces and satirized the mannerisms and language of African Americans with negative stereotypes—usually in song and dance) but later black minstrels like Billy Kersands, James A. Bland, and Sam Lucas became just as wealthy and popular as their white counterparts. The first recorded African American entertainers to be featured on the minstrel stage in the 1840s were Thomas Dilward and William Henry Lane. The minstrel show reached its apex at the same time the abolitionist movement was taking hold in America’s antislavery states. By the 1890s, minstrelsy began to wane in influence; however, its legacy has continued in American popular culture and the entertainment industry. The filmmaker Spike Lee points out this fact in his 2000 satirical film Bamboozled. With the development of all-black cast films in the 1920s, modern-day minstrel actors such as Stepin Fetchit and Mantan Moreland became the popular face of African American comedy. Later, comedians like Moms Mabley, Slappy White, Redd Foxx, and Tim Moore performed in all-black settings, using ribald humor in their routines. This performance legacy—although not always the ribaldry—was continued from the 1960s to today by Flip Wilson, Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, Keenan Wayans, Wanda Sykes, and Chris Rock. Dancing to their Own Beat Africa has been referred to as the ‘‘dancing continent,’’ but most African cultures do not dichotomize dance and music, seeing them instead as parts of the whole. Like other black-derived entertainment forms, certain components of dance have cognates in southern plantation society, such as the occurrence of

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minstrel shows. Dance was a part of everyday plantation life. Black youth have always been the inventors and propagators of popularized dance forms. In the 1920s the black vaudeville circuit was formed and allowed numerous comedians, singers, musicians, and dancers to work in the entertainment industry. Dancers included Ethel Waters, Bill ‘‘Bojangles’’ Robinson, Eddie Rector, and Toots Davis. Other cabaret venue dancers like Earl ‘‘Snake Hips’’ Tucker and Bessie Dudley were well-known and performed for exclusively white audiences. African American dance pioneers such as Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus were trained anthropologists; they dedicated their lives to studying and performing traditional West Indian and West African dance forms. African American entertainers have also excelled in ballet, tap, modern, hip-hop, and other dance forms. Dramatic Arts: Stage to Television The entertainment industry has been greatly influenced by African Americans specializing in the dramatic arts. Black actors made their debut in American theater as early as 1769 when a black West Indian buffoon, Mungo, appeared in Isaac Bickerstaffe’s play, The Padlock. With the establishment of the African Grove Theater in New York in 1821, black actors began to take on the more difficult, classical roles such as Shakespeare’s Othello, Hamlet, and Richard III. African American actors such as Ira Aldridge and James Hewlett performed at the African Grove Theater until it closed in 1823. Pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux made great strides in the film industry. Between 1919 and 1948 the prolific Micheaux produced and directed forty-four feature-length films; he also wrote seven novels. Black entertainers first appeared on the new medium of television as early as the late 1940s, but it was not until 1950 that an African American actor (Ethel Waters) went against the invisible barrier of segregation and appeared as a lead character, a maid, in the weekly show Beulah. The show was cancelled after two years due to protests by the NAACP. However, the most controversial television program in television history to date was the 1950s Amos ’n’ Andy show (a black-acted version of the radio show that had featured white performers acting black). This program also was cancelled after two years in 1953 due to complaints from the NAACP. Hip-Hop and the Entertainment Industry The music and cultural genre that has gone all over the world, and is listened to by youth and many adults that do not claim English as their primary language is hip-hop. Its impact on individuals and business is different today than it was at its humble beginnings in the South Bronx, New York, in the mid-1970s. Hip-hop is the first entertainment industry product to cross cultural, language, gender, and socioeconomic lines, and have worldwide appeal. Hip-hop as an entertainment product has made many formerly disenfranchised, poor, African American, urban youth millionaires overnight. This includes individuals who cannot read musical notes or play a musical instrument, and who did not graduate from an elite

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university business school—as is the case with the rapper/producers 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson), Sean (Diddy) Combs, and Jay-Z (Shawn Corey). The Future of the Entertainment Industry With the development of new technological devices, the convergence of new media, and widespread use of free Open Source software, the traditional entertainment industry that monopolized creative output and placed selective resources in the hands of a few (as was the case with the formation of African American music production companies like Motown Records and Staxx), the entertainment industry will most likely go through major upheaval in the next decade. Many long-standing media giants and entertainment companies will become extinct or at least lose a major portion of their company stock portfolio and their traditional consumer base to companies less hierarchical in structure and more flexible in how they provide consumer entertainment needs. The old entertainment model dictated who could produce, direct, act in, and distribute a film; it also governed consumer costs of a musician’s record and which musicians would be allowed to record an album. The old entertainment model was essentially governed by time and space. It dictated what cartoon a child could look at or when the child could listen to an educational song via a programmed television or radio show such as Sesame Street or The Electric Company. The old entertainment industry even provided the consumer with something called a ‘‘critic,’’ who told the entertainment consumer what entertainer had good music and which movie was good enough to go see. The old entertainment industry used to develop playlists for radio station deejays and their listeners, but now listeners can develop their own playlists and share the actual songs via peer-to-peer file-sharing software with other likeminded fans, using e-mail or the Internet, all on a mobile phone. It is unclear how factors and rapid rates of obsolescence will affect the current entertainment industry. However, industry and technology pundits predict there will be widespread change in the entertainment industry in the short term. See also: African Cultural Influences; Comedy and Comedians; Film and Filmmakers; Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations; Hip Hop; Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading Fisher, William III. 2004. Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment. Stanford, CA: Stanford Law and Politics. Malone, Jacqui. 1996. Steppin on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Southern, Eileen. 1971. The Music of Black Americans: A History. New York: Norton. Stuckey, Sterling. 1987. Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America. New York: Oxford University Press. Toffler, Alvin. 2006. Revolutionary Wealth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Carter B. Cue

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Essence (1970) Essence magazine was created to showcase the strength, beauty, intelligence, and diverse talents of the black woman. The magazine was founded in 1969 by Edward T. Lewis, a bank executive trainee, and Clarence O. Smith, an insurance salesman. The two had met at a conference pertaining to aspiring African American entrepreneurs. They forged an interest to create a magazine that would be directed toward black women. There were others who started with Lewis and Smith but departed during the early years of the magazine’s founding. Lewis became the chairman and publisher and Smith became the president. One of the largest obstacles during the magazine’s infancy was to identify potential investors. The first $13,000 was provided by Freedom National Bank, a minority bank in New York City. Family, friends, and credit cards also provided funds. Assistance from other initial investors provided a total of $130,000, which was a far cry from the $1.5 million that was estimated to be needed to begin the magazine. Later on, Essence received over $2 million, mostly in loans from Bancap, Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, and Playboy Enterprises. Essence was now ready for publication and printed its first issue in May 1970. The cover page was graced by a black female wearing the then popular Afro hairstyle. The magazine had one hundred pages with thirteen company ads and sold fifty thousand copies for sixty cents each. During the early years the magazine struggled to find and hire experienced black magazine professionals, which caused substantial employee turnover. When Marcia Ann Gillespie came on board as editor in chief, the magazine explored various topics based on careers, fashion, health, food, and child care, and highlighted many news-making subjects. Black fiction writers such as Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, and Amiri Baraka were featured. After Gillespie’s nine-year tenure ended, Susan L. Taylor, the magazine’s fashion editor, became editor in chief. Taylor introduced a male perspective to the magazine with a ‘‘Say Brother’’ monthly column written exclusively by men. Thirty percent of Essence readers are male. Taylor contributed a monthly article titled ‘‘In The Spirit.’’ It was also Taylor who defined the mission for Essence. As the number of readers and sales grew, the magazine still experienced difficulties with companies who were reluctant to advertise in Essence. However, in 1993, Estee Lauder stepped forward and began to advertise its company products in the magazine. Other companies, including fragrance giants Lanc^ome and L’Oreal, began to advertise in Essence. Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz automakers also followed with advertising. In 1994 the magazine company’s revenue topped $77 million and reader circulation was over one million. A year later Essence celebrated its 25th anniversary with a three-hundred-page issue. In 2000, during the Essence thirtieth-year anniversary, Essence Communications and Time Inc. formed a joint venture and created Essence Communication Partners, with Essence being the majority owner of the venture. However, five years later (in

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2005) Time Warner became the majority owner of the venture. Essence has become more than a publishing company. The company produces the Essence Awards and the Essence Music Festival. Essence now has over eight million readers and is recognized as one of the nation’s leading lifestyle advice magazine for black women. Further Reading Kuczynski, Alex. 2000. ‘‘Leading magazine for black women facing new competitors.’’ New York Times, March 6. Time Warner Newsroom. 2000. ‘‘Time Inc. and Essence Communications, Inc., to Form Joint Venture’’ (press release), June 28. http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/ pr/0.20812.667744,00.html. Sharon D. Brooks

Europe African Americans have been attracted to Europe for many of the same reasons that other people choose to travel abroad. Europe contains an abundance of history, art, culture, and architecture. Additionally, people of African ancestry have been drawn to Europe in general and France in particular, because they were places where individuals were judged on the basis of their abilities and talents and not by the color of their skin. People of African ancestry went to Europe first to find freedom, then to find artistic expression, and later to assist the United States in winning a war. Abolitionists began traveling to Europe in the 1840s. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass requested a passport to travel to France in 1859. His application was denied on the grounds that he was not a United States citizen. Douglass was allowed entr
e to France only after a French ambassador in London granted him a permit. Prior to the abolitionists’ treks to Europe, there is documentation regarding people of African descent finding freedom from slavery in Europe as early as 1787. In that year, Thomas Jefferson took a young female slave, Sally Hemings, to Paris. There, Hemings was a free individual who earned a wage and was not bound to return to the United States and bondage. Another who found acceptance in Paris was runaway slave, William Wells Brown. Though a fugitive slave, he traveled to Paris in 1849 as part of a twelve-member peace delegation. There he was allowed to converse and dine with members of the elite white society. Although these individuals found acceptance and freedom in Paris, artistic expression is seen as the catalyst for many of the African Americans who relocated to Europe. Artists in Residence In 1853, Eugene Warburg, a stonecutter who excelled in working with marble, left New Orleans for the opportunity to live and refine his craft in Paris. Warburg studied in Paris and later traveled to England in 1856. He refused to return to the States and, instead, continued to work in Florence, Italy, until his death in

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1859. Other artists followed Warburg. In 1891, artist Henry Ossawa Tanner took up residency in France. Originally bound for Rome, Tanner changed his plans and made Paris his home. Tanner’s biblical figures and use of light led him to be the most acclaimed African American artist of that period. Literary artists later followed. The 1920s and 1930s brought the literary greats Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Anna Julia Cooper, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Gwendolyn Bennett, Alain Locke, James Baldwin, and Jean Toomer to Paris. Active and vital participants in the Harlem Renaissance, these novelists, poets, and activists all spent time in Paris supporting each other and exposing the French to their collective creativity. They created an enclave in Montmartre that was referred to as Paris Harlem, where the artists and soldiers, and clubs owned by African Americans could be found. The Gift of Music and Service to Country Negro Spirituals were brought to Europe by former slaves. Between 1873 and 1877, the Fisk Jubilee Singers toured Europe three times and introduced white audiences to the Negro spiritual. Performing before Queen Victoria and other crowned heads of Europe, the eleven students thrilled audiences to this new style of evocative and soul-stirring music. They not only introduced Europe to this new form of music, the Jubilee Singers also raised enough money to purchase the land for Fisk University and build its first permanent structure, Jubilee Hall. Almost forty years later, World War I brought people of African ancestry from the United States to Europe. There were approximately four hundred thousand people of African descent in the armed services. The U.S. Air Force had not been established, the U.S. Marine Corps barred Negroes, and the roles within the U.S. Navy were menial. The bulk of the African Americans served in the U.S. Army. Only 20 percent of the African Americans were trained for combat. Those who did fight were cited for their valor and bravery. A regiment of African Americans, the 367th Buffaloes, saved white troops from annihilation by the Germans. The 367th advanced to Pragny from Villers-sous-Preny, while being attacked by the Germans, without suffering a single casualty. Upon reaching Pragny, the 367th opened fire on the Germans and saved the 56th regiment of white soldiers. The majority of enlisted African Americans were assigned positions that supported and advanced the war effort. Many were stevedores, individuals who packed or unloaded the vessels needed in the execution of the war. During the war, there were as many fifty thousand stevedores stationed in France. When not fighting or loading ships, the servicemen relaxed in the clubs of Paris. There they played their music, mostly jazz, which the French quickly embraced. After leaving the service, some African Americans who had served during the war, such as George Dulf and Edward Bullard, remained in Paris and opened jazz nightclubs. These clubs became an integral part of the Montmartre scene. The 1920s found African American women being lauded for their singing style. Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, Gertrude Saunders, and Beulah ‘‘Sippie’’ Wallace toured Europe and introduced white audiences to the blues. During this

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period, Josephine Baker captured audiences first at the Th
eatre des Champs
ees and later at the Folies Bergeres, where she performed the ‘‘danse sauvElys
age,’’ clad only in beads and a skirt made of bananas. Baker did not perform only in Paris. She toured Europe and traveled to Berlin and London as well. While African Americans enjoyed Paris in the 1930s and 1940s, the European experience was very different in Germany. In Germany, those of African ancestry were being marginalized and victimized. German mulattoes where not allowed to serve in the military, attend universities, or seek meaningful employment. The Gestapo, Germany’s secret police, took people of African descent into custody and subjected them to forced sterilizations and medical experiments. American blacks discovered in Germany were interned in Nazi concentration camps, and there was a standing order to execute soldiers of African descent who were caught in battle. The 1940s and 1950s brought writers Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright to Paris. Celebrated author Chester Himes relocated to Paris in the 1950s, after becoming embittered by the racial prejudice that he encountered in the States. The 1950s continued to bring the musical influences of the blues, and male performers such as Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry, Otis Spann, and Brownie McGhee became the main attractions. The 1960s found actor and later director Melvin Van Peebles and writer William Gardner Smith in Paris. Today African Americans continue to travel and live in Europe. Writer Barbara Chase-Riboud makes Paris her home and jazz music is still appreciated. See also: Buffalo Soldiers; Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints; Travel and Tourism Further Reading Douglass, Frederick. 1941. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. New York: Pathway Press. Fabre, Michel. 1991. From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France, 1840–1980. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Leanza, Frank. 2004. The Blues Then and Now: The History of the Blues. Las Vegas: Crystal Publishers. Leininger-Miller, Theresa. 2001. New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922–1934. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Lusane, Clarence. 2003. Hitler’s Black Victims: The Historical Experiences of Afro-German, Europeans Blacks, Africans, and African Americans in the Nazi Era. New York: Routledge. Monticello.org. (n.d.) ‘‘Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: A Brief Account.’’ http:// www.monticello.org/plantation/hemingscontro/hemings-jefferson_contro.htm. Scott, Emmett J. 1996. Scott’s Official History of the American Negro in the World War. New York: Arno Press. Stovall, Tyler E. 1996. Paris Noir: Africans Americans in the City of Light. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Ward, Andrew. 2001. Dark Midnight When I Rise, the Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers: How Black Music Changed the World. New York: Amistad. Angela Espada

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Evangelism. See Television Evangelism

Evers, Medgar (1925–63), Civil Rights Activist This African American civil rights activist became a cultural icon and martyr of the Civil Rights Movement after his 1963 murder in Jackson, Mississippi. Although his murderer was not convicted until 1994 (after three trials), the life, death, courage, and legacy of Evers contributed to profound changes in his home state, the nation, and the world. Medgar Wiley Evers was born in the farming community of Newton near Decatur, Mississippi, and lived there with his parents and older brother Charles until he dropped out of Newton High School to join the United States Army in 1943. He served in Normandy during World War II and achieved the rank of sergeant before being honorably discharged in 1945. Evers then returned to Mississippi and attended Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University), where he majored in business administration, was active in student government, debating, music, sports, and writing and editing student publications. While there he also met and married the former Myrlie Beasley on December 24, 1951, and was listed in Who’s Who in American Colleges before receiving his BA degree in 1952. Evers then moved to Mound Bayou, Mississippi, where he began work as an insurance agent and NAACP organizer. In 1954 he applied for and was denied admission to the University of Mississippi law school, and became the first Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP. The family then relocated to Jackson, the state capital, where Evers continued his civil and voting rights activities despite numerous threats and attempts on his life. He established local NAACP chapters in other communities, investigated crimes against black citizens, organ- Medgar Evers was a civil rights leader who ized boycotts of segregated busi- fought to improve the rights of African nesses and voter registration drives, American citizens in Jackson, Mississippi, until he was murdered on June 11, 1960, the day of and provided support for James Mer- President John F. Kennedy’s announcement edith as he integrated the Univer- that he was submitting the Civil Rights Bill to sity of Mississippi in 1962. Congress. (AP/Wide World Photos)

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When Evers was assassinated in the driveway of his home by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, the murder brought international attention to civil and human rights issues in Mississippi. After his funeral in Jackson, Evers was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on June 19, 1963. His older brother, Charles, succeeded him as NAACP Mississippi field secretary and eventually became the first elected African American mayor in Mississippi since Reconstruction. After two 1960s trials prosecuting De La Beckwith with all-white juries ended in mistrials, Myrlie Evers continued the long struggle to bring his assassin to justice while raising their three children, remarrying, and continuing her own civil rights activism, eventually serving as chair of the NAACP Board of Directors from 1995 to 1998. The book, For Us, The Living, a biography of Evers, was written by Myrlie Evers in 1967 and eventually made into a television movie during the 1980s with Howard Rollins and Irene Cara as Medgar and Myrlie Evers. The 1996 film Ghosts of Mississippi documented the long legal process that finally resulted in the conviction of De La Beckwith, with Oscar-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg portraying the role of Myrlie Evers-Williams. Other tributes and memorials to the life of Evers include the Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, which was established in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community of Brooklyn, New York, on July 30, 1970. A bronze statue of Evers was dedicated in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 28, 1992, while National Public Radio aired ‘‘The Legacy of Medgar Evers’’ on June 10, 2003, which documented the changes in Mississippi in the forty years since his death. Several roads and highways in Mississippi and other states have been renamed in his honor, and in December 2004 the airport in the state capital was renamed the Jackson-Evers International Airport. Evers-Williams also collaborated in 2005 with noted African American scholar Manning Marable to publish The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches, further ensuring that his contributions and ultimate sacrifice will continue to be recognized and remembered by succeeding generations. See also: Consciousness and Identity, African American; Jim Crow; Law Enforcement; Military; Protest Marches

Further Reading Evers, Myrlie B., and William Peters. [1967] 1996. For Us, the Living. 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday; Reprint. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Medgar Evers College. (n.d.) ‘‘Medgar Wiley Evers, 1925–1963.’’ City University of New York. http://www.mec.cuny.edu/presidents_office/medgar_evers.asp. Peeples, Melanie. 2003.‘‘The Legacy of Medgar Evers.’’ National Public Radio.org. June 10. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1294360. Fletcher F. Moon

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Ewing, Patrick (1962– ), Basketball Player Patrick Ewing costarred in the most memorable college championship games of the 1980s: The closing seconds jump shot by emerging star Michael Jordan of North Carolina, who defeated freshman Ewing’s Georgetown team in 1982; the next year Ewing battled his future longtime rival Hakeem Olajuwon of Houston but again lost in the NCAA championship game; and in Ewing’s junior year he got revenge against Olajuwon, and Georgetown won its first NCAA championship in 1984. In Ewing’s senior year, Georgetown was upset in the 1985 title game by Big East conference rival Villanova, which slowed down the game in order to limit Ewing’s chances of scoring, then the opponents shot field goals with the accuracy of top free-throw shooters. Ewing moved on to a star-studded seventeen-year pro career. The first fifteen years were with the New York Knicks. He was the first NBA lottery pick (1985). After two injury-plagued seasons, he lifted the Knicks out of an eighteen-year losing slump and returned the team to playoff and championship contention. There were heartbreaks: Ewing and his Knicks lost NBA championships twice to Texas teams, the Houston Rockets in 1994 and the San Antonio Spurs in 1999. Ewing’s triumphs include the distinction of winning Olympic Gold as a collegian in 1984 and as a professional in 1992. Named one of the NBA’s fifty greatest players during the league golden anniversary in 1996, the seven-footer combined the shot-blocking ferocity of former great Bill Russell with remarkable ability to score often with thunderous dunks or 15-to-18-foot jump shots. Patrick Aloysius Ewing was born August 5, 1962, in Kingston, Jamaica, to Carl and Dorothy Ewing. Soccer and cricket were Patrick’s childhood games in the Caribbean. He immigrated to the United States in 1975 at age twelve and joined his parents and some of his six siblings in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By middle school, young Patrick had grown to over 6 feet and he began to play organized Basketball. In class, because he spoke Jamaican patois, he had difficulties communicating. Ewing’s speaking and reading skills improved with the assistance of a tutor and through encouragement from his mother. He grew to 7 feet by high school and was a heralded prep star at Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, where he studied As scores of schools hounded Ewing for his athletic talent, his coach and mother asked that the finalists promise tutoring and remedial instruction. Ewing selected Georgetown University in Washington, DC. On the court he wore a gray or navy blue T-shirt under his sleeveless jersey. Throughout his college career, Ewing endured racist taunting from opposing school fans who accused him of being a brute who could not read. Ewing’s ferocity on the court and shyness off it was misinterpreted. He was literate and once had aspirations of becoming a professional artist. NBA teams hounded Ewing to leave college early to play professionally, but he stayed in school and graduated

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on time in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. He kept a promise to his late mother to complete his formal education. NBA Lottery Pick With graduation behind him, Ewing made sports history. Before 1985, representatives of the two worst NBA teams flipped a coin to decide who would get the first pick in the draft of top college prospects. That year, a lottery among the seven worst teams decided the drafting positions. The New York Knicks were the top draw and they selected Ewing. In his rookie and second season Ewing missed 51 of 164 regular season games because of injuries, yet he played well when healthy and was named 1986 Rookie of the Year. By the late 1980s Ewing’s Knicks returned to winning seasons and by the 1990s his teams contended for championships. In 1996, Ewing played himself as one of the animated characters in ‘‘Space Jam’’ starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. In 2009, Ewing was featured in a Snickers candy bar commercial that has the pitch, ‘‘Get dunked on by Patrick Chewing.’’ In 2010, he was portrayed mostly sympathetically in the ESPN documentary, ‘‘Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks.’’ Ewing was the Knicks great who brought teams so close to championships, but an unforgiving bounce of the ball off the rim, or his aging knees, betrayed him. See also: Olympics Further Reading Heisler, Mark. 2003. Giants: The 25 Greatest Centers of All Time. Chicago: Triumph Books. Jet. 2002. ‘‘Patrick Ewing Announces His Retirement from NBA; Joins Wizards As a Coach.’’ 102 (October 7): 46. Kirkpatrick, Curry. 1984. ‘‘Hang On to Your Hats . . . and Heads: With Patrick Ewing At his Formidable Best; Georgetown Won the Big East Tournament and Sailed Forth into the NCAAs.’’ Sports Illustrated 60 (March 19). http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ vault/article/magazine/MAG1121854/index.htm. Leavy, Walter. 1986. ‘‘Patrick Ewing: Can This Man Save the Knicks?’’ Ebony 41 (February): 59–62. Wayne Dawkins

Expos, Black Expositions, or expos, large public shows geared toward African Americans, are held across the country each year to promote black culture and historic and current accomplishments; they are widely accepted in African American popular culture. Aspects of their mission may vary, depending on the central theme of a

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particular expo; for example, some promote prosperity in the community, others target women, and still others promote family. Many now embrace other racial groups. A common thread among the celebrations, however, is to showcase and promote cultural, economic, and social advancement of African Americans. Expos, or giant fairs that embraced African Americans, were known to exist during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. C. Vann Woodward called them ‘‘great industrial expositions.’’ According to historian Bobby Lovett, cities throughout the country promoted their industrial progress by holding expositions. The situation was different in the South, where ‘‘white leaders had to clean up their racial image before inviting visitors and investors from across the country’’ to visit them. Notable among these are the International Cotton Exposition held in Atlanta in 1881, the Cotton Exposition held in New Orleans in 1885, and Atlanta’s Piedmont Exposition of 1887. Whether or not each of these expos gave any visibility to the progress of African Americans is unclear. The World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago in 1893; it included exhibits that demonstrated the progress of black women. In 1895, the ambitious Cotton States and International Exposition was held in Atlanta, and provided a special building that featured the accomplishments of African American women and the race in general. The Negro Building had special appeal; it embraced banking, real estate, the arts, the sciences, and literature. The still-popular speech, the ‘‘Atlanta Compromise,’’ that Tuskegee University’s founder Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) gave at the exposition on September 18 is the subject of continued study and discussion; it envisioned the South as a new Garden of Eden for the white and black race. Clearly, he ‘‘set the tone for race relations in the New South,’’ Lovett writes. Expositions were held in other states around this time, including Nashville, Tennessee, where major attempts were made to address racial accommodationism that had become an issue. The city planned the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition in 1896, designed to celebrate the state’s one hundredth birthday, promote business and industry, and fight economic depression. The planners formed a ‘‘Negro Department,’’ or a Negro committee, comprised of local elite black businessmen, yet the black leadership saw themselves giving only token leadership and playing no meaningful role in the celebration. Later, membership on the committee changed and included two school teachers, two preachers, representatives of the business elite, and a women’s executive committee. They planned a Negro Building inspired by the one in Atlanta’s 1895 Cotton States exhibition but decidedly larger and finer. When the exposition opened on May 1, 1897, Fisk University’s Mozart Society entertained the guests with their songs. Saturday, June 5, was designated as ‘‘Negro Day.’’ For the opening ceremony, blacks from across the state came by excursion trains and witnessed a parade of electric cars and bicycles in the downtown area and elsewhere. The Negro Building was filled with art, science, inventions, handicraft, literature, and other works by black people. Blacks attended on special days set aside for them, such as Fisk University Day, Negro Working People’s Day, Meharry Medical College Alumni Day, Association of Colored Physicians and Surgeons Day, State Colored Teachers’ Association Day, and so on. That some five hundred blacks were

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hired to work in the Centennial celebration was laudatory. Booker T. Washington delivered the principal speech at the Centennial Emancipation Day program on September 22, 1897. Given the still-hostile racial climate in Nashville, however, Washington gave many concessions during his talk but asked whites to include blacks in the new industrial order as well as protect them from ‘‘racial violence and unemployment,’’ writes Lovett. Although the Negro Building no longer stands, its cornerstone, laid at the structure by the Ancient Order of Freemasons, is displayed in Fisk University’s library building. Both the Washington speech and the black talent included in the expo served as a springboard for organizing the first network of black expos operated independently across the country over a century later. Black Expos of America (BEA) was organized in the spirit of Washington and other highly respected blacks who came together in Atlanta to plan the African American’s participation in the 1895 expo, and has its mission to cultivate prosperity among African American businesses and organizations. It aims to strengthen and enhance the capability of these independent expos and expand their cultural, educational, social, and business services to enhance the quality of life for black entrepreneurs and consumers. One of the most popular expos is the work of the Indiana Black Expo (IBE). The group has been in business for thirty-nine years and is a year-round, multifaceted community service organization with chapters located around the state. IBE’s best-known work is the ‘‘Summer Celebration’’ and the ‘‘Circle-City Classic’’—both held as major fund-raisers in Indianapolis. The Circle-City Classic features football games between black colleges. Activities held around the games are a cabaret, gala, parade, coaches’ luncheon, high school basketball game, and youth initiatives. Other expos include the South Carolina Black Family Expo held in Florence; its initial expo was held in 1992. In 1993, the first Expo for Today’s Black Woman was held in Chicago. Current seminars address racial equality, financial independence, self sufficiency, health and nutrition, and the welfare of children. The Sweet Auburn SpringFest (also simply called Springfest) is an annual festival and family gathering centered on Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue—the spiritual and historical heart of the city’s black community. Civil rights icon Hosea Williams produced the first festival in 1984, in an effort to bring people back to the once-thriving center of black business, social, civic, and religious activities in Atlanta. The festival, now touted as the largest of its kind in the southeast, annually attracts from 350,000 to 500,000 visitors who attend this family event. The 2010 SpringFest included an artist market, business and technology expo, health and fitness fair, automobile and bike show, carnival, literary marketplace, kid’s zone, and the continuing ‘‘Just for Women’s EXPO.’’ Leading entertainers from across the United States appeared on five different stages. For the young and college age, the ever-popular step competition was a winner. The Texas Black Expo celebrates cultural diversity and embraces various ethnicities, nationalities, generations, and socioeconomic levels. It promotes expos to stimulate growth and development within urban communities. Also in Texas, the Houston Black Expo, founded in 2002, has a vision to connect businesses in the Houston area to the communities that they serve. Weekend celebrations

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have featured entertainers of national acclaim and included fashion shows, cultural demonstrations, food samplings, and seminars. It is the largest African American trade show in the state. See also: Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Further Reading ‘‘The Black Women’s Expo.’’ http://theblackwomenssexpo.com/expo/history.html. Indiana Black Expo, Inc. 2010. ‘‘Celebrating 40 Years of Culture, Heritage and Community.’’ http://www/indianablackexpo.com/index2/html. Lovett, Bobby L. 1999. The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780–1930: Elites and Dilemmas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. Woodward. C. Vann. 1951. Origins of the New South 1877–1913. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Jessie Carney Smith

F Family Life Since the tragic circumstances surrounding the Atlantic slave trade, the African American family has struggled to maintain its cohesiveness, loyalty, and commitment to the family unit. It is no surprise that the operators of the slave trade determined that to enforce systematic oppression, they would need to divide and disperse strong family units that connected across biological lines. One of the tragic scenes from the era of slavery is that of children being separated from their mother. The African woman and man were treated as mere cattle and targeted with breeding with little opportunity of consummating a marital relationship and raising and nurturing a family. With the ending of the slave trade and through the period of Reconstruction, the family unit was strengthened with the reclamation of African heritage. Many African American families, who were stymied in the role of sharecropping in the decimated South post-slave trade, sought new opportunities for their futures. African American families were able to operate farms, with many African American family traditions shaped around the harvest and the celebration of life. With the onset of industrialization, the African American family took the risk of venturing to the North for greater economic opportunities as a part of the Great Migration. Industrialization provided economic futures for many African American adult males who were destined to serve as father providers, while the African American woman demonstrated her strength in her ability to nurture and care for others within and outside the immediate family system. Family members ventured to Chicago, New York, Detroit, and elsewhere and provided support for other family members to claim new opportunities.

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An early and significant account of black families is sociologist E. Franklin Frazier’s award-winning and pioneering work, The Negro Family in the United States (1939). In his sociological work, he traces African American families from slavery to mid-twentieth-century and incorporates influences of their own community on family development. Frazier became known for his continued research and publications on black families. During the 1950s, the African American family was identified as one of the strongest institutions, as the majority of African Americans were being raised in two-parent households. With the growing poverty in urban centers, the singleparent mother became more commonplace. Today, a ‘‘baby momma’’ (a woman, often a young woman, who has a baby, and there is no intention of marriage) is replacing the parenting structure in many single-parent families. The images depicted in legendary filmmaker Tyler Perry’s works, such as Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2001), Madea’s Family Reunion (2002), Madea’s Class Reunion (2003), Madea Goes to Jail (2005), and Why Did I Get Married, Too (2010), and in particular his ‘‘Madea’’ character, capture the humor surrounding the contemporary African American family system. Although television shows like Good Times found the humor in the midst of dire poverty and underemployment, the emasculation of the black male, particularly the father figure, took a terrible twist with the overrepresentation of African American males within the justice system. Today, the older African American female often represents the strong matriarchal figure–the ‘‘Big Momma’’ who is responsible for being the glue in the family system. This strong female image stereotypically has taken control over the family affairs at the cost often to her health and overall well-being. This supersized matriarch is often forced to parent across the generations as her household is the center of the family system. As adult family members struggle with their responsibilities, coming home to Big Momma has often been a guarantee. As African Americans have become increasingly more assimilated into the American ethos, the family systems within the African American community are significantly diverse. With over 60 percent of African American children being raised in single parent homes, these children are sometimes viewed as underprivileged while others are viewed as resilient and independent under the same circumstances. The family system remains centered around a strong matriarch whether she is biologically related to all of the family members or not. Play, or make-believe uncles and aunts are commonplace as the African American community seeks to serve as a village. Extended family systems like the family configurations during slavery are central to fostering development across the life span for each family member. Today, families are separated by institutional forces of oppression including the proliferation of illegal substances within depressed African American communities and the social control structures of behavior-disordered classrooms, the juvenile justice and the criminal justice system. African American youth are bombarded with the romanticizing of incarceration as the significant rite of passage of the African American male. This hard, machismo image is counterbalanced with a seductive, illiterate ghetto queen. In the midst of these stereotypical images is the procreation of generations of children who appear to be raising their

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parents if a matriarchal grandparent is not involved in the family system. As Tyler Perry’s lens captures the complexities within African American male/ female relationships, black love is reduced to sexually explicit expressions of care and concern. With the election of the first African American president of the United States, the ideal of the Huxtables from The Cosby Show has returned to American culture. The Obama family, a strong nuclear unit of two parents and their children, is strengthened by extended family support as evidenced by Michelle Obama’s mother, who lives with them in the White House. The United States is being introduced to successful adult African American males and females who are fully capable of capturing a sustained love and commitment in the development of a strong family system. The practical posture of an educated African American female professional who assumes responsibility for motherhood and nurturing family members and the attentive father who is the leader of the free world provides a new and refreshing image for the contemporary African American family. See also: Men, African American, Images of; Single Parenting; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Frazier, E. Franklin. 1939. The Negro Family in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McLoyd, Vonnie, Nancy E. Hill, and Kenneth A. Dodge. 2005. African American Family Life: Ecological and Cultural Diversity. New York: Guilford Press. Online Encyclopedia. (n.d.) African-American Families—Historical and Cultural Influences on African-American Family Life, Contemporary Social Influences, AfricanAmerican Families in the New Millennium. http://family.jrank.org/pages/61/African -American-Families.html. Sheila R. Peters

Family Reunions Family reunions are important heritage events in the African American community. Some have been held for over a century; others emerged after the publication of Roots, by Alex Haley; and still others were spurred by a greater longing for family relationships, cultural identity, and the preservation of family history. Several family names are found within a family unit, usually embracing a core family, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. While in earlier years, black families remained geographically close due to economic conditions, over the years, many became separated by distance as some members migrated to various parts of the country. Reunions bring them together. Heritage celebrations, such as Emancipation celebrations, fostered family reunions among blacks and were held to celebrate family, especially ancestors.

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They may center on one or more family lines and include close friends as well. Family reunions may be held annually, biennially, or at designated times convenient for the family, such as at Christmas time or the Fourth of July. Families may gather at the home place of grand- or great-grandparents, in hotels in areas conveniently located for the descendants, in mountain retreats, or in resort areas. While once rather informal, many have grown to become formal, requiring advance planning, assignment of responsibilities, family dues to offset costs, and so on. It is not uncommon to find references to impending family reunions included on the Internet. To promote the heritage celebrations, family T-shirts, mugs, tote bags, caps, and other paraphernalia are manufactured. Events are planned for adults and for children. Sometimes elders engage in storytelling, a family historian collects and presents family history, a family photographer is engaged to capture the activities in print or now in electronic format, professional entertainment is provided, and family sages as well as deceased members are honored. At mealtime, dishes of special importance to the family or that involve an old family recipe may be served. Above all, ties that bind the family historically are preserved and promoted; these may include publication of family heritage cookbooks or family histories. Tours of local areas and worship service on the final day are essential parts of the gathering. Ancestral Searching and Reunions The 1970s ushered in a revealing experience for Dorothy Spruill Redford, who became one of many African Americans who searched for their roots and ended their journey with a triumphant family celebration. Redford’s search, that began with the simple desire to tell her daughter about her family history, brought together on August 30, 1986, over two thousand descendants of the slaves who once lived at Somerset Place, an antebellum plantation in Washington County, North Carolina. Descendants of their white slave owners also attended the reunion; the event attracted national media attention. A 1986 proclamation from North Carolina’s governor for Somerset Homecoming Day noted the arrival of eighty Africans who were brought to Edenton two hundred years earlier, bound for slavery at Somerset plantation. They joined other slaves and worked under harsh conditions in a life of bondage and developed a prosperous plantation for their owners. As their descendants returned for the homecoming, the proclamation, published in Somerset Homecoming, challenged them to ‘‘rekindle family bonds’’ at the historic site and ‘‘foster a healing of historic abuses by promoting life and family.’’ National Family Reunion Celebrations The largest event of this type is the Black Family Reunion Celebration held on the National Mall in Washington, DC, as well is in major cities all over the country. Dorothy I. Height, then chair of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), conceived the idea in 1986, in response to growing negative publicity about ‘‘the vanishing black family.’’ She called for a positive, culturally

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based event to celebrate the ‘‘enduring strengths and traditional values of the African American family.’’ Government agencies, private and public institutions, corporations, community-based organizations, and families from all ethnicities would work together to address issues affecting the family. In 1986, the first NCNW Black Family Reunion Celebration was held and featured such luminaries as Arthur Ashe, Alex Haley, Coretta Scott King, and Betty Shabazz. The celebration has grown from a two-day to three- or four-day cultural event featuring themed pavilions to showcase black businesses and organizations; education and economic empowerment; spirituality; fathers, sons, and brothers; women’s health; and other areas of interest. Celebrities, experts, performing artists, and product promotions are still featured. Workshops, issue forums, health checks, demonstrations, and exhibits are provided and help to unify the community in the face of national concerns that black families face. The 25th annual celebration, called ‘‘One Day Mega Festival,’’ was held on September 11, 2010, on the National Mall. It continued a traditional three-day event. Attendance at the multiple sites now exceeds two hundred thousand, and has become the nation’s largest multicultural and family-focused event of its kind. Among the NCNW family celebrations held elsewhere is the Midwest Regional Black Family Reunion Celebration held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its inaugural event came in August 1989; it is held the third week of August each year. Now one of the largest family-focused events in the city, it draws over one hundred thousand patrons of all ages. Activities include a heritage breakfast, gala, job fair, R & B (Rhythm & Blues) concert, gospelfests, themed pavilions, worship service, and other events. The reunion embraces heritage and sometimes encompasses several smaller family reunions, whose members come from various states. Most wear their own family reunion T-shirts. The reunion often attracts other nationalities, thus fulfilling one of the dreams that Dorothy Height envisioned when she established the NCNW reunions. Sweet Auburn SpringFest Each May the Sweet Auburn SpringFest is held in Atlanta, Georgia; it has become one of the largest family reunions and street festivals held to celebrate African Americans. First held in 1984, the festival and family gathering is centered on Auburn Avenue, or the spiritual and historical heart of the local black community. It has now spread to a two-mile radius of that historic area. The celebration includes events for the entire family and embraces entertainment, health and fitness, a literary marketplace, a fun zone for children, and a home-buyers showcase. The 2008 SpringFest highlighted world cultures with such attractions as ‘‘Taste of the World.’’ Foods from seven continents were featured as was a film festival showing African American, American Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Indian, and African films. Legends, heroes, and heroines who manifest and live the spirit of Sweet Auburn were celebrated in an awards luncheon. Some of these attractions continued during the 2010 fest, held May 7–9. Added attractions included stages such as ‘‘Just for Women,’’ ‘‘Health & Fitness,’’ ‘‘Kids Fantastic Fun Zone,’’ and ‘‘So

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You Think You Can Step Competition.’’ For 2011, festival planners propose to hold a Sweet Auburn Worldfest on May 6–8. Pittsburgh Black Family Reunion For sixteen years the Community Empowerment Association (CEA) has served thousands of disadvantaged and minority families throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area. In recent years, however, CEA has supported the Black Family Reunion Festival, in its seventh annual event held August 6–8, 2010. Now called Black Family Reunion & Cultural Arts Weekend, its actual title is ‘‘Youth in the Age of Obama.’’ The weekend event attracts people of all ages and from all over Pittsburgh and surrounding communities who unite to celebrate the gifts and talents of their communities. The aim also is to empower individuals through jobs, education, housing, economic development, and family support services. There are basketball tournaments (Peace in the Hood, Three on Three Basketball, and Slam Dunk), workshops, health screenings, panel discussions, dance, jazz, Hip-Hop, R & B, the spoken word, arts, and so on. The primary aim is to build healthy black families. National family reunions that celebrate the African American family are increasing in number, frequency, and importance. Other examples are the Tom Joyner Family Reunion, the Ebony Black Family Reunion, and numerous others. See also: Expos, Black; Folklore Further Reading Prahlad, Anand, ed. 2006. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Redford, Dorothy Spruill. 1988. Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage. New York: Doubleday. ‘‘7th Annual Black Family Reunion and Cultural Arts Weekend.’’ 2010. http://www .pghblackfamilyreunion.org. ‘‘Sweet Auburn Spring Fest.’’ http://www.tripsmarter.com/atlanta.archives/events.sweetauburn .htm ‘‘25th Anniversary National Council of Negro Women, Inc. 2010. Black Family Reunion Celebration.’’ http://www.ncw.org/events/reunion.html. Jessie Carney Smith

Farrakhan, Louis (1933– ), Religious Leader, Social Activist Louis Abdul Farrakhan is an articulate spokesman, religious icon, and the spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), an African American religious group that he rebuilt in the late 1970s after the death of the NOI’s supreme leader, Elijah Muhammad. In 1995, Farrakhan, calling for a day of atonement and reconciliation, organized the Million Man March, which attracted an estimated 400,000 to 1.5 million African Americans to Washington, DC. The march is recognized as an historic event in African American popular culture.

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Farrakhan, the son of a Jamaican father and a West Indian mother, was born Louis Eugene Walcott on May 11, 1933, in the Bronx, New York City. His parents, Percival Clarke, a taxi driver, and Sarah Mae Clarke, a domestic, separated prior to Farrakhan’s birth. In 1937, Sarah Clarke, Farrakhan (known as Gene), and Farrakhan’s half-brother, Alvan Walcott, moved to the Roxbury neighborhood in Boston. When Farrakhan was five years old, his mother gave him a violin, and he began taking music lessons with a Jewish woman who was a former pupil of Leopold Auer, the renowned violin teacher. Also during Farrakhan’s childhood, he was an altar boy and choir member at St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church. Farrakhan continued playing the violin as he attended Boston’s public schools, and when Farrakhan was thirteen, he performed with the Boston Civic Symphony and the Boston College Orchestra. Three years later in 1949, Farrakhan played a classical music selection on the nationally televised Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour. An honor student who also excelled in Track and Field, Farrakhan attended the prestigious Boston Latin School before transferring to English High School, which was also one of Boston’s best public high schools. The talented Farrakhan earned money with a guitar and ukulele as he played and sang calypso songs in the city’s African American nightclubs, where he was known as ‘‘the Charmer.’’ After graduating from English High, Farrakhan attended Winston-Salem Teacher’s College (now Winston-Salem State University) in North Carolina on a track scholarship and majored in English from 1951 to 1953. During that time, Farrakhan wrote the song ‘‘Why America Is No Democracy’’ after he was denied admission to a segregated movie theater in Washington, DC. He left Winston-Salem and on September 12, 1953, married Betsy Jean Ross (now known as Khadijah Farrakhan), who was from Roxbury and was pregnant with the first of the couple’s nine children. Farrakhan supported his family by continuing to perform as a calypso artist. Still entertaining audiences as the Charmer, Farrakhan was also known as ‘‘Calypso Gene.’’ Farrakhan recorded various songs, and he earned as much as $500 a week as he toured the Northeast and Midwest. While in Chicago in 1955, Farrakhan attended a convention of the NOI, where he heard Elijah Muhammad speak. Shortly thereafter Farrakhan and his wife, impressed with Muhammad’s views on African American nationalism, joined the NOI. Returning to the East Coast, Farrakhan, who had abandoned his birth name and was then known as Louis X, was assigned to Temple No. 7 in Harlem, New York, which was the largest NOI temple outside of Chicago. Malcolm X was the minister of Temple No. 7, the NOI’s national representative, and Farrakhan’s mentor. Farrakhan was named a captain in the NOI’s security unit, the Fruit of Islam. In 1956 he was appointed minister of Temple No. 11 in Boston. Working on behalf of the NOI, Farrakhan wrote two plays: Orgena and The Trial; in addition he recorded ‘‘A White Man’s Heaven Is a Black Man’s Hell’’ and ‘‘Look at My Chains.’’ By 1961 the temple’s membership had tripled. Malcolm X, as a result of personal and political issues involving Elijah Muhammad, left the NOI in 1964; Farrakhan, cognizant of the same issues, remained in the NOI. Malcolm X was killed by members of the NOI on February 21, 1965. Farrakhan has asserted that while he was not directly involved in the assassination; his criticism of Malcolm X

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helped create a vitriolic environment for him. That same year, Muhammad changed Louis X’s name to Abdul Farrakhan and appointed him minister of the Harlem temple as well as national representative of the NOI. Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, and his son, Warith Deen Muhammad, succeeded him as supreme minister. The new leader, who had reassigned Farrakhan to Chicago, rejected the NOI’s tenets about African American nationalism as he moved the organization toward orthodox Islam. Muhammad consequently disbanded the NOI and founded the World Community of al-Islam (now American Society of Muslims). Farrakhan left the organization in 1977 and reestablished the NOI in order to continue the work of Elijah Muhammad. Two years later, he founded the Final Call, the NOI’s official newspaper, and in 1993 he published his first book, A Torchlight for America. Over the years, as the NOI’s membership increased under Farrakhan’s leadership, the organization repurchased various real estate properties (including the flagship mosque in Chicago) sold after Elijah Muhammad’s death, and established a number of businesses. As Farrakhan toured the United States fulfilling speaking engagements, he increased the NOI’s visibility. One night in Atlanta, Farrakhan’s appearance at the Georgia Dome attracted 60,000 people, while the first game of the 1992 World Series game drew 53,000 individuals to nearby Fulton County Stadium. Farrakhan’s activities have not been limited to the NOI. In December 1984 he accompanied Jessie Jackson on a trip to Syria where they successfully secured the January 1985 release of Lt. Robert Goodman, an African American naval airman, who had been captured after his plane was shot down over Lebanon. Farrakhan has led register to vote, antiviolence, and other campaigns as well as the aforementioned Million Man March (which was the largest African American rally in the United States) and the Million Family March in 2000 in order to address the problems that plague African Americans. He spearheaded the Millions More Movement in 2005, in efforts to involve other minorities in the quest to ameliorate shared problems. Farrakhan, who is a prostate cancer survivor, founded the Louis Farrakhan Prostate Cancer Center in 2003. See also: Black Nationalism; Black Theology; Churches; Nightclubs, Entertainments Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Further Reading Alexander, Amy, ed. 1998. The Farrakhan Factor: African-American Writers on Leadership, Nationhood, and Minister Louis Farrakhan. New York: Grove Press. Levinsohn, Florence H. 1997. Looking for Farrakhan. Chicago: Ivan R. Dees. Levy, Sholomo B. ‘‘Louis Abdul Farrakhan.’’ 2008. African American National Biography, Vol. 3. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York:. Magida, Arthur. 1996. Prophet of Rage: A Life of Louis Farrakhan and His Nation. New York: Basic Books. Wiggins, W. Braxter. 1999. Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Linda M. Carter

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Fashion. See Clothing and Fashion Federal Theatre Project: Negro Theatre Unit The Negro Theatre Unit, which was established by the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), was a brief and glimmering phenomenon in African American popular culture. It lasted from 1935 to 1939. On August 27, 1935, the federal government funded the Federal Theatre Project through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Works Progress Administration (later known as the Works Projects Administration) was one of the largest relief programs created under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program, which was founded to alleviate and remedy the economic crisis in the United States brought on by the Great Depression. The Federal Theatre Project was established specifically to employ playwrights, actors, producers, and directors and to provide low-priced or in many cases, free entertainment for the general public. In a progressive move, Harry Hopkins, who headed the WPA, appointed a woman, Hallie Flanagan, as the director of the entire FTP. Flanagan’s vision for the FTP included participation from diverse groups throughout the nation. Flanagan insisted ‘‘that art should represent and reflect America in all its diversity.’’ Flanagan’s vision was revolutionary. In early twentieth century America, diversity was not widely tolerated. All too frequently, ethnic and racial groups were mistreated, discriminated against, and harassed. In setting out to celebrate difference, Flanagan established regional directors who oversaw theater projects in the East, West, Midwest, and South. Within each region, separate theaters for predominately white and ethnic casts were established. Ethnic units, such as ‘‘a Spanish unit in Miami, Yiddish units in New York and Los Angeles, French and Italian units, a Southwest unit in Los Angeles, as well as classical units, vaudeville, and a circus all in New York’’ catered to local audiences and promoted pride, according to Rena Fraden. The Negro Theatre Unit, also referred to as Negro Units, were among the most popular and successful theaters and were well-represented in all four regions. In the West, units were located in Seattle and Los Angeles. In the East, Negro Units were established in New York City, Boston, Hartford, Philadelphia, and Newark. Negro Units were set up in Raleigh, Durham, and Birmingham in the South and Chicago, Peoria, and Cleveland in the Midwest. The Negro Units were significant for many reasons. For one, the establishment of the units represented a major effort by the federal government to recognize and financially support African American talent on a national scale. Secondly, the Negro Units provided opportunities for blacks to make a living writing, acting, operating the technical aspects of theater, and, to a lesser extent, directing. Third (and not last), the Negro Units were deemed extremely successful despite heavy criticism and challenges. In 1939, however, the federal government cancelled funds to the FTP, resulting in the demise of all government-sponsored theaters created by the FTP, including the Negro Units. Nonetheless, the Negro Theatre

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Unit had made a significant impact and is regarded as a critical juncture in the history of African American theater. History of African American Theater The Negro Units that emerged in the last half of the 1930s were not the first of their kind. The legacy of the black theater stems back to Africa. Africans transplanted to America during slavery had come from deeply entrenched traditions in art and performance. (Scholars debate whether or not ‘‘theaters’’ existed in traditional Africa. To be sure, Africans observed traditions that are associated with the theater, such as singing, music, and performing. In contemporary times, these traditions have strongly influenced African and African American performers.) In traditional Africa, amateurs and professionals alike created art, played musical instruments, sang, and danced. Storytelling was an art form in itself that was often accompanied with complicated plots, theatrical impersonations of assorted characters, music accompaniment, dance, as well as masks and other costumes and accessories. Storytelling performances took place within homes and before the various African royal courts, as well as the entire community. Other theatrical traditions originated in masquerades and religious rites. During slavery, African cultural and artistic traditions were adapted to fit life in the New World. Some remnants of African heritage were more evident than others. For example, storytelling persisted in the slave quarters. Song and music continued to play an important role in every aspect of life, religious ritual and worship, leisure time, and toil; they were performed with new instruments, such as the banjo and fiddle. There, in the isolated environs of the slave world, blacks found enjoyment performing for themselves and others in their community. Black preachers infused their sermons with music, song, dance, and theatrical performances. The distinct black culture that developed through the hybridization of African and American culture, language, and performance was often exploited by whites. Slave masters forced black slaves to perform for them and their guests. Black performances, however, were mostly perceived in negative terms, such as inferior and exotic, and considered an illegitimate expression of art and a source of amusement. Beginning in the 1820s, white entertainers built a massively popular industry known as Minstrelsy or ‘‘blackface,’’ perpetrating grotesque and exaggerated caricatures of the slaves. The trademarks of minstrel entertainers were blackface makeup and derisive emulations of black behavior, language, communication styles, and forms of entertainment. This phenomenon reflected societal racism and the rampant vilification of blacks. Alarmingly, some of the first black entertainers in the United States capitalized on theatrical trends in white society, performing blackface for white and black audiences. William Henry Lane is considered the first known African American entertainer to perform blackface in the theater. Despite his popularity with black audiences, black leaders and members of the black middle class openly and vehemently protested minstrelsy. The portrayal of blacks in the theater, by blacks and whites, would remain one of the most hotly contested issues within the black community.

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Amid the torrent of negative images of blacks in the theater and society, African Americans established professional theaters. These theaters were often strongly influenced, if not dominated, by Eurocentric and middle-class values and traditions. Many of the theaters, such as the first known black theater company in New York, founded by William Alexander Brown, were formed because blacks were prohibited from participating in or attending mainstream theaters. Those free and enslaved blacks who were allowed to attend theaters, were often forced to sit in segregated seats or sections of the theater. In New York, where Brown lived, blacks were not permitted to attend the local theater, so he decided to create a black theater, featuring an all-black cast, for the black community. Initially, his theater went by the name of African Grove, and performances took place in his backyard. Eventually, Brown moved the theater into rooms above his home, changing the theater’s name to the African Theatre, in 1821. (Some time later, the African Theatre was moved into a building of its own.) Although the name of the theater reflected his community’s racial heritage and pride, the theater mostly performed Eurocentric plays, including William Shakespeare’s Richard III and Othello, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s Pizarro. One of the African Theatre’s stars, Ira Aldridge, performed throughout Europe. Historically, African Americans faced less racism and discrimination in Europe than they did in their own country. The success of the African Theatre was tempered by hostile attitudes towards it. Before the theater closed in 1824, whites physically attacked the actors and Brown. Blacks who prospered socially and economically (or made efforts to advance themselves) were often the target of violence by embittered and racist whites. Following the founding of the African Theatre, other black theaters emerged throughout the nation. Free and enslaved blacks were permitted use of designated sections of white-owned playhouses in the North and South. African Americans operated the New Orleans playhouse, which was established in 1830, and E. V. Mathieu, an African American, founded Marigny Theatre in 1838. Another wave of black performers and theaters proliferated following the end of the Civil War in 1865 through the early twentieth century. Emancipation provided blacks with greater freedom to travel and live as they saw fit. African Americans formed all-black vaudeville groups and established black theaters. The presence of these vaudeville groups and black theaters was a telling testament of cultural resistance to dominant white society and resourcefulness (African Americans were among the poorest racial groups in the nation). Traveling vaudeville groups comprised singers, musicians, and other entertainers. Many well-known blues singers, like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, had their start performing in vaudeville acts and variety shows. These groups performed musicals featuring the latest dance crazes and music styles like the blues, and other forms of entertainment that appealed to audiences comprising mostly impoverished and working-class blacks. Black theaters prospered during this period. Robert Mott founded one of the first black theaters in the nation, the Pekin Theater, in Chicago, Illinois, in 1906. Charles H. Douglass, one of the prominent pioneers in the vaudeville movement, established the Douglass Theatre in Macon, Georgia, which lasted nearly three decades between 1911 and 1940. Venues like Douglass’s provided

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some of the only opportunities for blacks to showcase their talents, as well as be entertained in an environment wherein they did not have to contend with white racism and discrimination. Blacks controlled every aspect of these theaters as writers, managers, directors, producers, and performers. Notwithstanding the remarkable period of black showmanship and enterprise, not every African American condoned or supported popular forms of black entertainment that regularly appeared in black and white theaters. Churchgoing blacks were mortified by the risqu
e singing and comedy, drinking, dancing, and carousing that often occurred in venues where blacks performed. Well-to-do and educated blacks condemned these amusements, contending that they perpetuated stereotypes that should be eliminated. Blacks did not only perform in variety shows, musicals, or vaudeville acts, they also appeared in plays that were considered acceptable by the black middle class. Generally, these plays were mainstream and classic works that, according to Fraden, were ‘‘retooled for a black audience’’ in white theaters on specially designated nights, or in independently owned black theaters. Few African Americans crossed over into mainstream productions that featured predominately white casts. For example, on Broadway in New York, roles for blacks were limited to the few plays that dealt with racial themes and issues. When black actors did appear in mainstream plays, they were largely cast in minor or stereotypical roles and received less pay than their white counterparts. Roles for African Americans in mainstream productions were often repeatedly recycled between a handful of professionals, such as Bert Williams and Paul Robeson. During the second decade of the 1900s, an artistic, cultural, and literary renaissance movement emerged in urban black communities. The most widely known renaissance movements occurred in New York (Harlem Renaissance) and Chicago (Chicago Black Renaissance), which were fueled by large black migrations from the South. Seminal to this movement were the African American writers, intellectuals, jazz and blues musicians, and artists who sought to define black identity and control the direction of black cultural expressions for themselves. As with any movement, there were internal conflicts and arguments. For example, some writers and supporters of African American literature were opposed to the use of black dialect in literature, whereas others sought to celebrate black folk culture and vernacular. Zora Neale Hurston, a novelist and folklorist, was criticized by some of her compeers, because her folk characters appeared to them to reinforce black stereotypes. Other writers preferred gritty realism that exposed poverty and racism in the urban black experience. Among the major playwrights of this period were Langston Hughes, Willis Richardson, Eulalie Spence, Randolph Edmonds, and Wallace Thurman. These writers generated an abundance of new material for black actors, necessitating a demand for new black theaters throughout the nation. Hughes is one of the best known playwrights and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He produced a large body of work dealing with racism and black culture. He wrote twelve major plays that reflected the richness and multiple dimensions of the black experience in the United States. Richardson, who was associated with the black renaissance in

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Washington, DC, is considered a pioneer in black theater. His work covered a wide range of topics, such as black religion and folk life, and includes such works as The Deacon’s Awakening, Mortgaged, Compromise, and The Broken Banjo. Spence, who hailed from the West Indies, was a prominent African American female writer of the Harlem Renaissance who wrote more than a dozen plays, of which half were published and produced for the theater. The spectacular chapter of the black renaissance came to an end with the crash of the stock market in 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. The Great Depression lasted between 1929 and the early part of the 1940s. Many black theaters were forced to close. African American artists, writers, and performers found themselves reeling in the shock of financial ruin and out of work. The emergence of the FTP and the Negro Units helped save and resuscitate the black theater and create jobs for African American actors and writers. Major Issues and Controversies in Three Popular Negro Units Black theaters came to life under the auspices of the FTP. New theaters emerged, drawing enormous crowds, black and white, who filled auditoriums that had been emptied following the onset of the Great Depression. Among the most leading and documented Negro Units were located in Seattle, Chicago, and Harlem, places where, according to scholar Rena Fraden, African Americans had had a strong artistic influence and entertainment base. These units, however, were not without controversy and flaws, reflecting the ongoing challenges and struggles in the history of black theater. Seattle, Washington Seattle, Washington, would seem an unlikely place to accommodate a Negro Unit. Located in the far northwestern corner of the United States, Washington attracted comparatively smaller black populations than many other states. In 1900, the black population in Seattle was four hundred; however, the population would grow to some 2,300 blacks by the end of 1910. As is often the case wherever blacks comprise a numeric minority, black communities in Seattle were close-knit and maintained strong connections to their racial heritage and black popular culture. Blacks established predominately black institutions, like churches and social clubs, as well as engaged in popular activities that had originated in the South. Vaudeville, jazz music, and Ragtime played a prominent role in Seattle during the early twentieth century. African Americans established nightclubs that catered to black and white patrons and showcased well-known black celebrities, such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Shortly after the launching of the federally sponsored Negro Units, Seattle got its own Negro Repertory Company. This unit was founded by Burton and Florence James, white directors of the Seattle Repertory Playhouse, in 1936. According to scholar and African American historian, Quintard Taylor, in Goodnow’s African Americans, ‘‘some 200 people—about 5 percent of the city’s black

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population—worked on at least one production during [the peak of Seattle’s Negro Repertory Company].’’ The Seattle Negro unit lasted until 1939. During its history, the Negro Repertory Company featured an assortment of plays, such as Noah, Stevedore, Little Black Sambo, Lysistrata, and Natural Man. Theodore Browne, a prolific African American playwright who produced many of the ‘‘standard plays of the FTP’s Negro units,’’ had his start with the Seattle Negro Unit, writes Fraden. Browne’s Noah, Stevedore, and Natural Man were among many of the plays that were staged in Seattle. By and large, his plays were considered progressive and portrayed black heritage and achievement with dignity. Noah, a musical, was based on the biblical protagonist, Noah, who, according to God’s command, built an ark to shelter his family and a male and female of every living creature from a great flood that God sent to destroy corruption on earth. This musical was infused with gospel music, an African American cultural and religious tradition. Stevedore, a radical play, featured an integrated cast and dealt with labor unionism and the struggle for workers’ rights. Natural Man was based on the African American folk hero, John Henry. In Lysistrata, Browne revamped a classic Greek play, situating it in Africa. Performances, however, were cancelled. Dan Abel, of the WPA, deemed the play offensive, although he had not seen it. Censorship was not the only issue with which the Seattle Negro unit grappled. Some African Americans were frustrated that blacks were not wellrepresented in leadership positions within the theater. (The directors of the Negro Units in Seattle and elsewhere were predominately white.) Another major issue concerned performances that dealt with black stereotypes. Little Black Sambo was a popular production in Negro Units across the country; however, this play was based on a children’s book, published in 1899 and written by Helen Bannerman, that depicted the titular little boy as a derogatory caricature of a dark-skinned child. However, in the 1930s, plays such as Little Black Sambo were regularly performed despite the vociferous complaints raised by black intellectuals residing in larger metropolitan cities like Chicago. Chicago, Illinois Chicago was one of the most popular destinations of the Great Migration of blacks from the South. (The migration consisted some 1.5 million blacks, between 1910 and 1930, who traveled to the North, West, and Midwest in search of better opportunities and to escape the oppressive laws and conditions of the South.) Blacks who settled in Chicago helped spawn a strong and vibrant literary, artistic, and musical renaissance; consequently, some of the most well-known and accomplished blacks were drawn to be a part of the extremely popular Chicago Negro Units. However, their vision frequently (but not always) contrasted sharply with popular interests of the actors and black audiences. Black intellectuals, a term Fraden uses in her book, Blueprints for a Black Federal Theatre, 1935– 1939 (1994), to denote influential black artists, writers, activists, journalists, and critics, tended to have rigid ideas on what should be acceptable forms of black entertainment, such as activities that represented blacks in positive, dignified, and

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socially responsible ways. W. E. B. Du Bois, the prestigious editor of the NAACP organ, the Crisis (magazine), discouraged entertainment forms that portrayed blacks in ‘‘tragic’’ and ‘‘defeatist’’ terms, according to Fraden. By and large, many black intellectuals encouraged black images that challenged the status quo and the rampant stereotypes that portrayed blacks as inferior and uncouth. They were determined to advance the socioeconomic life of blacks through positive modeling and the support of entertainment that was classified as highbrow, serious, or socially relevant. Richard Wright, one of the most critical participants in a number of WPA projects, including becoming a publicity agent for the Chicago Negro Unit, was an advocate for socially important plays. His experience with the Chicago Negro Unit, however, was problematic, underscoring a recurring issue in the history of black theater. Wright had hoped that actors would consider performing progressive plays, like Hymn to the Rising Sun by Paul Green, that dealt with serious social, economic, political, and racial issues and diverged from the popular vaudeville-style plays that were commonly performed by Negro Units. To be sure, Green was one of a growing number of white playwrights who produced groundbreaking plays with strong racial themes and characters. (African American playwrights, notably Theodore Ward, also made critical contributions with thought-provoking plays that challenged popular black stereotypes.) Black actors in the Chicago Negro Unit, at that time, were not interested, insisting that audiences preferred plays that were in keeping with vaudeville traditions. According to Fraden, Wright, on the other hand, believed that vaudeville was ‘‘cheap and ignorant, amusement for the master, a tradition entirely tainted by white racist expectations and stereotypes.’’ Unable to reconcile his differences with black actors, Wright left the Chicago Negro Unit. Shirley Graham (who would later marry W. E. B. Du Bois), willingly, albeit with some astonishment, gave in to the interest of black audiences when she went to work as a scout for the Chicago Negro Unit. Graham was a remarkable woman who had obtained a master’s degree, wrote books about great African Americans, composed music, and actively challenged racism in society. As a leader in the community, she naturally proposed a forward-thinking play, Ward’s Big White Fog, to representative groups in the community. Big White Fog explored the trials and hardships of a black family struggling to succeed in the United States. Local blacks opposed the play for many reasons. Many blacks were put off by a statement made by the Negro Unit’s white director that the family in Big White Fog was symbolic of the black families in Chicago, telling Graham that, unlike the characters in the play, many of them had realized the American dream and did not want to be associated with or reminded of oppressive black images. Some feared that the play would incite a racial incident. Others, like the NAACP, did not want to promote the obvious pro-Communist messages. In the end, Graham acquiesced. The Chicago Negro Unit remained a highly successful theater until the end, concluding with the very profitable Swing Mikado, a comic opera based on a production by Gilbert and Sullivan and revamped to include popular black dances, black dialect, and African costumes.

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Harlem, New York Harlem, New York, was home to the most active Negro Unit in the nation. In 1930, some 165,000 blacks resided in Harlem. Harlem sustained a highly influential urban black culture. Black Harlemites set trends in fashion, music, literature, and radical politics. Like the Harlem Renaissance before it, the local Negro Unit was a spectacular success. The unit presented some thirty plays before sold-out audiences dressed in their finery. The unit was popular with blacks from assorted economic backgrounds, and also whites. The first two directors were white men, John Houseman and Orson Welles. Houseman split the unit in two. One company staged classical plays; the other company performed contemporary plays. Welles’s retelling of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth was the Harlem unit’s most popular production. Welles’s play included folk beliefs, such as voodoo, and was set in Haiti. The play was so popular that the unit toured some seven cities, inspiring the emergence of new Negro Units throughout the nation and Macbeth productions in other states. When Houseman and Welles left the Negro unit in 1936, three African Americans, Harry Edward, Gus Smith, and Carlton Moss, replaced them. They directed assorted plays, such as Walk Together, Chillun by Frank Wilson, The Conjure Man Dies by Arna Bontemps and Countee Cullen, Turpentine by J. Augustus Smith and Peter Morrell, and Haiti by W. E. B. Du Bois. Their choices did not reflect ‘‘a single direction for the Harlem Negro unit’’ but a compromise to comply with the eclectic demands for racial and popular plays, according to Fraden. Beyond the Negro Units Despite the immense popularity of the Negro Theatre Unit, the federal government closed the FTP in 1939. Undaunted, blacks did not let the black theater die. In 1940, leading black writers of the period, such as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Theodore Ward, formed the Negro Playwrights’ Company. The American Negro Theatre, founded in Harlem, was active in the 1940s and 1950s. Larry Neal and Amiri Baraka popularized Afrocentric black theaters and plays in the 1960s, and August Wilson emerged, in the late 1960s, as one of the preeminent contemporary voices in black theater. His plays, notably Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, continue to appear in black and mainstream theaters to this day. See also: Actors and Performers; Literature, Classic African American; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints; Playwrights; Theater and Drama

Further Reading Banham, Martin. 2004. A History of Theatre in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press. Becker, Paula. 2002. ‘‘Federal Theatre Project.’’ HistoryLink.org. October 30. http://www .historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3978. Becker, Paula. 2002. ‘‘Negro Repertory Company. History Link.org. November 10. http:// www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3976.

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Elam, Harry J. Jr., and David Krasner. 2001. African-American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader. New York: Oxford University Press. Engle, Ron, and Tice L. Miller, eds. 1993. The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press. Fraden, Rena. 1994. Blueprints for a Black Federal There, 1935–1939. New York: Cambridge University Press. Gill, Glenda Eloise. 1988. White Grease Paint on Black Performers: A Study of the Federal Theatre of 1935–1939. New York: P. Lang. Goodnow, Cecelia. 2002. ‘‘African Americans Helped Shape City’s Cultural Scene.’’ Seattle PI.com, February 12. http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/57861_blackhistory12_bar .shtml. Guthu, Sarah. 2010. ‘‘Theatre Arts in the Great Depression.’’ The Great Depression in Washington State. http://depts.washington.edu/depress/theater_arts_index.shtml. Hamalian, Leo. 1996. Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920–1940. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Hill, Anthony Duane. 2009. ‘‘Federal Theatre Project (Negro Units).’’ Blackpast.org. http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/federal-theatre-project-negro-units. Hill, Errol G., and James V. Hatch. 2003. A History of African American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press. Van Der Horn-Gibson, Jodi. 2008. ‘‘Dismantling Americana: Sambo, Shirley Graham, and African Nationalism.’’ Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900 to Present) 7 (Spring). http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/ articles/spring_2008/van_der_horn_gibson.htm. Witham, Barry. 2003. The Federal Theatre Project: A Case Study. New York: Cambridge University Press. Gladys L. Knight

Federal Writers’ Project (1935–39) This program was established as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the Works Progress Administration. The Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) was one of four programs, known collectively as Federal One, that included the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theatre Project, and the Federal Arts Project. The FWP hired unemployed writers, including literary writers and journalists as well as recent college graduates, or those with aspirations to be writers, under the auspices of state-administered projects. At the federal administrative level the charge to the states was to produce travel guides, many of which included folklore. This federal mission, under the directorship of Fred G. Alsberg, was complicated by three auxiliary projects: the collection of American folklore, the concern with African American affairs, and research in ethnic social history. The FWP’s collections of African American Folklore tended to present overlapping interests between the directors of American folklore collecting, first John A. Lomax and then Benjamin A. Botkin, and the director of Negro affairs, Sterling A. Brown. This overlap is seen most significantly in the collection of ex-Slave Narratives

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gathered throughout the United States. One reason to place such material in the category of folklore is to understand folklore as more than animal tales or work songs of the past. Botkin complicates the definition of folklore in his introduction to A Treasury of American Folklore (1944). He says: The essence of folklore, however, is something that cannot be contained in a definition but that grows upon one with folklore experience. Old songs, old stories, old sayings, old beliefs, customs, and practices—the mindskills and hand-skills that have been handed down so long that they seem to have a life of their own, a life that cannot be destroyed by print but that constantly has to get back to the spoken word to be renewed; patterned by common experience; varied by individual repetition, inventive or forgetful; and cherished because somehow characteristic or expressive: all this, for want of a better word, is folklore.

Botkin includes a short section on ‘‘Negro Songs’’ at the end of his nine hundred-plus-page work. His more sustained contribution to African American folklore occurred with the publication of Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery (1945), based on the ex-slave narratives collected under the auspices of the FWP. In his ‘‘On Dialect Usage,’’ sent to the state writers’ project directors, Brown advised, ‘‘In order to make this volume of slave narratives more appealing and less difficult for the average reader, I recommend that truth to idiom be paramount, and exact truth to pronunciation secondary.’’ The ex-slave narratives have spawned a number of publications without exhausting the value of the many thousands of narratives collected, and therefore an extensive list of references is included at the end of this entry. In addition to the function of the ex-slave narratives as literary works themselves and/or as primary source documents, there have been extensive uses of the material collected under the FWP (material not restricted to questions of slavery) by social historians and African American creative writers. Social histories that made use of material collected under the FWP include Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940) by Claude McKay; Roi Ottley’s New World A-Coming (1943) and The Negro in New York: An Informal Social History, coedited with William J. Weatherby (1967); and St. Clair Drake’s Black Metropolis (1945). As evidence of Botkin and Brown’s redefinitions of folklore, they included not only rural but also urban tales created and perpetuated in such cities as New York and Chicago. Two of the most famous African American writers who worked for the FWP were Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. Wright’s ‘‘The Ethics of Living Jim Crow’’ was first published in American Stuff: An Anthology of Prose & Verse by Members of the Federal Writers’ Project (1937). Other creative writers and their works included in this anthology were Sterling Brown’s ‘‘All Are Gay,’’ Robert Hayden’s ‘‘Autumnal,’’ and Claude McKay’s ‘‘A Song of the Moon.’’ Evidence of African American folklore is more widespread, including ‘‘A Gullah Story,’’ ‘‘Twenty-One Negro Spirituals,’’ ‘‘Six Negro Market Songs of Harlem,’’ and ‘‘Seven Negro Convict Songs.’’ In 1938, Wright also won Story magazine’s writing contest, which was open to all writers associated with the FWP, for his short-story collection Uncle Tom’s Children (1939). Later collections of FWP work include First Person America (1980),

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edited by Ann Banks, and A Renaissance in Harlem: Lost Essays of the WPA, by Ralph Ellison, Dorothy West, and Other Voices of a Generation (1999), edited by Lionel C. Bascom. Some individual state writers’ projects were more successful at publishing information on African Americans generally or African American folklore specifically. The North Carolina project published These Are Our Lives (1939), which included black and white workers from a range of socioeconomic circumstances in the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. The Virginia project published The Negro in Virginia (1940). The Georgia unit published Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies among the Georgia Coastal Negroes (1940), which provided an occasion to emphasize Guy B. Johnson and Sterling Brown’s different approaches to European versus African influence on African American folklife. The Nebraska unit produced The Negroes in Nebraska (1940) and the Illinois project produced Cavalcade of the American Negro (1940). The Florida Negro was prepared in 1939 but did not find a publisher until 1993, when it was edited by Gary W. McDonogh. The work of the FWP represents a rich and varied story about African Americans and African American folklore that is only beginning to be assessed. The FWP was dissolved as a federal administrative unit in 1939, while state-sponsored writers’ projects continued with a newfound autonomy until 1943. See also: Federal Theatre Project: Negro Theatre Unit; Slave Narratives Further Reading Bold, Christine. 1999. The WPA Guides: Mapping America. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Escott, Paul D. 1979. Slavery Remembered: A Record of Twentieth-Century Slavery Narratives. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Hirsch, Jerrold. 2003. ‘‘Long Live Participation!: Ethnicity, Race, and the Federal Writers’ Project.’’ In Portrait of America: A Cultural History of the Federal Writers’ Project, 107–139. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Mangione, Jerre. 1972. The Dream and the Deal: The Federal Writers’ Project, 1935–1943. New York: Little, Brown. Mellon, James. 1988. Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember. New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Perdue, Charles L. Jr., Thomas E. Barden, and Robert K. Phillips. 1976. Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. Rawick, George P., ed. 1972. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. 19 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rawick, George P., ed. 1977. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, Supplement, Series 1. 12 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rawick, George P. 1979. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, Supplement, Series 2. 10 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Yetman, Norman R., ed. 1970. Life under the ‘‘Peculiar Institution’’: Selections from the Slave Narrative Collection. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Kimberly J. Banks

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Feminism Feminism represents an attitude toward women that promotes an understanding and respect of the female perspective and an attitude that fosters equal access to individual and societal opportunities regardless of gender. Four contemporary forms of feminism are liberal, cultural, radical, and women-of-color feminism. Liberal feminism focuses on the promotion of equality, whereas cultural feminism focuses on promoting the positive attributes of women. Radical feminism argues that discrimination against women is grounded in systemic and structural sexism and the struggle is to eradicate these societal forms of sexism. Lastly, women-of-color feminism argues the three former forms of feminism overemphasize gender stereotyping and underestimate the impact of cultural- and ethnicbased discrimination. This framework underscores the challenges for African American women in embracing their femininity while honoring their ethnicity. Within the African American community, a dialogue about feminism has often been a contentious discussion among women as well as men. Patriarchal leadership has been widely promoted within African American institutions such as community organizations and institutions such as the black church. Despite the inhumanity directed toward people of African descent during slavery, within male/female relationships in the African American community, oppression of the female is promoted within some families and communities. Traditional male/female roles have been reinforced within the African American community. The African American woman is expected to support her mate even in the face of underemployment and unemployment of the African American male. As women, including African American women, begin to surpass male enrollment in higher education, the new female college graduate is expected to demonstrate her expertise within the work environment while remaining humble and sensitive to her mate’s challenges in establishing a viable career. The African American single mother is expected to grin and bear it as she juggles motherhood and work obligations while waiting for a soul mate to rescue her from her daily hassles. As the single mother has been stereotyped as a sex object who is most interested in interludes with multiple partners rather than raising her children, she has been further stereotyped as a ‘‘drama queen’’ who is only out to get child support from a casual male suitor who has fathered a child. This single parent is viewed as using the legal system to retaliate against a male partner. African American women have been confronted with their loyalty to the struggle of their ethnic community in competition with their struggle as women. During the women’s movement of the 1970s, some African American women opted to support their community’s struggle and assume a secondary role in the struggle for gender equity and equality. From the image of the strong matriarch to the angry black female single mother, African American women have been stereotyped as controlling individuals who directly and indirectly emasculate the African American male. African American women have been pitted against Caucasian women in their aspirations for equal rights as well as their quest for romantic relationships

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with the African American male. Despite these societal conflicts, feminism is an attitude and perspective that needs to be assessed within the African American community. Given that African American culture has endured oppression and demonstrated perseverance and determination in the struggle to eradicate these injustices, it is paramount that sexism not been tolerated in comparison to the daily challenges presented by racism. The African American female can not be fully empowered to contribute to the uplifting of her community if she is muzzled in expressing her concern regarding sexism. Feminism within the African American community is not in competition with the elimination of racism and discrimination but is integrally a part of the ultimate struggle–for individuals, families, and communities to be treated fairly in their pursuit of happiness. See also: Single Parenting; Women and the Civil Rights Movement; Women, African American Images of Further Reading Cole, Johnnetta B., and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. 2003. Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities. New York: Ballantine Books. Collins, Patricia Hill. 1991. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge. Matline, Margaret W. 2008. The Psychology of Women. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Sheila R. Peters

Fiction Modern fiction among African Americans gained critical success in the twentieth century and has garnered even greater appeal in the twenty-first century. African American fiction is generally defined by its African American authorship, protagonists, and point of view, as well as the use of themes, styles, and elements that reflect some aspect of African American culture, traditions, and Folklore. History The business of and creative interest in writing fiction, or imaginative prose, in long (novel) or short (short story) form is an ancient practice and has been held in high regard by many countries and civilizations. In Africa, most stories, whether fictional or not, were narrated orally and were an intrinsic aspect of cultural heritage. The griots, or storytellers, whether male or female, paid professionals or highly-skilled amateurs, held prestige among the indigenous societies. During slavery in the United States, black slaves were denied education. By prohibiting slaves from learning how to read and write, their white masters maintained

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dominance and reinforced preexisting racist ideas about blackness, that black was synonymous with inferiority and white represented superiority and refinement. In any region of early America, those who read and wrote fiction were deemed cultured and learned. Importantly, those who published fiction controlled what stories were being told and from what perspective, how characters were represented, and what beliefs and attitudes as well as stereotypes and prejudices were passed along, and in turn, influenced social reality. Fiction writing was, generally, dominated by white males, and the fiction that was published mostly featured white male protagonists; blacks, when they did appear in a story, were portrayed in inferior, negative, and stereotypical roles. Although Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) was, from the perspective of abolitionists, a groundbreaking novel that garnered support for the antislavery crusade, African Americans argue that the images of blacks in the novel reinforced the stereotypical images of the mammy and Uncle Tom figures, the obsequious attendants to white families. When African Americans began publishing books, they challenged the status quo. Among the first African American poets were Phillis Wheatley, Lucy Terry, and Juniper Hammon. These poets were celebrated by whites in the North and blacks in their day and are among the forebears of African American literature. The first known African American novel, Clotel, or, The President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States (1853), was published in England and written by William Wells Brown, a former slave who escaped to the North in 1834. Brown was also one of several former slaves to write a personal slave narrative. Slave Narratives were popular in the nineteenth century and were used heavily to promote the abolition of slavery. The first African American novel to be published in the United States was Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig (1859). Following the end of slavery in 1865, African Americans primarily produced nonfiction works. A number of African Americans established newspapers for black audiences. Iconic African American leaders, like W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett produced autobiographies and articles concerning social and racial issues. In this same time period, Pauline E. Hopkins and John E. Bruce published the earliest African American crime stories. With the dawning of a new century, African Americans launched the first of several major waves of prolific African American fiction. Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance emerged in 1919 and lasted a little over one decade. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of artistic expression and development, a celebration of black life and culture, a veritable feast of African American music, such as blues and jazz, art, dance, philosophy, and literature that originated in Harlem, a black neighborhood in New York. The Harlem Renaissance was triggered by many factors. For one, the Great Migration, a term given to the large exodus of black southerners in search of work, opportunity, and racial equality (segregation was the law in the South) to

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the North in the years between 1916 and 1930, increased the populations of African Americans in major urban centers. Alain Locke’s article, ‘‘The New Negro,’’ which was later published in book form in 1925, helped to develop the Afrocentric focus of the Harlem Renaissance. Locke promoted the idea that African American artists should pull from their own experiences, culture, language, and heritage and not seek only to emulate white culture. Several black organizations and newspapers, like the Crisis (magazine), the organ of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), helped to turn local writers into household names. A number of African American writers thrived during this period. Among the most popular writers were Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Arna Bontemps. Women writers, such as Nella Larsen, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Zora Neale Hurston placed women at the center of their tales. These women wrote about black love, identity, and racism. Hurston wrote several short stories and novels using African American vernacular, fusing folklore, and demonstrating her masterful command with language and literary style. Hughes, one of the most prominent leaders in the Harlem Renaissance, is known for his jazzy prose and poetry, and candid explorations of white racism in his book of short stories, The Ways of White Folks (1934). Chester Himes was the first African American to write a full series of crime novels. Many of the novels and short stories that were published during the Harlem Renaissance showcased black life and culture and utilized styles and techniques originating from their unique heritage. African American fiction of the Harlem Renaissance was in high demand. Black presses and magazines and white publishers made African American fiction readily available to black and white audiences. It is believed that the eventual demise of the Harlem Renaissance was the result of several factors: the Great Depression; the disillusionment of many artists, who chose to expatriate to countries abroad, like France, to escape racial and social oppression in the United States; and the emergence of a new era. Civil Rights Movement Era Although the Civil Rights Movement, emerging as early as the 1940s and climaxing through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, transpired largely in the South, where organizations, like the Congress of Racial Equality, the NAACP, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference challenged segregation, the North was not without its problems. Racism and discrimination were rampant in northern cities. In the 1940s and 1950s, during the incipient stage of the civil rights era, an abundance of fiction was produced. These short stories and novels exposed hardships in the cities in the North, as well as the issues, such as poverty, racial violence, and discriminatory laws, African Americans endured in the South, and addressed broader issues concerning race, culture, and identity. Generally, these books tended to function as windows into the world of black life and struggles, while simultaneously positing critical examinations of American society.

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Many of the writers of the civil rights era were born in the South but lived in the North, particularly New York, during critical points of their literary careers. Richard Wright, born in Mississippi and raised in various locales in the South, lived in Chicago and New York as an adult. In 1938, Wright published Uncle Tom’s Children, a book consisting of four short stories, some of them dealing with racial violence in the South. His magnum opus, Native Son (1949), narrates the grisly tale of Bigger Thomas, an embodiment of inner-city youth enraged by bitter poverty, marginalization, and white racism. In the novel, Thomas murders two women, one white, the other black, and is convicted and sentenced to the electric chair. The book was a radical commentary, alluding to the connection of racism and racial oppression and black crime; however, the book was well-received. It sold some quarter million copies within weeks of its publication and was the first African American book selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club. The success of this novel paved the way for other African American authors, like James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, who had been mentored by Wright. Baldwin, born in Harlem, is well known for his poignant short stories and novels. His semiautobiographical, coming-of-age novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), the title referring to an old-time spiritual, goes inward, challenging the religious traditions and practices embraced by so many African Americans. Ralph Ellison, born in Oklahoma City, added to the growing literature with themes concerning racial identity and alienation. His only novel, Invisible Man (1953), received the National Book Award. Women also left lasting imprints with their publications during this era. Critical novels such as Dorothy West’s The Living Is Easy (1948), Maud Martha (1953) by Gwendolyn Brooks, and Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstone (1959) all tell the stories of women protagonists, of women grappling with personal challenges, surviving in the city, and defining themselves in the face of social expectations, racial constraints, and racist and sexist stereotyping. At the time of the publication of those novels, these women received little recognition, far less attention then the African American men who tended to dominate the literary world. Gwendolyn Brooks, however, in 1950, was the first African American to receive the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for poetry. It was not until the 1980s, during a revival of classic African American literature, that West and Marshall received the recognition due them for their novels. Black Power Movement Era At the close of the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement emerged, giving birth to new ideologies and expressions of black consciousness. The black consciousness of this era manifested itself in African garb, natural hairstyles, slang, and the motto: ‘‘black is beautiful.’’ Leading this movement were African Americans and all-black organizations, like the Revolutionary Action Movement, in the North who revolted against anything that resembled middle-class privilege and racial assimilation. Three major influences to the fiction that was created during this time were Umbra (a black literary group), the Harlem Writer’s Guild, and the Black Arts Movement pioneered by LeRoi

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Jones, who later changed his name to the Afrocentric-sounding Amiri Baraka. Jones published many works, such as The System of Dante’s Hell (1965), and he coedited, with Larry Neal, Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing (1968), one of the first anthologies of its kind, featuring essays, poetry, fiction, and drama by African American writers. Nathan Hare, a sociology professor, played a figurative role in the development of African American literature in the black power movement era when he led protests to implement Black Studies programs in colleges and universities. Until 1968, African American literature was not recognized in any meaningful way at predominately white colleges and universities, though scores of books were winning prizes and prestigious awards and topping best-seller lists. Studentled strikes took place at San Francisco State in 1967. In February 1968, Hare was made chair of the first black studies program in the nation. Since then, black studies departments are the norm at many colleges and universities. 1970s and Beyond The advent of black studies programs and the public and academic interests in African American literature fueled another wave of African American fiction, this one starting in the 1970s. Among the leading writers of this period were Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Alex Haley, Rasheed Clark, Ishmael Reed, Jamaica Kincaid, Gordon Parks, Ernest Gaines, and Gloria Naylor. Two women who played particularly instrumental roles in popularizing African American literature were Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Morrison’s own literary achievements with a series of literary successes, starting with The Bluest Eye (1970), and her promotion of African American writers while she was an editor for Random House, a major New York publisher, amplified the popularity of black fiction. Walker, who published The Color Purple (1982), a Pulitzer Prize– winning novel adapted into a 1985 film, wrote an article in 1975, which garnered new interest and appreciation for the literary works of Zora Neale Hurston. In the following two decades, utilizing African American literature in various courses, even those not directly associated with a black studies program, became a trend in colleges and universities seeking to embrace a diverse curriculum. Courses that required textbooks from classic and contemporary African American writers, private book discussion clubs, as well as the book club lists started by Oprah Winfrey in 1996, brought on a greater demand for African American literature. Beginning in the 1980s and beyond, new developments in popular fiction have taken African American fiction to new levels of popularity, while African American writers continue to produce award-winning literature. Literary fiction is considered a more complex form of fiction, consisting of complex character and plot development, and various literary devices and elements. Popular fiction, in contrast, generally comprises a straightforward plot and simpler characters. African American popular fiction broke new ground when, in 1984, Harlequin, a leading publisher of romance novels, published three books by Sandra Kitt. In the 1990s, Terry McMillan sparked a new and massively popular trend following

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her novels Waiting to Exhale (1992 ) and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), which inspired a proliferation of romance, urban, and urban Christian books, featuring splashy Afrocentric covers and soulful or black slang in recent titles, like Eric Jerome Dickey’s Milk in My Coffee (2000), Mabel John’s and David Ritz’s Sanctified Blues (2006), Lenora Adams’s Baby Girl (2007), and Patti Trafton’s Everybody in the Church Ain’t Saved (2008). African Americans have entered into other underrepresented genres, like crime and detective fiction, science fiction, and horror. Contemporary crime writers, like Walter Mosley, Hugh Holton, Robert O. Greer, Gar Anthony Haywood, and a host of women, like Nikki Baker, Charlotte Carter, and Pamela Thomas, have found success writing books about progressive and intelligent black detectives who solve crimes and frequently address social issues in black communities. Tananarive Due, Lee Meadows, L. A. Banks, Linda Addison, and Brandon Massey are some of the rising successful writers of horror fiction. Other African American writers have published books in erotica and gay and lesbian fiction genres, as well as the street lit or gangsta fiction genres that developed in the 1990s. African American writers continue reaping accolades with contemporary literary novels, many of them dealing with slavery, a traditional theme in black fiction. In 1993, Toni Morrison, whose many books delve into slave times, was the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage (1990) won the National Book Award and Edward P. Jones’s The Known World (2003) won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. These and other successes bear witness to the tenacity of African American fiction. See also: Dove, Rita; Harris, E. Lynn; Literature, Classic African American; Literature, Contemporary African American Further Reading Callahan, John. 2001. In the African-American Grain: Call and Response in TwentiethCentury Black Fiction. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. Dickson-Carr, Darryl. 2005. The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African American Literature. New York: Columbia University Press. Ostrom, Hans, and J. David Macey, eds. 2005. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gladys L. Knight

50 Cent (1976– ), Rapper, Actor, Entrepreneur 50 Cent, born Curtis James Jackson III, is one of the wealthiest rap music artists turned-media mogul dominating the global Hip-Hop culture market. Jackson emerged from the urban Gangsta Rap milieu, morphing from street thug—halted temporarily by a rival’s nine bullets—to twenty-first-century entertainment CEO worth upwards of $400 million.

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The 50 Cent fiefdom amassed $20 million in 2009. Although dethroned from Forbes magazine’s Hip-Hop Cash Kings by rapper/entrepreneur Shawn ‘‘Jay-Z’’ Carter, Billboard magazine named 50 Cent Rap Song Artist and the sixth Best Artist of 2000–9. His first two albums, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003) and The Massacre (2005) sold more than thirty million copies. Jackson ruled the Forbes list in 2008, dusting Carter with earnings of $150 million; $100 million banked from the $4.1 billion sale of the parent company that produces ‘‘Formula 50’’ Vitamin Water to Coca-Cola. The remaining half-million ‘‘benjamins’’ derived from his G-Unit record label and clothing line, films, television shows, video games, books, and platinum album sales. Ranked by Billboard the 12th Best Album—across all genres—50 Cent’s debut disc was fodder for the 2005 film entitled the same. Academy Award nominee John Sheridan directed him in the semiautobiographical father-to-the-man saga of treacherous, territorial struggle for respect and the temporal rewards of hard-knock success. As in art, so in life, 50 Cent has unabashedly riffed that hustling is about survival and addiction, whether in the drug dens of Jamaica, New York, or the boardrooms of Wall Street. Curtis James Jackson’s birth on July 6, 1976, in Queens, New York, parallels the birth of the urban rap culture. His mother, Sabrina Jackson, was fifteen at the time of his birth and a cocaine dealer in the drug-riddled neighborhood of South Jamaica. The single mother doted upon her son, buying him clothes and jewelry until her murder in 1984. His grandparents became guardians. Jackson began to skip school for drug dealing, amateur boxing, and rapping. While still in high school, he was arrested for possession of crack cocaine and a firearm. By 1997, he was a father, had earned a GED in prison and a street rep as a fearless kingpin of the mosttrafficked drug real estate in South Jamaica, reportedly earning $30,000 a week. Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell, 1965–2002) the deejay for the rap group RunDMC, honed 50 Cent’s raw talent and produced an album, although it was never released. Jackson moved to Columbia Records. By 2000, his lore as fledgling rap fiend became combustible. The Power of the Dollar album including the underground single ‘‘How to Rob’’—a facetious threat targeting theft of established artists’ lyrics, bling, cars, and women—ignited an era of lyrical ‘‘dissing’’ and physical retribution. The song mocked rivals Jay-Z and Sean (Diddy) Combs as ‘‘wankstas’’ or want-to-be-gangsters. Adversaries from crossover worlds retaliated. In the spring, a gunman shot 50 Cent nine times. A fragment from the bullet that now pockmarks his lower left cheek remains lodged in his tongue, endowing him with a sensuous slur. Columbia dropped him. Guaranteed, however, was the brand of 50 Cent as well as future servings of verbal and legal beefs. Jackson professionally exploded in 2002 with a million-dollar deal, godfathered by Marshall ‘‘Eminem’’ Mathers with Andre ‘‘Dr. Dre’’ Young. The joint venture sealed a five album deal including Curtis (2007) and the forthcoming Black Magic, which Jackson has delayed to incorporate rock music influences garnered during a 2009–2010 world tour.

