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 Beyonce 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 Negritude 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 Negritude 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 Beyonce 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 Beyonce 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
Beyonce 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 Negritude 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 applique, 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
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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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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
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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.
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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.
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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 Barthe, 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
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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.
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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
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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,
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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
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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.
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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 Beyonce 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 Bode, 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 Cinque 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 fiancee 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 applique 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 Negritude 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. Candomble 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 Santerıa, which is considered an Afro-Cuban belief system, share similar attributes of Hoodoo, a spiritual practice originating in the American South. Vodou, Santerıa, 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 Manı. Both dances have Afro-Cuban origins. El Juego de Manı 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 Negritude 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, Santerıa 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 Benjamın Valentın, 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 Santerıa 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 Cafe 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 Boule; 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 Cafe, 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 Cafe. 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 emigre 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). Chante 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, Andre. 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 Beyonce 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. Beyonce Gisele Knowles was born September 4, 1981, to Matthew Knowles, a medical equipment salesman and later her manager, and Tina Beyince, a hairdresser. Beyonce was named after her mother in an effort to make sure the Beyince family’s Creole name did not die out. Beyonce has a younger sister Solange. Much of Beyonce schooling was accomplished via tutors. In 2000, Knowles’ received a high school diploma. Beyonce’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. Beyonce sang as soloist for two years in the church choir of St. John’s United Method Church. In 1990, Beyonce 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, Cliche, 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 Beyonce. 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). Beyonce 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. Beyonce released B’Day in 2006 and I Am . . . Sasha Fierce in 2008.
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Beyonce has performed with many singers including Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, Missy Elliott, Luther Vandross, Shakira, and Kanye West. Beyonce 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.’’ Beyonce 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. Beyonce 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. Beyonce 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). Beyonce made her acting debut in the 2001 MTV Production of Carmen: A Hip Hopera, in which she played Carmen. Beyonce 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). Beyonce and her mother designed the clothes worn by Beyonce and Destiny’s Child since the start of Beyonce’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. Beyonce has endorsed several products including L’Oreal, Pepsi, the perfume ‘‘True Star’’ for Tommy Hilfiger, and Armani. An active philanthropist, in 2004, Beyonce 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 Beyonce donated her salary from the movie Cadillac Records to the nationwide drug Singer and actress, Beyonce Knowles. (Shurehabilitation centers Phoenix House. tterstock)
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Beyonce has had managed to keep her personal life very private. Her stage persona is nothing like her private life. On stage Beyonce becomes Sasha Fierce, but in private she is quiet and shy. Beyonce admitted in 2006 to suffering from severe depression following the breakup of the original members of Destiny’s Child. Beyonce 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. Beyonce 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 Beyonce Knowles. (Homepage.) http://www.beyonceonline.com. Knowles, Beyonce, 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. ‘‘Beyonce.’’ 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 Toure, 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 Toure 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 entree 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^ulees). 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 Cafe 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 Conde (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 Santarıa. 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 Santarıa, 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, Santarıa 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 Santarıa 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 sauteed 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 Toure. 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 resume 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 (nee 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 protege 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, risque 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 fiance, 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 risque 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 Jackee 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 Jackee 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 protege 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-Symone 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 Antonın Dvorak (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 Cafe 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 soirees. 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 Boule), 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 proteges, 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 outre 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 protege 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 charge 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 proteges, 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 cafe, 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, Beyonce, 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, Andre, 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, Beyonce, 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 Beyonce, 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 entre 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 Theatre 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 risque 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 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€vete. 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 cliches 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 protege 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 Martınez 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. Martınez, 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 Grimke 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 Stromberg (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 Boule.’’ 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 Cafe 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 Cafe 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 Boule), 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 Leon. 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, Beyonce, 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 ingenue 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 risque 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– ), Radio Host, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist Tom Joyner (aka ‘‘the fly jock’’ and ‘‘the hardest working man in radio’’) is the first individual to host two daily radio shows in two cities, the first African American male to have a morning show that is syndicated nationally, and the first African American to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Thomas Joyner was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on November 23, 1949, to Hercules L. Joyner, an accountant, and Frances Joyner, a secretary. Joyner and his brother, Albert, attended schools in Tuskegee. In the 1960s when the local radio station refused to play records by African American artists, Joyner’s participation in a protest against the station led to Joyner working as a deejay at the station on Saturdays. After graduating with a degree in sociology from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1970, Joyner worked at radio stations in Montgomery, Memphis, St. Louis, and Dallas. He then moved to Chicago, where he worked at four stations including WJPC, owned by John H. Johnson, founder and publisher of Ebony and Jet. Joyner returned to Dallas and WDKA in 1983 and hosted a morning show. In 1985, in addition to hosting his Dallas morning show, he began hosting an afternoon show in Chicago at WGCI, one of his former employers. Joyner flew roundtrip from Dallas to Chicago each weekday and consequently earned the titles ‘‘the fly jock’’ and ‘‘the hardest working man in show business’’ as he traveled 8,000 miles each week for eight years. In 1993, ABC Radio Network, cognizant of Joyner’s high ratings for both shows, arranged for Joyner to host a syndicated show, and in January 1994 when the Tom Joyner Morning Show (TJMS) debuted, Joyner became the first African American male to host a nationally syndicated morning show. Although Joyner’s show features music, celebrity interviews, and banter among Joyner and his onair sidekicks, J. Anthony Brown and Sybil Wilkes, entertainment is only one aspect of the TJMS’s appeal, for current events and politics are emphasized. Joyner encourages his many listeners to support initiatives that benefit the African American community, from participating in voter registration, to supporting Hurricane Katrina victims, to sponsoring ‘‘Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day.’’ Regular segments include ‘‘Little Known Black History Facts,’’ ‘‘Real Fathers, Real Men,’’ ‘‘Thursday Morning Mom,’’ the ‘‘Christmas Wish List,’’ and ‘‘Cash Call.’’ Joyner founded Reach Media in 2003 as the parent company for his subsidiaries that include the TJMS, Black America Web.com, and the Tom Joyner Foundation. Two years later, he sold fifty-one per cent of Reach Media for a reported $56 million to Radio One. Joyner’s passion is supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Approximately thirty times a year on Friday mornings, he takes the TJMS to large venues across the United States where fans are entertained by well-known R & B(Rhythm & Blues) artists at Southwest Airlines Sky Shows, and Joyner raises funds for HBCUs. Joyner generates additional money for HBCUs with annual Fantastic Voyage cruises and Tom Joyner Family Reunions. Each month, Joyner’s
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foundation selects an HBCU and awards scholarships to its students. To date, more than $55 million has been raised, and more than 14,500 students have received scholarships. Joyner is married to fitness expert Donna Richardson and is the father of two sons from his first marriage. See also: Entertainment Industry; Radio Shows and Hosts Further Reading Joyner, Tom, with Mary Flowers Boyce. 2005. I’m Just a DJ but . . . It Makes Sense to Me. New York: Warner Books. Moon, Fletcher F. 2007. ‘‘Tom Joyner.’’ In Notable Black American Men, Book II. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Young, Karen Beasley. 2008. ‘‘Tom Joyner.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 5. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Linda M. Carter
Joyner-Kersee, Jacqueline ‘‘Jackie’’ (1962– ), Track and Field Long Jumper, Sprinter Jacqueline ‘‘Jackie’’ Joyner-Kersee’s celebrated athletic career spanned the 1980s and 1990s and made her a sports icon in African American popular culture. She leaped and sprinted her way into becoming an elite athlete, garnering an array of accolades and awards, such as gold, silver, and bronze metals in the Olympics. Her other claims to fame include becoming the first American to win a gold medal in the long jump. Joyner-Kersee also competed in the heptathlon, which includes a 200-meter dash, high and low jumps, 100-meter hurdle, a javelin throw, a shot put, and an 800-meter race. She holds world records in the heptathlon and national records in long jumps, 50-meter hurdles, and 55-meter hurdles. Joyner-Kersee’s worldly success looked a million miles away when she was an impoverished child in East St. Louis, Illinois. She was born on March 3, 1962 and lived in a feeble domicile with her older brother, Al, and her parents, Alfred and Mary Joyner. Al would also grow up to be a successful athlete; he married Track and Field star Florence Griffith. Although both parents worked, money was sparse, making every day living a harrowing challenge. Compounding their poverty was the fact that most African Americans who lived in East St. Louis were hard-hit by social problems, such as crime, unemployment, and limited resources and opportunities. In this environment, Joyner-Kersee and her brother dared to dream of a better life. Mary Joyner steered her children away from the negative influences that youth fell prey to in the community and encouraged healthy extracurricular
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activities. Joyner-Kersee participated in modern dance classes and ran on the track team. Upon watching the 1976 Olympics on television, Joyner-Kersee discovered her life’s calling to compete in a broader arena. In high school, JoynerKersee ran on the track team, as well as played on the basketball and volleyball teams. Her athletic performance as well as her outstanding grades attracted many colleges and universities who vied for her attention. Joyner-Kersee picked the University of California at Los Angeles and attended there, beginning in 1980, on a basketball scholarship. A long way from home, Joyner-Kersee was well on her way to becoming a star athlete. One of the contributing factors to her increasing skill was Bob Kersee, an assistant track coach at the university. Kersee helped to mold her into an extraordinary phenomenon. However, during Joyner-Kersee’s freshman year, her mother died from meningitis. Working through her grief, Joyner-Kersee continued with training and competing. In 1984, her dream came true when she qualified for the Summer Olympics. Joyner-Kersee’s career spanned more than a decade. In that time, she triumphed despite obstacles, such as asthma and hamstring injuries. At the 1984 Summer Olympics, she won a silver medal in the heptathlon. In the 1988 Summer Olympics she won gold medals in the heptathlon and the long jump. In the 1992 Summer Olympics, she won another gold medal in the heptathlon and a bronze medal in the long jump. After retiring in 1986, Joyner-Kersee returned for several competitions, including her most recent event, the 2000 Olympic Trials. Following Joyner-Kersee’s initial retirement, she embarked upon new pursuits. She married Kersee in 1986, founded charitable organizations such as the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, and became a motivational speaker. See also: 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 Press. Joyner-Kersee, Jackie. 1997. A Kind of Grace: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Female Athlete. New York: Warner Books. Gladys L. Knight
Judges A judge presides over a court of law and decides factual and legal disputes among parties either solely or in combination with a jury. In either criminal or noncriminal (civil) matters, the judge must be impartial and fully represent the judicial arm of the local, state, and/or federal government. There are many types
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of judges who fall within such categories as the Article III Federal Judge, Article I Federal Judge, and State Court Judge. Several notable African Americans have served under each category of judgeship.
Article III Federal Judge Article III judges are appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in accordance with Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Article III judges have lifetime tenure under their appointment unless they resign or are removed from office by impeachment. Supreme Court Justice The U.S. Supreme Court consists of eight associate justices (as currently determined by Congress) and the chief justice of the United States. The judicial power in the United States is vested in one Supreme Court, and all inferior courts below must adhere to the rules of law it sets forth through its decisions. The Supreme Court can decide both civil and criminal matters on a discretionary basis through its term. Only two African Americans have served on the Supreme Court—Associate Justices Thurgood Marshall (1908–93) and Clarence Thomas (1948– ). U.S. Court of Appeals Judge The ninety-four U.S. judicial districts are organized into twelve regional circuits, each of which has a U.S. Court of Appeals. A court of appeals judge or panel of judges hears appeals from the district courts located within its circuit, as well as appeals from decisions of federal administrative agencies. In addition, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has nationwide jurisdiction to hear appeals in specialized cases, such as those involving patent laws and cases decided by the Court of International Trade and the Court of Federal Claims. There have been twenty-seven African Americans who have served as an appellate judge, including William Henry Hastie II (1904–76), the first African American to sit on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Court Judge District courts are the trial courts of the federal court system. Within limits set by Congress and the Constitution, the district court judges have jurisdiction to hear nearly all categories of federal cases, including both civil and criminal matters. There are ninety-four federal judicial districts, including at least one district in each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. One hundred and thirteen African Americans have served as a district court judge since its inception, led by James B. Parsons (1911–93), the first African American U.S. District Court judge.
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U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge The Court of Federal Claims has national federal jurisdiction over most claims for money damages against the United States, disputes over federal contracts, unlawful ‘‘takings’’ of private property by the federal government, and a variety of other claims against the United States. To date, the only African Americans appointed to this position are Reginald W. Gibson (1927– ) and Lynn J. Bush (1948– ). U.S. Court of International Trade Judge The Court of International Trade formerly known as the United States Customs Court, addresses federal cases involving international trade and customs issues. Irvin C. Mollison (1898–1962) has been the only African American to hold this type of judgeship. Article I Federal Judge Article I federal judges serve in legislative courts of various forms as needed by Congress. These judges are appointed either by the executive branch or through Article III judges for ancillary courts to review administrative agencies or those agency decisions as well as other matters; however, Article I federal judges do not enjoy life tenure and must be reappointed at the end of their designated term of service. Some of these judgeships include the U.S. Magistrate judge, the U.S. Tax Court judge, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge. U.S. Magistrate Judge Magistrate judges handle the majority of preliminary matters in criminal cases. In most districts, magistrates handle pretrial motions and hearings in civil cases. Magistrates may also preside over almost every type of federal trial proceeding, except felony criminal cases. Over thirty-seven African Americans have been appointed to this position, including Chief Judge Joyce London Alexander (1949– ), the nation’s first African American Chief U.S. Magistrate judge and African American woman magistrate judge. U.S. Tax Court Judge In handling most tax deficiencies or disputes, Judge Maurice B. Foley (1960– ) and Special Trial Judge John F. Dean (1946– ) have the honor of being only African Americans to serve in this capacity. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Bankruptcy courts are separate units of the ninety-four federal district courts and are federally mandated. Eleven African Americans have served as a bankruptcy judge among the ninety-four districts, including Judge Edward Bernard Toles
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(1909–98), who was the first African American appointed to a federal bankruptcy court in the Northern District of Illinois–Chicago. State Court Judge A state court judge serves under limited or general authority as determined by a state’s constitution or statutory (codified) law. Varying types of state courts include limited civil trial courts (i.e., probate, family, traffic, juvenile, small claims, and municipal courts), general civil trial courts, and criminal courts. A state court judge is either elected or appointed for a specified tenure. Although many African Americans have held numerous state court judgeships nationwide, some of the more notable are those who have retired to host television reality courtroom shows. These judges include: Judge Joe Brown (1947– ), a former criminal court judge in Memphis, Tennessee; Judge Greg Mathis (1960– ), a former Superior Court judge for Michigan’s 36th District; Judge Glenda Hatchett (1951– ), the former chief presiding judge of the Fulton County, Georgia Juvenile Court; Judge Lynn Toler (1959– ), a former administrative judge in Cleveland Heights Municipal Court; Judge Karen Mills-Francis, the second black woman to serve on the bench in Miami-Dade County; and Judge Penny Brown Reynolds (1961– ), previously a trial court judge in the State Court of Fulton County. See also: Affirmative Action; Civil Rights Cases Further Reading About Judge Karen–Karen Mills-Francis. http://www.judgekarentv.com/behindthebench/ aboutjudge. About Judge Penny–Penny Brown Reynolds. http://www.judgepenny.com/about_judge _penny.htm. Courtroom Bios–Judge Joe Brown. http://www.judgejoebrown.com/bios.php. Federal Magistrate Judges Association. http://www.fedjudge.org. Judge Hatchett Bio. Judge Glenda Hatchett. http://www.judgehatchett.com/about/ bio.php. Judges of the United States Courts. http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj. Just the Beginning Foundation–Biographies of African American Judges. http://www .jtbf.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=BiographiesofAfricanAmericanJudges& category=Integration. Meet Judge Toler–Lynn Toler. http://www.divorcecourt.com/text.asp?category_id=50. Meet The Judge–Greg Mathis. http://judgemathistv.warnerbros.com/about/judge.html. U.S. Courts–Understanding Federal and State Courts. http://www.uscourts.gov/out reach/resources/fedstate_lessonplan.htm. U.S. Courts–United States Courts of Appeals. http://www.uscourts.gov/courtsofappeals .html. U.S. Courts–United States District Courts. http://www.uscourts.gov/districtcourts .html. Taffie N. Jones
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Juke Joints. See Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints
Jump Rope Rhymes/Games Children, adolescents, and even adults perform jump rope rhymes and games in African American cultures across a wide variety of regions. This involves skipping or jumping rope to the rhythm of a saying, song, riddle, story, or lyric. Many jump rope games and rhymes are performed and circulated in families, on playgrounds, at schools, and during religious events, and some forms can be traced back many centuries. Jump rope rhymes exhibit a tremendous amount of variety, and the verses of a rhyme may include directions for how to jump, counts or descriptions for the frequency or speed of jumping, predictions about the jumper’s failure or success in the game (and in life), and a tremendous range of themes, characters, plots, word play, rhyme patterns, and line lengths. The content of a given jump rope rhyme may focus on family, authority figures, social institutions like school or church, the weather, animals, love, sin, and any number of topics. Furthermore, according to Roger D. Abrahams, many jump rope rhymes include an anti-taboo and antiauthoritarian tone directed against teachers, parents, police, and church leaders, as well as different kinds of taunts, parodies, judgments, morals, sayings, and fantasies (Abrahams 1969, xxiv). While there are documented cases of boys and men performing jump rope rhymes and games, it is a pastime primarily performed by girls and women. Some scholars and collectors have argued that it is primarily an urban tradition, arising out of congested areas that offer few public arenas for group play. According to Abrahams, ‘‘Jumping Rope, especially jumping in groups to the accompaniment of the game-rhymes, is essentially an urban phenomenon,’’ though many folklorists have collected jump rope rhymes in rural areas as well (Abrahams 1969, xvii). Abrahams also says that it is important to recognize jump rope rhymes and games as performative (Abrahams 1969, xvi). That is, jump rope rhymes require and demonstrate verbal agility, creativity, and social interaction at a sophisticated level. There are multiple levels of meaning evident in most jump rope rhymes, starting with their functional use (they keep time for the jumper and the rope swingers) and including the literal and symbolic meanings of the rhymes. Jump rope rhymes and games may also be a way to compete and act out competitive scenarios, and they may also be a medium for subverting or upholding social norms or taboos. Similarly, in her article ‘‘The Serious Side of Jump Rope: Conversational Practices and Social Organization in the Frame of Play,’’ Marjorie Harness Goodwin discusses the functional aspect of this form of play. She argues that
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games of jump rope require players to make numerous decisions over the course of a single game and that the process also requires negotiating disputes among the jumpers, rope turners, and audiences (Goodwin, 324). For Goodwin, the game of jump rope frames the disputes and negotiations of daily life, allowing for the creation and re-creation of a special kind of social order within the game (Goodwin, 327). Also, Kyra D. Gaunt’s analysis of the significance of the Double Dutch games played by younger African American girls focuses on the relationship between jump rope rhymes and games and other African American verbal and musical traditions. In ‘‘Translating Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop: The Musical Vernacular of Black Girls’ Play,’’ Gaunt explores the connections between urban forms of Double Dutch and their potential connections to ‘‘hyper-masculine’’ and highly sexualized Hip-Hop cultures. Gaunt argues that black girls’ performances in Double Dutch games on the playground or in the street results in the enactment of a social and musical identity in the performance of those rhymes and games (Gaunt, 288). For Gaunt, these complex identities as represented in jump rope rhymes and games are central to ‘‘an enculturational process’’ through which ‘‘black social musicking and a gendered ethnicity are learned.’’ Gaunt sees Double Dutch rhyming and playing as a blending of public and private spheres as well as a merging of the cultural past and present (Gaunt, 274). She further suggests that Double Dutch performances can be important for understanding black women’s performances in other traditions (Gaunt, 288). Many scholars have proposed classification systems for jump rope rhymes. For example, Brian Sutton-Smith in Games of New Zealand Children examines the history of children’s play by documenting jump rope rhymes (Sutton-Smith). In another study, Sue Hall proposes the categories of ‘‘Fundamentals,’’ ‘‘Combinations of Play Jumping,’’ ‘‘Counting,’’ ‘‘Hot,’’ ‘‘Verses with Pantomime,’’ and ‘‘Single Line Chants’’ (Hall, 713). Also, Bruce Buckley’s study of jump rope rhymes proposes a classification system based on the style of jumping (Buckley, 99–111), and Ruth Hawthorne organizes her collection based on a list of variables in any given jump rope game (Hawthorne, 113–126). Other brief collections of jump rope rhymes include Ed Cray’s study, which is focused on the Los Angeles area (Cray, 119–127), and Teri John’s short documentation of rhymes collected from Raleigh, North Carolina, Detroit, Michigan, Buffalo, New York, southern California, and northern Illinois (John, 15–17). Jump rope rhymes and games persist as a vibrant form of African American verbal art. For example, African American schoolchildren compete at Double Dutch competitions throughout the United States, and the traditions have been documented by nationally syndicated columnist Anna Quindlen, whose column about the American Double Dutch champion team, the Dynamos, highlighted the dexterity and neighborhood tradition exhibited by African American girls on the grade-school playground. Quindlen wrote that the girls she observed one day shortly before the annual National Double Dutch Tournament recited, ‘‘Who’s on the go? You know. The Dynamos,’’ as their audience of classmates
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chorused, ‘‘The Dynamos, The Dynamos,’’ and stared at the performers while ‘‘cheering, dreaming, about what it would be like to cartwheel . . . right into the whirling arcs of two opposing jump ropes, to do spread eagles and buck jumps while the ropes go round and round’’ (Quindlen, 27). See also: Womanism; Women and Sports; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Abrahams, Roger. 1980. Counting-Out Rhymes: A Dictionary. Austin, TX, and London: University of Texas Press. Abrahams, Roger. 1969. Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Dictionary. Austin, TX, and London: University of Texas Press. Buckley, Bruce R. 1966. ‘‘Jump Rope Rhymes: Suggestions for Classification and Study.’’ Keystone Folklore Quarterly 11: 99–111. Cray, Ed. 1970. ‘‘Jump-Rope Rhymes from Los Angeles.’’ Western Folklore 29: 119–127. Gaunt, Kyra D. 1998. ‘‘Dancin’ in the Street to a Black Girl’s Beat: Music, Gender, and the Ins and Outs of Double-Dutch.’’ In Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America, ed. Joe Austin and Michael Nevin Willard, 272–92. New York: New York University Press. Goodwin, Marjorie Harness. 1985. ‘‘The Serious Side of Jump Rope: Conversational Practices and Social Organization in the Frame of Play.’’ Journal of American Folklore 98 (389): 315–30. Hall, Sue. 1941. ‘‘That Spring Perennial—Rope Jumping!’’ Recreation (March): 713–16. Hawthorne, Ruth. 1966. ‘‘Classifying Jump Rope Games.’’ Keystone Folklore Quarterly 11: 113–26. John, Teri. 1973. ‘‘A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes.’’ North Carolina Folklore Journal 21: 15–17. Quindlen, Anna. 1983. ‘‘Riding Two Ropes to the Double Dutch Top.’’ New York Times, June 11. Sutton-Smith, Brian. 1959. Games of New Zealand Children. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Walker, David A. 2004. ‘‘The History of Double Dutch.’’ National Double Dutch League.com. http://www.nationaldoubledutchleague.com/History.htm. Jacqueline L. McGrath
Juneteenth Juneteenth, celebrated annually on June 19, is the longest-running African American holiday. Recognition of Juneteenth began in Texas in 1865 and has increasingly permeated African American popular culture. Juneteenth is a term that comes from the fusion of the words June and nineteenth, the date that Major General Gordon Granger, of the Union army, rode into Galveston, Texas to announce, belatedly, the emancipation of African slaves. Since that date,
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many African Americans have celebrated that epochal day in grand style. Celebrations waned in the early twentieth century, but then picked up again during the civil rights era. Presently, nearly one hundred and fifty years after the fact, Juneteenth celebrations occur throughout the nation, from the deep South, where slavery was its most severe and concentrated, to free states like Washington and Oregon, where black populations are small. That Juneteenth celebrations figure prominently in the lives of African Americans demonstrates the import of the day and the strong sense of racial and cultural connectedness that continues to prevail among blacks. Origins When, on January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln read the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in America, not everyone was aware of what had transpired. In Texas, slavery persisted for another two years. Assorted explanations for the reason that slaves in Texas did not hear about the famous proclamation abound. According to the official Juneteenth Web site, some contended, among other things, that the Union was not yet ‘‘strong enough’’ to penetrate the Confederate forces in Texas, that a messenger bearing the joyous news was murdered while en route to Texas, or that the announcement was ‘‘deliberately withheld’’ for the slave master’s benefit. Whatever the reason, blacks in Texas finally received the news of their freedom on June 19, 1865. Celebrations The first generation of freed slaves, who knew intimately the anguish and degradations of slavery, celebrated exuberantly. Money and resources were scarce, but black Texans went all out to celebrate heartily. Most blacks took the day off from labor to participate in the festivities. Festivities included rodeos, fishing, barbecuing, and baseball. All too frequently, blacks were prevented from holding Juneteenth celebrations in public spaces, thus activities tended to occur at churches or near rivers and lakes. Juneteenth celebrants wore their best clothes, though good clothes were a scarcity, and prepared lavish meals, including copious amounts of meat, that were generously shared with family and friends. In those early years, Juneteenth was exclusively an African American event and known primarily among blacks, with the exception of some white landowners who gave blacks the day off to celebrate and sometimes contributed money and food. In some parts of Texas, blacks purchased property, like Booker T. Washington Park located in Mexia, Texas, where they could celebrate Juneteenth year after year. Booker T. Washington Park was purchased in 1898 and is touted as one of most popular locations for Juneteenth merriment. In the 1900s, Juneteenth celebrations waned considerably. Some upwardly mobile blacks did not acknowledge Juneteenth, because they were ashamed of their slave past and aspired to assimilate into mainstream culture. Younger
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generations of blacks, becoming further removed from slavery, were occupied with school (where black history was often neglected) and other pursuits. Other blacks who migrated to the North sometimes dropped some southern traditions in their new environment or were unable to take time off. (In the North, where slavery was abolished early on in American history, Juneteenth did not hold the same significance as it did in the South.) Over time, Juneteenth was slowly becoming a thing of the past, something the old-timers reminisced about, a seemingly outdated and irrelevant event for young blacks living in a new era. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s prompted the revival of Juneteenth celebrations. The Juneteenth Web site explains that many young activists ‘‘linked [the struggle for racial equality] to the historical struggles of their ancestors.’’ As a result, interest in slavery and black history in general grew. At some demonstrations, Juneteenth buttons were worn and celebrations reemerged and spread to regions where Juneteenth had not been previously observed It did not matter that Juneteenth was specific to Texas. Juneteenth was not only relevant to the descendents of slaves in Texas. Blacks outside of Texas acknowledge the unique history of Juneteenth but also regard celebrations as a symbolic day of freedom for all blacks.
Mainstreaming of Juneteenth To this day, Juneteenth is mostly known among blacks; however, significant developments have resulted in the popularization of the celebration. On January 1, 1980, Juneteenth became an official holiday in Texas, owed in large part to Al Edwards, who was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1978. Juneteenth is increasingly recognized in schools, museums, and other institutions. In some regions, Juneteenth celebrants block off streets in predominately black neighborhoods and hold celebrations featuring singers, dancers, food vendors and face painting, inflatable big toys, and arts and crafts for children. Celebrations that take place at notable establishments, such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, further demonstrate the mainstreaming of Juneteenth as an important American holiday. Another phenomenon that has helped popularize the holiday is the emergence of Juneteenth paraphernalia. A trend that has sparked particularly among middle-class blacks is the adornment of Afrocentric clothing and other items. In Texas, as well as in urban, predominately black regions, like Harlem, Chicago, and Atlanta, Juneteenth shirts, sweaters, caps, and other articles can be purchased throughout the year; blacks of all ages wear them with pride. Juneteenth clothing reflects a contemporary development in black cultural expression. Whereas Juneteenth was once celebrated in isolated enclaves, far from the eyes of mainstream society, Juneteenth is now a widely celebrated and marketed event. See also: Afrocentrism; Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations
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Further Reading Hine, Darlene Clark, Hine, William C., and Harrold, Stanley. 2009. African Americans: A Concise History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Juneteeth.com. (n.d.) ‘‘History of Juneteenth.’’ http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm. Taylor, Charles A. 2002. Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom. Greensboro, NC: Open Hand Publishing. Gladys L. Knight
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Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture Volume 3 K–R 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
K Keys, Alicia (1981–), Singer, Songwriter, Actress, Humanitarian Born Alicia Augello Cook, January 25, 1981, Alicia Keys has broadened the spectrum of sound with her ballads and contemporary piano renditions of soulstirring songs. Her unique ability to marry classical piano and urban-pop vocals is a talent that has enriched the realm of musical entertainment. When Keys was seven years old, her mother, Nikki Augello, secured piano lessons for her. Keys’s mother insisted she continue to improve at the piano. The mastery of the piano led to her new appellation–Alicia Keys. Although Keys was accepted to Columbia University on a full scholarship, the musician chose to pursue her passion of music after attending Columbia for a short while. In 1998, barely seventeen, Keys was signed by Arista Records. When Clive Davis left his post at Arista in 1999 to launch J Records, Keys opted to move with him. Keys creatively contributed to her debut album, Songs in A Minor. The debut single ‘‘Fallin’’’ topped the charts in 2001, and the album went platinum five times. The success of Keys’s album immediately propelled Keys’s sultry voice, urban lyrics, and melodic rhythms into the hearts of listeners and into the annals of music history. Keys collected numerous awards during the 2002 Grammy Awards: Best R & B Song, Best R & B Album, Best Female R & B Vocal Performance, and Best New Artist. Later during the 2005 Grammy Awards, she won four awards for the album, Diary. Also in 2005, Keys became the first R & B female singer to have three consecutive number one debut singles on the Billboard 200 list. A multitalented artist, Keys was showcased as an actor in 2007 in the movie Smokin’ Aces, in which she debuted as an assassin. The Secret Life of Bees (2009) is the latest movie project Keys completed.
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In 2003, Keys cofounded Keep a Child Alive (KCA), a nonprofit organization which urges the public to provide a dollar a day to save the life of a child with HIV or AIDS or to help a parent purchase anti-retroviral drugs that are said to help fight the virus that causes the disease. In 2008, Keys initiated a texting campaign to raise money for the organization’s cause. The campaign was the first successful ongoing texting campaign implemented in the United States. Keys is also a board member of Frum Tha Ground Up, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring the youth of the United States. She also commits time to Teens in Motion, a grassroots organization in the South Bronx which gives safe space to teens with interests in the arts, including spoken word. The organization also enhances self-esteem in young people. In 2009, BET awarded Keys its Humanitarian Award. Keys’s philanthropic acts, global concern for, and personal investment to the well-being of mankind validate this award. In August 2010, Keys married record producer, deejay and rapper Kasseem Dean, better known by his stage name Swizz Beatz. Their first child was born in November 2010. See also: Entertainment Industry; Musicians and Singers Further Reading A&E Television Networks. (n.d.) ‘‘Alicia Keys Biography.’’ Biography.com. http:// www.biography.com/articles/ Alicia-Keys-9542485. BET Networks. (n.d.) ‘‘BET Awards 2009 Honorees. Humanitarian: Alicia Keys.’’ BET.com. beta09_honorees_humanitarianaward_alicia_keys.htm?wbc_purpose= Basic&WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished&Referrer=%7B2EBAB7F5-E62C4B49-B007-D256D4C33572%7D. Business Wire. 2008. ‘‘Alicia Keys’ Documentary ‘Alicia in Africa: Journey to the Motherland’ Available . . .’’ (press release). Reuters.com, April 7. http://www.reuters .com/article/pressRelease/idUS189864+07-Apr-2008+BW20080407. Keep a Child Alive.org. 2010. ‘‘Alicia Keys Co-founder and Global Ambassador.’’ http://keepachildalive.org/about/alicia-keys/. Lynn Norment. 2004. ‘‘Alicia Keys Sounds Off on Men, Love & Game.’’ Ebony 59 (January): 134–36, 138. LaVie T. Leasure
King, B. B. (1925– ), Blues Guitarist B. B. King, hailed as ‘‘King of the Blues,’’ is one of the most popular African American blues performers in the history of blues music. He is known for his innovative electric guitar playing, style, and musicianship. B. B. King was born Riley King on September 16, 1925, in Itta Bena, Mississippi. He is the first and only child born to sharecropper parents, Albert and
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Nora Ellen King. He attended the Elkhorn School but discontinued his schooling after the tenth grade. King spent most of his childhood with his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, while his mother sought higher-paying employment to support her family. King knew that working as a sharecropper was not the life he wanted to live. King’s first musical experience was in the black churches of the Mississippi Delta, in which his Uncle Archie served as a Pentecostal minister. It was in this church that King discovered his musical gifts. Fascinated by his uncle’s guitar, King practiced at every opportunity. Former employer, Blues guitarist B.B. King received the Blues Foundation Flake Cartledge, loaned lifetime achievement award, Monday, October 20, 1997, King $2.50 towards the at the Palace Theater in Los Angeles. (AP/Wide World Photos) purchase of a used electric guitar, a hollow-bodied Gibson. Soon after, King formed his first gospel singing group with his cousin, Birkett Davis, Walter Doris, and another young man from a nearby farm. King and Davis later moved to Indianola and joined a local singing group, the Famous St. John Gospel Singers, singing at local churches, community centers, and later on local radio broadcasts at WGRM in Greenwood, Mississippi. At eighteen, King became eligible for the draft and was encouraged to apply for occupational deferment. In 1944, he served a few months in a military training camp before his deferment became official. On November 26, 1944, King married Martha Denton, a local girl from Indianola, Mississippi. King moved to Memphis in 1946 with his cousin Booker T. ‘‘Bukka’’ White, also a musician and master of the ‘‘slide’’ or ‘‘bottleneck’’ technique of guitar playing. In 1948, King had his first on-air performance on KWEM on the Sonny Boy Williamson Show, and later worked for local radio station WDIA as an advertiser for Pepticon,
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an all-purpose tonic. He then worked as a disc jockey hosting a ten-minute radio spot which later became the popular Sepia Swing Club. King became so popular as a host that the spot was expanded to fifteen minutes. Management thought the name Riley King was too dull and he became the ‘‘Beale Street Blues Boy,’’ named for the musical district in Memphis. The name was eventually shortened to B. B. by his fans. As his popularity grew, he started performing regularly in the hottest clubs along Beale Street alongside fellow blues musicians Sonny Boy Williamson and Junior Lockwood. During his early years, King admits that he had bad timing when playing music. King was inspired by Muddy Waters Morganfield and admired the talents of Aaron ‘‘T-Bone’’ Walker, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Hank Crawford, and others. In 1949, he recorded his first four songs under the Bullet Recording and Transcription Company. The recording was a limited release. He was later scouted by Ike Turner (then a piano player) and signed with the Biharis brothers to the newly formed RPM Records where he recorded ‘‘She’s Dynamite’’ (1951) and ‘‘B. B. Blues’’ (1951). King’s seventh single, ‘‘Three O’ Clock Blues’’ (1952) met with huge success with audiences across the country, ultimately landing him the number one spot on Billboard’s R & B charts for fifteen weeks. Singing primarily about strained relationships between men and women, broken relationships, and broken hearts, King infused elements of black church worship and gospel music into his performances. Although his music was succeeding, his eight-year marriage to Martha was failing and ultimately ended in divorce in 1952. During that summer King finally left the Deep South, embarking on a six-month tour throughout the East Coast with a New York agency, Universal Tours. While touring, King had the opportunity to perform at the ‘‘Big Three Theaters’’—the Howard Theater in Washington, DC; the Royal Theater in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Six years after his divorce, King married Sue Carol Hall, who had an active interest in the music business and often toured with King. They divorced in 1966. Although King had no children with either of his wives, he fathered eight children and later adopted five more. King’s contract with RPM expired in 1958 but he recorded additional songs in 1959 and 1961. After leaving RPM Records, King signed with ABC-Paramount Records in 1961—a label that also signed Ray Charles and Fats Domino. King hired former accountant Sidney Seidenberg in 1966 as his business manager. Seidenberg completely turned things around for King, who received his first exposure to a nationwide audience in 1968 with his song ‘‘The Thrill is Gone.’’ The song received regular airplay and reached number fifteen on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, for which he received his first Grammy Award for top R & B recording of the year. After meeting with such success, King toured with the Rolling Stones in 1969, playing for more than one million fans. In 1970, he appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and later on The Ed Sullivan Show, where he performed for an audience of over 70 viewers. At 45, King finally reached mainstream audiences. With his increased status, King traveled beyond the United States to London in 1971, the first of many overseas tours. He and later traveled to over 57 countries and five continents
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including Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the early 1970s, King and lawyer F. Lee Bailey established the Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation (FAIRR), an organization that performed for prisoners throughout the United States. Although King never completed high school, he received honorary doctorate degrees from Tougaloo College, Yale University, Berklee College of Music, Rhodes College of Memphis, Mississippi Valley State University, and Brown University. He also received the National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi. In addition to his honorary degrees, King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and was awarded a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star and the Presidential Medal of Honor, the highest honor available to a United States civilian. King still records and continues to tour up to 300 days of the year. See also: Delta Blues; Musicians and Singers Further Reading B. B. King. (Homepage.) http://www.bbking.com. Chapman, Richard, and Eric Clapton. 2000. The Guitar: Great Players and Their Music. Sharon Lucas, ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Dorling Kindersley. Dickerson, James. 1996. Goin’ Back to Memphis: A Century of Blues, Rock ‘N’ Roll and Glorious Soul. New York: Schirmer Books. Shirley, David. 1995. Every Day I Sing the Blues: The Story of B. B. King. New York: Franklin Watts. Christina D. Cruse
King, Coretta Scott (1927–2006), Activist, Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was an internationally recognized civil and human rights activist. Following the death of her husband, she helped preserve his legacy by assuming a role of leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, later founding the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change and forming the committee that would successfully lobby for a federal Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday. Though best known for her civil rights activism, King was also an important voice in American politics and human rights and remained so until her death in 2006. Born in Heiberger, Alabama on April 27, 1929, to Obediah and Bernice Scott, owners of a truck-farming business, King was the second of three children, including older sister Edyth and younger brother Obediah Leonard. Though they were successful in the farming industry, the Scotts wanted their children to excel academically and sent them to schools in better school districts. Like her older sister, King graduated valedictorian from Lincoln High School in nearby Marion, Alabama in 1945, and, following in Edyth’s footsteps once again, she accepted a scholarship from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she majored in
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Coretta Scott King shakes hands with New York mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. as Martin Luther King Jr. looks on. (Library of Congress)
music and education. King also became more became politically active in college largely in response to a brush with discrimination by the Yellow Springs School Board during the pursuit of a practice teaching certificate in the Yellow Springs public schools, a decision that was appealed but subsequently denied, though she was later allowed to perform her student teaching at the demonstration school on the Antioch campus. She also joined the college chapter of the NAACP. After graduating from Antioch with a BA degree in music education in 1951, King enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, on a full-tuition scholarship to study voice and violin. Shortly after arriving in Boston, she was introduced to Martin Luther King Jr., a young theology student at Boston University whom she would later marry at her parent’s house in Marion, Alabama, on June 18, 1953. This union changed the overall direction of King’s life, making raising a family and the pursuit of nonviolent social change more critical than a career in music (though she would always retain a love for the performing arts). Following her graduation from the New England Conservatory in 1954, the couple moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. took a job as a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and his ascendancy to the head of the Civil Rights Movement began. They had four children: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and Bernice.
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After her husband was murdered in 1968, King quickly assumed his position in the movement, stepping into the spotlight four days after his death by replacing him in leading a march on behalf of the striking sanitation workers in Memphis. Later on, during the summer of 1968, she participated as a speaker at the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, DC. In 1969, she began organizing the King Center for Non-Violent Social Change by gathering and mobilizing support for an expanded venue, which would grow to include the restoration of his childhood home, a museum, and a library. She also chaired the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission, which was formed during the 1970s and critical in obtaining the successful ratification of legislation for the holiday in November 1983. During the latter portion of the twentieth century, King was one of the most highly visible and prominent leaders of the African American community, frequently lending her support to causes such as the Anti-Apartheid movement, LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights, feminism, and HIV/ AIDS prevention. Following a brief hospitalization in April 2005, King suffered a heart attack and mild stroke in August. She died on January 30, 2006, while being treated for cancer at the Hospital Santa Monica in Rosarito, Mexico, leaving a legacy of service, endurance, and commitment to equality. See also: Social Activists Further Reading The King Center. (n.d.) ‘‘The Late Mrs. Coretta Scott King, Human Rights Leader and Activist, 1927–2006.’’ Biography.
. King, Coretta Scott. 1969. My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Lynn Washington
King, Martin Luther Jr. (1929–68), Civil Rights Leader, Minister Martin Luther King Jr. was the preeminent leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He used a combination of nonviolent protest, Christian theology, and moral suasion to fight segregation and discrimination. His inspiring legacy lives on in history and popular culture into the twenty-first century. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. He graduated from high school in 1944 and was admitted to Morehouse College when he was fifteen years old. After graduating, King enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary and was ordained as Baptist minister at the age of nineteen. In 1951, King entered Boston University. He married Coretta Scott and was awarded a PhD in Theology by Boston University in 1955. King moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to pastor the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to yield
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her seat to a white passenger. A few days later the Montgomery Improvement Association was organized by local black leaders who elected King president. He was just twenty-six years old at the time but he rose to the challenge of leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott. After a tense year in which carpools were organized and weekly prayer meetings were held, in November 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional, ensuring victory for the boycott. King was a proponent of nonviolent protest. He explained in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail that ‘‘[n]onviolent direct action seeks to create . . . [a] crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.’’ After the success of the Montgomery boycott, King gained recognition as a civil rights leader. He organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. For the next eleven years he addressed groups, led countless boycotts and marches, and became the embodiment of the Civil Rights Movement. King resigned from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and returned to Atlanta to concentrate on SCLC’s activities. Sit-ins that challenged segregation in public accommodations began in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1961 and quickly spread to other cities across the South. In Atlanta, King was arrested during a sit-in and was sentenced to four months in prison. After the intervention of President John Kennedy, he was released. On April 12, 1963, King was arrested in Alabama by Police Commissioner Eugene ‘‘Bull’’ Connor for demonstrating without a permit. This spurred King to launch the Birmingham campaign that lasted for more than two months that spring. The effort started with a boycott and switched to marches and sit-ins. Birmingham police used highpressure water hoses, police dogs, and tear gas to control protesters, many of whom were children. The extreme brutality inflicted on protestors was featured on nightly television and radio newscasts. During his incarceration, King wrote his famous ‘‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’’ The letter was an eloquent and forceful response to a statement issued by a group of white Alabama clergymen who conceded that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought in the courts rather than the streets. King’s letter stated that without nonviolent direct action, civil rights for African Americans would never be obtained. After weeks of negotiations, an agreement was reached that provided for the desegregation of Birmingham’s stores, restaurants, and schools. The March on Washington was a milestone in King’s career. It was organized by a coalition of civil rights groups. Factions within the coalition differed on the purpose of the march. To some it was intended to express support for the civil rights bill that had been proposed by the Kennedy administration. Others viewed it as a way of presenting civil rights issues to national audiences. There were still others who saw the march as a way of challenging what they viewed as the Kennedy administration’s inadequate support for civil rights.
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The historic march was held on August 28, 1963, the result of the collective efforts of several groups, and it was the largest civil rights demonstration in American history. Approximately 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC. King was a gifted orator who captivated the audience with his ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech. The March on Washington inspired the nation and provided the impetus for the enactment of the Civil Rights Act that was stalled in Congress. It also paved the way for the ratification of the TwentyFourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which outlawed the poll taxes that officials had used to disenfranchise black voters in the South. King became an internationally renowned public figure. In January 1964, King was featured on the cover of Time magazine. For his work in nonviolent protest, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December of that year. The 1964 Civil Rights Act failed to address voting rights. As result, the Selma, Alabama, voting rights effort started in January 1965, when King addressed a mass meeting in that city. During their first march the protestors were stopped by police officers who savagely attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas. After a second march was aborted, King led a group of demonstrators on a journey from Selma to Montgomery. They set out on March 21st with approximately 3,000 demonstrators. Four days later they reached Montgomery with 25,000 marchers. In August, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King realized that racism was not limited to the South. He turned his attention to the North, but his efforts there were less successful. In January 1966, King moved into a Chicago tenement to attract attention to the living conditions of the impoverished black residents. That summer King organized a campaign to end discrimination in housing, employment, and schools in Chicago. In 1967, King announced his intent to organize a Poor People’s Campaign that would focus on unemployment and poverty. As plans were finalized, King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking sanitation workers. In March 1968, King led a demonstration in Memphis that turned violent. Disappointed but undeterred, King returned to Memphis. On April 3rd he delivered a powerful speech in which he seemed to anticipate his death. Quoted in Canaan’s Edge, King said: ‘‘I got to Memphis. And some began . . . to talk about the threats. . . . But it doesn’t matter with me now. . . . Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. . . . But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. . . . And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.’’ On April 4th, King was fatally shot by an assassin while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Riots erupted in 130 American cities; 20,000 people were arrested. While many of the nation’s cities were still smoldering, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was enacted. In recognition of his work in civil rights, on November 2, 1986, a law was enacted that made King’s birthday a national holiday. See also: Social Activists
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Further Reading Branch, Taylor. 2006. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–1968. New York: Simon & Schuster. Branch, Taylor. 1988. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63. New York: Simon & Schuster. Branch, Taylor. 1998. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65. New York: Simon & Schuster. Garrow, David. 1986. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. New York: William Morrow. Hammon, Scott J., Kevin R. Harwick, and Howard L. Lubert. 2007. Classics of American Political and Constitutional Thought. Vol. 2: Reconstruction to the Present. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. Leland Ware
King, Martin Luther Jr., National Holiday The Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday celebrates the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. The holiday is observed on the third Monday of January. Shortly after King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the drive began to set aside a date to commemorate his life and work. In Congress, John Conyers Jr. (D-Michigan) was the first to introduce a bill to commemorate King with a national holiday on January 15th. The King Memorial Center in Atlanta was established within months of King’s assassination and in 1969 was the first to celebrate King’s birthday. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, was instrumental in getting the holiday passed; she testified in Congress many times about the importance of the holiday and worked with many different state and local officials to get the holiday passed in each of the fifty states. Representative Conyers reintroduced the bill each year in the House of Representatives but the bill languished and did not move forward. In 1971, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference presented to Congress more than three million signatures of those who supported a King holiday and still this did not move the bill forward. It was not until 1979, when President Jimmy Carter stated that he supported the holiday, that there was a push to pass the bill in Congress. However, even with President Carter’s assistance, the bill still failed to pass in Congress in 1979. The drive to mark a national holiday for King had finally started to gain momentum with new bills being introduced, more members of Congress pushing its passage, and another petition of over six million signatures presented to Congress that supported a King holiday. Even with many people in Congress supporting the bill, it was not completely free of controversy. There were some who believed that a day should be set aside for all those who worked on civil rights issues and not just for one person. Others, like Senator Jesse Helms (Republican-North Carolina), were critics of the bill to honor King. Helms tried unsuccessfully to paint King as a communist
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and worked to defeat the bill right up to the time it passed in the Senate. On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law. Even after the law was signed, it was not until January 1986 that the first national King holiday was observed. At the time the first national King holiday was observed, 17 of the states had already enacted their own state holidays commemorating King. By the third anniversary of the national King holiday, an additional 27 states had begun to commemorate King’s life and work. States such as Utah and New Hampshire celebrated Human Rights Day on the same day as the King holiday. These states later changed the name of the holiday to coincide with the national holiday. In 1994, Coretta Scott King testified in Congress about making the King holiday a day of service as a way to honor her husband. King’s work had been about equality for all Americans and one way to honor King would be by performing acts of community service that would benefit others. President Bill Clinton signed the King Holiday and Service Act into law in 1994 making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a day of service. This law asks all Americans to celebrate the holiday by giving back to their community by completing community service projects. See also: Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Further Reading ‘‘The Continuing Struggle for a National King Holiday.’’ 1988. Ebony 43 (January): 27–32. The King Center. http://thekingcenter.org. MLKDay.gov. ‘‘Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.’’ http://www.mlkday.gov/. Theresa Mastrodonato
Kwanzaa Maulana (formerly Ron) Karenga defines Kwanzaa as ‘‘an African American holiday celebrated from 26 December thru 1 January.’’ In Swahili, Kwanzaa means ‘‘first fruits,’’ which refers to traditional African agriculturally based celebrations. Karenga, who founded Kwanzaa in 1966, has developed a unique and elaborate contemporary celebration that speaks to the history and experiences of blacks in the United States. At the heart of Kwanzaa is an effort to recognize African heritage, reinforce and preserve black identity, and build up and unify African American families and communities that have so long been ravaged by racism, crime, poverty, and other problems. Kwanzaa celebrations take place in intimate family settings, as well as in larger community and public venues. Kwanzaa is unlike any mainstream American holiday. Kwanzaa features objects that have Swahili names and are used to promote African values and may incorporate religious elements. For example, a kinara, or candleholder, is an object that is on display during the Kwanzaa celebration. The kinara holds seven
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candles and represents African people. The seven candles signify seven values: unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani). To be sure, Kwanzaa lacks the commercial exposure given to other holidays, such as Christmas, which is heavily marketed on television and in advertisements, stores, and other public spaces between November and December. In general, Afrocentric events or activities are, historically, relegated to the periphery. Efforts to change this paradigm have helped. The United States Postal Service has issued two Kwanzaa stamps; a large-scale event takes place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and Kwanzaa literature abounds at many public libraries. Nevertheless, many whites and some blacks know little or nothing about Kwanzaa; some may erroneously believe that African Americans do not really celebrate it, that Kwanzaa is not a true holiday, or that Kwanzaa reinforces exclusivity. Over the years, the number of Kwanzaa participants has grown. In 1996, Karenga noted that there were ‘‘20 million celebrants throughout the world African community.’’ In recent years, celebrants mostly include middle- and upper-class blacks. Kwanzaa remains, in spite of critics and skeptics, a relevant and thriving African American celebration. Nonblacks are not excluded from celebrations. Origins Kwanzaa was a logical result, owing to the context in which it emerged. Race was a prominent issue in the 1960s. Social Activists forced the issue of race in terms of equal rights and the eradication of segregation during the Civil Rights Movement, resulting in mainstream media coverage of demonstrations, racial violence, Civil Rights Cases, and new civil rights laws. The advent of the Black Power Movement in the mid-1960s further changed the world. For one, a number of culturalists and prominent leaders in black power organizations, like Ron Everett (leader of the organization Us), who was also known as Ron Karenga and Maulana Karenga, emerged, challenging the Eurocentric world they lived in. They advocated education in African and African American history and sparked trends in traditional African attire and names and natural hairstyles. They also desired to preserve black culture and resist cultural assimilation with dominant white culture, contending that integration would eradicate black culture. In effect, they advanced a revolutionary message, that black was beautiful and that black culture was rich and valuable. (For centuries, blacks and black culture had been denigrated and ignored.) The Black Power Movement resulted in numerous changes in American life, such as the establishment of Black Studies programs, the increased appearance of blacks in television and film, and, within the black community, a resurgence of black pride. At the same time, black ghettos were in dire straights, suffering from violence, crime, unemployment, poverty, and other social problems. In the midst of the black cultural revolution and social crisis, Karenga created Kwanzaa ‘‘for ingathering of African Americans for celebration of their heritage and their achievements, reverence for the Creator and creation, commemoration of the past, recommitment to cultural ideals and celebration of the good.’’
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Observance Kwanzaa entails time designated for family and community, during which individuals participate in assorted activities, games, and rituals that take place each day of the week. Although homes may be decorated in assorted ways, seven obligatory items are used during the observance of the celebration and displayed on a table that is sometimes accentuated with African art. These items include the following: a fruit display, which symbolizes crops (mazao), a mat (mkeka), which symbolizes traditions, a candleholder (kinara), corn (muhindi), which symbolizes children, seven candles (mishumaa saba), a unity cup (kikombe cha umoja), and gifts (zawadi), which are presented to family members. Other symbols include a flag (bendera) that is depicted in three colors: black, representing black people, red, symbolizing the struggle, and green, signifying the future. Several rituals are observed during Kwanzaa. For example, each day, a candle, which symbolizes the major principles of Kwanzaa, is burned and celebrants discuss the importance of the principle. Other activities include the pouring of libations (an African-based tradition), Swahili greetings, a meal, and gift-giving. The libations ritual is performed by passing the unity cup, which may be filled with water, wine, or juice, to all the members of the family. After all members have taken a sip, the eldest member of the family pours the remaining fluid in all four directions, an action that shows reverence to ancestors, and then proceeds to beseech blessings for the family. Public celebrations may also include drumming and other forms of entertainment, as well as arts and crafts for children. See also: Afrocentric Movement; Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Further Reading Copage, Eric V. 2005. Fruits of the Harvest: Recipes to Celebrate Kwanzaa and Other Holidays. New York: Amistad. Dismukes, Gwynelle. 2000. Practicing Kwanzaa Year Round: Affirmations and Activities Around the Seven Principles. Summertown, TN: GlobalCultures. Karenga, Maulana. 1998. Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press. Gladys L. Knight
L L L Cool J (1968– ), Musician, Actor, James Todd Smith, known as LL Cool J (Ladies Love Cool James), is considered legendary in the both revered and reviled Hip-Hop movement and a theatrical pro seen on television and in cinema. While growing up, young Smith encountered the growing pains of his parents’ divorce when he was four years of age. His grandparents helped raise him in Queens, New York. As a pre-teen, after his first brush with rap, a new style of putting words to music, he dreamed of being the greatest rapper of all time. He even went so far as to persuade his mother to take him to his first rap concert. Smith kept his dreams about his love for rap and wanting to become a rap artist tucked away from everyone except for his grandfather. His grandfather also had a love for music which he shared with Smith regularly. Born in Bay Shore, Long Island, New York, L L Cool J claimed stardom at the early age of sixteen as he married into the Def Jam family, a music label created and headed by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. The year 1984 was a time for ‘‘I Need a Beat,’’ his and Def Jam’s first widely released single. This single sold over one hundred thousand copies, proof that success was tangible and evident. Although in its infancy, hip-hop, the art of rapping, tagging, Break Dancing, and a form of dress, was considered a passing fad by most. For L L Cool J it was his beginning in a budding industry that readily received him telling his life story through rhyme for people the world over to hear. Radio was his debut album, which held the popular anthem entitled ‘‘I Can’t Live Without My Radio.’’ Upon the success and acclaim of this 1985 platinum-selling record, Smith made
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a cameo appearance in which he performed in the movie Krush Groove. Enamored with much fame and fortune, he thought it best as his career was taking flight to put the completion of his high school education on hold. A mainstay of the Def Jam label, L L Cool J also sought to branch out into other areas which would appeal to his fan base. By 1991, the Grammy Award winner for the album Mama Said Knock You Out (1990) had an astonishing five albums and over seven singles that topped the R & B and/or pop radio music charts. In pursuit of a new direction in 1991, L L Cool J appeared in the film The Hard Way and later in the movie Toys in 1992. Later he landed a starring role on the hit television sitcom In the House. He played the role of a former star football player turned nanny on the show, which ran for three seasons after its premiere in 1995. The artist also enjoyed the success of the multiplatinum and double Grammy Award-winning album Mr. Smith. Two years later in 1997 his autobiographical tell-all book, I Make My Own Rules, was published collaboratively with the album Phenomenon. Philanthropic endeavors have also been a major part of his public life. In 1992, he founded a program for urban youth called the Camp Cool J Foundation and Youth Enterprises. He has also worked with the literacy campaign ‘‘Stay In School.’’ Camp Cool J has teamed with other organizations focusing on political and child welfare initiatives. L L Cool J’s longevity in the entertainment business can be measured by his superior skill and ability. His significant rap and movie career and all around star power continue to blossom on national and international levels. See also: Entertainment Industry; Musicians and Singers; Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading Du Bois, Andrew. 2005. ‘‘LL Cool J.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, 2nd ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Hughes, Charles L. 2008. ‘‘LL Cool J.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 5. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. ‘‘L. L. Cool J.’’ 2001. Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. Rev. and updated for the 21st Century. New York: Simon & Schuster Dantrea Hampton
Labor Movement One of the first African American organizations to focus on equal employment opportunities and conditions was established in 1850. Titled the American
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League of Colored Laborers, the organization was located in New York City. This group of African American activists and others like it laid the groundwork for the development of national black labor unions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1869, response to the urging of prominent members of the National Labor Union, 214 African Americans branched off to begin their own organization in an attempt to better the lot of black people in fields such as construction, shipbuilding, and other fields requiring unskilled manual labor. Thus began the Colored National Labor Union. The first president of the association was Isaac Myers. Myers, a ship caulker who just a year earlier had founded the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company in response to unequal hiring practices he observed and to which he was subjected in the shipbuilding industry. The Immigration Act of 1907 made provisions for the development of the Division of Information, a quasi-labor union in that its mission went beyond assisting immigrants in finding employment to also include the equal disbursement of jobs across the United States for immigrants. A like organization addressing the specific needs of the African American was not established until 1918. In 1925, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids, the most influential African American labor union, was founded. A. Philip Randolph and Milton P. Webster worked in concert to raze the Pullman Company’s image of graciousness and magnanimity and reveal how poor employee-employer relations are analogous to the same master-slave relationship under which the slaves labored. This organization lasted until 1978 when it joined forces with the Brotherhood of Airway, Railroad, and Steamship Clerks. It was not until 1928 that the Brotherhood joined forces with the American Federation of Labor, paving the way for other black unions to follow in their path. In addition, the incorporation of African American labor unions into the federation allowed for A. Philip Randolph to become the first black vice president of the league thirty years later. In 1941, President Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practice Commission, a federally commissioned agency designed to investigate and ensure the use of fair practices in the dissemination of jobs without regard to race, creed, or color. In 1945, Irving McNeil Ives, a Republican for the House of Representatives of the state of New York, passed the Ives-Quinn Law. This law banned discrimination in hiring practices in the state of New York. The labor movements of African Americans benefited greatly from federal legislation. For example, in 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act allowed for monetary reimbursement in case of discrimination regarding employment including situations involving racial bias. In 1960, black activists, along with African American labor unions, such as the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America and the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, joined forces to create the Negro American Labor Council. This council was responsible for organizing the March on Washington
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that hosted Martin Luther King Jr., where he gave his acclaimed speech: ‘‘I Have a Dream.’’ See also: Politics and Government; Journalism and Journalists; Social Activists Further Reading American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). ‘‘AfricanAmerican Labor History Links.’’ http://www.afscme.org/publications/12440.cfm. Black Workers’ Resources. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/blackworkers/resources.shtml. Labor History Sources. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/soc/labor-links.html. Sonjurae Mikel Cross
Language Language, whether oral or written or a system of gestures, within the context of African American popular culture has been and remains closely linked to identity. As African American writer and activist James Baldwin, cited in Newman’s work, has said, ‘‘For the horrors of the American Negro’s life there has been almost no language.’’ Yet a significant part of African American culture has been the conscious act of reclaiming the past by articulating the silences of a traumatic past. A writer who fashioned three autobiographies during his lifetime, Frederick Douglass (1817–95) offers us a particularly instructive starting point for examining the connection between language and identity. As a slave living in Baltimore, Douglass began to acquire written language by writing ‘‘in the spaces left in Master Thomas’s copy-book, copying what he had written.’’ Douglass also took his learning to the streets. ‘‘During this time,’’ he explains, ‘‘my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk. With these, I learned mainly how to write.’’ As scholar John Sekora has pointed out, ‘‘slavery for black Americans was a wordless, nameless, timeless time,’’ and Douglass offers us an early example of a writer struggling and succeeding in giving words, names, and time to an experience that would have otherwise been unknown. During the Harlem Renaissance, the first sustained flowering of black culture in the United States, African American artists, writers, and poets wrestled with the idea of ‘‘black sound.’’ Among the avant-garde of thinkers on this issue was James Weldon Johnson, editor, poet, novelist, and U.S. diplomat, whose prefaces to his anthologies of black poetry are hallmarks of literary theory. In the early twentieth century, what linguists today call Black English Vernacular had been maligned by Minstrelsy and Jim Crow segregation laws that together painted the racist notion that the words a person used represented that person’s intelligence. In other words, the Black English Vernacular had become embedded in racism, with small, if any, regard for artistic merit. As a result, language began to carry political implications for African American writers, and
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some turn-of-the-century novels by black writers featured black characters speaking in standard English. The derisive element in the broader American culture was such that those writers elided, in some cases, authenticity for an art that would, in their minds, uplift the race. As Johnson explained it, ‘‘The Negro in the United States has achieved or been placed in a certain artistic niche. When he is thought of artistically, it is as a happy-go-lucky, singing, shuffling, banjopicking being or as a more or less pathetic figure. The picture of him is in a log cabin amid fields of cotton or along the levees. Negro dialect is naturally and by long association the exact instrument for voicing this phase of Negro life; and by that very exactness it is an instrument with but two full stops, humor and pathos.’’ One of the goals of writers in the Harlem Renaissance was reclaiming a language defiled by minstrelsy and Jim Crow and using it in a way that could represent the contours and shadings of black life with authenticity and with dignity. Johnson’s call was direct: ‘‘What the colored poet in the United States needs to do is something like what Synge did for the Irish; he needs to find a form that will express the racial spirit by symbols from within rather than by symbols from without, such as the mere mutilation of English spelling and pronunciation.’’ Johnson here describes the need for a shift in writing that did more than just misspell words (eye dialect) to indicate that a person of color was speaking, but to carefully record and to honestly portray the variations in syntax that make up the Black English Vernacular. Following in Johnson’s wake, Zora Neale Hurston and Sterling A. Brown raised the level of language and engagement in African American literature. Both achieved eloquence in a colloquial voice, using the sounds and phrases of folk life to express universal truths of the human condition. In the poem ‘‘Odyssey of Big Boy,’’ from the collection Southern Road, Brown examines the parallels between the African American migratory work experience and Homer’s epic poem. Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, based on her extensive study of African American Folklore, achieves unsurpassed moments of eloquence by using a Standard English that shows the influence of Black English Vernacular. Yet, a strong element of using the vernacular is perception. Cited in Newman’s work, black feminist critic and writer bell hooks declared, ‘‘I think all the artists who use the black vernacular in this society understand that, to white minds, the black vernacular has always been associated with the idea of being stupid. I guess I feel that part of my mission as an artist—this is what binds me culturally to an Ice Cube and even a Snoop Doggy Dog—is understanding the beauty and aesthetic complexity in the vernacular.’’ And the ability to appreciate is the beginning of reversing the damage done, at the level of language, by minstrelsy and by prejudice in which we are often judged by how we sound. Baldwin also offers a view of language that is divisive. Language, he explained ‘‘reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity. . . . To open your mouth in England is (if I may use black English) to ‘put your business in the street’: You have confessed your parents, your youth, your school, your salary, your self-esteem, and, alas your future.’’ At the same time, however, there are commonalities in language,
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particularly in terms of region. These commonalities are particularly fascinating in the United States, where we are offered a glimpse into the influence of African American culture on the nation as a whole. In his own conception of the United States as ‘‘a land of masking jokers,’’ where the attempts made by people to separate themselves from others unwittingly brought them together, Ralph Ellison observes, ‘‘For one thing, the American nation is in a sense the product of the American language, a colloquial speech that began emerging long before the British colonials and Africans were transformed into Americans.’’ Going on to describe the American language as a ‘‘vernacular revolt,’’ Ellison draws the conclusion that ‘‘there is a de’z and do’z of slave speech sounding beneath our most polished Harvard accents, and if there is such a thing as a Yale accent, there is a Negro wail in it—doubtless introduced by Old Yalie John C. Calhoun, who probably got it from his mammy.’’ While language does carry connotations of class, Ellison suggests, the vernacular of African Americans has played a role in the formation of that language. See also: Black English; Globalization Further Reading Baldwin, James Arthur. 1985. ‘‘If Black English Isn’t A Language, Then Tell Me What Is?’’ In The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 1948–1985. New York: St. Martin’s. Douglass, Frederick. 1982. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. Houston A. Baker Jr., ed. New York: Penguin. Ellison, Ralph. 1995. ‘‘What America Would Be Like Without Blacks.’’ In Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison. John F. Callahan, ed. New York: Modern. Johnson, James Weldon. 2007. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble. Johnson, James Weldon. 1997. ‘‘Preface from the Book of American Negro Poetry.’’ In The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Henry Louis Gates Jr. et al., eds. New York and London: Norton. Newman, Richard. 1998. African American Quotations. Westport, CT: Oryx Press. Sekora, John. 1988. ‘‘Is the Slave Narrative a Species of Autobiography?’’ In Studies in Autobiography. James Olney, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Latifah, Queen (1970–), Actress, Rapper At a time in Hip-Hop music history when the few women in the business were belittling and confronting men and vying with each other to prove they were ‘‘The Real Roxanne,’’ a bold, full-figured teenager, dressed in comfortable urban gear and calling herself ‘‘Queen Latifah’’ made a startling entrance with her debut album All Hail the Queen. Previously, rivals of Roxanne Shante
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bragged that they were ‘‘The Real Roxane.’’ Rapping about Afrocentric female empowerment, and political issues, Latifah’s encouraging message was so fresh that All Hail the Queen sold over one million copies worldwide and landed in the top ten R & B hits. At times called ‘‘the First Lady of Hip Hop’’ (although many argue that Roxanne Shante and M. C. Lyte share that distinction), Queen Latifah prepared the world for funky in-your-face female rappers like Missy Elliott who refused the sex kitten roles of Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown. She is known for sultry, freestyle rap, switching in and out of Jamaican accents in her flow. Her company, Flavor Unit, cofounded with Shakim Compere, diversified into music, film, and television production and management. Over the years, Flavor Unit discovered ‘‘Naughty by Nature’’ and handled acts such as L L Cool J, Monica, and Outkast. Best-selling author (Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman) Queen Latifah continues to blossom, expanding her brand into cosmetics, clothing, real estate, and restaurants. Dana Elaine Owens, nicknamed ‘‘Latifah’’ by a Muslim cousin, was born on March 18, 1970, in East Orange, New Jersey, to Rita (a high school teacher) and Lancelot Owens. Her father and brother, Lancelot Jr., were police officers. Latifah and her brother have three half-siblings. Divorce divided the family when she was five. Her father, a Vietnam veteran with drug addiction problems, was involved in extramarital affairs. In spite of this, Latifah retained powerful lessons from her father, who felt that women were as capable as men. Very close to her brother, Latifah descended to a point of depression and drug use after he died in a motorcycle accident. Eventually, she chronicled this in her book, and today she runs a foundation in his honor. Coming from an urban background with two hardworking parents and a strong black mother as a role model permitted Latifah to view the black community from a multidimensional perspective that continues to influence her work. Meeting the DJ Mark the 45 King in high school was a turning point in Latifah’s life. She had been rapping with a group of friends called Ladies Fresh. Mark gave Latifah’s demo to Fab 5 Freddy of Yo! MTV Raps, who passed it to Tommy Boy Records. Latifah was signed on the spot. Latifah is a quintessential businesswoman who never signed away control of the rights to her music. She trusted her business affairs to longtime companion Shakim Compere. All Hail the Queen was followed by other releases including Nature of a Sista, Black Reign, and Living Out Loud, some critically acclaimed and some disappointing. She won a 1994 Grammy for U. N. I. T. Y. from Black Reign. Her music remains distinctive. Today, she has morphed to a softer jazzier style. Latifah is the first hip-hop performer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1991, Latifah jumped into film work, debuting in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. Her film career has been steady, with roles becoming more mainstream; she was Oscar-nominated for her role in Chicago. Recent work includes Hairspray and Mad Money (with Katie Holmes and Diane Keaton) which grossed $9.1 million in four days. An increasingly bankable brand, Latifah has great crossover ability. More poetic statements have been made about the ‘‘Queen,’’ but perhaps her
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longtime stylist, Susan Moses said it best: ‘‘She is a good person, and she’s solid. She does not change.’’ Latifah is an author as well. In addition to her 1999 publication, Ladies First, in 2010 she published Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom, in which she discusses her life-changing moments, She also challenges young women who are experiencing challenges in life to reinvent themselves. See also: Afrocentric Movement; Lee, Spike Further Reading Amber, Jeanine. 2006. ‘‘She’s the Boss.’’ Essence 37 (October): 180–83. Ferran, Christine, and Robert L. Johns. 1998. ‘‘Queen Latifah.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale. Hirji, Faiza. 2007. ‘‘Queen Latifah.’’ Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Mickey Hess, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Latifah, Queen. 2010. Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom. New York: Grand Central Publishing. Mitchell, Gail. 2007. ‘‘She’s Every Woman.’’ Billboard 119 (October 13): 63. Owens, Dana. 1999. Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman. New York: William Morrow. Elizabeth Sandidge Evans
Law and Law Schools Laws are the body of rules and principles governing the affairs of a community and enforced by a political authority or a legal system. These rules and principles have caused African Americans to suffer great misfortune when enacted by municipalities, states, or in rulings handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States. Laws have also allowed African Americans to ultimately enjoy the rights and privileges of being citizens of the United States of America. Law schools educate many who will make or amend the laws as well as those who will represent individuals who have dealings with the various aspects of the law. Negative Effect of Laws on African Americans The law has been a powerful force in the lives of African Americans, beginning with the ultimate law of the land, the United States Constitution, which declared that blacks were only 3/5 of a person. Laws were also the tools which allowed state governments to relegate the human cargo which had been brought from Africa, and later their descendents, to a life of degradation through slavery and its many atrocities. Law handed down from the United States Supreme Court declared through the Dred Scott case that people of African descent could
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not be citizens and as such had neither rights nor privileges within the United States of America. After slavery was abolished, many states in the South established laws, or Black Codes, with the purpose of denying African Americans the right to exist as a people with honor, dignity, or privilege. The laws ranged in their severity; some outlawed the congregation of more than two blacks at a time. Other Black Codes forbade African Americans from testifying against Caucasians in a court of law and from serving on a jury. Some Black Codes made it illegal for African Americans to be without a job. This Black Code gave tenant farm owners the leverage to coerce the laborers to accept any condition that the landowners imposed. Other codes conscripted children to work in the fields as unpaid apprentices. There laws were in effect a return to a form of slavery. Under the codes, adults were made to sign agreements which obligated them to work for many years for paltry wages. Jim Crow laws began in the 1870s and continued in many southern states until the 1950s. These laws forced people of African ancestry into another form of legal subjugation. Jim Crow dictated where Negroes could live, eat, drink, attend school, sit in the theater, or ride in public transportation. Blacks were prevented from being in the same areas as whites despite having paid the same price for the same services. Jim Crow laws also existed in the nation’s capital of Washington, DC, in the 1950s. Black children were segregated in an overcrowded school and prevented by law from attending a new school because the newly equipped school had been built for whites. Municipalities were not alone in denying rights to African Americans. In 1848, the Massachusetts State Supreme Court upheld segregation in the Boston schools. Roberts v. City of Boston, 1848–49, was brought by an African American father on behalf of his five-year-old daughter. The case advanced the argument that the segregated schools created a caste system and by their nature could never be equal. Six years later, Massachusetts abolished segregation; however in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson created the doctrine of separate but equal, which many linked to the ruling in the Roberts case. This allowed segregation of services and facilities. Although the Supreme Court held that separate was constitutional as long as the separate conditions were equal, the conditions between facilities for whites and Africans Americans had never been equal and the disparity in services and facilities continued to grow. Many facilities and services provided for African Americans were dilapidated or unfit for human use. Later the Supreme Court seemed to ignore the basis for the establishment of the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doctrine and affirmed discrimination against African Americans when in Cumming v. County Board of Education, the Court ruled that separate schools were valid even when a comparable school for African Americans was neither available nor provided. Laws Aiding African Americans in their Struggle for Equality Immediately after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era saw the passage of amendments to the United States Constitution designed to aid slaves with their
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transition into society. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution formally abolished slavery by declaring that ‘‘Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States.’’ The Fourteenth Amendment allowed for equal protection under the law. The Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments gave citizens and women respectively the right to vote. The bestowing of these rights caused former slave owners and others in the South to fear the emancipated slave. The Black Codes and Jim Crow laws were enacted to erode the gains promised by the constitutional amendments. Jim Crow and the Black Codes were not repealed willingly at the municipal or state level. The U.S. Supreme Court began the dismantling of Jim Crow. Through a series of cases the high court stripped away at the discriminatory practices across the country. In Guinn v. United States, the Court held that Oklahoma had violated the law by not allowing African Americans to vote. In Buchanan v. Warley, the Court ruled that Kentucky could not mandate the segregation of the races in housing matters. Over thirty years later, the Supreme Court ruled in Sipuel v. Oklahoma that a state must allow African Americans to study law at the state institutions. The following year, in Sweatt v. Painter, the high court held that Texas had to provide the same educational opportunities to African American students that were being provided to white students. Jim Crow was effectively eliminated by the U.S. Supreme Court when a case challenging the segregation of Washington, DC, schools was combined with four other segregation cases in Brown v. Board of Education. Twenty African American parents from Clarendon, South Carolina, challenged the fact that the school district would not provide a school bus for their children. In Topeka, Kansas, fourteen sets of parents asserted that the educational facilities were not equal in the schools provided for their African American children. In New Castle County, Delaware, African American students had to walk past several white schools in order to attend an inferior school. Just thirteen years before he would be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson, Thurgood Marshall argued the case for the African American plaintiffs. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the unanimous opinion for the Supreme Court which abolished the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doctrine by ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Other laws passed to aid African Americans included the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Commonly thought to have created rights, the act increased protection of voting rights and laid the foundation for federal enforcement of civil rights law by creating the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice, a U. S. Commission on Civil Rights within the executive branch, and expanding federal enforcement authority to include civil lawsuits. This act was largely thwarted when in 1960, local governments in the South enacted laws which trampled on the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the Constitution through the creation of literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and poll taxes. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made racial discrimination and segregation illegal. After its passage the South erupted in violence as African Americans
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attempted to exercise their right to vote. The 1965 Voting Act was passed in response to the violence. The 1965 act banned the literacy tests which had been used to disqualify African Americans. The act also gave the federal government the power to oversee voter registration and elections where the African American turnout had been less than 50 percent in the 1964 presidential election. The act was extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982. Before segments of the act expired in 2007, on a July day, President George W. Bush signed into the law the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006. Law Schools The first school to devote itself solely to the teaching and learning of law was the Litchfield Law School, located in Litchfield, Connecticut. It was started in 1784 by Tapping Reeve, the brother-in-law of Aaron Burr. Tapping Reeve went on to be the Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. The Litchfield Law School taught over one thousand students. The school’s graduates include over one hundred congressmen, two vice presidents, two dozen U.S. senators, six cabinet members, three justices of U.S. Supreme Court, fourteen governors, and thirteen State Supreme Court justices. The school closed in 1833 and is widely overlooked when people seek to name the first U.S. law school. The College of William and Mary, which opened in 1779, is often touted as being the first law school in the U.S. However, William and Mary was actually a college in which some professors taught law. Before the founding of Litchfield or William and Mary, the study of law was largely conducted through an apprenticeship with a practicing lawyer. Because enrolling in an established law school was prohibited by Jim Crow and the Black Codes, African Americans determined to study law could only do so by associating with white attorneys. Indiana native Macon Allen taught himself the law by clerking for white lawyers. On May 3, 1845, Allen became the first African American licensed to practice law in the United States. He later became the first African American justice of the peace. George Lewis Ruffin, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1869, is considered the first African American student to graduate from a law school. He went on to become a judge. Because of Jim Crow and the Black Codes, African Americans were rare at white law schools. In the 1920s there were only nine African Americans at Harvard. Charles Hamilton Houston graduated in 1922, and while at Harvard he distinguished himself by becoming the first African American on the Harvard Law Review. Almost seventy years later, Barack Obama would be elected as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Houston and Obama’s participation on the law review was the beginning of prominent and meaningful careers. Obama became the first African American president of the United States when he was elected as the nation’s 44th president. Charles Hamilton Houston would lend his brilliance to Howard University’s law school, which had been founded in 1869 as the country’s first law school for
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African Americans. His keen legal mind was a driving force behind the legal strategy of Brown v. Board of Education. It was at Howard University’s law school that Thurgood Marshall met then dean Charles Hamilton Houston. Marshall attended Howard’s law school after having been denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School because he was African American. Howard’s law school had also graduated Charlotte Ray, the first African American woman lawyer, in 1872. Ray was later admitted to practice.
Today’s Law Schools Currently there are 196 law schools in the United States that are accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and two in Puerto Rico with ABA accreditation. Six law schools are designated as Historically Black Colleges and Universities. They are the University of the District of Columbia, Florida A & M, Howard University, North Carolina Central University, Southern University, and Texas Southern University. There are another eight within the U.S. that have been provisionally accredited by the ABA. While there are no longer codes that ban African Americans from attending law school, the number of Africans American law students has not risen above 7 percent. To aid and support the small number of African American law students, Algernon Johnson Cooper founded the Black American Law Students Association at the New York University Law School in 1968. (In 1983, the word American was removed to include blacks not of American nationality.) For admission, the codes and laws have now been replaced with a critical review of the law school applicants’ undergraduate transcripts and grades. Equally important is the score that an applicant earns on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). With the grades and LSAT scores, schools could presumptively admit or deny a candidate based on these two objective factors or choose to consider other factors which include, but is not limited to, the race of the applicant. Many law schools considered race and ethnicity as a way to enhance diversity within their law schools. Some institutions considered race in recognition of past discrimination and as a method to ameliorate past wrongs. After a white female applicant, Barbara Grutter, was denied admission to the University of Michigan Law School, she sued, stating that the consideration of race in the admissions process was unconstitutional. The case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for the court, held that the use of race was not unconstitutional and was acceptable in narrowly tailored uses. In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, Michigan voters passed Proposal 2 in 2006. This initiative prohibits any state institution from giving preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting. Although California and Washington State have passed similar measures, African Americans continue to apply, be admitted, matriculate, and successfully graduate from every law school within the Unites States. See also: Civil Rights Cases; Judges
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Cases Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294 (1955). Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917). Cummins v. Richmond County Board of Education, 175 US 528 (1899). Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857). Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003). Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347 (1915). Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896). Sipuel v. Board of Regents, 332 U.S. 631 (1948). Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629 (1950). Further Reading American Bar Association Statistic Reports: Total Minority JD Degrees Awarded Through 2005, Litchfield Historical Society. (n.d.) ‘‘A History of the Litchfield Law School.’’ http://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/lawschool.html. BlackFacts. (n.d.) ‘‘Macon B. Allen. May 2, 1845.’’ http://www.blackfacts.com/fact/ bc9dab1d-5591-42d7-8cf9-a217fc1410b National Black Law Students Association. (n.d.) http://www/nblsa.org/index.php?pID= Packard, Jerrod. 2003. American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin Press. United States Constitution Angela Espada
Law Enforcement Law enforcement is the act of ensuring obedience to the rules of a society. Police officers are often referred to as law enforcement agents. Law enforcement is one of the most problematic issues within African American popular culture. The historical, fraught relationship between blacks and law enforcement has been reflected in literature and black slang, giving rise to such terms as ‘‘pig’’ and ‘‘po po,’’ and in academic writing. Since slavery times, blacks have existed in a perilous position in American society. Denied basic rights—even status as a human being—slaves did not have access to the legal system or law enforcement. After emancipation, blacks were stripped of the protection (albeit problematic) of the slave master. Blacks received no justice in the court system or protection from rampant racial violence. Blacks were often targeted by racist whites when they achieved economic success or challenged the status quo. Black males, in particular, were frequently wrongfully accused of raping white women and lynched (unlawfully executed) by white mobs. When whites victimized blacks, blacks received no assistance from law enforcement. Frequently individuals in law enforcement were instigators of racial violence and members of racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.
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The situation fared no better for blacks after the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was established, eradicating Jim Crow law. Blacks in the cities of the North wrestled with discrimination, poverty, and other societal ills, and police brutality. Racist police officers frequently targeted black males for crimes, real or imagined, and executed excessive violence, resulting in frequent shooting deaths. These attacks triggered a number of race riots. Starting in the mid-1960s, race riots inflamed numerous black neighborhoods in California, New Jersey, Michigan, and elsewhere. In California, Huey P. Newton established the Black Panther Party in 1966 in response to police brutality and Racial Profiling (the discriminatory targeting of a specific group, such as black youths). Black Panthers armed themselves and monitored interactions between police officers and African Americans. Newton is also attributed with coining ‘‘pig,’’ a derisive term to refer to police officers. In ensuing years, Hip-Hop artists have recorded songs that address police brutality. The infamous video that showed police officers excessively beating Rodney King in 1991 helped bring this centuries-old issue to the forefront. However, many continued to blame black victims, not racism, for these vicious attacks, or denied that the problem was as pervasive and serious as blacks knew it to be. In the new millennium, the first African American president, Barack Obama, declared that there ‘‘was a ‘long history’ in the United States of blacks and Hispanics being singled out disproportionately by police,’’ reported Reuters correspondent Matt Spetalnick. Obama’s statement was in direct response to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., a prominent black scholar, at his home in 2009. (A neighbor called the police mistakenly thinking Gates was a house intruder.) The incident, as well as Obama’s response, brought to the forefront the contentious relationship between blacks and law enforcement. Although there are now more black police officers than ever before, blacks continue to regard law enforcement with less confidence than whites do. Many black males, in particular, no matter the age or economic status, remain wary of police encounters. See also: Civil Rights Movement; Lynching Further Reading Dulaney, W. Marvin. 1996. Black Police in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Free, Marvin D. Jr. 2004. Racial Issues in Criminal Justice: The Case of African Americans. Monsey, New York: Criminal Justice Press. Joseph, Janice. 1995. Black Youths, Delinquency, and Juvenile Justice. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Spetalnick, Matt. 2009. ‘‘Obama: Police Acted ‘Stupidly’ Arresting Black Scholar.’’ Reuters.com, July 23. http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE56 M0QS20090723. Gladys L. Knight
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Leadbelly (Ledbetter, Huddie William, 1888–1949), Blues Singer, Composer The prominent blues artist known as Leadbelly was born Huddie William Ledbetter in 1888 on a farm called the Jeter Plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana. The Ledbetter family moved to Texas in 1890, where Huddie became interested in music. He received his first musical instrument, an accordion, as a gift from his uncle. By the time he turned fourteen, he was regularly playing guitar and singing at dance parties called ‘‘sukey jumps’’ as well as at businesses owned by white people. Leadbelly’s music is rooted in the blues, although when he began performing, blues was not yet a genre wholly distinct from the black folk music of the South. As a young man, Leadbelly learned songs from friends, family, and community members. These included work songs, jigs, Spirituals, lullabies, square dance tunes, and the cocaine classic ‘‘Take a Whiff on Me.’’ At age twenty, Ledbetter left home to try making his living as a musician. He traveled the Southwest during the next ten years, playing guitar and working as a laborer to make ends meet. Ledbetter declared himself the world’s greatest cotton picker, railroad track liner, lover, drinker, and guitar player. While serving time for a 1917 arrest at Central State Prison Farm in Sugarland, Texas, Ledbetter was christened Leadbelly. The name comes from the joke that he was so tough his belly contained lead instead of guts. Sugarland also was the source of many of the songs for which Leadbelly became famous, most notably ‘‘Midnight Special.’’ Unlike other Sugarland singers, Leadbelly put his own spin on every song, often performing them differently and changing the lyrics to reflect his own life and experience. His innovativeness led to his release from prison. The governor of Texas visited Sugarland in 1924 and listened to Leadbelly perform a song of repentance and grief. This performance apparently was so convincing that the governor later pardoned Leadbelly. However, Leadbelly was arrested again in 1930 and convicted of attempted murder in a racially charged incident. While he was serving time for this crime in a Louisiana prison, Leadbelly met John Avery Lomax and Alan Lomax. The fatherand-son team was collecting African American folk songs for the new Archives of American Folk Song (now the Archives of Folk Culture) in the Library of Congress. Leadbelly went to work for John Lomax upon his release from prison. Later, Lomax became his manager, and they traveled north, where Leadbelly took New York City by storm. He began recording with American Recording Corporation in 1935. He created spoken introductions for many of his most popular songs, helping urban, white audiences understand them. By 1940, Leadbelly was well known in the recording industry. Among Leadbelly’s most celebrated songs are ‘‘Boll Weevil,’’ ‘‘C. C. Rider,’’ ‘‘You Don’t Know My Mind,’’ and ‘‘Goodnight Irene.’’ Leadbelly died December 6, 1949, after falling ill while touring in Europe. See also: Musicians and Singers
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Further Reading Garvin, Richard M., and Edmond G. Addeo. 1971. The Midnight Special: The Legend of Leadbelly. New York: Bernard Geis Associates. Wolfe, Charles, and Kip Lornell. 1992. The Life and Legend of Leadbelly. New York: HarperCollins. M. J. Strong
Lee, Spike (1957– ), Filmmaker Filmmakers often play the role of passive storyteller: recorders of human life, events, and activities. Maverick, award-winning filmmakers such as Spike Lee, however, use the medium to analyze the psychological state of human beings and explore their actions and beliefs, while further deconstructing prickly issues such as race, class, socioeconomics, and gender. Although a popular media personality, Lee continues to use his celebrity to champion antidiscrimination causes on behalf of African Americans. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 20, 1957, to musician/composer Bill and schoolteacher wife Jacquelyn Shelton Lee, Shelton Jackson Lee is the oldest of
U.S. filmmaker Spike Lee, looks at the camera as he arrives at the Bellas Artes museum in Caracas, Friday, July 24, 2009. Lee was in Venezuela to give a seminar to young film students. (AP/Wide World Photos)
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five children (Chris, David, Josie, and Cinque). Because of his fiery and petulant demeanor, his mother gave the precocious child the nickname ‘‘Spike.’’ During Lee’s early childhood his family moved to Brooklyn, New York. The family lived in neighborhoods like Crown Heights, Cobble Hill, and Fort Greene, which later became the backdrop for many of his films. After completing high school in 1975, Lee enrolled in Morehouse College in Atlanta. The predominantly black all-male institution was the alma mater of both his grandfather and father. Lee’s mother, Jacquelyn, who inspired her elder son’s interest in the arts and literature, died of cancer in 1977. Upon graduating with a BA degree in mass communications from Morehouse in 1979, Lee returned to New York and enrolled in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU) to focus on filmmaking, something he became interested in after making several cinema verite films as an undergraduate student. Lee also became even more interested in film after doing a summer internship at Columbia Pictures upon graduating from Morehouse. His first student film at NYU, The Answer (1980), a ten-minute rebuttal to D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, was not well-liked by professors but his Master of Fine Arts’ thesis film, Joe’s Bedstuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, shot by fellow classmate, cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, was awarded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Student Film in 1983. In 1980, Lee and fellow Morehouse alumnus Marty Ross pooled their meager resources and founded 40 Acres and a Mule, a film production company. The pair’s first film, She’s Gotta Have It, was a low-budget movie shot over ten days. Though said to lack certain technical attributes, the film won the Best New Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986. As a result of his success at Cannes, Lee came to the attention of major film studios, later producing the musical School Daze (1989) and Do the Right Thing (1989) which gained him an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. Both films were controversial and explored issues of race, racism, and color. The jazz-themed Mo’ Better Blues (1990), indirectly inspired by Lee’s jazz musician father, was followed by Jungle Fever in 1991. Lee’s most controversial film was Malcolm X (1992), about the enigmatic, slain black nationalist; it received widespread acclaim and criticism. An astute businessman and merchandiser, Lee produced a number of Nike commercials with NBA player Michael Jordan. In 1993, Lee married girlfriend Tanya Lewis; they became the parents of two sons, Satchel and Jackson. Some of Lee’s films were unsuccessful at the box office but his 2008 feature Miracle at St. Anna featuring Denzel Washington was a success. Twenty-four years after making his first film, Spike Lee continues to be one of the most creative and controversial filmmakers in American cinema history. See also: Film and Filmmakers
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Further Reading Aftab, Kaleem. 2005. Spike Lee: That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It. New York: Norton. Fuchs, Cynthia, ed. 2002. Spike Lee Interviews. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Massood, Paula, ed. 2007. The Spike Lee Reader. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Carter B. Cue
Legal Defense Fund (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund) (LDF) As the nation’s first civil rights law firm, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) advocates and litigates for educational, political, economic, and criminal justice. Established on March 20, 1940, by Thurgood Marshall, who became the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice, its mission was to provide legal assistance to low-income African Americans. With its founding, a legal revolution in civil rights began. The firm has been involved with more legal action that reached the U.S. Supreme Court than any other group other than the U.S. Justice Department. The landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was argued by Marshall and a team of LDF lawyers. The organization transformed the United States through systematic and tenacious assaults on racial apartheid first as a subsidiary of the NAACP and, since 1957, as an autonomous organization. As the legal support for the civil rights movement, the firm represented Martin Luther King Jr., 1,700 demonstrators, Muhammad Ali, and the Black Panther Party. From Charles Hamilton Houston, Marshall’s mentor, to the current directorcounsel, John Payton, the driving forces behind the accomplishments of the LDF are its extraordinary lawyers. Called the ‘‘Moses of the civil rights movement’’ Houston’s cases Murray v. Pearson (1935) and Missouri—ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938), won admission for blacks to attend the universities of Maryland and Missouri graduate schools. His ‘‘equalization strategy’’ laid the groundwork for dismantling the ‘‘separate but equal’’ ruling. Under Marshall’s leadership, LDF attorneys attacked Jim Crow through local, state, and federal courts, fighting against state-sanctioned racial bigotry. Their cases obtained equal pay for black teachers, overturned coerced confessions of black defendants, obtained the right for black participation in primary elections in Texas, barred housing discrimination, and desegregated seating on interstate buses. Constance Baker Motley, the first African American woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, won the right for black students to attend Ole Miss and the University of Georgia. Jack Greenberg, who served as director-counsel from 1961 to 1984, argued forty cases before the Supreme Court including two landmark decisions: Alexander v. Holmes (1969), on school desegregation, and Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971). Ted Shaw, Julius Chambers, and Elaine R. Jones continued the struggle through class action suits that attacked discrimination in the workplace, and Furman v. Georgia (1972), which abolished the death penalty in thirty-seven states.
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Today LDF has approximately twenty-four lawyers with cooperating attorneys nationwide committed to defending, educating, and empowering not only African Americans, but people of all races. Current advocacy and litigation efforts vary from challenging the overturn of Affirmative Action to advocating for ex-offenders and victims of Katrina. See also: Civil Rights Cases; Judges; Law and Law Schools Further Reading Gilmore, Brian. 2008. ‘‘Lawyer of the Century.’’ Crisis 115 (Summer): 20–23. Greenberg, Jack. 2004. Crusaders in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Twelve Tables Press. Jones, Elaine R. 2005. ‘‘Constance Baker Motley: Defender of Justice.’’ Crisis 112 (November/December): 13. NAACP LDF. http://www.naacpldf.org. Gloria Hamilton
Lewis, Carl (1961– ), Track and Field Athlete Carl Lewis dominated sprints and long jumping for more than a decade, and excelled beyond the longevity typical for a Track and Field athlete. He became one of only three Olympians to win the same individual event four times and earned sixty-five consecutive victories in the long jump over a span of ten years. He won ten Olympic medals, nine gold, and ten World Championship medals, and was voted Sportsman of the Century by the International Olympics Committee. Lewis’s public persona, however, was arrogant, calculating, and abrasive, so he never achieved the popularity of many lesser athletes. Frederick Carlton Lewis was born July 1, 1961, in Birmingham, Alabama, to William and Evelyn Lewis, both athletics standouts at Tuskegee Institute, as the school was known then. His mother, a hurdler, competed in the 1951 Pan-American Games. His sister, Carol, also went on to become an Olympian long jumper. Jesse Owens himself noticed teenaged Carl Lewis at a meet and urged others to emulate the ‘‘spunky, little guy.’’ As a junior at Willingboro High School in New Jersey, Lewis became one of the state’s top long jumpers; by his senior year, he proved to be the nation’s best, breaking the high school long jump record. He chose to attend the University of Houston, where Tom Tellez would become his coach for life. Racing to World’s Best Lewis qualified for the 1980 Olympics in the long jump and the 400-meter relay, but the U.S. boycotted the Moscow games. Still a teenager, in 1981 he improved in the long jump to 28–3, second to only Bob Beamon’s record. Lewis also became the world’s fastest sprinter, running 10.0 in the 100 at the Southwest Conference Championships. He won six NCAA titles.
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At the first World Championships, in 1983, Lewis won the long jump and the 100. Inevitably, he was compared to Jesse Owens, the four-time 1936 Olympics champion. Lewis also began a quest to break Beamon’s record, but juggling several events proved tricky. At the 1984 Olympics, Lewis knew he had clinched gold on his first jump and so passed on his last four. He was booed. Still, he finished with four golds, adding the 100, 200, and 400 relay. The lucrative endorsement deals he anticipated did not develop. Coke rescinded an offer and Nike dropped him. Competitors criticized Lewis’s flamboyance and lack of humility, and rumors emerged that he was gay, which he denied. At the 1987 Worlds, Lewis won the long jump and anchored the relay to gold but finished behind Ben Johnson, who set a world record in the 100. Lewis at first accused Johnson of false-starting, then complained of a stomach virus. He also accused nameless sprinters of using performance-enhancing drugs. Lewis’s father died that year, and Carl buried his 100-meters gold medal with him, promising the public he would win another. At 1988 in Seoul, Lewis again finished second to Johnson, but three days later, Lewis was given the gold when Johnson tested positive for steroids. Lewis also won the long jump and silver in the 200. Now in his thirties, Lewis failed to qualify in the 100 and 200 for the 1992 Games. He won gold in the long jump, however, and anchored another relay world record. Injuries sidelined him after the 1993 Worlds, but he came back in the 1996 Games, winning the long jump, tying for first all time with nine Olympic gold medals. He was left off the relay team, where he might have claimed first place alone on that list, after he skipped a mandatory relay training camp and demanded to run anchor. Lewis retired in 1997.
Drug Allegations Arise In 2003, based on documents provided by a former U.S. Olympics Committee (USOC) director of drug control administration, Sports Illustrated (SI) named Lewis among U.S. athletes who failed drug tests and should have been prevented from competing in the Olympics but were, nevertheless, cleared to compete. SI reported Lewis tested positive before the 1988 Olympics for banned stimulants found in cold medications, but that the USOC accepted his claim of inadvertent use and overturned its initial decision to ban him. See also: Bonds, Barry; Joyner-Kersee, Jacqueline ‘‘Jackie’’ Further Reading Coffey, Wayne. 1993. Carl Lewis. Woodbridge, CT: Blackbirch Press. Klots, Steve. 1995. Carl Lewis. New York: Chelsea House. Lewis, Carl, and Jeffrey Marx. 1990. Inside Track: My Professional Life in Amateur Track and Field. New York: Simon & Schuster. Richard Kenney
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Lewis, John R. (1940– ), Civil Rights Activist, Congressman John Lewis is a genuine American hero. He repeatedly put his life on the line and suffered severe physical abuse in the cause of the Civil Rights Movement. Later, his record in the U.S. Congress earned him the identity of ‘‘the conscience of the U.S. Congress,’’ said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. In both areas of his notable contributions, Lewis has been and remains a frontline agitator for progressive social movements and human rights struggle for what he calls ‘‘the Beloved Community’’ in the United States. The son of Eddie and Willie Mae Lewis, John Robert Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, outside Troy, Alabama. He was the third of their seven children. After serving as sharecroppers, the Lewises bought a 110-acre farm and raised cotton and peanuts. The shy and soft-spoken John Lewis had visions of becoming a preacher, perhaps having been inspired by his devoutly religious parents. Picking cotton on the farm was not his choice of chores; he preferred to practice as preacher instead, addressing as an audience the flock of chickens on the family farm. By the age of ten, Lewis had developed a full ministry. Perhaps the segregated schools that he attended, and certainly the sermons of Martin Luther King Jr., who was his most significant role model, aroused his curiosity about social justice and human rights. By the time he graduated from high school in 1957, he had known about the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–56 and the civil rights activities that were taking place here and there. In fact, the bus boycott spurred his activism. Lewis enrolled in the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, now known as American Baptist College, and graduated in 1961. He studied also at Fisk University in the 1960s to pursue a degree in religion. While there, he joined the workshops on nonviolent techniques jointly sponsored by the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Activist and Vanderbilt divinity student James Lawson led the workshops on nonviolent direct action that he took. He also trained under Septima Clark, who taught him at ‘‘citizenship school’’ held at Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. When the Nashville sit-ins began on February 13, 1960, Lewis was one of its participants. So were fifteen other students from Fisk, American Baptist Theological Seminary, and Tennessee State University. In April, Lewis and several other students from these colleges who had joined the movement founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Lewis also participated in the Freedom Rides that the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized in 1961 to protest segregated interstate bus terminals. Both during the sit-ins and the Freedom Rides, Lewis was beaten; in fact, he was assaulted so severely in Montgomery that he was knocked unconscious, yet he continued his protest and held fast to his belief that the nonviolent approach to protest was appropriate. Lewis’s concern for activism and the Civil Rights Movement took precedence over his interest in becoming a minister; thus, in 1963 he dropped out of Fisk (but returned later and graduated in 1967), became a respected leader in the
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movement, and devoted his energies to the March on Washington held on August 23, 1963. He was also chair of SNCC and reelected in 1964 and 1965. At the Washington march, joined by such venerable leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr., James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy O. Wilkins, and Whitney Young, Lewis delivered his well-wrought, radical keynote address, warning that the march would continue elsewhere and would occur in the spirit of love and dignity. After that, Lewis coordinated SNCC’s voter registration drives through Mississippi Freedom Summer. He led the Bloody Sunday protest across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, where he and six hundred protestors were sprayed with tear gas and beaten (with Lewis into unconsciousness). His bravery, the ugly police confrontation, and marches by prominent whites and blacks two weeks later, led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Defeated as head of SNCC in 1966, he left the organization because in his view it no longer practiced its original nonviolent principles. Lewis continued his civil rights activities, held several posts including head of the federal volunteer agency ACTION, and developed an interest in politics. In 1981, he won a seat on the Atlanta City Council, where he advocated ethics in government and neighborhood preservation. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1986, representing the Fifth Congressional District in Georgia, and defeating then state senator Julian Bond. Lewis’s district embraces the entire city of Atlanta and parts of Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton counties. When seated in Congress, Lewis immediately put in practice the same level of dedication and sincerity that he had demonstrated in his civil rights efforts. After serving on a number of committees, he has become Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic Party in leadership in the House. He holds a coveted seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, where tax policies are set, and is a member of its Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support. He also chairs the Subcommittee on Oversight. Early in his congressional years, political observers variously called him ‘‘a rising star,’’ ‘‘one of the most influential blacks in the U.S.,’’ and ‘‘one of the 200 rising leaders in the country.’’ Still well-recognized for his work in civil rights and in the political arena, Lewis holds over fifty honorary degrees, many from leading institutions. Other awards, from organizations and foundations, have been awarded for ‘‘lifetime achievement,’’ ‘‘nonviolence and peace,’’ and ‘‘humanitarian service.’’ According to Black Americans in Congress, ‘‘Lewis’s legislative interests draw chiefly from his background as a civil rights activist.’’ This is demonstrated in his support of legislation related to voting rights and improved health care for minorities. Due to legislation that he introduced and supported, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, a unit of the Smithsonian Institution signed into law in 2003, is finally being realized. Congressman Lewis continues to make a difference and to have his voice heard. An Atlanta resident, Lewis is married to the former Lillian Miles and they have one son, John Miles. He chronicles his life in his autobiography, Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (1998). See also: Freedom Riders; Politics and Government; Sit-in Movement
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Further Reading 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, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Branch, Taylor. 1988. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–63. New York: Simon & Schuster. Carson, Clayborne. 1981. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Lewis, John. 1998. Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. New York: Simon & Schuster. Online Office of Congressman John Lewis. http://johnlewis.house.gov/index. Smith, Jessie Carney. 1999. ‘‘John R. Lewis.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale. Smith, Robert C. 2008. ‘‘John Lewis.’’ In, African American National Biography, Vol. 5. Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press Jessie Carney Smith
Libraries and Research Centers The popular culture of African Americans is well documented in libraries and research centers established in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) which were founded beginning in the mid-1800s, and in libraries and centers elsewhere that have collected and preserved the culture of the race. They embrace a variety of types of libraries and research centers, including those in churches, organizations, black colleges, mainstream colleges, and public libraries. Their records span the spectrum from black Americans’ roots in Africa and other countries to their contributions in contemporary American society. Their collections serve the needs of students, researchers, writers, and other scholars who seek to fill in gaps in history or to open new arenas of study. Collecting materials on African Americans systematically and with great concern for their value is largely an activity of black libraries, whether academic or public. This is due to the behavior of mainstream America spurred on by racial segregation, lack of demand in some geographical areas for materials on African Americans, absence of a vision for the potential values of the materials toward scholarship and historical record, attention to local priorities that excluded black subject matter, and to inadequate staffs to unearth valuable materials in the library regardless of the subject matter. In some instances, records may have been collected but they were buried beneath materials that were little-used or of little concern. Thus, from time to time press coverage is given to valuable documents recently uncovered; for example, in 1997, typescripts of ten plays by folklorist, anthropologist, and writer Zora Neale Hurston were rediscovered in the
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Library of Congress’s Copyright Deposit Drama Collection. Most remained unpublished and unproduced until that time but now they are housed in the Library’s Manuscript, Music, and Rare Book and Special Collections divisions. Keepers of African American Culture Patterns vary in the development and maintenance of collections on African American themes in academic libraries. Where the HBCUs are concerned, sometimes the secondary materials in these collections are scattered throughout the general collections and at other times they are separated into special research collections. Archival materials, however, are separate and, in recent years, given close attention, as the need to collect and preserve one’s own history became paramount. Black Academic Libraries and Research Collections found that ‘‘such collections are likely to contain the papers of black authors, black religious leaders, black educators, or black organizations’’ as well as papers of white sympathizers. Examples and brief descriptions of the larger collections of this type are those at Fisk University where there are included papers of Arna W. Bontemps, W. E. B. Du Bois, Fisk Jubilee Singers, James Weldon Johnson, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, Scott Joplin, and John Mercer Langston, as well as a Black Oral History Collection. Atlanta University Center’s Robert W. Woodruff Library is custodian of a collection of writings and other items that document the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. The papers are the legal property of Morehouse College, a part of the AU Center; the archival staff is engaged in preservation, conservation, and care of the materials. The library staff also works with Boston University, which has more than 80,000 items related to King, and the King Institute at Stanford University, to prepare a master catalog of the holdings in the three collections. In 2009, Morehouse began its Center for Civil and Human Rights, using the King papers as anchor. Papers of Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and W. E. B. Du Bois are examples of other papers in the Woodruff Library. Hampton University in Virginia has papers of Alexander Crummell, James Weldon Johnson, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Booker T. Washington. Lincoln University in Pennsylvania has collected a number of resources, including the extensive papers of Langston Hughes. Texas Southern University’s library includes the papers of Barbara Jordan. Tuskegee University in Alabama has papers of George Washington Carver, Albon L. Holsey, Robert Russa Moton, Booker T. Washington, and Lynching Reports. Smaller repositories are not to be disregarded, however, for their collections help to complete the important task of locating hidden resources. For example, one who is interested in locating the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. would need to hear the tape of his 1958 lecture at Bennett College for Women, ‘‘Room in the Inn.’’ King delivered the speech on campus when threats of violence in Greensboro intimidated owners of local establishments, causing them to deny him a place to speak. The primary research center located in a historically black college is the Moorland Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. There researchers
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will find the papers of Mary Frances Berry, Black Press Archives, the Congressional Black Caucus, Charles Hamilton Houston, Vernon Jordan, Alain LeRoy Locke, Rayford W. Logan, Benjamin E. Mays, and Paul Robeson, as well as the Ralph J. Bunche Oral History Collection. Collections in mainstream colleges and universities contain a wealth of resources on African American culture. Examples are the Beinecke Library at Yale University, which has collected works by many black writers, especially those of the Harlem Renaissance period of the 1930s; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, which houses many, though not all, of W. E. B. Du Bois’ papers; Emory University, where the papers of Alice Walker are available; the University of Virginia, which includes papers of Julian Bond; Duke University, where the papers of John Hope Franklin are located; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has extensive collections on Southern culture; and Tulane University, where the Amistad Research Center of material on African American culture is housed. Public centers, or centers in public libraries, are documenting the culture of local African Americans, and often those are the only repositories where information on particular people may be found. Civil rights materials are widely gathered, such as those collected at the Nashville Public Library. Those centers that are traditions in the black community and have popular acclaim are Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, the Vivian Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, and the Schomburg Center. Located in Atlanta, the Auburn Avenue Research Library offers manuscripts by Harlem Renaissance writers, oral history interviews, and other materials. The Vivian Harsh Research Collection, a part of the Woodson Regional Library in Chicago, contains original manuscripts of such notable black writers as Arna Bontemps, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. The largest public center is the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, located in Harlem; it is a part of the New York Public Library system. The center’s massive collections include papers of Amiri Baraka, Ralph J. Bunche, Aaron Douglas, Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Claude McKay, Harriet Tubman, Richard Wright, and Maya Angelou. National interest in collecting African American cultural resources has been demonstrated well by the Library of Congress, the oldest national cultural institution in the nation and the world’s largest repository of recorded information. For over one hundred years the library has systematically collected, preserved, and promoted use of historical documents on African Americana, resulting in vast holdings in its general and special collections. Manuscript collections include information on slaves, free blacks, professionals, politicians, and numerous other subjects, all accessible through guides and finding aids. A Library Alliance Libraries in the black colleges came together in 2003 to form the HBCU Library Alliance. According to its Web site, it serves ‘‘the unique and indispensable
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role as gatekeepers for history, culture, and the African American experience.’’ It is a ‘‘consortium that supports the collaboration of information professionals dedicated to providing an array of resources designed to strengthen Historically Black Colleges and Universities and their constituents.’’ As the libraries united, they engaged in several projects that strengthen the libraries, such as internships and leadership training. Significant among its activities is the focus on African American resources in member libraries presented through a digital project that celebrates the founding of these colleges. Through a server located at the Robert W. Woodruff Library in the Atlanta University Center, the digital collection offers online images of various resources in the member libraries. A costly undertaking, the digital project is funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to Cornell University. In turn, Cornell shares its expertise in digital imaging, preservation, and management with leaders and archivists from the member libraries. Among the important materials that are available online are student yearbooks and other publications, early photographs, and information about historic buildings, sports teams, noted alumni, and churches. The preservation project has expanded to include audio and video conversion of materials in African American culture. Some of these libraries make available online finding aids to their manuscript and archival collections or lists of collections available. Libraries at the Atlanta University Center, Fisk, and the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University are prime examples. Fisk gives the Web address for its Julius Rosenwald Rural Negro Schools Project (rosenwald.fisk.edu) and includes on the school’s Web site partial contents of its manuscript and archival collections, highlighting those with finding aids accessible at that point. Libraries and research centers, particularly those in the HBCUs, continue to collect and preserve those resources that are intertwined in the fabric of African American life, and touch virtually every facet of that culture. See also: Historically Black Colleges and Universities Further Reading HBCU Library Alliance. http://www/hbculibraries.org/. 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. Smith, Jessie Carney. 1977. Black Academic Libraries and Research Collections: An Historical Survey. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Jessie Carney Smith
Literature, Classic African American Classic African American literature by African Americans articulates the philosophy and attitudes about art and the environment in which it has been created.
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Africans brought with them to America their creativity and their theories of art. Traditions in African art are community-centered, that is, the art and artist are responsible to the needs, values, and morals of the people. Art is an affirming celebration of identity that recognizes definitive aspects of African culture. It is an aesthetic founded in functionality. Thus, it is not surprising that African-American writers since the late eighteenth century, no matter the form of delivery, have had as their mission the underlying and permeating theme of freedom and justice based on the Christian and political ideals of the United States. Early writers and orators addressed their audiences in light of American Christian values according to what the Founding Fathers espoused—a Christian nation and one for all people. The works of early black writers appealed to the readers of the time. The posture of African American writers since the inception of black writing has been highly politicized and consciousness raising, writing which functions for the good of all people. It has never been a literature or art of leisure, which is evident in the writing. The demands of African American writers have been articulated in a variety of ways both covertly and overtly, attempting to hold American society accountable to its idealistic principles which are the antithesis of its actions and its brand of Christian morals. These circumstances explain why black writing is primarily polemical and not motivated by the desire to entertain. Consequently, since African American literature has responded to the extreme social and political conditions of black people it has rarely been dictated to by principles of art that garner widespread popularity. The slave narrative was one of the first publications by African Americans that enjoyed a mass audience. It is an account by the person or his amanuensis that details life as a slave and the slave’s journey to freedom. The slave narrative introduces the seeds of autobiography, often delineated as secular or spiritual, and the black novel. A major feature of the spiritual autobiography is the spiritual journey and frequently the church as an aid or obstacle. Among these texts are Uncommon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverance of Briton Hammon, a Negro Man (1760); Life, Experience and Gospel Labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia (1833); Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, a Coloured Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel . . . Written by Herself (1836); Daniel A. Payne’s Recollection of Seventy Years (1888); and Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest, and Poet (1989). These works captured the tension between popular and polemical interests. The popularity of the genre resulted from the audience’s conflicting voyeuristic and humanistic perspectives. For some, there was the desire for a vicarious experience, to share in the suffering of others; conversely, there was the desire for others to offer a religious and moral response to the suffering. The greatest popularity of the slave narrative occurred during the three decades that preceded the Civil War when pro- and antislavery sentiments were hottest. Thousands of autobiographical and biographical accounts of slavery were published, usually by abolitionists who fought feverishly against human bondage. A number of these publications went through several editions and enjoyed financial success. For example, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1855)
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was reprinted nine times within three years of its publication. In addition, the narrative was published in Europe and translated into French and Dutch. Tension continues to be apparent in popular writings by African Americans in the twenty-first century. Like the narratives, autobiographies continue to detail the social and political conditions, religious conversions, and struggles for freedom and liberation. Among the secular autobiographies following the slave narratives and maintaining an eye to the white audience are Scenes in the Lincoln White House: Memoirs of an African-American Seamstress by Elizabeth Keckley (1868) and Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, considered a slave narrative (1901) which speaks to middle-class values. Reading Washington, like many African American writers, requires close attention to the author’s agenda in order to accurately discern the message. Many writers of the Harlem Renaissance wrote autobiographies or biographically based works. Among them are A Long Way From Home (1917) by Claude McKay; Along This Way (1933) by James Weldon Johnson; The Big Sea (1940) by Langston Hughes; Dusk of Dawn (1940) by W. E. B. Du Bois; Dust Tracks on the Road (1942) by Zora Neale Hurston; and Black Boy (1945) by Richard Wright. These works were popular because they reflected the permissiveness of the Jazz Age (Roaring Twenties) and the mainstream. Black artists became acquainted with the New York establishment when Carl Van Vechten and his wife hosted elaborate parties which brought well-connected and/or wealthy whites together with talented black artists. It became the vogue to associate with black artists—dramatists, singers, dancers, painters, sculptors, and, of course, writers. Thus, the publications by the New Negro were sought by the masses. The Black Power Movement and its concomitant Black Arts Movement, which defined the self in revolutionary terms, intended to address black people using their language and their settings; furthermore writers intended to educate black people without concern for mainstream audience appeal or acceptance. However, the works were embraced by both audiences. Many revolutionaries— activists, thinkers, or both—in acts or thinking, or both, wrote their life stories. These were inaugurated by The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965); Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968); H. Rap Brown’s Die, Nigger Die! (1969); Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974); and A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (1992) by Elaine Brown. Following the Black Arts Movement with its emphasis on openness, autobiographies like the slave narratives became more and more personal as evidenced by the experiences and issues revealed (rape, incest, greed, sexual preferences, and the roots of identity). Consistent with African American tradition, more and more experimentation with form is apparent. This is evidenced in Jubilee (1966) by Margaret Walker; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) by Maya Angelou; Roots (1976) by Alex Haley; Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982) by Audre Lorde; John Edgar Wideman’s Brothers and Keepers (1984); Nathan McCall’s It Makes Me Wanna Holler (1994); Shirley Taylor Haizlip’s The Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White (1994); and Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (2004) by Barack Obama.
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Another offspring of the slave narrative in the development of African American literature is the novel. Like other genres in the hands of black writers, the novel morphed into an established form for protest and liberation in traditional and experimental subgenres. The black novel addresses social, racial, economic, psychological, and political issues and is both traditional and experimental. As an outgrowth of the slave narrative, the novel was akin to the narrative in style, form, and theme: slavery, freedom, liberation, religious, and political. The early novels included elements of autobiography and introduced social and political themes that have permeated the literature: color, intracommunal discrimination, regionalism, the traumas and rewards of urban life, and gender. The best known of the earliest novels are William Wells Brown’s Clotel, or the President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States (1853); Frank G. Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends (1857); Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig, or Sketches From the Life of a Free Black in a Two-Story White House, North. Showing That Slavery’s Shadows Fall Even There (1859); Martin Delany’s Blake, or the Huts of America (1859); and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (1892). It is as evident in the novels as in the other forms of literature engaged in by African Americans that black novelists take a highly politicized stance rather than write art for arts’ sake. Art must be functional, as noted in its didacticism, in the varying techniques utilized to speak to freedom and liberation, and in the ways in which the art form is manipulated within the tradition of the novelistic form. Novels written during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century include Imperium in Imperio by Sutton E. Griggs (1899); The House Behind the Cedars by Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1900); The Sport of the Gods by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1902); and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson (1912). Expansion of the novel during the Harlem Renaissance is evident in experimentation of style and subject, and proliferation. Noted novels are Cane by Jean Toomer (1923); There is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset (1924); Quicksand by Nella Larsen (1928); Home to Harlem by Claude McKay (1928); The Walls of Jericho by Rudolph Fisher (1928); Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes (1930); Black No More by George Schuyler (1931); The Conjure Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem by Rudolph Fisher (1932); Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman (1929); Black Thunder by Arna Bontemps (1935); and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937). Publication of best-selling Native Son by Richard Wright (1940) marked the beginning of a trend of protest, social realism, and naturalism for black writers. Wright’s work initiated more media adaptations and even more mass market appeal as evidenced by the numerous awards and recognitions since received by black writers. His essay ‘‘Blueprint for Negro Writing’’ (1937) calls for literature informed by the art of the black masses—Folklore and music. So influential was Wright that this period is often referred to as the School of Wright or Naturalism. This period witnessed the publications of such works as Willard Motley’s Knock on Any Door (1947); If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) by Chester Himes;
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Ann Petry’s The Street (1946); William Demby’s Beetlecreek (1950); and Maud Martha (1953) by Gwendolyn Brooks. Revising and extending Wright’s vision of race and racial identity was the novel Invisible Man (1952) by Ralph Ellison, an experimental novel of racial identity that makes a political statement. Whereas Ellison’s Invisible Man searches for a group identity, the protagonist in Go Tell It On the Mountain (1953) by James Baldwin searches for individual identity. Baldwin’s works major in the secular, the history, the spiritual, and realm of suffering. Both Baldwin and Ellison were award-winning and popular with the masses. Writers following Baldwin have a new perspective on life, utilize more symbols and rituals, and craft a broader storytelling style. Works by writers of the 1960s include Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959); John O. Killens’s And Then We Heard the Thunder (1962); Ronald L. Fair’s Many Thousand Gone: An American Fable (1965); Ishmael Reed’s The Freelance Pallbearers (1967) and Mumbo Jumbo (1972); John A. Williams’s The Man Who Cried I Am (1967); and Hal Bennett’s The Black Wine (1968). With the 1970s, there was a proliferation of women writing unapologetically woman-centered works devoted to the autonomy of black women. These writers include Toni Morrison, author of The Bluest Eye (1970) and Beloved (1987); Gayl Jones, author of Corregidora (1975) and Eva’s Man (1976); Alice Walker, author of The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) and The Color Purple (1982); Gloria Naylor, author of The Women of Brewster Place (1982); and Octavia Butler, author of Dawn (1987), which is the first book in her Xenogenesis series. Groundbreaking books published during the 1970s and beyond introduce new ways of seeing, sexuality, the everyday lives of black people, and new southern writers. Representative mass appeal writers and texts are Ernest Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971); Anne Allen Shockley’s Loving Her (1974); Tina McElroy Ansa’s Baby of the Family (1983); Marita Golden’s Migrations of the Heart 1983); Disappearing Acts (1989) by Terry McMillan; Randall Kenan’s A Visitation of Spirits (1989); Reginald McKnight’s I Get on the Bus (1990); Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage (1990); Melvin Dixon’s Vanishing Rooms (1991); J. California Cooper’s Family (1991); and Percival Everett’s Glyph (1999) and Erasure (2001). Critical texts which explore the African American novel and its development include Nick Aaron Ford’s The Contemporary Negro Novel: A Study in Race Relations (1965); Addison Gayle Jr.’s The Way of the New World: The Black Novel in America (1975); Barbara Christian’s Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition 1892–1976 (1980) and Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers (1986); Claudia Tate’s Black Women Writers at Work (1986); J. Lee Green’s Blacks in Eden: The African American Novel’s First Century (1996); and Bernard Bell’s The Afro-American Novel and its Traditions (1987) and The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches (2005). African Americans have been writing the short story since Victor Sejour’s ‘‘The Mulatto’’ (1837), Frederick Douglass’s ‘‘The Heroic Slave’’ (1853), and
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Frances Ellen Harper’s ‘‘The Two Offers’’ (1859). However, it is not until Paul Laurence Dunbar and Charles Chesnutt begin writing the short story, combining the literary and the oral traditions, that the craft is developed. Their writing underscores the tension between the plantation and the protest tradition. They were popular, but not often not properly appreciated by many scholars, who saw them as one-dimensional creators, especially Dunbar, and regarded as dialect writers. Yet, they took the language of the plantation and espoused covertly their protest agenda. Like other African Americans, they used a classic form to create an original, as seen in Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman (1899) and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (1899). The short story writer, like the poet, is often dependent on magazines, newspapers (which provide a popular audience), and anthologies for exposure. However, like Dunbar and Chesnutt, the writer’s works often appear in their own collections, or like Harper, Douglass, and Sejour, in anthologies. Independent collections include Langston Hughes’s The Way of White Folks (1934) and his Simple stories (which originally appeared in the Chicago Defender); Richard Wright’s Uncle Tom’s Children (1938) and Eight Men (published posthumously in 1960); James Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man (1965); Ernest Gaines’s Bloodlines (1968); James Alan McPherson’s Hue and Cry (1969); Cyrus Colter ’s The Beach Umbrella (1970); Henry Dumas’ Ark of Bones and Other Stories (1970); Ann Petry’s Miss Muriel and Other Stories (1971); Gorilla, My Love (1972) by Toni Cade Bambara; Alice Walker’s In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973); Gayl Jones’s White Rat (1977); John Edgar Wideman’s Damballah (1981); Charles R. Johnson’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1986) and Soulcatcher and Other Stories (2001); and Randall Kenan’s Let the Dead Bury Their Dead and Other Stories (1992). Anthologies which present a number of African American writers and their works for the masses are Best Short Stories by Black Writers 1899 to 1967, edited by Langston Hughes (1969); Best American Short Stories: A Century of the Best edited by John Henrik Clarke (1966, expanded 1993); and Calling the Wind: Twentieth Century African-American Short Stories edited by Clarence Major (1993). One of the few black literature anthologies prior to the 1960s, The Negro Caravan (1941), was edited by Arthur P. Davis, Ulysses Lee, and Sterling Brown. Before the 1960s there were few anthologies of works published by African Americans on the subjects of black literature because of restrictions and the lack of acknowledgement of Black Studies as a credible literature. Anthologies, historical texts, and essays dedicated to the study of black life and culture increased in number and appeal during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. This growth was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts Movement. Anthologies include To Make a Poet Black by J. Saunders Redding (1939); Black Fire: Anthology of Afro-American Writing edited by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal (1968); A History of Afro-American Literature. Volume I: The Long Beginning, 1746–1895 by Blyden Jackson (1989); and The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, general editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay (1996). Early black poets experimented with form, a practice which continues today, but did not totally relinquish standard form. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-
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century poetry was widely read; its popularity burgeoned with the Harlem Renaissance poets who continued to employ innovative techniques and themes of race, pride, oppression, conditions of ordinary people, freedom, and militancy. The most popular of the renaissance poetry is represented by Claude McKay’s Harlem Shadows (1922); Georgia Douglas Johnson’s Bronze (1922) and An Autumn Love Cycle (1928); Color (1925) by Countee Cullen; Langston Hughes’s Weary Blues (1926) and Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927); and James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones (1927). Folk-oriented poetry of the post-Renaissance is reflected in Sterling Brown’s Southern Roads (1932); Robert Hayden’s HeartShape in the Dust (1940); Margaret Walker’s For My People (1942); Gwendolyn Brooks’s A Street in Bronzeville (1945); and Melvin B. Tolson’s Harlem Gallery (1965). The reception of these poets is evidenced by the numerous forms of recognition they received. The 1960s and beyond witnesses another blooming of poetry, much of it revolutionary and incendiary, continuing and expanding the themes. The period was one of performance poetry, a genre which continues into the twenty-first century with Hip-Hop and the spoken word. Highly recognized voices include poets such as Amiri Baraka’s Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961); Haki R. Madhubuti’s (Don Lee) Black Pride (1968); Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968) by Nikki Giovanni; Sonia Sanchez’s Homecoming (1969); Lucille Clifton’s An Ordinary Woman (1974); Audre Lorde’s The Black Unicorn (1978); Michael Harper’s Healing Song for the Inner Ear (1984); Ishmael Reed’s New and Collected Poetry (1988); Thomas and Beulah (1987) by Rita Dove; Naomi Long Madgett’s Octavia and Other Poems (1988); Toi Derricotte’s Captivity (1989); Al Young’s Heaven: Collected Poems 1958–1988 (1992); and Elizabeth Alexander’s The Venus Hottentot. Anthologies and critical explorations which makes even more black poets available include The Book of American Negro Poetry edited by James Weldon Johnson (1922); American Negro Poetry edited by Arna Bontemps (1961); The Black Poets edited by Dudley Randall (1985); Trouble the Waters: 250 Years of African American Poetry edited by Jerry Ward Jr. (1997); The Oxford Anthology of African American Poetry edited by Arnold Rampersad (2006); and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South edited by Nikky Finney (2007). Three definitive books on poetry and the shaping of a philosophy are Understanding the New Black Poetry by Stephen Henderson (1972), which, like Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition by Joanne V. Gabbin (1985), has been identified as a seminal work, and The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry, edited by Joanne V. Gabbin (1999). Drama, like the other genres, is informed by a larger discussion about the social and political discourses of the African American. The first African American play published was written by William Wells Brown, The Escape (1858), a drama that illustrates the passion and thrust for freedom that permeates black literature. The overriding issues were articulated in the first part of the twentieth century by several women playwrights: Angelina Weld Grimke’s Rachel (1917), Georgia Douglas Johnson’s Plumes (1927), Marita Bonner’s The Purple Flower (1928), and May Miller’s Scratches (1929) and Nails and Thorns (1930). Langston
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Hughes wrote several plays during the 1930s including his 1935 Mulatto. Willis Richardson holds the distinction of producing the first serious play on Broadway, The Chip Woman’s Fortune (1923), and editing two anthologies: Plays and Pageants from the Life of the Negro (1930) and Negro History in Thirteen Plays (1935). Many of these were performed at schools and colleges and appeared in magazines and papers. The 1950s saw a burgeoning of playwrights with groundbreaking works. Included in this number were Louis Peterson’s Take a Giant Step (1953), James Baldwin’s Amen Corner (1955), Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind (1955) and Wedding Band (1956), Loften Mitchell’s Land Beyond the River (1957), and A Raisin in the Sun (1959) by Lorraine Hansberry. The early part of the 1960s displayed the work of Ossie Davis’s Purlie Victorious (1961), LeRoi Jones’s Dutchman (1964), Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro (1963), and Douglas Turner Ward’s Day of Absence (1965). With the Black Arts Movement, new black playwrights emerged and the trend of black drama shifted; writers’ work was often more militant and controversial. Among these are Ed Bullins’s Clara’s Ole Man (1965); Ron Milner’s Who’s Got His Own (1965); No Place to be Somebody (1970) by Charles Gordone (first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama); Joseph A. Walker’s The River Niger (1976); For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuff (1976) by Ntozake Shange; Charles H. Fuller Jr.’s A Soldier’s Play (1981); George Wolfe’s The Colored Museum (1986); Fences (1987) and Piano Lesson (1990) by August Wilson; and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog (2001). Many of these were prize-winning Broadway, off-Broadway, and traveling plays. African Americans writers also have provided cutting edge, defining, and shaping works in the areas of history, religion and philosophy, movements, and criticism. Moreover these writings hold American society accountable to its principles and remain cognizant of the interdependence of art and experiences of the people. The importance of black ownership of the historical record is evidenced in writers’ efforts to reclaim their history, speak their genesis, and acknowledge their participation in the building of American culture. Shadow of the Plantation by Charles Spurgeon Johnson (1934) addresses the legacy of institutionalized slavery. Benjamin Quarles shows the black man to be a major participant in his own freedom and the making of the United States in four books of history: The Negro in the Civil War (1953), The Negro in the American Revolution (1961), The Negro in the Making of America (1964), and Black Abolitionists (1969). Additional works in their own voice are Arna Bontemps’s 100 Years of Negro Freedom (1961); classics by John Hope Franklin, including Reconstruction After the Civil War (1961), From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (1947), and his Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin (2005), which tells of race relations and the fight for civil rights; Lerone Bennett Jr.’s Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619 to 1962 (1962); and Neil Irvin Painter’s Creating Black Americans: African-American History and its Meaning, 1619 to the Present (2006). The ideology, philosophy, and theology of African Americans are presented in such works as They Came Before Columbus: the African Presence in Ancient
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America (1977) which defines black identity outside of a relationship to whites. A political thrust is apparent in such works as Souls of Black Folks by W. E. B. Du Bois (1903) which asserts that black people live in a state of double consciousness and that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line and The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, or Africa for the Africans by Marcus Garvey and compiled by Amy Jacques Garvey (1923) which solidifies the Pan-Africanist continuum and forecasts Black Nationalism, the Black Aesthetic, and Black Studies. This Pan-African emphasis is further articulated in Molefi K. Asante’s Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change (2003). African American writers have criticized white America in works like David Walker’s Appeal, Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folks, and Carter G. Woodson’s Appeal by Carter G. Woodson (2008). However, there has been no lack of self criticism, as is apparent in Carter G. E. Woodson’s The Mis-education of the Negro (1933) which like E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie (1957) targets the black middle class and Harold Cruse’s The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967). James Baldwin in Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961) adds his voice to the criticism of society. The church, theology, and spirituality have been a major focus in African American life and writing since the latter half of the nineteenth century. These writings define, call for an understanding, weigh the pros and cons, and show how it has impacted society and movements for change. Volumes which add to this discussion are James Weldon Johnson and Rosamond Johnson, editors, The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925); Benjamin Mays’s The Negro’s God as Reflected in His Literature (1938); Howard Thurman’s Deep River: Reflections on the Religious Insight of Certain of the Spirituals (1955); E. Franklin Frazier’s The Negro Church in America (1964); James H. Cone’s A Black Theology of Liberation (1970); Gayraud S. Williams’s Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans (1973); C. Eric Lincoln and Laurence H. Mamiya’s The Black Church in the African American Experience (1990); Andrew Billingsley’s Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform (1999). In spite of the fact that the first African American writer of note was a woman, women writers were almost ignored until the 1970s when women’s writing was revived, published, anthologized, and the subject of criticism. Many of these works which had been earlier ignored or deemed secondary were by African American women and groundbreaking. Anthologies which showcased African American women writing and elicited a large audience include The Black Woman edited by Toni Cade Bambara (1970); Black Eyed Susan: Classic Stories By and About Black Women edited by Mary Helen Washington (1973); Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature edited by Roseann P. Bell, Bettye J. Parker, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall (1979); and Home Girl: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Barbara Smith (1983). Collections which discuss womanist or feminist theory and critically explore writing by women include All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies, edited by Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith (1982); In Search of Our Mothers’ Garden: Womanist Prose, by
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Alice Walker (1993); The Sexual Mountain and Black Women Writers: Adventures in Sex, Literature and Real Life by Calvin C. Hernton (1987); Katie’s Canon by Katie Geneva Cannon (1997); Conjuring: Black Women, Fiction, and Literary Tradition edited by Marjorie Pryse and Hortense Spillers (1985); Liberating Voices: Oral Traditions in African American Literature by Gayl Jones (1991); Moorings and Metaphors: Figures of Culture and Gender in Black Women’s Literature by Karla F. C. Holloway (1992); The Changing Same: Black Women’s Literature, Criticism, and Theory by Deborah E. McDowell (1995); Saints, Sinners, Survivors: Strong Black Women in African American Literature by Trudier Harris (2001), and Shaping Memories: Reflections of African American Women Writers edited by Joanne Veal Gabbin (2009). In the African American literary continuum, the writers have addressed the populace and aggressively articulated the quest for human freedom in the face of oppression, injustice, propaganda, and hypocrisy of values. They identify ways in which African Americans have sought political agency in their own words and within the context of the social and economic conditions since the eighteenth century. It is evidenced in these works throughout the years and the genres, that the artists have maintained to a greater or lesser intensity the artistic philosophy that art must be both functional and communal. Throughout its history black literature has been a serious craft to African and African American writers. Their aim has been first to articulate and prove the intelligence of an enslaved people; second, to record the racial, social, and economic struggles of a disenfranchised group; and third, to hold true to their mission—to fight for freedom and equality in a nation set against honoring the inalienable rights of all its people. Since the 1940s, there has been a change in the direction of black literature from a solely polemical focus to one which also embraces audience expectation. See also: Bookstores and Bibliophiles; Consciousness and Identity, African American; Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby; Delany, Samuel R.; Feminism; Fiction; Womanism Further Reading Andrews, William L., Francis Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. 1997. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press. Bell, Bernard W. 2004. The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth, ed. 1990. Wines in the Wilderness: Plays by African American Women from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present. New York: Praeger. Gabbin, Joanne V., ed. 1999. The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. Greene, J. Lee.1996. Blacks in Eden: The African American Novel’s First Century. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. Johnson, Vernon Damani, and Bill Lyne, eds. 2003. Walkin’ the Talk: An Anthology of African American Studies. Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall. Kellner, Bruce, ed. 1987. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era. New York: Methuen. Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. 1981. New York: Knopf.
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Tarver, Australia, and Paula Barnes, eds. 2006. New Voices on the Harlem Renaissance: Race, Gender, and Literary Discourse. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh, Dickinson University Press. Watson, Steven. 1995. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920–1930. New York: Pantheon Books. Wirth, Thomas H., ed. 2002. Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Richard Bruce Nugent. Durham: Duke University Press. Helen R. Houston
Literature, Contemporary African American Contemporary African American Literature has its foundation in publications of the 1940s and 1950s that emphasized the direction in themes, issues, genre, and focus. These include Native Son by Richard Wright, The Street by Ann Petry, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin, and A Raisin in the Sun by Loraine Hansberry. Writers such as Richard Wright, Chester Himes, and Ann Petry placed an emphasis on the black urban experience, violence, hostility, the psychological, color, sexuality, women, and the speculative. These themes become more pronounced and diversified as the years progress. Richard Wright’s work introduces the black urban experience and a violent culture which offers a diverse representation of African American characters. Wright, who wrote until his death in 1960, set out to change the ways in which African American characters and life were presented in fiction. He wanted to create characters who deserved their treatment, not ones who were sympathized with and cried over or ones who were buffoons. His 1940s Native Son introduced a black protagonist, Bigger Thomas, who was shaped by the racial injustices of American institutions. This was a character trapped by his environment and created with harsh candor. The United States was forced to confront issues which had heretofore been ignored. The novel became a bestseller and the first book by an African American to be a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Additionally, it was and continues to be staged and filmed. The novel was adapted for the stage by Wright and Paul Green, a southern white playwright, and was directed in 1941 by Orson Welles; it continues to have an audience as a novel and a media production. Wright utilized the literary movement of his day, naturalism, which emphasizes economic determinism and class materialism, and strongly influenced other writers. Among these was Chester Himes, who began writing in prison; his first five novels were naturalistic: If He Hollers, Let Him Go (1945), Lonely Crowd (1947), The Third Generation (1947), Cast the First Stone (1952), and The Primitive (1955). Like Wright, he explores the issues of the urban experience, but focuses more on color and sexuality. He is one of the first black writers to popularly employ the detective genre. His detective series of novels, which feature Harlem detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, were published in
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the 1950s and 1960s and include such titles as For Love of Imabelle (1957), The Crazy Kill (1959), and The Real Cool Killers (1959). The works were translated and three of them were made into motion pictures: The Heat’s On (as Come Back Charleston Blue, 1972), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), and A Rage in Harlem (1991), which attest to the popularity of the series. This unapologetic naturalistic representation of the urban United States is continued in Ann Petry’s The Street (1946) which, like Wright’s work, became a best-seller. In addition to urban American determinism, the novel introduces and explores the oppression and triumphs of women. Petry presents the intersection of race, sex, and class through the experiences of her main character. Thus, this early period of naturalism with the works of Richard Wright and his followers introduces new and established or variations on themes, genre, subject matter, language, and character that lead to larger marketplace consumption. The thrust for an inclusion into mainstream American literature and a rejection of the naturalistic protest of Richard Wright marks the major writers of the 1950s. One of the contributors to this new focus is Langston Hughes and his creation of Jesse B. Semple (Simple) who is featured in regular columns in the Chicago Defender. Simple became famous nationwide as a Black Everyman registering the state of society and U.S. plight. These columns were later compiled and published in book form. These foci allow for more freedom in the ways in which the African American character and experience are depicted. The two prominent and highly visible writers in this period were James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison; both men had been influenced by Wright, but rejected the determinism and the Bigger Thomases and turned toward an exploration of relationships. Ralph Ellison, novelist and essayist, chose to talk about the black man’s relationship with his culture. To do this, he uses history, folk culture, music, black vernacular, and sophisticated literary devices (symbols, metaphors, allusions). His novel, Invisible Man (1952), gained immediate critical acclaim, won the National Book Award, and has been deemed a classic. The novel’s main character is nameless and searches throughout the narrative for his identity and meaning in his life. The novel invokes earlier works by both black and white authors and various ideologies (communism, Black Nationalism) which are a part of the journey to racial identity. The work of James Baldwin, like that of Ellison, signals a deviation from Wright and the protest tradition and an emphasis on identity. Where Ellison is concerned with communal or racial identity, Baldwin addresses the self, the individual identity. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain is semiautobiographical and tells of his relationship with his father and the church. It tells of the Grimes family, and like Ellison’s work takes place in both the North and the South, both pointing out its integral place in identity. His second novel, Giovanni’s Room (1956), further expands the options in African American literature, explores homosexuality (the topic is further explored by Randall Kenan in the 1990s), and interracial relationships. Thus, Baldwin challenges the conventions and frees up both the gay and the lesbian voice; these voices explore in all genres the themes of identity, community, sexism, and racism.
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Both writers gained public recognition for their essays. Ellison’s essays in many ways expand or present ideas and arguments that are a part of Invisible Man. In his essays, Baldwin is often autobiographical but his thrust is to wake up the reading audience, destroy its complacency, and force it to face reality. He does this in essay collections such as Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), and The Fire Next Time (1963). Baldwin not only published novels and essays—the 1961 and 1963 collections were best-sellers—but also plays and poetry. Thus, like many other writers, he was not limited by genre. A Shift for Social Change In the 1960s, there was a shift in the political thrust for social change; this was evinced in the political Black Power Movement and the literary Black Arts Movement. This lasted for only about a decade, but its push for independence led to more people writing (gender and racial groups), more independent publishing, a lack of restriction on language usage, character, and subject matter, and innovation. The participants in the movements believed that the black experience and its meaning could only be told with honesty and accuracy by black people. They wanted a more realistic portrayal instead of a romanticizing of limited, often impoverished, lifestyles and mentality. Out of this movement came writers who were speaking to the community through the theater, poetry, and prose. The independence of the artist is seen, not only in self-publishing, but also in the staging of plays. For instance, Ed Bullins could find no producers for his plays due to the language and subject matter; therefore, he staged them himself. He is known for How Do You Do? (1965), Clara’s Ole Man (1965), Goin’ a Buffalo (1968), and The Fabulous Miss Marie (1971). Other playwrights of the period include Ron Milner, who believed black art must affirm, with such works as What the Wine-Sellers Buy (1974, good versus evil and black male responsibility), Roads of the Mountaintops (1986, internal struggle of Martin Luther King Jr.), and Don’t Get God Started (1987, a musical). Marvin X’s works include Flowers for the Trashman (1965), Resurrection of the Dead (1972), and In the Name of Love (1981). This breadth of subject matter, overt social consciousness, and experimentation with innovations continue in the works of playwrights. This period witnessed a proliferation of independent publishing endeavors, plus self-published and performing poets. Both reflect ways of being accessible to the audience and being in control of the message. Poets, like the playwrights, were not limited to one genre. Poets of the movement who articulated societal hypocrisies, called for change and action, and rejected the status quo include Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Larry Neal, Askia Toure (Rolland Snellings), Nikki Giovanni, Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee), Sonia Sanchez, and Carolyn M. Rodgers. Black Women Writers Assert Themselves Following the Black Arts Movement, there was a proliferation of black women who began to assert themselves both politically and intellectually through their
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writing, sought to recover the past, and to reclaim their identities. This was achieved in the genres by presenting the complexities of the black female experience which includes growing up, common everyday experiences, survival strategies, and gender identity. One writer who reflects this reclamation and broadening of subject matter is Alice Walker who is known as an essayist, poet, short story writer, novelist, and for her Womanist theory. Her seminal essay ‘‘In Search of Our Mother’s Garden,’’ addresses black women’s creativity. She explores the lives of black women, their oppressions, and their liberations in such works as The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), In Love and Trouble (1973), and her two most controversial works, The Color Purple (1982), and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992). Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, is author of nine novels, including Song of Solomon (1977) and A Mercy (2008), essays, and a children’s book. Toni Cade Bambara is an activist, filmmaker, and the author of numerous works including editing the influential anthology The Black Woman in 1970, the short story collection Gorilla, My Love in 1972, and the novel The Salt Eaters in 1978. A writer whose works explore the issue of identity, history and tradition, and alienation is Paule Marshall in such titles as Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959), Soul Clap Hands and Sing (1961), and Praisesong for the Widow (1983). Even though Gayl Jones has written in other genres, she is best known for her novel Corregidora (1975), which deals with love and hate, uses an oral storytelling tradition, and in its violence of language and event challenges the perception of what women writers write. In Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, A Biomythography (1982), Audre Lorde, poet and essayist, presents a partial autobiography of an African American lesbian. Both Gloria Naylor in The Women of Brewster Place (1989), and Ann Allen Shockley in Say Jesus and Come to Me (1985) introduce a lesbian focus. Writers Redefine African American Literature Writers from the 1940s to the 1990s redefined and expanded African American literature’s foci and genres, liberated the African American voice, and enhanced its location in the literary marketplace. As is true with any movement, there are works that reflect the next period of production and defy a definite categorization. However, by the 1990s, established writers continued to produce, but their offerings were often more varied and experimental. New voices began to be published, although oftentimes it was initially through self-publishing. Thus, with the expansions, challenges, experimentation, and blurring of genre lines, African Americans became a significant part of the publishing mass market scene. African Americans are contributing to all genres and appear on best-seller lists such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Blackboard, and Essence. The inclusion and excellence of these writers’ work is further apparent in such awards as the Pulitzer, Obie, Tony, and the MacArthur Fellowship. They have served as poet laureates and as inaugural poet for presidents. African American visibility and liberating art forms are evident in the theater. The large and diverse audiences and the prizes garnered attest to this.
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Charles Gordone wrote No Place to Be Somebody and became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Ntozake Shange, poet, novelist, and playwright, is best known for her novels and her 1975 Obie Award-winning play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. With The River Niger (1972), Joseph A. Walker had many successes: the first African American to win the Tony Award with his play, Broadway in 1973, and in 1974 it became a film. Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Story (1982) won Fuller the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and in 1984 became a film of the same title. Dael Orlandersmith won an Obie for Beauty’s Daughter and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Yellowman. The 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama was won for Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, who is also known for her novel Getting Mother’s Body, and is the winner of the 2001 MacArthur Foundation grant. One of the most prolific playwrights, August Wilson, won two Pulitzer prizes for Drama (Fences, 1987 and Piano Lesson, 1990) and wrote the ‘‘Pittsburgh Cycle,’’ ten plays each representing a decade in the twentieth century of the African American experience. Tyler Perry represents the height of mass consumerism with his eleven plays, some of which have been adapted into films. One writer extending the tradition of Rudolph Fisher, Chester Himes, and Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck) and who has written detective, mystery, crime, and urban fiction is Walter Mosley. These works present real-life situations, characters, and political/moral/social issues. Although Mosley has written in several genres, his dominant genre is mystery. His first novel Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) introduced the Easy Rawlins series (which like many of his other works appeared on screen), his second series introduced ex-con Socrates Fortlow, and his third series introduces Paris Minton, a black bookseller. Other mystery writers include Stephen L. Carter, Jericho’s Fall (2009); Gar Anthony Haywood introduces two series, one with P. I. Aaron Gunner and the other with the Loudermilks, a retired couple traveling in an Airstream. Hugh Holton, a Chicago detective, presented the Larry Cole series. Women are not excluded from mystery fiction and they have created a veritable cross-section of society as their series detectives. Included in these are Blanche White, a domestic and accidental detective created by Barbara Neely in Blanche on the Lam (1992); Tamara Hayle, an ex-cop turned gumshoe created by Valerie Wilson Wesley in The Devil Riding (2000); Marti MacAlister, a homicide detective paired with a white partner, Matthew (Vik) Jessenovik, created by Eleanor Taylor Bland in Whispers In the Dark (2001); Candi Covington, a social worker known as Mama, created by Nora DeLoach in Mama Cracks a Mask of Innocence (2001); Nikki Chase Harvard, an economics professor created by Pamela Thomas-Graham in Blue Blood (1999); and Charlotte Justice, a homicide detective created by Paula L. Woods in Strange Bedfellows (2006). Black mystery fans have a growing number of choices in authors and crime-solvers. Speculative fiction, which includes science fiction, the occult, horror, and fantasy, presents alternative worlds, often those which grow out of a known reality. African American writers have added to the popularity of this genre. Samuel
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R. Delany is the most prolific and recognized of the African American science fiction writers. He is the first to gain widespread recognition, writes in several genres, and published his first novel by age twenty. He is an award-winning author, having won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and the Lifetime Excellence Award in Gay and Lesbian Literature. Octavia E. Butler, like Delany, received both the Nebula and the Hugo awards and was widely acclaimed. Before her untimely death from a fall in 2006, she wrote about dystopias, strong women, multiculturalism, relationships, and community. Her novels include Kindred (1979), Dawn (1987), the first novel in her Xenogenesis series, Parable of the Sower (1993), and Fledgling (2006), a vampire story. Nalo Hopkinson encompasses fantasy, science fiction, horror, and fantasy into her works which include Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), Midnight Robber (2000), and a collection of short stories entitled Skin Folk (2001). Jewelle Gomez, predominantly a poet and critic, has written The Gilda Story (1991) which revisions the vampire motif and offers broader possibilities of sexuality. Finally, Tananarive Due blends African and African American folklore and horror; her works include The Between (1995), My Soul to Keep (1997), and its sequel The Living Blood (2001). African American writers reclaim, introduce, and revisit historical events, characters, and periods through historical fiction or historical romance. This portrayal begins with Frank Yerby in the 1950s, who used the term costume novel to describe his historical fiction. Yerby wrote thirty-three novels and was the first African American to write a bestselling novel, The Foxes of Harrow (1946) and to have it become a Hollywood film. Both the subject matter and the popularity continue in such works as Margaret Walker’s Jubilee (1966); Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976) by Alex Haley; Ernest Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1982); Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) and A Mercy (2009); J. California Cooper’s Family (1991); Charles Johnson’s Dreamer (1998) and Soulcatcher (2001); Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada (1998); Sherley A. Williams Dessa Rose (1999); Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Sally Hemings (2000); Tananarive Due’s Black Rose (2001); and Edward P. Jones’s The Known World (2003). Additionally this popularity is evident in the autobiography or memoir, Cane River (2001) by Lalita Tademy. The historical romance reflects the same attention to historical accuracy, but the focus is on the love relationship. Beverly Jenkins, an author reflecting this emphasis, has won best-seller and three Waldenbook Awards and is the author of Always and Forever (the frontier, 2000) and Bring on the Blessings (2009). Anita Richmond Bunkley is the best-selling author of Emily: The Yellow Rose (mid-1830s, 1989); Black Gold (1920s and 1930s, 1994); and Wild Embers (World War II, 1995), selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best romances of 1995. Bunkley was voted one of the fifty favorite authors of the twentieth century by the online African American Book Club. Romance Novels Emerge Romance as a popular genre reputedly had its first novel by and about African Americans published in 1980 (Entwined Destinies) in Dell’s Candlelight Romance
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series by Elsie B. Washington under the pen name Rosalind Welles. Since that publication, the numbers of authors, extent of production, diversity of topics and settings, and their reception have grown substantially. Rochelle Alers, who has been called the most prolific and popular African American writer of women’s fiction, received the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Award. The romances of Gwynne Forster, best-selling and award-winning writer, have been both Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild selections. Donna Hill has had three of her novels adapted for television. Francis Ray’s sixth novel was the first madefor-TV movie for Black Entertainment Television (BET). Sandra Kitt’s Adam and Eve (1985) became the first romance by and about African Americans published by Harlequin. Like other African American romance writers, Eboni Snoe, a pioneer in alternative romantic adventures, also has mainstream titles, When Everything’s Said and Done and Something Deep in My Bones. Further proof of the mass market appeal of the African American romance is the establishment of publishing companies or imprints for these works, including Odyssey, Arabesque, and Kimani Press. The mainstream romance became a phenomenon with Terry McMillan’s groundbreaking Waiting to Exhale (1992) which became not only a best-seller and a movie, but changed the perception of African American fiction. With this novel, McMillan started the ‘‘sister’’ or ‘‘girlfriend’’ novels; these novels frequently focused on middle-class professional women seeking stability. Writers in this group are Lolita Files, Getting to the Good Part (1999); Benilda Little, Good Hair (1996); and April Sinclair, Coffee Will Make You Black (1994). McMillan’s first novel Mama (1987) presents the harshness of urban life for the African American with the intensity of Ann Petry’s The Street. McMillan continues her female-centered, relationship-driven novels featuring independent, middle-class, achieving African American women searching for identity with How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) and The Interruption of Everything (2005). As a result of this work, many more authors appeared in bookstores and as book club selections. Bebe Moore Campbell explores relationships between the races, middleclass issues, mental illness, and writes against stereotypes. Her titles include Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine (1992), Brothers and Sisters (1994), and 72 Hours (2005). Connie Briscoe, who describes herself as a ‘‘black, deaf, woman author’’ is a bestselling writer of both fiction and nonfiction. Her titles include Sisters and Lovers (1994), Big Girls Don’t Cry (1996), and Sisters and Husbands (2009). Bestselling author Tina McElroy Ansa, who writes about the South, tradition, history, and family has written Baby of the Family (1989), Ugly Ways (1993), and its sequel, Taking After Mudear (2007). Additionally, she founded and created DownSouth Press, the stated purpose of which is ‘‘to publish and promote the literature of African-American people that will enrich, enlighten and edify the world.’’ Pearl Cleage, stellar award-winning author, writes in several genres; she writes of family, love, community, responsibility, relationships, sexism, racism, and urban issues. Her writing is marked by strong character development (specifically male) and optimism. Her novels include What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (1997), Baby Brother’s Blues (2006), and Seen it All and Done the Rest (2008).
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There are writers who span the mainstream romance and urban fiction, often had to self-publish and distribute their books in nontraditional ways and places (trunks of cars, Barbershops, and Beauty Shops), but became powerhouses in publishing. E. Lynn Harris, who followed the tradition of candor about gay life reflected in James Baldwin’s work, focused on professional, middle-class, African American males who are on the down low and their relationships; his titles include Invisible Life (1991), Just As I Am (1995), and Mama Dearest (2009). Eric Jerome is a best-selling author in the United States and abroad with such titles as Sister, Sister (1997), Milk in My Coffee (1998), Pleasures (2008), and Resurrecting Midnight (2009). Omar Tyree, the entrepreneurial, award-winning, best-selling author who also uses the pseudonym Urban Griot is the author of Flyy Girl (1996) and Pecking Order (2008). Kemberla Lawson Roby says she deals with real-life issues; A Deep Dark Secret (2009) explores child abuse, as does Sapphire’s Push (1996) which became a successful and critically acclaimed movie, Precious, in 2009. Additional Roby titles include Behind Closed Doors (1997) and Be Careful What You Pray For (2010). Carle Weber, writer and publisher with a large following, is the author of Lookin for Luv (2000), Baby Mama Drama (2003), The Preacher’s Son (2005), and Up to No Good (2009). Urban Fiction Grows Urban fiction’s definition and subject matter continues to grow and is variously called Hip-Hop, street, gangster, and ghetto depending on the focus. It is often dangerous, graphic, and gritty; frequently without complexities of character or issues, it uses the vernacular and is formulaic. African American writers continue to have to prove themselves before mainstream publishers will take a chance on them, believing black people do not read and will not purchase a book, and that these works are not marketable. Thus, many of the writers have not only self-published but have also set up their own publishing companies. This second wave of urban fiction was catapulted into existence with Sister Souljah’s (author, activist) The Coldest Winter Ever (1999). Inspired by Sister Souljah, Nikki Turner creates urban fairytales and accomplished female characters without glamorizing street life; she has written A Hustler’s Wife (2002) and The Glamorous Life (2005). Vickie Stringer, a self-published pioneer of hip-hop, founder of Triple Crown Publications, a major publisher of Urban Fiction, has written Imagine This (2004) and The Reason Why (2009). Wahida Clark began writing while incarcerated, where she gained assistance in her business plan from Martha Stewart; Clark is published with two mainstream publishers. She writes to entertain and to show the consequences of actions in Thugs and the Women Who Love Them (2004) and Thug Lovin’ (2009). The highly acclaimed Shannon Holmes wrote his first novel in prison and has signed with two major publishers; his titles include B-more Careful (2001) and Bad Girlz 4 Life (2008). Awardwinning Mary ‘‘Honey B’’ Morrison, initially self-published, writes in several genres, including erotic fiction; published under Mary B. Morrison are Who’s Making Love (2001) and Never Again Once More (2003) and as HoneyB,
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Sexcapades (2008) and Single Husbands (2009). Zane, author, publisher, and producer, is the groundbreaking voice in urban erotica and has been translated into several languages. Titles include Addicted (2001), Afterburn (2005), and It Is What It Is: Shame On It All, Again (2008). David Revera Jr.’s Harlem Dragon (2006) and The Last Prejudice (2009) are erotic thrillers. There is also a line of urban Christian fiction which is scripturally driven and faith-based. These writers are best-sellers, award winners, and have a large following. They include ReShonda Tate Billingsley, author of The Devil is a Lie (2009) and The Pastor’s Wife; and Tia McCollors, author of The Truth About Love (2008) and The Last Woman Standing (2009). Stephanie Perry Moore has written series for African American teens (one is Payton Skky) and adult novels, including Flame and A Lova’ Like No Otha’. Stacy Hawkins Adams, author and journalist, writes the Jubilant series and of the relationship of God with self. Victoria Christopher Murray has a teen series, the Divine Diva, and adult novels; her adult novels include Temptation (2000) and Too Little Too Late (2008). Contemporary African American literature continues the tradition in African American literature which says that art must be both functional and informative. Further Reading Andrews, William L., Francis Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. 1997. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press. Bell, Bernard W. 2005. The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Byerman, Keith. 2005. Remembering the Past in Contemporary African American Fiction. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Dickson-Carr, Darryl. 2005. The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African American Fiction. New York: Columbia University Press. Gabbin, Joanne V., ed. 1999. The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. Johnson, Vernon Damani, and Bill Lyne, eds. 2003. Walkin’ the Talk: An Anthology of African American Studies. Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall. Marable, Manning, ed. 2005. The New Black Rennaisance: The Souls Anthology of Critical African-American Studies. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ed. 1999. Contemporary African American Novelists: A BioBibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Quashie, Kevin Everod, R. Joyce Lausch, and Keith D. Miller. 2001. New Bones: Contemporary Black Writers in America. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Helen R. Houston
Lorde, Audre (1934–92), Poet, Writer, Activist Audre Lorde is best known for her prose and poetry writings that place ‘‘outsider’’ concerns—racism, sexism, gender difference—at the forefront of American social
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thought. Lorde was born ‘‘Audrey Geraldine’’ in Harlem, New York, to Linda Belmar and Frederic Lorde, immigrants from Grenada. Her parents later raised her in Brooklyn, New York. Lorde grew up greatly affected by her dual identities—Caribbean and American—and isolated by the practices of the Roman Catholic schools that she attended as a youth. Lorde graduated from Hunter College in 1959, all the while supporting herself with odd jobs. She took a brief respite from Hunter in 1954 to attend the National University of Mexico, where she began to explore her sexuality more Audre Lorde was a prominent African American poet freely. She returned to and political activist during the twentieth century. New York, became in- (Library of Congress) volved with the Greenwich Village gay movement, joined the Harlem Writers Guild, and began mingling with writers of the Beat Poetry Movement. In 1961, Lorde graduated with a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Library Science and, in 1966, became the librarian of New York City’s Town School Library. Lorde married Edward Rollins in 1962, and later gave birth to two children. Although the marriage ended in 1970, the subject of motherhood became an important theme in her writing. Having received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1968, Lorde accepted a poetry residency at the historically African American Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. Her residency at Tougaloo would provide professional and personal turning points. She published her first book of poetry, The First Cities (1968), and met her partner of nineteen years, Frances Clayton. Lorde would first write about her lesbian identity in her second book of poems, Cables to Rage (1970). After her stay at Tougaloo, Lorde returned to New York, teaching at John Jay, City, and Lehman colleges. The early to mid-1970s proved a prolific time for Lorde as she produced From a Land Where Other People Live (1973), New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), Coal (1976), and Between Ourselves (1976). Her subsequent
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volume, Black Unicorn (1978), won her critical acclaim for its interweaving of African mythology. Lorde remained productive in the early 1980s, and the work she undertook during that time helped to solidify her national reputation as a poet and as an essayist. Published in 1980, The Cancer Journals chronicled her journey as a black female breast cancer patient. In 1980 as well, she cofounded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982) is Lorde’s first autobiographical treatise. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), presents Lorde’s perspectives on feminist issues. A Burst of Light (1988) continues Lorde’s analysis of her experiences with (liver) cancer as she rejected traditional medicine and traveled the world with her partner, Gloria Joseph, in search of alternative treatments. Lorde served as the Thomas Hunter Professor of English at Hunter College until 1988. In 1991, she was named poet laureate of New York. In 1992, before her death in November, she was renamed ‘‘Gambda Adisa,’’ or ‘‘Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known,’’ in an African ritual. The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance was published posthumously in 1993. See also: Caribbean Cultural Influences; Feminism; Fiction; Gay and Lesbian Culture Further Reading De Veaux, Alexis. 2004. Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde. New York: Norton. Hall, Joan Wylie, ed. 2004. Conversations with Audre Lorde. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Keating, AnaLouise. 1996. Women Reading Women Writing: Self-Invention in Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldua, and Audre Lorde. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Tomeiko Ashford Carter
Louis, Joe (1914–81), Boxer Joe Louis, known as the Brown Bomber, was the second black heavyweight champion of the world, and through his humility, became an American and African American icon during the 1930s, serving as a symbol of freedom in the struggle against the rise of Nazi Germany. Joseph Louis Barrow was born in Lafayette, Alabama, on May 13, 1914, and his Boxing skill was prevalent from a young age. A Golden Gloves champion, Louis became a professional boxer in 1934, and within three years, he became heavyweight champion of the world by defeating James J. Braddock. Louis knocked Braddock out in the eighth round of their title fight in Chicago, Illinois, on June 22, 1937. With his defeat of Braddock, Louis became the second black heavyweight champion of the world, following in the controversial path of Jack Johnson, a powerful slugger who defied the prevailing belief that a black man should be
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submissive in an American society built upon clear racial hierarchies. During his reign as heavyweight champion of the world, from 1937 until 1949, Joe Louis defended his title a record twenty-five times and became an athlete and cultural icon embraced by a broad spectrum of Americans irrespective of the color line. In his twenty-five title defenses, Louis defeated Primo Carnera, Jack Sharkey, James Braddock, Max Baer, Max Schmeling, and Jersey Joe Walcott, each boxer a champion in his own right. In 1942, during World War II, Louis took time away from prizefighting to put on exhibition fights for the United States Army. In 1949, Louis retired from boxing, but was forced to make a return because of financial difficulties. His final, and only the third, defeat of his career, came at the hands of Rocky Marciano in 1951. In his career, the Brown Bomber fought 71 professional bouts, winning 69, including 54 by knockout. The cultural significance and enduring legacy of Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber and America’s hero, were established during the Great Depression, in two matches against German boxer Max Schmeling. In their first bout, held on June 19, 1936, Schemling knocked Louis out in the 12th round. With the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany, Schmeling was seen by some as representative of Hitler’s ideas of Aryan superiority. Louis, in contrast, became for many Americans, black and white, a symbol for hope and democracy. When Louis visited the White House in 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reported (reported by Ashby as saying), ‘‘Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany.’’ And so, before the men met in the ring for a second time, the storyline had been written in the minds of many: a Louis victory would be an American victory, would represent the triumph of democracy over tyranny, whereas a Schemling victory would prove disheartening to innumerable Americans. On June 22, 1938, before 70,000 spectators in Yankee Stadium, and with millions around the world listening on radio, Joe Louis, in a furious flurry of fisticuffs, knocked out Max Schmeling in two minutes and four seconds of the first round. While the men would not meet in the ring for a third fight, Louis had secured his iconic status in the hearts and minds of millions of Americans. Life after boxing proved difficult for Louis. He married four times, failed in business ventures, and at one time owed over a million dollar in taxes to the federal government. Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber and America’s hope, spent his final years greeting casino goers at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Louis died in Las Vegas on April 12, 1981, and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Readers seeking an overview of Joe Louis’s complex legacy are invited to explore Joe Louis: The Great Black Hope by Richard Bak. Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink by David Margolick offers a sustained study of the fight many commentators called ‘‘The Fight of the Century.’’ HBO Sports has produced Joe Louis: America’s Hero . . . Betrayed, a documentary that offers invaluable insight into the life and works of Joe Louis, one of the most important figures in American sport and popular culture.
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Further Reading Ashby, LeRoy. 2006. With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press. Wiggins, David K. 2001. ‘‘Louis, Joe.’’ The Oxford Companion to United States History. Paul S. Boyer, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Love, Nat ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’ (1854–1921), Cowboy Nat Love was the most famous of the 5,000 African American cowboys who in the 1870s and 1880s were involved in cattle drives from Texas to Montana, climbing the Chisholm Trail. After winning a shooting contest in Deadwood, South Dakota, on July 4, 1876, he became known by the name ‘‘Deadwood Dick.’’ A former slave and frontiersman, Deadwood Dick was the first known black rodeo champion; he was recognized for his skill as a range rider and cattlebrand reader. He spent twenty years in the open West. The work of the legendary cowboy is enshrined in the history and culture of black cowboys and their pioneering work in the West, and their stories, particularly that of Deadwood Dick, give a charming and enchanting history. Born in a slave cabin in Davidson County, Tennessee, in June 1854, Love had no formal education, yet with the assistance of his father, Sampson, managed to read and write. After slavery ended, he spent some time on the rented small farm that his father had obtained from his former owner. His father’s death, which was sudden, left Love as the sole support of his immediate family—his mother, brother, and sister. As Love worked on various plantations, he became skilled in breaking wild horses. He was persuaded that he wanted to become a cowboy. On February 10, 1869, when he was fifteen, strong, and appearing to be much older than he was, he put his uncle in charge of his family and walked most of his way to Kansas. For three years he worked as a cowpuncher on the Duval Ranch in Dodge City, which was the cowboy capital of the West. There he broke in the wildest broncos and participated in dozens of cattle drives between Texas and Kansas and elsewhere. He also became a sharpshooter. He worked his way up to become buyer and chief brand reader. Love rode the Chisholm Trail in 1872, traveling from Texas to southern Arizona, and then joining the Pete Gallinger Company on the banks of the Gila Rover. He had become skilled in his work as a cowboy and comfortable when involved in mustang hunts, cattle stampedes, and narrow escapes from marauding Indians and outlaws. After Love and his outfit moved 3,000 steers to Deadwood City, South Dakota, he was one of six black contestants in a roping and shooting contest. He lassoed, tied, and mounted a wild bronco in record time and with precise skill, and won two shooting contests, which led the crowd assembled to name him ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’ and to proclaim him champion roper of the western cattle country.
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When the victory was over, Love rode back to his ranch in Arizona and, later on, as his unit went out in search of stray cattle, he was wounded and seized by a band of Indians. His enemy, Yellow Dog, nursed him back to health and offered to make him a member of the tribe. Love refused silently, and as soon as he could, stole the fastest horse available and rode for twelve hours to reach his home. He describes this and other adventures with Indians in his autobiography, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: Better Known in the Cattle Country as ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’ (1907). Some historians say that his autobiography was as notable for the story that it told as well as for what it did not describe. It does document the work of black cowboys up the Chisholm Trail but misses an opportunity to describe race relations in the West at that time. As cowboy life faded around the 1880s, steel rails brought a different life into the western ranges; covered wagons that crowded the plains also added to the changing scene. Love married in 1889, and in 1890 left the cowboy profession to become a Pullman porter—one the best jobs available to blacks at that time but not without its exploitation of black labor. He ran on the Denver Rio Grande Railroad and died in Los Angeles in 1921. He is remembered in the lore of the West and the history of African American cowboys. See also: Cowboys and Rodeos; Men, African American, Images of; Pickett, Bill Further Reading Durham, Philip, and Everett L. Jones. 1983. The Negro Cowboys. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Encyclopedia of World Biography on Nat Love. (n.d.) ‘‘Nat Love Biography.’’ Bookrags.com. http://www.bookrags.com/biography/nat-love/ Katz, William Loren. 1987. The Black West. 3rd ed. Seattle: Open Hand Publishing. Love, Nat. [1907] 1968. The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: Better Known in the Cattle Country as ‘‘Deadwood Dick.’’ Reprint. New York: Arno Press. Smith, Caroline B. D. 1995. ‘‘Nat Love.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Research. Frederick D. Smith
Lynching In the flagrant injustice and outrageous brutality of lynching, in the deep sorrow it created within the African American community, there was a mobilizing issue for African American identity. Due to its dehumanization of the black race, impact on race relations worldwide, and its political and social impact on the nation, lynching is a subject often revisited in popular culture. The crime of lynching exposed the second-class status of black Americans and highlighted their oppression and victimization. Lynching reached its peak in the 1890s, when the annual number of victims—both black and white—was
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often in the hundreds. Even with the later decline in absolute numbers, the practice of lynching assumed a more exclusively racial character, as the number of whites subjected to this violence decreased much more dramatically than blacks. By the end of the decade, even the Southern-born President Woodrow Wilson was prepared to declare lynching a national disgrace. In the flagrant injustice and outrageous brutality of lynching, in the deep sorrow it created within the African American community, there was a mobilizing issue for African American identity. Due to its dehumanization of the black race, impact on race relations worldwide, and its political and social impact on the nation, lynching is a subject often revisited in popular culture. Definitions of Lynching The term ‘‘lynch law’’ is notably an oxymoron since it was not just extra-legal, but anti-legal. This term developed out of the concept of whites creating their own laws, or taking the law into their own hands. It may have come from the Revolutionary War when Colonel Charles Lynch of Virginia administered punishments to Tory horse thieves, hanging victims by their thumbs until they proclaimed ‘‘Liberty Forever!’’ The perpetrators of acts of violence against blacks varied greatly, from small secretive groups to large crowds, yet finally, these acts were characterized by those who witnessed them as lynchings. James Cutler wrote in his 1905 study on lynching, ‘‘the verb lynch was occasionally used to include capital punishment, but . . . ‘to lynch’ had not then undergone a change in meaning and acquired the sense of ‘to put to death’. . . . It was not until a time subsequent to the Civil War that the verb lynch came to carry the idea of putting to death.’’ And it was not until the 1890s that lynching became an act almost exclusively focused on controlling African Americans. In his study of lynching in Georgia and Virginia, the historian Fitzhugh Brundage has classified every lynching as one of four types: mass mob—who killed their victims in public, legitimized by widespread public participation; the posse—who set out to capture criminal suspects, often lynching them before the suspect was brought to law enforcement officials; terrorist—persons united in membership, such as Klansmen; or private—small and secretive lynchings. Brundage sought to show how vastly different lynchings were, based on different patterns of social interaction and to describe the wide variability in the phenomenon of lynching. Others define lynching as an event which required ‘‘a minimum party of four—at least three perpetrators and a victim, whether or not a part of the public record, a lynching is by definition a public event.’’ Even the definition of what comprised an actual lynching was controversial. The meaning of the word lynching actually became a point of contention between rival antilynching groups. The definition of lynching mattered because it could further the strategies used to combat it. The NAACP defined lynching as communitysanctioned murder. As Mary Church Terrell wrote in 1904: ‘‘Hanging, shooting and burning black men, women and children in the United States have become so common
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that such occurrences create but little sensation and evoke but slight comment now.’’ At times, accounts make it difficult to determine the method by which a black victim died. Usually, however, Southern papers engaged in a form of sensational journalism, and did not shy away from all the ‘‘grisly’’ details. Most newspapers identified the victim as ‘‘Negro’’ and asserted that the victim was guilty of the crime, and therefore deserving the penalty. Journalists often proved most helpful to those who supported mob violence, as they excused lynchings by publishing graphic details of supposed black crime. Graphic details could sell papers, and crime attracted an audience. The New York Times, too, would describe lynchings that occurred outside their region. But even the Times, and the Chicago Tribune as well, showed bias in their treatment of lynchings, usually by assuming black guilt and the tendency towards rape by ‘‘Southern Negroes.’’ Before African American leader W. E. B. Du Bois brought lynching to the forefront on the pages of the Crisis (magazine), it was largely considered a taboo subject within the black community. As Daisy Lampkin, the field secretary of the NAACP stated in The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, ‘‘We were so ashamed that whites could do that to us, that we hardly wanted to talk about it publicly.’’ Du Bois had read the Southern press where he saw blacks referred to in lynching accounts as ‘‘fiends,’’ ‘‘wretches,’’ and ‘‘desperadoes,’’ always assuming the victim’s guilt. Newspapers exploited public fear, and swayed opinion. They falsely emphasized ‘‘rape’’ as a reason for lynching. The white liberal press had failed him too. With the exception of Ray Stannard Baker, who exposed the realities of lynching in McClure’s in 1905, and in a book, Following the Color Line, published in 1908, there was little help from whites to expose lynching. Lynching Statistics Revealing Lynching statistics were kept beginning in 1882 by the Tuskegee Institute (now University) in Alabama. They recorded at least 3,442 lynchings from 1882 to the 1950s. Between 1890 and 1919, it has been estimated that 1,748 black men, women, and children were lynched by whites, roughly one every six days. (No one is sure how many blacks were killed before 1881 for the records are incomplete.) Another 1,294 whites were lynched at the same time, mostly in the frontier West. (Until 1868, the majority of lynching victims were white men usually accused of stealing livestock or committing murder.) Over 1,200 lynchings occurred in the Deep South alone between 1882 and 1930; one scholar places the number of victims at 2,500 in ten Southern states in the same period. Lynchings were less frequent in Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina— states that were closer to the North—and were more common in the historic ‘‘Black Belt.’’ Statistics indicate that lynchings were more likely to occur in areas with larger black populations, where whites felt threatened by the black majority. Lynchings which were recorded in the United States between 1889 and 1918 were primarily against black victims (85 percent) and 88 percent took place in the South. Some studies show as high as 95 percent of those tortured
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and killed took place in former slave states. Lynchings occurred in virtually all sections of the southeast, and sometimes beyond the region. Since many lynchings were secret affairs, and lynching records are often missing, accurate statistics are difficult to determine. Many lynchings belong to a secret and unrecoverable past, a detail that surely did not escape Du Bois. What was clear was that whites used terror and extraordinary savagery and sadism, lynching as a ‘‘public performance,’’ to exercise their absolute power over African Americans. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the renowned anti-lynching crusader and black journalist, fought against this characterization of black villainy by the white press. She recorded lynching statistics in A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States, 1892, 1893, and 1894 (1895). Wells-Barnett used statistics as her primary weapon, as did several other activists, including Monroe Nathan Work. Work offered his statistics without commentary to white Southern newspapers, in order to encourage them to publish the figures, since they were from an independent source. This would allow journals to avoid citing another journal as their primary source. His statistics were so widely respected, even the NAACP used his reports and considered them accurate. The NAACP did, however, compile their own statistics, which were often published on the pages of the Crisis. Work knew that despite class distinctions, whites generally agreed on matters of race and were united in their culture of white supremacy. It was in the interest of all classes of whites to continue the terrorism. For white landowners, it prevented any coalition of poor whites and blacks, while for poor whites, it reinforced the ‘‘southern caste line’’ and established superiority of poor whites over blacks. Most statistics indicate that economic concerns or threats were often at the root of lynching, and that lynching was more prevalent in locations where white economic power was challenged. Du Bois also knew that the courts had not helped black Americans fight this terrorism. As Du Bois wrote in 1903 in Souls of Black Folk, ‘‘Negroes came to look upon courts as instruments of injustice and oppression and upon those convicted in them as martyrs and victims.’’ Finally, lynchings reminded African Americans that they had less protection under the law as citizens than they had enjoyed as slaves, a fact that, as violence against blacks continued year after year, was no doubt noted by whites, too. Du Bois knew that few lynchers were ever brought to trial, and if they were, few were convicted. The few that were convicted served short jail terms or a small fine was imposed. Southern police officers resisted intervening in lynchings, worried that their own personal authority as ‘‘the law’’ would be compromised. In fact, they were often collaborators in lynchings, by offering little or no protection for black prisoners in their care, or by actually participating in the lynchings. Less than 1 percent of the lynchings before 1940 were ever followed by a conviction of those responsible. Random Aspects of Lynching The random aspect of lynchings was particularly disturbing, and kept the black population in fear for their lives, knowing of the possible terror. Blacks,
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hearing of a lynching nearby, were reminded of their extreme vulnerability. Lynching generally did not occur in the same counties year after year; in other words, the violence circulated throughout the Deep South, never staying long in one place but always leaving a powerful impact. Often people just associated with the ‘‘accused’’ were lynched as well. Women were victims, too. Many female lynching victims were never suspected of a crime, but rather, they died in place of a male target, such as a husband, father, or brother. Women and children suffered by witnessing the lynching of their male relatives, often forced to watch by the excited mob. Lynchings were a constant reminder to survivors that they too could be the next victims of this ‘‘officially encouraged but ultimately invisible brutality.’’ As Brundage explains, ‘‘The crippling dogma of white supremacy, the autonomy of county governments, and the weakness of state institutions all worked to frustrate opponents of mob violence.’’ There are accounts of resistance to lynchings, including armed resistance. But there was no systematic, effective way to fight a lynch mob. Author Richard Wright wrote years later in Black Boy that just the threat of violence modified his behavior. ‘‘The things that influenced my conduct as a Negro did not have to happen to me directly; I needed but to hear of them to feel their full effects in the deepest layers of my consciousness. Indeed, the white brutality that I had not seen was a more effective control of my behavior than that which I knew.’’ The National Urban League was involved in the fight against lynching too, eventually on the pages of Opportunity magazine. Charles S. Johnson, editor of the Urban League’s Opportunity magazine, which began publication in 1923, noted that lynchings and mob violence resulted in members of the black community experiencing terror and staying ‘‘at home and out of sight’’ until the situation had ‘‘quieted down’’ and that ‘‘mob outburst . . . leaves deep scars of horror, fear and dismay.’’ Historian Joel Williamson notes the ‘‘radical and devastating change in white thinking about black people’’ in the South between 1889 and 1915. Whites thought of blacks freed from stringent controls of slavery as ‘‘retrogressing’’ to their natural state of savagery, which they felt was evidenced in what they saw as ‘‘a strikingly rapid increase in black criminality, the dissolution for the black family,’’ rising rates of venereal disease, and ‘‘the key indicator . . . the frightful increase in rapes or attempted rapes by black men on white women.’’ These ‘‘beasts’’ had been held in check by slavery. They were savages that threatened the ‘‘purity’’ of a white woman. The white population had seen blacks as children during that period, but when the slaves were freed, racism was freed too, and whites thought ‘‘virtually anything they wanted about black people’’ seeing them as bestial. They considered these former children as suddenly virile men, who craved the ‘‘flower’’ of white civilization, the white woman. Politicians, ministers, teachers, and journalists, and community leaders echoed this position. Williamson interpreted race lynching and rioting by whites ‘‘as a vital part of the process by which the white elite transferred the base of their power from the mass of black people held in slavery . . . to the mass of white people. . . . The changeover from a black base to a white base of power by the white elite was virtually a tri-generational process.’’
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Black men were seen as ‘‘supersexual creatures, uninhibited and possessed by large, almost insatiable appetites. In particular black men were considered to have freakishly large sexual organs and lust for white women. There was therefore a fear—only rarely stated—that white women lusted after black men.’’ White men wanted to believe that white women would never willingly engage in sexual relations with a black man; only rape could bring about such a union. Such a union could, of course, produce a mixed and therefore ‘‘unclean offspring.’’ Williamson raises the question if this was really a gender war more to do with relations between white men and women than blacks and whites, and that perhaps ‘‘the ending of race lynching and rioting in the turn of the century mode had more to do with a gender truce than a racial one.’’ In this culture of violence, blacks were lynched for almost any reason, imagined, real, or contrived. The imagined and contrived reasons were almost always sexual. Both issues of race and gender entered into the complex web. White men considered themselves protectors of white female purity, community values, and civilization itself. Lynching was only a tool for them, to keep black men in check. They considered themselves to be at the top of the social, political, and economic ladder, above both white women and all African Americans. Lynchings were often recorded by photographers, who made a considerable profit selling postcards of the event. Such mementoes of lynchings were common. The Crisis reported that hundreds of cameras would click all morning at the scene of a lynching. People in automobiles and carriages came from miles around to view the corpse dangling from the end of a rope. Sometimes, portable printing plants were installed in the vicinity of the lynching in order to mass produce the cards as quickly as possible. There was plenty of money to be made at a lynching, through the sale of commemorative photographs, and through the sale of body parts, a more ‘‘valuable’’ memento. Although the Postmaster General forbade the sending of lynching cards through the mail in 1908, the law was largely ignored. If necessary, an envelope was purchased to cover the card. The Dyer anti-lynching bill was introduced in Congress in 1919. Conceived by Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican congressman from Missouri, and Merrill Moores of Indiana, the bill considered a lynch mob to be ‘‘three or more persons’’ and promised to protect the lives of American citizens denied protection by their states, disciplined state officials refusing to protect citizens, and fined entire counties or cities where lynchings occurred. In other words, it supported collective responsibility. Although the bill would ultimately fail, the NAACP believed the bill’s attention helped drastically reduce the number of lynchings in the following decades, by awakening the people of the Southern states to the need to take action to stop these crimes against blacks. In 1999, the New York Historical Society put forth lynching imagery in an exhibition and catalogue entitled Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. These are much the same images that appeared in the Crisis, but this time one hundred photographs were shown at one time, documenting decades of lynchings of black men and women in the South. See also: Civil Rights Movement; Law Enforcement; Social Activists
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Further Reading Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. 1993. Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880– 1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Cutler, James E. [1905] 1969. Lynch-Law: An Investigation into the History of Lynching in the United States. Reprint. New York: Negro Universities Press. Nash, Roy. 1916. ‘‘Memorandum for Mr. Phillip G. Peabody on Lynch-Law and the Practicability of a Successful Attack Thereon.’’ NAACP Papers, Reel l. May 22. Perloff, Richard M. 2000. ‘‘The Press and Lynchings of African Americans.’’ Journal of Black Studies 30:315–30. Stovel, Katherine. 2001. ‘‘Local Sequential Patterns: The Structure of Lynching in the Deep South, 1882–1930.’’ Social Forces 79:843–80. Terrell, Mary Church. 1904. ‘‘Lynching from a Negro’s Point of View.’’ North American Review 178 (June): 853. Vinikas, Vincent. 1999. ‘‘Specters in the Past: The Saint Charles, Arkansas Lynching of 1904 and the Limits of Historical Inquiry.’’ Journal of Southern History 65:535– 64. Waldrep, Christopher. 2000. ‘‘The War of Words: The Controversy over the Definition of Lynching, 1899–1940.’’ Journal of Southern History 66:75–100. Williamson, Joel. 1997. ‘‘Wounds Not Scars: Lynching, the National Conscience, and the American Historian.’’ Journal of American History 83:1237–39. Zangrando, Robert. 1980. The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, 1909–1950. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Amy Kirschke
M Mabley, Moms (c. 1897–1975), Comedian, Entertainer The imprint that Moms Mabley left on African American culture is immeasurable; it earned her the title ‘‘First Lady of African American Humor’’ and ‘‘the funniest woman alive.’’ She was a social satirist who broke ground in comedy with material that raised eyebrows during her time but has become acceptable for the comedy stage. Amazingly, she was able to overcome racism, sexism, and gender abuse to bring laughter to her audiences. With her stand-up comedy act, cantankerous behavior, and shabby dress, the raucous and toothless ‘‘old lady’’ demonstrated the effect of humor in life. Moms nurtured young, aspiring performers, particularly those of her race, who sought to spread their talent as she had done. Loretta Mary Aiken, one of twelve children, was born in the small town of Brevard, North Carolina, around March 19, 1897 (some sources say 1894). Jim Aiken, her father, was an entrepreneur; her mother’s name is unknown. Loretta Aiken descended from African American, Cherokee, and Irish ancestry. She had a difficult childhood, having been raped by two older men, and those violations resulting in the birth of two children who were later adopted. Since the town offered her very little, Loretta lied about her age and joined a minstrel show and, throughout the 1910s, performed on the black vaudeville circuit known as TOBA, or Theater Owners Booking Association. After a brief engagement to a Canadian performer, Jack Mabley, in the 1920s, Loretta changed her name to Jackie Mabley. She toured with the husband-andwife comedy team Butterbeans and Susie and left Cleveland, Ohio, where she lived then, and settled in Harlem. For several years she toured on venues popularly known as the Chitlin Circuit. By this time the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing and provided an opportunity for blacks to showcase their talent. She
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regularly appeared at local theaters, including Connie’s Inn, the well-known Cotton Club, and the Savoy Ballroom, often sharing the stage with Dewey ‘‘Pigmeat’’ Markham, Stephin Fetchit, Bill ‘‘Bojangles’’ Robinson, and such famous bands as those of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Count Basie. While at first Mabley performed as a singer and dancer, during the 1920s she developed monologues as well as a character that led to her success. She took on the persona of a wise, street-smart, sharp-tongued, grumpy old woman. She appeared in a number of revues and musical comedies, such as Bowman’s Cotton Blossoms (1923), Miss Bandanna (1927), and Broadway shows, such as Fast and Furious: A Colored Revue in 37 Scenes (1931). Writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston teamed with Mabley in writing some of the skits in Fast and Furious and they performed together in one scene. In 1933, Mabley appeared in the race movie, Emperor Jones. Because she took a keen interest in young performers and enjoyed ‘‘mothering’’ them, Mabley was given the nickname ‘‘Moms.’’ Among those whom she encouraged were Slappy White, Redd Fox, and Pearl Bailey. Moms also became the first female comedian to perform at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, a major place for numerous black performers to entertain. She became a regular there, often writing her own material and sometimes performing for fifteen sold-out weeks. Moms continued to tour in the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in black clubs and theaters as well as in movies, such as Big Timers (1945) and Boarding House Blues (1948). In her acts, the shabby old woman had a perpetual quest for a young man in her life and a disdain for old men and their sexual inadequacies. In the 1950s she told absurd, made-up tales about her experiences at the White House where she hung out with President Dwight Eisenhower, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Bo Diddley, and Big Maybelle. Ironically, when presidents John F. Kennedy and later Lyndon B. Johnson were in office, they invited her to the White House. Moms often incorporated race-related stories in her act and became known as a pioneer of social satire. Late in the decade of the 1950s, comedy records grew in popularity and record companies saw them as a way to improve their business. Chess Records approached Moms about recording such an album and, after some hesitation, she signed on. She went on to record twenty-five recordings for Chess and other record labels. Before a live audience in Chicago, Moms recorded The Funniest Woman Alive, which went on to sell over one million copies and earned her a gold record. Her 1966 album, Now Hear This, which she recorded for Mercury, was filled with raunchy tales and blue humor; it was so unfit for some stages that it could be played only at stag parties, where it became a hit. Some writers suggest that Moms’ material was so raunchy that she had few appearances on television. Her first appearance was in 1967, on the all-black comedy A Time for Laughter, produced by Harry Belafonte. She made such a hit with audiences that doors opened to her for other appearances; for example, she appeared on the Flip Wilson Show, the Smothers Brothers Show, the Ed Sullivan Show, and shows hosted by such stars as Bill Cosby, Merv Griffin, and Mike Douglas. Clearly, Moms had achieved a breakthrough in the hearts and minds of many. Although she was aging now, Moms was invited to appear at the Copacabana, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center. Moms starred in the film Amazing Grace, her first movie project since the small roles that she played much earlier. During filming, Moms suffered a serious
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heart attack and the illness suspended filming for three weeks. After she had a pacemaker installed, Moms returned to the set and the film was completed. The film opened to mixed reviews yet became a commercial success. As Moms toured to promote the film, however, her health was compromised and she died on May 23, 1975. Her career and perseverance paved the way for future black performers and made the work of many women comedians acceptable. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Entertainment Industry Further Reading Bonney, Jo, ed. 1999. Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group. Curl, Richelle B. 1992. ‘‘Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley.’’ In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Roe, Donald. 2009. ‘‘Moms Mabley.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present. Vol. 3. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Williams, Elsie Arrington. 2005. ‘‘Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley.’’ In Black Women in America, Vol. 2. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Jessie Carney Smith
Madison, Joe (1949– ), Radio Host, Activist For Joseph E. ‘‘Joe’’ Madison, a defining moment occurred in 1996 when he confronted the Central Intelligence Agency about allegedly enabling the smuggling of crack cocaine into black America so a few individuals could exchange drugs for cash in order to fund anticommunist rebels in Nicaragua. The Washington, DC–based radio host put his health at risk. He embarked on a 108-day hunger strike in order to get listeners’ attention. Madison was also arrested with Dick Gregory for demonstrating outside CIA headquarters. Madison ‘‘walked his talk’’ and his social action ethos elevated him to pop culture status with listeners and followers in Detroit, Washington, DC, and later a national radio audience. Madison’s 1996 crusade attracted bipartisan support from members of Congress, and a rare denial of wrongdoing from the director of the CIA; extraordinary because the powerful spy agency at that time routinely said nothing about its activities, real or alleged. A longtime community activist and organizer, Madison entered that fight because someone called his WWRC-AM 980 radio show and pointed him to a three-part August 1996 series of articles in the San Jose [Calif.] Mercury News. It alleged two Nicaraguans living in California sold tons of cocaine to a leader of a Los Angeles drug gang in 1980. Millions of dollars in profits, reported Gary Webb, were used for gun money for CIA-backed Contra rebels. Major media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times initially ignored, then months later dismissed, the thesis of the Mercury News stories. Madison, however, embraced the stories during his radio
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broadcasts and urged callers to press for more information and an investigation. Critics accused Madison of stoking a new conspiracy theory in black America. The radio host insisted he was demanding documents and evidence that could settle whether or not an arm of government destabilized U.S. urban areas with drugs. The drugs-for-guns allegation against the CIA was an inconclusive mystery. Yet Madison’s protest was praised by Democratic U.S. Representative Maxine Waters of California and Republican U.S. Senator John Warner of Virginia. Also California’s two U.S. senators, Clinton administration drug czar Barry McCaffrey, a retired army general, and several major newspaper editorial boards joined a growing black community chorus for a full investigation. Madison (born June 16, 1949, in Dayton, Ohio) left WWRC in the late 1990s and joined WOL-AM [Radio One] as program director, where he became known as the ‘‘Black Eagle.’’ His morning talk show was also heard on the XM Satellite Radio station ‘‘The Power,’’ channel 169. Madison’s radio career began in 1980 at WXYZ-AM in Detroit. He earned the reputation as a dogged activist and organizer there. In 1974, at age twentyfour, Madison was named executive director of the 10,000-member Detroit NAACP. Four years later he was promoted to director of the national Political Action department. Beginning in 1983, Madison led the Overground Railroad, four mass voter registration marches from Richmond, Virginia, to Harlem; San Francisco to Los Angeles; Louisville, Kentucky, to Detroit; and a final coast-tocoast march from Los Angeles to Baltimore. Madison has matched radio talk with social action for other causes. He went on hunger strikes during protests against South African apartheid in the late 1980s. For ninety consecutive days he led demonstrations and arrests in front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington to protest alleged genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Madison also led a successful campaign that opposed the deportation of 15,000 Liberians from the United States in 2001. See also: Drugs and Popular Culture; Radio Shows and Hosts Further Reading Bailey, Chauncey. 1983. ‘‘The Overground Railroad.’’ Crisis 90 (November): 422–25. Dreyfuss, Joel, and Richard Prince. 1996. ‘‘‘Dark Alliance’: Of Conspiracies, Theory and Silence.’’ NABJ Journal 14 (November/December): 20–23. Wayne Dawkins
Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) (1925–65), Activist, Nation of Islam Organizer and Leader In terms of African American popular culture, arguably it is the Spike Lee film, Malcolm X (1992) and it paraphernalia: X Caps, clothing, badges, and other
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merchandise that brings attention to this famous 1960s African American nationalist and human right activist. Born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska; his parents, Earl Little (1890–1931) and Louise Little (1897– 1991), were active members and organizers for the Marcus Garvey movement and Universal Negro Improvement Association. Malcolm was one of eleven siblings. His father had three children from a previous marriage and eight children with his mother. His father died in dubious circumstances via being almost cut in half by a trolley car; some historians suggest he died at the hands of white supremacists. Nevertheless, his death had a crippling and destabilizing effect on the Little family, with Louise Little subsequently being committed to an asylum for the best part of twenty-five years. In terms of fully comprehending Malcolm’s life, it is best to view it in four stages: childhood; youth/Detroit Red; Minister Malcolm with the Nation of Islam; and finally, as an independent thinker, and Pan-Africanist traveler, in the last year of his life (1964–65). All four phases had a profound impact on Malcolm in terms of his growth and intellectual development. It is clear that Malcolm’s childhood was punctuated by instability and upheaval. The death of his father, the breakdown of his mother’s health, all before he had reached fifteen years old, made for a difficult start in life. His schooling was sporadic; after receiving negative feedback from a teacher he basically dropped out of school at the eighth grade. (According to his autobiography, Malcolm had ambition to be a lawyer, and expressed this to his English tutor, Mr. Ostrowski, but received the famous paraphrased retort: ‘‘You should think of being a carpenter, as being a lawyer is not a Malcolm X was important in shaping a Black Muslim realistic goal for a ‘nigand Black Power Movement that challenged the nonviolent and integrationist struggle for African- ger.’ ’’) In addition, to American equality favored by Martin Luther King Jr.’s the negative experience in Civil Rights Movement. (Library of Congress) developing his ambition,
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he spent time in various foster homes, creating further instability and lack of direction. At age sixteen, Malcolm went to live with a sister from his father’s first marriage, Ella, in Boston. Here his job experiences included shoe-shining, dishwashing, and as a porter on the New Haven Railroad. He was also exposed to the criminal world of Boston. Malcolm got involved with criminal activities and petty drug selling. In 1943, he moved to Harlem, New York. He worked as a waiter, and he was known as ‘‘Detroit Red’’ in criminal circles. In October 1943, the U.S. Army found him unsuitable for service due to mental health problems, but Malcolm would reveal in his autobiography that he feigned illness in order to avoid the draft. At this stage of his life he was drifting toward self-destruction. After spending much of his late teens involved in petty criminal activity, in 1946 he was convicted for his part in a larceny ring and sentenced to eight to ten years in prison. He was labeled ‘‘Satan’’ in prison for his overall defiance and unruly attitude to the prison system. However, with the influence of family members he was introduced to the Nation of Islam (NOI) and Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975). With time and effort he slowly began to turn his life around by reading anything he could get his hands on in prison, by corresponding with Muhammad, and by learning how to be a Nation of Islam member. In 1952, after six years in prison, Malcolm was released. He dispensed with his surname, Little, and adopted the Nation of Islam’s ‘‘X’’ that connotes his lost family name due to the experiences during the enslavement era, whereby enslaved Africans arriving in the United States were stripped of their real names and much of their cultural heritage. Malcolm also became a minister for the Nation of Islam, recruiting new members and establishing the Muhammad Speaks as a successful newspaper among African Americans. In 1958, Minister Malcolm X married Betty Sanders, a nurse with the Nation of Islam and an active member; they would go on to have six daughters. His family life and work were inextricably interwoven, with the Nation of Islam even owning his home. Between 1959 and 1964, Malcolm X would rise to become a major force within the NOI and a powerful spokesperson on television, radio, and in public. His oratory skills fired up audiences looking for an alternative message to the nonviolent resistance espoused by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68). The Nation of Islam argued for separation and self-determination within the U.S., arguing that the government owed African Americans a number of states in return for the unpaid labor over centuries performed by enslaved ancestors. The more Malcolm X spoke, the more attention he received, and with it government surveillance. He also attracted jealousy and envy within the NOI. Moreover, he would find out that Elijah Muhammad was fathering children with a number of his secretaries. In November 1963, it is argued that Elijah Muhammad used Malcolm’s comments on the death of President John F. Kennedy as an excuse to silence him from public speaking, and prepare for Malcolm’s eventual exit from the Nation of Islam. (Malcolm X stated that the assassination of President Kennedy was a case of the ‘‘chickens coming home to roost.’’)
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After being silenced for three months, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in March 1964. He went on a tour of Africa and made visits to Europe between 1964 and 1965. As an independent thinker, freed from the constraints of the Nation of Islam, he was able to broaden his intellect and his vision of black liberation. He also took the hajj to become an orthodox Muslim. In brief, his last year of life involved much travel, introspection, and political development in his thinking. Very few historians have, for example, considered his travels to England, his speech to the Oxford Student Union at Oxford University in December 1964, and his speeches there in February 1965, weeks before his assassination. The last year of Malcolm X’s life saw him develop into a Pan-Africanist thinker, who saw the struggle of African Americans as a broader struggle of peoples of African heritage globally, whether they be in Africa, Europe, or the Americas. At the time of his assassination, February 21, 1965, he was literally a hunted man; being followed by the CIA, FBI, and enemies within the Nation of Islam. He was assassinated at around 3:10 P.M. in the Audubon Theatre, New York City, when he was about to address an enthusiastic audience. Three members of the Nation of Islam were subsequently convicted of his murder, but commentators tend to believe that his death was at the hands of broader forces. See also: Afrocentric Movement; Black Power Movement Further Reading Breitman, George, ed. 1965. Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements. New York: Grove Press. Breitman, George. 1967. The Last Year of Malcolm X: The Evolution of a Revolutionary. New York: Pathfinder. Cone, James H. 1991. Martin & Malcolm & America. London: Fount. Malcolm X. 1965. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, with assistance from Alex Haley. New York: Ballantine Books. Mark Christian
March on Washington There have been several marches on Washington, DC, denoting the significance of the place as the seat of the national government, and as a result, the political power bastion of the United States of America. When it appeared as if state governments would not act to address certain issues of constitutional concern, for example, American citizens have marched for the purpose of dramatizing such concerns at the national level in order that the national government may be prodded into employing its preemptive authority granted to it under Article VI of the federal constitution to mandate change in the society. This was exactly the case on August 28, 1963, with the March on Washington. There is a political and constitutional rationale underlying that march. Popular culture has
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been impacted by the roles of the primary architects of the march and the extent to which the march may have been successful in influencing the national government to pursue the goal of equality for all citizens, as encapsulated in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The American citizens of African descent, who formed the absolute majority of the approximately quarter million marchers, had deemed it expedient to march in order to facilitate the permanent elimination of the unequal treatment they had experienced, de jure and de facto, after the Civil War of 1861 to 1865. African Americans determined that this situation had lingered despite Constitutional Amendments (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth) enacted after the Civil War; the period of Reconstruction which ended in 1877; and the United States Supreme Court’s reversal of Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896 through the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. The Brown decision attempted to address the issue of de jure segregation in education, but the court was actually bereft of any authority to enforce the decision. The logic therefore followed that in order to obtain enforceable pronouncements, the direct involvement of the executive and legislative branches of the national government would have to be solicited politically. As a result, conducting this strategy became the task of the Civil Rights Movement which sponsored and eventually assembled its members for the purpose of pursuing the political strategy by convening a March on Washington. Following the Brown decision, executive actions toward desegregation were indeed undertaken first by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas, incident; and later, by President John Kennedy in the 1963 Alabama incident. However, the Civil Rights Movement was determined to obtain much more substantive, coordinated, and solidified policy responses from the political branches of the national government in the form of civil rights legislation which it hoped would address, once and for all, the problem of inequality significantly across the spectrum of society. Therefore, toward the achievement of its primary goal, the movement placed on its agenda the following specific demands: meaningful civil rights laws, full and fair employment opportunities, massive federal works programs, decent housing, the right to vote, and adequate integrated education. The manifestation of the march was the outcome of an association among six major civil rights groups which, heretofore, had employed uncoordinated strategies that had been designed to bring about change in American civil rights politics. These were: the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the National Urban League (NUL). It is important to itemize the major actors of the event and their respective contributions in the effort, though not necessarily in the order of the significance of such contributions. • Bayard Rustin, who was the deputy director of the march, had a very long history of involvements in civil rights causes. He was widely regarded to
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have been the primary background organizer of the event, in addition to the fact that he was a major policy and political strategy adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. A. Philip Randolph, the director of the march and a major force within the Civil Rights Movement, whose leadership role was quite significant in the planning and execution phases of the march. As the founder of the BSCP, he had planned but decided not to execute what could have been the first major civil rights march on Washington, in 1941. Martin Luther King Jr., president of the SCLC, was the keynote speaker at the march and the leader of the Civil Rights Movement. The speech he delivered, entitled ‘‘I Have a Dream,’’ was saturated with powerful political and emotional imprints to the extent that the national government, it appeared, was unable to ignore the message which was contained in its eloquent delivery. Later, the impact of the march on the country was realized when President Johnson himself articulated the title of the motto of the Civil Rights Movement which had become a song for the marchers—‘‘We Shall Overcome’’—in a civil rights speech he delivered to a joint session of Congress on March 15th, 1965. John Lewis, the national chairman of SNCC, was also a speaker at the march. The speech vented out the frustrations of the marchers in areas pertaining to: the inadequacy of existing civil rights legislation, the lack of voting rights guarantees, the poor state of employment opportunities for African Americans, and a lack of recognition for the equality of opportunities principle. Cleveland Robinson, the chairman of the Administrative Committee of the march, who had a long history of effective participation in labor movements and civil rights. He was labor policy adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC.