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Notorious feuds with rappers Ja Rule ‘‘The Game’’ Cameron, and the flap with Kanye West after he criticized then-president George Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina have topped 50 Cent’s industry infighting. Although he has had partnerships with Reebok, motivational writer Robert Greene, and Right Guard, he has also had licensing disputes with Taco Bell, and an Internet advertising firm, and dealt with a sex tape scandal. The mother of his son, Shaniqua Tompkins, sued for half his earnings, and lost in 2009. The fourth album, Before I Self Destruct (2009) preceded a world tour and spawned a movie featuring the rapper as actor, director, and producer. Jackson’s next film, currently in production, is a coming of age drama about a college football star. Mario Van Peebles of hip-hop cult classic New Jack City (1991) will direct Things Fall Apart. See also: Entertainment Industry; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Aaron, Charles. 2007. ‘‘The Spin Interview: 50 Cent (Bigger, Longer, and Uncut).’’ Spin.com, July. http://www.spin.com/articles/spin-interview-50-cent-bigger-longer -and-uncut. 50 Cent, and Kris Ex. 2005. From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens. New York: Simon & Schuster. Greenburg, Zack O’Malley. 2009. ‘‘Hip-Hop’s Cash Kings 2009.’’ Forbes.com, July 9. http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/08/jay-z-akon-50-cent-hip-hop-business-entertainmentcash-kings.html. Jackson, Curtis James aka 50 Cent, and Robert Greene. 2009. The 50th Law. New York: Harper Studio. Pomerantz, Dorothy, and Lacey Rose, eds. 2010. ‘‘Special Report: The Celebrity 100.’’ Forbes.com. June 28, 6:00 P.M. EST. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/53/celeb-100 -10_The Celebrity-100/html. Kissette Bundy

Film and Filmmakers There has been a black presence in American cinema from its very beginning. Indeed, the earliest documented appearance of African Americans on film is footage shot in 1894 of a traveling minstrel troupe called Lucy Daly’s Pickaninnies. But as the titles of early shorts such as The Watermelon Contest (1896) and Sambo and Aunt Jemima (1897) demonstrate, the history of African American film and filmmaking has been one shaped by the struggle for self-representation. Though D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) became the cinematic urtext to which black film had to respond, African American filmmakers had been working since the earliest days of motion pictures, producing ‘‘race movies’’ that crossed all genres and covered the full spectrum of social experience. Film companies came and went, sometimes making only a single feature before disappearing,

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while others, such as the Lincoln Motion Picture Company and the Foster Photoplay Company, proved more durable. Made quickly and cheaply, race movies were truly independent and functioned, as Marc Ferro puts it, as ‘‘the first historical counterfilm in American cinema.’’ The most significant producer of race movies was Oscar Micheaux, whose thirty or so films are marked by a thematic combination of racial uplift and bourgeois ideology. Films like Within Our Gates (1920), Body and Soul (1925), and Swing! (1938), are testament to Micheaux’s insistent repudiation of Hollywood and its circumscribed and stereotypical portrayals of African Americans. By the late 1940s race movies were in a decline precipitated by the softening of the more aggressively racist portrayals in Hollywood, the increased merging of black actors into the Hollywood system, and the postwar impetus towards desegregation. Stars such as Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, and Sidney Poitier challenged the demeaning roles of earlier decades, contributing to pressure on Hollywood to make a series of social problem films that addressed racism. However, while films such as Home of the Brave (1949), The Defiant Ones (1958), Pressure Point (1962), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), elevated African American actors to central roles, their critique of racism was from a wholly integrationist perspective. Micheaux’s baton was picked up by a new generation of independent filmmakers such as Charles Burnett, Haile Gerima, Pamela Jones, Larry Clark, Bill Woodberry, Julie Dash, St. Clair Bourne, and William Greaves. Emerging from the ‘‘L. A. School’’ and New York in the 1960s and 1970s, they moved beyond simply responding to Hollywood, to develop a black aesthetic that embraced themes and narratives from a much broader diasporic and anticolonial perspective. In doing so they produced some of the most important and original American cinema of the next two decades, including Gerima’s Bush Mama (1984), Burnett’s Killer of Sheep (1977) and My Brother’s Wedding (1983), and Woodberry’s Bless Their Little Hearts (1984). More rooted in the Hollywood tradition is the independent film by Melvin Van Peebles, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971). Heralding the emergence of what would come to be known as ‘‘blaxploitation,’’ Sweetback offered a vision of urban life that centered on black male empowerment and resistance to ‘‘the Man.’’ Blaxploitation was very popular, especially among African American youth, as well to crossover youth audiences, because of its antiauthoritarian stance. Shaft (1971) and Superfly (1972) signaled Hollywood’s rapid co-optation of the genre, but any critical edge possessed by the earlier films was quickly lost. Those that followed, such as Willie Dynamite (1974) and Dolemite (1975), seemed, to some critics, to merely revel in violence, misogyny, and conspicuous consumption. The early 1980s saw the emergence of Eddie Murphy as one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. Hits such as 48 Hours (1982), Trading Places (1983), and Beverly Hills Cop (1984), however, did little to counter Hollywood convention, and he was repeatedly cast as the lone black figure in an otherwise ‘‘white’’ world. His success, along with the likes of the Wayans Brothers in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) and Whoopi Goldberg in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986), reflected

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Hollywood’s continuing comfort with blacks in largely comedic roles. This circumscription was the subject of Robert Townsend’s satire, Hollywood Shuffle (1987), which, along with John Sayles’s Brother From Another Planet (1984), proved to be among the most successful independent productions of the decade. The most well known contemporary African American director is Spike Lee, who, since having attained national recognition with She’s Gotta Have It (1986), has maintained a precarious balance between independent filmmaking and Hollywood. Though not without his critics, Lee has consistently produced provocative and illuminating films such as Do The Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), and Bamboozled (2000), as well as the documentaries 4 Little Girls (1998) and When The Levees Broke (2006). The late 1980s to the early 1990s saw the rise of the ‘‘New Black Wave’’ with Boyz n the Hood (1991) by John Singleton and New Jack City (1991) by Mario Van Peebles offering a mixture of social problem and neo-blaxploitation that was to obtain massive crossover success. Further independent work such as Haile Gerima’s Sankofa (1993), Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991), and Marlon Riggs’s Tongues Untied (1990) offered unique aesthetic and alternative cinematic readings of the African American experience. Towards the end of the decade, Hollywood produced a number of movies with African American themes and characters, though they were mostly romantic comedies like Waiting to Exhale (1995), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1995), and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1998). At the same time, stars such as Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Samuel L. Jackson, and Will Smith cemented their positions at the top of the Hollywood hierarchy. Berry’s and Washington’s best actor Oscars in 2001 were symbolic of the ever-greater, and increasingly unremarked, prominence of African Americans in Hollywood, although both films—Monster’s Ball and Training Day—were criticized for their demeaning characterizations of blacks. The first decade of the twenty-first century has seen the emergence of Tyler Perry, who successfully manages to be both wholly independent and mainstream. His first two independent features, Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005), and its sequel, Madea’s Family Reunion (2006), were box-office hits, grossing together over $100 million. On the back of this success, Perry has two equally successful sitcoms, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, running concurrently on prime-time television. In 2008 he established Tyler Perry Studios, the first African American–owned film studio of the modern era. Tyler Perry was involved also in the remarkable success of Lee Daniels’s independently produced Precious (2009) by ensuring (along with Oprah Winfrey) the film’s U.S. distribution. Precious had been shown to critical acclaim at a number of film festivals, winning both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival along with the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. It subsequently received six Academy Award nominations—including for Best Picture—of which it won two, Best Supporting Actress (Mo’Nique) and Best Screenplay (Geoffrey S. Fletcher). The critical and popular support for the film was offset, however, by those who saw this story of a

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young black woman whose life in the projects is blighted by poverty, deprivation, violence, and abuse, merely trafficking in the kind of negative representations that have been associated with the black image in American film from its earliest inception. By contrast, its supporters saw it as an uncompromising vision of reality that, no matter how unsettling, has to be confronted. The debate surrounding Precious is perhaps only the most recent example of the ways in which the struggle over negative representation is an issue that is never entirely removable from the history and presence of black film. At the same time, we must keep in mind that the diversity of African American filmmaking demonstrates that it has never been reducible to just one effort. Whether reaching for the challenge of the independent or the box-office appeal of the mainstream, African American film will continue to negotiate its rich, complex, and controversial path across twenty-first century America. See also: Actors and Performers; Afrocentric Movement; Entertainment Industry; Federal Theatre Project: Negro Theatre Unit Further Reading Ferro, Marc. 1988. Cinema and History. Detroit: Wayne State University. Guerrero, Ed. 1993. Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Iverem, Ester. 2007. We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986–2006. New York: Thunders Mouth Press. Reid, Mark E. 1993. Redefining Black Film. Berkeley: University of California Press. Smith, Valerie, ed. 1997. Representing Blackness: Issues in Film and Video. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Yearwood, Gladstone. 2000. Black Film as Signifying Practice: Cinema, Narration and the African-American Aesthetic Tradition. New York: Africa World Press. David Wall

Film Festivals A film festival is a compilation of cinematic works from independent filmmakers or studio releases presented in one venue to promote the films and perhaps to elicit responses from those in the film industry and the surrounding community audiences. Celebrities and general audiences alike can participate in screenings, world premieres, panel discussions, symposiums, and workshops dedicated to the enlightenment of the experiences of a particular culture or genre showcased in the festival. Either in a competitive or noncompetitive format, most festivals showcase film submissions in different formats, including short and feature-length narratives, documentaries, animated films, student films, and music videos. Most festivals are held annually and various supporters and sponsors have helped increase the number of film festivals throughout the world.

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A number of relevant international film festivals based on the African American culture and experiences have been held. These include the American Black Film Festival (ABFF), previously known as the Acapulco Black Film Festival. The ABFF was begun in 1997 by UniWorld Films to allow artists, filmmakers, large and small distributors, and industry executives to showcase films geared to the African American audience. This four-day retreat is annually held by Film Life in South Beach, Miami, Florida, and has screened more than five hundred films during its tenure. Home Box Office (HBO) is a founding and continuing annual premier sponsor of the ABFF event. Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center holds the midsummer annual Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video (BHIFFV). Founded in 1995, the BHIFFV focuses on showcasing the works of its local Chicago filmmakers alongside other artists from around the world. Touted as the largest midwestern film festival, the BHIFFV runs for four weeks and seeks out films on subjects including civil rights, romance and love, the battle of the sexes, politics, and urban drama. The African American and African Studies Program and the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln created the Blacks in Film Festival in 2007. The biennial program presents films documenting black experiences in the United States and Africa throughout the last fifty years. With a mission to raise awareness through an interactive environment for scholarly and community criticism of black cinema and blacks in film, the Blacks in Film Festival showcases films and filmmakers addressing issues from the Civil Rights Movement, in the Hip-Hop arena, and dealing with former and current conflicts in countries throughout Africa. New Heritage Films annually presents through the Harlemwood Film Festival (2001– ) those works by international filmmakers from the Harlem community and those from New York’s Columbia University Graduate Film Program who are intimately involved in and influenced by the surrounding culture and Harlem world experience. The Hollywood Black Film Festival (1999– ) is an annual six-day celebration held in early June and draws together established and novice filmmakers as well as popular film and TV stars, writers, directors, and industry executives among the diverse audience to play an integral role in discovering and launching independent films and filmmakers. Previous participants include Academy Award–winner Sidney Poitier, Forest Whitaker, John Singleton, Spike Lee, Cedric the Entertainer, Anthony Anderson, Blair Underwood, Sanaa Lathan, Antwone Fisher, Ice-T, Rev. Run, Bill Duke, Loretta Devine, Rockmond Dunbar, Lamman Rucker, directors Tim Story, Preston Whitmore, Rob Hardy and Jeff Byrd, and producer Will Packer. Since its inception in 1999, the Hollywood Black Film Festival has screened over seven hundred films. A newer showcase, the International Black Film Festival of Nashville (2006– ) allows independent filmmakers, actors, composers, screenwriters, directors and other film industry professionals to exhibit their vision and scope found throughout the diverse communities across the globe by their filmmaking endeavors.

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Participants include former honorary chair Debbie Allen, Tyler Williams, Boris Kodjoe, and Tasha Smith. The short-lived International Black Panther Film Festival (2000–3) was based out of New York City. This noncompetitive program afforded filmmakers old and new the opportunity to present their works that embody the ideals once represented by the former Black Panther Party. There have been three showings of the International Black Panther Film Festival (IBPFF), with the last two being hosted by honorary chair actor/activist Danny Glover. However, the IBPFF spawned a mini-festival known as the Panther Film Fest, which additionally had two showings in 2002 (Connecticut) and later in 2005 (Philadelphia). Jamerican International Film & Music Festival (1999–2004), was created by actress/producer Sheryl Lee Ralph. This annual four-day film and music festival held in Jamaica allowed a diverse array of participants access to some of the most beautiful surroundings, new and innovative films, and great reggae music all in one locale. Five SHOWTIME filmmaker finalists got their initial showcase at the Jamerican Film & Music Festival. Langston Hughes African-American Film Festival (2004– ) is held at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center in Seattle, Washington. The original weekend series has grown to become nine consecutive days worth of activities and community interaction during the festival. The festival spotlights numerous films from independent black filmmakers and drew record crowds in 2008 with over twelve hundred attendees. Additionally, an offspring neighborhood participation program called the Underground Railroad Film Series was created through the festival. Newark Black Film Festival (1974– ), has existed for over thirty-five years, the longest-running black film festival in the United States. This six-week, early summer event sponsored by the Newark Museum allows independent filmmakers to showcase their films among contemporary themes as well as earlier experiences in black culture. The festival also holds the biennial Paul Robeson Awards competition for aspiring filmmakers. Notable participants through the years include John Amos, Amiri Baraka, Marcus Garvey Jr., Danny Glover, James Earl Jones, Spike Lee, James Mtume, Gordon Parks, and Paul Robeson. Ayuko Babu, Danny Glover, and Ja’net DuBois started Pan African Film Festival (1992– ) with the mission of promoting racial and cultural tolerance through the creative works presented by filmmakers and artists throughout the United States, Africa, the Caribbean, and several other nations. Running annually every February and now in its seventeenth year, this Los Angeles-based festival culminate in over two hundred thousand attendees and is the largest Black History Month event in the United States. Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series (1998– ), formerly conjoined as the African American Women in Cinema Film Festival and Conference, has been running for twelve years. Annually held in September in Brooklyn by African Voices magazine and Long Island University, this festival promotes and supports the vision of independent directors, producers, and writers who are primarily women of color. Films selected to be showcased have included those from filmmakers from across the globe, including works from

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Africa, Canada, the Islands, and India. Notable films have been selected as features in Black Entertainment Television (BET) shorts and the Tribeca Film Festival. Past honorees include director Julie Dash, Lonette McKee, and Ruby Dee. Additionally, several subsequently incepted Brooklyn film festivals have drawn upon the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival for contributions and support in the surrounding community. Founder Carolyn A. Butts thinks that ‘‘[i]t’s very inspiring to help other film festivals get their start by coming to our film festival and seeing what we were doing before they even had a theater at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). When we started, there was such a different space and not a whole lot of film festivals coming out of Brooklyn . . . especially one dedicated to women of color.’’ Run & Shoot Filmworks’ Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival (2002– ) was established to provide a premiere forum dedicated to showcasing and honoring emerging talent in the film industry. Run & Shoot Filmworks created the annual festival under the guidance of cofounders Floyd A. B. Rance III and Stephanie Tavares-Rance. The MVAAFF has been dubbed ‘‘Indiewood’’ for its focus on independent films and major studio releases, including Disney’s 2009 release, The Princess and the Frog. Home Box Office (HBO) is an annual award sponsor and has bestowed the honor of best short at the festival for the last four years. The MVAAFF has also branched out to create the Charlotte African American Film Festival to begin in February 2010 for a wider audience and reach for prior submissions to the festival and other independent filmmakers of the future. San Francisco Black Film Festival (1998– ) is a part of the Fillmore District’s Juneteenth celebration in San Francisco. Ave Montague created what is now known as the San Francisco Black Film Festival (SFBFF). During its eleven-year tenure, the annual festival has featured more than nine hundred feature films, documentaries, and shorts, and subsequently produced a younger viewers’ version in 2002 dubbed the Urban Kidz Film Festival. The SFBFF also hosts two competitions honoring the works of Melvin Van Peebles and St. Clair Bourne. Spike Lee, Michael Schultz, Jim Brown, Billy Dee Williams, Terri J. Vaughn, Barry Shabaka Henley, Hill Harper, and Taraji P. Henson are some of the participants of past festivals. UrbanWorld Film Festival (1997– ), an annual, five-day festival, was created in August 1997 by founder Stacy Spikes and has presented over seven hundred independent films, including such studio box-office films as The Secret Life of Bees, Collateral, Hustle and Flow, Hero, Soul Food, Rush Hour 2, Half Nelson, and Barbershop. Queen Latifah, Jamie Foxx, Anthony Mackie, Halle Berry, Ruby Dee, and Tom Cruise are among the alumni attendees. African American popular culture has been profoundly influenced by films and film festivals that depict the experiences of the black race. The purpose of many of these festivals has been to promote specific themes such as women, race, and civil rights, or simply to showcase the works of emerging black filmmakers. See also: Actors and Performers; Entertainment Industry; Film and Filmmakers

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Web Film Festival Locator American Black Film Festival. http://www.abff.com/festival. Blacks in Film Festival 2009. Welcome. http://www.blacksinfilmfestival.com/welcome.html. Filmmakers, Withoutabox. Urbanworld Film Festival, presented by BET. https://www .withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01over.php?festival_id=5067. Gene Siskel Film Center. 15th Annual Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org. Hollywood Black Film Festival. http://www.hbff.org/index.php. International Black Film Festival of Nashville. About IBFFN. http://www.ibffnashville .com/2008/about.html. International Black Panther Film Festival. http://www.wwwac.org/~panther/index.html. Langston Hughes African American Film Festival. About the Festival. http://www.langstonarts.org/?page_id=2. New Heritage Theater Group. Upcoming Events (Harlemwood Film Festival). http:// www.newheritagetheater.org/calendar/def.asp. Newark Museum. Newark Black Film Festival. http://www.newarkmuseum.org/NBFF.html. Pan African Film & Arts Festival. http://www.paff.org/?page_id=2. Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series. http://www.reelsisters.org/ filmFestival.htm. Run & Shoot Filmworks. Film Festival. http://runandshootfilmworks.com/. San Francisco Black Film Festival. http://www.sfbff.org/index2.html.

Further Reading Sheryl Lee Ralph. (Homepage.) http://sherylleeralph.com/goto.php?page=myprojects. Taffie N. Jones

Fish Fry A fish fry is a meal prepared for social celebration, fund-raising, or tithing, featuring fried fish as the main dish. Individuals, associations, or organizations such as the American Legion create fish fries. The type of fish used depends on geography, although catfish, porgies, whiting, and bass are popular. Geography also played an important role in the adaptation of this type of meal and celebration. Many enslaved African Americans came from the West Coast of Africa and were transplanted to various coastal regions where there was an abundance of fish, including the southeastern United States, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Caribbean Islands. Fish of the least-desirable grades were imported from New England to feed the slaves, and when this was done the planters were considered benevolent. The traditions continued and spread to river communities where sharecroppers lived, including those in Mississippi and Alabama as well as to cities and towns after slavery ended. Fish was a widely available, inexpensive food in West Africa’s coastal countries and in the United States. Fishing was already a well-developed activity in

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Africa, and the transplanted Africans of South Carolina and Georgia’s seacoast islands, the Gullah people, are noted especially for bringing with them the knowledge of fish-net construction and formulas for poisons to kill fish but not harm the humans who consumed them. Eating fish is considered natural and a good way to be self-sufficient. Preparation of fish for frying includes liberal amounts of salt, pepper, and sometimes garlic. The fish is rolled in cornmeal or flour and deep-fried in a castiron pan using hot fat such as lard, bacon fat, or vegetable shortening. Fried fish is considered Soul Food, most likely because of its connection to African and African American history as well as the societal purposes it serves within the community. Social functions of a fish fry include the following: (1) raising money for living expenses (rent parties), selling the dinners at a reasonable ‘‘per plate’’ price; (2) a creative way of tithing (donating or raising funds for the church); and (3) bringing people together in the community to celebrate various events. See also: Barbecues; Folk Foods; Food and Cooking Further Reading Beoku-Betts, Josephine. 1989. ‘‘We Got Our Way of Cooking Things: Women, Food and Preservation of Cultural Identity among the Gullah.’’ In The Legacy of Ibo Landing: Gullah Roots of African American Culture. Marquetta Goodwine, ed. Atlanta: Clarity Press. Harris, Jessica. 1989. Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gift to New World Cooking. New York: Fireside. Hill, Sarah, and Sadie Hornsby. 1939. Bea, the Washwoman. American Life Histories, manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project 1936–1940, personal interview February 1, 1939. Hope Franklin, John. 1969. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. 3rd ed. New York: Vintage Books. Wolcott, Marion Post. 1944. American Legion Fish Fry, Oldham County, Post 39, near Louisville, Kentucky. Farm Security Administration photograph, Office of War Information, Overseas Picture Division. Stephanie Rose Bird

Fitzgerald, Ella (1917–96), Singer Ella Jane Fitzgerald, America’s ‘‘First Lady of Song,’’ entertained audiences at home and abroad for nearly six decades. While maintaining an intensive schedule of live performances, she became a best-selling recording artist and made television, radio, and film appearances. Primarily a jazz singer, she loved improvisation and a broad range of music, from ballads to popular tunes. She interpreted songs of the past, performed with great musicians of her time, and influenced future generations of singers.

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Fitzgerald’s life began April 25, 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. Her father, William Fitzgerald, left the family soon after her birth. Her mother, Temperance (‘‘Tempie’’), became friends with Portuguese immigrant Joseph daSilva, and they moved to Yonkers, New York. After their mother died, Ella and half-sister Frances found a home with Virginia Williams, Tempie’s sister. In 1934, Fitzgerald quit public school, ran away from New York State Training School for Girls, and lived on the streets of Harlem. But on November 12th, her life began to change. Fitzgerald dreamed of becoming a dancer, but when she and some friends entered Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, she Jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald in 1940. (Library of Congress) decided to sing. After a shaky beginning, she and the audience warmed to each other, and Fitzgerald won first place. Despite her shyness, she knew then that she wanted to become a professional singer. At the Harlem Opera House in January 1935, she won first prize and a weeklong engagement with Tiny Bradshaw’s orchestra. By March, she had begun performing regularly with Chick Webb’s band at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. Webb and manager Moe Gale helped begin her recording career. Producer Milt Gabler managed her work with Decca. ‘‘Love and Kisses,’’ with Webb’s orchestra, appeared in 1935. In 1937, DownBeat and Melody Maker magazines named Fitzgerald Number One Female Vocalist. ‘‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’’ topped the charts in 1938 and became one of her signature songs. After Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald became the bandleader. In 1940, she appeared in the first of four films, Ride ’Em Cowboy. Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955), St. Louis Blues (1958), and Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) followed. Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra’s ‘‘Five O’Clock Whistle’’ hit top ten in January 1941. On December 26, 1941, Fitzgerald eloped with shipyard worker Benjamin Kornegay. Learning of his history as a petty thief, she had the marriage annulled in 1942. That year, as the big band era waned and World War II began, the orchestra disbanded. Fitzgerald soloed, hosting radio programs during 1942 and 1943. In May 1943, ‘‘My Heart and I Decided’’ reached top ten on the Rhythm & Blues chart. Using her voice to imitate musical instruments delighted Fitzgerald. ‘‘Flyin’ Home’’ (1945), highlighted her Scat Singing. Hit followed hit: ‘‘It’s Only

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a Paper Moon,’’ and ‘‘I’m Beginning to See the Light’’ (1945), ‘‘(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons’’ (1946), ‘‘How High the Moon,’’ ‘‘Lady Be Good,’’ ‘‘That’s My Desire’’ (1947). In the late 1940s, Fitzgerald toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s band. On December 10, 1947, she married Gillespie’s bass player, Ray Brown. Together, they toured with Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic. In 1951, they adopted a son, naming the future musician Ray Brown Jr. The couple divorced on August 28, 1953, but maintained their professional association. In 1952, Granz began managing Fitzgerald’s career. Recognizing that her extraordinary vocal range, perfect pitch, and superior diction deserved a broader audience, he helped her become an international star. She performed most weeks of the year, often giving two performances a day in cities far apart. In 1953, and for the next seventeen years, Down Beat named Fitzgerald the Best Female Singer of the year. In 1956, for Granz’s Verve label, she began one of her greatest contributions to music history: recording the hits of some of America’s most popular artists. Her Songbooks albums captured the works of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, Duke Ellington (1957), George and Ira Gershwin (1958–59), Irving Berlin (1958), Harold Arlen (1960), Jerome Kern (1963), and Johnny Mercer (1965). During the 1950s, Fitzgerald began a thirty-year span of television appearances on shows hosted by celebrities, including: Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Ed Sullivan, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, and Dean Martin. In 1958, she won her first of thirteen Grammy awards. Despite the Beatles’ popularity during the 1960s, she continued to record, experimenting with a religious album for Capitol (1967) and contemporary pop songs (1969) with Reprise. In 1972, she returned to jazz with Granz’s Pablo label. Honors included: Down Beat’s Hall of Fame (1977), Kennedy Center Honors (1979), the National Medal of Arts (1987), France’s Commander of Arts & Letters (1990), and the Medal of Freedom (1992). Universities, including Yale and Dartmouth, bestowed honorary degrees. The University of Maryland named its School of Performing Arts after her. In later life, Fitzgerald battled health problems, including diabetes. The first of several eye surgeries came in 1971. Even after quintuple bypass surgery in 1986, she returned to the stage, giving her final concert in Carnegie Hall in 1991. After amputation of both legs below the knees in 1993, she retired. Fitzgerald had performed with many great musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Oscar Peterson, and Joe Pass, and with musical groups such as the Three Keys, the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, and the Boston Pops. Throughout her career, she maintained humility, a remarkable connection with audiences, and an infectious joy in music. Critics characterized her work as inspiring hope. She gave generously to charities, especially the Ella Fitzgerald Child Care Center in Los Angeles. Fitzgerald died in her Beverly Hills home June 15, 1996. A white wreath marked her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The family held a private ceremony at Inglewood Park Cemetery. That year, Yonkers unveiled a statue of

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Fitzgerald. In 1998, the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History opened its exhibit ‘‘Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song.’’ In 2007, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor. See also: Entertainment Industry; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Musicians and Singers; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints; Further Reading Ellafitzgerald.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Ella Fitzgerald’’ (Ella Fitzgerald tribute site). http://www .ellafitzgerald.com/about/bio/index.html. Gourse, Leslie, ed. 1998. The Ella Fitzgerald Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary. New York: Schirmer Books. Nicholson, Stuart. 2004. Ella Fitzgerald: The Complete Biography. New York and London: Routledge. Stone, Tanya Lee. 2008. Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald. New York: Viking. Warren, Nagueyalti. 1992. ‘‘Ella Fitzgerald.’’ In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Marie Garrett

Folk Foods In many ways folk food mirrors the more popular Soul Food, in that folk food was based on the utilitarian needs of black people. It was created from food that enslaved and emancipated blacks had access to, or rations provided by the slave master, combined with African foods and spices that were smuggled over on the slave ships (okra, yams, black-eyed peas, sorghum, sesame seeds, and greens) as well as those foods harvested by the slaves in the New World (sugar cane, rice, and corn). Kale, cress, mustard, and pokeweed greens replaced the turnips and beets of Africa. The sweet potato replaced the yam of Africa and the white potato of U.S. southerners. Cornmeal became an ingredient for creative breads as well as desserts when used with molasses. Food cooked in a big pot came to be known as a one-pot meal, with pork remains as a major meat. Blacks planted, harvested, cooked, canned, and preserved apples, peaches, berries, nuts, and grains from the land on which they toiled, and these ingredients soon became puddings and pies. It was a cycle of utilization and renewal through which they gave and took from the Earth, taking pride and satisfaction in their work. Folk foods differ from soul food in that they are more intricately tied to something other than the nourishment of the body. Folk foods are ritualistic, cyclic, and life-sustaining for blacks in the African diaspora. They play a central role in unifying African American families and communities. Through recipes for the folk foods, as well as proverbs, transmission is made possible because of the communal value attached to the shucking of the corn, the peeling of the yam, the cleaning of the chitlins, the scaling of the fish, or a weekly Fish Fry night. We often know these

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foods as folk because they are tied to cultural events like the yam festivals in Nigeria or Jamaica, the Chitlin Circuit entertainment venues, and rice festivals in Georgia and South Carolina. They can be associated with specific African and African American spiritual traditions or evoke their own superstitions or myths. There are tales, myths, and fables about these foods, but sometimes the act of preparing or eating the food becomes the tale or myth. Very often a folk food spawns its own proverbial wisdom. It is often during the preparation of folk foods that the proverbs arise. For example, the Yoruban saying, ‘‘Obu ko to iyo: Obu [or ‘salt earth’] is not to be compared with real salt,’’ is spoken to someone pretending to be something other than he is. Likewise, Trinidadians, black Americans, and other African-derived groups have a saying that addresses doing what needs to be done: ‘‘Hard times made even the monkey eat red pepper.’’ The monkey is a traditional Folklore figure known for his cunning deceptiveness, whereas red pepper enjoys a folk reputation of extreme taste and is often used as a way to drive away unwanted persons or things. In African American lore, the proverb ‘‘a sweet plum might contain a worm’’ uses food to serve as a pedagogical tool to explain how deceptive physical appearance can be in regard to human nature. The cooking and eating of folk foods can easily enhance the remembering and passing on of wisdom from generation to generation. Folk food is also about performance and expression; perhaps this is why so many traditions in African American music return again and again to folk foods as a creative source to express ideas. Folk idioms such as ‘‘gravy with my grits,’’ ‘‘put a little sugar in my bowl,’’ and ‘‘jelly in need of a roll’’ can be found in various blues, jazz, soul, Rhythm and Blues, and Hip-Hop lyrics. Black peoples’ multiple usages of folk foods continuously explore the rich dimensions of the shared connection between language and food in African American cultural traditions stemming from long-held beliefs and food as part of rites and rituals. Folk food in the African diaspora has a varied tradition that dates back to African origins. Its use changes with time and geographical location. In his classic slave narrative, Olaudah Equiano (or Gustavus Vassa) explained that food and beverage were essential parts of honoring ancestral presences: ‘‘After washing, libation is made, by pouring out a small portion of the drink on the floor, and by tossing a small quantity of the food in a certain place, for the spirits of departed relations, which the natives suppose to preside over their conduct, and guard them from evil.’’ Yams, eddoes, plantains, and nuts were folk foods believed to sustain the dead in their transition from the human world to the spirit universe. Many other slave rituals involved food, such as leaving food and water out for the spirits of the dead, or placing spoons, cups, or other personal possessions on a new grave. Based on West African cultural tradition, these examples are still practiced today in different evolved forms. African Americans evolved the use of folk food as ingredients for Hoodoo. In many Hoodoo potions and healing rites, folk food becomes the secret way to lay a trick. As Zora Neale Hurston notes in Mules and Men, most Hoodoo features a folk food such as rice, figs, sycamore bark, High John the Conqueror root, vinegar, livers, hearts, or other organs that might be cooked in a potion. Other Hoodoo rituals gravitate toward folk foods because they are associated with comfort,

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or their texture makes it easy to hide other ingredients of the Hoodoo. Typically, dumplings might be used to feed a victim spider eggs, to cause the esoteric illness called ‘‘Live Things in You.’’ Foods are also essential and central elements on altars in many religious settings, for example in Vodou (or Voodoo). In these cases they represent sincere and symbolic offerings to ancestors, orishas, loas (lwas), or other divine beings. In addition to Hoodoo, folk foods are associated with luck and material fortune. Many culinary dishes thought to bring good luck to those who eat them contain folk foods such as those harvested by slaves in earlier times. Benne cakes are a food from West Africa introduced to southern coastal parts of the United States by slaves. ‘‘Benne’’ means sesame seeds. The sesame seeds are eaten for good luck, and wafers and cookies made from benne are now a part of Kwanzaa. Slaves are also said to have introduced the New Year’s dish Hoppin’ John, a casserole of rice and black-eyed peas. The dish was traditionally served with a shiny dime buried deep within it. The person whose portion had the coin was guaranteed good luck in the new year. Black-eyed peas alone are thought to be the key to good fortune. Eating rice, greens, and fish on the first day of the year is also believed to bring financial wealth. Perhaps more than any other item of folklore, food tends to symbolize group identity, and perhaps because of the close association between eating and a sense of being, foods can signify the essence of a particular group. Such symbolism can apply at national, regional, or familial levels. For example, Jamaicans proudly boast about akee and salt fish, rice and peas, or callaloo, conveying to others the sentiment that they have not really experienced or understood Jamaican culture until they have eaten these dishes. Within Jamaican society, Rastafarians might express similar feelings about Ital cooking. For Afro-Brazilians the dishes might be feijoada, or rice and beans. In the United States, Barbecue and fried chicken are examples of foods that signify ethnic pride. But beyond the larger scale of ethnic symbols, versions and varieties of folk foods are foods found within specific regions and among different families. When one thinks of New Orleans, one thinks of gumbo, whereas other locales are known for smoked ham, biscuits and gravy, or sweet potato pie. Understandably, foods become linked to survival, and to some extent their symbolic significance encapsulates the entire history of struggle, endurance, and progress that marks most African-derived populations. See also: African Cultural Influences; Caribbean Cultural Influences; Food and Cooking Further Reading Byars, D. 1996. ‘‘Traditional African American Foods and African Americans.’’ Agriculture and Human Values 13:74–78. Carney, Judith A. 2001. Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas. Boston: Harvard University Press. Dance, Daryl Cumber, ed. 2002. From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore. New York: Norton.

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Equiano, Olaudah. [1789] 1987. ‘‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African.’’ In The Classic Slave Narratives. Henry Louis Gates Jr., ed., 1–182. New York: Penguin Books. Witt, D. 1999. Black Hunger: Food and the Politics of U.S. Identity. New York and London: Oxford University Press. LaMonda Horton-Stallings

Folklore In a broad sense, folklore is any collection of stories and customs based on word of mouth, and this idea gains increased significance in light of African American popular culture because of slavery, when literacy was a crime. Because of the ban against literacy, slave authors developed an oral tradition where stories were designed to offer hope in situations where there appeared to be no hope. Dressed in the guise of playfulness, folklore offered social commentary and, at times, calls for subversion. One of the more prominent heroes in African American folklore is Brer Rabbit who, throughout his adventures, manages to outwit the stronger Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, and Brer Bear. Brer Rabbit’s legacy continues with Bugs Bunny, who manages to outwit the hunter Elmer Fudd and others who make attempts on his well-being, indeed his very life. In all, Brer Rabbit serves as a metaphor for the significance of intellect in times of grave danger. One of the most important collectors of folklore was Zora Neale Hurston, who in 1934 published the first ever book of African American folklore, Mules and Men, based on tales she collected throughout her travels in the southern United States. Of particular interest are the High John de Conquer stories. The High John stories are distinct because they address one of the core injustices of slavery—property and theft. What whites saw as theft, blacks in bondage saw as their rightful property because their labor, for which they were never paid, made possible the luxury that surrounded them, but which they were forbidden to touch. The legend of High John carries with it a range of folkloric traditions, blending the storytelling techniques of African Americans on plantations, West African folklore, and even strains of the European folk tradition, where we find stories dealing with the relationship between master and servant. The European folklore tradition helps account for the name (John). And High John’s flight links him to the Flying African, a mythical figure who flies on his own wings. With its stories emerging before the Civil War, in the context of slavery in the United States, many of the episodes of the High John series deal with issues of money and property, and High John has no supernatural powers, only cunning. One story of cunning, which Hurston helped make popular, involves Old Master and his love of pigs. Old Master never shares the pigs he roasts with any of his slaves, and along with voicing the injustice High John feels in Old Master’s selfishness, High John takes action by stealing and roasting pigs. Old Master, noticing

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that his number of pigs has dwindled beyond his own rate of consumption, hides and waits near his pigs one night to catch the culprit. Seeing John take a pig, he waits to catch John eating. Later that night, Old Master knocks on High John’s door, asking to come in. High John objects, arguing that his master, who is accustomed to refined settings, should never set foot in a slave shack. Old Master insists, and John relents. Meanwhile, the pig continues to cook, the flames breaking down the pig into a reduction. As the smell of the roasting pig fills the cabin, Old Master claims hunger and asks John what he has in the pot. Hearing John tell him ‘‘possum,’’ Old Master asks for a taste, and John gives in, but says that if the possum tastes like pig, it’s not his fault. Relishing the roasted pig, Old Master laughs, and, after the night with John, begins to give roasted pig to all his slaves. Although High John is outwitted by Old Master, his ‘‘loss’’ becomes a collective gain. High John’s legacy continues to endure in a range of modern fiction. In Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Vergible ‘‘Tea Cake’’ Woods, a blues musician who circumvents racial prejudice, reveals some of the qualities of High John; while a black man in a racist America, Tea Cake retains a sense of freedom in all he does. Similar to Hurston, Ralph Ellison stylized High John motifs in his fiction. In Ellison’s 1948 short story ‘‘Flying Home,’’ Tod, a black aviator, is grounded when a crow is caught in the engine of his Advanced Trainer. While grounded, Tod, lying wounded in the field of a racist white landowner, is told a tale by Jefferson, a black sharecropper, of one-winged crow flying in Heaven. Flight in this story serves as a metaphor for freedom. This sense of freedom can also be found in the 1952 novel Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, when Peter Wheatstraw, the self-proclaimed son-in-law of the Devil (like High John), alludes to High John de Conquer when he gives the invisible narrator a litany on how to live his life in a complex world. And the metaphor of flight continues. An advocate of the Africanist presence in American literature, Toni Morrison uses the mythic figure of the Flying African in her 1977 novel Song of Solomon. Song and flight are linked. High John, above all else, represents the struggle of African Americans, enslaved or otherwise oppressed, to gain a mastery of the world through words. High John wins the contests against Old Master because of his verbal wit. While the High John stories form a part of the folk and tall tales invented in the United States, they are an indelible part of African American oral culture. Using Signifying, the Dozens, and indirection (what Hurston calls ‘‘hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick’’), these stories are shaped by Humor; and humor in these stories is powerful, helping their listeners come to terms with the unjust world they faced, which differed greatly from the way the world ought to be. Humor, all told, helped ease physical and emotional wounds. And humor in the High John series, and the wider oral tradition, is double-edged. White authority figures perceived the jocularity of the African American trickster figure as docility while behind the mask lay resistance; white misperceptions led to black caricatures, but behind the mask were complex human beings, living with what W. E. B. Du Bois called double-consciousness. While humor for African Americans serves as a way of dealing with the disappointments of life, it has a deeper purpose, revealing the ability to be flexible,

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having the ability to adapt to shifting circumstances, and always with a sense of style. Central to understanding High John is his deceptively simple laugh. Within the context of the blues and folklore, laughter symbolizes defiance rather than na€vet
e. In the stories that make up the life of High John the Conqueror, life and death hinge on the outcome of a joke. If John can turn the joke back on his master, he escapes slavery, and sometimes death. Although Hurston tell us that High John left the United States with the emancipation of slaves, his spirit thrives today on the varied frequencies, from conjurer’s roots to literary texts, of African American life and culture. See also: African Cultural Influences; Folklore; Signifying Monkey, The Further Reading Botkin, Benjamin Albert, ed. 1944. A Treasury of American Folklore. New York: Crown Publishers. Botkin, Benjamin Albert, ed. 1949. A Treasury of Southern Folklore: Stories, Ballads, Traditions, and Folkways of the People of the South. New York: Crown Publishers. Dundes, Alan, ed. 1973. Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel: Readings and Interpretations of Afro-American Folklore. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Ellison, Ralph. 1995. ‘‘Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke.’’ The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison. John F. Callahan, ed. New York: Modern. Ellison, Ralph. 1996. ‘‘Flying Home.’’ Flying Home and Other Stories. John F. Callahan, ed. New York: Random House. Ellison, Ralph. 1990. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage. Hurston, Zora Neale. 1995. ‘‘High John de Conquer.’’ In The Complete Stories. New York: HarperCollins. Hurston, Zora Neale. 1990. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Library. Johnson, Carol S. Taylor. 1997. ‘‘High John the Conqueror.’’ The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews et al, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Lowe, John. 1997. ‘‘Humor.’’ The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews et al., eds. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Morrison, Toni. 1977. Song of Solomon. New York: Plume. Sanfield, Steve. 1989. The Adventures of High John the Conqueror. New York: Orchard Books. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Food and Cooking Food and cooking have always been an important part of black culture. In the United States, when the word ‘‘soul’’ began to be used in association with black culture between the 1960s and the 1970s, people commonly referred to the foods

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that blacks tended to cook and eat as ‘‘Soul Food.’’ As its name suggests, soul food is deemed by many African Americans to have the power to heal and unite; many people believe that it is good for the soul. Soul food was not intended to have the positive effects that it has been said to have on souls. Its roots are traced to Africa. Soul food developed after a mixing of the cooking traditions of West Africans, Western Europeans, and Amerindians. Between 1450 and 1600, the African and Amerindian diets contained many vegetables and legumes. The people of the Caribbean also influenced southern African American cooking. Food Traditions among Slaves Before Africans were brought to America, their religious lives included ‘‘iconic foods’’ that were served ritualistically. The African slave trade is credited credited with shaping the African American idea of the soul: spirituality, love, patience, diligence, and pride. All of these elements would eventually become important components in the art of cooking soul food. While slaves were on boats on their way to the New World, their diets consisted of a boiled mixture of rice, horsebeans, and yams. They were sometimes given meat with flabber-sauce. Flabber-sauce was made of palm oil, flour, and pepper. If a slave refused to eat what was provided, he or she would be beaten. Once slaves arrived in America, slave owners fed their slaves what remained on their farms in an attempt to be economical; therefore, slaves learned to make the best of what they were given. Slaves created different meals from what they had. Many slaves, however, did not depart from their eating habits that were formed on the boats; they continued to eat yams, rice, and beans. They also continued to season foods with peppers. Later on, their exposure to new people and new plants and animals caused them to change some of their diets and incorporate some of the unfamiliar items that surrounded them. Many of the traditions that shaped African American eating habits originated from West African cultures. Some foods eaten by slaves in West Africa included vegetables like rice, corn, and okra; these foods were introduced to the Americas as a result of the Atlantic slave trade. West Africans ate dishes like grits and hot-water corn bread. West Africans ate corn bread with almost every meal. These foods were once staples in the African American diet. Soul food is not solely influenced by African culture. In the British Empire, produce such as potatoes, cabbage, beets, and turnips were consumed, which were eventually added to the African American cuisine. In European cultures, poor people traditionally dined on these vegetables. During times of slavery, when there were special occasions, some African Americans were able to eat larger amounts of meats and desserts than they were able to eat the rest of the year. Some of the occasions that African Americans celebrated with large feasts included Christmas, Watch Night, New Year’s, the Fourth of July, religious revivals, and Sundays. Because slaves did not have the opportunity to eat well during the week and Sunday was their only day of rest,

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Sunday meals were very important. Sunday dinner was revered in the same manner as a sacred holiday dinner. Families ate together and managed to celebrate although they endured extremely difficult living. December was ‘‘hog-killing’’ time; slaves ate parts of the hog that the master’s family did not want. These parts included: chitlins (entrails), trotters (feet), the snout and jowls, scrapple, (neck), ‘‘hog maw’’ (mouth, throat, and lining of the stomach), and pork rind (deep fried skin). Many African Americans still eat these parts of the hog today, even though these foods are considered by many to be unhealthy due to high fat content. Soul Food and Black Culture Special foods became a major part of religious activities. Food is the direct connection between West African and African American religions. This explains the link between food traditions and religious events during and after slavery; history also explains why spirituality is linked to making soul food. Though slavery ended, food still served as a major uniting force for the black community. Another major staple of the African American diet includes beans and greens. During Reconstruction and the Great Depression, many Americans were forced to rely on food distribution programs such as the Federal National Relief Agency (NRA). Black women, who were considered to be fortunate enough to have jobs as domestics, sometimes brought home food from the homes of their white employers. Men who worked for agencies such as the NRA would take home surplus food including greens, string beans, tomatoes, eggs, flour, or sugar. Other African Americans, like Ralph David Abernathy’s family, were fortunate enough not to have to depend on government relief programs. Abernathy’s father was a black farmer in Alabama; he raised cattle, hogs, chickens, corn, and other produce. He also sold cotton and killed hogs to sell. Food was not only the point of connection for African American families; it also became sources of survival and income. African Americans were enjoying soul food before it became well-known and before the terminology was coined. During the Jim Crow era, black cooks who worked for segregated restaurants, Barbecue stands, and other establishments helped to initiate the demand for what officially became known as soul food in the 1960s. Many people of all ethnicities were enjoying the food from barbecue pits, chicken shacks, and burger joints, but there was no ascribed title or name for the food that they were enjoying. Many of the traditions for cooking the foods originated from the South. The menus of these soul food restaurants offered a variety of foods and included all kinds of foods from nearly all major food groups. The food was also traditionally seasoned for flavor with pork products and fried in lard. Meats that could be found on a menu of these restaurants might include pigs feet, chitterlings (chitlins), spare ribs, pork chops, fish, or fried chicken. The selection of vegetables might include collard greens, green beans, cabbage, black-eyed peas, candied yams, or potatoes. Desserts might include pound cakes, chocolate cakes, sweet potato pie, or cobblers. Biscuits and/or corn bread were also served with meals. People would enjoy sweets like soda and candy after eating their meal.

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Soul food has evolved from its original days of simple vegetables and pork products. Intellectuals like Dick Gregory and members of the Nation of Islam began to argue in the 1960s and 1970s that soul food was killing African Americans, and therefore, soul food should not be celebrated. This began a decline of soul food at its height. Other intellectuals like Amiri Baraka and Verta Mae Grosvenor claimed that soul food was a unique part of black culture; soul food helped many blacks make money when there were few ways for blacks to earn a living. But others still questioned the wisdom of wanting to stick to tradition by consuming a damaging diet. Unlike today, with nutrition and health information widely available in the popular news media, including the Internet, in the 1960s and 1970s, people were generally not concerned with what they ate. Because many of the ingredients used to prepare soul food are deemed to be unhealthy, chefs have recently begun to make substitutes for the more harmful ingredients. Some of the products that were traditionally used in soul food are linked to Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, heart disease, and other ailments. African Americans consume foods with these products; therefore, the aforementioned diseases are prevalent in the black community. Lack of exercise and the consumption of soul food in large quantities have caused major health problems among African Americans. After becoming educated about the diseases, healthy cooking became a priority for many in the African American community. There are a variety of culinary presentations that are televised on major and local networks. These programs are geared toward making traditional soul food with healthy alternatives. Chefs have also organized cookbooks with recipes for soul food that have been altered to meet the needs of diabetics and those who suffer from hypertension and other chronic illnesses. African Americans, especially those who were educated changed their diets and lifestyles. In order to prolong their lives, some African Americans opted for healthier alternatives to help prepare the foods they loved. For example, instead of cooking food in lard, some cooks began to fry the foods in vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil. Instead of seasoning foods with table salt, many chose to use sea salt. Many people have elected to cook their foods with natural products. The awareness of the dangers of soul food sparked other creative eating habits; for example, there are also soul food vegetarian diets as well as soul food restaurants that now prepare healthy foods. Despite the heightened awareness about health and the dangers of consuming soul food, there is still a link and love between soul food and African Americans because of its strong history. Sharing was always a very important aspect of food and cooking. While many women cooked, they exchanged stories about life. Lessons were learned. The younger women learned from the older women. Women also passed down family recipes. Historically, when the food was ready to be served, families sat together to share stories and oral history. But dinnertime was not limited to people who were related; neighbors, church members, and friends often gathered at each other’s tables to feast. Despite the arguments against it, soul food is still currently a popular American cuisine. Some families and friends continue to gather to share stories, to

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discuss current events, or simply to enjoy company. Because many began to see how profitable soul food could be, many decided to establish businesses. Soul food restaurants are increasing in population across the United States. Most soul food restaurants were found in southern areas where there are large numbers of African Americans. There are currently soul food restaurants in urban areas around the country including Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Dallas, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Jacksonville, Cleveland, and New Orleans. People other than those of African descent also enjoy soul food. As soul food became an increasingly more important part of black culture, the United States began to see more of it displayed in the media. For example, in 1996 George Tillman directed a movie entitled Soul Food starring Vanessa Williams, Vivica Fox, and Nia Long. The movie centers around a family who is on the verge of separating after its matriarch is hospitalized because of diabetes. The Joseph family deals with realistic struggles, but they still manage to cooperate to find a solution. Throughout the movie, the goal of one of the youngest members of the Joseph family is to get his family together for dinner because he remembers the spirit of unity and love that prevailed when they simply came together for dinner. The movie draws attention to the power that soul food has to unite and strengthen the family. Sunday dinner joined family members of all ages, despite individuals’ recent disagreements and personal issues with one another. Soul food, as it is known today, has made a long journey since its beginning. Its roots go as far back to the humbled and difficult days of slavery, but many African Americans today have profited because of it. Soul food has a spiritual meaning to many African Americans. Though it has been criticized by people for not being healthy, it has survived and remained a major part of African American culture. See also: Barbecue; Cookbooks; Fish Fry; Folk Foods; Soul Food Further Reading Barton, Paul Alfred. 2004. Mom’s Caribbean and Americas Soulfood Cooking for Excellent Health and a Long Life. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. Gaines, Fabiola. 2006. The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes. Alexandria, VA: American Diabetes Association. Opie, Frederick Douglass. 2008. Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America. New York: Columbia University Press. Jemima Buchanan

Food, Folk. See Folk Foods

Football A variant of English-style rugby, American football emerged on college campuses during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The first intercollegiate football game occurred on November 6, 1869, between Rutgers and Princeton in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers won the contest 6–4, and with that game

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began the long legacy of the African American struggle for progress in the ‘‘game of inches,’’ both on and off the field. Two decades following the first college football game, William Henry Lewis and William Tecumseh Sherman, a running back, became the first African Americans to play football at a predominantly white college when both enrolled in Amherst College in 1889. Lewis would go on to have an exceptional career. A blocker at Amherst College from 1889 until 1891, he became team captain in his final year (another African American, James Frances Gregory, was captain of Amherst’s baseball team). After completing his undergraduate career, Lewis attended law school at Harvard, where he played two additional years and earned All-American recognition. As W. E. B. Du Bois wrote his Harvard doctoral thesis on the African slave trade, Lewis coached the Harvard Crimson on the gridiron. As Harvard’s offensive line coach, Lewis broke another color barrier by becoming the first African American coach at a predominantly white institution of higher learning. In 1903, Lewis left the sidelines as coach as he accepted President William Howard Taft’s invitation to become U.S. Assistant Attorney General. Along with Lewis and Sherman, other African Americans ran towards glory on the gridiron of predominantly white colleges. During the 1890s, William Arthur Johnson played running back for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; George Jowett was a running back, punter, and field goal kicker for the University of Michigan; and George Flippin was a running back for the Cornhuskers of the University of Nebraska. Cornell, Williams, Oberlin, and Northwestern all fielded football teams with black players, and the trend continued into the twentieth century. Playing halfback and defensive end, Edward B. Gray of Amherst received AllAmerican honors in 1906. From 1903 until 1906, Robert Marshall played end and kicker for the University of Minnesota, becoming a two-time All-American and setting the all-time record for points scored by an individual in one football game: 72. Following World War I, college football gained national prominence, and two bona fide stars of the era were Frederick Douglass ‘‘Fritz’’ Pollard and Paul Robeson. In 1915, Fritz Pollard began his life as a college student-athlete at Brown University. An All-American, Pollard was a versatile player who led the Brown Bears to a Rose Bowl championship in 1916. Standing at 6 feet 3 inches, and weighing 225 pounds, Paul Robeson was an imposing figure when he stepped onto the Rutgers campus in 1915, where he played tackle and guard during his freshman and sophomore years. But it seems that Robeson was more suited to play end, where he earned a spot on the All-American team and was hailed ‘‘the greatest defensive end who ever trod a gridiron’’ by football expert Walter Camp. Robeson excelled as an athlete (earning twelve varsity letters), scholar (Phi Beta Kappa and Skull and Cap), and artist, (earning international acclaim as a singer and actor). He funded completing law school at Columbia by playing professional football.

Pioneers in Professional Football Although Robeson played professional football and attended law school during the 1920s, he was not the first black pioneer into white professional football. That

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was Charles Follis, who from 1902 until 1906 played running back for the Shelby, Ohio Athletic Club. One of his teammates was Branch Rickey, who later, as president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, would help break major league baseball’s color barrier with the signing of Jackie Robinson. Other early black pioneers in white professional football were Charles ‘‘Doc’’ Baker, a halfback for the Akron Indians from 1906 until 1908, then for one season in 1911, Gideon ‘‘Charlie’’ Smith, a tackle for the Canton Bulldogs (later the Cleveland Browns) in 1915, and Henry McDonald, halfback for the Rochester Jeffersons from 1911 until 1917. During America’s Jazz Age and the rise in popularity of college football, African Americans achieved success at white colleges. Some of the notable black achievers were John Shelburne, fullback at Dartmouth; Fred ‘‘Duke’’ Slater, tackle at the University of Iowa; Charles Drew, halfback at Amherst; David Meyers, tackle at New York University; Ray Kemp, tackle at Duquesne; and Charles West, halfback for Washington and Jefferson and the second African American (Fritz Pollard was the first) to play in the Rose Bowl. Despite and, just as often, because of the high level of talent they brought to the gridiron, black collegiate players faced indignities and injustices symptomatic of racial prejudice and hatred. During the 1920s, with its increased anxiety about the color line, F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the chief chroniclers of the Jazz Age, had a character in his classic novel, The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, described as ‘‘one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way,’’ express a sentiment that was increasingly in vogue: ‘‘Civilization’s going to pieces. . . . The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.’’ As a result of racial anxiety, stirred previously by black heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, black college players were often subject to quotas and to benching during pivotal bowl games. For its 1937 Cotton Bowl in Texas, Boston College benched Louis Montgomery, a black student-athlete; according to Smith, this prompted a Boston sports reporter to write ‘‘even Hitler, to give the bum his due, didn’t treat Jesse Owens the way the Cotton Bowl folk are treating Lou Montgomery.’’ Hitler had, after all, allowed Owens to compete in the 1936 Olympiad and prove his greatness to the world by winning four gold medals. Wilmeth Sadat-Singh, the standout football, basketball, and baseball star and pre-med student at Syracuse, was benched during contests that occurred south of the Mason-Dixon Line. From 1918 until 1937, no black player, despite examples of exemplary performances, was named to the first team All-American squads. Jerome ‘‘Brud’’ Holland, an end at Cornell, broke the blackout in 1937 and in 1938, becoming the first African American since Paul Robeson of Rutgers to earn first team All-America honors. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were also invested in the game of college football. In 1892, the first black college game was played in North Carolina between Biddle and Livingstone, and in 1897 Tuskegee and Atlanta University met on New Year’s Day in a championship game. While black colleges lagged behind their white counterparts in terms of material resources necessary to equip football teams, they proved successful in building strong players

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and strong programs. From 1924 until 1933, a period of ten years, Tuskegee Institute won nine Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles. The Bears of Morgan State were another perennial powerhouse, dominating their opponents during the 1930s and early 1940s. And in 1941, Eddie Robinson, the twenty-one-year-old son of a sharecropper, became football coach at Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute of Lincoln Parish, later known as Grambling, where he invented the halftime show and made black college football a matter of racial and national pride. Coaching for fifty-six seasons, Robinson became the first coach ever in college football to win over four hundred games. Robert ‘‘Rube’’ Marshall and Fritz Pollard were the first African Americans to play professional football, beginning their careers in 1919 as members of the American Professional Football Association, which became the National Football League (NFL) in 1921. Along with his duties as a running back, Pollard was professional football’s first black head coach. For his contributions to football, Pollard was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005. From 1933 until 1946, white NFL owners banned black players from the ranks of professional football, compelling African Americans to create teams of their own. One of the legendary teams of the era was the New York Brown Bombers, named after black heavyweight boxing champion of the world Joe Louis, and coached by Fritz Pollard. The Brown Bombers barnstormed the nation for several years. During World War II, racial attitudes underwent a shift in the United States, particularly on the issue of black patriotism. While football is often seen as a metaphor for war, even adopting the language of armed combat with terms like ‘‘blitz,’’ ‘‘bomb,’’ and ‘‘line of scrimmage,’’ Grambling witnessed firsthand the effects of war. During the 1943 and 1944 seasons, the football program was suspended as football players became soldiers. As Eddie Robinson wrote in his autobiography, ‘‘We knew America was not perfect for blacks but we began to read about Hitler’s plans for the master race. If America lost the war, then whatever rights blacks had won would likely be lost. We joined the war effort with full force and pride. The history books are filled with stories of our contributions.’’ Black Quarterbacks Emerge Following the war, opportunities to play professional football were extended to black athletes. The Cleveland Browns and the Los Angeles Rams of the AllAmerican Football Conference signed black players. Following the success of the Browns, winning four consecutive league championships, other professional teams lifted their ban against black players. It would not be until 1951 that George Taliaferro took snaps from center as a member of the New York Yankees. From 1951 to 1955, one to two black men a year played limited time at quarterback in professional American football, most notably Willie Thrower, the backup quarterback for the Chicago Bears. Beginning in 1956, no black man played quarterback in the American or National Football Conference until 1969, when Marlin Briscoe, a rookie, played with the Denver Broncos, setting rookie records for yards

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and touchdown passes. Despite his successful rookie season at quarterback, Briscoe was traded to the Buffalo Bills and converted to wide receiver. The early to mid1970s witnessed talented black quarterbacks serving as backups until 1974, when Joe Gilliam of the Pittsburgh Steelers and James Harris of the Los Angeles Rams, by way of Grambling, both started as quarterback. Six games into the 1974 season, however, Gilliam was replaced by Terry Bradshaw. From 1974 to 1977, James Harris started with the Los Angeles Rams, the only black starter in the NFL, although there were several backups in the league. With the arrival of Doug Williams, another Grambling man, into the NFL for the 1978 season, James Harris had become a backup, and during the entire decade of the 1980s, there were only two, at most three (1988), black starting quarterbacks in the league. In 1983, no black men started at quarterback in the NFL, with only one backup, Vance Evans of the Chicago Bears. The 1990s witnessed the steady ascension of black quarterbacks in the NFL. The decade opened with seven black quarterbacks and three starters and closed with nineteen quarterbacks, five starters. In 1999, three of the first eleven draft picks were African American quarterbacks–Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith, and Daunte Culpepper. In 2001, Michael Vick out of Virginia Tech would become the first black quarterback ever to be drafted as the number one overall pick in the NFL draft, and the following year, in a thirty-one-team league, eight of the starting quarterbacks on opening day were black. The first black player from a black college to play professional football was Paul ‘‘Tank’’ Younger, a powerful running back who earned his name from flattening defenders who tried to tackle him. After a stellar career at Grambling under the tutelage of Eddie Robinson, Younger was signed to a professional contract in 1949. ‘‘Tank, this is a great opportunity for black college football,’’ Robinson said. ‘‘If you fail, it’s no telling when another player will get an opportunity. They’ll say, ‘We took the best you had and he failed.’’’ Tank Younger made the most of the opportunity, earning five Pro Bowl appearances and gaining election into both the college and professional football halls of fame. The struggles, triumphs, and failures of African Americans in football, whether professional or collegiate, are particularly poignant in the United States before the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Similar to boxing, football pits the will of one person against the will of another in an arena that is physical and primal. The gridiron of football often becomes the level playing field that we often speak of, but never quite achieve, in other social and political arenas. Professional American football today is dominated by African American players, whereas, less than half a century ago, this was not nearly the case. And some of the greatest players of the game are African American. As a member of the Cleveland Browns, Jim Brown proved himself to be one of the finest backs in the history of the game, and he walked away at arguably the height of his career, but on his own terms. An electrifying collegiate player, winning the Heisman Trophy while playing for the Trojans of the University of Southern California, O. J. Simpson, in 1973, as a member of the Buffalo Bills, became the first man ever to rush for over two thousand yards in a season. The late Walter Payton, formerly of the Chicago Bears, held the all-time NFL rushing record, until

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passed by Emmitt Smith on October 27, 2002, who has recently reinvented himself with his performances on television’s Dancing with the Stars. In 1989, Arthur ‘‘Art’’ Shell became the first black head coach in the NFL since Fritz Pollard. The mandate of abolitionist Frederick Douglass—‘‘If there is no struggle there is no progress’’—continues to shed light on our times. In February 2007, Super Bowl XLI, between the Chicago Bears of the National Football Conference and the Indianapolis Colts of the American Football Conference, proved to be an historic event. For the first time in the history of professional football, two African American head coaches—Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy—faced each other for one of the game’s highest honors, the Vince Lombardi Trophy. See also: Sports Further Reading Greenidge-Copprue, Delano. (n.d.) ‘‘The Black Quarterback Continuum’’ (unpublished manuscript). Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown. Smith, Thomas G. 1993. ‘‘Football.’’ In The African-American Experience. Jack Salzman, ed. New York: Macmillan Library Reference. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Foreman, George (1949– ), Boxing Champion Former world heavyweight boxing champion George Edward Foreman might be the world’s most successful sportsman at leveraging his athleticism, his religion, his ego, his size, and his business sense. For years, he was a brute boxing destroyer, who captured an Olympic gold medal and then the heavyweight championship of the world. Some of the world’s most vivid boxing moments involve ‘‘Big’’ George, as he is known. One of the most enduring early images of him is when, after winning the Olympic gold medal in 1968 in Mexico City, Foreman holds the American flag in his taped hands and waves it towards the audience as he bows before the four sides of the boxing venue. While many Americans saw this as a show of patriotism, others saw it as a slap in the face to the sacrifice of John Carlos and Tommy Smith, whose black-gloved fists got them a quick banishment from the team and an early trip back home to the United States. One of Foreman’s most devastating victories also became one of the most dramatic calls in boxing history, still repeated by sports fans today. ‘‘Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!’’ cried legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell repeatedly on the fateful day in 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica, where Foreman destroyed previously unbeaten heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in two rounds.

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Ironically, another one of the fight game’s most memorable moments involved the most devastating defeat of Forman’s career—an 8th round technical knockout at the hands of Muhammad Ali, who employed his soon-to-be trademark tactics of the Rope-a-Dope and the Mirage. In that 1974 fight, Ali let the younger, stronger, and bigger Foreman flail away at his body, until Foreman grew tired and Ali unleashed a combination of punches to Foreman’s head. The punch sent water spraying from Foreman’s Afro haircut, creating one of boxing’s most famous photographs, and sent big George crashing to the floor. After a long hiatus from boxing, Foreman, at age forty-five, turned back the clock on a younger foe, knocking out twenty-six-year-old heavyweight champion Michael Moorer, and becoming the oldest heavyweight boxing champion in boxing history. Ring magazine has named Foreman one of the twenty-five greatest fighters of all time. Before coming out of retirement, Foreman had settled in Houston, Texas, to become a preacher. He later helped create and market a very successful product known as the George Foreman Grill, which cooked hamburgers in less grease than traditional cooking. Some proceeds from the sale of the product go to charity. Foreman did not stop there. Shy during his first stint as a boxer, when Foreman returned to the ring, he had more personality and humor than one would have suspected from his earlier aloof, ‘‘brute’’ image. He used those skills to migrate to a new career as a broadcaster, a motivational speaker, and a popular pitchman for a range of products, including Meineke Car Centers. Foreman’s ability to laugh at himself is one of the things that seems to endear him to fans. Even today when he talks about his devastating defeat to Ali, Foreman tells the story of how he hit Ali with punches that would have knocked out many a champion. He recalls that Ali asked him if that was the best that he had. Foreman said he thought to himself, ‘‘Yes, that’s pretty much it.’’ He chuckles when he tells the story. There had also been a period where Foreman had been ambivalent about that loss to Ali. Since Foreman turned that negative energy into positive energy, their ‘‘Rumble in the Jungle’’ has been revered and reexamined as the subject of magazine stories, books, and movies. Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas, on January 10, 1949. He grew up in Houston’s tough Fifth Ward, where he once said it seemed someone was killed each weekend. He eventually joined the Job Corps to get away from a life of juvenile delinquency. He has eleven children, and before he turned to the boxing ring, he was famous for naming each of his five sons ‘‘George.’’ After an amateur career (22–4) that included the Olympic medal, Forman turned professional in 1969. Foreman (37–0, 34 KO) was undefeated in 1973 when he challenged the undisputed and undefeated world heavyweight champion, Joe Frazier (29–0, 25KO). Foreman was also a 3–1 underdog. Legendary referee Arthur Mercante stopped the fight once Frazier managed to get to his feet after the sixth knockdown. By the time Foreman fought Ali, Foreman was 40–0 with 37 knockouts, having stopped eventual hall of fame boxer Ken Norton in just two rounds, recording three knockdowns along the way. After the loss to Ali, Foreman sat out all

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of 1975, but he won a five-round slugfest with Ron Lyle in 1976. He later beat Frazier in a rematch, but would soon leave boxing for ten years. Foreman retired from boxing in 1977 after losing to Jimmy Young, and saying he believed God had asked him to change his life. He was a new person when he returned to the ring in 1987, to raise money for his youth center. The comeback was not taken too seriously until Foreman began to mow down opponent after opponent, winning nine fights in 1988 and touting himself as an advocate for older people. He gained a good measure of respect in 1991 for going the distance with former champion Evander Holyfield in losing a twelve-round decision. Foreman’s popularity and fan appeal helped set up his unlikely title shot against Moorer in 1994. Foreman also promotes the George Foreman Jumbo Fat Reducing Machine. Foreman is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Foreman is also the author of nine books. See also: Boxing; Sports Further Reading Big George.com. (Homepage.) www.biggeorge.com. Foreman, George, and Ken Abraham. 2007. God in My Corner: A Spiritual Memoir. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. Foreman, George, and Joel Engel. 1995. By George: The Autobiography of George Foreman. New York: Villard Books. Whitaker, Matthew C., ed. 2008. African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. David Squires

Foster, Rube (1879–1930), Sports Administrator, Baseball Player In popular culture, Rube Foster is known as the ‘‘Father of Black Baseball’’ chiefly because he founded the first viable black baseball league, known as the Negro National League. He made a lasting impact on baseball as well when he organized the Chicago American Giants, one of the best black teams in early baseball history. Foster was also a great and powerful pitcher who dominated the sport in the first decade of the twentieth century. The legendary Foster raised the image of the sport and its players from ‘‘low and ungentlemanly’’ to wide respectability and genuine acceptability. Black teams were necessary during the last part of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth due to the fact that individual black players were excluded from the major leagues, no matter how skilled they were. A little-known and shortlived black league was the National Colored Base Ball League, also known as the League of Colored Baseball Clubs. Formed in 1887, it failed to finish its first

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season. Other black leagues appeared briefly, such as Beauregard Moseley’s National Negro Baseball League and the United States League of Professional Baseball Clubs. They had the support of the black community, however, who took an interest in their favorite players. There were also powerful black owners of teams; as an example, Frank C. Leland, who in 1888 founded the amateur Union Base Ball Club, later known as the Chicago Unions and reaching professional status in 1896. Rube Foster upstaged Leland’s power as the premiere black baseball owner and later became one of black baseball’s most powerful and influential owners. Andrew ‘‘Rube’’ Foster, was born on September 17, 1879, in the farming community of Calvert, Texas, near Waco. He was the son of Andrew Sr. and Sarah Foster, and spent considerable time at church since his father was the presiding elder of Calvert’s United Methodist Episcopal Church. The afternoons were Rube’s, however, and he spent that time engaged in baseball activities. His promise as an organizer and administrator was demonstrated early on, as he operated a team while in grade school. After his mother died, the Foster family moved to southwest Texas, where Rube knew well that baseball was driving his life. He completed the eighth grade, dropped out of school, and moved to Fort Worth to pursue more rigorously his love for the sport. By age seventeen, Foster had already begun to play for the Fort Worth Yellow Jackets and traveled with the team throughout Texas and into bordering states. Four years later he was big and brash; he was a cigar-smoking, 6 foot, 4 inch, 200-pounder who pitched against Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics. Foster impressed the big clubs, and turned down an offer to join a semiprofessional team in Iowa, joining the black Leland Giants (or the Chicago Union Giants) instead. Foster changed over to E. B. Lamar’s Union Giants (or Cuban Giants) in 1902 and the powerful pitcher won forty-four straight games. He beat the great Rube Waddell around this time and, as result, earned the moniker ‘‘Rube.’’ In 1903 Foster joined the Cuban X-Giants, leading them to black baseball’s first World Series. He continued to demonstrate remarkable power, winning fifty-one games and losing only five in 1905. Foster had deep concern for the salaries of his players. Because he felt that his team’s salaries were too low, in 1907 he left for the Leland Giants, this time as manager as well as player. Still he had concern for financial matters and demanded a higher percentage of ticket sales for his team when they traveled. He also changed the team’s name to the American Giants; some writers say this was the greatest team that Foster ever assembled. By now he had become so successful and influential that he began to dominate black baseball. Foster and Frank Leland fought for control of the Giants in the 1909–10 season and took their controversy to court. Leland received the lease to the stadium where the team played while Foster was granted rights to the team’s name. Foster left his role as pitcher and devoted his time to managing the team and handling other activities related to ownership. What was foremost in his mind now was creating a black baseball league; it would promote economic development in the black community. In 1919, Foster assembled the best black ball clubs in the

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Midwest and proposed the formation of a Negro National League. Its governing body would be the National Association of Colored Professional Baseball Clubs. The all-black enterprise that Foster proposed would be patterned after the major (white) leagues, and the proceeds of the games would remain in black hands. Eight teams formed the league: the American Giants, Joe Green’s Chicago Giants, the Cuban Stars, the Detroit Stars, the St. Louis Stars, the Indianapolis ABCs, the Kansas City Monarchs, and the Dayton Marcos. Despite criticism from some players who accused Foster, the owner as well as booking agent, of hiring umpires who favored the American Giants, he survived and was respected for running the league with generosity, as he made loans (sometimes from his own pockets) to players, and assisting them with their financial needs. Some claim that the autocratic leader may have saved the day for black baseball. Foster’s American Giants flourished and the new league that he formed inspired the formation of the Southern League and the Eastern Colored League. The astute baseball organizer engaged in other business ventures. He owned a Barbershop and an automobile service shop yet continued his relationship with his team and the league that he founded. He was feared and respected and often called the greatest baseball manager of any race. Foster also shared his expertise with others as he continued to teach baseball techniques to generations of players as well as managers. Foster died in a mental asylum in Kankakee, Illinois, on December 9, 1930, and his funeral drew thousands of mourners who came to honor black baseball’s iconic leader. His league died with him, yet black baseball was reborn in the mid-1930s. When Jackie Robinson and thirty-six other players from the old Negro Baseball Leagues went to the majors in the late 1940s, the dream that Foster had for integrated baseball early on was finally realized. His ultimate recognition came in 1981, when he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. His recognitions continue, however, as seen in 2010, when the U.S. Postal Service issued a set of postage stamps called ‘‘Negro Leagues Baseball.’’ One stamp included Foster’s image, while a second shows an action image from the playing field. See also: Jim Crow; Sports

Further Reading Early, Gerald. 2009. ‘‘Rube Foster.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present, Vol. 2. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Nowatzki, Robert. 2008. ‘‘A Dream Deferred: African Americans in Baseball.’’ In African Americans and Popular Culture. Vol. 2. Todd Boyd, ed. Westport, CT: Praeger. ‘‘Rube Foster.’’ 2010. http://www.answers.com/topic/rube-foster. Smith, Jessie Carney. 1999. ‘‘Rube Foster.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Frederick D. Smith

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Fox, Vivica (1964– ), Actress, Producer Vivica A. Fox is an actress who has worked steadily in television and film since 1988. After establishing herself as an actress, Fox began her own production company to provide opportunities not only for herself but for others overlooked by the Entertainment Industry. Vivica Anjanetta Fox was born on July 30, 1964, in South Bend, Indiana. Fox has both African American and Native American ancestry. After graduating from Arlington High School in Indianapolis, she moved to California and graduated from Golden West College in Huntington Beach. In an interview in Ebony Man magazine in December 1992, Fox recounted how she was discovered by a producer while eating lunch with a friend in a Los Angeles restaurant. Fox began appearing on the soap operas Days of Our Lives in 1988, the short-lived Generations in 1989, and The Young and the Restless in 1995. She also made guest appearances on numerous television series including China Beach (1988), Who’s the Boss (1989), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1991), Beverly Hills 90210 (1991), Family Matters (1992), and Martin (1995). Fox had a small part in the film Born on the Fourth of July in 1989. Her first big movie roles came in 1996 when she was cast as Will Smith’s girlfriend in the scifi action thriller Independence Day and as one of the leads in the film Set It Off. More film roles followed, including Soul Food and Booty Call (1997), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Two Can Play That Game (2001), Juwanna Mann (2002), Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), Ella Enchanted (2004), and Cover (2007). Knowing Hollywood prefers younger actresses, Fox began planning for the future and started her own production company, Foxy Brown Productions (named in honor of Pam Grier) in the early 2000s. Among the projects Fox has produced and starred in are the films Ride or Die (2003), Motives (2004), The Salon (2005), and Three Can Play That Game (2007). Fox also starred in and coproduced the television series 1-800-MISSING which aired on the USA network from 2004–6 and the reality show Glam God in 2008 on VH1. Along with producing, Fox continues to act, including a recurring role on the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm. She hosted the reality show The Cougar, which aired on TV Land PRIME in 2009. In 1996, Fox received the Universe Reader’s Choice Award as Best Supporting Actress in a genre motion picture from Sci-Fi Universe magazine for Independence Day. She and Will Smith received the Best Kiss award at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards. People magazine included Fox on their 50 Most Beautiful People list in 1997. In 1998, Fox was chosen as Best Actress at the Acapulco Black Film Festival for her role in Soul Food and in 2006 she received an Image Award as Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for her work in the television series 1-800-MISSING. See also: Actors and Performers; Women, African American, Images of

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Further Reading Ebony Man. 1992. ‘‘There’s More To Her Than Meets the Eye.’’ (December): 48–49. Smith-Shomade, Beretta E. 2003. ‘‘Rock-a-Bye Baby!: Black Women Disrupting Gangs and Constructing Hip-Hop Gangsta Films.’’ Cinema Journal 42 (Winter): 25–40. Vivica A. Fox. (Homepage.) http://www.vivicafox.com/index1.html. Mary K. Huelsbeck

Foxx, Jamie (1967– ), Comedian, Actor, Singer Eric Marlon Bishop, better known as Jamie Foxx, burst on the scene as a stand-up comic in the 1990s. He has earned awards for his performances on television and in films. His 2005 performance in the film Ray won him three awards: the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe, and a Black Entertainment Television Award. His album Unpredictable won the NAACP Image Award for the best male musical artist. Foxx was born in Terrell, Texas, to Louise Dixon and Darrell Bishop but Mark and Estelle Talley adopted him as a baby. The Talleys raised three children and Foxx with old-fashioned discipline. Estelle Talley, whom he called grandmother, encouraged him to take piano lessons. He also played sports and participated in the Boy Scouts. Foxx worked as a church pianist and chorister until his graduation from Terrell High School. With a scholarship award in hand, he headed to the U.S. International University in San Diego to study music. An impromptu performance in a Los Angeles nightclub gave him the opportunity to show off his impressions of popular personalities. Encouraged by the positive response from the audience, Foxx decided to pursue a show business career. He dropped out of college to concentrate on finding the right connections to boost his career. He soon learned that a unisex name was advantageous when competing on the comedy club circuit. The name Jamie Foxx, picked randomly from a list, worked so well in getting him gigs that he made the change permanent. Foxx soon discovered that he could leverage his multifaceted skills to his advantage. Shortly after winning the Black Bay Area Comedy Competition in 1991, he launched his acting career by securing a part on the TV comedy In Living Color. The show exposed him to a national audience and boosted his popularity. When the show was cancelled in 1994, Foxx made guest appearances on comedy shows as well as forays into singing and film. He produced his first R & B album in 1994 to positive reviews. Foxx’s remarkable talent with comedic mimicry routines ensured his success as a comedian but some audiences considered his material unpalatable. In particular, references to women were seen as demeaning and the explicit language unsuitable for young audiences. To counteract this negative image, Foxx worked with Warner Brothers Network to create a new program especially for family audiences. The Jamie Foxx Show ran successfully for five seasons and won an Image Award in 1998.

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Foxx’s versatility led to supporting roles in a number of films, beginning with Toys in 1992. Any Given Sunday (1999), and Ali (2002) demonstrated that he could play serious dramatic roles. His chance at a leading role came with the 2004 movie Ray. Foxx’s depiction of singer Ray Charles was convincing in both mannerisms and speech. As a testament to Foxx’s acting abilities he was twice nominated in 2005 for Academy Awards, for Best Supporting Actor in Collateral and for Best Actor in Ray. He won for Best Actor in Ray. Foxx supports charity events and community projects designed to raise awareness for worthy causes at home and abroad, particularly benefits for underprivileged children and youth, and HIV/AIDS in Africa. His most recent engagements include a radio show, The Foxxhole, and a new movie, The Soloist. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Entertainment Industry; Humor

Further Reading Current Biography Yearbook. 2005. New York: H. W. Wilson. Frentner, Shaun. 2005. ‘‘Jamie Foxx.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 15. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Who’s Who among African Americans. 2008. 22nd ed. Detroit: Gale Group. Janette Prescod

Frankie and Albert/Johnny Frankie Baker (1876–1952) was the woman who killed her lover, Albert Britt, and became the subject of the famous American ballad, Frankie and Albert (also known as Frankie and Johnny). One Monday morning, on October 15, 1899, the readers of the St. Louis Post– Dispatch saw the following item: ‘‘Negro Shot by Woman’’ After midnight, Sunday, Allen [Albert] Britt, Colored, was shot and badly wounded by Frankie Baker, also Colored. The shooting occurred at the woman’s home at 317 Targee Street, after a quarrel over another woman named Nellie Bly. Britt had been to a Cakewalk at Stolle’s Dance Halls, where he and Nellie Bly had won a prize. His condition at City Hospital is serious.. . . The Police pending investigation made no arrest. [Britt’s actual given was Albert Britt, but he was also known as ‘‘Allen.’’]

The City Hospital record notes that Albert Britt died four days later, on October 19, at 2:15 A.M. Nevertheless, by the evening after the shooting a ‘‘bar room bard’’ called Bill Dooley had already composed a ballad that came to be called ‘‘Frankie Killed Allen.’’ The ballad’s fame grew in the slum area, leading to performances as the events unfolded. That the event contained the ingredients of

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a good story can be seen from the following article, which appeared on the day Albert Britt died: ‘‘Amid the Suffering’’ Allen Britt’s brief experience in the art of love cost him his life. He died at the City Hospital, Wednesday night, from knife wounds inflicted by Frankie Baker, an ebony-hued cakewalker. Britt was also colored and he was seventeen years old. He met Frankie at the Orange Blossom’s ball and was smitten with her. Thereafter they were lovers. In the rear of 212 Targee Street lived Britt. There his sweetheart wended her way a few nights ago and lectured Allen for his alleged duplicity. Allen’s reply was not intended to cheer the dusky damsel and a glint of steel gleamed in the darkness. An instant later the boy fell to the floor mortally wounded. Frankie is locked up in the Four Courts.

The writer was so inspired by the imagery of violence and overblown clich
es that he got the facts wrong. Britt died of gunshot wounds. Despite the inaccuracies, the article reflected the interest that the public had in the story. The romantic imagery of ‘‘dusky damsel’’ and ‘‘ebony-hued cakewalker’’ obscures the reality of Prostitution and pimping. Richard Clay, a neighbor of Frankie Baker, lived at 214 Targee Street, and he knew both Frankie Baker and Albert Britt well. A film projectionist, Clay later met the director John Huston, to whom he told the details of the story. In 1930 Huston published Frankie and Johnny, an illustrated book based on the ballad; two years later he wrote and directed his first play, Frankie and Johnny. According to Clay, he was with Albert on the night his friend first met Frankie, and he was with Albert as he was dying in the City Hospital on October 16, 1899. Frankie was twenty-seven when she met Albert, a fifteen-year-old boy already well known as a gifted Ragtime pianist. Soon after, they moved in together at 212 Targee Street; Albert’s parents lived at 32 Targee Street. Clay described the neighborhood where Frankie Baker lived with Britt as a sporting area. ‘‘This society was built around the woman and her mack,’’ his friend John Huston later wrote. ‘‘New Orleans had already had her maquereau, a colored exquisite, who made their percentage out of the sporting white’s weakness for black girls.’’ Now it was St. Louis’ turn with the macks. ‘‘St. Louis became known as the toughest town in the West. Boogie-joints and bucket shops opened up on Twelfth, Carr, Targee, and Pine Streets. The fast colored men and women lived up to their necks. Stagolee stepped out and made a legend of his Stetson hat. The girls wore red for Billy Lyons. Duncan killed Brady. The ten pimps that bore the dead were kept on parade between the infirmary and the graveyard.’’ Frankie Baker was born in St. Louis in 1876, during Reconstruction. According to Clay, by October 1899, she had already ‘‘gained notoriety by her open handedness, good looks, and her proud and racy bearings.’’ She was ‘‘a queen sport in a society which for flamboyant elegance and fast living ranks alone in the sporting west.’’

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W. C. Handy wrote ‘‘St. Louis Woman,’’ a ballad inspired by beautiful women he saw walking down Targee Street near where Frankie lived. ‘‘I wouldn’t want to forget Targee Street as it was then,’’ Handy wrote in Father of the Blues, ‘‘I don’t think I’d want to forget the high roller Stetson hats of the men or the diamonds the girls wore in their ears.’’ Richard Clay described Frankie Baker as being ‘‘a beautiful, light-brown girl, who liked to make money and spend it. She dressed very richly, sat for company in magenta lady’s cloth, diamonds as big as a hen’s eggs in her ears.’’ Clay remembered that Frankie had ‘‘a long razor scar down the side of her face she got in her teens from a girl who was jealous of her. She only weighed about 115 lbs., but she had the eye of one you couldn’t monkey with. She was queen sport.’’ In some versions—the popular music type—Frankie is executed. In reality, Frankie Baker stayed in St. Louis for a year after the incident. Two months after Albert died, Frankie heard the ballad for the first time. And as she walked down the street, people ‘‘began singing it so she ran to Omaha in humiliation.’’ Frankie couldn’t settle in Omaha, Nebraska, because the song had already arrived and she felt haunted by it. She was attracted to Portland, Oregon, because she had read about the Rose Festival, and she always had a love for beautiful flowers. She moved to Portland, but the ballad had arrived there, too. After some activity in prostitution in the north end of Portland, and after having gone to jail several times, Frankie put away her diamonds, fancy lace, and plumes for good. She began to lead a life of respectability in about 1925. She opened her own shoeshine parlor and later worked as a chambermaid at the Royal Palm Hotel. In the 1930s, after an illness that prevented her from working and with her money gone, she spent most of her time sitting alone in her white frame house at 22 North Clackamas Street. When in 1935 Republic Pictures released the film She Done Him Wrong, starring Mae West and Cary Grant, it disseminated Frankie’s story to an even wider public than the ballad had done. ‘‘When a Mae West picture was in town,’’ Frankie told a journalist, ‘‘men and women would gather in front of my place and point. Some of them would come in and get a shoeshine, and probably ask me if I was a St. Louis woman. They even called my home and asked me silly questions. I’m so tired of it all; I don’t even answer anymore. Autograph seekers pester me too, mostly by letters. Some of them enclose money, and those, of course, aren’t so bad. What I want though is peace—an opportunity to live like a normal human being. I know that I’m black, but even so, I have my rights. If people had left me alone, I’d have forgotten this thing a long time ago. Now they can start paying me.’’ In April 1938, Frankie filed suit against Republic Pictures for damages of $200,000. She lost the case, but meanwhile Republic had released a film called Frankie and Johnny, starring Helen Morgan, in 1936, and in 1942 Frankie sued once more. She lost again, but what was recorded in the various depositions was a treasure for folklore scholars. It was during this trial that the most revealing aspect of ballad history and ballad making became apparent. The trial was held in St. Louis.

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When Frankie returned to press her case, she was nearly sixty-six years old, and as witty as Mae West. When asked who Albert was, she replied, ‘‘He was a conceited piano player,’’ and added that ‘‘he had been staying at my house off and on for a couple of years, although I knew he went out once in a while with Alice Pryor.’’ She was asked if she wore diamonds as big as goose eggs; ‘‘Only an average size one,’’ she said. Did she buy Albert hundred dollar suits? ‘‘Not necessarily.’’ What ever happened to Alice Pryor? ‘‘I heard she passed out.’’ Representing Republic, Meyer H. Lavenstein of New York and Hugo Monnig of St. Louis wanted to show that the song could not have been based on the Frankie Baker incident, and to prove that the song existed prior to 1899. They called Sigmund Spaeth, an authority on popular songs and ballads. Fifteen years before, in 1927, Spaeth had written a book in which he stated that the ballad ‘‘Frankie and Johnny’’ was based on the Frankie Baker incident. He said that ‘‘St. Louis was the home of not only ‘Frankie and Johnny,’’’ but of ‘‘Stagolee’’ and ‘‘King Brady’’ as well. Now, after receiving an expert witness fee of $2,000, Spaeth took the opposite position, claiming that the song had not originated in St. Louis and that Frankie Baker had not inspired its creation. On Frankie’s side were Joseph L. McLemore and Robert L. Witherspoon, and witnesses Charles Marshall, Mariah Jones, and Richard Clay. The lawyers and witnesses for Republic were all white, and the lawyers and witnesses for Frankie Baker were all black. The jury was composed of white men. The outcome of the trial was not surprising. The film was screened for the jury, but since all the characters were cast as whites, the white jurors had a hard time seeing how they could have been drawn from Frankie’s life. ‘‘Frankie Baker wants to appropriate for her own use, one of the finest ballads of American folklore,’’ Monnig said in his closing argument. ‘‘If you give her a verdict, she will have a claim against anybody who ever sang the song. Send her back to Portland, Oregon, and her shoeshine business; for an honest shine, let her have an honest dime. Don’t make her a rich woman, because forty years ago, she shot a little boy here in St. Louis.’’ Frankie had her day in court, and according to one reporter, ‘‘brightened the lives of all St. Louisiana in a dreary winter filled with bad news from the Pacific theater.’’ Back in Portland, Baker became a lifetime member of the National Urban League. In the 1950s she was admitted to a mental hospital; at her hearing she told Judge Ashby C. Dickson that she had killed her sweetheart back in St. Louis in 1899. She also told him that she came to Portland one hundred years ago. It was obvious that she had completely lost her mind, except that she had not forgotten the incident that changed everything in her life. Frankie Baker’s tale illustrates how the popular hunger for lurid stories destroyed one person’s privacy and ruined her life. As John David wrote in 1978 in an unpublished dissertation, ‘‘Surely Frankie Baker must have felt the inherent contradiction between the aim of democracy—to enrich the citizens’ everyday life—and its modern means of achieving that goal. Frankie’s claims against Republic Pictures were a product of the ballad’s popularity, made possible by America’s perfection of techniques for widening experience. ‘Frankie and

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Johnny’ was a melody hummed by young and old alike, yet Frankie felt strangely forgotten. Haunted by the melody, she fled across the United States, but she could not escape.’’ She would say that people she encountered were surprised to find that she was still alive; they always thought she had died many years before. Now that she really is dead, she has been completely forgotten. Further Reading Buckley, Bruce Refern. 1962. ‘‘Frankie and Her Men: A Study of the Interrelationships of Popular and Folk Traditions.’’ PhD diss., Indiana University, Bloomington. David, John. 1976. ‘‘Ragtime Tragedies: Black Folktales in St. Louis.’’ PhD diss., St. Louis University. Fuld, James. 1971. The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular and Folk. New York: Crown. Hurt, Mississippi John. [1928] 1990. ‘‘Frankie.’’ Okeh 8560, reissued on 1928 Sessions, Yazoo Records. Huston, John. 1930. Frankie and Johnny. New York: Albert and Charles Boni. Leadbelly [Huddie Ledbetter]. [1934] 2002. ‘‘Frankie and Albert.’’ Collected by Alan Lomax, July 1, 1934, at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola; reissued on Leadbelly: You Don’t Know My Mind, Fabulous/Acrobat. Lomax, John A., and Alan Lomax. 1934. American Ballads and Folk Songs. New York: Macmillan. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1942, ‘‘Three Testify Johnny Died in Song before Targee St. Frankie Shot Him.’’ February 11. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1942. ‘‘Shot Her Man at 212 Targee ‘Frankie’ Says.’’ February 13. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1942. ‘‘At ‘Frankie and Johnny’ Trial.’’ February 17. Cecil Brown

Franklin, Aretha (1942– ), Singer, Songwriter Aretha Franklin is a legendary singer and songwriter who is considered to be one of the greatest voices in Rock-and-Roll history. While Franklin is known as the ‘‘Queen of Soul,’’ she has also recorded gospel, jazz, blues, and Pop Music. Aretha Louise Franklin was born on March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee. Franklin’s father, C. L. Franklin, moved the family to Detroit where he became a highly respected minister. Her father’s church was Franklin’s first audience and The Gospel Sound of Aretha Franklin, her first album, was released when Franklin was only fourteen years old. Franklin’s first record contract was with Columbia Records in 1960. Although she had a few hits while at Columbia, Franklin felt frustrated and left in 1966 for Atlantic Records where she was paired with legendary producer Jerry Wexler. Success came immediately as her first single at Atlantic, ‘‘I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),’’ reached the top ten on the pop chart and number one on the R & B chart. Franklin’s signature song is her recording of Otis Redding’s

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song ‘‘Respect.’’ Franklin’s version, released in 1967, spoke not only to the burgeoning women’s movement but also to African Americans. Success for Franklin continued through the 1960s and into the 1970s on the R & B, pop, and gospel charts with hits such as ‘‘Chain of Fools,’’ ‘‘Think,’’ ‘‘The House That Jack Built,’’ ‘‘Spanish Harlem’’ and ‘‘Rock Steady.’’ Franklin struggled during the late 1970s due to the popularity of disco and the lack of quality material to record. After leaving Atlantic Records in 1979, Franklin signed with Arista Records in 1980. In 1982, she returned to the top of the R & B chart with the album Jump To It. As the 1980s progressed, Franklin Aretha Franklin posing with her Grammy Award at the 17th Annual Grammy Award recorded more pop-influenced presentation in New York on March 3, 1975. songs and scored hits with ‘‘Who’s Since the 1960s, Franklin has been known as Zoomin’ Who?,’’ ‘‘Freeway of the ‘‘Queen of Soul’’ in the United States Love,’’ and ‘‘I Knew You Were and around the world. She has widely been Waiting (For Me)’’, a duet with acclaimed as the most exciting singer of the rock era, and millions of people have bought her gospelGeorge Michael. While Franklin inspired albums. (AP/Wide World Photos) had several singles chart in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she did not have another hit album until 1998 with the release of A Rose Is Still A Rose. Franklin started her own label, Aretha Records, in 2004. Franklin has the distinction of the being the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; she was a member of the second class of inductees in 1987. Over the course of her career, Franklin has won eighteen Grammy Awards in the R & B and gospel categories along with the Living Legend and Lifetime Achievement Awards. The University of Detroit, the Berklee College of Music, and the University of Pennsylvania have all awarded Franklin an honorary doctorate of music degree. In 1994, Franklin was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and at age fifty-two, the youngest recipient to date. In 2005, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rolling Stone magazine selected Franklin as the best singer of the rock era in 2008. During the course of her career, Franklin has had a number of memorable performances. In 1968, she sang at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., who was a close family friend. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, Franklin substituted for opera star Luciano Pavarotti on short notice and sang the aria ‘‘Nessun Dorma’’ proving that besides being able to sing R & B, gospel, and pop, she could also sing

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opera. On January 20, 2009, Franklin sang a stirring rendition of ‘‘My Country ’Tis of Thee’’ at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. See also: Musicians and Singers Further Reading Bego, Mark. 1989. Aretha Franklin: the Queen of Soul. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Dobkin, Matt. 2004. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You: Aretha Franklin, Respect, and the Making of a Soul Music Masterpiece. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Werner, Craig. 2004. Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul. New York: Crown. Mary K. Huelsbeck

Franklin, John Hope (1915–2009), Historian During the course of his career, John Hope Franklin reshaped the way in which African American history is understood and taught. In the process he became one of the world’s most celebrated historians. Franklin was born on January 2, 1915, in Rentiesville, an all-black town in Oklahoma. Franklin’s father was an attorney and his mother was a schoolteacher. Franklin’s father survived the Tulsa Riots of 1921 when white mobs attacked the African American community, killing 300 people and destroying 191 black-owned businesses known as the ‘‘Black Wall Street.’’ The state ordered airplanes to drop fire bombs on the neighborhood in the first aerial bombing of an American city. The Franklins moved to Tulsa four years after the riot. John Hope encountered America’s racial divide at an early age when he and his mother and sister were ejected from a train after his mother refused to move to the overcrowded, Negro coach. During their return home John Hope began to cry. His mother gently pulled him to her side and told him that there was not a white person on that train or anywhere else who was any better than he was. Franklin attended segregated public schools and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He enrolled in Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated in 1935. Franklin had originally intended to follow his father into law, but a white professor at Fisk, Theodore Currier, convinced him to pursue graduate studies in history. Franklin’s application to Harvard University was accepted but he lacked the funds to attend. When Currier learned about Franklin’s financial straits, he borrowed $500 to assist with expenses. Decades later, Currier regaled his history students with stories about Franklin’s legendary study habits, but he never mentioned the loan. Franklin enrolled in Harvard and was awarded a PhD in history in 1941. His dissertation on free blacks in antebellum North Carolina was published as The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790–1860. Franklin met Aurelia Whittington at

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Fisk when they were both students there. The couple married on June 11, 1940. Their son, John Whittington Franklin, was born in 1952. After graduating from Harvard, Franklin taught at Fisk University, St. Augustine’s College, and North Carolina Central. In 1947, he joined the faculty at Howard University in Washington, DC. In the early 1950s, Franklin was among a small group of historians who researched the legislative history of the Fourteenth Amendment for Thurgood Marshall and other lawyers at the NAACP. That research was used in the briefs that were filed in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that segregation in public education was unconstitutional. In 1956, Franklin was offered the chair of the history department at Brooklyn College, making him the first African American to hold such a position at a historically white institution. In 1963, Franklin was the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University in England. In 1964, he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago where he eventually became chair of the history department. In 1983, Franklin was appointed to serve as the James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke University and for seven years he was professor of legal history in the Law School at Duke. Franklin published several books and scores of articles in scholarly journals but he was best known for From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans. This book was published first in 1947 and remains the leading authority on the history of blacks in the United States. Until From Slavery to Freedom was published, the contributions of African Americans were virtually ignored in history texts. Racial segregation was still an everyday reality. White historians presented the Reconstruction era as a failure marked by corruption and graft. Black elected officials who served during the Reconstruction period were portrayed as ignorant buffoons who had a lust for white women. Franklin’s scholarship challenged the prevailing perceptions. His carefully documented research showed that African Americans were as much part of American society as any other group. Franklin identified the many contributions made by African Americans going back to the time of the nation’s founding. Blacks fought alongside whites at Lexington and Concord during the War of Independence. Blacks accompanied George Washington across the Delaware River; others accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition to the Pacific coast. Franklin showed that contrary to previous characterizations, the Reconstruction era was period of great progress in the South. Franklin’s reinterpretation of the role of African Americans was eventually embraced by other historians and is now the mainstream view. In his autobiography, Franklin recalled some of his encounters with discrimination. When he was a teenager, Franklin was helping a blind white woman across a street who brushed him aside after she realized he was black. He was forced to sit in a segregated section of the audience when the Chicago Opera performed in Tulsa. He was threatened by a would-be lynch mob when he surveyed the economic conditions of black farmers in Depression-era Mississippi. Franklin also recalled how, at age eighty, he hosted a dinner party for friends in

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Washington, DC’s exclusive Cosmos Club, in which he had become the first African American member years earlier. Some of his guests had not arrived, so he went to the club’s entrance hall to find them. ‘‘At the bottom this white woman saw me and said ‘Here’’’ and handed me her coat check, saying ‘‘Go get my coat.’’’ Franklin politely informed her that if she presented the check to a uniformed attendant, ‘‘and all the club’s attendants were uniformed,’’ perhaps she would get her coat. Franklin was awarded more than one hundred honorary degrees and served on countless government and academic boards and committees. He was president of several organizations including the American Studies Association in 1967, the Southern Historical Association in 1970, the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa from 1973 to 1976, the Organization of American Historians in 1975, and the American Historical Association in 1979. In 1995, President Bill Clinton awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1997, President Clinton appointed him to chair a commission to examine the state of race relations in the United States. Franklin was an unusually productive scholar but he not all work. He was a skilled fisherman, a world traveler, and he enjoyed a lifelong hobby of cultivating rare orchids. He remained active until the end. In 2005, at the age of ninety, Franklin published and lectured on his autobiography, Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. He died on March 25, 2009, at the age of ninety-four. The John Hope Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park in Tulsas, OK, formally opened to the public in October 2010. It honors Franklin and victims of the 1917 Tulsa Race Riot. Further Reading Franklin, John Hope. 2000. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Franklin, John Hope. 2005. Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Jarrett, Beverly, ed. 2003. Tributes to John Hope Franklin: Scholar, Mentor, Father, Friend. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. Leland Ware

Franklin, Kirk (1970– ), Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer Kirk Franklin’s lists of occupations and his career involvements are endless. Touted as a pioneer of the genres of gospel and Christian Hip-Hop, songwriter, record producer, music director, singer, pianist, rapper, and author can also be attached to his well-known moniker ‘‘Jesus Freak.’’ He uses his life and his musical talents and gifts as a living testimony and an example of truth and faith to be modeled. Franklin’s sound is thought to have secular stylings with the versing and emotional patina of his contemporaries heard in the gospel era of the 1940s thru the 1960s, now coined as the ‘‘Golden Age of Gospel Music.’’ Franklin shares his

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love of music in many different facets and on many levels as a widely acclaimed performing artist. As an executive producer and host of a gospel reality show and vocal competition called Sunday Best, Franklin’s pervasive quality inspires and uplifts his listeners. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, and raised near Dallas, music has always been a source of motivation for Franklin’s life. In his adolescent years, Franklin’s saving grace was the love and dedication his great-aunt devoted to him upon taking him into her care as child. Music was the opportunistic force that redirected him and thus put him on the path to unfolding his new genesis. Talent was apparent early on when he began reading and writing music by ear. While at the prepubescent age of eleven, he joined the Mt. Rose Baptist Choir as a member and their director of music. As with all young people, Franklin succumbed to some negative peer pressures that plagued his environment, and he left the church for what he thought was greener pastures and a better way of living. After the untimely death of a close friend, Franklin returned and sought the church as his place of love, strength, and refuge. Franklin always finds himself moving and surrounded by those who possess dynamic musical ability. In the early portion of the 1990s he worked collaboratively with a group that he brought together to form a seventeen-member vocal choir; they were collectively called ‘‘the Family.’’ After they stormed the gospel music scene and gained recognition for their sound and performances, a Christian-centered gospel music label known as GospoCentric signed the group to a contract. In 1993, Kirk Franklin & the Family released their self-titled debut album. This album appealed to the masses so much so that it even crossed over from the gospel music charts onto to the R & B (Rhythm & Blues) music charts and stayed there for several weeks while going platinum and being the first gospel debut album to do so. Franklin has won several awards which include three Grammy Awards, three NAACP Image Awards, eleven Doves and thiry-three Stellar Gospel Music Awards. Leaving no stone unturned, Franklin also founded his own company named Fo Yo Soul Entertainment. The company’s initial makeup included a record label, production company, youth outreach division, and an advertising agency. Later it expanded to add Fo Yo Soul Film and Television with the sole purpose to create inspirational works. He and his wife, Tammy Renee Collins, have four children—Kerrion, Carrington, Kennedy, and Caziah. See also: Entertainment Industry; Harvey, Steve; Jakes, T. D.; Joyner, Tom Further Reading Evans Price, Deborah. 2004. ‘‘Franklin’s Fo Yo Soul.’’ Billboard, October 30. Freeland, David. 2004. ‘‘Franklin, Kirk.’’ Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians Since 1990, Vol. 1. Stephen Wasserstein, Ken Wachsberger, and Tanya Laplante, eds. Detroit: Schirmer Reference. Who’s Who among African Americans. 2000. 25th ed. Detroit: Gale. Dantrea Hampton

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Frazier, Joe (1944– ), Boxing Champion Joseph William ‘‘Smokin’ Joe’’ Frazier is one of the best ever heavyweight Boxing champions of the world. Standing 5 feet 11 inches, he adopted a boband-weave style to be in the optimal position to unleash his devastating arsenal of punches. He finished his boxing career with 32 wins (27 KO’s), 4 losses, and 1 draw, losing two times each to George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Although Frazier reigned for a period as an unbeaten world heavyweight champion, his career was somewhat overshadowed by the plight of Ali, whose campaign as a champion was interfered with by the U.S. government. Frazier’s left hook was one of the most damaging punches in the history of boxing, and he used it to floor Ali in their epic 1971 match in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Frazier won the fight on a unanimous decision, ending Ali’s string of victories after the people’s champion had been stripped of titles while imprisoned for refusing to enter the U.S. armed forces. Also, in the three epic Ali-Frazier fights, the second two were won by Ali, who was past his prime after spending three years away from the ring. Although Frazier did benefit from the Ali legacy—their 1975 ‘‘Thrilla in Manila’’ is considered one of the most memorable fights of all time— Frazier has signaled resentment years later over their past feuding in the ring. Ali was one of the first athletes to openly create rhymes and predictions for his upcoming events. Some of this most remembered taunts involved Frazier, who was by far the quieter of the two and also the less handsome. The intensity heated up when Ali exploited the rhyming of the city of Manila and a new nickname for his arch nemesis. ‘‘It’s gonna be a chilla, and a killa, and a thriller, when I get the Gorilla in Manila,’’ Ali said in a chant that was very bothersome to Frazier and his supporters. Ali won the fight when Frazier did not come off his stool for the fifteenth and final round. The two fighters’ rivalry was intensified because their styles epitomized the classic puncher versus boxer clash. Ali ‘‘floated like a butterfly,’’ often on his toes and moving backwards for much of his fights, but Frazier was a constantly moving forward force, throwing punches from all angles, including that deadly, looping left hook. Frazier career is also marked by a devastating beating he took at the hands of George Foreman in 1973, getting knocked down six times in two rounds in their match up in Kingston, Jamaica. Announcer Howard Cosell’s exclamations of: ‘‘Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier,’’ are often repeated by fight fans today when a boxing combatant is knocked down. Frazier was born January 12, 1944, in Beaufort, South Carolina, but as a professional he fought out of Philadelphia. He won a gold medal in boxing at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and turned professional in 1965 with the assistance of Yancey ‘‘Yank’’ Durham, who would be the trainer and manager for much of Frazier’s career. Frazier won his first eleven fights by knockout. After the death of Durham in 1973, Frazier was managed by Eddie Futch, who had assisted under Durham.

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A member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Frazier became heavyweight champion of the world with an eleventh-round knockout of Buster Mathias in New York in 1968. Frazier became undisputed champion of the world in February 1970 with a fifth-round knockout of Jimmy Ellis, who had won a tournament to select a successor to Ali. After dispatching all heavyweight challengers, Frazier won a greatly hyped fight against unbeaten world light heavyweight champion Bob Foster (26–0). His second-round knockout of Foster helped cement Frazier’s championship campaign and it helped to set up his first Ali encounter—the Fight of the Century. See also: Sports; Sports Announcers and Commentators Further Reading Contemporary Black Biography. 1999. Vol. 19. Detroit: Gale. Frazier, Joe, with Phil Berger. 1996. Smokin Joe: The Autobiography of a Heavyweight. New York: Macmillan. Smokin Joe Frazier. (Homepage.) http://www.joefrazier.com. David Squires

Freedom Riders The Freedom Rides and the daring Freedom Riders in 1961 captured the attention of the nation and are considered iconic symbols of a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Freedom Rides is the name that was given to the campaign to test interstate laws passed in 1946 and 1960 that ostensibly desegregated interstate buses and terminals, only these laws were commonly ignored by white southerners opposed to integration. Over four hundred protestors, mostly college students, white and black, participated in the harrowing Freedom Rides, facing vitriolic mobs, physical violence, arrests, and imprisonment. The Freedom Rides were sponsored primarily by the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The antecedent to the famed Freedom Rides is the lesser known Journey of Reconciliation that took place in 1947. Unlike the 1961 Freedom Rides, the Journey of Reconciliation was not considered an overwhelming success, largely, because it did not draw attention. Participants included several black and white CORE members who limited their campaign to regions in the upper South. They avoided the states of the Deep South, such as Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, where racist whites were considered more brutal and wanton in their attacks against blacks and whites supporting racial integration. The volunteers were subjected to arrests without press coverage and without violent backlash. The campaign was short-lived. Notwithstanding the anticlimactic results of that campaign (no measures were taken to enforce the 1946 interstate law), CORE had positioned itself in the

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Police officers watch from a sidewalk as a Trailways bus carrying Freedom Riders arrives in Jackson, Mississippi, in the summer of 1961. The Freedom Rides, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality, ended when the Interstate Commerce Commission mandated an end to segregated facilities in interstate travel. (Library of Congress)

vanguard of civil rights activism. Established in 1942 by one black, James Farmer, and two whites, George Houser and Bernice Fisher, CORE was supported in the early years by a pacifist organization called the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In the 1940s, CORE members staged sit-ins at restaurants and other segregated facilities. CORE sit-ins drew little media attention; however, subsequent demonstrations, beginning with the Freedom Rides, made headlines in newspapers and on television. Demonstrations, including picketing, sit-ins, marches, as well as nonviolent civil disobedience were mainstays of the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks, in 1955, would prove that her demonstration of civil disobedience, by refusing to give up her seat on public bus, was an effective method of protest. Her demonstration and subsequent arrest sparked a monumental bus boycott, led by Martin Luther King Jr. The Montgomery Bus Boycott made nationwide news and inspired other boycotts throughout the South. In 1960, another major demonstration was initiated by young black college students who staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, prompting the youth-led Sit-in Movement and the formation of SNCC. All together, these demonstrations paved the way for subsequent gains in civil rights. In 1961, Farmer became CORE’s national director, and he set out to coordinate the Freedom Rides. Like any grassroots activity, the Freedom Rides relied

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on donations and volunteers. Vigorous training included lectures on the philosophy of nonviolence and techniques on how to best protect the body during an attack. The volunteer Freedom Riders were made aware that intimidation, physical attack, and death were possible. The first Freedom Riders (seven blacks and six whites) departed from Washington, DC, on May 4, 1961. In Anniston, Alabama, the bus was firebombed by a white mob. The riders were also attacked in Birmingham, Alabama. Public Safety Commissioner Eugene ‘‘Bull’’ Conner became notorious for permitting the Ku Klux Klan, one of several white supremacist organizations, to carry out attacks against Freedom Riders without interference from police who were allowed the day off for Mother’s Day. Due to reports that dangers loomed at other bus terminals and the refusal of bus drivers to transport the riders any further, the Freedom Riders decided to end the demonstration; however, SNCC would carry on the rides. Not all Freedom Riders experienced violence, but the violence that did occur was vicious and documented by cameras and journalists. One of the climactic moments of the Freedom Rides occurred at a rally, consisting over one thousand attendees, including the event’s speaker, Martin Luther King Jr., at the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. After an angry mob of three thousand whites besieged the church, King called U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who ordered federal marshals to protect the rally attendees. Although Robert Kennedy, as well as his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was responsive to the Freedom Riders in their time of need, the Kennedys were adamantly opposed to the Freedom Rides. The Kennedy’s repeatedly appealed to civil rights leaders to discontinue the Freedom Rides, insisting that it was inflaming violence. To SNCC and CORE leaders, violent reaction was, in large part, the point of the demonstrations. Essential to the Freedom Rides were the violent attacks, as well as the numerous arrests, which sparked attention, sympathy and, eventually, propelled the government to act. John Lewis, a SNCC leader who would become a U.S. congressman, representing Georgia since 1987, recounted his experiences in the Freedom Rides in his autobiography, averring that imprisonment was harrowing. Although Lewis and other activists appear smiling and defiant in their mug shots, they endured grueling conditions in jail—poor food, mice infestations, and the protesting did not stop during their confinement. For example, protest songs were sung constantly. The beatings, arrests, and experiences in jail took its toll on Freedom Riders. Some Freedom Riders incurred lifelong physical injuries. One Freedom Rider asserted that the emotional aftereffect was analogous to the post-traumatic stress disorders war veterans’ experience. The Freedom Rides continued throughout the summer of 1961. Finally, on December 1, 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission prohibited segregation in interstate travel. See also: Carmichael, Stokely; Freedom Riders; Protest Marches; Social Activists

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Further Reading Arsenault, Raymond. 2006. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. CORE. (n.d.) ‘‘The Freedom Rides.’’ Core-Online.org. http://www.core-online.org/History/ freedom%20rides.htm. Etheridge, Eric. 2008. Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders. New York: Atlas. Lewis, John, and D’Orso, Michael. 1998. Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. New York: Simon & Schuster. SNCC. (n.d.) ‘‘SNCC 1960–1966: Six Years of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.’’ Ibiblio.org. http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/rides.html. Gladys L. Knight

Freeman, Morgan (1937– ), Actor Few African Americans have obtained as many roles as the illustrious Morgan Freeman, an actor who, at the time of this writing, is in his early seventies. Freeman is one of the premiere actors of mainstream films in popular culture. He has not only enjoyed a long career, spanning the 1970s to the present, but also he has portrayed a broad range of characters. He is also the recipient of numerous awards, such as the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Million Dollar Baby (2004). Morgan Porterfield Freeman was born, one of five siblings, on June 1, 1937, in Memphis, Tennessee. He spent his childhood in Mississippi (where blacks lived in segregated neighborhoods), Indiana, and Illinois. He gravitated towards acting in his childhood and youth, performing in several school plays. After graduating from high school, Freeman worked as a mechanic in the air force. He later attended Los Angeles Community College and studied acting at Pasadena Playhouse. He has married twice, and has four children. Freeman’s professional start in the arts occurred in the 1960s, a harrowing time for African Americans. While blacks in the South protested racial segregation and demanded voting rights, blacks in the North, where segregation was unlawful, were nonetheless excluded from mainstream society. The media regularly cast African Americans in subservient roles. Among the few African American actors who penetrated the walls of racism and discrimination were Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. Poitier appeared in a number of progressive mainstream films beginning in the 1950s. Cosby appeared in an unprecedented role as a member of a top agent team in the popular 1960s television series, I Spy. Freeman’s early acting career was less dramatic than the careers of Poitier and Cosby. Freeman worked for a time as a dancer. He also performed in theatrical plays, including William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and an all-black version of Hello, Dolly! In the 1970s, Freeman appeared as one of the regular cast members in the PBS children’s television show, The Electric Company.

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Freeman’s film career took off in the late 1980s. His career is extraordinary, owing to the various roles he has played and the fact that he has consistently appeared in blockbuster films. Some roles have been outright revolutionary. In Lean on Me (1989), Freeman plays the inspirational principal, Joe Clark, who wielded a baseball bat and transformed a tough, inner-city high school in New Jersey. In Glory (1989), he portrays a black soldier in an all-black infantry regiment during the Civil War. Freeman plays a scientist in Chain Reaction (1996) and was cast as a U.S. president in Deep Impact (1998), when such a concept was then considered unprecedented. (A decade later, however, the United States would get its first African American president.) In Bruce Almighty (2003) and Evan Almighty (2007), Freeman plays God, a rather distinguished and fashionable version. In Invictus (2009) he play the esteemed South African leader, Nelson Mandela. Freeman has had an enviable career, taking on many roles that any actor, black or white, would cherish. Some of the parts he has enacted are considered controversial by critics. They contend that Freeman’s turns as a pimp, a subservient chauffer, and characters who are positioned as subordinate to white protagonists, reinforce and perpetuate negative stereotypes. See also: Actors and Performers; Entertainment Industry; Film and Filmmakers Further Reading Boyle, Ellexis, Brad Millington, and Patricia Vertinsky. 2006. ‘‘Representing the Female Pugilist: Narratives of Race, Gender, and Disability in Million Dollar Baby.’’ Sociology of Sport Journal 23 (June): 99–116. Powers, John. 2009. ‘‘Takin’ it to the Streets.’’ Vogue (June 1): 114. Gladys L. Knight

Funerals The traditions and rituals involved in the burial of loved ones in the African American community have origins shaped by the historical legacy of slavery. Within the framework of African American religious beliefs, as life is a challenge, death may be viewed as a window to freedom, and is most likely to be viewed as going home (or a ‘‘homegoing’’) rather than an unexplained loss. Slaves were typically prohibited from burying the dead and as a result, they secretly demonstrated respect to their deceased in ceremonies with a tradition of placing the body near water and facing east in recognition of a return to the motherland, Africa. African funeral celebrations may last from a few days up to a month, depending on the importance placed on allowing a gathering of all of the family members. They underscore the importance of community and are central to the life of a village or broader district. The passing of a loved one, although a sad and somber time, represents a significant cultural season within the African tradition. The grieving process is a

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celebration of life and the seasons of change within a community. Funerals can be festive as well as somber. Lively music, dance, song, and spiritual traditions are interwoven in the community’s effort to embrace the family and loved ones of the individual who has transitioned into an eternal life. There is an expectation that the spiritual world is opening the door for new life. Although these traditions are rarely commemorated in current times, the burial of loved ones in the African American community is shaped by similar positive and negative emotions and expressions for the blessing of life. Funerals in the African American community often represent one of the most significant ceremonies within the black church and the broader community. There continues a perception of death as the path to a life of unending joy—a new freedom. Spirituals and gospel music promote an image of the freed soul flying away to a state of peace and joy unburdened by the shackles and chains of earthly life. Funeral services are often preceded by wakes in which the community embraces the family and family members receive the community and embrace the outpouring and support. Wakes may take the form of a joyous reunion in which the family and friends are able to celebrate the life of the deceased through murals of pictures depicting the various stages of development of the deceased’s life. Funeral services are spiritually uplifting worship services, especially if the deceased loved ones have experienced a predictable transition. For the loved one who has made a predictable transition after serving a full and blessed life, the family is able to rejoice in the knowledge that they were given the unique opportunity to be a member of the deceased’s inner circle. The spirit of the celebration is one of gratitude and thankfulness. The most significant spiritual traditions are uplifted as the church community serves as nurturing, caring support to the family and loved ones of the deceased. It is not uncommon for funerals to be held in the evening in order to accommodate the broader community. Songs like ‘‘I’ll Fly Away’’ express a joy in a newfound freedom, whereas songs like ‘‘Precious Lord’’ are designed to console the living and reinforce a need for strength and perseverance as family and friends cope with the loss of the deceased. In addition to moving soloists, many African American funerals may include choirs and ensembles. Their music, too, is often lively and upbeat. The preacher in the African American church typically offers a melodic, even rousing, theological interpretation of the transition of the deceased. Many funeral services within the African American community are treated as events similar to religious revivals. The preacher’s eulogy is likely to be an inspiring sermon. At tragic funerals, it is not uncommon for family or close friends to become emotionally overcome, requiring the assistance of ushers and sometimes medical professionals. On the other hand, family and friends may experience religious expressions of extreme joy known as ‘‘getting happy.’’ Ushers may play a significant role in the actual funeral service. African American funerals often include open casket memorials, and special mementos are commonly placed in the casket. Flowers and other personal mementos decorate African American funerals. If the deceased is a member of particular civic organizations, including African American fraternities and sororities, there

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are ceremonies conducted immediately preceding the funeral service. There may be flower bearers and pallbearers from civic organizations in addition to family and friends. Other loved ones are often recognized as honorary flower bearers and pallbearers in the funeral program. The program may include a chronology through word and pictures of the life journey of the deceased. A collage of pictures is commonplace and the central picture of the deceased is most often from a youthful period. The funeral procession may range from a quiet, dignified procession to lively, jazz-filled marching, singing, and dancing in the New Orleans tradition. In the historic film, Imitation of Life (1959), despite the agony and pain that the deceased experienced in raising her biracial daughter in segregated Hollywood, the character’s funeral procession was majestic and regal, although she had lived a humble life as a servant. This ornate funeral represented a lifetime of servitude and sacrifice and although her life was typified by humility, her transition as evidenced by her funeral was fit for royalty. Such a funeral underscores a spiritual value within the African American community that a lifetime of service is symbolized by the finest as the deceased are uplifted in the transition. The Funeral Home in the Community Given the significance of the symbolism of hope and freedom in African American funerals, the funeral home has a prominent position in the local African American culture. Some of the most successful African American businesses within predominantly African American communities are in the funeral home sector. The regal limousines often used by African American funeral homes represent a dignified symbol of hope and sadness, and funeral homes are often some of the most ornate buildings and institutions within the African American community. With well-manicured lawns surrounding majestic physical structures, African American funeral homes reflect prosperity and hope despite the sadness which is often felt within their walls. Staffs within funeral homes are often leaders within the African American community. For large funerals, ministers and other community members are often called in to expand the capacity of the funeral home staff. For families of loved ones with no significant church home, the funeral home is most often the site of the wake and funeral service. Funeral homes often have chapels that resemble the sanctuaries of many churches. Cemeteries remain largely segregated in current times. Although most individuals exist in a desegregated society, the deceased is often buried in segregated private cemeteries, unless the deceased is a member of the military. Military cemeteries are the most desegregated burial places. From the African tradition of the deceased being buried near the homeplace, in some rural communities, this tradition of burying the deceased on family property is still exercised. From the rousing music and spiritual expressions to the outpouring of love and support from the community, the African American funeral maintains the legacy of joyful expectations at the transitioning of a deceased loved one. Given the dominance of the Christian faith within the African American community,

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the death of loved ones fulfills the dream of a life of abundance with unending joy in a life after death. In many ways, the African American funeral represents a parade of memories celebrating a life, unburdened and free through eternity. See also: African Cultural Influences Further Reading African American cemeteries. http://histpres.mtsu.edu/tnciwar/aacem/going.html. Barrett, Ronald Keith. 1995. Contemporary African-American Funeral Rites and Traditions. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing. Collins, Wanda, and Amy Doolittle. 2006. ‘‘Personal Reflections of Funeral Rituals and Spirituality in a Kentucky African American Family.’’ Death Studies 30 (10): 957–69. Holloway, Karla F. C. 2002. Passed On: African American Stories. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Nichols, Elaine. 1989. Last Miles of the Way: African American Homegoing Traditions, 1890–Present. Columbia, SC: South Carolina State Museum. Sheila R. Peters

G Gambling and Gaming As a number of states in the United States allow for legal gambling through casinos and lotteries, the term ‘‘gaming’’ is often used as a substitute for ‘‘gambling’’ to reference those games considered legitimate by the state government. Some of the more popular forms of gambling in the African American community include, but are not confined to, the following: card games, dice games, the numbers, and gambling on sporting events. Historically, most of the illicit gambling activities in African American communities were regulated by crime syndicates, such as Chicago’s Policy Kings, a network of black men who oversaw everything from numbers racketeering to bankrolling numerous black businesses during the Great Depression. Today, however, the proliferation of state-run lotteries and the popularity of casino gambling have fundamentally altered the landscape of gambling, from an African American perspective. Types of Gambling Card Games Card games are typically played with a fifty-two-card deck, consisting of four suits of thirteen cards each: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. Some games, however, include the use of two joker cards, typically designated as high and low jokers, respectively. Gambling in card games usually requires bidding on individual hands or bidding in rounds of play for individual hands. Of these card games, different variations of poker and blackjack are most popular in casino gambling. However, other games, such as (dirty) hearts, bid whist, and spades, have traditionally been played as gambling games in the African American community.

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In the non-casino card games, the rules tend to be flexible, depending on the game’s participants; for example, in bid whist, the values of cards can change from hand to hand. Likewise, in spades, the inclusion of joker cards can alter the values of aces and deuces (twos). In addition, concepts, such as ‘‘reneging,’’ which refers to a player failing to play a card in the requested suit when he actually has one available to him to play; ‘‘sandbagging,’’ which refers to a penalty accessed to individuals who typically underbid their hands; and ‘‘blinds,’’ which refer to a team’s decision to bid without looking at their hands, usually for the incentive of getting double the points for the actual bid; help to intensify the game, thereby creating greater tension while gambling. Dice Games/Cee-lo/Craps While there are numerous dice games that may involve gambling, the two most relevant to the African American community are craps, a game that is played in both casinos and on the streets and involves two dice, and Cee-lo, a game that tends to be played primarily on the streets and involves three dice. In craps, a player rolls two dice, while others bet on the outcomes of that roll or series of rolls. The term ‘‘craps’’ refers to a player’s initial roll yielding a 2, 3, or 12, which results in the player losing her money. In Cee-lo, however, a player rolls three dice, ultimately looking for the highest roll: a 4, 5, 6. Both games allow for multiple betting strategies and can involve individuals who function as ‘‘banks’’ or individual bettors and side-bettors. Numbers/Lotteries The numbers game refers to a type of lottery, typically conducted in lowerincome communities. The bettor selects a series of numbers and places a bet with a bookie. If those numbers come up, meaning they are determined to be the selected numbers through whatever the chosen process is, the bettor will be paid off according to the odds associated with their selected numbers. This, in many ways, resembles most state lotteries, the main difference being that playing the numbers has greater potential for better odds and is done in cash, so as to avoid income tax payments on the winnings. The numbers has been widely referenced in African American literature by nearly every author seeking to create a degree of verisimilitude in her presentation of urban life, particularly during the period from the Harlem Renaissance through the Black Arts Movement. Notably, Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) references his life as a numbers runner in his Autobiography of Malcolm X, cowritten by Alex Haley. Kingpins of Gaming/Numbers Casper Holstein and Stephanie St. Clair are often cited as bringing the numbers racket to Harlem at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, it was the organization known as the Policy Kings, a black Mafia group that had its

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roots in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, that was widely considered the largest African American–owned business network in the world. In addition to overseeing arguably the largest numbers racket in the African American community, they found themselves in the unique position of being able to bankroll numerous legitimate businesses, including insurance companies, funeral homes, and medical offices; as well as many of the major African American sports attractions of the day, including but not limited to most of the Negro Baseball Leagues teams and the career of boxer Joe Louis. The Policy Kings operated during the period between the Reconstruction and the modern Civil Rights Movement eras, antedating even the numbers racket in Harlem. Gambling on Sporting Events Sport gambling, which is probably the most popular form of gambling, bar none, revolves around a bettor putting money on the likelihood that his team or player will win an athletic event. This typically involves the individual either betting with a bookie and playing a point-spread or betting directly against another bettor. While this is widely regarded as illegal in most states, there are a few states that allow sport gambling or have exceptions for certain types of sport gambling. This type of gambling has caused problems for a number of athletes who have been publicly taken to task for participating. Among those individuals are Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and numerous other athletes. Baseball player Pete Rose, who holds the all-time record for career hits, is the only living person on the Major League Baseball ineligibility list, which prevents him from being considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was put on the ineligibility list in 1989 for his perceived record of gambling on sports games. Further, the 1919 Chicago White Sox team was accused of throwing the World Series that year, illustrating a long legacy of illegal sport gambling. Famous Professional African American Gamblers Phil Ivey is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, poker player on the professional poker circuit. Ivey, who was born in 1976, holds seven World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and a World Poker Tour title. Moreover, he has been ranked second in the world in all-time money winnings from tournament poker. Ivey, who is African American, holds the distinction of being one of five professional poker players to ever win three WSOP bracelets in one year, earning him the nickname ‘‘the Tiger Woods of Poker.’’ Paul Darden, also African American, as well as a prot
eg
e of Phil Ivey, grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and is a rising player on the professional poker tours. He holds one WSOP bracelet and continues to rank consistently as one of the top card players in the country. See also: Crime; Games, Video Games, and Toys; Sports

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Further Reading Haley, Alex. 1997. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books. Levit, Donny. 2008. ‘‘Stephanie St. Clair.’’ In African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Lombardo, Robert M. 2002. ‘‘The Black Mafia: African-American Organized Crime in Chicago 1890–1960.’’ Crime, Law & Social Change 38:33–65. Phil Ivey. (Homepage.) www.philivey.com. Thompson, Nathan. 2003. Kings: the True Story of Chicago’s Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers: An Informal History. Chicago: BronzeVille Press. Randolph Walker

Games, Video Games, and Toys Cultural artifacts such as games, video games, and toys, act as mirrors into society’s imagination. The images transmit cultural values and mark social progress in terms of race, gender, and class. Whereas Mammy and Coon dolls were once popular selling items, they are now considered distasteful and racist. It is impossible to separate these artifacts from popular culture because they make tangible the images and ideology from popular culture. When examining current games, video games, and toys one can begin to see that though there has been progress, old themes and stereotypes continue to thrive in these artifacts and shape popular opinion of African Americans. This in turn limits progress and creates new racial stereotypes and obstacles. Understanding how African American children interact with games, video games, and toys helps to both chart racial and gender progression and to formulate a plan that empowers African Americans, while simultaneously deconstructing racial hierarchy. African American Children and Toys Historically, any toy made in the image of African Americans was rooted in overt racism and stereotypical images. These toys and dolls, then, have predictably leaned on caricatures created during the enslavement of Africans. Among those were the Uncle Tom, Brute, Coon, Mammy, and Sambo. Companies like the National Negro Doll Company profited off these images, making Negro dolls important cultural symbols. During any given time period, toys capture the political and social ideas concerning African Americans. These ideas attach meaning to toys that are absorbed by children. Through play, children act out the roles and expectations of the ideas. From this they internalize the social meanings. Current toys both marketed to and about African Americans are an extension of two ideas: color-blind racism and multiculturalism. Color-blind racism is a form of racism that discourages overt references to color as reasoning for why certain

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racial groups are ‘‘ahead’’ or ‘‘behind.’’ It does not take current social structure and inequalities into account and refuses to acknowledge historical differences between minorities and whites as reasons for white supremacy. Simply stated, race has no affect on status, success, opportunities, and one’s overall livelihood. Knowing this, one can see how toys that are seemingly neutral are very much the embodiment of historical stereotypes. For instance, the black G. I. Joe action figure is dressed in a sports jersey, reinforcing the idea of black males’ athletic superiority. While this may seem harmless, this idea prevents a critique of the social situation that may lead African American men to play sports or join the military. It all serves a political agenda by sending messages to black boys about the opportunities and limitations in life they have. With all the messages received in this society, it helps condition them to think that their only way to be successful is through sports or the military. Many toys are based on themes from popular culture. One such prevailing theme is that of good versus evil. To illustrate this, toys continuously utilize a white/black dichotomy. Toys of good characters are generally white or light, with evil characters generally being darker. As children play with such toys, they are also making a character judgment of the real-life figure types portrayed. The images often are racial caricatures. For example, the characters Mudflap and Skids, twin Autobots from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, are racial caricatures with gold teeth and slurred speech, and are illiterate. The same thing can be seen with the board game Ghettopoly, whose game description states that players buy stolen properties, pimp hoes, build crack houses and projects, pay protection fees, and get carjacked. Instead of merely taking a color-blind approach, many toys incorporate multiculturalism. In this case, multiculturalism means that toys marketed to African American children have only cosmetic changes (like skin color) from the white counterparts. The toys are essentially the same because there is no regard for historical differences and cultural variations. Case in point, the African American Barbie looks nearly identical to the white Barbie. Though there are many studies that note that African American beauty standards are different from the mainstream ideal, the African American Barbie doll primarily adheres to a white aesthetic of beauty. However, there are some dolls that do make more of a conscious effort to incorporate sociohistorical ideas and notions. The American Girl’s doll considers the historical standpoint of African American girls and manufactures more realistic dolls that include novellas. Amy Shlaes writes in ‘‘Valley of the Dolls’’ that one doll named Abby is a former slave and comes with a novella about how she and her mother escaped to freedom. Even though this was a valid attempt, overwhelmingly, most dolls are still white and most African American dolls are still blackened versions. African American children internalize these messages. A Girl Like Me, an updated film version of the Doll Test, found that overwhelmingly, African American children choose white dolls over black dolls when asked which is beautiful and which is good. From these results one can see the influence of popular culture.

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Games and African American Children Handclapping games, Double Dutch and other forms of jump rope, and cheers are musical games that aid in the transmission of African American culture. Generally played by African American girls, these games are encoded with messages about African American culture. Through rhythms, chants, songs, and syncopated hand claps, girls learn interdependence and confidence. Cheers specifically serve as a way for African American girls to assert themselves, boast and brag about their appearance. Cheers are said with attitude and encouraged by peers in call-and-response style. These games then help insulate young African American girls from many of the major cultural messages of femininity and help them maintain positive self-esteem. Pop culture has greatly influenced hand-clapping games and cheers. These games are ever-changing and integrating popular music, fads, and idiosyncrasies as a way to stay current. An example of this can be seen by examining the hand-clap game Mary Mack. Not only have the beats and melodies changed, but Mary’s clothing has been upgraded from silver buttons to diamonds. Another place that popular culture can readily be seen is in references during Double Dutch performances which routinely include popular dances and musical beats. In this way the games then not only represent a transmission of African American culture but an ever-changing incorporation of popular culture. A staple in African American girls’ play, Double Dutch is a game that has gained national notoriety. Though the origins are unclear, the game most likely originated within the multiethnic streets of New York. Persecuted girls of different races turned to it for refuge, but unlike with other races, Double Dutch play among African American girls created an arena where race and gender identity moved from the periphery to the center, sometimes embracing and reinterpreting the very epithets that others used to signify inferiority of their race and sex. Today it is seen as a rite of passage among many African American girls. Its fame as a popular game among African American girls helped turn Double Dutch rope jumping into a sport governed by a national organization, the American Double Dutch League (ADDL). The founding members of the ADDL assumed that there were inherently male and female sports and in turn created policies that policed black female behavior and play. While looking for a sport to teach African American girls, Double Dutch was specifically chosen because founding members did not perceive it as a male sport. With a slogan ‘‘don’t go from toys to boys,’’ founding members made assumptions about female behavior, while perhaps simultaneously trivializing their existence. Video Games and African American Children As cultural artifacts, video games are relatively new. Their explosion in popularity has made them an important medium for both social messages and images. Over the years, African American male lead characters have been a rarity and female lead characters nonexistent in popular mainstream games. While African American men heavily populate boxing, basketball, and football video games, female

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characters have been relegated as highly sexualized by-products. However, nonsports video games that do not have a ‘‘create a player’’ feature, generally exclude black characters from either lead or supporting roles. Recently, there has only been one video game in which black males can be seen as lead characters: Crackdown. Crackdown experienced some skepticism from white gamers prerelease because Microsoft chose to market an African American protagonist as the lead, even though other characters could actually be selected. Though part of the skepticism could easily be written as natural hesitation, race definitely affected the perception of the largely white gamers, who could not see themselves as playing as an African American man. Microsoft recognized this, and added a special beta key to the then highly anticipated Halo 3. This key allowed gamers who bought Crackdown to play the multiplayer section of Halo 3 before its release. The game sold very well and had great reviews. Many people who bought it for the Halo 3 beta key ended up loving the game. Even with great sales, no other games with black male lead characters have been announced so far. As matter of fact, Crackdown 2 shipped on July 6, 2010, and the character is notably absent. The absence of African American characters is somewhat expected because many of the video games recently developed become a proclamation of white masculinity reacting to a changing society and the perceived threat of other races. Duke Nukem 3D is an example of this assertion of nationalistic white male heterosexuality. His fight against an alien invasion in a whites-only apocalyptic Los Angeles started with Duke viewing the O. J. Simpson chase (Simpson’s flight after his wife was murdered). Subsequently the game ends with Duke battling a conspicuously dark villain on a football field. Following the game’s narrative there are clear parallels between the invading aliens and other races. His victory of the dark villain at the end comes across as a victory over races. This idea can be seen in other popular cultural outlets such as movies. Anthony Sze-Fai Shiu, in ‘‘What Yellow Face Hides,’’ reports Douglas Kellner’s reference to this idea as white male paranoia where white males are presented as victims of foreign enemies, other races, the government, and society at large; this justifies them striking back. He points to films like Rambo: First Blood and Rocky as examples. Along with the evolution of video games, online communication has evolved as well. Xbox live, Wii, and Playstation Network allow gamers to communicate via microphone over the Internet. It has also become a haven for racist and sexist comment. The anonymity gamers have online provides a glimpse into thinking at the popular culture level, and reminds society of the racist ideas that continue to exist. Cultural artifacts chart a map of social progress. Toys, games, and video games all provide a window into the popular consciousness. They often reveal ugly truths. Though overt racial images are not socially acceptable, contemporary images often replicate past stereotypes. Part of the problem is that popular culture is built on the exploitation of racial stereotypes. The challenge of creating culturally relevant artifacts is that systems of racism and sexism have to first be addressed. Until this happens there will continue to be a tunnel to the past in popular culture. See also: Children and Youth; Double Dutch

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Further Reading Gaunt, Kyra D. 2006. The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop. New York: New York University Press. Shiu, Anthony Sze-Fai. 2006. ‘‘What Yellow Face Hides: Video Games, Whiteness, and the American Racial Order.’’ Journal of Popular Culture 39 (February): 109–25. Shlaes, Amy. 2007. ‘‘Valley of the Dolls.’’ The American (January/February): 29–30. Wilkinson, Doris Y. 1988. ‘‘The Toy Menagerie: Early Images of Blacks in Toys, Games and Dolls.’’ In Images of Blacks in American Culture. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. New York: Greenwood Press. Wilkinson, Doris Yvonne. 1974. ‘‘Racial Socialization Through Children’s Toys: A Sociohistorical Examination.’’ Journal of Black Studies 5 (September): 96–109. Williams, Christine L. 2006. Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press. Myron Strong

Gangs According to law enforcement agencies, gangs are, simply put, any group organized for criminal activity. Sociologists, however, see gangs as bands of youth on the margins of society, attempting to generate revenue through illegal activity, with violence serving as a distinguishing trait. Defining gangs is a matter of perspective, however. Howell claims that some even view gangs as family units or even ‘‘a modern form of tribalism.’’ Irrespective of definition, whether we consider the rebels dumping tea into the Boston Harbor in protest of ‘‘taxation without representation,’’ the band of African Americans in the antebellum United States fighting for their freedom, the cowboys of the mythic American West, the Ku Klux Klan emerging following the Civil War, or the mobsters who appeared during Prohibition, gangs are nothing new in American and African American popular culture. Working in opposition to society, gangs, like Crime, have proven to be both creative and destructive. As a result of Gangsta Rap (also ‘‘gangstah’’), among other social and artistic factors, gangs have formed a part of African American popular culture that has cast an influence both nationally and internationally. When Snoop Dogg, the Hip-Hop megastar who made his debut on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, spins rhymes such as ‘‘You don’t ask why I roll wit a crew, and / Twist up my fingers and wear dark blue-in,’’ we have a sense of the degree to which the lexicon of gang culture has permeated the broader American culture, where the black urban and white suburban intersect in their understanding of the codes and modes of identification of gang life. While certain aspects of gang life are, by their very nature, secret, the attire and handshakes, along with the pimped rides and ‘‘twist[ing] up’’ of fingers have all become part of the broader cultural vocabulary. Born Calvin Broadus in Los Angeles, California, in 1972, Snoop Doggy Dogg is one of the most popular and renowned artists in all of gangsta rap. Following

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his successful debut with Dr. Dre with his ‘‘Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,’’ Snoopy Dogg extended, elaborated, and refined his Long Beach sound with Doggystyle, his recording released in 1993 that is both iconic and canonic in the musical landscape of gangsta rap. ‘‘Gin and Juice’’ and ‘‘Doggy Dogg World,’’ along with integrating elements of Soul and Funk (Music), captured the laid-back yet volatile dimensions of gang life. According to Nancy Fischer, Richard Woods, a Buffalo, New York, police officer, speaking at a conference on gang activity said, ‘‘Success is equated with materialistic goals and that’s why young people feel they have to sell drugs to be a success. Success to me is living a crime-free life,’’ writes Fisher. Money, without question, is one of the motivating factors of gang life, yet the criminal element of gang life has its opponents within the hip-hop world. As hip-hop legend KRSOne put it down in the 1980s during a boom in gang violence, ‘‘Criminal minded you’ve been blinded / Lookin’ for a style like mine you can’t find it.’’ In terms of styles, gangs have created styles all their own, and in music videos, including but not limited to gangsta rap, (see, for example, Michael Jackson’s ‘‘Beat It’’ video), along with major motion pictures such as Boyz n the Hood and ATL, the distinctive clothing, gestures, and speech of gang members have captivated the imagination of movie producers, artists, and the broader popular culture. In terms of initiation rites, males are ‘‘jumped in,’’ or beaten by several gang members. Along with the ‘‘jump in’’ process of males, females face being ‘‘sexed in,’’ or forced to have sex with several gang members for collective entertainment. Yet these rites of initiation are not unlike hazing rituals that occur in schools among supposedly noncriminal youth. Following one particularly violent group beating as a rite of passage into a fraternity, landing the victim in a hospital, according to Johnson, someone said, ‘‘Gangs or fraternities, what’s the difference?’’ Born in Los Angeles in 1968, John Singleton made his directorial debut at the age of twenty-three with the film Boyz n the Hood in the summer of 1991. Its view of gangs and their effects on black urban life offers a strong counterpoint to the lyrics, beats, and images of gangsta rap, where black males ride in classic cars and fulfill a range of appetites with their boys. Rather than offer viewers poetic romanticism, Singleton used the silver screen to deliver soul-crushing realism. ‘‘The film [Boyz n the Hood] has a lot of messages in it,’’ Singleton explained in Thomas’s article, ‘‘but my main message is that African American men have to take more responsibility for raising their children, especially their boys. Fathers have to teach their boys to be men. The audience will be able to see the directions that the characters take when there is an absence or a presence of fathers in their lives.’’ Having garnered Academy Award recognition and featuring such popular culture icons as Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne, and Ice Cube, Boyz n the Hood has endured as a powerful statement on gang violence and culture. Nor should we think that gangs are relegated to the streets. In his 1995 film Higher Learning, Singleton returned to ideas of alienation and belonging that captivated his imagination in Boyz n the Hood, yet he transformed his setting from South Central Los Angeles to the campus of the fictional and highly symbolic Columbus University. At one pivotal moment of that film, Remy, a white first-year

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college student from Idaho, says ‘‘It’s our gang against theirs’’ following a fight between white and black members of the community. Malik Williams, in the film a student-athlete attending school on a track scholarship, wears a Black Panther T-shirt while at the foot of the statue of Christopher Columbus, hoisted on a pedestal. In a diatribe very much in line with the black militancy and Black Nationalism of the 1960s, yet just as powerful today, Malik says, ‘‘As a black man in America, my stress comes from everywhere. Recognize. Take a look around you. Look at this, Columbus, it disgusts me. Fool wasn’t nothin’ but a thief, mass murder[er]. He done slaughtered millions of Native Americans, and we done got a holiday and university named after his honor.’’ This countercultural critic of the larger systems of oppression made and continues to make the Black Panther Party, with such luminaries as Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, and Huey P. Newton, powerful to young activists. And it’s telling, too, that Singleton sets the scene at a university; during the 1960s, college campuses across the United States, notably Columbia University in the City of New York, became battlegrounds where students protested the U.S. presence in Vietnam as well as racial and gender inequality. As legendary cultural critic and esteemed professor Edward W. Said (1935–2003) noted, ‘‘There has been no major revolution in modern history without intellectuals.’’ The Black Panthers were intellectuals, men and women who blended words and action, that rare blend of scholar and activist, and out of their legacy, along with the lyrics of Public Enemy and other Black Nationalists, grew two of the most popular gangs in African American popular culture, the Crips and the Bloods. Along with the Jets and the Sharks of West Side Story, S. E. Hinton, in her classic novel The Outsiders (1967), based on her firsthand knowledge of gangs while growing up in Oklahoma, captures the codes and modes of identification, often enforced with violence, that typifies gang life. ‘‘We get jumped by the Socs,’’ explains Ponyboy, the novel’s narrator. ‘‘I’m not sure how you spell it, but it’s the abbreviation for the Socials, the jet set, the West-side rich kid. It’s like the term ‘greaser,’ which is used to class all us boys on the East Side.’’ Similar to the Socs and the Greasers, the Crips and the Bloods are divided geographically, yet with the proliferation of media geared towards black urban youth, social class remains ambivalent. The Crips were established in 1969 by Raymond Lee Washington in South Central Los Angeles. The name of their gang combined ‘‘crib’’ with R. I. P. (rest in peace) to signify allegiance from birth to death. As Juan Francisco Esteva Mart
ınez has pointed out, three dominant narratives surround the formation of the Crips. One version tells us that the Crips formed as a result of newly arrived southern blacks reacting against the violence they experienced in Los Angeles; another tells us that the absence of the Black Panthers and the United Slaves created a vacuum that was filled by the Crips; and the third suggests that the Crips began as a group of outright criminals. We might add to these accounts a fourth, from ex–Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who explains that the Crips emerged from an organization called Community Relations for an Independent People. In all, the crime and violence and swagger of the Crips have become the focus of major Hollywood films such as Colors (1988) as well as the watchful eye of the FBI, who sees the

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Crips as, according to Martinez, ‘‘the largest, most violent, and the most notorious gang in the history of the United States.’’ In the early 1970s, the Bloods formed in reaction against the aggressive nature of the Crips, and since that time, both ‘‘sets,’’ in Crip Blue and Blood Red, have transformed Los Angeles into, among other entities, a zone embattled by gang violence. By 1990, in less than two decades, the Los Angeles Police Department had cited over 50,000 youths detained or arrested because of gang activity. In 1991, the LAPD estimated that some 100,000 people were members of gangs, with some 800 gangs, and over 600 people killed as a result of gang violence. Military equipment used in wars abroad were used in Los Angeles in the police’s efforts to curtail gang violence. These numbers and measures are just a tip of an iceberg that is staggering, and through such media as music and film, the appeal of gangs such as the Crips and the Bloods has moved beyond South Central Los Angeles to urban and suburban areas across the United States. See also: Aerosol Art Further Reading Boogie Down Productions. 1987. Criminal Minded. B-Boy Records. Boyz n the Hood. 1991. Dir. John Singleton. Perf. Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Ice Cube, Angela Basset. Sony Pictures. Fischer, Nancy A. 2008. ‘‘Conference on Gang Activity Focuses on Community’s Role.’’ McClatchy-Tribune Business News, September 18. Higher Learning. 1995. Dir. John Singleton. Perf. Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson, Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Connelly. Sony Pictures. Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. 2006. New York: Penguin. Howell, George L. 1999. ‘‘Special Report: Why Are Children Joining Gangs?’’ Raising Black Children. June 30: 10. Johnson, Claudia Durst. 2004. ‘‘Introduction.’’ Youth Gangs in Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Mart
ınez, Juan Francisco Esteva. 2007. ‘‘C.’’ In Encyclopedia of Gangs. Louis Kontos and David C. Brotherton, eds. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. Prahlad, Anand. 2006. ‘‘Gangs.’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Vol. 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Said, Edward W. 1996. Representation of the Intellectual: The Reith Lectures. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Thomas, Don. 1998. ‘‘AHN Presents Singleton’s ‘Boyz ‘N’ The Hood.’’’ New York Beacon, February 11: 30. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Gangsta Rap Gangsta rap emerged during the late 1980s and marked a new trend in rap music with its explicit and detailed exploration of sex, drugs, and violence. With a focus on the plight of black urban life, gangsta rap created controversy

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throughout the United States, raising debates across the land about the nature of free speech and the responsibility of artists to society. Pioneers of the genre include Geto Boys, Niggaz with Attitude (N. W. A.), Ice Cube, Ice T, and Too Short. In 1987, Eazy-E (Eric Wright), MC Ren (Lorenzo Patterson), Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson), Dr. Dre (Andre Young), and Yella (Antoine Carraby) formed N. W. A. in Compton, California. Their debut album, Straight Outta Compton, released in 1988, with beats derived from the music of Soul and Funk, is a landmark in rap music because the lyrics changed the way writers would approach lyrics. Rather than playful metaphors, graphic language became the order of the day. Gangsta rap had an edge, and unapologetically so, and N. W. A. represented this edge with such tracks as ‘‘F— tha Police.’’ Despite limited airtime on the radio, N. W. A. sold over two million copies of their debut album, signaling the success of gangsta rap, largely the result of white consumers. Shortly after the release of Straight Outta Compton, Ice Cube left N. W. A. in pursuit of a solo career. N. W. A.’s follow-up album, Elif4zaggin (1991), the title is written backwards, spearheaded by the musical innovations of Dr. Dre, needed little time to top the music charts. In 1990, controversies surrounding gangsta rap mounted to national and international levels when 2 Live Crew, a Miami-based rap group, and their 1989 album Nasty as They Wanna Be, landed in Florida district court. After a hearing widely covered by the media, 2 Live Crew’s album was deemed legally obscene, making Nasty as They Wanna Be the first popular music album ever labeled obscene. With sales of the album banned, violators risked fines, even imprisonment. The ruling of the district court, however, was subsequently overturned by the United States Supreme Court, but gangsta rap had announced its emergence on a national stage, and debates concerning the appropriateness of the music would continue throughout the decade. In 1991, Ice T released Cop-Killer, which as a result of the provocative title and lyrics, faced boycotts nationwide. Law enforcement, too, began to pin crimes on gangsta rap because criminals themselves cited the music as a motive for the acts. Along with law enforcement, prominent black preachers joined in what was becoming a crusade against gangsta rap, a music that, according to those invested in the moral development of the nation and its citizens, was corrupting the youth. Jesse Jackson and Calvin O. Butts III both held protests against gangsta rap that, in their eyes, was not a sign of racial uplift but of moral degradation. In June 1993, Butts planned to have cassettes and CDs of gangsta rap steamrolled, but this act was stopped by rap activists. Instead, supporters of Butts smashed the cassettes and CDs, and the debris from their act was delivered to Sony Records in midtown Manhattan. ‘‘I am not an opponent of free speech or a proponent of censorship,’’ Butts explained in Boyd’s article. ‘‘But something has to be done to stop the spread of lyrics that demean our women and ridicule our culture.’’ While Butts and other adult leaders deemed gangsta rap a glorification of violence, an open letter from high school students raised a different point of view. They wrote in ‘‘Open Letter,’’ ‘‘The bottom line is that perhaps these artists, who are relating the tormented, depraved horror in which millions of inner-city

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youth are forced to live, have caused adults to wake up.’’ Rather than corrupting youth, gangsta rap was holding up a mirror to society. Yet, the murders of Christopher Wallace (Notorious B. I. G.) and Tupac Shakur (2PAC), the famed East Coast–West Coast rivals, cast and continues to cast a shadow over gangsta rap. While shadows dapple the landscape of gangsta rap, the music, particularly its artists, have had strong crossover appeal in American popular culture. When N. W. A. disbanded in 1992, Dr. Dre, that same year, released his solo debut album The Chronic. Displaying keen business acumen, Dr. Dre also cofounded Death Row Records, and he wrote beats for Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. Ice Cube, one of the pioneers of the genre, has gone on to a successful career as an actor, beginning with Boyz n the Hood (1991), African American director John Singleton’s gritty depiction of life in South Central Los Angeles, and including such films as Friday, Barbershop, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Are We There Yet?, and xXx: State of the Union, roles ranging from the comedic to the dramatic to actionadventure, showing his range and enduring significance in popular culture. In 1926, when Langston Hughes published his essay ‘‘The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain’’ in the Nation, the artists of his generation, steeped in blues and jazz, were facing tough social criticism, prompting him to write a manifesto of sorts for them: We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual darkskinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.

Similarly, removed from the signs of racial uplift and respectability that typified their parents’ generation, gangsta rap artists documented urban life with all its blemishes, similar to early calypsonians who sang of the underworld where crime, sex, and violence formed an undeniable reality worthy of artistic treatment. To deny the reality of street life would be to deny the background and influences that make gangsta rap an essential element of the landscape of African American popular culture. See also: Censorship and Offensive Language and Lyrics; Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading Bennett, Eric. 1999. ‘‘Gangsta Rap and Its Alternatives.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Boyd, Herb. 1993. ‘‘Rev. Butts, Backers Smash Vile Rap CDs, Dump Them at Sony.’’ New York Amsterdam News, June 12: 5.

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Du Bois, Andrew. 1999. ‘‘Niggaz with Attitude.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Hughes, Langston. 1926. ‘‘The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.’’ Nation. June 23. http://www.thenation.com/doc/19260623/hughes. New York Amsterdam News. 1993. ‘‘Open letter to Reverend Calvin Butts: A Student Reply from the Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School.’’ July 10: 13. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Garvey, Marcus (1887–1940), Pan-Africanist, Social Activist Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. He was the youngest of eleven children, of all whom died, apart from his sister, Indiana; she eventually lived in England. Although he came to international prominence after arriving in the United States in March 1916, he had first made his mark in Kingston, Jamaica, as a printer and union leader, while establishing the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities Leagues (UNIA-ACL) in 1914. Largely self-educated via his father’s extensive home library, but with some formal schooling, from 1910 to 1914 he traveled to Central and South America before spending time in London, England, with his sister. Wherever Garvey went he studied closely the social conditions of people of African heritage. In doing so he found profound social inequality based on racialized hierarchies, with white Europeans being in the ascendency. After experiencing such indignities firsthand, he set out to change this by mobilizing people of African heritage around the world. Before he arrived in the United States in 1916, Garvey had read Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington and was inspired to meet and ask the African American leader for help in building a similar technical institute in Jamaica, as that of the now famous Tuskegee University. Unfortunately, Booker T. Washington passed away in 1915, prior to Garvey’s arrival. Nevertheless, Garvey’s ambition would not die; indeed, it went beyond his initial ambition. By 1920, Garvey and UNIA would become famous for two main slogans: ‘‘Africa for the Africans at home and abroad;’’ and ‘‘back to Africa.’’ The former related to freeing Africa from colonial rule, while setting up a homeland on the African continent; the latter spoke to peoples of African heritage in the African diaspora returning to the African continent and away from the racism and prejudice faced by millions in countries such as the United States. His message was powerful and reached the masses of black peoples via his newspaper, the Negro World, established in 1918. At the height of the Garvey movement, in the early 1920s, the newspaper was the most popular of African American journals. Most often Garvey would write a weekly editorial that would

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be read and shared among members of the UNIA chapters throughout the United States and the rest of the world. This was an ingenious way to galvanize support for his ideas, and to foster a common ideology that served the purpose of the organization. Along with the Negro World, Garvey would leave his followers spellbound via his oration skills. There was a passion and commitment that emanated from Marcus Garvey whenever he spoke to the question of African liberation. The UNIA had a tremendous organizational base—the infrastructure that empowered men, women, and children to play an active role. For example, the men and women wore paramilitary uniforms during flamboyant parades that took place mainly in Harlem, New Black separatist Marcus Garvey, in York. However, other UNIA parades uniform as the president of the Republic of took place in cities and states such as Africa. Marcus Garvey founded the Columbus, Ohio (September, 1923), or Universal Negro Improvement Association wherever Marcus Garvey came to (UNIA) to realize the ideals of the black rights movement as they were elaborated speak and visited. Moreover, there was by Egyptian nationalist Duse Mohammed an emphasis on business development. Ali and Booker T. Washington. Garvey’s Arguably the most prominent, and rallying call for the UNIA was, ‘‘Up, you ultimately troubling, was the establish- mighty race, you can accomplish what you ment of the Black Star Line, a shipping will!’’ (Library of Congress) company designed to provide ships for traveling between the African continent and the African Diaspora. In short, it turned out to be Garvey’s major downfall as a business venture. Garvey’s growing prominence brought unwanted notice from the U.S. law enforcement agencies, led by a young J. Edgar Hoover, who effectively hounded Garvey, placed spies in his organization, and engaged saboteurs. Garvey was eventually checked via a dubious charge of mail fraud through the selling or attempted sale of Black Star Line shares. Garvey lost the trial and he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. In 1927, after serving almost half of his prison term, Garvey had his sentence commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. However, part of the release clause was that Garvey would be immediately deported to his native land, Jamaica. It is important to note that too often scholars have underplayed, or completely ignored, the fact that Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican under the British colonial system. It is because of this that U.S. authorities were able to deport him. Yet such was his affect on African American history in that he is often depicted as a person of African American heritage and history. This can be

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exemplified by the 2006 Dover Thrift Editions publication: Great Speeches by African Americans. This volume, edited by James Daley, includes Marcus Garvey’s November 25, 1922, speech entitled: ‘‘The Principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.’’ This is only one example of how Marcus Garvey is most often depicted as an African American historical figure, so deep was his impact on their socioeconomic and cultural history. Garvey’s legacy is difficult to estimate. What can be stated is that he provided the impetus for future African liberation struggles. Indeed, the first leader of Ghana after British colonial rule was Kwame Nkrumah, who acknowledged his debt to Garvey’s work in inspiring him to fight for the liberation of his homeland from British colonial rule. Moreover, Garvey’s legacy reached the 1960s and the ‘‘Black is Beautiful’’ generation. It was Garvey who first argued for African heritage peoples to love themselves, have self-determination, and self-pride. Other groups followed his organizational structure, particularly the Nation of Islam (NOI). Indeed, Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975) was once a Garveyite before he led the Black Muslims in the United States; and the father of Malcolm X (1925–65), the leading spokesperson for the NOI, was a follower of and leader within the Garvey movement. Therefore the legacy of Marcus Garvey and the UNIA is profound and varied. His place in history is secure as the leader of modern Black Nationalism. There has yet to be a movement to have surpassed the work of the UNIA in its mobilization of millions of peoples of African heritage around the world in the cause of black liberation. See also: Consciousness and Identity, African American Further Reading Christian, Mark. 2004. ‘‘Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA): With Special Reference to the ‘Lost’ Parade in Columbus, Ohio, September 25, 1923.’’ Western Journal of Black Studies 28 (September): 424–34. Cronon, Edmund David. 1955. Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Garvey, Amy Jacques. 1970. Garvey and Garveyism. London: Collier. Garvey, Amy Jacques. [1923] 1986. The Philosophy & Opinions of Marcus Garvey. Reprint. Dover: Majority Press. Mark Christian

Gates, Henry Louis Jr. (1950– ), Educator, Literary and Cultural Critic Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alfonso Fletcher University Professor and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. A preeminent, prolific critic, writer, and editor, Gates continues to increase others’ knowledge of African American literature, history, and culture.

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Born on September, 16, 1950, in Piedmont, West Virginia, Gates is the younger son of Henry Louis Gates Sr., a paper mill worker and janitor, and Pauline Coleman Gates. In 1964 Gates injured his hip while playing touch football. The white surgeon, after examining Gates and hearing him say that he wanted to be a physician, told Pauline Gates her son’s condition was psychosomatic, and he was an overachiever. In addition to the misdiagnosis, the doctor underestimated the potential of an African American youth from Mineral County, whom he believed should not aspire to a professional career. Yet Gates and his brother, Paul, who is chair of the Department of Dentistry at Bronx Lebanon Hospital and associate professor at Elbert Einstein College of Medicine, proved the doctor wrong. After graduating from Piedmont High School in 1968, Gates attended Potomac State College of West Virginia. One year later, he transferred to Yale University where, as a participant in a program associated with the Carnegie Foundation, he spent a year working in a Tanzanian hospital. In his junior year, Gates was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After earning a BA degree summa cum laude in history in 1973, Gates studied at Clare College, University of Cambridge, where he was mentored by the esteemed Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka and received two degrees in English literature: an MA in 1974 and a PhD in 1979. Gates taught at Yale, Cornell, and Duke universities respectively until 1991 when, at Harvard, he became director of the aforementioned Du Bois Institute and chair of the Department of African and African American Studies. During his fifteen-year tenure as department chair, he hired Cornel West and other prominent scholars. Among Gates’s professional accomplishments are his rediscovery, authentication, and publication of Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859), the first published novel by an African American woman, which remained out of print until 1983; and Hannah Crafts’ The Bondwoman’s Narrative, an early novel by an African American woman that remained unpublished until 2002. Gates has written for Time, the New Yorker, and the New York Times. His additional publications include Black Literature and Literary Theory (1984); The Slave’s Narrative (1985; coeditor, Charles T. Davis); Figures in Black and White: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self (1987); The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988); Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Literary Critical Anthology (1990); Loose Canons: Notes on the Cultural Wars (1992); The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (1996; coeditor, Nellie Y. McKay); Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (1999; coeditor, Kwame Anthony Appiah); The Trials of Phillis Wheatley (2003); In Search of Hannah Crafts: Critical Essays on The Bondwoman’s Narrative (2004; coeditor, Hollis Robbins); African American Lives (2004; coeditor, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham); African American National Biography (2008; coeditor, Higginbotham); and In Search of Our Roots (2009). Gates is also editor in chief of two online resources: TheRoot.com and the Oxford African American Studies Center. His PBS African American Lives documentaries have encouraged African Americans to use advances in genetic testing and genealogical research to trace their heritage. In the summer of 2009, Gates was embroiled in controversy and arrested at his Cambridge, Massachusetts, home for what law enforcement officers called

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‘‘disorderly conduct.’’ Gates said that he was a victim of Racial Profiling. The arrest and circumstances surrounding it sparked a nationwide debate about race and a response from President Barack Obama, who invited Gates and the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, to beers at the White House and a friendly ‘‘dialogue’’ about racial prejudice. Gates is the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s Genius Grant (1981), more than fifty honorary degrees, and other honors. See also: Race and Ethnicity

Further Reading Gates, Henry Louis Jr. 1994. Colored People: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Warren, Nagueyalti. 1999. ‘‘Henry Louis Gates.’’ In Notable Black American Men, Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Wolf, Abbe. ‘‘Henry Louis ‘Skip’ Gates, Jr.’’ 2008. In African American National Biography, Vol. 3. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Linda M. Carter

Gay, Tyson (1982– ), Track and Field Sprinter Tyson Gay, a Track and Field star, is one of the most extraordinary athletes in African American popular culture. The history of many professional African American athletes chronicles a long and harrowing journey. Before Gay, early twentieth-century athletes, such as Joe Louis, a boxing champion, Jesse Owen, a track and field luminary, and Althea Gibson, a tennis marvel, blazed trails in a very different world. In their day, racism, discrimination, and segregation abounded. Nonetheless, they paved the way for integrated sports and challenged the way whites perceived blacks. Extraordinary black athletes inspired and instilled pride among African Americans. When, on August 9, 1982, Tyson Gay was born to Greg Mitchell and Daisy Gay Lowe in Lexington, Kentucky, he entered a world that had achieved considerable racial progress. Discrimination and segregation were no longer lawful, and African Americans attained greater access to social, economic, and political opportunities. After Gay’s parents divorced, his mother played an important role, motivating him to pursue running, a family tradition. Both his mother and grandmother had competed in running competitions. His older sister, Tiffany, was a faster runner than Gay for a large part of their childhood. Although Gay excelled at running in school, he struggled academically. In high school, Gay rapidly developed into one of the fastest runners around. In 2001, he came out on top during the Kentucky High School State Championships, winning gold in the 100 meters, the shortest sprint race distance in track and field. Gay specializes in the

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100 meters and the 200 meters; however, throughout his subsequent career, he has also competed in 4 x 100 meters relays. Gay’s achievements increased when he went on to attend the University of Arkansas. Combining discipline, natural speed, passion, and training, Gay outperformed, becoming the first student at his university to win a National Collegiate Athletic Association title. While still a student, Gay performed well at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials, but he failed to make the team. This disappointment did not deter Gay, who continued to set impressive records in the last year of his collegiate career. When, in 2005, Gay began his professional running career, African Americans constituted a large percentage of the track and field industry. A number of Africans and African descendents from around the world also regularly competed. By the end of Gay’s first year as a professional sprinter, he surfaced as one of the topranking athletes. He continues to push the limits of his abilities. In 2005, he won first place in the 200 meters in the IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco. In the following year, Gay won first place in the 200 meters in the IAAF World Athletics Final in Germany and in the 100 meters in the IAAF World Cup in Greece. In 2007, Gay dominated the World Championships in Athletics in Japan with first place wins in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and the 4 x 100 meters relay. Gay’s road to fame has not been without its challenges. Hamstring and groin injuries have put Gay to the test, and, in some cases, hampered his performance. Nonetheless, he remains a major player in his field, a man of dignified bearing whose soaring success helps to offset the negative images that continue to challenge black America. See also: Olympics; Sports Further Reading Ashe, Arthur Jr. 2000. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete: Track and Field. New York: Amistad. Smith, Earl. 2007. Race, Sport, and the American Dream. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Tyson Gay. (Homepage.) http://www.tysongay.net/. Gladys L. Knight

Gay and Lesbian Culture In April 1970, Ralph Ellison wrote an essay for Time magazine that explored the idea of a United States without blacks. As his ideas unfolded, he came across an epiphany that was particularly instructive and insightful. ‘‘Without the presence of Negro American style,’’ Ellison wrote, ‘‘our jokes, our tall tales, even our sports would be lacking in the sudden turns, the shocks, the swift changes of pace (all jazz-shaped) that serve to remind us that the world is ever unexplored.’’ The

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same can be said of the presence and the contribution of gay and lesbian artists, writers, intellectuals, activists, and athletes, all of whom, in their examples of courage, help foster new ways of seeing and experiencing the world, opening up, for all of us, a broader view of our collective humanity. Gay and lesbian culture figured prominently in the Harlem Renaissance. Blues singer Bessie Smith, along with writers Wallace Thurman and Bruce Nugent, poets Claude McKay and Countee Cullen, and philosopher Alain Leroy Locke all made invaluable contributions to the first cultural flowering of African Americans in the United States. In 1926, writing under the nom de plume Richard Bruce, Richard Bruce Nugent published his homoerotic story ‘‘Smoke, Lilies, and Jade’’ in Fire!!, an avant-garde literary journal of the Harlem Renaissance’s younger artists. One of the first particulars Alex reveals about himself is that he has no job. We also learn that his mother questions the practicality of his profession as an artist. In the early passages of the text, Nugent paints a marvelous rich portrait of an artist who ‘‘wants to write something’’ but lies in bed smoking and thinking. Alex embodies the archetypal decadent artist. Decadence, the belief that art takes precedence over nature, that traditional forms of creating meaning in the world such as religion and love are empty of meaning, the disruption of staid middle-class values in favor of bohemian values, greatly influences Nugent’s work of experimental fiction. In it, he explores the consciousness—the dreams and thoughts—of his protagonist Alex and, by doing so, introduces a new way of seeing, one that is beyond black and white. Historian David Levering Lewis, in When Harlem Was in Vogue, a work that is essential reading for amateur and specialist alike interested in tracing the contours of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote that ‘‘Smoke, Lilies, and Jade’’ was ‘‘like nothing done before by an Afro-American writer.’’ Indeed, the story itself is more evocative of the work of Oscar Wilde and other European writers where art for art’s sake was the call of the day, as opposed to the call by W. E. B. Du Bois for propaganda and obvious signs of racial uplift. As opposed to thinking of the Talented Tenth, Nugent, much like Langston Hughes, was interested in the common people, not the elite, because as Hughes wrote, this provided ‘‘a wealth of colorful, distinctive material for any artist because they still hold their own individuality in the face of American standardization. And perhaps these common people will give to the world its truly great Negro artist, the one who is not afraid to be himself.’’ In Infants of the Spring, Wallace Thurman, through his surrogate narrator Raymond Taylor, harbors intense skepticism about the Harlem Renaissance. This skepticism stems from, as Thurman views it, a lack of discipline. The narrator sees the rise of the black artist, with a few exceptions of course, as a ploy to attract white patronage: as Sweetie Mae Carr (a character based upon Zora Neale Hurston) tells Raymond at the salon, ‘‘Being a Negro writer these days is a racket and I’m going to make the most of it while it lasts.’’ Was Thurman right? Throughout this novel, based mostly in the Nigerratti (a word that Hurston coined) Manor, we see a stream of gin parties, sexual flings, violence, and not a lot of art. Nonetheless, the portrait of Harlem that Thurman paints is one of homosexuality and intertextuality. Paul Arbian, a thinly masked version of

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Richard Bruce Nugent, sees Wilde as a consummate artist. And Nugent in ‘‘Smoke, Lilies, and Jade’’ evokes Wilde when he is attempting to justify his claims to genius to his mother who only thinks that he should work—gay male writers helped introduce the idea of decadence and art for art’s sake to African American letters, thereby helping create a culture where art and ideas began to take root in the broader American culture. Beyond the Harlem Renaissance, James Baldwin, the first openly gay African American writer and intellectual, published Giovanni’s Room in 1956, a groundbreaking novel that depicts the relationship between two men. Lorraine Hansberry, widely acclaimed playwright and bisexual, argued that homophobia was antifeminist in nature. Her critique blended the philosophical and the political in its examination of the persecution gays and lesbians faced. Gays and Lesbians in Protest The contributions of gays and lesbians also extended to the political realm, as they often played vital roles in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Bayard Rustin, an openly gay man, served as an advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., and during the famous ‘‘I Have a Dream Speech,’’ Bayard Rustin stands next to King, lending his support. On June 27, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, 57 Christopher Street, New York City, officers of the New York City Police Department showed up to close down the establishment because it sold liquor without a license. What resulted was one of the most pivotal scenes in the history of the struggle for gay rights when gay men and women, led by black and Latino drag queens, stood their ground and fought officers for systematic harassment of homosexuals. In 1970, Huey P. Newton, iconic leader of the Black Panther Party, voiced his support for both women’s liberation and gay rights. As early as the late nineteenth century, African American women writers had been exploring lesbian themes in their work, in particular the work of Angelina Weld Grimk
e and Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson. The powerful presence of lesbian themes in African American literature returned in the late 1960s as a result of the Black Power Movement and the Black Arts Movement, where speaking one’s ‘‘soul,’’ we might say, became the order of the day. In 1977, Barbara Smith published an important essay titled ‘‘Toward a Black Feminist Criticism’’ that shifted the coordinates of literature. Quoted in Hoffer, she said, ‘‘All segments of the literary world—whether establishment, progressive, Black, female, or lesbian—do not know, or at least act as if they do not know, that Black women writers and Black lesbian writers exist.’’ From the vantage point of Smith’s essay, scholars and general readers alike may notice the presence of lesbian desire in such works as Nella Larsen’s Passing, published in 1929, and Toni Morrison’s Sula, published in 1973. The generation of black women writers following Smith used lesbian themes to explore the fuller dimensions of female subjectivity. Three landmark works are The Color Purple, by Alice Walker; The Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria Naylor; and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, by Audre Lorde, all published in 1982, and all shifting the contours of African American literature

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and culture. Also in 1982, Ntozake Shange published her novel Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo, which explores lesbianism and Black Nationalism. Important anthologies in the black lesbian literary tradition include Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual African American Fiction (2002) and Does Your Mama Know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories (1997). Gay and lesbian culture continues to influence African American popular culture and the wider world. The dances of Alvin Ailey and Bill T. Jones expanded the vocabulary of choreographers nationally and internationally, and any time we witness a ‘‘high five’’ on a basketball court, a baseball diamond, a football gridiron, or even a corporate boardroom, we are witnessing the invention of a gay man, Glenn Burke, who played with the Dodgers during the late 1970s and is credited with inventing this nearly universal sign of congratulations. During the AIDS pandemic of the late 1970s and 1980s, the media portrayed HIV/AIDS as a disease affecting only gay white men, yet African Americans gays and lesbians lent their support, seeing the issue across color lines. Along with James Baldwin, science fiction writer Samuel R. Delaney, Melvin Dixon, Essex Hemphill, and Joseph Beam have all made significant statements about AIDS. Two important anthologies that address gay male subjectivity are In the Life (1986) and Brother to Brother (1991). Since the early 1990s, best-selling author E. Lynn Harris (1955–2009) and James Earl Hardy have made sustained explorations of gay and lesbian culture within the African American community. Harris’s work examines gay and bisexual life within mainstream, which is to say heterosexual, African American communities, and Hardy’s work, in particular B-Boy Blues, continues to open doors and vistas for gay and lesbian writers. Leaving his job at IBM, Harris wrote Invisible Life, a novel whose title echoes Ellison’s Invisible Man. With Invisible Life receiving rejections from twelve publishers, Harris published the novel himself and has become one of the most popular black writers. Realizing in college that he was bisexual, Harris used writing to address his identity head on. Quoted in Drew, he said, ‘‘It [Writing] helped me to deal with my own sexuality,’’ Harris said. ‘‘For me, my 20s and early 30s were spent just hiding and running, because there was no one to tell me that my life had value and the way I felt was okay.’’ Yet more than sport, more than art, the role of gays and lesbians in the African American community brings us to the heart of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream—acceptance. For this reason, the recent struggle over same-sex marriage has become deeply contested terrain over the definition of the word ‘‘marriage.’’ Al Sharpton has expressed his approval of gay marriage, and Peter J. Gomes, chaplain of Harvard University, has stated in Watson’s article on ‘‘Black Leaders’’ that ‘‘To extend the civil right of marriage to homosexuals will neither solve nor complicate the problems inherent in marriage, but what it will do is permit a whole class of persons, our fellow citizens under the law heretofore irrationally deprived of a civil right, both to benefit from and participate in a valuable yet vulnerable institution which in our changing society needs all the help it can get.’’ And in her attempt to extend the legacy of her husband’s dream, Coretta

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Scott King said in Wilson’s article ‘‘State High Court,’’ ‘‘Homophobia is as morally wrong and as unacceptable as racism. We ought to extend to gay and lesbian people the same respect and dignity we claim for ourselves. Every person is a child of God, and every human being is entitled to full human rights.’’ Yet these strong sentiments have met opposition on religious grounds. Within the American and the African American communities, for all their similarities and their differences, for all their areas of convergence and divergence, religion has proven to be one of those foundational elements that has continued to exert its influence on the majority view of same-sex marriage. The connections between gay rights and civil rights have proven intriguing because, despite and even in terms of the sustained contributions of gays and lesbians to African American popular culture, they are, as a result of legislation, closed out of the body politic, of the collective striving to achieve, in the words of the United States Constitution, ‘‘a more perfect union.’’ What the media has shown us is the unfolding of a new chapter in the nation’s history, a narrative that, rather than making heterosexuality the norm, and by extension rendering gays and lesbians voiceless and invisible. A quarter of a century following the Stonewall Inn incident that sparked the Gay Rights Movement, Martin Duberman, quoted in ‘‘The Message’’ said, ‘‘We didn’t even get to cover our own riot. Which is no surprise. In a heterosexual universe, it had long been assumed that gay men and lesbians were not reliable witnesses of their lives (let alone anything else).’’ Yet even the most cursory of glances into gay and lesbian culture reveals the significant contributions made to our collective understanding of humanity because their struggle is an intrinsic part of the larger struggle for individual and communal acceptance, regardless of sexual orientation. See also: Men, African American, Images of; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Bell, Chris. 2005. ‘‘Gay Literature.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Boykin, Keith. 1999. ‘‘Gay and Lesbian Movements in the United States.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Drew, Bernard A. 2007. ‘‘E. Lynn Harris.’’ 100 Most Popular African American Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Ellison, Ralph. 1995. ‘‘What America Would Be Like Without Blacks.’’ In The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison. John F. Callahan, ed. New York: Modern. Hoffer, Laura A. 2005. ‘‘Lesbian Literature.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Thurman, Wallace. 1992. Infants of the Spring. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Village Voice. 1994. ‘‘The Message.’’ June 28: 23.

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Watson, Jamal E. 2004. ‘‘Black Leaders: Gay Marriage is ‘Civil Rights Issue.’’’ New York Amsterdam News, March 24: 6. Wilson, Phill. 2008. ‘‘State High Court Forms ‘More Perfect Union.’’’ Sacramento Observer, May 22: C7–C8. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Gaye, Marvin (1939–84), Singer-Songwriter, Musician Marvin Gaye embodied the evolution of popular African American music culture for three decades. His legacy as a composer, lyricist, and performer traverses the urban music landscape from postwar American standards to doo-wop and pop R & B (Rhythm & Blues) dance tunes of the 1960s, to the Soul message songs in the 1970s and 1980s. Throughout his career, he tested relationships and social convention against an ambitious drive for creative expression, free of commercial dictates. His seminal work reflected this vulnerability and discomfiture, exorcised by rebelliousness and pacified by drugs. Called the ‘‘Prince of Soul,’’ Gaye was at times reluctant, but an essential accomplice in shaping the signature crossover Motown sound that united generations of a divided America. Gaye’s iconoclastic contributions extend into the twenty-first century as his star paves the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Many of his television performances between 1965 and 1971 are captured in the DVD of Motown 50 (2009), regularly pitched by original Motown artists in infomercials and fund-raising spots. A recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Gaye is an inductee of both the Rock and Roll and Soul Train Hall of Fame. Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. was born April 2, 1939, in Washington, DC, to Alberta, a domestic worker and Marvin Gay Sr., a Seventh Day Adventist pastor. Gaye, after reaching initial success at Motown, added the ‘‘e’’ to his name for several reasons. First, following in the steps of soul singer Sam Cooke, Gaye thought it added to his sex appeal and dismissed any association with the gay or homosexual lifestyle, which was not a well-known term until later, in the mid-1970s. He also apparently wanted to distance himself more from his strict, religious father who allegedly beat his children, was an alcoholic, and exhibited effeminate tendencies. Often teased by his peers, Gaye—the second of four siblings—seldom played outside. The family lived in projects in segregated, Southwest Washington, DC. Gaye began singing gospel and playing the organ in his father’s church at the age of three. He attended Cardozo High School where he studied drums, piano, and guitar. He joined the D.C. Tones, a doo-wop group, which performed regularly on the corner of 60th and East Capitol Streets. Gaye left school at seventeen, enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. Eight months later in June 1957, he returned home, honorably discharged. He joined the doowop group the Marquees. Blues singer and guitarist Bo Didley (1928–2008) produced their first recording, ‘‘Hey Little School Girl.’’ A year later, Gaye met singer-songwriter Harvey Fuqua, who repopulated the original, then-fractured Moonglows with the Marquees. Fuqua and the Moonglows

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relocated to Chicago finding work as backup for Chess Records stars Chuck Berry and Etta James. Gaye, nineteen, charmingly shy and inexperienced, relished the new freedom, but soon learned the price of stardom. Under Fuqua’s tutelage, the group toured the segregated South, exposing him to racism, rejection, and the gritty, vice-laced reality of show business. Fuqua would eventually sell 50 percent of Gaye’s contract to Berry Gordy Jr., who founded Motown Records in 1959. ‘‘The Prince of Motown’’ Gaye thrived under Gordy’s family-oriented entrepreneurial acumen, whose production strategy was modeled after the assembly line of the Ford Motor Company. Gordy nurtured performers through a structured grooming and talent development process where mass appeal of the polished, final product was the bottom line. Gaye signed with Tamla, an imprint owned by Berry’s sister, Anna Gordy, whom Gaye married in 1963. Gaye moodily moved through the ranks as a session drummer for the first big hits from the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, and the Marvellettes. Although Gaye had witnessed popular music changing while touring with the Moonglows, he was adamant about advancing his career as a crooner in the sleek, cool sartorial style of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. His first solo recording ‘‘The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye’’ (1961) featured jazzstylized ballads, Broadway show tunes from Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and songs written by Fuqua and Berry and Anna Gordy. It failed. After much consternation, Gaye relented and penned his fourth single ‘‘Stubborn Kind of Fellow’’—a sardonic, finger-popping ditty on his reticent ways. The 1962 hit was Gaye’s signature solo performance for the first Motown Revue, a 34-city tour along the East Coast, through the Chitlin Circuit down South and back North. The revue and bluesy dance singles ‘‘Hitchhike’’ (1962) and ‘‘Pride and Joy’’ (1963) hoisted record sales and resulted in offers for television appearances. By 1965—the year of the Watts riots in Los Angeles—Gaye’s star soared, as did his cocaine use and arguments with his much-older wife. Gordy maximized Gaye’s smooth, sexy, model looks by pairing him with several of Motown’s leading songstresses. They included: the ‘‘First Lady of Motown,’’ Mary Wells, on the 1964 Together album; Kim Weston on ‘‘It Takes Two’’ (1966), and Tami Terrell, a coquettish, street-smart beauty from Philadelphia. Gaye and Terrell’s string of memorable duets ‘‘Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,’’ ‘‘You’re All I Need to Get By’’, and ‘‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’’ celebrated young love of any color. The duo also made a 1967 commercial for Coca-Cola. In July 1967, Detroit blazed from a race riot. Hitsville U.S.A, however, held ground. More urban scenes of a devastated community entrenched in unemployment and isolating poverty exacerbated Gaye’s acute depression after Terrell’s death in 1970 from a brain tumor. Not even the phenomenal success of his first international number one pop single, ‘‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’’ (1968) inspired him to perform. Although Gaye relished his urban pop celebrity, he ached for recognition as a gifted musical ambassador, mediating the strife of his community, country, and the world. Conversely, Gordy consistently protected the profitability of Motown

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by steering artists away from incorporating societal ills towards more commercial fare. During the time, many Motown stars were deserting the label for lucrative deals elsewhere. Inspired by experiences of his younger brother Frankie, a Vietnam veteran, Gaye created ‘‘What’s Going On’’ (1971), and admonished the world’s negligence of ecology, world peace, and its future—the children. Gordy, leery of the foreboding content, doubted financial return. ‘‘What’s Going On’’ the single and the album became Motown’s top seller of all time. The NAACP awarded Gaye the Image Award for producer, male vocalist, and album of the year. Gaye composed and performed the mostly instrumental soundtrack for the 1972 movie Trouble Man starring Robert Hooks as a determined private detective out to right the wrongs of the ghetto and the establishment. The repeated themes common in blaxploitation movies of the era yielded lackluster box office sales and limited exposure of the score. The next decade of Gaye’s life unfolds as a sensual/spiritual intoxicated odyssey where family and inner demons provided fodder for erratic success. The Let’s Get It On (1973) and I Want You (1976) albums chronicle Gaye’s lust-transfigured-to-love affair with Janis Hunter, who was only seventeen years old at the time of their meeting. Janice Hunter and Gaye had two children, Nona and Frankie, by 1975. They married in 1977 after he finalized his divorce from wife Anna. Bankrupt, drug-addicted, and paranoid, Gaye renegotiated his Motown contract for total creative freedom and produced ‘‘Here, My Dear’’ (1978) in payment of alimony. Furious when Gordy released an altered ‘‘In Our Lifetime’’ (1981), Marvin Gaye severed the creative marriage with Motown. In 1982, Columbia bought out Gaye’s contract and recorded the Midnight Love album in Belgium. The chart-topping single ‘‘Sexual Healing’’ garnered Gaye two 1983 Grammy awards for Best Male Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance and Best Instrumental Recording. Gaye and Gordy somberly acknowledged a lifetime of collaborative genius for the last time with Gaye’s performance of ‘‘What’s Going On’’ in 1983 during the bittersweet, NBC-televised Motown 25. Gaye’s soulful performance of ‘‘The Star-Spangled Banner’’ at the NBA All-Star game the same year remains testament to an authentic journey fully traveled. On April 1, 1984, Gaye was shot dead a day before his 45th birthday by his father after an argument over family finances. Gaye’s estate earned $3.5 million in 2008 according to Forbes magazine, coinciding with the half-century anniversary of the Motown sound. See also: Musicians and Singers Further Reading Davis, Sharon. 1991. I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Marvin Gaye, A Biography. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. Dyson, Eric Michael. 2004. Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves & Demons of Marvin Gaye. New York: Basic Civitas Books.

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Gaye, Frankie, and Fred E. Basten. 2003. Marvin Gaye, My Brother. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. Ritz, David. 1986. Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye. Cambridge, MA: DA Capo Press. Kissette Bundy

Genealogy and DNA Testing In the fall of 1998, a nation of viewers watched as C-SPAN chronicled the tales of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson. While it’s no great leap of the imagination to consider a family existing two generations after an ancestor has passed away, what made this chronicling of tales a media event worthy of live coverage, especially within the realm of African American popular culture, was that Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States of America, author of the Declaration of Independence, and a white man, had descendants who were African American. Jefferson, one of the founding fathers, had been proven to be the father of children born to the enslaved woman Sally Hemings (1773–1836). Before the fall of 1998, Thomas Jefferson as the father of biracial children had been an accusation, unverified by scientists, refuted by historians, yet propagated by those who sought to deride or cast shadows upon the Founding Father. In 1802, James Callender, quoted in Martin’s ‘‘Slaves to the Truth,’’ declared in print that ‘‘by this wench Sally, our president has had several children.’’ Jefferson neither refuted nor acknowledged these accusations regarding his affair with Sally Hemings. Following Jefferson’s death, his white descendants attempted to protect his legacy by dismissing any and all claims regarding the affair between Hemings and Jefferson, who was, in death as in life, proving to be an American sphinx. Yet, the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings, particularly the notion that a white president may have fathered biracial children, continued to fascinate African American writers and artists. In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, one black war veteran, in a moment of mistaking an identity, says, ‘‘I should know my own grandfather! He’s Thomas Jefferson and I’m his grandson—on the ‘field-n*****’s side.’’ In 1998, hard science caught up with the imaginative play of writers. With DNA testing available, scientists seeking hard evidence to either verify or falsify the swirl of opinions surrounding Hemings and Jefferson, discovered that it was ‘‘extremely likely’’ that Eston Hemings, the last child of Sally Hemings, had Thomas Jefferson as his father. These results were published in Nature magazine, November 5, 1998. The following year, descendants of Sally Hemings were invited to a Jefferson family gathering hosted by the Monticello Association, yet the evening ended with dissension between the descendants of the two lines. The ultimate blow was the association’s decision to not extend membership to the descendants of Sally Hemings. While it took an article in Nature magazine to verify with DNA evidence the connection between Hemings and Jefferson, an affair that arguably trumps other

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presidential scandals, Jefferson himself had proven himself to be rather contradictory in his view of African Americans. As he wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia: It will probably be asked, Why not retain and incorporate the blacks into the state, and thus save the expence of supplying, by importation of white settlers, the vacancies they will leave? Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race.—To these objections, which are political, may be added others, which are physical and moral. The first difference which strikes us is that of colour.