Finally, based on the reaction of officials of the national government, it is clear that the March on Washington facilitated significant civil rights legislation and other actions designed to end discriminatory practices throughout the nation. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was legislated approximately one year after the march, addressed the issue of inequality in these areas: public accommodations, private and public sector employment, schools, and housing. Also in 1964, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment abolished the poll tax which had been employed by some southern states to disenfranchise African Americans in particular. The following year, in 1965, the Voting Rights Act bolstered the voting rights of citizens by an attempt to eliminate other obstacles which had impeded voting. In 1982, the Amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 greatly assisted in the increase of minority representation into the House of the Congress of the United States. In 2006, at the behest of the Civil Rights Movement, Congress
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approved and President George W. Bush signed legislation which extended significant provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act for another twenty-five years. See also: Civil Rights Cases; Congressional Black Caucus Further Reading D’Emilio, John. 2003. Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. New York: Free Press. Finlayson, Reggie. 2003. We Shall Overcome: The History of the Civil Rights Movement. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications. Ginsburg, Benjamin et al. 2009. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics. 7th Essentials ed. New York: Norton. Levine, Daniel. 2000. Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Levy, Peter B. 1988. The Civil Rights Movement. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Levy, Peter B. 1992. Let Freedom Ring: A Documentary History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Mordu Serry-Kamal
Mardi Gras Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the final day of a festival called Carnival, which precedes Ash Wednesday, or the beginning of the season of Lent. Among Roman Catholics, Carnival is a significant annual event, and it is celebrated in Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and in the United States, where African Americans have contributed to its richness. In the United States, Carnival and Mardi Gras are major annual events in the Louisiana cities of Baton Rouge, Houma, Lafayette, New Roads, and New Orleans; in Mobile, Alabama; St. Louis, Missouri; Biloxi, Mississippi; and Galveston, Texas. In Louisiana, Mardi Gras is an official holiday. Early History of Carnival The word ‘‘carnival,’’ from the Latin ‘‘carnelevamen,’’ means ‘‘farewell to flesh.’’ Carnival is a time for merriment from January sixth through the eve of Ash Wednesday. January sixth, or Epiphany, is the twelfth day of Christmas; its eve, January fifth, is known as ‘‘Twelfth night.’’ Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, a period of fasting, self-denial, prayer, and penitence preceding Easter. Carnival is a time of revelry and self-indulgence before the start of Lent, or the Lenten season. It was also a concession to the ancient Roman Lupercalias, the festivals to fertility gods, which were abolished by the African Pope Gelasius I (492–96 AD). Eastern Catholics begin the season of Lent on a Monday; in the West, Lent observance begins on Wednesday and is called Ash Wednesday. Shrove Tuesday, the day preceding Ash Wednesday, is known as Mardi Gras, and it marks the last day of
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Carnival celebrations for Roman Catholics. Milan’s Catholics end their carnival celebrations on Sabato Grasso (Fat Saturday), and start their observance of Lent four days after the Ash Wednesday of the Roman rites (Ambrosian rites). The History of Carnival in the United States On March 3, 1699, Pierre le Moyne d’Iberville christened his camp on a Mississippi shore sixty miles from modern day New Orleans, Point du Mardi Gras, and its tributary, Bayou Mardi Gras, to honor the Mardi Gras being held that day in France. In 1702, Pierre’s brother, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, founded Mobile, Alabama, as the first capital of French Louisiana; in 1703, settlers began the first Carnival traditions in the United States. What is now Biloxi, Mississippi, became the capital of Louisiana in 1720, French Carnival traditions were also established there. In 1723, New Orleans became Louisiana’s capital; since then, Carnival has become synonymous with New Orleans in the United States. Mardi Gras Traditions In the United States, Mardi Gras traditions include the use of doubloons, serving king cake, the reign of King Rex and King Zulu, the appearance of krewes, Mardi Gras Indians, masking, and masked balls. There are also ‘‘spyboy,’’ throws, and Zulu coconut or ‘‘golden nugget.’’ The work of the Original Illinois Club is important as well. In 1872, the krewe of Rex debuted, and began the traditions of King Rex, the Rex monarch as the ‘‘King of Carnival’’; carnival colors of purple (justice), gold (power), and green (faith); and the Carnival anthem, ‘‘If Ever I Cease To Love.’’ A high point of Carnival is the arrival of the Rex King on a riverboat. On Lundi Gras (Fat Monday), King Rex and King Zulu arrive on the Mississippi at the base of Canal Street, where an all-day party is held. On Mardi Gras, the last day of Carnival, the Krewe of Zulu parades first, followed by Rex. Both parades end on Canal Street. King Zulu is the only monarch who chooses his own queen. Krewe (pronounced crew), is a group which is organized to hold a parade featuring floats or bands, celebrate carnival as its main purpose, and hold a ball each Mardi Gras. The first New Orleans krewe was the Mistick Krewe of Comus, formed in 1857. Krewe of Zulu is the oldest African American parading group; it started in 1909 because blacks were not allowed to participate in Carnival events. Today, the Krewe of Zulu opens the scheduled parades on Mardi Gras Day. In the parade are Zulu’s king, queen, mayor, governor, province prince, ambassador, and ‘‘big shot.’’ Zulu celebrated one hundred years of Carnival participation in 2009. The first black Mardi Gras organization, the Original Illinois Club, was formed by several Creole-of-color community leaders and held in 1894. Its unique dance is called the ‘‘Chicago Glide.’’ Mardi Gras Indians are blacks who mask as Indians to honor Indians who befriended slaves. They also mask, parade, and award the best Indian costume during Mardi Gras. Masking is the wearing of masks during Mardi Gras; this
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trend came from the Carnival celebrations in Europe, and is meant to hide the wearers’ identities in order to lower their inhibitions. Elaborate parties, known as masked balls, are attended by guests who must come masked. In earlier times, Mardi Gras Indian tribes would fight over the right of one chief to pass another, so a ‘‘spyboy’’ was appointed whose task was inform the chief of the movements and whereabouts of other chiefs, to avoid confrontation. ‘‘Throws,’’ which are trinkets, candy, artificial roses, stuffed animals, doubloons, cups, hats, medallion necklaces, beads, and so on, are tossed from parade floats by costumed maskers. Throws set a Carnival parade apart from all other parades. Coins that are tossed to crowds from floats during carnival parades are called doubloons. Doubloons usually feature a krewe’s emblem on one side, and its theme on the other. A ring-shaped coffee cake-like confection decorated with gold-, green-, and purple-colored sugar, is known as the king cake. Tradition requires whoever receives the small plastic ‘‘baby’’ in their piece of cake to buy the next year’s king cake. The most coveted of Carnival throws, because of their rarity, are the Zulu coconut, or golden nugget. The Krewe of Zulu presented President Barack Obama with a Zulu coconut to commemorate his 2009 inauguration. Desiree Glapion Rogers, President Obama’s initial White House social secretary, has the distinction of having served as a Zulu Queen. See also: Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Further Reading Bennett, Jonathan. January 15, 2009. ‘‘All about Lent.’’ Churchyear.net. http:// www.churchyear.net/lent.html Browne, Millicent. 1998. The Three African Popes. Western Journal of Black Studies 22 (Spring): 57. Clark, Willie W. Jr. January 15, 2009. ‘‘A Short History of the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans.’’ http://wwwmardigrasdigest.com/Sec_mgind/history.htm Davis, Jim. January 15, 2009.‘‘Mardi Gras History.’’ http://www.eastjeffersonparaish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm. Hurwitz, Jenny. 2009. ‘‘Zulu to present Barack Obama with specially-commissioned coconut.’’ Times-Picayune, January 21. http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/ zulu_offers_a_prize_throw_fit.html. ‘‘Zulu Curriculum Guide’’ for the Web site edited by Clarence A Becknell Sr., Historian of The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club Inc., 732 N. Broad St. New Orleans, LA 701129. August 13, 2010. Gwendolyn M. Rees
Mardi Gras Costumes and Masks Masks and costumes are the foundation of Mardi Gras festivities, playing a significant role in the celebration. Since antiquity, masks and costumes have symbolized change or transformation—donning a new face and new attire allows
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participants to surpass the banal and hide behind their masquerade to express themselves as they see fit. Costumes are used to cover up one’s identity and, oftentimes, to caricature the roles of authority figures. The modern traditions of Mardi Gras masks and costumes are a byproduct of French colonizers’ affinity for masquerade balls, ceremonial rituals, and other cultural activities. As they brought these folk traditions to the Americas, the French colonists’ union with the Native Indians of the Louisiana area made their culture the most ethnically diverse in North America, creating one of the most interesting festival cultures in the world. As African Americans contributed to these cultural affinities in New World Louisiana, the earliest manifestation of the mask and costume traditions became an extension of their West African heritages, Afro-Caribbean influences, and a gradual merger with Native American cultures. African American Mardi Gras mask and costume traditions were thus created by a cultural synthesis in areas where the cultures of West African people and Native Indians came together under the clutches of French and Spanish colonialism. In French New Orleans, both whites and blacks were allowed to grace Mardi Gras balls and other celebrations with their presence. African slaves welcomed Mardi Gras as a chance to briefly escape from the confines of their enslavement and as a means of intermingling with white society underneath a shroud, as masking concealed their race. Mardi Gras masks and costumes are also an expansion of the concept of a performance; African slaves veiled one disguise while they donned another. For them, masks and costumes were related to their cultural themes of prowess, which suggests struggles for power and signifies opposition to white hegemony. In a social sense, masking and costuming acknowledged defeat in some all-inclusive ways; more importantly, African Americans expressed disobedience and rebelliousness to white hegemony the moment they donned a disguise. In the early 1900s, to further liberate themselves of traditional, prejudiced Mardi Gras celebrations and to extend their African ancestors’ revered appeal of festivity and other social events, African American residents of New Orleans began to expand conventional Mardi Gras festivities into something that would suit the needs of their community. For them, the allure of masking was not difficult to appreciate because veiling was oftentimes imperative in their culture. Masks and costumes thus became for them a form of social protest against the Jim Crow aspects that plagued the African American community in New Orleans. Mardi Gras was a time when they could escape the written and unwritten laws of white supremacy. African American Mardi Gras mask and costume traditions have a direct connection to some of the West African cultures that were transplanted throughout the Caribbean islands. Masking in these West African cultures was not unusual and was used in a variety of ways. For example, Nigerians used the wooden Yoruba masks of the Egungun societies for ceremonial festivities that were meant to celebrate lineage. In other African cultures, additional applications for masking were used. As a means of coercion, groups of men in the Kongo, donning masks, frightened the tribespeople and urged and coerced them into what they
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believed was good behavior. In other cultures, masquerades were oftentimes involved in the manifestation of entities from the spirit world and beyond. In the Gabon culture, for example, the punu mask was often worn in the performance of funeral rituals. The punu masks are said to mirror, in some sense, a likeness of the deceased. If West African masking traditions are seen out of context, they might give a misleading impression. As with such African traditions, African American masking and costume traditions are performed in a multitude of variations, styles, and behaviors. The importance of these performances should not be placed so much on the act of disguising (the masker) as on the act of revealing (the representation). In the New Orleans African American community, masking and costuming are both esteemed and an essential part of the celebration. Because of the socioeconomic conditions of blacks in New Orleans, Mardi Gras masks and costumes are made from a variety of materials and range in sizes and shapes. Some adhere to the colors purple, gold, and green (borrowed from the Roman Catholic Church worship banner used to mark the Lenten season). Others, however, use a variety of colors. Creators of these ornate masks and costumes often begin working on them up to six months before the start of Carnival. Historically, men were the mask makers. Today, however, women have taken their place in the mask-making tradition. There appears to be no set standard as to how the elaborate expressions of art are made. Masks can cover the entire face or just the eyes, and some costumes cover the entire body while others expose certain parts of the body. Some masks are molded from plaster and painted. Others are made by needlepoint on a flexible plastic mesh. The rest of the costume, however, can be sewn and stitched or, depending on the socioeconomic conditions of the maker, made from a combination of stitched-together everyday clothes. Some designs are extended expressions of West African customs of collecting ordinary materials (e.g., feathers, bones, grasses, beads, fabric). The representation of each object or combination of objects carries a certain meaning. For example, feathers are traditionally used in Africa on masks and costumes as ways to signify strength, control of one’s destiny, or ascension beyond the banality of the everyday. In the African American communities in New Orleans, the use of feathers might also represent a revitalization of one’s self or spiritual growth as the maskers and costumers reinvent themselves each year with different expressions. The art of making Mardi Gras masks and costumes in the African American community reflects the beautiful and undeniable folk art form that has been handed down from generation to generation. Today Mardi Gras mask and costume traditions in New Orleans African American communities are still adapting through the many cultural exchanges that exist in the city. As they engender their own inventory of signals and pretenses, African American Mardi Gras masks and costumes still hold their mystic power to transform and liberate participants. See also: Africa and the African Diaspora; African Cultural Influences; Black Theology
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Further Reading Kinser, Samuel. 1990. Carnival, American Style: Mardi Gras at New Orleans and Mobile. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Mack, Jack. 1994. Masks and the Art of Expression. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Mitchell, Reid. 1995. All on a Mardi Gras Day: Episodes in the History of New Orleans Carnival. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Piersen, William D. 1993. Black Legacy: America’s Hidden Heritage. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Willie J. Harrell Jr.
Marley, Bob (1945–81), Singer, Musician, Songwriter, Activist Bob Marley is arguably the most famous reggae musician, known throughout the globe: from Tunis to Hawaii or Liverpool to Philadelphia, his music has become popular worldwide. Today fans can still get a Bob Marley T-shirt with ease from most popular music outlets. He is, to be sure, a Jamaican reggae icon, but he has influenced African American musicians. There are few places one can go without hearing one of his many records today. Moreover, his appeal transcends race and cultural boundaries. He is popular among youth and adult generations. Robert Nesta Marley was born February 6, 1945, in Nine Miles, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica. He was the product of an interracial relationship between Cedalla Booker, an eighteen-year-old Jamaican, and a middleaged British naval officer, Bob Marley was a reggae music pioneer whose songs about overcoming oppression and violence earned him heroic Norval Marley. His father status in his native Jamaica and abroad during the late left the family home not 1970s and after his death in 1981. (AP/Wide World Photos) long after Bob was born,
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but continued to support his wife and son from afar. His mother and Bob eventually moved to Trenchtown, Kingston, in order to improve their chances for employment. Jobs were scarce in Jamaica and the Kingston area offered the best possibilities. It was in Trenchtown where Bob Marley developed his knowledge of Rastafarianism and adapted to its way of life, eventually growing his hair into Dreadlocks. Moreover, it is where he formed friendships with his soon-to-be fellow Wailers: Peter (McIntosh) Tosh, Bunny (Livingstone) Wailer, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith. Bob had recorded his first song, ‘‘Judge Not,’’ with the well-known reggae producer Leslie Kong, in 1962 without success. The Wailers were formed in 1963 and lasted till 1966, developing from ska, rocksteady, to reggae in genre. The band would eventually go by the name Bob Marley and the Wailers. Although the band would become fairly popular in Caribbean circles, international acclaim did not emerge until they signed with Chris Blackwell and Island Records in 1973. Blackwell backed them with the funds to produce the album Catch a Fire and it catapulted the band into international stardom. However, with Bob Marley increasingly becoming the vocal and focal point in the media, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left the group to pursue solo projects. Overall, Bob Marley’s music represents his connections to Africa, with the theme of Pan-African unity and liberation for all peoples of the African diaspora. To put it another way, along with his many love songs, through his social consciousness lyrics he would become a symbol and icon for anticolonial and neocolonial systems. With his deep knowledge of black history in Jamaica (he would often cite Marcus Garvey) and beyond, he would write songs that spoke to resistance and liberation: ‘‘Get Up Stand Up,’’ ‘‘War,’’ ‘‘Africa Unite,’’ ‘‘So Much Things To Say,’’ ‘‘Crazy Baldhead,’’ and ‘‘Redemption Song’’ exemplify his message of struggle for mental and physical freedom from exploitation, racism, and oppression. Bob Marley’s international standing and respect was confirmed when he was invited to attend the inauguration ceremony for President Robert Mugabe of the newly independent Zimbabwe in 1980. It is said that Marley regarded this as his greatest acknowledgement in his career. Unfortunately, Bob Marley succumbed to cancer on May 11, 1981, when he was only 36 years old, and at the time arguably the most visible solo reggae musician in the world. He left behind him his wife, Rita, and twelve children from various relationships. His legacy lives on via a number of his offspring who promote their father’s music; among the most prominent are his two sons with Rita Marley: Ziggy Marley and Stephen Marley. See also: Africa and the African Diaspora; Caribbean Cultural Influences; Reggae, Reggaeton Further Reading Marley, Bob. 2004. 60 Visions: A Prophecy. Miami: Tuff Gong Books. White, Timothy. 1983. Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
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Discography Marley, Bob. 2001. Legend. This remastered version of LEGEND contains a 28-page booklet, and two bonus tracks. Recorded between 1972 and 1981. Originally released on Island (90169). Digitally remastered by Ted Jensen. Sterling Sound: New York. Mark Christian
Marley, Ziggy (1968– ), Singer, Musician, Songwriter, Producer Son of popular reggae artist (Robert Nesta) Bob Marley and Rita Marley, David Nesta Marley was destined to be a part of music and cultural history with particular influence on African American culture. Born October 17, 1968, in Trenchtown, Jamaica, he was their first son. He is one of thirteen siblings and allegedly earned the nickname ‘‘Ziggy’’ for his soccer styles on the field. As a child, spending time with his father at the studio, he developed a great love for music. On his musical journey to speak truth and beauty to his audience, Marley and his siblings formed the group, the Melody Makers. Creating reggae music for children and various television shows, the group signed with national and international labels, increasing the Melody Makers’ popularity around the world. Marley’s recording debut was in 1979 with his siblings, Cedella, Stephen, and Sharon, performing the song Children Playing in the Streets, the first of many songs they performed together, including singing at their father’s funeral in 1981. The Melody Makers enjoyed twenty years as a group, earning international fame. The group garnered three Grammy awards: Best Reggae Album for Fallen Is Babylon (1987), Best Reggae Recording for Conscious Party (1988), and Best Reggae Recording for One Bright Day (1989). Marley’s success is driven by his exposure and experience in music. His father, Bob Marley, founded Tuff Gong, an internationally sought after reggae label and recording studio. Some of Ziggy Marley’s most well-known singles produced on the Tuff Gong label include: ‘‘True To Myself,’’ ‘‘Drive,’’ ‘‘Ganja Smoke,’’ and ‘‘People Get Ready.’’ Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. . . . In 2003, Marley released his debut solo album, Dragonfly (RCA Victor Group). In 2006, he released his second solo album, Love is My Religion (Tuff Gong Worldwide), earning him a Grammy for Best Reggae Album at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. This was his first album to be released independently on the Tuff Gong Worldwide label. Marley’s music is heard in films such as 50 First Dates, season six of the American television series Charmed, the Muppet Treasure Island movie, and the Dora the Explorer soundtrack. His influence in pop culture is not restricted to music but extends to acting in film; his first role is in the popular animated movie, Shark Tale (2004) as the voice of a Rasta jellyfish. Marley’s love for people and desire to see mankind live in love is exemplified by his active participation in various charity organizations. He is an official
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supporter of Little Kids Rock, Youth Aids, Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment (U.R.G.E.), and Fashion Against AIDS collection, all of which promote the knowledge, awareness, and prevention of AIDS for children worldwide and free musical education for children in the United States. Marley is married to Orly Marley and is a father of five. See also: Africa and the African Diaspora; Caribbean Cultural Influences; Reggae, Reggaeton Further Reading Marley, Ziggy. 2005. The Best of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard. Ziggy Marley. (Homepage.) www.ziggymarley.com. Renee Latchman
Marsalis, Wynton (1961– ), Trumpeter, Conductor, Composer Wynton Marsalis’s unwavering commitment to classical and traditional jazz resulted in elevating this musical form, from the level of a forgotten and often trendy status, to one that is firmly accepted and celebrated in equal status with other musical forms. Marsalis is also known and respected on a global scale for his skill as a classical and jazz trumpeter and for his individual and community advocacy for the arts. Marsalis was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1961, the second of six children. Jazz was an integral part of his life, because his father Ellis was a renowned jazz pianist and his mother a former jazz singer. His parents, inspired by the musical abilities of his older brother Branford, began providing Marsalis with trumpet lessons. By the age of seventeen, Marsalis’s style had been guided and influenced by artists such as banjoist Danny Barker, and master drummer and bandleader Art Blakely. Marsalis later performed with and was influenced by jazz greats such as Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, and Herbie Hancock, among others. In 1980, after spending two years at Julliard, Marsalis left after finding that jazz was not given a place of importance in his studies. He began to perform with the jazz groups of Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis. Marsalis’s talent as a trumpet player in drawing audiences earned him his first record contract. His first release, Marsalis, was a huge hit by jazz standards. As a result of this success Marsalis formed his own band which included his brother Branford, who had become a brilliant saxophonist. The group traveled to 120 countries, released several albums, and brought jazz into vogue on a global level. As one of the most notable of the young jazz musicians Marsalis stated that ‘‘true’’ jazz
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should be the artist’s focus, and not blending it with other forms such as R & B. Although this statement was considered controversial, as most jazz artists had used other forms, Marsalis continued to produce and promote both classical and jazz music. In 1987, as a key participant in the classical jazz festivals in New York City, Marsalis cofounded a jazz program at the Lincoln Center. He became director of jazz in 1991. He was a true advocate and educator, and began taking jazz into the community, visiting schools, giving lessons on the importance of jazz, and he was willing to give lessons to any child who came to him wanting to play the horn. His advocacy and leadership ultimately led the Lincoln Center board to give jazz equal and full status with performance groups such as the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Ballet. In his compositions and performances, Marsalis has earned nine Grammy Awards for his work as a jazz and classical trumpeter. In 1997, he received the Pulitzer Prize for music and in 2001, he was proclaimed an international ambassador of goodwill. Marsalis reinvigorated and elevated jazz to a respected place in the American musical tradition and brought further attention from global audiences to this truly American art form. Recently he has worked to rebuild New Orleans and its cultural programs in the wake of the devastating Hurricane Katrina of 2005. See also: Armstrong, Louis; Jazz and Jazz Festivals
Wynton Marsalis, world-famous jazz trumpeter, composer, and band leader. (Shutterstock)
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Further Reading Kretschmer, Kevin. 1999. ‘‘Wynton Marsalis.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Ward, Geoffrey C. 2000. Jazz: A History of America’s Music; Based on a Documentary Film by Ken Burns; Written by Geoffrey C. Ward. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Wynton Marsalis. (n.d.) ‘‘Biography.’’ (Official Web site.) http://www.wyntonmarsalis.org/biography. Lean’tin L. Bracks
Marshall, Thurgood (1908–93), , U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Civil Rights Attorney Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice of the United States, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908, and would go on to win the landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, heralding the triumph of the Civil Rights Movement. Marshall’s great-grandfather was from the African Congo before coming to the United States as a slave. Marshall shared the name of his paternal grandfather, who enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War as ‘‘Thorough Good.’’ Marshall’s mother was an elementary school teacher, and his father was the chief of staff at a Chesapeake Bay all-white yacht club. At Douglas High School in Baltimore, Marshall was often punished for acts of mischief. For his transgressions, he was sent to the school’s basement and forced to memorize, ‘‘one paragraph of the Constitution for every infraction,’’ he recalled in the Washington Post. In two years, Marshall ‘‘knew the whole thing by heart.’’ Marshall, too, credited his father with fostering his love for law, particularly litigation. ‘‘We’d argue about everything,’’ Marshall recalled with fondness in the same article. After high school, Marshall attended the historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Following his rejection from the law school of the University of Maryland on the basis of his race, Marshall attended law school at Howard University. While at Howard, Marshall cultivated an approach to law that would shape his career in jurisprudence. Under the mentorship of Dean Charles Hamilton Houston, whom he would replace as the lead lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Marshall came to see the practice of law as a tool of activism. In 1933, Marshall graduated first in his class from Howard Law and gained admittance to the Maryland bar. From 1933 until 1937, he practiced law privately in Baltimore, after which he became a civil rights attorney for the NAACP. In 1940, he became head of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund. As head of this organization, Marshall won 29 of the 32 cases he took to trial in the
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U.S. Supreme Court. His victories included Smith v. Allwright (1944), Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), and Brown v. Board of Education. In 1954, Thurgood Marshall proved to the Supreme Court, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Through his legal skill, Marshall brought into effect the landmark ruling that shaped the struggle for civil rights that continues to this day. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson, by Thurgood Marshall, the first African American appointed appointing him solicitor to the U.S. Supreme Court, built a remarkable legal career on the premise that all forms of racial segregation were general, made Marshall unconstitutional. (Joseph Lavenburg, National Geographic the top lawyer for federal cases and the first African Society, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States) American to argue on behalf of the government in Supreme Court cases. In 1967, President Lyndon M. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. As a Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall continued his fight for those least able to fight in the court of law. Along with his strong advocacy for antitrust laws and Native American rights, Marshall remained a staunch supporter of Affirmative Action, stating in 1986 that There are groups in every community which are daily paying the cost of the history of American injustice. The argument against affirmative action is . . . an argument in favor of leaving that cost to lie where it falls. According to Susan Bloch, our fundamental sense of fairness, particularly as it is embodied in the guarantee of equal protection under the laws, requires us to make an effort to see that those costs are shared equitably while we continue to work for the eradication of the consequences of discrimination. Otherwise, we must admit to ourselves that so long as the lingering effects of inequality are with us, the burden will be borne by those who are least able to pay.
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As the Supreme Court grew increasingly conservative in its rulings, Marshall distinguished himself through his liberal dissent. The true vision of Thurgood Marshall was in his ability to see the Constitution as a living document requiring constant critique. According to Marshall, the framers of the Constitution accepted slavery as a given, whereas amendments to the Constitution, making it a living document, brought it closer to the ideals of liberty and justice guaranteed each citizen of the United States. On the day of his retirement from the Supreme Court in 1991, following twenty-four years of service on the highest court in the land, according to Olive Vassell, Marshall said, ‘‘I don’t know what legacy I left. It’s up to the people. I guess you could say, ‘He did what he could with what he had.’’’ Part of that legacy was his willingness to always help the poor and the oppressed. ‘‘America has no choice,’’ Marshall continued, ‘‘but to do better to assure justice for all Americans, Afro and white, rich and poor, educated and illiterate.’’ Following a bout of failing health, Marshall passed away on January 24, 1993, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda from heart failure. He was eighty-four years old. In his Proclamation 6526, President William Jefferson Clinton observed, ‘‘Perhaps no other American lawyer has had more impact on the current meaning and content of the U.S. Constitution. As the leading attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Justice Marshall’s twentynine victories before the U.S. Supreme Court breathed life into the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and guaranteed all Americans equality and liberty in their individual choices concerning voting, housing, education, and travel.’’ In life, Marshall stood over six feet tall and spoke with a distinctive gravelly voice, cutting an impressive image for a Supreme Court justice, yet those who knew the man lauded the warmth of his heart, his generosity, and his care for humanity. While his body lay in state at the Supreme Court, nearly 19,000 people filed past to honor him. On January 29, 1993, 4,000 mourners filed into Arlington National Cemetery as Marshall’s body was interred in a ceremony that recognized his service to the United States, bringing the nation closer to its stated creed, in which Marshall had a deep faith, of liberty and justice for all. For a figure whose life spanned every decade of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall has attracted a number of biographers, and in this landscape Juan Williams’s Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary and Carl T. Rowan’s Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Thurgood Marshall are good places to begin. For readers interested in Thurgood Marshall in his own words, the collection of works edited by constitutional law professor Mark V. Tushnet, Thurgood Marshall: His Speeches, Writings, Arguments, Opinions, and Reminiscences, offers much for reflection. See also: Judges; Law and Law Schools; National Bar Association; Williams, Juan Further Reading Biskupic, Joan. 1993. ‘‘Thurgood Marshall, Retired Justice, Dies; Unyielding Defender of Individual Rights.’’ Washington Post, January 25, A01.
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Bloch, Susan Low. 2005. ‘‘Marshall, Thurgood.’’ The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Kermit L. Hall, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Clinton, William Jefferson. 1993. ‘‘Statement on the Death of Justice Thurgood Marshall.’’ Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, February 1: 93. Vassell, Olive. 1993. ‘‘Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is portrait in new book.’’ Afro-American Red Star, January 23, B6. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Martin Luther King Day. See King, Martin Luther Jr., National Holiday
Marxism Marxism, a political philosophy formulated in the nineteenth century by two German intellectuals, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, played a major role in radical African American protest. Marxism is a system of thought that explains the politics of oppression as it concerns the economic exploitation of the ruling class over the working class. Marx and Engels contend that societies undergo several stages of development, including primitive communism, slave society, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and communism. According to Marx and Engels, capitalism is the stage that perpetuates social classes and economic oppression. They posit that the working class is the agent of social change that will drive the transition from capitalism to the final two stages. Communism, the final stage of development, is perceived as the ideal economic state, wherein no classes exist and all individuals receive an equal distribution of wealth. African American interest in Marxism mostly begins in the early twentieth century. Marxists, socialists, and communists were already thriving in urban centers in the North, where poverty and other social problems were rife among white and immigrant working-class communities. Then blacks arrived in large migrations, having left the South to find work and escape racial violence and segregation. The North provided little reprieve for blacks. Generally, blacks were paid less than whites, worked menial jobs, and were restricted from obtaining any economic, social, or political power. As a result of these conditions, many blacks were receptive to Marxist thought and writings. In cities like New York, Marxists delivered animated speeches on makeshift rostrums, known as soapboxes, and converted a number of blacks frustrated by their own experiences with exploitation and oppression. A. Philip Randolph, civil rights pioneer, was among the southerners who migrated North and embraced socialism. At the start of Randolph’s activism, he attempted to recruit blacks to socialism and to bring about social change from a socialist perspective; however most African Americans were conservative, religious, and wary of embracing a philosophy that, at the onset of World War I (1914–18), was
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considered a serious threat to American life. In 1925, Randolph would break away from socialism, contending that socialism did not adequately address the race problem. The unpopularity of Marxist ideas during the ‘‘red scare’’ years (1917–20 and 1947–57) did little to dissuade another popular African American leader, W. E. B. Du Bois. Du Bois was a member of the Socialist Party between 1910 and 1912 and joined the Communist Party in 1961. A scholar and editor of the Crisis Magazine, the journal of the NAACP, Du Bois was an unabashed sympathizer with communist countries. He regularly wrote articles in the Crisis expressing his controversial views, resulting in tension between him and NAACP leaders who sought to distance the organization from radical politics. In the 1960s, radical leaders and organizations eclipsed conservative organizations like the NAACP. Among the radical organizations that aligned themselves with communist or Marxist ideas were RAM, the Che-Lumumba club, and the Black Panther Party. Huey P. Newton, leader of the Black Panthers, employed such socialist-derived terms as ‘‘revolution,’’ ‘‘oppression,’’ and ‘‘exploitation’’ to advocate a militant response to white racism and the social, economic, and political subjugation of African Americans. He also based the organization’s philosophy and community survival programs on socialist ideas. To the disproportionate number of impoverished blacks, having long been victimized by privileged (capitalist) society, socialist-inspired organizations were answers to centuries-old problems; however, ultimately, these organizations were not enduring. See also: Black Power Movement; Davis, Angela Further Reading McArtney, John. T. 1993. Black Power Ideologies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Robinson, Cedric J. 1983. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Gladys L. Knight
Mashed Potato (Dance) The mashed potato was a solo social dance originated by African Americans in the late 1950s and popularized in mainstream American social dance forums in the early 1960s. Clearly derived from motions of the Charleston, the dance involved grinding the feet, alternately, into the floor while twisting the hips and flapping the arms. Dancers for the most part remained in one place while dancing, although through movement variations they could turn, hop, bounce, or slide in response to partners. The dance derived its name from the foot action, which suggested the grinding motion required to mash potatoes. Footwork from
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the dance emerged again in the late 1980s in the era of Hip-Hop as part of the popular social dance ‘‘Kid ’n’ Play,’’ named after the musical group that popularized the dance. The dance is one of the earliest of African American social dance forms to be created in collaboration with mainstream media. While the dance emerged in response to the burgeoning Rock and Roll music scene, recording artist Dee Dee Sharp’s 1962 Top Ten hit, ‘‘Mashed Potato Time,’’ spawned an immediate national interest in the dance, followed quickly by international media attention. As the dance became a popular international craze, the world quickly neglected its roots as an African American folk dance. See also: Big Apple (Dance); Black Bottom, The (Dance); Pop Music Further Reading Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina. 1990. ‘‘Mashed Potato.’’ In Jookin’: The Rise of Social Dance Formations Among African-Americans. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Thomas F. DeFrantz
Mays, Willie (1931– ), Baseball Player Willie Mays is widely considered the greatest all-around Baseball player of the 1950s to 1960s. Mays started his professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro National League in 1948, was acquired by the New York Giants in 1950, and reached the majors in 1951. Along with his great baseball skills, including power, speed, and a strong throwing arm, he exhibited an infectious enthusiasm for the game that he never lost. By the time that he retired from the New York Mets, he was firmly positioned as one of the greatest players in baseball history. Willie Howard Mays learned baseball young, as his father had played in the industrial leagues near Birmingham, Alabama. Only seventeen when he signed with Birmingham, Willie quickly developed his baseball skills and while still a teenager attracted the attention of the New York Giants. After parts of two seasons in the minors, Mays was summoned to the parent club in 1951 and earned National League Rookie of the League honors. He then missed most of 1952 and all of 1953 while serving in the U.S. Army. Returning in 1954, Mays led the National League in batting with a .345 average and topped the league with 13 triples. He also hit 41 home runs and drove in 110 runners to win the Most Valuable Player Award in the National League. That magical season concluded with the pennant and a World Series triumph for the Giants over the favored Cleveland Indians, who had set an American League single-season record with 111 victories. The turning point in the 1954 series occurred in the eighth inning of the first game with the score tied. Cleveland’s Vic Wertz slugged a long drive to deep center field. Mays
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raced after the ball with his back to home plate, made an outstanding over-the-shoulder catch, whirled, and rifled a throw back into the infield that prevented one of the two base runners from advancing. The game remained tied, and the Giants went on to win in extra innings, their first victory in a four-game sweep. Along with his remarkable play in the 1954 series, from then on known simply as ‘‘the Catch,’’ Mays’s enthusiasm helped to establish fans’ perception of him. Mays loved baseball, and when he was not performing in a major league park, he might be participating in stickball games on the streets of Harlem. His zest for the game and his penchant for welcoming people with ‘‘Say hey’’ led to a lasting nickname—the ‘‘Say Hey Kid.’’ Yet Mays’s popularity and rise to baseball immortality did not make him immune to racism. Although he escaped the harsh treatment and overt hatred that Jackie Robinson endured, he faced more subtle aspects of racism. The grace and ease with which he played led people to view him as an instinctive ballplayer who did not need to work at the game, a conclusion they would not have arrived at regarding multitalented and graceful white players such as Joe DiMaggio. Similarly, many white writers saw his good humor as a childlike simplicity, viewing him as an eternal child, a boy wonder, rather than the dedicated, sensitive, and intelligent man he really was. In fact, the ‘‘Say hey’’ greeting was a thoughtful adult’s substitution for people’s names that he did not remember, and hence an attempt to avoiding insulting them. And the stickball he played on the streets of New York was an attempt to please his fans, by later standards an effective marketing tactic. Mays reflected seriously on his identity as an African American, remarking that scouting reports customarily identified African American players as a Negro first and a talented player next. In his case, he said that the reports talked first about his ability and then noted his race. The talent may have come first in the reports, but there was no overlooking his racial identity. Mays played in the majors through 1973, compiling a lifetime .302 average with 3,283 hits and 660 home runs. At the time, only Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron had hit more home runs. Twice he earned Most Valuable Player honors, and throughout most of his career seldom a year went by without his leading the league in at least one major category. The Sporting News selected Mays as the greatest player of the 1960s, and in 1979, in his first year of eligibility, he was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. See also: Negro Baseball Leagues Further Reading Burkhardt, Mitchell. 1992. Willie Mays. Los Angeles: Melrose Square. Epstein, Samuel. 1975. Willie Mays: Baseball Superstar. Champaign, IL: Garrard. Hirsch, James S. 2010. Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend. New York: Scribner. Mays, Willie. 1955. Born to Play Ball. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Mays, Willie. 1988. Say Hey: The Autobiography of Willie Mays. New York: Simon & Schuster. Edward J. Rielly
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McDaniel, Hattie (1895–1952), Actress, Singer Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Academy Award. In 1940, she was named Best Supporting Actress in the production of Gone with the Wind. The honor has become a lasting symbol of her importance in popular culture. Born in Wichita, Kansas, McDaniel was the thirteenth child of Henry McDaniel, a Baptist minister and minstrel showman and Susan Holbert, a gospel singer. The family relocated to Denver, Colorado, in 1901, where McDaniels’s talents of singing and drama were recognized by teachers in the predominately white elementary school she attended. At age fifteen, McDaniel competed in an oratorical contest that earned her a gold medal from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. McDaniel sang and performed in church, high school plays, and professional minstrel shows. McDaniel left school to become a full-time minstrel performer with her father’s Henry McDaniel Minstrel Show, which toured the West Coast. After her father retired, McDaniel began touring with George Morrison, an accomplished Denver musician and leader of the Melody Hounds. McDaniel became a star singer, vaudeville performer, songwriter, and recording artist with the troupe and Morrison’s orchestra. The 1920s radio industry influenced McDaniel’s career, which led her to become the first black person to sing on the Denver radio station KOA. The Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA) that booked McDaniel’s performances and guided the careers of many others went bankrupt in 1929 and McDaniel was left without employment. McDaniel moved to Milwaukee to find employment as a performer, but was hired as a ladies room attendant at Sam Pick’s Club Madrid. The club only booked white performers, but on one particular night the club’s owner invited McDaniel to sing. Her rendition of ‘‘St. Louis Blues’’ won accolades from the club’s patrons and a regular booking from the owner. McDaniel performed at the club for two years before moving on to join family members in Los Angeles. McDaniel worked menial jobs until her brother found a small part for her on the Los Angles radio show, The Optimistic Do-Nuts. The show became a success and McDaniel became known as ‘‘Hi-Hat Hattie.’’ A move to Hollywood and two decades of acting provided McDaniel with over three hundred movie roles. Her first movie role was as an extra in a 1931 Hollywood musical. In 1932, she played her first role as a house servant in The Golden West. Screen credits eluded McDaniel until the 1934 Fox production of Judge Priest, when she sang a duet with American humorist Will Rogers. As the number of movie roles increased for McDaniel, so did the criticism. Leaders of the black community often criticized McDaniel for the maid and servant roles she played in films. She had to defend those roles, including the portrayal of ‘‘Mammy’’ in Gone with the Wind, to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). McDaniel’s performance in Gone with the Wind won her an
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Academy Award for best supporting actress in 1940. She later donated the Oscar to Howard University in Washington, DC. In 1947, McDaniel entered into a contract to star in a CBS radio program, The Beulah Show. In the contract McDaniel was given the right to approve or disapprove of any scripts and not to speak in dialect. The Beulah Show attracted over seven million listeners each weeknight and was approved by both the NAACP and the National Urban League. Hattie McDaniel, an African American pioneer of film and radio entertainment provided the shoulders for many performers to stand on as they reached for dreams of achievement. See also: Entertainment Industry Further Reading Edwards, Roanne. 2005. ‘‘McDaniel, Hattie.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. 2nd. ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. Oxford African American Studies Center. http:// www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0002/e2588 Martin, Jonathan. 1993. ‘‘Hattie McDaniel.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 5. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research. Warren, Nagueyalti. 1992. ‘‘Hattie McDaniel ‘‘Hi Hat Hattie.’’’ In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research. Sharon D. Brooks
McGruder, Robert G. Jr. (1942–2002), Journalist, Editor Robert McGruder broke down racial barriers in the print media. His efforts were recognized when he became the first African American president of the Associated Press Managing Editors group, and when he was posthumously inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. McGruder’s contributions to the field of journalism made him an icon in popular culture. Robert Grandison McGruder Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 31, 1942, and died after a twenty-month battle against cancer on April 12, 2002. His parents divorced when he was only five years old. At age six, he spent months fighting polio. After moving to Campbellsburg, Kentucky, with his mother and brother, McGruder attended fourth grade at the school for African Americans where his mother taught. He and his family relocated to Dayton, Ohio, where his mother worked two jobs in order to send her sons to private schools. McGruder graduated from his Roman Catholic high school as salutatorian and went to college at Kent State University. While a student there, McGruder began his career in journalism by working on the university’s newspaper. In December 1968, McGruder married Annette Cottingham.
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In 1963, Robert McGruder became the first African American reporter for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1964 and served for two years as a public information specialist at the Pentagon. He returned to Ohio from his military service, returned to the Plain Dealer, and was assigned to interview Cleveland families who were dealing with the loss of loved ones who served during the Vietnam War. McGruder also investigated and reported on the urban riots and anti-busing battles. After he began reporting on the politics of the city hall of Cleveland, he investigated the city’s finances and wrote a series of articles that brought to light the city’s dire financial circumstances. Eventually, Cleveland declared bankruptcy—the first major American city to do so. In 1971, McGruder was promoted to assistant city editor of the Plain Dealer. In addition to his work as the assistant city editor, he continued to work as a reporter for the newspaper until 1978, when he was promoted to city editor. In 1981, he was made managing editor. He left the paper in 1986, when he became deputy managing editor of the Detroit Free Press. From 1996 until he died, he was the paper’s executive editor. In 1995, McGruder became the first African American president of the Associated Press Managing Editors group. The next year he became the first African American executive editor of the Detroit Free Press. He was adamant about making the newsroom as diverse as possible. For his continual effort to promote diversity in journalism, several awards were named for McGruder. In 2001, McGruder was awarded the highest honor that Knight Ridder bestows on its employees—the John S. Knight Gold Medal. He accepted the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award from Wayne State University in 2002. McGruder was also honored with the William Taylor Distinguished Alumni Award from Kent State University’s School of Journalism in 1984, and on April 12, 2003, he was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. On several occasions, he served on the nominating juries for the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. The National Association of Black Journalists honored him in 2003 with a lifetime achievement award in recognition of his commitment to promote diversity and for the positive influence he had on the lives of journalists across the country. See also: Journalism and Journalists; Politics and Government Further Reading Brennan, Carol, and Pat Donaldson. 2003. ‘‘Robert McGruder.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 35. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Encyclopedia.jrank.org. (n.d.) ‘‘McGruder, Robert G. (1942–2002): Journalist, editor, Journalism career, Chronology, Honors and accolades.’’ http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/4373/McGruder-Robert-G-1942-2002.html. Kelly, Tina. 2002. ‘‘Robert G. McGruder, 60, Editor Who Toppled Racial Barriers.’’ New York Times, April 14. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C 00E2D6123CF937A25757C0A9649C8B63.
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Meriwether, Heath J. 2002. ‘‘Appreciation: Robert G. McGruder, 1942–2002.’’ Detroit Free Press, April 14. American Press Institute. http://www.americanpressinstitute .org/content/p1405_c1380.cfm. Catherine Culver
McKay, Claude (1889–1948), Poet, Novelist, Journalist Claude McKay is considered a seminal writer of the Harlem Renaissance, a major literary, cultural, and intellectual movement in African American popular culture. He is also credited for inspiring the West Indian Negritude movement. Jamaican-born, McKay was enamored with black life in Harlem, New York, a place that was home to him for many years. Among his most notable works were ‘‘If We Must Die,’’ published in 1919, and the novel Home to Harlem (1929). McKay, however, was often confounded by the label ‘‘race writer’’ that was used to define him. He felt that the term limited him. Indeed, McKay wrote on a vast array of subjects, many based on his experiences in his homeland and in the United States. A controversial figure, McKay attracted the attention of the government for his association with Marxists. McKay blamed capitalism for the problems in the world, even when it pertained to problems that afflicted African Americans. McKay produced a large amount of literature in his fifty-seven years but received comparatively little recognition in his lifetime. In 1912, he received a gold medal from the Jamaican Institute of Arts and Sciences for his first two volumes of poems, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads. In 1929, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded him with a Harmon Foundation Award for distinguished literary achievement, and, in 1937, he received the James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild Award. Festus Claudius McKay was born on September 15, 1890, in a small village in Jamaica. His father, Thomas Francis McKay, made a good living farming and was greatly esteemed in his community. McKay described him as distant father. In sharp contrast, his mother, Hannah Ann Elizabeth McKay, was amiable and quick to show affection. Both parents were descended from Africa, remnants from the horrific slave trade that scattered Africans throughout the Western Hemisphere. The British imported slaves into Jamaica from the mid-seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. Slave rebellions contributed, in large part, to the dismantling of the slave system in Jamaica, and, in 1838, slavery was officially abolished. The British, however, remained in control of the country. The influence of the British is evident, among other things, in the formal English names, religious beliefs of the people, and the Eurocentric education that the children received. McKay’s education was an amalgam of African and local Folklore and classic English subjects. McKay’s father descended from the Ashanti, a society that lived in Ghana, West Africa. Although Thomas McKay subscribed to Christian living, he was fond of retelling stories about his ancestral home. When McKay
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was eight years old, he went to live with his oldest brother, one of seven siblings. His brother was a teacher, and McKay thrived under his instruction. McKay read and studied the classics and wrote, imitating the erudite styles of the writers that were deemed the best by Jamaica’s British rulers. Later, in 1907, McKay met and was greatly influenced by Walter Jekyll, a British man who lived in Jamaica. Jekyll was a folklorist who convinced McKay that he should write poetry using the dialect of his community—a radical idea considering that blacks were considered inferior to whites and that the simple life and culture of black peasants was deemed not worthy of any artistic or academic merit. McKay followed his mentor’s advice, penning two volumes of poetry, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, which were published in 1912. The first volume celebrated the idyllic life of his community, and the second volume explored McKay’s experiences as a constabulary or police officer. During McKay’s early adulthood, he shuttled amongst a variety of jobs and interests. He considered teaching, and, as previously mentioned, worked as a constable. He also considered the farming industry, jumping at the opportunity to study agriculture in the United States at Tuskegee Institute (now University) in Alabama. He arrived in Alabama in 1912, but the experience, for unknown reasons, was unfulfilling. McKay transferred to Kansas State College, and left there too, preferring a life of adventure and freedom. McKay wanted more from life than what the quiet, rural community could offer him. In 1914, McKay moved to Harlem with the financial support of one of his English friends. McKay started life in Harlem ambitiously. In the first year, he married his Jamaican childhood love, Eulalia Imelda Edwards, and co-owned a restaurant. Both were doomed to fail. The marriage, however, produced his only child, Rhue Hope. McKay worked the common jobs available to black men in the early twentieth century, such as a porter on a railroad and janitor. During this period, racial violence, such as Lynching and Race Riots, was rampant in the North and South. In the South, blacks were forced to submit to the color line, and discrimination in employment, housing, and other areas in the North exacerbated the hardships of blacks in the United States. The tumultuous period of violence against blacks inspired McKay’s poem, ‘‘If We Must Die,’’ a brazen and lyrical statement supporting militancy and self-defense. His poem was considered a battle call in radical circles, a militant anthem. Most African Americans assumed that the ‘‘we’’ in the poem referred to them, but, as Wayne F. Cooper, McKay’s biographer, points out, nowhere in the poem does McKay mention race. The poem was submitted to a white periodical (not a black newspaper), underscoring McKay’s struggle to create universal literature. ‘‘If We Must Die’’ was one of many poems that McKay submitted to a variety of periodicals, not a few of them were operated by white liberals and socialists. ‘‘If We Must Die,’’ however, was the first acclaimed work he produced in the United States. When not writing or working, McKay could be found at some lively spot in black Harlem, reveling in the thrilling life of Harlem dancers, musicians, and seemingly boundless entertainment and southern delicacies. During the 1920s, McKay divided his time between associating with local radicals, globetrotting, and writing. Although McKay associated with black socialists
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in New York, he appeared to spend most of his time with white liberals whom he considered more radical, which he preferred. He wrote for white radical newspapers such as the Liberator. He traveled to England, where he was welcomed by Marxist intellectuals and wrote for the Worker’s Dreadnought. McKay returned to Harlem in 1921 and fleshed out writing projects for publication. Although McKay did not want to be confined to being a race writer, his first two publications of the 1920s, Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922), dealt predominately with black life and black issues and were works that ‘‘secured McKay’s position as a major writer of the Harlem Renaissance,’’ writes Karen Munro. Beginning in 1922, not long after McKay had returned from England, McKay went abroad again for a longer stretch of time. The Soviet Union was McKay’s first destination. He attended the Fourth Congress of the Third International. He toured the country, lecturing on the African American condition in the United States. His book Negroes in America, a compilation of the articles he wrote while in the Soviet Union, was published in 1923. Between 1923 and 1934, McKay traveled abroad to Europe and Africa, while in the states the Harlem Renaissance was in full bloom. In France, he met up with African American expatriates like Alain Locke and Jean Toomer. Locke, often referred to as the ‘‘Father of the Harlem Renaissance,’’ is well known for his pivotal book, The New Negro (1924), a collection of literature that featured renaissance luminaries like McKay. Toomer’s notable work includes the novel Cane (1923). Several years would pass before McKay published more literature. His first novel, Home to Harlem (1928), was critically acclaimed. Other publications followed, including Banjo: A Story without a Plot (1929), Gingertown (1932), and Banana Bottom (1933). Notwithstanding McKay’s steady output of publications, he returned to the United States, in 1934 in a terrible state. The Great Depression had affected most Americans, including prolific writers like McKay. McKay not only had to worry about his financial situation, he was sick with syphilis. In his last years, McKay struggled to get published. Reflecting over his life, McKay published his autobiography, A Long Way from Home (1937). To sustain himself, McKay wrote articles for newspapers, such as for magazines such as Opportunity and newspapers such as the New York Amsterdam News, and the New York Amsterdam News. Like other African American writers Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright, a new generation of black writing talent, McKay joined the New York Federal Writers’ Project. In 1940, his nonfiction work, Harlem: Negro Metropolis, was published. His second memoir, My Green Hills of Jamaica was published posthumously in 1979. Before his death from congestive heart failure in 1948, McKay was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. See also: Caribbean Cultural Influences; Marxism Further Reading Cryan-Hicks, Kathryn, ed. 1993. Pride and Promise: The Harlem Renaissance. Lowell, MA: Discovery Enterprises.
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Hathaway, Heather. 1999. Caribbean Waves: Relocating Claude McKay and Paul Marshall. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. McKay, Claude. 1987. Home to Harlem. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. McKay, Claude. 1999. Selected Poems. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. Ostrom, Hans, and J. David Macey Jr. 2005. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Tillery, Tyrone. 1994. Claude McKay: A Black Poet’s Struggle for Identity. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Gladys L. Knight
McKnight, Brian (1969– ), Singer Brian McKnight, who is mostly associated with soulful, romantic ballads, is a fixture in African American popular music. McKnight debuted his self-titled album in 1992 in his early twenties and was catapulted to star status. The media praised his smooth vocals and poetic lyrics. Radio programs that broadcast popular black music repeatedly played McKnight’s songs. His music and persona, especially images of him crooning love ballads while playing piano, became synonymous with romance. The comely singer projected a sensitivity and masculinity that appealed to both sexes. His cameo, in 1994, on Martin, a black television show starring comedian Martin Lawrence, epitomized McKnight’s ascension in popular black culture. In the episode, ‘‘Love is in Your Face,’’ part two, Martin has McKnight serenade his girlfriend, Gina Waters (Tisha Campbell-Martin), as part of his plan to woo her back after a rift in their relationship. (Martin’s plan works splendidly.) Today, the award-winning McKnight continues to produce popular music and has expanded his singing career to include hosting a television and radio program. McKnight was born on June 5, 1969, in Buffalo, New York. He was eight years old when he and his family moved to Orlando, Florida. McKnight comes from a family steeped in religion and song. The McKnights descended from many generations of Seventh Day Adventists, and singing in the church played an important part in his family traditions. McKnight’s grandfather was a minister of music at their congregation; his mother sang and played the piano. Later, his brother, Claude McKnight, would become a member of the popular gospel group Take 6. Throughout childhood and adolescence, McKnight expressed his assorted talents. He sang in an a capella gospel quartet with his three siblings. His singing was strongly influenced by his mother and popular African American singers, such as the gospel group the Mighty Clouds of Joy, and Motown Records legend Stevie Wonder. McKnight, a prodigy with musical instruments, played the piano, trumpet, and other instruments. In high school, McKnight participated in football, basketball, and track. After high school, he and some friends started a music group that performed in bars.
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In 1987, McKnight left home to attend Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. It was there that McKnight met his future wife, Julie, and made critical contact with Brandon Baines, a music producer. Through Baines, McKnight learned more about the industry and the technical process of making music. After McKnight was expelled from college during his sophomore year for breaking a dormitory rule that forbade opposite-sex visitors in dorm rooms, he put in more time with Baines. In 1989, he got married. McKnight and Baines recorded a number of songs, many of which McKnight sent out to record companies like Mercury, which in 1992 produced McKnight’s first album, Brian McKnight. McKnight continues to enjoy a rewarding career, one that has included collaborations with other high-profile performing artists and has been recognized by African American and mainstream institutions. McKnight has worked with major stars, such as Sean (Diddy) Combs, Vanessa Williams, and Mary J. Blige. He has produced nine studio albums and four holiday albums. Among the awards he has received include over a dozen Grammy Awards, multiple Soul Train Awards, and an Image Award in 2000 for Outstanding Male Artist. In 1998 and 2000, he was nominated for MTV Video Music Awards. In 2003, McKnight and his wife divorced. They have two sons, Brian and Cole Nicholas McKnight. Both have sung with McKnight during performances. See also: Entertainment Industry; Pop Music Further Reading Bogdanov, Vladimir, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine. 2003. All Music Guide to Soul: The Definitive Guide to R & B and Soul. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. Brian McKnight. (Homepage.) http://www.brian-mcknight.com/. Collier, Adore. 2000. ‘‘Brian McKnight on Fame, Family, and Female Fans.’’ Ebony 55 (July): 124–30. Gladys L. Knight
McMillan, Terry (1951– ), Writer Terry McMillan paved the way for contemporary African American writers to produce and successfully publish mainstream Fiction in the United States. McMillan was born in Port Huron, Michigan, to working-class parents—her father, a sanitation worker, and her mother, a factory worker and a domestic. In her teenage years, McMillan worked in a local library and became immersed in the works F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and James Baldwin, the latter of whom awakened her to the significance of African American literature. After graduating from high school, McMillan left Michigan and moved to Los Angeles, working in data entry and attending community college. She soon transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. There she published her first
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short story, ‘‘The End,’’ in 1976. McMillan graduated from Berkeley in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Expanding her interests in writing, she moved to New York City that year and participated in Columbia University’s graduate degree program in screenwriting, a program that she ultimately found too restrictive. While in New York City, McMillan worked for an entertainment law firm and raised her son who was born in 1984. All the while, McMillan nurtured her writing craft, drafting and editing her fiction. She soon joined the Harlem Writers’ Guild and participated in the Yaddo and MacDowell writers’ colonies. In 1987, Houghton Mifflin published McMillan’s first semiautobiographical novel, Mama. She marketed the book herself to colleges, universities, and bookstores across the nation, contacting them to set up her own book tours. Her tenacious efforts led Mama to be sold out before its publication date, with several subsequent reprintings thereafter. In 1990, she wrote Disappearing Acts, a critically acclaimed novel of the failed loved affair between a middle-class aspiring singer/music teacher and her working-class construction worker male lover. The book was later made into a television movie for Home Box Office cable network. It was McMillan’s 1992 novel Waiting to Exhale that propelled her as an emerging figure in the contemporary American publishing industry. The story about four middle-class African American female friends, Waiting to Exhale was an instant success (topping the New York Times Best Seller list). It spawned black book clubs across the nation, inspired developing black writers, and demonstrated to American publishing houses the profitability of writing about the everyday lives of contemporary African Americans due to a growing black middle-class market. Following its success as a novel, Waiting to Exhale became a box-office hit as a film. McMillan’s popularity would continue to grow with her 1996 novel, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, which chronicled, through fiction, her own recapturing of love when she met and later married Jonathan Plummer, a man twenty years her junior, on a vacation in Jamaica. This novel, as well, grossed millions of dollars in its film version, and McMillan and her new husband returned to her home in California to start their new life. Turning points in her career and life came with her 2001 novel, A Day Late and a Dollar Short, which received lackluster reviews, and her 2005 novel, The Interruption of Everything, which marked the end of her marriage. Partnering with Harlem Textile Works, a nonprofit organization that introduces textile production to children, McMillan has turned her attention to textile designing and also television screenwriting. Nonetheless, McMillan’s significance as a pioneer in mainstream popular fiction is secure. Further Reading Dandridge, Rita B. 1998. ‘‘Debunking the Motherhood Myth in Terry McMillan’s Mama.’’ CLA Journal 41 (June): 405–16. Richards, Paulette. 1999. Terry McMillan: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Terry McMillan. (Homepage.) http://www.terrymcmillan.com. Tomeiko Ashford Carter
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McNair, Steve (1973–2009), Professional Football Player Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair should be remembered for the Super Bowl he missed winning by inches. In 2000, he rallied his team from a 16– 0 third quarter deficit against the St. Louis Rams and tied the score. The highflying Rams answered with a touchdown. With two minutes left, McNair drove his team deep down the field and looked to tie the score and send the biggest game into overtime. With seven seconds left and the ball on the opponent’s nine-year line, McNair completed a pass to one of his wide receivers. The Titans ball carrier pushed toward the goal line but was tackled just inches short as time ran out. Fans fondly remember Super Bowl XXXIV as one of the most exciting championships ever because of McNair’s heroics. A pop culture icon, McNair was a pioneer, a black quarterback cast in the mold of a prototypical NFL drop-back passer, yet McNair combined the elusive skills of a running back that made him a dual offensive threat. McNair was the second quarterback from a historically black college to make an indelible mark in the NFL. Before him was Doug Williams of Grambling University, who led the Washington Redskins to a 1987 Super Bowl XXII championship. McNair had a sparkling thirteen-year professional career in Houston, Nashville, and Baltimore, and was nicknamed ‘‘Air’’ because of his throwing prowess. In 2003, McNair was the NFL Most Valuable Player. His life ended tragically at age thirty-six on July 4, 2009, when he was found in a Nashville condominium, dead of multiple gunshot wounds following what authorities said was a murdersuicide by twenty-year-old girlfriend Sahel Kazemi. McNair was married and the father of four children. The majority of McNair’s professional football career was spent with the Tennessee Titans of Nashville. McNair was drafted third by the Houston Oilers in the 1995 NFL draft and signed to a seven-year contract. In his first season with the Oilers, McNair passed for 2,665 yards and broke the record set by another pioneering black quarterback, Warren Moon. In 1997, McNair also led the team in rushing touchdowns with eight and was second behind leading running back Eddie George in rushing yards with 674. McNair’ set career passing highs in 1998 with 289 completions in 492 attempts and 15 touchdowns. In 1999, McNair was diagnosed with an inflamed disk that needed surgery. He was replaced by Neil O’Donnell, who led the team over the next five games to a 4–1 record. McNair returned to the field for the second half of the regular season. The 2002 season was McNair’s most productive one. In that year he passed for career highs in yards, 3,387, and completions, 301. The next season McNair threw a career high 24 touchdown passes and his quarterback rating of 100.4 was also a career best. In the 2002 divisional playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, McNair passed for a postseason career high of 338 years and two touchdowns while rushing for 29 yards and a score on the ground. The Titans won the American Football Conference championship game but were unable to get to the Super Bowl.
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In 2002, following the loss, McNair was arrested for driving under the influence and illegal possession of a gun. McNair was traded to the Baltimore Ravens in 2006 and the defense-oriented team hoped the experienced quarterback would be the addition to lead the team back to a Super Bowl. The team did not achieve that lofty goal during McNair’s two seasons. He played his college football at Alcorn State University of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). McNair was offered a full scholarship to attend SWAC rival Grambling State University but chose Alcorn State in Lorman, Mississippi, because of his desire to play quarterback. In 1994, his senior season, he won the Walter Payton Award as the top NCAA Division I-AA player. During his senior year at Alcorn, McNair threw 30 touchdown passes and more than 3,000 yards. Steve McNair was born on February 14, 1973, in Mount Olive, Mississippi, and attended Mount Olive High School where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He also ran track. McNair led Mount Olive to the state championships as a junior. Recognizing his baseball prowess as well, the Seattle Mariners drafted McNair in the 35th round of the 1991 Major League Baseball amateur draft. See also: Sports Further Reading Baven, Mark. 1999. ‘‘Steve McNair.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 22. Detroit: Gale Group. Hine, Chris, and Judy Battista. 2009. ‘‘Quarterback Steve McNair is Shot to Death.’’ New York Times, July 4. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/sports/football/ 05mcnair.html. JockBio.com. 2009. ‘‘Steve McNair Biography.’’ http://www.jockbio.com/Bios/McNair/ McNair_bio.html. NFL.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Steve McNair Profile.’’ All-Time Players. http://www.nfl.com/players/ stevemcnair/profile?id=MCN033803 Tennessee Titans. 2009. ‘‘A Look Back at the Career of Steve McNair.’’ http://www .titansonline.com/news/article-1/a-look-back-at-the-career-of-steve-mcnair/7bafa7 3a-0a67-4b0b-847d-c74e278737fb Kip Branch
Medical Schools African American medical schools were established in the United States beginning in the period after the Civil War primarily to train black physicians, dentists, and other health care professionals. However, these institutions did not discriminate; they opened their doors to white male applicants and admitted
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black and white women during a time when most white medical schools refused to train women to be doctors. Over time, these institutions have played an important role in the ongoing quest for access to education and quality health care for the black people, the poor, and other underserved people. The Howard University College of Medicine, the first historically black medical school, began in 1868 as the medical department of Howard University in Washington, DC, an historically black university founded in 1867. At least thirteen other historically black medical schools opened their doors over the next four decades. The most well-known of that number was Meharry Medical College founded in 1876 in Nashville, Tennessee. By 1910 only seven of the original fourteen black medical schools remained because of the challenges of maintaining adequate resources, equipment, and faculty. That year a report by white physician Abraham Flexner on behalf of the Carnegie Foundation evaluated 155 white and black institutions in the United States and Canada dedicated to medical education. The Flexner Report called for the closure of all but two of the remaining seven historically black medical schools asserting that they ‘‘were in no position to make any contribution of value.’’ By 1923 Howard and Meharry were the only historically black medical schools still in existence. Throughout the long period of Jim Crow segregation in the U.S., white medical schools in the South uniformly barred black students, and only a handful of northern white medical schools admitted a few African Americans—they included the medical schools of Ivy League institutions Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania as well as Big Ten universities Indiana, Northwestern, and Michigan. For more than half of the twentieth century, Howard and Meharry educated approximately 85 percent of all African American physicians while white medical schools educated 15 percent. Not until 1966 was a third black medical school established. The Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science opened in South Los Angeles, California, during the tumultuous period of racial rebellion around the country. A fourth, historically black medical school, the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, came into existence nine years later in 1975. Widespread desegregation of white medical schools began in the late 1960s as a result of the ripple effect of Brown v. the Board of Education, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and Affirmative Action legislation spurred by the advocacy of civil rights groups. The number of African American medical students attending predominantly white institutions increased by 47 percent in 1968, by 61 percent in 1983, and by 84 percent in 1990. Conversely, as the number of African Americans admitted to white medical schools increased, the number of students entering and graduating from the four historically black medical colleges diminished dramatically. Despite a decrease in affirmative action initiatives, in the early twenty-first century, white medical schools continued to collectively award more medical degrees to African Americans than do historically black medical colleges. However, it must be noted that annually black medical schools Howard and Meharry each award more medical degrees to African Americans
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than any other individual medical school—white or black, according the Association of American Medical Colleges. In 2007, for example, Howard University awarded 77 degrees to African Americans; Meharry awarded 57. The predominantly white University of Illinois College of Medicine is the only other medical school that came close to those numbers with 35 African Americans awarded medical degrees in 2007. Overview of First Black Medical Schools Medical historian Earl Harley identifies twelve institutions created between 1868 and 1900 with the mission of providing medical education for African Americans. Most of the first historically black medical schools were either church-related institutions affiliated with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or proprietary, for-profit institutions. For example, Howard University and its medical school were founded by members of the First Congregational Church in Washington, DC, in 1867 and 1868 respectively. Lincoln University, founded in 1854 by Presbyterians, opened its medical school in 1870. In 1876, Meharry Medical College started as the medical division of Central Tennessee College, an institution established by the Freedman’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867. Leonard Medical School was founded in 1882 at Shaw University, an HBCU founded in 1865 and affiliated with the Baptist Church. The group of proprietary institutions that made up the second category of early black medical schools identified by Harley were not affiliated with institutions of higher education. They operated as independent, for-profit organizations. Most of these institutions were established by African Americans. They included the Louisville National Medical College, established in 1888 by William Henry Fitzbutler, the first black graduate of the University of Michigan College Of Medicine; and the University of West Tennessee College of Physicians and Surgeons, established in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1900. That institution was founded by Miles Vandahurst Lynk, an 1891 graduate of Meharry Medical College and a founder of the National Medical Association. There are four existing historically black medical institutions: Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, and Morehouse School of Medicine. The Howard University College of Medicine Howard University was named in honor of Civil War hero Major General Oliver Otis Howard and opened in Washington, DC, just two years after the general’s appointment in 1865 as head of the Freedmen’s Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. The charter of Howard was approved in March 1867 and specified that the institution would include a department of medicine. The Howard University Medical Department officially opened in November 1868 with seven male students and one female student. The Howard
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medical program operated as an evening academic program for its first forty years, which allowed the often cash-strapped students to work during the day. One black physician was among the faculty of five during the first term of the inaugural year of the Howard University Medical Department. Initially, the Medical Department included three-year degree programs in medicine and a two-year pharmacy program. Howard started its dentistry degree program in the early 1880s. Over time, each of these programs separated from the college of medicine and became self-contained schools in the Howard University system. In 1869, the historic Freedmen’s Hospital, operated by the federal government to serve black and needy patients, moved to the Howard University campus, serving as a teaching hospital for the medical school’s students for the next century. The Howard University Hospital was erected to replace Freedmen’s Hospital in 1975. Prominent physicians affiliated with the Howard medical school have included Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first successful open-heart surgery at Freedmen’s Hospital and Charles Drew, whose groundbreaking research during World War II yielded new methods for preserving blood plasma. Today, despite the overall decrease in the number of students enrolling in black medical schools, Howard consistently awards medical degrees to more African Americans than any other medical school in the nation. In addition, the Howard University College of Medicine is one of the nation’s leading producers of women surgeons. Meharry Medical College The Medical Department of Central Tennessee College in south Nashville, Tennessee, became Meharry Medical College in 1900, twenty-four years after its founding by George Whipple Hubbard, a Civil War veteran and medical student from New Hampshire. The namesake and donor for the medical school was Samuel Meharry, a white man who in the early 1800s pledged to do something for the black race after a family of former enslaved African Americans helped pull his salt wagon from a ditch. Fifty years later Meharry and his brothers contributed funds to establish the medical program. Meharry’s dental department was started in 1886 and the pharmaceutical department was launched in 1889. By 1910, the School of Nursing of Mercy Hospital in Nashville became a part of Meharry. The Hubbard Hospital was built on the campus in 1912 to provide training for medical students, interns, and residents and to serve the local African American community. In the late 1920s, the Meharry campus moved to north Nashville in close proximity to Fisk University, an HBCU. The move facilitated the development of a steady pipeline of Fisk students into the medical school and the sharing of buildings and facilities by the two institutions over the years. In the 1950s, Harold D. West, the first black president of the school, expanded the campus and added a wing to Hubbard Hospital. Meharry closed the School of Nursing and the Division of Dental Technology in the early 1960s, but made substantial
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investments in the facilities and enhanced the curricula in the schools of dentistry and medicine. In the late 1960s, Meharry expanded its academic programs to include a PhD degree program in the sciences and a School of Allied Health Professions in conjunction with Tennessee State University and Fisk University. Perhaps the most prominent of Meharry College leaders was David Satcher, appointed president of the institution in 1982. Satcher served as president of Meharry for a decade before accepting an appointment as director of the United States Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta in 1993. Satcher went on to become the United States surgeon general in 1998. The appointment of John E. Maupin Jr. to the presidency of Meharry in 1994 marked the first time that a Meharry graduate became the institution’s chief executive officer; Maupin graduated from Meharry’s School of Dentistry in 1972. During his twelve-year tenure as president of Meharry, Maupin resuscitated the ailing institution through a merger with Nashville’s city hospital, a unique academic collaboration with Vanderbilt University, restructuring of programs, and the recruitment of new top-notch faculty members. Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science The Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science is the only dually designated historically black graduate institution and Hispanic-serving health professionals school in the country. The institution was established in South Central Los Angeles, California, in 1966 as a private, nonprofit medical learning facility called the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School. Its founding came in the wake of the Watts riot in the summer of 1965. Located in the Willowbrook-Watts section of Los Angeles, the institution was specifically created to train medical professionals to serve South Central Los Angeles and other urban communities that lacked adequate hospitals and clinics. The medical school was named in honor of Charles R. Drew, the world-renowned pioneer in blood banking. The Martin Luther King Jr./ Drew Medical Center (later the Martin Luther King Jr.–Harbor Hospital) was created during the same period to serve as the teaching hospital for the medical school. In 1987, the institution gained university status and the name officially became the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. Drew offers doctor of medicine degrees in fifteen different areas and operates undergraduate premed and allied health programs in partnership with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Recently, Drew University erected a new nursing, research, and education building—the first new building constructed on the campus in twenty-five years, and established the first new nursing school in California in more than a decade. However, long-standing fiscal and management challenges at Drew University have been compounded during the economic crisis of the first decade of the twenty-first century. In 2009, the institution cut its faculty and staff by 10 percent. In May 2009, after the closure of the teaching hospital affiliated with the institution and negative accreditation reports, the president and chief executive
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officer of Drew University, Susan Kelly, resigned. Despite its challenges, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science has graduated over 550 medical doctors, 2,500 post-graduate physicians, more than 2,000 physician assistants, and hundreds of other health professionals since its founding in 1966.
Morehouse School of Medicine The Morehouse School of Medicine was founded in 1975 as a division of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, the country’s only all-male HBCU. The impetus for the establishment of the medical school was a 1973 study by Morehouse College that confirmed the serious shortage of physicians of color and the need for a two-year medical-training program for students who would go on to work as primary care physicians among minorities and the poor in urban and rural areas. Louis W. Sullivan became the founding dean and director of what was initially called the Morehouse College Medical Education Program. In 1978, the program became the School of Medicine at Morehouse College, a two-year program in the basic medical sciences with a charter class of twentyfour students. In 1981, the historically black medical institution received provisional accreditation, separated from Morehouse College, and became an independently chartered educational corporation. Sullivan was appointed the dean and first president of the country’s youngest historically black medical college. In 1983, the Morehouse School of Medicine joined the Atlanta University Center, the largest consortium of HBCUs in the world, which includes Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Spelman College, and Morehouse College. In 1985, the medical school awarded degrees to the first graduating class to complete the full four-year medical program at Morehouse. By the early twenty-first century, the medical school offered a medical degree program, master’s and doctoral degree programs in biomedical sciences, as well as a master’s degree program in public health. The leadership of Morehouse School of Medicine has included nationally prominent physicians. Sullivan, the founding dean and president, was appointed the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by President George Bush in 1989. Sullivan would return to the Morehouse Medical School in 1993 for an additional twelve-year tenure as president. Former U.S. surgeon general and former Meharry president David Satcher served as president of Morehouse School of Medicine from 2004 to 2006. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin in the Obama administration both served on the Morehouse School of Medicine board of trustees before their appointments. In 2006, Maupin left the presidency of Meharry to take the reins as the president of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. See also: Medicine, Folk; Medicine, Health, and Healing
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Further Reading Association of American Medical Colleges. 2008. Diversity in Medical Education: Facts and Figures, 120–29. Washington, DC: AAMC. Cobb, Montague. 1967. ‘‘The First Hundred Years of the Howard University College of Medicine.’’ Journal of the National Medical Association 59 (November): 408–420. Epps, C. H., Jr. 1999. ‘‘Perspectives from the Historic African American Medical Institutions.’’ Clinical Orthopedics Related Research 362 (May): 95–101. Harley, Earl. 2006. ‘‘The Forgotten Story of Defunct Black Medical Schools in the 19th and 20th Centuries and the Impact of the Flexner Report.’’ Journal of the National Medical Association 98 (September): 1426–29. Johnson, Charles. 2000. The Spirit of a Place Called Meharry. Franklin, Tennessee: Hillsboro Press. Los Angeles Times. 2009. ‘‘President of Charles Drew University Resigns.’’ May 8. http:// latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/05/president-of-charles-drew-university-resigns .html. Ward, Thomas, Jr. 2003. Black Physicians in the Jim Crow South. Little Rock: University of Arkansas Press. Clarissa Myrick-Harris
Medicine, Folk The subject of folk medicine includes methods, objects, and natural substances believed to prevent illness and restore health. African American folk medicine is based on African traditions. According to Mbiti, Africans use folk medicine ‘‘to make things right, heal, cure, protect, drive away evil, counteract or neutralize evil.’’ They believe illness and misfortune have natural or supernatural causes. Ordinary individuals in African cultures usually have a general knowledge of the plants, herbs, and roots used to treat common ailments, such as stomach upsets, headaches, and cuts. For more serious or persistent problems, individuals seek medicine men or women. Supernatural causes of illness include broken taboos, magic, sorcery or witchcraft, or the work of spirits. African doctors of folk medicine identify the source of the complaint and use a variety of treatments, including plants, roots, seeds, animal parts and droppings, sacred objects or charms to be carried or buried near or inside the patient’s home, prayers, offerings or sacrifices to the offending spirit, or rituals. Medicine used to harm is generally referred to as magic, sorcery, or witchcraft, not medicine. Piersen found that enslaved Africans in the United States ‘‘used their considerable knowledge of herbs and barks to experiment with the flora of the new land and developed many useful medicines used by black and white medical practitioners.’’ They also incorporated techniques they learned from Native Americans. According to Piersen, ‘‘It was African Americans, not Europeans who came up with the first medical procedures that allowed protection from the scourges of small pox and scurvy.’’ Slaves
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administered numerous remedies, such as horehound tea and pine top tea for colds, and garlic for spasms. Mystical medicine was used, particularly within the Hoodoo practices of the South, to cure ailments resulting from supernatural causes. For fatigue caused by a ‘‘witch riding their backs during the evening’s rest,’’ Owens says that slaves carried the foot of a rabbit or raccoon. He says also that slaves trusted and preferred their traditional medicine over their masters’ methods. Slaves hung High John the Conqueror root inside the house for good luck and mixed substances such as ‘‘tobacco, clover, snakeroot, or Jimson weed or animal flesh, fur, feathers or bones’’ with the ‘‘person’s hair, clothing or dirt from tracks’’ to conjure good or evil. People of African descent around the world continue to use folk medicine. Haitians seek out houngans (priests or priestesses) for their knowledge of curative and even malevolent potions. Jamaicans seek out Obeah men or other practitioners. Allie Will Gipson, a native Mississippian, attributes much of her folk knowledge to her grandmothers, a Blackfoot Indian and a former slave. She learned that ‘‘every plant, every blade of grass is either medicine or food.’’ Dandelion root, a good source of iron, was eaten raw or cooked. Ground zombie plant was applied topically to relieve arthritis or muscle pain. If ingested, many believed the patient turned into a zombie or died. Gipson’s testimony is indicative of the enduring belief in the curative powers of folk medicine and the increasing popularity of alternative medicine in stores across the country. See also: Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc. Further Reading Axelrod, Alan, and Harry Oster. 2000. The Penguin Dictionary of American Folklore. New York: Penguin Group. Dance, Daryl Cumber, ed. 2002. From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore. New York: Norton. Genovese, Eugene D. 1972. Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made. New York: Random House. Gipson, Allie Will. 2005. Personal Interview with Gladys L. Knight. January 22. Mbiti, John S. 1975. Introduction to African Religion. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers. Owens, Leslie Howard. 1976. This Species of Property: Slave Life and Culture in the Old South. New York: Oxford University Press. Piersen, William D. 1996. From Africa to America: African American History from the Colonial Era to the Early Republic, 1526–1790. New York: Twayne Publishers. Gladys L. Knight
Medicine, Health, and Healing From the arrival of the first Africans in Colonial America, issues of health and healing have shaped the African American experience significantly. Beginning with inhumane conditions on slave ships, early African Americans often
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had to adapt to inadequate, crowded, and unsanitary living conditions, poor nutrition, exhaustion, and lack of access to medicine and medical care. The consequences of those circumstances resulted in a mortality rate approximately 25 percent higher than for white colonists. Over four hundred years later in 2007, overall mortality was 25 percent higher for black Americans than for whites, and that was an improvement when compared with 37 percent higher in 1990. Clearly, African American health is an urgent action item. Fortunately, increased avenues of communication have resulted in improved awareness of recent health issues, including the health care reform debates and legislation; explosion in HIV/AIDS statistics; increases in childhood asthma, diabetes, and obesity; breast cancer disparities, and other ethnic-related health concerns. Consequently, these issues have emerged as topics of discussion in mainstream popular culture. Vernellia Randall, in Dying While Black, cites the concern of Martin Luther King Jr. who said at the second National Convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in 1966: ‘‘Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane.’’ In 2009, when warning signs of a looming calamity could be contained no longer, concerns about the United States’ health care system erupted like a volcano. For nearly a century, presidents and members of Congress have tried and failed to provide universal health benefits to Americans. To confront the impeding crisis, President Barack Obama elevated and escalated the conversation on health to the top of the public agenda. The cost of health care has spiraled to an unsustainable level for employers and families. In 2008, the United States spent one in six dollars on health care and an estimated forty-six million people were without health insurance coverage. Claiming fiscal responsibility and humanitarian values as motivation, President Obama devoted energy, time, and political capital to attempt a comprehensive overhaul of the organization and delivery of health care. Virtually every television and radio program weighed in on the discussion. Pundits, movie stars, pharmaceutical companies, singers, unions, doctors, political partisans, and YouTube videos expressed opinions on various sides of the debate. The attempt to create ‘‘universal’’ access to health care encompassed the needs of all uninsured Americans; however, African Americans, insured or not, have unique problems. Though the U.S. Congress passed compromise health reform legislation in 2010, the long-term impact of the law remains uncertain. In the interim, health care issues continue as life-and-death challenges for African Americans. Like many struggles of the black community, contemporary circumstances may have explanations based in history. Historical Background Unsanitary and cramped slave quarters provided the perfect environment for the development and spread of communicable disease. Lack of toilet facilities, contaminated water, exposure to parasites in soil, inadequate housing, and
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proximity to animals are examples of circumstances that contributed to slave morbidity and mortality. Contagious diseases such as measles, whooping cough, and diphtheria contracted from inhabitants of the master’s household spread quickly in the congested slave accommodations. Dysentery, parasitic worms, typhoid fever, and fly-, mosquito-, and rat-borne illnesses were common. To protect their financial investment and to prevent spread to their own family members and other slaves, slave masters provided some degree of medical care. Typically, overseers tried home remedies first, followed by engaging the services of a doctor, if necessary. Midwives usually attended at childbirth. The timeliness and extent of medical care for slaves depended on the disposition of the owner. Contrary to plantation rules, blacks often chose self-treatment or medicine dispensed by herb or root healers, but in general, they had little control over their health care. In addition to practical experience with root and herbal mixtures, the transplanted Africans often believed that demons caused many illnesses. Curative measures could include incantations, charms, and rituals that required the hiring of conjure doctors to drive out the offending evil spirits. Not surprisingly, medical historian Todd L. Savitt reports that though the practice was enacted on poor patients of both races, blacks were more often the subjects for medical experimentation, exhibition, medical school education, dissection demonstrations, and demeaning descriptions in medical publications. Following the Civil War, poverty, crowded living conditions, and a lack of sanitation affected the health of freed blacks. They continued to experience more death and disease. During the late 1800s, scientific advances, knowledge about germs, and efforts to protect whites from the spread of disease motivated health officials to institute measures to protect the health of all citizens. Eventually, African Americans joined in the public health endeavors. For example, Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, urged the National Business League to issue a proclamation establishing National Health Improved Week, later called National Negro Health Week. With backing from the Public Health Service (PHS) and the philanthropic Julius Rosenwald Fund, Washington’s idea continued to exist into the 1950s, effectively promoting black health. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Complicating unique health beliefs intertwined with history, religion, economics, racial mistrust, and other indigenous factors is the African American experience with the Tuskegee syphilis study. Between 1932 and 1972, the Public Health Service conducted a research project in Macon County, Alabama, to examine effects of untreated syphilis. Using a group of over six hundred infected and uninfected black men as study participants, the project withheld treatment even after penicillin, an inexpensive and effective syphilis drug, became available. To encourage continuing cooperation and involvement by the participants, the PHS collaborated with Tuskegee Institute and the Tuskegee Veterans Hospital. The project, forever linked to Tuskegee, Alabama, is labeled with various names including the Tuskegee Study, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the
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Tuskegee Experiment, and the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. This chapter in African American history was portrayed in a 1997 HBO drama, Miss Evers’ Boys, starring Laurence Fishburne and Alfre Woodward. Branded as an unethical and racist government-supported study, the Tuskegee Experiment tainted African Americans’ trust in the health care system. Recently the 2010 book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks revealed the use of a poor, African American family’s cells for research and profit without informed consent, possibly reinforcing the black community’s lack of confidence in medical testing and treatment. African American Health Status From that heritage, African Americans find themselves as a poster community in the 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR) used to demonstrate that discrepancies in health circumstances are increasing in many areas and remain unchanged in others. Racial differences arise predominately from genetics, environmental factors, access to care, and cultural factors. According to the Center for Disease Control, the ten leading causes of death in African Americans, in rank order, are heart disease, cancer, stroke, unintentional injuries, diabetes, homicide, kidney-related disease, chronic respiratory disease, HIV/ AIDS, and septicemia. Adding to the list of concerns is the high prevalence of hypertension, infant mortality, and tuberculosis. Minority communities are disproportionately underprivileged, uninsured, underinsured, and underserved. Those circumstances affect access to and quality of health care. As a result, minority communities have a disproportionate rate of morbidity and mortality associated with chronic and disabling diseases. Credible research implicates racial and ethnic health inequity in over 83,000 deaths each year. David Satcher, the sixteenth surgeon general of the United States, former director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and recipient of numerous distinguished honors, notes that numerous efforts have been initiated to address these issues. He reports that although progress has occurred in increasing life expectancy and reducing the incidence of death and disease in African Americans, the ethnic discrepancies continue. The complex responsibility for the intractability of the problem exists on two levels, societal and individual. Societal challenges include issues such as poverty, unemployment, shortage of minority health professionals, scientific research studies, exposure to toxic substances and hazard wastes, and access to mental and physical health care. On a personal level, individuals can change health outcomes by measures such as eliminating risky sexual behavior, modifying lifestyles, making informed nutritional choices, reducing domestic and gun violence, following guidelines for routine physical and dental examinations, using technology to locate reliable information on diseases and self-care, and taking advantage of community health fairs. During the next decade, the United States is targeting selected major health concerns called the Leading Health Indicators. These indicators were selected because of their ability to motivate action, the availability of data, and their importance as public health issues. The Leading Health Indicators are physical activity, overweight and
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obesity, tobacco use, substance abuse, responsible sexual behavior, mental health, injury and violence, environmental quality, immunization, and access to health care. Each of these areas has unique and significant importance to the state of African American health. Each has a distinctive cause, effect, and resolution that determines the health of black Americans. Though there are regional, genetic, and socioeconomic differences, in general African Americans have lower levels of physical activity, have less access to quality health care, eat a less healthy diet, experience twicegreater infant mortality rates, endure more negative health outcomes related to substance abuse, and suffer other pervasive health disparities. Efforts to Decrease Health Disparities To effect positive change in the status of African American health and to decrease the gap between the minority and majority population requires effective strategic planning combined with both conventional and innovative action conducted on multiple fronts by various entities. Health care advocates are working to collect and distribute data and information, change laws, promote community learning, strengthen relationships between disparate groups, create new knowledge, encourage individuals to modify lifestyles, and making other efforts to achieve health equality for African Americans. On the societal level, there are numerous governmental, private sector, and community action projects. Government Projects Obesity is a major risk factor for several debilitating medical conditions, including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancer, hypertension, and stroke. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 2006–8 obesity data noted that blacks had a 51 percent higher prevalence of obesity, compared with whites. Recalling her challenges as a working mother to feed her children nutritious foods rather than easier fast food meals, First Lady Michelle Obama, with the help of schoolchildren, planted an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn. The purpose of the garden was to educate children and their families about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern. Citing the increase in childhood obesity as one of the most urgent health issues that this country faces, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum to establish a task force on childhood obesity on February 9, 2010. In it, he charged a new task force with developing an interagency action plan to solve the problem of obesity among our nation’s children as part of the first lady’s ‘‘Let’s Move!’’ campaign. The campaign will take a comprehensive approach to engage both public and private sectors to help children become more active and eat healthier. Affirming ‘‘the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care,’’ President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a landmark health reform bill, on March 23, 2010. The purpose of the legislation is to make health care more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health insurance coverage to most Americans, and make the
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health system fiscally sustainable for family budgets, the federal budget, and the economy. To incorporate final revisions in the health bill, President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act on March 30, 2010. The modifications included increasing tax credits for the middle class, investing in community health centers, and strengthening efforts to fight waste and fraud. Community Projects Collaborative programs in the community, government, and academia are targeting high blood pressure in African American men, the group with the highest rate of uncontrolled hypertension in the United States. In New York, St. Louis, and Los Angeles, health workers provide blood pressure screenings in Barbershops, a frequent gathering place for black men. In Dallas, a similar project employs a distinctive twist. The barbers are trained to take customers’ blood pressure, and then refer those with untreated hypertension to medical care. Using innovative strategies, the Project Brotherhood Clinic provides medical and social services to improve the health and well-being of black men in the Chicago area. To encourage use of the clinic’s primary care services, free haircuts, food, and transportation assistance are available. The Cleveland Clinic joined with an Ohio neighborhood health center to provide breast cancer information at African American Beauty Shops. While styling hair or giving manicures, beauticians talk to clients about breast health, including mammograms and self-exams. The HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Center for Excellence, located at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, is a unique resource center for health professional students. It works to enhance curriculum development, expand student intervention strategies, and broaden interest in substance abuse and mental health. Internet Resources The Internet provides an abundance of powerful health-related tools. To assist patients, community activists, and health professionals, the National Library of Medicine provides free access to an authoritative and up-to-date database, MedlinePlus (medlineplus.gov). This resource contains information on over eight hundred diseases and conditions, and has directories, a medical encyclopedia, and a medical dictionary. It also provides tutorials on common conditions, tests, and treatments, health information in Spanish, and extensive information on prescription and nonprescription drugs. There are links to news, clinical trials, research, and articles connected with African American health topics. Thegrio.com is a news portal that helps African Americans stay informed and connected with their community. It provides links to a variety of health and lifestyle articles and videos. Sisters Together: Move More, Eat Better (win.niddk.nih.gov/sisters) is a national initiative of the Weight-control Information Network (WIN) designed to encourage black women to maintain a healthy weight by becoming more physically active and eating healthier foods. Black men are the intended audience of mybrotha.com; it offers health and other informational and educational content.
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Targeted sites address specific interests such as vegetarianism. For example, blackvegetarians.com provides recipes, resources, and profiles of people and events, and explores the health impact of food choices. Similarly, the Black Vegetarian Society of New York explains the benefits of plant-based nutrition and holistic health practices through workshops, restaurant outings, and events. Techies can blog with fellow vegetarians at byanygreensnecessary.com/blog. The mission of the Office of Minority Health (OMH) is to improve and protect the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will eliminate health disparities. The OMH site (minorityhealth.hhs.gov) offers information about cultural competency, health topics, funding, and minority populations. BlackNews.com offers a comprehensive list of African American health Web sites and organizations from the African American Health Coalition to the National African American Tobacco Education Network (http://www.blacknews.com/directory/black_african _american_health.shtml). An interesting business venture is journeytowellness .com, a subsidiary of BioTechnical Communications (BTC), a company specializing in the production and dissemination of health care information targeted to ethnic minorities. BTC president and CEO is Mary Harris, an African American with a PhD degree in molecular genetics from Cornell University. JourneyToWellness .com seeks to inspire and empower African Americans to take control and improve their health. This award-winning, online health magazine for African Americans provides current information about black health and wellness, including topics such as diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, cancer, asthma, obesity, and high blood pressure. Churches are important gathering and influential instructional places for African Americans. In March 2010, the National Black Church Initiative (naltblackchurch.com), a coalition of 34,000 African American and Latino churches, announced the Health Emergency Declaration (HED), a comprehensive approach to confront health disparities in the black community. The Web site includes links to resources on topics like spirituality, heath and healing, family health, physical health and fitness, and health articles. With an international scope, the Balm In Gilead (balmingilead.org) develops educational and training programs specifically designed to meet the unique needs of African American and African congregations that strive to become community centers for health education and disease prevention. Their site provides to direct news feeds from CNN Health and downloadable posters and materials such as ‘‘Cervical Cancer and HPV: What Sisters Need to Know’’ and ‘‘The African American Denominational Leadership Health Initiative Program’’ brochures. Web sites can be useful starting points, but users should consult qualified health professionals regarding specific medical concerns or treatment. Print Resources Print media is active in the effort to improve gaps in minority health statistics. Many print resources are available on the Internet as PDF (Portable Document
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Format) documents. Promoting Health Equity: A Resource to Help Communities Address Social Determinants of Health is a workbook published by the CDC for community organizations. The purpose of Black Health Magazine is to empower readers to make healthy lifestyle changes. The issues include news and articles on a variety of African American health-related issues. Published quarterly, Real Health is distributed through doctors’ offices, health clinics, and community-based organizations. This magazine covers fitness and nutrition as well as a broad range of health issues affecting black families. Staple reading material in the African American community such as Ebony, Essence, and Black Enterprise incorporates a variety of lifestyle, wellness, and economic-oriented articles related to health care. There is an abundance of books on minority health. The Library of Congress has a selected reading list, ‘‘African American Health and Wellness,’’ on its Web site (www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/SciRefGuides/africanamericanhealth). A search for resources about African American health on Amazon.com retrieves over one thousand titles in various formats—hardcover, paperback, and downloadable digital articles as well as Kindle versions.
Outlook Clearly, the conversation about African American health problems and solutions has surfaced in the popular culture. The documented disparity in the prevalence of disease along with the obstacles to overcoming access to care and lifestyle modification issues will keep the topic in the mainstream for years to come. In addition to health research, community action, government involvement, and increased Internet and print resources, there may be other lesser-known systemic changes that could influence the future. The February 2010 issue of Black Health Magazine honored twenty-five influential African Americans in the health care, medicine, pharmaceuticals, and health food industries. Interestingly, a large number of the honorees are in senior management positions in these familiar corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, ConAgra, Gilead, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Aetna, and Kaiser Permanente. These highachieving men and women are undoubtedly potential role models. More importantly, by virtue of their positions, they could also be agents of change who influence African American health disparities. It appears that the best hope for eliminating the health and wellness gap between African Americans and the white population is to achieve a strategic balance between access to health care and preventive health initiatives. Perhaps the next generation will have the determination, education, information, and ingenuity to solve these seemingly intractable problems and change the course of this aspect of African American culture. See also: African Cultural Influences; Drugs and Popular Culture; Food and Cooking; Games, Video Games, and Toys; Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations; Midwives and Midwifery; Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc.
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Further Reading Black Health Magazine. 2010. ‘‘Honoring 25 of the Most Influential African Americans in Healthcare, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals and Health Foods Industries.’’ (February): 36–88. Jones, James H. 1981. Bad Blood: The Scandalous Story of the Tuskegee Experiment—When Government Doctors Played God and Science went Mad. New York: Free Press. Livingston, Ivor Lensworth, ed. 2004. Praeger Handbook of Black American Health: Policies and Issues Behind Disparities. 2nd ed. Westport, CT: Praeger. National Center for Health Statistics. 2009. Health, United States, 2008 with Chartbook. Hyattsville, MD. Office of Minority Health & Health Disparities (OMHD). http://www.cdc.gov/omhd/. Randall, Vernellia. 2006. Dying While Black. Dayton, OH: Seven Principles Press. Satcher, David M. 2006. ‘‘Securing the Right to Healthcare and Well-being.’’ In The Covenant with Black America. Chicago: Third World Press. Savitt, Todd L. 1978. Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in Antebellum Virginia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Wallach, Jennifer Jensen. 2009. ‘‘Tuskegee Experiment.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twentyfirst Century. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Cheryl Jones Hamberg
Megachurches and Ministers The cultural and religious trend of large churches led by charismatic and influential ministers is not new to the African American community, but the advances in communications media technology in the late 1980s and 1990s increased the visibility of a number of churches and their leadership to the point that the terms ‘‘megachurch’’ and ‘‘megapreacher’’ were coined to identify ministries and personalities with a national (and sometimes international) level of celebrity and influence. In particular, churches that experienced explosive growth over a period of years (and sometimes months) as opposed to gradual growth over decades were often categorized as megachurches, especially when their active membership and attendance numbered in thousands instead of hundreds. In many cases, fast-growing churches and their pastors were not part of traditional and historic church denominations, but independent ministries where the pastor was often the founder of the church body. In other cases, large churches were the mother churches of African American denominations and/or situated in the largest American cities, drawing direct support from large urban populations as well as their key role and status within the national denominational structure. As a result, persons chosen, appointed, and/or elected to serve as pastors, bishops, and in other executive leadership roles in these settings could also be viewed as megapreachers, because their influence extended beyond the local congregation and community to the entire denomination and the national/
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international arena if in affiliation with religious organizations such as the Congress of National Black Churches and World Council of Churches. Examples of the many independent black megachurches and ministers include the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, pastored for many years by Arthur Brazier; Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California, led by Kenneth Ulmer; Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles, founded by Frederick K. C. Price; Word of Faith International Christian Center in Southfield, Michigan, founded by Keith Butler; New Light Christian Center Church in Houston, Texas, founded by Ira V. Hilliard; World Changers Church International in College Park, Georgia, founded by Creflo A. Dollar Jr.; and the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, founded by T. D. Jakes, arguably the most famous living African American minister. Megachurches that have emerged out of more traditional religious denominations include Abyssinian Baptist Church, founded in New York City in 1809; Greater Allen Cathedral of New York, originally founded in 1834 as Allen African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Jamaica (Queens), New York; First AME Church, Los Angeles, California (founded in 1872); Greater St. Stephen Ministries in New Orleans, Louisiana, originally founded as Greater St. Stephen Baptist Church in 1937; West Angeles Church of God in Christ (COGIC), founded in 1943 in Los Angeles; Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC), founded in Chicago in 1961; Windsor Village United Methodist Church (UMC) in Houston Texas, founded in 1961; and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia (founded in 1983). Major growth in certain denominational churches took place when charismatic ministers with progressive ideas for worship and ministry or service generated not only community interest or excitement, but also tangible support for church initiatives through active involvement and financial support from their congregations and other supporters. In New York, ministers such as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (Abyssinian Baptist) and Floyd Flake (Allen AME) impacted their churches and communities by becoming major political as well as spiritual leaders, with their service and experience in the U.S. Congress. Flake later expanded his leadership role to higher education in 2000, when he began a term of service as president of his alma mater, Wilberforce University, a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) founded by the AME Church in 1856. Other ministers may not have opted to run for political office, but used different approaches to develop their churches. The progressive and innovative leadership of persons such as Calvin Butts (successor to the Powell legacy at Abyssinian Baptist), Cecil Murray (First AME), Charles Blake (West Angeles COGIC), Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. (Trinity United Church of Christ), Paul Morton (Greater St. Stephen Baptist), Kirbyjon Caldwell (Windsor Village UMC), and Eddie Long (New Birth Baptist) may have created controversy inside and outside of their denominations, but the obvious success of their ministries cannot be discounted. Morton became a leader and founder of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship in 1994, as well as a successful gospel artist and megachurch pastor in New Orleans, but experienced major challenges after his church locations were destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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While an exception to the norm, several successful megachurches have been headed by women ministers, including Payne Memorial AME Church in Baltimore, Maryland, which experienced phenomenal growth under the pastorate of Vashti McKenzie, who went on to become the first female bishop in the history of the oldest African American religious denomination and first president of the AME Council of Bishops, with oversight of the entire AME church internationally. Christ Universal Temple, founded in 1956 by female pastor Johnnie Colemon in Chicago, and Jericho City of Praise Church in Landover, Maryland, (founded by the late James R. Peebles in 1969 and led by his wife, Betty Peebles) are two other examples of female megapreachers who have built or sustained ministries which are now recognized as megachurches. Innovations in Megachuches Other aspects that seem common to ministries and leaders usually placed in the megachurch category include a willingness to be creative and innovative in presenting the gospel message. This can involve new approaches in terms of worship style (more contemporary music, drama, dance, and other creative expression alongside or in place of traditional worship formats); different outreach and fellowship approaches based on age and other life categories (children and youth, young adults and singles, seniors, etc.); and use of one or more media technologies on a regular basis for distributing, recording, or broadcasting of services, sermons, music, drama, or other church activities. Some use the same types of advertising or marketing campaigns as other businesses, including radio, television, billboards, newspaper and other print messages, and so on, to increase visibility and public awareness in the ‘‘religious marketplace’’ and attract potential new members and supporters. With the advent of the Internet, many ministries (and especially megachurches) maintain extensive Web sites and use technology to add ‘‘ministry partners’’ to distribution lists for church communications. Some are even equipped to receive contributions electronically via secured credit card transactions as well as the more traditional ‘‘checks in the mail,’’ creating additional revenue streams from supporters who may never come in person to a church building but are impacted by the ministries’ broadcasts on radio, television, Web site, or newer Internet technologies such as streaming video (YouTube, etc.). The entrepreneurial approach can extend to purchase of ministry products such as compact discs, digital video discs (DVDs), books, and other media, further blurring the line of a church’s traditional nonprofit status. In the case of extremely successful megapreacher T. D. Jakes, an attempt has been made to clearly distinguish his church (the Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas) and its revenues from T. D. Jakes Ministries, which handles Jakes’ personal entrepreneurial activities and financial revenues as a successful writer-producer of books, plays, musical recordings, films, and other media products. A number of ministers and ministries (including some black megachurches) have been called into question for advocating what some have called the ‘‘prosperity gospel,’’ and are perceived by some as unethically or immorally promoting achievement of
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personal wealth as a sign of God’s favor and blessing at the expense of more traditional religious values. Part of the ministers’ counterargument is that God wants the church and its people to prosper in order to empower and bless others (as well as themselves) in the ‘‘here and now’’ as well as in the afterlife. When large attendance or membership produces substantial financial resources through offerings, wise use of these resources can spur faith-based entrepreneurship and community development activities as well as spiritual empowerment of individuals and families. In the best cases, black megachurches and their ministers successfully balance spiritual and temporal issues, using their influence to positively address and impact situations affecting local, national, or international communities with both traditional and innovative approaches to ‘‘building the kingdom.’’ Besides constructing or expanding impressive church buildings (or as in the case of Kenneth Ulmer, buying the former arena of the Los Angeles Lakers, converting it into a worship center, and leasing it for other events when not in use by the church), many megachurches have built child care, educational, or retirement facilities; renovated neighborhoods by building housing complexes or subdivisions; and provided supplemental community social services such as food distribution, counseling, job and career training, health screenings, and outreach to the disadvantaged and imprisoned. Controversies in Church Organizations In the wake of highly publicized financial as well moral scandals involving clergy from all types of church and religious affiliations, fiscal accountability is as important as moral accountability in order to maintain the integrity of ministries and ministers. This is even more apparent with megachurches and other large religious organizations, which can generate millions of dollars on a frequent basis. When sound financial and accounting policies and procedures are not practiced consistently, irregularities and improper use of finances have led to the downfall of ministers as much as other moral and ethical failures. The case of Henry Lyons, former president of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A., drew international media attention beginning in 1997. While at first the organization continued to support him as their leader, his financial and moral failings not only caused his eventually removal from leadership and the end to his marriage, but Lyons was also convicted in 1999 of federal income tax evasion and fraud involving millions of dollars. As a result, he was sentenced to over four years in prison, which permanently damaged his integrity and credibility as a minister and religious leader. After his release from a Florida prison in 2003, Lyons was placed on five years probation and ordered by the court to pay $5.2 million in restitution costs. Shortly after his probation ended in 2008, Lyons sought to regain his former position as a candidate in the convention’s 2009 election, but was unsuccessful as the denomination elected Julius R. Scruggs as its new president. Once-successful megapreacher and recording artist Carlton Pearson went from being a protege of famed evangelist Oral Roberts and the pastor bishop of Higher Dimensions Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1990s to being discredited as a
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heretic after he began preaching a controversial ‘‘gospel of inclusion’’ in 2002 which challenged traditional church doctrine regarding sin and hell as eternal punishment. His church membership went from approximately five thousand to a few hundred, forcing Pearson into foreclosure on the church property and other financial problems. He eventually left his original denomination (COGIC) to affiliate with more liberal religious organizations, but did not regain his former level of popularity and support. Two black megapreachers and ministries from the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, area, Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Creflo Dollar of World Changers Church International, were among six ministries that U.S. Senator Charles ‘‘Chuck’’ Grassley of Iowa specifically cited in launching a November 2007 congressional investigation into the practices of large religious organizations. As chair of the Senate Finance Committee, he claimed that the government was concerned about possible abuses of church tax-exempt status, especially when ministers appear to have the same wealth and luxurious lifestyles as successful persons in other occupations. Megachurches and megapreachers continue to function in the religious and cultural climate of the twenty-first century as models of faith-based entrepreneurship. Because of their spiritual and religious identification, they will always be expected to maintain the highest standards of integrity when successful, and held to a higher standard of accountability if or when they fail. See also: Television Evangelism Further Reading Cothran, John C. 2006. A Search for African American Life, Achievement, and Culture. Carrollton, TX: Stardate Publishing. Crawford, Selwyn. 2006. ‘‘The Fall and Rise of Carlton Pearson.’’ Dallas Morning News, March 3. http://www.dallasnews.com. Day, Sherri. 2009. ‘‘The Rev. Henry Lyons Wants to Lead National Baptist Convention USA Again.’’ St. Petersburg Times, February 5. http://www.tampabay.com/ news/religion/article973354.ece. Ebony. 2001. ‘‘The New Megachurches: Huge Congregations with Spectacular Structures Spread Across the U.S.’’ 57 (December): 148–60. Moon, Fletcher F. 2006. ‘‘Faith-Based Entrepreneurship.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Business, Vol. 1. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Fletcher F. Moon
Men, African American, Images of The depiction of black men in popular culture has, until recently, consisted mainly of negative stereotypes. This image stemmed from the ideology of black inferiority that prevailed during the era of official segregation. Some of the best-
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selling popular literature of the late nineteenth century reflected and perpetuated negative stereotypes. Thomas Dixon Jr., a popular author of the period, published The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, which glorified the Klan and portrayed it as a protector of the southern way of life. During the same period, African American stereotypes became a popular vehicle for entertainment in minstrel shows and other productions. The common themes in these performances were jokes highlighting laziness, ignorance, and other negative traits using crude versions of the black dialect. Minstrel shows featuring white performers in blackface were a popular mainstay of traveling shows and vaudeville productions. Toms, Coons, and Other Images With the advent of motion pictures early in the twentieth century, stereotypical depictions of African American men moved from the stage to the screen. In Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, film historian Donald Bogle identified the principal stereotypes depicted in motion pictures. These included Toms, coons, mammies, mulattoes, and bucks. The name ‘‘Tom’’ was derived from the character in Harriett Beecher Stowe’s nineteenth-century best-seller, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In films, Toms were always loyal to their owners and employers. They were depicted as obsequious, selfless, and kindly, traits that endeared them to white audiences. ‘‘Coons’’ were irresponsible, lazy, and dishonest. They were frequently shown eating watermelons, stealing chickens, or shooting dice while speaking ungrammatical English. The ‘‘Black Buck’’ character was a large, fearsome, hypersexualized male. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 production, Birth of a Nation, depicted the Jim Crow South, glorified the Ku Klux Klan, and featured stereotypes that included a ‘‘Black Buck’’ who had an uncontrollable lust for white women. Song of the South was a popular Walt Disney adaptation of African American folktales transcribed in the late nineteenth century by Joel Chandler Harris in Uncle Remus Tales. Disney’s 1946 production presented a romanticized version of the South during the era of segregation. African American men were portrayed as happy and content in their subservient occupations in the Jim Crow South. Amos ’n’ Andy was one of the most popular radio programs in the 1930s. One of the principal characters, Kingfish, was a dishonest schemer who entertained audiences with his failed schemes and mangled grammar. Andy was slightly dimwitted and susceptible to Kingfish’s schemes. Kingfish and Andy fit Bogle’s ‘‘coon’’ paradigm. The program started as radio broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s and moved to television in the 1950s. African American stereotypes also featured prominently in product advertisements. Uncle Ben sold rice and Uncle Rastus was the Cream of Wheat chef. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, stereotypes of black men were ubiquitous and taken for granted as accurate portrayals. Newspapers, books, radio programs, and films reinforced these stereotypes on a daily basis.