While Jefferson considers here the possibility of including blacks as free members of the body politic of the United Stats, he draws the conclusion that such an inclusion is impossible because of ‘‘the real distinctions which nature has made.’’ Yet the irony here is that through miscegenation these ‘‘real distinctions’’ that are natural are more social in nature. As a Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson proved himself to be a man of contradiction, one whose legacy includes writing the Declaration of Independence, full of Enlightenment rhetoric about freedom, that runs against the reality that he was a slaveholder. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid carries genetic information for nearly all living organisms, and the ability to discover specific DNA information through testing has opened up a new approach for historians, professional as well as amateur, to study genetics and genealogy, whether the goal is to find ancestors of one’s own family or to map ancient populations. The genealogical approach to family history has become a trend in the United States, where countless African Americans have attempted to reconnect to Africa by discovering where their ancestors may have come from before being uprooted by the transatlantic slave trade. Ever the careful observer of black life and culture, Zora Neale Hurston, in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, sheds light onto the significance of genealogy as it relates to African Americans in particular. Nanny, the grandmother of the main character, tells her grandchild, ‘‘You know, honey, us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways.’’ One element of slavery’s overall trauma, seen in countless works of American and African American literature, is the severing of familial ties for economic gain. For a long while, it had been the province of writers to try to reimagine these links between lost family members, or ‘‘branches without roots.’’ Scientists have helped bridge this gulf. Before DNA testing, genealogies had been charted according to birth certificates, when available, word of mouth, if unavailable, and even at times a study of features. Soon after the black war veteran in Ellison’s novel announces that he has found his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson, a friend of his concurs. ‘‘Sylvester, I do believe you’re right. I certainly do,’’ he says. ‘‘Look at those features. Exactly like yours—from the identical mold. Are you sure he didn’t spit you upon the earth, fully clothed?’’ The question itself is highly comical, bordering upon the

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mythological, yet the shrouds of myth that have covered so much of our past, particularly of the relations between black and white, have been pulled away in the study of genealogy and DNA. Our urge to learn of the past has brought the sciences and the humanities together in new and interesting ways, revealing the roots, branches, and entire trees that make up the broader human family. Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (2008), is an important book that extends the implications of genealogy and DNA in the rewriting of our nation’s history. The renowned Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has used DNA testing as well as genealogical research to explore famous African Americans’ racial and genetic backgrounds in three PBS documentaries, African American Lives (2007); African American Lives 2 (2008); and Faces of America (2010) (which also featured tracing the backgrounds of celebrated Asian Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Whites). In all, science and history have intersected in ways that will continue to produce new chapters in the overall complexion of the national character and culture. See also: Science and Scientists Further Reading Ellison, Ralph. 1990. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage. Hey, David, ed. 2009. ‘‘DNA.’’ The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History. New York: Oxford University Press. Hurston, Zora Neale. 2006. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper. Jefferson, Thomas. 1784. Notes on the State of Virginia. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ toccer-new2?id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/ parsed&tag=public&part=14&division=div1. Martin, Jurek. 1998. ‘‘Slaves to the Truth: Presidential Dalliances are Nothing New. Jurek Martin Reports on Genetic Evidence.’’ Financial Times (London), November 21:03. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Gibson, Althea (1927–2003), Tennis Player Althea Gibson is a famous name in African American popular culture. The name is synonymous with tennis and the historical struggle for inclusion in American society. Gibson, the pioneering African American tennis player, began her career in the 1950s and astonished the world with her many national and international wins in the tennis circuit. She is notable not only for her impressive Grand Slam wins but for breaking the color barrier in tennis. She won the French Tennis Championships (now known as the French Open) in 1956. Two years in a row, she won the prestigious Wimbledon Championships and U.S. Championships (now known as the U.S. Open). Many years later, in 1971, she was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame. Gibson pursued many eclectic interests outside of tennis. After retiring from tennis in 1958, Gibson produced one album, Althea Gibson Sings, and appeared in

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the film The Horse Soldiers in 1959. Between 1964 and 1971, she participated in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. In 1968, Gibson returned to tennis before moving on to basketball and bowling. Until sickness prevented her from doing otherwise, Gibson settled into an active life of motivational speaking, facilitating tennis clinics, and unsuccessfully running for state senator in New Jersey. In promotional photos, Gibson, in tennis gear, looks good-natured and sweet. She embodies a young woman of conventional sensibilities (despite the fact that women in sports were, in the 1950s, considered unconventional). The images of Gibson’s early career belie a woman who rebelled against traditions at every chance during her childhood and early youth. Althea Gibson was born in Silver, South Carolina, on August 25, 1927. Her parents, Daniel Gibson and Annie Bell, worked on their cotton farm, but problems on the farm and financial difficulties forced them to look for employment in New York. Gibson and her four siblings grew up in Harlem. Harlem, in the 1930s, was still reeling in the excitement of the famous African American literary and musical movement popularly known as the Harlem Renaissance. Gibson preferred, whether independently or with friends, venturing to concerts, listening to music, and watching movies rather than going to school. Her many school truancies got her into trouble with her father and precipitated stints in a home for wayward girls. Nevertheless, the strong-willed Gibson liked to live by her own rules. For example, Gibson used the Boxing skills she learned from her father to fight, including one truculent gang member who had been harassing her uncle. Gibson enjoyed other activities that were considered nontraditional for girls, like besting boys at stickball, paddleball, and tennis. Playing tennis at local venues in the 1940s is what brought Gibson to the attention of many influential people. Fred Johnson, a prominent tennis coach in the city, helped develop Gibson’s technique. Gibson quit high school after one year and began playing tennis with more seriousness, while working intermittent jobs. The American Tennis Association, which, according to Ray and Lamb, is considered ‘‘the longest-running black sports organization in history,’’ helped sponsor Gibson’s early championship events and initiated efforts to make her the first African American to play at Forest Hills. Along the way, Gibson was supported financially and emotionally by friends such as the legendary African American filmmaker and photographer Gordon Parks and African American boxing great Sugar Ray Robinson. In an effort to groom her for the part that she would play in history, Gibson lived with an affluent black family in Wilmington, North Carolina. In Wilmington, Gibson graduated from Williston Industrial High School, where she played the saxophone and basketball. Her guardians were instrumental in teaching Gibson social etiquette. After graduation, Gibson attended Florida A&M, a historically black college, on a Basketball scholarship. After graduation, Gibson faced difficulties penetrating the color barrier in the tennis industry; however, her persistence won out. Gibson made a groundbreaking debut at the previously all-white championships at Forest Hill in 1950. In 1951, she played at Wimbledon. She experienced wins, as well as losses, while her popularity accelerated. The black press, as well as mainstream media, followed Gibson’s

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trips around the world. After a tour in Asia, Gibson made history when she won at the French Open. In 1957, after Gibson had a triumphant win at Wimbledon, Queen Elizabeth personally presented Gibson with an award. At home, in New York, African American leaders prepared a lavish parade; Mayor Robert Wagner gave her a bronze medal, and a block party was held in Harlem. In 1958, Gibson, again, came home with championship titles from France and England. Amid Gibson’s massive popularity, she dramatically changed the direction of her career path, trying various new ventures. Her singing album and role in a mainstream film did not yield permanent careers. The songs on her album, performed in her deep, silky voice, paid tribute to the legends of jazz. Her role as a black maid in The Horse Soldiers demonstrated how limited black roles were in mainstream films. Gibson contends that she attempted to portray her stereotypical character with as much dignity as possible. Gibson, however, performed well during her golf career. Although two marriages, in 1965 and 1983, ended in divorce, Gibson maintained busy schedules mentoring African American youth, including the future tennis star Zina Garrison. Gibson produced two memoirs–I Always Wanted to be Somebody (1958) and So Much to Live For (1968). In her last years, Gibson struggled with failing health and financial difficulties. Tennis, in her time, was not lucrative. Moreover, racism prevented many African American athletes from maintaining an adequate living. Nonetheless, she left an enduring legacy and set in motion new opportunities for future tennis icons, such as Arthur Ashe, Zina Garrison, and Serena and Venus Williams. Gibson died in 2003. See also: Williams, Venus, and Williams, Serena; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Altheagibson.com. (n.d.) ‘‘US Open Honors Althea Gibson’’ (Althea Gibson tribute site.) http://www.altheagibson.com/. Gibson, Althea. 1958. I Always Wanted to Be Somebody. New York: Harper. Gray, Frances Clayton and Yanick Rice Lamb. 2004. Born to Win: The Authorized Biography of Althea Gibson. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Harris, Cecil, and Larryette Kyle-DeBose. 2007. Charging the Net: A History of Blacks in Tennis from Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe to the Williams Sisters. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. Journey of the African American Athlete. 1998. HBO Home Video. VHS. June 9. Gladys L. Knight

Gillespie, Dizzy (1917–93), Jazz Trumpeter, Bandleader, Composer Dizzy Gillespie is known for his innovative style as a jazz trumpeter. He was one of the foremost leaders of bebop, a musical style that revolutionized jazz in the 1940s.

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Born John Birks Gillespie on October 21, 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina, Dizzy Gillespie was the ninth and last child of Lottie and James Gillespie, a bricklayer and amateur musician. Gillespie learned to play several musical instruments at an early age. Although he was smart in school, he barely studied; however, Gillespie earned a scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina, where he studied elements of musical theory and harmony. He also studied agriculture and played football but discovered that both were detrimental to his hands. Learning to play the trumpet A trumpet virtuoso, who with Charlie Parker by trial and error, Gillespie instigated the bop revolution, showman Dizzy Gil- imitated Louis Armstrong and lespie inspired scores of instrumentalists by Roy Eldridge but never rewalking the musical high wire. His driving ceived formal training. He soon improvisations displayed fertile imagination, incredible technical skill, lightning contrasts, and developed his own style and cascading notes as he puffed out his cheeks and was able to teach others. After his father’s death, blew a misshapen trumpet. (Library of Congress) Gillespie’s family moved to Philadelphia in 1935. Due to the move he was unable to graduate from school, but he received his diploma and football letter in 1947 during a visit to Laurinburg Institute. Shortly after moving to Philadelphia, Gillespie joined Frankie Fairfax’s band, acquiring the nickname ‘‘Dizzy’’ because of his unorthodox behavior, on-stage antics, and dizzying rhythmic speed, setting new standards for trumpet players. He then moved to New York playing with Teddy Hill’s band in 1937 and gained the opportunity to travel to London and Paris at age nineteen. Throughout his musical career, Gillespie collaborated and played with recognizable names in jazz such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, Earl Hines, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughn, and other influential jazz artists. Gillespie had an insatiable love of music. He was one of the first musicians to infuse bossa nova, Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, and Brazilian musical genres into his jazz and bebop repertoire. In addition to his improvisation and aggressive style, he was most known for four things: being an instrumental figure in the creation of bebop—a derivative of jazz that incorporated extended chord structures; highly syncopated and linear rhythmic complexity and improvisations; his trademark ballooning cheeks as he played; his upturned trumpet’s bell set at a 45 degree angle;

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and his flamboyant style consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, Bohemian bowties, goatee, and beret. Several of Gillespie’s most-known songs, ‘‘A Night in Tunisia,’’ ‘‘Groovin’ High,’’ ‘‘Salt Peanuts,’’ ‘‘Manteca’’, and ‘‘Dizzy Atmosphere’’ are considered jazz classics today. On May 9, 1940, Gillespie married Gussie Lorraine Willis, an Apollo Theater chorus dancer, in Boston, Massachusetts. They had no children, but Gillespie did father a daughter, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson, with songwriter Connie Bryson. Gillespie traveled with a sixteen-piece band to the Middle East and Latin America in 1956 as a representative designated by the U.S. State Department to aid jazz and improve foreign relations. In 1988, he founded the United Nations Orchestra, bringing together American, Caribbean, and South American musicians. By 1990, Gillespie had won numerous recognitions including a plaque from President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was also made a French commandeur des arts et lettres and a Nigerian tribal chieftain. Dizzy Gillespie was a man whose musical genius transcended the scope of the normal standards of music, creating a style that showcased not only his musical talents and abilities but also allowed fellow musicians to exhibit theirs as well. He died in Englewood, New Jersey, on January 6, 1993. See also: Bebop Music; Musicians and Singers; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Further Reading Dizzygillespie.org. (n.d.) ‘‘The Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars’’ (Dizzy Gillespie tribute site.) http://www.dizzygillespie.org. Feather, Leonard. 1972. From Satchmo to Miles. New York: Da Capo Press. Gitler, Ira. 2001. The Masters of Bebop: A Listener’s Guide. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Christina D. Cruse

Giovanni, Nikki (1943– ), Poet, Activist, Educator Nikki Giovanni, a poet and activist who received national attention during the 1960s, played a key role in promoting civil rights and justice while offering a rich and honest perspective of the African American experience. Born June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee, Yolanda Cornelia ‘‘Nikki’’ Giovanni was well aware of her family history as a descendent of slaves who were once owned by an Italian slave master. Continuing the legacy of her family toward progress and education, Giovanni entered Fisk University in 1960. While at Fisk, her assertiveness and independent thinking put her at odds with the rules of the university. Fisk, which catered to middle-class blacks, was limiting to Giovanni and she was later suspended. She did return in 1964 and receive her

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bachelor’s degree in history. Her political stance was influenced by writerin-residence John O. Killens, a member of the Fisk English faculty and prominent author, and her experiences in the Fisk Writers Workshop. Giovanni became fully vested in the struggle for black civil rights and as a result was able to persuade the university to reinstate the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to Fisk’s campus. Giovanni’s militant attitude, sparked by the political climate of the 1960s, is clearly shown in her first book of poems entitled, Black Feeling, Black Talk in 1967. Her activism influenced other sides of her revolutionary stance, which was reflected in texts such as Black Judgment, published in 1968, the poem ‘‘Nikki Rosa,’’ and Re: Creation published in 1970. Her works during this period offered a different perspective to the previously negated experiences of black Americans. Giovanni challenged injustices while becoming more introspective in her work with My House in 1972 to Those Who Ride the Night Winds in 1983. As a parent, and a black woman, Giovanni was in a unique position to explain and explore the social and political circumstances in the United States. The most notable of her collections is Ego Tripping and Other Poems for Young People published in 1973. Giovanni’s poetry has been so well received it continues to be a necessary inclusion in African American and American poetry anthologies. Giovanni’s popularity soared as she made numerous television appearances and read her poems to a wide and diverse viewing audience. Her poems were put to music, winning the National Association of Radio and Announcement Award for the production Truth Is on Its Way, and in 1988 winning the Silver Apple Award from the Oakland Museum Film Festival for Spirit to Spirit. In reaching out to audiences of the time, Giovanni’s poetry addresses experiences that support selfawareness, and offers new perspectives for the young and the mature. Her book of poetry, Love Poems (1997), was written in memory of Tupac Shakur, a young rap artist whom she admired. She wrote a poem of loss in 2007 for the community of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), where she taught, when thirty-three people were killed in a deadly shooting rampage. In 1987, after holding several teaching positions, Giovanni became a visiting creative writing professor at Virginia Tech. She went on to become a full professor in 1989 and subsequently a Distinguished Professor of English at the university. In 1985 Giovanni was awarded the title Outstanding Woman of Tennessee. In 1999 she received the Governor’s Award in the Arts from the Tennessee Arts Commission. For her continued influence and ideas she has been awarded numerous honorary degrees. See also: Feminism; Poetry Jams; Poets and Poetry Further Reading Collier, Andrea King. 2005. ‘‘A Poetic Force: Nikki Giovanni this powerful poet doesn’t shy away from tough topics, and audiences of all ages love her for it.’’ Writers 118 (October): 22. Literature Resource Center.

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Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. ‘‘Nikki Giovanni.’’ Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Giovanni, Nikki. 2007. Acolytes. New York: William Morrow. Giovanni, Nikki. 2003. The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968–1998. New York: William Morrow. Nikki Giovanni. (Homepage.) http://nikki-giovanni.com. Lean’tin L. Bracks

Globalization Globalization is the process through which far-flung places of the world have been brought together through trade, thereby uniting the world as one market and establishing patterns of consumption and production that drive economies across the globe. Globalization has been fueled by advances in technology, and the Internet itself has been called the global village. Manifestations of globalization are made evident in our daily lives. Italian carmaker Fiat’s recent acquisition of United States carmaker Chrysler is only one example of globalization. Tourism, the Olympic Games, the World Baseball Classic, cosmopolitanism, movies, and the international appeal of such athletes and icons as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant all suggest the extent to which experiences and points of reference are shared across national borders. In many ways, we could say that globalization began with the institution of slavery in the so-called New World. The age of exploration, made possible in part by advances in science and navigation, brought with it the need of European powers to find new markets for economic gain. Christopher Columbus, one of the most controversial figures in all of human history, a man who can be venerated as a master mariner or repudiated as a rogue, was also a merchant, and the production of sugar in the West Indies, which fostered the beginning of the Triangle Trade, was the result of his nautical daring and expertise. When Africans were trafficked into the New World, that was the stirrings of an international community. With that community came the dividing of humans into producers and consumers, with slave labor providing leisure for a wealthy elite. In the twenty-first century, for all the euphoria that comes from having buying power, globalization is not without its discontents. The underbelly of globalization has been human trafficking, labor in sweatshops, even Prostitution. The real cost of an item such as a pair of shoes may at times be human dignity. Hiphop artists with old school swagger like Kanye West have articulated this concern, for instance in his song ‘‘Diamonds Are Forever.’’ As Kanye puts it, ‘‘This ain’t Vietnam still / People lose hands, legs, arms for real / [. . .] Over here is the drug trade, we die from drugs / Over there they die from what we buy from drugs.’’ As a result of his broad reach, Kanye West blends art and activism, teaching his audience phrases such as ‘‘conflict diamond,’’ and helping to foster an awareness of the violence and degradation of human life that can at times

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result when material strivings hinder what Abraham Lincoln called the ‘‘better angels of our nature.’’ On the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago delivered his Nobel Prize banquet speech. Rather than speak broadly about aesthetics or the philosophy of literature, Saramago addressed the soul-crushing aspects of globalization. ‘‘The multinational and pluricontinental companies whose power—absolutely nondemocratic—reduce to next to nothing what is left of the ideal of democracy,’’ Saramago said. ‘‘We citizens are not fulfilling our duties either. Let us think that no human rights will exist without symmetry of the duties that correspond to them. It is not to be expected that governments in the next 50 years will do it. Let us common citizens therefore speak up.’’ In our age of globalization, we are left to wonder if athletes are ‘‘common citizens’’ able to ‘‘speak up.’’ If globalization has a face within the realm of African American popular culture, that face is Michael Jordan, the ultimate pitchman and icon of the global market. ‘‘Jordan eats Wheaties, drives Chevrolets, wears Hanes, drinks CocaCola, consumes McDonald’s, guzzles Gatorade, and, of course, wears Nikes,’’ Michael Eric Dyson points out. ‘‘He and his shrewd handlers have successfully produced, packaged, marketed, and distributed his image and commodified his symbolic worth.’’ As a result of pervasive media, sport stars are transformed into global icons, entering the arena of globalization where their individual excellence becomes lucrative for multinational corporations and athletes alike. Yet this generation of wealth is not without its conflict. As Douglass Kellner instructs, ‘‘In Michael Jordan, globalization, commodification, sport, entertainment, and media come together to produce a figure who serves as a totem of athletic achievement, business success, and celebrity.’’ For a glimpse of Jordan’s global reach, consider this: following his retirement from basketball in 1999, ‘‘the Beijing Morning Post ran a front-page story titled ‘Flying Man Jordan is Coming Back to Earth,’ and in Bosnia, Jordan’s statement declaring his retirement was the lead story on the evening television news, pushing aside the war in Kosovo.’’ In other words, in Jordan we have a man of immense popularity and power, yet when asked by the media his views regarding what many deem the exploitative nature of Nike with workers in southeast Asia responsible for the manufacture of his Air Jordan line of sneakers, Jordan offered ‘‘No comment.’’ When asked his views about the Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of the four police officers involved in the Rodney King beating, Jordan said, in a paraphrase from Kellner, ‘‘I’m more concerned with my jumpshot.’’ In the global age, athletes have tended to stay away from the political stage. Hip-hop artist Nas, featured on Kanye West’s track ‘‘We Major,’’ drops lyrics that touch upon the conflict of African Americans in the age of globalization, when he considers whether to ‘‘rap about big paper or the black man’s plight.’’ The two—materialism or spiritual strife—often do not go hand-in-hand, often raising questions about popular culture’s at times startling parallels to Minstrelsy. While globalization has fostered broad cultural diversity, it has proven ambivalent in its treatment of women in developing nations, along with the

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prevalence of Crime, the trafficking of humans, and the silencing of some artists and athletes on matters of significant social and political import. Unlike the Civil Rights Movement activists and Black Nationalism followers of the 1950s and 1960s, Jordan, along with new beneficiaries of popular culture and globalization such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, use their skills as a form of speaking that unites fans across the globe. However, within the context of African American popular culture, some of the toughest pundits demand that globalization be tempered with responsibility. According to Kellner, ‘‘Nobody’s asking you to be Malcolm X,’’ Todd Boyd said to Michael Jordan, ‘‘but when an opportunity arises, don’t run from it.’’ See also: Economic Development Further Reading Dyson, Michael Eric. 1998. ‘‘Be Like Mike? Michael Jordan and the Pedagogy of Desire.’’ In The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. Robert G. O’Meally, ed. New York: Columbia University Press. Kellner, Douglass. 2004. ‘‘The Sports Spectacle, Michael Jordan, and Nike.’’ Sport and the Color Line: Black Athletes and Race Relations in the Twentieth-Century America. New York: Routledge. Loucky, James, Jeanne Armstrong, and Larry J. Estrada. 2006. ‘‘Enslavement.’’ Immigration in America Today: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Saramago, Jose. 2010. ‘‘Banquet Speech.’’ Nobel Prize.org. www.nobelprize.org/nobel _prizes/literature/laureates/1998/saramago-speech_po.html. West, Kanye. 2005. Late Registration. New York: Roc-A-Fella Records. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Goldberg, Whoopi (1955– ), Comedian, Actress, Social Activist, Talk Show Host Whoopi Goldberg is most widely known for her edgy humor and sociopolitical commentary. Born Caryn Elaine Johnson to Robert J. Johnson Jr. and Emma Harris Johnson, Goldberg and brother Clyde grew up in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. Although Goldberg had several jobs as a young woman, it was in the Entertainment Industry where she found her niche. Ever since Goldberg first burst on the national scene as a comedienne, her dreadlocks, wire-rimmed glasses, and raspy voice have been her trademark persona. Goldberg first distinguished herself as a socially conscious comedienne by using her one-woman show as a unique mechanism to elevate discussions about social and political issues. While working in different venues to build a solid reputation in the entertainment industry, Goldberg realized the importance of being unique and recognizable for one’s craft. As a result, she changed her name to Whoopi Goldberg. She chose ‘‘Whoopi’’ because of people’s comments about her ‘‘overly

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flatulent behavior,’’ which had an uncanny semblance to a whoopee cushion. She chose the surname ‘‘Goldberg’’ to pay homage to her Jewish ancestry. As a teenager, Goldberg dropped out of high school and fought to overcome dyslexia. In spite of these challenges, she rose to prominence as a highly-soughtafter comedienne and actress. Through three divorces, drug addiction, the birth of her daughter Alexandria, and a cancelled contract as the spokesperson for SlimFast, Goldberg’s fame and celebrity endorsements broadened across various media: mainstream movies, independent films, TV shows, radio shows, and theater. Currently Goldberg has mainstream visibility as a cohost on ABC’s weekday show, The View, yet Goldberg’s cinematic repertoire spans many genres and several decades. Although Goldberg received critical acclaim for her role as Celie in The Color Purple (1985), it was her role as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost (1990) that earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Additional notable works in Goldberg’s diverse filmography include Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986), Burglar (1987), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Sarafina (1992), Sister Act (1992), Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), and Kingdom Come (2001). Goldberg has also lent her vocal talents to characters in animated movies like The Lion King (1994), The Rugrats Movie (1999), The Lion King 1 1=2 (2003), and Toy Story 3 (2010). Goldberg has often been referred to as a champion of social causes, lending her financial support and celebrity influence to different social causes, ranging from supporting music education in schools (Save the Music Benefit) and eradicating homelessness (Comic Relief Benefit) to donating funds to relief organizations working with Rwandan refugees. She has also earned respect as a businesswoman. Business ventures include owning One Ho Productions, coproducing the television show Hollywood Squares, executive producing the Lifetime (cable television) series Strong Medicine, and turning the hit movie Sister Act into a stage play. Moreover, several projects were born out of Goldberg’s venture to move from on screen to behind the scenes. For example, her nationally syndicated radio show was broadcast in the New York region. Goldberg has also written several books, including Whoopi’s Big Book of Manners (2006) and Sugar Plum Ballerinas Series (2008, 2009). It seems that Goldberg has left a warm trail of her identity across the landscape of media. See also: Actors and Performers

Further Reading Gates, Henry Louis Jr. 2009. In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past. New York: Crown Publishers. Koch, Neal. 2002. ‘‘Funny Lady, Serious Woman.’’ New York Times, March 24. http:// www.nytimes.com/2002/03/24/business/private-sector-funny-lady-serious-woman .html?scp=1&sq=whoopi+goldberg&st=nyt. Solomon, Deborah. 2006. ‘‘Making Nice.’’ New York Times, August 20. http://www.nytimes .com/2006/08/20/magazine/20wwln_q4.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Making+Nice&st=nyt. Soncerey L. Montgomery

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Golf ‘‘That little boy is driving well and he’s putting well,’’ said Frank ‘‘Fuzzy’’ Zoeller, a professional golfer, of twenty-one-year-old Tiger Woods, the most dominant golfer of his era, during the 1997 Masters golf tournament. ‘‘He’s doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it?’’ Following these comments, Zoeller tossed back to the camera as he walked away, ‘‘or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve,’’ he continued. Zoeller, who had won the tournament nearly two decades earlier, in his off-hand and off-color comments, had voiced one of the main concerns surrounding the idea of golf in African American popular culture. A game that had come to the United States from Scotland in the 1880s, and a game, in its early formation, regulated to private clubs, golf was seen as a predominantly white sport. Even so, the game, from the moment it landed on American soil, has been shaped, and unmistakably so, by people of color. In 1870, George Grant became the first African American to graduate from Harvard dental school, and while he would go on to a distinguished career practicing dentistry in Boston, Grant’s enduring legacy is seen every time a golfer tees off. George Grant designed the first golf tee patented by the U.S. Patent Office, No. 638,920, on December 12, 1899. Two years before Grant’s patent, John Shippen, a golfer of African American and Native American ancestry, participated in the second U.S. Open, held at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Shinnecock, New York, finishing fifth. As golf gained popularity during the 1920s, two prominent golf club designers were Dewey Burns and Joseph Bartholomew. In 1925, the U.S. Colored Golfers Association formed, providing an institutional voice and presence for golfers of color; in 1928, the organization was renamed the United Golfers Association (UGA), yet the course had been set for African Americans willing to take a pioneering role in the golf world. Born in Washington, DC, in 1934, Robert Lee Elder became one of the early black pioneers of golf. As a boy, he caddied in Dallas, Texas, an invaluable apprenticeship, and he made a name for himself when he finished second to Joe Louis at a UGA hosted event. After being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1958, Elder captained the army team, and in 1959, he turned professional, dominating the UGA tour during the 1960s, and using his increasingly prominent stature as a golfer to bring an awareness of social injustice and racial inequality. One of the most dominant golfers of the 1970s and 1980s was Calvin Peete. According to Luther W. Spoehr, legendary golfer Tom Watson described Peete as ‘‘the most accurate striker of the ball in golf,’’ and his twelve Professional Golfers Association (PGA) wins were the most by an African American—before the emergence of Eldrick ‘‘Tiger’’ Woods. When Calvin Peete held the trophy from his first PGA contest in 1979, Tiger Woods, then three years old, was featured on the television show That’s Incredible for shooting a 48 over nine holes at the Navy Golf Club in Cypress,

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California. During the first half of the 1980s, Peete amassed seven PGA victories while Tiger Woods continued to compile extraordinary feats in arguably the most celebrated and successful amateur career in the history of golf. As a professional, Woods’s success has been nothing less than extraordinary. He dominated the field at the Masters golf tournament in 1997, winning by twelve strokes over the second place finisher and becoming the first African American to ever win a Grand Slam golf event; his historic Masters performance prompted course designers to work on ways of ‘‘Tiger-proofing’’ to make courses more challenging. His success at his sport has been translated into tremendous revenue, making him the first athlete in the history of sport to earn over $1 billion. To date, Woods is approaching one hundred professional victories, over seventy of which have been on the PGA Tour. He has ruled the sport for ten years, and in December 2009 the Associated Press voted him Athlete of the Decade. Even in light of his infidelities and the resulting media attention, Tiger Woods has left an unmistakable mark on golf, one that transcends race, making Woods to golf what Michael Jordan meant and continues to mean to Basketball—athletes of tremendous appeal who become larger than their sport. In hearing about Woods’s planned ‘‘indefinite leave’’ from golf in December 2009 (though he later played in the Masters in 2010, tying for fourth place; was cut from the Quail Hollow Championship; and withdrew, with an injury, from the Players), John Daly, an accomplished golfer in his own right, said in the Telegraph for December 12, 2009, ‘‘They always say there is no one bigger in golf than the game itself. But Tiger is.’’ See also: Inventors and Inventions; Sports

Further Reading CNN Interactive.com. 1997. ‘‘Golfer Says Comments about Woods ‘Misconstrued.’’’ April 21. http://www.cnn.com/US/9704/21/fuzzy/ Londino, Lawrence J. 2000. ‘‘Elder, Robert Lee.’’ In Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. George B. Kirsch, Othello Harris, and Claire E. Nolte, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Londino, Lawrence J. 2006. Tiger Woods: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Moss, Richard J. 2000. ‘‘Golf.’’ In Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. George B. Kirsch, Othello Harris, and Claire E. Nolte, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Spoehr, Luther W. 1995. ‘‘Calvin Peete.’’ In African-American Sports Greats: A Biographical Dictionary. David L. Porter, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Telegraph.co.uk. 2009. ‘‘Tiger Woods Offered Marriage Advice from John Daly.’’ December 12. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/tigerwoods/679509/Tiger-Woods -offered-marriage-advice-from-John-Daly.html. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

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Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups Gospel music is a popular style of African American sacred music. Derived from Spirituals and sanctified tunes, gospel music, emerging in the early twentieth century, ranks with jazz, blues, and rap as one of the most important artistic achievements in African American culture. In the antebellum United States, religious practices among African Americans were shrouded in secrecy, yet even under the wary eye of plantation owners, those men and women were able to forge a music and a culture that would serve generations to come. Part of this cultural legacy is the spirituals, songs that derive their imagery from the Old Testament, and use call-and-response, informal melodies, and heavy rhythm to underscore meaning. Author of ‘‘Lift Every Voice,’’ James Weldon Johnson has noted that the spirituals ‘‘contain more than mere melody; there is sounded in them that elusive undertone, the note in music which is not heard with the ears.’’ These works include such pieces as ‘‘Go Down Moses’’ and ‘‘Steal Away to Jesus,’’ where the emotion evoked by the composition carries a stronger effect than the words themselves. In his magisterial collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois notes that the spirituals, as a kind of folk music, as a whole serves ‘‘as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas’’ and is ‘‘the singular spiritual heritage of the nation [the United States] and the greatest gift of the Negro people.’’ While not a gospel choir in the strictest definition of the term, the Fisk Jubilee Singers are without question one of the most important singing groups in the tradition of African American sacred music. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were founded in 1867 by George L. White, the treasurer and teacher of vocals at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Fisk had been founded two years before, in 1865, as an institution to foster the enfranchisement of the freedpeople. To help fund those men and women who labored their entire lives in bondage without wages, White and the eleven members of his choir decided to tour the nation and to raise funds with their music. The Fisk Jubilee Singers displayed strong vocal range, performing anthems, ballads, and excerpts from operas, along with African American spirituals and work songs. With their reputation for musical excellence spreading, in 1871 the Fisk Jubilee Singers toured the northeastern United States. Among their performances was a special engagement in the nation’s capital for President Ulysses S. Grant. Buoyed by the success of their tour, White and his choir embarked for Europe, earning praises abroad and gaining an engagement to perform for Queen Victoria of England. When the Jubilee Singers returned to the United States, they had raised enough money to complete the construction of Jubilee Hall in 1875, and the choir’s artistic achievement and economic success served as a model for other Historically Black Colleges and Universities. ‘‘Then in after when I came to Nashville,’’ Du Bois wrote, ‘‘I saw the great temple builded of these songs towering over the pale city. To me Jubilee Hall seemed ever made of the songs themselves, and its bricks were red with the blood and dust of toil. Out of them rose for me morning, noon,

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and night, bursts of wonderful melody, full of the voices of my brothers and sisters, full of voices of the past.’’ Out of the spirituals came gospel music, a form that borrowed from the blues and jazz musicians and singers to achieve individual expression within the larger context of the church service. The Great Migration brought together northern and southern forms of religious worship, and the result was a more participatory form of church services among African Americans in general, typified by emphatic preaching, by spontaneity, and especially by a style of singing that was jazzand blues-inflected. More than tonal precision, gospel music requires of its vocalist the ability to make use of elements of blues and jazz to move the congregation. ‘‘In point of fact,’’ notes scholar and novelist Albert Lee Murray, ‘‘traditionally the highest praise given a blues musician has been the declaration that he can make a dance hall rock and roll like a downhome church during revival time.’’ Charles Albert Tindley was the first black gospel composer, and his 1916 collection, New Songs of Paradise, helped established the canon of gospel music. Along with Tindley, Thomas Andrew Dorsey (1899–1993), African American composer and pianist, is widely proclaimed the father of gospel music. Having written over one thousand songs in his lifetime, Dorsey helped make sacred gospel music popular in an increasingly secular world. His 1932 composition, ‘‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord,’’ ranks among one of the most popular gospel songs of all time. This song was one of the personal favorites of Martin Luther King Jr., and at his funeral, Mahalia Jackson, widely acknowledged as the greatest gospel singer of all time, sang this song, which blends the cadences of blues and gospel seamlessly. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on, to the light, Take my hand, Precious Lord, lead me home.

Along with Dorsey, other notable gospel composers are Lucie E. Coleman (1885–1963) and William Herbert Brewster (1897–1987). Gospel music, too, features a prominent constellation of choirs and groups in which innovation and high artistic achievement are manifested. The earliest quartet we have on record is the Dinwiddie Colored Quartet, but by the 1920s, with the commercial appeal of gospel music evident by the recording industry, such groups as the Fairfield Four, the Dixie Hummingbirds, and the Harmonizing Four were prominent on the musical landscape. Female singers were especially influential in gospel music. Sallie Martin and Mahalia Jackson produced large followings, and Rosetta Tharpe, in the late 1930s, was featured at both the Cotton Club and Carnegie Hall. During gospel music’s golden age, ranging from 1945 until 1965, Mahalia Jackson, Shirley Jackson, and James Cleveland were well known. Their achievements proved vital for the artists to follow, including such legendary groups as the Mighty Clouds of Joy and an a cappella group formed in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sweet Honey in the Rock. The multiple Grammy Award–winning Aretha Franklin began her career singing in the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, C. L. Franklin, resided as minister.

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Gospel choirs and singing groups continue to this day, in black churches throughout the United States, and their songs can be heard on airwaves and televisions on Sunday mornings, largely because this music, derived from the spirituals, offers, as Johnson wrote, ‘‘the most thrilling emotions which the human heart may experience.’’ See also: African Cultural Influences; Churches; Composers; Folklore Further Reading Du Bois, W. E. B. 1990. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Vintage. Johnson, James Weldon. 2007. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble. Murray, Albert. 2000. Stomping the Blues. New York: Da Capo Press. Prahlad, Anand. 2006. ‘‘Gospel Music.’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Vol. 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Gospel Music.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Governors and Mayors Governors and mayors are viewed as successful important and powerful people who have often risen up from the depths of poverty and adversity to achieve a noteworthy public office. These successes are hailed in popular culture as ragsto-riches stories, and as such they engage and inspire the imaginations of many. African American Governors In federations, a governor is the appointed or elected person who governs a constitutive state. The United States of America is a federation of sovereign states, which retains and exercises all powers not specifically granted to the federal government, making the state governor an important official, equivalent in some aspects to a head of state. P. B. S. Pinchback: The First Black Governor Born in Macon, Georgia, to freed slave Eliza Stewart and William Pinchback, her former owner, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (1837–1921) joined the Republican Party, and became an elected Louisiana state senator. In 1871, Governor Henry Clay Warmouth appointed Pinchback to replace the deceased Lieutenant Governor Oscar Dunn, also an African American. Following the 1872 ouster of Warmouth, Pinchback became governor—the first African American to hold that post in any state. The state’s Democrats tried

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to stop Pinchback from taking the office, but the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the legality of his ascension. Though Pinchback only held office from November 1872 to January 13, 1873, ten legislative acts became law during his tenure. In the 1879 Constitutional Convention, Pinchback established Southern University by insisting that a college for black students be created in Louisiana. Around 1883, Pinchback became surveyor of customs in New Orleans, and in the 1890s he relocated permanently to Washington, DC. Pinchback and his wife Nina raised four sons and two daughters; one daughter, Nina Pinchback, was the mother of Harlem Renaissance writer Jean Toomer. Deval Laurdine Patrick Deval Patrick (1956– ) is the current governor of Massachusetts. Patrick, who was born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, showed a bright potential in elementary school. One of his teachers directed him to the organization, A Better Chance, which awarded him a scholarship for gifted minority students. He left home to attend Massachusetts’ Milton Academy, then attended and graduated from Harvard University in 1978. He then spent a year with a United Nations youth training project in Darfur, Sudan, before entering Harvard’s law school. Prior to his gubernatorial election in 2006, Patrick served in many offices: executive vice president and general counsel of Coca-Cola, 2002; vice president and general counsel for Texaco, 1999; assistant attorney general for civil rights under President Bill Clinton, 1994; and as volunteer chairman of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 1983. David Alexander Paterson David Alexander Paterson (1954– ), sworn into office on March 17, 2008, is the first black governor of New York, the first legally blind governor of an American state, and the fourth African American to serve as state governor in the United States. At three months, Paterson contracted an ear infection which damaged his optic nerve, causing blindness in his left eye, and severe vision loss in his right eye. Not wanting special education for their son, his parents relocated from Brooklyn to Long Island so he could attend regular classes at Hempstead High School. Paterson graduated from Hempstead in 1971, then attended and graduated from Columbia University in 1977, and Hofstra Law School in 1983. In New York’s 2006 gubernatorial election, Paterson left his senate minority leadership seat to be Eliot Spitzer’s running mate. They were elected and Paterson became lieutenant governor. When Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned following a sex scandal in March 2008, Paterson became the 55th governor of the state of New York. Lawrence Douglas Wilder Lawrence Douglas Wilder (1931– ), the grandson of slaves, is named after two prominent African Americans—orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. In 1969, Wilder ran for and won a seat in Virginia’s

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senate, becoming its first black senator since Reconstruction. He worked in the General Assembly for ten years as one of its most effective legislators. He was elected Virginia’s governor in 1989, becoming the first African American elected governor ever, and the second to serve in that post. Wilder served the single term that Virginia’s constitution allows. After that, he was unsuccessful in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992 and in 1994 ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate. Wilder made a political comeback in 2004, when he was elected mayor of Richmond. African American Mayors The tem ‘‘mayor’’ comes from the Latin maior, meaning ‘‘greater’’. The mayor is the highest official in city government and is usually an elected person who serves as the chief executive for a town or city. Laws regarding the selection, and responsibilities mayors vary in different countries. Earliest Black Mayors: West of the Mississippi River (1868–1953) Pierre Caliste Landry, elected mayor of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, in 1868, was the first black mayor of an American town. Edward Park Duplex, grandson of Prince Duplex, a freed slave, became the second African American elected as mayor in the United States. A business and political leader among California’s Gold Rush pioneers, Duplex served as Yuba County’s representative at the first California Colored Citizens State Convention in Sacramento in 1855. In 1856, he served on the convention’s executive committee. In 1875, Duplex opened a barbershop at 415 Main Street, which still stands today. On April 11, 1888, the town board of trustees elected Duplex mayor of Wheatland, California, making him the U.S.’s second elected black mayor, and the first black to be elected mayor in the western United States. In the 1940s, B. T. Woodard, a businessman, led a tiny African American settlement known as Grambling to incorporate and to register its black citizens to vote. On Sepember 9, 1953, Grambling (population seven hundred), became Louisiana’s first all-black settlement to be officially incorporated. The village council appointed Woodard as mayor of Grambling, making him its first mayor. Grambling officially became a city in 1993 when its population surpassed five thousand. African American Mayors from (1967–Present) Carl Burton Stokes (1927–96), was the first African American to be elected mayor of a major American city in 1967. He ran against Seth Taft, the grandson of a U.S. president, and was elected as Cleveland’s mayor with a 50.5 percent majority. Thomas J. Bradley (1917–98) was the second African American to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city. Bradley served as mayor of Los Angeles then the third-largest U.S. city, for five consecutive terms. Between 1973 and 1993, Los

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Angeles was transformed from a collection of neighborhoods into a world-class city, surpassing Chicago to become the second-largest U.S. city. During Bradley’s twenty-year tenure, the Los Angeles International Airport was renovated, the Port of Los Angeles became the largest in the country, the city’s business and financial districts were revitalized, Los Angeles hosted the 1984 Olympic Games, and construction on a subway system began. Harold Washington (1922–87) was elected Chicago mayor in 1983, to lead a city that was racially segregated and rife with corruption and police brutality. He faced a hostile city council, so to gain the support he needed to govern, he kept the pressure on to reverse the redistricting of the city council wards that white Democrats tried to enact earlier. When special elections were held in 1986, he got the 25–25 split he needed. His vote as chairman of the council broke the tie and allowed him to enact his programs to reform Chicago’s patronage system, ensure that all neighborhoods had snow removal, street paving, and garbage removal, and to establish jobs programs. Prior to 1975, Washington, DC, mayors were selected by a Board of Commissioners; in 1975, Walter Washington became the first African American elected mayor, and the city’s first elected mayor. He was succeeded by Marion Berry, who served three terms, from 1979 to 1991. Sharon Pratt (Dixon) Kelly became the first African American woman to serve as a Washington, DC, mayor in 1991. She was succeeded by Marion Berry who served a fourth term as mayor. Adrian M. Fenty succeeded Anthony A. Williams as mayor of the city on January 2, 2007, and its sixth elected mayor. On January 2, 2007, Adrian M. Fenty took office as mayor of Washington, DC. With his victory on September 12, 2006, he became the first person in history to win all precincts in a District of Columbia mayoral election. Then he won the subsequent general election with 89 percent of the vote. He lost his bid for reelection in 2010. African American Women Mayors The first African American woman to be elected mayor of a U.S. metropolitan city was Doris A. Davis, elected mayor of Compton, California, in 1973. In 1994, Sharon Sayles Bolton became the first African American, and first woman elected mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2001, there were two women elected as the first African American and as the first woman mayor: Shirley Franklin in Atlanta, Georgia, and Brenda L. Lawrence in Southfield, Michigan. In 2002, Dayton, Ohio, elected Rhine McLin its first black woman mayor. In 2003, Heather McTeer-Hudson was elected the first African American, and first woman mayor of Greenville, Mississippi. In 2007, Sheila Dixon was elected the first black and first woman to mayor of Baltimore, Maryland; and Yvonne Johnson was elected the first black mayor of Greensboro, North Carolina. In 2008, the National Conference of Black Mayors numbered its membership of black mayors in the United States at 641. See also: Politics and Government

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Further Reading Appiah, Kwame Anthony, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. 2003. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. The Concise Desk Reference. Philadelphia: Running Press. Owens, Reginald 2008. ‘‘The City of Grambling: Historical Information.’’ Nov. 7. www.egrambling.com/History.htm. Patrick, Deval. 2008. ‘‘Beating the Odds: An Inspirational Life Story, a Journey of Hope’’ (political campaign Web site). December 17. http://devalpatrick.com/about.php. RobertsCounty.Info. (n.d.) ‘‘Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.’’ www.rootsweb .ancestry.com/~txrober2/TOMBRADLEY.htm. Simon, Darran 2008. ‘‘Obama, Clinton to head National Conference of Black Mayors,’’ Times Picayune, June 4. Gwendolyn M. Rees

Graffiti Art. See Aerosol Art

Graphic Novels and Books Graphic novels or graphic narratives are terms for a stand-alone story in a pictorial comic book form, with both pictures and text, a melding of text and the visual, and typically bound in longer more durable formats than comic books. Like books, graphic novels have plots and subplots, character development, and address multiple and diverse themes. The target audience is both multigenerational and multicultural. Graphic novels are sold in bookstores rather than on magazine newsstands. The term is sometimes used to cover collections of stories initially published serially in comic books, anthologies of a variety of stories, and longer works of nonfiction: history and biography, and fiction, works which incorporate more than a superhero or supervillain utilizing varied genre. The graphic novel may run to three hundred pages or more. The definition is problematic in that the term is often used by writers using the format in a very fluid manner, some of whom see it as a misnomer, or as a way of attempting to add class or legitimacy to an art form that needs no defending. However, as its popularity grows, it is used in the classroom at all levels, and it is becoming an area of scholarly study; it seems to take on a more esoteric rather scholarly jargon which to some is not true to the art form. Additionally, comic books are sold in bookstores, available in many libraries, and used in classrooms while the newsstands are a vanishing venue. No matter how this form is defined, it is not a new art form; it is growing in popularity, the basis for many films, gaining literary respect, and extremely profitable. This long format of graphic narrative has become recognized as a distinct body of work relatively recently. Using a definition for the graphic novel as one that uses the techniques attributed to the novel, one would have to include the 1941 Classics Illustrated series which adapted literary classics. The original Classics

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Illustrated series ran for 169 issues: these include The Last of the Mohicans, five titles by Alexandre Dumas including The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Man in the Iron Mask, and the last comic book in series, titled Negro Americans. In spite of the Classics Illustrated, most historians consider the birth of the graphic novel to have taken place in 1978, with Will Eisner’s A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories. This was a book for mature readers, ones who had grown up with the superheroes and supervillains of the comic books. Even though there was a scarcity of black characters in these early formats, research shows that black ability and involvement were not lacking. African Americans in Graphic Novel Publishing Black artists, creators, writers, and publishers may not be as well known as those getting the most publicity, but true fans and followers are knowledgeable. For instance, Milestone Media is a black company formed in 1993 by black artists and writers Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle, with a multicultural focus. The comics were printed and distributed through a special arrangement with DC Comics. From this publishing venture came Icon, Blood Syndicate, and Static. Evidence of the omnipresence of the invisible black man can be seen in brief biographical sketches of three artists. Dwayne McDuffie has been involved in both television and film. McDuffie has received numerous awards, recognitions, and been nominated for others. He and his group, Milestone Media, have been applauded for having opened the way for many artists to get started in the trade. He won the 2003 Humanitas Award for ‘‘Jimmy,’’ a Static Shock script about gun violence in school; was nominated for two Emmy Awards; and he has won eleven Parents’ Choice Awards. Ho Che Anderson began drawing comics as a teenager, studied comic books, and according to his Web site ‘‘has worked as a cartoonist, commercial illustrator, concept designer, writer of fiction, radio producer, and newspaper reporter.’’ At Marvel Comics, Lance Tooks interned at sixteen and was an assistant editor at eighteen. He has worked in animation for fifteen years and created black characters early in his career because of their absence. His work has appeared in television commercials, films, and music videos; comic book stories have appeared in varied publications; and he has self-published several comics and published graphic novels. These achievements are reflective of these artists and their works being recognized by a broad, and nonspecialized audience. African American Themes in Graphic Novels The graphic novelist often focuses on social commentary and history. A 2009 text presents a graphic history of African Americans, Still I Rise, by Roland Laird and Taneshia Nash Laird. Roland Laird is the founder and CEO of Postro Media, an entertainment company that explores African American history and culture in a variety of formats. True to the goal of the company, the book by the Lairds presents the black impact on American history beginning in 1619, detailing

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their perseverance, contributions, and little-known facts. Then there is the social and political satire, Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel, by Aaron McGruder, Reginald Hudlin, and Kyle Baker. These three artists collaborated to provide commentary on politics following the 2000 election, and race relations, bringing to mind D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, of the United States. The story is about a black town that secedes from the United States after one thousand of its citizens are barred from voting. Graphic novels range from covering large topics to taking on individual events. Kyle Baker, in Nat Turner, uses historical facts, news headlines, largely wordless illustrations, and Turner’s words prior to his execution, to present an account of the 1831 slave rebellion. Baker begins his narrative in Africa with the capture of Turner’s mother by slavers, travels through the Middle Passage, and ends with Turner’s execution in November, 1831. Baker presents the horrors of slavery and illustrates the life of this man considered a villain by some and a hero by others. Baker seems to take no stand on whether Turner is villain or hero; however, it is obvious in some of the panels how he views the actions of some of the slaves. This graphic novel was originally self-published in four installments. Not only are there histories that lift up or describe historical events, but there are also biographies that profile many of the black people who have participated in making history, both well-known and little-known. Trevor Von Eeden’s career includes groundbreaking work on Batman and Green Arrow and the cocreation of Black Lightning, who was modeled for DC Comics in response to the various black characters at Marvel Comics. He has written and illustrated a candid graphic novel of the life of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world. The novel, The Original Jack Johnson, entailed years of research and was initially serialized in weekly installments online. The novel not only delineates Johnson’s career, but also presents pictures of his mother, his childhood, racism, his journey to the championship, and his dalliance with women. The novel also introduces his wives and other boxing champions. Kyle Baker is the author of over fifteen graphic novels, which include You are Here and I Hate Saturn. He has worked with HBO Dreamworks, the Cartoon Network, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, RCA/BMG, Random House, Scholastic Goosebumps, Rugrats, and others. Baker’s biography of President Obama, BAM! The 44th President: A Graphic Novel, is intended to present him in a different light, to focus on him as a family man rather than a political entity. A satiric graphic novel not written by a black author, but about the Obama-McCann campaign is Barack the Barbarian. Vol. I: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli by Larry Hama. In this take-off on Conan, the Barbarian (Obama) joins forces with Manny the Fixer (Biden) and warrior queen Hilaria (Hilary Rodham Clinton) to climb the Elephant Tower and unseat the despots at the top, while the Old Warrior (McCain) and Red Sarah (Sarah Palin) seek the same prize. The Nelson Mandela Foundation has launched a graphic novel. Comprising eight chapters, each of these represents a comic book authorized by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in partnership with Umlando Wezithombe, a comic production company focusing on using the visual medium for education, training

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and entertainment. The publication was originally circulated for free in an effort to educate young South Africans to know and respect the leaders instrumental in the shaping of their heritage. This graphic novel version of the life of Nelson Mandela was launched at the Department of Education in Pretoria and tells the story of Mandela’s birth and childhood, his struggles against apartheid and oppression, his twenty-seven years incarcerated in prison on Robben Island, and eventual rise as the first democratically elected leader in South Africa. The proceeds are used for the ongoing work of the Mandela Foundation. This full-color, authorized version of Mandela’s life story is available in the U.S. Ho Che Anderson, who was named after two revolutionaries: Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara, as a youngster studied both classic magazine illustrators and comic books to prepare himself to write and illustrate comics of his own. Later in his career, he was asked by Gary Groth, Seattle-based publisher of Fantagraphics, to write a seventy-page biography of Martin Luther King Jr. Anderson engaged in extensive research, reading and watching documentaries, which provided him with a wealth of information and detail. The proposed seventy pages grew to a three-volume biography written over a ten-year period; the first volume was published in 1992 and the last in 2002. The illustrated biography presents a fully fleshed-out portrait of a very complex character, his flaws as well as his power. In 2005, the three volumes were reissued as one volume: King: A Comics Biography of Martin Luther King Jr. (The Complete Edition). Graphic novels are created and produced in many countries (for instance, Japan, France, Latin America, South Africa), as evidenced by the artists who are a part of TokyoPop, one of many Japanese manga publishers. In addition to reprints, they also produce new works published in the United States. The graphic novel may be a collection previously published in serialized form, or works created specifically as graphic novels. These address a multiplicity of themes, including the universal themes of friendship, love, and the fight against evil, inner-city struggles, fantasy and spirituality, gender issues, coming of age, and family. The graphic novel, similar to the literary novel, presents all genres, including memoir, fantasy, fiction, social criticism, and history. They are addressed to audiences from children through adults. Both the titles and the audience continue to grow. Writers, Characters, and Series Mat Johnson, winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and author of the novels Drop and Hunting in Harlem and the nonfiction book The Great Negro Plot, has written three graphic novels. Johnson’s extensive research for Plot led to his writing one of the titles in the John Constantine, Hellblazer series, which began in 1988, published by Vertigo. John Constantine, Hellblazer: Papa Midnite was inspired by the 2005 movie Constantine; however, Johnson changed the character from a flat stereotypical one to a more rounded one. It presents the story of the curse that made Midnite immortal from its origin in 1712 to a failed slave revolt into today where he continues to pay for his sin. Johnson’s Incognegro is based on fantasies during his youth and stories of passing

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for the sake of justice, especially that of Walter White in the South. Incognegro is a mystery that explores the race, Lynching, and the fight for justice in the twentieth-century segregated South. A planned bank heist following Hurricane Katrina provides Johnson with the palette for painting the story of New Orleans in Dark Rain: A New Orleans. Other titles related to history are Me and the Devil Blues (translated) based on the life of Robert Johnson, American musician, by Akira Hiramoto, and winner of the award for Best Reprint Publication from the Glyph Comic Awards, an award ‘‘made by, for, and about people of color.’’ Other historical graphic novels include Captain America: Truth, Robert Morales; Female Force: Michelle Obama, Bailey Neal; Sentences: The Life of M. F. Grimm, Percy Carey; Stagger Lee, by Derek McCulloch; The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century by Frank Miller; and Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography, by Andrew Helfer and Randy DeBurke. Gary Phillips, an award-winning mystery novelist and community activist, is creator of series characters Ivan Monk, Private Eye, and Martha Chainey, reformed black prostitute. For Dark Horse Comics, he has also written Culprits, an illustrated crime story whose main character has superpowers. Phillips is also the author of High Rollers, the story of Cameron Quinn, who is out to make a name for himself in the underworld of Los Angeles. Phillips has also created a mystery series, Angeltown, which introduces Nate Hollis, a Los Angeles–based private eye who has the job of finding a pro basketball star who has mysteriously disappeared. He finds he is not the only one who is looking for him; there are a crooked DA, gangsters, and a deadly but beautiful bounty hunter. Phillips has also written Midnight Mover, which he says is a classic crime story, with the title coming from a Wilson Pickett song. Lance Tooks has contributed to the Graphic Classics line of books, adapting the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Ambrose Bierce. His first graphic novel for Random House, Narcissa, was translated for publication in Spain. The novel is the story of a black female screenwriter’s journey to self discovery. In the process, she travels to Spain, must fight to maintain her integrity and that of her work, grapple with her fears, and her foes. Additionally, he has published four romance novels with Satan as either the protagonist or the antagonist, including: Lucifer’s Garden of Verses, Vol. 1: The Devil on Fever Street; Lucifer’s Garden of Verses, Vol. 2: Darlin’ Niki, which features a willful, first-born teenager; Lucifer’s Garden of Verses Vol. 3: The Student (or Nude Descending a Staircase . . . Head First). The final title in the series, Lucifer’s Garden of Verses, Vol. 4: The Devil and Miles Davis, is the narrative of Amo, a hardened journalist who smokes and drinks too much. She is assigned to profile the late jazz legend Miles Davis and is at a creative impasse. Material from the previous three books is woven into the narrative and the styles of art and language usage vary in the books. Melvin Van Peebles is known as a multitalented, fearless, and groundbreaking award-winning artist. He initiated a new era in black cinema with his plays, The Watermelon Man and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. His musical, Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, details black street life and was a successful production on Broadway. Van Peebles’s graphic novel and film of the same title, Confessions of a Ex-Doofus—ItchyFooted Mutha, like his previous works extends

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the possibilities of a form. In visual format of the novel, he includes stills from the film, original drawings, photos, and dialogue. In both the illustrations in the novel and the film, Doofus is depicted as Van Peebles. This is a semiautobiographical picaresque novel, the odyssey of a young man’s search for love. Best-selling and award-winning author L. A. Banks has written more than thirtyfive novels and twelve novellas in multiple genres, including the (black) Vampire Huntress series and the Soul Food series. She writes under several pseudonyms: Leslie Esdaile Banks for her crime thrillers, Leslie E. Banks for the Soul Food series, Leslie Esdaile for her romances, and L. A. Banks for her paranormal & Scarface. The Vampire Legend series is a twelve-book arc that centers around a twenty-something woman named Damali Richards who is a spoken word artist but is also the Neteru, a human who is born every thousand years to fight the Dark Realms. Her most dangerous and most constant enemies are the vampires. Banks’s projected series of graphic novels will use characters from the Vampire Huntress Legends series. Keith Knight, a cartoonist/rapper/media literacy teacher/social activist, uses his comic strips for sociopolitical commentary and autobiography. These strips have been collected and published in book form. Titles include The Complete K Chronicles; The K Chronicles: What a Long Strange Strip It’s Been; Red, White, Black and Blue: A Th(Ink) Anthology; and Are We Feeling Safer Yet? A Th(Ink) Anthology. Alex Simmons, creator/writer/publisher, has written juvenile mysteries under a variety of pseudonyms, two educational documentaries, several stage plays, and authored several Scooby Doo comic books stories. His Blackjack: Blood and Honor, the Graphic Novel is the action-packed story of Aaron Day, aka Blackjack, soldier of fortune. It takes place in Tokyo in 1935; Blackjack has been hired as a bodyguard for a Japanese dignitary, Oshio; he fights the forces of evil, racial prejudice, and the ghosts of Oshio’s past. This is a good example of the multiracial thrust, and the use of both universal themes and history in many of the graphic novels. Blokhedz, created by twins Mark and Mike Davis, is a coming-of-age story. It presents Blak, a teenage rapper, who gains powers following a gang fight. This introduces the Hip-Hop superhero to the battle of the forces between good and evil. Leesa Dean, animator, musician, and writer has penned a series, Chilltown, which has won a wide audience, especially rappers. This is slated to become an animated series. Jerry Craft is considered a cartoonist, comic strip creator, and sometime graphic novelist. He is the creator of Mama’s Boyz (characters who have acted as spokes-characters for the American Diabetes Association’s African-American program), an award-winning comic strip that has been distributed by King Features Syndicate and is currently one of the few African American syndicated strips. Craft has published Mama’s Boyz: Home Schoolin’—Because Learning Shouldn’t Stop at 3 O’Clock and Mama’s Boyz: As American as Sweet Potato Pie; each of these contain a collection of his favorite strips. Jeremy and Robert Love have produced works for young people and for a more mature audience. Shadow Rock is the story of a young boy’s move from the big city to a small fishing town, Shadow Rock, following the death of his mother. There he must adjust, meets the ghost of a young boy, Kendahl Fog, in the

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lighthouse who had been mysteriously murdered, and together they explore Shadow Rock and search for the answer to the mystery of Fog’s death. Bayou, by Jeremy Love, is set in Depression Mississippi and is the story of Lee Wagstaff, the daughter of a black sharecropper whose white playmate is kidnapped by agents of an evil creature, Bog; Lee’s father is accused. Lee must find Lily to save her father from being lynched. Both Jeremy Love and Robert Love are the authors of Fierce, the story of Jonathan Fierce, a gifted psychic and profiler for the FBI, who fails to save his fellow agents, those he considers family. He becomes suspected and has to flee; he is caught between the government agents, the Crime Syndicate, his history in Jamaica, and self preservation. Writers from Traditional Literary Forms with Graphic Novels Writers associated more with traditional literary forms have joined the ranks of the graphic novelists, a testament to its popularity. Eric Jerome Dickey, bestselling author, wrote Astonishing X-Men: Storm, which tells the story of the romance between two black superheroes Storm (Ororo) of the X-Men and T’Challa (the Black Panther, the first black superhero) on the plains of Africa. The story tells how the paths of Ororo, a street urchin with developing mutant powers, and African prince T’Challa, embarking on his rite of passage, cross; it details their fight against evil. Walter Mosley, an award-winning author who transcends categorization, has been creative in a variety of creative forms including film and television, nonfiction, general fiction, mysteries, crime novels, works for young people, erotica, and science fiction, has created series characters Easy Rawlins, Fearless Jones, and Socrates, has also written an art book/a graphic novel. In partnership with Marvel Comics’ team to recreate the initial issue of the Fantastic Four, the result is Maximum Fantastic Four, which has been touted as a visual and memorytapping treat. In the introduction, Mosley speaks of the impact of this comic book on him; from this comic book, he ‘‘learned that entertainment, education and art could all coexist in one form.’’ The Fantastic Four comprise Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Sue Storm (the Invisible Girl), Johnny Storm (the Human Torch), and Ben Grimm (the Thing); these superheroes debuted in August 1961 in a new comic series and introduced the new Marvel Comics. Samuel R. Delany, like Mosley, is a writer who has experimented with many forms. He is generally known as a science fiction writer, but he has engaged in graphic novel writing. His Bread & Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York is autobiographical and a love story told in flashback between gay males—one black and one white. The popularity and growth of the graphic novel is evidenced by a push to embrace this format, which is also evident in the academic realm. The format is seen as a way to interest a public focused on the visual rather than the printed page, as a way to enhance or ensure literacy, for it provides the same themes, but does not always use poetic, nuanced language structure. It is interdisciplinary, often using the language of the urban, and meaning is transmitted more through

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the drawings—panel size, dramatic action, facial expression, and color. There are advocates for the use of this format at all levels of scholarship. There are studies being published such as Black Comix by Damian Duffy, John Jennings, and Keith Knight (2010); Looking for a Face Like Mine by William H. Foster III (2005); and Black Images in the Comics by Fredik Str
omberg (2003). New journals have appeared, including the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. Icon has elicited a gender study essay in Modern Fiction Studies in 2006 entitled ‘‘Black Female Authorship and the African American Graphic Novel: Historical Responsibility in Icon: A Hero’s Welcome,’’ by Jennifer D. Ryan. Topics for conferences, major parts of the programs, and articles or journal themes/issues reflect the same issues and concerns as any other scholarly journal or conference. The Modern Language Association’s text, Approaches to Teaching the Graphic Novel, edited by Stephen Tabachnick (2009), includes ‘‘Is There an African American Graphic Novel?’’ The growth in visibility is also reflected in the content of the established and existing artist’s Web sites. Further proof that the graphic novel is growing is the rush to repackage comic books and the debate as to the optimum shelving location for the novels’ visibility and accessibility. See also: African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010; Fiction Further Reading Chaney, Michael A. 2007. ‘‘Drawing on History in Recent African American Graphic Novels.’’ MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 32 (Fall): 175–200. Duffy, Damian, John Jennings, and Keith Knight. 2010. Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art and Culture. New York: Mark Batty Publisher. Fleming, Robert. 2006. ‘‘Beyond Funny: Black Voices in the World of Comics and Graphic Novels.’’ Black Issues Book Review, July 1. Foster III, William H. 2005. Looking for a Face Like Mine. Westport, CT: Fine Tooth Press. Goldsmith, Francisco. 2010. The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Graphic Novels. Chicago: American Library Association. Ryan, Jennifer D. 2006. ‘‘Black Female Authorship and the African American Graphic Novel: Historical Responsibility in Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.’’ MFS Modern Foreign Language Studies 52 (Winter): 918–46. Str€ omberg, Fredrik. 2003. Black Images in the Comics. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books. Tabachnick, Stephen, ed. 2009. Approaches to Teaching the Graphic Novel. New York: Modern Language Association. Helen R. Houston

Graves, Earl G. (1935– ), Entrepreneur, Publisher Earl G. Graves is a prominent figure in African American popular culture. As the founder, publisher, and president of one of the most successful black magazines, Black Enterprise, established in 1970, Graves is the embodiment of black progress

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and achievement. Since the 1970s, Graves’s ubiquitous visage, complete with trademark mutton-chop sideburns, has appeared in many of the major black periodicals, like Jet and Ebony. In addition to becoming one of the most well-known leaders in the post–Civil Rights Movement era, he is recognized as a civic leader and authority on black business development. In 1990, Graves became part-owner of the Pepsi-Cola of Washington, DC, franchise, one of several lucrative business ventures. In 1998, he sold the franchise back to Pepsi but accepted a position as a chairman of the Pepsi African-American Advisory Board. Earl Gilbert Graves was born to West Indian parents on January 9, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York. Graves Earl Graves founded Black Enterprise, the has described his father, Earl Godwin first magazine in the United States devoted Graves, as a martinet, and his mother, to black-owned businesses, and has since Winifred Sealy Graves, as nurturing. been described as the nation’s leading Both parents provided their four chil- educator on African American enterprises. (AP/Wide World Photos) dren with the love and support to be their best. Earl Gilbert Graves thrived under his parents’ guidance. He went on to excel academically in school and sports. At Morgan State University, Graves was one of the best runners on the track team. He financed his college education with a scholarship and employment as a lifeguard in New York. Graves graduated in 1958 with a BA in economics. Following graduation, Graves’s life took many fascinating and unconventional turns. During the 1960s, blacks endured many hardships and challenges. In the South, Jim Crow laws and racial violence were the norm. In the North, blacks may not have contended with legal segregation, but racism and discriminatory practices were rampant, excluding most African Americans from obtaining full equality and access to economic opportunity. Graves, however, joined the army, completing the prestigious airborne and ranger schools and becoming captain of the 19th Special Forces Group of the famous Green Berets. In 1960, he married Barbara Kydd. Their union produced three sons; the entire family would eventually play important roles in Graves’s many enterprises. Shortly after marriage, Graves embarked on a variety of career paths. He worked as a narcotics agent and in real estate. In 1966, he served as an administrative assistant for Senator Robert F. Kennedy. However, after Kennedy was assassinated, one of several high-profile assassinations of the era, Graves was out of a job. In 1968, Graves established Earl G. Graves Associates and, some two

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years later, founded Black Enterprise with the help of a loan provided by the Manhattan Capital corporation. Galvanizing support from numerous African American organizations, Graves brought forth one of the first successful periodicals of its kind. Among the aims of this endeavor was to encourage the collective power of the black community; promote black entrepreneurship, business, and economic development; and bring to light successful black businesses and leaders. Graves’s Black Enterprise fills in an important gap in the history of blacks in the United States. Graves acknowledges in his semiautobiographical book, How to Succeed in Business without Being White (1997), that when he started out, black businesses were groundbreaking; however, in today’s climate, black entrepreneurs face more hostility than ever before, as antagonism towards such programs as Affirmative Action rises. See also: Business and Commerce; Economic Development Further Reading Amadife, Nkechi. 2006. ‘‘Earl G. Graves.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Business, Vol. 1. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Black Enterprise. http://www.blackenterprise.com/. Graves, Earl G. 1997. How to Succeed in Business without Being White. New York: HarperBusiness. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1998. Black Heroes of the 20th Century. Detroit, Michigan: Visible Ink Press. Gladys L. Knight

Great Migration Questions about human migration have perplexed philosophers, scholars, and governments since the beginning of early civilizations such as those of Egypt and Babylon; nevertheless, as research findings about the peopling of the Earth come and go, key dialectical questions remain. Was the phenomenon of human movement known today as ‘‘migration,’’ caused by the Judeo-Christian god Yahweh or Jehovah as revealed in the biblical scripture, Genesis 11:8? What role did black people play in some of the world’s great migration movements? What caused early prehistoric migrants to relocate to distant lands? Were the first migrants from Asia responsible for populating the South Pacific as well as the New World via the Bering land bridge? Was it a population increase that precipitated the Bantu Migration, or was it a result of the introduction of new crops? Finally, did prehistoric migrants move from their native environments or homelands for the same reasons that modern day migrants move to new environments and distant shores? Fortunately, as a result of critical scientific evidences such as archaeological, historical, and now DNA, many of the preceding questions have been answered.

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It is becoming increasingly clear to both the academic community and the general public that black people (African Americans and their ancestors) have been a part of some of the most historical and largest migration movements in human history. To confirm the fact that black people initiated the first migration, researchers from Stanford University and the Russian Academy of Sciences credit the separation of two key African populations, hunter-gatherers and farmers, some 70,000 and 140,000 years ago as the catalyst for modern man’s migration out of Africa. Since leaving Africa, populations have continued the peregrinations of their ancestors. According to the Judeo-Christian Bible, which is replete with one type of migration or another, one of the earliest recorded human migrations occurred after God confused the tongues of men to prevent them from building the tower of Babel and caused them to scatter all over the world (Genesis 11:8). The Book of Exodus also describes another ancient migration of the Israelites (Hebrews) who were delivered from Egyptian captivity by God’s chosen servant, Moses, and promised a new homeland in Canaan (the Promised Land). Again, the Book of Genesis provides another typical illustration of tribal migration that resulted from the strife between Abraham (the uncle) and Lot (the nephew) over property rights (cattle) and eventually separation. The separation forced Lot to gather his belongings and servants and go to Sodom, while Abraham took his followers into the plains where he founded a nation and went into history as the ‘‘Father of the Many.’’ According to other historical accounts, human migrations which can be internal (movement within a nation state or country) or external (movement from a nation state or country or international) have transformed entire continents, nation states, and the racial, ethnic, and linguistic composition of their populations. This important characteristic of human migration is applicable to the Greeks, the Romans, the Phoenicians, the Indo-Aryans, the Arabs, the Germanic and Asiatic tribes, and the Vikings. Enslavement and Black Migration to the Americas The forced migration of enslaved African people by Europeans during the fifteenth century or nearly five hundred years ago was aided by ancillary support from tribal chiefs and potentates in coastal Africa. This served as the primary means by which Africans were brought to the Americas. The enslavement of Africans is known as the ‘‘Atlantic Slave Trade,’’ the ‘‘Transatlantic Slave Trade,’’ the ‘‘Triangular Trade,’’ and by many African Americans as the ‘‘Black Holocaust.’’ There were countless voyages of Africans by ship between Africa and the Americas, or the ‘‘Middle Passage,’’ during the period of enslavement (fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries). There are several conflicting estimates as to how many enslaved Africans came to the Americas. Conservative estimates such as that of Hugh Thomas contend that 11.328 million enslaved Africans were delivered to the Americas, but 13 million left African ports. On the other hand, renowned scholars such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G.

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Woodson, and Basil Davidson took a more liberal view and estimated the number of enslaved Africans to be much higher. Also, Robert R. Kuczynski, one of the world’s leading authorities on migration statistics, estimated that a minimum of 15 million enslaved Africans landed on the shores of the Americas. From the dialectical debate on the exact number of enslaved Africans, three important facts immediately surface around this controversy: (1) Exact numbers for the Black Holocaust are lost forever due to the imprecision and destruction of primary records; (2) Africans were the only people in the history of mankind to endure and survive such an involuntary migration of this scale, especially as captives; and (3) the forced migration of Africans to the Americas has received less attention from historians in comparison to the mass migration of Europeans to the same region of the world. The status of twenty enslaved Africans, who arrived first in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, was changed. They became indentured servants and coexisted with British settlers, many of whom were also indentured servants. Between the mid1600s and 1865, however, many of the descendants of the first twenty enslaved Africans eventually were treated as ‘‘chattel’’ or personal property and denied the most basic of rights such as free will, marriage, and freedom of movement. Throughout history, rather than succumb to man-made hostilities or insurmountable forces of nature whether as slaves or free people, African Americans have chosen to migrate. African Americans used the act of migration as an adaptive tool or strategy for survival; therefore, the major migrations have been for the purposes of escape to freedom and to leave the South for the opportunities provided by the industrial North, such as voting rights, better employment, housing, education, and overall socioeconomic mobility. Traveling North, By Any Means Necessary According to migration literature, there are basically two types of migration movements: internal, which means to move or relocate to a new home within a state, country, or continent; and external, which generally means to move or relocate to a new home in a different state, country, or continent. In their quest for individual freedoms and rights beyond the plantation South and the legacy of enslavement and discrimination, however, African Americans have strategically used both types of migration movements to varying degrees. Following Reconstruction, the late 1800s and early 1900s proved to be a very difficult time for farm-life in the South, for both whites and African Americans. A very small percentage of African Americans were fortunate enough to become landowners, but the majority became sharecroppers and tenant farmers. As sharecroppers in a tenant-farming system that replaced slavery and was dominant in the South from the mid 1800s to the 1950s, African Americans were never able to reap the benefits of this system either socially or economically. The great indebtedness incurred from white landowners who supplied living accommodation and various items for crop cultivation in return for labor was insurmountable and too great of a burden for most sharecroppers to take. Many

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sharecroppers chose escapism or to migrate clandestinely in the middle of the night to avoid permanent indebtedness and a life of poverty. Fortunately enough, agricultural changes in the United States between 1918 and 1930, according to Fitzgerald, brought about the demise of the sharecropping system and general farm life in the South. The literature on African Americans and their rural-to-urban exodus which became known as the ‘‘Great Migration’’ is not only voluminous, it is extremely provocative for the personal narratives of sojourners who lived the life of sharecropping in the Deep South. Most notable are the works of Richard Wright (1938), William Attaway and others (1987), Peter Gottlieb (1987), James R. Grossman (1989), Carole Marks (1989), and Kimberley L. Phillips (1999). The Great Migration involved a great many African Americans, but also included poor white southerners who were also seeking a better life in the industrial North. For African Americans, the Great Migration, according to modern demographers and many historians was the largest internal movement of people within the confines of the continental United States of America. The history of this migration is replete with personal stories, narratives, and histories. African Americans of all walks of life and socioeconomic strata used whatever means they could to escape the South. Their chief means of travel was by dilapidated automobiles, the Greyhound bus, the Illinois Central Railroad, and some may have even hitchhiked. They impacted almost every major city of the North, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, as well as smaller industrial cities such as Gary, Dayton, Toledo, Peoria, Omaha, Newark, Flint, and Albany. The central question that has resounded throughout human history is, why? Why migrate to a strange distant place away from one’s native home place? Just as many times the question has been asked, just as many times the answer has been provided. African Americans migrated to escape racism, Lynching, to seek opportunities in industrial cities of the North, and to give their children opportunities for a better education, all of which were noble goals that could lead to a better life in the land that had enslaved their forefathers and mothers. For many African Americans, particularly in the South during historical and cultural moments, not only were the ‘‘push’’ factors the primary reason African Americans sought to leave the region of their birth, but the ‘‘pull’’ factors were just as significant for black survival. Contemporary cultural historians like Psyche Williams-Forson have captured the spirit of African Americans in search of opportunities they believed possible outside of the South. For her, foods, particularly fried chicken and others that ‘‘traveled well’’ became symbolic of African American tenacity, even to the point of personal discomfort and uprooting, to find a better way of life in the North, West, and Midwest. The Exodus to the West and Midwest Romantic myths of the western migration in the United States, as encapsulated in the 1962 epic western film, How the West Was Won, but also in other

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media such as music, have failed to account for the significant role played by African Americans in this movement. It is a known fact that African Americans migrated westward in significant numbers following the Civil War, and were an important part of western history. According to Harper’s Weekly (1879) which defined westward migration of African Americans as the ‘‘Negro Exodus,’’ these travelers left the South by any means necessary but mainly by train and steamboat, and some even walked. As with each migration movement discussed earlier in this account, African Americans in their journey into the midwestern and western regions of the United States were abandoning hardships and oppressions in the land of their birth, the South. The economic hard times of 1873 and the dismantling of Reconstruction gains for African Americans contributed to deteriorating conditions in the agrarian South. Restrictive ‘‘Black Codes’’ used during slavery reappeared in the form of new segregation laws which heightened racial violence and forced many black people to seek their fortunes elsewhere. African Americans were drawn to Kansas because of its antislavery roots and the 1862 Homestead Act, and to Oklahoma by the Oklahoma Land Run of 1879. Their western migration was not without some of the same racial strife and violence experienced in the South. The largest number of westward black settlers were referred to by John G. Van Deusen (1936), Nell Irvin Painter (1977), and others as the ‘‘Exodusters,’’ who came from states such as Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky between 1862 and 1880. A significant outcome of the internal migration of African American within the confines of the United States is the number of all-black towns that were founded and settled. Following Reconstruction in the South, many African Americans, fearing they would lose their civil liberties, fled to a number of newly created black towns, such as Nicodemus in Kansas, and Taft, Langston, and Boley in Oklahoma. Nicodemus, founded in 1877, was promoted as ‘‘the Promised Land’’ for black emigrants. All-black towns have not only been described by historians and in fictional works such as Paradise (1997) by Toni Morrison, these small towns have produced some of America’s greatest personalities, such as Zora Neale Hurston of Eatonville, Florida, and John Hope Franklin of Rentiesville, Oklahoma. Bad weather and subsequent crop failures; isolation from other major population centers, railroads, and thoroughfares; and a lack of natural growth spelled doom for most of the all-black towns west of the Mississippi River. The Return Migration During the last thirty-five years, a return or reverse migration of African Americans to the land of their birth, the South, has gained much attention from scholars in the academic fields of history, sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science. Several factors are quite apparent as causative for this reverse trend among African Americans to head for newly sprawling cities and towns of the South, such as overall improved socioeconomic and political conditions.

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According to Gottlieb in The Great Migration, ‘‘the kinship and community resources that migrants drew on for their initial journeys [the Great Migration] to the North also supported returned trips to the South.’’ Most if not all of these return trips referred to by Gottlieb were temporary and short-term returns, but they set the stage for more long-term returns that became permanent. Historians Eric Foner and John A. Garraty suggest that the historical migration of African Americans from the South lasted until the 1970s, and more than six million African Americans relocated to the North, West, and Midwest. Further, they contend that during the 1970s and 1980s, more African Americans initiated a return migration to the South than left. In addition, these historians claim that the return or reverse migration trends of the previous one hundred years is not unique to African Americans, but part of a pattern within the national population to locate to states with warm climates in the South and Southwest. The states in the midst of the return or reverse migration trend are made up of fifteen states referred to as the ‘‘Sunbelt’’ and extend from Virginia to California. The migration has mainly been from industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest to places in the West and South. This migration pattern is the outcome of several factors such as changes in employment from manufacturing to services, improvements in air conditioning and transportation, and the aging of the population. Many African Americans leading the return migration to the South tended to be older, college-educated, and retired from civil services and other well-paying factory jobs such as the automobile industry giants, Ford and General Motors. In many instances, the same ‘‘push’’ and ‘‘pull’’ forces that attracted them to the North are now propelling them to the South in great numbers. The saga of the return, or reverse migration of African Americans to the South, is dynamic and continues to evolve. See also: Communities, African American Further Reading Anderson, Sam E. 1995. The Black Holocaust for Beginners. New York: Writers and Publishers Publishing. Bergman, Peter M. 1969. The Chronological History of the Negro in America. New York: Harper & Row. Daniels, Roger. 2002. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. New York: Perennial. Davidson, Basil. 1961. The African Slave Trade: Precolonial History, 1450–1850. Boston: Little Brown. Fishel, Leslie H., and Benjamin Quarles. 1967. The Negro American: A Documentary History. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman. Fitzgerald, Deborah. 2003. Every Farm a Factory: The Industrial Ideal in American Agriculture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty. 1991. Reader’s Companion to American History. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

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Gottlieb, Peter. 1987. Making Their Own Way: Southern Blacks’ Migration to Pittsburgh, 1916–1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Gottlieb, Peter. 1991. ‘‘Rethinking the Great Migration: A Perspective from Pittsburgh.’’ In The Great Migration: New Dimensions of Race, Class, & Gender. Joe William Trotter Jr., ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hine, Darlene C., William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. 2004. African Americans: A Concise History. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. ‘‘Human Migration Guide (6-8): What is Human Migration?’’ 2005. http://www.national geographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/09/g68/migrationguidestudentpdf. Johnson, Charles, and Patricia Smith. 1998. Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery. New York: Harcourt Brace. Kuczynski, Robert R. 1936. Population Movements. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Painter, Nell Irvin. 1977. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Schwendeman, Glen. 1961. ‘‘St. Louis and the ‘Exodusters’ of 1879.’’ Journal of Negro History 46 (January): 32–46. Science Daily. 2003. ‘‘Scientists Use DNA Fragments To Trace The Migration Of Modern Humans.’’ ScienceDaily.com, May 28. http://www.sciencedaily.com/ releases/2003/05/030528081109.htm. Thomas, Hugh. 1997. The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440–1870. New York: Simon & Schuster. Thompson, Vincent Bakpetu. 1987. The Making of the African Diaspora in the Americas 1441–1900. New York: Longman. Trotter, Joe W. 1991. ‘‘Introduction: Black Migration in Historical Perspective.’’ In The Great Migration in Historical Perspective. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Van Deusen, John G. 1936. ‘‘The Exodusters of 1879.’’ Journal of Negro History 21 (April). Whitehouse, David. 2003. ‘‘When Humans Faced Extinction.’’ BBC News, June 9, 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2975862.stm. Williams-Forson, Psyche. 2006. Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Charles Williams and Hilda B. Williams

Greek Letter Organizations Since their inception on college campuses at the start of the twentieth century, Greek letter organizations have been vital contributors to African American life and culture, offering communal identity and fostering initiatives in education, career guidance, and service to the broader community. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, founded at Cornell University in 1906, is the first African American Greek letter organization. It currently boasts over 500 chapters and over 100,000 members. Notable men who joined the Alphas were Thurgood Marshall, Eddie Robinson, W. E. B. Du Bois,

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and Martin Luther King Jr. King joined the Alpha chapter at Boston University in 1952, and in 1956 was awarded the Alpha Award of Honor at the ceremony commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the organization. King himself stated in ‘‘Alpha Phi Alpha’’ that the Alpha Award ‘‘renewed [his] courage to continue in the great and momentous struggle for justice.’’ Other famous black fraternities include Omega Psi Phi, founded in 1911 at Howard University, whose members include Jesse Jackson (Sr.) and Benjamin Hooks, and the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, founded in 1914, whose ranks include George Washington Carver and Blair Underwood. Common threads that link fraternities are brotherhood, leadership, and service. The precursor for African American Greek letter organizations was Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, popularly known as ‘‘the Boul
e.’’ According to Irma Davis, it was founded in Philadelphia in 1904 as a graduate fraternity for ‘‘those who had made places for themselves in their communities through useful service.’’ This ethos applies to sororities as well. The first African American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, was founded in 1908 at Howard University, and some notable names on its membership roll are Coretta Scott King and Maya Angelou. The stated purpose of the Alpha Kappa Alpha is ‘‘services to all mankind.’’ Similarly, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, founded at Howard University in 1913, addresses issues of public and mental health along with economic development; famed Deltas include Lena Horne, Ruby Dee, and Roberta Flack. While each sorority and fraternity has its unique set of calls, rituals, step shows, and colors, each organization is connected by a deep belief in the significance of education to serve the greater good. The step show, or Stepping, has been part of black Greek life since its inception. With roots in the traditions of western and central Africa, stepping, with its synchronized beats and movements, incorporates juba, ring shouts, and call-and-response. In the 1980s, as a result of Spike Lee’s School Daze and the television show A Different World, national and international audiences witnessed the artistry of stepping, which continues to evolve and today incorporates elements of Break Dancing and Hip-Hop. As an art form, step reveals all the flexibility, musicality, and rhythm of African American life. Within the context of black Greek life, sororities and fraternities feature their own signature steps, underscoring the characteristics of their particular organizations. As early as the 1920s, the Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta sororities established scholarship funds and travel grants for its members. In 1922, the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity began a program called Guide Right, designed to help African American high school students decide on career paths. Greek letter organizations also initiated training for black teachers in southern rural areas, with the belief that improving the training of teachers would improve the quality of education in the rural South. From the 1930s until the mid-1950s, Greek letter organizations were instrumental in improving library facilities for African American schoolchildren in the southern United States. These organizations also took on initiatives to improve public awareness of health issues, and today, black fraternities have focused on mentoring and fostering leadership among African American males.

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Some African American Greek letter organizations have endowed chairs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), have established scholarships and grants, and remain major contributors to the United Negro College Fund. Rites of Passage Practiced As seen in any Greek letter organization, initiation rites are enshrouded in a level of secrecy that makes the rites themselves rival tall tales and Folklore worthy of the treatment of Zora Neale Hurston. While hazing practices have come under increased scrutiny by college and university officials and the national office of the Greek letter organizations over the years, some initiation rituals have endured, connecting the long line of members both symbolically and literally. One rite of passage is standing in line back-to-belly while each member of the line is given a new name. While this practice has roots in the ‘‘African slave trade’’ where ‘‘slaves were chained together,’’ as noted in ‘‘Sororities,’’ Greek letter organizations signify on the debilitating aspects of the slave trade by being symbolically reborn into an organization that has as its mission education, leadership, and service. Handshakes, steps, and calls rooted in the call-and-response of West Africa add to the strong bonds forged in fraternities and sororities. Yet Greek letter organizations are not without their opponents. For African American director Spike Lee, HBCUs are a type of tradition; Lee’s father and grandfather both attended Morehouse College, and his mother and grandmother both attended the neighboring Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Although Lee is a third-generation Morehouse man, he saw himself, while in school there, as ‘‘an outsider, a rebel. There’s a certain image of a Morehouse man: squeakyclean, always in a suit and tie, business major, in a fraternity, really ‘bourgie.’ That just wasn’t me,’’ he said in Essence magazine. From his outsider-insider perspective, Spike Lee wrote and directed School Daze, a 1988 film about black Greek life that made the song and dance ‘‘Da Butt’’ a hit of popular culture. But more than a lighthearted look at Greek life, Lee’s School Daze offers a scathing examination of Greek letter organizations that compelled the president of Morehouse College to remove Lee and his film crew from campus. Of School Daze, Lee said in Essence, ‘‘I’m not making judgments about Black men, but I am about fraternities. For the most part fraternities are not going to like this, but what’s in the movie is what I saw at Morehouse for four years. They hold a canned-food drive every Thanksgiving, but they could do a whole lot more. Plus that whole brutality thing. I really think it’s unnecessary for them to beat the pledges.’’ Shortly after the release of School Daze, Lee lost a brother who was pledging a fraternity. In his essay ‘‘The Talented Tenth,’’ published in September 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote, ‘‘How then shall the leaders of a struggling people be trained and the hands of the risen few strengthened? There can be but one answer: The best and most capable of their youth must be schooled in the colleges and universities of the land.’’ With some elements of exclusivity about them, African American Greek letter organizations embody the words and sentiments of Du Bois, yet the gleaming portrait does have its shadows, as Lee suggests in School Daze. Whether geared

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towards serving the greater good or promoting a social elite, Greek letter organizations, blooming on college campuses, have made a mark on popular culture through fostering leaders committed to leadership and to serving the greater good. See also: African Cultural Influences Further Reading Allen, Bonnie. 1988. ‘‘The Making of School Daze: Talking with Spike.’’ Essence 18 (February): 50. ‘‘Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.’’ 2008. The Martin Luther King Jr. Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ‘‘Black Greek Letter Organizations.’’ 1994. The Black Student’s Guide to College Success. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Davis, Erma Glasco. 1996.‘‘Greek-Letter Organizations and African-American Education.’’ Encyclopedia of African-American Education. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. Du Bois, W. E. B. 1969. ‘‘The Talented Tenth.’’ In The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by Representative American Negroes of To-day. Miami: Mnemosyne Pub. Lakes, Lisa C. 2006. ‘‘Sororities.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, Vol. 3. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. School Daze. 2003. Dir. Spike Lee, 1988. Culver City, CA: Columbia TriStar Home Video. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Greene, ‘‘Mean Joe’’ (1946– ), Football Player Nicknamed ‘‘Joe’’ by an aunt and ‘‘Mean’’ in reference to the North Texas State University Mean Green for whom he played, Charles Edward Greene was the central force behind the Pittsburgh Steelers’ National Football League dynasty of the 1970s, when they won four Super Bowls. An original member of the ‘‘Steel Curtain’’ defense, he preceded three other members of that unit into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1987 and was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994. Greene was named to the Pro Bowl ten times, beginning in his NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year season of 1969. He was the fourth pick in the 1969 draft and spent his professional playing career with the Steelers before retiring in 1981. He held assistant coaching jobs with the Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals, and then returned to the Steelers as a special assistant in 2004. Big and Mean Greene was born September 24, 1946, in Elgin, Texas, near Austin, and grew up in Temple, about fifty miles north. His father abandoned the family when Greene was ten, and he was reared by his mother, Cleo Thomas.

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Playing for segregated Dunbar High School, Greene was 6 feet, 225 pounds; by his senior year, he weighted 250 pounds. He admitted to being timid. The middle linebacker said later that he played dirty; he recalled he was kicked out of every game his junior year. He played defensive tackle at North Texas for Rod Rust, under whom he learned discipline. During Greene’s three varsity seasons, North Texas held teams to 2,507 yards on 1,276 carries, less than 2 yards per attempt. Greene was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1984. His nickname—which he has always disdained—came about naturally after a school official’s wife labeled the team ‘‘Mean Green’’ with regard to its uniform colors. The appellation ‘‘Mean Joe Greene’’ followed him as he proved a terror during and between plays in his early years. A Steel Curtain Rises Greene later confessed that he was unhappy being drafted by the Steelers, perennial losers who went 1–13 his first season, when he was NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1969 and received the first of his ten Pro Bowl invitations. His anger flared once when he spat in the face of Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus, until then the NFL’s meanest player, and challenged him to a fight. During a 1975 game at rival Cleveland, Greene repeatedly kicked the Browns’ Bob McKay in the groin as he lay on the ground. Another time, Greene snatched the ball before the snap and hurled it over the sideline. Greene’s intensity intimidated opponents and inspired teammates. He was fast, quick, and strong and could dominate a game, a season, a Super Bowl. He had eleven sacks in 1972—five in a must-win against Houston—the first season in which the Steelers reached the playoffs. In 1974, when Pittsburgh won its first Super Bowl, Noll began lining up Greene at a sharp angle across from and between guard and center to disrupt blocking. His interception and fumble recovery proved crucial stops against the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX. He captained the defense beginning in 1977. He was named All-NFL five times, All-AFC eleven straight seasons, and Defensive Player of the Year in 1972 and 1974. Greene was also durable, playing his first 91 games until injured in 1975 and playing in 181 of 190 regular-season games. Soda Pop Culture Greene starred in a Coca-Cola TV commercial that first aired in October 1979, but which is regarded as one of the top ads in Super Bowl history—even in the history of television. The ad made Green a pop culture icon. The commercial won two CLIO awards, and Coke resurrected and revised it for the 2009 Super Bowl, which the Steelers won, with a promotion featuring Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. Greene also appeared in seven movies and two TV parodies of the Coke commercial during his NFL career. See also: Football; Men, African American Images of

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Further Reading Fox, Larry. 1975. Mean Joe Greene and the Steelers’ Front Four. New York: Dodd, Mead. Lace, William W. 1999. The Pittsburgh Steelers Football Team. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. Russell, Andy. 2001. ‘‘Joe Greene.’’ The Steeler Reader. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Zittrain, Jonathan L., and Jennifer K. Harrison. 2004. The Torts Game: Defending Mean Joe Greene. New York: Aspen Publishers. Richard Kenney

Gregory, Dick (1932– ), Comedian, Social and Political Activist Dick Gregory, African American comedian-turned-activist, plays a pivotal role in the fight for human and civil rights in the United States and abroad. His ability to find humor in depressing situations has been the key that unlocked doors that were gateways to eclectic opportunities and experiences. Richard Claxton Gregory began his career as a comedian accidentally. Because his family was poor and on welfare, and Presley Gregory, his father, was often absent from the home, Gregory and his brother were the butt of playmates’ jokes. One day being taunted by neighborhood bullies, Gregory was asked the whereabouts of his father. He responded, ‘‘Oh, he’s at your house with your Momma!’’ As everyone laughed, Gregory realized what his mother Lucille had been telling him, ‘‘There is freedom in laughter,’’ he wrote in his memoir. From this day on, Gregory sharpened his quips and responded humorously to youngsters who teased him. Gregory continued to practice comedy routines while in the military from 1954 until his discharge two years later. Upon leaving the military he sought jobs as a stand-up comedian in small, black-owned establishments. However, he was catapulted to national stardom in 1961, when Hugh Hefner arranged for Gregory to be booked at the Playboy Club in Chicago, which led him to a guest appearance on national network television on the Jack Paar Show. National recognition enabled Gregory to reach larger, more racially diverse audiences. Jokes about being broke and his own poverty gave way to jokes about racism, inequality, human rights, mistreatment of Native Americans, the Vietnam War, and U. S. government conspiracies. By the 1960s Gregory had achieved immense fame and the reputation for being outspoken on racism. Civil Rights Movement leader Medgar Evers caused Gregory to plunge knee-deep into the movement. Initially, Gregory feared going to go to Mississippi because of its reputation for brutalizing, Lynching, and burning black people. But his association with Evers and other brave black Mississippians fueled Gregory’s bravery. He was so inspired to fight racism that he and Lillian, his wife, made the commitment that black folk always would come first, even before their own children. Thus, Gregory, and sometimes his wife, crisscrossed the country from

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Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, to Memphis, Birmingham, and Jackson, Mississippi working untiringly in humanitarian activities. With the full support of Lillian, Gregory became heavily engaged in the fight for a number of causes. He participated in voter registration rallies; he fed the hungry (sometimes personally purchasing hundreds of pounds of food); and he voiced concerns about serious issues in this country and worldwide—homelessness, drugs, war, world hunger, and apartheid. As a high-profile entertainer, Gregory had the power to spotlight racism on the national stage. During the 1960s especially, his life was in danger when he appeared at rallies in southern towns. Moreover, Gregory made personal sacrifices. He left his wife and children for periods of time as he crusaded to make the world better. In 1967, he fasted forty days to protest the Vietnam War. On May 23, 1973, Gregory officially retired from show business. By this time he had become a health enthusiast. He could not in good conscience continue to work in unhealthy, smoke-filled places that encouraged people to drink alcohol and participate in activities harmful to the body. Gregory continues to prick social consciousness concerning human and civil rights, and present-day issues. Currently, he is a highly sought after speaker on college campuses, at social and political forums, and at churches. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Entertainment Industry; Humor; Jokes Further Reading Gregory, Dick, and Sheila P. Moses. 2000. Callus on My Soul: A Memoir. Marietta, Georgia: Longstreet Press. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. Notable Black Men. Detroit: Gale Research. Jewell B. Parham

Gumbel, Bryant (1948– ), Sportscaster, Television Journalist Bryant Charles Gumbel, notable television journalist, sportscaster, news and talk show host, won acclaim as the popular host of NBC’s Today Show from 1982 to 1997. Gumbel has been honored with many awards for journalism and broadcasting. These include the Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding foreign broadcasting in 1984, four Emmys, and the Edward Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting. Gumbel was born New Orleans but grew up in a neighborhood near the University of Chicago where his father served as a county judge. Gumbel and his older brother Greg attended Roman Catholic schools. He chose Russian history as his major at Bates College in Maine. Always an avid football and basketball fan, Gumbel wanted to play professional sports but a wrist injury ended his dream for an athletic career. After graduation in 1970, he worked briefly as a sales representative in New York City. Black Sports magazine was so impressed with an article he

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submitted that they offered him a position as a sports writer. He later moved into the editorship of the magazine, gaining further exposure to the business. At twentythree years old, with little solid experience, he was hired by KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, California, as a weekend sportscaster. He was soon promoted to a weeknight slot and the sports director position. NBC executives took notice of Gumbel’s creativity and spontaneity as a sports reporter and newscaster. They were particularly pleased with his reporting of the 1974 World Series. He was hired to anchor the weekend sports desk. He cohosted Grandstand, a weekend sports show, and anchored professional Football, Baseball, and college Basketball broadcasts. In 1980, Gumbel began working full-time on NBC’s Today Show, producing sports stories for the broadcast. When Tom Brokaw left the show in 1981 to anchor the evening news, Gumbel became cohost with Jane Pauley. In 1984, he received critical acclaim for his interviews with Soviet Union officials. His excellent work and versatility on the network led to hosting a monthly news program, Main Street. Gumbel successfully hosted the 1988 Olympics in Korea. But at the height of his career, when ratings for the Today Show had reached the top, several unflattering reports profiling his private life and personality appeared in the media. A 1989 private memo to producers was leaked to the press, in which Gumbel criticized Willard Scott, the show’s popular weatherman. In 1990, Jane Pauley left the show and was replaced by Deborah Norville. Gumbel was characterized as aggressive, harsh, and sexist. Ratings for the show plummeted. Two years later when Gumbel teamed with Katie Couric, the show regained the top slot. In 1992, Gumbel persuaded NBC to shoot a weeklong version of the Today Show in Africa, never before visited by the show. The series, although recognized with awards, did not rate high with viewers. Gumbel left the Today Show in January, 1997 to pursue other plans. After leaving NBC, Gumbel cohosted CBS’s Early Show and his own series of specials, Prime Time, until 2002. He currently hosts Real Sports on HBO. He also served as a commentator for NFL games. An active golfer and charity supporter, Gumbel lives in Florida with his wife, model Hilary Quinlan. He has two children from a previous marriage. See also: Journalism and Journalists; Radio Shows and Hosts; Sports Announcers and Commentators Further Reading Biography Research Center. 2009. ‘‘Bryant Gumbel.’’ Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http:// galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC. Contemporary Black Biography. 1997. Vol.14. Detroit: Gale Research. Current Biography Yearbook. 1987.1986. New York: H. W. Wilson Co. HBO.com. ‘‘Bryant Gumbel.’’ HBO REALsports. http://www.hbo.com/realsports/correspondents/bios/bryant_gumbel.html. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. Notable Black American Men. Book I. Detroit: Gale Research. Janette Prescod

H Hair and Hairstyles Although African Americans have been appearing in mass media with increasing regularity from the twentieth century on, sporting an array of hairstyles, black hair, which refers to the varying textures of coarse hair of descendents of Africa, plays a complex role in African American life. More than mere fashion, black hairstyles and hair have functioned as outward expressions of racial identity and solidarity, social class, politics, and varying beauty ideals. Black hair, like any racial difference, has also evoked a myriad of responses such as fear, repulsion, and curiosity from dominant white culture. Origins In Africa, black hair played an important biological and social function. Black hair provided protection from the hot African sun, helping to cool the body and prevent harmful UV rays from passing into the skin. Traditionally, black hair was associated with beauty, health, and identity. Hair styles, such as braids, plaits, and Cornrows, sometimes embellished with beads, shells, and other accessories, imparted vital information, such as age, marital status, occupation, and tribal identification. The Slavery Period During American slavery, black hair underwent drastic changes. Abject living conditions, poor diets, and inadequate resources contributed to rampant hair problems, such as scalp diseases and hair loss. As a result, slave women frequently

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wore head scarves. On Sundays, slaves moiled over hair preparations, often straightening the hair with a heated butter knife or lye. Black slaves desired straight hair for many reasons. Black hair, like other African traits (i. e., full lips, broad noses, etc.), was considered by white society as unattractive. According to Byrd and Tharps, straight hair was deemed ‘‘the beauty ideal,’’ giving rise to terms such as ‘‘good hair’’ (straight hair) and ‘‘bad hair’’ (coarse hair) and ‘‘translated to [the] economic opportunity and social advantage’’ that many biracial men and women (with straight hair and light complexions) enjoyed since slavery and beyond. The Twentieth Century and Beyond After the emancipation of slaves in 1863, the pursuit for straight (and healthy) hair gave way to new advancements. In the early twentieth century, Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone and Madam C. J. Walker introduced hair care systems to promote hair growth and embolden the esteem of women emerging out of slavery. Using hot combs and special sulfur-enriched conditioners, black women brandished straight and shiny hairstyles. Black men straightened their hair with lye and wore slicked back styles and conks. Not all African Americans approved of straightened black hair. While many middle- and upper-class blacks associated progressiveness with straight hair and, conversely, shame and backwardness with natural hair, some black leaders, like Marcus Garvey, contended that straight hair was a by-product of internalized racism and racial assimilation. Nonetheless, straight hair became increasingly popular, especially with the introduction of chemical mixtures that helped make straightened hair more resistant to becoming kinky due to moisture. Beginning in the 1960s, natural hairstyles, like Afros and braids, permeated black culture. Originally popularized by college students, Afros became the symbol of black pride and the militant Black Power Movement; straightened hair was disparaged. By the 1970s, Afros had become commodified, glamorized, and appropriated as an emblem of urban coolness as illustrated in films like Shaft (1971) and Foxy Brown (1974). In the 1980s, chemically processed curls replaced Afros. The ubiquitous curl required a great deal of oil-based products and maintenance. At the close of the decade, films like Coming to America (1988), with its comedic references to the outmoded curl, underscored the large role hair plays in collective black culture. As Hip-Hop music and culture spread in the 1990s, new hairstyles emerged. Men commonly wore short fades bearing elaborate designs created with razors. Women wore sculpted styles (created with copious amounts of hair product), sometimes dyed blonde or other colors, and braided hair extensions. These styles, considered unprofessional by mainstream culture, frequently stirred controversy in the workplace. Dreadlocks are another style regarded negatively in mainstream culture. Largely associated with Rastafarianism, an Afrocentric religious movement originating in Jamaica, dreadlocks is hair that is worn in long, natural coils and, despite misconceptions, is washed regularly. Dreadlocks are frequently depicted negatively

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in films, like Predator (1987), Battlefield Earth (2000), and Matrix Reloaded (2003), that represent monsters and villains with dreadlock styles. In the new millennium, African Americans wear an assortment of hairstyles. Men sport cornrows, modernized Afros, twists, and bald heads. Women wear chemically straightened and natural hairstyles. Others, like Oprah Winfrey, media mogul, and Tyra Banks, former model and television personality, wear hair extensions. Whether natural or straight, black hair has greatly impacted African American culture. A number of words and expressions to describe black hair and hairstyles have entered the lexicon of Black English. For example, the phrase ‘‘get your hair did’’ in the hip-hop song ‘‘Work It’’ by Missy Elliot refers to getting a professional haircut or style. African Americans are unified not only by a distinctive language form but also by the hairstyling process. Solidarity, kinship, and connectedness are reinforced when, for example, a mother braids her daughter’s hair, and in trips to the barbershop and salon, as represented in the films Barbershop (2002) and Beauty Shop (2005). Many issues, as well as attitudes towards black hair, however, challenge African Americans. Some blacks find the appropriation of black hairstyles on whites and other races offensive. In predominately white settings, blacks may feel alienated, self-conscious, or frustrated by excessive or negative attention directed at their hair. Others may feel inhibited by adverse weather conditions and activities, like swimming, that pose special challenges, considering black hair management frequently requires a lengthy and involved process. Although some blacks oppose straightened hair styles, many women argue that chemically relaxed hair is still unique and is easier to manage than natural styles. Despite the controversies over black hair, African Americans currently exhibit, with a greater degree of freedom and assertiveness than ever before, the versatility of black hair. See also: Afrocentric Movement; Barbershops; Beauty Shops; Cosmetics Further Reading Banks, Ingrid. 2000. Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women’s Consciousness. New York: New York University Press. Byrd, Ayana D., and Tharps, Lori L. 2001. Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. Jaynes, Gerald D., ed. 2005. ‘‘Hair, African American.’’ In Encyclopdia of African Ameican Society, Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference. Gladys L. Knight

Haley, Alex (1921–92), Writer Through his book Roots, Alex Haley inspired pride in African American culture and promoted better understanding of that culture among white Americans. The book also prompted interest in family genealogy.

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Born August 11, 1921, in Ithaca, New York, to Cornell University graduate students, he received the name Alex Murray Palmer Haley. His father, Simon (Samuel) Alexander Haley, worked toward a master’s degree in agriculture. His mother, Bertha George Palmer Haley, studied at Ithaca Conservatory of Music. While her husband completed his coursework, she took six-week-old Alex to live with her parents in Henning, Tennessee, where Will Palmer, Haley’s grandfather, owned a lumber yard. In 1926, following Palmer’s death, Haley’s father managed the lumber company, and his mother taught school. Eventually, they sold Alex Haley won the Pulitzer Prize for his best- the business and lived in several selling book Roots: The Saga of an American southern university towns where Family. His book, which was made into a Simon taught agriculture. They popular television miniseries, marked the first stayed longest at Alabama Agricultime an African American descended from slaves tural and Mechanical College. Two had traced his family’s history back to its origins more sons joined the family: in Africa. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images) George and Julius. Alex spent his summers in Henning, where he often heard grandmother Cynthia Palmer and other relatives recount family history. At fifteen, Haley graduated from high school in Normal, Alabama. He briefly attended Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Lorman, Mississippi, and then Elizabeth City State Teachers College in Elizabeth City, North Carolina (1937– 39). In 1939, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard as a messboy, eventually serving as a cook. He traveled the world and served in the South Pacific during World War II. Haley loved to write and often composed letters for his shipmates. He read voraciously from the ship’s library and wrote adventure stories. After eight years and hundreds of rejections, This Week, a Sunday newspaper supplement, accepted an article. Haley also wrote about events on the ship, and in 1949, the U.S. Coast Guard created a new position for him as chief journalist. His family life proved difficult. In 1941, he married Nannie Branch. They had two children, William Alexander and Lydia Ann. The couple divorced in 1964, and Haley married Juliette Collins. They had a daughter, Cynthia Gertrude. Divorce followed in 1972. Around 1977, Haley married Myra Lewis, from whom he later separated. After twenty years in the Coast Guard, Haley retired in 1959. Determined to become a writer, he took a basement apartment in New York’s Greenwich

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Village. Just as his cash-on-hand amounted to eighteen cents and his food supply consisted of two cans of sardines, he received payment for an article. Eventually, he sold to publications such as Reader’s Digest, Harper’s, Atlantic, and the New York Times Magazine. In 1962, Haley interviewed jazz trumpeter Miles Davis for Playboy, initiating a long-standing series. Other interviewees included Martin Luther King Jr., Quincy Jones, Johnny Carson, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Brown, and Leontyne Price. The Playboy Interviews appeared as a book in 1993. Over a year’s time, Haley interviewed Malcolm Little, the black activist known as Malcolm X, and transcribed the conversations. It took another year to write The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley. Little’s assassination occurred just a couple of weeks before publication of the volume in 1965. The book sold more than six million copies, and Spike Lee later directed a film adaptation (1992). Just after release of the book, Haley began to explore his family history. At the National Archives and in other libraries on three continents, he spent twelve years researching his family history, even traveling to Africa. In 1972, he and his brothers founded the Kinte Foundation in Washington, DC, an organization devoted to fostering interest in African American history, culture, and genealogy. Haley described Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976) as ‘‘faction,’’ part fact and part fiction. The narrative traces his maternal ancestry through seven generations, from slavery to freedom. Published in the nation’s bicentennial year, it sold copies in the millions. Roots won over 250 awards, among them a 1976 special citation of merit in history from the National Book Award committee and a special Pulitzer Prize for making an important contribution to the literature of slavery. In 1977, it won the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Haley became a millionaire and traveled widely as a lecturer. While some critics called the work a literary and social phenomenon, others feared its impact would worsen race relations. But despite controversy, the work received wide attention. ABC broadcast Roots as an eight-night miniseries during January and February 1977. About 130 million people watched all or part of the series. Roots: The Next Generation, or Roots II, which covered from 1882 to the completion of Haley’s research, aired in seven parts in February 1979. In 1981, Haley and Norman Lear produced a television series, Palmerstown, U.S.A., loosely based on Haley’s childhood in the 1930s’ rural South. The series won Haley a nomination to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. A Different Kind of Christmas, a historical novella about the Underground Railroad, appeared in 1988. Haley owned homes in Seattle, Washington, and in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a 127-acre farm in Norris, Tennessee. At the time of his death, he was working on a history of Henning and on My Search for Roots, an account of the book’s composition. Haley died of a heart attack on February 10, 1992, in Seattle, Washington, on a lecture tour. He is buried in Henning. In 1992, Haley’s estate sold most of his goods to honor a million-dollar debt.

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David Stevens completed Alex Haley’s Queen: The Story of an American Family (1993). Intended as a companion volume to Roots, it traces Haley’s paternal ancestry. A television adaptation also appeared. Mama Flora’s Family (1998) became a television movie as well. See also: Black Nationalism; Lee, Spike; Nation of Islam Further Reading Johnson, Anne Janette. 1993. ‘‘Alex Haley.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale Research. Kunte Kinte–Alex Haley Foundation. 2000. ‘‘Alex Haley Biography.’’ http://www.kintehaley .org/haleybio.html. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale Research. Time. 1977. ‘‘Why ‘Roots’ Hit Home.’’ 109 (February 14): 69–71. Marie Garrett

Hamer, Fannie Lou (1917–77), Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer was an influential figure in the Civil Rights Movement who was noted for her impassioned delivery of how her life changed when she tried to vote in Mississippi. The fearless Hamer was known also for her moving rendering of the song ‘‘This Little Light of Mine.’’ Hamer said that she was ‘‘sick and tired of being sick and tired’’ of the horrible treatment African Americans were still receiving in the 1960s. She did something about it as a leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She survived losing work, beatings, attempted murder, and jail to get African Americans in Mississippi the right to vote and use their votes to their benefit. She believed firmly in the promise of equality in the American Constitution. Born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi, to sharecroppers Jim and Ella Townsend, she was the youngest of their twenty children. Sharecropping families usually remained indebted to landowners because of the need to borrow against future earnings for supplies, unfair accounting of the amount of product the family produced each year, and inadequate record-keeping. The symptoms of poverty permeated the Townsends, but pride was nurtured in their home. Hamer’s parents encouraged her to attend school in off-season on the farm, from December through March. She went through sixth grade, excelling at spelling, poetry, and singing. She left to help support her family, but continued to love reading. In 1944, she married Perry Hamer but stayed nearby to care for her parents until their deaths. The Hamers lived on the Marlow plantation outside Ruleville and went to church nearby. They never had children but were foster parents to two girls. Hamer was given a hysterectomy in 1961 without her permission.

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Church gave Hamer an opportunity to sing and study the Bible. She called Jesus Christ a revolutionary, and her faith led her in 1962 to attend a meeting at a church where James Bevel, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and James Forman, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), spoke of how African Americans could register to vote and become a part of the political process, electing officials who represented their best interests. Five days later, Hamer went to Indianola, opposing restrictive voting rights laws that had been on the books since Reconstruction. The application asked for an employer, which meant the applicant was at risk for being fired if their employer knew about their effort to vote. Potential registrants had to interpret a section of the state constitution. Hamer was asked about a section of the Mississippi Constitution dealing with de facto laws, about which she knew nothing; as result, the registrar failed her. On the ride home, the bus driver, who drove very carefully, was arrested. The only reason the arresting officer gave for making the charge was because he deemed that the vehicle was ‘‘too yellow.’’ This action demonstrates the vunerability of blacks who tried to vote, for they could be stopped at the polls or elsewere with bizarre reasons, or for no reason at all. Hamer soothed her fellow passengers on the bus by singing church songs. Many have tried to describe the sound, power, and passion of her voice, but in essence it was always just what was needed in difficult times. Attempting to register cost African Americans and civil rights workers their lives and livelihoods. Hamer’s husband was told by their employer that they could stay on his job if his wife stopped trying to register. She refused and he left her with relatives in another county to protect her. That year, Hamer, the fortyfive-year-old poor, southern African American woman who had lived and seen the worst of a life without rights, became involved with SNCC. She was the embodiment of the movement and told her story to students, workers, and reporters; she also became a spokesperson for SNCC. Hamer took the voter-registration test again, having studied the constitution with SNCC worker, and passed in early 1963. Despite harassment, she helped register new voters by appealing to their most basic needs, provision of clothing and food. Her husband struggled to find a job and at times SNCC paid Hamer a small stipend. SCLC provided her with grassroots training that augmented her leadership skills. In June 1963, Hamer was jailed and beaten in Winona, Mississippi. The men who were accused of violating the civil rights workers’ rights were acquitted, despite admitting to breaking federal laws and presenting conflicting stories. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was unhelpful during the trial because it did not thoroughly perform its duties during the investigation. Hamer in 1964 became one of the founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), an alternative to the state Democratic Party that prevented African Americans from voting. MFDP educated African Americans about the voting process and held mock elections to show the power of their vote. It also put candidates forward, including Hamer, for elections. Hamer cast her first vote ever for herself, running for the United States House of Representatives. Although MFDP candidates lost, they put their issues in the forefront: education,

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antipoverty, civil rights, rural and urban development, and health care. MFDP campaigned to send delegates to the National Democratic Convention; it maintained that the state party was not representing all Mississippians or the national party’s agenda and challenged the regular Democrats’ seating. Hamer went to the convention as her organization’s vice chair. Although they were not seated, the MFDP candidates’ public testimony implored presidential and vice presidential candidates Lyndon B. Johnson and Hubert Humphrey to be intentional about instituting civil rights when they won their party’s nomination. It also set the stage for the coalition that got Hamer and others seated in 1968, integrating the Mississippi delegation. Leaving Washington, DC, Hamer traveled with Harry Belafonte and SNCC members to Senegal and Guinea; she was impressed by the differences and similarities in social and economic conditions and politics. Upon her return, she and her fellow Mississippians challenged the legality of politicians elected where some residents were denied the right to vote. She traveled and spoke, raising funds and garnering support for voter registration, for another decade. Hamer saw the Voting Rights Act pass in 1965, but even some African Americans had to be convinced that one of their own was worthy of the vote. Hamer ran for local offices, giving voters a choice in the primaries. She also campaigned for African American candidates. Her political activism extended beyond voting rights. She lobbied governments to fund basic needs of citizens—adequate and nutritious food, affordable housing, and preschool. Hamer knew the impact that these issues had on job opportunities, health, and future generations. A lover of people and justice, she advocated for women’s and workers’ rights, as well as the rights of those affected by random violence. Poor health exacerbated by the beating she received when jailed in 1963 haunted Hamer throughout her life. On March 14, 1977, Hamer died after being hospitalized for treatment of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Prior to her death, she was honored in Ruleville and by the Congressional Black Caucus for her inspiration and dedication to this country’s fulfillment of the Constitution’s preamble, to ‘‘establish Justice, [and] ensure domestic Tranquility.’’ See also: Politics and Government; Social Activists; Women and the Civil Rights Movement Further Reading Mills, Kay. 1993. This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. New York: Plume. Reagon, Bernice Johnson. 1990. ‘‘Women as Culture Carriers in the Civil Rights Movement: Fannie Lou Hamer.’’ In Women in the Civil Rights Movement. Vicki L. Crawford, Jacqueline Anne Rouse, and Barbara Woods, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Reed, Linda. 2005. ‘‘Fannie Lou Hamer.’’ In Black Women in America, 2nd ed., Vol. 2. Ed. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Jenifer Lyn Grady

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Handy, W. C. (1873–1958), Musician and Composer W. C. Handy was a musician and composer known as ‘‘The Father of the Blues’’ for creating notation that helped to standardize the twelve-bar metrical structure of this musical genre. Born William Christopher Handy in Florence, Alabama, in 1873 to a strict African Methodist Episcopal (AME) family—both his father and grandfather were ministers—W. C. Handy’s early musical training was in his family church, Greater St. Paul’s AME. The idea of the young Handy pursuing a career as a musician, however, was unthinkable. Nevertheless, he sneaked off to hear black migrant workers in the area sing work songs. He was expected to pursue a career in religion (following the family tradition), but when a schoolteacher asked him what career he intended to have as an adult, Handy announced that he wanted to be a musician. The teacher denounced the profession as unworthy and said it would take the boy to the gutter. The teacher sent a note home to Handy’s father about this, and his father’s response was that he would rather follow his son to the grave than see him as a musician. Once Handy saved enough money to buy a guitar, and when he brought it home, his father sent him back to the store and made him exchange it for a dictionary. Handy continued to learn about music but did so secretly. He joined a local band in secret and eventually bought a cornet and practiced religiously. After passing a teacher’s exam he taught for a while but did not enjoy the experience. He made a concession to his family and began saving money to go to Wilberforce College to study theology. He raised money by organizing a vocal quartet with the intent of going to the International Expo in Chicago (which was postponed from 1892 to 1893). After finding out that the Expo would be delayed a year, the group made its way to St. Louis, Missouri, where they eventually disbanded. Penniless, Handy slept on the cobblestone streets near the Mississippi River. This experience was the inspiration, Handy said, for one of his most celebrated compositions, ‘‘St. Louis Blues.’’ Handy eventually joined a group called the Mahara Minstrels, with whom he traveled for a few years. With a wife and child to support by 1900, Handy accepted a job at the Agricultural and Mechanical College (now known as Alabama A & M) in Normal, Alabama. He taught there briefly before returning to tour with the Mahara Minstrels. In 1903, he received an offer to conduct a band in Mississippi. That year, while traveling in the small town of Tutwiler, Mississippi, Handy heard a man accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar. This was his first experience of hearing the blues (and is also regarded as one of the earliest blues citings). Handy made mental notes and later wrote down what he heard as musical notation. Handy eventually relocated his band to Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, and more actively pursued his career as a composer. Sensing the attraction of this new blues music to whites as well as blacks, Handy composed works in that tradition; ‘‘Mr. Crump’’ (originally written as a mayoral campaign song) became his celebrated ‘‘Memphis Blues.’’ He subsequently produced several works, including

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‘‘St. Louis Blues,’’ ‘‘Yellow Dog Blues,’’ and ‘‘Beale Street Blues.’’ Handy’s notation of the genre helped to standardize the familiar twelve-bar metric structure that is so familiar to musicians, and he became celebrated as ‘‘The Father of the Blues.’’ Handy was active in several musical endeavors, including founding the only black owned-and-operated race label, Black Swan (after the stage name of the nineteenth-century black concert singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield). A prolific composer and arranger, he also produced several compilations (Blues: An Anthology [1926], Book of Negro Spirituals [1938]) and an autobiography (Father of the Blues), among other works. Handy’s life was romanticized in a movie, which was released the year of his death, titled St. Louis Blues and featuring singer Nat King Cole as Handy, with Ruby Dee and Eartha Kitt. See also: Actors and Performers; Blues and Blues Festivals; Composers; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Cohn, Lawrence. 1993. Nothing but the Blues: The Music and the Musicians. New York: Abbeville. Handy, W. C. [1941] 1970. Father of the Blues. New York: Macmillan. Southern, Eileen. 1997. The Music of Black Americans. 3rd ed. New York: Norton. Southern, Eileen, ed. 1983. Readings in Black American Music. 2nd ed. New York: Norton. Christopher Brooks

Hansberry, Lorraine (1930–65), Playwright Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, one of the most influential playwrights in American theater, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 19, 1930. Her parents were the products of historically black colleges. After completing his studies at Alcorn College, her father, Carl, moved to Chicago where he became a real estate broker. He made significant contributions to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and to the National Urban League. Hansberry’s mother, Nannie Perry, educated at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College (now University) in Nashville, was a schoolteacher and a leading society figure. The Hansberry household was one of the hubs of black social life in Chicago, with gatherings that featured prominent figures such as Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and Joe Louis. While Hansberry grew up in a family of privilege, she, as well as the rest of her siblings, were made aware of the struggle in American society based on racial and class distinctions. Following her graduation from high school, Hansberry broke with the family tradition of attending historically black institutions by enrolling in the predominantly white University of Wisconsin at Madison to pursue her studies in journalism and the visual arts. During her senior year at Madison, Hansberry attended a

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university production of Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock and was moved by O’Casey’s ability to make the particular suffering of the Irish people a commentary on the universal suffering of humanity. Inspired by the dramatic power of O’Casey, Hansberry left college for New York City to make her artistic vision a reality. Following a stint in Mexico where she studied art, Hansberry arrived in Harlem in 1950 with the desire to become a painter. To support her dream of becoming a painter, Hansberry served as a writer and later become the editor of Freedom, a progressive paper founded by Paul Robeson. With Freedom, Hansberry learned firsthand of the economic struggles of people of color on the national and international scenes. While covering a protest at New York University, Hansberry met Robert Barron Nemiroff, a student of Russian literature. They would marry in Chicago in 1953, and when one of his folk ballads developed into a commercial success, Hansberry, freed from finding odd jobs, focused her time and energy on one of her passions: theater. In 1953, she began writing a play called The Crystal Stair, which would become known to the world as A Raisin in the Sun. Both titles are phrases from a poem by Langston Hughes about Harlem. Like Hughes, Hansberry believed that art could be a means towards achieving social justice. Hansberry’s most famous play, A Raisin in the Sun, opened on Broadway in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959. With the debut Hansberry broke the color line, becoming the first African American woman playwright whose work was featured on Broadway. Depicting the economic struggles of a black family, A Raisin in the Sun captured the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement and won the prestigious New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1959. At twentyeight years old, Lorraine Hansberry was the first black playwright and the youngest person ever to win this award. Lloyd Richards directed the first production of A Raisin in the Sun, and the play featured the then obscure but now renowned theatrical talents of Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Louis Gossett Jr., and Diana Sands. In 1961, Canadian director Daniel Petrie took the play from stage to screen, including the leads from the theatrical release. Of the play, James Baldwin said, ‘‘Never before in the entire history of the American theater had so much of the truth of Black people’s lives been seen on the stage.’’ A Raisin in the Sun explored the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance while at the same time anticipating the revolutionary thought of the American 1960s, making it unique in its artistic vision. Even so, some black militants were dismissive of the play because it attracted both black and white audiences. Black Nationalist Harold Cruse referred to Hansberry’s influential play as a ‘‘cleverly written piece of glorified soap opera.’’ A Raisin in the Sun, similar to the work of Sean O’Casey that inspired Hansberry, resisted clearly drawn racial protest in favor of a more nuanced approach to the universal struggle for equality that took particular form for African Americans. Hansberry continued to write stories and plays, as well as screenplays for movies and network television. In January 1965, with her play The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window on Broadway, Hansberry died of cancer. At her funeral in Harlem at the Church of Master, mourners filled the church, and those unable to find

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room within the church stood outside in a blizzard to pay their respects to the thirty-four-year-old playwright. Those in attendance included James Baldwin, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and Malcolm X. Nina Simone sang three songs, and the eulogists included Paul Robeson and Ruby Dee. In her remarks, Ruby Dee captured the sentiments of many when she said, ‘‘We mourn her loss, but we rejoice in her life, though short, because she pointed the way to wider artistic horizons.’’ Four years following his wife’s death, Robert Nemiroff compiled the writings Hansberry left behind into the play To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry. The work examined Hansberry’s life in her own words, and the title was drawn from a line that Hansberry herself had written: ‘‘Though it be a thrilling and marvellous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so, doubly dynamic—to be young, gifted and black.’’ With her belief that ‘‘virtually every human being is interesting,’’ Hansberry created a world of art that continues to thrive. A Raisin in the Sun has enjoyed numerous productions and revivals since its 1959 inception. A television broadcast of A Raisin in the Sun appeared in 1989, starring Esther Rolle and Danny Glover, and, in 2004, the Broadway revival earned two individual Tony Awards. The classic introduction to the world of Lorraine Hansberry remains A Raisin in the Sun, available in a number of editions. Readers are invited to explore the pages of To Be Young, Gifted and Black, Hansberry’s autobiography that offers moments of invaluable insight into her life, artistic vision, and cultural legacy. See also: Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby; Playwrights; Theater and Drama Further Reading Lewis, Barbara. 2003. ‘‘Hansberry, Lorraine.’’ In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance. Dennis Kennedy, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. New York Amsterdam News. 1965. ‘‘600 Brave Blizzard to Attend Hansberry Rites.’’ January 23. Shepard, Richard F. 1969. ‘‘Theater: Hansberry Life: ‘Young, Gifted, Black’ at the Cherry Lane.’’ New York Times, January 3. Wilkerson, Margaret B. 2005. ‘‘Hansberry, Lorraine Vivian.’’ In Black Women in America. Darlene Clark Hine. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition Basketball team, whose players combine superb athleticism, theatrical displays of dazzling techniques, and comic routines. It was created in 1926 as a positive response to the ubiquitous and blatant racism felt and experienced by highly talented black athletes who were thought of as being less than, not because of their abilities on the basketball court, but because of the mere color of their skin. At the time, the societal norm

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for thought would not allow comprehension of the notion that black athletes could actually compete professionally and in an organized manner. Founded in the latter part of 1926 as Saperstein’s New York Harlem Globetrotters, though the name says different, the team was actually from Chicago, Illinois, and shortly after being established in 1927 they began touring around Illinois playing formidable opponents. The team’s financial backer, Abe Saperstein, created the name to allude to the essence of the team’s cultural background, since Harlem was a well-known black neighborhood in New York, while also appealing to the masses by creating the thought that the team had been exposed to traveling globally. Being a part of the Harlem GlobeAcrobatic basketball actions are shown by trotters gave black basketball players Michael Wilson of the ‘‘Harlem Globetrotters’’ the opportunity to showcase their of the United States with a very special kind skills and abilities on many different of dunking, in the Forum-Hall in Bamberg, levels. They also added a form of Germany, on Friday, Oct. 18, 2002. Bamberg entertainment to their now iconic was the prelude to their 2002 Fall European Tour. (AP/Wide World Photos) style of play which grew in popularity from the 1940s through the 1970s. Often characterized as comedic play along with slapstick humor, the Globetrotters are known for spinning a basketball on their fingertips and bouncing the ball off a teammate’s head while the ball is still in play. They have a number of record wins, a few of which were championship titles, including the Chicago Herald World Professional Tournament won in 1940 and the International Cup Tournament played and won in Mexico City in 1943. From its inception, entertaining showmanship and winning games is what made the Harlem Globetrotters synonymous with fun and record winning streaks. The Harlem Globetrotters by design embraced black athletes. In the mid-1940s, Bob Karstens, a white player, joined the team. Two other white players also played with the team, although briefly. Oddly enough, during this time black players were still denied acceptance into the all-white National Basketball Association (NBA). A defining moment for the Harlem Globetrotters was in 1948 when they were matched against the Minneapolis Lakers and they defeated them 49–41, and defeated them again in a second match-up. Although these matches were

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exhibition games, the Globetrotters’ style of play was finally noticed by the NBA. By 1950, Nat ‘‘Sweetwater’’ Clifton, a former Harlem Globetrotter, along with two other black basketball players, was recruited to play in the all-white NBA. Upon the NBA’s insightful display of opening its ranks up to blacks, the direction and scope of the Harlem Globetrotters Basketball Organization changed, moving away from the ideal of being the other ranking ball club for which blacks were given access to play for audiences of all races and classes on the open court. Since the proverbial door was now open for acceptance into the NBA, many black basketball players had less interest in becoming Globetrotters and focused their aspirations on the pursuit of happiness with hopes of a limitless career start in the NBA. The Globetrotters repositioned its course and began traveling to other countries due to their momentous international appeal. In 1958, they toured parts of the Soviet Union with all-American college athletes while representing the United States as goodwill ambassadors. In 1985, the Globetrotters hired Lynette Woodard of the University of Kansas, the first woman to ever play on the team. She traveled with the team until 1987. The Harlem Globetrotters have been dazzling audiences throughout the world for the better part of eighty-one years. This organization is truly legendary with all that it has been and accomplished for both athletes and fans alike. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Humor Further Reading Jaynes, Gerald, ed. 2005. ‘‘Harlem Globetrotters.’’ Encyclopedia of African American Society. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks: Sage Reference. Myers, Aaron. ‘‘Harlem Globetrotters.’’ 2005. In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. 2nd ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Robinson, Greg. 2006. ‘‘Harlem Globetrotters.’’ In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Vol. 3. 2nd ed. Colin Palmer, ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Dantrea Hampton

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance is generally considered the first literary movement in African American literature. It has been studied as primarily literary; however, artists, both visual and performing, also played an important role. The term Harlem Renaissance has been considered by many scholars as a misnomer because the movement was not fully situated in Harlem. Even though there was a large convergence of intellectuals and artists from the southern United States, the Caribbean Islands, and other places in New York, this

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renaissance was apparent in urban areas in the United States where there was a large influx of migrants. The period is variously identified as the New Negro, the New Negro Movement, and the Negro Renaissance. This period represents a shift from conciliatory stance to black intellectualism and artists characterized by assertiveness, militancy, radicalism, articulateness, and a heightened consciousness of the social and economic problems in the United States. The date assigned to As jazz musicians ventured to Northern cities during the the renaissance’s incep- 1920s, new regions of the country got the opportunity to tion is fluid. Events and experience live jazz performance in dance clubs and writers which formerly night clubs. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) were considered precursors to the renaissance—that is prior to 1917—by the 1990s were considered a part of the renaissance. These precursors include World War I (WWI), the Great Migration, the riots following WWI, the black and white patrons of the arts, and organizations such as the NAACP and the National Urban League. The publication of The Souls of Black Folks (1903) by W. E. B. Du Bois announces the replacement of a deferential posture with a more assertive stance. The anonymous publication of The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912) by James Weldon Johnson introduces a shift in narrative style and an emphasis on the passing theme. Two of Johnson’s later works reflected the emphasis of the renaissance on the folk material and black American culture. He edited The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922; expanded in 1931) with an introduction that discusses the evolution of black poetry beginning with the spiritual. In 1927, he published God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, which focuses on black oratory. Jean Toomer’s Cane (1923) introduces the experimentation of the period and the theme of regionalist tensions and heritage. The essay by Claude McKay, ‘‘If We Must Die’’ (1919), written in response to the 1919 bloody summer, voices the assertive and radical nature of the renaissance. The precursor period also includes 1925, which for some is very late, with the publication of the ‘‘Special Issue on Harlem’’ of the magazine, Survey Graphic, and the subsequent anthology, The New Negro, which reprinted essays from the magazine and contained new ones by Alain Locke, poet, fiction writer, and artist. It reflected the ideologically

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(not chronologically) younger generation of writers. The essays presented a theoretical delineation of the New Negro—defining, characterizing, and showing the points at which the New Negro converges and diverges from the old. The anthology demonstrates the work of this new entity. Literary Artists Among the major literary artists of the renaissance are Jean Toomer, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, and Zora Neale Hurston. Countee Cullen’s chosen use of literary form and treatment of race reflects the color duality of the era. Langston Hughes, the most versatile and prolific writer of the renaissance, wrote of urban black life, utilized music (especially the blues) to inform much of his work, and of the intent and passion of the artist in his essay, ‘‘The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain’’ (1926). Wallace Thurman addresses one of the major issues of the period in his novel, The Blacker the Berry (1929), and satirizes the period and the artists in Infants of Spring (1932). Zora Neale Hurston, with her essays and short fiction, reflects the attention to race pride and black culture. Other renaissance writers include Edward Christopher Williams, first black American to graduate from a library school and author of When Washington Was in Vogue, an epistolary novel that was initially published anonymously and serially in the Messenger magazine from January 1925 to June 1926. Gwendolyn Bennett was a poet, artist, editor, teacher, and political activist. She followed Augusta Savage, the first director of the Harlem Community Arts Center founded in 1937. Bennett served as director from 1938 to 1944. In the 1940s, she was removed because of her alleged political bias. Like Paul Robeson, she was accused of being a Communist and hounded out of public favor. Georgia Douglas Johnson, poet and dramatist, is central to the marginalized nature of the female artist. Additionally, she provided, like A’Lelia Walker, A meeting place for artists to meet and share works and ideas. Two novelists of the period who explored the issues of color and middle-class life are Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen. Richard Bruce Nugent openly wrote about homosexuality. The renaissance was also comprised of intellectuals and scholars of the period like Anna Julia Cooper; Arthur Schomburg, a bibliophile whose book collection was purchased by the Carnegie Corporation, placed in the New York Public Library, and is now known as the Schomburg Collection; and Charles S. Johnson, who organized the Civic Club Dinner, created the Literary Contest and its awards banquet through Opportunity magazine, and did much to encourage black writers and to develop the renaissance. This era saw the inauguration of Black History Week (1926) by Carter G. Woodson, designed to chronicle black life and culture; out of this grew the Black History Bulletin in 1937. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (1915) to share research on black history and the Journal of Negro History (1916), which he edited. Woodson reflects the emphasis of the renaissance on black history, culture, and accomplishments. The renaissance

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saw a proliferation of magazines as a result of the works being produced. Literary magazines appeared such as Fire! (edited by Wallace Thurman), which introduced writers and artists, lasted one year, and was followed by Harlem, another literary magazine lasting a year. Political and literary magazines more long-lived were the Messenger Magazine, edited by A. Philip Randolph; Crisis (magazine) (the organ of the NAACP), edited by W. E. B. Du Bois; and Opportunity, edited by Charles S. Johnson (the organ of the National Urban League). The Performing and Visual Arts and Artists While the period is considered primarily a literary one, strides were also made in the performing and visual arts. This was the period when Ragtime and blues were mainstays, but jazz, an improvisational music influenced by both, swept the nation. The renaissance saw the blossoming of such performers and composers such as Scott Joplin, pianist, known as the ‘‘King of Ragtime’’ and his folk opera, Treemonisha; Hubert ‘‘Eubie’’ Blake, pianist; W. C. Handy, cornetist and publisher, known as ‘‘Father of the Blues’’; Louis Armstrong, trumpeter and singer; and Duke Ellington, composer and pianist. Female vocalists of the period included Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith (the first black soloist to be recorded), Ethel Waters, Florence Mills, Gladys Bentley, and Bessie Smith, and Alberta Hunter. Male vocalists of the renaissance were Roland Hayes, a lyric tenor; Jules Bledsoe, a multilingual baritone; and baritone Paul Robeson, also a noted actor and scholar. Both Hayes and Robeson were noted for their renditions of the spirituals. Composers of classical, concert, and recital music included Henry T. Burleigh, Robert Nathaniel Dett, William Grant Still, Florence Price, and Clarence Cameron White. The renaissance saw the growth of black theater; playwrights were not only producing but there were more plays published and performed. For instance, Willis Richardson, one of the period’s most prolific playwrights, wrote The Chip Woman’s Fortune (1923), the first serious play by a black dramatist and produced on Broadway. He was concerned with the educational possibilities of drama, and edited an anthology of plays by black authors for teaching black children, Plays and the Pageants from the Life of the Negro (1930) and a collection of plays on black history (1935), coedited with May Miller, Negro History in Thirteen Plays. Randolph Edmonds, playwright, is credited with forty-seven plays, including plays on such historical figures as Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner. To further the presentation of the black folk play and dramas, W. E. B. Du Bois started the Krigwa Players (Crisis Guild of Writers and Artists), a little theater group; other groups included the Harlem Experimental Theatre (1928) and the Negro Art Theatre, which started at Abyssinia Baptist Church (1929). Playwrights who won awards sponsored by Crisis and Opportunity include Eulalie Spence and John F. Matheus. Not only did the renaissance produce serious theater that showcased actors such as Charles Gilpin, Jules Bledsoe, and Paul Robeson, but also it produced the musical. The black production, Shuffle Along (1921), made its debut on Broadway to critical acclaim; the producer, writer, director, and actors were black. Shuffle Along was written by Flournoy Miller, Aubrey Lyles, Noble Sissle,

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and Eubie Blake. Its cast included Florence Mills (an unsung renaissance star), Catherina Jarboro, and Josephine Baker. It introduced such songs as ‘‘Love Will Find a Way’’ and ‘‘I’m Just Wild about Harry.’’ Works that follow this production include Blackbirds (1926), a musical revue written for Florence Mills, Runnin’ Wild (1923), a musical revue by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, and Chocolate Dandies (1924) with music and lyrics by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. The renaissance was the era of popular bands, dancers, dances, and clubs. Many vocalists and instrumentalists also led bands at one time or another. One of the best known bandleaders of the period was Fletcher Henderson; he also provided a place for musicians to come together. Other bandleaders were Cab Calloway, known for ‘‘Minnie the Moocher’’ and ‘‘Hi-de-hi-de-ho’’; Duke Ellington; Count Basie; Jelly Roll Morton; and King Oliver. Dancers often seen onstage and in the clubs were individuals like: Earl ‘‘Snakehips’’ Tucker, known for his pelvic gyrations; Paul Meeres, called ‘‘the brown Valentino’’; Bill ‘‘Bojangles’’ Robinson, a tap dancer who played vaudeville; John Bubbles, who partnered with Buck (Ford Lee Washington) as Buck and Bubbles; and Peg Leg Bates, who in 1928 was considered the number one dancer in the country. Dances that flourished during the period included the Lindy Hop, Charleston, the Black Bottom, and cakewalk. In addition to on the stage, this music was performed in such nightlife establishments as the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom, and Small’s Paradise. During the renaissance there was a burgeoning of works by black visual artists such as Augusta Savage, sculptor, who worked in several mediums. Her major piece, ‘‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’’ the sculpture of a sixteen-foot-tall harp with singing figures representing the musical gifts of black people, was commissioned for the New York World’s Fair (1939–40), and destroyed following the fair. Some souvenir replicas of the harp are extant. Meta Warrick Fuller, prolific sculptor whose works show her awareness of black disenfranchisement, was influenced by Du Bois. Painter Aaron Douglas is the best known of the renaissance painters; he portrayed the history of black Americans. Lois Mailou Jones was a textile and fabric designer, painter, and teacher. Palmer Hayden portrayed black life, culture, and folk material. William H. Johnson is known for his studied primitivism in art. Archibald Motley painted urban African American life. Other artistic forms include photography; probably the best known and most experimental photographer of the era was James Van Der Zee. Pioneer independent filmmaker and the first African American to produce a feature length film, The Homesteader (1919) was Oscar Micheaux. The date assigned to the end of the renaissance is as fluid as is the beginning. Some scholars see the stock market crash in 1929 as the barometer forecasting the end of the renaissance in 1930. Others mark the end with the publication of Native Son (1940) by Richard Wright, and the shift in tone and direction of black writing. Finally, there are scholars who broadly define the period and date the closure with the death of Langston Hughes (1967), the last major writer of the renaissance. See also: Composers; Fiction; Film and Filmmakers; Journalism and Journalists; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints; Photography; Playwrights; Publishers and Publishing

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Further Reading Bontemps, Arna, ed. 1972. The Harlem Renaissance Remembered. New York: Dodd, Mead. Campbell, Mary Schmidt. 1994. Harlem Renaissance: Art of the Period. New York: Henry Abrams. Huggins, Nathan, ed. 2007. Harlem Renaissance. Updated ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Hull, Gloria T. 1987. Color, Sex, and Poetry. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Kellner, Bruce, ed. 1987. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era. New York: Methuen. Langley, Jeremy, and Sandra Govan. 2010. ‘‘Gwendolyn Bennett: The Richest Color on Her Pallette, Beauty, and Truth.’’ The International Review of African American Art 23: 6–15. Lewis, David Levering. 1981. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Watson, Steven. 1995. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African American Culture, 1920–1930. New York: Pantheon Books. Helen R. Houston

Harris, E. Lynn (1955–2009), Writer, Editor Since the last decade of the twentieth century, Everette Lynn Harris has been one of the most successful writers of popular fiction. His best-selling novels, which explore homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual relationships in African American culture, have garnered a fan base that cuts across gender, racial, and economic lines. Harris was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1955 and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He graduated from Hall High School in 1973 and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1977, where according to Jet magazine, he was the first African American yearbook editor at a predominantly white southern university. Harris, who earned a BA degree in journalism with honors, soon realized that he could command a higher starting salary as an IBM computer salesman than as a journalist; consequently he planned to sell computers for several years before enrolling in journalism or law school. However, he sold computers for IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T, and lived in various cities for the next thirteen years. When Harris was earning more than $100,000 a year, he quit his job and wrote his first novel, Invisible Life. After publishers rejected Harris’s manuscript, he paid $25,000 to self-publish his novel and sold it at African American bookstores, hair salons, and book clubs, prior to signing a contract with Doubleday. The company published Invisible Life in 1994, and issued a fifth anniversary edition in 1999 to commemorate the novel’s extraordinary debut. Proceeds from the sales of the special edition were donated to the E. Lynn Harris Better Days Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization founded by Harris that supports future writers and artists.

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Harris’s subsequent novels are Just As I Am (1994), And This Too Shall Pass (1996), If This World Were Mine (1997), Abide With Me (1999), Not a Day Goes By (2000), Any Way the Wind Blows (2001), A Love of My Own (2002), I Say a Little Prayer (2006), Just Too Good to Be True (2008), and Basketball Jones (2009). Each novel has appeared on the New York Times Best-Seller List. Harris is also the author of ‘‘Money Can’t Buy Me Love’’ in Got to Be Real: Four Original Love Stories (2000) and What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir (2003) as well as the editor of Freedom in This Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men’s Writing, 1979 to the Present (2005); coeditor with Marita Golden of Gumbo: An Anthology of African American Writing (2002); and coeditor with Gerald Early of Best African American Fiction 2009 (2009). Among Harris’s many honors are the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence in 1997 for his fourth novel, If This World Were Mine, and his October 2000 induction into the Arkansas Hall of Fame. Harris taught creative writing at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and maintained residences in Fayetteville and Atlanta. On July 23, 2009, at the age of fifty-four, he suffered a heart attack and died during a business trip to Los Angeles. Two months after Harris’s death, his novel Mama Dearest was released. See also: Fiction; Literature, Contemporary African American; Men, African American, Images of Further Reading Carter, Linda M. ‘‘E. Lynn Harris.’’ 2007. In Notable Black American Men, Book II. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale. Clay, Stanley Bennett. 2008. ‘‘E. Lynn Harris.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 4. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Linda M. Carter

Harvey, Steve (1957– ), Actor, Comedian, Radio Personality Steve Harvey is an outspoken funnyman and a triple-threat entertainer who uses his unique gift for humor to change the public perception of African American Humor. He is highly visible in African American culture, where his various shows on television, radio, and the comedy stage are widely viewed and accepted. As he explains, he enjoys doing things by, for, and about African American people; in so doing, he is helping to shape the culture of his people. Broderick Steven ‘‘Steve’’ Harvey was born January 17, 1957, in the tiny town of Welch, West Virginia, to Jesse Harvey, a coal miner, and his wife, Eloise. While Steve was still a young child, the Harvey family moved to inner-city Cleveland, Ohio. Steve developed a love for sports early on, and learned how to survive in the street culture of his neighborhood. He dropped out of Kent State University

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after two years and made a living by selling life insurance, Boxing, and holding different jobs in factories. Then he discovered that he had an interest in becoming a comedian. In the mid-1980s, Harvey began doing stand-up comedy; in 1989 he was a finalist in the National Comedy Search in the Second Annual Johnnie Walker event. Then he put his show on the road and slowly became known. His popularity earned him several appearances on It’s Showtime at the Apollo, a syndicated television show, and from 1994 to 2000 he was its regular host. Without notice, however, the show was cancelled. In 1993, Harvey opened a comedy club in Dallas, Texas, and called it Steve Harvey’s Comedy House. It was created exclusively for comedians and became the nation’s only African American comedy club. Also in 1993, he had a big break at the Montreal Just for Laughs International Comedy Festival. Major television executives who were in the audience were impressed; from there he received a developmental contract for the series Me and the Boys. He had a starring role in the show which aired on ABC television in 1994. Playing the part of Steve Tower, Harvey enjoyed his role. He appeared as a widower who was raising three sons in a household where love and respect between a father and his sons was sustained. He also wanted audiences to know that such as the fictitious one that he played in the series, African American fathers do have a loving relationship with their children. This was the highest-rated show in its time slot as well as among television’s highest-rated shows of that period. For his performance, Harvey was nominated for a People’s Choice Award in 1995; the recognition was for the favorite male character in a new television series. Although the popular show depicted an African American family in a positive light, the network cancelled the sitcom. After Me and the Boys, he starred on the WB network show named for him— The Steve Harvey Show. That show ran from 1996 to 2002, won multiple NAACP Image Awards, but never received critical acclaim beyond the African American community. His schedule in 1995 and 1996 was extremely busy for Harvey, scarcely giving him time to sleep. Beginning February 1996, he hosted a morning radio show on Chicago’s WGI-FM and broadcast it from his Los Angeles apartment. He also kept up his performances across the country and, on becoming a spokesperson for Denny’s restaurants, he was involved in its print, radio, and television advertising. Harvey has become well-known as a television star and also one who exposes himself to a variety of media outlets. He fully enjoys hosting a morning radio program, while keeping up his television and radio appearances and continuing his stand-up comedy acts. He also tours regularly and has made a number of albums. Stories about sex, women, and race are recounted. His summer 1997 tour as a comedian with the ‘‘Kings of Comedy’’ was another turning point in Harvey’s career and for African American comedians. It was designed to promote black talent and clearly achieved its goal, as the performances were before soldout audiences across the country. In 2000, Spike Lee filmed his documentary, The Original Kings of Comedy, featuring, along with Harvey, Cedric ‘‘The Entertainer,’’ D. L. Hughley, and Bernie Mac—all top-notch black performers.

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As his popularity continued to increase, Harvey released a Hip-Hop and R & B (Rhythm & Blues) audio CD on his own record label. In 1997, Harvey released a comedy album called Steve Harvey . . . Live Somewhere Down South. He has also appeared in a number of movies, such as The Fighting Temptations (2003), Love Don’t Cost a Thing (2003), You Got Served (2004), Racing Stripes (2005), and Madea Goes to Jail (2009). From 2003 to 2005, his comedy and variety show on the WB Network was renamed Steve Harvey’s Big Time Challenge. He ventured out to a teen-focused enrichment event on January 17–20, 2008, when he hosted the Disney Dreamers Academy held at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, a family entertainment center that offers sports activities, a theme park, and additional provisions. Some one hundred teams were selected to attend the event. In 2009, Steve Harvey kicked off mentoring camps for teenage boys whose lives are void of their fathers. They may also lack a male figure in their lives. Quoted in Jet magazine, he said that ‘‘a boy without a male role model is like an explorer without a map.’’ The weekend event are for young men who are between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, come from a single female head-of-household home, and are enrolled in grades eight to eleven. Other camps are planned for Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, New York, Washington, DC, Charlotte, and New Orleans. Harvey is an author as well; his most popular work, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think about Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment, was released in March 2009 and brought him many appearances on television talk shows. He accepts numerous invitations to speak; in his talks, especially to impressionable young people across the country, in high schools as well as detention centers, he stresses the importance of setting goals and avoiding drugs. His well-received Steve Harvey Morning Show, a nationally syndicated radio program, continues. Beginning in September 2010, he is scheduled to host the game show Family Feud, replacing John O’Hurley. He concludes, however, that he is and always will be a stand-up comic. The popular culture icon is twice divorced and has four children—twin daughters and two sons. Since 2007, he has been married to Marjorie BridgesWoods. See also: Comedy and Comedians

Further Reading Answers.com. ‘‘Steve Harvey.’’ http://www.answers.com/topic/steve-harvey. Ballad, Scotty. 2006. ‘‘The Rebirth of Steve Harvey: Comedian talks about His Divorce and Changing Comedy Style.’’ Jet 109 (March 20): 54–55. Steve Harvey. (Homepage.) http://www.steveharvey.com/. Walden, Clarence. 2010. ‘‘Jet Buzz.’’ Jet 117 (March 22–29): 10. Watkins, Michael J., and Sara Pendergast. 2007. ‘‘Steve Harvey.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 58. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Jessie Carney Smith

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Hayes, Isaac (1942–2008), Singer, Composer, Musician, Actor A prolific singer, songwriter, musician, producer, and actor, Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. mastered the performing arts. Hayes was born on August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tennessee. Hayes and his older sister, Willette, were raised in Memphis by their maternal grandparents, Willie and Rushia Addie-Mae Wade, after his parents, Isaac Sr. and Eula Hayes, died. They were poor, and when his grandfather died, Hayes did odd jobs. Because of poverty, Hayes stopped attending Manassas High School, but continued when he was encouraged by his former teacher. Best known for his musical talents, at five, he sang publicly in church, then later in school and community groups. Primarily self-taught, he played piano, organ, flute, and saxophone. In the 1960s, Hayes played piano and occasionally saxophone, working sessions for Stax Records of Memphis, playing for Otis Redding, Floyd Newman, and others. One of Hayes’s earliest musical achievements was cowriting and playing the piano for Newman’s solo single, ‘‘Frog Stomp.’’ Later, David Porter, of Stax, and Hayes collaborated in writing and composing, and their songs ‘‘Can’t See You When I Want To,’’ ‘‘How Do You Quit,’’ and ‘‘I Take What I Want’’ were huge successes. Porter and Hayes composed over two hundred songs as the Soul Children. Hayes also sang solos. Stax produced Hayes’s debut solo LP, featuring bassist Duck Dunn and drummer Al Jackson; never released, it served as a prototype for future LPs. A civil rights activist, Hayes’s landmark platinum release, ‘‘Hot Buttered Soul,’’ appeared the year after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, pioneering an album of soul music as an acceptable form. Hayes’s songs were featured weekly on the R & B (Rhythm & Blues) and Pop charts until 1980. He debuted as a soundtrack musician with the ‘‘blaxploitation’’ movie, Shaft, in 1971; the soundtrack became historic as the first African American album positioned number one on both the R & B and Pop hit lists. Hayes also wrote film scores for other movies. Additionally, he hosted TV shows and later radio in New York City and Memphis. During the late 1990s through 2006, Hayes’s voice was the singing Chef in the animated series, South Park. Hayes played several other acting roles. His awards include: an Academy, two Grammys, a Golden Globe, and the NAACP Image Award for Shaft’s soundtrack. Hayes’s 1972 album, ‘‘Black Moses,’’ won his third Grammy. In 2002, Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Hayes also demonstrated a love for cooking. He wrote two books, Cooking with Heart & Soul: Making Music in the Kitchen with Family and Friends and Kidney Friendly Comfort Foods: A Collection of Recipes for Eating Well with Chronic Kidney Disease. He also owned restaurants and created sauces. His humanitarian acts are mostly in Africa and education. He was coroneted honorary King in Ghana. A scientologist, Hayes died in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 10, 2008. See also: Composers; Pop Music; Soul and Funk (Music); Television

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Further Reading Isaachayes.com. ‘‘Isaac Hayes.’’ (Isaac Hayes tribute site.) http://www.isaachayes.com/ myframes.html. MSNBC. 2008. ‘‘Pioneering musician Isaac Hayes dead at 65.’’ August 10. http://www .msnbc.msn.com/id/26125699/. Sisario, Ben. 2008. ‘‘Isaac Hayes, 65, a creator of ’70s soul style, dies.’’ New York Times, August 10. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/arts/music/11hayes.html. Denise Jarrett

Head Start The Head Start program, which is now a part of the Department of Health and Human Services and under the auspices of the Administration for Children and Families, traces its origin to President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and The Great Society. Through the Office of Economic Opportunity, an eight-week Project Head Start program was launched in 1965. The program sought to end poverty by addressing the needs of the ‘‘whole’’ low-income preschool child from age three to age five. Through a holistic approach that addressed mental, dental, medical, social, nutritional, and psychological issues, Head Start worked to prepare the youngster for a structured educational experience. The program also placed an emphasis on the community and heritage of the child and its family. Often times this meant that the local programs had to consider and include the family’s linguistic or cultural needs. After the program’s initial year, Congress authorized a yearround program that was fully funded. In 1981, the Head Start Act was passed into law. Head Start is the longest-running program established to address the issues and effects of systematic poverty. It is now augmented by the Early Head Start program. Early Head Start promotes healthy prenatal care, uncompromised births, and the development of low-income children from birth to three years old. Although the program started with the articulation to end poverty, the mission now is more succinctly stated. The programs exist to promote school readiness by developing early math and reading skills. Head Start advances the premise that if children are socially and cognitively ready to participate in the educational process then they will be able to more fully participate and reap the benefits of an educational system. In order to be fully engaged, children must not be distracted by hunger; therefore adequate nutrition is essential. It is recognized that the education process will be hindered if a student is absent due to illness; therefore preventive healthcare is another vital component. Social services are also provided to the youngsters and their parents so that the parents can be fully engaged in the preparation of their young children for school. Funding is made available to community partners such as public schools, forprofit agencies, and private nonprofit agencies who provide child development services to the children and their families. Families are assisted in a myriad of

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ways through collaborations with community partners. Through appropriate programming, families are encouraged to improve their educational and literacy skills. Some communities also assist the low-income parents with setting and obtaining employment goals that will benefit the entire family. As of 2005, more than twenty-two million preschool-aged children have participated in Head Start. The current budget for the program is approximately $7 billion. This amount is spent on approximately one million children across all fifty states. The staffing to service these children and their families is approximately two hundred thousand people. The paid staff is bolstered by over one million volunteers who are committed to improving the lives of the children and their families. See also: Brown v. Board of Education; Charter Schools; Social Activists Further Reading Bell, Stephen, Ronna Cook, Camilla Heid, and Michael Lopez. 2006. Head Start Impact. Michael Puma, ed. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishing. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Head Start. (n.d.) ‘‘History of Head Start.’’ http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs/. Vinovskis, Maris. 2008. The Birth of Head Start: Preschool Education Policies in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Angela Espada

Hendrix, Jimi (1942–70), Rock Guitarist Mike Bloomfield of the Butterfield Blues Band remarked about the day he first saw rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix in concert. Quoted by Shapiro and Glebbeek, he said: ‘‘In front of my eyes, he burned me to death. I didn’t even get my guitar out. H-bombs were going off, guided missiles were flying—I can’t tell you the sounds he was getting out of his instrument. He was getting every sound I was ever to hear him get right there in that room. I didn’t even want to pick up a guitar for the next year.’’ Bloomfield was not alone: Hendrix combined blues and psychedelic music with a guitar style that left most in awe. Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington. His name was soon changed to James Marshall Hendrix. As a kid, Hendrix’s parents, mainly black but partly Cherokee Indian, took him to a Pentecostal church, where he joined them in singing gospel songs. By age eight, he had become obsessed with playing the guitar, although for years he could not afford one and had to use imaginary strings on a broom. Finally, when he was eleven, his father bought him an inexpensive acoustic guitar; soon after, the youngster got his first electric one. Hendrix quit Garfield High School during his senior year, worked as a handyman for a while, and then in 1963 joined the U.S. Army. A back injury he

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suffered during a parachute jump led to his early discharge from the service. He then played with several different Rhythm and Blues bands before making his way to New York City’s Greenwich Village, where an active music scene revolved around several new coffeehouses and clubs. In 1966, he formed his first band, bought his first Fender Stratocaster guitar, and tried out his material at Caf
e Wha? There, he got to know other young musicians, such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, and developed the talent of playing his Stratocaster while holding it upside down. During his engagement at Caf
e Wha? Chas Chandler, bass player with the rock band the Animals, caught his act. At this time, the Animals were breaking up, and Chandler wanted to find a musician he could manage back home in England. He convinced a skeptical Hendrix that he could make him a star, and so in 1966 the young American headed overseas and at Chandler’s suggestion changed the spelling of his first name to ‘‘Jimi’’ to make him more distinctive. Once in England, Hendrix formed a band with bass guitarist Noel Chandler and drummer Mitch Mitchell, called the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Only six weeks after leaving New York and just four days after forming the band, Hendrix opened at the Olympia in Paris, France, a major venue. Then he toured Europe, with the Experience breaking attendance records, including sellout crowds at the Sports Arena in Copenhagen and the Seville Theater in London. True to Chandler’s expectations, Hendrix had quickly emerged as a star. In 1967, after recording several hit records and an album in England, Hendrix returned to the United States, and the Experience made its American debut on June 18 at the Monterey International Pop Festival in California. The audience sat mesmerized during Hendrix’s performance, which included his favorite song ‘‘Wild Thing,’’ and watched in disbelief as Hendrix played his Stratocaster behind his back, and at the end of his show set the guitar afire. Hendrix had presented an electrifying soul and psychedelic performance filled with a sensuality that characterized his stage presence, what one observer called ‘‘the voodoo child run wild in electric ladyland!’’ He did not lack critics, however, such as San Francisco journalist Ralph Gleason, who found him boring, and Robert Christgau, a writer for Esquire, who called him ‘‘a psychedelic Uncle Tom.’’ writes Ward, Stokes, and Tucker. Still, Hendrix’s single ‘‘Purple Haze,’’ and LP Are You Experienced? climbed the record charts. In 1968, Rolling Stone magazine named him Performer of the Year. In 1969, however, personal disagreements caused the Experience to split up. Hendrix played at the Fillmore in San Francisco with a new group, A Band of Gypsys, and appeared in August at Woodstock. ‘‘‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky . . . don’t know if I’m comin’ up or down,’’ he sang—but, overall, his music drifted, and he expressed dissatisfaction with his work. Hendrix got back together with the Experience, but differences remained, and he played with them only sporadically. In 1970, Hendrix told an interviewer for Melody Maker, a British pop newspaper, cited in ‘‘Jimi,’’ ‘‘You know the drug scene . . . was opening up things in people’s minds, giving them things that they just couldn’t handle. Well, music can

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do that, you know, and you don’t need any drugs.’’ Shortly after, on September 18, 1970, he was found dead in his London apartment. According to Shapiro and Glebbeek, the official coroner’s report ruled out suicide and said his death had resulted from ‘‘an inhalation of vomit due to barbiturate intoxication.’’ Writing in Rolling Stone, John Burks said that Hendrix, more than any other guitarist, had ‘‘brought the full range of sound from all the reaches of serious electronic music—a wider palette of sound than any other performing instrumentalist in the history of music ever had at his fingertips—plus the fullest tradition of black music—from Charley Patton and Louis Armstrong all the way to John Coltrane and Sun Ra—to rock and roll.’’ See also: Musicians and Singers; Rock and Roll Further Reading Burks, John. 1970. ‘‘An Appreciation,’’ Rolling Stone, October 15. Cross, Charles R. 2006. Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix. New York: Hyperion. Hopkins, Jerry. 1983. Hit and Run: The Jimi Hendrix Story. New York: Perigree Books. ‘‘Jimi.’’ 1970. Rolling Stone, October 15: 1, 6–8. Shapiro, Harry, and Caesar Glebbeek. 1990. Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Ward, Ed, Geoffrey Stokes, and Ken Tucker. 1986. Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll. New York: Simon & Schuster. Neil A. Hamilton

Herc, Kool DJ (1955– ) Born Clive Campbell, and called the ‘‘Father of Hip-Hop,’’ Kool DJ Herc was a pioneering deejay (DJ) and promoter in the earliest stages of rap music who is credited with coining the term ‘‘b-boy’’ to describe break dancers. He came to New York from Jamaica in 1967 at the age of twelve. Frustrated by the inability of New Yorkers to pronounce Clive correctly (they called him ‘‘Clyde’’), he changed his name at one point to ‘‘Clyde as Cool’’ (while a graffiti artist), and later to Herc when neighborhood basketball-playing friends suggested that he should have the nickname Hercules due to his athletic ability. In 1973, Herc began throwing and deejaying parties at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the community center in the building in which he lived, taking advantage of popular disillusionment with escalating gang violence in the disco clubs of the Bronx. Herc borrowed from his native Jamaica’s sound system aesthetic, in which deejays would set up large mobile speaker systems. His parties began to gain fame for their loud sound and emphasis on records that did not get radio play or were not played in the downtown clubs. It was at these parties that hip-hop culture was nurtured in its infancy. From b-boys break dancing, to the toasting practice of calling out the

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names of friends over the PA system (another trick borrowed from Jamaican deejays) that would give rise to the emcee (MC), all the elements of what would become the global youth movement of hip-hop mingled at Herc’s shows in the early to mid-1970s. Though not a technology whiz kid on the order of Grandmaster Flash, Kool DJ Herc introduced many innovations in the emerging art form. Perhaps most significantly, Herc was the first deejay to use a guitar amplifier to switch between two turntables, by switching from channel 1 to channel 2 on the amplifier. This would pave the way, eventually, for the cross-fader and modern DJ mixer; it also allowed Herc to extend the break beat on a record, keeping the energy on the dance floor at a fever pitch. Another of Herc’s technical innovations was the use of a reverb echo box connected to the microphone, through which the boasts and toasts of the deejay (and later, of the emcees) could be repeated endlessly in syncopation with the music. Around 1974, Kool DJ Herc’s parties moved into a club called the Hevalo. It was during Herc’s tenure at the Hevalo that the core group of all of the major players of the scene’s genesis began to coalesce. Herc’s right-hand man, Coke La Rock, joined him, along with Clark Kent, Jay Cee, Sweet N’ Sour, and Tony D’ to form the Herculords, if not the first then certainly the prototype rap group, which was still, at that time, centered around the deejay. The Nigger Twins, Sau Sau and Tricksy, were the break dancers in the crew. Other crews were forming left and right around other deejays: Grandmaster Flash’s Furious Five as well as Grand Wizard Theodore and the Fantastic Five, among others. Kool DJ Herc was still in the thick of things through the late 1970s; however, as the rap groups steadily gained more and more attention for the art form, Herc’s sound systemstyle parties waned in popularity, although he will forever be considered among the hip-hop greats. See also: Aerosol Art; Break Dancing; Deejaying; Gangs; Gangsta Rap

Further Reading Dyson, Michael Eric. 1993. Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. George, Nelson. 1999. Hip Hop America. New York: Penguin Books. Herc, DJ Kool. 2005. ‘‘Interview with DJ Kool Herc: A Founding Father of Hip Hop by Terry Gross.’’ National Public Radio, Fresh Air, March 30. www.whyy.org/ freshair. Light, Alan, ed. 1999. The Vibe History of Hip Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press. Perkins, William Eric, ed. 1996. Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Potter, Russell A. 1995. Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism. Albany: State University of New York Press. Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Dan Thomas-Glass

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Higginbotham, A. Leon (1928–98), Judge, Writer, Civil Rights Activist Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham Jr. was a career public servant who rose from humble beginnings, weathered racism, became chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and became counsel to an international law firm. A sensitive and powerful judge, he favored aggressive federal enforcement of civil rights as well affirmative action. His name was synonymous with struggles for the voiceless and powerless in American culture. Higginbotham was born on February 25, 1928, in Trenton, New Jersey’s Ewing Park neighborhood to parents A. Leon Higginbotham Sr., a factory worker, and Emma Lee Douglass, a maid. He graduated from Ewing Park High School and went on to attend Purdue University from 1944 to 1946, before enrolling at Antioch College. He earned his BA degree from Antioch in 1949, after which he attended Yale Law School. He graduated from Yale in 1952, earning his LLB with high honors; then he went on to begin his career. In 1952, Higginbotham worked as a clerk of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas under Justice Curtis Bok. From 1952 to 1954, he worked as an assistant district attorney for Philadelphia County under district attorney Richardson Dilworth in Philadelphia. Higginbotham went into private practice in 1954, by joining with former classmate Clifford Scott Green and his partner, along with Dorris M. Harris, to form the first African American law firm in Philadelphia. During the next ten years, Higginbotham worked with the firm of Norris, Green, Harris, and Higginbotham while also attending to various public duties and appointments. From 1960 to 1962, he served as a hearing officer for the U.S. Justice Department while also sitting on the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in 1961. Higginbotham became the first African American to serve as a federal administrator when President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the Federal Trade Commission in 1962. Higginbotham’s appointment lasted until 1964. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him the United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. While serving as District Judge, Higginbotham was also appointed, again by President Johnson, vice chairman of the Kerner Commission, a special committee whose task was to investigate the causes and effects of race riots during the 1960s. In 1977, Higginbotham received his last presidential appointment when President Jimmy Carter made him a judge for the Third Circuit of Philadelphia’s Appellate Court. Twelve years into his position, Higginbotham became chief judge of this federal court, from which he retired in 1993. Following his retirement, he acted as a mediator for the first elections in South Africa in which blacks were allowed to vote. Among the awards that Higginbotham won are the Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award in 1994, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, and the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1996. Beyond his legal and civil rights careers, Higginbotham was also an author. In 1978, his nonfiction novel, In the Matter of Color—Race & the American Legal

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Process: The Colonial Period, was published. His second nonfiction book, Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process, was published in 1996. Throughout his career, Higginbotham also served as a professor at such institutions as Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Michigan Law School, and Stanford University. Aloysius Leon Higginbotham Jr. died from a stroke in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 14, 1998. He is remembered for his contributions to legal scholarship, his solid influence on the legal community, and his successful efforts to promote civil rights. See also: Judges; Social Activists Further Reading Lach, Edward L. Jr. 2008. ‘‘A. Leon Higginbotham.’’ In African American National Biographyh, Vol. 4. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York; Oxford University Press. Weidman, Melinda. 2009. ‘‘A. Leon Higgonbotham.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present, Vol. 2. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Sonjurae Mikel Cross

Himes, Chester (1909–84), Writer Chester Himes is known for his detective fiction, his naturalistic perspective, and his exploration of interracial relations. His works are remarkable in their sense of the outrageous and for their depiction of taboo subject matter. His works have also been foundational to contemporary trends in urban and street fiction, as elements in popular culture. Chester Bomar Himes was born to Estelle Bonner and Joseph Sandy on July 29, 1909, in Jefferson City, Missouri. He was the third of three boys born to the couple. Himes would later write of how color was a major issue in his family, as his mother, although black, lacked color, and his father’s color was decidedly dark. This contrast in color and privilege permeated his fiction. In 1928, Himes began attending Ohio State University; however, in his second semester he was forced to leave the university due to his financial difficulties. By December 1928, he was in prison, convicted on charges of armed robbery. While he was incarcerated, Himes began to write and publish. Among his first short stories to be published were ‘‘Crazy in the Stir’’ and ‘‘To What Red Hell.’’ When Himes was paroled in 1936, he returned to his former girlfriend, Jean Lucinda Johnson, whom he married in 1937. Once released from prison, he continued his career as a writer. Himes’s novel were distinctly autobiographical and naturalistic. If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), Lonely Crusade (1947), The Third Generation (1947), and Cast the First Stone (1952), were among the works that were reflective of his experience. His

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novels, The Primitive (1955), Pinktoes (1961), and A Case of Rape (1963), are but a few of his works that delved into interracial relationships. Himes enjoyed a wide readership in France, and having separated from his wife, in 1953 he left the United States to live there. During this period, Himes sought to improve his financial situation by writing a series of crime novels featuring the detective characters Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones. The novels were a commercial success, and three were made into films: The Heat’s On became Come Back Charleston Blue (1972); For Love of Imabelle was renamed A Rage in Harlem (1991); and the third film, which came out first (1970) retained the title of the novel on which is was based, Cotton Comes to Harlem; Himes considered it to be his best detective novel. During the late 1960s, Himes moved to Spain, where he continued to work on his detective novels. A series of strokes beginning in the 1960s deteriorated his health and diminished his ability to write. In the 1970s, Himes published his two-volume autobiography: The Quality of Hurt and My Life of Absurdity. In 1978, his divorce from Jean Johnson was finalized and he married long-time companion Lesley Packard. Despite Himes’s long and prolific career, he was paid poorly for his efforts and often experienced financial difficulty and worried about his critical reception. Chester Himes died on November 13, 1984. See also: Fiction; Urban Culture Further Reading Hernton, Calvin C. 1990. Foreword. The Collected Stories of Chester Himes. Lesley Himes, ed. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press. Himes, Chester. 1972. The Quality of Hurt. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press. Margolies, Edward, and Michel Fabre. 1997. The Several Lives of Chester Himes. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Sanders, Mark. 1997. ‘‘Himes, Chester.’’ The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Andrew Williams, Frances S. Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds., New York: Oxford University Press. Rebecca S. Dixon

Hip-Hop Hip-hop music, its culture and lifestyle is the ultimate quintessence of the American dream. The recurring theme of ‘‘rising above one’s circumstances’’ through self empowerment has followed hip-hop’s beat around the world. The revenue it has produced over its short life has made millionaires of many who lived on the margins of society and turned their life stories into reality recordings. The terms ‘‘hip-hop’’ and ‘‘rap’’ are often used interchangeably when speaking about the art form. Rap usually refers to a lyrical style of performance with

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pronounced backbeats and repetitive looks of sound and catch phrases, like those of rappers Jay-Z, TI, 50 Cent, and Kanye West. The term hip-hop implies a musical facet, rooted in the experiences of youth who came of age in the 1980s, with the generation of singers that include Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, and Lauryn Hill. However, the primary definition for hip-hop, refers to the overall rap and hip-hop lifestyle that encompasses the music, language, fashion, and politics. Hip-hop is a culture of expression, started in the 1970s in the South Bronx, New York, by African and Latin and African Americans. Rapping, deejaying, Break Dancing, and graffiti writing are called the elements of hip-hop. In the beginning, it was identified by heavy back beats, repetitive rhythms, and a vocal leader called a rapper or emcee (MC). Based on call-and-response, the emcee would talk to the audience while improvising in a singsong fashion, usually telling a story with clever catch phrases to solicit audience reactions for creative inspiration. The deejay would provide the backbeat, further encouraging the continuous flow between the two. Kool DJ Herc, a Jamaican-born South Bronx deejay, is credited as being the pioneer of hip-hop. While spinning records, he would use two turntables with the same record on each, then create ‘‘breaks’’ in the music, keep a continuous loop of the main beat, or generate a third, ‘‘new’’ sound while maintaining the melody. Talking over interspersed beats kept the audience engaged as well as led the direction of the party. This organic relationship between the deejay, the emcee, and the crowd was the core of early hip-hop. Dancing, stopping, and freezing movements in response to the breaks in the music became universally known as break dancing. This is an acrobatic style of dance, highlighting isolated body movements, body contortions, fluid dance transitions, and sudden stops. It was often credited with providing youth of that era an option to gang culture. Small groups of dancers would become a dance team or crew, challenging other crews to dance battles while at the same time working to choreograph more complex and acrobatic movements. Graffiti as the final element of the foundation of hip-hop may have been a more direct reaction to the blight of the South Bronx environment. Originally, graffiti artists’ work was used to ‘‘tag’’ or mark gang territory but, like the music, it soon became a vehicle for self-expression. This was a package deal: rapping, break dancing, and graffiti in response to the blighted communities that had become everyday life. People were looking for a way out. Slumlords often burned their own buildings to collect insurance money. Businesses were shutting down or moving away with city services being neglectful at best. This emerging new culture called hip-hop was one of the few things young people had that kept hope from joining that exodus. Robert Worth notes that, ‘‘During the mid-’70s, the South Bronx averaged 12,000 fires a year. The area lost some 40 percent of its housing stock, and 300,000 people fled. In the burned-out zone that remained, police fought a losing battle against junkies and murderous teenage gangs.’’ In 1980, hip-hop made a divergent turn from its roots. Singer, producer, and label-owner of Sugar Hill Records, Sylvia Robinson took hip-hop from a South

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Bronx phenomenon and moved it into the national spotlight. Robinson had been successful in a singing duet, Mickey and Sylvia, in the 1950s with the hit song, ‘‘Love Is Strange’’, then as a solo artist in the 1970s with the song ‘‘Pillow Talk.’’ Robinson assembled a rap group, and named them the Sugar Hill Gang after her record label. With the song ‘‘Rapper’s Delight,’’ she captured an aspect of the South Bronx party experience on vinyl. Her instincts, ingenuity, and timing gave birth to a new era, virtually shutting the door on the live, in person, lengthy soliloquies performed at parties that had given hip-hop its start. In comparison to the length of time an emcee and deejay could interact with a crowd at a South Bronx party, ‘‘Rapper’s Delight’’ was actually considered relatively short. However, fifteen minutes, the length of the song, was extremely long for radio air play. When Robinson finally convinced a radio station to play it, it became an overnight success. ‘‘Rapper’s Delight’’ borrowed its music from the 1979 hit song ‘‘Good Times’’ by the R & B (Rhythm & Blues) group Chic. This would later be called sampling, which means taking a part of a preexisting song and crafting complementary beats and lyrics around it to create a ‘‘new’’ song. Sampling increasingly became a norm in hip-hop. Using music that already existed allowed the emphasis to remain on the improvisation of the emcee. Originally, the main thing the emcee needed was the music on the cassette, a portable stereo, or the vinyl record, and the deejay’s turntables. In other words, having a band was not necessary. These early emcees did not need to play an instrument, sing, or read music. Today, this remains an access point, for many who are musically inclined, perhaps, but not musically trained. Current advances in technology further speak to this point as hip-hop continues to redefine music, art, talent, and success. In 2008, rapper Lil’ Wayne won four Grammy awards from his album The Carter III; Best Rap Solo Performance, Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Album. His signature sound is produced through the computer program, Auto-Tune, which can distort the voice and remove vocal imperfections. Although it has been discreetly used by singers in all musical genres for years, it has been both praised and blamed for changing the rules of the rap game that once prided itself on the basic way it produced music and revealed natural ability. The following year, in 2009, Jay-Z won a Grammy, Best Rap Solo Performance, for his single ‘‘D.O.A.-The Death of Auto-Tune.’’ See also: Aerosol Art; Gangs

Further Reading Chang, Jeff. 2005. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop; A History of Hip Hop Culture. New York: Picador, St. Martin’s Press. Light, Alan, ed. 1999. The Vibe Story of Hip Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press. Worth, Robert. 1999. ‘‘Guess Who Saved The Bronx? The Silent Partner in Community Development.’’ Washington Monthly Online 31(April). Janice L. Layne

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Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Higher education was a possibility for a select few African Americans (primarily in the northern states) in the first fifty years after the United States became an independent nation in 1776. It became a viable option for blacks collectively with the founding of the first historically black college (HBCU), the Institute for Colored Youth (now known as Cheyney University of Pennsylvania) in 1837. Initial funding for the school came from the estate of Quaker and abolitionist Richard Humphreys. Two other HBCUs established in the years prior to the Civil War were Ashmun Institute in 1854, which became Lincoln University (also in Pennsylvania), and Wilberforce University in Ohio (1856). Lincoln and Wilberforce were also supported by white American abolitionists, but Wilberforce (named in honor of British abolitionist William Wilberforce) closed in 1862 due to economic hardship and other effects of the war. The college reopened the following year due to the efforts and financial support of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the oldest black American religious denomination. The overwhelming majority of HBCUs were founded in the years immediately following the Civil War, after the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and gave blacks full citizenship, including the right to pursue higher education. The Freedmen’s Bureau, the American Missionary Association, the Peabody Fund, the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, independent philanthropists, and various religious denominations were crucial in establishing private HBCUs such as Virginia Union University and Shaw University (1865); Fisk University and Lincoln University/Missouri (1866); Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Howard University (1867); and Hampton Institute (1868). Morehouse retained its identity as an all-male institution, while Bennett College for Women (founded in 1873) and Spelman College (established in 1881), have survived as institutions specifically designed for African American women. Many of the private HBCUs were named for influential whites; for example, Spelman was the maiden name of the wife of multimillionaire philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, an early supporter of the school. Lincoln (Pennsylvania) and Hampton were initially designed to serve Native Americans as well as African Americans, while Howard was the only HBCU specifically established by an act of Congress with direct and continuing federal support. Four HBCUs eventually received funding under the first Morrill Act in 1862, including Alcorn State University in Mississippi (whose first president was Hiram Revels, also noted as the first African American U.S. Senator); Claflin University in South Carolina; Kentucky State University; and Hampton. Booker T. Washington, a graduate of Hampton, founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1881. The success of the college in promoting industrial education influenced the second Morrill Act (1890), which caused southern and border states to develop public land-grant institutions for blacks largely based on the Tuskegee model.