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The explicit racial caricatures that were prevalent as late as the 1960s have largely disappeared, but harmful stereotypes endure. In Black Images in the White Mind, the authors examined the ways in which African Americans are depicted by the media and the influence this has on whites’ perceptions of blacks. They found that the media contributes to the perpetuation of stereotypes. An example can be seen in analyses of televised news programming. One stereotype is the depiction of black men as criminals. Researchers have found that crime reporting conveys a strong impression that violent crime is a threat to public safety and conveys the erroneous impression that the perpetrators are mostly black men. Local news programming relies heavily on crime reporting. Crime is easy to find, inexpensive to report, and it provides provocative visuals. Television broadcasters operate in a highly competitive marketplace, in which viewer numbers determine what stations can charge advertisers for commercial time. Attention-grabbing visuals attract viewers. African American men are depicted in crime stories at a rate that is disproportionate to their actual involvement. Entertainment Industry and Imagery The entertainment industry is reaping immense profits from the exploitation of racial stereotypes. Rap music is a multibillion-dollar industry that sold more than 80 million records in the U.S. in 2002. This represented nearly 13 percent of all recordings sold. Rap music is diverse and multifaceted, but the most prevalent and influential forms present negative images of African Americans. Many rap songs are commentaries on the violence, isolation, and impoverished conditions of life in the inner city. The lyrics express the danger, isolation, and fears of young people residing in economically depressed, hypersegregated neighborhoods. Many of the most popular rap songs contain lyrics portraying the violence and drug use associated with urban gang life. The music contains expressions of hostility toward whites, women, and law enforcement authorities. These rap songs celebrate a ghetto culture where the ‘‘code of the streets’’ prevails. This is represented by oppositional behavior and attitudes that reject mainstream values and glamorize individuals who engage in behavior that is criminal, self-destructive, and poses a danger to others. Much of the imagery in rap videos commodifies and exploits blackness much in the same way that pornography objectifies and commodifies women. Blacks are presented as objects for entertainment and consumption. Rap’s product is an extravagant, ‘‘ghetto fabulous’’ portrayal of life in inner-city neighborhoods. Young people are attracted to the ‘‘gangsta’’ images of tough ghetto youths driving luxury cars, ‘‘iced down’’ in flashy jewelry, wearing oversized shirts, baggy pants, surrounded by voluptuous, ‘‘video hos.’’ These images are little more than adolescent male fantasies, but the entertainment industry is profiting handsomely from a product manufactured in recording studios. Wynton Marsalis, a prominent musician and musical director of jazz at Lincoln Center, denounced rap as ‘‘ghetto minstrelsy.’’ It is no small irony that African
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American performers and record producers are complicit in this project. The ‘‘thug’’ image that many rappers work so hard to project is nothing less than an updated version of the ‘‘buck’’ character depicted in Birth of a Nation: a fearsome and hypersexualized black male. Rap performers are profiting from their music, but as bell hooks reported, when young black males ‘‘labor in the plantations of misogyny and sexism to produce gangsta rap,’’ it is a reflection of their own subjugation by powerful economic forces. Rap music is consumed by a large, international audience and it contributes to the ways in which young African American men are perceived. A new genre, ‘‘urban fiction,’’ has emerged in literature. These books are literary versions of the themes contained in rap music. The stories are set in the world of pimps, hustlers, ‘‘hos,’’ blinged-out rappers, and ‘‘round-the-way’’ baby mamas. The books are popular with large audiences. They describe the urban street scene using the ghetto slang of people who live in the ‘‘hood.’’ The antecedents to this genre were novels authored in the 1970s by Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck) that contained gritty depictions of the underworld and urban street life. Stereotypes about black men foster overt and unconscious discrimination. Scholars representing a range of academic disciplines have produced an extensive body of research that demonstrates the existence of unconscious discrimination. Their research shows that negative stereotypes often operate at an unconscious level, functioning outside of the person’s awareness at a level independent of conscious attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions. These unarticulated understandings are not present in an individual’s conscious memory; they are stored deeply in the psyche. This disposition is based on socialized attitudes and beliefs that are developed at an early age. Unconscious discrimination causes many whites to act in ways that disadvantage blacks without consciously intending to do so. Stereotypes in the Media The media’s depictions of black men have slowly evolved. In the 1960s, the film roles of Sidney Poitier represented a break from the demeaning stereotypes that had long dominated the media’s portrayal of blacks. Poitier’s on-screen relationships with white women challenged the ancient taboo against interracial relationships. The Cosby Show, which garnered large white and black audiences from 1984 to 1992, featured the everyday adventures of an educated, uppermiddle-class black family. Morgan Freeman was a credible president in the movie Deep Impact. Dennis Haysbert portrayed a fictional black president in the popular television program 24. Reality for the vast majority of black men is worlds away from the images depicted in popular culture. Most of them are married, gainfully employed, and focused on their families and careers. They live with their wives and children in single-family, detached homes in quiet, suburban communities. They vote and are otherwise civically engaged. Perceptions about African American men have improved in the generation since the 1960s. President Barack Obama’s election is a testament to the strides
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that have been made. His leadership of the world’s most powerful nation will diminish considerably the stereotypes that linger. The next generation will have an entirely different frame of reference and a different set of experiences than those prior generations had growing up. The critical point to acknowledge today, however, is that despite the great progress made since the 1960s, racial discrimination persists. It is a complex amalgam of overt discrimination, internalized stereotypes, and implicit biases that operates to the detriment of African Americans. See also: Gangsta Rap; Pimp Walk; Uncle Tom Further Reading Bogle, Donald. 1992. Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. New York: Continuum Publishing. Entman, Robert M., and Andrew Rojecki. 2000. The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gaertner, Samuel L., and John F. Dovidio. 2000. Reducing Intergroup Bias: The Common Ingroup Identity Model. Philadelphia: Psychology Press. hooks, bell. 1994. ‘‘Misogny, Gangsta Rap, and The Piano.’’ Z Magazine (February). http://race.eserver.org/misogny.txt Jones, James M. 1997. Prejudice and Racism. New York: McGraw Hill. Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. 2007. Hip Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politcs of Rap. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. Rome, Dennis. 2004. Black Demons: The Media’s Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Leland Ware
Metcalfe, Ralph H. (1910–78), Track and Field Sprinter, Politician, Ralph Metcalfe achieved well in two areas: Sports and politics. As an Olympic medalist, he was an iconic sports figure who, in the 1930s, was lauded as ‘‘the world’s fastest human.’’ In Track and Field, he was spotlighted in 1936, when he participated in the Olympic Games in Berlin with another iconic figure—Jesse Owens—and dealt a blow to Adolph Hitler simply by being black and winning the contest. The year 1936 has become enshrined in popular culture, particularly when referencing Jesse Owens and his fellow sprinters. The guiding ethic that Metcalfe demonstrated in sports was seen as well when he became a public servant. He believed in and practiced teamwork, clear direction toward one’s goal, and a crusading spirit. Clarence and Mamie Holmes Metcalfe were the parents of three children: Ralph Metcalfe was their third. The family moved to Chicago where the father worked in the stockyards and the mother became a dressmaker. Son Ralph showed an interest in and penchant for sports early on, and joined his high school’s track team at age fifteen. In 1929, he became a national interscholastic
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sprint champion. After enrolling in Marquette University, he enhanced his athletic skills and was soon one of the fastest sprinters in the world. Metcalfe also broke National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) records by becoming captain of the track team and by winning for three years (1932–34) the title National Collegiate Champion. Still at Marquette, he was selected for the U.S. Olympic team and ran in the 1932 and 1936 games. In the 1932 Olympics held in Los Angeles, he finished the 100-meter dash in a dead heat with Thomas Edward ‘‘Little Eddie’’ Tolan, who also set Olympic records and became the first black to win gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter dash. Although Tolan was declared the winner of the 100-meter, the two men had run the race in record time. Metcalfe graduated from Marquette in 1936 and went on to win both silver and gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. In the 100-meter, he finished second to legendary Jesse Owens and then joined Owens on the 400-meter relay team. That team won the race in world-record time, or 39.8 seconds. It was the 1936 Olympics that brought national shame to Berlin and insult to the African American winners, when German chancellor Adolph Hitler refused to shake Owens’s hand and was dismayed that his ‘‘master race’’ was unable to defeat the Americans. Metcalfe and Owens had mutual respect for each other and remained lifelong friends. After the Olympics, Metcalfe became a track coach and physical education teacher at historically black Xavier University in New Orleans. On leave from Xavier for a while, he received a master’s degree from the University of Southern California in 1939, and returned to Xavier until 1942. Metcalfe was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 and rose to the rank of first lieutenant. For his distinguished work in program planning, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. After his discharge in March 1946, Metcalfe returned to Chicago and, until 1949, was director of Chicago’s newly created Department of Civil Rights. He was appointed to the Illinois State Athletic Commission in 1949 and, at the same time, became politically active, working his way up the Democratic Party’s ladder. He was appointed as Third Ward committeeman in 1953, and in 1955 he was elected to the Chicago City Council. During this period as well, Metcalf was involved in a variety of public activities associated with athletics. He served on the Illinois State Athletic Commission from 1949 to 1952, and cochaired the Third Pan-American games Organizing Committee in 1959. Vice President Hubert Humphrey appointed him to the National AAU and NCAA Sports Arbitration Board. Later (1975– 77), Metcalf served on the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports. Metcalfe became one of Chicago’s most powerful African American politicians. The South Side had long been represented in the U.S. Congress by William Dawson, who retired before the 1970 elections. Then Metcalf succeeded Dawson handily in the November elections. Metcalfe was criticized, however, for being too cozy with Mayor William Daley’s machine, but he denied the allegation and in 1972 announced at a meeting of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) that he had ‘‘turned black,’’ that it was never too late to do so, and openly declared his support for his race. The local police department had a reputation for being
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ruthless in its treatment of African Americans. After allegations of police brutality emerged in Chicago, Metcalfe protested and he and Daley were now in open warfare. Daley’s candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, Edward Hanrahan, had engineered a police raid on Chicago’s Black Panther Party in 1969, leading to activist Fred Hampton’s death. Metcalfe refused to support the candidate, which further incensed Daley; the break between the two politicians became permanent. Metcalfe’s congressional hearings investigated and did find evidence of misuse of funds. Daley protested and tried to have Metcalfe stripped of his committee seat, but to no avail. Again, Metcalfe won reelection handily in the 1974 elections. Matters of local and national concerns that affected African Americans attracted Metcalfe’s attention. For example, his committee’s investigation of public health clinics in Alabama revealed mistreatment of some four hundred syphilis patents who were African American and who were left untreated. His committee attacked the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare for failing to assist by enforcing guidelines to prevent such neglect. Then the committee took on the Federal Aviation Agency for its failure to enforce safety standards. Metcalfe retained his interest in athletics, however, and founded the Ralph H. Metcalfe Youth Foundation. His also was a member of the Black Athlete’s Hall of Fame, the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, and the U.S. Track Hall of Fame. He married Madalynne Fay Young in 1947, and they had one son, Ralph Jr. Ralph Metcalfe had enjoyed a political life that supported the needs of African Americans, but this life ended when he died suddenly of an apparent heart attack in his Chicago home on October 10, 1978. See also: Politics and Government Further Reading 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, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Manheim, James M. ‘‘Ralph Metcalf.’’ 2001. Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale Group. Smith, Jessie Carney. 2003. Black Firsts. 2nd ed. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Thieme, Darius L. ‘‘Ralph H. Metcalf.’’ 1999. In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale. Frederick D. Smith
Micheaux, Oscar (1884–1951), Film Director and Producer, Writer Oscar Micheaux is distinguished as a pioneer in the film industry. Born near Metropolis, Illinois, Micheaux grew up in Great Bend, Kansas, with his parents, Calvin and Bell, and his ten siblings. The future filmmaker and
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self-published author would later marry Alice Russell. As a young man, Micheaux’s jobs ranged from being a train porter in Chicago to being a homesteader in South Dakota. However, it was in the film industry where this homesteader-turned-filmmaker carved his name and blazed trails for today’s filmmakers. Through his ‘‘race films,’’ this auteur disrupted conventional assumptions about race and about black people. (Though the term ‘‘African American’’ is used to connote a race of people in contemporary publications, ‘‘black’’ is used in this entry in order to reflect the historical context as well as the vernacular during Micheaux’s four-decade-long career in the film industry.) In the midst of turbulent economic times and a tumultuous racial milieu, Micheaux’s creative portrayal of the black experience in his films challenged dominant ideology. His unconventional black film aesthetic was decisively different from classical Hollywood style and subsequently became the hallmark of his robust body of work. In 1918, Micheaux established his own movie production company, Micheaux Book and Film. Being an independent filmmaker liberated him from the constraints of major studios and gave him more flexibility in exploring the complexities of black life. Micheaux was dedicated to black film production during a time when black people (not to mention black films) were denigrated and not readily accepted by mainstream America. Overcoming insurmountable odds, this successful businessman wrote, produced, and directed a full-length silent film titled The Homesteader in 1919. With this extraordinary accomplishment, Micheaux became the first black person to make a film. More than a decade later, Micheaux released his first feature film with sound titled The Exile (1931). It is speculated that during his career in the film industry, Micheaux wrote, directed, and produced more than forty films. (Due to the paucity of records as well as the poor condition of Micheaux’s extant works, actual numbers are unknown. The ‘‘arguable discrepancies’’ in his filmography are highly debated and contested by media scholars and critics.) His cinematic works span several decades and center on revealing aspects of black life. They include Within Our Gates (1920), Body and Soul (1925), A Daughter of the Congo (1930), Black Magic (1932), Harlem After Midnight (1934), God’s Stepchildren (1938), Birthright (1939), and The Betrayal (1948). Additionally, it is speculated that Micheaux wrote seven novels, including his first novel, titled The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer (1913). Other books by Micheaux include The Homesteader (1917), The Winds From Nowhere (1943), The Case of Mrs. Wingate (1945), The Story of Dorothy Stanfield (1946), and Masquerade (1947). Driven by his desire to make the multidimensional experiences of black people more visible in cinematic form, Micheaux left a rich legacy in American cinema. He has been celebrated as a ‘‘pioneer of Black feature film’’ and lauded as ‘‘one of the most prolific Black filmmakers in American cinema.’’ He has also been criticized for his artistic flaws, amateur-like cinematic skills, and sometimes controversial content. Undeniably, however, Micheaux made an indelible mark on the field through his poignant black-themed films. His work was also
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celebrated in June 2010, when the U.S. Postal Service issued a postage stamp in his honor. His is the 33rd stamp in the Postal Service’s Black Heritage series. See also: Entertainment Industry; Film and Filmmakers Further Reading Green, J. Ronald. 2004. With a Crooked Stick—The Films of Oscar Micheaux. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Lopate, Phillip. 2007. ‘‘The Independent.’’ New York Times, August 05. http://movies .nytimes.com/2007/08/05/books/review/Lopate-t.html?scp=2&sq=oscar%20micheaux &st=cse. McGilligan, Patrick. 2007. Oscar Micheaux, the Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker. New York: HarperCollins. Soncerey L. Montgomery
Midwives and Midwifery Darlene Hines, in Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, states that ‘‘Black women have been prominent in the provision of health care since the colonial period, but their service as midwives has been especially remarkable.’’ In the African American community, being a midwife was considered a prestigious position and was valued on the same level for women as that of being a minister was for men. It offered a chance for one to practice the customs and other elements of popular culture. The traditional midwife was usually an older woman who assisted other women with childbirth customarily in the home of the woman who was giving birth. Assistance included postpartum care of these women. The tradition of African American midwife practitioners gradually ended in the South in the 1970s, when the medical establishment no longer licensed new midwives and only permitted registered nurse-midwives to practice. This ended a traditional practice in the African American community that had existed since the first slaves were brought to the United States. African American culture has long helped to shape our country, including the provision of health care of women. The legacy of the African American midwives is unique. It is rooted in Africa and continued during slavery and into the twenty-first century. The practice of slavery greatly restricted the ability of Americans of African descent to practice their cultural traditions, which over time were modified or blended within the European American culture. Sharon Robinson, a professor of midwifery, noted in her 1984 study for the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery, that the first black lay midwife came to America in 1619. With her African knowledge of health and healing, she introduced and preserved traditional rituals of womanhood, childbearing, and family practices. These rituals included prayer, massage, breastfeeding information, postpartum care, homage, respect for the ancestors, and much more.
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This legacy continued in the South where there has existed a community of common views, whereby health beliefs and behavior patterns were culturally determined. Culture also played a central role in how, when, and if people sought health care as well as how they responded to its treatments and recommendations. The midwife was an essential part of the health care system. Around the middle 1700s, childbirth at home started to decline for many native born white women mainly because they began to rely on male physicians to deliver their babies. This did not prevail in the South, where the midwife tradition and home births was a custom that both black and white women were very reluctant to give up in favor of a male-dominated health care system. In rural southern communities, the midwife tradition continued into the closing decades of the twentieth century. Throughout the slaveholding South, African American midwives had the responsibility for managing pregnancy and childbirth. These women were slaves practicing on their own plantations as well as attending births on neighbors’ plantations, for which their owners collected a fee. In the rural South, slave midwives also delivered the children of white women. The slave midwives were knowledgeable in the physiological, medical, and spiritual aspects of childbirth, thus holding a powerful and respected position in communities and plantations. In many instances, slave midwives were recognized as healers and attended the sick as part of their practices. Todd Savitt notes that free black women also marketed their skills as birth attendants to white clientele, while at the same time offering their services to neighbors and kin in their own communities. In the African American community, women who became midwives did so through an apprenticeship to other older experienced midwives, who were frequently family members and had borne children of their own. Often a family tradition of midwifery spanned generations, with women passing on both knowledge and culture from the past to the present. The young apprentice usually shared close ties with her mentor and had received the spiritual call to practice in the same way that a person is called to religious ministry. Prayer and divine guidance were crucial to the midwife’s success in delivering babies and nurturing the mother back to health. The African American midwife’s culture of care and responsibility with its African roots did not end with the birth of the infant, but the midwife was responsible for the postpartum care of the mother, making sure that both she and her child were spiritually and physically protected from harm. The midwife was an instructor in aftercare, in making sure the mother understood that she was expected to refrain from normal activities, avoid eating certain foods, and keep close to home for up to a month after birth. This practice continued until the end of the twentieth century. It is important to recognize that these midwives historically viewed themselves as socially embedded in the cultural and religious belief systems of their own communities. They knew that having control of their particular set of medical skills allowed them a measure of independence and authority in the broader society. Still, their spiritual call and the driving intervention of God were believed to take precedence over formal training when a midwife was attending a woman giving birth.
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The favorable attitude toward African American midwives began to change in the 1920s in certain parts of the South, most notable in Norfolk, Virginia, where African American midwives assisted in numerous births only after they were required to receive training from local physicians and nurses. With the improvements in medical technology, the African American midwife came under pressure in regards to the increase in infant and maternal death rate, especially in the southern section of the country. Concerned with the increase in the infant mortality rate, the U.S. government began to implement guidelines after reviewing the system of birth delivery. Rural African American midwives were the direct target of the government’s review. The state of Alabama, in 1918, passed a state law requiring the practicing midwives to attend a short course at Tuskegee Institute (now University) to learn about basic hygiene and simple domestic tasks, although the midwives were already proficient in these areas. The women who attended the course were eventually more respected as midwives in their community. The new guidelines and requirements, along with nationwide decisions, pressured many African American midwives to stop practicing their trade. The federal government continued its support in decreasing the infant mortality rate in the United States. In 1921, the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act was signed by President Warren G. Harding. It was the first federal social welfare program created explicitly for women and children. From then through the Great Depression, the work of the African American midwife was greatly scrutinized. The act provided funds to each state to train midwives. The act targeted ‘‘granny’’ midwives, most of whom lived in the South, whose childbirth practices were unregulated. Midwives were permitted to work under a doctor in clinics if they exhibited strong morals and cleanliness traits, and if they passed the examination to practice. Since most were experienced, they easily passed the examination, but they still had to follow a new set of intrusive guidelines. These midwives were forbidden to use any of the traditional methods that they had practiced in the past. By the 1970s, African American lay midwifery was completely outlawed in most southern states and the strong bond between women in the African American community that midwifery had secured was broken. African American women were now forced to depend on outsiders for medical care they had always trusted and valued from within the community and to give up the traditions that they had been practicing for generations. Because of the contributions of the work of the African American midwives, a whole new health profession developed for providing quality accessible care for all women—the establishment of the Certified Nurse Midwifery Program. Notable Midwives in History The work of the skilled midwife and nurse Biddy Mason is worthy of note. She was born Bridget Mason, a slave in Hancock County, Mississippi. In 1818, she migrated to California, and legally gained her freedom on January 21, 1856. No doubt Mason learned her skills from older slaves while growing up in the South. She practiced her
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profession throughout her trip to the West and continued it when she arrived. According to Notable Black American Women, Mason’s ‘‘consistently high standards in the successful practice of her midwifery skills among all social classes allowed her to attain economic independence.’’ She was well-respected among the newly arriving immigrants as well as among Native Americans and the wealthy. Always prudent with her earnings, Mason invested in real estate and became one of the first African American women to own property in downtown Los Angeles. She possessed the customs and beliefs seen earlier among African American midwives of the South. She became philanthropic and aided the poor and needy regardless of race. Mason was also deeply religious, leaving a legacy of social philanthropy, familiar nurturing, and spiritual enrichment of the community. New focus has been placed on the important contributions of these early untrained health professionals. In 2005, a new exhibit, housed at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, displayed the contribution of the African American midwife, ‘‘Reclaiming Midwives: Pillars of Community Support.’’ This exhibit described how these granny midwives greatly influenced the trained and licensed nurse midwives of today. The exhibit revealed the untold story of other important African American midwives who were at the center of health and social support in their communities. This exhibit spans from the seventeenth century to present-day beliefs held by African American nurses and midwives. One example is Margaret Charles Smith, an Alabama midwife who was featured in ‘‘Listen to Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife.’’ Another outstanding midwife was Maude Callen, who in 1951 was featured in Life magazine, which described her work as a nurse-midwife in rural South Carolina. A traveling exhibit that illustrated the importance of the contribution of the African American midwives was that of ‘‘Reclaiming Midwives: Stills from All My Babies,’’ with photographs by Robert Galbraith, and a film by George C. Stoney. The exhibit toured from November 13, 2006, until April 2, 2007. The film featured Albany, Georgia, midwife Mary Francis Hill Coley (1900–66). One of the main purposes of the film was to train midwives around the world. There was also Mamie Odessa Hale Garland, who was born in 1910, in Keeny’s Creek, West Virginia, and attended the Tuskegee School of NurseMidwifery for Colored Nurses in Alabama. Garland served as a midwife consultant for the Arkansas Department of Health from 1945 to1950. Because of her experience, she is credited with training the state’s elderly and illiterate granny midwives. Others worth mention are: Sybil Harris, a preeminent nineteenthcentury midwife from Lakeview, Oregon; and ‘‘Aunt’’ Nancy Phillips, nurse and midwife in Wyoming’s remote gold towns in the late 1800s. Though not specifically aimed at African Americans, certification programs in the profession of midwifery are currently offered as a part of alternative medicine programs in several academic institutions across the country. See also: African Cultural Influences; Medical Schools; National Medical Association
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Further Reading Beardsley, Edward H. 1987. A History of Neglect. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Bell, Pegge L. (n.d.) ‘‘Mamie Odessa Hale Garland (1911–1968?).’’ Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.net. http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/ entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1662 Fraser, Gertrude Jacinta. 1998. African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Galbraith, Roberts, photographs, and a film by George C. Stoney. 2006–7.‘‘Reclaiming Midwives: Stills from All My Babies.’’ Traveling exhibition, November 13–April 2. http://cds.aas.duke.edu/exhibit/reclaimingmidwives.html. Martin, J., and C. Panicucci. 1996. ‘‘Health Related Practices and Priorities: The Health Behaviors and Beliefs of Community Living Black Older Women.’’ Journal of Gerontological Nursing 22 (April): 41–47. Maxwell, Kelena Reid. 2005. ‘‘Midwives.’’ In Black Women in America, 2nd ed., Vol. 2. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Oxford University Press Savitt, Todd. 1978. Medicine and Slavery: The Disease and Health Care of Blacks in Antebellum Virginia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Seaholm, Megan. ‘‘Midwives.’’ 1993. In Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Carlson Publishing. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1992. Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research. Zook, Kristal Brent. 2005. ‘‘Lessons from African-American Midwife Traditions.’’ NPR.org, December 19. http://npr.org/templates. Mattie L. McHollin
Military As early as 1777, African Americans, whether enslaved people or free, fought for freedom at home and the liberation of people abroad. Yet, despite their participation in every major U.S. war and conflict, their recognition for accomplishments and fight for integration into the armed forces was not easy. Prior to the passage of Executive Order 9981 by President Harry S. Truman in 1948, the United States reluctantly acquired the use of African Americans during war yet sought to exclude them or limited their numbers of enlistment during times of peace and stability. Nearly 5,000 African Americans fought and died in most of the major battles during the Revolutionary War (1775–83) helping to gain independence for America only to find themselves excluded from military service after victory was achieved. During the Battle of New Orleans (1814–15), approximately 4,700 soldiers were free people of color from New Orleans. Following General Jackson’s victory, the U.S. military resumed its policy of excluding African Americans from military service. Even during the enlistment of African Americans in the armed forces, it was a standard practice by the military to create all-black units whenever possible.
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Moreover, it was a common practice to use African Americans in menial roles and to provide them with weapons only when they were in dire need. This was evident during the Civil War (1861–65). During the early years of the conflict, the Union (Northern states) was reluctant about using African Americans in combat roles. However, as early as 1862, the large number of freed slaves, coupled with an ever-increasing shortage of white males, led the Union to rethink its policy of enlisting African Americans. On July 16, 1862, Congress authorized the Enlistment Act, which enlisted African Americans for performing wartime duties. By 1863, the Northern states realized that in order for them to defeat the South, they needed to enlist as many able-bodied males possible. The first black regiment formed by the Union was the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers to fight against Confederate soldiers. This skirmish took place at Island Mound, Missouri, in October 1862. The first major battle carried out by an all-colored troop was the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, which was one of the first black regiments formed by the northern military. On July 18, 1863, this group participated in an attack of Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina, that nearly killed, wounded, or captured half of this unit. The courage and valor of this regiment paved the way for the formation of additional black regiments by the Union. Overall, it was reported that African Americans comprised nearly 179,000 (10 percent of the Union Army) and approximately 19,000 served in the Union Navy. In addition, there were nearly 200,000 recently freed people in what were then commonly referred to as service units. Members of these noncombat support units performed such functions as cooks, teamsters, laborers, carpenters, chaplains, guards, nurses, scouts, and surgeons. Though African American women were not allowed to join the military, they were still able to contribute to the war efforts by serving as nurses, spies, and scouts, the most famous being Harriet Tubman. Throughout the war, many of these patriots gave their lives for the Union cause in an effort to demonstrate their fight for freedom. Sixteen were publicly honored and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Following the end of the Civil War, Congress authorized the establishment of six black regiments to serve in the army during peace efforts. All of these units were under the guidance of white officers. Commonly referred to by Native Americans as ‘‘Buffalo Soldiers,’’ these regiments were mainly stationed in the Southwest and Great Plains. Their main objectives were building roads, stringing telegraph wire, building forts, and maintaining order in Indian territories. Yet, the men of the 9th and 10th Cavalries displayed valor, patriotism, and courage during the American Indian and Spanish-American wars. During World War I (1914–18), many African Americans answered the call for volunteers, lending their support toward the war efforts. Of course, their duties were mainly those of laborers in the army and servants in the navy. Still, there were several African American regiments that were formed, with the most recognizable being the ‘‘Fighting 369th.’’ In 1918, while stationed in Brest, France, this unit went into battle and remained on the front line for 191 consecutive days without surrendering or losing a prisoner. For their heroic valor, this unit was awarded France’s highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre.
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Again, World War II (1941–45) brought the same plight for African Americans. Segregation still existed and they were relegated to menial tasks. However, as early as 1942, several African American divisions were engaged in battles throughout Europe. Such divisions and battalions as the 92nd and 93rd Divisions, the 761st Tank Battalion, and the 99th Pursuit Squadron were engaged in major battles. It was during this time that the famed Tuskegee Airmen group was formed. This all-black program graduated 994 pilots from 1941 through 1946, who received commissions and pilot wings. Despite their heroic efforts during battle, and the large number African Americans who registered for the armed services, it would be three years after the war before the military was ordered to integrate. The last of these segregated units continued during the Korean War (1950–53). The 24th Infantry, an all-black unit that had been in existence for eighty-one years, encountered a Korean regiment on July 22, 1950. This all-black unit was credited with the first victory for U.N. forces in Korea. By the end of the Vietnam War (1959–75), the draft had ended and the military relied solely on volunteers. Since then, African American men and women have continued to answer the call to duty and fight for freedom in the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. See also: Men, African American, Images of; Powell, Colin Further Reading Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. 1996. Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African American Achievement. New York: William Morrow. Buckley, Gail. 2001. American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm. New York: Random House. Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. 1948. ‘‘Executive Order 9981.’’ July 26. http:// www.trumanlibrary.org/9981.htm. Natly, Bernard C. 1986. Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military. New York: Free Press. Sherman E. Pyatt
Million Man March On Monday, October 16, 1995, African American men came together in Washington, DC, demonstrating a spirit of unity and solidarity despite their diversity of backgrounds, lifestyles, religious beliefs, social and economic status, age ranges, and other differences. While debates continued as to the actual number of participants, with some arguing that it involved more or less than its title and stated goal, the Million Man March achieved its objective of a peaceful gathering to affirm black manhood in the last decade of the twentieth century. The march also overcame controversy involving the person generally credited as its originator and primary leader, Louis Farrakhan, minister of the Nation of
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Islam, and attempts to discredit the significance of the march before and afterward as merely a ‘‘one-day event.’’ Arguably the largest single public gathering in the history of the United States at the time, the Million Man March converged in the same general area as the famous 1963 March on Washington, best remembered for the ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech by Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The focal point for the 1995 march was the mall area between the United States Capitol and the Washington Monument, with the speakers’ platform erected near the Capitol steps. One year earlier, Farrakhan convened a ‘‘For Black Men Only’’ rally in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, which drew an attendance of approximately 17,000. The focus and messages of that meeting included encouragement of love and brotherhood among black men; its demonstration by showing respect to each other, to black women, to children and families; showing support of black businesses and religious institutions; and making verbal commitments to reduce violence in black homes and communities. The success of this gathering, held during the winter and snowy weather conditions, prompted Farrakhan and others to begin organizing a national event to address the same objectives. Black ministers including Benjamin Chavis (later Muhammad), Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton were joined by scholar/authors Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson as prominent supporters of the national ‘‘day of atonement’’ for black men proposed by Farrakhan, and began to encourage participation and attendance through their speeches, writings, media interviews, and extensive travel to meetings with other black leaders and community groups throughout the country. While Chavis held the official title of National Director of the Million Man March, many observers and reporters perceived it (for better or worse) as being ‘‘Farrakhan’s March.’’ While the overall concept was generally embraced, many persons expressed misgivings about the prominence and leadership of Farrakhan and Chavis in the event. Farrakhan’s status as an Islamic minister, as well as previous statements and actions attributed to him, were considered controversial if not completely objectionable to many inside and outside of the African American community, while Chavis had gained notoriety during his brief tenure as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for sexual harassment charges and improper financial dealings. As a result, congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, General Colin Powell, and U.S. Commission on Civil Rights chair Mary Frances Berry were among the black leaders who went on record as being opposed to the leadership of Farrakhan and Chavis. President Bill Clinton publicly supported the march while opposing Farrakhan as its leader. March organizers were still able to secure sufficient financial resources and the proper permits and authorizations to enable the march to take place on the proposed date and location. A variety of individuals and organizations provided services or served as volunteers in support of planning, logistics, security, and other event issues, including Phi Beta Sigma, an African American college fraternity.
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Women and Celebrities Appear Black women and others were not specifically excluded from the march, but still were encouraged to allow the event to highlight and celebrate black men. Among the numerous speakers who addressed the audience were civil rights icon Rosa Parks, National Council of Negro Women president Dorothy Height, poet Maya Angelou, and Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, who all provided words of encouragement and solidarity. Notable African American politicians who attended or spoke at the march included Congressmen Charles Rangel of New York, Kweisi Mfume of Maryland, Donald Payne of New Jersey, Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry, and Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, while Stevie Wonder, Dick Gregory, Isaac Hayes, and Jim Brown joined other celebrities who either spoke or were acknowledged from the podium during the day. The program was designed to include Christian, Muslim, and traditional or neoAfrican speakers; prayers, rituals, and perspectives, including expressions in poetry, song, dance; and instrumental music. Young Chicago orator Ayinde Jean-Baptiste made a lasting impression alongside the more seasoned speakers, acknowledging the importance of the event for older and younger generations. While Farrakhan assumed the role of keynote speaker and addressed the audience for more than two hours, many African Americans and other commentators later expressed that the event was bigger than Farrakhan or any single speaker or leader. Positive outcomes of the Million Man March beyond its peaceful staging and conclusion include reported increases in black voter registration and child support in black families. The economic power and potential of black men was demonstrated when thousands waved money simultaneously during Farrakhan’s speech, but it remained unclear if any long-term financial initiatives for the larger African American community were planned or implemented afterwards. In following years Chavis converted to Islam, assumed the name Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, and chaired the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, while Farrakhan convened the Million Family March in 2000 and recovered from prostate cancer before celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March with another event, the Millions More Movement, in 2005. The Million Man March remained as a significant symbolic event, particularly for the multitude of African American men who walked, drove, rode by bus or train, or flew to Washington to be present. Celebrated filmmaker Spike Lee dramatized the spirit of the event in his 1996 film, Get On the Bus, while others can revisit the Million Man March through a wide variety of literature, media, and other available documentation of this historic event. See also: Million Woman March Further Reading Cottman, Michael H. 1995. Million Man March. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks. Millions More Movement. http://www.millionsmoremovement.com/index_noflash .html.
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White, Jack E. 1995. ‘‘A Million Men, Minus One.’’ Time 23 (October): 37. http:// www.time.com/time/special/million/white.html. Fletcher F. Moon
Million Woman March African American women have made their mark in numerous ways in popular culture, demonstrating their solidarity again by organizing and participating in the Million Woman March on October 25, 1995. More than 300,000 African American women who came from all across the country met in Philadelphia to show a united front, to strengthen their cohesiveness, and to initiate positive change in society. Through prayer, speeches, and music, the women demonstrated their concerns, embracing issues such as women in prison, independent schools, hiring practices, women in business and politics, and human rights abuses. The Million Woman March followed, and was patterned after, the Million Man March—a rally held in Washington, DC, on October 16, 1995, and masterminded by Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan, who called it a ‘‘day of atonement.’’ Women were excluded from the actual demonstration but were asked to participate by staying home from work and school and devoting the day to prayer and fasting. March cofounder Chionesu, a grassroots activist organizer and retired police officer in Chicago, and an entrepreneur in Philadelphia, was the first to envision a need for the woman’s march. ‘‘Something had to happen for black women,’’ she said in ‘‘Million Woman March.’’ She was persuaded that the women who would attend would also shape the success of the march. Since they came to this country, black women had taken care of everyone else, including white women, men, and children, and their own men and children, she proclaimed, ‘‘And now it’s time that we take care of ourselves.’’ The organizers spread the event by word-of-mouth, fliers, leaflets, small gatherings, the black media, and the Internet. Local activists also helped with the organizational efforts. As the number of registrants on the Internet site grew, Chionesu said that ‘‘There truly is power among the people.’’ With cofounder Asia Coney, a Philadelphia housing activist, the women relied on community leaders like themselves, bypassing established circuits of black American influence, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They wanted ‘‘to counteract negative images of African American women in popular culture and the media.’’ They saw black women as the strength of this country and wanted to prepare black women, regardless of their status in life, to invest in financial markets and bring political change by voting in blocs as black women. By train, car, airplane, and bus, black women converged on Philadelphia for the march. The demonstration began with a sunrise service by the Liberty Bell, proceeded along Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and ended at a tent outside the Museum of Art. Participants included the marchers as well as the onlookers who stood shoulder
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to shoulder and lined the streets along the route. The march also attracted three generations of women from a Gary, Indiana, family named Barber—Terry, forty-two; Arnett, sixty-four; and Percy, who was one hundred years old. Without effort, the M-W-M, as the women called themselves, also generated an estimated $25 million in the city over a three-day period and showed the actual and potential power of women, their self-determination, and creativity. Winnie M. Mandela and U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters gave keynote addresses. The marchers held a reunion in Philadelphia on October 26–28, 2007, to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the rally. It was called ‘‘From March to Movement: The Resurrection.’’ See also: Social Activists; Wells-Barnett, Ida B.; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Jet. 2008. ‘‘This Week in Black History.’’ 114 (October 20–27): 32. White, Deborah Gray. 2005. ‘‘Million Woman March.’’ In Black Women in America, 2nd ed., Vol 2. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Jessie Carney Smith
Minstrelsy Minstrelsy is a form of entertainment built upon the parodying of African Americans by white, and sometimes black, performers. This form of entertainment, widely popular during the nineteenth and even into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, demeaned African Americans by exaggerating features, movement, and manners of speech. The trademarks of minstrelsy were burnt cork applied to the face and red lipstick applied to the lips of performers (white and sometimes black); the painted lips were often encircled by a white rim of paint. Founded upon the tradition established by minstrels or servant-performers prevalent in Europe during the Middle Ages, minstrelsy, for all its harmful racial prejudice, remains crucial to the overall development of African American artistic expression. Minstrelsy in the antebellum United States was ambivalent, at times exploring the evils of slavery, yet at others perpetuating the idea that slaves lived a happy-go-lucky life on plantations of the genteel South. Along with burnt cork, minstrels often dressed in ragged, gaudy clothing and sang songs such as ‘‘Away Down in de Kentuck Brake,’’ ‘‘Dar is a Place call’d Loozyann,’’ and ‘‘Old Mass Was de Best ob Man.’’ The mispronunciation of words, characterized by misspellings, would later become the province for such writers as James Weldon Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston, along with poet Sterling A. Brown and others, who were aware that part of the Humor created by minstrelsy was the result of Language.
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Minstrelsy’s effect, one might say its stranglehold, on how African Americans were perceived in popular culture was particularly pronounced for the writers, artists, and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance, all of whom, in their strivings to express the fullness of their humanity, had to contend at some level with the stereotypes that limited how African Americans were seen. In James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the narrator observes ‘‘a minstrel, who, whenever he responded to a request to ‘do something,’ never essayed anything below a reading of Shakespeare. . . . Here was a man who made people laugh at the size of his mouth, while he carried in his heart a burning ambition to be a tragedian; and so after all he did play a part in a tragedy.’’ And this ‘‘tragedy,’’ as Johnson implies, is not being accepted on one’s own terms. While burnt cork, clothing, and dancing all were key elements of minstrelsy, language is perhaps the most vital, and it was language itself that the writers of the Harlem Renaissance attempted to revise to express a reality that was closer to their own experiences. In the preface to his First Book of Negro Poetry, published during the Harlem Renaissance, Johnson mapped the territory for black poetry. ‘‘The Negro in the United States,’’ Johnson wrote, ‘‘has achieved or been placed in a certain artistic niche. When he is thought of artistically, it is as a happy-go-lucky, singing, shuffling, banjo-picking being or as a more or less pathetic figure. The picture of him is in a log cabin amid fields of cotton or along the levees. Negro dialect is naturally and by long association the exact instrument for voicing this phase of Negro life; and by that very exactness it is an instrument with but two full stops, humor and pathos.’’ Johnson would go on to charge the poets of the Harlem Renaissance with the goal of expressing ‘‘the racial spirit by symbols from within rather than by symbols from without, such as the mere mutilation of English spelling and pronunciation.’’ Rather than language becoming a source of ridicule and disparagement for African Americans, Johnson believed in the possibilities of capturing the authenticity and dignity of the African American vernacular. The writers who emerged after the Harlem Renaissance have, indeed, responded to Johnson’s call. To this day, minstrelsy remains an idea that black artists and intellectuals continue to contend with. Wesley Brown’s novel Darktown Strutters (2000) and director Spike Lee’s Bamboozled (2000) both offer new ways of seeing how entertainment industries both promote and limit black artistic and cultural expression. See also: Entertainment Industry Further Reading Green, Jeffrey. 2007. ‘‘Minstrelsy.’’ In The Oxford Companion to Black British History. David Dabydeen, John Gilmore and Cecily Jones, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Johnson, James Weldon. 2007. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble. Johnson, James Weldon. 1997.‘‘Preface from the Book of American Negro Poetry.’’ The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Henry Louis Gates Jr. et al., eds. New York and London: Norton.
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Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Minstrelsy.’’ 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
Miscegenation Miscegenation is a term used to refer to the marriage, cohabitation, or sexual relations of people from different races; it is also called race mixing. In the United States the term is primarily used to refer to the mixing of African Americans and Caucasians. Miscegenation through sex, cohabitation, or marriage was illegal in much of the U.S. until anti-miscegenation laws were successfully challenged by a Virginia couple in 1967. The first recorded case of miscegenation was the 1614 marriage of the Native American princess Pocahontas to John Rolfe in Jamestown, Virginia. Later, in 1661, Virginia enacted a law banning miscegenation. Virginia also enacted a law that mandated that any white woman giving birth to a mulatto child would either pay a fine or face indentured servitude for five years. The mulatto child would be indentured for thirty years. Maryland had a statute which required a woman who married a Negro slave to serve the slave owner for the rest of her married life. In 1717, Maryland’s legislature made cohabitation between any Caucasian and a person of African descent illegal. The other colonies had similar laws banning miscegenation. By the Civil War, several states had laws prohibiting miscegenation. Despite anti-miscegenation laws, whites, mostly slaveholders, had sex with or raped black women. This resulted in children of various and lighter skin hues than their African progenitors. The term mulatto was used to refer to the offspring of black and white parents. Prior to the Civil War, the term mulatto was common. Within some realms of society, the mulattoes were treated slightly better than the darker-skinned blacks and enjoyed a higher station in the black community. The light-skinned slaves were allowed to be house servants, and freed mulattoes were allowed to be educated. After the Civil War, many miscegenation laws were repealed during Reconstruction. Because of this, southerners had two overwhelming concerns. One was that the increased lightening of the blacks and the growing number of mulattoes would make it possible for them to live as whites with all of the rights and privileges that whites enjoyed. The second and greater concern was that black men would behave as white men had and rape white women. Whites wanted the ability to severely punish any black man should he commit the heinous crime of becoming sexually involved with a white woman. In a backlash against Reconstruction, numerous southern states enacted anti-miscegenation laws. Marriage, cohabitation, and sexual relations between whites and nonwhites became criminal offenses. Black women found guilty of miscegenation could be imprisoned and black men faced the death penalty.
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The U.S. Supreme Court declared anti-miscegenation laws valid through Pace v. Alabama. In Pace, a white female and Negro male were convicted of living together. They were sentenced to imprisonment. Pace appealed under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court ruled that the separate but equal clause did not violate the Constitution. For the next sixty years couples continued to be convicted of miscegenation. The miscegenation laws of Virginia were challenged in 1952, when an Asian man named Naim, who had legally married a Caucasian woman in North Carolina, found his marriage annulled a few years later when they returned to Virginia. The wife had the marriage annulled under the antimiscegenation laws of Virginia. The husband appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court neither accepted nor refused the case but sent the case back to Virginia. In 1954, a black female (a Ms. Jackson) was convicted of a miscegenous relationship with a white male. She challenged her conviction with the Alabama Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court would not hear the matter. Jackson’s conviction was upheld and she was forced to spend time in the penitentiary. Ten years later in 1964, the high court declared Florida’s law prohibiting cohabitation between whites and nonwhites unconstitutional, but in 1967, all former slave states along with Oklahoma, enforced miscegenation laws. Through Loving v. Virginia, in 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws which prevented whites and nonwhites from marrying. Richard and Mildred Loving, a Caucasian man and African American–Native American woman had been legally married in Washington, DC. They returned to their home in Virginia and were rousted out of bed in the middle of the night and charged with violating Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which banned miscegenation. They were convicted and sentenced to one year in jail which was suspended for twenty-five years provided that the couple left the state. The Lovings moved to Washington, DC, and challenged the ruling. Ultimately the case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court found that restrictions to marriage based on the race of the individuals violated the Fourteenth Amendment and were therefore unconstitutional. Prior to Loving, the United States was not the only country that prevented people of African ancestry from marrying whites; anti-miscegenation laws existed in Nazi Germany from 1935 until 1945 and in South Africa’s apartheid regime from 1949 until 1985. Although the Supreme’s Court’s ruling in Loving nullified the various state laws, South Carolina did not repeal its anti-miscegenation laws until 1998 and Alabama allowed its ban against miscegenation to remain until 2000. Despite the concern of the southern states that miscegenation would spread and dilute the white race, the 2000 U.S. census reported only 2.4 percent of 281.4 million people identified themselves as being of more than one race. Additionally, the largest group of biracial people, 40 percent, is not found in southern states, but on the West Coast. See also: Race and Ethnicity
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Cases Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia 388 U.S. 1. (1967). McLaughlin v. Florida 379 U.S. 184. (1964). Pace v. Alabama 106 U.S. 583 (1883).
Further Reading Cruz, Barbara C., and Michael J. Berson. 2001. ‘‘The American Melting Pot? Miscegenation Laws in the United States.’’ OAH Magazine of History 15 (Summer). http://oah.org/pubs/magazine/family/cruz-berson.html. Organization of American Historians. Hodes, Martha ed. 1999. Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History New York: New York University Press. Mencke, John G. 1979. Mulattoes and Race Mixture: American Attitudes and Images, 1865–1918. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press. United States Census Bureau. 2000. Population Division. Willenstein, Peter. 2004. Tell the Court I Love My Wife. New York: Macmillan. Zack, Naomi. 1993. Race and Mixed Race. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Angela Espada
Mo’Nique (1967– ), Comedian, Actress A talented and versatile performer, Mo’Nique has achieved success in the various venues in which she has appeared. Her roles have typified some aspects of African American popular culture, which Mo’Nique has embodied with confidence. The full-figured star, who is comfortable with who she is and how she looks, has worked to persuade other women who look like her that they are beautiful women, too. Mo’Nique Imes, who is sometimes called ‘‘Mo,’’ was born December 11, 1967, in Woodlawn, Maryland, the youngest of four children. She was exposed to comedy as she grew up and confesses that wit ran in the family. Quoted in Answers .com, she said about her aunt, ‘‘Bessie is the best cusser in the United States’’ and ‘‘does combos you wouldn’t believe.’’ She graduated from Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County and then attended Morgan State University in Baltimore. After that, she married and had a son, Shalon. Except for occasional modeling jobs, she made no on-stage appearances. Mo’Nique worked as a sales representative for MCI telecommunications, and also as supervisor for a telephone-sex business. Her career began to take hold when the funny-girl Mo’Nique was in her early twenties and her brother dared her to appear on the improv comedy stage. In 1991, she performed at an openmike night; she was also hired for other comedy acts after that. In the mid-1990s, she transferred to Atlanta where she hoped for new comedy opportunities. Doors opened for her, and she entertained in various southern venues, working days and doing comedy at night. Now success was coming her way, and
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she began to pursue a full-time career in stand-up comedy. She appeared on several television programs, including Showtime at the Apollo; that led to her appearance on Def Comedy Jam and Comic View. Still in the mid-1990s, Mo’Nique was a local celebrity in her Baltimore hometown. She returned home, married a second time, and, with her brother, opened Mo’Nique’s, a comedy club; it was a hit among local black professionals. She became a cohost on Baltimore’s WWIN radio as her career blossomed. In 1997, she performed at the Montreal Comedy Festival, an important venue that national network talent scouts frequently view. She made her television series debut in 1999, appearing in her own sitcom, The Parkers. In that show she was a single mother attending college with her daughter. The show took its criticism but still was a success particularly among black audiences. At times it ranked first among all prime-time shows in African American households but last among whites. Due to the show’s success, Mo’Nique landed a spot on the Queens of Comedy tour, counterpart to the wildly successful Kings of Comedy. She also appeared in the films 3 Strikes, Baby Boy, and Two Can Play at That Game. Confident in her success, Mo’Nique purchased a $1 million home in Tarzana, California. BET hired her in for her own talk show, The Mo’Nique Show. Ever entrepreneurial, Mo’Nique started her own line of full-size clothing in August 2000, Mo’Nique’s Big Beautiful and Loving It. She often uses her notoriety and wit to advocate for other voluptuous women. Her book, Skinny Women are Evil: Notes of a Big Girl in a Small-Minded World, is funny and empowering, and became a best seller in 2003. Her next book, Skinny Cooks Can’t Be Trusted, was released in 2006. Mo’Nique joined Oxygen network, starring in a beauty pageant for full-figured women. The show was named F.A.T. Chance, which stands for Fabulous and Thick. In 2006, she starred in Phat Girlz, as a struggling fashion designer in search of love and success. Her most recent fame came in 2009, when she played the role of a monstruous and abusive mother in the film Precious, based on the novel Push, by Sapphire, and directed by Lee Daniels, who is known for his production of such films as Monster’s Ball. Mo’Nique’s acting demonstrated the full range of her talent and earned her the Best Supporting Actress Award from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globe). Capping off her honors for her appearance in the film was the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, which she received on March 7, 2010. Prior to the 82nd annual Academy Awards’ presentation, Mo’Nique appeared on television the same night on The Barbara Walters Oscar Special—its final episode— where she discussed ‘‘potentially prickly topics,’’ such as her sexual abuse by her brother when she was growing up, and her open marriage. Mo’Nique is now in her third marriage. She and her current husband and long-time friend, Sidney Hicks, have twin boys, Jonathan and David, born October 5, 2005. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Women, African American, Images of
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Further Reading ‘‘Biography for Mo’Nique.’’ http://www/imdb.com/name/nm0594898/bio. Manheim, James M. ‘‘Mo’Nique.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 35. Detroit: Gale. ‘‘Mo’Nique.’’ Netflex. http://movies.yahoo/com/movie/contributor/1800242222/bio. ‘‘Mo’Nique.’’ http://www.answers.com/topic/mo-nique. ‘‘Results Tagged ‘Mo’nique.’’’ http://www.essence.com. Jessie Carney Smith
Modeling Black models who were born outside of the United States as well as those born in the U.S. but who practiced their craft abroad have been part of the fashion world in earnest since the 1950s; however, the turning point occurred in 1973. On November 28, 1973, more than twenty African American models were chosen to present the designs of five American designers—Anne Klein, Halston, Stephen Burrows (an African-American), Bill Blass, and Oscar de la Renta—at Versailles in France. Among the models were Alva Chinn, Pat Cleveland, and Norma Jean Darden. This was a victory in an industry that previously only featured a handful of African American models in limited roles. Both American and Parisian designers put black models on the runway after this show. The models in the 1973 show owed a measure of their success to the presence and popularity of Josephine Baker, who was at the show. Though not a model, she set the stage in the 1920s as a jazz dancer in Paris for appreciation of black beauty at a time when black women were portrayed, if at all, as vixens, matriarchs, and mammies. In reality, they were primarily working as nannies, maids, and cooks. In Paris, there were black models like Dorothea Towles Church, who worked in 1949 with Christian Dior, and designers who used black models, like Oleg Cassini and Paco Rabanne, who presented black models in the 1950s and 1960s; these were exceptions. Other actresses like Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge were paving the way for models in their film roles. In the 1950s, modeling as an avocation was an offshoot of fashion design or performing arts, such as acting, singing, and dancing. Models were found by agents, as few African American women had the awareness, interest, confidence, and knowledge to seek modeling as a career. Those who did worked in African American designer showrooms. Black faces were rare in magazines, fashion shows, and the media. The New York Post estimated that there were 250 black models working in New York City in 1955. However, in 1960 and 1961, designers Gillis MacGill and Pauline Trigere hired the first black house models in majority houses, Mozella Roberts and Beverly Valdes. African Americans founded modeling schools and modeling agencies to serve eager aspiring models. Modeling schools were similar to charm schools, for they focused on training, etiquette, posture and poise, and other social graces. These modeling agencies were committed to finding opportunities for aspiring young women. In 1946, Brandford Models, located in New York City, became the first
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licensed black model agency in the United States. Ophelia DeVore, a model, cofounded Grace del Marco in New York City in that same year. She also founded the Ophelia DeVore School of Self-Development and Modeling in the 1940s. American Models and Black Beauties were established in the 1960s. These agencies provided a chance for women rejected by well-known agencies such as Ford, Elite, and Click. Models faced dismissal and being told, ‘‘We already have one of you,’’ as well as economic barriers such as moves to large, expensive cities like New York and Paris, and photographer and agency fees. From the 1950s to 1970s, the civil and women’s rights movements were opening doors for African American women. They were more visible in the workforce, becoming clerical workers and professionals in larger numbers. This meant they had more money to spend. Although only a few had the resources, desire, or need to purchase high fashion, they were being influenced through the magazines, television, department store advertisements, newspapers, and music. Ebony magazine first hit the stands in 1945. The magazine showed positive images of successful black people. Magazines depend on advertising, which meant that models reflecting the audience were needed. Ebony launched the Ebony Fashion Fair in 1956, which continues to travel each year to showcase new and recognized designers and raise money for local charities. Eunice Johnson, wife of Ebony publisher John H. Johnson, began flying to Europe in the 1950s to shop for the show and encountered unwelcome attitudes and behaviors from the design houses she visited. Each Ebony Fashion Fair show features approximately ten female and two or three male models, some of whom continue from year to year, and others who have gone on to successful modeling, acting, and mediarelated careers. The actor Richard Roundtree started as a Fashion Fair model. Typically, when black models posed for illustrations for magazines and advertisements, they appeared Caucasian in the black and white photography for ther final product. Donyale Luna was the African American sketched to appear on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, in January 1965. Although in 1962, Life magazine featured a pictorial spread on Negro models photographed by Gordon Parks, it took a while for black models to make the covers of major magazines. Luna was the first black model on the cover of British Vogue in 1966. In 1967, Naomi Sims was the first identifiably black model on the New York Times supplement called Fashions of the Times. Katiti Kironde II appeared on the cover of Glamour in August 1968. Pat Evans found acceptance in the 1960s and 1970s with her trademark bald head. Like designers, majority modeling agencies were slow to recruit blacks. The Wilhelmina Agency hired Naomi Sims as its first Negro model in 1967 and she appeared in American Vogue by the end of the decade. The Ford Agency had six black models in 1968. Beverly Johnson became the first African American to be featured on the cover of American Vogue in August 1974. By 1975 major American designers were using black models. More professional models found their way into the mainstream in the 1970s and 1980s, and on covers, thanks to Essence magazine, which published its first issue in May 1970. Essence magazine highlighted black women’s beauty and became another strong venue for models like Veronica Webb, Karen Alexander,
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and Roshumba Williams, with her trademark natural hairstyle. But in addition to its mission of empowering black women, Essence was founded to lead more African Americans into the consumer culture. African American women are purported to spend at least $20 billion each year on apparel. These women look for reflections of themselves in the media and products they purchase. Not only are black models not seen in proportion to their representation in the United States and abroad, they are sometimes not paid fairly. Pay inequity plagues this field as it does others. Black models in print and on the runways may not be compensated as highly as Caucasian models, unless they are in the supermodel category. Even in that arena, since 2007, Liya Kebede, Selita Ebanks, and Emanuela De Paula have been the models of African descent to be listed intermittently as the world’s top earning supermodels in Forbes Magazine; none made the list in 2010, although several, like Tyra Banks and Inman, have successful entrepreneurial interests to expand their net worth outside of modeling. Naomi Campbell (British), Iman (Somali), and Tyra Banks were considered the supermodels of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Supermodels are those who have worldwide reputation, often model haute couture, and command milliondollar contracts and endorsements. They are more than the anonymous ‘‘human coathangers’’ of most advertisements, bringing their personalities to apparel and the show. Elle magazine was credited in its early days with using more black models than other fashion publications, when it reached the United States in 1985. Then as now, there were few black male models who were hired consistently enough to have a brand. Maurice Hunter (1886–1966), a South African model who worked from 1918 through the 1930s, never earned more than $25 per show. Tyson Beckford was the first black male supermodel. He signed an exclusive contract in 1995 with Ralph Lauren. Three other male models who worked steadily were Mike Fields, Renauld White, and Rashid Silvera. Bethann Hardison brokered Beckford’s contract. Hardison had been a model who worked within the industry before forming Bethann Management. She continues to push for more diversity in the profession. In September 2007, Hardison led a forum called ‘‘The Lack of the Black Image in Fashion Today,’’ in New York with models Campbell, Iman, and Liya Kebede (Ethiopian). Fourteen years earlier, in a New York City news conference in January 1993, a similar complaint was lodged against Madison Avenue, the U.S. fashion center, by Hardison, Karen Alexander, Cynthia Bailey, Tyra Banks, Kersti Bowser, Campbell, Iman, Coco Mitchell, Gail O’Neal, Karla Otis, Beverly Peele, Phina (British), Sarah Stavrou, Akure Wall, Veronica Webb, and RoshumbaWilliams. Supermodel Banks was the first black model on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, in February 1997. Banks retired in 2005 and is now the host and executive producer of the popular America’s Next Top Model, a television show with a purposefully diverse contestant pool, and her own eponymous talk show. Hardison and Banks are two of many who continue to champion a broader view and base of black models. They are also examples of models who branched into other fields after modeling. Beverly Johnson, Grace Jones, and Daphne
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Maxwell Reid are among those who became actors. Barbara (B.) Smith opened restaurants and built an empire around home styling and decorating. Iman’s company encompasses accessories, fragrances, cosmetics, and skincare. Alek Wek (Sudanese) designs handbags, and Naomi Sims created a line of wigs. Those who aspire to become models will find only some things have changed. In a return to the pattern of the past, black models retain a place in the houses and shows of a handful of designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Sean (Diddy) Combs, and Tracy Reese; the latter two are African American. Von Furstenberg, as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, urges designers to create truly multicultural fashion shows. Firsts are still occurring, particularly as black and indeed all models are vying against celebrities for magazine covers. A review of a five-year period of American Vogue revealed only two covers featuring blacks, one an actress and the other a model. Elle had only two more. Color is still lacking on the pages of fashion magazines and the runways, despite the Italian Vogue Black Issue in June 2008, which included some faces from the past and present: Alexander, Banks, Chinn, Cleveland, Jourdan Dunn, Iman, Chanel Iman Robinson, Toccara Jones, Kiara Kabukuru, Kebede, Noemie Lenoir, Sessilee Lopez, O’Neill, Arlenis Sosa, Ubah, Yasmin Warsame, Webb, and Wek. As the industry admits to being in the midst of what Black Entertainment Television (BET) called Fashion Blackout in its thirty-minute special in 2008, there are still faces to look for: Jessica White, Oluchi Onweagba (Nigerian), Ajuma Nasenyana (Kenyan), and Eva Marcille. See also: Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Gross, Michael. 1995. Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women. New York: William Morrow. Metcalfe, Jacqueline Y. 1994. ‘‘Racism on the Runway.’’ YSB 4 (November): 31. Summers, Barbara. 1998. Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models. New York: Amistad. Republished as Black and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry, 2001. ‘‘The World’s Top-Earning Models.’’ 2007–10. Forbes Magazine (annually). Jenifer Lyn Grady
Monk, Thelonious (1917–82) Acclaimed bebop pianist Thelonious Monk was born on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Monk grew up in New York and began playing the piano without formal training. He was raised in the midst of gospel traditions and street music and later studied at the Juilliard School of Music. At age seventeen, he toured the United States with a gospel group, and in the early 1940s
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began working as a sideman in jazz groups, eventually becoming the house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, New York. Monk was one of the creators of the bebop jazz tradition. Jazz has been described as an art form of individual assertion within and against the group as a form of critical social theory. Modern jazz emerged as an urban modification of the ‘‘folk’’ quality of earlier jazz. It has been suggested that the modernists, including Monk, suspected that white audiences were fascinated by the older jazz because they assumed it was primitive and lacked sophistication. Hence, modern jazz made compromises; it retained its folk roots while it also encouraged directness and recognized the musician’s right to express emotions other than those set by the commercial market. It fostered the production of a sound and tone, attitude, and vocals that are characteristic of personalities and feelings rather than a standard, classical purity of tone. Bebop, with its harmonic extensions, substitutions, inversions, and irregular melodies, emerged out of an environment of camaraderie and a network of common interests, existential strivings, and integrity among jazz musicians. Monk initially recorded with the Coleman Hawkins Quartet. He made the first recording under his own name at a 1947 session for the esteemed Blue Note label. This included unusual songs like ‘‘Evidence,’’ ‘‘Criss Cross,’’ and ‘‘Carolina Moon,’’ compositions that reflected an abandonment of traditional modes of psychological representation in the years after World War II. This milieu also featured the increased use of improvisation based on individual self-expression. Monk’s music was intensely rhythmic, and his piano style displayed a daring use of silence and dissonance, making him a controversial and often misunderstood figure. Yet, his compositions had a formative influence on modern jazz. Between 1952 and 1957, he recorded several songs that failed to resonate with the public, such as ‘‘Little Rootie Tootie,’’ ‘‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,’’ and ‘‘Bag’s Groove.’’ The subsequent release of three albums, Brilliant Corners, Thelonious Himself, and Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, proved to be masterpieces that launched Monk’s career as the most acclaimed and controversial jazz improviser of the era. In 1964, he was the subject of a Time magazine cover story, after which he made several international tours. Monk helped redefine the era’s postbebop musical manifestations. The legendary saxophonist John Coltrane wrote in the same decade, ‘‘Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I felt I learned from him in every way—through the senses, theoretically, technically.’’ Monk quit performing music in the late 1970s and spent the rest of his life in seclusion. He died on February 17, 1982. His compositions ‘‘Epistrophy,’’ ‘‘Straight No Chaser,’’ ‘‘52nd Street Theme,’’ and ‘‘Round Midnight’’ are jazz standards. See also: Bebop Music; Davis, Miles; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Parker, Charlie Further Reading Baraka, Amiri (as Leroi Jones). 1963. Blues People: Negro Music in White America. New York: William Morrow.
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Gourse, Leslie. 1997. Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk. New York: Schirmer Books. Saheed A. Adejumobi
Montgomery Bus Boycott This historic event is generally recognized as the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and for launching the public career of Martin Luther King Jr. as a major leader and civil rights activist. It took place in Montgomery, Alabama, and began as a result of the December 1, 1955, arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man in accordance with the law and custom of segregation. Earlier that year fifteenyear-old Claudette Colvin had also been arrested for violating the bus policy, but her status as an unwed and pregnant teenager would make it difficult to gain the support of black leaders interested in identifying a candidate to legally challenge the Jim Crow system. Rosa Parks was a mature and married adult who worked as a seamstress, had previously been involved with the Montgomery Voters’ Council, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as secretary of the Montgomery branch office, had participated in nonviolent training and interracial cooperation workshops at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, and was well-known and respected in the white and black communities of Montgomery. Her arrest made the front page of the city’s main newspaper, the Montgomery Advertiser, and generated widespread attention and interest as her trial was scheduled for the following Monday (December 5). Parks was bailed out of jail by Edgar Daniel (E. D.) Nixon, another local activist who had worked with A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and established Montgomery and other Alabama branches of the NAACP. Nixon prevailed upon King, the new pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Ralph Abernathy (pastor of the city’s black First Baptist Church), and other local black leaders to meet at King’s church on Sunday, December 4, where the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was established to directly address the injustice in the public transportation system. Only one white Montgomery minister, Lutheran pastor Robert Graetz, took a public stand in support of Rosa Parks and participated in the MIA, while King became president of the new organization. The boycott of Montgomery city bus services was organized and scheduled on the trial date by Alabama State College professor Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Johnnie Carr, and other members of the Women’s Political Council, and originally planned as a one-day event. Black community support was overwhelming after Parks was convicted and fined for her actions, and the boycott was expanded and sustained with national as well as local support. An estimated 42,000 persons participated in the peaceful nonviolent protest by walking, hitchhiking, or carpooling to work and other destinations.
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Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and fueled the Civil Rights Movement, sits in the front of a bus on December 21, 1956. After the court ruling in NAACP v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (1955), the Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in public transit. (Library of Congress)
Attorney Fred D. Gray filed a federal lawsuit against the city, Browder v. Gayle, on February 1, 1956, and the homes of both Nixon and King were bombed on the same date. King’s wife Coretta and newborn daughter Yolanda were unharmed in the incident, and the community gained new resolve to continue the boycott. The city and bus company also felt the economic impact from the virtually empty buses due to the loss of black riders. King drew significant local, national, and international media attention as the primary spokesperson for the MIA, despite opposition from the local city commission and the White Citizens Council. These groups and others attempted to intimidate black citizens and create division among black leaders with rumors and false accusations, while local police arrested King and other protestors at different points in hopes of ending the boycott. Graetz and his family were harassed by other Montgomery whites and their home was also bombed, which forced them to leave the city. Segregated Buses Ruled Unconstitutional The court case eventually was heard by the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that segregated seating on public buses was unconstitutional on December 21, 1956. King, Abernathy, Nixon, and Gray joined white minister
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Glenn Smiley to ride the first desegregated Montgomery bus on the same date. The success of the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott and the lawsuit resulted in the first major legal victory in civil rights after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and set the stage for continued civil rights activism, litigation, and government action in the late 1950s and 1960 including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court ruling which prevented states from banning interracial marriages. King’s local leadership catapulted him into international prominence as a ‘‘general’’ in civil rights, as he participated in numerous civil rights efforts throughout the South and the nation, and won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Parks was forced to leave Montgomery and moved to Detroit in 1957, but also became an icon for civil and human rights as a result of her continued involvement in the movement. In later years Parks raised funds for the NAACP, worked for Congressman John Conyers, established a foundation for children, and received numerous awards and recognitions. She returned to the national spotlight when she was mugged in her Detroit home by another African American in 1994, and sued Hip-Hop music artists OutKast and LaFace Records in 1999 for using her name in a song without permission. Producers and performers in the 2002 comedy film Barbershop were criticized for including unflattering jokes about her and other civil rights leaders, but the incident generated publicity for the film as well as controversy. Abernathy continued as one of King’s closest associates until King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, but achieved limited success in his later civil rights efforts. Nixon, Gray, Robinson, and other key figures in the Montgomery Bus Boycott did not remain in the national spotlight, and were far less well remembered and recognized for their efforts. Some have expressed in their writings and interviews that the celebrity gained by certain personalities in the movement (King in particular) has diminished the credit due to themselves and other black citizens of Montgomery who made the collective sacrifices necessary for the success of the boycott. See also: Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); Social Activists Further Reading King, Martin Luther Jr. 1958. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York: Harper. Parks, Rosa, with Gregory J. Reed. 1994. Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson. 1987. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Fletcher F. Moon
Morrison, Toni (1931– ), Writer, Educator, Editor Toni Morrison achieved literary acclaim with the publication of her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970). Her succeeding novels, Sula (1973), Song of
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Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), Paradise (1999), Love (2003), and A Mercy (2008), have assured her place as one of the most celebrated African American woman writers. Her writing talent won her a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 and a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Her literary achievements are compounded by her distinguished academic career, which has spanned several decades at various universities. Morrison’s accomplishments are particularly significant, since, prior to the 1970s, African American writers Toni Morrison is one of the most significant American and African American authors of the 20th century. She was awarded both the literature itself received Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature. (Olga little, if any, recognition. Besnard/Dreamstime.com) Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931, the second oldest of the four children born to George and Ramah Wofford. Morrison’s extended family included her maternal grandparents as well as other blacks who were not related by blood but with whom she shared racial and cultural identity and common struggle, in the surrounding community of Lorain, Ohio. The neighborhood was diverse, comprising immigrants from Italy, Germany, Ireland, and Greece. Although Morrison grew up far from the hardships and oppression of the South, she met with her share of racism. In spite of these inherent tensions, Morrison developed a strong sense of pride in her cultural roots. Her parents and grandparents, who hailed from Georgia and Alabama, had migrated like thousands of other African Americans to the North in search of opportunity, equality, and safe haven. Dangers abounded in the South, where political and economic oppression excluded African Americans from mainstream life, and Lynching and other violent acts were wantonly perpetrated against African Americans. It was the norm for parents and grandparents in the African American community to pass along the Folklore and histories of slavery and life in the South
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to their children. Morrison’s mother instilled in her young daughter a passion for reading and assertiveness. Morrison spent most of her teenage years engrossed in Russian, French, and American literary classics. Among the writers she admired were Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, and William Faulkner. From the age of thirteen, Morrison helped supplement the family’s meager income by working as a domestic for a white family, thus going the way of many African American women. But Morrison was destined for a life that was radically different from her compeers. After graduating from Lorain High School in 1949, she became the first of her family to pursue a higher education. Morrison attended Howard University, a historically black institution located in Washington, DC, where she studied assiduously and performed in the campus theater group. In 1953, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in classics. Two years later, she received a master’s degree in English from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. This advanced degree opened up several teaching opportunities for Morrison. She taught at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas, and at her alma matter, Howard University, before marrying Harold Morrison in 1958. Their first child, Harold Ford, was born in 1961. The previous year, black college students in North Carolina had launched the Sit-in Movement; the Civil Rights Movement was at its apex in the first half of the decade. Many individuals joined civil rights organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, staging marches, sit-ins, and other demonstrations to protest segregation in the United States, but Morrison was not a participant. She believed black students would not receive the same attention as white students or a black-focused education from white teachers in desegregated classrooms as they did from black teachers in segregated schools. In 1964, the same year President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the monumental Civil Rights Act to eradicate segregation, Morrison resigned from Howard and traveled to Europe with her husband. After the trip, she and her husband divorced, though she also gave birth to their second son, Slade Kevin. In 1965, Morrison moved to Syracuse, New York, to start her new job as an editor for a textbook publisher. She was promoted to senior editor in 1967 and relocated to New York City. Three years later, she published The Bluest Eye, a novel that concerns, in part, internalized racism. Morrison’s ascendancy occurred during a significant shift in the nation’s social climate. During the latter half of the 1960s, the Black Power Movement emerged, challenging, among other things, the nation to acknowledge African American culture and art. Some of the results of this movement included Black Studies programs in colleges and universities, black television programs, and the increased popularity of African American artists and writers. Throughout the 1960s and beyond, Morrison has remained one of the chief proponents of African American culture and experience, an attitude that shows throughout her work. Morrison consistently features black characters and explores racism, black folk life, slavery, as well as the supernatural. She characteristically writes her novels from multiple viewpoints, utilizing various
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techniques including standard literary prose, stream of consciousness, and variations of vernacular English. Morrison’s novels have widespread appeal with academics, the general public, as well as celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, who adapted Morrison’s Beloved (1987) into a film in 1998. In addition to her novels, Morrison has written other works, such as The Black Book (1974), a compilation of three hundred years of African American folklore. In 1986, she wrote Dreaming Emmett, a play based on the notorious 1955 lynching of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till. Throughout her career, she continued to lecture, give interviews, teach, and single-handedly raise her two sons. In 2006, Morrison resigned from her teaching position at Princeton University. In 2008, she published A Mercy, her ninth novel, which has accumulated glowing reviews in most major review publications. Toni Morrison Society The Toni Morrison Society was created to support the scholarly study and foster the reading of the works of Toni Morrison. The society was founded in 1993 by Carolyn Denard, an associate professor of English at Georgia State University, along with several other Morrison scholars and supporters, in Baltimore, Maryland, at the annual meeting of the American Literature Association. The Toni Morrison Society became the 41st member of the American Author Societies of the American Literature Association, and the fourth to represent an African American author. The membership of the society is international and interdisciplinary in scope, which encompasses all the aspects of Morrison’s works. In addition to its more than seven hundred members, the society boasts such luminaries on its board as Henry Louis Gates Jr., Phylicia Rashad, and Cornel West, all representing the interdisciplinary nature of the society. The society was incorporated and chartered in 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia. It sponsors conferences, publications, programs, community outreach initiatives, and resources that perpetuate the critical examination of Morrison’s literature and how her life informs her works. These activities also explore political, cultural, and social implications in Morrison’s works as they pertain to the present social, political, and cultural milieu. To perpetuate an understanding and appreciation of Morrison’s works, the society holds conferences every two years in places that are geographically significant to Morrison’s work or life. The theme of the conference reflects this relationship. The first conference the society held was in Atlanta, Georgia, the home state of Morrison’s father, and had the theme ‘‘Toni Morrison and the American South.’’ The third biennial conference was held in Washington, DC, home of Morrison’s undergraduate alma mater, Howard University, and had the theme ‘‘Toni Morrison and the Politics of Learning.’’ The society often collaborates with other organizations to sponsor many of the events and programs that study and celebrate Morrison’s works and afford a wider audience more accessibility to her works. Bucknell University and the society will jointly present the Toni Morrison Society Lecture Series, an event to be held annually at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The lecture
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series will provide a venue for devotees and scholars of Morrison and her works to hear new research on Morrison from a scholar of note. Bucknell University and the society also jointly produce The Toni Morrison Review, a scholarly, peerreviewed collection of ten articles written over the past twelve months. Many find Morrison’s works such as Sula, The Bluest Eye, and Beloved, which frequently focus on black community and life, incorporate the supernatural and address the psyche, a challenge to grasp and teach. The Toni Morrison Society endeavors to make Morrison’s works more accessible. Over the years, the society has broadened its program to include initiatives for teachers and their pupils. To engage younger readers ages nine to thirteen, there is a community outreach of the Young Readers Circle. The Language Teaching Matters Initiative is designed to support secondary school language arts teachers with workshops that will aid in teaching Toni Morrison in high schools. These Language Teaching Matters workshops are held at the society’s biennial conference. The Toni Morrison Society Book Prize is awarded at the biennial conference for the best book by a single author and the best edited book on Toni Morrison’s work. The society also has a newsletter published semiannually and a bibliography of articles about Toni Morrison and her works, both available online. See also: Literature, Contemporary African American Further Reading Denard, Carolyn. 2000. Toni Morrison: Conversations. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Tonimorrisonsociety.org ‘‘Toni Morrison Society.’’ 2008.
. Toni Morrison Society at Bucknell University. 2008. Bucknell University.
. Gladys L. Knight and Sharon D. Johnson
Morton, Jelly Roll (Morton, Ferdinand) (1890–1941), Composer Although he did not invent jazz in 1902, as he once claimed, Ferdinand ‘‘Jelly Roll’’ Morton remains an important jazz composer of the early twentieth century. He was born in New Orleans, on September 20, 1890, and was playing piano in the houses of prostitution in the city’s Storyville district soon after the turn of the century. He would become one of the most eloquent exponents and, arguably, the first important composer of jazz. Such tunes as his ‘‘Wolverine Blues’’ and ‘‘The Pearls,’’ are a part of the traditional jazz repertoire, and ‘‘King Porter Stomp’’ became a Swing Era big band standard. Between 1923 and 1930, Morton made around 110 recordings, including a celebrated series for the Victor label with his Red Hot Peppers band. In 1938, after eight years of relative inactivity and obscurity, his sagging career received a boost from song archivist Alan Lomax, who made Morton the subject of an extraordinary Library of Congress oral history project that combined colorful, candid recollections with keyboard illustrations. Renewed interest in Morton
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produced further commercial recordings, some of them exceptional, but time had passed him by, and the United States was dancing to a different tune. He had become an anachronism, a bitter man who saw the Swing Era’s heroes incorporate many of the characteristics he had introduced two or three decades earlier. Morton’s last years were spent suing music publishers and battling poor health. Sick and living only on his meager royalty checks from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), he drove to California in late 1940, hoping that the climate would improve his health. He died there of heart trouble and asthma on July 10, 1941. See also: Armstrong, Louis; Bands and Bandleaders; Composers Further Reading Reich, Howard, and William Gaines. 2003. Jelly’s Blues. New York: Da Capo Press. Russell, William, ed. 1999. Oh, Mister Jelly. Copenhagen: JazzMedia. Chris Albertson
Mosley, Walter (1952– ), Writer Walter Ellis Mosley, who attracted media attention in 1992 when presidential candidate Bill Clinton stated that Mosley was his favorite mystery writer, remains one of the most widely read novelists in the United States and abroad. His works featuring African American heroes have been translated into at least twenty languages. Mosley, the only child of Leroy and Ella Mosley, was born on January 12, 1952, in Los Angeles. He inherited his passion for storytelling from his African American father and Jewish mother, who frequently told stories to him. After graduating from Alexander Hamilton High School in 1970, Mosley left California for Vermont where he attended Goddard College before he transferred to and graduated from Johnson State College in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. During the late 1970s and 1980s, Mosley worked as a computer programmer and consultant in Boston and New York. In 1985 he enrolled in graduate courses at the City College of New York’s Creative Writing Program. Three years later, his novel Gone Fishin’ with the characters Ezekiel Easy Rawlins and Raymond Mouse Alexander was rejected by publishers. Mosley’s determination and persistence were rewarded in 1990 with the publication of Devil in a Blue Dress, the first of eleven books (including the aforementioned Gone Fishin’ which was published as a prequel in 1997) in the Easy Rawlins mystery series as well as the first novel by Mosley made into a film. Mosley wrote the screenplay for the 1995 movie which starred Denzel Washington as Easy. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1998), the first of three books in the Socrates Fortlow series, was made into a 1998 film for HBO, with screenplay by Mosley, and starred Laurence Fishburne as Socrates. Fearless Jones (2001) is the first of three books in the Fearless Jones mystery series, and The
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Long Fall (2009) introduces the character Leonid McGill in the first novel of a projected series. As a mystery writer, Mosley follows in the tradition of Rudolph Fisher, who was the first African American to write a detective novel that was not serialized, and Chester Himes, whose status as the most well-known African American mystery writer has been eclipsed by Mosley. Although Mosley enjoys great success as a mystery writer, he is a versatile author of additional notable fiction, such as the novels RL’s Dream (1995), about blues legend Robert Johnson, The Man in My Basement (2004), and Fortunate Son (2006); science fiction thrillers Blue Light (1998), Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World (2001), and The Wave (2006); the young adult novel about slavery, 47 (2005); and the erotic Killing Johnny Fry: A Sexistential Novel (2006). Among Mosley’s nonfiction publications are the coedited Black Genius: African-American Solutions to African-American Problems (1999), Workin’ on the Chain Gang: Shaking off the Dead Hand of History (1999), Life Out of Context (2006), and This Year You Write Your Novel (2007). Mosley’s stories and essays have also appeared in a variety of periodicals including Esquire, GQ, the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Savoy. In 1996, Mosley was appointed New York University’s first artist-in-residence at the Africana Studies Institute. He is the recipient of various awards including an honorary doctorate from the City College of New York. Mosley, who is divorced, lives in New York City. See also: Fiction; Literature, Contemporary African American Further Reading Brady, Owen E., and Derek C. Maus, eds. 2008. Finding a Way Home: A Critical Assessment of Walter Mosley’s Fiction. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Whetstone, Muriel L. 1995. ‘‘The Mystery of Walter Mosley.’’ Ebony 50 (December):106. Wilson, Charles E. Jr. 2003. Walter Mosley: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Linda M. Carter
Motown Records Motown Records, the first record label owned and operated by an African American businessman, played an important role in the promotion and mainstream popularity of several notable African American recording artists and musicians of the twentieth century. Based in Detroit, Michigan, which was popularly known as Motor City or Motor Town (and from which the name ‘‘Motown’’ was derived), the label’s early recording artists (such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Diana Ross) were able to crossover into mainstream American popular music charts and achieve legendary status within the canon of black popular music. Most significantly, nearly every artist at Motown Records in the early years (1960–70), enjoyed crossover success during an era of
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American popular culture when music by African American artists was typically restricted to the R & B or soul music charts. Beyond its illustrious artist roster, Motown Records is also recognized for its use of innovative techniques in musical production, also known as the ‘‘Motown Sound,’’ that hybridized soul and pop music—a strategy presently used in contemporary R & B production. These achievements are frequently attributed to the vision and work ethic of Berry Gordy Jr., the company’s founder and first president. The Early Years First known as Tamla Records, Motown officially incorporated in April 1960. Gordy started the company after working as a songwriter for local artists (such as Jackie Wilson) and, finding that more money could be made in publishing and production, founded Tamla in 1959 with an eight-hundred-dollar loan from his family. Later that year, Gordy purchased the first property, Hitsville USA, which would later expand to include recording and rehearsal studios, administrative offices, and, for a brief period, living quarters for the Gordy family as they worked to establish the Tamla/Motown record label.
Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye around a microphone at the Motown recording studio in Detroit in 1965. (Redferns/Getty Images)
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Between 1961 and 1971, Motown had over 100 top ten hits, allowing for an expansion of its offices to include the Donovan building in downtown Detroit as well as Golden World Records. Golden World featured a recording studio that would soon be called Hitsville B and the original studio was then known as Hitsville A. Motown also had offices in New York and Los Angeles, but by the late 1960s, Gordy would begin to slowly transition the company’s primary base from Detroit to Los Angeles as a means of expanding the Motown empire to include film and television. In 1972, the company had completely shifted its operational base to Los Angeles, and the change in location also signified a change in the company’s atmosphere. Many of Motown’s longstanding artists, musicians, and producers chose not to accompany the label in its move to Hollywood, while many newcomers signed on to the label to establish solo careers. For example, longtime Motown performers such as Martha Reeves and Gladys Knight and the Pips, and producers such as the Funk Brothers and Holland-DozierHolland departed the label and new talent (e.g. Lionel Richie, Rick James, Teena Marie, and DeBarge) found notable success, sustaining Motown’s reputation as a vehicle for great music. In the decade immediately following the move, the company continued on its upward trajectory by producing hit records and soon venturing into visual media, namely film. Motown began losing money by the mid-1980s and Gordy began to sell off his interests in both the record and production companies; the label was later sold to MCA (Music Corporation of America) in 1988. Jheryl Busby, Gordy’s immediate successor, became president of Motown. During his tenure, Motown moved away from MCA and began releasing its product through PolyGram, which then completely bought the remaining interests in Motown from MCA. After Busby’s departure in 1994, Andre Harell, the founder of Uptown Records (an MCA/ Universal subsidiary) took the helm at Motown. In 1996, Harrell was released from his position as head of the label and subsequently replaced by George Jackson. Sylvia Rhone, former head of Elektra Records, became president when Motown merged with Universal (renaming the company Universal Motown Republic Group), and remains at the head of this label to this day. Early Artists and Hit Records Some of Tamla/Motown’s early artists included Barry Strong, with the hit song ‘‘Money (That’s What I Want)’’ (1959), the Miracles with ‘‘Shop Around’’ (1960), and Marv Johnson’s ‘‘Come to Me’’ (1959). After Tamla Records formally joined with Motown to form Motown Record Company (which was also known as Hitsville, USA), the Marvelettes achieved the label’s first number one hit, ‘‘Please Mr. Postman’’ (1961). Mary Wells, who had a hit song in ‘‘My Guy’’ (1964), was also one of the early defining voices of Motown. Other legendary ensembles signed to Motown include the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Jackson Five, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Contours, and Martha and the Vandellas. Several of the lead singers (including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, and Lionel Richie) would
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remain with the label when the groups disbanded, and go on to have successful solo careers. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye were among the solo artists signed to the early Motown Records or the subsidiary labels operating under its corporate umbrella during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Motown Sound The Motown sound merged several different genres of music (including jazz, gospel, blues, classical, and pop), showcasing a unique and fresh approach to musical production that resonated with audiences worldwide. The successes of Motown artists were frequently compared to those of British musicians (such as the Beatles) gaining popularity during the 1960s, a period in pop music history also known as the ‘‘British invasion.’’ Characterized by the use of tambourines, drums, and the call-and-response techniques largely associated with gospel, the Motown sound also incorporated string and horn sections to enhance the vocal melodies. The popularity of this technique inspired many artists and musicians to mimic this approach, and in addition to its solid artist roster, Motown gained recognition for its in-house team of songwriters, composers, and producers. Smokey Robinson, the Funk Brothers studio band, Ashford and Simpson, Brian and Eddie Holland, and Lamont Dozier, the latter trio known professionally as ‘‘Holland-Dozier-Holland,’’ were each credited with composing the musical arrangements that helped to establish the record label as a fixture on the mainstream music charts, two good examples being Marvin Gaye’s ‘‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’’ (1966) and the Temptations’ ‘‘Ain’t Too Proud to Beg’’ (1966). Gordy is also recognized as an important part of the production team. Known throughout the recording industry as a hands-on and detail-oriented manager, Gordy held weekly staff meetings to ensure the product (music) was both consistent and innovative. Although the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, as well as the Funk Brothers, Ashford and Simpson, and later, Robinson, would depart the label (beginning in the early 1970s), their artistic contributions were instrumental to Motown’s early success and enduring legacy. Motown Productions: Film and Television The first two films released by Motown Productions were Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and Mahogany (1975), both starring singer Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams. Later films include Thank God Its Friday (1978), The Wiz (1978), and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985). Though none of the films achieved real critical or commercial success, they were each significant to the evolution and history of African American filmmaking, as they were among the few produced and released by an African American production company during the periods in which they were released. In 1989, Gordy sold Motown Productions to former Motown employee Suzanne de Passe, who renamed the company de Passe Entertainment and is still heavily involved in its leadership. De Passe Entertainment Group has found much success in television, including programs such as Sister, Sister (1994), Smart Guy (1997–
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99), and Showtime at the Apollo (2002–present). The company also produced The Jacksons: An American Dream (a miniseries based on the Jackson Five), as well as several feature films, including Class Act (1992) starring rappers Kid ‘N Play, and Who’s the Man (1993), which had an all-star cast of Hip-Hop artists. Motown in the Present Day Out of all of Motown’s early recording artists, only the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder were still signed to the label by the 1990s, and all but Wonder would alternately leave and return to the label intermittently until 2004; Wonder is currently the only one of the early Motown artists remaining under contract to Motown. In the 1990s, performers such as Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight, and Erykah Badu were added to the roster, and Badu’s producer, Kedar Massenberg, was appointed president at Motown after the label was first added to the Universal group. Badu, Michael McDonald, and India. Arie released very successful albums during his tenure. In 2005, Sylvia Rhone, the former president of Elektra Records, replaced Massenburg when Motown was restructured to become Universal Motown Republic Group (UMRG) in 2005, and the current artist roster includes artists such as Mya, Damian and Stephen Marley, Q-Tip, and Nick Cannon. Rhone remains at the head of UMRG, and in January 2009, Motown celebrated its 50th anniversary, commemorated by a box set of the company’s biggest hits entitled The Complete No. 1’s. See also: Entertainment Industry Further Reading Coffey, Dennis. 2004. Guitars, Bars, and Motown Superstars. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Early, Gerald Lyn. 1995. One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. George, Nelson. 2003. Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of Motown. London: Omnibus. Morse, David. 1971. Motown and the Arrival of Black Music. London: Studio Vista. Motown Records. http: //www.motown.com. Taraborelli, J. Randy. 1986. Motown: Hot Wax, City Cool, and Solid Gold. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Lynn Washington
Muhammad, Elijah (1897–1975), Religious Leader, Elijah Muhammad was called the ‘‘Messenger of Allah’’ by Nation of Islam founder Wallace Fard and a cult leader by historian Edgar Toppin. Muhammad was one of the most charismatic and influential leaders of the black community in the twentieth century. The hostility with which Muhammad was viewed by critics both black and white was in part because of his threat to the status quo
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Elijah Muhammad, as spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam in the United States, established a religious organization that gave poor urban African Americans a sense of racial pride and economic and political self-sufficiency. (Library of Congress)
and his ability to motivate and compel. Under Muhammad’s leadership, the Nation of Islam rose from obscurity to become a leading faith and activist base in the African American community. Elijah Poole was born on October 7, 1897, to Mariah and Wallace Poole, a Baptist minister, in Sandersville, Georgia. He was the seventh of thirteen children. His formal education was disrupted because of his obligation to work to supplement his family’s income. In 1919, he married Clara Evans. In 1923, he moved with his wife and children to Detroit, Michigan, believing that the North would offer him more opportunities and freedom from the disrespect and degradation he experienced in the South. He worked from 1923 to 1929 for Chevrolet factory. In 1931, he met Wallace Fard Muhammad, the leader of the burgeoning organization, the LostFound Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam, based on Fard’s interpretation of Islamism and rigid in its principles and rules, sought to instill integrity and pride in black people whom they saw as corrupted and debased by Europeans. The movement benefited from the work of Timothy Drew’s early movement to promote black Islam as well as the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the Black Nationalism organization established by Marcus Garvey. Fard’s message was steeped in the very principles espoused by Garvey’s UNIA; however, Fard’s platform had a spiritual component. According to Fard, black people were God’s
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people; God was black, according to Fard, and black people in the diaspora were originally of Muslim heritage. Elijah Poole changed his name to Elijah Karriem as he quickly became immersed in the organization and became the close ally of Wallace Fard. Fard announced Elijah Karriem as the ‘‘Messenger of Allah’’ and changed his name to Elijah Muhammad. As Fard increasingly came under attack by the police, arrested in Detroit and Chicago, the leadership of the Nation of Islam shifted to Elijah Muhammad. By 1934, Fard had disappeared from the scene and Elijah Muhammad had assumed full authority over the organization. Muhammad proclaimed Fard the mahdi, the human representation of Allah. This pronouncement should have affirmed Muhammad’s assumption as leader in that it indicates that his leadership was sanctioned by God. Yet Muhammad’s reign as leader was fraught with controversy. Like Fard, Muhammad was targeted by the police for his practices in Detroit. He refused to send children in his ministry to Detroit public schools, sending them instead to the University of Islam. The University of Islam was established by Fard to instruct members of the ministry, especially children; it was neither accredited nor recognized by the public school system. Muhammad moved the headquarters of the ministry to Chicago, but threats from rivals for power caused him to move periodically. In 1942, he was working on establishment of the Washington, DC, temple when he was arrested for draft resistance and sedition. This harassment of Elijah Muhammad would continue virtually until his death, as local and federal government officials kept him under suspicion. After his release from prison in 1945, Muhammad devoted himself to increasing membership in the Nation which since his incarceration had decreased significantly. Muhammad began writing a series of editorials in the black newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier, hoping to attract attention to his cause of black social uplift. In his leadership Muhammad stressed a Black Nationalistic perspective. He encouraged ideas that are fundamental to Black Nationalism: black separatism, black unity, pride, black economic enterprise, and support for black businesses. In 1959, the membership in the Nation of Islam increased dramatically with the assistance of one of the most prominent of the Nation’s voices, Malcolm X. Because he was a forceful and compelling speaker, some critics noted that not only were there ideological differences between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, but that the popularity and potential power of Malcolm X ultimately served to undermine the relationship between the two men. Malcolm X was completely devoted to Elijah Muhammad and looked to him as a mentor. However, despite this, Malcolm X became increasingly aware of contradictions within the organization. This compelled him to leave the Nation of Islam in 1964 and change his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz in 1964. The allegations of misconduct and abuse against Elijah Muhammad, whether founded or not, were a part of a larger campaign of the government and other leaders against him. The somewhat organized hostile criticism of Muhammad was in part based on the fear of his potential power. The departure and eventual assassination of Malcolm X furthered the increasing criticism regarding the rigidity of Muhammad’s leadership.