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A number of HBCUs were strengthened or established as part of the 1890 land-grant movement (including some founded before Tuskegee, which went from private to public support). Many directly indicated their agricultural, industrial, mechanical, normal, or technical education emphasis by incorporating abbreviations such as ‘‘A&I’’ (Tennessee); ‘‘A&M’’ (Alabama, Florida, Prairie View in Texas, and Southern in Louisiana); ‘‘AM&N’’ (Arkansas); and ‘‘A&T’’ (North Carolina) into the names of the institutions. As more state-supported HBCUs emerged, land-grant funding was shifted from private institutions to the public colleges. Tuskegee saw federal monies go to Alabama State and Alabama A&M; Hampton’s went to Virginia State; Claflin’s went to South Carolina State; and Knoxville (Tennessee) College’s went to Tennessee (A&I) State after it was founded as a public HBCU in 1912. The last public institutions in the first wave of HBCUs were Norfolk State University in Virginia (founded in 1935) and Texas Southern University in Houston (founded in 1947). Characteristics of the Schools Professional and Legal Studies Shortly after its founding, Howard University became the first HBCU to provide professional studies (and eventually schools) in medicine and law, with the medical department beginning in 1868 and the law department the following year. Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, was founded in 1876 as the medical department of Central Tennessee College, with support from the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These colleges grew to become the primary producers of African American physicians, dentists, and health and medical researchers prior to desegregation. Howard Law School produced many key civil rights lawyers, including Charles Hamilton Houston, James Nabrit, and Thurgood Marshall, who were part of the legal team that argued and won the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case outlawing school segregation. Marshall, a graduate of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), went on to become the first African American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. Over time, a number of other HBCUs also developed graduate and professional programs in various disciplines. Ironically, segregation also provided opportunities for African American graduates of HBCUs to pursue advanced degrees from major institutions in other parts of the country, as many southern states paid out-of-state costs to these colleges and universities rather than admit blacks to white institutions offering similar graduate programs. This carried over into the arts, athletics, and military service, and the HBCUs were able to attract the best and brightest African American faculty as well as students. W. E. B. Du Bois, an 1888 graduate of Fisk who became the first black to earn a PhD in history from Harvard, became one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century during a long and extremely productive life as a scholar, author, and activist. He and countless other HBCU graduates excelled in every academic discipline, all forms of the arts, and virtually every area of sport and

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athletic competition, despite being overlooked or excluded from mainstream American culture in many cases. Black college students and graduates such as the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, who entered the military and achieved outstanding service records during major conflicts such as World War II, helped pave the way for the desegregation of the armed forces in 1947. Literary and Creative Pursuits Both the ‘‘talented tenth’’ liberal arts philosophy of Du Bois as well as Washington’s emphasis on development of industrial skills, economic and business development, and other forms of self-empowerment were incorporated into the HBCU setting, with varying results depending on the size and type of institution. As a result, persons affiliated with HBCUs fought the culture wars with outstanding achievements in literature and other creative and artistic pursuits, including writers such as Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, James Weldon Johnson, and Zora Neale Hurston during the Harlem Renaissance era, and their successors (Margaret Walker Alexander, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker, and others). HBCUs and their products helped to create and sustain a world within a world during the era of segregation, which included numerous black-owned, managed, or operated businesses such as farms, banks, insurance companies, real estate firms, construction companies, medical facilities, grocery stores, restaurants, nightclubs and other entertainment venues, and sporting and athletics events and promotions. Students at HBCUs were almost always products of segregated school systems in the South or from cities with large black populations in other parts of the country. On the other hand, many of the first presidents of HBCUs were whites who had been involved in opening the schools or recommended or selected by the various benefactors and founding organizations, and a considerable number of early faculty members were also whites. Particularly in the southern states, the presence of whites in leadership and management roles was more acceptable to the dominant (white) community, along with Washington’s industrial education philosophy, which was perceived as less-threatening to the existing social order. Much like other colleges, most HBCUs began with the goals of preparing ‘‘preachers and teachers’’ to help African American communities. As more African Americans received higher education, more were also qualified and available to assume roles as teachers and administrators in the HBCUs as well as in elementary and secondary schools. While some HBCUs were led by black presidents early on (such as Revels at Alcorn and Washington at Tuskegee), such well-known HBCUs as Howard, Lincoln (Pennsylvania), and Fisk did not have African American presidents until well into the twentieth century (Mordecai Wyatt Johnson in 1926; Horace Mann Bond in 1945; and Charles Spurgeon Johnson in 1947). Faculty from HBCUs have made major contributions to the world in research and service as well as teaching, despite limitations and wide variations in facilities, financial resources, and other institutional support. Some of the many outstanding

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examples include lawyer, politician, and Reconstruction congressman John Mercer Langston, who helped found, teach, and serve as first dean at the Howard University law school; Du Bois, as well as eminent American historian and fellow Fisk alumnus John Hope Franklin, who both began their careers as teachers and scholars at HBCUs (Du Bois at Wilberforce and Atlanta, Franklin at North Carolina Central); Alain Locke, the first black Rhodes Scholar, who taught at Howard from 1912 to 1953; and George Washington Carver, who was credited with saving southern agriculture due to his research discoveries related to the peanut, sweet potato, and other agricultural and natural products while at Tuskegee. HBCU faculty, students, and alumni were instrumental in the formation, development, and leadership of many major African American organizations. Notable examples include Du Bois, who was one of the founders of the NAACP; Washington, who established the National Negro Business League; George Edmund Haynes, who helped found the National Urban League in 1910 while a Fisk faculty member; Martin Luther King Jr. (Morehouse), cofounder and first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); and Ella Baker (Shaw University), cofounder of SCLC and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Many of the ministers and workers in SCLC also had direct HBCU ties. Civil Rights, Athletic Excellence, and the Need for Philanthropy Four students from North Carolina A&T (Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, and David Richmond) are credited with launching the student civil rights movement on February 1, 1960, with their spontaneous sit-in protest at a segregated Woolworth’s store in Greensboro. In Nashville, HBCU students from American Baptist College, Fisk, Meharry, and Tennessee A&I had already begun planning and training in nonviolent protest, and started the first organized and sustained student protests on February 12 of the same year. Many of these HBCU students helped the student movement to spread to other cities and campuses in also helping to organize SNCC at another HBCU (Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina), and continued their activism in the 1961 Freedom Rides and other 1960s civil rights demonstrations at great personal risk. They received support from African American ministers, lawyers, businesspersons, and other community members, of whom many were also affiliated with or products of HBCUs. Nashville student activist John Lewis was elected as the first SNCC president, became a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr., relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, and eventually became a U.S. Congressman; his Fisk colleagues included Diane Nash and Marion Barry (who eventually became mayor of Washington, DC). Lewis was succeeded as SNCC president by former Howard student Stokely Carmichael (remembered for popularizing ‘‘Black Power’’ and later known as Kwame Toure). Mississippi civil rights martyr Medgar Evers was also an HBCU student and alumnus (Alcorn State). The eventual success of the Civil Rights Movement opened doors and opportunities for African Americans in the mainstream society, but an unfortunate result was the drain of black talent and resources from formerly segregated, but

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cohesive communities and institutions, including HBCUs. Many established and younger scholars as well as academically talented black high school graduates were recruited by majority institutions, but the shift became especially obvious in athletics. Sports powerhouses such as Grambling College (now Grambling State University), Florida A&M, Tennessee State, and other HBCUs now found great difficulty in continuing their traditions of athletic excellence. Prior to integration they had produced numerous professional athletes in football such as Willie Davis and Art Shell (who eventually became the first black NFL coach); Earl Lloyd (first black player to play in the NBA), Willis Reed, Dick Barnett, and Earl ‘‘the Pearl’’ Monroe in basketball; and Olympic champions such as Wilma Rudolph, Ralph Boston, Wyomia Tyus, and Bob Hayes in track and field. Some persons even began to question the continued need for HBCUs (especially those that were public, state-supported institutions), while others appealed for more equitable funding to ensure their continued survival, progress, and competitiveness in American higher education. A number of post-Brown court cases forced states to address public HBCUs in the context of their higher education systems, including Sanders v. Ellington (1968) in Tennessee, finally resolved as Geier v. Bredesen in 2006; Adams v. Richardson (1973) involving nineteen states, resolved in 1977 as Adams v. Califano; and Ayers v. Waller (1975) in Mississippi, which ended as United States v. Fordice in 1992. Several HBCUs also increased their enrollment of white students; as a result, whites are over 50 percent of the student population at several HBCUs as of 2003. The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) was founded by Tuskegee president Frederick Patterson in 1944 specifically to generate financial support for private HBCUs, while the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund (created in 1987) is directed toward public HBCUs. The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), organized in 1969, is another advocacy organization for the more than one hundred HBCUs in current operation. In more recent years, African American philanthropists such as Bill Cosby and HBCU graduates Oprah Winfrey (Tennessee State) and Tom Joyner (Tuskegee) have contributed and/or generated millions of dollars in direct support to HBCUs, as these institutions adjust to the realities of American higher education in the twenty-first century. See also: Football; Law and Law Schools; Medical Schools; Olympics; Track and Field Further Reading Cothran, John C. 2006. A Search of African American Life, Achievement and Culture. Carrolton, TX: Stardate Publishing. Hill, Levirn, ed. 1994. Black American Colleges and Universities. Detroit: Gale Research. Jackson, Cynthia L., and Eleanor F. Nunn, eds. 2003. Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

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Neyland, Leedell W. 1990. Historically Black Land-Grant Institutions and the Development of Agriculture and Home Economics, 1890–1990. Tallahassee: Florida A&M University Foundation. Tillman, Linda, ed. 2009. The SAGE Handbook of African American Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Fletcher F. Moon

HIV/AIDS AIDS is a chronic condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The HIV virus interferes with the ability of the body’s immune system to fight off viruses, bacteria, and fungi that cause disease, such as pneumonia, meningitis, infections, and some types of cancers. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is the name given to the later stages of an HIV infection. Like the disease, lifestyles, values, controversies, and educational programs related to AIDS uniquely influence African American culture. In 1991, basketball star Magic Johnson stunned the world when he announced that he was infected with the HIV virus and that he was retiring from the LA Lakers team. That announcement significantly raised awareness in the African American community about AIDS, a disease initially associated with homosexual men. African Americans continue to receive dreadful news about the spread of HIV/AIDS in their community. Across the disease spectrum, from infection with HIV to death from AIDS, African Americans are disproportionately affected compared to other populations. Though African Americans comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 51 percent of the new HIV/AIDS cases in states with long-term data collection. According to a 2009 fact sheet published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the foremost method of transmission among black men living with HIV/AIDS is male-to-male sexual contact, followed by use of injection drugs and high-risk heterosexual contact. In black women, transmission by highrisk heterosexual contact topped the list, with use of injection drugs following. By the end of 2007, blacks in the United States and dependent areas accounted for 40 percent of the persons who died from AIDS. Although race is not a risk factor in the development of the disease, risky behavior and socioeconomic conditions play a role in the higher incidence in African Americans. Sexual activity poses a hazard for women who are unaware of their partner’s exposure to infection through unprotected sex with multiple partners, drug use, or bisexuality. Number one on the risk list for men is male-to-male contact. Though not implicitly stated, data collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics there could be a relationship between African American AIDS statistics with the high rate of black male incarceration and the high prevalence of AIDS in prisons. According to Jet magazine, 1.1 millions Americans are living with HIV and about 56,000 people in this country are infected each year. In HIV 2006, the U. S. Justice

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Department reported that AIDS cases among the prison population were more than 2.5 times the rate in the general population. It is widely known that sharing needles is another cause of HIV/AIDS transmission. In addition, when under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol, substance abusers are more likely to have unprotected sex and less likely to take antiviral treatment medications. Another threat is the high occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in blacks. The presence of STDs may facilitate the spread of HIV. Some studies have determined that there may be indirect or direct links between HIV infection rates and socioeconomic issues, such as HIV education, housing, and access to health care.

A Cause for Optimism Though the statistics are distressing, there is reason for optimism. Efforts from government agencies, community groups, and individuals may well produce interventions and solutions to mitigate the devastation to the African American population. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama pledged that, in the first year of his presidency, he would develop and implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy. There are three goals for his National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS): reducing HIV incidence, increasing access to care and optimizing health outcomes, and reducing HIV-related health disparities. To fulfill his promise, President Obama initiated the National HIV/AIDS Community Discussions in August 2009. These events, hosted by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), are designed to collect input from the public. In July 2010, the Obama administration unveiled a new national strategy to fight the epidemic and improve the quality of life for those living with HIV. In addition to the goals previously announced, the plan focuses on treating 85 percent of patents within three months of their diagnosis and concentrates on the highestrisk populations. These include gay and bisexual men, and African Americans. Community organizations such as 100 Black Men of America have joined the fight. Collaborating with the CDC, the group promotes AIDS testing to help prevent spread of the disease and encourages treatment. Similarly, sections of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women address the AIDS dilemma. For example, the Oakland chapter recently hosted a conference focused on simultaneously convincing women to take measures to protect themselves, and conversely letting them know that an HIV diagnosis is not a death sentence. Also partnering with the CDC are organizations that include the NAACP, American Urban Radio Networks, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Some communities have developed creative initiatives, as seen, for example, in Washington, DC, where Barbershops distribute condoms, conduct risk-reduction workshops, and train barbers to be peer educators. Faith-based organizations are active participants in the struggle against AIDS. The National Action Network, founded in 1991 by Al Sharpton, and other human rights activists launched the ‘‘I Choose Life’’ campaign. This movement believes that given adequate information and assistance, the African American community

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can be educated, assisted, and encouraged to respond personally and collectively to meet the challenge, cost, and consequences of the destructive spread of HIV/AIDS. Similarly, senior bishops of the nation’s oldest black church denominations (AME, CME, AME Zion) launched a national crusade to engage churches of all denominations to support the Balm In Gilead’s annual Our Church Lights the Way HIV Testing Campaign. This successful model asks pulpits across the U.S. to encourage individuals to take the HIV test and to seek immediate care and treatment if test results are positive. It further advocates responsible sexual and emotional behaviors for everyone, whether test results are positive or negative. Designed to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic within the African American community, RAP-IT-UP is a comprehensive public education program by the Black Entertainment Network (BET). This effort includes special programming, public service announcements, online content on BET.com, teen forums, mobile testing, a toll-free referral hotline, and educational materials on HIV/AIDS for middle and high school students. Throughout the year, health departments, community and faith organizations, and other groups take part in annual national and global awareness days intended to educate and motivate against HIV/AIDS. Examples include National Black HIV/ AIDS Awareness Day (February 7), National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (March 10), HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (May 18), Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (June 8), and National HIV Testing Day (June 27). Courageous individuals have played a heroic part in the battle. An early African American AIDS victim was Arthur Ashe, the famed professional tennis player. Ashe contracted the HIV virus from a blood transfusion during heart surgery. Committed to the eradication of the disease, Ashe established the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, which raises money for research into treating, curing, and preventing AIDS. Magic Johnson, who has survived HIV for over fifteen years, works tirelessly in the struggle to stop the spread of the disease. Ironically, because of his longevity and healthy appearance, Johnson often has to dispel the misconception that he is cured of HIV or AIDS, a late stage of HIV infection. Along with his I Stand with Magic associates, Johnson sponsors educational and grassroots advocacy programs and HIV testing drives, and provides scholarships for doctors willing to staff HIV/AIDS programs in the black community. Established in 1991, the goal of the Magic Johnson Foundation is to respond to the critical need for HIV/AIDS education, treatment, and prevention. Johnson continued his work by delivering the opening address at the 2009 National HIV Prevention Conference, where he discussed the challenges of living with HIV with public health, medical, and AIDS community leaders. Conspiracy Theories Discussed Complicating the strategies intended to effect change in African American attitudes toward public health programs are several conspiracy theories. In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service began a forty-year medical research project on over six hundred black male sharecroppers to determine the effects of untreated

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syphilis. Because the U.S. government failed to inform and to treat appropriately the participants in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, some populations are suspicious of AIDS information. Many speculate that AIDS is the result of the government conducting a biological attack on gays and African Americans. Others question whether the government is keeping secret information about available cures from underprivileged victims of HIV/AIDS. The government’s slow initial response to the crisis and the high incidence of the disease in black and poor geographical areas increase the speculation. For people infected with HIV, the development of safe and effective drugs has increased the potential for longer and healthier lives. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advises, ‘‘Maintaining a healthy immune system through an antiretroviral drug regimen, treatment adherence, and a healthy diet and lifestyle may help individuals resist opportunistic infections and other health complications that often occur in individuals with HIV/AIDS.’’ Continued pharmaceutical, epidemiological, behavioral, and sociological research as well as projects that fund training for minority researchers may be key to the eradication of HIV/AIDS in African American communities. Additional information on projects, resources, and research is available from the such activist groups as Healthy Relationships, Many Men, Many Voices (3MV), Popular Opinion Leader (POL), Sisters Informing Sisters About Topics on AIDS (SISTA), and Women Involved in Life Learning from Other Women (WILLOW). See also: HIV/AIDS and the Black Church

Further Reading Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fact Sheet: HIV/AIDS among African Americans. Revised August 2009. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/cdc.htm. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV Testing Implementation Guidance for Correctional Settings, January 2009. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/testing/ resources/guidelines/correctional-settings/section1/htm. Harris, Angelique. 2010. AIDS, Sexuality, and the Black Church: Making the Wounded Whole. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. Levenson, Jacob. 2004. The Secret Epidemic: The Story of AIDS and Black America. New York: Pantheon Books,. McCree, Donna Hubbard, ed. 2010. African Americans and HIV/AIDS: Understanding and Addressing the Epidemic. New York: Springer Publishing Company. ‘‘Obama HIV/AIDS Plan Calls for Reducing Infections.’’ 2010. Jet 118 (August 2): 15. Robertson, Gil L. 2006. Not In My Family: AIDS in the African American Community. Chicago: Agate. Shah, Courtney Q. 2009. ‘‘AIDS.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present, Vol. 1. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Sternberg, Steve. ‘‘Magic Johnson Combats AIDS Misperception.’’ USATODAY.com. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-30-magic-aids_xhtm. Cheryl Jones Hamberg

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HIV/AIDS Initiatives and the Black Church Since its emergence on the world stage in the early 1980s, the human immunodeficiency virus and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) have had an exceptionally devastating impact on African American and other minority communities in the United States. Collectively, the position of African American churches has evolved, though not without resistance. Early Developments in the HIV/AIDS Era When the virus initially came to the attention of the American public, it was associated with white gay men in major cities (hence one of the early acronyms for the virus was GRID, or gay-related immune deficiency) and Haitians. Because gay white men were the most visible victims early in the history of virus, churches throughout the country (including most African American churches) were quick to denounce those affected as morally deficient and pronounce that their affliction was God’s punishment for their sinful behavior. Citing biblical scripture (e.g., the Old Testament book of Leviticus among others), African American Protestant preachers were quick to cast the virus in moral terms and routinely preached against the ‘‘homosexual demon’’ and its effect to their congregations. This served to instill fear and resulted in many families avoiding or outright rejecting their love ones. In major urban areas, it was not uncommon to see signs posted on churches’ front bulletin boards which read, ‘‘AIDS carriers are not welcomed in this congregation.’’ The virus, according to this thinking, was simply the outgrowth of shameful sexual activity, or intravenous drug usage. In the mid-1980s, the Reagan administration’s reluctance to engage the public in even limited discourse about the virus at the time reinforced the ‘‘sexual excess’’ message that African American and white church leaders were preaching to their congregations. The 1990s and African Americans After the Clinton administration took over in the early 1990s and assumed a more activist stance on combating the HIV virus, several (but hardly all) African American churches began to gradually soften their positions where HIV/AIDS was concerned. When the spread of the virus began affecting female church members or their sons and daughters, a more tolerant, caring, and supportive position began to be assumed. Many of the African American ministers, who had once denounced those carrying the virus, formally apologized for their earlier remarks. In 1989, New York-based immunologist Pernessa Seele founded the Balm in Gilead, an organization that reached out to African and African-derived churches throughout the United States and eventually the African diaspora. Seele’s initial involvement entailed meeting with several prominent religious leaders, including Christian, Muslims, and Ethiopian Hebrews, among others, to stage a week of prayer in Harlem. That action led to involving other area faith-based organizations to become involved in changing the perception of the virus as a deadly disease

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from which there was no hope. Her goal was to cultivate an environment of healing and support for those affected by the virus and their families. In 1999, more than five thousand churches participated in the Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing sponsored by the Balm in Gilead. The organization eventually reached beyond U.S. shores to embrace faithbased organizations in the Caribbean and Africa, where the need to combat the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS was more acute. The worldwide aim was to decrease the stigma surrounding the HIV virus, instruct caregivers in how to support love ones (including children infected and those orphaned by the virus), and become general advocates for those living with the virus (including women, widows, and orphan children). By 2003, the Balm in Gilead had contact with more than ten thousand faith organizations worldwide. In February 2002, Protestant minister Franklin Graham (the son of Billy Graham), held a close meeting in Washington, DC (with white and black Protestant church leaders), to propose a different approach to addressing the global pandemic. He suggested that those forty million people infected with the virus worldwide be looked upon as forty million potential souls in need of salvation. Franklin’s call to action helped influence President George W. Bush to sign an executive order to increase its support to faith-based HIV/AIDS ministries in Africa, the Caribbean, and in other parts of the world heavily affected by the disease. Other well-known African American ministers took up the cause of informing their congregations of the severity of the health threat and embracing those affected by it. Among them have been Franklyn Richardson of Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, New York; Carey G. Anderson, First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Seattle (whose church has an AIDS Care Team Program); Richard Prim (and his wife Carolyn) of Kansas City (Kansas); F. Todd Gray of Richmond, Virginia, and Susan Newman of Washington, DC. These are only a few in the growing army of African American ministers involved in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. African American Roman Catholics dramatically increased their efforts to address the impact of the virus throughout the United States by staging transformation retreats which offer spiritual support for caregivers and those coping with the HIV syndrome. The National Black Catholic Congress committed the organization to reforming the contraction and spread of the AIDS virus among African Americans. However, unlike most Protestant churches, there continued to be resistance from the Roman Catholic leadership with regards to condom usage and distribution as an effective tool. Despite efforts from organizations like Catholics for Choice, Rome has remained steadfast in its opposition to condoms as a solution to the HIV pandemic. After being based in New York City for more than fifteen years, the Balm in Gilead organization relocated its international headquarters to Richmond, Virginia. There, it initiated the Our Church Lights the Way: HIV Testing Program, the ISIS Project, and in partnership with the Women’s Missionary Societies of the AME, AME Zion, and CME denominations, the African American Denominational Leadership Health Initiative.

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Over the last quarter century since the HIV virus became known to the greater world community, African American churches (including a variety of denominations) have moved from avoiding the discussion of HIV/AIDS and shunning those infected and affected by the virus, to having taken the lead in campaigning for testing, support, and raising the public awareness of the virus. While there continue to vestiges of the old thinking (mostly to be found in rural churches mostly in the southern part of the country), African American churches have now become the leading entity in addressing the severity of this worldwide health crisis. See also: HIV/AIDS Further Reading Balm in Gilead, Inc. ‘‘Program Overview.’’www.balmingilead.org/programs. The Body. The Complete HIV/AIDS Resource. ‘‘HIV Prevention in the African-American Community.’’ Body Health Resources Corporation. http://www.thebody.com/index/ whatis/africanam_prev.html. Brooks, Christopher, and Christopher Lance Coleman. 2009. Dangerous Intimacy: Ten African American Men with HIV. Deer Park, NY: Linus Publications. Cran, William, and Renata Simone. 2006. FRONTLINE. ‘‘The Age of Aids.’’ PBS.org, May 30. www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/. Christopher Brooks

Holiday, Billie (1915–59), Jazz Singer, Actor Ealeanora Fagan, who became known as Billie Holiday and Lady Day, is one of the most renowned and greatest female jazz voices. With her signature songs, ‘‘Strange Fruit’’ and ‘‘God Bless the Child,’’ she is one of the enduring voices preserved in popular culture. Holiday was born in Baltimore, Maryland, April 7, 1915, to teenagers Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday, a jazz guitarist. There are claims that Clarence married Sadie, but this marriage lasted only for a short while, so Holiday grew up without the influence of her father. Her mother married Philip Gough in 1920, who became the father figure for Holiday, but this union ended a few years later. Holiday received no extended parental love and care because her mother, a domestic worker, left for New York to find work to support her family, and her father, a musician, also left the family to find work. She stayed with relatives who found it difficult to care for her. Holiday had limited education, as she was deemed a truant and was sent to the House of the Good Shepherd, a Roman Catholic reform school, in 1925 after she admitted that she was raped. Having resided at the reform school for two years, she was released to her family. With her mother, Holiday moved in 1927, first to New Jersey and soon after to Brooklyn, New York. In 1929 Holiday’s mother caught Wilbert Rich, her neighbor, raping Billie. Rich gained a three months, sentence for the crime.

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Influences Pop Music Despite this difficult early life, Holiday rose to fame as a phenomenal jazz artist who still influences pop music today. Holiday’s quest to survive led her to Prostitution and drug addiction, but her love for the arts led to an unequalled singing career. Her early exposure to music is uncertain, but her love for music awakened when she listened to jazz music forerunner Louis Armstrong and blues singer Bessie Smith on a Victrola in a brothel where she scrubbed floors and ran errands. Thus, her first performances in the 1930s were renditions of recorded songs by Smith and Armstrong in jazz clubs in Brooklyn. Moving to Harlem nightclubs such as Pods’ and Jerry’s, she called herself Billie HoliJazz vocalist Billie Holiday (1915–1959) in day, borrowing her professional 1949. (Library of Congress) name, Billie, from an admired screen actress, Billie Dove. Her vocal skills developed even though she had no formal voice training. In 1933, while she was working at a Harlem club, Monette’s, producer and talent scout John Hammond discovered her talent. Hammond, utilizing Benny Goodman, instantly setup three recording sessions for her and continued his support by finding her jobs in New York clubs. Holiday also recorded more songs under Hammond with Teddy Wilson as director and studio bands with some of the greatest musicians. Holiday’s big career boost came in 1935. She recorded several hit songs, including ‘‘What a Little Moonlight Can Do’’ and ‘‘Miss Brown to You,’’ that gained her a recording contract. Prior to 1942, Holiday recorded a number of master tracks that would ultimately be used as prototypes by American jazz musicians. Between 1935 and 1942, Holiday’s works comprise a major core of jazz music, including many works by Lester Young, who fondly named her Lady Day and whom in response she dubbed with the name Pres. Young and Day recorded many successful tunes, intermingling Young’s tenor saxophone with Holiday’s voice. Initially these recordings were mainly geared for African American jukebox listeners; however, Holiday’s songs became favorites to a wide listenership and musicians who copied her style. Holiday’s popularity led to performances with Count Basie in 1937 and, crossing racial boundaries, Artie Shaw in 1938, classifying her as the first African American to perform with a white orchestra. In 1939, she worked as a singer with Cafe Society,

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an interracial nightclub in Greenwich Village, New York. With these performances, Holiday’s music was heard not only by a multiracial audience but also by intellectuals and politicians. It was also in the 1930s that Holiday recorded ‘‘Strange Fruit,’’ a controversial song because of its theme—the Lynching of African Americans. Her recording label, Columbia, refused to record this song, so Commodore Records took the venture. Airwaves, many clubs, and music machines banned ‘‘Strange Fruit’’ because of its theme. Another of Holiday’s songs that was rejected by many is ‘‘Gloomy Sunday,’’ which was also banned from the airwaves because it highlighted despair and hopelessness. Holiday’s slow melancholy tempo in her presentation of ‘‘Strange Fruit’’ became her signature in her jazz performances, and she also used this tempo in ‘‘Gloomy Sunday’’ (1941) and ‘‘Lover Man’’ (1944) and other songs. By the 1940s, she was very popular among blacks and whites. Holiday recorded on several labels. Her first recordings were mainly done on the Columbia label with a few scattered discs for the Okeh, Vocalion, and Brunswick labels from 1933 to 1942. From 1944 to 1950, she recorded with Decca (now MCA), where her music was criticized as over-arranged, proliferated with string instruments, and commonplace. However, Holiday’s performances were still outstanding, especially with ‘‘Lover Man,’’ that became a signature song along with ‘‘Don’t Explain’’ and ‘‘Good Morning Heartache.’’ Holiday continued to record for Decca until 1950, including sessions with the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras, and two duets with Louis Armstrong. Holiday also recorded two significant songs with the Commodore label in 1939 and 1944. When she recorded for the Verve label from 1952 to 1959, her voice had become huskier, but she still retained her unique tempo and wordings in her performances. She did her final studio recordings for the MGM label in 1959. By the end of the 1940s, Holiday was a popular star. She toured throughout the United States and in Europe. Holiday appears in the short film, Rhapsody in Black, 1935, and in 1946, she made her feature film debut in New Orleans with Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory. She also won several awards, many of them posthumously. She received Esquire Awards: silver in 1945 and 1946 and gold in 1944 and 1947. She was the Metronome poll winner, 1945–46. Posthumous awards include Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, the United States Postal Service Billie Holiday Postal Stamp in 1994, and number six rank on VH1’s ‘‘100 Greatest Women in Rock n’ Roll’’ in 1999. Additionally, Holiday was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence to jazz music in 2000. In her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues (1956), she collaborated with William Dufty, giving a very sensational account of her life, and in 1972, Diana Ross played Holiday in a film, Lady Sings the Blues, a story based on aspects of her autobiography. Many other groups and individuals have continued to pay tribute to Holiday’s unique jazz voice over the years in songs, poetry, and books. These include recordings such as ‘‘Angel of Harlem’’ (1988) by the Irish rock group U2, and poems such as ‘‘Don’t Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday’’ (1980) by Alexis De Veaux; ‘‘The Day Lady Died’’ (1959) by white American, Frank O’Hara; and ‘‘Sometimes You Look Like Lady Day’’ (1973) by Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn,

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which immortalize Holiday. Holiday is also remembered in several biographies. Two outstanding accounts of her life include: The Many Faces of Lady Day (1991) by Robert O’Meally and Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday (1994) by Donald Clarke. Although her unique vocals and delivery have never been successfully duplicated, Holiday inspires many singers and continues to be an icon in the jazz music world. Later Life Plagued by Addictions Holiday’s later life was plagued with drugs, alcohol, and men who mistreated her. Her drug use escalated in the early 1940s; she was jailed on drug charges in 1947 after a highly publicized trial. Her health deteriorated because of drug addition and alcoholism. She also had financial losses. Holiday continued to sing, record, and tour through the 1950s, but her vocals coarsened, and her performances lacked her former energy. Her first and short marriage that started on August 25, 1941, to Johnnie Monroe exposed her to opium followed by her switch to heroin in her relationship with Joe Guy. Her marriage to Louis McKay on March 28, 1952, escalated her addiction, since McKay supported her drug habits. She was arrested many times, including in 1947, 1956, and even on her deathbed in 1959. After Holiday’s arrest in 1947, she requested a year in a federal rehabilitation center in Alderson, West Virginia. Ten days after her release, Holiday gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, a great success for any artist, especially a black artist in segregated America. The drug charges prevented her from obtaining a license to perform cabaret in the United States, but she toured Europe to wide acclaim in 1954. In 1958, she was unforgettable in the television special, ‘‘The Sound of Jazz,’’ with renowned musicians, the three reigning tenor saxophone kings—Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and her adored Lester Young. Holiday’s final stage appearance was in concert at the Phoenix Theatre, New York City, May 25, 1959. She died in Metropolitan Hospital, New York City, after collapsing because of heart and liver disease on July 17, 1959. Holiday is buried in Saint Raymond’s Cemetery, Bronx, New York. See also: Bands and Bandleaders; Blues and Blues Festivals; Drugs and Popular Culture; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints

Further Reading American Masters. 2006. ‘‘Billie Holiday: About the Singer.’’ PBS.org, June 8. http:// www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/billie-holiday/about-the-singer/68/. Chilton, John. 1975. Billie’s Blues. New York: Stein and Day. Clarke, Donald. 1994. Wishing on the Moon. New York: Viking. Holiday, Billie, and William Dufty. 1956. Lady Sings the Blues. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Nicholson, Stuart. 1995. Billie Holiday. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Denise Jarrett

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Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations African Americans traditionally have recognized special days, customs, events, and people that have special meanings for them, their communities, and their culture. They have embraced such activities with enthusiasm and still anticipate their many occurrences. These special observances may consist of immediate or extended family recognitions such as family reunions or heritage celebrations, freedom and black conscious recognitions, conventions of Greek letter and service organizations, funerals or celebrations of life, religious activities, weddings, and so on, and may be treated in a variety of ways. The recurring symbolism among such activities, however, is unity. Celebrations in the African American community may be traced to the slavery period, with festivals that carried over traditional practices from Africa and were held when the slave master allowed. The restrictive nature of slavery, however, often prevented blacks from assembling in large groups; therefore most of the early large-scale festivals were held in the North. Election Day (often called ’Lection Day) is an example of a celebration or festival held in the North, particularly in New England’s cities and towns. This celebration, as well as one held by whites, recognized the election of ‘‘governors’’ or ‘‘kings.’’ In New York and Pennsylvania, African Americans often celebrated Pinkster Day in May or June, with a festival celebrated first by whites in the community, and then for a week blacks were allowed to celebrate. Pinkster came to America in the 1600s with Dutch immigrants who settled in these states. Blacks recognized the day as ‘‘the Carnival of Africans’’ and it became primarily a day of celebration for them. To the contrary, slaves in Southern states held small-scale festivals to reaffirm cultural identity and to strengthen ties with their African ancestors. They held secret meetings in bush harbors on plantations; later on, when they were given license to celebrate openly, whites were attracted to the meetings and viewed the cultural practices that they demonstrated. Types of Recognitions Blues and Jazz Fests and Festivals Music celebrations, known in early periods as Jubilee, were small celebrations in which drumming and dancing occurred. In fact, music has been a part of many festivals and celebrations held throughout the history of black Americans. They may be a part of communitywide activities sponsored by nonblacks but to honor them, or sponsored by blacks themselves. Popular today are the blues and jazz festivals, such as the Fillmore Jazz Festival held in San Francisco during the week nearest to July 4. The free outdoor event attracts some 90,000 people each year to the celebration held on historic Fillmore Street. During World War II, jazz was central to the area’s nightclubs that were open at that time. Among the noted black musicians who performed there were John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington. In 1985, the Fillmore Merchants Association helped to launch the first Fillmore Jazz Festival.

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The first Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival was held in 1978 as a fundraiser in a small, rural community and has expanded to attract blues enthusiasts and performers from all over the world. Top performers such as B. B. King, John Lee Hooker, Albert Rush, and Muddy Waters have appeared at the festival over the years. Other celebrations are the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in New York City; W. C. Handy Music Festival held in Florence, Alabama, in July; the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival held in Sedalia, Missouri, in June; and the Satchmo SummerFest (named in honor of Louis Armstrong) observed in New Orleans in early August. Black Pride/Black Conscious/Cultural Identity Celebrations These celebrations are held to promote black awareness, racial pride, and appreciation of black culture. Among the more popularly-known celebrations are Black History Month. The celebration began in 1926 as Negro History Week and in 1976 grew into a month-long recognition of black achievement and became known as Black History Month. The recognition focuses on a different theme each year determined by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which founded the activity. It is widely celebrated throughout the country, with lectures, art exhibitions, music programs, displays, and in numerous other ways. Schools, colleges and universities, churches, businesses, organizations, and other groups acknowledge the contributions of blacks to the shaping of African American, American, and world culture. The Harambee Festival is held at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, as a part of the school’s Black History Month celebration. The term ‘‘Harambee’’ is translated from its Bantu origin as ‘‘let us all pull together.’’ Initiated in 1989, the festival was begun to raise scholarship money, and to unify the college community and the general public. Black pride is promoted through art, music, workshops, and health screenings. Another popular celebration is this category is Kwanzaa, observed for seven days (December 26 through January 1) in the United States and by people of African descent worldwide. Established in 1966 as an alternative to Christmas, it established a holiday controlled by blacks and it aims to honor and celebrate the heritage of people of African descent. It has gained in popularity and is widely celebrated. The Black Pride Festival, observed in Washington, DC, extends over Memorial Day weekend. It began in 1975, and offers workshops on health issues, particularly HIV/AIDS. The festival also includes films, arts and crafts, and food vendors. Such festivals have developed in Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Tampa, and Dallas, and all appear to be rooted in gay pride and pride for transgendered, called BLGT; the festival celebrates blacks who have been ostracized from their own communities due to their sexual orientation. The DC Caribbean Carnival is observed the last weekend in June in the Washington metropolitan area to encourage cross-cultural awareness and showcase the diverse cultures of Caribbean immigrants who live in the area. Established in 1993, the celebration has grown to an enormous size and is characterized by a

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parade with dozens of bands, participants in colorful costumes, food vendors, and international artisans. Cultural Celebrations Among the African American cultural celebrations held nationwide are Black Music Month. Established in the late 1970s, Black Music Month is observed each June and celebrates the African American influence on American music, such as gospel, jazz, Rhythm and Blues, soul, Hip-Hop, rap, reggae, and other musical genres. Joining in the recognition are libraries, academic institutions, organizations, music publishing, the recording industry, and others. Black Poetry Day is observed on October 17, chiefly in academic institutions and libraries. That date centers around the birth date of Jupiter Hammon, who is said to be the first African American poet to publish a poem as a separate work, in 1760. A deeply religious man, he was also the first to write antislavery protest literature in America, and wrote the first and most comprehensive writing on Black Theology. For the poetry day celebration, teachers and librarians promote works by early and contemporary black poets. Other cultural celebrations that have increased in popularity include the National Black Arts Festival. The festival began in Atlanta in 1988 and has grown in attendance. The celebration features art and arts and crafts by African Americans, films, lectures, plays, and numerous cultural events to showcase the work of blacks nationwide. Larry Leon Hamlin founded the National Black Theater Festival in 1989, when he aimed to unite America’s black theater companies and to ensure their survival. Poet/writer Maya Angelou was its first chairperson. The festival is held biennially in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and now attracts over 65,000 people during the six-day event. The Zora Neale Hurston Festival, which occurs the last week of January each year in Eatonville, Florida, was established in 1988. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community aimed to preserve Hurston’s legacy and to celebrate her life as a twentieth-century writer, folklorist, and anthropologist, as well as to celebrate the significance of her hometown. Thousands of celebrants attend the arts programming—museum events, public talks, and workshops. The African American community has for many years recognized celebrations that glorify black womanhood, such as cotillions, homecoming queens in high schools and colleges, Miss Bronze America, Miss Black America, and Miss Sepia. There are also botillions (or beautillions) for young men, and fashion shows sponsored by local, civic, social, and religious groups. Expos Indiana Black Expo’s Summer Celebration, held since 1970, is a massive effort that extends through the year; however the greatest number of activities are offered in the summer months. The Expo features art, entertainment, seminars, job fairs, business development, film festivals, and cultural programs aimed

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at children, youth, and adults. A popular part of the Expo is the Circle City [football] Classic held in September or October; it raises money for scholarships for students at the HBCUs. Other expos are held annually, including those in Houston (founded in 2002), New York City (established in 1990), and in various sites in Virginia (established in 2004). Family Celebrations Family celebrations include baptisms, christenings, birthdays, reunions, weddings, graduations, and similar events and often are attended by small groups, immediate family, and extended family. Baptisms and christenings are religious practices as well as a time for families and their friends to celebrate. Christenings are often expressions of family unity and may also be accompanied by gifts to the one who is honored and by meals or refreshments. The same is true for weddings, birthdays, and graduations. Reunions help to establish family and cultural identity and to preserve family history. Since the emphasis on family heritage, inspired by the publication of Roots, by Alex Haley, African American families increasingly have sponsored Family Reunions and homecomings that attract members of their Anglo-Saxon heritage or descendants of whites who once owned their particular black family. This was seen for example, in the 1986 homecoming at Somerset Place in Washington County, North Carolina, where over two thousand descendants of slaves who worked and lived there came together at the antebellum plantation and were joined by descendants of the white owners. Family memorabilia, food traditions, songs, photographs, storytelling, and worship service are events that bind a family together and characterize such reunions. Family celebrations may include as well Funerals, wakes, or celebrations of life. Dinners that border on feasts may accompany these gatherings, recognizing them as a time of respect for family and communal values. Freedom Celebrations An example of a freedom celebration is Jerry Rescue Day, held in Syracuse on October 1 to celebrate the rescue of fugitive slave William Jerry Henry, known as ‘‘Jerry.’’ After Jerry was captured in Syracuse, abolitionists helped to free him from jail on October 1, 1851; celebrations in the slave’s honor followed on October 1, 1852. Freedom celebrations may include Emancipation Day, celebrated by various states to commemorate the date on which slaves were freed within that state. Sometimes called Jubilee Day, it is often celebrated on January 1, to commemorate the day President Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary proclamation that would free slaves in states and parts of states became effective, January 1, 1863. Many states observe that day, while others celebrate February 1, April 16, May 29, July 5, or September 22. After slaves were legally freed, some slave owners withheld the information from their slaves and the news of their freedom was slow to travel to slaves in some states. Emancipation Day celebrations lost popularity during the

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1950s and 1960s, when African Americans refocused their efforts on the fact that they still lacked equality and their civil rights were violated. Perhaps the most well-known freedom celebration, and one that has gained in popularity and observance—is Juneteenth. On June 19, 1865, slaves in Texas finally learned that they were free. Due to the lack of Union soldiers in Texas to enforce the law, two years passed before the news circulated to slaves that they had been emancipated. The news evoked widespread celebrations once plantation owners read the proclamation to them. Thus, the words ‘‘June’’ and ‘‘nineteenth’’ were combined to become popularly known as Juneteenth and to identify one of the oldest celebrations commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth was invigorated during the last half of the twentieth century; on January 1, 1980, Texas made Juneteenth an official state holiday. Other states observing Juneteenth as an unpaid state holiday are Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Washington, DC, and Wyoming. In Nashville, the Belle Meade Plantation sponsors a celebration. Numerous college campuses observe Juneteenth as well. Greek Letter and Service Organizations’ Conventions African American Greek letter and service organizations have strong traditions of fostering brotherhood and sisterhood among their memberships. They pledge their best to each other. Such traditions spread into the local and national communities as well, and their work often results in civic action, community service, and philanthropic endeavors. These groups include fraternities such as Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Phi Beta Sigma, and others, and sororities such as Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Zeta Phi Beta, and others. Among the non-Greek organizations are the Links, Jack and Jill, Sigma Pi Phi (the Boul
e), 100 Black Men in America, 100 Black Women, and so on. They hold regional and national conventions at which time workshops, lectures, speeches, civic luncheons, banquets, and galas are held, and the sages of their memberships are honored. The paraphernalia of the organizations is sold as well as adorned to promote the groups. These events attract the press and contribute significantly to the local economy. For example, in July 2008 when the Alpha Kappa Alpha held its one hundredth anniversary in Washington, DC, it attracted an enormous attendance as well as the attention of the national television and newspaper media. Holidays Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday is the only federal holiday that honors an African American—one who pioneered in civil rights for all Americans, but especially African Americans. The holiday was established in 1984 but it was not until 2000 that all states recognized that day in some form. The honor falls around January 15, and celebrations are nationwide; they include lectures,

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dramatizations, concerts, breakfasts, and a variety of activities for entire communities. On August 17, some organizations and communities recognize the birthday of Marcus Garvey. It is more widely celebrated in his Jamaican homeland and by Rastafarians. Garvey founded the Universal Negro International Association to uplift members of his race. Frederick Douglass Day, which honors the abolitionist and orator, is recognized in some communities on February 14, the day of his birth; others incorporate a celebration into Black History Month. Religious Celebrations and Festivals The African American community has a long history of celebrations, including, Christmas, Junkanoo (a Bahamanian street parade), homecomings, revivals, men’s day, women’s day, youth day, and Mardi Gras. Christmas celebrations date back to the slavery period, when owners granted their slaves a break from hard labor and allowed them to recognize the season with a few days off from work on the plantation. Even so, the slave had little to celebrate. There are claims that slaves used that time to escape, since much was going on in the white community to celebrate the season and little attention was given to slaves. Others claim that the owners encouraged their slaves to eat and drink excessively so that they were unable to rebel. Christmas morning was a time for slaves to gather at the big house on plantations to receive gifts. After that, they returned to their slave quarters and celebrated by singing, dancing, and enjoying themselves. After freedom, Christmas remained an important season in the African American community, both in the church and among families and communities. In addition to being a time for feasting, gifts, church pageants, and church displays of religious significance, it is a time to recognize the poor, needy, home-bound, and the elderly. A Christmastime celebration or festival, Junkanoo originated with slaves in the British West Indies and, by the eighteenth century, spread to the southern United States. Although is it a lost practice in this country, it has historical significance and is a major national cultural event in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Guyana, and elsewhere. The carnival-like street parades stem from west Africa and include dance, music, and costume. Annual church homecomings have been throughout the African American community for the lifetime of most of the congregations. They may mark the founding of the church denomination, such as the African American Methodist Episcopal Church, or the erection of the original church building. As blacks became mobile, many who were members of a particular church returned to their home church for the annual event, which may have occurred anytime between April and October. Preaching, praying, singing by special or guest choirs, and large meals accompany the observance. Services may span a weekend or an entire week, with additional worship service in the evenings. In some communities, church revivals are held as well. Their beginning was seen as early as the late 1700s and into the 1800s, but were called camp meetings or tent revivals. Traveling preachers often led the revivals and spent several days in rural areas that were isolated, and spoke to black and white audiences, and to men as well as women. The early revivals gave women an opportunity to speak out, sing, or talk to the

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preacher—a practice disallowed in formal churches of that period. Worshippers at camp meetings could be loud, unruly, and spirit-filled. Revivals continue in African American churches, and often are characterized by guest preachers, guest choirs, renewal of faith, and an opportunity for communitywide participation. Observance of Men’s Day and Women’s Day are separated in the church. Both are held to honor men and women in the congregation. On Men’s Day, churches may design a special church program, invite a special speaker, use only male participants in the church program and choir, have a special offering, and generally use that day to lift up the male leaders in the denomination or in the church for their work during the year. Women’s Day celebrations are popular in many denominations throughout the country. In September 1907, religious worker and educator Nannie Helen Burroughs proposed to the Baptist Convention that such an observance be held. The first such celebration was held the last Sunday in July 1909, in Nashville, Tennessee, and immediately gained widespread popularity. For the first time, the event allowed women to speak in Baptist churches. The early events included groups of women who traveled from one church to another to lecture to congregations and to raise money for foreign missionary work. Since then, Women’s Day has become a time to acknowledge women’s work in all arenas, to fund-raise, and to focus on issues of special importance to women. During a special church service, a woman speaker may address the congregation, women’s choirs sing, and program participation is restricted to women. Youth Day is a special celebration in any churches—a time to recognize young people, their talents, accomplishments, and work in the church. Some churches have called a similar celebration Children’s Day; whatever it is named, on that special day children’s choirs sing, pageants may be presented, and young people are highly visible in the worship service. Mardi Gras, a time of gaiety and good feeling, comes out of the Roman Catholic tradition. Although various church denominations and other groups hold Mardi Gras celebrations, the best known activity of this type is the one that takes place in New Orleans each year. The term Mardi Gras, which means the final day of feast before fasting for the Lenten season, means ‘‘Fat Tuesday’’ in the French language. For African Americans, Mardi Gras in New Orleans is observed in much same way as it is in the mainstream community. It is a time for Carnival celebrations, cotillions (or a young woman’s coming-out into society), private parties, family gatherings, and other events. The Zulu parade emerged as a means for blacks to have their own celebration in the raciallyrestricted parades in New Orleans and enabled them to poke fun at the elite, old-line krewes, or the private white organizations that sponsored them. The Original Illinois Club and other African American organizations were formed to support their Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans. Sports Classics Perhaps the most popular Sports Classics are the Football classics held between rival black colleges. Early classics were the Turkey Day Classic, held

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between Alabama State and Tuskegee universities on Thanksgiving Day for over eighty years; and the Orange Blossom Classic between Florida Agricultural and Mechanical (Florida A&M) and Howard universities as early as 1933. Most of the classics held today attract huge crowds and are spirit-filled, homecoming-like activities and frequently are nationally televised events. These include the annual Bayou Classic between Grambling State and Southern universities in New Orleans; the Turkey Day classic between Alabama State and Tuskegee universities held in Montgomery; the Atlanta classic held in Atlanta between Florida A&M and Tennessee State University (TSU); and the Circle City Classic held in Indianapolis with different black college teams each year. Those classics that attract such schools as Florida A&M, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (A&T), TSU, Southern, and Grambling also include a ‘‘Battle of the Bands,’’ or a time when the bands demonstrate their skills and draw widespread approval and enthusiasm from the fans. Altogether, about fifty sports classics are held each year between traditional rivals. In basketball, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) tournament has been especially important in popular culture. The tournaments began in 1946 and, in addition to showcasing talent among the participating schools, help to generate money for scholarships. During the weekend when the sports events are held, the African American community is filled with social activities, including class reunions, parades that include celebrities and dignitaries, tailgate parties, Greek step shows, beauty pageants, golf tournaments, and recognition programs, and culminate in worship services. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Expos, Black; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Kwanzaa Further Reading Gay, Kathlyn. 2007. African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations: The History, Customs, and Symbols Associated with both Traditional and Contemporary Religious Secular Events Observed by Americans of African Descent. Detroit: Omnigraphics. Prahlad, Anand. 2006. ‘‘Festivals.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, Vol. 1. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Wiggins, William H. Jr. 2000. O Freedom! Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Jessie Carney Smith

Holyfield, Evander (1962– ), Boxer Evander Holyfield is a professional boxer who won world championships in the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions and who infamously had both ears bitten by Mike Tyson during a championship bout. Holyfield won a controversial bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics. In 2010, at forty-seven, he won the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title.

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Holyfield was born October 19, 1962, in Atmore, Alabama, the youngest of nine children. He began Boxing in Atlanta when he was twelve, winning Boys Club and Junior Olympics bouts. Holyfield won the silver medal at the 1983 Pan American Games and by 1984 was 160–14, with 76 knockouts. He won the National Golden Gloves and then the bronze at the 1984 Olympics. He knocked down his opponent in a semifinal second round but was disqualified for hitting after a break was called. Holyfield won his first professional fight, decisioning Lionel Byarm in a light-heavyweight bout, that same year. Less than two years later, Holyfield became the first from his impressive Olympics class to win a world title, over Dwight Muhammad Qawi in the World Boxing Association cruiserweight division. Holyfield defended his title in 1987 with a technical knockout of Olympics champion Henry Tillman, and then added the International Boxing Federation belt with a knockout of Ricky Parkey. In 1988, Holyfield became undisputed world cruiserweight champion with a TKO of World Boxing Council champion Carlos De Le
on. Moving Up Holyfield began pursuit of the world heavyweight championship held by Mike Tyson in 1988, TKO’ing James ‘‘Quick’’ Tillis and promptly relinquishing his cruiserweight titles. He defeated former world champion Pinklon Thomas, and then in 1989, TKO’d former world champ Michael Dokes in what Ring magazine called the best heavyweight bout of the 1980s. James ‘‘Buster’’ Douglas beat Holyfield to a title shot. Holyfield was Douglas’s first title defense, but the champion went down in the third round, and Holyfield became undisputed world heavyweight champion. Holyfield, twenty-eight, first defended against former and future world champ George Foreman, forty-two, in the ‘‘Battle for the Ages.’’ A defense against Mike Tyson failed to come off when Tyson first delayed the fight, claiming injury, and then was sent to prison for rape. When they eventually fought in 1996, Holyfield won by TKO. Their rematch in 1997 became one of the most notorious fights in history when Tyson bit Holyfield’s ears and was disqualified in the third round. Meanwhile, Holyfield had lost his titles to Riddick Bowe in 1993 in the first of their three bouts. The first rematch a year later featured one of boxing’s most bizarre moments: A man parachuted nearly into the ring. After a restart twenty minutes later, Holyfield reclaimed his titles. Holyfield promptly lost his crown again, to Michael Moorer in 1994. Afterward, Holyfield was diagnosed with a heart condition and retired. Reports surfaced linking his condition to use of human growth hormones, an accusation that resurfaced in 2007. After he claimed his heart was healed by a TV faithhealer, boxing authorities cleared Holyfield to fight. Riddick Bowe knocked out Holyfield in their 1995 rubber match, but Holyfield claimed he was afflicted by hepatitis. In 2005, the state athletic commission banned Holyfield from boxing in New York due to ‘‘diminishing skills.’’ He came back anyway, winning five, including a title by TKO on April 10, 2010.

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Holyfield lives outside Atlanta with his third wife, Candi, and their two children; he reportedly has at least eleven children by six women. In February 2010, Candi Holyfield obtained a protective order against him, alleging violence she said had escalated since 2008. In 2009, a foreclosure auction was withdrawn on Holyfield’s $10 million, 109room mansion and another smaller house. He has been sued for unpaid services by a landscaper and for nonpayment of child support. Holyfield has appeared as himself in commercials on television and has had minor movie roles. Since 1994, he has claimed to be a born-again Christian. See also: Ali, Muhammad; Foreman, George; Frazier, Joe; Johnson, Jack; Louis, Joe Robinson, Sugar Ray Further Reading Holyfield, Evander, and Lee Gruenfeld. 2008. Becoming Holyfield: A Fighter’s Journey. New York: Atria Books. Holyfield, Evander, and Bernard Holyfield. 1996. Holyfield: The Humble Warrior. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. Thomas, Jim. 2005. The Holyfield Way: What I Learned about Courage, Perseverance, and the Bizarre World of Boxing. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing LLC. Richard Kenney

Hooker, John Lee (1917–2001), Singer, Musician This singer and guitarist’s distinctive blend of urban and Mississippi Delta Blues styles has made him one of the most influential and recognizable figures in blues music. He recorded more than one hundred albums. John Lee Hooker was born on August 22, 1917, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, to a family of sharecroppers. His stepfather introduced him to the blues and bought him his first guitar. Like many blues musicians, Hooker was raised in the church, a church that often decried the lure of secular music, in particular the blues. However, as Albert Murray points out in his landmark book, Stomping the Blues, the sacred and profane musical forms of Spirituals and blues shared a fundamental musical core. The early part of Hooker’s career epitomized this dynamic: after moving to Memphis, as a teenager he played both in gospel groups and as a solo blues performer. In 1943, Hooker moved to Detroit. Hooker’s first recording, ‘‘Boogie Chillun’’ (1948), went platinum. Its phenomenal success led to a series of recordings in the years that followed, some of which soon became blues standards. He signed an exclusive contract with Modern Records but continued to record under pseudonyms for a host of other record labels. Between 1949 and 1953 Hooker recorded close to seventy singles on twenty-four labels under a dozen different names. His playing is so distinctive that it makes such obfuscations seem like

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farce. His resonant baritone and piercing guitar riffs are unmistakable to anyone even casually initiated into Hooker’s sound. The 1950s saw Hooker signing with a new label, the black-owned Vee-Jay label, and entering upon another phase of his career. Breaking with blues tradition, Hooker recruited a backing band to record new, soon-to-be blues classics like ‘‘Dimples’’ and ‘‘Boom Boom.’’ The latter recording in particular epitomized Hooker’s new urban blues style, which was inflected with Soul and rock. This new sound appealed to a much broader audience, cutting across racial and other demographic lines. It peaked at number sixty on the pop music charts, a significant accomplishment for a blues record. Some have criticized these changes as ploys for commercial appeal, but the music retains something of the spirit of the Delta blues, nonetheless. Hooker’s distinctive style and his willingness to venture into disparate musical territories have made him something of a folk hero for a generation of mostly white rock musicians, including Van Morrison and Eric Clapton. The Animals scored a pop hit with their 1964 cover of ‘‘Boom Boom.’’ As a testament to this influence, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. In 1997, he received two Grammy Awards. In 1999, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. He has his own star on Hollywood Boulevard’s ‘‘Walk of Fame.’’ He was one of the blues’ most public faces, sharing that distinction with B. B. King, and he appeared in television commercials and feature films (including 1980’s The Blues Brothers and 1987’s The Color Purple). He collaborated with a host of musicians across musical traditions, from Carlos Santana to Bonnie Raitt, and his career was a testament to the flexibility to be found within the seeming limitations of the blues tradition. He died in his sleep on June 21, 2001, in his home in San Francisco, at the age of eighty-three. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals

Further Reading Murray, Charles Shaar. 2002. Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Obrecht, Jas, ed. 1993. Blues Guitar: The Men Who Made the Music. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. Adam Bradley

Hopkins, Lightnin’ (1912–82), Singer, Songwriter, Musician Sam Hopkins was born on March 15, 1912, in Centerville, Texas, a small east Texas town in the red clay country situated midway between Dallas and Houston. As Lightnin’ Hopkins, he became one of the most influential bluesmen of his generation before he died in 1982 from throat cancer.

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Hopkins’s development into an inventive singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist who imparted gravelly voiced folk wisdom while playing high-E-string riffs began when he learned basic blues chords from his older brother and constructed a homemade guitar out of a cigar box and screen-door wire. A school dropout, Hopkins joined the caravan of black teenage dropouts and young adult males in the depressed labor market of rural east Texas, looking for work sharecropping, hustling, hoboing, picking cotton, or clearing ‘‘bottom lands’’ in the swamps that lay between the Brazos and Trinity rivers. Hopkins performed his self-taught, improvised tales of woe on guitar at picnics, country fairs, and church revivals. Musically, Hopkins’s influences included Blind Lemon Jefferson, who is widely regarded as his purest contemporary exponent of country blues and at the time was one of the most popular blues singers in Texas. Hopkins sat in with Jefferson as sideman during pre-Depression–era revival meetings and the like, as payment for being Jefferson’s ‘‘seeing-eye chauffeur.’’ Also, Hopkins worked as a backup guitarist for other performers on street corners and in juke joints in the years after World War II. Like other young black males of his generation in the job-challenged region, Hopkins served time in the 1930s at Houston County Prison Farm. Because of his nimble guitar artistry, a talent scout for Aladdin Records partnered him with Thunder Smith under the billing Thunder and Lightnin’. The most consequential footprint on the widest terrain in American music culture by Hopkins was transgenerational and transracial, influencing not only blues performance but also that of jazz, rock, and white folk music. Hopkins’s influence was felt during a time of transition following World War II when guitar pickers and blues shouters searched for responses to urbanization, migration, improvements in amplification, and wider (often mixed race) audiences. Technically, Hopkins’s expertise featured a simple, signature call-and-response riff that alternated between high E and low E, made special by the unique, surprising way he performed the simple songs. Thematically, Hopkins’s music was derived directly from life experiences amidst cotton fields, snake-filled swamps, dirt-poor populations, the center of Texas cotton production, and a spreading network of two-lane, blacktop state highways—such as Highway 75, memorialized in one of Hopkins’s songs—that heralded both feelings of isolation and a promise of life chances beyond the horizon. Hopkins initially succeeded at bridging the changes. However, the noisier, urban dance-club settings of the 1950s ultimately shifted the tastes of audiences and promoters away from Hopkins’s cotton and southern themes and unadorned playing style. The new consumers—now younger, more urban, more female, more utilitarian, and less familiar with the cotton fields—looked for a different music. They wanted easy-listening Rhythm and Blues groups (e.g., Billy Ward and the Dominoes), romantic balladry (e.g., Texan Ivory Joe Hunter; the tragic Johnny Ace of Memphis, who killed himself as fans awaited his performance in Houston; Bobby ‘‘Blue’’ Bland of Memphis; and Jimmy Witherspoon, from Arkansas), boogie woogie artists (e.g., Junior Parker from West Memphis, Arkansas), and

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electrically amplified club singers (e.g., Delta bluesmen B. B. King and Muddy Waters). The commercial and popular success of these new urban blues forms pushed Lightnin’ Hopkins momentarily into the shadows for a decade. The rediscovery of Lightnin’ Hopkins by blues expert Samuel Charters in 1959 caused Hopkins’s career to be reinvigorated via recordings for Aladdin, Decca, Folkways, Prestige, and other labels in the early 1960s. Hopkins became a cultural icon for a young audience into the new folk-blues culture, playing a circuit of nationwide folk music festivals, smaller hotels, coffeehouses, art houses, and college campuses. At clubs in Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Greenwich Village, he gained an audience of young, white, rock-music fans for the first time. Additionally, he appeared at Carnegie Hall in 1960 with Joan Baez and Pete Seeger and later shared other billings with the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. By the 1960s, Hopkins had recorded hundreds of singles and more than a hundred albums. Said one commentator: ‘‘LH had the longest career and recorded more music than any other blues player with the possible exception of John Lee Hooker.’’ His life inspired a fictional character, called Blacksnake Brown, in a novel by Hopkins aficionado and blues guitarist Jane Phillips, titled Mojo Hand after one of Hopkins’s signature blues tunes. In 1965, Charters produced an interview album, Lightnin’ Hopkins: My Life in the Blues, that featured guitar work, vocals, and spoken narratives. Hopkins appeared in documentary films, including The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins (1970) and Blues Like Showers of Rain (1986). Hopkins’s music is also featured in the soundtrack to the feature-length movie Sounder (1972), a black sharecropper drama set in 1930s Louisiana. Wolfgang Saxon noted in the New York Times that Hopkins was ‘‘perhaps the greatest single influence on rock guitar players.’’ The high-string, single-note runs (the speed and glide of which gained him the nickname Lightnin’) and hard-bottom bass lines that Hopkins was known for are now standard techniques. In July 1981 Hopkins underwent surgery for throat cancer at a Houston hospital, and in January 1982 he died from complications due to pneumonia. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Delta Blues; Rock and Roll

Further Reading Phillips, Jane. 1996. Mojo Hand. New York: Trident Press. Squibb, Francis. 1993. Mojo Hand: The Lightnin’ Hopkins Anthology, liner notes for Rhino R2-71226. Richard D. Ralston

Horse Racing and Jockeys Sometimes called the ‘‘Sport of Kings,’’ horse racing owes much of its growth and development to African Americans, who contributed prominently to the

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sport. They did so as clockers, hot walkers, exercise boys, grooms, and stablehands. They also did so as jockeys and trainers, having been more successful in early periods than in contemporary American culture. As successful as they were, racial segregation prevented them from being even more successful. The jockeys have taken their place in African American culture through such feats as winning the first Kentucky Derby, taking the crown in two consecutive years, and winning a total of three Derbys. The social, cultural, and political practices of early Americans reflect the influences of England. This was especially true among American gentry and the horse racing sport. Owning thoroughbreds from England was a status symbol of the wealthy. Later, the wealthy bred their own horses on the big farms or plantations that they owned. This meant that staff was needed to handle the breeding, care and feeding, and training of these prized possessions. More often than not, slaves were assigned to the task. American gentry also used horses as a means of transportation, especially for gentlemen who used horse-driven carriages to transport ladies of the aristocracy. Horse racing became a form of entertainment as well as a profitable sport. Inasmuch as slaves had already spent time training and caring for the horses, and some had become skilled in their native land while serving West African horse tribes, the natural order was for them to become jockeys; they knew the horses and the horses knew them. As early as 1665, there is evidence of horse racing in the section of Long Island now known as Garden City. More often than not, horse racing during early America meant two horses in a contest on quarter-mile paths. Sometime after the Revolutionary War as many as twenty horses might have been raced on twenty-mile tracks. The owners and trainers also began to realize the financial importance of the sport, especially since much betting occurred, and often the riders and jockeys were much more closely regarded than the horses. By the 1800s, diminutive slaves were used as jockeys in the American South; they had grown up with horses in the wild. Jockeys in the North were usually whites who migrated from England or came from local areas. Notwithstanding the rules that slavery imposed on African Americans, black jockeys were permitted to cross state lines and race in the North. During this time as well, the South became known for producing most of the black jockeys seen at major races. ‘‘Monkey’’ Simon, who around 1806 rode at the Clover Bottom Race Track in Nashville, Tennessee, was one of the first black jockeys to receive recognition. Simon commanded what was regarded as a hefty sum—over $100 per ride— which he and his master shared. By now black jockeys were the high achievers in America’s most popular sports event. They were the jockeys in heralded marches in 1823, 1836, 1876, and 1883. In fact, the jockeys were so successful and superior in their work that competitors, who wanted the black men eliminated from the races, accused them of dishonesty, accepting bribes, cheating their owners, and being influenced by gamblers. When the American Civil War was in progress, horse racing was suspended. The animals were freed up to serve the war efforts; some were even destroyed. When the war ended, racing became more popular in the North and West. Some

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jockeys, now legally free, migrated to those areas in search of new racing possibilities. Black jockeys produced astounding records between 1861 and 1911. In 1870, Ed Brown became the first African American jockey to win the Belmont Stakes, or Kingfisher, now the final leg of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby and African American Jockeys In 1875, when the Kentucky Derby, now America’s premiere racing event, was first held, Oliver Lewis rode the three-year-old thoroughbred Aristides to become the first jockey of any race to win the event. African Americans were prominently involved in the event, as former slave Ansel Williamson was the horse’s trainer. As well, thirteen of the fourteen jockeys in the first race were black, and five of the horses were trained by black trainers. In 1896, the Derby distance was reduced from one and one-half miles to one and one-quarter miles. Willie (sometimes spelled Willy) Simms, of Augusta, Georgia, was the first to win at the reduced distance. Simms went on to success at many of the bestknown races, including each of the Triple Crown races—the Preakness Stakes (1898), Belmont Stakes (1893 and 1894), and the Champagne Stakes at Belmont (1895). He was also the first black American jockey to receive international recognition. Other black jockeys who won the Kentucky Derby were William ‘‘Billy’’ Walker (1877), George Lewis (1880), Babe Hurd (1882), Isaac Murphy (1884, 1890, and 1891), Erskine Henderson (1885), Isaac Lewis (1887), Alonzo Clayton (1892), James Perkins (1895), Willie Simms (1896 and 1898), and Jimmie Winkfield (1901 and 1902). Clayton was only fifteen years old when he won the race. Henry King, who rode Planet in 1921, was the last black jockey from the United States to ride in a Derby until 2000, when Marion St. Julien rode. The most celebrated African American jockey was Isaac Murphy, who is also regarded as one of the greatest jockeys in horse racing history. He was born Isaac Burns, on David Tanner’s farm in Fayette County, Kentucky. To honor his grandfather, Green Murphy, a well-known auctioneer in Lexington, Isaac took the name Murphy. He learned to ride when he was fourteen and became a dominant figure in thoroughbred racing shortly after the Civil War and on to 1891. His trademark riding style was in the upright English tradition. In 1875, the exercise boy at the Lexington stables had his first mount, serving as a replacement rider. After winning that race, he was seen as an incredibly talented jockey and soon he denominated the sport. By 1891, he may have been the highest-paid athlete in the nation. Murphy won the Derby in 1890 and 1891, becoming the first jockey to win the race in two consecutive years. He was also the first three-time winner of the Derby, having won his first in 1884. Added to his astonishing record was the fact that he won 44 percent of all the races he rode. Dudley Allen, the first African American to own a Derby winner, was majority owner of Kingman, which Murphy rode in 1891. After Murphy retired in 1892, he became a horse trainer. He died in Lexington in 1896 and, despite his racing success, it was not until 1955 that he was inducted into the Jockey Hall of Fame located at the National Museum of Racing

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in Saratoga. He is buried with a marker at Man O’ War Memorial Park in Fayette County, Kentucky, and remains a horse racing legend. Another notable jockey of the early period was Jimmy Winkfield, who won the Kentucky Derby two years in a row—1901 and 1902; he came in second in the 1903 race. Born in Kentucky on April 12, 1882, Winkfield began his racing career in 1897, when he worked as a groom and exercise boy. The experience enabled him to learn to read horses and to know the race tracks well. He was successful in the 1904 Russian national riding championship, trained horses in France after World War II, and died in France in 1974 when he was ninety-three years old. Later, he was inscribed into the Jockey Hall of Fame at Pimlico. African Americans and Current Racing Events Despite the success of the early black jockeys, from 1900 through the late 1940s, Jim Crow laws kept African American jockeys off major race tracks. After Henry King rode Planet in the 1921 Derby, clearly racial segregation forced black jockeys out of competition throughout the remainder of the decade. Raymond White trained horses that won the 1932 and 1944 Derbys. In 1961, Ezra Enoch Harris became the first African American certified and licensed as a trainer in Illinois. While in college at Lincoln University in Missouri, he worked on a farm so that he could be close to horses. He became a successful entrepreneur, as his Cool Valley Stables produced a number of thoroughbreds that were competitive in races in the Midwest. In recent years, some evidence of African American involvement in mainstream racing and ownership of horses has been demonstrated. Rapper M. C. Hammer owned the successful Oaktown Stable which produced filly Lite Light, the winner of the Kentucky Oats and other prestigious races. Berry Gordy Jr. of Motown Records fame has been a successful horseman. In 1971, Cheryl White, daughter of trainer Raymond White, was the first black woman jockey on June 15, at Cleveland, Ohio’s Thistledown Race Track. She was also the first black woman to ride on a U.S. commercial track. White began her journey when she was only four years old, and later exercised horses for her father and other trainers. In 1991 she became a certified racing official, thus making her mark in two area of the racing field. Blacks have had other involvements in horse racing history. In 1984, William E. Summers III became the first black chair of the board of the Kentucky Derby Festival. By the 1990s, African American involvement in some aspects of the sport was more visible. There now are more black owners and trainers. However, nearly eighty years passed before another African American jockey rode in the Kentucky Derby in 2000. Before that, in 1990, Donna Marie Cheek, a Philadelphia native, became the first black member of the U.S. Equestrian Team and the first and only equestrian inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Marlo St. Julien, a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, had an early interest in football as well as horse racing. After playing football for two of his college years, he chose horse racing as his preferred sport. Since he knew that his weight was an issue, he lost nearly thirty pounds to come in within the requirement for jockeys. While in

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junior high school, he won his first race in 1989 at Evangeline Downs and in 1992 he won his first stakes race at that track as well. In 1998, St. Julien won his thousandth race. The next year he became a full-time rider at Keeneland Downs, once winning three races in the same day. In 1999 as well, he rode full-time at Churchill Downs—a rare accomplishment. St. Julien was ranked fifth among jockeys in 1999, when he won 165 races. He climbed to fame in African American popular culture for his ride in 2000, when he became the first black jockey since 1921 to race in the Kentucky Derby. He finished in seventh place and failed to make the cut in 2001. St. Julien has fared well in Texas and Chicago racing circuits. Shirley A. Cunningham celebrated in 2007, when Curlin, the horse in which she had ownership, won the Preakness. The horse had been named for Charles Curlin, a slave who fought with the Union during the Civil War, and the greatgreat-grandfather of Cunningham. African Americans continue to demonstrate an interest in racing at the Kentucky Derby, at least by their appearance at Churchill Downs. A number of African Americans, including high profile figures, are often among the spectators. To some extent, they help to keep the sport alive in African American popular culture. Even so, the sport that African American jockeys and trainers helped to establish is not highly popular in many black communities. See also: Cowboys and Rodeos Further Reading About.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Horseracing: African Americans in Racing.’’ http://horseracing .about.com. Hotaling, Edward. 1999. The Great Black Jockeys: The Lives and Times of the Men Who Dominated America’s First National Sport. Rocklin, CA: Forum. Smith, Dale Edwyna. 2009. ‘‘Horseracing.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present, Vol. 2. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Smith, Jessie Carney. 2003. Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. 2nd ed. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Smith, Jessie Carney, and Linda T. Wynn, eds. 2009. Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Frederick D. Smith

Housing as Lifestyle Housing and home development is one of the most visible markers of cultural, regional, and socioeconomic difference in black communities, demonstrating the diversity and complexity of African American popular culture. Distinct hairstyles, mannerisms, music preferences, dance styles, fashion trends, and other cultural differences have frequently coincided with black housing patterns distinguished by social and economic status. That most African Americans have

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generally resided in predominately black neighborhoods is indicative of a long history of exclusion, forced or not, racism, and social, economic, and political forces. Within these communities, blacks have established their own set of values and popular culture. These identities, although complex, are frequently demarcated by location, such as rural and urban areas, suburban and inner-city localities, and middle-class and low-income neighborhoods. Another way that black identity is polarized is through labeling. African Americans have constructed terminology, such as ‘‘acting black’’ and ‘‘acting white,’’ to distinguish traditional black behavior from nontraditional black behavior. African Americans who live in middle-class neighborhoods or predominately white suburbs are often labeled as acting white, while blacks who live in the projects, the ghettos, or other low-income or urban working-class neighborhoods and homes are commonly associated with ‘‘genuine’’ blackness. Indeed, any black who does not behave and speak in ways that are perceived to be black is labeled ‘‘white.’’ Although these phrases have historically connoted negative meaning in one context or pride in another, African Americans have attempted, in many different ways, particularly during the early twentieth century racial uplift movement, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, and Black Power Movement of the 1960s, to elevate the meaning of blackness within a whitedominated society that had long equated black identity with inferiority. The stigma of traditional black culture, nevertheless, is still active today, having its origins during the horrific period of slavery. Slavery During slavery, housing options for blacks were severely limited. Field slaves, as blacks who toiled in the field were called, lived in slave quarters situated some distance from the so-called big house (so as not to upset the pleasant vista of the plantation), where the white slave master and his family lived. Privileged slaves, who included house slaves who worked as servants and craftspersons, either lived in larger dwellings located closer to the landowner’s home or slept inside the big house. These two societies differed dramatically. Slave quarters varied from plantation to plantation. Some quarters were shaped conically like huts, reminiscent of the slaves’ ancestral home; others were built in the fashion of wood cabins. These homes were mostly crude and bare, one-room spaces that were bereft of the minimal comforts and luxuries. However, this isolated space sustained a rich communal and cultural life, based in African traditions, that yielded, among other things, distinct verbal and nonverbal communication forms and behaviors, and unique black folk life, consisting of music, dance, oral storytelling (a favorite folk hero was the mischievous Brer Rabbit who constantly outwitted characters who symbolized white slave masters), worship, and special foods. From this society emerged, among other thing, African American vernacular, expressive oral traditions, performance, and worship styles, Spirituals, and Soul Food. Soul food included many traditional African foods like yams and okra and the cooking style known as frying.

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House slaves regularly flaunted the material symbols of their high status. Often times, house slaves were the offspring of white landowners and slaves; consequently, their skin complexion tended to be lighter, and their hair straighter than field slaves. House slaves also wore the clothes and ate the food that belonged to their masters. Because they interacted more frequently with whites, house slaves were able to better emulate Standard English. In this environment, white culture was associated with refinement and superiority; black culture signified inferiority and vulgarity. Thus, the more effectively house slaves were able to emulate white culture, the more status they were perceived to have. Post Slavery Middle-class black societies existed in every region in the United States before and after the eradication of slavery in 1863. Some blacks lived as minorities in integrated neighborhoods; most lived among themselves in separate neighborhoods wherein they built houses and furnished their homes in the same fashion as popular designs established by whites. Many blacks, who migrated westward after emancipation, established prosperous black towns, which were microcosms of middle-class white towns, with comfortable homes, stores, and other facilities that were frequently owned and operated by blacks. Some blacks endorsed pride in their ancestral heritage and blacks of achievement; others, referred to as the ‘‘old mulatto elite,’’ developed a culture largely based on white status symbols, such as nice homes, fashionable clothes and hairstyles that were popular with whites, education, skin color, hair texture, etiquette, and white ancestry. Both societies established social, professional, and literary organizations, clubs, and newspapers, and coordinated social events and dances within the isolated worlds in which they lived. They attended colleges and entered a variety of occupations, such as barbering, catering, and teaching. Their children aspired to be lawyers, doctors, and other high-status occupations. The majority of former slaves lived in destitution. Reconstruction efforts did little to change the living conditions of poor blacks in the South. One-room, windowless shacks with dirt floors characterized many dwellings where rural blacks lived. A number of blacks continued to live in deep poverty into the early twentieth century. Some rural blacks lived without monetary wealth but enjoyed a rich life living off the land on family-owned farms, hunting, fishing, and growing fruits and vegetables. These isolated environments sustained popular black dances, music forms, and food preferences that differed little from slave culture. Because most families were hard working or, simply, could not afford the luxury, hairstyles were mostly natural and plain. Older women and girls might wear cornrows or simple twists. Clothing was simple and, in many cases, worn and tattered. Many blacks, however, wore their best attire, ‘‘Sunday clothes,’’ for worship services. Early Twentieth Century Economic, social, and political oppression, racial violence, and lack of opportunities prompted many blacks to migrate to cities in the South and the North.

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By and large, cities symbolized progress, fashion, opportunity, and status; rural settings were associated with backwardness and inferiority. Three main black housing patterns in major cities included exclusive neighborhoods of the old mulatto elite, middle-class black neighborhoods, tenements or apartments, and ghettos. Whereas the old mulatto elite continued to emulate white culture, many middle-class blacks appropriated both white and traditionally black behaviors. Because a large portion of blacks were from the South, black homeowners and renters retained many black traditions, such as soul food preferences, demonstrative ways of communicating with one another, and church worship. (Some middle-class blacks, however, eschewed traditional black culture in most forms, preferring instead to embody distinguished and genteel behavior within the framework of all-black professional societies.) Church life was, generally, the heart and soul of these communities. Middle-class (and working-class) blacks attended racially segregated churches where preachers gave animated sermons, and congregations were lively and responsive, swaying in their seats, clapping their hands, and spontaneously giving in to ‘‘the Holy Spirit’’ and shouting (a religious dance that is Africanderived and was practiced by slaves). Congregations regularly interjected with a variety of verbal responses to affirm sermons and styles of preachers. Clothing played a critical role for churchgoers. (Outside of church, middle-class blacks preferred straight hairstyles, conservative suits for men, and conservative dresses for women.) Blacks stepped out in style for church. Women wore elaborate hats; men wore suits, and everyone, usually on Saturdays, underwent elaborate hair preparations. Men went to Barbershops; women stayed at home or went to salons to wash, press, and set their and their children’s hair. Historians contend that the rigorous preparations for church were not done simply for showmanship (although for some, that was the case). Nice clothing and hairstyles set the day apart from ordinary living, as well as allowed blacks to do what white society and lack of money had long denied them, freely express themselves and project dignity. As black culture developed in neighborhoods, such as Harlem, New York, many old traditions became new fads, especially among black apartment and tenement dwellers. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s was home to many dances that were derived from popular slave dances. Black music genres, such as jazz, Ragtime, and the blues were enjoyed in a variety of entertainment spots, sophisticated versions of southern juke joints. Although the Harlem Renaissance had declined considerably by the 1940s, black urban culture still thrived. Malcolm X, who was raised in rural areas in Omaha, Nebraska, and Lansing, Michigan, and spent part of his youth in white foster-care homes, notes in The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) that his introduction to black life in the city initially confounded him. He worked hard to change his image, chemically straightening his hair, discarding his plain clothes for flamboyant Zoot Suits, and mastering complex street slang and vernacular and popular dances. Criminality also played a large role in his induction into

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street culture. His sister and other blacks, who lived in a middle-class black neighborhood in Roxbury, Boston, enjoyed a dramatically different life. They avoided street life and dance halls, aiming for a decent and comfortable life. Midtwentieth Century The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s contributed greatly to the growth of the black middle class, which ‘‘doubled in size,’’ according to Bart Landry in The New Black Middle Class. Social activist Martin Luther King Jr. was a product of a middle-class upbringing. He and his siblings lived in a spacious home with an abundance of fine amenities and furniture in an almost idyllic black segregated neighborhood. Inside these communities, blacks were sheltered from the degradations of Jim Crow law, racism, and racial violence. The popular culture of middle-class backs was marked largely by cultural assimilation, upward mobility, and conservatism. However, church life, shared racial memories and experiences, food and music preferences, were derived from black cultural traditions. The rapid growth of the black middle class notwithstanding, many blacks still lived in poverty elsewhere, such as the rural South and urban North, where African American traditions were more pronounced. In rural communities, blacks lived in poorly constructed homes that many times lacked electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. Poverty, oppression, and segregation kept blacks from obtaining education and material comforts. In urban communities in the North, blacks mostly lived in substandard, insect- and rodent-infected ghettos, housing projects, and other low-income housing created through federally funded programs. Low-income regions fostered a unique lifestyle among urban blacks, where, rather than frolicking under the sun in healthy, natural environments, they were limited to playing on concrete, jump roping, and playing Basketball. With little money and access or exposure to other activities, black youths mostly played basketball. Academic troubles and unemployment fueled youth participation in criminal activities and Gangs. Urban life melded street and poverty culture with black traditions. Blackness was identified through demonstrations of aggression and strength, ribald (according to middle-class standards) oral traditions, jive talk, and black music and dance styles. New folk heroes emerged, such as black action film characters like Shaft (Richard Roundtree) and the voluptuous, tough-talking, gun-wielding heroines played by Pam Grier. Inner-city black culture was also heavily influenced by the black power movement, which was based on black consciousness and the struggle against racial oppression. Because of their daily confrontations with and conscious awareness of racism, poor blacks felt a keen distrust of mainstream white culture and institutions or any one, such as middle-class blacks, whom they associated with whiteness. Poor blacks often made fun of white culture and blacks who acted white. The tensions between the two cultures continued to be evident into the late twentieth century and beyond.

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Late Twentieth Century and Onward The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were indispensable to the progress blacks would achieve in subsequent decades. The progress, however, was frequently slow-going and arduous. Many discriminatory practices, such as housing covenants, were slowly eradicated, largely through the victories of the legal arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Efforts to better the lives of blacks in urban communities were facilitated through organizations like the National Urban League. Nonetheless, blacks continue to live in neighborhoods that were delineated predominately by race and socioeconomic status. Differences abounded between middle-class and low-income blacks for most of the late twentieth century. Middle-class blacks were often labeled ‘‘white,’’ because they opted to live in predominately white suburbs or middle-class neighborhoods, speak Standard English, or engage in other nontraditional activities, such as camping, or enjoy nontraditional music forms, such as classical music or country and western. Differences between middle-class and inner-city blacks have been portrayed comically in the 1990s television show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, wherein rapper Will Smith, who plays a character from West Philadelphia, regularly makes fun of his white-acting cousins, and the 2007 film Are We Done Yet?, which features rapper Ice Cube playing a father who tries to adjust to life in the suburbs. To be sure, many blacks make strong efforts to maintain cultural traditions through membership to black churches and organizations, frequent trips to the South, black literature, black theater and other productions, and celebrations, such as Kwanzaa and Juneteenth. There is the tendency, however, for middle-class blacks to distance themselves from aspects of black culture that they perceive to be disreputable. Bill Cosby underscored this issue when he, in 2004, famously criticized underprivileged blacks for certain mannerisms, behaviors, and styles that he contended have held them back from achieving progress. Black lifestyles and culture in the inner city is often described using various terms, such as ‘‘ghetto,’’ ‘‘Hip-Hop,’’ or ‘‘urban.’’ However, there are important differences between these terms. For example, hip-hop and Urban Culture may be associated with blacks of any economic standing. Ghetto culture refers primarily to low-income blacks who live in housing projects or other low-income homes. Poor blacks are often associated with ethnic names like Jamal and Shenequa, loud and demonstrative talking, flamboyant hairstyles, oversized clothes, particularly jeans that hang below the hip, gold chain necklaces, black slang and vernacular, rap music and hip-hop dance styles. Rap, which originated in the inner cities, exposed and, in many cases, exaggerated lifestyles in impoverished black environments, wherein cars and accessories, all-black dance parties, gang life, and the objectification of black women play heavily. In the new millennium, the increasing popularity of rap and hip-hop music has brought forth dramatic changes, blurring traditional perceptions of culture. Rap and hip-hop culture, in the new millennium, has increasingly spread from

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urban communities and low-income neighborhoods into the immaculate homes and lawns of black middle-class neighborhoods, as well as mainstream society at large. Whereas youth throughout the United States have appropriated hip-hop fashion and slang terms, vernacular has also permeated mainstream television, news, and films. Even the nation’s first African American president, Barack Obama, has employed black slang. Rather than garner criticism, President Obama’s intermittent references to popular black culture has largely augmented his persona and popularity. See also: African Cultural Influences; Churches; Folklore; Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints; Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading Dyson, Michael Eric. 2005. Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? New York: Basic Civitas Books. Landry, Bart. 1987. The New Black Middle Class. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pattillo, Mary. 2007. Black on the Black: The Politics of Race and Class in the City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pattillo-McCoy, Mary. 1999. Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi. 2000. American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Wright, Gwendolyn. 1981. Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Gladys L. Knight

Houston, Charles Hamilton (1895–1950), Lawyer, Law School Dean Charles Hamilton Houston was the first individual to be appointed to special counsel of the legal arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Though lesser known than Thurgood Marshall, a one-time student of Houston’s who became a prominent attorney, civil rights activist, and Supreme Court judge, in his day, Houston was a household name for his groundbreaking work in civil rights and for laying the legal foundations of the Civil Rights Movement. Houston was born on September 3, 1895, in Washington, DC. His grandparents had been born slaves, but they gained their freedom through brazen escape from their slave masters and then, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared all slaves free. The grandparents settled in Washington, DC. Compared to the South, Washington, DC, provided many more opportunities for blacks. Prior to the end of slavery, a number of free blacks resided there, fostering a community of progressive African Americans with education, prestige, and considerable wealth; nonetheless, Houston and his parents, William, a lawyer, and Mary, a

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hairdresser, as well as most African Americans in DC, still contended with racial segregation, racism, and racial discrimination. A serious child, Houston grew to young adulthood with a strong sense of self, respect for his race, and drive to transcend the limitations white society imposed on blacks. In 1915, he graduated from Amherst College with a degree in English. He taught English at Howard University, a black institution, until, in 1917, he decided to enlist in the war, knowing, to his despair, that he would be placed in a segregated unit and be assigned menial tasks. Believing himself destined for meaningful life’s work, according to McNeil, he saw the armed forces as ‘‘a prerequiCharles Hamilton Houston was the special site for having ‘something to say counsel for the NAACP who led the judicial fight for civil rights from 1929 until his death about how th[e] country should be just four years before the historic decision in run.’’’ Houston’s college degree was Brown v. Board of Education (1954). (Library of a benefit, as he was eligible for offiCongress) cer training, becoming a first lieutenant, though his rank did little to shelter him from the racism and injustice he observed and experienced. Racism was rampant in the military. Houston tried to no avail to protest the racist treatment of black soldiers. Coming home from service in Europe in 1919, Houston was further embittered by the fact that he served his country but was still required to sit in a segregated dining car. These experiences impelled Houston to become an attorney and fight on behalf of defenseless and powerless blacks. Following Houston’s honorable discharge in 1919, he plotted his career path. With the financial assistance he received from his veteran’s educational benefits, he enrolled at Harvard Law School that fall and studied at the University of Madrid in Spain in his last year. Before returning to the United States in 1924, Houston traveled to Italy, France, Tunisia, and Algeria. Houston’s return to the United States ushered forth new beginnings. In the spring of 1924, he and his father established their practice, ‘‘Houston & Houston,’’ in the District of Columbia. That summer, Houston married his longtime sweetheart, Gladys Moran. Houston took on cases and taught law at Howard University.

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In 1928, Houston was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was forced to take a year off from working. After his recovery, Houston launched a program to improve the law school. His contributions were far-reaching, resulting in fulltime faculty and the accreditation of the law school, among other achievements. During his years at Howard, Houston was known by students as a tough but generous professor. He demanded the best from his students to prepare them for their future roles, and when needed, he provided food and money to students. While teaching at Howard, Houston joined the NAACP National Legal Committee. In this capacity, Houston assisted with several cases, many of which involved blacks accused of crimes they had not committed. Houston also participated in the NAACP’s protests against Lynching. The NAACP was not the only organization to address the legal needs of blacks. In the 1930s, the Communist Party advocated for blacks in the courtroom through its legal arm, the International Labor Defense (ILD). Blacks rarely received justice in the courtroom. Although Houston was not a communist, he appreciated any support extended to blacks to better their conditions, to fight for justice. Often times, the ILD took on cases which the NAACP leadership deemed too controversial, like the notorious Scottsboro case (1931), wherein nine black youths were accused of raping two white women. In 1935, Houston was chosen to serve as the NAACP’s first special counsel. This position occupied a full-time office at national headquarters in New York and provided legal counsel and support for the organization. Houston’s aim was to dismantle segregation in education and transportation. In 1936, Houston was instrumental in hiring Thurgood Marshall as his assistant special counsel. Houston and Marshall scored their first of several wins in the courtroom, when, in the case Murray v. Maryland (1936), the courts ruled that the University of Maryland must open its doors to African Americans. At forty years old, Houston had accumulated an impressive career; however his life would undergo major changes. After divorcing his wife, Gladys, he married Henrietta in 1937. He worked with Marshall to dismantle the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that established the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doctrine in public education, and continued to challenge that doctrine throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1938, he resigned from the NAACP, mostly because he longed for a less-constricting environment. However, Houston continued to assist Marshall and the NAACP. In Washington, DC, Houston waged many more battles and restarted his life. He spent several years working on behalf of black workers, as well as fighting to end segregation on a local level. In 1944, his wife gave birth to his only son, Charles Hamilton Houston Jr. A year later he made headlines when he resigned from the Fair Employment Practices Committee, sensing that the organization was permitted no real power in eradicating discrimination. In 1950, Houston died of a heart attack at the age of fifty-four. See also: Judges; Law and Law Schools; Scottsboro, Alabama

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Further Reading Harvard Law School. 2009. ‘‘Charles Hamilton Houston’’ (biography). Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, April. http://www.charleshamilton houston.org/Home.aspx. McNeil, Genna Rae. 1999. ‘‘Charles Hamilton Houston.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. McNeil, Genna Rae. 1983. Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggles for Civil Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. Gladys L. Knight

Houston, Whitney (1963– ), Singer, Actress Whitney Houston is an American Pop Music and R & B singer and actress, whose gospel-influenced vocals raised her to superstardom in the 1980s and 1990s. Houston was born into a musical family on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother, Cissy, is a notable vocalist who had a long career backing up such artists as Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin. Cousin Dionne Warwick has had a legendary career as a pop, R & B, and soul singer. The assistance of Whitney’s mother and cousins as well as her experience singing at church allowed her to begin performing professionally at an early age. After singing backup to artists such as Chaka Kahn, Lou Rawls, and her own mother Cissy, Houston branched out into Modeling and acting. In 1983, after seeing her perform in a New York nightclub, Arista Records president Clive Davis signed Whitney to a recording contract. Whitney Houston made an immediate impact on the R & B charts in 1984 with her Teddy Pendergrass– assisted single, ‘‘Hold Me.’’ Whitney’s 1985 self-titled debut initially sold poorly, but it climbed quickly with the release of the hit singles ‘‘You Give Good Love’’ and ‘‘Saving All My Love for You.’’ Two more singles, ‘‘How Will I Know,’’ and ‘‘Greatest Love of All’’ also topped the U.S. charts. ‘‘Saving All My Love for You’’ earned Houston a Grammy for Grammy-winning pop singer Whitney Best Pop Vocal Performance and an Emmy for her Grammy Awards Houston. (AP/Wide World Photos)

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performance of the song. With nearly twelve million copies sold, this album set the record for highest selling debut album by a solo artist. Houston’s second album, 1987’s Whitney, made an immediate impact, becoming the first album by a female artist to enter the Billboard charts at number one. The album went on to sell nine million copies and included four number one singles, ‘‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),’’ ‘‘Didn’t We Almost Have it All,’’ ‘‘So Emotional,’’ and ‘‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go.’’ With these hit singles, and those from her debut, Houston became only artist ever to have seven consecutive number one singles. She received a second Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance for ‘‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).’’ In 1988, Houston had another top five hit with ‘‘One Moment In Time,’’ recorded for an Olympics-themed album. By the end of the 1980s, Whitney Houston had established herself as an international superstar. In 1990, Houston released her third album, the more urban-oriented I’m Your Baby Tonight. Featuring the number one hit singles ‘‘I’m Your Baby Tonight’’ and ‘‘All the Man That I Need,’’ the album was another international success, going on to sell eight million copies. A major year for Houston was 1992, as she kicked off her film career by starring in the feature film The Bodyguard. Also starring Kevin Costner, The Bodyguard was a box office success. In addition, The Bodyguard soundtrack, featuring six contributions from Whitney, received a number of awards and eventually became the highest-selling film soundtrack of all time. Whitney’s ‘‘I Will Always Love You,’’ a Dolly Parton cover, was a major hit and stands as the highest-selling single by a female artist ever. In the same year, Houston married fellow singer Bobby Brown, a relationship that spawned one child, Bobbi Kristina, born in 1993. The 1990s found Whitney Houston focusing more on her acting career rather than music. Whitney’s second film, Waiting to Exhale, opened at the end of 1995, and was both a critical and commercial success. The film’s soundtrack featured three tracks by Whitney, including the number one hit song ‘‘Exhale (Shoop Shoop).’’ In 1997, Whitney portrayed the Fairy Godmother in Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, a made-for-television movie that was seen by over sixty million viewers on ABC. The Preacher’s Wife, also starring Denzel Washington, was released in 1996 and Whitney’s soundtrack became the highest-selling gospel album of all time. In 1998, Whitney Houston released My Love is Your Love, her first nonsoundtrack studio album in eight years. The album received very good reviews and one of its singles, ‘‘It’s Not Right But It’s Ok,’’ earned Houston her sixth Grammy Award. In addition, Houston earned an Academy Award for her duet with Mariah Carey ‘‘When You Believe,’’ recorded for The Prince of Egypt soundtrack and also included on My Love is Your Love. Houston’s 2000s period has been defined by personal struggles including a stint in drug rehab and a 2007 divorce from husband Bobby Brown. She admitted on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2009 that she and Brown had used drugs. Whitney was, however, able to secure a $100 million recording contract from Arista in 2001 and continues to record for them. In 2010, she has been continually criticized for her live performances. For

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example, on a world tour, she was criticized for poor performances in Australia and in the United Kingdom, leading to speculation about whether she was truly ready for a world tour. See also: Actors and Performers; Modeling Further Reading Bowman, Jeffery. 1995. Diva: The Totally Unauthorized Biography of Whitney Houston. New York: HarperCollins. Cox, Ted. 1998. Whitney Houston (Black Americans of Achievement). New York: Chelsea Houston Publishers. Parish, James Robert. 2003. Whitney Houston: The Biography. London: Aurum Press. Langston Collin Wilkins

Hudson, Jennifer (1981– ), Singer, Actress Jennifer Hudson is one of the recent luminaries in African American popular culture. The United States first saw Hudson in 2004, on American Idol, one of the most popular reality television shows in the nation. Since the show’s debut in 2002, American Idol has made stars out of numerous previously undiscovered singers who, during the course of a season, compete for the number one spot as the best singer in the nation and win a lucrative record deal. Stardom, however, is not exclusive to the winners. Largely because of the exposure on the reality show, contestants, like Jennifer Hudson, who have been eliminated from the show, have established glittering careers. After appearing in the film Dreamgirls (2006), alongside prominent celebrities, including Eddie Murphy, Beyonc
e, and Jamie Foxx, Hudson landed the prestigious Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Effie White. She was only the third African American woman, following Hattie McDaniel and Whoopi Goldberg, to receive the award. Since then, Hudson has appeared on the covers of major black periodicals, such as Ebony and Essence, as well as mainstream magazines, like Vogue. Hudson has added to her growing list of accomplishments, including appearances in other films and a self-titled album in 2009. Born Jennifer Kate Hudson in Chicago, Illinois, a city with one of the largest black populations in the nation, Hudson was one of five children, three of which are stepsiblings. Her mother, Darnell Donnerson, and stepfather, Samuel Simpson, were hardworking, although money still eluded them. What they lacked in money, the family made up for in love, support, and rich experiences. Hudson took ballet classes and led an active singing life that had its start in the church. Indeed, many African American singers, like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Deniece Williams, and Whitney Houston had their start singing in churches. Spirituals and gospel music were mainstays in the black church, and most anyone who could carry a tune was presented with opportunities to sing solo or in a

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choir. It is not uncommon for individual church members to lead songs in a spontaneous moment of religious feeling. Hudson began her church singing career when she was only seven years old at Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist Church. Hudson has stated that her grandmother, Julia Kate Hudson, a church elder, was one of her greatest influences. Hudson quickly became a local favorite, performing at weddings, funerals, and other venues. Hudson continued to sing, as well as excel in school, during adolescence. She was one of the strongest singers in the choir at Paul Laurence Dunbar Vocational Career Academy. The academy was named after the early twentiethcentury African American poet. At sixteen, Hudson took on her first job at Burger King. After she turned seventeen, Hudson came face-to-face with heartache when her grandmother died. Months later, her stepfather died. Undaunted, Hudson attended a college in Oklahoma before transferring to Kennedy-King College, so-named to honor Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., men who were assassinated during the tumultuous Civil Rights Movement. While attending Kennedy-King, Hudson studied music and performed in the musical Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. She later regularly performed on a cruise ship. Although Hudson was drawn to a world much larger than the one in which she lived and pursued singing opportunities wherever she found them, it was her mother who conceived the idea that Hudson should audition for American Idol. American Idol draws thousands of hopefuls at the beginning of each season. Out of several thousand contestants, only a few hundred are selected to go on to further auditions. After surviving the grueling process in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2003, Hudson made her television debut on the show in 2004. Although she had many supporters from her hometown, Hudson was eliminated. She returned for the wild card round, a segment in the show wherein each judge is allowed to bring back a favorite contestant, but was eliminated again after much suspense. Fantasia Barrino, an African American from North Carolina, won, going on to produce two successful albums (the third album will be released in 2010) and star in the popular long-running musical, The Color Purple. Hudson’s defeat was only temporary. In 2006, Dreamgirls was released. Hudson played Effie White, a member of a fame-hungry women’s singing trio. In the original musical, the legendary singer and Broadway performer, Jennifer Holliday, was cast in the same role. Hudson, who was just in her twenties, symbolized a rebirth of new talent venerating a monumental moment in African American music history that spanned the 1960s and 1970s. After Hudson received an Oscar at the Academy Awards for her role in the film, her career flourished. It should come to no surprise that Hudson graced the covers of the most esteemed and widely read African American magazines, such as Ebony and Essence. That Hudson appeared on the cover of Vogue, a glamorous fashion magazine which, historically catered to white high society, was telling. Not only was Hudson just the third African American woman on the cover of the magazine (which was established in 1892), but also she did not embody the conventional, Eurocentric image of beauty—thin, blonde, with Caucasoid facial features.