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In 1975, Elijah Muhammad died of congestive heart failure; he was 77. At that time, one of his sons, Wallace Muhammad, assumed control and called for a new direction for the organization. Wallace Muhammad renounced many of the racialized claims of his father and of Wallace Fard. He changed his name from Wallace to Warith Deen Muhammad in rejection of the man for whom he was named, Wallace Fard. Warith Deen Muhammad claimed that Fard was a mystic and his own father was misguided. He called for Black Muslims to adhere to strict fundamentalist Islamic principles, rather than the Black Nationalist interpretation of his father, Elijah Muhammad. The faction that followed Warith Deen Muhammad became the New American Muslims. However, other leaders arose in opposition of Warith Deen Muhammad. One of the most prominent of these opposing leaders was Louis Farrakhan, who led a faction that returned to the Islam defined by Elijah Muhammad. Despite the fracturing of the Nation of Islam, the building of religious alternatives; the reform of black people; and the principles of self-help, discipline, and integrity which were integral to Elijah Muhammad’s vision continue to be espoused by these varied groups and other non-Muslim groups inspired by him. See also: Afrocentric Movement; Kwanzaa; Million Man March Further Reading Albulak, Suzanne. 1999. ‘‘Elijah Muhammad.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. 1358. New York: Basic Civitas Books. Karenga, Maulana. 1989. ‘‘Black Religion.’’ In African American Religious Studies. Gayraud Wilmore, ed. 271–300. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Lincoln, C. Eric. 1989. ‘‘The Muslim Mission.’’ In African American Religious Studies. Gayraud Wilmore, ed. 340–56. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989. Muhammad, Elijah. 2002. The True History of Master Fard Muhammad. Maryland Heights, MO: Secretarius Publications. Toppin, Edgar. 1969. A Biographical History of Blacks in America since 1528. New York: David McKay. Rebecca S. Dixon
Multiculturalism Multiculturalism promotes an understanding and respect for the traditions of people from differing cultural backgrounds, religions, political and social views, or national origins. It challenges the Eurocentric perspective that has dominated American culture and devalued the contributions of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and other minorities. Multiculturalism promotes respect and equality and seeks to broaden the definition of the American identity to reflect the diversity among the nation’s inhabitants. The United States has long viewed itself as a ‘‘melting pot’’ of people from diverse backgrounds who have joined together to embrace a common American
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culture. This metaphor is not entirely accurate. With the exception of a common language, there has never been a clearly defined set of cultural values that define identity for all Americans. The nation has always had a myriad of different religions with different, and sometimes conflicting, tenets. With the exception of the indigenous Native Americans, our ancestors migrated not only from Europe, but Asia, Africa, South America, and other localities across the globe. Americans represent many religious and cultural traditions, but there are many commonalities and shared values that unite us. Educational institutions have served as an important site for the inculcation of American values and culture. The nineteenth century was a period in which large-scale immigration occurred. By 1840, nearly half of New York City’s residents were immigrants, many of whom were Irish Roman Catholics. Irish Roman Catholic children attended public schools where the King James Bible was read, Protestant hymns were sung, and Protestant prayers were recited. The orientation of the teaching was typically Protestant and often anti-Irish and anti– Roman Catholic. Roman Catholics became increasingly uncomfortable with the ethnic and religious bias in New York City’s public schools. They demanded that city funds be made available for parochial schools. This request was met with strenuous opposition. Opponents argued that allowing Roman Catholics a portion of the public school funds would lead to a flood of requests from other religious denominations. At times the conflict escalated into violence. In 1844, a Roman Catholic church in Pennsylvania was burned, killing thirteen people in what became known as the ‘‘Philadelphia Bible riots.’’ John Hughes was named archbishop of New York in 1850. He was the leader of an effort that established a privately funded national system of Roman Catholic schools, which eventually became the leading alternative to public schools. Urban and Ethnic Diversity Increases By the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States was becoming more urban and ethnically diverse. Cities were growing in a rapidly industrializing nation. Manufacturing created a need for inexpensive labor. Waves of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe responded to that demand. Between 1890 and 1930, more than 22 million immigrants came to the United States. After they arrived and took jobs in factories and elsewhere, they enrolled their children in public schools that inculcated American cultural norms. Most of the immigrants were European but there were others. Spanish settlements in what is now the United States predates the arrival of the Mayflower by more than a century. After the arrival of Spanish Conquistadors in the sixteenth century, Mexico’s territory on the North American continent dramatically expanded. In the nineteenth century, the expansionist doctrine of Manifest Destiny altered the Mexican landscape. War against Mexico was declared in 1846. On February 2, 1848, a treaty was executed that required Mexico to forfeit 55 percent of its territory. This included areas that are now Arizona, California,
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New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. Other treaty provisions granted citizenship and other rights to Mexican nationals living in the territory ceded to the United States. From 1848, when gold was discovered in California, to 1882, when the Chinese Exclusion Act became effective, approximately 335,000 Chinese immigrants entered the United States. South Asian Indians began to migrate to the United States after Chinese immigrants were excluded by the 1882 law. Between 1891 and 1923, approximately 200,000 Japanese immigrants were admitted to the U.S. Public schools were established in the eastern and midwestern regions of the U.S. before and after the Civil War. The growth of these institutions escalated during the last half of the nineteenth century. School expenditures went from $69 million in 1870 to $147 million in 1890. During the same period, school enrollments increased to 7.6 million students. By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States was providing education to more children than any other nation. During the final decade of the nineteenth century, a dual system of public education was established in the South: one for whites and another for African Americans. Blacks were deemed inassimilable. Instead of inculcating American culture and identity, the educational program for African Americans was predicated on political disenfranchisement, civic inequality, and racial segregation. Black students were trained to accept a subordinate status. This approach to education was developed by Booker T. Washington, the black educator who was the founder of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The Tuskegee model was embraced by public school officials throughout the South. In the Midwest there were conflicts about what was taught in public schools during the first decades of the twentieth century. Before World War I, the children of German immigrants were taught in their own language in places such as St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. After the conclusion of the war, antiGerman sentiments resulted in the enactment of laws requiring English-only instruction. Schools were prohibited from providing instruction in languages other than English and they emphasized American customs and traditions. John Dewey, a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, became an influential figure in public education in the early twentieth century. Dewey believed that public schools had become repressive institutions that did not adequately promote intellectual exploration and growth. Dewey also believed that schools should help students interact with others. In addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic, educators instructed immigrants in hygiene, manners, and home economics. Immigrant students also learned American styles of eating, dressing, and other cultural habits. During this period the assimilationist paradigm was firmly established. Educators facilitated the Americanization of immigrants by inculcating the values and traditions of an Anglo-Saxon culture. Customs, language, and other forms of cultural expressions from the ‘‘old country’’ were discouraged. In public schools good citizenship became more a matter of conforming to a middle-class pattern of
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behavior than questioning how the political system operated. Many schools required students to recite the Lord’s Prayer and passages from the Bible. The school calendar was organized around Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Other, more secular holidays, such as Thanksgiving, celebrated American traditions. Students pledged allegiance to the flag every morning, sang ‘‘America the Beautiful’’ at assemblies, and were taught from texts that extolled the virtues of the Founding Fathers. Eurocentric Tradition Transformed The current debate about multiculturalism is rooted in the late 1960s, when many academicians devoted their energies to transforming the Eurocentric tradition that dominated higher education throughout the twentieth century. As increased numbers of African Americans began to enroll in previously segregated institutions, issues relating to faculty, staff, and curriculum content arose. Despite their increased presence in formerly all white institutions, African American students often did not find themselves in warm and nurturing environments. The teachings at many institutions tended to marginalize and devalue contributions African Americans and other minorities made to American culture and thought. In an environment of rapid social change, Black Studies emerged as an academic discipline based on the demands of minority students and faculty. In response to these pressures, a number of American colleges and universities added courses on African American thought, culture, and history to the curriculum. The first of these programs were established in 1968 at San Francisco State and Cornell University. Yale University created a Black Studies Program in 1968. Because of its status as a private, Ivy League institution, the inauguration of a Black Studies program was viewed as a significant milestone in a movement to diversify the curriculum. A year later, the University of California at Berkeley established ethnic studies programs that consisted of African American, Chicano, Asian American, and Native American studies. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s several colleges and universities established African American studies programs. The debate over multiculturalism intensified in the 1980s. On one side were proponents of multiculturalism, which is based on inclusion and valuing different racial and cultural perspectives. On the other side were those who held passionate views based on notions of traditional education and their desire to define a common American culture. Opposition to the inclusion of diverse perspectives has been fierce. Opponents dismiss multiculturalism as ‘‘political correctness.’’ They urge the educational establishment to regard the movement as a threat to the quality of the educational experience offered in American institutions. They long for a return to an emphasis on the great thinkers of the Western (European) past who, in their view, represent the foundation of the classical curriculum in the liberal arts. They warn that a failure to return to the ‘‘great books’’ of the classical past will result in a decline in the quality of instruction provided by institutions of learning.
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They have demanded the restoration of a classical core curriculum, including the reassertion of a classical canon and the rejection of multiculturalism. Critics of multiculturalism want to return to the cultural hegemony that prevailed during the first half of the twentieth century when segregation was the norm and women and minorities were excluded from positions of power and influence. The desire to reestablish traditional curricular norms, to narrowly define the purpose of the liberal arts, and to revive the great books requirement represents a reaction to the efforts to include diverse perspectives in the cultural identity of the nation. Discussing William Bennett and Allan Bloom, two vocal opponents of multiculturalism, Henry Louis Gates Jr. argued that they ‘‘symbolize[d] the nostalgic return to . . . [the] ‘antebellum esthetic position,’ when men were men and men were white, when scholar-critics were white men and when women and people of color were voiceless, faceless servants and laborers, pouring tea and filling brandy snifters in the boardrooms of old boys’ clubs.’’ Some countries have officially subscribed to multiculturalism. The Canadian Multiculturalism Act was enacted by the Canadian Parliament in 1988. This made Canada the first country to adopt a law that made multiculturalism a fundamental value of its society. The act is designed to preserve and enhance multiculturalism in Canada by preserving culture, reducing discrimination, enhancing cultural awareness and understanding, and promoting institutional change at the national level. The law protects the right of all citizens to participate as members of Canadian society, regardless of their racial, ethnic, cultural, or religious backgrounds. Canada acknowledges there are many ways in which the world can be viewed. Its policies recognize the diversity of its citizens while ensuring that common Canadian values are preserved. There is a continuing debate about the meaning of American cultural identities and values. These are political and philosophical disagreements rooted in different and sometimes conflicting systems of moral understanding. These beliefs are derived from belief systems that provide a source of identity, community, and purpose for those who adhere to them. The conflicts are reflected in ongoing debates about issues such as reproductive freedom, gay rights, and race and gender, and equity. The foundation of the debates is rooted in moral values, the basis by which individuals determine whether something is acceptable or unacceptable. Despite the opposition of some, the prevailing norms of the broader community will, in the long-term, determine how liberal identity is defined in the United States. Multiculturalism promotes respect and equality by acknowledging America’s diversity. See also: Afrocentrism; Black Arts Movement; Feminism; Womanism Further Reading Gates, Henry Louis Jr. 1992. Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars. New York: Oxford University Press. Giroux, Henry A., and Peter McLaren, eds. 1994. Between Borders: Pedagogy and the Politics of Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge. Hunter, James Davison. 1991. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Control the Family, Art, Education, Law, and Politics in America. New York: Basic Books.
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Takaki, Ronald. 1993. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. New York: Little, Brown. Leland Ware
Murphy, Eddie (1961– ), Comedian, Actor Many artists are able to perfect only a single aspect of their craft, but Eddie Murphy has excelled in numerous performance genres. In the over thirty years of his career, he has excelled as a comedian, actor, director, producer, and voice actor. Born Edward Reagan Murphy on April 3, 1961, in Brooklyn, New York, to Charles and Lillian Murphy, his parents divorced when he was three years old. Murphy and his older brother Charles Jr. later gained a stepfather when his mother married ice cream factory worker and boxing coach Vernon Lynch. As a boy, Murphy was a frequent television watcher and impersonated television characters. In 1976, as a fifteen-year old, he did his first comedy routine at a Nassau County youth center. Because of his popularity, he performed in many local clubs while still in high school. After graduating from high school, he briefly attended Nassau Community College while performing in comedy shows throughout New York City. In 1980, Murphy got his big break when he joined the cast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. His original characters, Mr. Robinson, Tyrone Green, Little Richard Simmons, and Velvet Jones were popular with viewers. In 1982, Murphy landed his first feature film role in the hit movie 48 Hours which later led Paramount Pictures to sign the twenty-three-year-old comedian to a lucrative multipicture deal. During this time Murphy acted in Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Best Defense. Murphy’s 1988 film Coming to America, his first as a director, was a huge box office success. In 1990, a California judge ruled the film’s content had been plagiarized and ordered Paramount to compensate plaintiffs Art Buchwald and Alain Bermheim. Murphy was not held accountable by the courts because the treatment came from the film company’s borrowed rendition. Murphy was nominated for Golden Globe awards for his acting work in Beverly Hills Cops III (1994), and The Nutty Professor (1996). He was honored with the Golden Globe best actor award in 1997 for his work in the movie Dreamgirls. Murphy’s film career and personal life had highs and lows in the 1990s through early 2000. Several of his films were failures at the box office. In 1997, he was stopped by California police for picking up a male prostitute dressed as a woman. Murphy claimed he was only giving a ride to a woman in distress. He rebounded with the Disney movie Shrek in 2001. In 1993, Murphy married model and longtime girlfriend Nicole Mitchell; they divorced in 2005. He has five children with Mitchell and three with other women. In 2008, he married film and music producer Tracey Edmonds but the union was annulled several days later. Murphy continues to be a popular film personality. In 2007, he was asked to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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See also: Comedy and Comedians; Entertainment Industry; Film and Filmmakers; Humor Further Reading Samuels, Allison. 2007. Off the Record: A Reporter Lifts the Velvet Rope on Hollywood, Hip Hop and Sports. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins. Sanello, Frank. 1997. Eddie Murphy: The Life and Times of a Comic on the Edge. New York: Birch Lane Press. Wilborn, Deborah. 1993. Eddie Murphy (Black Americans of Achievement). Chelsea House Publications. Carter B. Cue
Music. See Bebop Music; Blues and Blues Festivals; Delta Blues; Hip-Hop; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Musicians and Singers; Popular Music; R & B; Rap Music and Rappers; Soul and Funk (Music) Musicians and Singers In 1917, when James Weldon Johnson, African American educator, writer, and critic whose worked proved foundational for the New Negro Movement, more widely known as the Harlem Renaissance, published his poem ‘‘O Black and Unknown Bards’’ in a collection called Fifty Years and Other Poems, he touched a deep taproot in African American popular culture, that of musicians and singers. Johnson’s poem venerates the artistic creations of Africans in bondage who, despite the backbreaking concentrated labor on plantations, still managed to create soulful music. Historian and cultural critic W. E. B. Du Bois would refer to these songs as ‘‘sorrow songs’’ in his landmark collection of essays titled The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, and Johnson would evoke strong sentiments in his poem. ‘‘O black and unknown bards of long ago,’’ he opens the poem, ‘‘How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? / How, in your darkness, did you come to know / The power and beauty of the minstrel’s lyre?’’ Of particular import here is that less than three decades following the Emancipation Proclamation, the systematic attempt to break the body and to crush the spirit of Africans in the United States, a cultural flowering such as the Harlem Renaissance could happen, where musicians and singers often played a vital role in the development of African American popular culture. It is perhaps without accident that the key figures in the formation of the Harlem Renaissance were all compelled to address the role of music and its significance in African American culture. Musically speaking, the African American tradition is a deep one, extending to the west coast of Africa, and manifest in different forms throughout the southern United States and the Caribbean. A particular example of excellence was established with the Fisk University Jubilee Singers who, through their performance of slave songs, or Spirituals, beginning in 1871, brought international acclaim to the school in Nashville that was formed
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shortly after the Civil War. The Jubilee Singers, along with ensuring that Fisk remained solvent, also ensured the place of the spirituals in American and African American culture. When Czech composer Antonın Dvorak (1841–1904) visited the United States in the late nineteenth century, he proclaimed ‘‘that the future music of this country [the United States] must be founded upon what are called the Negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States. . . . In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.’’ And to underscore his belief, Dvorak infused his Ninth Symphony, From the New World, with two measures from African American composer’s Harry Thacker Burleigh’s (1866–1949) ‘‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,’’ thereby validating the significance of the African American contribution to the world of classical music. Similar to Dvorak, American poet Walt Whitman wrote in a posthumously published work that African American ‘‘dialect has hints of the future theory of the modification of all the words of the English language, for musical purposes, for a native grand opera in America, leaving the words just as they are for writing and speaking, but the same words so modified as to answer perfectly for musical purposes, on grand and simple principles.’’ Blues, Jazz, and Musicians Yet, for all the romantic idealism of Dvorak and Whitman, the postReconstruction United States, especially in the South, was a land of grave injustice for African Americans. In this regard, as a way of dealing with the low-down dirty shame of existence, blues music emerged around 1880. While the black church offered African Americans a way of dealing with injustice on an otherworldy level, blues music was decidedly of this world. Rather than extend to its congregation the idea that justice would come in the afterlife, blues music offered a belief that harsh times could be endured, and that peace could be found in the midst of despair. Early blues masters include Charley Patton and Son House, yet the man whose shadow extends over the landscape of the Mississippi Delta Blues was Robert Johnson, one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. While Johnson and blues musicians in general were great improvisers, W. C. Handy helped to make blues ballads standard by writing them down, beginning with his 1912 ‘‘Memphis Blues.’’ Although the popular notion of blues is of a person feeling sad, African American critic and novelist Albert Murray has been instrumental in dispelling that illusion. The function of blues music, as Murray points out, is to help the musician, and by extension, the audience, have a moment of catharsis. The structure of most blues pieces, in this regard, while stating at the outset that life is a low-down dirty shame (the call), is often life-affirming (the response). Murray’s long-time friend Ralph Ellison captures this idea when he defines the blues as ‘‘an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one’s aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, the blues is an autobiographical chronicle of
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personal catastrophe expressed lyrically.’’ This ‘‘near-tragic, near-comic lyricism,’’ as Ellison puts it, accounts for the uplifted ending of blues pieces, which readers hear especially resonant in the blues poems of Langston Hughes. Along with Du Bois, Alain LeRoy Locke, professor of philosophy at Howard University, and James Weldon Johnson, a Broadway show tune writer and school superintendent, together form a mighty triumvirate who set the terms for the Harlem Renaissance, especially writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling A. Brown, and Langston Hughes, whose novels, in the case of Hurston, and whose poems, in the case of Brown and Hughes, owe a great debt to the innovations of jazz and blues musicians. With the innovation of records, blues music spread beyond the rural areas of the American South to urban northern centers, where the music form was extended, elaborated, and refined into the musical idiom we call jazz. A precursor to jazz is Ragtime, a heavily syncopated music form that offers space of improvisation on a standard theme. According to James Weldon Johnson in his fictional The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the tale of a biracial musician caught at the crossroads of race in a racially divided United States, the nameless protagonist observes, ‘‘No one who has traveled can think it would be an exaggeration to say that in Europe the United States is popularly known better by ragtime than by anything else it has produced in a generated. In Paris they call it American music.’’ Much like blues musicians who took elements of black vernacular life such as shouts and field hollers and stylized them into music, jazz musicians too were cultural synthesizers, as evidenced by Duke Ellington, one of the most accomplished composers in the history of jazz music. Edward Kennedy ‘‘Duke’’ Ellington brought to jazz music a broad imagination capable of bringing disparate elements into symphonic harmony. The sound of neighbors in an apartment building heard in a Harlem airshaft might become shaped into an arrangement; two musicians in a fight with one another might trade twelves (improvise on twelve bars of music) on a ballroom floor. ‘‘Duke is Harlem’s poet,’’ according to Barry Ulanov, ‘‘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.’’ A widely popular musician, one as likely to play Carnegie Hall as well as a high school gym, one whose music was broadcast live on the air from the Cotton Club, Duke Ellington lived on the road with some of his orchestra members for over five decades, playing music that commented on the American, the African American, and ultimately the human experience. ‘‘He was willing to sacrifice whatever he had to sacrifice for the sake of his music,’’ notes acclaimed New Orleans trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, ‘‘and that’s what his music sounds like. It’s the ultimate dedication and the ultimate gift that Duke Ellington gave us through his music.’’ Along with Duke Ellington, perhaps no musician captures the idea of jazz musicianship more than Louis Armstrong. His innovation on the trumpet as well as vocals made him a household name. While Ellington and Armstrong helped establish the soundtrack for the Jazz Age in American culture, jazz continued its evolution into the Swing Era, with the vocals of Billie Holiday. It
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morphed again in the bebop era that featured the stylistic innovations of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Jazz progressed onward into the cutting edge experimentation that included such musicians as John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis. Most recently enshrinement in a conservatory approach to jazz has been seen in the performances of the classically trained Wynton Marsalis and embodied by Jazz at Lincoln Center. Blues, jazz, and gospel together form the foundation for the evolution and development of Rhythm and Blues, country and western, Soul and Funk, Hip-Hop, and rap. We should also keep in mind that jazz musicians borrowed from blues and, at times, jazz musicians collaborated with gospel singers, as proved to be the case with Mahalia Jackson, one of the most renowned gospel singers of all time, when she performed ‘‘Come Sunday’’ with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. Many African American musicians and singers, too, have initial musical training in the black church, and this early foundation is manifest in their later work, particularly the soulful performances of Aretha Franklin, whose father was the renowned Baptist preacher C. J. Franklin, Patti LaBelle, and Lauryn Hill. Ray Charles’s approach to gospel music was instrumental in the development of rhythm and blues (R & B). The expressive range of R & B would set the groundwork for Rock and Roll. James Marshall ‘‘Jimi’’ Hendrix, African American vocalist and guitarist, born in London, learned to play guitar by listening to blues musicians Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and B. B. King, and he began his career as a backup to such legendaries as Sam Cooke, Little Richard, and Ike and Tina Turner before his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, electrified audiences across the world for their blues-inspired rock lyrics. While Ray Charles established himself as an undisputed R & B singer and musician during the 1950s, he performed country and western music in the 1960s as well as big band music. As a testament to his eclectic excellence, Ray Charles was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. And Michael Jackson, from a family of musicians and singers, established himself in the 1980s as the ‘‘King of Pop’’ when his album Thriller, released in 1982, became the best-selling album of all time with more than forty million copies sold. Thriller boasted seven number one singles, including ‘‘The Girl Is Mine,’’ ‘‘Billie Jean,’’ and ‘‘Beat It,’’ and this tremendous commercial success earned Jackson a regular spot on the then predominantly white Music Television (MTV). Musicians and singers alike both capture what Du Bois calls the ‘‘spiritual strivings’’ of the African American community. What Du Bois refers to as the ‘‘souls of black folk,’’ as Richard J. Powell suggests, might be captured in the 1893 painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner titled The Banjo Lesson, in which a young child in a cabin learns music from one of his elders. Yet the painting, as a metaphor, offers us a deeper understanding, of what Powell calls, ‘‘a luminous, pictorial narrative about learning, cultural nourishment, and cross-generational affection.’’ Whether listening to Beyonce’s ‘‘Halo,’’ with its blend of gospel, hiphop, and R & B, or witnessing Aretha Franklin and Joe Ligon transform ‘‘I’ve Been in the Storm Too Long’’ into a piece that explores the jazz and blues cadences of gospel music, we are aware that music, in all its forms, becomes one of the ways in which we can both envision and explore possibilities.
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While the speaker in Johnson’s ‘‘O Black and Unknown Bards’’ saw the slave singers as ‘‘gone, forgot, unfamed,’’ the same fate has not awaited their prodigious progeny in the twentieth as well as the early part of the twenty-first century, for their excellence and innovation have made musicians and singers an invaluably viable element of African American art, culture, and thought, indeed to humanity and to popular culture. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Entertainment Industry; Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading DuBois, W. E. B. 1990. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Vintage Books. Ellison, Ralph. 1995. ‘‘Richard Wright’s Blues.’’ In The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison. John F. Callahan, ed. New York: Modern. Johnson, James Weldon. 2007. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble. Marsalis, Wynton and Robert G. O’Meally. 1998. ‘‘Duke Ellington: ‘Music Like a Big Hot Pot of Gumbo.’’’ In The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. Robert G. O’Meally, ed. New York: Columbia University Press. Murray, Albert. 1976. Stomping the Blues. New York: Vintage. Powell, Richard J. 1997. Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century. New York: Thames and Hudson. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘The Blues.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., ed. New York: Basic Books. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Hendrix, Jimi.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed. New York: Basic Books. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Jackson, Michael and the Jackson Family.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., ed. New York: Basic Books. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Jazz.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., ed. New York: Basic Books. 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
N NAACP (1909) The NAACP is one of the most influential and well-known civil rights organizations in the United States. The acronym stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 2009, the NAACP celebrated its one hundredth birthday on the day of Abraham Lincoln’s birth (February 12), only a few weeks after the United States inaugurated its first African American president, Barack Obama. Although the NAACP has been in existence for one hundred years, it was not the first organization established to address the issues confronting African Americans following emancipation. The Niagara Movement, consisting of twenty-nine African American men, dissolved not long after it began in 1905 after many of the members decided to join the efforts of a nascent organization, the National Negro Committee, later known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or the NAACP. The Springfield, Illinois, riot that occurred in 1908 was the contributing factor to the formation of the NAACP. The riot was sparked by a white mob who went in pursuit of a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. When the mob discovered that the local sheriff had moved the black man to a safe location, they plundered through the local black community, killing eight innocent blacks, destroying property, and displacing thousands of blacks from their homes. Rioting, though prevalent in the early twentieth century, was not the only problem blacks faced. Segregation laws made it unlawful for blacks and whites to attend the same schools and use the same public facilities. Although blacks had the right to vote, many did not execute this right due to discriminatory practices and intimidation. African Americans who tried to assert their basic
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rights or protest the wrongs they suffered were frequently targeted for harassment, physical violence, or death. Without economic, social, and political power or justice in the court systems, blacks suffered many hardships. The Springfield riot, as well as the overwhelming conditions blacks faced, spurred whites and blacks into action. Some sixty individuals convened on February 12, 1909, in New York City to address the race problem. At first, the leaders of this group were primarily white, save, for example, W. E. B. Du Bois, who served as the organization’s director of publicity, and researcher founder, and editor of the NAACP’s organ, the Crisis (magazine). Moorfield Storey, a white Boston lawyer, was the first NAACP president. In 1920, James Weldon Johnson became the first black executive secretary. The early years of the NAACP were a time of radical change and growth. The organization became a household name through its growing membership, lobbying, and, to a smaller degree, demonstrations. In 1915, the NAACP boycotted against the film The Birth of a Nation, which projected images that celebrated the slave-based system of the South and demonized blacks. The NAACP protested lynching, following after the pioneering work of activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett. In 1919, the NAACP published a groundbreaking report ‘‘30 Years of Lynching in the United States: 1889–1918.’’ The NAACP employed various methods of attack in the battle for civil rights. In addition to boycotts and lobbying, attorneys worked on civil rights cases to bring about justice for blacks and the eradication of segregation. In 1934, the organization hired its first full-time attorney, as special counsel, a Howard University professor, Charles Hamilton Houston. Shortly thereafter, in 1936, Houston employed Thurgood Marshall to assist him in the Herculean task of legal work. NAACP attorneys wrestled with racist laws, as well as faced racist white attorneys, juries, and judges in the courtroom. Their lives were frequently in danger. But Houston and Marshall went on to forge deeply significant wins, such as opening the doors of many universities to blacks and saving the lives of many blacks who faced erroneous criminal charges. Marshall is famously known for his work in the Brown v. Board of Education case, which eliminated segregated schools. In 1957, Marshall established the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Despite the radicalism of protesting the status quo, the NAACP was relatively conservative. Compared to organizations created years later, during the Civil Rights Movement, like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (all of whose trademark public demonstrations and arrests made headlines), the NAACP, generally, avoided modes of protest involving civil disobedience. Although occasional conflicts arose between civil rights organizations in the 1950s and 1960s, collaborations were frequent and effective. The NAACP joined the other organizations on several occasions. The largest and most visible collaboration occurred during the monumental March on Washington in 1963. The leaders of the NAACP and five other predominantly civil rights organizations frequently met to discuss strategy and keep each other abreast of happenings and projects. This group was known as the Council for United Civil Rights
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Leadership. The accumulative and separate efforts of the civil rights organizations helped to bring about important gains, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Following the end of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the NAACP was challenged by various social changes. In the late 1960s, proponents of the Black Power Movement ridiculed the NAACP and labeled its leaders Uncle Toms, a derogatory term to describe a black person who embraces racial integration and seeks assimilation into mainstream (white) society. Since then, the NAACP has been challenged by those who feel the organization is no longer relevant. According to the Associated Press, Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP president and CEO, asserts, among other things, ‘‘unsolved murder rate[s] in some black communities, blacks graduating from high school at a far lower rate than whites, and . . . issues of basic fairness [and] obstacles to opportunity’’ still pose challenges to blacks. Thus, the NAACP maintains its vigilance against racial disparities and discrimination. See also: South, The; Uncle Tom Further Reading Associated Press. 2009. ‘‘At 100, NAACP Fights to Keep Struggle Alive.’’ MSNBC.Com, February 11. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29143568/?gtl=43001. Jonas, Gilbert. 2007. Freedom’s Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism, 1909–1969. New York: Routledge. NAACP. http://www.naacp.org/. Gladys L. Knight
Nation of Islam The Nation of Islam is popularly associated with two of its most dynamic leaders: Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Still political icons in popular culture, both leaders are known to have encouraged black people to define themselves in an affirming manner. Similar to the ideas espoused by Black Nationalists, the Nation of Islam is known for the promotion of positive self-definition and selfempowerment, which helps to secure its place in popular culture. Originally, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam was a religious organization based in the principles of Islam as interpreted by its founder Wallace Fard during the Great Depression. Since its founding, the Nation of Islam has changed leadership and agenda but has always articulated a radical posture that differs from the mainstream perspective; this continues in many respects today. While many Africans brought to the United States as slaves were Muslim, this was not apparent in the Christian orientation in the major religious black organizations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1913, a man claiming to be a ‘‘black prophet,’’ Timothy Drew, also known as Nobel Drew Ali, established the Moorish Science Temple in Newark, New Jersey. The temple had a limited following and seemed to die as mysteriously as did Drew in 1929.
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Shortly after Drew’s death, another Islam-based organization appeared; it benefitted in part from Drew’s members and the UNIA of Marcus Garvey. The LostFound Nation of Islam was founded around 1930 in Detroit by Wallace Fard. Wallace or Wali Fard, a door-to-door salesman of silk cloth, claimed to be from the holy city of Mecca. He proclaimed he had come to restore black people to their rightful and historic place of integrity, dignity, and majesty. Fard contended that the poverty, economic, social, mental, and general debasement of black people in the United States resulted from the loss of their religion. Fard claimed God was black and whites were evil. He claimed that all diasporic black people were of Muslim heritage and had been undermined by the corrupt nature of Europeans. Fard wrote two manuals to guide the organization and development of the NOI: The Secret Ritual of the Nation of Islam and Teaching for a Lost-Found Nation of Islam in a Mathematical Way, and he established the University of Islam to instruct members, especially children. He insisted that children of the faith attend the University of Islam and not Detroit public schools. Support for Fard’s organization and criticism of him grew simultaneously. Fard was harassed and arrested by the police in Detroit and in Chicago and by 1934 he had disappeared. Leadership of the organization was assumed by one of Fard’s most trusted members, Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad, formerly Elijah Poole and later Elijah Karriem, came to Detroit in the 1920s with his wife and children from Georgia. He was one of the early followers of Fard. Fard immediately recognized Muhammad’s potential as a leader and deemed him ‘‘The Messenger of Allah.’’ Muhammad relocated the central office of the organization to Chicago, Illinois. Under Muhammad, the NOI built a number of temples in major cities throughout the United States. In 1942, Muhammad, working on the development of the Washington, DC, temple, was arrested, tried, and convicted on charges of draft resistance and sedition. After his release from prison, Muhammad campaigned to increase membership in the Nation of Islam by writing editorials in the Pittsburgh Courier. In his campaign, Muhammad announced the Nation of Islam’s advocacy for the advance of black people as a superior race. His Black Nationalistic agenda advanced separatism, black unity, and pride, as well as the development of black economic enterprise. The Nation of Islam demanded strict adherence to rigid codes of behavior and lifestyle: no profanity, no drinking, no smoking, no pork, and no engagement in decadent behavior. Thus, the Nation of Islam became associated with reform because some of its members found the Nation of Islam while incarcerated and it sought to ‘‘restore’’ black people to a ‘‘superior’’ position. In the late 1950s, Muhammad’s campaign for membership was greatly assisted by the charismatic and powerful orator, Malcolm X, formerly Malcolm Little. He became a member of the Nation of Islam during his incarceration in the late 1940s and early 1950s. When he was released from prison in 1952, he worked for Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X, completely devoted to Elijah Muhammad, became the most popular spokesperson for the Nation of Islam. However, Malcolm X’s increasing awareness of contradictions within the organization compelled him to leave the Nation of Islam in 1964 and change his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
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Despite criticism of Muhammad, alleging he failed to adhere to the principles he espoused, Muhammad remained the leader of the Nation of Islam until his death in 1975. When he died, his son, Wallace D. Muhammad, assumed leadership. After changing his name to Warith Deen Muhammad, he instituted a number of disruptive changes that would splinter the Nation of Islam. Warith Muhammad announced that members would strictly adhere to a traditional and mainstream approach to Islam. He renounced the Black Nationalistic thrust of Islam practiced by his father and Fard and renamed organization the American Muslim Mission. In the late 1970s, Louis Farrakhan, minister of Harlem Temple No. 7, in disagreement with Warith Muhammad’s changes, developed a sect of the Nation of Islam devoted to reclaiming the original mission of Elijah Muhammad and Wallace Fard. Under Farrakhan, the Nation continued to grow and to be a source of controversy. In 1995, Farrakhan organized the Million Man March. Despite the success of the march, Farrakhan’s racialized remarks and extreme views that made the organization appear radical in the 1950s and 1960s, today place the organization in conflict with the liberal and popular pluralist and multicultural views of race. See also: Black Nationalism; Garvey, Marcus Further Reading Albulak, Suzanne. 1999. ‘‘Nation of Islam.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Civitas Books. Karenga, M. 1989. ‘‘Black Religion.’’ In African American Religious Studies. Gayraud Wilmore, ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Lincoln, C. Eric. 1989. ‘‘The Muslim Mission.’’ In African American Religious Studies. Gayraud Wilmore, ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Toppin, Edgar. 1969. A Biographical History of Blacks in America Since 1528. New York: David McKay. Van Deburg, William L., ed. 1997. Modern Black Nationalism. New York: New York University Press. Rebecca S. Dixon
National Association of Black Journalists (1975) The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) was founded to promote fairness and balance in the reporting of events in the media relating to the African American community. The civil rights struggle of the 1960s spurred the formation of a number of local and national professional associations. After a decade of attempts, the NABJ emerged out of a coalition interim committee that met in Washington, DC, on December 12, 1975. At that time black journalists were employed mostly by black-owned publications, with only a few in mainstream media outlets. The association hoped to provide a forum for minorities in the press and broadcast media, to offer support and assistance to those seeking employment,
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and to advocate for equal opportunity in hiring and promotion practices. Among the forty-four founding members were Charles (Chuck) Sumner Stone, the first president, Paul Brock, Paul Delaney, Mal Johnson, and Vernon Jarrett. The first annual conference was held in Houston, Texas, on October 2, 1976. The main task was to address objectives pertaining to employment practices, balanced media coverage, education, scholarships, leadership, membership, and fundraising. One of the most critical issues was increasing the percentage of minority journalists employed by large media outlets. Efforts were needed also to improve journalism education career opportunities for minority students. Local journalists’ organizations were welcomed as affiliates but professors of journalism and public relations were excluded from membership in an effort to keep the focus on those employed by the press, radio and television networks, and the magazine industry. The organization provided incentives for the recruitment of young people interested in careers in publishing and media. Training programs, guidance counseling, and job fairs became part of the convention gatherings from inception. Entertainment in the form of live performances and gala award ceremonies helped to attract new members and sponsors to conventions. Recognition awards were given for leadership in editing, publishing, and best practices in broadcast media. Industry trailblazers such as Max Robinson, Ed Bradley, Lerone Bennett, Carl Rowan, and Earl G. Graves were inducted into the NABJ Hall of Fame. The organization took special interest in the affairs of Africa, particularly during the apartheid struggle, sending representatives to the continent to assess ways to publicize critical needs. In 1994, the NABJ and three other minority journalists’ associations, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans collaborated for a joint conference. These combined conferences, dubbed UNITY, have been held every five years since then. The NABJ and its regional chapters remain committed to diversity and equality in hiring and firing practices. The organization continues to advocate for minorities in positions that directly influence the perspective of the news. Scholarships, internships, online seminars, and a plethora of training tools are offered to those entering the profession. The number of African Americans in top level managerial media positions continues to decline with layoffs in print media, precipitated by the 2008 economic downturn. The National Association of Black Journalists serves an important function in providing a forum for African American journalists. Although the organization has matured and changed with leadership, it continues to employ a variety of strategies to ensure unbiased reporting in the news media affecting minorities. See also: Brown, Journalism and Journalists; Tony Further Reading Blanchard, Margaret A., ed. 1998. History of the Mass Media in the United States: An Encyclopedia. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. Dawkins, Wayne. 1997. Black Journalists: The NABJ Story. Newport News, VA: August Press.
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Garland, Phyl. 2006. ‘‘Journalism.’’ Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed., Vol. 3. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Mjagkij, Nina, ed. 2001. Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations. New York: Garland Publishing. National Association of Black Journalists. http://www.nabj.org/. Janette Prescod
National Bar Association (1925) The National Bar Association was organized in 1925. Its focus has been the incumbent need for the African American lawyers to have a forum to build and establish an effectual presence through support in the profession that embodies the philosophy, science, and practice of law. With evidence of a progressive need, the National Bar Association (NBA) became formally established as a functioning entity in 1925. It has worked to promote the well-being of African Americans lawyers as intellectually qualified professionals while enabling the growth for patterns of success and acceptance that are equal and just within the legal profession and the society it strives to uphold, protect, and serve. In African American popular culture, it is a champion of diversity, for it protects the rights of the black race and aims to ensure that members of the race have access to fair legal representation. The twelve founding members of the National Bar Association (NBA) were lawyers who went on to become highly respected and renowned intellects. As a contributor to the founding of the NBA and one of its members, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, a well-received lawyer, social activist, and scholar was sought out and appointed by two United States presidents to serve on two separate civil rights committees. She also served as the national secretary for the NBA in 1943 and continued in this position until 1947. When the NBA took flight as a bona fide professional society, it started with about 120 members. By 1945, that number more than doubled. It now boasts a professional membership of more than 40,000. The membership has evolved to include lawyers, legal scholars, judges, and also professors within the field of jurisprudence. Affiliation with this society creates opportunities for professional socialization. Spanning from the past to the present many African American lawyers have experienced hardships when trying to get decent work. Networking with those having made a name for themselves and with already established clientele and good community standing would provide avenues of opportunity that would extend hiring and training. In the beginning, a precursor for this organization was to help mold the highest esteem for the African American lawyer within the professional realm and in the communities they served and to prove high regard for their work ethic. In 1931, the NBA was front and center as the host of a debate of great significance that harnessed three relevant issues: law, social change, and African American citizenship. This great debate was fixed upon ultimately understanding the relational
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connection of these issues. However, defining a strategy to legally obtain the rights to full-fledged citizenship for African Americans was most important. Over the years the NBA has worked to increase diversity in law firms and business corporations. The formation of its corporate diversity task force in 2005 opened proceedings for the exploration of successful best practices. Businesses as well as research institutions that were known to have made headway with workforce diversity were targeted for research measures. Additionally, the NBA’s diversity pledge was endorsed by General Motors, among other corporations. The NBA has released a number of publications and journals. The National Bar Association Magazine is published periodically and is the source of communication and documentation for the society’s membership. The first publication of the National Bar Association Law Journal was issued in 1941. It highlighted issues detailing civil rights justice and injustice. The NBA has grown in status and allure using its broad reach as a platform for continuous change. The NBA has set out to grow new minority leaders of the law, through outreach efforts such as the NBA Crump Law Camp, named for executive director emeritus John Crump, that offers high school students the opportunity to experience the foundational path to becoming a lawyer. As the oldest functioning society for minorities in the field of law and judicature, the NBA continues to provide measures that preserve, protect, and uphold the rights of the citizenry it serves. See also: Law and Law Schools; Law Enforcement Further Reading Alexander, Sadie T. M., ed. 1945. Who’s Who among Negro Lawyers. Washington, DC: National Bar Association. Fitch, Nancy Elizabeth. 1999. ‘‘Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander.’’ American National Biography, Vol. 1. Mark C. Carnes and John A. Garraty, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Johnson, Andrew. 2005. ‘‘National Bar Association Taps Tyre as Diversity Chief.’’ Washington (DC) Times, March 7. Mack, Kenneth W. 2006. ‘‘Law and Mass Politics in the Making of the Civil Rights Lawyer, 1931–1941.’’ Journal of American History 93 (June): 37–62. National Bar Association. www.nationalbar.org. Thompson, Erin L. 2009. ‘‘National Bar Association.’’ Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century, Vol. 3. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Dantrea Hampton
National Black Arts Festival (1987) The National Black Arts Festival (NBAF), regarded as one of the most important art festivals in the world, was founded in 1987 by Michael L. Lomax in Atlanta, Georgia. Its executive producer and founding artistic director was
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Stephanie Smith Hughley, whose tenure with the festival has earned the finest accolades for artistic vision and expansion. In August 2009, Neil Barclay became the CEO and executive producer of the Atlanta-based organization. The mission of the festival is ‘‘to engage, cultivate and educate diverse audiences about the arts and culture of the African Diaspora and provide opportunities for artistic and creative expression.’’ The festival culminates each year in July during a tenday celebration of African American cultural and artistic events. Diverse communities from around the world convene during the festival to join in the premier celebration of the visual arts, music, literature, film, theater, and dance. In addition, there is a focus on the humanities, political engagement, innovative and global economics, and the state of black culture in the twenty-first century. A high watermark of the festival occurred when Hughley orchestrated the NBAF to precede and run concurrently with the 1996 Olympic Games held in Atlanta. Additionally, she promoted other festivals featuring Norway, Mexico, and Africa, forming a multicultural trail leading to the Olympics. The NBAF spearheads activities throughout the year that promote African American history and culture. Its mission to connect global communities emphasizes exploration. In March of each year, the festival sponsors a workshop for art instructors to explore the visual arts. Another event of the festival explores the presence of African American history and cultural influences in Central and South America. A summer institute for teachers sponsors a tour to Central America featuring a trip to Nicaragua to study its history. In November, teachers are invited to participate in the annual trip to Penn Center at St. Helena, South Carolina, the national landmark site of an experimental program that had its beginning in 1864. The original program educated former slaves of the Sea Islands who were freed at the onset of the Civil War. The educational feature of the festival extends to include activities youngsters enjoy as they enrich their knowledge of the history and culture of the African diaspora. The NBAF sponsors an African American History Quiz Bowl for elementary school students in February, Children’s Education Mini Villages in schools each fall, and the Youth Leadership Forum. Another extension of the year-round festival is the Holiday Bazaar that is held in Atlanta’s Greenbriar Mall. Artists and art-related associates from Atlanta and around the country showcase crafts, gifts, and artwork. A special feature of this event is the Kwanza Korner, a center in which children engage in activities that focus on Nguzo Saba, or the seven principles of the holiday—unity, selfdetermination, creative work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. The festival is rich in its eclectic offerings of each genre. For example, the music enthusiast can choose from the sounds of classical music, jazz, blues, gospel, salsa, rumba, and much more. Moreover, the festival draws a rich array of persons who are masters of their art. Such nationally and internationally known artists as Maya Angelou, Wynton Marsalis, Amiri Baraka, Nancy Wilson, Sonia Sanchez, and others have been festival headliners. A hallmark of the festival is its attention to African American predecessors in the arts. The festival
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spotlights artists who have been pioneers and honors artists who have made outstanding contributions to their art. See also: Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Olympics Further Reading Atlanta Heritage.com. ‘‘National Black Arts Festival.’’ http://www.atlantaheritage.com/ commonHumanity.html. National Black Arts Festival. ‘‘History.’’ http://www.nbaf.org/about/print_index.cfm ?Fuseaction=History&ID=&print=print. National Black Arts Festival. ‘‘Stephanie Hughley, Executive Producer.’’ http://www .nbaf.org/about/print_index.cfm?Fuseaction=hughley&ID=&print=print. Jewell B. Parham
National Black Theater Festival (1989) The National Black Theater Festival (NBTF) was founded by Larry Leon Hamlin (1948–2007) of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1989. Hamlin’s intent was for the festival ‘‘to unite black theatre companies in America and to ensure the survival of the genre into the next millennium.’’ Until his death he was producer and artistic director. The festival, recognized for its historical and cultural significance to black and American theater, is a six-day event held biennially. From its inception the festival attracted a wide range of national and international attention. It draws established actors and actresses from stage, screen, and television, in addition to poets, playwrights, directors, producers, designers, and technicians. These artists, plus theater companies and scholars, hail from across the United States, England, Jamaica, Nigeria, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, Ghana, and Senegal. The reigning theme of the festival is unchanged: ‘‘An International Celebration and Reunion of Spirit.’’ A hallmark of the NBTF is the opportunity for persons in theater art to network. Theater craftsmen and craftswomen are brought together with dreamers and fledgling artists. Sometimes connections are made that alter the course of a group or an individual’s career and the history of black theater. Another hallmark of the festival is the detail given to history. Promoters of the event keep alive the legacy of black theater arts and honor persons who have left their marks upon the genre by telling their biographies and presenting lifelong achievement awards and awards for outstanding work in several categories. The atmosphere created at the festival is much like an African village in which the elders are passing to the younger generation the wisdom of the ages. Veteran artists take youthful thespians by the hand, guiding them around pitfalls, giving sage advice, and opening doors that lead to greater achievements and to a bigger stage for theatrical success.
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Maya Angelou was the first chairperson of the NBTF. Other high-profile personalities who have attended the festival and who have taken an active role in its success include Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Malcolm Jamal Warner, and Oprah Winfrey. The NBTF offers an eclectic array of activities. A parade of powerful African drummers and celebrities launches the event. Workshops and seminars abound for the duration of the week. Such classes as ‘‘You Can Bank on Your Voice,’’ ‘‘Soap Operas,’’ and ‘‘Gospel Hip Hop Workout’’ are topics that stimulate interest and provide the information aspiring artists need. More than 115 theatrical presentations are performed. Highlights of the festival include the Opening Night Gala and Awards Banquet, the introduction of new works and plays featured at the Readers Theater, midnight poetry jams (designed to draw younger audiences), open-mike talent shows, storytelling, and an international vendors’ market. Each evening culminates with a celebrity reception following show festivities. The first NBTF drew ten 10,000 people and rendered 30 performances by 17 of the best black theater companies in the United States. Twenty years later, the festival will host an estimated 65,000 people associated with the theater, locals of Winston-Salem, and loyal theater fans. From 40 productions fans will choose from a potpourri of theatrical performances—musicals, one-man shows, drama, stand-up comedy, and more. An added component of the festival, TEENtastic, is designed to be teen-friendly so that more young people are attracted to the festival. TEENtastic features a dance contest, gospel music workshop, a fashion show, teen theater, and a youth parade, among other activities purposed for young people ages 13–19. See also: Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations; Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading Dewan, Sheila. 2005. ‘‘A Six-Day Bash Celebrates Black Theater.’’ New York Times, August 6. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/06/theater/newsandfeatures/06fest .html?ei=5090&en=2a2. National Black Theater Festival. http://www.nbtf.org/index.html. Shelby, LaRita. 2003. ‘‘The National Black Theater Festival: Non-stop black theater at its best is on view all this week.’’ EURweb. National Black Theater Festival. http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur10817.cfm. Jewell B. Parham
National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) (1935) The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) is an organization that works to advance issues relevant to African American women and families. Founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune, it was modeled on the National Council of Women, which took many different organizations and combined them into one
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powerful council. Some groups who were invited to the original meeting were reluctant in case it took away from the mission of their individual organization. Bethune was able to convince twenty-nine groups to attend the first meeting in Harlem on December 5, 1935. Bethune served as the first president of the NCNW. The NCNW began working on issues relevant to African American women. One of the first acts of the new council was to document discrimination at factories during the ramp-up to World War II. African Americans were not being hired at factories that received government contracts. The NCNW documented this discrimination and worked with the government to form the Fair Employment Practices Committee. This committee was created on June 25, 1941, by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It banned racial discrimination in any defense industry that received federal funds. The committee was able to investigate complaints and take action against the discrimination. The work of the NCNW led to a greater number of African Americans being hired in the factories during World War II. The NCNW also worked to increase the number of African American women who served in the armed services during World War II. In 1946, the NCNW was part of the formation of the United Nations and became one of the first official nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) within the United Nations. The NCNW continues to have a presence within the United Nations and works on behalf of African American women’s issues. In 1957, Dorothy Height became president of the NCNW. During the 1960s, Height helped the NCNW begin to focus on housing for the poor and those with low income. As president she was instrumental in getting public housing integrated and in working to get low-income families into homes of their own. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the NCNW worked with other groups to assist with voter registration, educating African Americans on campaign issues, and working for equality for all African Americans. The organization’s mission includes issues not only relevant to African American women, but to African American families as a whole. It was to this end that Height began the Black Family Reunion Celebration in 1986. Her goal for the celebration was to acknowledge the values of the traditional African American family. The Black Family Reunion Celebration combines educational workshops and demonstrations with entertainment and exhibits. The original headquarters for the NCNW located at 1318 Vermont Avenue NW, in Washington, DC, was designated an historical landmark in 1995. As such, the National Park Service is now the caretaker of the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House. The site now houses the Bethune Museum and the National Archives for Black Women’s History. The archives document the life of Bethune and the history of the National Council of Negro Women. See also: Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Further Reading Collier-Thomas, Bettye. 1993. ‘‘National Council of Negro Women.’’ In Black Women in America, Vol. 2. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Brooklyn: Carlson Publishing.
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Mary McLeod Bethune Council House. http://www.nps.gov/mamc/. National Council of Negro Women. http://www.ncnw.org/index.htm. Theresa Mastrodonato
National Dental Association At the turn of the century African Americans who aspired to careers in medicine, law, and engineering had limited educational opportunities in a racially segregated the United States that was still deeply divided and wounded by the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era. If they were fortunate enough to overcome many daunting obstacles and attain the credentials for their chosen profession, they still found doors to social and professional advancement closed. Access to networking and educational enhancement through membership in societies and associations was still denied them due to their darker skin. Many professional associations and societies had race-based restrictive clauses, which were designed to exclude membership to people of color. It was during this time period that African Americans began forming their own societies, clubs, and associations. Men and women seeking self-improvement usually organized in small groups on the local level and then gained strength as state, regional, and finally national entities. This is how the black dentists during the post-Civil War period formed their professional association. The National Dental Association (NDA) can trace its origins to the Washington Society for Colored Dentists, which began holding meetings in the District of Columbia in 1900. In May 1901, under the leadership of D. A. Ferguson of Virginia, the National Association of Colored Dentists was formally organized at the Howard University College of Dentistry. In 1907, it was briefly known as the Robert T. Freeman Dental Society, named after the first man to graduate from a dental college (Harvard Class of 1867). Like many early dental gatherings, the society focused on education, lectures, seminar, papers, and debates, as well as social activities. Five years later the membership had declined to the point where it threatened to dissolve, but the persistent Ferguson led the reinvention of the organization as the Tri-State Dental Association in 1913, which included dentists in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC. By 1918, the reenergized group was flourishing and the Tri-State Dental Association included fourteen states and renamed itself the Interstate Dental Association. The movement for a national organization began to gain momentum among the members, particularly after 1923, when twenty-one states were represented. African Americans continued to choose dentistry as their field of medicine and by 1930, the U.S. census data cited 1,773 black dentists. With the increase in practitioners nationwide, the movement for a national organization became a reality, when the Commonwealth Dental Society of New Jersey (organized in 1927) and the Interstate Dental Association agreed to merge in 1932.
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The combined group decided to name itself the National Dental Association. The NDA then set about the business of strengthening its presence as the standard bearer for African American dentists by writing a new constitution and bylaws, establishing committees and publishing an official journal. The NDA’s mission is to represent the interests of people of color and other ethnic groups in the dental profession, to bring attention to the oral health needs of the poor and underprivileged, and to work to improve the educational and financial aspirations of their membership. It focuses on oral health as a global initiative to help low-income communities and attempts to encourage minorities to pursue dentistry as a profession by providing scholarships and offering mentoring opportunities. With a membership of over 6,000 dentists, oral surgeons, endodontists, orthodontists, and periodontists, the NDA currently boasts chapters in 48 states and the Caribbean. Many of the members who support the NDA’s agenda are graduates of Meharry Medical College and Howard University School of Dentistry. Both are historically black colleges, whose graduates formed the bedrock of the founding of the organization. It has a student organization and serves as a sponsor for the National Dental Hygiene Association, National Dental Assistants Association, and an auxiliary organization for spouses of NDA members. It holds an annual convention, publishes a professional journal, NDA-Today, and Flossline, a membership newsletter. See also: Medical Schools Further Reading Drummett, Clifton O. 1959. ‘‘The Negro in Dental Education: A Review of Important Occurrences.’’ Phylon Quarterly 20, no.4: 379–88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/273134. National Dental Association. http://www.ndaonline.org. Glenda Alvin
National Medical Association Racial discrimination in the late 1800s meant that black doctors were denied membership in local and national medical associations—a practice that continued on the national level until 1968, when the American Medical Association (AMA) ended racial exclusion in its constituent organizations. Black doctors were concerned with their need to meet professionally. In September 1895, medical doctors Robert F. Boyd of Nashville and Miles V. Link of Memphis, who attended the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, argued that the time had come to launch a national medical association for members of their race. They met in the First Congregational Church on a Wednesday afternoon in October 1895, under the leadership of I. Garland Penn, commissioner of the Negro division of the exposition and chair of the organizational session. The twelve doctors present agreed that the organization was needed and then established formally the National Association of Colored Physicians, Dentists,
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and Pharmacists. Boyd was elected president. Despite the racially discriminatory practices that kept blacks out of white medical associations, membership in the NMA was open to all. By 1904 the NMA had fewer than fifty members; it had over five hundred by 1912. The association changed its name in 1903, becoming the National Medical Association (NMA). Determined to raise the standards of the organization, its executive board in 1908 recommended the publication of an official organ. Thus, in March 1909 the Journal of the National Medical Association first appeared, with pastpresident Charles V. Roman as editor. A man with great intellectual capacity, Roman was a leader of black doctors in the South, a graduate of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, and head of one of its medical departments. The NMA remained concerned with health legislation and the need to provide proper medical care for the whole population, including the disadvantaged. By the end of World War II, progressive-minded white and black men and women petitioned the federal government for a national health insurance plan which would be advanced under the Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill. Through the JNMA, members were urged to support the bill; however, the AMA fought this effort to ‘‘introduce socialized medicine’’ that extended from ‘‘the cradle to the grave.’’ In the early 1960s, however, this effort was revived as Medicare for the aged and came under Social Security. The NMA strongly endorsed the plan while the AMA continued its bitter opposition. Such efforts as ‘‘Operation Clean-UP’’ (to desegregate county medical societies and to integrate hospital facilities) and sponsorship of the Hill-Burton Act to ensure equal health opportunities for all in federally aided hospitals remained central to the NMA’s efforts. Through support of such centers in poor neighborhoods and other programs, the NMA continued to seek means of bringing good medical care to the poor and eliminating medical wastelands. Through the efforts of William Montague Cobb, who edited the JNMA for twenty-eight years and chaired the department of anatomy at Howard University, the Imhotep National Conference on Hospital Integration was formed; it met annually from 1957 through 1963 and ended when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League joined in supporting the conference. The NMA continues its efforts toward removing disparities in health care and addressing the nation’s health needs. See also: Medical Schools; National Dental Association Further Reading Johns, Robert L. 2001. ‘‘National Medical Association.’’ Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Supplement. Jack Salzman, ed. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. Morais, Herbert M. 1967. The History of the Negro in Medicine. International Library of Negro Life and History, 68–69; 158, 180, 182–83. New York: Publishers Company. National Medical Association. http://www.nmanet.org. Jessie Carney Smith
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National Urban League (1911) After emancipation and Reconstruction, African Americans were entitled to and sought parity, economic stability, self-determination, and civil rights. Facing continued discrimination in living and working conditions, people of African ancestry needed help to survive in the North. In response to this need, the Committee on Urban Conditions among Negroes was established on September 29, 1910. Led by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Fisk University graduate and the first African American to receive a PhD from Columbia University, George Edmund Haynes, the organization was a mechanism for providing educational and employment opportunities for blacks. Additionally, the organization helped African Americans battle the challenges that they encountered in the areas of housing, health, and sanitation and recreation. The organization committed itself to improving the quality of life for African Americans and to providing its constituents with the tools needed for them to cope in their hostile environment. To this end, the organization helped train black social workers to assist the African American community. Because the needs and challenges were so great, the organization quickly grew. By the end of World War I, African Americans were assisted by an interracial board and eighty-one staff members in thirty cities. In October 1911, the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes merged with the Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions Among Negroes, founded in 1906, and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women, founded in 1905, to form the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes. The name was shortened to the commonly known title of the National Urban League in 1920. During World War II, under the leadership of newspaper columnist and social worker, Lester Granger, the Urban League helped to break the color line and secure jobs for African Americans in defense plants. Following Granger, the next executive director, Whitney Young, focused on fund-raising. He was followed by Vernon Jordan, who increased the delivery of social services as well as voter registration among African Americans. During Jordan’s tenure, the leadership title changed from executive director to president. The current president, Marc Morial, secured $10 million in new funding and over $125 million in equity funding for minority businesses. It was during Morial’s term that the organization committed itself to improving the lives of African Americans through a five-point strategy. The Urban League focuses on empowerment through such programs as Education and Youth Preparedness, Economic Self-Sufficiency, Enhanced Health and Quality of Life, Civic Engagement, Leadership and Civil Rights, and Racial Justice. By working through the five-point strategies, Africans Americans are encouraged to ensure that their youth are welleducated, and that adults have adequate job training and own their own homes and businesses. The Urban League also seeks to eliminate health disparities between African Americans by promoting healthy eating, fitness, and access to affordable health care. Another goal of the Urban League is to empower African
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Americans to participate civically through voting, community service, and leadership development. Finally, the Urban League seeks to eliminate any barriers that disenfranchise African Americans from participating fully in American society. The Urban League launched the Legislative Policy Conference in Washington, DC, where over four hundred National Urban League affiliate representatives convened on Capitol Hill. Other initiatives included an expanded State of Black America and the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership. The partnership was a collaboration of business, government, philanthropic, and community organizations in the five cities of Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Jacksonville, and Kansas City (Missouri). Today the National Urban League has over one hundred local affiliates in thirty-five states and the District of Columbia, which provide programming and services to over two million people. See also: Organizations and Associations Further Reading National Urban League. http://www.nul.org. Reed, Toure F. 2008. Not Alms but Opportunity, the Urban league and the Politics of Racial Uplift 1910–1950. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina. Angela Espada
Nationalism, Black. See Black Nationalism Naylor, Gloria (1950– ), Writer Gloria Naylor, born and raised in New York City, attributes her perspective on life and the African American condition to her southern household and her parents, Mississippi emigrants living in the North. Although an avid reader and writer from her youth, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. prompted her to become a Jehovah’s Witness missionary, traveling and preaching for seven years after graduating from high school. She began college as a nursing student, but soon followed her passion by completing her degree in English. She credits Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye as giving her the sense of authority to write about African American experiences as she saw and felt them. Naylor’s first novel, completed while she earned her BA degree, begins what would become a quartet of interrelated texts examining the obstacles and struggles of African Americans separated from their supportive ancestral southern roots. The Women of Brewster Place (1982), also presented as a television movie, received the American Book Award for the Best First Novel. Naylor explores black womanhood and all of its complexity through the lives of seven female characters. She explores differences such as religious beliefs, political affiliation, and sexual preferences while connecting the women to the racial and class conflicts experienced in the urban North.
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Her second novel, Linden Hills (1985), examines the disconnect faced by African Americans of the professional middle class and what is lost on the acquisition of economic success. American materialism and its destructiveness to the community is presented through Naylor’s model of Dante’s Inferno. Mama Day (1988), Naylor’s third novel, makes a dramatic literary change by moving the reader and her characters to the fictional island of Willow Spring— inhabited entirely by African Americans, geographically separated from the mainland between Georgia and South Carolina, and uncorrupted by Western temptations and values. Here she presents a love story of two from very different backgrounds and the process of their necessary emotional healing. Rounding out the quartet is Bailey’s Cafe (1992), in which Naylor continues her exploration of female sexuality and the struggles of black womanhood. At the center of the novel is Eve’s Boarding House, which serves as the repository for each woman, and the title’s mystical cafe whose proprietor displays an empathetic nature to the plights of each woman. To date, Naylor’s body of work also includes a fifth novel and a fictionalized memoir. In The Men of Brewster Place (1998), she returns to the neighborhood to fill in the narrative gaps, exploring the identity struggles and racial and economic obstacles told by the male characters. Her next novel, 1996 (2005), offers readers a glimpse into intense security and harassment faced by the self-named character on St. Helena Island. Critics have favorably received Naylor’s novels, praising her diverse representation of voices and experiences. Her exploration of black womanhood and positioning of black feminism helped to place her as an important contemporary African American author who continues to contribute to African American popular culture. See also: Morrison, Toni; Womanism Further Reading Felton, Sharon, and Michelle C. Loris, eds. 1997. The Critical Response to Gloria Naylor. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Fowler, Virginia C. 1996. Gloria Naylor: In Search of Sanctuary. Boston: Twayne Publishers. Gates, Henry Louis Jr., and Kwame Anthony Appiah, eds. 1993. Gloria Naylor: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad. Kelley, Margot Anne, ed. 1999. Gloria Naylor’s Early Novels. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Stave, Shirley A., ed. 2001. Gloria Naylor: Strategy and Technique, Magic and Myth. Newark: University of Delaware Press. Whitt, Margaret Earley. 1999. Understanding Gloria Naylor. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. Wilson, Charles E. Jr. 2001. Gloria Naylor: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Adenike Davidson
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N egritude Negritude, a term that comes from the French word negre (meaning ‘‘black’’), refers to the literary and cultural movement originating in the 1930s among Francophone (French-speaking) black intellectuals. The proponents of Negritude espoused African cultural identity and resisted assimilation into white culture. Negritude was greatly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance, a black cultural, artistic, and literary movement in the United States. Both movements were born out of a long and bitter history of slavery and colonialism. The eventual emancipation of slaves from French domination, such as occurred on the Caribbean Island of Martinique in 1848, had little effect on the lives of the African descendents who lived there. Whether under colonial or foreign rule, African descendents held little, if any social, economic, or political power. Moreover, the French disparaged traditional African culture, language, and artistic expression. The effects of oppression and racism took a heavy toll on the subjugated populations. One of these effects, the one that most concerned the future leaders of Negritude, was the destruction of black identity, the denigration of blackness, and the repression of their unique narrative. Paulette Nardal, a woman of African descent, gave impetus to the nascent Negritude movement when she introduced the American Harlem Renaissance to black French intellectuals in 1931. While living in Paris, France, she, her sisters, and others established salons, or gathering places for intellectuals to discuss the important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as the subject of black identity and racism as it affected blacks around the world, especially in the French colonies and territories. Out of this discourse emerged the journal, La Revue du Monde Noir. Other women, such as Suzanne Lacasade, Jane Nardal, and Suzanne Roussy-Cesaire, were instrumental during the incipient stage of the Negritude movement. Male black intellectuals overshadowed their work in ensuing years. Leopold Sedar Senghor, Leon Damas, and Aime Cesaire were the most wellknown contributors to the Negritude movement. Senghor, a Sengalese-born poet, served as the first president of Senegal between 1960 and 1980. Damas, who was born in French Guiana, was a poet and, later in life, a professor at Georgetown University and Howard University in the 1970s. Cesaire, a Martinican, was a poet and prominent politician in his home country. While all three men were studying in France in the 1930s, they attended the salons coordinated by the Nardal sisters. Shortly thereafter, they collaborated on the literary review L’Etudiant noir (The Black Student) in 1935. The term Negritude was credited to Cesaire, who used it in one of several poems that was published in L’Etudiant noir. These various publications put the subject of blackness at the center, whereas mainstream French literature generally vilified or ignored blacks altogether. The Negritude movement reached its pinnacle during the next two decades. In 1941, Cesaire and his wife established Tropiques. Other Francophone black
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intellectuals, such as Alioune Diop and Franz Fanon, produced important works to supplement the growing literature on black culture and identity. One of Fanon’s books, The Wretched of the Earth (1961), explored the injurious psychological effects of racism and oppression on the marginalized. Although Fanon’s books were popular with the rising black militants in the United States during the 1960s, the Negritude movement itself was bitterly criticized by those who believed that literary and scholarly interest in black culture and identity was not enough, that radical and violent action was what was needed to resist white domination. See also: Afrocentric Movement Further Reading Constant, Isabelle and Kahiudi C. Mabana, eds. 2009. Negritude: Legacy and Present Relevance. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars. Kesteloot, Lilyan. 1991. Black Writers in French: A Literary History of Negritude. Washington, DC: Howard University Press. Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. 2002. Negritude Women. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. Gladys L. Knight
Negro Baseball Leagues The Negro Baseball Leagues represent a unique period in American sports history. One of them, the Negro National League, flourished from 1920 to 1948, when African Americans played on segregated professional baseball teams. These leagues showcased some of the more outstanding athletes to play the game and later became a valuable source of recruitment for Major League Baseball. Baseball traces its beginnings back to the 1830s and gained in popularity in army camps and military prisons during the Civil War. From the mid- to latenineteenth century, when early baseball clubs were mostly restricted to white players, African American teams continued to compete against each other, oftentimes without league structure. These teams, which were found in many black communities, played against others from the minor leagues, colleges, and semipro clubs. An exception to the whites-only rule was John W. Walker (a.k.a. Bud Fowler) who became the first black play to join a white team in 1872. College-educated Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first to play in the major league when he joined the Toledo Club of the National League, in 1883. Other noted players included Weldy Walker, Robert Higgins, and Richard Johnson. Before 1900, approximately sixty African Americans played in predominately white leagues. From the period 1900 to 1920, some team and player policies survived and would later become important to the Negro National League. The Homestead Grays of Pittsburgh, who also played during each year as the Washington (DC)
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Homestead Grays, the Kansas City Monarchs, and the Chicago American Giants, were among those that would later make the transition to black major league status. During this period, most players and owners sealed contract deals though a handshake, and not a formal written agreement. This unstable situation resulted in players constantly moving from team to team in search of a better deal. Team members were also expected to play several positions, a practice that continued throughout Negro National League history. The first incarnation of the Negro National League began in 1920 when businessman Rube Foster, a former pitcher for the Cuban X Giants, became the driving force in reorganizing black baseball. A contract was drafted to include teams from the West—the Chicago American Giants, Indianapolis ABCs, Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Giants, Detroit Stars, and the Cuban Giants. Many teams carried the name Giants, as a badge of racial pride. The Eastern Colored League, which began in 1923, included the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Lincoln Giants of New York, Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, Baltimore Black Sox, and the Hilldale Club of Darby, Pennsylvania. Although better financed, the talent in the eastern teams was not as developed as that found on the western ball clubs. Nonetheless, many players from the Negro National League bolted to the Eastern Colored League for better pay. The Eastern Colored League reorganized in 1929 as the American Negro League, the year the Homestead Grays joined organized baseball. This Negro National League experiment lasted until the decline in health of Rube Foster and ended in 1931. The 1930s proved hard times for African Americans and the Negro National League. In order to survive a poor economy and the virulent racism of the South, many blacks continued to move north for a better life. The Great Depression years saw large population increase in the North as new employment and educational opportunities attracted families and whole communities. Many in the Negro National League had already made the move—including Satchel Paige, from Alabama and Buck O’Neal, from Florida—to join northern teams. The Negro National League adapted to the 1930s’ declining economy in a number of ways. In order to increase attendance, the Kansas City Monarchs introduced night games and portable lights, which they carried with them on the road. The league also expanded their schedule to include more small towns and fairgrounds. During this period, the highest Negro National League salary was comparable to that of lower paid players in white Major League Baseball. In addition to pay, players were given lodging, transportation, and approximately sixty cents a day for food. The life of a professional baseball player proved challenging on other fronts. A player’s performance could be affected by the condition of the field at a stadium, park, or sandlot, which varied according to the city. Some of the games were played with worn or inferior equipment. The pay, generally far lower than that of white players, was often determined by the number of tickets sold at each game. Barnstorming, participating in exhibition and off-schedule games, did provide some financial relief for players. Depending on the team’s capital, travel could range from cars, to buses, to trains. Earlier teams were limited to travel on
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farm wagons. In spite of these and other conditions, many have said that it was the fun of the game that made it exciting. Black minor league baseball was also played in other parts of the country. The Negro Southern League began in 1920 and lasted until the 1940s. Participating teams included the Atlanta Black Crackers, New Orleans Crescent Stars, Jacksonville Red Caps, Montgomery Grey Sox, and the Memphis Red Sox. The Texas-Oklahoma-Louisiana League’s teams were located in Shreveport, Dallas, Houston, Tulsa, Wichita, and Fort Worth. For a brief period in the 1930s the Midwest League and the Negro International League were popular in small cities and parts of the South. The birth and growth of the Negro National League resulted from Jim Crow laws that denied black people equal rights in American society. The enforcement of segregation laws made it especially hard on black players, and the black community in general. Deciding not to challenge the status quo, team owners observed unwritten laws that prohibited the integration of Major League Baseball. Attitudes about race were especially strong among many of the white players, one-third of whom grew up in the South. Due to the constant traveling, special arrangements were needed to meet food and lodging needs. The eating establishments that did serve blacks did not allow counter service. When ‘‘colored’’ hotels were unavailable, team members often took shelter in the homes of local black residents. The National Negro League arrived at a time when baseball had long been America’s favorite sport. The excitement of the game was reflected in the way the communities supported teams that came to town. Ballgames became social events that attracted a cross-section of citizens who often attended wearing their best clothes. Although sporadic, related support jobs in promotion, food service, and transportation added to the local economy. The men who arrived to the professional baseball and the Negro National League brought with them different life experiences. A fair number came from the rice, sugar, and celery fields of the South. Some were barely literate and learned the game while playing on sandlot teams or through urban recreation centers. Others were high school and college graduates who played the game for their schools. Some learned the game by studying it for many years as a spectator, before joining in the play. The first World Series was played in 1924, when the Negro National League’s Kansas City Monarchs met the Hilldale Club. The Monarchs won 5 of 4 games played, with one ending in a tie. The games were played in Philadelphia; Maryland Park, Maryland; Kansas City; and Chicago, with an estimated attendance of 45, 857. Over the next three decades, ten more World Series games would be played. The second Negro National League (1933 to 1948) was organized through the efforts of W. A. ‘‘Gus’’ Greenlee, a gaming industry businessman who organized the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1931. His team featured such legendary players as pitcher Leroy ‘‘Satchel’’ Paige, home run hitter Josh Gibson, pitcher Judy Johnson, outfielder Cool Papa Bell, and outfielder Jimmy Crutchfield. Joining this
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new Negro National League were Robert A. Cole’s American Giants of Chicago, the Indianapolis ABCs, Detroit Stars, Columbus Blue Birds, Nashville Elite Giants, and the Baltimore Black Sox. This league included teams in the East and West, however, with the formation of the Negro American League, the concentration focused on teams in the East. The Negro American League Coexists The Negro American League, which coexisted with the Negro National League, began in 1937 under the leadership of American Chicago Giants owner H. G. Hall. The major teams were in Chicago, Kansas City, and Birmingham with other clubs operating through Memphis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and other cities. Following the lead of the earlier black sports entrepreneurs was Ernie Wright, owner of the Cleveland Buckeyes. Abe and Effa Manley were owners of the Newark Eagles and investors in real estate. Effa, an outspoken and forceful woman, advocated for a more balanced playing schedule and independence from white businessmen. It was believed that having black leadership of baseball clubs would result in an economic power base with control in the community. Games continued to be played during World War I, with many of the players pulled into service in the military. Those teams affected included the Newark Eagles, Kansas City Monarchs, New York Black Yankees, Baltimore Black Sox, and the Homstead Grays. In 1942, the Navy Relief Fund was aided by a historical decision to match the all-white Dizzy Dean’s All Stars against the Kansas City Monarchs. The game was played in Chicago’s Wrigley Field and ended with a 3–1 win for Kansas City. During the 1940s, a changing United States proved to be a blessing and a curse for the Negro National League. Due to a relaxing of white baseball league policy, African American umpires were now allowed to officiate games. Some star players were drafted into the military; however, others who were less prominent jumped at the chance to prove their worth. This situation also allowed lower-ranked teams to become more competitive. Looming on the horizon was the promise of integration, and its unintended results, the weakening and demise of many black businesses and organizations. Major League Ball is Integrated As early as 1943, Jackie Robinson, a former all-American football player from the University of Southern California, and Baltimore Black Sox pitcher Nate Moreland impressed the management of the Chicago White Sox, but were not hired because of their color. History was made, however, on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson, signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Branch Rickey, stepped onto Ebbets Field and became the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era. That same year Larry Doby was hired by the Cleveland Indians and Don Newcomb
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followed Robinson at the Dodgers. Robinson and other pioneering black players had to endure years of verbal racial abuse and threats as this new chapter in American baseball history began. The year 1947 heralded the beginning of the end of the National Negro League’s golden age. In 1948, sixteen more players joined major league teams. Satchel Paige, now in the twilight of his career, was given a contact to pitch for the Cleveland Indians, which he did in front of record crowds. Due to a decreasing number of star players in the Negro National League, attendance was down and most teams lost money. By 1949, thirty-six African Americans had joined major league teams. Mainstream America was introduced to new athletic performances by Roy Campanella, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, and many others. In 1962, Buck O’Neal made history by becoming the first African American coach for the major leagues’ Chicago Cubs. To attract attendance teams began to bring novelty components to the game. The Indianapolis Clowns featured actual clowns as a part of their play. In 1953, Indianapolis made history by hiring Toni Stone, who played third base and became the first black woman to play in the professional league. Indianapolis also hired pitcher Mamie ‘‘Peanuts’’ Johnson and second base Connie Morgan. By 1960, the few remaining teams included the Kansas City Monarchs, Detroit–New Orleans Stars, Birmingham Black Barons, and the Raleigh (North Carolina) Tigers. Finally, the Negro National League ended in 1968 when the only team remaining was the Indianapolis Clowns, which had become primarily an entertainment enterprise. Black baseball was celebrated in 2010 when the U.S. Postal Service issued two stamps in a series called Negro Leagues Baseball, one stamp an illustration of a base runner, catcher, and umpire and the other depicting Rube Foster, called the ‘‘father’’ of the Negro leagues. See also: Sports Further Reading Baseball Hall of Fame. 2008. ‘‘Hall of Famers.’’ http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/ hofers/index.jsp. Peterson, Robert. 1970. Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams. New York: Gramercy Books. Ribowsky, Mark. 1997. A Complete History of the Negro Leagues, 1884 to 1955. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group. Robert L. Hall
New Orleans This unique and special Louisiana city at the mouth of the Mississippi River has maintained its special mystique as a melting pot of varying African, European, Native American, and Caribbean influences, particularly in the areas of religion, music, food, and other cultural expressions. Its ‘‘Crescent City’’ nickname
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comes from the fact that bodies of water encircle much of the city, as well as its reputation for nightlife. ‘‘The Big Easy’’ refers to the laid-back pace of the city as experienced by visitors and residents, summed up in the French expression ‘‘laissez les bon temps roulez’’ (‘‘let the good times roll’’) and yet another nickname, ‘‘N’awlins’’ (as spoken with a Southern drawl). Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street, and the French Quarter are synonymous with the image of the city, which has become a destination for tourists from all over the world. Early History The spirit of resilience has served the city well through its turbulent history of natural disasters and social upheavals, spanning nearly three hundred years of existence since its founding by the French in 1718. As part of the Louisiana colony and Orleans Parish (county), the city shifted to control by Spain from 1767 to 1800, and then briefly returned to French authority under Napoleon (Bonaparte) I, who sold it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Both France and Spain instituted ‘‘Black Codes’’ in efforts to regulate the status of, and relationships between Europeans and Africans in the New World, with the first ‘‘Code Noir’’ issued by French king Louis XIV in 1685. African slaves, primarily from Senegal on the west African coast, were brought directly to the region to labor in the city and its surrounding plantations, and continued as the majority population until well into the nineteenth century. Other slaves and some free persons immigrated to New Orleans from Haiti, after the colony formerly known as Saint Domingue overthrew its French master and became an independent nation in 1804 under the leadership of revolutionaries such as Toussaint L’Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The various racial and ethnic interactions between blacks and whites, and slaves and free persons, led to the development of mixed-race communities that came to be known as ‘‘Creoles.’’ Because of direct family ties to slaveholders, many Creoles lived as free persons, prospered enough to educate their children in Europe, and in rare instances even inherited or owned slaves themselves. The Creole language also developed as an African-influenced variation of French spoken by slaves and free persons of color. City of Many Cultures: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century As a port city, New Orleans was an important center for the slave market as well as other commerce. The ‘‘Vieux Carre’’ (old square) was a central gathering location including the ‘‘Place des Negres’’ (later called Congo Square) in the French Quarter section of the city. Slaves were not only bought and sold there, but also allowed to congregate, play African drums and other instruments, and dance on Sundays and other designated occasions. As a result, many African Cultural Influences were retained and adapted in the music, dance, and other creative expressions of both slaves and free persons. The surrounding community,
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formerly part of a plantation, was called Faubourg Treme, and became one of the city’s many colorful neighborhoods. Some ‘‘full-blooded’’ blacks and Creoles opted to fuse Christianity and Catholicism with ancient and traditional African religious practices, beginning the city and region’s reputation as an American center for the practice of vodoun (popularly known as ‘‘voodoo’’), with the priestess ‘‘voodoo queen’’ Marie Laveau and her daughter of the same name as famous personalities associated with its rituals including charms, amulets, dolls, and worship of various spirits and ancestors. The ‘‘Place des Armes’’ was a central location for public spectacles including the execution of slaves, but was later renamed Jackson Square after Andrew Jackson, hero of the 1817 Battle of New Orleans and eventually seventh president of the United States. Some slaves with highly developed skills and trades directly contributed to the architecture of the area, including the distinctive ‘‘shotgun’’ houses found throughout the city and elaborate ironworks in the city’s Garden District and French Quarter. In some instances these slaves were allowed to personally profit from their abilities and purchase their freedom. Almost immediately after becoming part of the United States, Creoles and other free persons of color in the city began petitioning for equal property and voting rights, developed sophisticated literature, art, and music, and became ‘‘a culture within a culture,’’ all while the overwhelming majority of Africans in the United States were either enslaved in southern states or marginalized in northern areas. Norbert Rillieux, who left the city to study engineering in Paris, returned in 1840 and patented a vacuum pan evaporator in 1843 which increased sugar processing and production, while Creole child piano prodigy Louis Moreau Gottschalk made his concert debut in the city before also going to France for advanced musical studies. By 1850 the highly productive and well educated black Creole community seemed to be an early model for successful racial and cultural integration. Even though they adopted European cultural and religious models, including membership and active involvement in the Roman Catholic Church, they still were impacted by the national division over the issue of slavery, and natural events such as the Last Island Hurricane that struck the city and region in 1856. After the 1857 Dred Scott decision indicated that no persons of African descent ‘‘had any rights that a white man was bound to respect,’’ the freedoms experienced by mixed-race persons were curtailed because of the ‘‘one drop’’ (any identifiable African ancestry) custom. Categories included ‘‘mulatto’’ (one African or black parent), ‘‘quadroon’’ (one African or black grandparent), ‘‘octoroon’’ (one African or black great-grandparent), but all nonwhite persons were subject to discriminatory treatment. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Louisiana and the city of New Orleans became a part of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union (federal government). Some free blacks and mixed-race persons provided labor and support for the Confederate Army, but after the Union regained control of the strategically important port city in 1862, the overwhelming majority shifted their allegiance to the North. Gottschalk, by this time one of the most famous
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pianists and composers in the world, also supported the Union but always introduced himself as a New Orleans native during his international concert tours. In 1864, the New Orleans Tribune became the first Negro daily newspaper in the United States, and African Americans in the city and state enjoyed a brief period of political empowerment after the war ended in 1865. However, tensions between whites and blacks escalated, resulting in the 1866 race riot as attempts were made to enforce the Civil Rights Act passed the same year. In 1867, African Americans protested against and successfully reversed the city’s segregated streetcar system, and in 1869, Straight University (founded by the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church) and Union Normal School (established by the Freedman’s Aid Society and the Methodist Episcopal Church) began providing higher education for the city’s nonwhite population. Over time, the names of the institutions were changed to Straight College and New Orleans University. Free-born Creole P. B. S. Pinchback held more important political positions than any other African American during the Reconstruction period, including Louisiana state senator, lieutenant governor, and became the first African American state governor when he filled the position on an interim basis from December 1872 to January 1873. Pinchback was also elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, but both elections were contested, preventing him from taking office, while another Creole politician, Caesar Antoine, also served as state senator (1868–72) and lieutenant governor (1872–76). The city’s second race riot took place in 1874, as former Confederates who reorganized as the ‘‘White League’’ and other armed supporters challenged the predominantly black Louisiana militia and temporarily deposed Republican governor William Kellogg. President Ulysses S. Grant ordered federal troops into the city three days later to restore order and reinstate the legitimate political leadership. When Reconstruction and Union occupation ended in 1877, political control was regained by the (white) Democratic Party. The state and city became subject to a new version of ‘‘Black Codes’’ which imposed Jim Crow segregation of racial groups, and foreshadowed the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that upheld the concept of ‘‘separate but equal.’’ Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn published the first book in English on Creole food in 1885, and also documented the city’s French Opera, Marie Laveau and voodoo, and other traditions, including a novel based on the Last Island Hurricane. City Culture in the Early Twentieth Century Symbolically, the famous Congo Square was renamed Beauregard Square (the name of a Confederate general), but the city’s African American population resisted both the name change and the system it represented. The continuing racial and cultural tensions not only led to a third race riot in 1900 and a return to segregated public transportation in 1902, but also to creative cultural responses such as Ragtime piano music, street parades, brass bands, and other musical
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activities which helped the city play a major role in the development of what would eventually be called ‘‘jazz.’’ The music, and the word used to describe it, had multiple meanings (usually negative) and was often associated with the city’s Storyville red-light district of prostitution and brothels, gambling, drinking, and other ‘‘low-down’’ activities centered around Basin Street in the French Quarter. As early as 1895, Charles Joseph ‘‘Buddy’’ Bolden was credited with leading an instrumental ensemble and beginning the tradition of great jazz trumpeters and musicians associated with the city, playing a combination of ragtime, march music, blues, and European-influenced folk music. The black-owned traveling variety tent show, ‘‘Silas Green from New Orleans,’’ began touring the South in 1904, but had no direct connection to the city beyond its name. When the first recording technology was invented, a group of white New Orleans musicians, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, made the first jazz recording in 1917 and overshadowed Bolden and other African American originators of the new music, including such notable figures as trumpeters Freddie Keppard, King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, pianist/composer Jelly Roll Morton, clarinetist Jimmie Noone, clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, and trombonist/bandleader Edward ‘‘Kid’’ Ory. The legendary New Orleans trumpeter, singer, bandleader, and jazz icon Louis Armstrong would gain national and international fame as the first great instrumental and vocal jazz improviser. He began his professional career with Oliver, and his first great band, the Hot Five, included fellow New Orleans natives Johnny Dodds (clarinet) and ‘‘Baby’’ Dodds (drums). In higher education, Xavier University was founded in 1915 by Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in response to limitations and restrictions for African Americans seeking educational opportunities beyond high school. The university retained the distinction of being the only historically black college or university (HBCU) established and supported by the Roman Catholic Church, and developed an outstanding reputation for African American student development in scientific disciplines. Many New Orleanians began to migrate from the South in search of better opportunities during the first decades of the twentieth century. The influx of African Americans from New Orleans and other southern areas into St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, to pursue industrial work created a shortage of agricultural labor in Louisiana, and tensions with white workers which led to the East St. Louis Riot of 1917. Railroads, riverboats, and other means of transportation carried others further north to other urban areas as the Great Migration continued into the 1920s. The Louisiana Weekly, a black owned-and-operated newspaper, began publication in 1925. The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 created widespread hardship for New Orleans and the Deep South and spurred additional relocation. Blues singer Bessie Smith recorded ‘‘Backwater Blues’’ the same year as a direct response and commentary on the flood’s impact. Her work also influenced New Orleans native Mahalia Jackson, who moved to Chicago during the same period. Jackson eventually combined blues and jazz elements with her religious influences to become acclaimed as the world’s greatest gospel singer.
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Former New Orleans musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Jimmie Noone spent time building their reputations in Chicago during the 1920s, with Armstrong eventually settling in New York City. Bechet made his home in Paris, France, where ‘‘La Rue Bechet’’ was named in honor and recognition of his artistry. Jelly Roll Morton spent time in St. Louis, Chicago, New York City, Washington (DC), and Los Angeles, and went so far as to claim he personally invented jazz when interviewed by the Library of Congress in his later years. The city continued to produce great musicians and music such as jazz musician and singer Danny Barker, who over his long life and career worked with musicians from every era of jazz. New Orleans influenced the work of other jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, who featured New Orleans clarinetist Barney Bigard in his orchestra for many years, titled one of his early compositions ‘‘Creole Love Call,’’ and later paid tribute to the city with his extended work, New Orleans Suite. Alongside existing social clubs and benevolent societies, a branch of the NAACP was also established during the 1920s, with Creole activist A. P. Tureaud and other African Americans in the city continuing efforts to gain (and in many instances regain) full citizenship rights related to voting, public accommodations, housing and property rights, and education. Alongside public and parochial elementary and high schools, Dillard University was created in 1930 after a merger of Straight College and New Orleans University, and joined Xavier University in continuing to provide higher education for African Americans. Culture and Civil Rights in the Mid-Twentieth Century Despite segregation, African Americans continued to celebrate their many cultural influences through music, parades, and annual festivals such as the city’s world-famous Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday was adapted from the Shrove Tuesday day of feasting prior to the Christian observance of Lent. Fashion and art included the elaborate and colorful costumes of the city’s Mardi Gras Indians and Krewes, and even food, as symbolized in African-influenced dishes such as jambalaya and gumbo (mixtures of meat, seafood, and vegetable elements), shrimp and chicken Creole, red beans and rice, muffulettas and po-boy sandwiches, and desserts such as pralines and bread pudding. The New Orleans Revival of traditional jazz performance included jazz funerals, where a brass band played solemn music on the way to the cemetery and up-tempo, happy tunes such as the standard ‘‘When The Saints Go Marching In’’ on their return. Zydeco also developed as a black Creole folk music form combining blues, Caribbean, Cajun (French Acadian-Canadian), and country music influences, while artists such as pianist Henry ‘‘Professor Longhair’’ Boyd created a distinctive New Orleans style of rhythm and blues music in the period following the end of World War II, including his signature piece, ‘‘Tipitina.’’ Entrepreneur Ellis Marsalis Sr. established the Marsalis Motel in 1943 for African American travelers denied access to other lodging in the city, while Tureaud and other NAACP activists continued to press for civil rights during the
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1940s. Their efforts bore fruit as part of the larger Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. New Orleans native Andrew Young began college at Dillard before leaving the city to become a minister activist and key associate of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and later became a U.S. congressman, mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, and first African American U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in a distinguished political career. Xavier graduate Ernest ‘‘Dutch’’ Morial, a protege of Tureaud, became the first black graduate of the Louisiana State University Law School in 1954 and a legal activist, while Southern University opened its New Orleans campus in 1959 and increased its system’s overall growth and student population to become one of the largest HBCUs. In music, Antoine ‘‘Fats’’ Domino continued the New Orleans piano tradition and became a pioneer of rock ’n roll with major 1950s recordings such as ‘‘Ain’t That A Shame’’ and ‘‘Blueberry Hill.’’ Singer Lloyd Price scored major hit records such as ‘‘Stagger Lee’’ and ‘‘Personality’’ during the same period, while pianist/composer/producer Allen Toussaint was instrumental in 1960s rhythm and blues pop recordings by Lee Dorsey, Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas (the ‘‘Soul Queen of New Orleans’’), and the Meters band, which included Art and Cyril Neville. Aaron and Charles joined them in later years as the renowned Neville Brothers group, and Aaron also enjoyed success as a solo artist. Protests, litigation, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act resulted in streetcars and other public transportation services being desegregated (again), as well as lunch counters and public accommodations, public schools, and (white) colleges such as the city’s Tulane University and Louisiana State University in nearby Baton Rouge. In January 1965, African American professional Football players staged a successful boycott after being denied equal accommodations upon arriving in the city for the American Football League (AFL) All-Star Game, and passage of the Voting Rights Act later in the year led to increases in African American political empowerment and elected officials in the city’s seventeen wards (districts). Improved social conditions in the city contributed to the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL) becoming the city’s first professional team in 1967, followed by the New Orleans Buccaneers of the American Basketball Association (ABA), and two National Basketball Association (NBA) franchises, the New Orleans Jazz and the New Orleans Hornets. Despite limited athletic success, the city continued to support sports teams and events as another means of drawing revenue from tourists and visitors as well as residents. Norman Francis began his tenure as president of Xavier University in 1968 and over time became the dean (longest-serving) HBCU president. The city was also home to a new generation of African American creativity and cultural leadership, including writer Kalamu ya Salaam (born Vallery Ferdinand III); visual artists Gertrude Morgan and John T. Scott; and chef entrepreneur Leah Chase, owner of the famous ‘‘Dooky Chase’’ restaurant. Drummer-percussionist Ed Blackwell gained international fame with saxophonist Ornette Coleman as part of the 1960s avant-garde jazz movement, while clarinetist Alvin Batiste returned to the area to establish a jazz institute in Baton Rouge at Southern University.