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Hudson’s increasing popularity was not only evident in the high frequency in which she appeared in print media. In 2008, she accepted the invitation of presidential candidate Barack Obama to sing the national anthem at the Democratic National Convention, and took roles in The Secret Life of Bees, a film that explores racism and Jim Crow, and Sex in the City. In that same year, her mother, nephew, and brother were murdered (Hudson’s brother-in-law was charged with the crime). In 2009, Hudson received a Grammy Award for her debut album, and she and David Daniel Ortega Sr. welcomed their son. See also: Actors and Performers; Sparks, Jordin; Television Further Reading Jennifer Hudson. (Homepage.) http://www.jenniferhudson.com/. Snyder, Gail. 2009. Jennifer Hudson (Dream Big: American Idol Superstars). Broomall, PA: Mason Crest Publishers. West, Betsy. 2007. Jennifer Hudson: American Dream Girl. New York: Price Stern Sloan. Gladys L. Knight

Hughes, Cathy (1947– ), Entrepreneur, Radio and Television Personality As founder of Radio One and TV One, Cathy Woods Hughes has contributed to the world of media and communications in an extraordinary fashion. She has garnered respect, fame, and financial success as a result of her savvy business sense and determination to persevere. Catherine Elizabeth Woods was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to an accountant, Alfred, and a homemaker, Helen. At sixteen, she became pregnant with Alfred Liggins III and married Alfred Liggins II. The marriage survived for less than two years, and by age eighteen, Hughes was divorced. Hughes graduated from high school and enrolled in Creighton University and later the University of Nebraska, pursuing a degree in business administration but did not complete her program. While still a student, however, she landed a job at the local radio station KOWH. In 1972, she was hired by Tony Brown who was establishing the School of Communication at Howard University. The experience at WHUR-FM (Howard University’s radio station) led to a beneficial partnership between the radio station and Hughes. After attending seminars at Harvard and the University of Chicago, Hughes spearheaded an increase in revenue for WHUR-FM within two years and was administratively running the station as its general manager. While working at WHUR, Hughes successfully developed and marketed her new concept of a music program that would console single black mothers who needed to be soothed. This new program, which has been reproduced by numerous radio stations, was ‘‘The Quiet Storm.’’ Hughes was not allowed to copyright the program; millions of dollars were forfeited as a result of this poor business mandate.

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In 1980, Hughes and her second husband, Dewey Hughes, purchased WOL, an AM station in Washington, DC. The couple secured a loan and combined $100,000 from investors to purchase the station for $1 million. The station did not exhibit financial success for the first several years. After she and her husband divorced, Hughes became the sole owner, but her personal financial situation forced her to live at the radio station for some time with her son, Alfred. Since then, the company, now Radio One, has grossed millions and expanded through the purchase of various radio stations. Hughes’s radio talk show and the support of advertisers have catapulted Radio One into another realm of business and media. Her keen sense of the power of the African American voice provides leverage for both her radio and television stations. As the first African American woman to chair a publicly traded company, Cathy Hughes has achieved an unprecedented level of visibility, as well as power and influence. Because of her ever-present voice-of-the-people stance and her attention to issues that affect the lives of African Americans, she is revered by the same. Although still instrumental in the workings of Radio One and TV One, Hughes no longer serves as the CEO of her company. Currently, Alfred Liggins III operates the multimillion dollar business. Under his leadership, Radio One became a majority owner of Reach Media and Giant, an urban magazine. In 2004, the company, along with its partners, Comcast and DirecTV, also launched the TV One network on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. TV One targets adult viewers’ lifestyles and concerns. Hughes and Liggins maintain majority voting rights in Radio One/TV One. Through her hard work, Hughes has acquired a position of great wealth and influence among media moguls and the African American community. See also: Television Further Reading Roberts, Johnnie L. ‘‘The Power of One.’’ Essence 38 (October 2007): 202–06, 254. Williams, Kam. 2009. ‘‘Cathy Hughes: The TV One Interview.’’ BlackNews.com, August 19. http://www.blacknews.com/news/cathy_hughes_tv_one_interview101.shtml. LaVie T. Leasure

Hughes, Langston (1902–67), Poet, Writer John Mercer Langston Hughes, the ‘‘Dean of Black Letters,’’ was a central figure of the literary period known as the Harlem Renaissance, also called the New Negro Movement. Both that literary period and Hughes are central to the study of African American popular culture. A prolific writer—poet, novelist, autobiographer, short story writer, essayist, playwright, librettist, and literary critic— Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in an unstable home. His father, a lawyer by trade, expatriated to Mexico when Hughes was an infant, leaving his mother

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to relocate often in search of employment; Hughes spent most of his first twelve years raised by his maternal grandmother, before settling in Ohio, where he graduated from Cleveland Central High, after which he spent several months with his father in Mexico before entering Columbia University for one year. On a quest, he left to travel Europe and Africa as a merchant seaman, returning to the United States in 1924, at the beginning of the burgeoning African American artistic period. Writing seriously upon his return to the States, he found early success through the publication of several poems in the Crisis and Opportunity, African American periodicals supportive of young new artists. By 1926, Langston Hughes, African American writer best known for his work during the Harlem he wrote his first volume of poetry Renaissance (1902–1967). (Library of Congress) and drew the attention of Charlotte Mason, who became his benefactor; she pushed him to emphasize the ‘‘primitive’’ in his works, until their bitter split in 1929. His legacy includes over forty years as a successful writer, combining social criticism in his art, and blending jazz, blues, and bebop in his poetry. He is best known for his seventeen volumes of poetry, although he created Jesse B. Semple, a fictitious ‘‘everyman’’ and folk philosopher in many of his short stories. The fiery essay, ‘‘The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain’’ (1926) is regarded as the manifesto of the younger African American artists of his time. His commitment to African American culture, and Harlem in particular, led to his unofficial title of African American Poet Laureate. The Big Sea (1940) and I Wonder as I Wander (1956) are Hughes’s two autobiographical accounts; the first traces his life until the age of twenty-nine, while the latter ends one month before his thirty-sixth birthday. Both narratives examine his love of travel, evoked through the titles. A citizen of the world, he recalls experiences throughout the Caribbean (Cuba and Haiti), Asia (Japan, Korea, and China), and various parts of Europe (Berlin, Moscow, Spain, Paris). His wandering also includes the United States and his encounters with several African American and American figures. The Big Sea also chronicles his journey into manhood, as well as the development of his writing career, which he continues to explore in the sequel. At thirteen, Hughes was elected class poet and penned sixteen praise poems in response to the charge—his first poems ever. By nineteen, he had already established himself and his poetic voice, one of free verse and an emphasis on

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racial pride. Hughes was inspired by folk culture and infused the blues, jazz, Spirituals, and folk speech into his verses. ‘‘The Weary Blues,’’ the title poem from his first volume, garnered first prize in the 1925 National Urban League literary contest—a bittersweet accomplishment, as the collection was also met with harsh criticism for his use of the vernacular. His second volume proved even more controversial; Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927) explored everyday life of the working class in Harlem and many of the poems were written in dialect. Hughes continued to embrace political and controversial issues, including Marxism: A New Song (1938) is a volume of social-protest poems. Harlem also figures prominently in many of his verses; although the locus for the cultural and artistic movement in which he thrived, Hughes also explores the community’s poverty and frustration, especially evident in Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951). Already an accomplished poet, Hughes sought to also master the short story, continuing to comment on race relations and the importance of folk culture in a new genre. His first collection, The Ways of White Folk (1934), pays homage to W. E. B. Du Bois’ seminal collection by examining the consequences of the color line. Laughing to Keep from Crying (1952) continues the exploration of racial issues. But in fiction, Hughes is probably best known for his ‘‘Simple’’ stories, publishing four volumes from 1950 to 1961. Not Without Laughter (1930), his one novel, is set in Kansas and examines a family in crisis. As a playwright, Hughes also enjoyed success; Mulatto (1935) opened on Broadway and exposes the emotional turmoil of Miscegenation and rejection. Other dramas tackled the history of enslavement and the Scottsboro Nine. Sadly, a comedy, Mule Bone, on which he collaborated with Zora Neale Hurston in 1931, to produce authentic African American drama, caused an irreparable rift in their relationship. Hughes was drawn to the promises of Communism as he faced and struggled against the racism, segregation, and broken promises of Democracy in the United States; he is included in The Red Channels (1950)—a published blacklist claiming to document ‘‘Communist influences on Radio and Television.’’ In March 1953, Hughes was called to testify before U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; he answered questions only about his own political views and writing, refusing to testify against friends. Despite his willingness to embrace political and social issues of controversy, and surviving the Senator McCarthy anti-Communist era, Hughes was silent on his own sexuality and sexual identity. He never married, and this area remains highly contested with critics and scholars. See also: Literature, Classic African American; Poets and Poetry Further Reading Barksdale, Richard. 1977. Langston Hughes: The Poet and His Critics. Chicago: American Library Association. Berry, Faith. [1983] 1992. Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem. New York: Wings.

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Bloom, Harold, ed. 1997. Modern Critical Views: Langston Hughes. New York: Cambridge University Press. Dace, Tish. 1997. Langston Hughes: The Contemporary Reviews. New York: Cambridge University Press. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and K.A. Appiah, eds. 1993. Langston Hughes: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad. McLaren, Joseph. 1997. Langston Hughes: Folk Dramatist in the Protest Tradition, 1921– 1943. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Miller, R. Baxter. 1989. The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Mullen, Edward J. 1986. Critical Essays on Langston Hughes. Boston: Hall. Ostrum, Hans. 1993. Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne. Rampersad, Arnold. 1986. The Life of Langston Hughes. Vol. 1: 1902–1941: I, Too, Sing America. New York: Oxford University Press. Rampersad, Arnold. 1988. The Life of Langston Hughes. Vol. 2: 1941–1967: I Dream a World. New York: Oxford University Press. Steven, Tracy. 1988. Langston Hughes and the Blues. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Adenike Davidson

Hughley, D. L. (1964– ), Comedian, Actor, Talk Show Host Daryl Lynn Hughley was born to Audrey and Charles Hughley on March 6, 1964, in Los Angeles, California. He began his career on BET’s (Black Entertainment Television) Comic View as the original host from 1992 to 1993. This show gave amateur comedians the opportunity to showcase their talent for a medium-sized audience. Life had not always been a laughing matter for Hughley. He became a member of the Bloods gang after being kicked out of high school. After a cousin was murdered, he renounced the gang and found a job as a telemarketer for the Los Angeles Times. He became a manager and met his wife, LaDonna; they married in 1986. She encouraged him to take his natural gift for entertaining to a larger platform. He heeded her advice and found himself on stages across the United States. Hughley became well-known when he costarred in a Spike Lee film, Original Kings of Comedy in 2000 with Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and the late Bernie Mac. This was a comedy show that was turned into a concert film. Original Kings of Comedy was shown in movie theaters across the nation. Hughley also frequently appeared on Def Comedy Jam. In 1998, Hughley created and starred in a family-centered sitcom entitled The Hughleys. The show reflected some of his personal experiences with moving from the inner city to the suburbs. A larger number of people began to watch the show because of Hughley’s appearance on the Original Kings of Comedy, but after four seasons, the show ended. Hughley also starred in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

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In 1999, Hughley stepped into other aspects of entertainment. Moviegoers heard his voice as the Gadgetmobile in Inspector Gadget. In 2001, he had a leading role in The Brothers. This was a busy year for Hughley as he also performed in two other movies, Chasing Papi and Scary Movie 3. In 2003, Hughley returned as the voice of Gadgetmobile in Inspector Gadget 2. In 2004, he played in Soul Plane. The following year, he took the role as Ben Cross in Shackles. In 2006, Hughley had a role in Cloud 9 and was the voice of Brer Rabbit in The Adventures of Brer Rabbit. Hughley’s comic routines are largely focused on his life’s encounters with racism, family, and relationships. His sets are described as brutally honest and racially charged. In 2005, Hughley hosted a short-lived late night talk show on Comedy Central entitled Weekends at the D. L. This show delivered a humorous, topical look at current events, and celebrity guests would often appear. This show soon ended. CNN gave Hughley an opportunity to try another late night talk show–styled program most recently in 2008. Hughley’s show entitled D. L. Hughley Breaks the News premiered on October 25, 2008, but ended in 2009. He took comedic stabs at current events as they were released to the public. Some black Americans despised the show because they believed that Hughley perpetuated stereotypes that had been fought for years. A larger number of black Americans criticized him for his segment about President Barack Obama weeks before the election. At a prominent time in history for black America, Hughley made offensive jokes about the election, including the one stating that if Obama were elected, there would be health care that would include a plan with ‘‘grills’’ for everyone. Even with controversy of this magnitude, Hughley still reigns as one of black America’s biggest names in comedy. Hughley and his wife, LaDonna, have one son, Kyle, and two daughters, Ryan and Tyler. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Humor Further Reading French, Ellen Dennis. 1999. ‘‘D. L. Hughley.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 23. Detroit: Gale Group. Itzkoff, Dave. 2008. ‘‘For Once, CNN Takes News Less Seriously.’’ New York Times, October 24. Jemima Buchanan

Humor Humor in the African American community has historically represented a needed emotional relief from the stinging effects of a society steeped in structural racism and inequality. This relief has provided an opportunity within all African American circles for potential victims of racial discrimination to exhale in the

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face of persistent, daily hassles of racism. Within the broader society, African American humor has imitated the stereotypic images perpetuated in vaudeville minstrel shows as well as provided direct and indirect forms of resistance to the stereotypic imagery of the descendants of the African diaspora. Humor in the Slave Community From the days of slavery when slaves would entertain their masters by imitating the elite in the famed cakewalk, through dance, song, and prose, the African American has been able to find humor in the midst of a legacy of oppression. From the minstrel days when African Americans were prohibited from representing themselves and were most often replaced by blackened-faced white actors, the plight of the African American has been used as fodder for comic relief. If one chronicles the television industry, early shows such as Amos ’n’ Andy (first presented on radio), stereotypically depicted the descendents of African slaves as comfortable and content in their subservient plight. On the famed Chitlin Circuit, comedians such as Moms Mabley, Pigmeat Markham, Mantan Moreland, and Redd Foxx, opened up to packed crowds in juke joints with comedy sketches about the ignorant, dimwitted Negro. These depictions mirrored the racial stereotypes espoused by mainstream comedians but with the flare for unique interpretations from the African American experience. In the 1960s, as African American comedians were relegated to performing before largely segregated audiences, most were locked into perpetuating stereotypic depictions of the African American experience. As a growing militancy and call for Black Power was permeating many African American urban communities, few African American comics were as courageous as Dick Gregory in forging new pathways of black humor protest. As solemn as the struggle for equality and opportunity was, through protest in black humor, the provocative comedian could provide social commentary in the raceconscious American society. Cowan asserts that the comic image of the slave provided an opportunity for slaveholders to create false images of slave satisfaction with their predicament. The slave experience centered on the Sambo image that reflected an ignorant, insanely happy male who was predisposed to respond to the demands of the master. The slave was reduced to a childlike creature who was desirous of direction and guidance from the parental figure, the slaveowner. When the slave is depicted as potentially outwitting the master, the slave’s strategy is presented as a fluke— mere luck. In the days of the plantation, slaves were able to decode their expressions and make fun of their masters in a comic framework. ‘‘I fooled master seven years’’ and similar expressions underscored how the slave inculcated in the stereotypic image of buffoonery was able to deceive slave masters into believing the slave was content with servitude. With the modern Civil Rights Movement, African American comics emerged with a limitless opportunity to poke fun at the hesitancy of whites to offend African Americans. Better known as ‘‘protest humor,’’ black Folklore which had been confined to segregated African American circles

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became known to the broader community and was full of images of defiance and resistance to the social order. During the post–civil rights era, both African American and white comedians tested the social waters to address racial conflict from an artificial point of equality. On Saturday Night Live, Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor engaged in a dialog mirroring the act of ‘‘playing the Dozens’’ and full of racial slurs and stereotypes typically communicated in all black or all white circles. With Pryor’s history of interracial relationships, he was seemingly free to joke about the racial tension between him and his white female suitors. The Post–Civil Rights Era The 1970s represented a time of comedy shows, such as Good Times and Sanford and Son, that heckled at the daily challenges of poverty and racial discrimination. Instead of promoting racial equality, the African American was depicted as being incapable once again of self-sufficiency unless rescued by the white world as evidenced by shows like Differ’ent Strokes. When African Americans were successful in obtaining economic self-sufficiency, characters such as George Jefferson created an image of the insane African American male who was constrained by his obsessive rage at the white man although desirous of his lifestyle and culture. In Good Times, the adult characters were placed in a position of restraining the character of the young Michael who was the stereotypical voice of protest and resistance. Even under artificial conditions of equality and equal access, the historic sitcom, Julia continued to perpetuate the rocky road of single parent within the African American community even in the face of a professional nurse. After depicting a comic sidekick in the series, I Spy, Bill Cosby took a revolutionary approach to uplifting the African American community in his role as father, husband, and physician as Dr. Huxtable on The Cosby Show. During the 1980s, the show sought to provide a balance to how African Americans could adapt to racial equality and mirror the strengths of the positively stereotyped white culture. As educated professionals, the Huxtables were confronted with similar issues in raising their children as were often depicted on white family sitcoms. Despite the rich African American culture depicted throughout each episode of The Cosby Show, this phenomenal artistic feat was merely a temporary reprieve from the negative stereotypic of the African American lost and illequipped in a quest to obtain equality. While the quest to present the African American equipped to assume the role as full citizen in American society was captured in The Cosby Show, it was preceded by the artistic representation of an irrational, combative African American female image, Geraldine, as depicted by comic Flip Wilson. Instead of possibly uplifting the strength of the African American female in the face of racial discrimination, Wilson’s image of an enraged, deviant African American female depicted by male actors led to Big Mama and Madea by African American male comedians. The Aunt Jemima of old had been transformed from a quiet, subservient maid or cook image to a bitter matriarch who was burdened with trying to

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minimize the growing dysfunction within the African American family. This asexual image became a stark contrast to the younger image of a hootchie mama who was content existing off of government-supported programs and procreating in order to capture a likely suitor. The hootchie mama image gave way to a new resurgence of females within comedy circles that were as vulgar in their presentation at times as their male counterparts. Humor in Current Popular Culture In contemporary times, the Kings of Comedy tour and its counterpart, the Queens of Comedy, continue this legacy of stereotyping the ghetto experience through ‘‘baby momma’’ drama, sexually explicit jokes, and provocative hits at ‘‘the Man.’’ It has become second nature for the African American family to be depicted as families searching clever ways to harbor criminals within their family system. The Robin Harris comedy album, BeBe’s Kids, depicted African American children as living terrors who defied authority and were ruthless in their effort to control their environments. Widely viewed movies like Friday (1995) and its sequels depicted inner-city communities as not only centers of violence but bastions of drug-trafficking and dope-smoking dropouts who would rather puff and pass than assert themselves and seek educational opportunities or gainful employment. Once again these images depicted less-than-intelligent characters that were determined to succeed through trickery rather than to assume more socially appropriate roles obtained through education or hard work. While the complexity of the African American experience has sometimes been reduced to one comic line of ghetto slang, artists such as Whoopi Goldberg have crossed racial boundaries with the freedom to provide social commentary on interracial situations within American society. And yet, within Hollywood circles, a comic who has broadened her artistry to motion pictures is rewarded with an Oscar for depicting an insane, anxious woman who can seemingly communicate with ghosts (in Ghost, 1990) rather than for a serious depiction of African American family life, including the brutality of domestic violence, in the groundbreaking film, The Color Purple (1985). As contemporary comics such as Arsenio Hall and Chris Rock have tried to cross over to mainstream audiences, the American public has most often rewarded them for depicting the degradation within the African American experience. With the predominance of theatrical productions by Tyler Perry, the homeless, drug-addicted experience has taken on a humorous framework for social explanation. The stark reality of the African American family has been soberly addressed while these images have been bookended with humor and vulgarity coming from the words and actions of a plus-size senior African American female who is as likely to serve on the Mother Board while getting bailed out of jail for deviance within the public arena. Humor as the vehicle of expressing the plight of the African American community has taken the spotlight away from the seriousness of racial oppression and discrimination and re-created an image of contentment within the African American community.

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Given that humor has a role in entertainment, the mockery of the African American experience is fully reflected in the early relics of southern tradition. Images of the happy Aunt Jemima, the tap dancing minstrel artist or the jubilant servant continue to be perpetuated in contemporary comic representations. Hollywood actors from Steppin Fetchit to Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy have won acclaim in their depictions of the African American experience of the time. In addition, comedy has taken on a political stance as contemporary comics become acclimated to the existence of the first African American president. As comedians and society adjusts to the cultural shift of embracing the idea of an African American in the highest decision-making position in the free world, the African American man, President Barack Obama, will undoubtedly become fodder for comics who in some instances will try to tiptoe around stereotypic representations of his ethnic heritage. Within the African American tradition of humor, the cultural phenomenon of ‘‘playing the dozens’’—a form of ‘‘shucking ’n’ jiving’’—emerged as a common pastime during moments of leisure. As racial discrimination and oppression loomed as a large personal and social barrier to the descendants of the African Diaspora, within all African American circles, the African American could engage in comic relief by laughing at the stereotypic behaviors that are targeted by racist ideologies and propaganda. And yet, throughout the daily living, particularly of African American youth, it is commonplace to overhear a remix of ‘‘playing the dozens’’ among friends and foes. When this playful expression steeped within the African American folklore tradition turns to insults about an individual’s momma, then the comic relief appears to dissipate, as enraged youth apparently feel compelled to defend the honor of the image of their mother. Despite the criticism of the humor dominating the predominantly African American sitcoms of the 1970s and 1980s, at the turn of the twenty-first century, television networks have all but abandoned humorous sitcoms depicting the lifestyle of the African American. The Cosby Show was a relief from the stereotypic satisfaction with poverty manifested in the 1970s and 1980s. However, in contemporary times, major networks have abandoned the African American experience in order to promote wider viewership from a multicultural perspective. Partly in response to these business industry decisions, the NAACP has called for action to insure that not only is the African American experience depicted in comic sitcoms but all sitcoms—and not only from the standpoint of African American actors but from the perspective of writers and producers of the African American perspective. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Hughley; D. L. Further Reading Cowan, William Tynes. 2001. ‘‘Plantation Comic Modes.’’ International Journal of Humor Research 14 (June): 1–24. Gordon, Dexter B. 1998. ‘‘Humor in African American Discourse: Speaking of Oppression.’’ Journal of Black Studies 29 (November): 254–276.

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Spaulding, Henry D. 1972. Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor. Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David Publishers. Watkins, Mel. 2002. African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. Sheila R. Peters

Hurston, Zora Neale (1891–1960), Writer, Folklorist Zora Neale Hurston holds a position of great importance in feminist studies, anthropology, and American and African American literature; Alice Walker called her ‘‘a genius of the South.’’ As a novelist, folklorist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, and educator, Hurston’s talents and interests were vast she was committed to providing an authentic view of life and communities often overlooked in literature strong. The fifth child of John Hurston and Lucy Potts Hurston, Zora Neale Hurston was born in Macon County, Alabama, on January 7, 1891; her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, in 1894, an all-African American community which takes

Zora Neale Hurston, anthropologist and author and prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance. (Library of Congress)

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center stage in many of her fictional works. In Eatonville, she learned firsthand African American entrepreneurship and independence, as well as the use of humor in the face of obstacles—all of which are evident in her publications. Her mother’s death in 1904 had a profound affect on the young Hurston, beginning a period of restlessness and instability. An independent thinker, Lucy Potts Hurston requested of her daughter not to cover up the clock or take the pillow from under her head on her deathbed—a cultural tradition said to provide the person with an easier death; overruled by her demanding father, Hurston was unable to fulfill her mother’s deathbed wish which inflicted her with guilt. She left Eatonville when her father remarried soon after. She attended boarding school in Jacksonville, moved to various other southern cities, performed menial jobs to support herself, and graduated from Morgan Academy High School in Baltimore, Maryland, before enrolling briefly as a student at Howard University in Washington, DC. and pledging Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. Taking her mother’s advice to ‘‘jump at de sun,’’ Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925 in the height of the Harlem Renaissance (New Negro Movement). Hurston’s literary talents were inspired when she came across a discarded copy of Milton’s Paradise Lost. Her early writing includes published poems in Negro World, and her first short story appeared in Stylus, the Howard University literary magazine. Her talents were recognized by Charles S. Johnson, who served as editor of Opportunity, the official publication of the National Urban League. Hurston became a prize-winning author through the literary contests sponsored by the NAACP organ, the Crisis (magazine), and she easily distinguished herself as a writer with a talent for authentic dialect. She served as personal secretary to writer Fannie Hurst and was offered a scholarship to attend Barnard College, blazing a trail as its first African American student. There she studied under Franz Boas, eminent anthropologist; Hurston earned her BA degree and graduated in 1928. Sponsored by Charlotte Mason, also known as ‘‘Godmother,’’ Hurston was able to travel to various parts of the South and the Bahamas gathering material on Folklore and hoodoo. A two-year Guggenheim Fellowship in 1936 enabled her to continue her research in Haiti and Jamaica. Although a published author, Hurston continued to obtain various jobs to support herself. She worked for the Florida Works Progress Administration, Folklore Section, where she collected recordings of work songs, traditions, and stories of Florida turpentine camps. Her work in this area is still considered the authoritative documents and are currently housed in the Library of Congress. She was also chairperson of the North Carolina College for Negroes Drama Department, and story consultant at Paramount Studios. Hurston’s reputation suffered when she was accused of molestation in 1948, charges which were later dropped. By 1950, she was working as a domestic and substitute teacher. She died in 1960 from heart disease, leaving an unfinished text, The Life of Herod the Great. Hurston was a large personality during the Harlem Renaissance, but her work was not always received well. Her commitment to portraying the humor, folktales, and customs, and thriving of southern blacks went against the popular grain of exposing the obstacles and violence of racism. Hurston’s choice to

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center common men and women in an all-black environment emphasized and celebrated difference while her contemporaries often stressed similarities despite race. Her talent was dismissed as simply entertaining and apolitical. Three of Hurston’s best and most anthologized short stories include ‘‘Spunk,’’ ‘‘Sweat,’’ and ‘‘The Gilded Six-Bits.’’ In them she boldly examines infidelity, domestic abuse, community violence, and folk beliefs with common, flawed characters. ‘‘Spunk’’ presents a philanderer, Spunk Banks, who takes what he wants— even another man’s wife—without consequence to others. Although not a positive character, Hurston gives him life and charm, as well as what he deserves according to folk beliefs. ‘‘Sweat’’ examines verbal, emotional, and physical abuse in a marriage; Delia struggles with her faith and with being a good Christian woman who is suffering but determined not to be overcome, while her husband Sykes becomes the victim of his own plan to get free of her. Delia’s transformation from supportive wife to one who is unable, or perhaps unwilling, to help the suffering and dying Sykes gives the tale depth. ‘‘The Gilded Six-Bits’’ offers a twist on infidelity not often explored—a young couple must use the power and depth of their love for each other after the wife has broken marriage vows; the story also serves as a warning against materialism and the values of family and community. In the 1930s, Hurston turned towards the novel as a preferred genre, publishing four. Her first, Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), is loosely based on the history of her parents. Through the character of John Pearson and his wife Lucy, Hurston examines the downfall of an emotionally wounded but immensely charismatic and talented young preacher. Josh is unable to control his sexual wandering, and his devoted wife suffers silently until her death. Ultimately the reader understands that John’s successes and downfalls are dependent upon his relationships and the type of woman to whom he has attached himself; his inability to learn this lesson causes his own demise. Hurston demonstrated her ability to deliver a full and authentic narrative of southern black folk speech, community, humor, and setting. Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939) uses the biblical tale as an allegory for the oppression of African Americans; the chosen people, Hebrews, are presented through dialect speech, southern customs, and oppressive conditions. Yet Hurston’s concern lies not only in the physical emancipation as much as the mental freedom that must accompany it. Although limited by the biblical tale, Hurston managed to infuse the novel with the humor, speech, and folklore for which she had become known. Hurston’s years as an anthropologist in the field produced two full-length texts of African American folklore; the first, Mules and Men (1935), is based on her work throughout the South while a student at Barnard College, and the second, Tell My Horse (1938), takes from her experiences in the Caribbean, South America, and especially Haiti. Both resist a social science accounting, but instead present her findings through the art of storytelling—for which she was often criticized. Hurston takes on the role of narrator and community member, and thereby authority figure, instead of outsider and social scientist—placing greater value and giving validity to diasporan speech and customs.

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Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), Hurston’s autobiography, stretched the genre by offering essay, folklore, and traditional narrative in a mixture which provides the reader a little of her life and much of her political and social commentary. As one of few autobiographies by an African American woman, Hurston’s text represents the difficulties in centering women’s experiences in nontraditional ways. The text received mixed reviews upon first publication, yet commercial success. The original draft included critiques of American imperialism and race consciousness, removed by publishers as content unbecoming and irrelevant; restored in the Library of America 1995 publication, it gives readers a more complete view. Approaches to the appendix which includes the restored chapters include praise and viewing Hurston asserting her own authenticity as well as condemnation of appeasing white readers. More recent scholarship views the text as double-voiced and a great narrative achievement. Hurston’s last novel, Seraph on the Suwanee (1948), is in some ways a sharp departure from her previous works; she presents a side of white Floridian life often on the periphery in her other works. By focusing on the ambitions of the white working class in the South, the community of ‘‘Florida Crackers,’’ through the disappointments and triumphs of young Avery Henson, Hurston gives readers insight to the similarities in female struggles regardless of race. She explores, once again, marriage and the female search for self and autonomy. Unfortunately, the novel was not well received; it was, and continues to be, criticized for what many see as a lack of racial consciousness. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Hurston’s second and most critically acclaimed novel, gives readers an early feminist examination of African American womanhood. Two weeks after its initial release, Richard Wright condemned the novel as carrying ‘‘no theme, no message, no thought’’ and pandering to the desires of white audiences to see the African American community as inferior; Wright insisted on his contemporaries joining him in writing political texts exposing racism. Contemporary critics see Hurston’s text as important for establishing an African American women’s literary tradition and giving political voice around intersections of race and gender. The story has also reached a contemporary audience through the 2005 television film produced by Oprah Winfrey and starring Oscar award-winner Halle Berry in the most-coveted role. The novel explores the quest for love and identity of young Janie Crawford, mostly through her romantic relationships; she develops from a young woman of innocence, denied autonomy and a sense of self, to one of economic and emotional independence. The novel is told informally as Janie sits on the porch with her best friend Pheoby and recounts her life, mastering her own voice and her destiny. Once again Hurston uses Florida, and especially the town of Eatonville, as her setting and also as a ‘‘character’’ in the tale. Janie is forced to marry early by her grandmother who fears her granddaughter’s budding sexuality and wishes for her a life devoid of the suffering and sexual abuse she has experienced firsthand. Janie’s first husband, Logan Killicks, although secure, does not represent the love of the pear blossom tree which Janie imagines, and she soon dissolves that union by running off with Joe Starks, a

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man of big dreams and plans. Starks becomes a ‘‘big voice’’ in Eatonville, and thereby attempts to silence and fashion Janie into the perfect supportive wife; Janie’s self-awareness of her own worth develops, and after twenty years of marriage, she celebrates freedom in being a widow. Resisting at first a new marriage, she finds passion with the much younger Tea Cake Woods who, wanting nothing from her but to play and laugh, takes her away from Eatonville to work as day laborers in the muck. Their relationship is challenged by societal attitudes and expectations, as well as natural disaster, and ends tragically with Janie killing her rabid lover in self-defense. After being acquitted, Janie returns to Eatonville, comfortable with her experiences despite the talk of the town. Unlike her male counterparts in the movement, Hurston’s works were out of print and she was virtually unknown at the time of her death. Her resurrection was sparked by an essay by Alice Walker, ‘‘Looking for Zora,’’ published in Ms. magazine, and the reclaiming of literary foremothers during the feminist movement; Walker’s resurrection was made even more concrete with the finding and marking of Hurston’s gravesite in 1973. This successful rediscovery of Hurston redefined her importance and talents, and her works now are centered in many literary canons. In 1989, the town Hurston made famous, Eatonville, Florida, and the neighboring city of Orlando, presented the first Zora Neale Hurston Festival held in January in honor of her birth—a multiday, multidisciplinary celebration of the life and work of the author which has expanded in depth and participation very year. The Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, established in 1990, is located in the headquarters facility of the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community. Fort Pierce, Florida—the last residence and gravesite of the author—began holding a smaller, but also important, Zora Fest in 2005; the St. Lucie County Library produced a Dust Tracks Heritage Trail in honor of Hurston’s life and contribution to the area, with eight markers which include the Hurston branch library, the school where she taught, her home, and her gravesite. In 2006, the National Endowment of the Arts introduced the Big Read program, promoting literacy and creating a nation of readers, and included Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God as one of its promoted novels. Currently, high school juniors everywhere in the country are reading the novel as part of the English curriculum. Hurston has indeed reached the heights she once sought as she jumped for the sun. Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (1989) The Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (also referred to as Zora! Festival) is a multiday cultural event of music, literature, museum exhibitions, panel discussions, workshops, and performances. The festival is held the last week of January in Eatonville, Florida, to spotlight the cultural contributions persons of African descent have made to the United States and the world, and to celebrate the life and achievements of the folklorist, anthropologist, and Harlem Renaissance writer for whom the festival is named. Zora! Festival is a festival

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of education and entertainment, and represents all the facets of Zora Neale Hurston’s career. The first Zora! Festival in 1989 grew out of activities of the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community (PEC) in response to the November 23, 1987, Orange County Board of Commissioners’ proposal to expand Eatonville’s main street, Kennedy Boulevard, to five lanes. This event spurred the creation of the PEC to preserve the culture, heritage, and traditions of historic Eatonville, home of Zora Neale Hurston, and purportedly the oldest African American city in the United States. The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community was organized in 1988 by two hundred persons from Eatonville and surrounding communities, and incorporated in May 1988. The Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities was the association’s first major cultural event, meeting the association’s goals to make the nation aware of Eatonville’s importance to the history and culture of the United States as a whole and to the history and culture of Americans of African descent in particular. The festival has also provided economic stimulus for the community, another of the association’s goals. The association has presented the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities yearly since 1989. Billed as a multidisciplinary event, the Zora Neale Hurston Festival includes activities for all ages and interests, including education, which is stressed in curriculum-based events for pre-K through grade twelve. Ticketed events include brunches and evening galas, tours, seminars, and a conference that anyone can register to attend to hear scholars present their papers and research. Free events include the weekend gospel concerts. The juried arts competition, for which the winner receives a cash prize, is an opportunity for artists to showcase their works to a diverse audience. The international marketplace provides Zora Neale Hurston Festival attendees as well as community members the opportunity to purchase wares from around the world. Highlights of the festival include appearances by performers, scholars, and writers such as Ossie Davis, John Hope Franklin, Maya Angelou, Isaac Hayes, Danny Glover, Edwidge Danticat, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. The weeklong festival culminates with a weekend street festival, the Outdoor Festival of the Arts, which is free and open to the public. See also: Literature, Classic African American; Women, African American Images of

Further Reading Awkward, Michael, ed. 1990. New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bloom, Harold, ed. 1986. Zora Neale Hurston: Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House. Boyd, Valerie. 2002. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner.

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Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. 1988. ‘‘Zora Neale Hurston and the Speakerly Text.’’ In The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism, 170–216. New York: Oxford University Press. Gates, Henry Louis, and K. A. Appiah, eds. 1993. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad. Hemenway, Robert E. 1977. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Hill, Lynda Marion. 1996. Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston. Washington, DC: Howard University Press. Holloway, Karla F. C. 1993. The Character of the Word: The Texts of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Greenwood. Howard, Lillie P. 1980. Zora Neale Hurston. Boston: Twayne. Kaplan, Carla, ed. 2002. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. New York: Doubleday. Lowe, John. 1994. Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston’s Cosmic Comedy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Lupton, Mary Jane. 1982. ‘‘Zora Neale Hurston and the Survival of the Female.’’ Southern Literary Journal 15 (Fall): 45–54. Plant, Deborah. 1995. Every Tub Must Sit on Its Own Bottom: The Philosophy and Politics of Zora Neale Hurston. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Walker, Alice. 1975. ‘‘In Search of Zora Neale Hurston.’’ Ms. Magazine (March): 74–79, 85–89. Wall, Cheryl A., ed. 1995. Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs and Other Writings. New York: Library of America. Wallace, Michele. 1990. ‘‘Who Owns Zora Neale Hurston: Critics Carve Up the Legend.’’ In Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory, 172–86. London: Verso. Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities. http://www.zorafestival.com/. Adenike Davidson and Sharon D. Johnson

Hush/Bush Harbors Secretive, often religious, meetings held by slaves took place in remote locations known as hush harbors or bush harbors. Historian Lawrence Levine’s seminal text on African American cultural history and practice, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom, recognizes that a serious consideration of black thought, experience, and knowledge cannot be accomplished without revealing the existence of and the tactical import of hush harbors as sites where ‘‘slaves broke the prescription against unsupervised or unauthorized meetings by holding their services in secret, well hidden areas.’’ In informal, unofficial meeting places, enslaved and free African Americans could share among themselves the minds they hid from their masters. Referred to as bush harbors, cane breaks, hush arbors, and, in some cases, praise houses, these places were hidden, secretive, or quasi-public sites that functioned under the radar of general public surveillance. Because of their secretive nature and function, histories of hush harbor practices and rhetorics are by

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definition difficult to come by. Fortunately, oral histories from the participants themselves provide insight into hush harbor practices. For example, ‘‘The Clandestine Prayer Meeting,’’ a section in The Trouble I’ve Seen: The Big Book of Negro Spirituals, provides an accessible, poignant, and paradigmatic introduction to hush harbors. Hush harbors were critical spatialities of rhetorical education and knowledge in which everyday talk and discourse reflecting African and African American imaginations, aspirations, subjectivities, and worldviews were taken seriously. Folk and vernacular-grounded forms and artists such as Negro Spirituals (e.g., ‘‘Steal Away’’), the blues (e.g., jook joint themes), jazz (e.g., Charles Mingus’s music), Hip-Hop culture (e.g., Nappy Roots), African American theater (e.g., the plays of August Wilson), and African American literature (e.g., The Portable Promised Land) echo or make reference to African American hush harbors. Hush harbor forms and rhetorics that enter the public sphere often legitimize the ‘‘authenticity’’ of African American performers. For example, the Fisk University Jubilee Singers did not become a national popular-culture phenomenon until they sang their material with vocal inflections and sensibilities culled from hush-harbor culture. Chitlin Circuit plays such as Beauty Shop and A Good Man Is Hard to Find continue to be more popular with African American audiences than the more mainstream fare in part because they participate in the cultural touchstones and commonplace circumstances of African American hush harbor places and cultures that for a period of time existed on the fertile lower frequencies of black communal life. Modern manifestations of hush harbors can be found in (some) jook joints and clubs, Beauty Shops, Barbershops, Churches, book clubs, black Poetry Jams, hip-hop freestyle competitions, and black Web sites. See also: Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Further Reading Levine, Lawrence W. 1977. Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom. London: Oxford University Press. Nunley, Vorris. ‘‘Hush/Bush Harbors.’’ 2006. In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, Vol. 1. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westpot, CT: Greenwood Press. Vorris Nunley

I Ice Cube (1969– ), Rapper, Actor, Producer Ice Cube, born O’Shea Jackson, is a California entertainment businessman who has become successful in several fields including rapping, writing, acting, and producing. His most acclaimed success in the business came when he launched his own movie production company, Cube Vision, in 2000. The production company is responsible for the success of such movies as Friday (1995); and two subsequent sequels, Barbershop (2000) and Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004); as well as Beauty Shop (2005), Are We There Yet? (2005), and Are We Done Yet? (2007), among others. All of these films were successful. Jackson was born on June 15, 1969, in Crenshaw, South Central, Los Angeles. Unlike many of his contemporaries and people with whom he would later associate, O’Shea grew up in a middle-class, two-parent household. His parents, Doris and Hosea Jackson, were employed at the University of California located in Los Angeles (UCLA). Hosea worked as a machinist at the university, while Doris worked as a hospital clerk. During his early years, Jackson attended Hawthorne Christian School in Los Angeles. He would later attend William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California. On a dare to write a rhyme, when a friend challenged him in the middle of typing class, Jackson successfully met the challenge; he penned his first rap song in the ninth grade. In the mid-1980s, Jackson adopted the persona and Hip-Hop name ‘‘Ice Cube.’’ The first song he wrote, ‘‘Boyz ’N the Hood,’’ became famous a few short years later. Upon graduation from high school in 1987, Ice Cube left Los Angeles to attend Phoenix Institute of Technology in Arizona. Before totally committing himself to his music, Ice Cube wanted time off to study architectural drafting at the institute. Within one year he completed a

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certificate and returned to Los Angeles to continue his newfound interest in music entertainment. Ice Cube, Hip-Hop Music, Movies, and Business At age sixteen, Ice Cube sold his first rap song, ‘‘Boyz ’N the Hood,’’ to rapper Easy-E. He also began rapping with his partner Sir Jinx at parties hosted by hiphop rap artist Dr. Dre (Andre Young). Ice Cube’s rhymes caught the ear of Dr. Dre and other rappers, quickly earning himself a spot in CIA, Dr. Dre’s fledgling rap music production company. Ice Cube returned to Los Angeles to start the first incarnation of N.W.A. (Niggaz with Attitude) with Dr. Dre, Easy-E, MC Ren, the Arabian Prince, and DJ Yella. Their first album, Straight Outta Compton, was released in 1989. It was a huge yet highly controversial hit, which put N.W.A. at the forefront of ‘‘gangster rap.’’ With the release of songs like ‘‘F**k the Police,’’ N.W.A. would become historically significant as the first group to establish the new genre of hip-hop labeled ‘‘Gangsta Rap.’’ Initially the group’s lyrics were a commentary about police brutality and violence committed against blacks. Later the lyrics began to reflect more misogynistic and violent tones. Ice Cube remained with the group for another two years, and by 1990 he began a solo rap career in New York. He released five subsequent albums, all of which were successful and broadened his crossover appeal among white youth. Ice Cube has since recorded with other artists such as Mack 10, WC, and the West Side Connection. Ice Cube made his acting debut in the hit 1991 movie Boyz ’N the Hood. His performance in the movie proved that he had star potential and immediately catapulted his acting, producing, and directing career. Ice Cube’s success as an actor is clear, with films such as The Glass Shield (1995), Higher Learning (1995), the Friday films (Friday, 1995; Next Friday, 1999; Friday after Next, 2002), Anaconda (1997), The Players Club (1998), the acclaimed Three Kings (1999), Ghosts of Mars (2001), Torque (2004), Barbershop and Barbershop 2 (2002–2004) among his credits. When asked if acting, writing, directing, and producing were an extension of music, Ice Cube said in an interview with Terry Gross that ‘‘it is just all about whether you got it or not; the camera don’t lie.’’ The former rapper says that he uses ‘‘the rhythm of timing’’ in his acting, the lesson he has derived from his music. ‘‘I think doing music, and videos, have kind of set me up to do what I am doing now.’’ In 2000, Ice Cube launched his own production company, Cube Vision. The company has since produced both Barbershop films as well as the box-office hit Are We There Yet? (2005). Besides Will Smith, Ice Cube has emerged as one of the most successful hip-hop music artists to have made the transition to acting. However, Ice Cube has exceeded Smith’s success so far as musician and actor only through his work as director, writer, and producer. Off screen, Ice Cube is noted as quietly philosophical in how he deals with the fame that has been thrust upon him. ‘‘You know, it is part of what I have asked for. I take it as another extension of who I am. Not all of who I am but just a piece,’’ he said in an interview with Monikka Stallworth. One major challenge he faces in the film industry deals with perceptions of race and its impact on movie selections. Ice Cube finds disappointment with Hollywood

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film executives who only want to market to mainly black audiences for support of his films. Ice Cube intimated that the continued color barrier that exists in Hollywood comes from the people making the movies and not from the audience. In an interview with Tor Thorsen, he stated, ‘‘The studios target with blinders on. They’re the ones who don’t understand that if people want to see it. You don’t have to target . . . they’re not smart enough to see they [the audiences] don’t care about your color.’’ Ice Cube did not imagine that he would be in the position he has achieved today. His popularity in mainstream pop culture as a music artist, leading man, and entertainment executive is even more overwhelming for him. However, having been married since 1992 to wife Kim Woodruff Jackson, and having four children, he believes having family has helped ground him. He recently directed a documentary for ESPN called ‘‘Straight Outta L. A.’’ about the Oakland Raiders Football Team when it was previously based in Los Angeles, and is producing a family television comedy for TNT cable television network called Are We There Yet?, based on his successful movie of the same name. See also: Films and Filmmakers Further Reading ‘‘Actor and Musician Ice Cube: ‘Are We There Yet?.’ ’’ 2005. Interview by Terry Gross. National Public Radio, Fresh Air, January 10. ‘‘The Africana QA: Ice Cube.’’ 2004. Interview by Ronda Racha Penrice. Black Voices, January 15. http://archive.blackvoices.com. ‘‘Barbershop: An Interview with Ice Cube.’’ 2002. Interview by Monikka Stallworth. Black Film.com, September 20. http://www.blackfilm.com. ‘‘Cubevision.’’ 2002. Interview by Tor Thorsen. December 2. http://www.donmega.com/ cubevision. Baiyina W. Muhammad

Ifill, Gwen (1955– ), Journalist, Television Newscaster Already a well-known journalist, Gwen Ifill received widespread public attention on October 2, 2008, when she moderated the vice presidential debate between Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden, each a running mate on the presidential ticket for the Republican and Democratic Parties respectively. Ifill carved a place for herself in American popular culture with this event. As a visibly astute woman journalist, she is a role model for young women who may consider choosing a career in that field. Gwendolyn Ifill was born September 29, 1955, in Queens, New York, the fifth of six children born to O. Urcille and Eleanor Ifill. Her father was a Panamanian immigrant and a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was also a civil rights activist. Eleanor Ifill, a native of Barbados, was a homemaker. As a minister, Urcille moved his family to different locations in New England

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and the Eastern Seaboard while he served his church. The family lived in church parsonages in Pennsylvania and in Massachusetts, and federally subsidized housing in Buffalo and Staten Island, New York. Gwen Ifill’s interest in television journalism was stimulated during her developmental years, when the family watched televised national news. Ifill majored in communications at Simmons College, a women’s college in Boston. In summer 1976, she interned at the Boston Herald American where she learned much about the busing crisis in the local school system. After graduating from Simmons in 1977, she went to work full-time for that newspaper. When she covered Boston’s school board, she had her first exposure to politics. From 1981 to 1984, Ifill was a journalist for the Baltimore Evening Sun, where she covered politics in Maryland; she also appeared on the weekly news show Maryland Newswrap. She joined the Washington Post in 1984 as a political reporter, first assigned to cover suburban Maryland and then assigned to the national news desk. In addition to her work as a print reporter, she was a guest on political programs, including Meet the Press and Washington Week. In 1991, Ifill left the Post when the editors said that she was not ready for Capitol Hill. She moved to the New York Times; her first major assignment was to cover Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton. When the election was over in 1992, she was assigned to the White House. She moved to NBC (Washington Bureau) in 1994, to be near her ailing mother who lived in an assisted-care facility in the area. By now she had demonstrated her analytical skills and journalistic savvy. Meanwhile, in 1991, she had a bonus assignment: PBS signed Ifill on for two of its well-known news programs: NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Washington Week. Ifill became involved in politics and political debates, serving as moderator for the first 2004 vice presidential debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards. When the 2008 campaign was held, she easily moved to moderate the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Her book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, was published in 2009. Gwen Ifill is recognized as a distinguished journalist whose work and rich career led her to receive fifteen honorary degrees. She also serves on the board of several organizations, including the Harvard Institute of Politics, the University of Maryland’s College of Journalism, and the Museum of Television and Radio. Veteran television journalist Tim Russert, who held her in high esteem, said in ‘‘Debate Moderator Gwen Ifill’’ that ‘‘She’s a wonderful, classy lady and a great journalist.’’ Ifill has never married and continues to devote her life to her work as one of today’s leading African American television reporters. See also: Journalism and Journalists; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Biography.com. 2009. ‘‘Gwen Ifill Biography.’’ http://www.biography.com/articles/Gwen -Ifill-212144. Henry, Tamara M. Cooke. 2009. ‘‘Gwen Ifill.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present, Vol. 2. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 2000. ‘‘Gwen Ifill Breaks a Television Barrier.’’ 27 (Spring): 51. Suddath, Claire. 2008. ‘‘Debate Moderator Gwen Ifill.’’ Time, Politics, October 2. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1846354,00.html. Jessie Carney Smith

Imes, Mo’Nique. See Mo’Nique

Inventors and Inventions When Americans asked for ‘‘the real McCoy,’’ their requests were for an authentic product. Elijah McCoy, an African American inventor, was the inspiration for the pop culture phrase. His self-lubricating devices kept locomotives welloiled while in motion, and ended the costly and time-consuming necessity of frequent train stops in order to oil the parts in order to prevent breakdowns. Captains of industry wanted nothing less than ‘‘real McCoy’’ products for their machines. McCoy was among many black inventors who were credited with conveniences twenty-first-century consumers take for granted. Travelers waiting at an electric traffic signal should know that Garrett A. Morgan invented the control device in 1923. Indeed, Thomas A. Edison did invent the electric light bulb; however, black inventor and patent expert Lewis H. Latimer made the filament that transformed light bulbs from a novelty to a practical consumer product that burned brightly for hundreds of hours. Many of these African American inventors played a transformative role during the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s through the early 1900s. About 370 inventions, modifications, and patents were created by African Americans between 1821– 1987, wrote James Michael Brodie in Created Equal: The Lives of Black American Innovators. Of that total, 322 of these achievements—about 85 percent—occurred between 1865 and 1930, the post-Civil War and peak Industrial Revolution eras. Inventors such as McCoy, Latimer, Granville T. Woods, Jan Matzeliger, Garrett A. Morgan, and Percy Julian and other significant, less well-known black inventors created devices and products that allowed many comforts and brought convenience and efficiency to domestic living, or increased productivity on farms, or made travel safer. These inventors and innovators suffered overt racism and discrimination, yet they persevered and their contributions endured. In some instances pop culture myths embellished or overdramatized the feats of inventors, scientists Madam C. J. Walker, and entrepreneurs, ranging from Charles R. Drew to Madam C. J. Walker. Historians and biographers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century worked to place these innovators’ achievements in credible context. For example, Drew, inventor of the blood bank, a system for storing blood plasma, died in an automobile accident in North Carolina. A myth evolved that a white-run hospital denied the critically injured medical doctor treatment. The ironic story was told

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on an episode of the 1970s CBS sitcom M.A.S.H. Drew family members said it was unlikely that he died because of racist hospital practices. Regarding Walker, biographer A’Lelia Bundles wrote that Walker did not invent the hot comb. Walker learned hair care treatment from Annie Turnbo Pope Malone, who earned the first patent for the modern hot comb in 1900. Walker, formerly Sarah Breedlove McWilliams, became synonymous with black women’s hair care because of relentless marketing, promotion, and distribution of hair care products and treatments. ‘‘Two Dollars and a Dream,’’ a 1987 PBS documentary, told the self-made millionaire’s story. Breakthrough Inventions of the Late 1800s Railroad travel was the fastest way to move in the late 1800s, yet locomotives stopped up to a dozen times a day so ‘‘firemen’’ could manually oil engine parts. Elijah McCoy, a child of runaway slaves, grew up free in Canada, then the family moved back across the U.S. border to Michigan. McCoy was sent to Scotland where he was trained as an engineer. He returned to the United States, but was denied work in his field. McCoy settled for a railroad fireman job. In his idle time, he invented an oil cup, a money- and time-saving creation that lubricated train engines while in motion. In the late 1800s, deadly train crashes occurred because conductors could not see other trains in tunnels or around bends. Granville T. Woods invented a train-signaling device that could send Morse code and oral signals over the same line and alert conductors of respective locations and reduce the probability of collisions. Woods also invented the third rail, an electrical conductor used on city subway systems. With 35 patents for electrical inventions and 150 patents for all of his creations, Woods was called ‘‘the black Edison.’’ Woods tangled twice with Edison in courtrooms over who owned the rights to electrical inventions. Woods, owner of a Cincinnati-based company, won both verdicts. On February 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell’s documents for the telephone arrived at the U.S. patent office four hours before a competitor. Bell won thanks to Lewis H. Latimer, a patent writer who agreed to stay after work and assist with the technical drawings necessary for Bell’s breakthrough invention. Six years later in 1880, Hiram Maxim hired Latimer to work as a draftsman at U.S. Electrical Lighting. A year earlier, competitor Edison patented an incandescent light bulb. Edison’s breakthrough, however, was not reliable for everyday use. At Maxim’s company, Latimer produced the sturdy carbon filament that enabled longlasting light bulbs. Although Latimer patented his invention in 1882, Maxim claimed the credit. Latimer left the company. Years later Edison met Latimer and hired him. Latimer became Edison’s point man in lawsuits by competitors, including Maxim. Latimer won the majority of lawsuits and established Edison as the inventor synonymous with electrical lighting. Before 1890, shoes were expensive and rare. Shoe bottoms were machine made, but uppers were hand stretched and stitched into the soles by lasters, or craftsmen. Jan Matzeliger, a South American immigrant, sailed to Philadelphia then moved north to Lynn, Massachusetts. A wiz with machines, Matzeliger

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worked around the clock until he successfully made a lasting machine that could fasten shoe uppers to the soles. The difference: a craftsperson working a ten-hour shift could complete fifty pairs of shoes in a day; the lasting machine made up to seven hundred pairs of shoes a day. By 1900, several thousand lasting machines in the United States produced 80 million pairs of shoes. In 1992, Matzeliger was recognized on a U.S. postal stamp. Carver’s Agri-Revolution, Julian’s Forgotten Genius In 1911, a fire at a shirt factory killed 146 workers in New York. Garrett A. Morgan invented a mask to protect firemen from smoky and toxic fumes. Morgan’s gas mask was updated and was worn by American soldiers during World War I. After the war, automobile use was on the rise and rules of the roads at intersections evolved. Morgan invented the traffic signal, a tall pole with a bell and hand crank–controlled flaps printed with the warning ‘‘stop.’’ Morgan sold his invention to General Electric. George Washington Carver was a botanist. His discovery of edible and other uses for peanuts and sweet potatoes reaped hundreds of millions of dollars for farmers. Carver taught them how to rotate crops and not depend solely on cotton, which stripped soil of nutrients. Booker T. Washington recruited Carver to teach at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Carver’s experiments laid the groundwork for current research on plant-based fuels and medicines. A U.S. Postal Service stamp recognizing Carver was issued in 1948. A half century later in 1998, Carver’s work in the 1910s was spotlighted in the ‘‘Celebrate the Century’’ stamp series. Percy Julian, a chemist who synthesized the glaucoma treatment physostigmine from soybeans, went on to create other medical treatments and products. Julian also produced synthetic cortisone from soybeans, significant because previously the arthritis cure was expensive because it could only be produced in small quantities. During World War II, Julian’s soybean derivative Aero-Foam was a smothering agent used to put out oil and gasoline fires. Julian was memorialized on a U.S. postage stamp in 1994. In 2008 he was profiled in the PBS documentary ‘‘Forgotten Genius.’’ In the post–Jim Crow, postmodern era, African American inventors and scientists continue—often in near anonymity—to create products or solve problems that improve people’s lives in a global economy. See also: Science and Scientists Further Reading Asseng, Nathan. 1997. Black Inventors. New York: Facts on File. Brodie, James Michael. 1993. Created Equal: The Lives of Black American Innovators. New York: William Morrow Quill. Fouche, Rayvon. 2003. Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Wayne Dawkins

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Iverson, Allen (1975– ) Professional Basketball Player Allen Ezail Iverson is an enigmatic guard in the National Basketball Association. Iverson is one of the NBA’s career leaders in scoring and in assists, and he is generally considered to be among the league’s best five or ten guards of all time. A likely future NBA Hall of Famer, Iverson, who is 6 feet tall and around 170 pounds, is also considered by many to be one of the best ‘‘little men’’ ever, as well as one of its quickest and toughest. It does not stop there. Iverson, the shortest player to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award, is also one of the game’s controversial players. Iverson, who has a huge following in the Hip-Hop culture, once recorded a controversial rap album that was banned by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Also, Iverson is famous for his news conference diatribe in which he downplayed the significance of practice. In one of the NBA’s most widely broadcast sound bites, Iverson said: ‘‘Practice?’’ Why we talking about practice? Practice?’’ He went on to use the P-word twenty times. Come game time, however, Iverson was always ready to play. That was the Iverson performance. In recent years, he has been bothered by problems with his back, hamstring, ankles, and knees. Such injuries impaired Iverson’s effectiveness after he was traded to the Denver Rockets and the Detroit Pistons. That also hampered him as a free agent signee with the Memphis Grizzlies and the 76ers. In fact, Iverson sat out the end of the 2010 season with injuries and personal issues and the illness of his daughter, Tiaura. Iverson has always maintained close ties to the community and to his fan base. Since early in his NBA career, Iverson has hosted some rendition of the Allen Iverson Celebrity Summer Classic, which has featured softball tournaments, basketball tournaments, football and basketball camps for youths, parties and professional enrichment activities. He has also contributed more than $100,000 in scholarships to several colleges, mainly via the historically black Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. He has also contributed more than $100,000 for gun buyback programs on the Virginia Peninsula. Iverson was one of the greatest athletes to play in the talent-rich Hampton Roads area. As a junior, he won state championships in both football and basketball. He did not play in his senior season after being convicted and jailed in a controversial bowling alley incident. Iverson spent four months in Newport News’ City Farm before he was granted clemency and released by then Virginia governor Douglas Wilder. The case, and the racially charged issues surrounding it, were the subjects of a documentary that was part of ESPN’s ‘‘30 for 30’’ series. Produced and directed by Hoop Dreams (1994) filmmaker Steve James, the Iverson project was titled: ‘‘No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson.’’ Near the end of the documentary, James concludes that he doubts that a gifted white athlete accused and convicted of the misdeeds of Iverson and his four friends would have received jail time. The documentary also concludes that the end to the Allen Iverson story has not been

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written. That will be up to Iverson, concludes Joyce Hobson, one of Iverson’s main supporters when he was harshly punished with lengthy jail time. Iverson did not participate in the ESPN project, saying he is telling his own story in a documentary that he and his advisors have been shopping to various networks. Iverson was born June 7, 1975, in Hampton, Virginia. He played his college ball at Georgetown University, but left after two seasons in 1996 when he was the number one draft pick of the Philadelphia 76ers. See also: Sports Further Reading Schmidt Charles E., Jr. 1998. Allen Iverson. Philadelphia: Chelsea House. Smallwood, John N., Jr. 2001. Allen Iverson: Fear No One. New York: Pocket Books. Watkins, Michael J. 2000. ‘‘Allen Iverson.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 24. Detroit: Gale. David Squires

J Jackson Five, Pop Singing Group In 1968, the five young Jackson brothers—Tito (1953– ), Jermaine (1954– ), Jackie (1951– ), Marlon (1957– ), and future ‘‘king of pop’’ Michael Jackson (1958–2009)—were signed on to Berry Gordy Jr.’s Motown Records label. The Jackson Five (or Jackson 5) became one of the most successful pop/soul groups of the early 1970s, scoring number one spots early in their career with hits like ‘‘I Want You Back,’’ ‘‘ABC,’’ and ‘‘I’ll Be There.’’ Though their early releases were penned by writers at Motown, the group began covering older soul hits and eventually composed most of their own material by the mid-1970s, paving the way for individual careers when the group left Motown in 1975 and dissolved as a family act soon after. See also: Actors and Performers; Musicians and Singers; Pop Music Further Reading Jackson, Katherine, with Richard Wiseman. 1990. My Family, The Jacksons. New York: St. Martins. Chris Smith

Jackson, Janet (1966– ), Singer, Actress Having emerged from an enormously famous family, singer Janet Jackson has become a star in her own right, a colossal figure in African American popular culture.

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Before Jackson was born, her family, the Jacksons, had risen from poverty to surreal riches in the late 1960s through the incredible musical and dancing talents of the Jackson Five, a singing group comprising five of Jackson’s brothers. Michael Jackson, the group’s lead singer, would, in 1979, launch a mega solo career. In 1982, Janet Jackson came out with her first album, Janet Jackson, when she was just a teenager. She would not achieve the success that set in motion the person the world knows today until four years later with her third album, Control. Control heralded Jackson’s coming out from under the frequently overpowering influence of her family. With that album, she asserted her independence, individuality, and personal power. She challenged audiences to see her as a transformed person, from a diffident ing
enue to a grown-up, multitalented celebrity. In the new millennium, in her early forties, she remains a popular performer with a large, devoted following. Since birth, on May 16, 1966, Janet Dameta Jackson has been surrounded by music, dance, and fame. Her father, Joseph Jackson, a former boxer and musician in the group the Falcons, had made it his life’s mission to turn his sons into megawatt superstars after he first discovered their musical talents. Jackson’s father could be demanding; her mother, Katherine Jackson, was warm and loving and deeply involved in the Jehovah’s Witness faith. Jackson grew up on a sprawling estate in Encino, California, alternately sheltered and overwhelmed by the paparazzi and fans. Her education was a mixture: a tutor, some public school, and an elite private school for famous children and children of celebrities. Her experiences at school were challenging; she did not always fit in and longed to belong. Jackson felt increasingly ostracized as her career blossomed. Jackson’s career began when she was just seven years old. She appeared with her brothers in performances at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Biographer Cindy Dyson described Jackson’s debut: ‘‘Little Janet, dressed in a backless pink satin gown and festooned with a matching feather boa, strutted into the spotlight wearing a huge smile’’ and commenced to imitate Mae West, a voluptuous entertainer whose career began in the early twentieth century. Jackson went on to appear with her siblings on The Jacksons, a variety show that debuted in 1976. Jackson’s next television appearance was in Good Times, a sitcom that explored the life of a black family living in the projects in Chicago, Illinois. Jackson was nine years old when she got the part of Penny Gordon, a foster child. She appeared on the show for the last two seasons that the show aired. Jackson’s adolescence brought forth more opportunities and challenges. Adolescents are often prone to struggle with body image issues. Being under the limelight exacerbated this tendency for Jackson, who underwent plastic surgery to reduce the width of her nose. (Michael Jackson notoriously had had the same procedure before her.) Unlike Michael, Janet Jackson struggled off and on with her weight. Notwithstanding her inner struggles, she garnered fame in her appearance on Diff’rent Strokes, a television series about two African American boys who are adopted by an affluent white man, Philip Drummond (Conrad Bain). Between 1981 and 1982, Jackson was cast as Charlene, the girlfriend of Willis Jackson (Todd Bridges). Dyson stated that ‘‘Janet’s sense of fashion

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influenced teens across the country, who began copying her layered hairstyle and wearing hoop earrings just as she did.’’ Jackson was a role model for black girls and teens in an industry that catered predominately to whites. Subsequent singing projects were lackluster and unfruitful. The three Jackson girls—Rebbie, LaToya, and Janet—attempted a singing group, but it floundered in 1981. Jackson’s first two record albums, in 1982 and 1984, were largely unsuccessful. Jackson’s dancing and soft singing voice failed to appeal, in any significant way, to audiences. However, Jackson’s dramatic makeover in ensuing years would catapult her to staggering stardom. Jackson’s breakout album, Control, ushered forth a new era. For one, Jackson replaced Joseph Jackson, who had been her manager, with producers Jimmy ‘‘Jam’’ Harris and Terry Lewis. Paula Abdul signed on as Jackson’s choreographer. Jackson debuted her new style, consisting of energetic dance routines and lyrics that declared that she was in charge of her own life and destiny. Blacks imitated Jackson’s iconic dance moves and fashion, such as the key earring she wore. Her next album, Rhythm Nation 1814, was also a success. Since then, Janet has continued to test the limits of her transformative power. In 1991, African American film director John Singleton cast Jackson as the protagonist, Justice, an African American woman, enchanted by the poems of Maya Angelou, who lives in South Central Los Angeles. For the part, Jackson wore dookie braids, a popular African American hairstyle in that period, and took on the mannerisms and speech patterns of an inner-city youth. The film and Jackson’s acting were heavily criticized. However, some commentators applauded Jackson for her credible transformation. After the movie, Jackson returned to the business of making music and controlling her image. She has appeared lean, toned, and fit on magazine and album covers and in videos. In 1993, she shed inhibitions to pose nearly topless on the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine. She has appeared visibly tattooed and decked with assorted body piercings. In 2004, singer Justin Timberlake exposed Jackson’s nipple shield during a Super Bowl halftime performance. The incident, which was explained as a wardrobe malfunction, sparked controversy but the negative attention was directed disproportionately towards Jackson. Negative press has not deterred Jackson from adding more achievements to her long and rewarding career. She has won numerous awards, accumulating nearly a dozen albums, completing five spectacular tours, and appearing in massively successful films, such as The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), Why Did I Get Married? (2007), and Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010). Jackson has been married twice and has no children. See also: Actors and Performers; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Cornwell, Jane. 2001. Janet Jackson. London: Carlton Books. Janet. (Homepage.) http://www.janetjackson.com/.

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Johns, Robert L. 1996. ‘‘Janet Jackson.’’ In Notable Black American Women, Book II. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Gladys L. Knight

Jackson, Jesse (1941– ), Minister, Activist Jesse Louis Jackson was the first African American Democratic presidential candidate; his 1984 and 1988 campaigns made Americans, especially African Americans, believe it was possible for an African American to be seriously considered for the office of president of the United States. During Jackson’s 1988 campaign for the Democratic Party’s nomination for presidential candidate, Jackson surprised the pundits by garnering enough votes to make him second to Michael S. Dukakis. As a civil rights activist, Jackson was a leader in successful voter-registration drives, registering thousands of African Americans. Jackson’s voter-registration drives across the nation have helped in electing black officials, such as Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington. Jackson has been involved in protest marches across the nation and was present in Memphis, Tennessee, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Jackson is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest honor given to a civilian. The slogan ‘‘I Am Somebody’’ was made famous by Jackson, and some credit Jackson with starting the use of the term African American. As a citizen diplomat, Jackson has traveled to trouble spots worldwide, negotiating the release of hostages in Iraq, Cuba, Syria, and Yugoslavia, much to the reported chagrin of some state officials. Jackson began his life on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, as Jesse Burns, the son of Helen Burns and Noah Robinson. Noah Robinson was the thirty-something, married, next-door neighbor of Matilda Burns and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Helen. Until becoming pregnant at sixteen, Helen’s future was promising, with offers of scholarships because of her coloratura voice. As a single mother in the southern culture of the 1940s, her academic career came to a screeching halt. Pregnant girls were not allowed back to school, and some married men found it difficult to openly acknowledge a son not born within their marriage. As a result, Helen became a beautician and Jackson spent the first few years of life not knowing who his father was. For several years after Helen had married Charles Jackson, a veteran and a janitor, Jesse believed Charles Jackson was his father. Eventually Jackson discovered Noah Robinson was his natural father, who had three other sons, Jackson’s half-brothers. Jackson lived with Matilda, his grandmother. As a teenager, Jesse Burns was adopted by Charles Jackson and became Jesse Jackson.

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Jackson grew up in the segregated South at a time when African Americans were referred to as ‘‘colored.’’ During this time Jackson was attending separate and unequal schools supplied with battered cast-offs from white schools, drinking from ‘‘colored’’ water fountains, going in back doors of public libraries, and being barred from public facilities for which ‘‘colored’’ people paid taxes. When desegregation came to Greenville, the public swimming pool was filled in and planted over. In the midst of this, Jackson had the presence of a loving grandmother, the example of a working mother and a responsible stepfather, and a church and school community which instilled in him the idea that they had high expectations of their son. Jackson, like many other black children of that era, learned public speaking and composure and self-assurance by practicing it at school and performing at church in front of the congregation. Church played a big role in the development of children during the 1940s and 1950s, the era of Jackson’s coming of age. Church was an equalizing and uplifting factor in the black community. Those who were of no importance in the white world could have immense importance and presence in the church. Preachers as well as church officers commanded great respect from and wielded great influence within the community. The church was the place where one could be a leader and use many of one’s talents and realize one’s potential. Jackson’s childhood included taunts and jibes because of his birth circumstances, as well as jealousies over his physical gifts, intellect, and facility with words. There were odd jobs to earn a little money. One of Jackson’s first jobs was delivering firewood. Other jobs included caddying at the Greenville Country Club, curb hop and waiter, ticket collector at the local theater, and reading to neighbors. Jackson proved to be a good student in elementary school and one who had the gift of gab. In high school Jackson continued to be a good student and became something of a star athlete quarterbacking the Sterling High School football team. Jackson showed enough talent to receive offers to play professional baseball with the White Sox, which Jackson turned down. Upon graduating from high school in 1959 Jackson traveled to the University of Illinois, a Big Ten school, on a football scholarship. Life at Illinois was not what Jackson had expected. Far from being the northern promised land of freedom, Jackson found the North had prejudices and segregation too, maybe not legislated but just as strictly followed. The main difference was Jackson did not have the same support system in Illinois that had acted as a buffer against similar assaults on his humanity and existence back home. After one year at the University of Illinois, Jackson transferred to North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College in Greensboro. There Jackson flourished, becoming quarterback of the A&T football team. Omega Psi Phi was the fraternity of choice of which Jackson became an officer. Jackson was a good student and a popular man on campus, eventually becoming student body president. In 1961, Jacqueline Laverne Brown came to A&T from Newport News, Virginia. Jackson started pursuing Brown and soon learned that their backgrounds were similar. Jacqueline was left in the care of a next door neighbor, Juanita, for a while. After Juanita’s death, Jacqueline, age twelve, went to live with her

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mother and was enrolled in a regimen of school and church. Jacqueline and Jackson were married in the home of Jackson’s mother and stepfather on December 31, 1962. To their union were born five children, Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Yusef, and Jacqueline. Jackson’s sons have accompanied him on trips around the world, meeting diplomats and political figures. Becomes Civil Rights Activist During Jackson’s years at A&T, the civil rights sit-ins were in full swing. As a member of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Jackson became one of the campus leaders. The sit-ins, begun as nonviolent protests against segregated lunch counters, eventually morphed into protests of the 1960s against the violation of the African American’s civil rights. These sit-ins by college students, that were at times orchestrated and led by Jackson, helped desegregate Greensboro’s downtown businesses. It was during these early days that Jackson’s well-known speaking style began to emerge. After graduation with a degree in sociology from North Carolina A&T in 1964, Jackson moved his family to Chicago where he had a scholarship to attend the Chicago Theological Seminary. It was from Chicago in March 1965 that Jackson journeyed in a van to Selma, Alabama, with a group of fellow students to join the Selma to Montgomery March, where Jackson met Martin Luther King Jr. and inquired about a position with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Shortly thereafter Jackson was brought on as SCLC staff and given the job of overseeing Operation Breadbasket, SCLCs economic arm that aimed to create openings into the business community for blacks in Chicago. Jackson’s success with Operation Breadbasket in Chicago inspired national expansion of the program. After Jackson and SCLC came to a parting of the ways, Jackson created Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) in 1971 with the goal being similar to Operation Breadbasket’s, the economic development of the black community. PUSH was later merged with the National Rainbow Coalition, the political organization that Jackson had begun during his 1988 run for the Democratic presidential nomination, to become the Rainbow/Push Coalition. Jackson now heads the Wall Street Project, founded January 15, 1996, part of Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition. The Wall Street Project carries on the goals of Operation Breadbasket to provide equal opportunity and access for minorities as employees, consumers, and entrepreneurs to capital and technology. In addition to success and accolades, controversy has been present during Jackson’s career as a public figure. In 2001, he admitted to fathering a child outside of his marriage. His relationships with controversial figures such as Louis Farrakhan, and misspoken words about Jews and about Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama during the 1988 and 2008 presidential campaigns respectively, created firestorms of publicity. Jackson moved to Washington, DC, where he was selected for the office of ‘‘statehood senator,’’ better known as ‘‘shadow senator’’—a position that lobbies

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Congress to make the District of Columbia a state—from 1991 to 1997. Jackson continues to be a sought-after commentator and international speaker on social and political issues. See also: Civil Rights Movement; Sit-in Movement Further Reading Frady, Marshall. 1996. Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson. New York: Simon & Schuster. Rainbow/Push Coalition. (n.d.) ‘‘Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.’’ Bio. http://www.rainbow push.org. Stanford, Karin L. 1997. Beyond the Boundaries: Reverend Jesse Jackson in International Affairs. Albany: State University of New York Press. Wall Street Project. 2008. http://wallstreetproject2008.org. Wilkinson, Brenda Scott. 1990. Jesse Jackson: Still Fighting for the Dream. Morristown, NJ: Silver Burdett Press. Sharon D. Johnson

Jackson, Mahalia (1911–72), Gospel Singer Award-winning gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was influenced by both the jazz and the blues she heard while growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her unwavering devotion to gospel music earned her the title of ‘‘Queen of Gospel.’’ Mahalia Jackson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 26, 1911, to John Jackson, a dockworker, barber, and preacher at a Holiness church, and Charity Clark. Jackson’s mother died when Mahalia was five years old. She and her older brother William moved in with her mother’s sister while her other siblings were taken in by other family members. Jackson began singing at the age of four at the Plymouth Rock Baptist Church and the Mount Moriah Baptist Church. While still in school, she worked for white families taking care of the children and washing and ironing clothes. Her formal education ended in the eighth grade. Jackson continued to work as a laundress until moving to Chicago, Illinois, at the age of sixteen. Jackson went to Chicago with the goal of going to school to become a nurse. However, when her aunt, Hannah Robinson, fell ill, Jackson took a job as a laundress to help contribute to the household. She joined the Greater Salem Baptist Church, her aunts’ church, as a soloist. While a member of this congregation, she became part of the Johnson Quintet, a gospel singing group, which toured the state singing at churches. By 1935 the group had broken up with each member continuing to work as soloists. In 1934, Jackson recorded her first song, ‘‘God’s Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares’’ and was paid twenty-five dollars. She continued to sing as a soloist, and in 1939, she started working with Thomas A. Dorsey, considered the

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‘‘Father of Gospel Music.’’ The two toured the country with Jackson singing the tunes Dorsey penned. After five years on the road, Jackson stopped touring and returned to Chicago, where she opened a beauty salon and a flower shop. In 1946 Jackson recorded the song ‘‘Move on Up a Little Higher’’ with Apollo Records. The record was one of the best-selling gospel songs of the time and eventually sold over eight million copies. With the success of the record, Jackson started touring again. This time she played larger venues but still stayed true to her gospel roots. The success of the record only increased her status as a preeminent gospel singer. Jackson’s fame grew as she was featured on radio shows like The Studs Terkel Radio Show and on television on The Ed Sullivan Show. On October 5, 1950, Jackson played to a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She continued to record gospel records, first with Decca Records, then with Apollo Records, and finally with Columbia Records, where she recorded many albums. In 1961, Jackson won a Grammy Award for Best Gospel or Other Religious Recording for ‘‘Everytime I Feel the Spirit.’’ The following year, she won another Grammy Award in the same category for the recording ‘‘Great Songs of Love and Faith.’’ In 1972, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Grammys. Jackson married Isaac Hackenhull in 1936. Hackenhull recognized Jackson’s singing talent and wanted her to sing more than gospel music. He believed Jackson could make more money singing blues and jazz. Jackson, however, had dedicated her life to gospel and refused to sing other forms of music. Jackson and Hackenhull divorced in 1941. Jackson married for a second time in 1964 to Sigmund Galloway and divorced three years later. Jackson became involved with the Civil Rights Movement during the late 1950s. She knew firsthand the hardships African Americans endured every day. Even as Jackson was praised by Americans as the ‘‘Queen of Gospel,’’ there were times while on tour when she was unable to eat at a restaurant or stay at a hotel because it was for ‘‘whites only.’’ She became friends with Martin Luther King Jr., who invited her to participate in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and to sing during the March on Washington in 1963. Jackson sang ‘‘I Been ’Buked and I Been Scorned’’ immediately before King gave his ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech. During the long stretches of touring across the United States and the world, Jackson’s health suffered and in 1964, she was diagnosed with heart disease and diabetes. She would rest at her home in Chicago between tours. Her final stage performance was in Germany at a military base on Thanksgiving of 1971; she had been asked to perform to calm tensions between black and white servicemen. Jackson did not complete the performance; she collapsed on stage due to the strain heart disease caused her body. She returned to her home in Chicago to recuperate and on January 27, 1972, Mahalia Jackson died from heart disease. Jackson’s funeral was held in Chicago and in New Orleans, the city of her birth. Jackson lay in state at the Greater Salem Baptist Church in Chicago and more than fifty thousand people filed past her coffin. The funeral was held at the Arie Crown Theater of McCormick Place. Aretha Franklin sang ‘‘Precious Lord, Take My Hand’’ at the funeral, which was the same song Jackson had sung at Martin Luther King Jr.’s

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funeral in 1968. Several days later, Jackson was returned to the city of her birth for the final funeral. Again, more than fifty thousand people paid their respects to her. She is buried at Providence Memorial Park in Metairie, Louisiana. As a fitting tribute to Jackson, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame inducted her in 1978. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Jackson in 1997. The United States Postal Service issued a stamp in 1998 commemorating the life of Mahalia Jackson. Finally, on December 1, 1993, Jackson’s hometown renamed the New Orleans Theater of the Performing Arts, the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts as a tribute to Jackson’s gospel music legacy. See also: Churches; Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups Further Reading Jackson, Jesse. 1974. Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord! The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel Singers. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. Jackson, Mahalia. 1959. ‘‘I Can’t Stop Singing.’’ Saturday Evening Post 232 (December 5): 19–21, 98–100. Schwerin, Jules. 1992. Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson Queen of Gospel. New York: Oxford University Press. Theresa Mastrodonato

Jackson, Michael (1958–2009), Singer, Songwriter, Producer Michael Jackson was a world-renowned African American Rhythm and Blues/pop singer, songwriter, and producer. Often referred to as the ‘‘king of pop,’’ Jackson sold in excess of 300 million albums worldwide, making him the biggest-selling solo artist in history. He died of a drug overdose administered by his personal doctor, just as he was planning a comeback for his career, which had been sidetracked by scandals and financial problems. Michael Jackson began his career singing with four of his brothers in the Jackson Five, but made his true mark as a solo artist, especially with 1982’s Thriller, which currently stands as the highest-selling album of all time worldwide. Michael Jackson’s later career was marked by little musical output and many tabloid scandals, but he remained a legendary figure in the world of popular music. Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, to Joseph and Katherine Jackson. Michael began his musical career at age four, becoming the front man for the Jackson Five, which then also included brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Tito, and Marlon. Under the strict tutelage of their father, the Jackson Five performed at local clubs and bars until they were discovered by then Motown Records recording artists Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, who arranged an audition for them with Motown. Motown Records signed the Jackson Five at the end of 1968, and released a string of singles that topped the U.S. charts, including ‘‘I Want You Back,’’ ‘‘I’ll Be

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There,’’ and ‘‘ABC,’’ all composed by the Motown writing/production team known as ‘‘the Corporation.’’ Fans were impressed with young Michael’s vocal maturity and his stage performance, which he modeled after African American rhythm and blues artists James Brown and Jackie Wilson. Although the Corporation dissolved in 1971, the Jackson Five continued to produce hit material. The group’s popularity soared in the early 1970s as they toured extensively, made many television appearances, appeared on numerous magazine covers, and even had their own Saturday cartoon for two seasons. In an attempt to further capitalize off of the Jackson franchise, Motown signed Michael Jackson as a solo artist in 1971. Michael’s first release as a solo artist was the 1971 single, ‘‘Got to Be There’’ which, along with the album Long considered a musical prodigy, Michael of the same name, was a commercial Jackson’s lengthy list of accomplishments success. ‘‘Rockin’ Robin,’’ from Got to has been overshadowed in recent years by Be There, was also a smash hit, reachpersonal scandals and lackluster album sales. ing number two on the U.S. pop After his death, however, the sales of his music have skyrocketed. (Hulton Archive/ chart. Jackson followed that up with ‘‘Ben,’’ the title track to a movie of Getty Images) the same name which spent a week at number one on the U.S. pop chart. In 1973, Michael returned to the Jackson Five, who were experiencing a career downturn, and released G.I.T.: Get it Together. The album abandoned the group’s previous bubblegum sound, featured more mature vocals from Michael, and spawned the hit single ‘‘Dancing Machine.’’ The Jackson Five would release two more albums with Motown before leaving for Epic Records, where they produced a string of successful releases. In 1978, Michael starred as the Scarecrow in the film adaption of the Broadway musical, The Wiz. The role introduced the world to the adult Michael Jackson and set the stage for his impending solo career. On the soundtrack to The Wiz, Michael collaborated with music producer Quincy Jones, which marked the beginning of a relationship that took him to the top of the pop world. The first product of this relationship was Jackson’s 1979 album Off the Wall. Showcasing a more vocally developed Jackson, Off the Wall topped the charts in the U.S. and U.K. and produced two number one singles, ‘‘Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’’ and ‘‘Rock With You.’’ Off the Wall

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featured a contemporary R & B/soul sound that was much more mature than his previous solo releases and those with the Jackson Five. The popularity of Off the Wall only hinted at the success that was to come with his next release. Thriller, released on November 30, 1982, is not only the most commercially successful album of Michael’s career, it is also one of the most popular pop albums ever released. Seven of the album’s nine tracks cracked the top ten and four of them reached number one on the R & B charts. Thriller was modeled after Off the Wall, but Michael and Quincy Jones diversified the sound in a successful attempt to reach more audiences. Although it never received universal praise, Epic reportedly sold a million copies of it per week and it received seven Grammy awards. The long-form video for ‘‘Thriller,’’ among others from the album, made Michael a video star and opened the door for other African American artists on MTV. Thriller went on to sell forty million copies in its first run and catapulted Michael to legendary status. The mid-1980s was the pinnacle of Michael Jackson’s career. In 1983, PepsiCola gave him the largest sponsorship deal in history. In the same year, Jackson made a legendary performance on Motown’s 25th anniversary special. The following year, Jackson embarked on a very successful reunion tour with the Jackson Five and in 1985, Michael cowrote and performed on ‘‘We Are the World,’’ the USA for Africa–benefit single. With 1987 came the release of Bad, Jackson’s follow-up to Thriller. While not reaching the success of his previous album, it spawned five number one singles and closed out the decade. This period also saw the beginning of a radical change in Jackson’s appearance, which led to accusations of multiple plastic surgeries and skin bleaching in an effort to look white. Some sources report that, during a complex dance routine Jackson fell and broke his nose and subsequently underwent rhinoplasty. When this surgery led to breathing problems, he had a second operation as well as subsequent surgeries. Jackson denied that he used skin bleaching but had a skin problem instead. The 1990s were filled with ups and downs for Michael Jackson. In 1991, he released his seventh solo album, Dangerous, which spent seven weeks atop the U.S. pop chart. On Dangerous, Jackson embraced the new jack swing sound that was dominating rhythm and blues. Hit singles included ‘‘Black or White,’’ ‘‘Remember the Time,’’ and ‘‘Heal the World.’’ Michael Jackson was at the top of the pop world in 1993 when allegations of sexual abuse began to surface. While no charges were filed, the news did severe damage to Jackson’s previously clean image, and subsequently his career. In 1994, Jackson married Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley, but the marriage ended in divorce after nineteen months. The double album HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book 1 was released in 1995 and became the second-highestselling album of Jackson’s career. In 1996, Michael Jackson married Deborah Jeane Rowe, and though the marriage ended in divorce, it produced two children. Jackson’s post-1990s period was been defined by sparse artistic output and much scandal. He celebrated his thirtieth year as a solo artist with a 2001 television special which featured performances of his classic songs and a reunion with the Jackson Five. That same year, Jackson released his tenth solo album, Invincible, which has sold ten million copies worldwide. In a 2003 televised documentary,

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Jackson admitted to sharing his bed with children, which reignited the suspicions of child abuse. Subsequently, Jackson was again accused of sexual molestation by one of his young fans, and stood trial in 2005. After being acquitted of all charges, Michael Jackson stayed out of the public’s eye. In 2008, Epic records released a twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Thriller which contained a number of remixes and a new track, ‘‘For All Time.’’ In 2009, Jackson signed a contract with Anschutz Entertainment Group I (AEG) Live to stage a series of 10 live shows at London’s 02 arena which would reportedly pay him nearly $50 million. On June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson collapsed at his Los Angeles area mansion. After being rushed to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the singer was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest at 2:26 P.M. A memorial service was held in Jackson’s honor at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009. The service featured performances by Mariah Carey, Usher, John Mayer, Jermaine Jackson, and Stevie Wonder and had an estimated 31.1 million American viewers. The week following his death, Jackson broke Billboard chart records as the entire top nine spots on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart were Jacksonrelated releases. On August 28, 2009, the Los Angles coroner’s office ruled Jackson’s death a homicide involving a combination of drugs, including propofol and lorazepam. Ten weeks after his death, on September 3, 2009, Michael Jackson was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, California. See also: Actors and Performers; Musicians and Singers; Pop Music Further Reading Cadman, Chris and Craig Halstead. 2007. Michael Jackson: For the Record. Gamlingay, UK: Authors Online. Dineen, Catherine. 1993. Michael Jackson in His Own Words. London: Omnibus Press. Taraborelli, J. Randy. 2004. Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness. London: Pan Books. Langston Collin Wilkins

Jackson, Reggie (1946– ), Baseball Player ‘‘Mr. October’’ should be Reggie Jackson’s epitaph. During the 1970s, he was the eloquent and brash home run hitter who had a knack of hitting the most momentous shots on the biggest stages, like the three home runs Jackson hit in a single game at Yankee Stadium against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the October 1977 World Series. Like Baby Ruth, a candy bar was named after the slugger. Reggie Jackson was a lightning rod for conflict. He nearly came to blows with the blustery Yankees manager, Billy Martin, during a nationally televised game against the Boston Red Sox; he had a tumultuous relationship with the New York media; and Jackson had a rough-and-tumble relationship with idiosyncratic Oakland Athletics owner Charles Finley and his dysfunctional but World

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Series–winning teammates. Whether Jackson encouraged these fights or was misunderstood—as he often pleaded—he led a colorful twenty-one-year Major League Baseball career that made him an unforgettable pop culture icon. Multisport Star Reginald Martinez Jackson was born May 18, 1946, in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb, to Martinez and Clara Jackson. Early in childhood, his parents divorced and three of Reggie’s siblings moved to Baltimore to live with their mother and he and two other siblings moved to Cheltenham, another Philadelphia suburb, to live with their father. Martinez Jackson was a semipro baseball player and he encouraged his son to become an all-round athlete. Reggie Jackson excelled in Basketball, the hundred-yard dash in track, and he was a star high school halfback. His main game, however, was baseball. Jackson earned a Football scholarship to Arizona State University where he was a two-sport athlete in football and baseball.