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In addition to the Mardi Gras carnival, the city launched the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1970, highlighting local and nationally recognized contemporary musicians as well as surviving artists from earlier eras such as Professor Longhair, ragtime pianist-composer Eubie Blake, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. With the opening of the Louisiana Superdome in 1975, the city also benefited greatly from hosting large musical concerts and major sports events including six Super Bowl games, the Sugar Bowl, the college Final Four basketball championship games, and the annual Bayou Classic between HBCUs Grambling State University and Southern University. Progress and Problems in the Late Twentieth Century As whites migrated to suburban areas, African Americans became the majority population, which translated into increased political empowerment and social influence. Samuel DuBois Cook, the first African American professor to teach at a traditionally white institution in the South, began his tenure of over twenty years as president of Dillard in 1974. Minister and gospel artist Paul Morton became pastor of Greater St. Stephen Baptist Church the same year, which expanded to multiple locations and megachurch status as Morton eventually became presiding bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist fellowship movement. Ernest ‘‘Dutch’’ Morial made history when he was elected as the city’s first African American mayor in 1977, after previous breakthroughs in the judicial system (as its first black juvenile court judge) and Louisiana legislature, where he was the first African American to serve since the Reconstruction period. He was succeeded by another African American, Sidney Barthelemy, in 1986. The Amistad Research Center, a major archive of African and American culture and history previously housed at Dillard, moved to larger facilities at Tulane University in 1987. The city’s culture was also featured in the brief run of the critically acclaimed CBS-TV series, Frank’s Place, from 1987–88, starring and produced by African Americans Tim and Daphne Maxwell Reid. Marc Morial served as mayor (1994–2002), president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (2000–2), and went on to become president and CEO of the National Urban League in 2003. The city’s fourth African American mayor, Ray Nagin, served two terms from 2002 until 2010. William Jefferson, elected in 1991, was the first African American from Louisiana in Congress since Reconstruction, but his political career ended in disgrace after conviction on bribery charges and other financial misdealings, which led to electoral defeat in 2008 and a prison sentence of thirteen years in 2009. New Generation of New Orleans Musicians Pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr. remained in the city to teach jazz at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA) and later at the University of New Orleans. His sons Branford (saxophone), Wynton (trumpet), Delfeayo (trombone/ record producer), and Jason (drums) joined their father to become recognized as
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the ‘‘First Family of Jazz.’’ Wynton Marsalis received a number of Grammy Awards for both jazz and classical recordings, served as founding creative director of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) in New York City, became the first African American jazz artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1997, and inherited Louis Armstrong’s mantle as a ‘‘worldwide ambassador’’ for the music. Branford became a national celebrity as the first musical director for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC television and appearances in several motion pictures, as well as through his recordings and international performances. Terence Blanchard (trumpeter and film composer), Donald Harrison (saxophonist and Mardi Gras Indian chief), Kermit Ruffins (trumpeter/vocalist), Nicholas Payton (trumpeter/multi-instrumentalist who also bears a striking physical resemblance to Louis Armstrong), Victor Goines (saxophones and clarinet), Irvin Mayfield (trumpet), Michael White (clarinet), Trombone Shorty, and Christian Scott (trumpet) also represent the current generation of New Orleans musical talent. Payton, son of bassist Walter Payton (not to be confused with the legendary football player), and the Jordan family, including saxophonist father Edward ‘‘Kidd’’, mother and pianist Edvidge, and children Kent (flute), Marlon (trumpet), Stephanie (vocalist), and Rachel (violin) demonstrate that musical family traditions continue to thrive in the city. Goines became a respected music educator, heading jazz studies departments at Northwestern University in Chicago and the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, while Mayfield became the official cultural ambassador for both the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, and appointee to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In Hip-Hop and rap music, Percy ‘‘Master P’’ Miller enjoyed a period of considerable national success as not only a rapper, but as an entrepreneur, actor, and even a part-time professional athlete during the 1990s, followed by Dwayne Michael ‘‘Lil Wayne’’ Carter in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Both were from impoverished areas of New Orleans, and their art reflected the grim realities of urban life for African Americans in the city, which at one time received the unwanted label of ‘‘Murder Capital of the United States.’’ Miller’s brother Corey, known as rapper ‘‘C-Murder,’’ unfortunately lived up to his nickname and was given life imprisonment for second degree murder, while the heavily tattooed Lil Wayne eventually received a short prison sentence after numerous drug and weapons charges. Hurricane Katrina and its Aftermath With much of the city on land that is below sea level and bordered by the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain as well as the Mississippi River, New Orleans has always been vulnerable to hurricanes and tropical storms as well as potential flooding. Engineers developed an elaborate system of levees and pumps as protection; cemeteries and burial sites such as the historic Saint Louis Cemetery are above ground by law and custom. Documented storms go back as far as 1779, and weather research indicates that the city has averaged 12.5 years between direct hits since weather records have been maintained. During the first
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decade of the twentieth century, two major hurricanes occurred in 1909 and 1915, which killed hundreds and caused millions of dollars in damages. The pattern continued as meteorologists began the practice of naming tropical storms, including Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Tropical Storm Frances in 1998. Both of these events caused significant damage to the city and region, but Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 was arguably the greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States. Not only was there substantial loss of life and damage to large portions of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, this storm highlighted long-standing economic disparities, failure of engineering systems, and failure of leadership at local, state, and national levels in preparing for the storm and in responding to its aftermath. The Louis Armstrong song, ‘‘Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?’’ took on additional significance as thousands of residents were forced to evacuate with little or no warning, with the largest numbers ending up in Baton Rouge, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and other southern cities. Dispersal took some residents to nearly every other region of the United States, while unprepared and poor persons lacking transportation and other resources were left behind, many to die in floodwaters as the levee system failed, covering entire neighborhoods. Mayor Nagin was criticized for not mobilizing school buses as emergency transportation, especially after the area where buses were parked also flooded, making them inoperable. He and many others likewise criticized the government’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for its disorganized and inept response to the crisis. The lower Ninth Ward, already a poverty-stricken area, was almost completely destroyed. Millions from around the world watched as African Americans huddled on rooftops in hopes of rescue by boat or helicopter, some using whatever was available to write ‘‘HELP’’ and other distress messages. Rapper Kanye West ignited additional controversy with his public remark on Music Television (MTV) that ‘‘[President] George [W.] Bush doesn’t care about black people.’’ Within days after the hurricane and flood, the Louisiana Superdome, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, the New Orleans International Airport, and even floating casino or cruise ships became outsized shelters for suddenly homeless survivors and refugees as well as stranded travelers and tourists. Heightened tensions led to the Danziger Bridge Massacre on September 4, 2005, where two men were killed and four others wounded (all unarmed civilians) by New Orleans police officers. When the floodwaters receded and temporary housing in the form of FEMA trailers finally arrived, many displaced New Orleanians were faced with the difficult decision whether to return and begin rebuilding, or to remain in new locations and attempt a fresh start. Paul Morton, bishop of the Baptist church, did both, as he established a new congregation in Atlanta, and then returned to and restored both New Orleans locations of his church. Many college students received emergency transfers to continue or complete their studies at other historically black and mainstream American universities, while their home campuses dealt with recovery efforts. Mayor Nagin created additional controversy
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with his ‘‘Chocolate City’’ speech in January 2006, where he implied that the city would retain its black majority despite (perceived) attempts to discourage the return of African Americans, but did manage to win reelection later that year. Dillard University held classes at the New Orleans Hilton Riverside Hotel and the New Orleans World Trade Center during the spring of 2006, but maintained their on-campus graduation tradition in July before returning to their regular location in September. Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) lost its entire campus and temporarily transferred all programs to Baton Rouge for the remainder of 2005, then operated out of FEMA trailers from February 2006 to January 2008. Xavier University also suffered significant damage, and all three HBCU presidents (Marvalene Hughes at Dillard, Victor Ukpolo at SUNO, and Norman Francis at Xavier) were forced to take extreme measures to guide their institutions through the crisis. The city’s professional sports teams were also temporarily dislocated for much of the 2005 season, with the Saints practicing in San Antonio, Texas, playing additional road games, and some ‘‘home’’ games in Baton Rouge at the LSU Stadium or San Antonio’s Alamodome, while the Hornets played in Oklahoma City. Both franchises resisted offers to remain in their temporary cities, and their organizations also contributed to rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. Mardi Gras continued in 2006, but was considerably low-key by comparison. Noted African American filmmaker Spike Lee produced the documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts in August 2006, with musical score by Terence Blanchard and title inspired by a blues song about the 1927 Mississippi River flood. Prolific author and social commentator Michael Eric Dyson addressed the racial and economic consequences of the storm in his writings, speeches, and media appearances, while African American New Orleans Times-Picayune journalist Lolis Eric Elie joined forces with filmmaker Dawn Logsdon on the 2008 documentary, Faubourg Treme: the Untold Story of Black New Orleans, which highlighted community life before and after Katrina. Wynton Marsalis served as an executive producer for the film. While recovery continued into 2010, the city’s resilience was evident when the New Orleans Saints (featuring star African American players such as former Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush) won Super Bowl XLIV over the Indianapolis Colts (and quarterback Peyton Manning, a New Orleans native). The victory led to Mardi Gras–style celebrations not just in New Orleans but around the country, answering the popular cheer, ‘‘Who Dat?’’ In April 2010, the Home Box Office (HBO) cable channel launched the television series, Treme, featuring many facets of the city’s historic and significant cultural traditions and symbolizing that the city, although changed permanently by the storm, is on its way on its way back to prominence. Many, however, are worried about any lasting effects on New Orleans of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began on April 20, 2010, though the disaster initially occurred some one hundred miles away from the city. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Delta Blues; Food and Cooking; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc.; Zydeco Music
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Further Reading Amistad Research Center. http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org. Appiah, Kwame Anthony, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. 2005. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. 5 vols. New York: Oxford University Press. Bynoe, Yvonne. 2006. Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Dillard University. http://www.dillard.edu. Dyson, Michael Eric. 2006. Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. New York: Basic Civitas. Faubourg Treme. 2010. ‘‘Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans.’’ (Publicity and donation site.) http://tremedoc.com. Fischer, Roger A. 1968. ‘‘A Pioneer Protest: The New Orleans Street Car Controversy of 1867.’’ Journal of Negro History 53 (July): 219–33 Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church. http://www.greaterststephen ministries.org. Hurricane City.com. (n.d.) ‘‘New Orleans, Louisiana’s History with Tropical Systems.’’ http://www.hurricanecity.com/city/neworleans.htm. Koskoff, Ellen, ed. 2001. Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Vol. 3: The United States and Canada. New York: Garland Publishing. New Orleans Saints. http://www.neworleanssaints.com. O’Leary, Timothy, and David Levinson, eds. 1991. Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Vol. 1: North America. New York: G. K. Hall. Rucker, Walter, and James Nathaniel Upton, eds. 2007. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Southern University at New Orleans. http://www.suno.edu. Xavier University. http://www.xula.edu. Fletcher F. Moon
Newspapers and Periodicals African American newspapers and periodicals, sometimes referred to as the black press, have played a critical role in African American popular culture. The black press refers to publications that are owned by African Americans and produced for African American audiences. Black newspapers and periodicals emerged as early as slavery times. These presses employed African American writers and oftentimes provided the only evenhanded or sympathetic and relevant news for black communities. White newspapers and periodicals rarely reported news that concerned African Americans, and, more often than not, depicted African Americans in negative or stereotypical ways. Generally, news coverage in the South vilified African Americans, reinforced and perpetuated racism, and, in many cases, incited racial violence. Early newspapers and periodicals were of great import to black communities. The black press gave voice to African Americans and helped circulate black news throughout the nation. The black press also provided a medium in which
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blacks could document and protest racism, discrimination, and racial violence, express racial pride, and report on black achievement. Importantly, newspapers and periodicals offered distinct perspectives and responses to major events in American history. Although mainstream publications in contemporary times have increasingly become more inclusive, the black press still provides thorough and abundant news coverage from the black perspective and remains a reliable and vital source of news and information for African Americans. Popular Black Newspapers Throughout History Slavery Time That African American newspapers and periodicals existed during slavery times is remarkable. Early nineteenth century African American press owners, editors, and writers prevailed over enormous and horrendous social and economic forces, limited educational and occupational opportunities, and antiblack attitudes. In the face of these adverse circumstances, free blacks in the North, nonetheless, established the first black presses in the United States. Naturally, these publications mostly featured radical themes and news, in addition to lighter news about black socialites, fashion, and gossip. Freedom’s Journal, based in New York and founded in 1827, was the first newspaper owned and managed by African Americans. This newspaper was distributed in several states, as well as in the District of Columbia, Haiti, and Canada. It reported local and international news, featured biographies on important African American figures, and denounced slavery, Lynching, and other atrocities. In 1828, two more presses, the African Journal, founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Philanthropist, based in Boston, Massachusetts, contributed to growing antislavery literature. (White abolitionists also produced numerous newspapers and periodicals on the same subject.) Frederick Douglass, a former slave and prominent abolitionist, published the North Star (1827–51), Frederick Douglass’ Paper (1851–59), Douglass’ Monthly, and New National Era (1870–73). Although Douglass’s newspapers were forceful and blunt; some writers were considered more radical. The Appeal, founded in 1829, was, according to Levine, ‘‘one of the most influential and explosive black nationalist documents authored by an African American. Urging the slaves to kill or be killed, Walker has gained a reputation for militancy.’’ Backlash against black newspapers could be fierce. In the North, some white and black antislavery newspapers and editors were attacked. Black Nadir (1870–1940) The period that occurred after Reconstruction and before the Civil Rights Movement era is called black nadir. Nadir, meaning lowest point, refers to the horrific period of wanton violence against blacks and the erosion of the rights that were granted former slaves in the South during Reconstruction. Among some of the most prolific and radical writers were Henry McNeil Turner and Ida
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B. Wells-Barnett. Turner, a former politician and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote for religious and secular newspapers. He founded the Southern Recorder in 1888, the Voice of Missions in 1892, and the Voice of the People in 1901. Born free in South Carolina in 1834, Turner daringly wrote in the South, where violence and racism against blacks was at its most fierce. Turner’s writings, as well as his sermons, were notoriously radical. He advocated that blacks return to Africa, contended that God was black, and scathingly attacked white racism. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was one of the few African American women in the black press. Born in Mississippi in 1862, Ida B. Wells-Barnett contributed articles to several black newspapers. In 1880, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she became co-owner and editor of Free Speech. After writing a cutting article in response to the lynching of three local black store owners, the offices of the Free Speech were destroyed by a white mob (thankfully, Wells-Barnett was out of town at the time). Shortly thereafter, she launched an anti-lynching crusade and became part owner of Timothy Thomas Fortune’s New York Age. She also reported on several race riots, helping to expose the plight of black victims of violence. Her husband, Ferdinand Barnett, was the editor and founder of Chicago’s first black newspaper, the Chicago Conservator. Newspapers Founded in the Early Twentieth Century Black newspapers and periodicals proliferated in the start of the new century and enjoyed a large readership through monumental eras, such as World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. Among the major newspapers that emerged in the early 1900s were the Boston Guardian, the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, and the New York Amsterdam News. The AfroAmerican, founded back in 1892 by John H. Murphy, a former slave, was another prominent newspaper in this century. Newspapers, such as the Messenger and Negro World, which surfaced in the second decade, reflected new and different perspectives. All together, these newspapers continued to function as weapons against racial tyranny. However, these newspapers were often used to wage public battles against controversial black leaders and rival black newspapers. Each newspaper yielded enormous influence over its own rapidly growing target audience. Boston Guardian The Boston Guardian was cofounded by William Monroe Trotter and George Forbes in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1901. William Monroe Trotter, who had an infamous reputation for his radicalism, was born in Ohio in 1872 and raised in mostly white neighborhoods in Massachusetts. He received two degrees from Harvard University, a prestigious white university. Trotter spared no words when he attacked racism and Jim Crow in the Boston Guardian. He led demonstrations
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against the racist play, The Clansman, and the silent film, The Birth of a Nation. He also regularly criticized Booker T. Washington, who was then considered one of the most powerful black men of the century. Washington, who, among his many accomplishments, founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now known as Tuskegee University), had friends and support in extremely high places in government and elsewhere. He wielded power largely because he did not challenge the status quo, as others, like Trotter, did, but instead, publicly advocated segregation, believing that blacks could still achieve progress and success by making the most of their limited station in life. This philosophy is referred to as accommodationism. The Boston Guardian was one of few black newspapers that opposed Washington, risking serious consequences. Trotter’s newspaper, however, enjoyed critical success and carried on for at least two more decades following Trotter’s death in 1934. Chicago’s preeminent black newspaper, the Defender, founded in 1905, reached a circulation of 230,000 by 1920. Robert S. Abbott, who was born in Georgia to slave parents in 1870, founded the Defender with little money and resources, calling it so, according to Washburn ‘‘because of [his] pledge to be a defender of blacks.’’ Defender’s eventual success made Abbott one of the wealthiest African Americans of his time. The Defender also changed the lives of many African Americans, particularly when Abbott began writing articles persuading blacks to leave the oppressive South. Blacks did migrate, in droves, largely due to the encouragement of Abbott and others. Abbott fearlessly published articles on white on black violence and lambasted the federal government for not taking a strong stand against racism, discrimination, and racial violence. Many black papers criticized the federal government at great cost, particularly during wartime when the government threatened to close down major black newspapers or imprison black editors. Pittsburgh Courier The Pittsburgh Courier was another major black newspaper, like the Defender, that advocated for African Americans. Founded in 1907 by Edwin Harleston, a security guard, the Courier was a paladin for social change. The Courier campaigned for better housing (a large percentage of African Americans lived in dilapidated slums) and desegregation in baseball, and encouraged blacks to vote, join the army, and support civil rights organizations. The Courier also protested negative images of blacks in the media. In the early twentieth century negative images of black men, women, and children abounded in cartoons, film, as well as white newspapers. In 1965, the Courier was sold to the owner of the Chicago Defender. It currently goes by the name the New Pittsburgh Courier. New York Amsterdam News Two of the major publications to debut close together in New York were the Amsterdam News and the Crisis (magazine). James H. Anderson founded Amsterdam News in 1909 in Harlem, a predominately black neighborhood, a
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mecca of urban black culture and the birthplace of the dynamic cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Amsterdam News reported on social news, as well as covered tougher topics like discrimination, condemning segregated units in the military. Notable contributors included W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the founders of the civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its organ, the Crisis, and Roy O. Wilkins, a NAACP leader. The Amsterdam News is also credited with being the first to report on Malcolm X, who had been a radical separatist during the early part of his public rise and an influential leader of the Nation of Islam, an organization that produced its own newspaper, the Final Call to Islam (later known as Muhammad Speaks and Final Call). The Amsterdam News is still published to this day as the New York Amsterdam News. The Crisis The Crisis was the mastermind of esteemed African American scholar and prolific writer W. E. B. Du Bois. Founded in 1910, the year following the emergence of the NAACP, the Crisis rapidly developed into one of the most popular publications in the nation. The title of the magazine appropriately referred to the calamitous social, economic, and political predicament facing African Americans. Du Bois published news that covered race riots, lynchings, and discrimination in the military during World War II. It also featured local and international news and, during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s, emerging writers were featured. Like other black newspapers and periodicals, the Crisis provided profitable opportunities for black businesses to advertise to wide audiences. Like the family Bible, the Crisis played a vital role in black life. Copies were kept in homes, businesses, and sometimes, black churches. During Du Bois’ twenty-five year long position as editor-in-chief of the Crisis, he made the newspaper his own. For a long time, Du Bois was given free range to tackle any issue in any way that he wanted. Du Bois boldly criticized upand-coming black leaders, like Marcus Garvey. Garvey, who established the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914 was one of Du Bois’ favorite targets. Du Bois regularly attacked Garvey’s philosophy and assorted ventures. Garvey advocated that blacks return to Africa and attempted to start a new nation of African descendents in Africa, complete with a new flag and leadership helmed by himself. He also launched several ventures, such as an ambitious black-owned ship line, the Black Star Line. For a time, Garvey mobilized a large number of working-class blacks hungry for self-determination, autonomy, and racial pride, and his businesses had attained considerable success. But most black leaders, like Du Bois, contended that Garvey was too flamboyant and his ideas too ambitious and unrealistic. Du Bois and Garvey, who started the paper, Negro World, in 1918, exchanged bitter criticisms. Sometimes Du Bois’ articles ruffled the leadership of the NAACP. Although the NAACP was considered radical in terms of their brazen commentary on racism and inequality in American society, NAACP leaders were frequently more
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conservative than Du Bois on certain issues. Among the issues that concerned NAACP leaders was Du Bois’ position on communism and separatism. Du Bois frequently sympathized with communist countries in his editorials. This troubled the NAACP, because the United States considered communist countries and sympathizers enemies. Du Bois’ advocacy of black separatism also did not agree with NAACP leaders, considering one of the chief goals of the NAACP was to promote racial integration in the United States. Du Bois’ radical voice, as well as political conflict within the organization, resulted in his retiring in 1934. He rejoined the NAACP in 1944 only to be fired in 1947. The Crisis continued to be a pivotal organ throughout the Civil Rights Movement, especially considering the NAACP emerged as one of the most important and powerful civil rights organizations of the time. In the South, however, the Crisis was sometimes regarded as radical literature by some blacks who were against challenging the status quo in fear of losing their jobs or, worse, becoming a target of racial violence. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, members of the NAACP were frequently victimized. In some regions, the NAACP and its newspaper were outlawed. The organization and its popular organ remain an important voice in the new millennium. Ultra Radical Papers: The Messenger, the Negro World, and the Final Call to Islam The Messenger The Messenger and the Negro World were not like popular black newspapers, such as the Defender or the Crisis. A. Philip Randolph was a fiery socialist when, in 1917, he established the Messenger with his friend and partner, Chandler Owen. Although New York, in particular, was home to burgeoning black socialists, to the general African American public, socialism was regarded with some angst. Randolph’s views were considered all the more precarious because his newspaper advocated socialism, as well as labor unions for blacks (blacks were barred from labor unions). Randolph even publicly denounced black involvement in World War II, although most other African American newspapers supported blacks in the military. Leaders like Du Bois believed that blacks’ participation in the war to uphold democracy abroad would help further the cause of democracy at home. (Although blacks, like members of the Tuskegee Airmen are, today, celebrated for their contributions in World War II, life did not change for blacks in the war’s aftermath.) Randolph and Owen, however, narrowly escaped censorship, heavy fines, and imprisonment for their incendiary newspaper. With the exception of the Messenger’s objections over Garvey and his movement, the Messenger criticized popular black newspapers and periodicals. The Messenger closed in 1925. The Negro World Marcus Garvey established the Negro World in 1918. During the height of Garvey’s popularity with blacks in the United States, his magazine enjoyed singular success. His magazine consisted of information about the UNIA,
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optimistic reporting on UNIA projects, and articles that addressed black consciousness. Garvey notoriously opposed black elitists and assimilation in white culture. In various articles, he strived to build the self-esteem of blacks who had long been perceived an inferior race by dominant nonblack powers throughout the world. Garvey regularly featured articles about the richness of African culture and kingdoms and denounced the popular custom of skin bleaching and hair straightening. Notable contributors to this newspaper include his first wife, Amy Ashwood Garvey, his second wife, Amy Jacques Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, and Carter G. Woodson, known as the Father of Black History. Like the Crisis, the Negro World was banned in some international countries. The Final Call to Islam The Final Call to Islam was another newspaper reflecting dissenting African American views. Established in the 1930s by Elijah Muhammad, also the founder of the Nation of Islam, the Final Call to Islam speaks primarily to the members of the all-black religious organization. However, members of the Nation of Islam use the newspaper to help convert new members and enlighten the black community at large. A number of nonmembers read the newspaper for its unique view of the world, which advocated black separatism and lambasted racism in the United States. In the 1960s, the newspaper’s name changed to Muhammad Speaks. It has experienced several subsequent name changes. In 1979, Louis Farrakhan established a new newspaper entitled the Final Call. One of the popular images in many American urban regions, particularly in black sections of the city, was that of male members of the Nation of Islam, dressed in suits and bowties, brandishing newspapers for sale. The Final Call is still published today and appears on the Internet, as well. Current Status of Black Newspapers and Periodicals African American newspapers and periodicals have survived since slavery. Although many papers no longer exist, many of the major newspapers, like the Defender, Amsterdam News, and the Crisis do, and they have transitioned smoothly into modern times with the advent of Internet Web sites. Supplementing historical newspapers and periodicals are successful magazines like Ebony, Jet, and Essence. These periodicals feature popular culture news, as well as important issues pertaining to black history, racism, and modern black life. Black-owned Johnson Publishing founded Ebony in 1945 and Jet in 1951. Over the years, both magazines featured some of the most famous African American celebrities and leaders in the United States. Essence, which was founded in 1968, targets African American women, an audience that has been historically underrepresented in the abundant periodicals that cater to middle-class white women. Other black publications include numerous local secular and religious newspapers. Many of them subsist on meager budgets, but nevertheless, like the most popular newspapers and periodicals, strive to maintain a voice for blacks today. See also: Journalism and Journalists; Publishers and Publishing
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Further Reading Hutton, Frankie. 1993. The Early Black Press in America, 1827 to 1860. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Levine, Robert S. 2001. ‘‘Circulating the Nation: David Walker, the Missouri Compromise, and the Rise of the Black Press.’’ In The Black Press: New Literary and Historical Essays. Todd Vogel, ed. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Simmons, Charles A. 1998. The African American Press with Special Reference to Four Newspapers, 1827–1965. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. University of Florida Interactive Media Lab. 1999. ‘‘Conquering New Territory: The Black Press and the World Wide Web.’’ http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring99/ Mikel/default.htm Washburn, Patrick S. 2006. The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom. Evanston, Il: Northwestern University Press. Gladys L. Knight
Newton, Huey P. (1942–89), Activist, Black Power Leader Huey P. Newton is remembered as a famous Black Power Movement leader in African American popular culture. In the late 1960s and 1970s, at the height of his leadership, Newton was a symbol of heroism and defiance. In 1966, in Oakland, California, he and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party, which would develop into one of the most prominent organizations of the black power era. The organization was founded to address the serious issues facing blacks in low-income urban neighborhoods. One of the primary concerns was police abuse, harassment, and Racial Profiling. Blacks, especially young men and youth, were frequently targeted by racist cops. Newton and other members of the organization, decked out in their trademark uniforms of berets, blue shirts, black pants, and leather jackets, and armed with guns, staged patrols. Black Panther patrols monitored police interactions with blacks in the community. The patrols helped put a stop to rampant abuses. The patrols also garnered media scrutiny, as well as captivated blacks in the nation. Many Black Panther organizations were established throughout the nation and became symbols of pride for its members, as well as to African Americans in the community. Newton’s image, the most famous one being a poster showing him in Black Panther uniform, sitting regally in a wicker chair with a spear in one hand and a rifle in his other hand, augmented the hero status he held among blacks. Newton was not only concerned with challenging abusive authority, he developed many social programs to assist poor black communities and created a philosophy for the organization that was influenced by the teachings of Marxism. Newton’s passion to reach out to the poor and defenseless stemmed largely from his own experiences growing up in Oakland, California. Newton was born on February 17, 1942, in Monroe, Louisiana, but he was raised in poverty on the tough streets of Oakland. His family did without many necessities and luxuries.
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His parents, Walter and Armelia, provided love, a strong sense of identity, and religious training. (Walter Newton was a Baptist preacher.) Huey P. Newton enjoyed going to church, but he was frequently drawn to the criminal elements in his environment. As a young child, Newton learned how to box to protect himself from bullies who picked on him because of his soft features and highpitched voice. As a teenager, he was repeatedly in trouble with the law for stealing. Newton struggled academically and behaviorally in school. After graduation from high school, Newton filled his time with going to school, reading, and exploring black power organizations. He studied at Oakland City College and Merritt College. He also visited many popular black power organizations and read books by and about famous African American leaders and activists, such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Malcolm X. African American fiction writer Ralph Ellison, whose works explore the complexities of race, identity, and American society, intrigued Newton. During this time, Newton met Bobby Seale. In 1964, Newton was sent to the Alameda County Jail in Oakland for stabbing a man at a party. After Newton’s release, he and Seale got involved with the Soul Students Advisory Council on campus. The organization participated in campaigns to establish Black Studies programs on campus. The members also expressed concern with police brutality in the community; however, Newton and Seale were dissatisfied with the organization’s conservative approach. Newton and Seale were more radically minded, advocating armed self-defense as a tactic to ward off police violence. Finding no other organization that shared their perspective, Newton and Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Black Panther Party emerged, in 1966, endorsing a comprehensive program. According to Hilliard in Huey: Spirit of the Panther, the organization’s ten-point platform outlined its main objectives, including ‘‘freedom,’’ ‘‘full employment’’ for its community, ‘‘decent housing,’’ ‘‘education,’’ an ‘‘end to police brutality and murder,’’ and ‘‘clothing, justice, and peace.’’ The organization’s objectives addressed issues and problems in urban black communities that were prevalent throughout the nation. The Civil Rights Movement, which preceded the black power era, had largely focused on segregation and discrimination, while problems continued to mount in low-income urban neighborhoods, resulting in many urban disturbances in the decade. Newton rapidly became a celebrity in black communities. Black youth were spellbound by his aura and demonstrations of power. Newton’s esteem-building effect on black men stemmed, in part, from the fact that African Americans had for so long been disempowered by discriminatory laws, traditions, practices, and racism. By embracing the powerful symbol of the gun, demonstrating his fearlessness on patrols, mobilizing community involvement, and providing food, clothing, and medical assistance to those in need, Newton endeared himself to the young and old alike. (A sign of the Black Panther’s growth and development was evident with the establishment of a Black Panther School.) Women were also attracted to Newton and his message. Unlike some Black Panther members who stifled women’s involvement, Newton provided opportunities for women’s
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leadership development within the organization. Elaine Brown was one of his most famous proteges. Newton appointed Brown in charge while he was in exile in Cuba eluding serious charges against him. He also encouraged her to launch into local politics. She waged a high-profile campaign, managing the election of Lionel Wilson, the first African American mayor in Oakland. Newton would not always stay at his peak. Many factors contributed to his downfall. Newton was frequently charged with assorted crimes. Drug use was another problem that impeded his effectiveness as a leader. Allegedly, the U.S. government’s COINTELPRO program and agent provocateurs contributed to the unraveling of the organization. By the mid 1970s, the Black Panther Party was fractured, and, in 1989, Newton was murdered by a drug dealer. Since Newton’s death, he has become the subject of films, plays, and rap music. See also: Crime; Davis, Angela; Drugs and Popular Culture; Law Enforcement; Politics and Government; Social Activists Further Reading Hilliard, David. 2006. Huey: Spirit of the Panther. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press. Newton, Huey. 1973. Revolutionary Suicide. New York: Writers and Readers Publishing. Seale, Bobby. 1996. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Baltimore: Black Classic Press. Gladys L. Knight
Nightclubs, Entertainment Spots, Dives, and Juke Joints Nightclubs, entertainment spots, dives, and joints are spaces utilized for secular recreational and social activities, such as playing cards, gambling, drinking alcohol, eating, listening to music, and dancing. As popular forms of recreation and entertainment, where fashion trends, music styles, and dances are born and emulated, these establishments have figured prominently and historically in African American popular culture. Nightclubs, entertainment spots, dives, joints, and other popular establishments originated in slavery. ‘‘Jook’’ (juke) is the term used to describe the secular amusements, wherein blacks assembled for enjoying dance and music, and sometimes illegal activity, like gambling and drinking moonshine. Scholars contend that the predecessor to jooks were West African religious celebrations featuring dance and music. On some plantations, slave owners built small buildings for recreational purposes, but mostly black slaves devised their own clandestine meeting places, like ‘‘jails, sugar refineries, barns, open air spaces, and praise houses,’’ wrote Hazzard-Gordon. In secrecy, black slaves could relax, listen to music, dance, and rest from the grueling toil on the plantation. These secret enclaves served in part as a way to cope with slavery, delight in one another’s
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company, and relax. Outside of the jooks or the slave quarters, blacks were constantly under the watchful and critical eyes of whites. Blacks were aware that whites perceived them, their speech patterns, and behavior as inferior. On most occasions, blacks exaggerated stereotypical slave behavior in order to not provoke undue attention or punishment. Jooking, then, provided blacks a space to talk, laugh, and behave freely without fear of punishment. Jooking created a repository where unique music and dance could be expressed liberally, and slaves could openly show their appreciation of each other’s talents. Jook joints and honky-tonks evolved in the South after the end of slavery. These establishments were owned and managed by African Americans, but, beyond that, there were distinct differences. Jook joints were largely frequented by African American farmers and sharecroppers. Honky-tonks were patronized, in urban regions, by blacks who worked in other labor occupations. Jook joints are where scholars contend that the blues was developed. Jook joints were popular spots for African American entertainers, including blues singers. Some of the unique styles of African and African American fused dances were created in jook joints and emulated by others, rapidly spreading from town to town. Among the popular dances, according to Hazzard-Gordon, were ‘‘the Charleston, the shimmy, the snake hips, the funky butt, the twist, the slow drag, the buzzard lope, The Black Bottom, the itch, the fish tail, and the grind.’’ From the jooks, jook joints, and honky-tonks emerged other popular establishments. Like juke joints, joints and dives are generally less polished than nightclubs. They are spaces that are minimally decorated, sometimes windowless with dim lighting, if not ramshackle. The food is also generally unspectacular, but the music may vary considerably, depending on what live music is available. The atmosphere is informal and casual, marked by loud and good-natured laughter and much dancing. When blacks migrated from the South to the North, they brought along with them joints and dives. Harlem, New York, was one of prolific centers for popular forms of African American entertainment. In the 1920s and 1930s, during the Harlem Renaissance, a number of entertainment spots emerged. Steven Watson describes the thrilling and seductive night life of Harlem in his book, The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920–1930. An eclectic array of entertainment spots were available to white, black, or racially mixed patrons; however, the entertainment was mostly performed by blacks. Nightclubs, like the famous Cotton Club, were owned by white mobsters and featured only light-skinned female dancers and black male dancers of a variety of skin shades. Only whites were allowed to visit this club. The Cotton Club inspired the eponymous film that was released in 1984. Some clubs were restricted to upper-class clientele. Other entertainment spots, referred to as speakeasies, because they permitted the use of illegal substances like marijuana (and alcohol during Prohibition), welcomed the working class. Other popular entertainment spots were after-hour clubs and rent parties. Rent parties were conducted in exorbitantly priced Harlem apartments, where Harlem revelers could, for a price, enjoy dance, music, and food. The money was used to help tenants pay for their monthly rent.
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The modern day nightclub is an extension of the early jooks, as well as the nightclubs of the 1930s and the disco clubs of the 1970s. Modern day nightclubs, frequented by African Americans, have evolved specific features, which may vary depending on the age demographics of the club-goer. Mature blacks will mostly attend nightclubs that play live jazz music or recorded old-school music hits from the 1960s and 1970s. Nightclubs (usually called clubs) that cater to young crowds usually feature up-to-date popular music like Rhythm and Blues, Hip-Hop, and rap. The deejay usually provides the music, selecting and playing music that he believes will get individuals to the dance floor. Sometimes deejays take requests. Important elements of the club scene are dancing well and to the rhythm of the music, socializing with friends or members of the opposite sex, and drinking alcohol. Today, there are more clubs than joints and dives. Joints and dives, however, are often visited by tourists and curious visitors, solely because the establishments have become important and historic emblems of African American popular culture. Locals still seek out joints and dives for comfort, familiarity, and preference. Compared to nightclubs, joints and dives are more laid-back and less glittery, and do not require dress codes. Within each major city, there may often be entertainment spots, sometimes known only to the locals, which may include out-of-theway or unassuming places that are favorite spots for African Americans. See also: Chitlin Circuit; Entertainment Industry Further Reading Hayes, Reginald B. 2008. Evolution of the Club and Juke Joints in America: A Social Renaissance. Lexington, KY: BookSurge Publishing. Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina. 1990. Jookin’: The Rise of Social Dance Formations in AfricanAmerican Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Watson, Steven. 2009. ‘‘The Harlem Renaissance.’’ American Studies at the University of Virginia. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/blues/watson.html. Gladys L. Knight
Norton, Eleanor Holmes (1937– ), , Politician, Lawyer, Civil and Human Rights Activist A proven civil and human rights activist and a noted leader of the black feminist movement, and ten-term congresswoman for the District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton had an impressive record of accomplishments long before she ever held public office. As the first-ever female head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Norton revolutionized the EEOC during the late 1970s. Now, despite her limited voting powers, Norton has repeatedly succeeded in writing bills and getting them enacted, making her one of the U.S. House of Representatives’ most effective members in producing legislation. A fourth-generation Washingtonian, Norton was born on June 13, 1937, the eldest of three daughters of Coleman and Vela Holmes. Reared in Washington,
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DC, Norton was educated in local schools, including the city’s august Dunbar High School, where she was a member of its last segregated class. Nurtured in her adolescence, Norton’s passion for racial justice bloomed during her undergraduate studies at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. There, she became active in civil rights protests and severed as an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She graduated from Antioch in 1960, was awarded a master’s degree in American Studies from Yale University in 1963, and a LLB from Yale Law School the following year. It was during that time that she worked with Bayard Rustin to organize the now historic August 1963 March on Washington. Eleanor Holmes Norton was chair of the Equal After clerking for federal Employment Opportunity Commission during the court judge A. Leon Higgin- administration of Jimmy Carter and has served botham, Norton was appointed five terms in the House of Representatives as the the assistant legal director of elected delegate from Washington, D.C. (U.S. House of Representatives) the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1965. In her defense of the freedoms of speech, press, and assembly, Norton famously represented the rights of once-avowed segregationist and former Alabama governor George Wallace as well as a group of segregationists whose case she successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court. Then in 1970, Norton began serving as the head of the New York City Commission on Human Rights before later accepting President Jimmy Carter’s appointment to head the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1977. During her three-year tenure, the EEOC virtually eliminated its backlog of nearly 100,000 unsettled affirmative action and discrimination complaints. Following a stint at the Urban Institute, Norton served as a faculty member at Georgetown University Law Center. A prodigious constitutional scholar, Norton worked with TransAfrica executive director Randall Robinson, Mary Frances Berry, and Congressman Walter Fauntroy to end apartheid in South Africa. Together, they founded the Free South Africa Movement (FSAM) in 1984, which
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successfully built a powerful coalition of government and corporate opposition to the apartheid regime and was instrumental in the release of Mandela. In 1990, she was elected as the nonvoting DC delegate in the House, an office previously held by Fauntroy. Using her constitutional expertise, Norton secured a vote on the House floor for the first time in the city’s history. A proud Democrat, Norton has tirelessly but unsuccessfully pushed for the statehood of the District of Columbia. She has however, secured increased federal contributions to the city’s pension system, ended congressional review of the city’s budget and obtained the right of DC residents to choose local judges. Today, as one of the House’s most venerated members, she continues to advocate for full voting rights for the people of the District of Columbia and continues her lifelong struggle for universal human rights. See also: Politics and Government; Social Activists Further Reading Holmes, Eleanor Holmes. 1980. A Conversation with Commissioner Eleanor Holmes Norton. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Lester, Joan Steinau. 2003. Fire in My Soul: The Life of Eleanor Holmes Norton. New York: Atria Books. LoDico, John. 2006. ‘‘Eleanor Holmes Norton.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale. Marcovitz, Hal. 2004. Eleanor Holmes Norton. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers. Crystal A. deGregory
Notorious B. I. G. (1972–97), Rapper Considered by many to be one of the best all-time rap artists of Hip-Hop, the late Notorious B. I. G., also known as Biggie Smalls and Big Poppa, is widely recognized as a gifted lyricist whose distinctive mellow flows and superior freestyling abilities graced numerous rap music tracks and underground mix tapes. B. I. G., born Christopher Wallace in 1972 in Brooklyn, New York, started out as a Roman Catholic school honors student who had aspirations of becoming a graphic artist. As a teenager and the only son of a struggling single mother, he became part of the drug trade in his tough Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, dabbling with music on the side. Early on he performed with a local group called Old Gold Brothers, calling himself Biggie Smalls. For fun, B. I. G. battled rap artists in his neighborhood and even made some tapes. One tape containing B. I. G.’s rhyming made its way to Mr. Cee, Big Daddy Kane’s former deejay, who submitted the tape to the Source magazine’s ‘‘Unsigned Hype’’ column. They were impressed by B. I. G.’s skill, and he was asked to contribute to an ‘‘Unsigned Hype’’ compilation album. Although that album never
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materialized, the buzz around B. I. G. led to him securing a recording contract with Uptown Records, under the direction of Sean (Diddy) Combs, who at the time was the national director of A & R. In 1993, B. I. G. would make his recording debut on the remix for the single by Mary J. Blige, ‘‘Real Love’’ (Uptown Records). He also made a guest appearance on reggae artist Super Cat’s single ‘‘Dolly My Baby.’’ Once Diddy parted ways with Uptown Records, B. I. G. was also dismissed from the label and would go on to record for Diddy’s new label, Bad Boy Entertainment. B. I. G.’s first solo track was ‘‘Party And Bullshit’’ which appeared on the Who’s The Man (1993) film soundtrack. In 1994, B. I. G.’s highly anticipated album, Ready to Die (Bad Boy Entertainment), hit the streets. This would be the only album that B. I. G. would release during his brief career. The album was an immediate success, based on singles such as such as ‘‘Juicy,’’ ‘‘One More Chance,’’ and ‘‘Big Poppa.’’ The first single, ‘‘Juicy,’’ was voted Billboard’s rap single of the year. ‘‘Juicy’’ tells the story of how B. I. G. went from street hustling to living the American dream by joining the ranks of the rap artists that he had read about and admired. The single went triple platinum by the end of that year and the Ready to Die album sold double platinum. B. I. G. would go on to appear on Michael Jackson’s album, HIStory: Past, Present And Future, Book 1 (Sony Records, 1995). Not forgetting people from the old neighborhood, B. I. G. helped to launch the rap group Junior M. A. F. I. A., which included Lil’ Kim, with whom B. I. G. was romantically linked. The group would release the album Conspiracy in 1995 (Undeas/Big Beat). In May 1995, B. I. G. was arrested in connection with the assault and robbery of a New Jersey promoter. A year later, he was again arrested for assault and possession of marijuana in New York City. B. I. G., a former friend of Tupac Shakur, then became embroiled in the East Coast–West Coast rivalry. In the media, Tupac accused B. I. G. of being involved in a 1994 robbery where Tupac was shot several times. Tupac would also imply that he was having an affair with B. I. G.’s wife, singer Faith Evans; Tupac publicly dissed B. I. G. along with several other East Coast rap artists on the track, ‘‘Hit ’Em Up’’ (Death Row Records). When Tupac was murdered in September 1996, B. I. G.’s failure to attend a rap peace summit in Harlem was widely criticized and later fueled rumors about his involvement in the killing. During this period, B. I. G. was in the studio, beginning work on a second album, prophetically titled Life After Death (Bad Boy Entertainment/Arista, 1997). Ironically, the twenty-four-year-old B. I. G. was gunned down in California, outside a Soul Train Awards after-party on March 9, 1997, and would never see the album’s release. Again, rumors swirled that B. I. G.’s murder was retaliation for the fatal shooting of Tupac. The posthumously released Life After Death debuted at number one on the Billboard album charts and broke first-week sales and sold over ten times platinum. Members of the Bad Boy Family, along with former wife, Faith Evans, recorded the song, ‘‘I’ll Be Missing You’’ to pay their respects to the late, great
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artist. The single, which samples the Police song, ‘‘Every Breath You Take,’’ sold over three million copies. In 1997, B. I. G.’s mother Violetta Wallace, a retired teacher, established the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation, an organization that provides books and school equipment to youth. In 1999, B. I. G. Bad Boy Entertainment released the album Born Again, an uneven collection of formerly unreleased material, which nonetheless went on to top the charts. See also: Rap Music and Rappers Discography Ready to Die (Bad Boy Entertainment, 1994) Life After Death (Bad Boy Entertainment/Arista, 1997) Born Again (Bad Boy Entertainment, 1999) Also appears on approximately sixty-nine musical tracks.
Further Reading Lang, Holly. 2007. The Notorious B. I. G.: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Yvonne Bynoe
Nurses and Nursing African American nurses have always made significant contributions to the culture of the United States, whether in social, political, or economic arenas. Their contributions have been greater than society recognized or made known. The history of these trailblazers is a story of women who, in their efforts to obtain professional health care status, fought to overcome racial, social, and economic injustices. This struggle continued to a great extent until the late 1900s and beyond, with the establishment of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) in 1934 and later the National Black Nursing Association (NBNA), which took up their cause. No records have been documented about the African American nurse during the early days of the discovery of this country, but it is obvious that during the period of slavery the African American female slaves played a pivotal role in the care of the slave master’s family during sickness and the birth of their children. Slave women even breastfed their master’s babies, while also caring for the sick among their own families and other slave families that were located on the plantations in the South. Thus, African American slave women were assigned the role of nursing. These early pioneers faced an uphill struggle as they cared for the sick in the United States, working under the most adverse conditions; however, this did not deter them from providing health care and nursing services without formal training in nursing. The struggle did not stop African American women from offering their service to humankind in time of crisis.
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Early Accounts of African American Nursing Early black nursing care is documented in accounts of the events which occurred during a 1770 earthquake that ravaged the island of San Domingo. During this catastrophe, an anonymous black nurse from Port-Au-Prince protected her youthful charge without regard for her own personal safety. She paid for her heroic nursing duties with her life. Further evidence of black nursing care was seen during the Crimean War (1853–56) between Great Britain, France, and Turkey who fought against Russia for control of access to the Mediterranean from the Black Sea. Mary Grant Seacole (1805–81), a Jamaican nurse who served with Florence Nightingale, performed heroically despite the British government’s refusal to officially allow her to work in Scutari, Turkey. Rejected but undaunted, she purchased stores and traveled three thousand miles to the Crimea. There she built and open a lodging house on the road between Balaklava and Sebastopol for the comfort of the troops, naming it ‘‘The British Hotel.’’ Even through Florence Nightingale rejected her request to be an army nurse, each night at seven o’clock, after having worked in her provisions store on the outskirts of the camp, she made her way to the hospital and worked as a volunteer side by side with Nightingale. Mary Seacole attended the British casualties as well as the French, Sardinian, and Russian soldiers. She saved the lives of countless soldiers wounded during the Crimean War and thousands of others with cholera, yellow fever, malaria, diarrhea, and a host of other ailments. Although her service was rejected by the British government, the British people honored her for the services that she had rendered. According to her wish, Seacole was buried in the Roman Catholic portion of the cemetery at Kensal Green, London. With the onset of the Civil War in the United States in 1861, there were no formally trained nurses; however, thousand of men and women representing both North and South volunteered almost immediately for nursing assignments in field hospitals and on hospital transports. No accurate records of the appointment of nurses, their number, where they served, or the number who died can be found. However, records showing that women served in hospitals during the Civil War are in the National Archives in Washington, DC. There are twenty journals containing information about contract nurses during the war, one of which is devoted to ‘‘colored nurses,’’ as they were called. According to records kept on nurses at eleven hospitals in three states cited in Mary Elizabeth Carnegie’s book, The Path We Tread, eighty-one colored nurses—men and women—served between July 16, 1863, and June 14, 1864. Sixteen served in Convalescent Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland; twenty-one in the Contraband Hospital, Norfolk, Virginia; fourteen in Contraband Hospital, Portsmouth, Virginia; three in Flag of Truce Boat, from Fort Monroe, Virginia; forty-four in Contraband Small Pox Hospital, New Bern, North Carolina; forty-six in Jarvis USG Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland; twentyone in Chesapeake Hospital, Virginia; one in Green Heights Hospital, Virginia; three in McKims Mansion Hospital, near Alexandria, Virginia; and seven in Patterson Park, U.S. General Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. Many on Confederate Hospital Rolls were listed only as ‘‘negro matron’’ or ‘‘negro nurses.’’ Two African
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American nurses who served with the Confederate Hospital were freed because of their service; they were Caroline Johnson and Harriet Jacobs. The stories of three African American women who played significant roles as nurses in the Civil War—Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Susie King Taylor—are well known, for their abolitionist participations, religious convictions, and women’s rights involvement, but not for their nursing service. Sojourner Truth (1797–1881), was born a slave in New York State and freed by the New York State Emancipation Act of 1827. She became a famous abolitionist, a wartime nurse, and army recruiter. Truth worked as a nurse counselor for the Freedmen’s Relief Association during Reconstruction in the Washington, DC, area, helping freed men who had migrated from the South to find homes and employment in northern states. Many of her activities were sanctioned by President Abraham Lincoln. While in Washington, Truth spent much time in Freedmen’s Village providing care to patients in the hospital. Harriet Tubman (1820–1913), a woman of unusual capabilities, was a leader of the Underground Railroad. She also served as an army scout and spy, and volunteered her services as a nurse. During the Civil War, she served as a nurse in the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina, caring for the sick and wounded without regard to race. Citing her for outstanding work as a nurse, a Union general urged Congress to award her a pension. Like all Civil War nurses, the pension was not forthcoming until nearly thirty years after the close of the war, by an act of Congress in 1892. In 1978, NBC Television Network aired a two-part special program on the life of this famous African American Civil War nurse and freedom fighter. Cicely Tyson portrayed Tubman in the program, titled A Woman Called Moses. Susie King Taylor (1848–1912) was born into slavery on the Isle of Wight in Liberty County, about thirty-five miles from Savannah, Georgia. She began her nursing duties in the 1800s when rebels set fire to Charleston. She traveled continuously with her husband’s regiment throughout the South, serving as cook, teacher, and nurse for the soldiers. Frequently, she accompanied Clara Barton on rounds. In all, Taylor served as a battlefront nurse for a little over four years. She was never paid for her work. Greater recognition came to Namahyoke Sockum Curtis, who for her services to the country did receive a government pension and is buried in Arlington Cemetery. She served in the Spanish-American War. Curtis is credited as being a prime mover in interesting Philip Armour in establishing a hospital for African Americans: Provident Hospital in Chicago. That hospital was to play a significant role in caring for African American patients and in training African American nurses and physicians. Namahyoke Curtis’s husband, Austin M. Curtis, was the first intern there and later served as an attending surgeon. With the onset of the Spanish-American War, when more soldiers died of yellow fever, typhoid, and malaria than of Spanish bullets, she volunteered, and in July 1898 the War Department assigned her as a contract nurse. One of her first projects was to recruit and train a group of ‘‘immune nurses.’’ Later she served also as a Red Cross volunteer during the Galveston flood and the San Francisco earthquake.
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The Spanish-American War did much to gain acceptance of women nurses by the army, and Namahyoke Curtis contributed to the services that gained that acceptance. None of the above-named women had formal training in the field of nursing. At that time only a few were trained in the field, either white or African American. It was not until 1903 that the first licensing laws were passed and then in only four states. Nurses Engage in Formal Training Professional training for African American nurses started some fifteen years after the Emancipation Proclamation, in 1878, when Mary E. P. Mahoney began her training at the New England Hospital for Women and Children; she graduated in 1879. Before the school closed in 1951, six other known African Americans had completed the program: Lavinia Holloway, Josephine Braxton, Kittie Toliver, Ann Dillit, Roxie Dentz Smith, and Laura Morrison Bayne. Throughout her life, Mary Mahoney, the first African American trained nurse, who spent most of her professional career as a private duty nurse, gave unselfishly of herself in professional and community affairs. Mahoney was a moving force in the early organization of the NACGN, when it held it first convention in 1909. She was as concerned with the development of professionalism as well as with the progress of women as citizens and worked diligently in these areas. It was in her honor that the NACGN in 1936 chose to name the award it granted for service to nursing the Mary Mahoney Award. Another pioneer African American nurse who was professionally trained was Jessie C. Sleet Scales. Scales was Canadian by birth and a graduate of the school of the hospital Namah. Like most African American nurses during the 1800s, racism that existed in most hospitals prevented her from working there; hence, she first found work as a private duty nurse. Her goal was not private duty, but to become a district nurse. Scales eventually found a position with the Charity Organization in New York. She was given a provisional two-month appointment, but within a year (1901) her appointment was made permanent. She opened the door to a new nursing field for African American nurses. Racial segregation meant that many African American nurses were denied admission to the institutions where they were trained. Some philanthropists came to their aid by providing funds to establish nursing schools for African Americans. John D. Rockefeller, for example, contributed funds to establish of a school of nursing at the Atlanta Baptist Seminary (now Spelman College), for African American women. This was one of the earliest institutions in the country to provide such a program. By the 1890s, other schools and hospitals followed, having seen an increase in such issues as the morbidity and mortality among the African American community. In 1891, Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first successful openheart surgery, saw such a need and founded Provident Hospital and Nurse Training School in Chicago. He was also instrumental in creating Freedmens’ Hospital
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and Nurse Training School in Washington, DC. Others established during this period were the Tuskegee Institute School of Nurse Training in Tuskegee, Alabama, and the Hampton Nurse Training School and Dixie Hospital in Hampton, Virginia, both in 1892. The St. Agnes School in Raleigh, North Carolina, followed in 1895; the Frederick Douglass Hospital School, founded by physician Nathan Mossell in Philadelphia, in 1895; McDonough Memorial Hospital Nursing School in New York City, in 1898; Mercy Hospital School in Philadelphia, in 1907; and Perry Sanitarium and Nurses’ Training School in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1910. In 1896, the Phillis Wheatley Sanitarium and Training School for Nurses was established in New Orleans; it was later renamed the Flint Goodridge Hospital and Nurse Training School and eventually incorporated into Dillard University. In 1897, the Hospital and Nursing Training School in Charleston, South Carolina, was founded. By 1920, there were about thirty-six African American nursing-training schools established in the United States. It was primarily African Americans who realized the necessity for establishing these schools in order to provide patient care and training facilities for the African American nurse.
Professional Associations Founded During this period as well, the African American nurse realized that in order to be considered a professional nurse, additional training was required, because she or he was still a victim of racial discrimination in the areas of hospital nursing, visiting nurses, in associations, and as nurse administrators. Professional opportunities for the African American nurse were often bleak in both the North and South. For many, the most troubling aspect was the denial of membership in the American Nursing Association (ANA). Around 1908, many of the nurses felt that the only way to improve their status was to form an independent professional organization. Martha Franklin, of New Haven, Connecticut, the sole African American member of her graduating class at Women’s Hospital in Philadelphia, worked toward improving the situation for African American nurses. She realized that if the situation was to be changed, then the nurses would have to take the initiative. Because of this, on August 25, 1908, Martha Franklin launched a separate African American nursing association. Franklin joined forces with Adah Bell Thoms, president of the Lincoln Hospital Nursing Alumae Association, in August 1908, to convene a meeting of fifty-two nurses at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in New York City. After three days of deliberation, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) was founded by Franklin. The organization received the support of the National Medical Association. Indispensable forces within the organization were such leaders as Adah B. Thomas. From the outset, the NACGN leadership made the integration of their profession a top priority; however, it took some twenty years for the emergence of a cadre of a strong and resourceful leader, and the crisis of World War II, for African American nurses to gain
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entree into the ANA and to win full acceptance into the profession. During World War I, Thomas led a courageous fight for acceptance of Negro nurses in the American Red Cross and in the Army Nurse Corps. In the 1930s, Mabel K. Staupers moved the organization into its permanent headquarters at Rockefeller Center, where the major national nursing organizations had offices. Eventually, Staupers and then-president Estelle Massey Riddle succeeded in winning recognition and acceptance for African American nurses. Another major success occurred in 1945, when the quota system within the U.S. Army Nurse Corps for African American nurses was eliminated under the leadership of Mabel K. Staupers as executive secretary of NACGN, ‘‘that nurses would be accepted into the Army Nurse Corps without regard to race’’ and five days later the U.S. Navy announced that the Navy Nurse Corps was open to African American nurses. A few weeks later, Phyllis Daley became the first African American nurse to be accepted by the corps. In 1948, African American nurses were finally admitted to membership in the ANA, and Estelle Riddle was elected to the board of directors. The removal of the exclusionary barriers convinced Staupers and the leadership of the NACGN that their organization was now obsolete. In 1949, the members voted to dissolve the organization. In 1971, a new generation of African American nurses who had become discontented with the progress of the African American nurses in the ANA launched a new organization: the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA). It was organized under the leadership of Lauranne Sams, who was the former dean and professor of nursing at the School of Nursing of Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama. The establishment of this new organization suggested that the earlier dissolution of the NACGN had been premature. The mission of the NBNA was to provide a forum for collective action by African American nurses to investigate, define, and determine the health care needs of African Americans and to implement change and to make available to the African American and other minorities health care commensurate with that of the larger society. The organization would be open to registered nurses as well as licensed vocational and practical nurses, nursing students, and retired nurses from the United States, eastern Caribbean, and Africa. There are at least seventy-nine chapters in some thirty-four states. Professional African American nurses have a special relationship within the African American community. They have certain knowledge, understanding, and experience that can be used in planning more effective care in the delivery to the African American patient. The image of the African American nurse has greatly improved. For the first time since 1950, the African American nurse has been showcased in a dramatic series, as the title character of the new television show Hawthorne, starring Jada Pinkett Smith. No media production has presented an African American in a lead role since Diahann Carroll played the tile character on Julia, a light-hearted sitcom in 1968. See also: Medical Schools
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Further Reading Carnegie, Mary Elizabeth. 1986. The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing, 1854–1984. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Elmore, Joyce Ann. 1976. ‘‘Black Nurses: The Service and Their Struggle.’’ American Journal of Nursing 76 (March): 435–37. Hine, Darlene Clark. 1993. ‘‘Nursing.’’ Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 2. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Carlson Publishing. Hine, Darlene Clark. 1993. ‘‘Nursing, World War I.’’ Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 2. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Carlson Publishing. Leadership Skills for Minority Nurses. http:www.minoritynurse.com/ Making History: Black Nightingales. http:www.minoritynurse.com/ Smith, Gloria R. 1975. ‘‘From Invisibility to Blackness: The Story of the National Black Nurses’ Association.’’ Nursing Outlook 23 (April): 225–28. Thoms, Adah B. 1929. Pathfinders: A History of the Progress of Colored Graduate Nurses. New York: Kay Printing House. Mattie L. McHollin
O Obama, Barack (1961– ), 44th President of the United States, History was made on November 8, 2008, when Barack H. Obama became the first African American elected to the nation’s highest office. President Obama traveled an unusual path on his journey to the White House. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Stanley Ann Dunham, a white woman from Wichita, Kansas, and a black Kenyan, Barack Obama Sr. The president’s parents met when they were both students at the University of Hawaii; they married in February 1961. Barack was born later that year. Obama’s parents separated when he was two years old and divorced in 1964. Obama’s father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. After her divorce, Barack’s mother married an Indonesian, Lolo Soetoro, who was attending college in Hawaii. The family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1967, when students from that country were ordered to return home. Obama attended schools in Indonesia until 1971, when he returned to Honolulu to live with his grandparents. Obama attended a private school in Honolulu until his graduation in 1979. After high school, he enrolled in Occidental College in Los Angeles. In 1981, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City. After graduating, Obama worked for two organizations in New York City. He moved to Chicago in 1985 where he worked as the director of a community organization on that city’s South Side. After deciding to pursue a career in the law, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1988. He became an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year and president of the journal during his second year. His election as the first black president of the prestigious Law Review garnered national media attention. This led to a book contract and the publication of his best-selling
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autobiography, Dreams from My Father, in 1995. After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice civil rights law. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Obama’s interests eventually turned to politics. He was elected to the Illinois senate in 1996. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004. His opponent, a wealthy white Republican, dropped out of the race after a sex scandal erupted. Alan Keyes, a black conservative from Maryland, moved to Illinois and entered the race as the Republican candidate. In November, Obama won by a wide margin, making him the President-elect Barack Obama speaks during the third African American inaugural opening ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial since Reconstruction to on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., January 18, be elected to the U.S. 2009. (Department of Defense) Senate. Before he announced his candidacy for the presidency, Obama was a relatively unknown, first-term senator, mostly known for his striking keynote address at the Democratic Presidential Convention in 2004. The likelihood of capturing the Democratic nomination seemed remote. That perception changed after Obama launched an effort that would forever change the way in which political campaigns are conducted. He used the Internet, ‘‘new media,’’ and social networking in ways that had not been done before. Obama’s Internet campaign organized supporters whom previously it would have required an army of volunteers and paid organizers to contact. Obama’s campaign took advantage of YouTube to communicate with his supporters. The videos were more effective than television advertisements because viewers elected to watch them instead of seeing them as commercial interruptions of programs. Supporters, including entertainers and musicians, produced their own videos and uploaded them on YouTube. Obama’s appearances across the country attracted thousands of enthusiastic supporters at many events. He was aided by endorsements by such well-known
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democrats as Ted and Caroline Kennedy, who announced their support for Obama. These individuals not only represented the heart of the Democratic Party establishment, they were the heirs to the powerful Kennedy legacy. Colin Powell reinforced the authentication process in October 2008, when he endorsed Obama on Meet the Press. Obama did not make race an issue in his campaign but it was abruptly injected when excerpts of Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s sermons were released on YouTube. Wright is the retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, in Chicago, the church to which Obama belonged. Several of Wright’s sermons harshly criticized the United States for its mistreatment of African Americans. One that was played repeatedly was his sermon delivered the Sunday following September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Wright told his congregation ‘‘[w]e bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.’’ Barack Obama joined Trinity in 1988. Barack and Michelle Robinson were married there. The title of his second book, The Audacity of Hope, was derived from one of Wright’s sermons. Obama’s close association with Wright raised concerns. Responding to the Wright controversy Obama said in his speech, ‘‘A More Perfect Union,’’ We have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. . . . Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, not this time. This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. . . . This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. . . . This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. . . . I would not be running for president if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation—the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
Obama’s unusual oratorical skills were a hallmark of his campaign and this speech was one of his most inspirational. The New York Times reported that the speech had been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube and was widely e-mailed. Polling data indicated that the Wright controversy did not undermine Obama’s campaign. In the early stages of the primary elections campaigns, Hillary Clinton held a strong lead among African American voters. Some greeted Obama’s candidacy with skepticism. Many black elected officials supported Hillary Clinton. This
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changed after Clinton attempted to project race into the campaign. After months in which her surrogates used coded racial appeals, Clinton made race explicit. During an interview with USA Today, Clinton said ‘‘I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition.’’ As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article and said ‘‘Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.’’ Many observers were appalled by Clinton’s remarks. In a May 2008, article, Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, reacted to Clinton’s remarks in a Wall Street Journal column. Referring to Clinton’s interview with the USA Today, Noonan remarked: White Americans? Hard-working white Americans? Even Richard Nixon didn’t say white. . . . To play the race card as Mrs. Clinton has, to highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical ‘‘the black guy can’t win but the white girl can’’ is—well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used similar tactics. At a North Carolina fundraiser Palin said ‘‘[w]e believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation.’’ This was part of Palin’s ‘‘us’’ versus ‘‘them’’ strategy that was a constant theme in her speeches. ‘‘Us’’ referred to whites; ‘‘them’’ alluded to racial minorities. Palin’s message in North Carolina was that small, predominately white communities are the ‘‘real America’’ and, by implication, urban and metropolitan communities where large numbers of racial minorities and immigrants reside are outside of the ‘‘real’’ America. When Obama was attacked by his opponents, he reacted promptly and effectively. Responding to Hillary Clinton’s attacks Obama said ‘‘What we need is change, not old-style thinking; conviction, not triangulation.’’ When John McCain attacked, the Obama campaign responded with ads that turned McCain’s comments against him by denouncing them as ‘‘a distraction’’ and ‘‘dishonorable.’’ The Obama campaign created a Web site, Stop the Smears that was devoted to combating attacks. The Face of Campaigning Changes Obama changed the way campaigns are conducted. He raised a record-breaking $745 million, much of which was raised online in small donations. Twenty-fourhour cable television programming, online news outlets, blogs, YouTube, Facebook, and other nontraditional media had a significant impact on the campaign. The New York Times reported that YouTube videos mentioning Obama or McCain had been viewed 2.3 billion times. The United States reached a historic turning point
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when Obama prevailed against John McCain in the 2008 election with 365 electoral votes. Some observers believe that Obama benefited from trends in popular culture. In What Obama Means, Jabari Asim suggested that entertainers such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, and Sly Stone helped pave the road to the White House. These entertainers avoided an explicitly ‘‘black’’ sound and appealed to a wider audience. They transcended barriers that confined other entertainers to a largely black audience. There are other comparisons. Obama is doing to politics what Muhammad Ali did for Boxing, what Michael Jordan did for Basketball, and what Tiger Woods did for Golf. Obama’s charisma, grace, and equipoise inspire confidence. Media outlets can’t get enough of him. Obama’s image has appeared on the cover of every major magazine and newspaper. The day after his inauguration, Obama was on the covers of newspapers around the globe. His radiant, Harvard-educated wife, Michelle Obama, and his young daughters Malia (born 1999) and Sasha (born 2001) continue to captivate the media’s attention. The first six months of Obama’s presidency were as extraordinary as his campaign. The economic conditions Obama inherited from President George W. Bush were the worst since the end of World War II. Many economists believe the financial system came dangerously close to a complete meltdown in 2008. At Obama’s urging, Congress enacted a $789 billion stimulus bill aimed at restoring the economy. Obama took steps to stabilize the housing and credit markets with plans to buy the toxic assets that many banks had on their books. Obama implemented a plan to bail out the ailing automobile industry and proposed a new and much more rigorous regulatory regime for Wall Street. On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The law is aimed at correcting abuses in the financial markets. It contains financial stability provisions for ‘‘too big to fail’’ institutions; it regulates advisers to hedge funds and other private investment vehicles, and it created two new agencies: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Obama gave foreign policy an urgently needed overhaul. When he took office, the nation was embroiled in disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. credibility abroad was at an all-time low. In April 2009, Obama visited Europe, where he was greeted by ecstatic audiences. His speeches, meetings with local residents, and talks with foreign leaders received international acclaim. In June 2009, Obama visited the Middle East. He delivered a speech in Cairo, Egypt, aimed at forging a new relationship with the Muslim world. The speech was applauded around the globe and is seen as a major breakthrough in relations with Islamic nations. U.S. international standing has been immeasurably improved. Obama’s election was a turning point, but it does not mean that all of our problems have been solved. During the campaign, Obama said today’s most difficult racial problems involve the present effects of past discrimination. The despair, grinding poverty, and the lack of educational and other opportunities in
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America’s inner cities are the lingering vestiges of a segregated past. Addressing these conditions will be a formidable challenge. Over forty years ago, on the night before his assassination in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to a group of black sanitation workers who were in the midst of a tense strike. King comforted the workers with a sermon. Invoking an inspirational metaphor, King told the strikers he had been to the ‘‘mountaintop’’ where he had seen the ‘‘Promised Land.’’ He said ‘‘I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.’’ In many ways President Obama’s election represents the realization of King’s dream. See also: Multiculturalism; Politics and Government
Further Reading ‘‘A More Perfect Union.’’ Speech by Senator Barack Obama March 18, 2008, Philadelphia, PA. http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords. Asim, Jabari. 2009. What Obama Means . . . For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future. New York: HarperCollins. Eilperin, Juliet. 2008. ‘‘Palin’s ‘Pro-America Areas’ Remark: Extended Version.’’ Washington Post, October 17. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/17/ palin_clarifies_her_pro-americ.html. Fight the Smears. 2008. ‘‘Learn the Truth about Barack Obama.’’ http://www.fightthesmears.com/. Ifill, Gwen. 2009. The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. New York: Doubleday. Kiely, Kathy, and Jill Lawrence. 2008. ‘‘Clinton Makes Case for Wide Appeal.’’ USA Today, May 8. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-07clintoninterview_N.htm. King, Martin Luther Jr. ‘‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.’’ Speech delivered April 3, 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee. American Rhetoric. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeento themountaintop.htm. Noonan, Peggy. 2008. ‘‘Damsel of Distress.’’ Wall Street Journal, May 9. http://online .wsj.com/public/article/declarations.html. Obama, Barack. 2006. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown. Obama, Barack. 1995. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Random House. Ross, Brian, and Rehab El-Buri. 2008. ‘‘Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11.’’ ABC News.com, the Blotter, March 13. http://abcnews.go.com/ blotter/story?id=4443788. Wolffe, Richard. 2009. Renegade: The Making of a President. New York: Crown. Zengerle, Jason. 2008. ‘‘The Message Keeper: How David Axelrod Learned to Conquer Race.’’ New Republic, November 5. http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=3f fae5b3-3ca3-4186-a9bf-59c00be8e98b. Leland Ware
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Michelle Obama, first African American first lady of the United States (2009–). (Department of Defense)
Obama, Michelle (1964– ), First Lady, Lawyer, Community Organizer Michelle Robinson Obama walked into the annals of twenty-first-century history when she became the 46th first lady and the first African American First Lady of the United States. Under the watchful eye of the world she is making her signature mark on her role. As the wife of President Barack Obama, she is recognized as the premiere hostess of the White House. Like First Ladies in recent years, Obama elects to extend her role beyond that of organizing and attending official ceremonies and dinner parties. She has launched causes she deems necessary and meaningful. Because she regards the White House as a residence that belongs to the people, she has opened its doors to attract diverse guests who mirror the full image of the United States. She is especially concerned about the plight of working women and mothers and about the lives of military families. Her concern about promoting healthier eating habits motivated her to solicit the help of two dozen Washington, DC, fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School to break 1,100 square feet of ground on the South Lawn of the White House. The school children, with the help of the First Family, planted kale, sugar snap peas, broccoli, fennel, carrots, rhubarb, onion, radishes, spinach, and
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several varieties of lettuce, among other vegetables. In addition, the garden is host to a variety of perennial and annual herbs and the first ever beehive on the White House grounds. The produce from the garden appears on the First Family’s table, and the food is served at White House formal dinner parties. Surplus from the garden is donated to Miriam’s Kitchen, where hot meals are served to the homeless in Washington, DC. The First Lady’s platform for eating healthy has evolved into a national initiative called ‘‘Let’s Move!’’ Obama is working with parents, schools, and communities to combat childhood obesity. In addition, she is calling upon food manufacturers to offer healthier options, food-service employees to prepare healthier meals, and the nation’s largest beverage companies to provide clearly visible information about calories and contents on their products. She has solicited superstar athletes and sport teams to encourage children to move and develop a love for a sports activity that will aid in their health and well-being. Moreover, she has called upon mayors and governors to do their part to build healthier cities and states. Obama’s seemingly ordinary life has led her along the path of what she selfstyles as ‘‘an improbable journey.’’ She was born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on the South Side of Chicago, the younger of two children of Fraser Robinson III, a water pump and boiler operator, and Marian Shields Robinson, a stay-at-home mother. Though the Robinsons were not rich, they gave their children love, support, and purpose. Fraser and Miriam Robinson were strong advocates of education, politics, and community service. They taught their children to think, make decisions, and take action. The inspiration Obama received from her parents explains the ‘‘can-do’’ attitude that defines this great-great-granddaughter of Jim Robinson, a slave who worked in the rice fields on a plantation in South Carolina. It is Michelle Obama’s attitude that prompted her meteoric rise to the gifted program during her middle school years, kept her on the honor roll all four years of high school (graduating as salutatorian), and earned her admission to Princeton University and Harvard University Law School. This same spirit catapulted her into taking a major role in her husband’s presidential campaign that won him the 2008 election. On the campaign trail, Obama connected with women across the United States whose everyday roles as supportive wives, working mothers, and women juggling careers and family reflect her life—especially during the campaign when she and daughters, eleven-year-old Malia and eight-year-old Sasha, crisscrossed the country as Obama made speeches on her husband’s behalf. Michelle Obama is readily recognized as an intelligent, successful, accomplished woman outside of her husband’s limelight. She holds her undergraduate degree in sociology with a minor in African American studies, and a law degree. Her impressive job resume includes managerial and executive positions for Sidney Austin Law Firm, Chicago City Hall, Chicago chapter of Public Allies, the University of Chicago, and University of Chicago hospitals. There are other dimensions to Michelle Obama the public has witnessed since her appearance on the world stage. She finds time to serve the community, a passion developed early in her life. While a student, she helped the Black Law Student Association at Harvard to summons black alumni to share life experiences
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with the future attorneys. She also worked twenty hours a week with the legal aid bureau to assist poor people with legal matters. She spearheads her family to engage in community service distributing baskets to the needy; she launched National Service Day to coincide with honoring Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday, and she and the president helped to paint a Habitat for Humanity house. Another dimension to Obama is her legendary hugs, including generous, heartfelt hugs given to school children, campaign workers, wellwishers, and even Queen Elizabeth II. The First Lady made headlines when she put her arms around the shoulders of the queen, an act that is strictly taboo according to British etiquette. Obama’s innate affection for others responded naturally to the queen when she touched Obama first. Despite Obama’s accomplishments, Americans are fascinated with the mundane concerning the First Lady. She has become an icon and trendsetter, and much is made of her toned and muscular arms, which are evident in the sleeveless dresses she often wears. Other headlines were sparked when she appeared in a black, sleeveless dress for her White House portrait. Obama draws from an eclectic array of fashion designers relative to ethnicity, style, age, and country of origin. Clothiers in Obama’s collection are the more affordable J. Crew as well as high-end priced designer lines by Thakoon Panichgul (Thai), Narcis Rodriguez (Cuban American), and Americans Tracy Feith and Maria Pinto. See also: Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Obama, Barack. 2006. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Vintage Books. Obama, Barack. 2004. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Crown Publishers. Obama, Michelle. 2010. ‘‘Feed Your Children Well: My Fight against Childhood Obesity.’’ Newsweek 22 (March: 40–41. Sullivan, Robert, ed. 2009. ‘‘Michelle Obama: A Portrait of the First Lady.’’ Life 9 (June 5): 1–128. Summers, Gerrie E. 2009. ‘‘Our First Lady: Michelle Obama.’’ Today’s Black Woman 16 (March): 33–47. Willis, Deborah, and Emily Bernard, eds. 2010. Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs. New York: Norton. Jewell B. Parham
Oliver, King (1885–1938), Cornetist, Bandleader Joseph ‘‘King’’ Oliver, a cornetist and bandleader who was born on May 11, 1885, near Abend, Louisiana, was one of the chief architects of the classic New Orleans jazz style. Oliver played in diverse small ensembles, including brass bands and dance bands, in New Orleans bars and cabarets from 1909 until he moved to
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Chicago in 1918. Kid Ory dubbed him ‘‘King’’ Oliver and the name remained with him throughout his career. In 1920, he became a bandleader, playing in Chicago clubs with stints in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He returned to Chicago in 1922, where he led the Creole Jazz Band, its members constituting a Who’s Who of early jazz musicians, at the famous Lincoln Gardens. This was a fertile period for the band and its fame was established then. The Creole Jazz Band included the young (twenty-year-old) Louis Armstrong, who joined Oliver as second cornetist; Johnny Dodds, clarinet; Lil Hardin, piano; Honore Dutrey, trombone; Johnny ‘‘Baby’’ Dodds on drums; and Bill Johnson, bass and banjo. By 1927, the Creole Jazz Band had dispersed, and Oliver worked as a sideman with various groups in New York. His final recordings were in 1931, but he continued to tour with various ensembles until he ran out of money. Oliver spent the last five years of his life in Savannah, Georgia, working as a janitor, and died in 1938. Oliver the teacher and Armstrong the student reflect a mentoring relationship and one of the first well-known jazz apprenticeships. Oliver guarded the development of Armstrong, a young, aspiring musician, influencing him personally and musically. While Armstrong delivered coal in Storyville as a youth, he heard Oliver’s playing at Pete Lala’s and was impressed with Oliver’s punch, shouting of tunes, and his playing abilities. The young Armstrong also held Oliver’s horn intermittently during parades. Armstrong used to run errands for Oliver’s wife, Stella, and in exchange Oliver gave Armstrong lessons and subsequently a used cornet. Oliver played the cornet, the lead instrument in classic New Orleans jazz ensembles following the precedent of Buddy Bolden, Freddie Keppard, and Willie ‘‘Bunk’’ Johnson, among others. Oliver’s musical style was solidly based in the vocal blues tradition, and he used his horn to mimic the human voice with various timbres and vocal effects, including quotes from work songs, as in ‘‘Snag It.’’ Most notable was the ‘‘wa-wa’’ that influenced Bubber Miley of the Ellington band. A number of compositions besides ‘‘Snag It’’ are attributed to Oliver, including ‘‘Sugar Foot Stomp’’ and ‘‘Dipper Mouth Blues,’’ among others. Oliver and composer Clarence Williams also wrote ‘‘West End Blues,’’ and recorded it with Oliver’s Dixie Syncopators prior to the famous Armstrong release. Armstrong’s recording of the composition catapulted him to fame as a first-rate soloist and set the stage for the instrumental solo virtuoso in jazz. Oliver was an exceptional bandleader and recorded widely in the 1920s with an outstanding ensemble. He demanded the best from his band members. The revival of the New Orleans style, which began shortly after his death on April 8, 1938, owed much to the rediscovery of his early Creole Jazz Band recordings, which were internationally known by the 1940s. Joseph ‘‘King’’ Oliver in many respects was arguably one of the most significant contributors to and definers of the classic New Orleans jazz style, and he has not received the recognition that he deserves. See also: Bands and Bandleaders; Beale Street; Delta Blues; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Musicians and Singers
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Further Reading Allen, Walter C., and Brian Rust. 1958. King Joe Oliver. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. Gushee, Lawrence. 2001. ‘‘King Oliver.’’ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., Vol. 18. Stanley Sadie, ed. New York: Macmillan. Oliver, King, with the Dixie Syncopators. 1992. ‘‘Sugar Foot Stomp.’’ Decca reissue on CD: GRP, 616. Williams, Martin T. 1960. King Oliver. London: Cassell. Willie Collins
Olympics One of the major contradictions for African Americans representing the United States in the Olympic Games is that they have often been first-class athletes on the international stage but treated as second-class human beings at home. This dynamic can be traced to the plantations of the American South during slavery. White slaveholders from neighboring plantations would often match black men against one another in footraces, Boxing matches, and wrestling contests. In boat races, African Americans would serve as oarsmen, while white owners steered the boats. As noted in Rhoden’s Forty Million Slaves, physical prowess was encouraged among slaveholders, and some rewards were to be had for athletic excellence, ranging from bags of marbles to bags of silver. Among the men in bondage on plantations, those who excelled as fighters, jockeys, and horse trainers were valued and given preferential treatment. Their outstanding physical prowess was seen as a metaphor for outstanding moral character. They were held up as rode models. Yet Frederick Douglass offers us a different account. As he writes in his first autobiography: ‘‘It was necessary to keep our religious masters at St. Michael’s unacquainted with the fact, that, instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whisky, we were trying to learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading sports, than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral, and accountable beings.’’ While physical prowess was initially viewed as a way of increasing the value of a man in bondage, such prowess became riddled with social anxiety. ‘‘We are in the midst of a growing menace,’’ Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun, reported in 1895. Rhoden warned, ‘‘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.’’ Indeed, the role of African Americans in the Olympic Games has proven itself to be a strong catalyst for social change. Early Olympic Games The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE, and lasted for eleven centuries, until 393 AD, when the games were abolished by Christian Byzantine
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emperor Theodosius I. The games were revived by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, and the Olympic torch was once again lit in Athens in 1896, ushering in the modern Olympic Games. The third Olympic Games were held in St. Louis, Missouri, in conjunction with the World’s Fair. Black leaders set up protests against the games because of racially segregated facilities that prevented the integration of spectators. Nonetheless, the Games themselves fostered competition across color lines and Milwaukee native George Poage made Olympic history by winning bronze medals in both the 200-yard and 400-meter hurdles, making him the first black medalist in the history of the Games. In 1932, Louise Stokes and Tydia Pickett became the first black women to earn spots on the U.S. Olympic team. Yet, for all their work, they arrived at the Summer Games in Los Angeles only to learn that they had been replaced by white athletes. The same fate would await Stokes in the 1936 Games in Berlin. The slight to Stokes, however, is often overshadowed by the brilliant performance of Jesse Owens, who earned four medals in those Summer Games and threw into doubt Hitler’s belief in Aryan supremacy. In less than an hour of actual competition, Owens equaled or broke six world records. While a hero on the track, Owens continued to meet assaults on his dignity as a person, having to take the freight elevator up to his own Olympic reception. ‘‘When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus,’’ Owens said. ‘‘I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.’’ Following his Olympic triumphs, Owens ran footraces against horses for money and suffered financial losses in a range of business ventures. Nonetheless, he remained an important voice and, in 1974, became a charter member of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. The 1960s witnessed a new generation of black athletes. These athletes were vocal in their denunciations against racial and social inequality and degradation. ‘‘In the era when Black people in this country were simply struggling for access, Jesse Owens, Joe Louis and Jackson Robinson emerged,’’ Harry Edwards, professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, explained in Muhammad’s article. ‘‘They kept their mouths shut, didn’t raise any issues, didn’t gloat in any victories, didn’t seem too sad in public about their defeats, even when it was pretty clear that they were ripped off in terms of judges or decisions, and they had to do that in order to gain access.’’
Years of Protest The 1960s, however, were different. In the 1960 Summer Games, Wilma Rudolph, the twentieth of twenty-two children and a track star at Tennessee State University, made history as she became the first black female athlete to win three goal medals. Unlike Jesse Owens, Rudolph was afforded a visit to the White House, where she was photographed with President John F. Kennedy, rendering visible a different view of black women in American society. Muhammad Ali
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(then Cassius Clay) became the first African American to win a gold medal in boxing, receiving that honor in the 1960 Summer Games as a light heavyweight. Towards the end of the decade, as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Ali sounded a strong moral objection to the Vietnamese conflict. Cited in Charlene Muhammad’s article, Ali said: ‘‘Black people really don’t have nothing to fight for,’’ the Champ said. ‘‘I just don’t think I should go 10,000 miles from here and shoot some Black people that never called me n ——— r, never lynched me, never put dogs on me, never raped my mama, enslaved me and deprived me of freedom, justice and equality.’’ For his refusal of induction into the U.S. Army to fight against the Viet Cong, Ali was stripped of his heavyweight belt and his boxing license, resulting in substantial monetary loss. Ali’s radical and racially motivated critique of American society was shared by Tommie Smith and John Carlos. In the 200-meters of the 1968 Olympiad in Mexico City, Smith won the gold and Carlos won the bronze, setting the stage for one of the most memorable protests in the history of the Games. Walking to the podium without sneakers, a symbol of poverty, Smith and Carlos, college students at San Jose State University, each raised a gloved black fist into the night as—a gesture of black power—and lowered their heads as the U.S. national anthem played in Mexico City. For their act of protest, both were stripped of their medals and were disparaged by the International Olympic Committee. Yet, the significance of the moment highlighted the contradiction of Black American Olympians—first-class athletes, second-class citizens. While Smith and Carlos, similar to Ali, suffered material losses for speaking out against social injustices experienced by African Americans on a broader scale, they have became icons, figures who transcend the boundaries of their sport. Thirty years following the silent protest in Mexico City, a statue of Smith and Carlos in their revolutionary pose was unveiled on the campus of San Jose State University. Of the monument that transformed their transitory moment into a lasting memorial, John Carlos said, ‘‘That’s a couple of good-looking young men up there on that podium, and they’ll stay like that forever.’’ Black participation in the Olympic Games has come a long way since the days of George Poage. African American Olympians are no longer the rare face in the crowd, and many have gone on to great notoriety beyond the bounds of their sport. Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson (with his signature gold shoes in the Atlanta Games of 1996), Florence Griffith Joyner, and Usain Bolt, thumping his chest, one of his laces untied as he set a new world’s record in the Beijing Games of 2008, all, along with countless others, have their place within popular culture. The Olympic Games have their origins in national pride, and this notion takes on a racial and cultural pride for black people in the global context because of the legacy of slavery. And while many insist that the Olympic Games are about sport, not politics or social concerns, excellence in the games often serves as inspiration and motivation, as political and social affirmation for those competing social and cultural forces that undermine fair play—in the broadest sense of that phrase—in their daily lives. See also: Sports
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Further Reading Bell, Ramona J. 2008. ‘‘Competing Identities: Representations of the Black Female Sporting Body from 1960 to the Present.’’ PhD Dissertation, Bowling Green State University. Cool Running.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Statue Unveiled Honoring Civil-rights Sprinters Smith, Carlos.’’ http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/3/3_1/statue-unveiled-honoring-.shtml. Douglass, Frederick. 1986. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. Houston A. Baker Jr., ed. New York: Penguin. Muhammad, Charlene. 2008. ‘‘40 Years after Olympic Protest: Athletes are Without Activism.’’ New York Beacon, September 4: 17, 33. Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown Publishers. Soanes, Catherine, and Angus Stevenson, eds. 2005. ‘‘Owens, Jesse.’’ The Oxford Dictionary of English. Rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Washington [DC] Informer. 2008. ‘‘A Black Olympic History: From 1904–1968.’’ August 7: 37. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
O’Neal, Shaquille (1972– ), Basketball Player, Shaquille O’Neal is a professional Basketball star, actor, and Hip-Hop artist whose charismatic personality on and off the basketball hardwood has made him a popular culture icon. The son of Philip Harrison, a U.S. Army sergeant, and Lucille O’Neal, Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal (whose first name means ‘‘little warrior’’) was born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 6, 1972, and educated in public schools and military bases along the Eastern Seaboard. O’Neal was also educated in Germany, where, as a teenager, he caught the attention of college basketball coach Dale Brown. Brown was running a basketball clinic in West Germany and, struck by the size of O’Neal, mistook him for a soldier, not a participant in his clinic. Brown found O’Neal’s father and was interrupted before his recruitment pitch could gain force. ‘‘Coach Brown,’’ O’Neal’s father said in the New York Times, ‘‘I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m not all that interested about basketball. It’s about time blacks started developing some intellectualisms. They would be presidents of corporations, head coaches instead of assistants, and generals in the army instead of sergeants. If you’re interested in my son, for that aspect of his life, some day, if he ever develops, we might talk.’’ And develop O’Neal did. Returning to the United States, he played basketball at Cole High School in San Antonio, Texas, leading his team to a state championship and, in one game alone, posting 27 points, 36 rebounds, and 36 blocked shots, offering the world a glimpse of the force he was. Heavily recruited by colleges throughout the United States, O’Neal enrolled at Louisiana State University (LSU) where Dale Brown served as head coach. At LSU, O’Neal guided the Tigers to national prominence during his three
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seasons. Along the way, he was a two-time first team All-American, and during the 1990–91 season, he garnered both the United Press International (UPI) and the Associated Press (AP) Player of the Year honors. In the 1992 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft, O’Neal was the first selection overall, signing a seven-year, $40 million contract with the Orlando Magic. During his first season, on February 7, 1993, in a nationally televised game against the Phoenix Suns, O’Neal, 7’1’’, 300 pounds, in a fierce dunk, shattered the entire basketball system— rim, background, support, all—sending shards of plexiglass shattering onto the hardwood and players Los Angeles Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal performs a slam dunk during first-quarter action against the Phoenix and spectators scattering. Suns, April 11, 1997. (AP/Wide World Photos) The former Big Man on Campus had announced his dominance on the professional court. Magic Johnson said, ‘‘The guy’s a monster, a true prime-time player.’’ O’Neal closed his first season with Rookie of the Year honors, but Shaq’s success meant success for the NBA as a whole. During the Jordan era, the NBA had developed into a league fueled by star personalities, and Shaq became the heir apparent to Michael Jordan. Part of Shaq’s crossover appeal was and remains his ability to use mass media. Along with dominant play on the court, which has elevated only into one of the finest centers in the history of the NBA (fourteen-time All-Star, four-time World Champion, one league Most Valuable Player), Shaq has been featured in commercials, films (Blue Chips and Kazaam), and hip-hop recordings. As a rap artist, Shaq gained notable commercial success with his first two albums—Shaq Diesel and Shaq-Fu: Da Return— both with Jive Records, and, in 2004, he collaborated to start his own label, DEJA34 Records. With the shadow he casts across the landscape of popular culture, Shaquille O’Neal has been the focus of numerous books. Readers seeking an insightful
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view into the life of Shaq are invited to read Murry Nelson’s Shaquille O’Neal: A Biography. And Shaquille O’Neal himself has authored, along with rap lyrics, a number of books as well. Shaq Talks Back, published in 2002, showcases O’Neal’s unique blend of humor and candor. See also: Entertainment Industry; Sports Further Reading Bynoe, Yvonne. 2006. ‘‘O’Neal, Shaquille (aka Enrico Gate, aka The Shaq).’’ Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Moran, Malcolm. 1991. ‘‘College Basketball ’91–’92: In the Paint or Off Court, O’Neal Is on Top of Game’’ New York Times, November 24. Porter, David L., ed. 1995. ‘‘Shaquille O’Neal.’’ African-American Sports Greats: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) Organizations in the black community historically have sought to address continuing and pressing problems within their community, such as education, hiring practices, politics, black entrepreneurship, inner-city youth, and other issues that help shape African American popular culture. Operation PUSH is one of them. Its founding, and much of its development, is credited to Jesse Jackson (Sr.), who subsequently merged PUSH with the National Rainbow Coalition. In so doing, the early focus of PUSH was preserved. The popular organization known as Operation PUSH, or simply PUSH, came into being in 1971. The organization and the need that it aimed to fill were similar to that of Operation Breadbasket, once the economic arm of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). When SCLC’s program ended in 1971, Jesse Jackson, who had headed Operation Breadbasket, saw a continuing need to address the economic conditions of blacks through a formally established organization. First known as People United to Serve Humanity, the name was changed later on to become People United to Serve Humanity. Jackson led the organization from its home base in Chicago, and helped it to fulfill its mission by working through boycotts of businesses, enterprises, and organizations that refused to hire African Americans, failed to advance them in the workplace, or mistreated black consumers. Since Jackson was highly visible in the local and national communities, when he spoke out against such practices people listened. Thus, he easily drew public attention to the groups, businesses, and other enterprises that he targeted. He also easily entered the arenas where corporate boards and company executives were found, urging and cajoling them to do the right thing. As well, PUSH favored and encouraged the building of black-owned and black-managed businesses.
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Jesse Jackson at PUSH ‘‘Black Expo’’ in Chicago in 1973. (National Archives)
The age-old problem of education for black people continued. Jackson and his organization grappled with this problem beginning in the late 1970s by starting its PUSH for Excellence program (PUSH/EXCEL). Jackson believed that blacks could become empowered through education and used PUSH/EXCEL as a platform to help minority youth become educated. The program, which aimed to motivate young people to improve academically, was placed in Chicago and five other cities. The program received considerable federal and private support until auditors found concrete goals and a clear administrative structure lacking. After that, Jackson scaled down the program yet still sought ways to enrich the educational experiences of black youth. In 1983, Jackson left PUSH and the next year began his unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. presidency. He led a second unsuccessful campaign for the presidency in 1988. During his first campaign, PUSH faced financial problems and in 1991 its money problems continued, causing the temporary layoff of its twelve salaried personnel. Although he no longer headed the organization, the persuasive Jackson turned things around with support from black businesses, prominent black people, and community groups. Operation PUSH began to address topics of then-current and continuing concern, such as the AIDS crisis, Haitian refugees, education, and alcohol abuse among youth. Its ‘‘save the children’’ campaign was announced in 1993 and fit well the efforts of African Americans and their organizations to address violence in urban areas. Jackson and PUSH also continued efforts to serve as a voice for black businesses.
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Meanwhile, in 1994, Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition, a political organization. Through the organization he aimed to build a consensus in civil rights, government, labor, politics, business, and education. In the mid-1990s, Rainbow Coalition merged with Operation PUSH to become the National Rainbow/ Push Coalition. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, the merged organization ‘‘revived the traditional PUSH economic emphasis.’’ Its Wall Street Project encourages financial firms and Fortune 500 companies to hire more minorities and to invest in the inner city. See also: Organizations and Associations Further Reading The African American Almanac. 2008. ‘‘Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.’’ 10th ed. Detroit: Thomson/Gale. Encyclopedia of Chicago. (n.d.) ‘‘Operation PUSH.’’ Chicago History.org. http:// www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/934.html. Stoner, John C. 2006. ‘‘Operation Push.’’ Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed., Vol. 4. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Jessie Carney Smith
Organizations and Associations Organizations and associations are formal groups formed by individuals with shared interests or needs. Organizations and associations have occupied a prominent place in African American popular culture. The first institutions were established by free black communities in the eighteenth century. Because blacks were largely excluded from mainstream (white) society, blacks had no other choice than to form their own institutions, including churches, schools, as well as organizations, associations, and societies. To this day, black organizations and associations help to meet the needs of blacks who are underrepresented in certain fields, who do not feel adequately represented by predominantly white institutions, or who simply prefer the support of black peers and colleagues. Black institutions, then and now, have performed disparate functions, to address specific professional needs and injustices, to provide social status and opportunities for community building and social activity, and to engage in activism. African Societies Organizations and associations were not new concepts to Africans who arrived in the New World as early as the seventeenth century. There were abundant secret societies in Africa. Some societies were separated by gender and age; others were open to both men and women. Societies provided essential functions in African life, building solidarity and regulating behavior, as well as giving
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purpose, esteem, and identity to the participants. Societies were established for almost every social, religious, and occupational interest, including social, political, dance, music, and warrior clubs and societies, as well as trade guilds. Within each society, initiation rites were performed, officials and leaders were appointed, and rules were created and expected to be followed. Early Organizations of Free Black Societies As the number of free blacks increased in the North and South, during the late eighteenth century, blacks established organizations and associations. (This was the custom with whites in American society.) With the exception of blacks who joined predominately white organizations, most blacks felt compelled to form their own groups. According to Hine in The African-American Odyssey, among the many reasons for this was that ‘‘they realized that they would have inferior status in white-dominated organizations or not be allowed to participate in them at all,’’ and ‘‘they wanted institutions that would perpetuate their heritage.’’ The popular organizations of this period were mutual aid and benefit societies, which provided financial support to blacks in need and helped, in large part, to reinforce middle-class morals and values. The first known mutual aid society was established in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1780. In 1787, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones founded the Free African Society. Jones established the first black church, the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, in Philadelphia in 1794, and Allen famously founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816. In the late 1790s, women began establishing their own organizations, such as the Benevolent Daughters. More would follow in the early nineteenth century. One of the most enduring organizations that emerged in the late eighteenth century was a fraternal organization known as the Black Freemasons. This organization was established by Prince Hall, who, in 1775, was denied acceptance in a Boston chapter of white Freemasons. Nearly one hundred years later, Thornton Andrew Jackson would be credited with starting the first Eastern Star Chapter for African American women. Both Freemasons and women of the Eastern Star undergo initiation rites, as well as participate in charitable work and other activities. Mutual Aid Societies, Social Clubs, and Women’s Organizations Hine found that the new century produced an abundant variety of organizations and associations, including ‘‘mutual aid organizations, benevolent and fraternal societies, self-improvement and temperance associations, [and] literary groups.’’ Blacks also joined antislavery organizations, and women’s clubs were especially popular towards the end of the century. The New York African Society for Mutual Belief was established in 1808 and provided health and life insurance to its members. The Dorcas Association, a benevolent organization established in 1828 in New York, donated clothing to underprivileged children.
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Another benevolent organization, the Phoenix Society, founded in New York in 1833, addressed the educational needs of, as well as provided clothing for, black children. Although many black families enjoyed many middle-class comforts and means, they still required amenities that the society-at-large denied them, and many poor blacks went without. Free blacks were not only concerned with their immediate community, they were deeply troubled by the fact that a vast number of blacks were in bondage. During the abolition movement, famous white men and women emerged as prominent leaders. Lesser known are the ordinary black men and women who joined in the struggle to end slavery. Many blacks established separate antislavery organizations. Not all black organizations and associations were established exclusively for serious work. A number of social and interest-based groups played pivotal roles in the lives of African Americans. Among the class of mulatto elite, exclusive groups provided social status and entertainment. The mulatto elite were set apart from other blacks by economic class, education, white ancestry, and carefully cultivated behaviors and mannerisms. These isolated communities formed literary, foreign language, music, and etiquette clubs that reinforced their selfimportance and value systems and provided the only forms of entertainment, such as cotillions and other formal social dances, that they permitted themselves. Unlike some black clubs which studied the achievements of historical African American figures, the mulatto elite focused on white-oriented interests that they associated with high society. The massively popular women’s clubs, which would proliferate in the late nineteenth century, were not so frivolous. Indeed women’s clubs, for blacks and whites, were a phenomenon. Like women’s church work, secular clubs provided busy community work for black women. Industrious and committed black women gathered in force to form myriad groups, such as the Bethel Literary and Historical Association, the New Era Club, and the legendary National Association of Colored Women (NACW). The women of the Bethel Literary and Historical Association in Washington, DC, ‘‘were mainly concerned with cultural, religious, and social matters,’’ according to Hine. Women were also invested in racial uplift and self-improvement; they wanted to build healthy communities and homes and challenge gender perceptions. Black women doggedly battled negative stereotypes and images that society constructed and contributed to the women’s suffrage movement. In 1896, one of the most prominent women’s organizations, the NACW, was formed in Washington, DC, when the Women’s Era Club of Boston, the National Federation of Afro-American Women, and the National Colored Woman’s League combined. High-profile women, such as Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, played a large part in the creation of this formidable organization. Harriet Tubman, a former slave, had achieved fame through her courageous work as a leader in the Underground Railroad. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist and newspaper editor, single-handedly launched an anti-lynching campaign. Mary Church Terrell lent her influence to expose
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lynching atrocities. Terrell would become the first president of the NACW, ushering the organization into an era of women’s struggle and racial protest. Jim Crow Law was prevalent in the South, as well as the North. Another notable president of the NACW was Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune served as president of the organization between 1924 and 1928, and she was known for many achievements. Born in 1875 in South Carolina to parents who had been slaves, Bethune transcended poverty and racism to attend Scotia Seminary and Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions. She aspired to be a missionary in Africa but was not permitted because of her race. In 1904, Bethune started her own school, the Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, in Daytona, Florida. With the support of Booker T. Washington and white philanthropists, Bethune’s small school would eventually become the legendary Bethune-Cookman School (now University). Bethune would also play a prominent role in president-appointed positions in the White House Conference on Child Health and the Black Cabinet. In 1935, she founded the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in New York City. The NCNW was unlike other women’s organizations. As noted in its Web site’s article, ‘‘History,’’ Bethune set it up to be ‘‘a council of autonomous national organizations coming together to improve the quality of life for women.’’ In 1957, Dorothy Height became the president of NCNW. Height was one of few women who would provide a critical leadership role during the Civil Rights Movement. Civil Rights Organizations During the Civil Rights Movement, organizations directed and augmented the force and power of individual human effort to produce sweeping social changes in terms of racial equality, voting rights, and other issues. For centuries, blacks had been bullied and suppressed by white domination and intimidation. Resistance, in most cases, was fatal and ineffective. Although many individuals and organizations played a part in the civil rights era, five major organizations, known as ‘‘the Big Five,’’ took the forefront of the struggle: the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League (NUL), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Although the NCNW was not demonstrating on the battlefront like the other organizations, this group was wellrepresented by Dorothy Height and supported by NCNW members. Height made several contributions to the movement, attending meetings behind the scenes with civil rights leaders and U.S. presidents. Individually, the five major civil rights organizations made many contributions; however, through collaborative efforts, they were able to accomplish even more. One of the most successful high-profile collaborations was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which took place on August 28, 1963. This monumental event was attended by some quarter million individuals who assembled at the steps
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of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Speakers included leaders and organization representatives of the Civil Rights Movement, including A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Roy O. Wilkins of the NAACP, Whitney Young of NUL, and John Lewis of SNCC. Floyd McKissack of CORE read James Farmer’s speech. (Farmer was in jail for demonstrating.) One of the most climactic moments occurred when SCLC’s leader, Martin Luther King Jr., gave his famous ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech. SCLC SCLC was established by ministers and civil rights activists in 1957, following a triumphant campaign called the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was inspired by Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist preacher, served as the campaign’s leader. His charismatic leadership style, as well as the indomitable spirit of locals who boycotted Montgomery buses brought forth a major civil rights milestone, the desegregation of buses in Alabama. In the wake of this victory, others used Montgomery as their template to challenge discrimination in public transportation elsewhere in the South. King was chosen to head SCLC. He is one of the most well-known and celebrated heroes in the United States. He developed the organization’s ideology of nonviolent direct action and led a membership, comprising mostly Christian, middle-class blacks, through a tumultuous period of demonstrations and violent white backlash. King’s Birmingham Campaign was considered one of SCLC’s most volatile undertakings. Black demonstrators were attacked by police dogs and fire hoses at full blast. Over the course of the movement, King was imprisoned several times, and on April 4, 1968, he was assassinated. NAACP The NAACP was nearly sixty years old when the Civil Rights Movement began to crest in 1960. The NAACP originated in 1909 in response to a race riot that had occurred in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908. The racial violence that blacks suffered at the hands of racist whites in Illinois was one of many racially charged incidents. Since the end of slavery, blacks had been incessantly attacked, intimidated, and lynched; their rights and freedoms were steadily being obliterated and suppressed. Among the prominent African American leaders and cofounders of this organization was W. E. B. Du Bois who, for many years, edited the Crisis, a journal that advocated for black equality and justice and excoriated racist whites and institutions that victimized blacks. (Back in 1905, Du Bois had also helped found a short-lived organization called the Niagara Movement.) Du Bois was also critical of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), led by Marcus Garvey, a West Indian. Garvey mobilized an awe-inspiring number of African descendents around the globe to join the UNIA. Du Bois contended that Garvey’s aspirations for, among other things, black
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entrepreneurship, including a shipping line and black nationhood, were too grandiose. After Garvey was deported back to Jamaica in 1927 over legal issues, the UNIA in the United States foundered. The NAACP produced many well-known leaders, such as James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins. By the time Wilkins became the leader of the NAACP, during the height of the civil rights era, the organization was one of the largest in its day, counting a membership throughout the North and the South. It is, to this day, one of the longest running and most influential civil rights organizations. Wilkins set a conservative tone for the NAACP. Whereas most of the other organizations were engaged in protest demonstrations, the NAACP preferred litigation and negotiations. Indeed, its legal arm, headed by Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall, fearlessly faced off with injustice and segregation and brought forth extraordinary victories. NUL Like the NAACP, the National Urban League was largely known for its conservatism. Founded in 1910 in New York City by whites and blacks, the NUL’s primary aim was to address disproportionate unemployment among blacks. To this day, urban leagues are situated in most major cities, where blacks may gain skills and seek employment opportunities. When Whitney Young became the executive director of the NUL, he heralded the organization’s rapid growth and financial strength. During the civil rights era, Young was careful not to associate himself or his organization with demonstrations and civil disobedience so as not to unsettle white donors. However, he did emerge as a high-profile civil rights leader and was an enormous resource, helping to raise money for the movement and participating in strategic meetings and negotiations. CORE and SNCC CORE and SNCC comprised mostly college-aged activists. The radical temperament and ideology of these organizations superseded that of all the other organizations. CORE was established in 1942 by James Farmer and others who had been involved in the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a predominately white religious nonviolent organization. CORE staged some of the earliest and lesserknown demonstrations, such as sit-ins and the Journey of Reconciliation, which was a precursor to the Freedom Rides of 1961. During the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, James Farmer was the organization’s leader. SNCC was formed, with the assistance of SCLC, in the wake of the studentled Sit-in Movement in 1960. James Forman was executive secretary of SNCC when, in 1961, the Freedom Rides were launched. Forman and John Lewis, SNCC’s chairman, played prominent roles during the civil rights movement. SNCC participated in the Freedom Rides, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Many members from CORE and SNCC would, ultimately, join nascent militant organizations of the black power era.
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Black Power Organizations As civil rights organizations celebrated triumphant legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Black Power Movement engendered black power organizations that were gaining more power and influence. Disgruntled and frustrated blacks in impoverished urban communities welcomed militant ideology. Equally appealing was the advocacy of black consciousness and armed resistance. The Afrocentric clothing and hairstyles that members of black power organizations wore increased feelings of solidarity and brought pride to a race that had long been denigrated. However, not all black power organizations endorsed the same philosophies. The organization Us, founded by Ron Karenga in 1965, was a black nationalist group, focused primarily on African culture, traditions, and history. Malcolm X endorsed racial separation and self-defense during his emergence as an influential leader and fiery spokesperson for the Nation of Islam between 1952 and 1964. The Black Panther Party was initially based on conducting armed patrols that were designed to monitor police interactions with locals. This group was established by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 in Oakland, California. Many black power organizations ended during the first few years of the ensuing decade. Professional Organizatoins Many of the professional organizations that exist today emerged during the 1970s. Like civil rights organizations, black professional organizations were sometimes formed out of a need to challenge racial issues within various industries. For example the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, the National Black Media Coalition, and other groups took to task the radio industry, in the 1970s, for exclusionary practices. A number of coalitions and groups formed in response to discrimination in the television broadcast industry and negative black images on television. Many African Americans, like eighteenth-century blacks, established allblack professional organizations, among other things, to ‘‘perpetuate their heritage,’’ according to Hine. These organizations included the Society of Black Composers, the National Black Police Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, Organization of Black Airline Pilots, Black Music Association, and Association of Black Women Historians. Fraternities and Sororities In colleges and universities throughout the nation, black fraternities and sororities, popularly known as Greek Letter Organizations, have provided esteem, solidarity, social activities, and ritual. Most of these organizations, such as Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, were established at institutions in the early twentieth century. In the twenty-first century, these organizations continue to flourish, especially in Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as
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in the black community, where membership in fraternities and sororities provides lifelong camaraderie and offers opportunities for community service. See also: Kwanzaa Further Reading African American Web Connection. (n.d.) ‘‘African American Organizations.’’ http:// www.aawc.com/aao.html. Brown, Tamara L., Gregory S. Parks, and Clarenda M. Phillips, eds. 2005. African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Gatewood, William B. 1990. Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880–1920. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hine, Darlene Clark, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. 2000. The African-American Odyssey. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Landry, Bart. 1987. The New Black Middle Class. Berkeley: University of California Press. Mjagkij, Nina, ed. 2001. Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations. New York: Routledge. National Council of Negro Women. ‘‘History.’’ http://www.ncnw.org/about/history.htm. Gladys L. Knight
Owens, Jesse (1913–80), Track and Field Sprinter Jesse Owens represented the United States in the 1936 Olympics, winning four gold medals. Earlier, in Big Ten Track and Field competition, he broke three world records and tied another. His fleet and graceful stride won him the title ‘‘world’s fastest human.’’ His public speaking ability and investment in mentoring children inspired patriotism and hope. Born September 12, 1913, to sharecroppers Henry and Emma Fitzgerald Owens, James Cleveland Owens spent his earliest years in Oakville, Alabama. From a large and poor family, he suffered ill health as a child, often battling pneumonia. His family called him ‘‘J.C.’’ In the early 1920s, Henry Owens moved the family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked in the steel mills. J. C. attended Bolton Elementary School, and tradition holds that he became known as ‘‘Jesse’’ because a teacher misunderstood his name. As a student at Fairmount Junior High School, under Coach Charles Riley, Owens set junior high school records for the high jump (6 feet) and the long jump (22 feet, 11 3/4 inches). At East Technical High School in 1932, Owens ran the 100-yard dash in 10.3 seconds. At the 1933 National Interscholastic Championship in Chicago, his long jump measured 24 feet, 5/8 inches. He ran the 220-yard dash in 20.7 seconds and the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds, tying a world record. He won 30 of the 54 team points. Owens married his high school sweetheart, Minnie Ruth Solomon. They had three daughters: Gloria, Marlene, and Beverly. In 1933, he enrolled at Ohio
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State University where Coach Larry Snyder helped him perfect his style and develop his public speaking skills. In 1955, at Madison Square Garden, Owens broke the world record for the 60-yard dash (6.6 seconds). At the Big Ten championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 25 that year, he broke world records for the 220-yard dash (20.3 seconds), and the 220yard hurdle (20.3 seconds). His long jump measured 26 feet, 8 1/4 inches and remained unsurpassed for the next twenty-five years. He tied the world record for the 100-yard dash (9.4 seconds). At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Owens won four gold medals. The Olympics that year took Jesse Owens at the start of his record-breaking 200-meter place in troubled times, race at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The grandson dominated by Adolph of a slave, Owens won four gold medals in track and field Hitler’s boasts of Aryan at the Summer Games. (Library of Congress) supremacy. Reports that Hitler spurned Owens by refusing to shake his hand and also stormed out of the stadium abounded, and clearly reflected the tone of the games. Such reports embraced Owens’s life from then forward. Owens tied the Olympic record for the 100-yard dash (10.3 seconds), set Olympic records in the long jump (26 feet, 5 1/4 inches) and the 200yard sprint (20.7 seconds), and helped the team win the 400-meter relay (39.8 seconds). Leni Riefenstahl featured him in her film Olympia (1938). The United States team embarked on an exhibition tour to help cover their expenses. Lured by a host of commercial offers, Owens left the tour in London to return home. The wonderful offers failed to materialize, and the Amateur Athletic Union suspended Owens, barring future amateur competition. A staunch Republican Party member, Owens campaigned for presidential candidate Alf Landon. Later, he came in demand as a patriotic and motivational
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speaker. He supervised a playground in Cleveland, barnstormed with athletic groups, and ran exhibition races. On Christmas Day, 1936, he won a muchpublicized race against a thoroughbred horse in Havana, Cuba. A Cleveland dry cleaning business that he opened in 1938 went bankrupt quickly. From 1940 to 1942, he served as national director of physical education for African Americans for the Office of Civilian Defense in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1942, Ford Motors hired him as director of minority employment. In 1946, he took a job with Leo Rose Sporting Goods. In 1949, Ebony named Owens one of the top ten black athletes of all time. The Associated Press honored him in 1950 as the greatest track athlete since 1900. Owens moved the family to Chicago in 1949 and joined the board of directors for the South Side Boys Club. The following year, he accompanied the Harlem Globetrotters to Berlin. From 1952 to 1955, he served as secretary of the Illinois Athletic Commission. In 1955, he traveled to India, Malaya, and the Philippines on behalf of the American government and received appointment to the Illinois Youth Commission. He organized the Junior Olympic Games in Chicago in 1956 and attended the Olympics in Melbourne as a goodwill ambassador. During the 1960s, he partnered in Owens-West & Associates, a Chicago public relations firm. Failing to report part of his income, he faced tax evasion charges in 1965. Citing Owens’s patriotism, the judge required only that he pay back taxes and a small fee. With Paul Neimark, he wrote The Jesse Owens Story (1970). In Blackthink (1970), he attacked black militancy, but after harsh criticism, he softened his stance in I Have Changed (1972). Jesse: A Spiritual Autobiography (1978) combined memoir with advice for success in life. During the 1970s, Owens represented corporations such as Ford Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Sears, Quaker Oats, and American Express. Atlantic Ritchfield sponsored the ARCO Jesse Owens Games for boys and girls. Ohio State University granted Owens an honorary doctorate of athletic arts (1972). The National Collegiate Athletic Association bestowed upon him its Theodore Roosevelt Award (1974). Owens became a charter member of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame (1974) and the U. S. Olympic Hall of Fame (1982). He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1976) and the Living Legends Award (1979). In 1990, his widow accepted a Congressional Gold Medal on his behalf. Jesse Owens died of lung cancer March 31, 1980, in Tucson, Arizona. His body lay in state in the Arizona capitol; state flags flew at half-staff. At his funeral in Chicago, an Olympic flag draped the casket. See also: Sports Further Reading Baker, William J. 1999. ‘‘Jesse Owens.’’ In American National Biography, Vol. John A. Garraty and Mark C, eds. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press. Baker, William J. 1986. Jesse Owens. New York: Free Press.
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Jesse Owens Foundation.org. ‘‘Who is Jesse Owens?’’ (Jesse Owens tribute site.) http:// www.jesse-owens.org/about1.html. Kram, Mark. 1992. ‘‘Jesse Owens.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research. Warren, Nagueyalti. 1999. ‘‘Jesse Owens.’’ In Notable Black American Men, ed. Jessie Carney Smith. Detroit: Gale. Marie Garrett
P Paige, Satchel (c. 1906–82), Baseball Player Satchel Paige was one of the greatest stars of the Negro Baseball Leagues and, by most accounts, one of the greatest pitchers ever to play the game in any league. He also became famous, perhaps even more famous to the broader public, as one of baseball’s all-time great philosophers. ‘‘Don’t look back,’’ his most famous truism went. ‘‘Something might be gaining on you.’’ Not many batters gained on Satchel Paige, who got his nickname, as Paige told the story, carrying satchels for passengers at the railroad depot in Mobile, Alabama, where he was born Leroy Robert Paige sometime around 1906. Telling the story of Satchel Paige inevitably comes back to stories he himself told and retold; it is hard to discern fact from what may have been just a good story. When Paige was first brought up to the majors by Bill Veeck to pitch for the Cleveland Indians in 1948, a rookie well past age forty, he was asked whether he still had his world-famous control. As Paige told this story, he gave his catcher, Jim Hegan, a gum wrapper and directed him to lay it on the plate. Old Satch then proceeded to fire his fast-ball right across the wrapper. Satchel Paige was an effective pitcher for Cleveland and the St. Louis Browns through 1953. In 1965, when Paige was almost sixty by his own (perhaps optimistic) reckoning, he returned to the majors with the Kansas City Athletics. He worked just one game, pitching three innings, but he allowed only one hit and no runs or walks while striking out a batter. A few years later, in 1971, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The image of Satchel Paige that many fans carry is that of the ancient pitcher rocking in his rocking chair in the bullpen while waiting to be summoned to the mound.
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Those who saw Satchel Paige in his prime, though, saw something far different. Paige had a blazing fastball and could pitch almost every day. He played his first professional season in 1924 and kept striking out batters for decades, often pitching during the summer in the United States and then in the Caribbean leagues during the winter. He played for some of the finest teams in Negro League history, including the Pittsburgh Crawfords of the 1930s. That team included Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, and Judy Johnson—all future Hall of Famers. The ban on African American players kept Paige out of the majors until he was well past his prime. The Negro League teams often barnstormed against white all-star teams, though, and the competition pitted Paige against some of the greatest major league hitters of all time. Joe DiMaggio considered Paige the ‘‘best and the fastest pitcher’’ he ever faced and was so thrilled as a young player when he got an infield hit off Paige that he was sure he was ready for the big leagues. Satchel once outpitched Dizzy Dean 1–0 and struck out Rogers Hornsby five times in a single game. Like the Negro League players who regularly competed against Paige, they were faced with the tall, thin right-hander winding up, the extraordinarily high kick, his size twelve shoe seemingly headed right for the batter’s face, his unusually long arm whipping his fastball across the plate at will. Satchel Paige was disappointed not to be the first African American to play in the major leagues, but he harbored no resentment against Jackie Robinson. When Paige was selected for the Hall of Fame, the intent was to honor former Negro League players in a part of the building separate from where major league stars were honored. Massive protest altered that plan, but Satchel, always ready with a retort, responded at his induction by thanking the Hall of Fame for converting him from a ‘‘second-class citizen’’ into a ‘‘second-class immortal.’’ See also: Baseball, Foster, Rube; Sports Further Reading Paige, Leroy. [1962] 1993. Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever: A Great Baseball Player Tells the Hilarious Story Behind the Legend. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Tye, Larry. 2009. Satchel Paige: The Life and Times of an American Legend. New York: Random House. [unsigned]
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is found in the earliest black writings in the United States; however, the clear foundation for Pan-Africanism lies in popular culture, in the conscious retention of cultural and intellectual heritage by African American activists and scholars in the nineteenth century. Pan-Africanism is the recognition of the African basis and connection between all African and African diasporic cultures. Its origins and common understandings of black identity are
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similar to Black Nationalism. While Black Nationalism is primarily defined by action, Pan-Africanism is primarily an intellectual movement. Embedded within this intellectual phenomenon is the belief that the future progress of African peoples, their liberation from oppression, is dependent on their unity. The concept of Pan-Africanism and its popular manifestations are overtly political. During the early part of the nineteenth century, the firm foundations for PanAfricanism were established with the increase in volume of African American literature as a consequence of the shift in posture of the abolitionist movement. The abolitionist movement decidedly cast aside its once-apologetic stance to reveal a more determined perspective that was markedly aggressive in its demonstrations of the evils of slavery. Radical black Christian orators such as David Walker, Maria Stewart, Henry Highland Garnet, and Martin Delany espoused views that were foundational to Pan-Africanism. In their speeches, they recognized the cultural links of all African peoples and established the basis for a common black identity based in part on the common experience of oppression, but also a cultural heritage and worldview. While Walker, Stewart, and Garnet were speaking to limited audiences in the United States, they all addressed the African connection to African American identity and suggested their African heritage as a source of inspiration and pride, and fundamental to the liberation of African peoples in the New World. In other words, they implied their African descent made them special and endowed them with character and strength unlike other people. Alexander Crummell and Edward Blyden were a part of the genesis of nineteenth-century Pan-Africanism. They actively sought a land-based connection to Africa for black people in the diaspora. Like other radical black scholars, they advanced a common black identity and a consciousness of African unity that was fundamental to the way Pan-Africanism was extended by twentieth-century black leadership. However, their vision did not romanticize African heritage but the unity of African peoples. In the early part of the twentieth century, both W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey extended the idea of Pan-Africanism. In 1897, W. E. B. Du Bois used the term ‘‘Pan-Negroism,’’ alluding to the idea that all peoples of African descent were related. This idea was shared by Trinidadian Henry Sylvester Williams, who planned and conducted a meeting of black leaders from countries around the world, the first of many Pan-African meetings organized by various leaders, chiefly W. E. B. Du Bois, between the turn of the twentieth century and 1945. Leaders of African descent from around the globe were invited to discuss issues such as colonialism. Curiously, during this period Du Bois was critical of one of the primary advocates of Pan-Africanism, Marcus Garvey. Known as the quintessential Black Nationalist, the Jamaican-born leader established the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914. The UNIA, widely popular in the United States, was established to celebrate Garvey’s vision of an African homeland and a black nation that was social, politically, and economically independent. However, Garvey’s at times unorthodox practices and the government’s harassment brought a slow end to the movement.
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The revival of Black Nationalism in the 1960s once again made Pan-Africanism popular. Nationalist and radical scholarship, leaders, and organizations became more popular, especially after 1965 and the assassination of Malcolm X. Scholars and activists such as Ron (Maulana) Karenga, Amiri Baraka, and Stokely Carmichael were among those activists and scholars promoting a Pan-Africanist perspective of black identity. Black Studies programs were a natural outcome of the radicalism of the Civil Rights Movement. The introduction of Black Studies in the late 1960s helped to continue the growth of Pan-Africanism and compelled the emergence of the Afrocentric Movement in the 1980s, championed by its chief architect, Molefi K. Asante. Afrocentricity was an extension of PanAfricanism and demanded the same recognition of the common African-based black cultural identity. Asante and other Afrocentricists argued that this black cultural identity serves as the basis for how and why people of African descent are studied. Pan-Africanism’s continued advance has been somewhat stifled by the shift in discussions of race toward multiculturalism. Moreover, current discussions on race imply a decentralized and fluid understanding of race that counters the essentialists and fixed constructions of race implied by Pan-Africanism. See also: Africa and the African Diaspora; African Cultural Influences Further Reading Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 1999. ‘‘Pan-Africanism.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. 5 vols. New York: Basic Civitas Books. Asante, Molefi K. 2003. Afrocentricity. Chicago: African American Images. Esedebe, P. Olisanwuche. 1982. Pan-Africanism. Washington, DC: Howard University Press. Rebecca S. Dixon
Parker, Charlie (1920–55), Jazz Saxophonist Charlie ‘‘Bird’’ Parker is a musical icon of the jazz and bebop genres of music. His improvisational skills as a jazz saxophonist have made him a profound influence on musicians and fans alike, garnering him an undisputed position in jazz history. Born Charles Christopher Parker Jr. on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Kansas, he was the only child of Charles Parker Sr. and Addie Boxley. In the late 1920s his father left and Parker moved to Kansas City, Missouri, with his mother. Relatively uninterested in school, he became interested in music at an early age, playing the baritone saxophone in his high school marching band. At fifteen, Parker discovered an interest and love for the alto saxophone. He was influenced and mentored by master alto player Buster Smith, learning tone and the linear
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conception of improvisation. After dropping out of school, Parker played with local bands until 1935, when he decided to pursue a musical career. Parker traveled to New York and was immediately influenced by the atmosphere. His reputation among musicians was slow-coming while he did pick-up work as an instrumentalist. Despite this, he played with Noble Sissle, doubling as a clarinetist, with Billy Eckstine as a tenor saxophonist, and with Jay McShann, where he acquired his nickname ‘‘Yardbird.’’ He worked as a dishwasher at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack, where he listened to and learned from house pianist Art Known as ‘‘Bird’’ or ‘‘Yardbird,’’ jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker helped to develop bebop, or ‘‘bop,’’ which Tatum. transformed jazz music. (Library of Congress) In 1936, Parker married Rebecca Ruffin. In order to support his family he worked at resorts in the Ozarks where he was able to practice and sharpen his skills. During this time he began experimenting with drugs, including heroin. Parker battled drug and alcohol addiction and mental health issues until his death. His habit affected all areas of his life but surprisingly not his musical abilities. Parker had a creative mind and joined forces with Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk. All were instrumental in developing Bebop Music during jam sessions at after-hours spots, Monroe’s and Minton’s in New York. Parker was a masterful improviser whose style was not immediately appreciated. Traveling on numerous tours, Parker recorded on both the East and West coasts. He had a raw sound that was full of tone. Parker’s solos seemed wild and illogical yet were fresh and never identical. Once mocked for his lack of musicianship, Parker’s style was now emulated by others. As his musical life came together, his personal life unraveled. Drug addiction caused him to lead a chaotic lifestyle where he often pawned his saxophone for money. During a trip to California with Gillespie, Parker’s actions became erratic, and he was admitted to Camarillo State Hospital for several months.
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Undergoing relapses and rehabilitations, Parker’s time at Camarillo was regenerative. He played best when not under the influence and was the most productive from 1947 to 1951, recording over half of his recorded legacy, including his most popular arrangements, ‘‘Yardbird Suite,’’ ‘‘Parker’s Mood,’’ and ‘‘Ornithology.’’ Now worshipped by musicians, he was still highly criticized and ignored by critics and jazz fans. In 1949, Parker performed at Carnegie Hall, embarked on his first European tour, and headlined at the Festivale Internationale de Jazz in Paris. The jazz club Birdland was named in his honor. At the death of his youngest daughter in 1953 his mental stability lapsed and he voluntarily committed himself to Bellevue Hospital in New York for psychiatric treatment. Parker made his last appearance at his namesake club on March 5, 1955. A week later Parker died on March 12, 1955, at the home of a close friend. See also: Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading Bacon, Tony, ed. 1998. The Sax and Brass Book: Saxophones, Trumpets and Trombones in Jazz, Rock and Pop. New York: Backbeat Books. Gitler, Ira. 2001. The Masters of Bebop: A Listener’s Guide. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com. Christina D. Cruse
Parks, Rosa (1913–2005), Civil Rights Activist Rosa Louise McCauley Parks’s simple act of refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man affected the course of American history. Subsequent actions by the black community sparked the American Civil Rights Movement. Proud of her race and keenly aware of its mistreatment, Parks endured personal hardship to promote racial equality and became known as the ‘‘mother of the civil rights movement.’’ On February 4, 1913, James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona Edwards McCauley welcomed daughter Rosa into their Tuskegee, Alabama, home. The couple separated in 1915, soon after the birth of Rosa’s brother, Sylvester. Mrs. McCauley, an elementary school teacher, took her children to live with her parents, Sylvester and Rosa Edwards, in Pine Level, Alabama. There Rosa heard her grandparents’ stories about slavery and growing up in the South; she also heard the sounds of Ku Klux Klan activity at night. Much of Rosa’s early education took place in a local black school with only one teacher. At age eleven, she went to Montgomery, Alabama, to live with her aunt, Fannie Williamson, and attend Montgomery Industrial School for Girls,
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staffed by white teachers from the North. Later, she attended Booker T. Washington Junior High School and Alabama State Teachers College; she quit school when her mother became seriously ill. On December 18, 1932, she married Raymond Parks, a barber and activist who worked on behalf of nine black Scottsboro boys accused of raping two white women. She worked as a seamstress in Montgomery, completed her high school degree (1934), and participated actively in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Parks waged small protests against disrespectful treatment of blacks, taking the stairs instead of elevators labeled ‘‘Colored Only,’’ avoiding similarly designated drinking fountains, and often walking instead of taking the bus. In 1943, a bus driver refused to let her ride because she declined to follow the accepted practice of paying her fare, exiting the bus, and then boarding through the rear entrance. She joined the local NAACP, serving as secretary from 1943 to 1956 and as a youth advisor. She became active in the Montgomery Voters League and worked in the office of lawyer and NAACP state president Edgar Daniel Nixon. Nixon introduced her to Virginia Durr, wife of a white lawyer, who hosted a prayer group in her home that included both white and black women. Durr sometimes employed Parks as a seamstress, and the two became friends. In 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education), the Supreme Court declared racial segregation of schools unconstitutional. In 1955, Durr encouraged Parks to attend a ten-day workshop on ‘‘Racial Desegregation: Implementing the Supreme Court Decision’’ at the Highlander Center in Monteagle, Tennessee. In that setting, Parks first experienced racial harmony. On December 1, 1955, she took the bus home from her job as seamstress at Montgomery Fair department store. The bus driver, whom she remembered from her 1943 experience, demanded that she and three others give up their seats for a white passenger. Parks respectfully declined to move. After Nixon and the Durrs helped secure her release from jail, Nixon asked if she would serve as a test case to fight segregation. Found guilty and given a suspended sentence, she refused to pay the ten-dollar fine and four dollars in court costs. Montgomery civil rights activists had found a dignified presence that brought national and worldwide attention to their cause. The Women’s Political Council distributed thousands of flyers urging blacks to boycott buses on December 5, Parks’s trial date. Thousands of blacks met at the Holt Street Baptist Church and formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), electing a twenty-six-year-old minister, Martin Luther King Jr., as president. The group organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted 381 days, causing financial stress not only for the bus company but for downtown businesses as well. On February 1, 1956, the MIA filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s segregation laws as unconstitutional. On February 21, police fingerprinted Parks and 88 others for breaking a law against boycotts. The New York Times featured her photograph on its front page. In June, the United States District Court ruled against
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segregated seating on buses, and on December 20, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision. After experiencing harassment and losing their jobs, the Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1957. He worked at a training school for barbers. She took a job at Hampton Institute in Virginia. After working there for a year and seeing no promise of a job for her husband, she returned to Detroit and resumed her trade as a seamstress. She remained active with the NAACP, worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and became a deaconess in the AME Church. In 1963, the SCLC established an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award. Into her seventies, Parks made twenty-five to thirty speeches a year and participated in marches and rallies. On March 1, 1965, she became staff assistant in U. S. Representative John Conyers’s Detroit office. In 1987, she cofounded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to educate and motivate young black people. On September 30, 1988, after twenty-three years in Conyers’s office, she retired. Among honorary degrees and other awards, Parks received the Spingarn Medal (1977), the Nonviolent Peace Prize (1980), the Eleanor Roosevelt Women of Courage Award (1989), and Kennedy Center honors (1990). For her eightieth birthday, she promoted her recently released autobiography on a national tour. She later received the Medal of Freedom Award (1996) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1999). Aged ninety-two, Rosa Parks died October 24, 2005. Her body lay in state at the U.S. Capitol for two days, the first woman to receive this honor. See also: Protest Marches; Sit-in Movement Further Reading Brinkley, Douglas. 2000. Rosa Parks. New York: Viking. Henderson, Ashyia, Mark Kram, Candace La Balle, et al. 2006. Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 56. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Parks, Rosa, with Jim Haskins. 1992. Rosa Parks: My Story. New York: Dial Press. Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. 2008. ‘‘Rosa Louise Parks Biography.’’ www.rosaparks.org/bio.html. Marie Garrett
Passing ‘‘Passing’’ refers to ‘‘passing for white,’’ which is one of the major themes in African American literature and culture. In his landmark study The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, African American historian W. E. B. Du Bois observed that ‘‘the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.’’ While writers of the Harlem Renaissance, along with modernist writers
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such as William Faulkner, did concern themselves with the color line and the struggle for social equality, the problem touches upon the roots of the African American experience. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a thirty-year-old shoemaker, was put in jail for sitting in a car of the East Louisiana Railroad. By physical appearance, Plessy appeared to be a white man, but those who knew Plessy labeled him as black. Under the ‘‘one-drop rule,’’ Plessy, seven-eighths white and one-eight black, was, by law, a black man although he could pass for white. Plessy considered his incarceration a violation of his constitutional rights as outlined in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. In the landmark legal case, Plessy v. Ferguson for the first time ‘‘black’’ became a legal category, ultimately complicating the notion of ‘‘blackness.’’ Is ‘‘black’’ biological, or legal, or cultural, or a matrix of all three? Refusing to endure the indignity of the contradictions of ‘‘separate but equal,’’ numerous African American artists, intellectuals, and activists ‘‘passed’’ to enjoy the fruits of a broader, more equitable American experience. Black abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass ‘‘passed’’—not for white but as a free man—to gain his freedom. ‘‘My knowledge of ships and sailor’s talk came much to my assistance,’’ Douglass wrote, ‘‘for I knew a ship from stem to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and could talk sailor like an ‘old salt.’’’ Dressed and speaking like a sailor, Douglass rode out of slavery in Maryland. Douglass’s example is far from the only example. In Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860), written by William and Ellen Craft, biracial Ellen Craft passes as a white man while her husband, too dark to pass, masquerades as his wife’s slave. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, (1861), Jacobs describes the necessity to pass as a sailor to gain her freedom. The ‘‘passing’’ theme, linked with survival and punishable by death in the Slave Narratives of the early African American literature tradition, takes on a more artistic edge during the Harlem Renaissance. The Autobiography of an ExColored Man, by James Weldon Johnson, first published in 1912 and republished in 1927 when the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing, explores the life and adventures of a nameless biracial protagonist who, in his travels, exposes the arbitrary nature of ‘‘race’’ in American society. ‘‘I believe it to be a fact that the [black] people of this country,’’ he observes, ‘‘know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.’’ Du Bois had sounded the call of the ‘‘problem of the color line,’’ and Johnson, along with numerous Harlem Renaissance artists, filled in the particulars of the problem. The literature of ‘‘passing’’ is, ultimately, a fascinating lens through which to view the conflicted and conflicting nature of race in the United States. Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, with its bristling frontier humor and sharp insights, and William Faulkner’s Light In August remain two powerful statements, and Nella Larsen’s novels Quicksand and Passing, offered in one volume by Rutgers University Press and edited by Deborah McDowell, are nuanced and eloquent explorations of racial and gender identity and the mutability of social categories. See also: Race and Ethnicity
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Further Reading Douglass, Frederick. 1994. Autobiographies. Henry Louis Gates Jr., ed. New York: Library of America. Johnson, James Weldon. 2007. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings. Introduction by Noelle Morissettee and Notes by Delano GreenidgeCopprue. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Payton, Walter (1954–99), Football Player Walter Payton, or ‘‘Sweetness’’ as he was known, is a legendary National Football League player of the 1970s and 1980s in African American popular culture. Although a few African Americans began appearing in the National Football League (NFL) as early as the 1920s, they were rarely in the limelight. Segregation and racial politics prohibited many blacks from playing in the league. It was not until 1963 that an African American, George Preston Marshall, was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. When Payton appeared on the scene in 1975, playing the halfback position for the Chicago Bears, he left an indelible mark on football history. Payton was embraced by mainstream audiences and held a special importance for African Americans. Payton was black America’s own handsome, chivalrous superhero. His achievements include a long list of Most Valuable Player awards. Until 2002, he held the record for most rushing yardage with 16,726 points. In 1986, the year before Payton retired, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1993, he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. Payton was born on July 25, 1954, before the landmark Civil Rights Movement ended lawful racial segregation and discrimination. In Columbia, Mississippi, where Payton was born and raised, segregation was a way of life. Like elsewhere in the South, blacks in his community were relegated to the bottom of the social, economic, and political order of society. Nonetheless, his parents, Peter and Alyne Payton, and two siblings made the most of a challenging situation. Payton was a good student and was involved in a variety of extracurricular activities, including band, Track and Field, and football. Payton’s spectacular athletic and academic performance made him an ideal candidate for higher education. Payton attended Jackson State University, a historically black institution, which was founded in 1877. He was a star player at the university, becoming one of the best players. His graceful and meteoric movement on the field won him the admiration of his peers and the enduring nickname ‘‘Sweetness.’’ In Payton’s senior year, he broke college-level records. He was twice selected for the AllAmerican Team and was honored with the title Black College Player of the Year. After graduating in 1975, Payton made plans to attend graduate school,
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aspiring to a career in education for the deaf; however, the NFL had other plans for him. Few could resist the lavish signing bonus that the Chicago Bears offered Payton. Indeed, his bonus ($126,000) was the highest of its time. Payton did not disappoint, performing spectacularly for over ten years. Among his most memorable moments was the 1977 game against the Minnesota Vikings, wherein Payton swiftly made 275 yards, the most yards any player had made in one game. He was rewarded with his first Most Valuable Player award. Payton’s retirement in 1987 was a poignant moment for his fans, as well as the industry. However, at only thirty-three years old, Payton had many more goals to fulfill. He established Walter Payton Incorporated, a car racing business, and a foundation to assist children. He also joined the board of directors of the Chicago Bears, was appointed to the NFL commissioner’s board, and volunteered as an assistant high school basketball coach. He wrote two autobiographies, Sweetness (1978) and Never Die Easy (published posthumously in 2000). He died in 1999, leaving his wife Connie Payton, two children, other family members, friends, and loyal fans. See also: Sports Further Reading Payton, Walter, with Don Yaeger. 2000. Never Die Easy: The Autobiography of Walter Payton. New York: Villard. Pro Football Hall of Fame. (n.d.) ‘‘Walter Payton.’’ Hall of Famers. http://www.profoot ballhof.com/hof/member.aspx?PLAYER_ID=174. The Walter & Connie Payton Foundation. http://www.payton34.com/. Gladys L. Knight
Pendergrass, Teddy (1950–2010), Singer-Songwriter A superstar in the fraternity of sultry male vocalists, Teddy Pendergrass epitomized Philadelphia soul in the R & B music of the 1970s and 1980s, advancing the crossover success of Detroit’s Motown sound. His famous ‘‘ladies only’’ shows, his breathy baritone, and broad smile and shoulders earned Pendergrass the moniker ‘‘Teddy Bear.’’ Soulful, and prodigious from the start, his first performance, at age two, was for his mother’s church. Pendergrass was the first African American artist to record five consecutive multiplatinum albums. His smoldering stage presence tempered only after a 1982 car accident left him paralyzed at the height of his career. Commenting on his first public appearance one year after the accident, Pendergrass told National Public Radio in 2007 that he had a ‘‘burning desire’’ to perform before moving on to other things. Before his death on January 13, 2010, from colon cancer, he founded the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, a resource foundation to improve the quality of life for victims of spinal cord injuries.
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Theodore DeResse Pendergrass was born March 26, 1950, in Philadelphia’s Jefferson Hospital. His father, Jesse Pendergrass, abandoned his mother, Ida Geraldine Pendergrass, who had relocated from Kingstree, South Carolina. Around the time his father was murdered, Pendergrass, ten, was already an ordained minister. Pendergrass attended public schools and sang in the prestigious all-city boys’ choir. He regularly accompanied his mother to church and reported after school to her job at Sciolla’s, a supper club in Northeast Philadelphia. The nightclub’s menu read, ‘‘Where the unknowns got their start.’’ The roster included Fats Domino, Tony Bennett, and Connie Francis. As a child, Pendergrass studied performers such as Chubby Checker and Bobby Darin when not practicing on the house drum set. Pendergrass and his mother lived in North Philadelphia, a working- and middle-class black neighborhood. Located on Broad Street was the Uptown Theater, the Philadelphia stop on the Chitlin Circuit for gospel, doo-wop, soul, and R & B acts. Having mastered drumming by age thirteen, Pendergrass decided on a career in music after watching a commanding performance by ‘‘Mr. Entertainment’’—Jackie Wilson. In the eleventh grade, Pendergrass dropped out of Thomas Edison High School. The all-boys school, now closed, bears the distinction of the highest Vietnam War casualty rate among the nation’s high schools. After stints as a drummer for the Cadillacs and Little Royal, Pendergrass was hired by Harold Melvin as a drummer for his group, the Blue Notes. Pendergrass was soon lead vocalist.
TSOP: The Big Time In 1971, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes signed with Philadelphia International Records (PIR). A stream of emotion-packed, slow, and disco beat love classics followed: ‘‘I Miss You’’ and ‘‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’’ in 1972, ‘‘The Love I Lost’’ (1973) and ‘‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’’ (1975). Guided by the creative force of PIR founders Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, the Blue Notes with Pendergrass at the vocal helm crystallized what became TSOP or ‘‘The Sound of Philadelphia.’’ By 1975, Pendergrass had elevated PIR to the second-largest black-owned business, behind Motown, now headquartered in Los Angeles. The rallying plea for social harmony in ‘‘Wake Up Everybody’’ went platinum. Moreover, the disco R & B pop single ‘‘Bad Luck’’—until supplanted by Michael Jackson’s ‘‘Thriller’’ in 1983—became the longest number one hit on the Hot Dance Music Club Play. Disagreements over payment and star billing soon surfaced between Melvin and Pendergrass. Industrywide confusion ensued when marquees boasted ‘‘Teddy Pendergrass and the Blue Notes.’’ He left the group for a solo career in 1976. A five platinum-album streak began in 1977 with the self-titled debut Teddy Pendergrass. A year later came Life Is a Song Worth Singing, and Teddy in 1978.
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It’s Time for Love (1981) was the final album recorded with PIR. The husky command but sweet promise of rugged romance in ‘‘Close the Door’’ and ‘‘Turn Off the Lights’’ were standard serenades at Pendergrass concerts. Swooning women entreated him with stuffed bears and undergarments as they licked teddy bearshaped lollipops. Pendergrass enjoyed his success and ‘‘ladies man’’ image on and off stage. He purchased a thirty-four-room Tudor mansion and cars. He dated several women, including the ex-wife of Marvin Gaye, for whom he opened on tours. On March 18, 1982, Pendergrass crashed his Rolls Royce into a tree and a barricade on the serpentine Lincoln Drive in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. His spinal cord injuries left him paralyzed from the neck down. There was speculation that faulty brakes or the electrical system had caused the accident, although the claims were never verified. It was also widely rumored a passenger of undetermined identity escaped injury. Pendergrass recuperated for six months in the hospital where he was born, regaining limited use of his arms. PIR released two albums of pre-accident hits before dropping him in 1983. Pendergrass retooled his instrument by singing television commercials, and signed with the Electra/Asylum label. His album Love Language (1984) sold over half a million copies. ‘‘Hold Me’’ was a popular duet on Whitney Houston’s debut album. The Show Goes On Pendergrass’s first public performance after the accident was the July 1985 Live Aid Concert at JFK stadium in Philadelphia. He sang, ‘‘Reach Out and Touch’’ with old friends Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson for the 90,000 present and millions watching the globally televised event for famine relief. Pendergrass stopped driving after a 1986 accident with his customized van in which he lacerated his liver. In 1987, Pendergrass and longtime girlfriend, Karen Still, a former dancer in his group, married. The two raised three children. They later divorced; Pendergrass remarried. More albums came, including the Grammy-nominated Joy (1988) and Truly Blessed (1990), also the title of his 1985 autobiography. Pendergrass was one of the first artists profiled on the VH1 documentary series, ‘‘Behind the Music.’’ Pendergrass toured and performed well into the 2000s. His first time on the road in fourteen years, Pendergrass traveled to twenty-one cities in the gospel musical Your Arms Too Short to Box with God. Sold-out concerts and standing ovations greeted him in Atlantic City. Inducted into the Philadelphia Music Alliance in 1989, Teddy Pendergrass received Billboard’s 1977 Pop Album New Artist Award and the American Music Award for Best R & B Performer of 1978. His plaque honoring his contributions paves the Walk of Fame on the Avenue of the Arts between Walnut and Spruce Streets, on Broad Street. See also: Entertainment Industry; Houston, Whitney; Motown Records
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Further Reading Edmonds, Arlene. 2006. ‘‘Teddy Pendergrass: A Retrospective on the Man and His Music.’’ Tribune Magazine 14 (June): 18–25. Goodman, Jason. 1997. ‘‘Teddy Pendergrass: Behind the Music.’’ VH1. http://www .jasongoodman.tv/shows/behind-the-music/teddy-pendergrass/#tp-whole. Pendergrass, Teddy. 2007. ‘‘Teddy Pendergrass Looks Back on Soulful Career.’’ Interview by Farai Chideya. National Public Radio, December 31. http:// www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17722780. Pendergrass, Teddy, and Patty Romanowski. 1999. Truly Blessed. New York: Berkley Boulevard. Teddy Pendergrass.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Teddy Pendergrass.’’ (Teddy Pendergrass tribute site.) http://www.teddypendergrass.com/teddymain.html. Kissette Bundy
Perry, Tyler (1969–), Playwright, Screenwriter, Actor, Film Director Tyler Perry is a playwright, actor, and film director who concentrates on drama, humor, religion, racism, love, and other themes in African American life. Since beginning his career writing plays in the late 1990s and focusing on an untapped audience, Perry has rocketed to enormous success and acclaim, becoming a multimedia phenomenon and one of the most influential figures in African American popular culture. As he told his own story of abuse and redemption, he revitalized urban theater and redefined gospel theater. He is the first African American owner of a major television and film studio: Tyler Perry Studios, in Atlanta. African American audiences, particularly churchgoers, have embraced Perry and his characters. One of his most beloved characters is Madea, a towering, matronly, sassy, and no-nonsense woman. Madea is actually Perry disguised in women’s clothing, glasses, and gray wig. Like many of Perry’s characters, Madea, a common name of endearment bestowed upon black grandmothers, is a composite of women in the black community he has known in his life. Perry’s ability to grasp black behavior, attitudes, and prominent cultural values and render them on stage and in film for others to enjoy explains, in large part, his strong appeal and relevance. His career has been prolific, yielding eleven plays, ten films (one forthcoming), a bestselling novel, and two popular television programs. Born Emmitt R. Perry Jr. on September 14, 1969, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Perry had a tumultuous home life. His father, Emmitt Sr., a carpenter and construction worker, was abusive. His mother, Maxine, was a preschool teacher. Perry has disclosed, in several interviews, that he was molested as a child and had attempted suicide during his youth. A definitive moment in Perry’s life was when he started journaling as a young adult. Journaling, or recording one’s experiences, was an activity Oprah
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Winfrey promoted on her popular talk show, and it proved to be extremely exhilarating and cathartic to Perry, who was still deeply traumatized by his childhood experiences. Journaling eventually developed into Perry’s first play, I Know I’ve Been Changed. In 1992, Perry moved to Atlanta, where he hoped his writing would catapult him to success. He did not, however, immediately achieve success. In fact, he struggled for some time. After spending all the money that he had, he lived in his car. He contends that it was his faith that kept him going, until, finally, in 1998, his first play struck a chord with audiences. I Know I’ve Been Changed was followed by a succession of plays: I Can Do Bad All by Myself (1999), Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2001), Madea’s Family Reunion (2002), Madea’s Class Reunion (2003), Why Did I Get Married (2004), Meet the Browns (2004), Madea Goes to Jail (2005), and others. Perry’s prolific work added to a scarce body of plays based on contemporary African American life and provided work for black actors. Perry’s characters expressed a complex range of emotions; even Madea was not always depicted as a one-dimensional black matriarch figure. In 2005, Perry launched his film career. He appeared as three characters, Madea, Joe Baker, and Brian Baker, in Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005). This was the only one of his films Perry did not direct. The award-winning actress, Kimberly Elise, portrayed Helen McCarter, a woman who is abandoned by her husband, Charles McCarter (Steve Harris). Madea, who plays Helen’s grandmother, helps her heal. At the heart of this story is love, family, faith, church, and humor, indelible aspects of black life. The film grossed over $50 million and popularized Madea. Madea, a phenomenon by herself, reappeared in many, but not all, of Perry’s subsequent films. Madea appears as the titular character in Madea’s Family Reunion (2006), a sequel to Perry’s first film. In many of his films, Perry casts wellknown celebrities alongside lesser known actors. This film featured notable celebrities, such as Blair Underwood, Boris Kodjoe, Maya Angelou, Cicely Tyson, and Johnny Gill. Madea did not appear at all in Daddy’s Little Girls (2007), a film that takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, and pits two unlikely individuals together. Monty James (Idris Elba), a working-class mechanic, is a single father to three young daughters; Julia Rossmore (Gabrielle Union) plays an ambitious, self-absorbed attorney. This love story underscores real issues facing many black men and women. (A growing number of black women have a higher socioeconomic status than black men.) In the end, Perry showed that love could overcome differences and challenges. He also depicted the black single-father image in a positive way, dispelling the pervasive image in the media of irresponsible and uninvolved black fathers. In ensuing films, many of which were adapted from his plays, family, friendship, and Christianity are prominent themes that are interspersed with comedy and crisis. Unlike conventional black films, Perry creates characters that are middle- or upper-class and reasonably successful. Why Did I Get Married? (2007) features four married couples, all of them friends since college, who gather
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together for a week-long retreat. In The Family That Preys (2008), two friends, one black, the other white, must contend with several life issues, including the discovery that their adult children are engaged in an extramarital affair. The friends, Alice Evan (Alfre Woodard), a straight-laced and hard-working Christian woman, and Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates) find some solace during a fun-filled road trip. In I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009), April (Taraji P. Henson) is burdened by a relationship with a married man and her addiction to alcohol. After her sister dies, she is forced to take care of her niece and nephews. In the process, she finds love and redemption. In addition to a bestselling book, Don’t Make a Black Woman Take off Her Earrings: Madea’s Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life (2006), Perry has produced two popular television comedy series, House of Payne and Meet the Browns. Spike Lee, a prominent black film director, has criticized Perry’s programs, arguing that the characters are stereotypical caricatures. Although Perry contends that his characters reflect real people, not negative parodies, Lee’s criticism brought mainstream attention to a centuries-old issue that concerns the historical representation of African Americans in television and the media. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Film and Filmmakers Further Reading Christian, Margena A. 2008. ‘‘Becoming Tyler.’’ Ebony 63 (October): 83. Manheim, James. 2006. ‘‘Tyler Perry.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 54. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Tyler Perry. (Homepage.) http://www.tylerperry.com/. Gladys L. Knight
Philanthropy The focus of African American philanthropy toward black causes historically has embraced the work of churches, benevolent societies, fraternal orders, institutions, and organizations. Efforts of African American philanthropists were demonstrated as early as the Revolutionary War era, when blacks formed mutual aid societies to provide such social services as burial and to address the economic needs of the black community. During slavery, free blacks combined their resources and purchased the freedom of some who were in bondage. Fraternal orders joined early philanthropic efforts and offered support to their members and their families in sickness and at death. The spirit of humanitarianism among individual philanthropists has been seen also in the work of successful entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, alumni of educational institutions, and small private donors. Their acts of generosity addressed the needs of the poor, indigent, schools, colleges, hospitals, orphan homes, homes for the aged
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and infirmed, and other special interests causes. In some instances black philanthropic work from early through the present time have been diversified and addressed nonblack causes. Early black philanthropists included wealthy black entrepreneurs, such as Paul Cuffe (1759–1818), a shipowner who built a school in Westport, Massachusetts, as well as a meeting house for the Westport’s Society of Friends. Another entrepreneur, sailmaker James Forten (1766–1842), of Philadelphia, contributed heavily to abolitionist activities, built a school, and sponsored several black organizations. Before the Civil War, Stephen Smith (1797–1873), owner of a lumber yard in Pennsylvania, who later invested in real estate, contributed to antislavery causes and helped to smuggle slaves on the Underground Railroad. His philanthropies included other causes, such as the Home for Destitute Colored Children, and the Institute for Colored Youth, which eventually became Cheyney State College (now University). Early black benevolence was seen in the South and Midwest as well. In New Orleans, for example, Thomy Lafon (1810–93), a real estate investor, helped to contribute to the Couvent School, a school for free, underprivileged black Roman Catholic orphans founded in 1848 by the estate of Madame Bernard Couvent. Lafon also supported black orphans. A former slave, Madame Couvent (c.1757–1837) was a philanthropist as well and was a firm believer in education, particularly for black indigents. The first two decades of the twentieth century saw the work of such wealthy philanthropists as Jesse Binga (1865–1950) of Chicago. Founder of a black bank, and a real estate investor, Binga contributed to the Old Folks Home and YMCA in Chicago. He also established scholarships for black students at the University of Chicago, Fisk University, and elsewhere. Birmingham’s Arthur G. Gaston (1892–1996), opened a burial society for blacks in 1923, later to become the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company. Other businesses followed, including a business school, bottling company, funeral home, cemetery, motel, an investment corporation, a construction company, and other enterprises. He provided shelter for leaders and demonstrators in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and aided the movement financially. Significant among African American philanthropy is the work of early women in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States. These include Mary Jane Richardson Jones (1816–1910), Chicago philanthropist, who aided rural poor migrants from the South, contributed to Provident Hospital (an interracial institution), and the home for the Aged and the Infirm Colored People. Madame Carteaux Bannister (1819–1902), abolitionist and entrepreneur, ran a successful hairdressing business and opened the Home for Aged Colored Women in Providence, Rhode Island, to serve black women who were former domestic workers. As president of the Sanitary Fair for Colored Ladies, she helped that organization to raise funds to give relief to wives and children of underpaid black soldiers of the Civil War, who were grossly underpaid. Madam C. J. Walker (1867–1919), a millionaire and early entrepreneur of the twentieth century, was a beauty culture genius and founder of a hair
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preparations company who began her business with door-to-door selling techniques. Her benefactions included Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls (now Bethune Cookman University), Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia, and the Frederick Douglass Home in the Anacostia section of Washington, DC. Maggie Lena Walker (1867–1934), civil rights activist, newspaper founder, and bank founder in Richmond, used her bank to finance home ownership among blacks. Biddy Mason (1818–1891), midwife and humanitarian, was born a slave and settled in Los Angeles, where she engaged in generous charitable and philanthropic work for the poor and needy of all races. Prominent among black benefactors of recent times are: Osceola McCarty (1908–99), who in 1995 contributed her life savings to fund scholarships for black students at the historically white University of Southern Mississippi; and Reginald Lewis (1942–93), owner of TLC Beatrice, who contributed to black politicians and made a sizeable gift to the Harvard University Law School. Celebrity donors include Bill and Camille Cosby, who have given generously to Spelman College, Fisk University, and other entities. Radio personality Tom Joyner provides scholarships to historically black colleges; former basketball star and now entrepreneur Magic Johnson supports community philanthropy; retired basketball star Michael Jordan raises funds for the Special Olympics and the United Negro College Fund; entrepreneur and television show host Oprah Winfrey has contributed to educational and other causes in the United States and in South Africa; and Golf mogul Tiger Woods supports golf education for young people. There are giving circles throughout the country—a resurgence of an old act of black benevolence—that encourage members to participate in collective charitable giving. Among these is the Community Investment Network, founded in 2004. Another, the African American Women’s Giving Circle, based in Washington, DC, was founded to enable black women to come together and support black community causes. Organizations such as the Links, fraternities, sororities, 100 Black Men in America, and others, are among those black groups that support organized giving. ‘‘Giving back’’ by donating time, talent, energy, and financial support, is the legacy of many African American philanthropists. According to the Crisis (magazine), ‘‘acts of charity and compassion are a vital part of the African American tradition.’’ Founded in 1999, the National Center for Black Philanthropy, based in Washington, DC, grew out of national conferences held on black philanthropy. The center’s mission is to promote giving and volunteerism, encourage participation in all aspects of philanthropy, educate the public about the center’s role, and explore the benefit of black philanthropy on all Americans. The annual conferences have highlighted successful programs and strategies, provided training programs for local entrepreneurs, offered endowment training for organizations, and involved blacks in grant-making, fund-raising, and faith-based philanthropy for historically black colleges. To further the center’s work, regional conferences that address local issues are planned.
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It is through the combined efforts of individual donors, giving groups, organizations, foundations, and public interest that black philanthropy continues to thrive. See also: Organizations and Associations Further Reading Coit, Jonathan S. ‘‘Philanthropy.’’ 1999. In Encyclopedia of African American Business History. Juliet E. K. Walker, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gori, Alexis A. 2008. ‘‘Lifting Up, Giving Back.’’ Crisis 115 (Spring): 30–33. National Center for Black Philanthropy. http://www.nefbp.net/programs.htm. Jessie Carney Smith
Photography Since the mid-1800s, African American photographers have produced diverse visual stories about black life. Today, the interest in capturing the still image continues as artists use changing technology to document the world around them and create new works that broaden the scope of the visual arts. The desire to have one’s life and family immortalized inspired an early interest in portrait photography. Beginning in the 1840s, Jules Lion, James Presly Ball, and Augustus Washington were among those who used the daguerreotype process to capture the image of prominent and everyday people. Although portraits were most common, a fair amount of attention was given to weddings, classroom scenes, musical groups, and sports teams. Over time, having one’s special group or event visually documented became more commonplace as photographers and cameras increased in numbers. At the start of the twentieth century, African Americans began to establish studios in large cities. One well-regarded photographer, James Van Der Zee, called the ‘‘Picture Taking Man,’’ met the needs of his Harlem, New York, clientele by photographing and preserving the likenesses of countless families, prominent citizens, and national spiritual and political leaders. Van Der Zee was especially sought out for his sensitive treatment of the dead, as seen in his noted mortuary portraits. Also serving their communities were James A. Polk, the long-serving photographer of Tuskegee Institute and the city, and Addison Scurlock, whose significant portfolio of work serves as a reminder of how the black residents lived in the Washington, DC. Throughout the country, the black experience was documented through the studio work of Paul Poole in Atlanta, Georgia; Gunter Studios in Nashville, Tennessee; Richard Samuel Roberts in Columbia, South Carolina; Johnson of Miami, Florida; and many others. Pioneering photographers were determined to have their work seen by a wider American audience. The fruits of their labor provided a look into many lives and communities that had been mostly invisible to the mainstream population.
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Gordon Parks, originally from the Midwest, first entered the American consciousness through dramatic 1940s scenes that revealed poverty in the nation’s capital. Through his service at the Works Progress Administration, Robert McNeill’s photographs were presented in The Negro in Virginia, published in 1940. Roy DeCarava is recognized for his compelling Harlem scenes, which began as studies for his paintings. During much of the twentieth century, African American photographers were supported by numerous news organizations. In 1937, Morgan Smith, the twin brother of photographer Marvin, was hired as the first staff photographer by the New York Amsterdam News. Entering the profession as a photographer’s apprentice in the 1940s, Vera Jackson was a pioneering photographer who worked for the California Eagle and later captured the glamour of black celebrities and the intensity of the Civil Rights Movement. Monetta J. Sleet Jr., who won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize in photography, served Johnson Publishing through its Ebony and Jet magazines. The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper was provided photographic coverage by Irving Phillips Sr. Noted photojournalist Chester Higgins Jr. has worked as a staff photographer for the New York Times since 1975. Service to the White House began with Ricardo Thomas (President Gerald Ford), and continued with Sharon Farmer (President Bill Clinton), and Eric Draper (President George W. Bush). The control of their visual image has been the concern of a number of national leaders and popular figures in securing their legacies. Many decided to take control of their image and work by hiring their own photographers as a way of balancing any media biases. C. M. Battey and P. H. Polk served Tuskegee educator and national leader Booker T. Washington on a number of occasions. James Van Der Zee photographed Marcus Garvey and his fledging Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) organization in the 1920s. Capturing the historical images of Martin Luther King Jr. and the events of the Civil Rights Movement was the veteran Memphis photographer Ernest Withers. Robert Haggins photographed Malcolm X, from 1959 until his death in 1965. Malcolm X also took pictures of the people and events in his own life. Continuing to document the life of Muhammad Ali is Howard Bingham. In the 1960s, an increasing number of photographers followed the lead of those from an earlier generation and directed their attention to social and cultural issues, capturing the aspirations, struggles, and uniqueness of their time. Due to his photojournalistic background, Robert A. Senstacke was well-positioned to document the preaching style of Martin Luther King Jr. and many of the events of the Nation of Islam. Cinematographer John Simmons, in his earlier career, focused his still camera lens on artists, campus life, and the communities in and around Nashville, Tennessee. We know more about the Black Panther Party because of the work of Jonathan Eubanks. A special frozen-in-time image of a local high school drum major, caught in midair as he performed a forward flip, was taken by Milton Williams, of Washington, DC. Countless others saw the importance of telling timely stories about marches, protests, and other events that characterized the civil rights and antiwar movements. Roland Freeman chose to
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chronicle the Arabbers in his native Baltimore, and traveled south to photograph rural black America. Ultimately, photographers have become historians whose firsthand accounts of people and events around them serve to reveal the complexities of African American life. Today, the photographic image is sometimes used as an integral component in works of art. Often it is the image, along with text, that delivers the artist’s commentary. Carrie Mae Weems stages African American figures to state her position on contemporary issues. Two- and three-dimensional constructions are used by Pat Ward Williams to revisit such historical events as the escape from slavery of Henry ‘‘Box’’ Brown. As technology changes, today’s artistphotographer is finding new ways to incorporate superimposed, fragmented, and reconfigured images into works that are based on reality and imagination. See also: Black Arts Movement Further Reading Easter, Erick, D. Michael Cheers, and Dudley M. Brooks, eds. 1992. Songs of My People: African Americans: A Self-Portrait. Boston: Little, Brown. Schoener, Allon, ed. 1968. Harlem on My Mind. New York: Random House. Willis, Deborah. 2000. Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present. New York: Norton. Robert L. Hall
Pickett, Bill (1870–1932), Cowboy Bill Pickett is best known for inventing the practice of ‘‘bulldogging.’’ His talent has helped to popularize rodeos and to entertain huge audiences throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. While historically African American popular culture places more emphasis on such Sports as Football, Basketball, and Baseball, Pickett demonstrates black America’s role in the sport of rodeo and, indeed, his own contribution to the history of Wild West culture. William Pickett, popularly known as ‘‘Bill,’’ was born December 5, 1870, in Travis County, Texas, the oldest in a family of thirteen. Both his father, Thomas Jefferson Pickett, and his mother, Mary Pickett (who was part Cherokee), were former slaves. While he was still a baby, the family relocated to nearby Austin, where young Bill completed the fifth grade in the segregated public schools. He and his brothers worked on ranches around Austin, where Bill became extremely skilled as a cowboy. It was here that Bill developed his bulldogging technique, or the practice of jumping on a steer’s back, turning the steer’s head quickly to the side, and then bringing the steer to the ground where he pacified him by biting him on the lip. On Sundays, he supplemented his meager income by riding wild broncos before crowds of spectators who tipped him for his entertaining efforts.
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The family relocated to Taylor, Texas, in 1888, where Bill worked as a ranch hand, continued his bulldogging technique, and earned money to help support the family. He also toured the state and the West, exhibiting his bulldogging technique to small rodeo companies and at county fairs, and became an entertainment sensation. In 1904, he exhibited bulldogging at the nation’s premiere rodeo, or the Cheyenne Frontier Days, and gained national acclaim. After that, spectators were so impressed with his talent that bulldogging became a prominent event nationally; eventually it was demonstrated in popular culture as steer wrestling. In 1903, Pickett took on a new manager, Doug McClure, who liked to nickname his performers. Pickett became known in McClure’s promotional materials as the ‘‘Dusky Demon,’’ suggesting that he had supernatural powers that led him to cast a spell on steers. In 1905, Pickett’s friend Will Rogers introduced him to Zack Miller, an owner of the 101 Ranch in Bliss, Oklahoma, who was planning a new Wild West show. Pickett signed on, with the promise of full-time work on the ranch during off-season. This marked the beginning of a long and mutually rewarding partnership in the history of Wild West shows, and Pickett was a featured act. Pickett’s success continued and he regularly performed with the show, appearing in such arenas as Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, and the Chicago Coliseum. He shared the billing with Will Rogers and Tom Mix, who went on to achieve fame in motion pictures. Some writers claim that Pickett’s shows were so big and his audience so large that he never suffered the kind of racism that other black performers of that period faced. The Wild West shows lost some of their audience and glamour as vaudeville and motion pictures became popular. By 1917, Pickett restricted his act to wrestling cattle at rodeos. His performances decreased in number between 1920 and 1924, and Pickett spent most of time working on ranches. He did, however, make two short film documentaries, The Bulldogger (1923) and The Crimson Skull (1924). Despite the risky process of bulldogging, Bill Pickett remained spry and healthy into the 1930s, when he was in his sixties. He was dismayed, however, that his beloved 101 Ranch fell into foreclosure and was put up for auction. On auction day, Pickett and several ranch hands separated Zack Miller’s horses so that he would keep a portion of them. A half-wild sorrel kicked the sixty-two-year-old cowboy in the head and he died eight days later as result of the injury. He was buried near the 101 Ranch. Bill Picket married Maggie Turner in 1890, and they had eight daughters. Racism finally caught up with Pickett, for, despite his fame, it was not until 1971 that he was named to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. He was honored again in 1993, when the U.S. Postal Service published a stamp of his image in the ‘‘Legends of the West’’ issue. The first image was that of his brother, but the stamp was corrected and reissued, making both the incorrect and correct stamp collectors’ items. In 1994, the Fort Worth Stockyard erected a bronze statue of Pickett showing him bulldogging a steer. His honors continue.
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In the late 1970s, Lu Vason, a special events producer in Denver, conceived the idea for a rodeo named in honor of Pickett. The first Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo was held in 1984 and drew crowds numbering in the thousands. Still the nation’s only black rodeo and held annually from November through February, in 2010 it is being held at such sites as Phoenix, Oakland, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington, DC, where cowboys and cowgirls participate in one or more events. Bulldogging is one of the featured events. The talent and efforts represent the spirit of the West as well as African America’s rich heritage. Pickett is remembered as one of the finest cowboys in the history of the American West. Answers.com rates him as one of the greatest show business cowboys ‘‘ever to straddle a horse.’’ See also: Cowboys and Rodeos; Love, Nat ‘‘Deadwood Dick’’ Further Reading Answers.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Bill Pickett.’’ http://www/answers.com/topic/bill-pickett. Durham, Philip, and Everett Jones. [1964] 1983. The Negro Cowboys. Republished. Lawrence: University of Nebraska Press. Fink, Rob. 2009. ‘‘Willam Pickett.’’ Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present,. Vol. 4. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Gay, Kathlyn. 2007. ‘‘Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo.’’ African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations. Detroit: Omnigraphics. Smith, Caroline B. D. 1995. ‘‘Nat Love.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale Frederick D. Smith
Pimp Walk The pimp walk, which is still performed today by some African American males, is a distinctive style of slow strutting or swagger-walking associated not only with pimps but with street culture and black style. The term ‘‘pimp walk’’ arose as a slang expression in the mid-1900s to describe the strut of the successful pimp. As a demonstration of cool masculinity, the pimp walk is a cocksure combination of leisurely strutting, black aesthetics, and public performance—a version of the ‘‘jive-ass walk’’ associated with African American street hustlers and ‘‘cool cats’’ known for their flashy, elegant style and badass, confident demeanor. The stylistic aspects and kinesics of the pimp walk are easily recognizable, if somewhat difficult to describe. Although serving similar symbolic functions as the swagger and the strut, the pimp walk is not a stiff strut but a relaxed, selfassured, supercool saunter, performed slowly with a rhythmic, subtle limp, bounce, and drag in the stride. Although pimp walkers have signature styles, the walk has to be done just right, with a certain cadence and leisurely, measured
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side-to-side limp and slight hitch and jerk in one’s gait, and with the arms swinging loosely, an upright posture, shoulders and head back, and perhaps even a slight lean backward. One hand might periodically adjust one’s belt buckle, finger ring, or other fashion accessory, and various cool moves, if performed with confidence and style, are acceptable. It is essential that the walker conveys a sense of unflappable coolness in motion—a rhythm, pride, and dominance while casually surveying the surroundings as if he owns everything, can take on anyone, and has the world in the palm of his hand. Although engaged in illegal activities and the criminal exploitation of women, the pimp is a complicated figure in African American culture, sometimes regarded as a folk hero symbolizing resistance and the dignity of the Bad Man living outside the white man’s rules. The successful pimp has made it not by playing the white man’s game but by using his own wits on his own terms, and his style and walk express his self-made success, pride, and masculinity. The in-your-face flamboyance of pimp style has been criticized by some as a celebration of materialism, artifice, and sexist posturing. But the style also may be seen as an overt visual assault on white conventions; a bold proclamation of the pimp’s outsider status and successful subversion of white norms, in the way he casually struts down the street in an aesthetic and symbolic performance for all to see. Pimp style is not only characterized by an expensive and flashy wardrobe or a stylin’ pimpmobile, but by the pimp’s wisdom of the streets and the ability to handle difficult situations, keep cool, and talk his way out of trouble. This ensemble of style and attitude is a practical necessity as well as an essential exhibition of the hustler’s power, affluence, and control. The wild and extravagant aspects of pimp style are thus counterbalanced and complemented by an aloof coolness, which is exemplified by the unhurried pace and cadence of the pimp walk, a coded performance and promenade of uniquely black style, elegance, and power. The pimp walk, and pimp style in general, are related to the ‘‘dressing up’’ traditions of the ‘‘Black Dandy’’ and the Zoot suiters, in which stylin’ out, the proper pose, appropriate demeanor, and extravagant and expensive clothing clearly communicate a message of coolness, wealth, success, and class. Dressingup traditions have been especially appealing to the ethnic poor and underprivileged as a temporary escape from poverty and racism and as a way to celebrate a distinctive identity in opposition to white society. Street hustler style not only becomes an emblem of ethnic identity, but like the Zooties and later funk style, it expresses an extroverted, colorful rejection of dominant white male style that is epitomized by the conservative suit with muted colors, a representation of businesslike conformity, ‘‘the square,’’ and adherence to an oppressive work ethic. Pimp style demonstrates that masculine style does not have to be boring and subdued, but can be resplendent, creative, and sexually suggestive. In recent years, a nostalgia for the classic ‘‘old school’’ pimp style has developed, and the pimp has increasingly become an icon in American popular culture, idolized by rappers, and celebrated in film and on television. Pimp style has been embraced by African American, ethnic, and white youth, some of whom
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imitate, appropriate, or create their own versions of the pimp walk in an attempt to signify cool style. See also: Men, African American, Images of; Zoot Suits Further Reading Finestone, H. 1957. ‘‘Cats, Kicks, and Colour.’’ Social Problems 5: 3–13. Hebdige, Dick. [1974] 1997. ‘‘Excerpt from Reggae, Rastas, and Rudies: Style and the Subversion of Form.’’ In Reggae, Rasta, Revolution: Jamaican Music from Ska to Dub. Chris Potash, ed. 121–127. New York: Schirmer Books. Milner, Christina, and Richard Milner. 1972. Black Players: The Secret World of Black Pimps. New York: Bantam Books. Polhemus, Ted. 1994. ‘‘Funk.’’ In Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk, 72–73. New York: Thames and Hudson. Tulloch, Carol. 1992. ‘‘Rebel without a Pause: Black Streetstyle and Black Designers.’’ In Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader. Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson, eds. 84–98. Berkeley: University of California Press. Daniel Wojcik
Pinchback, P. B. S. (1837–1921), Politician, Lawyer, Entrepreneur, Educator, Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback, Louisiana governor from 1872–73, had been the only African American governor in the United States until 1989, when L. Douglas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia. A Republican, Pinchback was elected to the Louisiana state senate in 1868 and later became president pro tem of the Louisiana state senate. When Lieutenant Governor Oscar J. Dunn, also an African American, died in 1871, Pinchback became lieutenant governor. Upon the impeachment of Governor Henry C. Warmouth, Pinchback became governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872 until January 13, 1873, when Warmouth’s term would have expired. Pinchback was also elected to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, but was denied his seat because of bribery and election fraud allegations. Pinchback was born May 10, 1837, in Macon, Georgia, to Eliza Stewart, a mulatto, and Major William Pinchback, a white Virginia plantation owner. Before Pinchback’s birth, Eliza had been manumitted in Philadelphia; therefore, Pinchback was born free. Raised in Holmes County, Mississippi, until he was nine years old, Pinchback was sent, along with his older brother Napoleon, to Gilmore High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, until 1848 when Major Pinchback’s illness necessitated their return. Shortly after their return, Major William Pinchback died. William Pinchback’s family prevented Eliza and her children from receiving any of Major Pinchback’s estate. Avoiding enslavement, the disinherited family returned to Cincinnati. Pinchback helped support four siblings and their mother by working as a cabin boy on a Miami canal boat, and eventually becoming a steward on Mississippi
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steamboats. In 1860, Pinchback, now twenty-three, married Nina Emily Hawthorne, after meeting her in Memphis, Tennessee. One of their six children, Nina Pinchback, was the mother of Harlem Renaissance writer, Jean Toomer. Pinchback’s Civil War Union Army career was short. In 1862, he enlisted in New Orleans in the white First Louisiana Volunteer Infantry but was soon reassigned to recruit black men for the Second Louisiana guards. Pinchback was denied promotion despite being instrumental in creating this company. Qualifying exams had replaced the black officers with white ones, leaving only Pinchback who qualified but who was still refused promotion. In 1863, frustrated at contending with the army about its practice of favoring white soldiers over blacks for promotions and pay, Pinchback resigned his commission. Less than a month later in October 1863, Pinchback secured permission to recruit men of color for a cavalry company out of New Orleans. After recruiting the First Cavalry Regiment Corps d’Afrique, he applied for his commission as captain and was once again denied. This time he resigned for good. As a delegate to the 1867 Republican State Convention, Pinchback wrote the Louisiana Constitution’s Civil Rights Article, which called for equal rights for Louisiana citizens without regard to race or color. As a businessman, he owned a newspaper, the Louisianan, and had a business that ferried blacks across the Mississippi. Pinchback was instrumental in establishing Southern University, a higher learning institution for blacks in Louisiana. Among his many accomplishments, he earned a law degree from New Orleans’ State University School of Law in 1886, was a New York U. S. Marshal, and served as an Internal Revenue agent. Pinchback died in Washington, DC, on December 21, 1921. See also: Politics and Government Further Reading Haskins, James. 1973. Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback. New York: Macmillan. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. 2009. ‘‘P. B. S. Pinchback.’’ In African Americans and American Politics: An Exhibition from the Schomburg, New York Public Library. http://exhibitions.nypl.org/exhibits/african-americans-inpolitics/gallery/item/408. Simmons, William J. 1968. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. New York: Arno Press. Vincent, Charles. 1979. ‘‘Louisiana’s Black Governor: Aspects of His National Significance.’’ Negro History Bulletin 42 (April–June): 34–36. Sharon D. Johnson
Pippen, Scottie (1965– ), Professional Basketball Player Batman had Robin, the Green Hornet had Kato, the Lone Ranger had Tonto, and Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen. Playing alongside Jordan, considered
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the greatest Basketball player of all time, Pippen, in his own right also came to be considered one of the best to play the game. In sports lore, perhaps no superstar and sidekick combination was more successful than the two former Chicago Bulls who helped bring six National Basketball Association titles to the Windy City as well as a record sixty-six wins in 1996. Jordan was the potential ‘‘little engine that could’’—thinking he could win an NBA title in his first few professional seasons. He became the engine that did when the tall and lanky Pippen joined the Bulls. The two not only piled up an impressive collection of hardware for the Bulls, but they also helped to popularize basketball around the world. The two players helped to cement the notion that any NBA champion had to be built around two legitimate superstars who could take over any game at any time, plus a complement of at least three to five players who could rebound, block shots, get the ball into the hands of its superstars, and, above all, be ready to hit the open shot if the two superstars were well covered in the waning seconds of games. That became the Bulls’ blueprint. The team’s success might not have materialized without the arrival of Scottie Maurice Pippen, who was born September 25, 1965, in Hamburg, Arkansas. Coming out of tiny Central Arkansas University in 1987, Pippen was the number one draft pick (fifth overall) of the Seattle SuperSonics in the NBA draft, but he was traded to the Bulls for Olden Polynice. Pippen was a seven-time NBA All-Star, including 1994 All-Star Game MVP. He was named eight times to the NBA All-Defensive First Team. In 1997, during the All-Star celebration in Cleveland, Pippen was recognized as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Over his career, Pippen averaged 16.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.0 steals, and .8 blocks per game. He also made 70.4 percent of his free throws. Pippen was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Pippen began college standing 6 feet 1inches and was a walk-on. He eventually grew to become 6 feet 8 inches and kept the same small-man guard skills in a much bigger man’s body. Alongside Jordan, who stood 6 feet 6 inches, the two were an intimidating tandem, each of whom could pile up jump shots, rebounds, assists, blocked shots, and steals, which sometimes led to easily executed lay-ups at the other end of the court. This helped the Bulls to two different NBA title ‘‘three-peats’’: 1991, 1992, and 1993, then again in 1996, 1997, and 1998. The three-peats were interrupted when Jordan abruptly retired from the NBA to pursue his interest in Baseball. The winning ways returned when Jordan, almost as abruptly, gave up on his baseball dreams and returned to the NBA. Pippen and Jordan were also members of the original U.S. Olympics Dream Team in 1992. Pippen finished his Bulls’ career as the franchise’s second-leading all-time leader in points, assists, and steals. The two went their separate ways when the Bulls team and their coach Phil Jackson were split up after the 1998 championship. The players never found the championship circle again—although Jackson did continue to win NBA titles with a new superstar tandem: Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Pippen finished out his career playing mainly for the Houston Rockets and Portland Trailblazers, but he also played briefly during a tour in Europe. See also: Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem; Johnson, Magic
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Further Reading Decker, Ed. 1997. ‘‘Scottie Pippen.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. 2010. ‘‘Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2010.’’ (Press release.) April 5. National Basketball Association. www.nba.com. David Squires
Pittsburgh Courier (1910) The Pittsburgh Courier is an important force in popular culture because of its traditional and current focus on equal rights and significant cultural, political, social, and economic conditions, and other issues that affect the African American community and its interests. Historically, the paper worked to combat distortions of blacks in the white press and to report news and accomplishments of the local community ignored by the white press. Much of its success is due to skill of the African American journalists who built the paper and continued to serve it throughout its lifetime, and their relentless efforts to serve as a voice for the black community. America’s first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal and Rights of All, was published on March 16, 1827. Edited by John B. Russwurm, the medium-sized weekly advocated the abolition of slavery and kept the cause for freedom before the public. According to Patrick Washburn in The African American Newspaper, the paper ‘‘set the stage for the black newspapers that were to follow,’’ as it soon covered a broad range of subjects. Following its publication, many black antislavery papers were published, including the North Star (1847), the voice of Frederick Douglass, the Christian Herald (later known as the Christian Recorder (1948), and the Mirror of Times (1955). The black press went on to become an effective voice for black people. It also afforded blacks an insight into the immediate and larger community. ‘‘Because white newspapers virtually refused to cover blacks unless they were athletic stars, entertainers, or criminals,’’ Washburn writes, blacks had to read their own papers to learn what was going on in everyday life. The Pittsburgh Courier is one of several black newspapers that helped to shape and influence black life in the United States. On January 10, 1910, Edwin Nathaniel Harleston, who was employed as a guard for the H. J. Heinz food-packing plant, established the Pittsburgh Courier. It is now a weekly publication renamed the New Pittsburgh Courier. At first it focused on the African American community in Pittsburgh from the 1930s through the 1960s. It also had a national edition as well as editions and bureau editors serving over ten cities throughout the country, including Detroit, New York City, and Florida, and national correspondents as well. At one time there were four hundred employees on staff. Lawyer Robert Vann became legal counsel for the paper beginning in March 1910, and also contributed articles and poems to the weekly editions that were
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published early in the life of the paper. Vann also became editor of the Courier in fall 1910, after the founder and editor Harleston resigned. The paper struggled until 1914, when a sportswriter, Ira R. Lewis, was brought aboard and when the staff moved to larger quarters. Lewis aided in its growth by selling advertisements, doubling the circulation. In 1925, Vann hired George S. Schuler, one of the first black journalists to reach national prominence in the twentieth century, to write ‘‘Views and Reviews’’ for the editorial page. Although Schuyler was a conservative journalist, he was a social commentator, satirist, critic, and a seasoned writer who made important contributions to the literature of the Harlem Renaissance. He toured the South for nine months and wrote a series of observations. After that, and renewed circulation drives, the number of subscribers soared. Other people of note who wrote for the paper were Walter White of NAACP fame, historian and writer Joel A. Rogers, and Pan-Africanist and organization founder Marcus Garvey. By 1930, the Courier was published in four editions: local, northern, eastern, and southern. Through these editions the Courier reported news of the 1941 March on Washington, racial segregation in the armed forces, Jim Crow on the home front, and, during World War II created a ‘‘Double V’’ campaign, calling for ‘‘Victory at Home’’ and ‘‘Victory Abroad.’’ The paper led other campaigns, such as desegregation of Major League Baseball. When the Brooklyn Dodgers hired Jackie Robinson in 1947, the Courier led the black press in reporting his first year. The black press fared well in mid-twentieth century, giving the nation a handful of well-known papers, such as the Afro-American, the Journal and Guide, the Chicago Defender, and of course the Pittsburgh Courier. In the 1960s, however, the Courier discontinued its national edition and in 1966 sold out to its rival newspaper, the Chicago Defender. John H. Sengstacke acquired the Courier in that year and renamed it the New Pittsburgh Courier, making it a part of Sengstacke Newspapers (now Real Times), according to the new paper’s Web site. Real Times is said be the nation’s largest and most influential black newspaper chain and ‘‘a trusted vehicle for Black expression.’’ See also: Journalism and Journalists; Newspapers and Periodicals Further Reading Buni, Andrew. 1974. Robert L. Vann of the Pittsburgh Courier: Politics and Journalism. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. Burroughs, Todd Stevens. 2009. Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 4. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Washburn, Patrick S. 2006. The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Wilson, Clint. ‘‘Pittsburgh Courier.’’ 2006. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Jessie Carney Smith
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Playwrights Since 1823, African American dramatists have documented and interpreted the black presence in the United States to the extent that certain playwrights or characters are regarded as icons in African American culture. The earliest known African American play, The Drama of King Shotaway, focuses on a West Indian insurrection and was staged in 1823 at the African Company, which was founded and managed by the play’s author, William Brown (birth and death dates unknown). As early as 1844, African American drama gained international attention when Diegarias, the first of twenty plays by Victor Sejour (1817–74), was performed in Paris. Ira Aldridge (1807–67), who performed with Brown’s African Company prior to leaving the United States and gaining international acclaim as the ‘‘Tragedian of Color’’ and the ‘‘African Roscius,’’ wrote The Black Doctor: A Romantic Drama in Four Acts (1847). Abolitionist, novelist, autobiographer, and historian William Wells Brown (1814–1884) wrote his first play, the Experience, or, How to Give a Northern Man a Backbone in 1856 (unpublished). Upon the publication of his second play, The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom (1858), Brown became the first published African American dramatist in the United States. Pauline E. Hopkins (1859–1930), novelist, editor, journalist, and one of the earliest African American female playwrights, created three musical dramas including Peculiar Sam; or, The Underground Railroad, which debuted in Boston in 1880. Harlem Renaissance writers followed in the footsteps of the nineteenth-century progenitors of African American drama. Angela Weld Grimke (1880– 1958) wrote Rachel (1916), the first extant anti-lynching play. Willis Richardson (1889–1977), inspired by Rachel, became a prolific dramatist; in 1923 his one-act The Chip Woman’s Fortune was the first serious Broadway play. Two years later, Appearances, by Garland Anderson (1886–1939), became Broadway’s first fulllength play by an African American. Prior to gaining prominence as a novelist, Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) wrote six plays including Color Struck (1925). Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880–1965), the Harlem Renaissance’s most influential female dramatist, wrote seven plays including Blue Blood, a one-act play about miscegenation which was performed in New York City in 1926 at the Krigwa Players, as were most of the plays by high school teacher Eulalie Spence (1894–1981) including Her (1927). Novelist and literary critic Wallace Thurman (1902–34) collaborated with white editor William J. Rapp on the 1929 Broadway production of Harlem: A Melodrama of Negro Life. Although the versatile author Langston Hughes (1902–67) is best known for his poetry, his plays include Mulatto: A Play of the Deep South, which opened on Broadway in 1935 and is Hughes’s first full-length play; Little Ham, which opened in Cleveland in 1935; Don’t You Want to Be Free?, which opened in Harlem in 1937; Simply Heavenly, which opened on Broadway in 1957 and is based on Jesse B. Semple, Hughes’s popular short story character; as well as the gospel plays Black Nativity and Tambourines to Glory, which opened on Broadway in 1961 and 1963
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respectively. Hughes and Hurston wrote Mule Bone: A Comedy in Negro Life in 1930, but the play was not performed until 1991. After the Harlem Renaissance ended in the early 1930s and prior to the Black Arts Movement (1960 to 1975), African American dramatists continued to blaze theatrical trails. Actor and educator Louis Peterson (1922–98) is credited with unlocking Broadway’s doors for other black playwrights during the 1950s with Take a Giant Step, which opened on Broadway in 1953. Peterson’s drama about Spencer Scott, an African American seventeen-year-old living in a white middleclass neighborhood in New England, was made into a film in 1958. Although Alice Childress (1916–94) was an actress and novelist, she is best known for her plays; in 1955 Childress became the first African American female to win an Obie Award for her off-Broadway play Trouble in Mind. Theater historian Loften Mitchell (1919–2001) wrote at least seventeen plays including A Land Beyond the River (1957), yet his most commercially successful play was the 1976 musical Bubbling Brown Sugar. Lorraine Hansberry (1930–65) was the first African American female with a play on Broadway and the first African American to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Hansberry’s drama about an African American family’s dream of moving to the suburbs, A Raisin in the Sun, opened on March 11, 1959, and remained on Broadway for nineteen months with Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, and Diana Sands in the starring roles. The cast members reprised their roles for the 1961 film with the same title. There have been two revivals: a 1989 off-Broadway production with Danny Glover and Esther Rolle and a 2004 Broadway production with Sean (Diddy) Combs, Phylicia Rashad, and Audra McDonald; both revivals were filmed. Reminiscent of the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement marked a period of prolific creativity. Actor and director Ossie Davis’s (1917–2005) best known play, Purlie Victorious, opened on Broadway in 1961, (Nine years later, it was made into Purlie, a Broadway musical that starred Melba Moore and Cleavon Little.) Adrienne Kennedy (1931–) won an Obie Award for her first professionally performed play, Funnyhouse of a Negro, in 1962. James Baldwin (1924– 1987), recognized as one of the twentieth century’s major writers, had two plays open on Broadway in consecutive years: Blues for Mr. Charlie (which is based on the murder of Emmett Till) in 1964 and The Amen Corner (about an African American female pastor) in 1965. The influential author and activist Amiri Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones (1934–), has written more than thirty plays including Dutchman, which won an Obie in 1964 and was followed by the 1964 productions of The Baptism, The Slave, and The Toilet. One year later, Lonnie Elder III (1931–96) saw the first staging of his most successful play, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men. Also in 1965, Douglas Turner Ward (1930–) had two plays, Happy Ending and Day of Absence, open off-Broadway; two years later, Ward, who is also an actor and director, cofounded the Negro Ensemble Company. Ed Bullins (1935–), aiming to write about day-to-day African American life, began his ‘‘Twentieth Century Cycle’’ plays, which include Clara’s Ole Man
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(1965), In the Wine Time (1968), In New England Winter (1971), The Duplex (1970), and The Fabulous Miss Marie (1971). Also in 1971 Charles Gordone (1925–95), author of No Place to Be Somebody, became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Other notable plays that opened in New York in the early 1970s are Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death by filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles (1932–); The River Niger by director, actor, and educator Joseph A. Walker (1935–); and Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope as well as Your Arms Too Short to Box with God by actress Vinette Carroll (1922–2002) and lyricist and composer Micki Grant (1941–). Since the mid-1970s, at least nine African American dramatists have achieved prominence. Ntozake Shange (1948–) emerged as a talented young playwright in 1976 with for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem which won an Obie. Samm-Art Williams (1946–), screenwriter and executive producer of Martin and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, received the Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play 1980–1981 for Home. In 1982, Charles H. Fuller Jr. (1939–) won the Pulitzer Prize for A Soldier’s Play; two years later, the film adaptation, A Soldier’s Story, was released. George Wolfe (1954–) wrote The Colored Museum (1986) and Spunk (1989), an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s short stories. Wolfe’s 1992 musical, Jelly’s Last Jam, starred Gregory Hines as the legendary Jelly Roll Morton. Wolfe won Tony Awards for directing Angels in America: Millennium Approaches in 1993 and in 1996 for Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk, his musical that starred Savion Glover. Anna Deavere Smith (1950–), recipient of a 1996 MacArthur ‘‘Genius Grant,’’ is noted for her documentary-style dramas such as Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and Other Identities (1992), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (1993); House Arrest (1997); and Let Me Down Easy (2009), in which she portrays multiple characters in her one-woman plays. In 2002, Susan-Lori Parks (1964–) became the first African American female dramatist to win the Pulitzer Prize; she received the prestigious award for Topdog/ Underdog. Her other plays include Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1989), The Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (1990), Venus (1996), and In the Blood (1999). Lynn Nottage (1964–), who was awarded a MacArthur ‘‘Genius Grant’’ in 2007, received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2009 for Ruined. Among Nottage’s other critically acclaimed plays are Crumbs from the Table of Joy (1995); Intimate Apparel (2003); and Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (2004). Although the very popular and highly profitable plays of Tyler Perry (1969–) have received less critical acclaim than any of the aforementioned dramatists and have frequently been labeled ‘‘urban theater,’’ Perry has created arguably the most well-known yet controversial African American theatrical character: Madea. In such plays as Madea’s Family Reunion (2002), Madea’s Class Reunion (2003), and Madea Goes to Jail (2005), Perry dons a wig and dress to portray the elderly Madea, whose actions are loved by fans and accused of reinforcing stereotypes by detractors. Perry’s cinematic adaptations of his plays have made him one of today’s successful filmmakers.
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All of the playwrights cited above have made innovative contributions, yet August Wilson (1945–2005) is the most prominent African American dramatist and one of America’s greatest twentieth-century playwrights. Wilson cited the aforementioned authors Amiri Baraka, James Baldwin, and Ed Bullins, along with blues music, Jorge Luis Borges, and Romare Bearden as inspirations for his work. In efforts to document African American life during the twentieth century, Wilson created a play for each decade. In 1984, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Wilson’s play of the 1920s and his tribute to Bessie Smith, became his first drama to open on Broadway. After Fences’ Broadway opening in 1987 with James Earl Jones in the lead role, it won a Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Fences, Wilson’s 1950s play, was also a commercial success because it broke the revenue record for a nonmusical play after it grossed $11 million in a single year. While Fences was still on Broadway, Wilson earned the distinction of being the first African American with two concurrent Broadway plays when Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the drama of the second decade, opened in 1988. Wilson achieved additional honors in 1990 when The Piano Lesson, his play of the 1930s, earned the Pulitzer Prize in Drama; thus Wilson became the first African American dramatist to win two Pulitzers. Three of the six remaining plays in Wilson’s cycle of the twentieth century were nominated for Pulitzers: Two Trains Running (1992), the 1960s drama; Seven Guitars (1996), the 1940s drama; and King Hedley II (2000), the 1980s drama. The other plays in the cycle are Jitney (2000), Gem of the Ocean (2004), and Radio Gulf (2005) which represent the 1970s, 1900s, and 1990s respectively. During Wilson’s lifetime, there were approximately eighteenth hundred Broadway performances of his plays. Befitting Wilson’s stature as a preeminent American playwright, the marquee lights on Broadway were dimmed on October 4, 2005, two days after he died; and Broadway’s Virginia Theater was renamed the August Wilson Theater on October 17, 2005. The name change marked the first time Broadway named a theater in honor of an African American, yet the honor, in essence, also extends to the African American dramatists who preceded August Wilson. See also: Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby; Rainey, Ma Further Reading Andrews, William L., Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. 1997. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ed. 2004. African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ed. 2005. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic Literature. Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Ostrom, Hans, and J. David Macey Jr., eds. 2005. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Vol. 2. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Linda M. Carter
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A ‘‘Colored only’’ water fountain. The 1896 court case Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the right of states to impose ‘‘separate but equal’’ facilities on African Americans. The fight against segregation began in earnest during the 1950s and was one of the first steps in the Civil Rights Movement. (Library of Congress)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) In Plessy v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537, the United States Supreme Court provided a constitutional imprimatur to the doctrine of ‘‘separate but equal.’’ The Supreme Court concluded that none of the provisions contained in any of the Reconstruction Amendments, the Thirteenth Amendment (1865), Fourteenth Amendment (1868), or the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) prevented state laws mandating the separation of the races. Three years later, the Supreme Court issued a decision in the case of Cumming v. Richmond Country Board of Education that made it clear that the equal part of the doctrine did require strict equality. The Louisiana legislature passed the Separate Car Act in 1890. It required railroads to provide ‘‘equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races.’’ The act not only criminalized the behavior of any passenger insisting on going into a coach or compartment to which by race he did not belong, but also the behavior of any railroad officer insisting on assigning a passenger to such a coach or compartment. The penalty for both the passenger and the railroad officer violating the act was a fine of twenty-five dollars, or in lieu thereof, imprisonment for a period of not more than twenty days. In 1892, Homer Adolph Plessy, a shoemaker from New Orleans, Louisiana, purchased a first-class ticket on the train to Covington, Louisiana, and took his seat in the car reserved for whites. Plessy was only one-eighth black, an amount which was
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not discernable; however, under Louisiana law, Plessy was colored. The Citizen’s Committee (a New Orleans political group composed of African Americans and Creoles like Plessy) had asked Plessy to help them with the action. The Citizen’s Committee had already retained New York civil rights attorney, Albion W. Tourgee. Their challenge enjoyed some support from the railroads, who objected to the additional costs they incurred for providing separate cars. After the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld Plessy’s original conviction from the court of Judge John Howard Ferguson, Plessy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Tourgee argued that Plessy’s conviction violated his constitutional rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. By a vote of 7 to 1, with Justice Harlan writing his famous ‘‘color blind’’ dissent, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Louisiana statute. Writing for the Court, Justice Henry Billings Brown rejected Plessy’s arguments derived from both constitutional amendments. Brown concluded that the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, did not prohibit Louisiana from adopting the act. In so doing, Justice Brown followed the Supreme Court’s rationale in its 1883 decision in the Civil Rights Cases. In that case, the Court struck down a portion of a Congressional statute that prevented private individuals who owned inns, public conveyances, or places of amusement, from refusing accommodations to colored people. The Court rejected the argument that the Thirteenth Amendment prevented so-called ‘‘badges of slavery or servitude.’’ The Court stated that ‘‘It would be running the slavery question into the ground to make it apply to every act of discrimination which a person may see fit to make as to the guests he will entertain, or as to the people he will take into his coach or cab or car, or admit to his concert or theater, or deal with in other matters of intercourse or business.’’ As for the Fourteenth Amendment, the Court drew a distinction between civil and political equality on one hand and social equality on the other. Individuals assert their civil and political rights against government, but they assert their social rights against fellow citizens. Thus, denying a black person the right to sit on a jury involved an infringement on his civil rights and preventing a black male from voting purely because of his race involved a political right. However, governmental laws requiring segregation on railway cars, omnibuses, stagecoaches, steamboats, waiting rooms, restrooms, lecture halls, theaters, and schools involved social rights. Thus, for the majority, by seeking to strike down the Separate Car Act, Plessy was attempting to impose his colored person on to white individuals who did not wish such contact. As Justice Brown stated for the majority of the Court in Plessy, ‘‘if one race be inferior to the other socially, the constitution of the Untied States can not put them on the same plane.’’ To support his position, Justice Brown cited the preCivil War decision by the famous Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw in Roberts v. Boston. In that 1849 decision, Shaw wrote the opinion that upheld the power of the general school committee of Boston to make provision for the instruction of colored children in separate schools established exclusively for them. Shaw rejected the argument advanced by the great abolitionist Charles Sumner in support of the black schoolchildren that the constitution and laws of Massachusetts, which required that ‘‘all persons, without
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distinction of age or sex, birth or color, origin or condition, are equal before the law,’’ prohibited segregation of school children. Justice Harlan was the Supreme Court’s lone dissenter in Plessy. In his opinion, Harlan rejected the majority’s view of classifying segregation statutes as dealing with social equality as opposed to civil equality. Harlan stated: ‘‘in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.’’ After 1896, segregation statutes expanded. However, there is considerable scholarly dispute regarding just how significant the Court’s decision in Plessy was in expanding segregation. To begin with, the argument that segregation statues violated the Fourteenth Amendment was a novel one at the time. Segregation was also widely practiced by most northern and western states during the antebellum period and afterwards. In the North, blacks were systematically separated from whites or excluded from railway cars, omnibuses, stagecoaches, and steamboats. They were segregated into secluded and remote corners of theaters and lecture halls; they could not enter most hotels, restaurants, and resorts except as servants; they prayed in separate pews and partook of the sacrament of the Eucharist after whites. They were segregated in housing, schools, hospitals, and cemeteries. Separate but equal statutes did not always abrogate de jure or de facto integration, but often replaced laws or customs that provided no accommodations for blacks at all. Before the Civil War most southern schools, hospitals, asylums, hotels, restaurants, and other public facilities simply excluded blacks. See also: Judges; Law Enforcement Further Reading Bickel, A., and B. Schmidt. 1984. The Judiciary and Responsible Government, 1910– 1921. New York: Cambridge University Press. Rabinowitz, Howard N. 1978. Race Relations in the Urban South, 1865–1890. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Woodward, C. Vann. 1957. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. New York: Oxford University Press. Kevin Brown
Poetry Jams A poetry jam is a poetry recital infused with elements of performance. At a jam, artists engage the audiences with their lyrical prose, at times accompanied by elements of culture and traditions. For instance, African American poetry jam artists embrace elements of black culture, i.e., literature, music, and dance. The terminology ‘‘poetry jam,’’ ‘‘poetry slam,’’ and ‘‘slam poetry’’ can be used
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interchangeably; however, poetry jams and slam poetry are not competitions but are done for the art of expression and the communal sharing of the poetry. Poetry slam venues are competitive events where poets and spoken word artists (people who write and perform original work) compete and are critiqued by the audience or selected judges. Jams and slams can take place at coffeehouses, cafes, or libraries. The style and structure of poetry jams were influenced by the Beat Generation of the 1940s and 1950s, a group of writers who set out to reject traditional literary styles and use poetry as a means of shifting people’s consciousness. The Beat Generation’s style of poetry influenced the Black Arts Movement, particularly artists like Amiri Baraka (previously known as LeRoi Jones). The Black Arts Movement produced spoken word artists such as Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and Gil Scott-Heron, and would lay the foundation for how African American youth would create and exhibit their poetry. Poetry jams were not invented by black artists, but they have left an indelible mark on the art form by adding elements of African American culture, such as literary traditions and musical forms like jazz, R & B, and rap. Poetry jams have been cultivated in many urban communities. The Nuyorican Poets Cafe was founded in 1973 and provides underrepresented groups a platform to express their art. In 1996, Team Nuyorican advanced to the finals of the National Poetry Slam competition. This accomplishment altered the terrain of the national poetry scene by injecting a Hip-Hop and punk rock vibe into their work. Team Nuyorican consisted of artists such as Jessica Care Moore, Saul Williams, and Beau Sia. In the last several years jams have found their way from urban communities to mainstream American audiences due to Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry Jam. In 2001, Russell Simmons teamed up with Bruce George, a spoken word poet, Deborah Pointer, Stan Lathan, and Danny Simmons to highlight the talents of diverse poets and, similarly to the Black Arts Movement, give voice to the work of African American artists. The success of Simmons’s HBO show served as a catalyst for the Def Poetry Jam’s debut on Broadway, which received a Tony Award. See also: Poets and Poetry Further Reading Anglesey, Zoe, ed. 1999. Listen Up: Spoken Word Poetry. New York: Ballantine. Eleveld, Mark, ed. 2003. The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & Poetry of a Generation. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks. Nuyorican Poets Cafe. http://www.nuyorican.org/. Poetry Slam, Inc. http://www.poetryslam.com/. Simmons, Danny, ed. 2003. Russell Simmons def Poetry Jam on Broadway . . . and more. New York: Atria Books. Tahirah Akbar-Williams
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Poets and Poetry On a midsummer’s day in 1761, a girl, about seven or eight years old, stood on an auction block in Boston, Massachusetts. Hiding her nakedness in the public square, she stood on the block as her body, but not her spirit, was sold to the highest bidder. Taken from her homeland of Gambia, in West Africa, the child, like many before her and many after her, would gain a new name in this new land. Severed from her past, she would become known to the world by the name of Phillis, a name that her new owners had lifted from the slave schooner that had brought the child across the Atlantic Ocean, from freedom in Africa to bondage in the American colonies. It is no great leap to suggest that the emergence of the African American tradition in poetry begins in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1761, with the sale of the young slave girl now known as Phillis Wheatley. While we have records of African Americans writing poetry in New England before the arrival of Wheatley, most notably Lucy Terry, the example of Wheatley continues to captivate the imagination of generations of scholars and common readers alike. Wheatley offers us a poetic and liberating testimony against one of the major justifications for slavery—that persons of color lacked humanity. Humanity in the context of the Enlightenment was deeply tied to literacy, and the case of Phillis Wheatley shattered the myth of African Americans as ‘‘inhuman.’’ In a span of four years, Wheatley learned not just English, but Latin and Greek, and her poetry reflected a deep understanding of the Bible and the classics of the western literary tradition. Wheatley was an uncommon intellect, one whose mind created a synthesis of all she read and encountered to express something of her unique self with imagery and language that was daring, soaring, and heroic. In 1773, having gained notoriety in the colonies and abroad, Wheatley was subjected to an examination by eighteen male scholars to determine if she had indeed written the poems attributed to her. She passed her examination with flying colors, and in September 1773 her collection of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, appeared in print. With this collection, Wheatley became the first African American and the second American woman to find her work into print. (Anne Bradstreet had been the first with her collection of poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, published in 1650.) Harvard professor and historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., quoted by John Shields, has proclaimed Phillis Wheatley ‘‘the progenitor of the black literary tradition.’’ Part of the ‘‘black literary tradition,’’ to borrow Gates’s phrase, is defining and articulating one’s own experience with tools once designed to deny one’s own humanity. In the case of Wheatley, she picked up the quill and willed her way to artistic expression and freedom. This act of literacy, as numerous authors in the black literary tradition have articulated, has been a blessing and a curse, a means of liberation as well as an act punishable by death. Nonetheless, the longing for artistic expression, which we see made evident in poets and poetry, is an indestructible instinct that shapes the canon of African American literature.
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Nineteenth- And Early-Twentieth-Century Poets Less than a century after Wheatley, the United States had its first professional black poet, George Moses Horton. In 1829, Horton published a collection of poems titled The Hope of Liberty, a work that, unlike Wheatley’s poetry, was militant in nature. As agitation over the issue of slavery increased on the social scene, poets reflected the sentiments of the body politic and penned lines that demanded action. An important collection in this regard is James Monroe Whitfield’s America, and Other Poems. In no uncertain terms and expressing the type of black rage and militancy that readers would witness again with the Black Arts Movement, Whitfield, quoted by John Shields, refers to the United States as a ‘‘land of blood, and crime, and wrong.’’ Whitfield and Horton both offer readers poems marked by vivid imagery and abolitionist import. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Paul Laurence Dunbar would emerge as one of the leading poets in African American literature. Born free in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872, Paul Laurence Dunbar emerged on the poetry landscape in 1893 with his self-published volume Oak and Ivy. Dunbar would go on to produce eleven volumes of poetry and would gain recognition as one of the finest lyricists in American and African American letters. In his third collection of poems, Lyrics of the Hearthside, published in 1899, Dunbar composed the poem ‘‘Sympathy,’’ which has one of the most famous lines in African American poetry: ‘‘I know why the caged bird sings,’’ a line that served as a source of inspiration for the poet Maya Angelou as she wrote her autobiography of that title. Women played an integral role in the formation of African American poetry. We would gain only an incomplete portrait of the richness of the landscape without the work of Anne Spencer, Gwendolyn Bennett, and Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (whose first husband was Paul Laurence Dunbar), each an important contributor whose work would influence poets to come. Readers are encouraged to seek out Shadowed Dreams, an anthology which offers a wide range of poems by the women writers of the Harlem Renaissance. In Amiri Baraka’s poem ‘‘Return of the Native,’’ Harlem is called ‘‘vicious modernism,’’ according to Houston Baker, and the persona goes on to discuss Harlem, the mecca of black America, as a place of violence and of beauty. This conflict between beauty and violence, between harmony and discord, is perhaps captured no better than in the difference between the poetry of Claude McKay and Countee Cullen. McKay was born in Jamaica and went on to become one of the most celebrated writers of the Harlem Renaissance. His sonnet ‘‘If We Must Die,’’ written during the Red Summer of 1919 when the United States witnessed an outbreak of Race Riots, is a call to arms. ‘‘Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,’’ the poem concludes, ‘‘Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!’’ The clear, sharp imagery and word choice come together to form a type of command. This style of writing differs acutely from the poems that typify Countee Cullen, whose style reflects the somnolent romanticism of John Keats and others. In one of Cullen’s most famous poems, ‘‘Heritage,’’ the speaker of the
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poem poses a question that is fundamental to the Harlem Renaissance as well as the African American tradition in poetry: Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, What is Africa to me?