New York Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson smiles as he chats with Boston Red Sox manager Don Zimmer prior to the Red Sox/Yankees playoff game on October 2, 1978, to determine the American League pennant. Jackson started his career in 1968 with the Oakland Athletics and became known as ‘‘Mr. October’’ during the 1977 and 1978 World Series while playing for the Yankees. After his Hall of Fame career, Jackson became a sports commentator and the chief executive officer of a baseball card company. (AP/Wide World Photos)

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At the end of his sophomore year, 1966, the Kansas City Athletics lured him into professional baseball with an $85,000 dollar signing bonus. After a stint in the minor leagues, Jackson was called up to Kansas City at the end of 1967, then in 1968 when the A’s moved to Oakland, California, Jackson moved with them. He hit 29 home runs in his first full season but also struck out 171 times. He followed up in 1969 with 142 strikeouts, but the whiffs were largely forgiven: he clobbered 47 home runs. In the 1971 All-Star game, Jackson hit a monster home run in the old Detroit Tigers stadium. The shot hit a water tower at the top of the cavernous stadium and prevented the ball from escaping the premises. Jackson led the American League to its first victory over the rival National League in nine years. In 1972, he was a member of the first World Series winning A’s team, although Jackson had to sit out the games because of a torn leg muscle he suffered during a decisive playoff win. In 1973, Jackson led the American League in home runs (32) and his A’s beat the New York Mets for its second World Series crown. Jackson was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player. The next year he played with a third consecutive World Series winner. The A’s won division titles five consecutive years, from 1971–75. That last year, because of a feud, Finley traded Jackson to the Baltimore Orioles. Jackson rejected a $140,000 offer and the A’s owner cut his pay to $112,000 before moving him. Baltimore offered Jackson $190,000 for one season and he hit 27 home runs. That season, notes Roger Kahn in October Men, Jackson told reporters, ‘‘If I played in New York, they’d name a candy bar after me.’’ Bronx Zoo In November 1976, the New York Yankees signed him to a five-year, $2.96 million contract. Jackson’s 1977 season in pinstripes was a fiery baptism. In Reggie, the Autobiography, a writer from Sport magazine quoted Jackson describing his new teammates as the ingredients in a cocktail and he as ‘‘the straw that stirred the drink.’’ That comment rankled teammates and fans who believed newcomer Jackson did not know his place on the team of immortals Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio. Jackson was not the first African American to play for the Yankees, however, he was the first outspoken black Yankee since 1955. His predecessors were servile or circumspect, which was not Jackson’s style. That tumultuous year was also the year of ‘‘Son of Sam,’’ when .44-caliber killer David Berkowitz terrorized New Yorkers. Filmmaker Spike Lee made light of the terror in the 1999 movie Summer of Sam when a neighborhood tough told his friends he concluded Jackson was the elusive Son of Sam because his uniform number was 44. Jackson also played himself in the 1988 spoof The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! He was a Yankee programmed to assassinate Queen Elizabeth of England at a California Angels game. In 2007, Jackson’s persona was a key player in The Bronx is Burning, an ESPN docudrama about the Yankees’ tumultuous season. Jackson’s rough treatment by fans soon changed to deafening chants of ‘‘REG-gie, REG-gie!’’ when in the deciding game six of the 1977 World Series he hit three

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home runs on three first pitches. Jackson hit five home runs during that series and was named Most Valuable Player. Jackson got the Reggie! candy bar he predicted before arriving in New York, but the opening promotion was disastrous. During his first at bat of the 1978 season, Jackson hit a home run, his fourth consecutive blast when the three home runs from the previous World Series were combined. Thousands of fans threw Reggie! bars and covered the field, resulting in 30 billion calories on the field, quipped New York Times sportswriter Red Smith. Named Mr. October Despite that chocolaty public relations fiasco, Jackson followed up in 1978 with another spectacular World Series slugging performance against the Dodgers and earned the moniker ‘‘Mr. October’’ for his clutch hitting during the fall championships. Jackson played on one more Yankees American League pennant winner in 1981 and hit his tenth World Series home run that fall. He moved on to the California Angels in 1982 and finished his career in 1987 where he started, with the Oakland A’s. For a career, Jackson hit 563 home runs. In 1993, he became the 216th inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Yankees retired his No. 44 uniform. See also: Sports; Track and Field Further Reading Gibson, Bob, Reggie Jackson, and Lonnie Wheeler. 2009. Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher & Hall of Fame Hitter Talk about How the Game is Played. New York: Doubleday. Jackson, Reggie, and Mike Lupica. 1984. Reggie, the Autobiography. New York: Random House. Kahn, Roger. 2003. October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees’ Miraculous Finish in 1978. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Rhoden, Bill. 1977. ‘‘The Ups and Downs of Reggie Jackson: Yankee’s [sic] Slugger Has Had a Fiery Baptism in New York.’’ Ebony 32 (October): 60–72. Wayne Dawkins

Jackson, Samuel L. (1948– ), Actor Samuel Leroy Jackson entered the world on December 21, 1948, in Washington, DC. Unlike most actors, Jackson became famous in popular culture while in his early forties. He catapulted to fame as a very convincing crack addict in Jungle Fever in 1991. His realistic portrayal earned him the first supporting actor award ever presented at the Cannes Film Festival and later a New York Film Critics Circle Award. Jackson’s research for this role included going to crack houses and observing behavior

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around his house on 143rd Street in Harlem. Some of his research was personal, as prior to earning the role as Gator Purify in Jungle Fever, Jackson had been a cocaine user; he was successful in completing rehab just weeks before filming. After Jackson’s parents divorced, he moved to Chattanooga to live with his grandparents. He was raised by his grandparents, aunts, and uncles until his mother came to live with them when he was in fourth grade. Jackson was accepted into Morehouse College during the radical late 1960s. Convinced that there were not enough black faculty members and that there needed to be student representatives on the trustee board, Jackson and others held some Morehouse trustees hostage. For his activism, suspension followed, but Jackson was able to return to school in 1971. He became more focused on theater and honed his acting skills as a member of the Morehouse–Spelman Players. After graduation, Jackson and his future wife, LaTanya Richardson, participated in the Atlanta-based Black Image Theater Company. Traveling to mostly white universities, this group performed skits about supremacists through the creative use of revolutionary poems and songs. Jackson made his debut into the movie arena as ‘‘Stan, aka Black Cream’’ in the drama Together for Days. Determined to increase their acting opportunities, Jackson and LaTanya moved to New York in 1976 and later married in 1980. He performed in several off Broadway plays and joined the Negro Ensemble Company. It was here that Jackson got to work with Denzel Washington, Brent Jennings, and Adolph Caesar. As an understudy to Charles S. Dutton in 1987, he portrayed Boy Willie (a character he created) in Piano Lesson at the Yale Repertory Theater. Frustrated by the limited work and envious that Dutton had been nominated for a Tony for his portrayal of Boy Willie, Jackson began a downward spiral. Jackson began to drink heavily and use drugs. With his family supporting him, Jackson attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and was successful in getting clean. Despite his celebrity status, he has been known to still drop in on meetings in the New York area. Jackson is powerful at being a chameleon of sorts. Audiences eagerly anticipate his various roles as they are usually quite different in each role that he plays. He has mesmerized audiences as a comic book art gallery owner (Unbreakable), lawyer (Losing Isaiah), factory worker (A Time to Kill), and detective (The Long Kiss Goodnight). This was not always the case early on in his career given that he seemed to be typecast as a criminal or villain. The skilled actor’s talent has been exhibited in over 115 films. When not at work on creating a memorable character, Jackson enjoys playing golf. He and LaTanya live in Los Angeles and have one daughter, Zoe. See also: Actors and Performers; Film and Filmmakers Further Reading Gates, Henry Louis. 2004. America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans. New York: Warner.

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Gross, Terry. 2004. ‘‘Dramatic Beats.’’ In All I Did was Ask. New York: Hyperion. Hudson, Jeff. 2004. Samuel L. Jackson: The Unauthorised Biography. London: Virgin. Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000168. Angela M. Gooden

Jakes, T. D. (1958– ), Minister Thomas. Dexter. Jakes is the bishop of the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, one of the largest and most influential megachurches, serving a congregation of thirtyfive thousand members. Potter’s House proclaims itself to be ‘‘a global voice, along a life-long journey of spiritual and economic hope, encouragement and empowerment to people locally, nationally and around the world.’’ Because of Jakes’s charismatic leadership, it is a glowing example of the success of African American institutional culture. Thomas Dexter Jakes was born in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1958. His hometown imprinted on his young mind the racism that gripped the country. His paternal grandfather, for whom Jakes was named, was murdered at the age of twenty-six after an argument with white coworkers. Jakes’s maternal grandparents reared his mother in segregated school systems. Furthermore, Jakes recalls going to segregated bathrooms, drinking from segregated water fountains, and seeing the Ku Klux Klan drive through his fraternal grandmother’s neighborhood. These traumatic events, as well as the slow death of his father, left Jakes searching for answers to complex questions. Jakes found comfort in religious worship. Families in his native Charleston were church-centered, and his family was, as well. His mother reared him and his siblings in the First Baptist Church of Vandailia. Jakes was a member of the church choir and was involved in the other church-related functions. His peers nicknamed him ‘‘Bible Boy’’ because he was an omnipresent participant in religious services. Unlike many of his peers, however, Jakes’s quest for spiritual growth led him into deeper religious involvement. Faced with the recent divorce of his parents and his father’s pending death, Jakes found a strong sense of purpose in the Greater Emmanuel Gospel Tabernacle also located in Charleston. Like other Pentecostal churches in the area, Greater Emmanuel emphasized biblicism, speaking in tongues, and strict religious devotion of all of its members. That devotion included prayer, abstinence from all sexual activity, and strict church attendance. While attending an evening service at the church, Jakes supposedly received the gift of speaking in tongues, and within the year, joined the small Pentecostal congregation. After receiving his calling to preach, the future bishop began to lead his own congregation in 1980. Although the beginnings of his ministry were marred by low membership and poor financial support, Jakes had moderate success in his radio ministry and conferences. A decade after leading the Greater Temple, he moved the church to South Charleston, West Virginia, where he was launched to

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fame. At that time, he spoke at small conferences and established influential connections with well-known clergy such as Carlton Pearson and Ernestine Reems. In 1993, Jakes delivered one of his sermons at the AZUSA conference (which took its name from a revival that marked the origin of American Pentecostalism at the turn of the twentieth century in Los Angeles, California) that attracted thousands of black Protestants for a week of religious services. Jakes’s sermon entitled, ‘‘Woman Thou Art Loosed,’’ highlighted the experiences of women whom he had counseled over the years. Shortly after Jakes delivered it, the sermon was so popular that it propelled him into the national spotlight and made him an icon in African American popular culture. Two years later Jakes wrote five books and initiated his own syndicated television program. He also moved his ministry from West Virginia to Dallas, Texas. In his new locale, Jakes established a megachurch that offered many social service programs, including GED, literacy, and AIDS outreach programs. Additionally, the Potter’s House also provides services to the homeless in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area, including a mentorship program. It possesses one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing prison ministries, with a Prison Satellite Network, broadcasting to over 260 prisons. Although the Potter’s House is successful in many areas, the promotion of racial equality is still an important goal of the Jakes ministry. Despite this goal, and Jakes’s involvement in a number of race-based issues ranging from working with black leaders to addressing racism in the housing market to his support for the presidency of Barack Obama, he nevertheless is a problematic liberator. Despite their appeal to many African Americans, there is doubt that American megachurches can lead the social and economic revival that unites human beings across lines of race and class in the United States and Africa, as Jakes would lead one to believe. In sum, although he may not mark a new type of black Pentecostal activism, the views he expresses are complex and deserve further examination. See also: Megachurches and Ministers Further Reading Jakes, T. D. 2006. Jakes Speaks to Men, 3 in 1. CD. May1. http://store.tdjakes.org/ Jakes, T. D. 2006. Mama Made The Difference. CD. April 1. http://store.tdjakes.org/ Lee, Shayne. 2005. T. D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher. New York: New York University Press. Potter’s House. http://www.thePotter’sHouse.org/v2/conten/view/17/311. Wellman, Sam. 2000. T. D. Jakes. New York: Chelsea House. Ryon Cobb and Vernon J. Williams Jr.

James, LeBron (1984– ), Basketball Player LeBron James burst upon the sports world in 2003 as an eighteen-year-old high school phenomenon from rust belt Akron, Ohio. He posed for a Sports Illustrated cover and was so heralded that ESPN broadcast one of James’s high school games

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in prime time. The prodigy made no pretext of planning to attend college and instead offered his talents directly to the National Basketball Association. Precocious and savvy, LeBron James exceeded sky-high expectations. Tall and muscular at 6 feet 8 inches and 250 pounds, he is arguably the best basketball player in the world. Another high school-to-pros superstar, Kobe Bryant, is James’s rival for best on the planet. Bryant has five NBA champion rings to emphatically make his case. James is chasing his first championship after getting his team close in 2007. James’s prime sponsor, Nike, adoring fans, and news media have crowned him ‘‘King James’’ in recognition of his athletic dominance on the court and his regal charm off the court. James told CBS’s 60 Minutes in March 2009 that his goal was to build his name into a billion-dollar brand. Although he led his Cleveland Cavaliers to the most wins in the regular season NBA franchise for the seasons of 2008–9 and 2009–10, the team missed the chance to compete in finals for championships. In July 2010, James agreed to let his contract expire in order to sign with the Miami Heat and join superstar friends Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. James’s decision crushed metropolitan area New Yorkers, who lobbied him to join the New York Knicks or New Jersey Nets (the latter of which is bound for Brooklyn in 2012). The Chicago Bulls also made an earnest effort to corral James. Despite insisting he was a loyal Ohioan, James embittered some Cleveland fans who burned his jerseys in effigy. Cavalier’s owner Dan Gilbert issued a statement that expressed rage like a jilted lover. Jesse Jackson joined the fray and then accused the owner of treating the departed James like a runaway slave. Such off-season drama created the cliffhanger to an anticipated 2010–11 season: Can James’s new team wrestle the championship from Bryant’s Lakers? Or will shunned rivals in Cleveland, New York, and other venues be especially motivated to deny the superstar the prize he covets? Can James live up to the increased hype? He has in the past, so it will be entertaining to see what this still-young athlete and entertainer will accomplish. Youth LeBron James was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio, to Gloria James, then a sixteen-year-old high school student. Gloria James was only a junior when she became pregnant, yet she doggedly completed high school and received her diploma. Young LeBron never knew his father. Gloria James said the father split up with her before the boy’s birth and was never a presence in his life. Gloria James survived financially by relying on her mother, Freda, to house them. Freda was also a poor, single parent then. The James’s existence was tenuous, but the daughter’s brothers and cousins contributed to LeBron’s upbringing. Young LeBron endured a life of poverty. He and four friends played basketball together through grade school, and together, they also went on to play basketball at St. Vincent–St. Mary, a Roman Catholic high school in Akron. LeBron received a scholarship in order to attend the private school. He graduated in

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2003 and announced that he would turn professional and make himself available for the NBA draft. At that time James also signed a $90 million sneaker contract with Nike. During LeBron James’s senior year his mother gave him a $50,000 platinum-colored Hummer H2 Sport Utility Vehicle courtesy of a bank loan. The Ohio High School Athletic Association invested the appropriateness of the purchase and in May 2003 declined to press charges. That summer, the Cleveland Cavaliers, located forty miles from James’s hometown, won the draft lottery and right to select James first from a talented class that included future teammates Wade and Bosh. James accepted a standard three-year NBA rookie contract with an option for a fourth year for nearly $13 million. In six NBA seasons James has averaged 27.8 points per game, seven rebounds, and seven assists. His productivity has resulted in 34 games of triple-double figures in points, rebounds, and assists according to nba.fanhouse.com, feats that recall another great Ohio basketball superstar, Oscar Robertson of the 1960s-era Cincinnati Royals, who is the only player ever to average a triple double for an entire season. Cleveland’s James gang was notable for their coordinated headband wearing. Individually, LeBron James has a pregame ritual of pouring talcum powder into his powerful hands then casting the particles skyward. As a pitchman for Nike, James has been a prop for a puppet that pals around with a puppet version of Kobe Bryant. James has also played a Jheri-curled figure from the 1980s with great camp. He also endorses McDonald’s, Coca Cola, and State Farm Mutual Insurance products. In 2008, James generated buzz when he posed with leggy Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen for the Vogue magazine fitness issue. In 2009, James formed LRMR Marketing with three of his Akron friends. James has sought financial advice from Warren Buffett. James’s basketball accomplishments include 2004 Rookie of the Year, 2009 and 2010 NBA Most Valuable Player, 2006 and 2008 All-Star Game MVP, and cocaptain of the gold medal-winning 2008 Olympic team, nicknamed the ‘‘Redeem Team,’’ because it avenged an underwhelming bronze medal finish by the 2004 U.S. team. As for the NBA playoffs, James performed statistically better than the regular season, 29 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists per game, but his Cavalier teams came up short of championships. In 2007, the James gang met three-time champion San Antonio Spurs in the NBA finals but were swept in four games. In 2010, the Cavaliers looked like they could beat the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, but they faded, largely because of a game six in which James appeared deflated by a distraction unrelated to basketball. The Celtics advanced to the finals and were edged by Bryant’s Lakers in an entertaining seven-game series. James meanwhile declared himself a free agent in July. Courting began by his Cavaliers, the New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, Chicago Bulls, and the Los Angeles Clippers. James held his cards close until the ESPN special ‘‘The Decision,’’ which aired on July 8, 2010. James announced he would join Miami Heat superstar Wade and arriving star Chris Bosh, who departed the Toronto Raptors. Fans now wait to see what will come of ‘‘King’’ LeBron James and his new court.

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Further Reading Gordon, Roger. 2004. Tales from the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Rookie Season of LeBron James. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing. James, LeBron, and Buzz Bissinger. 2010. LeBron’s Dream Team: How Five Friends Made History. New York: Penguin. Matuszewki, Erik. 2010. ‘‘LeBron James Doesn’t Need NY to Join the Billionaire Club.’’ Bloomberg News, May 14. Pluto, Terry, and Brian Windhorst. 2009. LeBron James: The Making of an MVP. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company. Robinson, B. J. 2005. LeBron James—King of the Court. East Cleveland, OH: Forest Hill Publishing. Sullivan, Robert. 2008. ‘‘Dream Team: What’s the Secret behind the World’s Best Bodies?’’ Vogue 198 (April): 292–311. Wayne Dawkins and Lew Freedman

Jazz and Jazz Festivals While jazz as a musical art form evolved in the late 1800s and first decades of the twentieth century, it still took a number of years for it to overcome negative attitudes, connotations, and stereotypes before receiving recognition and legitimacy as a uniquely American cultural contribution. Most written histories of the music cite New Orleans as its primary birthplace, although there is evidence that similar musical developments were taking place in other American cities. The music was also associated with difficult (and sometimes disreputable) lifestyles, as it was often performed in places where alcohol, drugs, gambling, and prostitution took place. Large ensembles developed during the Big Band or Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s were led by black bandleaders such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, William ‘‘Count’’ Basie, William Henry ‘‘Chick’’ Webb, and Jimmie Lunceford, as well as white jazz orchestras led by persons such as Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, and Woody Herman. With acceptance and popularity, the music moved to larger and more respectable venues such as ballrooms, theaters, and eventually prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York City. Goodman also created the first nationally known integrated jazz groups when he hired African American pianist Teddy Wilson in 1935, followed by vibraphonist Lionel Hampton in 1936, and guitarist Charlie Christian in 1939, while Shaw made Billie Holiday the first black vocalist to be a featured performer with a major white band in 1938. Jazz Artists and Early Festivals During and after World War II (1939–45), most of the big bands struggled to survive, downsized to smaller groups, or disbanded altogether. As a result, newer artists and jazz styles emerged such as Bebop Music, led by saxophonist Charlie

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Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, and drummers Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey, Max Roach, and Roy Haynes, among others. Another trumpeter, Miles Davis, was credited as a leader of the ‘‘cool jazz’’ movement, while Blakey’s various ‘‘Jazz Messengers’’ groups incorporated blues and gospel elements with jazz in what became known as ‘‘hard bop’’ during the 1950s. Major figures from the earlier decades were still performing and recording, including Louis Armstrong, Earl ‘‘Fatha’’ Hines, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, and Roy Eldridge. As early as May 1949, Davis performed at what was called a ‘‘jazz festival’’ in France. Three decades later, a recording of the concert was issued with the title The Paris Festival International, but it is unclear if the event was a series of concerts involving other artists or just a recording of one or more performances by Davis and his group of musicians over the four days of the Paris event. While jazz artists have almost always performed in outside as well as interior settings in the United States and internationally, the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island is generally credited as being the first outdoor event specifically designed to highlight jazz music on a regular basis. Elaine Lorillard (1914–2007) joined pianist, singer, and nightclub owner George Wein to organize the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1954, and promoted it as the ‘‘First Annual American Jazz Festival’’. Notable performers for the first series of concerts included singers Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. Other special performances from the early Newport years included Miles Davis in 1955; the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1956; and the return of Fitzgerald and Holiday, along with jazz vocalist/pianist Carmen McRae in 1958. The 1956 Ellington performance at Newport is credited as reviving his career and the popularity of his band. He had not been immune to the economic realities of maintaining a large ensemble when most other surviving big band leaders had gone to smaller groups, but their rendition of ‘‘Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,’’ featuring the saxophonist Paul Gonsalves and trumpeter William ‘‘Cat’’ Anderson, created such a sensation that the band was asked to re-create the performance in the recording Ellington at Newport. Portions of early festivals were also broadcast on the Voice of America radio network, while the 1959 documentary film, Jazz On a Summer’s Day, included footage of a variety of Newport performances by such diverse artists as Armstrong, Monk, gospel icon Mahalia Jackson, saxophonist Sonny Stitt, blues singer Big Maybelle, jazz drummer Chico Hamilton, jazz/rhythm and blues singer Dinah Washington, Rock-and-Roll pioneer Chuck Berry, and others. Many other artists have released recordings of their performances at Newport, including music icons Ray Charles (1958) and John Coltrane (1965). The recording Ray Charles at Newport is notable for the reason that it features the well-known singer, pianist, and bandleader also performing on alto saxophone, while Coltrane’s New Thing at Newport is one of the last recordings of his ‘‘classic quartet’’ including pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones.

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In September 1958 the Monterey (California) Jazz Festival was founded by Jimmy Lyons and Ralph Gleason. It became the second major American jazz festival, and also featured many of the leading jazz artists at its first event, including Armstrong, Holiday, Gillespie, Roach, trumpeter Art Farmer, and pianist John Lewis, who went on to lead one of the greatest small jazz groups, the Modern Jazz Quartet. The Monterey Jazz Festival is also recognized as the world’s longest running jazz festival, with over fifty consecutive years of concerts at the same location. It holds this distinction over Newport only because Wein and other promoters moved the festival to New York City in 1972. They returned to Newport in 1981 while continuing events in New York, which provided additional venues and performance opportunities for jazz artists. After establishing a corporate sponsorship and relationship in 1984 with JVC, an international consumer electronics company, the Newport and New York festivals became known as part of the series of JVC Jazz Festivals. Over time, corporate sponsorship, ownership, and/or marketing of major jazz festivals expanded to various cities and countries in Europe, Australia, the Middle East and Asia, Africa, and South America, as well as in the United States and elsewhere in North America. In some instances, jazz festivals were subsidized by government-supported cultural agencies alongside other performing arts such as classical music, opera, dance/ballet, and drama. Other festivals have organized as nonprofit corporations and/or secured support from other independent nonprofit arts organizations, with funding from foundation grants and other charitable resources. While the spring and summer months are the most popular time of year, jazz festivals are now held year-round in different parts of the world. They provide a major source of income for established artists, exposure for young and emerging jazz talent, and showcases for a wide variety of creative music in traditional and innovative styles/formats. The Montreux (Switzerland) Jazz Festival, founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs, Geo Voumard, and Rene Langel, developed into one of the most famous music festivals in Europe. It expanded from a ‘‘pure’’ (mainstream) jazz format to include artists from rock, Rhythm and Blues, pop, and various international music traditions presented in a wide variety of indoor as well as outdoor locations. The festival lengthened from three days during its first year to more than two weeks in July by the 1980s, and has attracted crowds estimated in the range of a quarter million persons. Many jazz festivals supplement the various concerts and performances with educational workshops for beginning musicians and/or competitions of aspiring musicians, as well as both formal and informal networking opportunities involving artists, managers, concert promoters, recording company representatives, writers and journalists, and other persons in the music industry. The festivals also create opportunities for personal and musical ‘‘reunions’’ of musicians who once played together before forming and leading their own bands and groups, as well as the potential for ‘‘jamming’’ (spontaneous performing) with other musicians in planned and/or unexpected settings and combinations. Miles Davis appeared at Montreux on several occasions, including a retrospective concert featuring much of his early music with big bands conducted by Quincy Jones in July 1991.

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This performance was documented as the recording and film Miles and Quincy: Live at Montreux, which gained additional significance after Davis died in September of the same year. Festivals Honor Legendary Musicians In tribute to legendary jazz musicians, a number of jazz festivals have been named in their honor and/or memory, while others may devote concerts or the entire event to the music associated with a specific artist. The Satchmo Summerfest in New Orleans, Louisiana, takes its name from one of Louis Armstrong’s nickname, while Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, and trumpeter Clifford Brown are other examples of musicians whose names have been given to jazz festivals. One of the newer venues at Montreux is the Miles Davis Hall; and the John Coltrane Memorial Concert in Boston (now part of the city’s Equinox Music Festival) is recognized as the world’s oldest annual tribute to the saxophonist. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was established by Wein and other promoters in 1970, and celebrated the city’s rich musical history with artists from every style and period of jazz, as well as other music associated with the region, including Ragtime, blues, soul, gospel, country, and zydeco/Cajun. Early/traditional jazz from groups such as the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band were just as prominently featured as the modern jazz presented by various members of the famed Marsalis family (father and pianist Ellis, saxophonist Branford, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, trombonist Delfeayo, and drummer Jason). Other nationally known performers and artists with New Orleans or Louisiana origins, such as pianists Antoine ‘‘Fats’’ Domino, Professor Longhair, and Allen Toussaint, or soul groups such as the Meters and the Neville Brothers all contributed to the variety of music presented each year. Jazz pianist, author, broadcaster, and music educator Billy Taylor founded the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival in 1996, held annually in Washington, DC, with support from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Williams was honored and remembered for her pioneering role as a jazz pianist, arranger, and composer from the Swing Era of the 1930s until her death in 1981, and the festival highlights both new and established female jazz artists. Legendary comedian Bill Cosby served as host of the Playboy Jazz Festival for a number of years. The annual event, held in June at the Hollywood Bowl amphitheater in Los Angeles, California, is also known for presenting the best mainstream jazz artists as well as Latin and other international music performers. Nearly every major American city now holds some sort of jazz festival, as well as a number of smaller and less obvious locations. Moscow, Idaho, has been home to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival since 1967 (the University of Idaho in the same city also dedicated the Lionel Hampton School of Music in 1987), while Boise, Idaho established the Gene Harris Jazz Festival in 1998 after the pianist retired and relocated to that city. The same situation exists in other countries, where jazz festivals in major cities such as Montreal (Quebec) and Toronto

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(Ontario) Canada; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; Berlin, Germany; and the Hague, Netherlands, are complemented by events such as Jazz in Marciac (France), a small town festival that honored Wynton Marsalis for his annual appearances by erecting a statue and naming a wine for him. In recent years the jazz festival concept has expanded to include ‘‘jazz cruises,’’ where a variety of jazz artists are hired to perform on cruise ships. Jazz fans can now pay for the enjoyment of travel by ship to destinations in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and other locations, see and hear great artists in live performances, and take advantage of opportunities to interact with the musicians offstage as well as onstage. The popularity and success of jazz festivals (in all their different formats) continue to sustain the music as a performing as well as recording art, the artists who perform it, and the portion of the music industry which is devoted to producing and marketing jazz to audiences worldwide. See also: Bands and Bandleaders; Musicians and Singers; Pop Music; Zydeco Music Further Reading Erlewine, Michael, ed. 1998, All Music Guide to Jazz. San Franscisco: Miller Freeman Books. Monterey Jazz Festival. 2010. Web Site. http://www.montereyjazzfestival.org. Montreux Jazz Festival. 2010. Web Site. http://www.montreuxjazz.com. Newport Jazz Festival. Web Site. http://www.newportjazzfest.net. Pruett, Jon and Mike McGuirk. 2004. The Music Festival Guide: For Music Lovers and Musicians. Chicago: A Cappella Books. Fletcher F. Moon

Jemison, Mae (1956– ), Astronaut, Physician The only African American woman to travel in space, Mae C. Jemison is a renaissance woman who has achieved in the fields of science, technology, and medicine. She is an important role model for women, ethnic minorities, and those who would pursue space programs. Born Mae Carol Jemison on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, to Charlie and Dorothy Jemison, the future astronaut lived near the Marshall Space Flight Center. When Mae was three years old, the Jemisons moved to Chicago. She became an avid reader and was inspired by a fictional black woman astronaut, Lieutenant Uhura, who appeared in the 1960s television series Star Trek. Jemison graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1977, and from Cornell University’s medical school in 1981. After completing a medical internship at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center in 1982, she worked as a general practitioner with INA/Ross Loos Medical Group in Los Angeles until December of

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that year. She joined the Peace Corps as a medical officer and managed the health care delivery system in Sierra Leone and Liberia from January 1983 to June 1985. When she returned to the United States, Jemison joined CIGNA Health Plans of California, worked as a general practitioner, and enrolled in graduate engineering classes until she was selected for the space program. Apparently her early interest in space never waned, for in 1987, she applied to the space program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was accepted on her second application, one of fifteen astronauts selected from a pool of over two thousand applicants. Jemison was also the fifth African American astronaut in NASA’s history and the first woman of color admitted to the program. In August 1987, Jemison began her space training and on September 12, 1992, she embarked on a mission aboard the space shuttle Endeavor. The eight-day STS47 mission was a joint program of the United States and Japan and flew from and returned to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As mission specialist, her task was to study the effects of zero gravity on people and animals; she focused on bone cell research. In her technical assignment she verified the shuttle’s computer software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL). On her journey Jemison took with her items from popular culture, including a Michael Jordan jersey from the Chicago Bulls professional basketball team and an Alvin Ailey dance poster. Jemison resigned from NASA in 1993 and formed the Jemison Group, a technology company that ‘‘integrates social issues with technology designs.’’ Through the program she continues her work with health care in West Africa, using thermal electricity and satellite-based telecommunications to achieve its mission. Jemison has maintained a keen interest in science projects for children. She established the Earth We Share Program in 1994, a science camp for children from all over the world. Jemison taught at Dartmouth College from 1995 to 2002 and also founded BioSentient Corporation, a research company that studies motion sickness and other medical issues. Her autobiography, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life, was published in 2001. She continues her involvement with media and science programs and has been widely acknowledged with honorary degrees and citations. See also: Science and Scientists Further Reading Ackman, Martha. 2008. ‘‘Mae Jemison.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 4. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. (n.d) ‘‘Biographical Data.’’ [Mae C. Jemison, MD.] NASA.gov. http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/jemison-mc.html. Smith, Jessie Carney. 1992. ‘‘Mae C. Jemison.’’ In Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research. Jessie Carney Smith

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Jet Jet is a digest-sized weekly newsmagazine that covers topics relevant to African Americans. It was first published in November 1, 1951, by Johnson Publishing, which John H. Johnson of Chicago, founded. Jet was created as a companion to Johnson Publishing’s other African American magazines, Ebony and Tan Confessions. It was created to be a weekly news magazine that focused on topics such as African American history, news, celebrities, sports, and fashion. The magazine gathered information and news relevant to African Americans and condensed it down into digest form. Jet is known for its cover stories of influential African Americans, many times popular celebrities. Some of the earliest cover articles in Jet were on Katherine Dunham, a famous African American dancer, and Josephine Baker, a famous entertainer and actress. Jet continues to provide cover stories of prominent and influential African Americans. The magazine was influential during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1955, it was one of the only media outlets to publish the graphic pictures of the body of Emmett Till lying in the casket during his funeral in Chicago, Illinois. Emmett Till was the fourteen-year-old who was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant. Till was forcibly removed from his uncle’s house by Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, and J. W. Millam; he was beaten, shot, and his body dumped into the Tallahatchie River near Glendora, Mississippi. Jet has also covered timely issues of the day, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1952 when it was still illegal in many states for an African American and a white person to marry, Jet published a cover article on African American women who married a white man. The article discussed the acceptance by the entertainment industry of mixed-race couples and stated that it may be the beginning of a wider acceptance of such couples. Jet continued to provide coverage of news during the Civil Rights Movement including an entire issue devoted to Martin Luther King Jr. after his death in 1968. In 1955, Jet opened an office in Jet magazine cover, featuring comedian and actor Steve Harvey. (AP/Wide World Photos) Washington, DC, staffed by famed

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writer Simeon Booker, one of the first African American writers at the Washington Post. Booker’s column in Jet covered political news relevant to African Americans including legislation and information African Americans working in politics in Washington. Booker retired from the magazine in 2007. Jet continues to be an important weekly magazine covering African American news, culture, entertainment, and history. See also: Journalism and Journalists; Publishers and Publishing Further Reading Burroughs, Todd Steven. 2009. ‘‘Jet.’’ In Encyclopedia of African Anerican History 1896 to the Present, Vo. 3. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Pride, Amistead Scott, and Clint C. Wilson Jr. 1997. A History of the Black Press. Washington, DC: Howard University Press. Smith, Jessie Carney. 1999. ‘‘John H. Johnson.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Theresa Mastrodonato

Jim Crow Jim Crow refers to the caricature of African Americans established by performers on the minstrel stage as well as the system of laws that hindered the social and economic progress of African Americans in the American South. White minstrel Thomas ‘‘Daddy’’ Rice helped make ‘‘Jim Crow’’ an enduring element in African American popular culture with his 1830 song ‘‘Jump, Jim Crow.’’ With his face painted with burnt cork and his lips painted red, Rice danced and sang about jumping ‘‘Jim Crow,’’ and his performances, much like the performances of the minstrel stage tradition, were designed to promote black inferiority and white superiority, which we see in Jim Crow segregation laws aimed to ensure the unequal treatment of United States citizens based on skin color. While the minstrel stage had been complicit in perpetuating ideas of black inferiority, African Americans were making strides despite slavery. Writers Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ann Jacobs, along with abolitionists Robert Purvis and James Forten, a wealthy entrepreneur, among numerous other men and women, were proving black inferiority to be more of a social mythology than empirical reality. In 1865, with the close of the Civil War and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment that ended slavery, anxiety began to spread over the state of the newly emancipated African Americans. Radical Reconstruction was put in place to ensure the enfranchisement of the men and women released from bondage, but the federal assistance program was abandoned after the disputed presidential election of 1876 resulted the next year in the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and the return of selfgovernment to the former Confederate states. Although African Americans still

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needed support, they no longer received it on a major scale from the federal government. The promise of forty acres and a mule in which so many had believed went unfulfilled. A backlash against black progress gained momentum as the century wore on. By 1896, separate-but-equal legislation was firmly in place to help preserve the status quo of white supremacy and to help soothe social anxieties about the color line. Rhoden Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun, wrote towards the turn of the twentieth century that, ‘‘We are in the midst of a growing menace. The black man is rapidly forging to the front ranks in athletics especially in the field of fisticuffs. We are in the midst of a black rise against white supremacy.’’ It is perhaps telling that, just when separate-but-equal legislation was beginning to shape the social landscape of the United States, John Arthur Jack Johnson was beginning his Boxing career in Texas, and would, by 1908, become the first black heavyweight champion of the world. Along with his supreme career in the ring, outside the ring Johnson battled Jim Crow stereotypes that attempted to limit what African Americans could achieve in the United States. While Johnson offered glimmers of hope, the law of the land often dealt powerful blows to black people living in the racially divided United States. In 1920, a law was passed in Mississippi that made marriages between blacks and whites (Miscegenation) a crime. In Kentucky and other southern states, white and black children had different textbooks, and textbooks used by a black child were not used for white children. Along with separate water fountains and restaurants, in the court of law, blacks and whites were sworn in on different Bibles. Despite these daily injustices and indignities, African Americans, on the whole, continued to believe in the founding documents of the land offering liberty, offering justice, and so, with the arrival of World War II, black men went off to war, fighting to uphold American democratic ideals abroad. Beating Hitler and his white supremacist beliefs, they reasoned, would aid in the defeat of Jim Crow segregation laws at home, yet when they returned from war abroad they found continued racial discrimination at home. Gains for social and legal equality were made by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, yet the persistence of racism, prejudice, and injustice in the United States prompted such movements as the Black Power Movement. In the twenty-first century, the inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States of America as well as the growing significance of African Americans in all aspects of popular culture continues to diminish the shadow of Jim Crow. See also: Civil Rights Cases Further Reading Leach, Laurie F. 2004. ‘‘Fighting Hitler and Jim Crow.’’ In Langston Hughes: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rabaka, Reiland. 2006. ‘‘Jim Crow.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Vol. 2. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

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Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown Publishers. Tuttle, Kate. 1999. ‘‘Jim Crow.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Johnson, Jack (1878–1946), Boxer The first African American heavyweight Boxing champion, Jack Johnson is often thought of as ‘‘the pioneer of African American popular culture legends,’’ write Martin and Kramer in African Americans in Popular Culture. Quoting Gerald Early, they add that he was ‘‘the first African American pop culture icon.’’ His reign in the ring lasted from 1908 to 1915. He was adored by the black community but despised by the white, yet one cannot deny that ‘‘he left an indelible print on the sport of boxing and society at large,’’ Martin and Kramer continue. Johnson and other boxing legends, such as Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali, helped to pave the way for other young African American boxers by removing obstructions in the sport. Jack Johnson practiced a sport that had existed among African Americans for some time. During slavery, boxing matches were held between whites and blacks on plantations. Some African Americans, for example Thomas Molineaux and Bill Richmond, earned their freedom by boxing and went on to establish careers in the sport in the United States and Great Britain. Boxing became even more popular in the African American community after the Civil War. Perhaps the most noteworthy black prizefighter in the nineteenth century was George ‘‘Lil Chocolate’’ Dixon, whose fame remained fixed in popular culture for some time. John Arthur Johnson, popularly known as Jack Johnson, was born in Galveston, Texas, on March 31, 1878, to Henry and Tina ‘‘Tiny’’ Johnson. His parents, who were former slaves, had nine children; Jack was their first son. To help the family financially, Jack worked in a variety of jobs, including in a Barbershop, at a racetrack, and as a porter and stevedore. While in his teens, he sought work in Dallas and elsewhere as he rode the rails from his hometown to New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and California. In addition to intermittent work in these and other cities, occasionally he engaged in boxing contests with blacks as well as whites. Although racial segregation was the order of the day, white promoters sought young black fighters to help attract a crowd and to entertain them. When interracial matches were held, it was not unusual for the promoters to blindfold the black boxer to give him a disadvantage in the ring; this never deterred Johnson who took full advantage of such opportunities. The big, strapping Johnson stood 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed 200 pounds. His first meaningful match came in 1902, when he had a successful fight in Bakersfield against the younger brother of heavyweight champion James Jeffries. In early 1903, Johnson had become the black heavyweight world’s champion, as

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distinguished from the white. The growth of boxing slowed for a while, due to the fact that its audiences were often unsavory characters from the saloons located near the boxing site. As well, by now Johnson had only occasional fights with whites, and when he did, the opponents were often lackluster men whose presence in the ring added no excitement. Jack Johnson rose to fame on December 26, 1908, when he fought Canadian Tommy Burns, who held the title world champion, in a match in Sydney, Australia. Both fighters were boastful and cocky, but the diminutive Burns was no match for the strong, tall, and quick Johnson, who was relentless in the ring. When Johnson was declared the winner, the unhappy crowd quickly left the stadium. Without a doubt, Johnson was now the official heavyweight champion of the world. The flamboyant Johnson had a way of getting under the skin of white people. He was showy in dress, demonstrated confidence in his ability, and, worse yet for whites of that era, had a penchant for white women and married some of them. He also associated with white prostitutes. According to the Encyclopedia of African American History, it appeared that he ‘‘changed female companions as frequently as he changed his clothes.’’ He met Etta Duryea in 1909, whom he later married after dropping two other women from his life. He also bought a house on the South Side of Chicago, known as ‘‘Bronzeville,’’ and drove around in expensive and flashy cars. After he beat Stanley Ketchel in 1909, white Americans began their search for the ‘‘great white hope,’’ or someone from their race who could beat the superior black boxer. Johnson proved his superiority again when he beat James Jeffries in a fifteenround match held in Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910. African Americans in Chicago rejoiced over the victory and on July 7 held a parade for their hero. In cities such as Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Washington, DC, however, the disdain that whites had as result of the victory was manifest in clashes between blacks and whites. Johnson celebrated his success by appearing at theaters, vaudeville shows, and games that Negro Baseball Leagues held. Despite his success in the ring, Johnson continued to have difficulties with his private life. A few weeks after his wife Etta Duryea committed suicide in September 1911, Johnson was spotted in public with a nineteen-year-old white woman. This led to a conviction in 1913, when he was found guilty of violating the Mann Act prohibiting Prostitution, immorality, and human trafficking. Later he exiled himself to Europe with another white wife. He had a rather successful stint in France, where he participated in stage shows, boxing exhibitions, and some wrestling matches. Then he relocated to Mexico, where he became a bullfighter and later opened a saloon in Tijuana. The political relations between Mexico and the United States worked against him, and after seven years in exile Johnson returned home where, as punishment for his earlier behavior, he served one year in Leavenworth prison, a federal facility in Kansas. When released, he resumed his extravagant living, but this time returning to wrestling matches, burlesque shows, and other exhibitions that he had known earlier. He was also a preacher, boxing promoter, stockbroker, and lecturer, but he was no longer a serious boxer.

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Jack Johnson died in an automobile accident in North Carolina in 1946. When his funeral was held in Chicago, some 2,500 people crowded into a church auditorium to celebrate his life. The picture of Johnson that permeates boxing history is that of a boxer with a shaven head, impeccably dressed, and diamondattired, who lived as he pleased in a racially segregated society. He may well be the man that Arthur Ashe wrote about: ‘‘the most significant African American athlete in history.’’ See also: Men, African American, Images of; Sports Further Reading Dupont, Jill. 2009. ‘‘Jack Johnson.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present, Vol. 3. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Jenkins, Barbara. 1999. ‘‘Jack Johnson.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research. LoDico, John. 1995. ‘‘Jack Johnson.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 8. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research. Martin, Brandon E., and Dennis A. Kramer II. 2008. ‘‘‘Giants of the Ring’: A Tribute to the African American Athlete in Boxing.’’ In African Americans and Popular Culture. Vol. 2. Todd Boyd, ed. Westport, CT: Praeger. Frederick D. Smith

Johnson, James Weldon (1871–1938), Writer, Educator, Activist, Songwriter James Weldon Johnson contributed extensively in the first third of the twentieth century to the preservation and study of African American culture and traditions and provided through his work a keen respect for the common folk. Johnson was also considered a Renaissance man because of his mastery of several professions in a generation immediately after the Civil War when racism and violence were deterrents to opportunity. James Weldon Johnson, born on June 17, 1871, was the first of two sons born to James and Helen Johnson, a middle-class black family in Jacksonville, Florida. Johnson’s parents were educators who taught both of their sons an appreciation of the arts as well as preparing them to succeed in a white dominated world. Johnson attended Stanton Public School for blacks and went on to earn a BA degree from Atlanta University. Having decided upon education as a career, Johnson’s experiences as a young teacher in rural Georgia gave him firsthand knowledge about the lives of rural blacks and what fueled their perspective of the world. Johnson later returned home to Florida to serve as principal of his alma mater, Stanton Public School. While serving as principal, Johnson studied law and became the first black man to pass the Florida bar examination in 1897. He practiced law from 1898 to 1901. In 1900, Georgia, Johnson teamed with his brother, John Rosamond, to

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write a song for the school’s celebration honoring Abraham Lincoln. The words by Johnson and the music by his brother captured the life of struggle of black Americans with such truth and hope that it became very popular. The song was sung throughout the country and came to be known, as the ‘‘Negro National Anthem.’’ The anthem’s place in the community continued into the twentieth century and beyond. Determined to do more in the arts, Johnson went to New York, where he studied drama and literature at Columbia University from 1903–6. Johnson and his brother worked with composer Bob Cole and wrote over two hundred songs for black musicals, including ‘‘Under the Bamboo Tree’’ and ‘‘Oh Don’t He Ramble,’’ which were quite popular during that time. Johnson was involved in politics as well as creative endeavors. In 1904, he was encouraged by black Republican Charles W. Anderson to apply for a post in the U.S. Consular Service. He served one term as consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, from 1904 to 1909 and a second term in Corinto, Nicaragua, from 1909 to 1912. During this time Johnson was moving creatively to prose, poetry, and other literary forms. One of his earliest literary works was a fictional novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. The novel, which was originally published anonymously in 1912, received limited, though positive attention. It was republished in 1927 and directly connected with the concerns of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance (1919–40). The novel addressed the issues of racial identity and the problematic relationship between the rights and opportunities for African American citizens. During the Harlem Renaissance, Johnson’s works clearly supported the preservation of the cultural expression of common folk. He anthologized many works such as Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917); The Book of Negro Spirituals, published with his brother (1922); The Second Book of Negro Spirituals (1925), which were collected into one volume in 1926; and God’s Trombone: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927). His contributions to works such as The New Negro (1925) helped to establish a basis for the study of African American culture. He further challenged young African American artists in the anthology The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) to no longer be limited to dialect as a reflection of the race, but present expression that moved away from stereotypical images and focused on cultural and political concerns of the race. Expanding his writing to include all discussions regarding the African American experience, Johnson contributed to cultural histories and surveys such as Black Manhattan (1930) and Saint Peter Relates an Incident (1930). Johnson’s commitment to his people and his community fostered a lengthy relationship with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) beginning in 1914. He was the NAACP’s first field secretary and earned approval to open branch offices in the South that were greatly needed. He took the lead in protests against the Lynching of blacks, and riots that resulted in the needless death of blacks. Johnson served twice as acting secretary of the NAACP and in 1920 he became the first non-white executive secretary. In 1927, Johnson was on leave from the NAACP as a result of winning a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship. Johnson took the opportunity to write and publish and, in 1932, he was appointed as the first Adam K. Spence Professor of Creative Writing at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He published his autobiography in 1933, Along

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The Way, to offer his life experiences as well as distinguish himself from the fictional character in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Johnson died in 1938 as a result of a car and train accident. His literary contributions recorded and preserved a true picture of the common African American experience while inspiring other culture-centered ways of expression. Johnson’s many career achievements provided an example of determination during a time when blacks were still struggling for access and opportunity. Further Reading Johnson, James Weldon. 1993. Along the Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson. New York: Viking. Johnson, James Weldon. 2004. Writing: by James Weldon Johnson. New York: Library of America: Penguin Putnam. Price, Kenneth M., and Lawrence J. Oliver. 1997. Critical Essays on James Weldon Johnson. New York: G. K. Hall. University of South Carolina. 2010. ‘‘James Weldon Johnson: 1871–1938. Biography.’’ University Libraries: Rare Books and Special Collections. http://www.sc.edu/ library/spcoll/amlit/johnson/johnson1.html. Wilson, Sondra K., ed. 1999. In Search of Democracy: The NAACP Writings of James Weldon Johnson, Walter White and Roy Wilkins (1929–1977). New York: Oxford University Press. Lean’tin L. Bracks

Johnson, John H. (1918–2005), Publisher, Entrepreneur John Harold Johnson established the first, highly successful, black-owned publishing company in the United States, founding Negro Digest, Ebony, and Jet. His company owned radio stations, produced television programs, created cosmetic lines, and hosted a famous traveling fashion show. Johnson also served as CEO of Supreme Liberty Life Insurance of Chicago. The National Newspaper Publishers Association called him the ‘‘Most Outstanding Black Publisher in History’’ (1974), and Baylor University named him ‘‘The Greatest Minority Entrepreneur in U. S. History’’ (2003). On January 19, 1918, Johnnie Johnson became the only son of Leroy and Gertrude Jenkins Johnson. He had an older sister, Beulah, born from his mother’s previous marriage. At the age of eight, he lost his father in a sawmill accident. A year later, his mother married James Williams. Johnson grew up in his birthplace, Arkansas City, Arkansas, and attended Arkansas City Colored School. Since the town had no high school, he repeated eighth grade while his family worked to save enough money to move to Chicago in July 1933. Placed in the tenth grade there, Johnson became an honor student. He served as student council president, edited the school newspaper, became manager for the yearbook, and participated in the French club. His junior and senior classes

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elected him president. During his senior year, he shortened his first name to John and chose Harold as his middle name. DuSable High School teachers selected him as speaker for his 1936 graduation. Later that year, Johnson spoke at a luncheon for the Urban League. The main speaker, well-known businessman Harry Pace, offered him a part-time job in the office at Supreme Liberty Life Insurance. Johnson attended the University of Chicago and served as assistant editor for the insurance company newsletter. In 1939, he received promotion to editor. Eventually, Johnson quit school to work full-time for the company. Later, he attended Northwestern University. In 1940, Johnson met Eunice Walker, who had come to Chicago on vacation. They became friends and married on June 21, 1941, in Selma, Alabama. The couple adopted two children. John Harold Jr., a photographer, died at the age of twenty-five after battling sickle cell anemia. His sister, Linda, grew up to work with and then head their father’s publishing company. Eunice Johnson later directed the Ebony Fashion Fair. In Johnson’s early days at the insurance company, he compiled summaries of news items involving African Americans from which Pace made selections for the company newsletter. The experience led Johnson to believe that a publication similar to Reader’s Digest could find an audience in the black community. In November 1942, he launched Negro Digest. Although advised against the venture, he financed the project with a $500 dollar loan, paying postage for 20,000 letters to the insurance company customers. Three thousand people accepted the offer of a two-dollar, prepaid subscription, providing money to print the first issue. Finding marketing difficult, Johnson enlisted friends to request the magazine at local newsstands. He convinced Charles Levy, a prominent local magazine distributor, to promote the digest, and Johnson himself reached out to local black businesses. Circulation climbed to 50,000 copies a month. The magazine featured a column ‘‘If I Were a Negro,’’ by contributors including Marshall Field, Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, and Pearl Buck. When Eleanor Roosevelt’s column appeared in October 1943, circulation boosted to over 100,000. Negro Digest Publishing Company introduced Ebony on November 1, 1945. Patterned after Life and Look, the pictorial magazine featured famous black Americans, providing positive images for readers, both black and white. The first press run of 25,000 sold out, and Johnson printed more. He then enlisted major advertisers like Zenith Radio and Chesterfield Cigarettes, and Ebony’s national advertising base grew from these sponsors. Renamed in 1951, Johnson Publishing launched a number of other magazines. In 1950, Tan, a women’s magazine later titled Black Stars, appeared. In 1951, the company introduced Jet, a weekly news digest, still in publication. Its companion magazine Hue, which carried feature articles, survived only briefly. Ebony Jr., for children, appeared in 1973. EM: Ebony Man, directed toward middle-aged black men, began publication in 1985. The company published its first book in 1945 and also ventured into the entertainment and fashion industries. In 1972, Johnson purchased WGRT, becoming

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the first black to own a radio station in Chicago. He later bought and sold at least three other stations. The company introduced two cosmetic lines: Fashion Fair Cosmetics and Supreme Beauty Products. With Eunice Johnson as director, the annual traveling fashion show, Ebony Fashion Fair, became highly successful internationally. Linda Johnson organized a weekly television variety show called Ebony/Jet Showcase. Johnson bought stock in Supreme Liberty Life Insurance, and in 1974 became its chairman and CEO. He served on the boards of major companies, including Chrysler, Bell and Howell, Twentieth Century Fox, Zenith Electronics, and Dillards department store’s. He became a trustee of Tuskegee Institute, Boston University, the United Negro College Fund, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The Harvard Graduate School of Business named him to its advisory council. As a special U.S. ambassador, he attended the independence celebrations for Kenya and for the Ivory Coast. Among numerous honors, Johnson received the NAACP’s Freedom Fund Award (1958), the Spingarn Medal (1966), and the Columbia Journalism Award (1974). He held membership in the Black Press Hall of Fame (1987), received the PUSH Foundation’s International Humanitarian Award (1989), and earned the Distinguished Service Award from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration (1991). John H. Johnson died on August 8, 2005. His autobiography, released in 1989, contains the details of his influential life. His daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, now leads the Johnson Publishing Company. See also: Business and Commerce; Journalism and Journalists; Publishers and Publishing Further Reading Goldsworthy, Joan. 1998. ‘‘John H. Johnson. Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale Research. Jenkins, Barbara Williams. 1999. ‘‘John H. Johnson.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Johnson, John H., and Lerone Bennett Jr. 1989. Succeeding Against the Odds. New York: Warner Books. Johnson Publishing.com. (n.d.) ‘‘John H. Johnson.’’ Biography. http://www.johnson publishing.com. Marie Garrett

Johnson, Magic (1959– ), Basketball Player Earvin ‘‘Magic’’ Johnson Jr., former professional Basketball player, Olympic gold medalist, entrepreneur, and cultural icon, was born in Lansing, Michigan, on August 14, 1959. According to the poet and biographer Quincy Troupe,

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Johnson earned the nickname ‘‘Windex’’ in high school because he ‘‘wiped glass backboards / so clean.’’ Standing 6 feet 9 inches, Johnson’s height alone made him an anomaly for point guards, and yet, as he towered over defenders, he demonstrated stunning ball control, often seeming as if he were dribbling a yo-yo. As a result of his high level of innovation and skill in terms of passing, dribbling, and scoring, Johnson earned the nickname ‘‘Magic,’’ the name he’s popularly known by. In an attempt to capture Johnson’s dynamic play in poetry, Quincy Troupe described Magic’s game as ‘‘a new-style fusion of shake-&-bake / energy, using everything possible, you created your own / space to fly through.’’ As a senior at Everett High School (Michigan), Johnson led his team to a state championship, averaging 28.8 points and 16.8 rebounds a game. In the fall of 1977, Johnson became a student at Michigan State University, where he excelled on the court, leading the Spartans to a national championship in 1979 against Larry Bird and Indiana State, establishing the rivalry between Magic and Bird in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After the national championship run during his sophomore year at Michigan State, Johnson elected to leave school to become a professional basketball player. In the 1979 draft, the Los Angeles Lakers, with the first pick overall, chose Magic Johnson. He would prove instrumental in their five NBA championships during the 1980s. During his rookie season, Johnson led the Lakers to a championship title against Julius ‘‘Dr. J’’ Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers. Following an injury to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson started at center during the final game, in the Philadelphia Spectrum, and scored 42 points—a finals record for rookies—to go along with his 15 rebounds and 7 assists. Johnson would go on to lead the Lakers to four more NBA titles (1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988) and to earn the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 1987, 1989, and 1990. On November 7, 1991, Johnson, thirty-two years old, said from the Forum, home of the Lakers, ‘‘I will have to retire from the Lakers today. I plan on going on for a long time. I will become a spokesman for the HIV virus because I want young people to understand they should practice safe sex.’’ His contraction of HIV brought a heightened awareness of the infection to the African American community and the broader national and international community. During his press conference, Johnson underscored that he did not have AIDS and that his wife had tested negative. The following year, Johnson returned to basketball, as a member of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Team, known as the Dream Team, and earned a gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games. In 1993–1994, he worked as a commentator for NBC Sports before returning to the Lakers as head coach during the 1994–95 season. His last season in a Laker uniform was 1995–96, when he averaged an impressive 14.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 6.9 assists in 32 games. Following his second and final retirement, Johnson began his career as an entrepreneur in earnest, leveraging his celebrity status to help individuals in inner cities and urban centers. The magnanimity Johnson showed on the court—passing the ball, finding the open teammate, creating opportunities for overall team success— was present off the court. Johnson partnered with Starbucks to bring eight

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franchises into American inner cities. His foundation arranged with HewlettPackard to bring online services to the youth and adults in his hometown. His Johnson Development Corporation forged an agreement with Loew’s Cineplex to build movie theaters in inner-city areas of Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Harlem, and Cleveland. In 2004, Johnson brokered a deal with NASCAR designed to bring minorities into the world of stock car racing. He has also developed the MAGIC cash card, designed to eliminate the need for check-cashing services typically found in the inner cities. Along with his efforts to provide basic amenities to those who might otherwise be without, Johnson has conducted ventures in commercial and residential real estate with an eye towards promoting business opportunities and home ownership among African Americans, revealing his ability to create opportunities for others on and off the court. See also: Social Activists; Sports Further Reading Hurd, Michael. 1991. ‘‘Magical Career Closes: Positive HIV Test Forces Retirement.’’ USA Today, November 8. Kirsch, George B., Othello Harris, and Claire E. Nolte, eds. 2000. ‘‘Earvin. (‘Magic’) Johnson Jr.’’ Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ‘‘Magic Johnson Career Stats.’’ http://www.nba.com/history/players/johnsonm_stats.html. 2008 Rounds, Marvella. ‘‘Earvin ‘Magic’’’ Johnson Jr.’’ 2006. In Encyclopedia of African American Business, Vol. 1. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Troupe, Quincy. 1996. ‘‘A Poem for ‘Magic.’’’ In Avalanche. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press. Who’s Who in the Twentieth Century. 1999. ‘‘Johnson, Magic.’’ New York: Oxford University Press. Oxford Reference Online. World Encyclopedia. 2008. ‘‘Johnson, ‘Magic.’’’ New York: Oxford University Press. Oxford Reference Online. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Jokes African American folk narrative may treat the joke as formally indistinguishable from other narrative forms, particularly the riddle or proverb. A joke can be lengthy like a folktale; it can occur in almost any context, from sacred to profane, and it can also refer to a wide and diverse range of subjects. It can function as indirect discourse, as when a joke takes on cautionary import. Overall, jokes depend upon incongruity, and because a joke’s meaning can never be literally determined, jokes lend themselves well to ironic discourse such as double entendre, sarcasm, satire, innuendo, Signifying, and ambivalence.

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Jokes are almost inherently ambiguous. Since a joke’s sense is imprecise, the joke’s meaning is indeterminate and open to possibility. The joke foregrounds alternative perspectives, representing competing senses that yield laughter from the absurdity in juxtaposed circumstance. The joke’s teller can imply messages using the subjunctive or conditional mood, rather than asserting them in the indicative mood. Thus, a joke’s sense tends to rely more upon a sort of ‘‘as if’’ status than an ‘‘is so’’ status that declares the truth of something. The joke’s figurative rather than literal meaning affords a speaker an indirect way of saying something the literal import of which can be denied. An insult, for instance, can be denied because it is not expressed in literal terms. As well, when there is status inequity in interpersonal relations, jokes are indirect discourse that lets the lower-status person hedge claims via their ambiguity. Thus a person of lower status can make disclaimers that protect him or her from the illogical predicaments arising in relations with figures of authority and prejudice. African Americans circulate jokes that refer to the plight of blacks in racist American society, making fun of the inconsistencies in an oppressive and unjust social, political, and economic system wherein black people are both physically and intellectually vital yet are treated as beasts of burden. The talking mule complains that all he ever does is work, interminably, and he is the counterpart to John, the black American slave character. The cook dreams that she went to heaven, and the next morning, when she tells her cohorts the dream, they ask her whether the blacks in heaven had to work in the kitchen; she responds indignantly that she never went into the kitchen. A black man and a white man are walking along the road, and the white man reaches over and takes a tick off the black man’s neck. The black man tells him, ‘‘It’s mine. Give it back.’’ The joke is that whites do not permit blacks to have anything in the United States; even the most undesirable things are appropriated by whites. Jokes about coons and black tricksters are often self-deprecating, as blacks adopt a wry attitude toward the dehumanizing conditions under which they as a group have labored in order to survive, yet this joking and laughter are a type of cathartic event enabling African Americans to meet and endure inequity. John is the human counterpart to Brer Rabbit, the trickster, and African American folk culture yields John a high respect for his survival and his joking, tongue-in-cheek disposition toward a master who may tend toward ignorance, cruelty, and foolishness. John’s jokes represent him as harmless and unassuming, while insiders watch as he manipulates his detractors into doing as he wants them to do. Jokes are thus as much tools for survival as they are pastimes and entertainment. A joke can occur in any setting and have any number of functions. In the African American folk sermon, there occurs the joke recognized in the question, ‘‘Who in the hell left the gate open?’’ This anecdote is about a posturing, undersized dog that gets trapped within his own threats and posturing. The little dog sits on the front porch and daily barks up a storm as the big dogs pass by the front gate, which is always locked and thus keeps him safe. One day, the little dog, as he does everyday, sees them, begins barking his boasts and threats, and in a fit of excitement and boldness, rushes off the porch to the gate and is terrified to find

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that the gate is open and he is fair game to the big dogs. In horror, the little dog asks, ‘‘Who in the hell left the gate open?’’ A preacher may include this joke as a sermon anecdote, wherein he may be signifying toward someone in the congregation or giving a warning, yet it includes a curse word, ‘‘hell,’’ and it turns upon a humorous mood, both of which are informal tenors within a traditionally sacred, formal, and serious context. In the context of American slavery and Jim Crow cruelties, African Americans frequently used jokes to hedge their relations with and responses to whites in authority and to express disrespect for them with impunity by use of references so indirect and ambiguous as to be readily available to disclaimer. When John, a hunter, steals three of his master’s pigs and is unexpectedly visited by the master, who looks in the pot and sees the pigs cooking, John says that it’s the darnedest thing because he put three possums in the pot, and who ever heard of three possums turning into pigs? Some traditional African culture groups practice what is called the joking relationship, in which individuals cultivate ritual friendship with someone who is distant enough to perform certain sacred functions on one’s behalf without danger of profanation. These ritual friends have formal duties in ritual affairs and on important occasions. Like the Pacific Islanders who employ jokes and riddles as part of Funerals, joking partners perform designated functions at such solemn events. Since jokes and riddles depend upon indirect reference and association of ideas, a certain level of maturity and awareness is necessary to comprehend them. Thus, designated speakers may present risqu
e anecdotes at wakes, and the surface meaning may be presentable, yet the implied—profane or sometimes obscene—sense may be inaccessible to the uninitiated, who might otherwise be offended but are not because of the message’s hidden sense within a joke or riddle. The joking relationship formally opens a greeting by way of an exchange of insults between joking partners. This exchange is said to be cathartic. In the United States, arguably, the Dozens is a similar ritual among adolescent African American males; the discourse turns on insult. The black folk toast, such as The Signifying Monkey, also relies upon insult and boast. Like jokes, riddles, and some proverbs, this discourse tends to be anecdotal, culturedependent, and ambiguous in import. Thus, in black folk culture, jokes are not always frivolous or lighthearted communication. See also Comedy and Comedians; Folklore; Humor Further Reading Brewer, J. Mason. 1968. American Negro Folklore. Chicago: Quadrangle. Dorson, Richard M. 1967. American Negro Folktales. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publishers. Jarmon, Laura C. 2003. Wishbone: Reference and Interpretation in Black Folk Narrative. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Laura C. Jarmon

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Jones, James Earl (1931– ), Actor James Earl Jones, a prominent African American actor, has made numerous contributions to African American popular culture and has broken new ground for blacks in a number of mainstream roles in plays, films, and television shows. Jones, whose career spans six decades, has performed many notable and eclectic roles, such as Othello, the famous Moor, in the eponymous play written by William Shakespeare, the legendary boxer Jack Johnson in the play and film adaptation, The Great White Hope, and Troy Maxson in Fences the play by August Wilson. Jones has also played, among other roles, a doctor, a president, a professor, a journalist, and a variety of action characters in films like The Swashbuckler (1976) and Conan the Barbarian (1982). Jones’s fame and notoriety is based on a career studded with acclaim and controversy. In the late 1960s and 1970s, many blacks objected to plays such as Paul Robeson and The Emperor Jones, wherein Jones appeared in starring roles. He would receive much praise, however, for roles such as Alex Haley in the popular television miniseries, Roots (1977) and the distinguished king of Zamunda, a fictional country in Africa, in Coming to America (1988), a comedy film that starred popular comedian and actor Eddie Murphy. Jones is also celebrated for his sonorous voice, having provided numerous voice-overs for commercials and films, most notably in the roles as the infamous Darth Vader in the Star Wars films and Mustafa in the animated film, The Lion King (1994). Jones’s extraordinary life began humbly on January 17, 1931, in a four-room home built by his grandfather in Arkabutla Township, Mississippi. He has African, Irish, and Native American ancestry. His mother, Ruth, had already separated from Jones’s father, Robert Earl Jones, a boxer and actor, when he was born. Ruth had a sixth-grade education; Robert Earl had only a third-grade education. The limited education of Jones’s parents was indicative of black children who grew up in the South in the early twentieth century. Jones was largely raised by his maternal grandparents who lived on a sprawling farm. (His grandmother insisted she raise Jones when Ruth moved away to another town.) The family, comprising several aunts, uncles, and grandchildren, worked the land for food and sustenance, as well as sharecropped. Jones grew up with a connection to the earth as he toiled, hunted, and fished with his grandfather. Mostly through his grandmother, he became familiar with many African American folk and religious traditions, such as oral storytelling and charismatic worshipping that included shouting, speaking in tongues, and singing Spirituals. In the late 1930s, Jones and his relatives moved to Brethren, Michigan. The move heralded major life changes for Jones. Although he and his family continued to live on a farm, they lived in a predominately white environment. Jones and the other children in the family had to get accustomed to the many changes. Jones eventually adjusted to communication differences by speaking Standard English at school and the familiar southern dialect and black vernacular at

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home. However, Jones started stuttering while in Michigan and would not speak in front of strangers from the time he was nine years old to fourteen years old. Jones credited his high school English teacher, Donald Crouch, who introduced him to poetry, for getting him to speak again. As a result, Jones’s life blossomed, and he submerged himself in many extracurricular activities, like basketball, but his favorite activities involved debating and acting. Jones reveals in his autobiography, Voices and Silences (2002), that his experiences with racism and discrimination, with the exception of a few confrontations with racial segregation, would have been worse in the South. Theater, Film, and Television Career Jones attended the University of Michigan after graduating from high school. (He would not graduate there.) Initially, he pursued a career as a doctor and then joined the military; however, Jones, who had acted while at the university, felt compelled to pursue professional acting. Jones worked several menial jobs while he attended art school at the Theatre Wing, where he graduated in 1957, and performed in the theater. During this period, Jones reunited with his father. Between the 1950s and 1960s, Jones performed in multiple theater productions and plays. Othello was considered particularly groundbreaking, because he was one of few African Americans, such as the legendary Paul Robeson, to portray the protagonist. Before the twentieth century, only white actors portrayed Othello in the United States. When Jones performed in the play, The Blacks, he worked with several prominent black actors, like Cicely Tyson, Lou Gossett Jr., and Maya Angelou. In 1963, Jones appeared in the short-lived television program, East Side, West Side, starring Cicely Tyson. Jones was one of the more visible blacks in film and television in the 1960s and 1970s, appearing in several racially conscious roles. In Roots, Jones portrayed Alex Haley, whose family lineage is the subject of the immensely popular miniseries. In the comedy film, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976), Jones, Richard Pryor, and Billy Dee Williams, portray former Negro Baseball Leagues players. Notwithstanding Jones’s career, Jones frequently collided with some black critics over some of the roles he chose to play. In Voices and Silences, Jones explains how, among other things, some African Americans objected to the use of ‘‘degrading Southern Negro dialect’’ in Emperor Jones and the portrayal of Paul Robeson in the eponymous play. By and large, Jones’s career is not only defined by culturally important work. Jones has had his pick of leading roles in several mainstream television series. However, the two television dramas he opted to appear in, Paris and Gabriel’s Fire, did not enjoy lasting success. He did, however, achieve acclaim in numerous blockbuster films, like Field of Dreams (1989) and The Hunt for Red October (1990). Jones has been married twice. He is currently married to actress Cecilia Hart. They have a son named Flynn. See also: Actors and Performers; Theater and Drama

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Further Reading Jones, James Earl. 1994. James Earl Jones. New York: Scribner. Jones, James Earl, and Piven, Penelope. 2002. Voices and Silences. Pompton Plains, NJ: Limelight Editions. Gladys L. Knight

Jones, Quincy (1933– ), Musician, Producer, Composer, Songwriter With a legendary career in the entertainment industry, Quincy Jones’s successes include work as trumpeter, conductor, record producer, arranger, film composer, television and film producer, songwriter, and record label executive. Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born March 14, 1933, in Chicago, Illinois. As a young child, music became his first love. A skillful trumpet player, Jones started playing the instrument at age twelve. Early in his career, Jones toured Europe playing the trumpet with the Lionel Hampton band. During this tour, Jones musical arrangement talents were utilized by many artists including Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington. One of Jones’s firsts includes serving as vice president of a major record company, Mercury Records, in 1961. No other African American had reached a high-level position in the recording industry. Jones also known as ‘‘Q,’’ has worked with the best and the brightest musicians across all genres to include Frank Sinatra, Bono, Stevie Wonder, Gloria Estefan, Take 6, Queen Latifah, and many more. In his seventy-plus years, Jones mixed elements of jazz, soul, pop, Hip-Hop, classical, African, and Brazilian styles into his musical anthology. In six decades, Jones has consistently utilized his expertise to produce entertainment that transcends the evolution of music over time. As producer and conductor for the top-selling single, ‘‘We Are the World,’’ and multiplatinum albums, Off The Wall, Bad, and Thriller by Michael Jackson, Jones’s musical genius was reinforced. The hip-hop genre has been a direct beneficiary of Quincy Jones’s musical brilliance. In 2008, artist T. I. on his 2008 Paper Trail release sampled Quincy Jones’s production of ‘‘Paper Planes’’ by Maya Arulpragasam, stage name M. I. A., in ‘‘Swagger Like Us.’’ In recent years, Jones has been recognized for the revival of his 1960s composition, ‘‘Soul Bossa Nova,’’ which surged into the spotlight as the theme song of the Austin Powers feature films. As the thirtieth anniversary of The Wiz is celebrated, Jones receives praise for his multiple roles as music supervisor: managing orchestrations, music adaptation, song and dance arrangement, and songwriting. In film production, Jones found immense success with Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Alice Walker novel, The Color Purple, which won eleven Oscar nominations. The transition from film to television was equally successful. Quincy Jones Entertainment (QJE), a coventure with Time Warner, produced theatrical motion pictures and network, cable, and syndicated television programming was formed. Quincy Jones Entertainment

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produced NBC Television’s The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, UPN’s In the House, and Fox Television’s Mad TV. Other television and film ventures include the formation of Quincy Jones Media Group, producer of biographical, educational and historical films; and Qwest Broadcasting, a minority-owned broadcasting company. A Renaissance man in American music, Jones won his earliest Grammy for his Count Basie arrangement of ‘‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’’ in 1963. In 2001, Jones earned his 27th Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Category for the audio version of Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. A living legend, Jones has received numerous accolades including Grammy, Emmy, NAACP, Oscars, and BET awards as well as honorary doctorates from institutions like Howard University, Harvard University, and New York University. Jones has supported the humanitarian efforts of many organizations throughout his career, and his Quincy Jones Foundation assists domestic and foreign programs that contribute to the health, well-being, and dignity of children. See also: Composers; Entertainment Industry; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Coleman, Paulette. 1999. ‘‘Quincy Jones.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Gavin, James. 2008. ‘‘Quincy Jones.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 4. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Larkin, Colin, ed. ‘‘Jones, Quincy.’’ Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 4th ed. Oxford Music Online. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/epm/14357. Quincy Jones.com. 2008. ‘‘Quincy Jones. Bio.’’ http://www.quincyjones.com. Shantrie Collins

Joplin, Scott (1868–1917), Composer Scott Joplin is known as the ‘‘King of Ragtime’’ and is recognized as the most influential composer in this field. Joplin was born into a musical family, became interested in the piano at age seven, and later received formal training on the instrument at age eleven. Joplin relocated to St. Louis in 1885 to play music. In 1893, he went to Chicago to perform at the World’s Columbian Exposition. In 1894, he went to live in Sedalia, Missouri, where he began to write music for the first time. Joplin’s first compositions include ‘‘A Picture of Her Face’’ and ‘‘Please Say You Will,’’ both published in Syracuse, New York, in 1895. These songs are examples of Joplin’s early style in which he placed an emphasis on sentimental lyrics and traditional Western harmonic structures. Joplin’s next three compositions, ‘‘The Great Crush Collision March,’’ ‘‘Combination March,’’ and ‘‘Harmony Waltz’’ were all works written for the piano. In 1896, Joplin enrolled in George Smith College for Negroes, taking advanced courses in harmony and composition. During

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this period he continued to develop his piano proficiency and organized an orchestra that featured his original compositions. With a craze for ragtime music sweeping the country, in 1899 Joplin was able to find a publisher in Kansas City, Missouri, for ‘‘Original Rags,’’ one of his compositions in the idiom. The same year, white music publisher John Stillwell Stark heard Joplin playing a rag at the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia and agreed to publish the rag and provide the royalties to Joplin. Thus, Joplin’s most famous composition, ‘‘Maple Leaf Rag,’’ was published that same year. This particular composition set the standards for the musical scheme of ‘‘classic rags,’’ which included multithematic structures, key changes, and two-beat syncopated rhythmic patterns. Musically and technically, ‘‘Maple Leaf Rag’’ moves away from the folk tradition. Joplin’s rags have been described as music that straddles two adjacent centuries; they were nineteenthcentury fashions that introduced stylistic expressions that were used, modified, and eventually superseded in later years. The success of Joplin’s ‘‘Maple Leaf Rag’’ resulted in his financial and artistic success, which culminated in further collaborations with Stark to publish other ragtime masterpieces. Joplin became the leading ragtime composer, and Stark was the leading ragtime publisher in the country. With the success of his rags, Joplin moved back to St. Louis, where he not only continued to compose rags but also made a number of piano roll recordings of his own compositions and experimented in extended ragtime forms such as composing A Guest of Honor, one of the first ragtime operas, in 1903. In 1906, Joplin set out on a series of vaudeville tours and eventually settled in New York. One of his final works is another opera, Treemonisha, written in 1911, which emphasizes raising the African American race through education. Treemonisha is written in three acts and includes solos, choral ensembles, and choreography. Since his death in 1917, Joplin continues to be remembered as one of the greatest contributors to American music. See also: Composers; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Berlin, Edward A. 1994. King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. New York: Oxford University Press. Brooks, Tilford. 1984. America’s Black Musical Heritage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Floyd, Samuel A. 1995. The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. Clarence Bernard Henry

Jordan, Barbara (1936–96), Politician, Lawyer, Educator In 1966, Barbara Charline Jordan became the first African American woman to serve in the Texas legislature when she ran for and won a seat in the state’s senate. She went on to take the position of president pro tem in 1967, becoming

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the first elected African American to hold such an honor in Texas. As president pro tem, Jordan was also allowed to serve as governor of Texas for a day on June 10, 1972, making her the first African American female to serve as governor in the United States. In 1972, Jordan was elected to the United States House of Representatives as the first representative of the Eighteenth Congressional District of Houston. There, she was the first African American Texan to serve in Congress. Barbara Jordan, a towering personality on the Jordan, the youngest of three U.S. political scene, became in 1972 the first daughters, was born on February 21, African American woman ever elected to 1936, to warehouse clerk and Bap- Congress from the Deep South. She delivered tist clergyman, Benjamin M. Jordan a powerful keynote address before the Democratic National Convention in 1976. and domestic worker, Arlyne (Pat- (Library of Congress) ton) Jordan. Jordan grew up living with her older sisters, Bennie and Rose Marie, and her grandfathers, John Ed Patten and Charles Jordan, in their home located in Houston’s Fifth Ward. Her time attending Houston’s public schools was well spent. Upon her graduation, with honors, from Phillis Wheatley High School in 1952, she won first place in the Texas State Ushers Oratorical Contest, and went on to win the National Championship in Chicago, Illinois, later that year. Jordan continued her education at Texas Southern University. She joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority and was an active participant in the debate team while at Texas Southern University. She received a Bachelors of Arts from that university in 1956, graduating magna cum laude, and then became the first African American to attend Boston University Law School. Three years later, she graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Law degree and passed the bar exams in both Texas and Massachusetts. In 1960, Jordan returned to Houston to open a private law practice and begin what became a lifelong investment in the politics of the United States. She worked as a volunteer for the Kennedy-Johnson presidential campaign. Jordan was the first black woman to serve as administrative assistant to the County Judge of Harris County. She was elected to the Texas senate in 1967. She served two consecutive terms, serving until 1972. While a senator, Jordan was elected chair of the Labor and Management Relations Committee (also sponsoring the Workmen’s Compensation Act), making her the first African American to chair a majority committee in the Texas Senate. In 1967 and 1969

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Jordan was the delegate to the Texas State Democratic Convention and the delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1968. In 1972, she was elected president pro tempore of the Texas legislature, resulting in her one-day governor stint. Jordan’s various appointments no doubt helped in her successful bid to be elected to the U.S. Congress. As such, she was not only the first ever African American from Texas to serve in the U.S. Congress, but she also was the first African American female to represent a southern state in the U.S. House of Representatives. During her stay in the 93rd, 94th, and 95th Congresses (1973– 78), Jordan was a member of both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Government Operations. She also served on the Steering and Policy Committee for the Democratic Caucus. It was in 1974, while serving on the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings concerning President Richard M. Nixon that Jordan’s skills and experience as an orator gained national renown. In her Statement on the Articles of Impeachment, delivered July 25, 1974, as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jordan presented so eloquent an explanation of impeachment criteria that she earned the respect and recognition of the entire legislative body and became known as a strict constitutional icon. During her final year in Congress, in 1976, Jordan became the first African American and the first woman to give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. She also sponsored new legislation concerning a revision of the Voting Rights Act and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. Following her time in Congress, Jordan taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs housed at the University of Texas at Austin until 1982. Though no longer serving as an elected official, Jordan’s political career was far from over. In 1982, she was appointed the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chairman in National Policy; Jordan served in this role until 1986. In 1991, Governor Ann Richards appointed her Special Counsel for Ethics. Three years later President Bill Clinton appointed her chairwoman of the United States Commission on Immigration Reform. In 1996, President Clinton presented Jordan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. On January 17, 1996, at the age of fifty-nine, Barbara Charline Jordan died from pneumonia. She was interred at the Texas State Cemetery. See also: Politics and Government Further Reading African American Voices in Congress: ‘‘Barbara Jordan Biography.’’ http://www.avoice online.org/cbcwomen/jordan.html. Armadillo WWW Server: A Short Biography. http://www.rice.edu/armadillo/Texas/ Jordan/goodhopebio.html. Duckworth, James. 1992. ‘‘Barbara Jordan.’’ In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research.

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Gale Cengage Learning: ‘‘Barbara Jordan.’’ Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. ‘‘Jordan, Barbara Charline.’’ http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/ biodisplay.pl?index=j000266. Gale Cengage Learning: ‘‘Barbara Jordan.’’ http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/ whm/bio/jordan_b.htm. Sonjurae Mikel Cross

Jordan, Michael (1963– ), Basketball Player Born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 17, 1963, Michael Jeffrey Jordan is recognized as one of the greatest Basketball players in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Raised in North Carolina, Jordan played high school basketball at Laney High School where he was cut from the varsity squad during his sophomore season. He returned to the team during his junior year, and after an impressive season, decided to attend the University of North Carolina for college. On March 29, 1982, Jordan gained national attention when, as a nineteen-year-old freshman, he sank a game-winning jump shot against Georgetown, sending the North Carolina Tar Heels to a 63–62 victory and their first national championship in twenty-five years. As a sophomore and junior, Michael Jordan won the Sporting News College Player of the Year award. Following his junior year, he decided to leave college for the professional ranks. The summer before entering the NBA, Jordan captained the U.S. men’s basketball team that won eight games in the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, California. With their third pick in the 1984 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls selected Michael Jordan. During his first season, he led the team in Considered the greatest player in National rebounding, scoring, and assists, and Basketball Association (NBA) history, Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six he garnered the NBA Rookie of the NBA championships while accumulating Year honor. In his second season, Jor- individual honors matched by few in the dan missed most of the regular season game’s history. (AP/Wide World Photos)

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with a broken foot, but distinguished himself with one of the all-time great performances in NBA Finals history, scoring 63 points on the parquet floors of the old Boston Garden against the legendary Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. According to Kellner, Bird called the performance as ‘‘God disguised as Michael Jordan.’’ Michael Jordan’s influence in professional basketball was felt around the league, as he increased attendance wherever he played. During his third season, Jordan became the first guard ever to score over 3,000 points in an NBA regular season, and he won the first of his six consecutive scoring titles; Jordan’s 3,041 points was the third-highest all-time point total. During that same season, 1987–88, Jordan garnered both the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Defensive Player of the Year awards—the first time a player in the NBA had ever won both awards in the same season. Jordan went on to win three more MVP awards between 1988 and 1992, along with winning his second Olympic gold medal as a member of the U.S. men’s basketball team, known as the Dream Team. Overcoming early criticism that he was a one-man show as opposed to a team player, Jordan proved himself to be both a prolific scorer and team leader, guiding the Chicago Bulls to NBA Championships against Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in 1991, the Portland Trailblazers in 1992, and the Phoenix Suns in 1993. In October 1993, before the start of the 1993–1994 season, Michael Jordan announced his retirement from basketball. In February 1994, he signed a minor league baseball contract with the Birmingham Barons, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. After a season of baseball, Jordan returned to basketball and the Chicago Bulls in 1995. The post-baseball Jordan and the Chicago Bulls charged through the 1995–96 regular season, excelling and winning 72 games against only 10 losses, the best winning percentage and number of wins during the regular season. Their winning ways continued into the postseason, where the Bulls won the NBA Championship and Jordan earned his fourth MVP award. In 1996 as well, Jordan’s status as a pop culture icon was solidified when he paired with Bugs Bunny in Space Jam. The Bulls would go on to win two more NBA Championships in the following two seasons, bringing the total number of championships the Bulls earned during the Jordan years to six. At the end of the 1998 season, Jordan won his fifth MVP, but doubts about his return to basketball loomed in the off-season. On January 13, 1999, Michael Jordan announced, for the second time, his retirement from basketball. ‘‘Right now,’’ Jordan said in article by Naughton, ‘‘I just don’t have the mental challenges that I’ve had in the past to proceed as a basketball player.’’ The mental challenges Jordan sought came his way in 2000, when he returned to the NBA as part-owner and presided over the basketball operations of the Washington Wizards. Jordan built upon his iconic status with an I-Max film, Michael Jordan to the Max, released in 2000, followed by a series of documentaries called Ultimate Jordan, released in 2002. Jordan’s message of striving for excellence found its way into books as well. He would later don the uniform for the Wizards and return to the hardwood, making his final retirement from basketball as a player at the end of the 2003 season.

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For all his achievements on the court, Jordan was named ‘‘Athlete of the Century’’ by ESPN, but his legacy extends beyond sport. Jordan was renowned for his marketing genius, the money he made in endorsements exceeding the salary he made as one of the best players in basketball. With Nike, Jordan designed and sold his signature Air Jordans with their iconic logos of the basketball superstar suspended in midair, in mid-dunk. With film director Spike Lee, Jordan engineered successful shoe campaigns: ‘‘It’s gotta be the shoes!’’ Jordan’s McDonald’s ads revealed his playful personality, and the people worldwide listened as Jordan, in his simple declarative baritone, told television viewers, ‘‘You better eat your Wheaties.’’ The transcendent Michael Jordan effect was made evident with Gatorade’s campaign ‘‘Be Like Mike,’’ a marketing endeavor that explored the connections between Jordan and a broad spectrum of people, regardless of race, class, and gender. Jordan ranks third all-time in career points at 32,292, and ranks first all-time with his average of 30.12 points per game. ‘‘His Airness’’ continues to be a source of inspiration and speculation, and his appeal across nations and generations has kept him in the public eye. Of all the books about Jordan, Michael Leahy’s When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan’s Last Comeback is an eye-opening account. Readers are encouraged as well to seek out David L. Porter’s Michael Jordan: A Biography, which offers an insightful overview of Jordan’s career and commercial success. See also: Entertainment Industry; Sports Further Reading Kellner, Douglas. 2005. ‘‘The Sports Spectacle, Michael Jordan, and Nike.’’ In Sport and the Color Line: Black Athletes and Race Relations in Twentieth-Century America. Patrick B. Miller and David K. Wiggins, eds. New York: Routledge. Naughton, Jim. 2005. ‘‘Jordan, Michael.’’ In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. 2nd ed. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Gale Group. Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Journalism and Journalists In American popular culture, African American journalists have often been portrayed as fierce crusaders for social justice. In rare exceptions, a few scoundrels earned notoriety. Forty years after the Constitution was drafted for the young United States, Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm in 1827 published Freedom’s Journal in New York. The newspaper was printed to fight off scurrilous attacks on the free but threatened black population by white newspapers. ‘‘We plead our own cause,’’ wrote the editors, ‘‘because for too long others have spoken for us.’’ Freedom’s

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Journal was remarkable because blacks did not have citizenship rights, yet American values of free speech and free press included them too. Soon Frederick Douglass, the runaway slave from Maryland, began the North Star newspaper in Rochester, New York, in the 1840s. There were antislavery newspapers, but the times called for a black perspective on the black condition. In the late 1970s, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) named its top award after Douglass. Ida B. Wells-Barnett wrote ferociously in the post-Civil War South. When black storekeepers were attacked and killed by jealous whites in Memphis, Wells’s editorial reply stung so much her newspaper office was burned to the ground. She fled north to safety. Wells’s ‘‘A Red Record’’ in 1895 documented lynchings and was in tune with the muckraking journalism of that era. Since the late 1900s, several journalism associations rotate an Ida B. Wells award that recognizes a news industry executive who promotes workplace diversity. Wells was the subject of a 2008 biography, Ida: A Sword among Lions. W. E. B. Du Bois and Wells were black cofounders of the NAACP in 1909. Sociologist and author Du Bois was also celebrated as a journalist because of his leadership of the Crisis magazine, which contained investigative reporting, editorial fire, and literary articles. From the 1960s to the early twenty-first century, Lerone Bennett Jr. of Ebony magazine succeeded Du Bois as a journalist-scholar and popular historian. Timothy Thomas Fortune sheltered Wells when she fled Memphis, and his act made sense since he was called the dean of black journalists then because his prolific writing and editorship of several newspapers. Fortune is credited with coining the term ‘‘Afro-American’’ at a time when ‘‘colored’’ or ‘‘Negro’’ was conventional usage. Robert Sengstacke Abbott earned a law degree but no law firm would hire the black man. Fortunately Abbott learned printing at Hampton Institute and he applied his skill. Abbott launched the Chicago Defender in 1905. In a dozen years, when the United States was at war and needed factory workers, Abbott used his newspaper to encourage blacks to leave the rural, oppressive South and migrate up the Mississippi to Chicago and other northern cities. Abbott used the all-black Pullman railroad porters as distribution agents. At its peak in the 1940s, the Defender circulated about 200,000 newspapers with each edition. Robert L. Vann became editor and publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier in 1910. During World War II, his newspaper rallied blacks to engage in a ‘‘Double-V’’ for victory campaign: fight for the United States and win wars against Nazi Germany and imperialist Japan, then at home fight a war against American racism. The Courier grew into a nationally distributed newspaper and boasted several war correspondents. The newspaper also recruited a black elite to write for its editorial pages. Like T. Thomas Fortune in the late 1800s, Ted Poston was the dean of black journalists in the early-to-mid-1900s. He began his career in black media at the New York Amsterdam News, and when he moved to the New York Post in the 1940s, he was among the handful of blacks working in the mainstream press. Poston worked at the Post until the early 1970s. Carl Rowan was among those few black journalists in so-called white media when he became a reporter at the Minneapolis Tribune in 1949. By the mid-1960s

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through 1999, he was a widely read syndicated columnist. Chuck Stone, former press secretary to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, became a columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News. Stone helped mediate a prison uprising in the late 1970s. At least fifty crime suspects surrendered to Stone, who led them safely to police custody. Vernon Jarrett began in black media, then was a long-time columnist for the Chicago Tribune and later the Sun-Times. Jarrett was a sage on two public television documentaries, ‘‘Truman: The American Experience,’’ and ‘‘Soldiers without Swords,’’ about the black press. Ethel Payne, Washington correspondent for Sengstacke Newspapers (Chicago, Detroit, and Memphis), was conspicuous in a sea of white male faces. She infuriated President Dwight Eisenhower by asking a question that involved race. Payne was honored on a U.S. postal stamp in 2002. Since 1993, NABJ awards fellowships in Payne’s honor in order to report from Africa. In 1992, eighteen columnists founded a society in honor of William Monroe Trotter, editor of the Boston Guardian who in 1914 infuriated President Woodrow Wilson by confronting him about hostile relations toward blacks and Wilson’s praise of the film Birth of a Nation. Charlayne Hunter, one of two students who desegregated the University of Georgia in 1961, became a writer at the New Yorker magazine, then a Harlem-based correspondent with the New York Times. As Charlayne Hunter-Gault, she later became a correspondent with the News Hour on PBS and in 2008 was an Africa correspondent. In 1971, New York TV journalist Melba Tolliver was suspended for wearing her hair in an Afro. Tolliver was a talented and highly visible journalist, which made her a target when she decided to stop straightening her hair. Earl Caldwell, a New York Times reporter, was an eyewitness to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. While covering Black Panther Party activities in California, he was ordered by the U.S. Justice Department to testify before a grand jury. Caldwell refused, and black journalists rallied to his side, affirming that they were news gatherers, not arms of law enforcement. Caldwell’s stand established shield laws that protect journalists and confidential sources. Wallace Terry, a Vietnam War correspondent with Time magazine, wrote Bloods, an oral history of the black GI experience during that war. Terry latter became a contributor to Parade magazine, a large-circulation insert in hundreds of Sunday newspapers. Robert C. Maynard, a journalist with the Washington Post, left in the 1970s to establish the Institute for Journalism Education in California. IJE, now Maynard IJE, trained several thousand journalists of color over three decades. In 1983, Maynard became publisher of the Oakland Tribune and thus was the first African American to lead a major metropolitan daily. In television news, Max Robinson became part of a three-anchorman news team at ABC in 1978, and in 1989, Ed Bradley, a veteran newsman at CBS, joined the high-profile documentary team at 60 Minutes. Bryant Gumbel became cohost of Today on NBC in 1982 and served until 1997. Bernard Shaw took a chance on a startup operation in 1980 called Cable News Network (CNN), and he became one of their most respected and trusted news people. Most black journalists are revered; however, a few are scoundrels. Janet Cooke, an ambitious Washington Post reporter, wrote ‘‘Jimmy’s World,’’ a 1980

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story about an eight-year-old boy who was injected with heroin. When the story was proven to be fiction masquerading as fact, Cooke was stripped of her Pulitzer Prize. In 2003, Jayson Blair, a young New York Times reporter, plagiarized or faked long-distance correspondence on dozens of stories, resulting in a major blow to the credibility of the august newspaper. Blair’s chicanery resulted in the resignation of the newspaper’s first black managing editor, Gerald Boyd, who was sacked with the white executive editor, Howell Raines. Martyrs include Michele Clark, twenty-nine, the gifted CBS correspondent who died in a Chicago jet plane crash in 1972, and Maurice Williams, twentyfour, a radio journalist with WHUR-FM who was slain during a shoot-out between rival Muslim sects in 1977. Sports journalists have become iconic and include Stuart Scott, known for his emphatic ‘‘Booyah!’’ or ‘‘He’s like butter because he’s on a roll,’’ or Michael Wilbon, a Washington Post sportswriter who is better known as the other half on sports talk show Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, and James Brown, the NFL moderator who began at CBS, moved to Fox, then returned to CBS. The new faces of broadcast and cable news include Suzanne Malveaux and Roland Martin at CNN; Farai Chideya, Michel Martin, and Michele Norris at NPR; and Juan Williams at Fox, until October 2010. Miami Herald columnist and Pulitzer Prize–winner Leonard Pitts writes powerfully. A column immediately after the September 11 terrorist bombings generated thirty thousand replies. Gwen Ifill, a newswoman at the Washington Post and the New York Times, moved to television and NBC in 1994, then became moderator of Washington Week in Review on PBS in 1999. Ifill moderated vice presidential debates in 2004 and 2008. In January 2009, she published a book called Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. See also: Politics and Government; Publishers and Publishing; Social Activists Further Reading Dawkins, Wayne. 1997. Black Journalists: The NABJ Story. Merrillville, IN: August Press. Dawkins, Wayne. 2003. Rugged Waters: Black Journalists Swim the Mainstream. Newport News, VA: August Press. Dawkins, Wayne. 1999. ‘‘The 20th Century’s Influential Black Journalists.’’ NABJ Journal 17 (Fall): 10–13. Newkirk, Pamela. 2000. Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media. New York: New York University Press. Newton, Eric. 1999. Crusaders, Scoundrels, Journalists: The Newseum’s Most Intriguing Newspeople. New York: Crown. Riley, Sam G. 2007. African Americans in the Media Today. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Wallace, Terry. 2007. Missing Pages: Black Journalists of Modern American: An Oral History. New York: Basic Books. Wayne Dawkins

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Joyner, Tom (1949– )

Joyner, Tom (1949– ), Radio Host, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist Tom Joyner (aka ‘‘the �