Gone from these lines is the militancy of McKay, which is not to suggest that McKay only composed what might be called ‘‘political poems,’’ but Cullen’s style invites the play of imagination and is filled with a romantic longing for the past. Along with Cullen and McKay, Sterling Allen Brown, Langston Hughes, and James Weldon Johnson worked tirelessly in mining the landscape of the African American oral tradition. Educated at Williams and Harvard, Brown would make use of his expertise in literature to view aspects of African American culture through the lens of the western classics. We see this recasting of experience especially in his poem ‘‘The Odyssey of Big Boy.’’ As Brown himself remarked, according to John Edgar Tidwell, ‘‘Harvard only gave you the way to put it down, not how to feel about things.’’ Like Brown, Hughes and Johnson both boasted academic credentials, and like Brown, both poets used their academic expertise to help them articulate the lives, the voices, and the visions of those often left outside the realm of literature. Making use of techniques from Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes emerged on the scene during the Jazz Age, bringing with him an ear for the music of the time, as heard in his first collection of poems, The Weary Blues, published in 1926. Yet Hughes had gained renown five years earlier with his poem ‘‘The Negro Speaks of River,’’ a poem that in its use of the collective ‘‘I’’ mirrors the inclusiveness of Walt Whitman. Hughes also achieves in the poem a voice that serves as the collective voice of African Americans in their struggle for freedom; it’s a voice that is weary yet strong, experienced yet optimistic. As a refrain, Hughes writes, ‘‘My soul has grown deep like the rivers,’’ creating a voice that captured and continues to capture some of the African American experience. While writers of the Lost Generation responded to the trauma of World War I with art that emphasized rootlessness and fragmentation, African American writers, artists, and intellectuals were invested in the process of cultural recovery. Along with Alain Locke’s landmark anthology The New Negro, perhaps no more important work in setting the canon of African American poetry can be found than James Weldon Johnson’s The Book of American Negro Poetry, published in 1922. By the 1920s, a tradition had been established in African American poetry in which, according to Gayl Jones, ‘‘the more flexible dynamics of folk creations’’ were beginning to shape ‘‘the overall form and language of [Johnson’s] poetry.’’ Yet this flexibility extended beyond Johnson’s poetry to the poets who followed in his wide wake. The Black Arts Movement and Beyond Following the Harlem Renaissance, Robert Hayden and Gwendolyn Brooks, two poets of long careers and prolific productivity, each gaining laureate status,
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were two luminaries who continued to advance the range of poetic expression. With the stirrings of the Black Arts Movement, Amiri Baraka, Larry Neal, and Askia M. Toure crafted poetic statements steeped in black consciousness and Black Nationalism. One of the landmarks of this genre is Baraka’s Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, published in 1961. The political urgency of the poetry of the Black Arts Movement served as a foundation for the poets who followed. As Margaret Reid explains in ‘‘African American Poetry,’’ poetry of the Black Arts Movement was ‘‘written expressively for Black people by Black people’’ and ‘‘defied all traditional standards as poets sought to free themselves artistically and politically from’’ what were interpreted as ‘‘imposed restrictions.’’ African American poets and poetry, indeed, had come a long way since Phillis Wheatley. The deeply political message of the Black Arts Movement, which was part of the Black Power Movement, resulted in poetry that was more personal in nature. This move from the political to the personal was the result of a confidence that the younger generation of poets gained from the writers of the 1960s. Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, Michael S. Harper, Nikki Giovanni, Yusef Komunyakaa, Quincy Troupe, Rita Dove, and Natasha Trethewey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who holds the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry at Emory University, are just some of our contemporary poets who have built and who continue to build upon the long legacy of poets before them to create voices and visions uniquely theirs. The word ‘‘poet’’ itself, from the Greek word meaning ‘‘maker,’’ has carried with it the idea of innovation. This tendency towards innovation has made poets the subject of criticism and distrust since Plato. Even in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, poets, lovers, and lunatics are linked by madness, yet it is a madness that fosters creativity. It is no surprise, then, that such genres as slam poetry and spoken word, performed for nearly four decades at sites like the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, along with the work of Hip-Hop artists, continue to challenge the definition of poets and poetry. All along, as abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass noted, freedom has not been without its struggle. This struggle for voice takes on an even deeper resonance when we remember that a child, on a midsummer’s day, standing on an auction block, in silence, surrounded by a swirl of what seemed strange sounds, would bend sound and sense and silence to her creative will with a quill, and that, two centuries later, Rita Dove would, from 1993 until 1995, reign as the first African American poet laureate of the United States of America. The struggle and progress bears witness to one core idea: Within African American literature and history, the trauma of slavery has not stopped the flow of words, has not crushed the humanity of a people who have fought, above all else, to find their voices in a land that attempted to silence them. See also: Black English; Minstrelsy; Poetry Jams Further Reading Baker, Houston A. Jr. 1987. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Cullen, Countee. 1997. ‘‘Heritage.’’ In The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Henry Louis Gates Jr. et al., eds. New York: Norton. Gates, Henry Louis Jr. 1987. Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the ‘‘Racial’’ Self. New York: Oxford University Press. Jones, Gayl. 1991. Liberating Voices: Oral Tradition in African-American Literature. New York: Penguin. McKay, Claude. 1997. ‘‘If We Must Die.’’ In The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Henry Louis Gates Jr. et al., eds. New York: Norton. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ed. 2005. ‘‘African American Poetry.’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Plato. 2007. The Republic. New York: Penguin. Shakespeare, William. 2004. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. New York: Folger. Shields, John C. 2001. ‘‘Wheatley, Phillis.’’ In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Tidwell, John Edgar. 2001. ‘‘Brown, Sterling A.’’ 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
Poitier, Sidney (1927– ), Actor, Director, Activist With a screen presence spanning over fifty years, Sidney Poitier (born February 20, 1927) became one of the dominant figures of American cinema during the second half of the twentieth century. Having begun his acting career on Broadway in a 1949 production of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, Poitier chose to try his hand in Hollywood and in 1950 appeared in his first feature film, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s No Way Out. In many ways this early role, as a black doctor treating a white bigot, might serve as a template for much of his later career in which he was largely cast as a well-educated, sensitive, intelligent, and articulate member of the black middle class. However, the scope of his roles and abilities was far wider than this and ranged from an escaped prisoner in The Defiant Ones (1958), to a revolutionary in The Wilby Conspiracy (1975), a cowboy in Buck and the Preacher (1972), a comedian in Uptown Saturday Night (1974), an FBI agent in Shoot to Kill and Little Nikita (both 1988), and a Muslim warrior king in The Long Ships (1964). His first major role, as student Gregory Miller, came in Blackboard Jungle (1955) a ‘‘social problem’’ film that portrayed a young and idealistic teacher (played by Glenn Ford) against a group of alienated and cynical inner-city teenagers. Poitier would return to this genre some years later, this time in the role of the teacher, in To Sir With Love (1967). However, it is probably true to say that his acting career has been most celebrated and criticized for his work in two films, Lilies of the Field (1963), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), a top box office, yet controversial, film.
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In Ralph Nelson’s Lilies of the Field, Poitier plays Homer Smith, an ex-GI itinerant handyman who finds himself in the Southwest, in a small community of German nuns. In helping them to complete the building of a local chapel Smith not only wins the respect of the mother superior but also that of the white townsfolk who, in view of his selfless commitment and tireless labors, successfully overcome their racial prejudice. Released during the year of the March on Washington, Lilies of the Field valorized those values of freedom, tolerance, and integration that were at the philosophical heart of the modern Civil Rights Movement. But by the time Stanley Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was released, the social context of race rela- In 1958, Sidney Poitier became the first African American tions in the United States to be nominated as best actor by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for his costarring role in the and Hollywood’s depic- Hollywood film The Defiant Ones. In 1963, he became the tion of it had shifted pro- only second African American actor ever to win an Oscar, foundly. Poitier, in the for his performance in the film Lillies of the Field. He is role of Dr. John Prentice, credited with paving the way for public acceptance of a renowned medical African American men in American films, and such researcher, is engaged to contemporary film figures as Eddie Murphy and Spike Lee have him partially to thank for their huge success. (AFP/ Joanna Drayton (Katha- Getty Images) rine Houghton), a young white woman, whose upstanding father objects to their marriage because of their racial differences. The film at once revealed racism’s presence among the most liberal and upper-middleclass of white homes and, while patronizing black audiences, displayed anti-white bigotry among working-class black men. Criticized by some reviewers for an
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accommodationist pandering to white liberal guilt, Poitier’s portrayal of Dr. Prentice stood in counterpoint to an increasingly radicalizing black nationalism that challenged ‘‘integration’’ as an ultimate, achievable, or even desirable goal. Poitier’s performance, however, in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner should not eclipse his consistently progressive stance and support for civil rights, along with his criticism of Hollywood’s complicity in American racism. Among the three films of 1967 in which he starred, In The Heat of the Night, where he battled against white racism in the Deep South and overcame the racial prejudice of a police sheriff in a small town in Mississippi, is the most memorable. The film’s classic assertion of black male empowerment, ‘‘They call me Mister Tibbs!’’ presaged the advent of the blaxploitation genre (pre-dating Shaft by four years), and was listed in 1999 as 16th on the American Film Institute’s (AFI) top movie quotes of all time. However, throughout the 1970s and 1980s Poitier combined acting with directing, and scored such notable successes as Buck and the Preacher (1972), Uptown Saturday Night (1974), and Let’s Do It Again (1975). By far his most successful film as a director is Stir Crazy (1980), starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. One of the most popular and lucrative films of the 1980s, it was recently voted by Total Film magazine the 22nd-greatest comedy movie of all time. As one of the first wave of successful post-World War II African American actors in Hollywood, Poitier managed to advance an uneven career that featured a commitment to both high quality and popular entertainment, while refuting the demeaning stereotypes and prejudices of an earlier age. As a mark of his achievements, and to go along with the many and various awards he had already received over the previous four decades including Golden Globe, BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television), and Grammy awards, Sidney Poitier was selected by the AFI in 1999 as one of the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, and was granted in 2001 an Honorary Academy Award for his outstanding contribution to American cinema. See also: Entertainment Industry; Film and Filmmakers; Men, African American, Images of Further Reading Bergman, Carol. 1988. Sidney Poitier. New York: Chelsea House. Bogle, Donald. 2006. Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood. New York: One World/Ballantine. Guerrero, Ed. 1993. Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Poitier, Sidney. 1980. This Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Poitier, Sidney. 2007. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography. New York: HarperCollins. Michael T. Martin and David Wall
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Politics and Government The successful 2008 election campaign of Barack Obama for the presidency of the United States permeated contemporary African American popular culture, demonstrating the interconnection between politics, government, and everyday life. The definition of politics ranges from an art of compromise to the science of governing, revealing its broad reach and ubiquitous nature. Government, by extension, describes the system set up by people and imbued with the power to make, interpret, and enforce laws that control and protect those people. Authority in the United States’ system of governance is divided among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. African Americans have challenged each of these branches to create, mandate, and enforce laws that make everyday life safer and more equitable for all the country’s inhabitants. Executive Branch Though Obama’s successful candidacy was remarkable in many respects, he was not the first African American to make strides toward holding the highest office in the land. The former-slave-turned-abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, received one nomination during the roll call vote held at the Republican National Convention, where he was invited to speak on June 23, 1888. In 1972, Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress, also became the first African American woman to run for president of the United States. Chisholm helped pave the way for candidates like Jesse Jackson (Sr.), the civil rights activist and Baptist minister who ran two presidential campaigns in the 1980s. Both his 1984 and his 1988 attempt to win the Democratic Party nomination ended in losses, but in 1988 Jackson was a close second to the Massachusetts governor, Michael Dukakis. In 2004, civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and radio talk show host, Al Sharpton also made a bid for the Democratic Party nomination. Conservative statesman Alan Keyes, furthermore, has campaigned for the Republican Party’s nomination several times, including unsuccessful bids during the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2008 elections. Running for president is not the only way in which African Americans have engaged the executive branch of government. Scores of activists and leaders of coalitions have wielded considerable political influence over U.S. presidents from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Douglass, who began recruiting black soldiers for the Union Army after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, later advocated on those soldiers’ behalf, petitioning Lincoln for equal pay for African American troops. After the Civil War, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant, who later signed a series of acts into law that protected African Americans from the violence of the Ku Klux Klan. With her anti-lynching crusade, journalist, lecturer, and champion of human rights, Ida B. Wells-Barnett went even further than Douglass to protect the lives
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of African Americans. This crusade spanned three decades, 1890–1920, and included petitions to presidents William McKinley and Woodrow Wilson. In 1898, for instance, Wells secured a meeting with McKinley, after which he delivered a speech disparaging the practice of Lynching. Despite her best efforts, however, the federal legislation Wells deemed essential to curing the lynching contagion was never passed by the United States Senate—a woefully regrettable aspect of that institution’s history, which the Senate formally apologized for in 2005. Both A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Mary McCleod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman University, lobbied President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on behalf of African Americans. A close friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Bethune became an intermediary between the Roosevelt administration and African American voters, who were mostly Republican at the outset of Roosevelt’s presidential tenure. Bethune excelled in what became an advising role to the president; she was instrumental in forming the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, commonly known as the ‘‘Black Cabinet,’’ which was a collective of African American public policy advisers to the executive branch. During Roosevelt’s twelve years in office, 1933– 1945, African Americans began flocking to the Democratic Party and African American employment in the executive branch also swelled to forty-five members—more than during any previous administration. Given these achievements it may seem surprising that Roosevelt was initially reluctant to formally ban discrimination in industries awarded federal contracts. He did eventually capitulate, however, issuing Executive Order 8802, only after A. Phillip Randolph threatened to orchestrate what would have been the first March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In the twenty years following Roosevelt’s presidency, African Americans continued to effect broad social and political change by bringing their concerns before the nation’s subsequent leaders. In 1948, President Harry Truman signed an executive order banning segregation in the armed forces. Soon after taking office, President John F. Kennedy banned racial discrimination in federal housing, signing Executive Order 11063. Not long after the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the long-awaited rally that attracted approximately a quarter million civil rights supporters and at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ address, President Kennedy also sent Congress a bill proposing a ban on segregation in schools, public facilities, and employment. After Kennedy’s assassination, his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, now the president, carried forth Kennedy’s legacy and ensured the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Voting Rights Act, which President Johnson signed a year later, was a hard-fought victory for advocacy groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). These civil rights organizations had been working on grassroots voter registration campaigns throughout the rural South, where African Americans outnumbered whites in
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some districts two-to-one. Having been disenfranchised since Reconstruction by literacy tests, poll taxes, and white supremacist strategies like the ‘‘grandfather clause,’’ many African Americans in these regions were unaware of or fearful about executing their constitutionally secured right to vote. Groups like SNCC, the SCLC, and the MFDP brought volunteers in from the North to canvass rural towns and cities throughout the South, informing African Americans about their rights and encouraging them to vote. This voter registration work caught national attention during a campaign in Selma, Alabama, wherein white segregationists violently attacked peaceful marches led by SNCC and SCLC leaders. Concurrently, three African American members of the MFDP, Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine, and Victoria Gray, spearheaded a campaign against the five congressional representatives sent from the state of Mississippi. The MFDP argued that the representatives sent from their state did not legitimately represent their constituency because African Americans were illicitly barred from voting, as well as from running for political office. Coinciding mass demonstrations and organized challenges such as the Selma campaign and the MFDP’s Congressional Challenge illustrate the multifaceted approach African American leaders and advocacy groups have taken to reform the United States government—often targeting more than one branch at a time. The Legislative Branch Once the Voting Rights Act passed, federal examiners were sent to areas suspected of withholding the ballot from African Americans. Though involving the examiners in the registration and voting processes was not a cure-all for generations of white supremacist suppression, it did help secure African Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed right of suffrage. In Alabama, for instance, voter registration rates increased from a little over 2 percent of eligible African American voters prior to 1965, to 67 percent by 1972. Increased voter registration among eligible blacks ushered in an increase in black elected officials. Only a handful of African Americans held an elected office in Alabama in 1965, but ten years later the state boasted 161 African American officials. The notable progress in Alabama echoed throughout the nation, as the number of African Americans holding an elected position more than tripled in the ten years following the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Although this piece of legislation was highly influential and sorely needed in its time, in many ways the Voting Rights Act of 1965 simply reinforced the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified almost one hundred years earlier. In fact, the first African Americans to serve in the United States Congress began their tenure after the Civil War. Ratified in 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment granted African American men the right to vote, declaring: ‘‘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.’’ The year it was ratified, two African American men, Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, and Joseph H. Rainey, a Republican from South Carolina, were elected to the House and Senate, respectively. During the
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Reconstruction period in American history (1865–77), African American men were sent to the United States Congress from states including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia. After federal troops were removed from the South in 1877, however, measures to prohibit African American suffrage abounded, resulting in little to no congressional representation for African Americans from southern states by the turn of the century. Strictly enforced codes of racial segregation made it difficult for African Americans to not only participate in the political process, but also to find housing and gainful employment, to borrow money from banks, or to patronize restaurants, theaters, and hotels. During the period from 1910 to 1930, known as the Great Migration, over one million African Americans moved out of southern states in search of a better life in northern, midwestern, and western regions of the country. Once the migrants settled into their newfound communities, the United States Congress began to see a slight resurgence of African American participation, with a few representatives sent from places like Illinois, New York, and Michigan. Oscar DePriest from Chicago, for example, made history in 1928, becoming the first African American sent to Washington from a congressional district located north of the Mason-Dixon Line. As more African American representatives began integrating the legislative branch, they developed a rich legacy of not only advocating issues that impacted members of their race, but of introducing, debating, and helping to enact legislation that benefited all American citizens. Augustus Hawkins, the first African American man to serve in the United States Congress from the state of California, for instance, introduced a bill that became the Equal Employment section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This section introduced by Hawkins, Title VII of the act, developed into the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Over forty years later, this federal agency remains committed to combating discrimination, harassment, and retaliation on the basis of not only race, but also such factors as age, pregnancy, disability, religion, and more. Senator Edward Brooke from Massachusetts, the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote, advocated the final civil rights bill of the 1960s. This bill was Congress’s response to the report issued by the National Advisory commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission. The commission found that one of the major forces propelling Race Riots was white racism. In major cities throughout the nation, this racism manifest itself in forms of housing discrimination that left blacks segregated in urban ghettos. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, known as the Fair Housing Act, gave all Americans legal recourse to battle housing discrimination by explicitly prohibiting such discrimination based on race, religion, or national origin in the sale, rental, or financing of property. The act also instructed the Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as the U.S. attorney general to enforce these provisions and to assist victims of discrimination in securing redress. Although Senator Brooke had been promoting aspects of this bill for two years, it was ultimately the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the racial unrest that ensued, which provided the final push to get the bill passed through
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Congress. President Johnson signed this act into law on April 11, 1968, one week after King’s death. By the election of 1970, the total number of African American congressional members grew to thirteen and these representatives came together to form the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). This nonpartisan coalition refers to itself as the ‘‘conscience of the Congress,’’ a moniker reinforced by members of the organization who have bravely confronted controversial issues and fought to uphold sacred American values. In 1974, the first southern African American woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, Representative Barbara Jordan, caught the nation’s attention during the nationally televised impeachment hearings for President Richard Nixon. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jordan delivered a speech that was a bold indictment, about the value of the Constitution and the need to preserve its authority in the face of violation. More recently, Representative Barbara Lee delivered the lone speech opposing the use-of-force resolution brought before the House three days after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Though their remarks were controversial in nature, both of these African American congressional representatives rooted their positions in core American principles and expressed their desire to preserve what is best about the nation in moments of crisis. In the 111th Congress, serving during the 2009–2010 session, there are fortyfour African Americans—one senator, Roland Burris, a Democrat from Illinois, and forty-three representatives, two of whom are nonvoting delegates. Judicial Branch In addition to drafting, debating, and passing legislation, the U.S. Senate is required by the Constitution to advise the president regarding Supreme Court nominations. Since the Supreme Court was established in 1789, there have been two African American nominees confirmed by the Senate to join the judicial branch of government, which is charged with interpreting, adjudicating, and mandating the laws of the land. Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice, was nominated by President Johnson and confirmed by the Senate on August 30, 1967. Justice Marshall served the high court for nearly a quarter century. After Marshall’s retirement, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, whom the Senate confirmed by a narrow margin after a contentious hearing, which included allegations of sexual harassment, as well as opposition from groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Organization for Women. Justice Thomas began his tenure on the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1991, and continues to serve today. Long before the Supreme Court had African Americans seated on its bench, this governmental body was making decisions that affected the daily lives of African Americans. In 1883, for instance, the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875—a law that stipulated all persons, regardless of race, had a right to the ‘‘equal enjoyment’’ of public accommodations—unconstitutional. The court
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reasoned that although the Fourteenth Amendment granted equal protection under the law to all citizens of the United States, this particular statute exceeded Constitutional reach by mandating that private persons, not states, refrain from discriminatory action. In 1896, moreover, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of segregation, reinforcing the infamous ‘‘separate but equal’’ doctrine in its landmark Plessy v. Ferguson decision. This doctrine undergirded the widespread racial segregation of public facilities for the next fifty years, until the court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling. The ‘‘separate but equal’’ ruling in Plessy was unanimously overturned in 1954, when the court contended that separate schools for black children denied them the basic citizenship right of equal educational opportunity. This decision, which declared de jure segregation a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, provided a firm foundation upon which the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s built. In addition to Brown, the court has handed down several significant decisions influencing educational opportunities for all American citizens. In the 1978, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision, a divided (5–4) court ruled that the use of special admissions processes to increase acceptance rates of minority applicants was unconstitutional. The court did, however, uphold the practice of Affirmative Action, suggesting that race could be used as one factor among others in ‘‘narrowly tailored’’ admission decisions. Justice Marshall, who had argued Brown before the court as a lead NAACP lawyer decades earlier, penned an impassioned dissenting opinion to the Bakke ruling. In this opinion, Marshall combined historical and sociological data with legal precedent and constitutional principles to explain his disbelief that the very judicial body which refused to prohibit myriad forms of discrimination against African Americans was now standing in the way of a state’s effort to remedy this past injustice. The precedent set with the contentious Bakke decision was tested in two cases brought against the University of Michigan, both of which came before the court in 2003. Taken together, the rulings in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger uphold the two-pronged reasoning in Bakke. Specifically, the court upheld its previous position that while affirmative action in college admissions is necessary to remedy the unjust exclusion of the past, racial quotas or set-asides that insulate minority applicants from competition violate the equal protection clause. Disagreeing with the court on much different bases than his predecessor had, Justice Thomas wrote a dissenting opinion to the Grutter decision. Though Thomas agreed with the court that racial quotas and set-asides are illegal, his opinion went a step further, arguing that all race-based admissions decisions—even narrowly tailored ones— violate the color-blind principle embedded in the United States Constitution. As the examples provided here demonstrate, the decisions, deliberation, and leadership of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the United States government affect the African American experience. African American protest of and participation in these governmental branches, moreover, has simultaneously transformed politics in the United States. See also: Governors and Mayors; Judges
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Further Reading Carson, Clayborne, general ed. 1991. The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader. New York: Penguin. Congressional Black Caucus. http://www.thecongressionalblackcaucus.com/. Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. 1996. Gender and Jim Crow. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Kelley, Robin D. G. and Earl Lewis, eds. 2001. To Make Our World Anew. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press. Payne, Charles M. 1995. I’ve Got the Light of Freedom. Berkeley: University of California Press. Supreme Court of the United States. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/. White House. (n.d.) ‘‘Our Government.’’ http://www.whitehouse.gov/our_government/. Maegan Parker Brooks
Politics and the Black Church If in its simplest form, politics is about influencing governmental policy or protesting against it, the black church has certainly played an important role in doing just that. Typically, the term ‘‘black church’’ has referred to predominantly black Christian congregations, collectively. Irrespective of religious denominational ties, these congregations tend to exhibit a black religious culture honed by the commonality of shared historical experiences. It is these experiences which have propelled the black church to be actively involved in the political process. Furthermore, such involvement is viewed as an integral part of the church’s prophetic witness to the world. To better understand how and why the black church participates in politics, one should consider three factors: the historical context of race relations vis-avis blacks and whites; its perception of what politics entails and the variety of ways in which it participates; and its understanding of the role of the black church in relationship to the secular world. By far, the greatest factor propelling the black church to keep its membership aware of and actively involved in the political process has been the hegemonic crusade to oppress black Americans since the time of slavery. It is this experience of oppression and neglect that has motivated the black church to work for the achievement of justice for its constituency. Ironically, the collaboration and cooperation found among black churches surrounding civil rights and economic issues has given an impression that black churches have similar political stances when in fact they have always maintained varying political positions. Their memberships are politically diverse, both in their affiliations and political views. Yet, despite this distinctiveness, the common threat of political disenfranchisement makes political involvement not a choice but a survival tactic. To the black church the customary discourse about secular or sacred or, similarly, about separation of church and state are theoretical, but not useful,
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constructs from which to carry out its mission within the world. Black communities, battered by the ferocity and vicissitude of acts of hatred stemming from society, were buttressed by the hope and affirmation emanating from pulpits. It was the church that provided relief, whether financial or spiritual. It was the church that addressed the concerns of the people, whether social or religious. The church became the lifeblood of the black community, involving itself in every aspect of the lives of its members, and thus not being a stranger to the political dimension as well. Politics was more than exercising power on behalf of another; it was about building community and about finding ways to declare the humanity of black people in life-giving, soul-building ways. Whereas the United States through its laws sought to diminish the constitutional rights of African Americans, the black church sought to help them find independence and freedom through and beyond the Constitution. This was more than engagement in a political process; this was a moral imperative because denial of rights impeded the ability of individuals to be whole persons. Paradoxically, black churches act in and upon the world although they claim not to be a part of the world. The influence which they seek to exert within the political arena is part of the dynamic spiritual redemptive process that they, too, undergo so that the process and the players, whoever they may be, can live up to the highest democratic standards. Holding government accountable for its actions is seen by the black church as part and parcel of the church’s role to develop leadership and citizenship skills among its members. The mission of the black church is multifaceted and presents challenges that require it to balance the worship of God and the spiritual care of its members with the redemptive restoration of the nation. With such challenging tasks, the black church engages in a variety of activities, some of which are typically viewed as political, such as seeking better voting rights or developing local community programs, and some of which seek to solidify community partnerships and ecumenical ties. All fall within the realm of a larger definition of politics that recognizes the importance of resource development. As the institution upon which black communities have entrusted their hopes and aspirations, their spiritual development, and their legacies, the church seeks to ensure that fairness and access to opportunities for black communities is obtained. Thus, black preachers have run for political office, among them Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Walter Fauntroy, Floyd Flake, and Emmanuel Cleaver. Black church laypersons have run for office or become outspoken leaders on the national political arena, for example, Mary McLeod Bethune, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Shirley Chisholm, Parren Mitchell, Barbara Jordan, and Harold Washington. Black preachers have been instrumental in challenging unjust laws, as seen, for example, in the work of Martin Luther King Jr., and Oliver Leon Brown. Though some have posited that the black church is apolitical, it is far from being so. Even today, as the fear of complacency hauntingly threatens future attentiveness to political issues, the common soul of the black church and its legacy as the drum major for justice suggests that it will continue to follow
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spiritual directives that call the nation to perfect the American system of democracy, thereby shaping persons and policy for the betterment of all. See also: Churches; Civil Rights Movement; Jackson, Jesse; Malcolm X; Sharpton, Al; Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Further Reading Calhoun-Brown, Allison. 2000. ‘‘Upon This Rock: The Black Church, Nonviolence, and the Civil Rights Movement.’’ PS: Political Science & Politics 33 (June): 168–74. Fitzgerald, Scott T., and Ryan E. Spohn. 2005. ‘‘Pulpits and Platforms: The Role of the Church in Determining Protest among Black Americans.’’ Social Forces 84 (December): 1015–048. Fowler, Robert B., Allen D. Hertzke, Laura R. Olson, and Kevin R. Den Dulk. 2010. Religion and Politics in America: Faith, Culture, and Strategic Choices. Boulder: Westview Press. Harris-Lacewell, Melissa V. 2007. ‘‘Righteous Politics: The Role of the Black Church in Contemporary Politics.’’ Cross Currents 57 (Summer) 180–96. Lincoln, Eric C., and Lawrence H. Mamiya. 1990. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Wilmore, Gayraud S. 1998. Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Vivian C. Martin
Pop Music The definition of pop music, also referred to as popular music, can differ based on the expertise of the listener. Musicologists may consider present-day popular music styles less significant in comparison to art or traditional music. A precise definition for popular music has escaped many critics. According to Roy Shuker’s Understanding Popular Culture, the terms ‘‘rock’’ and ‘‘pop’’ have been used interchangeably throughout history. In Shuker’s work, Phillip Tagg, a renowned musicologist, defines popular music in terms of ‘‘the nature of its distribution (usually mass); how it is stored and distributed, primarily recorded sound rather than oral transmission or musical notation; the existence of its own musical theory and aesthetics; and the relative anonymity of its composers.’’ The label ‘‘popular’’ also relates specifically to high interest among everyday people. While classical music may have a substantial following, mainstream audiences may not consider this genre a popular style. Commercialization is a big part of determining what popular music is. The commercial success of popular music allows artists to build a brand that is profitable throughout the entertainment industry. In the today’s music industry, popularity is often measured by appeal to a large audience and quantitative rankings on the Billboard charts. In present times, the creation of popular music by African American people primarily focuses on the
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following genres: Hip-Hop or rap, Rhythm and Blues, and gospel. Traditional and classical forms of music are analyzed based on the following elements: harmony, melody, rhythm, vocal style, or voice. In popular music today, additional elements like riffs, hooks, and lyrics are relevant means of musical analysis to understand the appeal to a commercial audience. Often in hip-hop music, it is the rhythm or beat or hook that attracts the listener before a word is uttered. The allure of gospel and rhythm and blues forms of popular music relies more on the voice and melody components. The styles mentioned earlier tap into the listeners’ desire to sing along or hear vocalists express emotion. Among academics, it is questioned whether popular music warrants the extensive analysis given to traditional music styles. The music of African Americans is deeply rooted in the heritage of their African ancestors. Music and dance were utilized to mark activities throughout the community to commemorate celebrations, rites of passage, historical events, and various activities. Migration Impacts Popular Music Beginning in 1940 and at its height in the 1950s, the second great migration of over five million African Americans to the northern United States had a direct impact on the development of popular music. Settling in urban areas like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Los Angeles provided the means to showcase musical creativity. As a result, new popular music styles, including soul and rap, were established. The growth of popular music over the last five decades saw shifts in the recognition of specific musical styles. Rhythm and blues is a combination of rural blues and big band swing music, typically performed by small groups with a lead singer and rhythm sections in the background. The soul music of the 1960s changed with the times, providing New Age opportunities for artists like Tina Turner, Patti Labelle, and Aretha Franklin in the 1980s. During this era, the love song resurgence highlighted the vocal styling of Luther Vandross, who sang in the tradition of Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis. Each generation building on the pattern of musical legends can be documented in the present day. In the new millennium, the most popular rhythm and blues artists, including Usher, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, Keshia Cole, Beyonce, and Mary J. Blige are often compared to their predecessors. Neo-soul artists like Raheem DeVaughn and Music SouldChild, with a style reminiscent of a Donny Hathaway or Marvin Gaye, enjoy mainstream success while recognizing the direct influence previous generations of African American artists have on their careers. The reality television series, American Idol has showcased the talents of youth aspiring for popular music stardom. The show has produced chart-topping artists like Fantasia Barrino, Ruben Studdard, and Jennifer Hudson. Upon entry into popular music, present-day artists benefit from opportunities in other areas of entertainment. Jennifer Hudson’s dynamic vocal skills were highlighted in the feature film version of Dreamgirls. Hudson won multiple awards for her performance in the motion picture, including the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
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Fantasia Barrino played herself in the Lifetime Television portrayal of her life story and joined the cast of Oprah Winfrey Presents The Color Purple on Broadway. Need For Artistic Expression Popular music in the African American community often develops from a need for artistic expression. The newest genre of popular music, hip-hop was created to combat violence among African American youth in the Bronx, New York, by former gang member Afrika Bambaataa. As founder of the Zulu Nation in 1973, Bambaataa targeted large groups of young adults interested in street arts movement including Break Dancing, disc jockeying, rapping, and graffiti drawing. At this time, the art of rapping is the primary focus in hip-hop. Musical artists from former generations strongly influence Hip-Hop culture. The soul music of James Brown, the ‘‘Godfather of Soul,’’ parliament funk music of George Clinton, and Teddy Riley’s new jack swing are the foundation of popular rap music today. James Brown’s soul classics have been sampled in the hip-hop genre more than any other artist. In the early 1990s, A Tribe Called Quest mixed jazz elements into the world of rap music. Diversity within the rap culture is displayed in the many themes of music: dance or party, social consciousness, and gangster to name a few. Historically, the hip-hop genre is similar to nineteenth-century traditional Pattin Juba, where a two-person ensemble would create music with one person serving as the patter or beat maker while the other person simultaneously recited verses. The cipher or freestyle approach to rapping over a beat box method of music creation using the mouth as an instrument is our model. The millennial hip-hop artist is often characterized by regional styles. A segment of southern rappers is best known for creating music suitable for a dance club. Atlanta rapper DJ Unk gained mainstream popularity with the commercial hit, ‘‘Walk it Out,’’ and its associated dance. Other chart-topping artists from the South include Ludacris, T. I., Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, T-Pain, OutKast, and UGK. T-Pain is well-known for his talents as a hip-hop producer as well as an artist. Artists like Young Jeezy and T. I. take a more serious approach to the themes in their music. Both artists have gained notoriety for speaking out to youth about the importance of voting in the national election. New Orleans born rapper Lil’ Wayne claims to be the best rapper alive and has the accolades to substantiate that declaration. The entertainment industry has embraced these popular music artists by offering acting roles in blockbuster films like American Gangster and Crash. In the birthplace of hip-hop culture, veterans like Jay-Z and remain at the top of the game. Gangster rappers 50 Cent and Kanye West took the battle rap to the next level in contest for top sales as their new albums were released on the same day; Kanye West was the winner. The Roots, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli carry on the tradition of Public Enemy with socially conscious style. The Game, representing the West Coast resurgence of gangster rap, gained success in the music industry. Ice Cube, of N. W. A.
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fame, has transitioned from rapper to actor, producer, and director. Social networking Web sites like MySpace are used to showcase musical talents. One of the newest hip-hop artists, Soldier Boy Tell ‘Em, gained online fame before signing a traditional record deal. Hip-hop culture has evolved into a global trend often used as protest music. The gospel tradition reaches far into the past of African Americans using song to express a variety of emotions. As an American popular music, gospel is defined by Boyer in terms of vocal style as ‘‘a strained, full-throated sound, often pushed to guttural shrieks and rasps suited to the extremes of the emotion-laden lyrics.’’ The ancestry of gospel music consists of eighteenth-century influences such as Isaac Watts, British poet and hymnist. Watts, also known as the father of English hymnody, took a nontraditional approach to Christian worship by writing original hymns instead of relying solely on the Psalms in the early sixteenth century. A few of Watts’s hymns include ‘‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,’’ ‘‘Joy to the World,’’ ‘‘Jesus Shall Reign,’’ and ‘‘O God, Our Help in Ages Past.’’ Watts’s simple compositions complemented the call and response style of African American religious music. The roots of gospel as a religious musical art form are Pentecostal by nature. A sanctuary for African Americans, the Pentecostal church offered a style of worship and expression not found in other religious settings. Negro Spirituals with the accompaniment of pianos, organs, tambourines, drums, washboards, triangles, and guitars became the folk gospel style. In the 1930s, the gospel hymn was created by an African American Methodist minister Charles Tindley of Philadelphia. The theme of Tindley’s written compositions highlighted deliverance through struggle; a topic explored in presentday gospel music. The black folk tradition of improvisation with diverse use of melody, rhythm, and harmony greatly influenced the father of gospel, Thomas A. Dorsey. The era of Chicago gospel began in the early twentieth century. Dorsey, a blues writer and music arranger, merged blues rhythms and melodies with the gospel hymns he played as a youth in rural churches. Dorsey coined the term ‘‘gospel song’’ and is well-known for songs ‘‘Precious Lord, Take My Hand’’ and ‘‘There Will Be Peace in the Valley.’’ The next phase of contemporary gospel infused elements of soul music with gospel as Edwin Hawkins created his version of ‘‘Oh, Happy Day’’ in the late 1960s. Over the next decade, a number of gospel artists including Andrae Crouch would bolster the gospel sound with aspects of African American secular music styles. The use of jazz, blues, folk, and other popular styles of music as the foundation for gospel music created a new trend of recording popular songs as gospel which continues into the twenty-first century. In the world of gospel, families like the Clark Sisters and the Winans maintain their chart-topping status. Many gospel artists like CeCe Winans have seen crossover appeal with rhythm and blues and contemporary Christian music enthusiasts. In the new millennium, the most popular artists include Kirk Franklin, Tye Tribbett, Marvin Sapp, Shirley Caesar, Vickie Winans, The Rance Allen Group, Dewayne Woods, Fred Hammond, and Hezekiah Walker. The newest generation of gospel artists merge hip-hop with the Christian message
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also known as holy hip-hop. The pioneers of Christian rap, Stephen Wiley and Michael Peace, released albums in the late 1980s. The purpose of gospel music was often evangelism. The earliest gospel rappers used street corners as their pulpit to reach youth outside of the religious setting. Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary, and Tonex have gained success using hip-hop elements to minister the gospel to a younger Christian audience. The mass appeal of holy hip-hop increases as songs like Kanye West’s ‘‘Jesus Walks’’ topped the popular music charts. African Americans have also made their mark in country music. Hip-hop groups like Gospel Gangstaz, Cross Movement, and Kiwi deliver the same traditional message with a different style. In country music, artists including Rissi Palmer and Cowboy Troy have topped the charts. The Rock-and-Roll genre has been impacted by African American styles of music. Historically, one of the greatest examples of this phenomenon was the collaboration of Aerosmith and Run-DMC on ‘‘Walk this Way.’’ Such collaborations are exhibited in the partnership of Jay-Z and Linkin Park or the Kid Rock and Lil’ Wayne performance at the MTV awards in August 2008. See also: Aerosol Art; Blues and Blues Festivals; Deejaying; Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Rap Music and Rappers; Rap, Crossover Forms; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Boyer, Horace. 2006. ‘‘Gospel Music.’’ In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2nd ed., Vol. 3. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Maultsby, Portia. 2006. ‘‘Music in the United States.’’ In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, 2d ed., Vol. 4. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Pollard, Deborah S. 2008. When the Church Becomes Your Party: Contemporary Gospel Music. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Shuker, Roy. 2008. Understanding Popular Music Culture. New York: Routledge. Southern, Eileen. 1997. The Music of Black Americans: A History. New York: Norton. Shantrie Collins
Population From the fifteenth century into the present day, people of African descent have represented a distinct segment of the American population, with statistical numbers ranging from 19 percent in 1790 when the first U.S. Census was taken to the current estimate of 12.9 percent. African Americans make up the largest racial minority group in the United States and the second-largest racial group overall, despite the visible lack of racial diversity in a number of regions
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throughout the country. Trends in both domestic and international migration, as well as geographical surveys taken from U.S. population studies, indicate that large numbers of African American citizens tend to live in select geographical regions with access to communities of common interest and shared cultural backgrounds. This assessment can also be verified through the analysis of several notable periods in American history, including the rise of international immigration during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (specifically involving prominent regions of the African diaspora, including the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa), the massive migration of African Americans from the South to the North (and West) during Reconstruction and beyond (known as the ‘‘Great Migration’’ and the second migration), and finally, the reversal of this pattern in the late 1970s (commonly referred to as ‘‘the return to the Sunbelt’’). The study of the African American population provides important insight into population trends in popular culture; for example, migration patterns and trends toward settlement in particular regions or cities. History From 1619 to 1790. The first Africans to settle in North America arrived as indentured servants in 1619. Landing in Jamestown, Virginia, these African transplants were originally thought to be similar in legal status to poor whites: trading labor for passage to the colonies with the expectation of freedom following an established period of servitude. Upon arrival in the colonies, however, it was soon evident that the legal status of this group of Africans was poorly defined; only some of the black indentured servants managed to gain freedom. In 1649, Virginia only reported around three hundred black laborers and by 1661, the state had enacted legalized slavery, becoming one of several states to institute this practice initiated by the Dutch in 1621. The Dutch West Indies Company imported blacks to serve on Hudson Valley Farms; in 1672, the king of England followed suit and chartered the Royal African Company to ship slaves into trading ports like Hampton, Jamestown, and Yorktown. The colonies then began to enact laws regulating slavery and slave relations (including those between slave and slave master or mistress). This was important with regard to the assessment practices used in early population statistics because as a rule, all slaves were assumed to be black or of black descent. The laws were occasionally unclear about the offspring of black and white parents; however, the prevailing notion was that all children with at least one black parent were presumed to be black. As such, they were eligible for enslavement and counted among the black population. Notwithstanding several attempts to end slavery prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, including slave revolts led by rebels in colonies like Virginia and South Carolina, the population of blacks in America continued to flourish and by 1790, when the first census was taken, African Americans totalled approximately 800,000 people. 1790–1900. The 1800 U.S. Census Report estimated the number of African Americans in the United States to be around 1,002,037, about 18.9 percent of
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the total population at the time (5,309,000 persons). Although slavery had essentially been abolished in Northern states, New York and New Jersey still had a noticeable population of enslaved persons (around 36,505). The vast majority of the slave population was concentrated in southern and/or rural areas, as the enormous success and popularity of the cotton gin and the prevailing agrarian culture of the South was founded on and supported by slave labor. In 1850, the black population rose to around 3.6 million persons (15.7 percent), half a million of whom were freedmen (freed slaves). By 1860, the number had reached 4.4 million (14 percent). After slavery was officially abolished in 1863, the collection of statistics for the African American population was initially more difficult (especially with regard to the former slaves, who were no longer legally attached to slave owners or plantations). This historical period, known as the Reconstruction Era, is characterized as transitional, as many former slaves began to relocate and work to establish an independent community within the context of mainstream American society, which was also in a state of redevelopment. Indeed, the formation of the black community undoubtedly aided in the collection of population statistics; by the end of the nineteenth century, according to the 1900 U.S. Census Report, the African American population was recorded at 8,833,994, constituting 11.6 percent of the total U.S. population. The marked decrease in percentage is credited to the expanding population in the country, which had grown to around 76,094,000 as a result of the increasing number of European immigrants. African Americans, however, still made up the secondlargest racial group in the country. 1900–Present. By 1910, the number of blacks in the United States had reached 9,827,763 (10.7 percent). Changes in the American social, economic, and geographical landscape had little impact on the growth of the black population; despite a reduction in representation on the statistical map (which reached an all-time low of 9.8 percent in the 1940 U.S. Census Report), the number of persons of African descent in the United States was estimated at 15 million in 1950, which was calculated as 10 percent of the overall population. From 1950 to the present, the African American population has increased substantially, reaching 36.4 million (12.9 percent) in 2000, according to the 2000 U.S. Census Report. This estimation also includes members of the international community, which experienced a significant increase in its black population that began as far back as the in the late nineteenth century. Migration: International and Domestic Many African Americans living in the United States are either the descendants of slaves brought over from several African countries during the seventeenth century or the early wave of West Indian and Latin American immigrants to settle in the U.S. during the early twentieth century. Because the slave trade was illegal by 1808, relatively few people of African descent settled in the United States over the next several years (especially in comparison to the
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overwhelming number of European immigrants). The next influx of black immigrants arrived in the early twentieth century from other countries throughout the African diaspora, namely those in Latin America and the Caribbean (West Indies), often settling in New York or Miami. The West Indian immigrants, in particular, tended to make up large segments of the black communities in those port cities. Although this period of increased immigration waned by the early 1930s, it was resurrected by the late 1960s and early 1970s, when a substantial increase in Caribbean, Latin American, and African citizens began emigrating to the United States in growing numbers. This pattern of growth continues into the present day, with a current estimation of 2.8 million persons of African descent in the American international community. Following the end of slavery and during the Reconstruction Era, legions of African Americans began leaving the South for northern, midwestern, and western cities hoping to escape the racism, poverty, and difficult living conditions. This movement was called the Great Migration, and it lasted from about 1890 to 1970 (with a decade-long break from 1930 to 1940). In search of better employment opportunities, many blacks began settling in cities like New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and finding work in the service industry. Up to that point, the southern states hosted the largest populations of blacks in the country. In an ironic reversal of this trend, blacks began moving back to the Sunbelt (southern states like Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia) in the late 1970s after the factory industry was deindustrialized, social and living conditions were improved in the South, and families began to reunite. In the 2000 U.S. Census, which counts African Americans as 12.9 percent (36.4 million) of the overall population, Texas, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, and Louisiana were among the top ten states with the largest population of African Americans. See also: Africa and the African Diaspora; Afro-Hispanic Blending; Caribbean Cultural Influences; New Orleans Further Reading Bennett, Lerone. 2007. Before the Mayflower. Chicago: Johnson Publishing. Farley, Reynolds. 1970. Growth of the Black Population: A Study of Demographic Trends. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Franklin, John Hope and Alfred A. Moss Jr. 1994. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Gregory, James Noble. 2005. The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Kent, Mary Medetios. 2007. ‘‘Immigration and America’s Black Population.’’ Population Bulletin 63 (December): 3–16. Murdock, Steve H. 1996. An America Challenged: Population Change and the Future of the United States. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Lynn Washington
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Powell, Adam Clayton Jr. (1908–72), Congressman, Activist, Pastor America’s second black congressman, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., spoke boldly for equal rights in the decades before the Civil Rights Movement. New York’s first black congressman served eleven terms in the House of Representatives while also preaching at New York City’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, one of the nation’s largest black congregations. Prior to his congressional career, Powell served as New York’s first black city councilman. Son of Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and Mattie Fletcher Powell, he began life November 29, 1908, in New Haven, Connecticut, where his father pastored Immanuel Baptist Church. Soon after his birth, the family moved to New York City and the Abyssinian Baptist Church. He characterized his childhood as ‘‘spoiled.’’ Powell graduated from Townsend High School at sixteen. During his freshman year at City College of New York, his older sister, Blanche, died when her appendix ruptured. Deeply affected and by now in academic difficulty, Powell dropped out and returned home. A transfer student at Colgate University, light-skinned Powell experienced lack of acceptance by both whites and blacks. Despite an active nightlife, he graduated in 1930. His parents funded a European tour, hoping his interest in Cotton Club dancer Isabel Washington would wane. After the trip, Powell attended Union Theological Seminary. Ordained in 1930, Powell became business manager and assistant pastor at Abyssinian. In 1932, he received a master’s degree in religious education from Columbia University. Shaw University (1938) and Virginia Commonwealth University (1947) bestowed honorary degrees. In March 1933, Powell married Isabel Washington and adopted her son, Preston, from a previous marriage. During the Great Depression, Powell oversaw Abyssinan’s soup kitchen and its relief effort that provided food and clothing to thousands of impoverished families. In 1935, he began writing ‘‘The Soap Box’’ column for the New York Amsterdam News, regularly attacking discrimination. When his father retired in 1937, Powell became pastor at Abyssinian and brought to his preaching the passion and flamboyance that characterized his political involvement. Through his organization and leadership of the Greater New York Coordinating Committee for Employment, department stores, telephone companies, and even the 1939 World’s Fair hired blacks. The 1942 United Negro Bus Strike prompted the hiring of black bus drivers. Harlem Hospital rehired black doctors displaced to make room for whites. In 1941, Powell became the first African American elected to the New York City Council. In 1942, he founded and edited People’s Voice, a Harlem newspaper. In 1943, Powell received the Dorie Miller and Meyer Levin Award and an award from the American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists, and Scientists. His book Marching Blacks: An Interpretive History of the Rise of the Black Common Man appeared in 1945. After his divorce that year, he married pianist and singer Hazel Scott. They had one son, Adam Clayton Powell III.
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Deciding to run for Congress, Powell focused his platform on legislating fair employment, abolishing poll taxes, and making Lynching a federal crime. In 1945, he took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as one of two African American congressmen. He held the office for twenty-three years (1945–1967, 1969–70) while serving as pastor at Abyssinian. In 1951 and 1952, Powell served as a delegate to the Parliamentary World Conference in London. In 1954, Ethiopia’s emperor Haile Selassie visited Abyssinian and awarded Powell the Knight of the Golden Cross for his relief work. In 1960, after a second divorce, Powell married Yvette Diago, his staff secretary. They had one son, Adam Diago Powell. In 1961, Powell served as delegate to the International Labor Organization conference in Geneva. The congressman became known for the Powell Amendment, his attempt to deny federal funds wherever discrimination existed. In 1961, he found his opportunity for significant impact. For seven years, he served as chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, which shepherded forty-eight major laws, including Civil Rights, Minimum Wage, Manpower Development and Training, Anti-Poverty, Juvenile Delinquency, Vocational Education, and National Defense acts. During the 105s and 1960s, Powell faced tax evasion charges. Then in a 1960 television interview, he called Harlem widow Esther James a ‘‘bag woman’’—a graft collector for the police. James filed suit, launching an eight-year legal battle. Powell’s wife, even though separated from him, pled for leniency. He ignored subpoenas and refused to pay the $46,500 in damages. His already apparent absenteeism in Congress heightened. In 1962, accompanied by two young women, he embarked on a European tour. Fellow congressional representatives attacked Powell for misconduct and misuse of public funds. In 1967, a subcommittee revoked his chairmanship, and the House voted 307 to 116 to exclude him from Congress. Powell appealed to the Supreme Court. In 1968, found guilty of contempt of court in the James case, he escaped arrest by retreating to Bimini in the Bahamas. Despite his absence, in a special election, Harlem voters overwhelmingly reelected Powell. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled Powell’s exclusion from Congress unconstitutional. Assessed a $25,000 fine and losing his seniority, he returned in 1969. Soon thereafter, doctors diagnosed prostate cancer, and Powell announced his retirement. Later, he decided to run for reelection but lost. Powell returned to Bimini, where companion Darlene Expose cared for him. He retired from the church in April 1971 and died April 4, 1972, in Miami after complications from surgery. After the funeral at Abyssinian Baptist Church, honoring Powell’s will, Expose scattered his ashes in the waters of South Bimini. Powell’s New York Times obituary aptly characterized him: ‘‘He was at once the leader of the largest church congregation in the nation, a political demagogue, a Congressional rebel, a civil rights leader three decades before the Montgomery bus boycott, a wheeler-dealer, a rabble-rouser, a grandstander, a fugitive, a playboy and a most effective chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor despite a high absentee rate in Congress.’’ See also: Politics and Government
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Further Reading Glickman, Simon. 1992. ‘‘Adam Clayton Powell Jr.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale Research. Hamilton, Charles V. 1991. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. New York: Atheneum. Johnson, Thomas A. 1972. ‘‘A Man of Many Roles.’’ New York Times, April 5. Jones-Cornwell, Ilene. 1999. ‘‘Adam Clayton Powell Jr.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Powell, Adam Clayton Jr. 1971. Adam by Adam. New York: Dial Press. Marie Garrett
Powell, Colin (1937– ), United States Army General, Secretary of State, Colin Powell was a key strategist during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm during the Gulf War in 1990–91. Powell was the first African American and the youngest man to serve as the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell was secretary of state under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. Colin Luther Powell is a first-generation American born April 3, 1937, to Luther Powell, a shipping clerk and Maud Ariel, a seamstress. Powell’s parents emigrated from Jamaica, finding work in New York’s garment industry. Born in Harlem, Powell grew up in the South Bronx section of New York City. Powell graduated from high school in 1954. Although Powell was an average student in high school and college, he excelled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at City College of New York. Powell graduated with a BA in geology in 1958. Powell did so well in ROTC that he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army in 1958. Although the main thrust of his career was military and government service, Powell continued his education, earning an MBA from George Washington University in 1971, and graduating from the National War College in 1976. Powell excelled as a military man, ultimately reaching the rank of General (four star) in 1989. Powell had many tours of duty while in the Army including two tours in West Germany (1958–61 and 1986–87), and two tours in South Vietnam (1962–63 and 1968–69). Powell served as a battalion commander in South Korea in 1973. Powell achieved the rank of colonel in 1976, serving from 1976–77 as commander of the Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division which was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In 1979, Powell was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. Following this assignment Powell served as assistant commander of the Fourth Infantry at Fort Carson, Colorado (1981 to 1983), and then was posted to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1983 where he served as deputy commander and achieved the rank of major general. In 1986, Powell was promoted to lieutenant general. Sent to Frankfurt, West Germany, in 1987, Powell became the commanding general of the Fifth Corps of the U.S. Army. In 1989, Powell achieved the rank of general and became commander in chief of Fort McPherson, Georgia’s U.S. Forces Command.
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Powell’s political career spans more than two decades and includes service under Democratic and Republican administrations. Powell received a White House fellowship (1972–73), during which he worked at the Office of Management and Budget. Powell returned to Washington, DC, from 1979 to 1981 working in the Carter administration as assistant to the secretary of energy as well as senior military assistant under the deputy secretary of defense. Powell also worked with Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger from 1983 to 1986 as military assistant. Powell returned to Washington, DC, to work with then national security advisor Frank Carlucci following the Iran Contra Colin L. Powell served as a four-star general in the U.S. scandal in 1986. Powell Army. He was national security advisor to President always insisted on followRonald Reagan in 1987, the first African American to hold that post. He also became the first African ing the letter of the law American secetary of state in 2001. (Library of Congress) and was unscathed by the scandal. From 1987 to 1989, Powell served as assistant to the president on the National Security Council. Powell’s work was acclaimed by both political parties. In fact Powell served under four presidents, including Carter, Reagan, and both Bushes. Despite the fact that Powell had no compunction speaking out when he disagreed with the president or other politicos Powell continued to excel in the political arena. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush appointed Powell Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; thus Powell became the youngest man to be appointed to this post. Powell served in this capacity until 1993. As such, Powell was the driving force behind Operation Desert Shield (the military defense of Saudi
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Arabia from invasion by Iraq) and Operation Desert Storm (the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi hands). When George W. Bush was elected President of the United States, Powell was Bush’s choice for secretary of state. Powell served in this capacity from 2001 until 2004, when Bush continued to ignore Powell’s advice to use diplomacy instead of military force to deal with the problems in Iraq. In 2008 as in prior election years, Powell was suggested as a presidential nominee; however, Powell declined. Instead, Powell endorsed the candidacy of Barack Obama. Over the course of Powell’s career, he earned more than twenty-five U.S. awards, military badges, and decorations, including two Purple Hearts (1963 and 1969), a Bronze Star (1963), a Soldier’s Medal (1969), and the Legion of Merit (1972) while stationed in Vietnam when he rescued two soldiers during a helicopter crash. In addition, Powell has received at least six foreign medals and citations from Vietnam, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Bulgaria. Powell also received the Secretary’s Award for exceptional service in American foreign policy in 1988 and is a two-time recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award (both in 1993). One was awarded for military service and the other for service as a cabinet member. Powell’s commitment encompasses public service as well as military and political service. In 1991, Powell won the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Spingarn Medal. Powell was the chair of the 1990 Volunteer Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose purpose was to get more Americans to volunteer to help others. To this end, Powell has been chair since 1997 of the Alliance for Youth, which is part of the children’s advocacy organization America’s Promise Alliance. Since leaving government/military service Powell has been in demand as a public speaker. He became a limited partner in Kleiner, Caufield & Byers based in California’s Silicone Valley; the company works to help companies in areas such as green technology, bioscience, and information technology get off the ground. In 2005, Powell published his autobiography My American Journey, which won France’s Alexis de Tocqueville Prize. In 2007, Powell was named to the board of directors of Apple founder Steve Case’s Revolution Health foundation. Powell also served as spokesperson for the 2008 National Mentoring Month campaign which recruits mentors for at risk youth in the United States. Powell has been married to Alma Vivian Johnson since August 25, 1962. Johnson is a speech pathologist. The couple have three children, Michael born in 1963, Linda born in 1965, and Annemarie born in 1970. See also: Buffalo Soldiers Further Reading De Young, Karen. 2006. Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Powell, Colin. 2005. My American Journey. New York: Random House. Anne K. Driscoll
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Prince (1958– ), Singer, Musician, Actor Prince is recognized in popular culture for popularizing an androgynous and overt display of sexuality in his art. His music, informed by his sexuality, defied strict music categorization and made him one of the first major black recording artists in popular culture to have a cult following. This following meant that Prince enjoyed both mainstream and alternative underground popularity. Prince Rogers Nelson was born June 7, 1958, to Matti Shaw and John Nelson in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In his teenage years, Prince experimented musically. One of his more successful ventures was with the group 94 East. Prince eventually established a music contract as a single artist in the late 1970s. His first album, For You (1978), with the hit single, ‘‘Soft and Wet,’’ was quickly followed by his album Prince (1979) which produced multiple hits including ‘‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’’ and ‘‘Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad.’’ The release of his third album Dirty Mind (1980) clearly established part of his agenda: sexual ambiguity and a rebellion from the sexual norms of American society. While Dirty Mind had limited mainstream success, including a single named for the album title, it did produce a number of cult classics, such as ‘‘Head’’ and ‘‘Sister.’’ The progress of Prince’s sexualized agenda continued with his albums Controversy (1981) and the album entitled 1999 (1984). However, the full articulation of his agenda of sexual rebellion and the glorification of biracial and transracial identity was realized in the production of the film and album Purple Rain. The androgynous and highly sexualized identity, along with the romanticization of miscegenation and a multiracial identity became quintessential to the name Prince. In the next ten years, Prince continued to enjoy success, leading two different groups: the Revolution and New Power Generation. With the Revolution, Prince produced a number of albums including the soundtrack for Purple Rain (1984) and Parade (1986), the soundtrack for his film Under the Cherry Moon. In 1990, Prince began promoting New Power Generation, with whom he produced the film and album, Graffiti Bridge, and a number of other albums. In 1993, Prince renounced his name and assumed a symbol as his identification. The decision was a result of Prince’s disputes with Warner Brothers. The symbol was demonstrative of his protests of consumerism and the exploitation of artists by the music industry. To some critics the symbol is representative of Prince’s multiracial, transsexual, and ambiguous identity, while others have said that the symbol is indicative of his recognition of the relative impermanence and reductive nature of the human condition. This shift from name to symbol brought a pronounced change in the way Prince’s music was recognized and promoted. He soon after established his own label with very limited marketing. Since 2000, Prince, or rather the symbolic representation of the artist formerly known as Prince, has had limited success. His recent ventures lack the sensationalism and innovation of his earlier efforts that made him successful. Prince’s agenda, once considered unique and shocking, is no longer cutting edge. So many of today’s artists advance this agenda that it is now mainstream.
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Prince is significant because of his musical innovations in the 1980s and 1990s. He supported many artists by writing songs for them and by providing exposure and a venue by which they could begin their careers. Morris Day and the Time, Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Sheila E., Lisa and Wendy, and New Power Generation are only a few of the more pronounced examples of his influence. Prince’s imprint on the music world should not be underestimated nor limited solely to the groups and artists he discovered and produced. His challenge to conventional understandings of art and identity has contributed to a broadening of art, identity, and popular culture. See also: Biracialism; Composers; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Appiah, Kwame Anthony, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. 1999. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. 5 vols. New York: Basic Civitas Books. Manheim, James M., and Derek Jacques. 2009. ‘‘Prince.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 65. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research. Rebecca S. Dixon
Prison Reform To date, approximately 2.3 million Americans are in prison (Bureau of Justice Statistics), which is five times greater than the world’s average incarceration rate. According to Senator Jim Webb’s Web site, African Americans constitute the largest percentage of the prison population. African Americans are far more likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses than other groups, with 74 percent of drug offenders being sentenced to prison at higher rates than Caucasians. Additionally, there are still staggering disparities in sentencing between African Americans and other races. However, in the face of increasing costs, deteriorating conditions, and overcrowding coupled with little to no evidence of increased rehabilitation or reduced crime, there is a need to address potential prison reform. Some African American organizations, churches, and individuals share this concern and have set a trend in popular culture to bring about change in the prison system. Prison reform is the socioeconomic effort to change the criminal justice or penal system from one model of penology to another. Penology refers to the study and practice of prison management and criminal rehabilitation, including methods of punishment, repression, crime prevention, prisoners’ rights, and deterrence or prevention of recidivism (the relapse into criminal or delinquent behavior after being released from prison). Fundamental changes discussed under the reform ideology include both social and economic factors. Socially, improving individual prisoner development by
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increasing education, job training, and self-worth are proposed ideas versus putative measures. Community-based programs and reform schools or boot camps are proposed to implement this model. Economic factors indicate the building of prisons is now more than just for population control. Prison management is now widely considered a profitable venture, providing prison labor, services, and complexes across the nation. However, the average state resident has been paying the cost of maintaining these facilities at over $100 per capita annually since 2001 and may be satisfied to do so under the psychology of ‘‘safety’’ and ‘‘punishment’’ versus actual rehabilitation and reintegration of convicted persons back into society. Historians link the humanitarian efforts throughout Europe of John Howard (1726–90) as the foundation of modern prison reform. Howard’s foresight is continued by many organizations throughout Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Other influential contributors to the movement include Isaac Hopper (1771–1852), an American abolitionist and father of the Underground Railroad who worked as a volunteer prison inspector and later contributed to the Prison Association of New York alongside his daughter Abby H. Gibbons; Dorothea Dix (1802–87), who advocated for improved conditions in facilities for the mentally disabled and indigently insane; Samuel June Barrow (1845– 1909), who held the post of international prison commissioner for the U.S. in 1895 and in 1900 became secretary of the Prison Association of New York; and Angela Davis (1944–), an African American abolitionist and retired professor who cofounded Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement to abolish the prison industrial complex. In January 2009, President Barack Obama issued three executive orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in response to accusations against the George W. Bush administration of torture against terrorist suspects in custody at the U.S. naval base. Additionally, President Obama advocates other reform schemes, including giving first-time, nonviolent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, if appropriate, in drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than prison terms in changing behavior; and improving ex-offender employment and job retention strategies, substance abuse treatment, and mental health counseling for exoffenders to successfully rejoin society. Virginia’s Senator Jim Webb (1946–) bolstered President Obama’s efforts in March 2009 by introducing bipartisan-supported legislation known as the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, which will create a commission charged with undertaking an eighteen-month, top-to-bottom review of the entire U.S. criminal justice system. Thus far, the Act has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting the full vote of the U.S. Senate of the 111th Congress. Furthermore, companion legislation has been introduced and passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2010. See also: Drugs and Popular Culture; Law Enforcement Further Reading Bell, James. 2006. ‘‘Correcting the System of Unequal Justice.’’ In The Covenant with Black America. Chicago: Third World Press.
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Cayley, David. 1998. The Expanding Prison: The Crisis in Crime and Punishment and the Search for Alternatives. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press and House of Anansi Press. Davis, Angela Y. 2003. Are Prisons Obsolete? Toronto: Hushion House. Russell-Brown, Katheryn. 2009. The Color of Crime. 2nd ed. New York: New York University Press. The Sentencing Project. http://sentencingproject.org. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2009. ‘‘Prisoners in 2008.’’ Office of Justice Programs. December 8. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1763. Walker, Samuel, Cassia Spohn, and Miriam DeLone. 2007. The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Webb, Senator Jim. http://webb.senate.gov/issuesandlegislation/criminaljusticeandlaw enforcement/Criminal_Justice_Banner.cfm. Taffie N. Jones
Prophets and Spiritualists The prophetic tradition has been part of virtually every culture, society, and religion, including the many African tribal cultures which were affected by the transatlantic slave trade. Called by names including or translated as ‘‘medicine man,’’ ‘‘shaman,’’ ‘‘witch doctor,’’ ‘‘healer,’’ ‘‘priest,’’ ‘‘imam,’’ and ‘‘griot’’ in various African native groups, persons in these roles functioned as mediators and representatives of the spiritual and supernatural realm, and continued their practices in the midst of the harsh realities of slavery or freedom in a new and strange land. Even after adopting Christianity (the dominant religion of European Americans), many blacks who became ‘‘slave preachers’’ believed that they were chosen as prophetic instruments to be used by God to speak, lead, heal, and operate for the benefit of their people. Others felt the same way, but did not necessarily tie their prophetic calling to a formal religious structure or organization. As a result, their credibility depended on their ability to back up their pronouncements and presentations with evidence and action that distinguished the true prophets from the false prophets, similar to examples in the Old and New Testament, Koran/Qu’ran, and other religious literature. Prophets of the Slave Era In the early nineteenth century, Jarena Lee, Rebecca Cox Jackson, and Amanda Berry Smith indicated that they experienced religious or prophetic visions and other profound spiritual moments which inspired them to preach, despite limited support and lack of official recognition by their denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Lee continued as a traveling AME preacher and evangelist since she was not allowed to pastor a church. Jackson eventually left the AME Church and affiliated with the Shakers, a religious sect who affirmed her as an authentic prophet(ess), while Smith traveled internationally as an independent evangelist and missionary.
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Other examples during this period included Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner, preachers who felt they received direct revelation from God and the Bible to attempt slave revolts, divinely inspired by biblical texts, including accounts of Hebrew slavery and liberators such as Moses, Joshua, and Samson, and empowered by a God of justice who was on the side of the oppressed. Even though the insurrections were unsuccessful and the insurgents were all executed for their actions, the faith, courage, and credibility of these men in the African American community was demonstrated by Nat Turner’s simple, yet profound statement/question before he was hanged, ‘‘Was not Christ crucified?’’ In 1829, Robert Alexander Young published his mystical visions as the ‘‘Ethiopian Manifesto,’’ which included a direct warning to slaveholders of divine judgment, and one of the earliest known prophecies of a black messiah (savior) ‘‘who would champion the cause of the degraded of this earth.’’ During the same year David Walker (not a preacher but a devout Methodist layman) wrote and published his ‘‘Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,’’ which was recognized as the most powerful statement against slavery ever written by a black man. Born to a slave father and free mother in North Carolina, he vowed to leave the South and moved to Boston as an adult, intending to ‘‘be avenged for the sorrow which my people have suffered.’’ Walker also believed that despite the potential danger to himself, God had commanded him to pronounce judgment, not just upon the evils of slavery and the plantation, but also the corruption of the Christian faith by whites who claimed belief in the same God and Bible. His ‘‘Appeal’’ was widely distributed in pamphlet form, discussed and debated both North and South, and put him in jeopardy as slaveholders reportedly offered a reward of $3,000 for his life. He was advised to leave Boston for Canada, but refused to do so, and was found dead under mysterious circumstances in 1830. Harriet Tubman, who suffered a severe head injury which caused seizures, reported that she experienced dreams and revelations from God that directed her abolitionist activities, including the liberation of hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad. Despite being a woman, she was often called ‘‘Moses,’’ ‘‘general,’’ or ‘‘conductor’’ because of her courage, successful leadership, and ability to avoid capture or arrest by slave catchers. Sojourner Truth (formerly Isabella Baumfree) said that she was divinely inspired to change her name after one of her many religious visions, as well as to speak forcefully about both women’s rights and suffrage and the abolition of slavery on moral, religious, and legal and political grounds. Other women adapted African cultural and religious roles as priestesses, queens, midwives, diviners, herbalists, and prophetesses into American Christianity and other religions. In most cases, women functioned outside of the maledominated mainstream denominations and faiths patterned after white and European traditions as ‘‘spiritual mothers,’’ ‘‘conjure women,’’ ‘‘fortune tellers,’’ etc., with the generations of Marie Laveaus, the ‘‘voodoo queens’’ based in New Orleans, as well-known examples. Voudun (voodoo) has been described as a combination of traditional African religion with Catholicism, and the term ‘‘vodu,’’ derived from West African
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languages, is translated to mean ‘‘set apart,’’ ‘‘sacred,’’ or ‘‘holy.’’ However, blacks and others who practiced its rituals and customs were almost always identified as cultists and spiritualists given over to sorcery, witchcraft, or other evil and demonic spiritual influences. The African roots and connections in voodoo were obvious despite the negative labeling of it as ‘‘heathen,’’ yet its leaders and mystique continued to make it a force to be reckoned with alongside more Europeanized religious and cultural practices. Other African Americans sought to modify religions such as Islam and Judaism for the American setting, such as Noble Drew Ali, founder of the Moorish Science Temple in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey; Wallace D. Fard and Elijah Mohammad, originators of the Nation of Islam; and W. S. Cherry, founder of the Church of God/Black Jews/Black Hebrews. These men and others usually were considered by themselves and their followers as prophets (but as leaders of cults by outsiders), as they promoted new and controversial ‘‘revelations’’ and doctrines regarding these religions. Africans or blacks were often proclaimed as ‘‘God’s chosen people,’’ while European whites, Semitic Jews, Arabs, or others traditionally associated with these faiths were often portrayed as deceivers, false believers, or even devils because of historic or continuing roles as oppressors of African peoples. Practices Following the Great Migration As African Americans began to populate urban areas in greater numbers during the Great Migration in the early twentieth century, the wide variety of religious and cultural practices expanded in the cities, in some cases literally side by side in neighborhood storefront ministries. Many other self-styled prophets, evangelists, and healers offered their services to the community, basing their ministries on the desires as well as perceived spiritual needs of individuals and families seeking to survive and thrive in the Northeast, Midwest, West, and other regions of the country. While some maintained ties to more orthodox Christian traditions or the Pentecostal/Holiness movement (which also began in the first years of the twentieth century), others blurred the line by using personal charisma to attract followers to believe in them as not just representatives, but manifestations of God. Famous examples in this category included J. Divine and his Peace Mission Movement; Charles Emmanuel Grace and his United House of Prayer for All People; James Francis Marion Jones and his Church of the Universal Triumph of the Dominion of God; Solomon Lightfoot Michaux, and Rosa Artimus Horne. While Michaux was called the ‘‘Happy Am I Prophet’’ and Horne was known as the ‘‘Pray For Me Priestess,’’ Jones claimed that God spoke directly to him in his right ear, giving him the power to heal and prophesy. Divine and Grace were actually worshipped as God by many of their followers. Prophetic Activists and Their Philosophies Important African American activist leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Alain Locke, Baptist Christian minister Martin Luther King Jr., and Muslim Nation of Islam minister Malcolm X did not promote themselves as
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prophets, but their statements, actions, philosophies, leadership, and charisma had great impact in black communities, the United States, and the world. The Du Bois statement in his classic work, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), that ‘‘the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line’’ was seen as prophetic at the time and borne out by future developments. While Du Bois clashed personally and publicly with Garvey and his ‘‘Back to Africa’’ philosophy and movement, he agreed with Garvey’s public statements regarding ‘‘Africa for the Africans,’’ as both men anticipated the independence of African nations in the second half of the twentieth century. Locke’s philosophical and intellectual leadership in African American culture can also be perceived as prophetic based on his cultural manifesto, ‘‘The New Negro,’’ published during the Harlem Renaissance period of the 1920s. He specifically stated that ‘‘Harlem . . . isn’t typical—but it is significant, it is prophetic’’ as a center for African American progress. Jean Toomer, one of the leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance, became a follower of white spiritualist and mystic George Gurdjieff for several years and attempted to attract other African American colleagues to the Gurdjieff cult. King was called a ‘‘prophet of nonviolence’’ by some for his application of ideas attributed to Jesus, Henry David Thoreau, and Mohandas K. ‘‘Mahatma’’ Gandhi to address civil and human rights problems faced by African Americans, while Malcolm X was often portrayed as a ‘‘prophet of rage’’ for his more militant rhetoric and approach to racial issues. After both met untimely deaths at the hands of assassins (especially in the case of King, who prophesied his own death in his ‘‘I’ve Been To The Mountaintop’’ speech), both men were considered to be martyrs as well as prophetic voices silenced for speaking truth to power. In later years black supremacy also became the primary doctrine of Albert Cleage, who founded the Black Christian Nationalist Movement and the Shrine of the Black Madonna in Detroit in 1967. Formerly a congregation affiliated with the United Church of Christ, the church shift reflected Cleage’s teachings that Jesus, his mother, and other notable persons in the Bible were Africans. He also considered Jesus as a black revolutionary martyr, cited the 1829 Ethiopian Manifesto among sources supporting his beliefs, and added Malcolm X and King as latter-day black martyrs. As prophet and leader, Cleage later changed his name to Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, and expanded into other cities as the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church denomination. Material prosperity was emphasized by Frederick Eikerenkoetter II (known as Reverend Ike), who established his United Church Science of Living Institute in New York City in 1966. He preached ‘‘green power’’ instead of ‘‘black power,’’ stated that ‘‘the lack (instead of love) of money is the root of all evil,’’ used television and radio as well as church services to solicit cash donations, sent donors ‘‘miracle prayer cloths,’’ and called himself ‘‘the first black man in America to preach positive self-image psychology to the black masses within a church setting.’’ He said of his protege, E. Bernard Jordan, that ‘‘there is money in the mouth of the prophet,’’ and encouraged his followers to believe in the power of
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wealth in the ‘‘here and now’’ as opposed to heavenly rewards for Christian living in the hereafter. While many prophets, healers, spiritualists, fortune-tellers, and other persons claiming spiritual insight frequently advertised their services in African American newspapers, Lightfoot and Reverend Ike were among the first black religious figures to embrace and employ the power of television. As a result, they became media celebrities as well as religious entrepreneurs. Their boldness in defying traditional approaches to ministry brought interest as well as notoriety, and their personal flamboyance and extravagance may have actually contributed to their appeal among poorer African Americans, much as ‘‘Father Divine,’’ ‘‘Daddy Grace,’’ ‘‘Prophet Jones,’’ and others had done decades earlier. A New Day ‘‘Preaching Woman’’ Emerges In the last decade of the twentieth century, Juanita Bynum (a self-styled prophetess) became the first African American ‘‘preaching woman’’ to use religious conferences and conventions, video, books, and musical recordings as multiple platforms to become a well-known religious personality, although not without her own share of controversy. Raised in Chicago, she demonstrated early dramatic talent, but her family and religious upbringing in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) discouraged involvement in show business. After enduring a failed marriage, depression, a nervous breakdown, other fleeting relationships, menial jobs, and welfare, Bynum returned to Chicago and became a hairdresser and flight attendant before accepting her call to ministry. In 1996, Bynum met T. D. Jakes, who invited her to speak at a church conference in Dallas. Her candor about her personal issues in her message led to a popular video and book, No More Sheets, which collectively sold over a million copies, made her an overnight sensation in the African American religious community, and generated numerous preaching and speaking engagements nationally and internationally. Bynum also became a successful gospel music artist with a series of praise and worship recordings, but her sudden fame and prosperity brought criticism when she spent a million dollars on her wedding to Thomas Weeks, a bishop, in 2003, and again in 2007 after a highly publicized altercation with her husband, which led to another separation and divorce. Although Weeks was found guilty of assault, Bynum was also criticized for seemingly exploiting the case for personal publicity through national media outlets such as the Divorce Court and Good Morning America television programs and Essence magazine. When her story became a frequent topic of conversation, comedian and radio host Tom Joyner could not resist making a comment on his program to the effect that ‘‘if she was a prophetess, why didn’t she see all this coming?’’ Many African Americans continue to assume roles as prophetic voices within and outside of religious or spiritual contexts in the twenty-first century. Potential followers and other persons subject to their influence should carefully analyze the
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messengers as well as their messages before jumping on the bandwagon, realizing that truth, knowledge, and information can be issued from, as well as manipulated by, fellow human beings who ultimately have the same flaws and failings as those of us who do not present ourselves as prophets or spiritual leaders. See also: Black Hebrews; Black Theology; Caribbean Cultural Influences; Churches; Rastafarianism; Television Evangelism; Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc. Further Reading Carpenter, Bil. 2005. Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. Fauset, Arthur. 1970. Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults of the Urban North. New York: Octagon Books. Frazier, E. Franklin. 1963. The Negro Church in America. New York: Schocken Books. Haskins, Jim, and Kathleen Benson. 2007. Black Stars: African American Religious Leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. 2009. ‘‘Reverend Ike, Who Preached Riches, Dies at 74.’’ New York Times, July 29. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/nyregion/ 30ike.html. Lincoln, C. Eric, and Lawrence H. Mamiya. 1990. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Morris, Mike. 2007. ‘‘Juanita Bynum on Good Morning America: First Marriage was Abusive, Too.’’ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 26. Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 1999. Notable Black American Men. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research. Wilmore, Gayraud S. 1973. Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Examination of the Black Experience in Religion. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday. Fletcher F. Moon
Prostitution Prostitution, or the illegal act of selling sexual activities and or intercourse in the culture of African Americans, can be traced back to the physical and sexual abuse of female African American slaves. Female slaves who were still young and fertile were sold for more money than the older, less fertile ones. The masters would breed their female slaves with their strongest male slaves in order to get the best possible offspring to sell at slave auctions. Eventually, the masters sexually abused and assaulted their female slaves. The laws protected the masters and not the female slaves, who were viewed as property and not people. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, African American slaves did not limit the number of children they had, but rather practiced the sexual patterns that were forced upon them. Children were viewed as a blessing and commodity. Many white Americans believed African American women were incapable of controlling their sexual drives and by nature were very lustful; many white men
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took advantage of this stereotype. This eventually developed into a commodity of light-skinned female slaves; such trade was headquartered in New Orleans, where brothels and houses of prostitution flourished in order to service the demands of white southern men. After slavery was abolished, African American women were victims of gang rapes instead of being repeatedly raped and assaulted by their masters or overseers. After the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves and a large number of freedmen migrated to the North, many African Americans, especially males, had a difficult time finding employment. Many African American women were employed as domestic household help. In times of difficulty and financial need, African American women would sell themselves in order to provide for their families; in this instance it was not called prostitution but ‘‘treating.’’ This contributed to the image of African American women having insatiable sexual appetites. The black women’s club movement that began in the 1890s contributed to the social welfare of young black women who sought work beyond the South. Club women in urban areas, as well as those in smaller communities, opened working girl’s homes to these young women, providing them job training, medical aid, moral instruction, and protecting them from the sexual dangers of urban areas. They argued that all black women were vulnerable to sexual violence, including those who served as domestics in white homes. Outstanding among the groups that the club movement established was the National League for the Protection of Colored Women and Girls, founded in New York in 1906. Prostitution often resulted when black and white employment agencies went into the rural South to convince young women that employment opportunities abounded in the North. They also financed the women’s trips to the North, pressured them into signing contracts, and held them at their mercy, which often meant exploitation of the women’s sexuality. Again, agents of the black women’s groups, such as the White Rose Mission in New York, watched docks to prevent the women from becoming victimized when they arrived. Despite the persistent sexual abuse of black women and their historic socioeconomic vulnerability to being abused, the image of the oversexed, insatiable black woman is perpetuated today with the many music videos and movies in popular culture that portray African American women in the stereotypical mannerisms and garb of sexual promiscuity. Many young African American girls are left with the impression that the only reason they are alive is for the purpose of indiscriminate sex. Once an African American woman begins working as a prostitute, freedom from that profession is extremely difficult. It is evident in many courtrooms across the country that a double standard exists between African American prostitutes and Caucasian prostitutes in regard to the punishments given at sentencing for violating the law against that practice. African American prostitutes typically pay higher fines and receive longer jail sentences. Prostitution is still a major problem in African American culture. Too many women sell themselves on the streets to support their children, themselves, and
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their significant others. Many women see themselves with no other options because employment opportunities are limited. In many instances prostitution as the solution to financial problems is repeated from generation to generation. Due to the distrust of outsiders, many African American women feel uncomfortable asking for help when they are ready to stop selling themselves. See also: Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. 2005. Black Women in America. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Oxford University Press. Nelson, Vednita. 1993. ‘‘Prostitution: Where Racism and Sexism Intersect.’’ Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 1: 81–89. http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/how_ prostitution_works/000015.html. Catherine Culver
Protest Marches Protest marches, used as a demonstration mechanism used by American blacks during their mid-twentieth-century struggle to gain civil rights as asserted by the United States Constitution, were not a new strategy. Recognized as the most significant social movement in the history of the United States, the American black Civil Rights Movement ended legal racial segregation. Today, Americans’ popular understanding of protest stems from this campaign. During the modern movement for civil rights, American blacks on the grassroots level challenged the depreciating, systemic, and law-sanctioned structure of racialized segregation in the American South. Southern blacks and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) used a variety of protest stratagems including marches to end segregation and achieve racial parity. Pre-Modern Civil Rights Marches The 1963 March on Washington was not precedent-setting. Several marches or proposed marches occurred earlier. They included New York’s Silent Protest in March of 1917, the proposed 1941 march called by A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the May 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, and the 1958 Youth March for Integrated Schools, among others. American blacks still faced high unemployment, systemic denial of the right to vote, and the omnipresent racial segregation code of the South. The marches’ objectives had not been implemented, let alone achieved by 1963. The government’s failure to act on these goals prompted civil rights leaders to call for a march on Washington for economic, political, and social justice. Their goals
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were an all-encompassing civil rights bill that negated Jim Crow public accommodation practices, and the protection of their right to vote. They also wanted systems put in place to adequately address the breach of constitutional rights, a federal works program to train unemployed workers, and a Federal Fair Employment Practices Act banning discrimination in all employment. Since its founding the NAACP had been in the forefront of addressing U.S. civil wrongs. One of the first entities to stage a protest march, it took a visible stand against the racially motivated Lynching of blacks in the early twentieth century. Generally perceived in U.S. popular culture as an organization that fought against racial injustices through the courts, the NAACP on July 28, 1917, in New York City staged a silent march to protest against the July 2 massacre in East St. Louis, Illinois. Because blacks in East St. Louis were employed by a factory that held a government contract, angry whites ran amok destroying approximately $400,000 dollars worth of property, killing at least forty blacks, beating, lynching, and burning men, women, and children, and forcing over 6,000 blacks from their homes. Although people across the United States knew of and were horror-struck at the merciless violence perpetrated upon East St. Louis’s black citizens, the NAACP took the atrocities to the public domain by organizing a silent march from Fifth Avenue to Madison Square Park in New York. Dressed in white, between eight and ten thousand American blacks marched silently to the sound of muffled drums. Led by children, who were followed by women, with men coming up the rear, the march was organized as a public petition to President Woodrow Wilson to address lynching, disenfranchisement, Jim Crowism, and violence. Although they did not speak a single word, their concerns and messages were articulated on the picket signs as thousands of New Yorkers watched from the sidewalks. Noted as the first massive American black protest march in American history, it foreshadowed what would take place some forty-three years later in Nashville, Tennessee. Yet, before 1960, there would be other marches staged and sponsored by the NAACP and other civil rights organizations. One year before the founding of CORE, Randolph, the fearless labor leader, threatened to organize a nonviolent demonstration in Washington, DC. Supported by the National Urban League (NUL) and the NAACP, he acknowledged that the only way the executive branch of the United States government would take up the interests of blacks was if thousands marched on Washington. In response to Randolph’s threatened protest march, President Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Committee that forbade racial discrimination in the defense industry. For the first time, the threat of direct action caused the White House to act on its commitment to equal opportunity. Before the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the modern movement for civil rights, or the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, J. Frankie Pierce agitated to obtain restroom facilities for black women shopping in Nashville, Tennessee’s retail establishments. Adamantly objecting to the lack of restroom accommodations, Pierce led members of the City Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in a protest march to city hall, where they presented their demands. Consequently, Montgomery Ward became the first department store in Nashville to furnish restroom facilities for black women.
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On May 17, 1957, nearly 25,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, for a Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom to urge the federal government to fulfill the three-year-old Brown decision, as many southern states and local governments failed to execute the provisions of the court’s decree. The NAACP and the SCLC warned if the Eisenhower administration did not enforce the law and maintain order in the South, they would lead people to the nation’s capital to call attention to the domestic terror perpetrated toward black men, women, and children who sought freedom in their liberation struggle. When the federal government failed to take an affirmative position in favor of racial desegregation, Bayard Rustin and others organized the pilgrimage. It featured singing by Mahalia Jackson, who also later sang at the 1963 March on Washington, and speeches from Randolph, Mordecai Johnson, Fred Shuttlesworth, Roy O. Wilkins, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Charles Diggs. However, it was the ‘‘Give Us the Ballot’’ speech by Martin Luther King Jr. that forecast the movement’s future agenda. Using the rhetorical anaphora device of repetition, King’s speech signaled that voting rights was an imperative part of the black liberation struggle. The 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom was instrumental in laying the groundwork for future marches in the nation’s capital. In August 1958, Randolph headed a committee that organized the first Youth March for Integrated Schools that took place on October 25, 1958. Because there was still a need to focus the nation’s attention on the noncompliance of the Brown decision, a project was warranted that combined a moral appeal with the support of whites and blacks, and provided people from the North with a chance to demonstrate their accord with black children in the South who were on the front lines in the battle to desegregate public schools. On October 25, 1958, an interracial assemblage of 10,000 persons marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC, to the Lincoln Memorial. At the time of the march, Harry Belafonte led a small, interracial contingent of students to the White House to meet President Eisenhower or a representative of his administration, to no avail. A second march was held the following year. On April 18, 1959, an estimated 26,000 persons marched down the National Mall to the Sylvan Theater, where King, Randolph, Wilkins, and Charles Zimmerman, chair of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) addressed the crowd. Another student contingent went to the White House to give their demands to Eisenhower, again to no avail. A year later, the student Sit-in Movement and marches became a mainstay in the movement’s civil rights effort. Protest Marches of the 1960s With the student sit-in movement and economic boycott in full swing, on April 19, a would-be assassin hurled sticks of dynamite into the home of known civil rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby. Although the Loobys escaped death,
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leaders in Nashville’s black community called for a mass protest march to the office of Mayor Ben West. Familiar with New York’s silent march against lynching in 1917, C. T. Vivian, a minister, insisted that the silent strategy be the march’s protocol. Once 4,000 protestors started to march, and until they reached the courthouse square, bystanders only heard the thump of walking feet. It was on this day that Diane Nash, a student leader in the Nashville movement, asked West the question of the day and caused him to affirm that Nashville lunch counters should be desegregated. On May 10, 1960, Nashville became the first southern city to begin desegregating its lunch counters. Throughout the 1960s other marches took place to bring attention to American blacks and their quest for full, equal, and participatory inclusion in American society. Some four months prior to the 1963 March on Washington, another march or more appropriate ‘‘walk’’ took place to highlight the inequalities endured by American blacks. Bill Moore, a white mail carrier, atheist, and civil rights warrior, who is in the shadow of the movement’s civil rights history, launched a one-man campaign in April 1963. Moore, who planned to walk to Jackson, Mississippi, left Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 21, 1963, to hand-deliver a letter to Ross Barnett, Mississippi’s unwavering segregationist governor, urging him to reconsider his position on the desegregation of the races. Carrying a sandwich board sign that read ‘‘End Segregation in America’’ on one side and ‘‘Mississippi or Bust,’’ on the other side, Moore was taunted and berated by racists as he made his solitary civil rights march along the Deep South highways. Two days after beginning his journey, on April 23, Floyd Simpson, an Alabama grocer and member of the Gadsden, Alabama, chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, murdered Moore on a highway near Attalla, Alabama. On May 1, 1963, a white college student named Samuel C. Shirah Jr. led five black and five white volunteers from CORE and SNCC to complete Moore’s freedom walk. Upon arrival at the Alabama state line, they were arrested and jailed. Four other attempts to complete the Moore’s freedom walk were also foiled. In June of the same year, King led a freedom walk in Detroit, Michigan. The largest civil rights protest to that time, the march was held on June 23. Conceived by the Detroit Council for Human Rights (DCHR), approximately one 125,000 persons began the walk at Woodward and Adelaide and continued down Woodward to Cobo Hall. At the Cobo, King addressed more than 25,000 people and repeated the phrase, ‘‘I have a dream’’ that became his iconic speech given two months later. The third year of the twentieth century’s sixth decade was noted for racial unrest and civil rights demonstrations. Indignation poured out across the United States as the media covered and projected into American homes the horrendous and vitriolic conduct of the police in Birmingham, Alabama, where attack dogs and fire hoses were turned on protesters, many of whom were in their early teens or younger. King was arrested and jailed in Birmingham during these protests and penned his now-famous ‘‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’’ It was during this year that numerous demonstrations took place across the United States and culminated in the March on Washington.
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March on Washington One of the largest demonstrations during the American black freedom movement took place in Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963, the day after the death of W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the movement’s stalwart trailblazers, and during the centennial year of the Emancipation Proclamation. A coalition of civil rights groups organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to induce the United States government to champion the civil rights of American blacks. More than a quarter of a million people marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. Extensively covered by the media, including live international television coverage, the assemblage of humanity heard musical performances by Marian Anderson; Joan Baez: Bob Dylan; Mahalia Jackson; Peter, Paul, and Mary; and Josh White. Charlton Heston, who represented a contingent of artists, including Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Diahann Carroll, Ossie Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Paul Newman, and Sidney Poitier, read a speech penned by James Baldwin. The only female speaker was Josephine Baker, who introduced Daisy Bates, Diane Nash, Gloria Richardson, Merlie Evers, Rosa Parks, and Mrs. Herbert Lee Brown, the wife of the murdered farmer in Amite County, Mississippi, who were freedom fighters in their own right. The following month, members of New Orleans’ black community staged a protest march. Other Freedom Marches Known as the ‘‘Freedom March,’’ on September 30, 1963, 10,000 blacks and 300 whites march, to City Hall in New Orleans. Led by boycott leader Avery Alexander, A. J. Chapital (NAACP), Oretha Castle (CORE), and A. L. Davis (SCLC), they demanded full implementation of the August 9 agreement to address continuing issues of inequality and injustice. One of the largest black protestations of the period in New Orleans, it was met with by neither the mayor nor any other white politician. Notoriously branded as ‘‘Bloody Sunday,’’ on March 7, 1965, more than 500 persons protested the denial of black voting rights when they marched from Selma to Montgomery. As they crossed the Pettus Bridge leading out of Selma, state troopers and local police swarmed the group with tear gas, clubs, and cattle prods, causing multiple injuries that required medical attention and treatment. Almost three weeks later, on March 25, King successfully led approximately 25,000 marching protesters from Selma to Montgomery, which resulted in President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Notwithstanding the enactment of the Voting Rights Act, protest marches continued. Less than a year later, James Meredith, the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi, initiated a ‘‘March Against Fear.’’ On June 5, 1966, he began the 220-mile march from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. However, the day after he began the march, Meredith was wounded by a shotgun
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blast. Civil rights leaders continued his march. It concluded on June 26 with a rally of 15,000 people in Jackson. Two years later the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike and protest march took place in Memphis, Tennessee. Civil rights leaders in Memphis called upon King to assist the black sanitation workers in their struggle for equality. He arrived in Memphis on March 28, 1968, and participated in the scheduled protest march, which turned violent and resulted in the death of sixteen-year-old Larry Payne. Troubled that the nonviolent image would become bankrupt, he returned to the city within the week, intending to lead a peaceful protest and protect the solvency of the direct nonviolent tactic. However, on April 4, 1968, the proponent of nonviolence was struck by a fatal shot from an assassin’s gun. Still, prior to King’s trip to Memphis, he and the SCLC began planning a new attack to focus the nation’s attention on poverty in the United States. The Poor People’s Campaign was to be a movement for a wide range of people, including Native Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Appalachian whites. Because of King’s assassination, support for the Poor People’s Campaign gained momentum and SCLC and others brought the Poor People’s Campaign to fruition. On June 19, 1968, more than 50,000 people made their way and assembled in the nation’s capital to voice their support for the Poor People’s Campaign for economic justice. Notwithstanding the civil rights movement’s dominant narrative that generally terminates the American black liberation struggle in 1968, activism and that of civil rights organizations continued beyond the demise of King and the Poor People’s Campaign. With the esprit de corps of Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham, on May 19, 1970, protesters walked more than 100 miles across Georgia in a ‘‘march against oppression.’’ Responding to the killings of six American blacks at the hands of the police, more than 300 people began their journey from Perry, Georgia. Organized by SCLC and led by Hosea Williams, the protesters followed symbolic coffins and two mules nicknamed ‘‘Nixon’’ and ‘‘Lester.’’ When the marchers arrived in Atlanta after four days of uneventful travel, they were joined by approximately 10,000 nonviolent advocates of ‘‘soul power’’ in one of the biggest civil rights rally in the South since 1965. After they reached the Peach State’s capital city, the marchers were addressed by United States senators and civil rights leaders. All but an endnote in movement’s literature, the Perry-to-Atlanta march is indicative of the protests that followed after 1968, like those that SCLC organized in 1975 and 1977 to bring into focus the disproportionate number of American blacks trapped in poverty. The systematic strategies employed by blacks in their struggle for equality and justice proved useful to activists in other social movements throughout the 1960s and beyond. They too utilized the march as an instrument of protest and change. See also: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; Welfare Rights Movement; Women and the Civil Rights Movement
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Further Reading Carson, Clayborne. 2003. Civil Rights Chronicle: The African American Struggle for Freedom, Lincolnwood, IL: Legacy Publishing. Jonas, Gilbert. 2007. Freedom’s Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909–1969. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 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. Stanton, Mary. 2003. Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Burst. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press. Wynn, Linda T. 1999. Journey to Our Freedom: African American Markers in Tennessee. Nashville: Tennessee Historical Commission. Linda T. Wynn
Pryor, Richard (1940–2005), Comedian, Actor, Writer, Producer Richard Pryor was an award-winning comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Pryor was most famous for his cutting-edge satirical humor. He tackled race relations, relationships, and drug and alcohol abuse in a fashion that made him popular with diverse groups of people, thus earning him the title of ‘‘King of Comedy.’’ Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III, an only child, was born in Peoria, Illinois, on December 1, 1940, to Leroy ‘‘Buck’’ Pryor, a vaudeville performer, and Gertrude Thomas. Pryor’s parents’ marriage was brief and stormy, including physical fights. Pryor recalled seeing his mother in bed with a series of men both black and white. After the couple split, Pryor was raised by his father’s mother, Marie Carter Pryor. Marie Pryor supported them by running bars and brothels. Marie Pryor tried to provide Pryor with some semblance of a traditional childhood, enrolling him in parochial school, only for him to be expelled when the school learned of Pryor’s grandmother’s profession. Pryor was a small child who quickly learned that he could use humor to ingratiate himself with those larger and more powerful than him. This approach may have worked well with his peers but it led to a reputation as a troublemaker. Pryor’s formal schooling ended in 1954 when he was expelled again. Comedy came naturally to Pryor, who began appearing at comedy shows in Peoria. Unfortunately, he was unable to support himself. Pryor joined the U.S. Army in 1958, but was discharged two years later after stabbing another soldier during a racially motivated fight. He returned to Peoria, trying his hand working at a tractor company. Inspired by Bill Cosby and Dick Gregory, Pryor was determined to become a comedic success. In 1961, he began touring the black club circuit in the Midwest. After he realized he would not achieve the kind of success he hoped for there, he moved to New York City. He quickly caught on in New York and moved from some cafes to clubs. In 1964, Pryor’s career took off with his first television performance in On Broadway Tonight. This was quickly followed by other stints on television including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffin Show, and Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
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Pryor broke into movies with the 1967 film The Busy Body. Despite his success he longed to throw off the Cosby-like image he had wrapped himself in to pursue the darker comedy for which he ultimately became famous. After Pryor walked off stage in the middle of a 1967 show in Las Vegas, the clubs’ management vowed that he would never work in Las Vegas again. He moved to Los Angeles, where he began working with comic and writer Paul Mooney. Pryor’s 1971 album ‘‘Craps’’ After Hours was an immediate success. It was the release of the 1974 album That Nigger’s Crazy that earned him the title ‘‘King of Comedy.’’ Pryor found his niche with irreverent takes on Comedian and actor Richard Pryor became popular by relationships with pa- pushing the limits of comedy, poking fun at a variety of rents, men, women, sex, topics including sex, drugs, the races, racism, religion, and himself. He revolutonized stand-up comedy. (AP/ racism, religion, crime, Wide World Photos) and black culture. He received rave reviews for his portrayal of Piano Man in the 1972 movie Lady Sings the Blues. By 1973, Pryor began gaining a following among white audiences. As Pryor’s popularity soared so did his accomplishments. He acted in approximately thirty films including a 1974 collaboration with Mel Brooks on the movie Blazing Saddles, for which Pryor won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen. Pryor was also a successful television performer, appearing on such shows as Saturday Night Live, The Ed Sullivan Show, Tonight Show, and Pryor’s Place as well as a television comedy writer and performer for The Flip Wilson Show and Sanford and Son. He appeared in a variety of television specials including Lily (1973), for which he won an Emmy Award in 1974, and the 1997 Richard Pryor Show. After
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suffering a heart attack in 1978, Pryor began a comedic stage tour which culminated in the album Wanted—Richard Pryor Live in Concert and the 1979 movie Richard Pryor: Live in Concert. After recovering from burns over half his body, Pryor in 1981 astounded people by coming back and performing at two sold-out performances at the Hollywood Palladium, which became the movie Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip. This was followed by the very successful film Richard Pryor Here and Now (1983) containing stand-up and documentary footage. In addition to the Emmy and the American Writers Guild Award, Pryor received the American Comedy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992 and was the first recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. Pryor also received Grammy awards for Best Comedy Album of the Year in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982. His personal life was often turbulent and violent. Despite his success, Pryor was often unhappy. He battled with cocaine and alcohol from the mid-1960s until 1980. He was briefly jailed for tax evasion in 1974. Pryor fathered seven children with a series of women. His most recent wife was Jennifer Lee, whom he married in 1981, later divorced, and remarried in 2001. Pryor suffered ups and downs with his health as well. The heart attack that he suffered in 1978 was followed by the now infamous 1980 free-basing incident from which Pryor nearly died after dousing himself with cognac in a suicide attempt. He suffered third-degree burns over half his body. Recovery was a slow and painful process taking almost a year-and-a-half of skin grafts and physical therapy. Pryor suffered a second heart attack in 1990 for which he underwent a quadruple bypass. Speaking with Sharon Waxman of the Washington Post in 1998 after winning the first Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Pryor talked of using drugs and his belief that it was them which made him funny: ‘‘The drugs didn’t make me funny. God made me funny. The drugs kept me in my imagination. But I felt pathetic afterwards.’’ In 1988, Pryor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. By 1994, Pryor found himself at the mercy of purported caregivers. Ironically, it was then that a former wife, Jennifer Lee, came to his rescue. Lee took over his care, fired most of the caregivers, accountants, and lawyers who were robbing Pryor, selling his possessions, and mistreating him. By 1998, Pryor was barely able to talk, his voice little more than a croak. He was confined to a wheelchair and needed constant nursing. He died on December 10, 2005, in Encino, California, at age sixty-five from heart failure, and was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. His comedic work lives on in an extensive array of recordings, more than fifty movies, and publications. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Entertainment Industry Further Reading Pryor, Richard, and Todd Gold. 1995. Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences. New York: Pantheon Books.
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RichardPryor.com. ‘‘Richard Pryor.’’ (Richard Pryor tribute site.) http://www.richard pryor.com. Waxman, Sharon.1998. ‘‘Richard Pryor’s Rage for Life.’’ Washington Post, October 20. Anne K. Driscoll
Public Enemy Public Enemy, or PE, is one of the important groups in the history of rap music and Hip-Hop culture. Making use of Soul and Funk music, along with ideologies founded in black consciousness and Black Nationalism, Public Enemy created hardcore rap music loaded with social and political import. Public Enemy formed at Adelphi University, Long Island, in 1982. Consisting of Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour), Flava Flav (William Jonathan Drayton Jr.), Terminator X (Norman Lee Rogers), and Professor Griff (Richard Griffin), the four-member group would go on to a prolific recording and touring career. With Professor Griff, a member of the Nation of Islam, established as the ‘‘Minister of Information,’’ Public Enemy had a distinctive military swagger that was inspired by the Black Panther Party. Members often dressed in camouflage and fatigues, and background dancers executed moves that were decidedly military in nature, complete with the brandishing of Uzis. Black militant consciousness was the order of the day for Public Enemy, and their lyrics, dances, and clothing were all geared towards this goal. In 1987, Public Enemy released its first album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, yet it was their second album, released in the following year, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, that truly awakened the nation to the power and significance of Public Enemy. On a broad stage, broadcast across the airwaves and television screens was black political rap, unapologetic and hard-edged, what Chuck D would call ‘‘black CNN.’’ In 1989, Public Enemy released Fear of a Black Planet. ‘‘Fight the Power,’’ one of the singles, held such deep social and political import that African American director Spike Lee, in his film Do the Right Thing, has the character Radio Raheem play just that one song on his boom box throughout the film. Chuck D rhymes about Elvis being a hero to most people, and goes on to these words: Mother f*ck him and John WayneCause I’m Black and I’m proud.’’
With echoes of James Brown funk and Huey P. Newton rhetoric, these incendiary lyrics, firmly within the tradition of black consciousness and nationalism, become a catalyst for the ending of Do the Right Thing. Public Enemy remained active throughout the 1990s, touring, recording, and innovating. In 1991, the group released Apocalypse 91 . . . The Enemy Strikes Black, yet, with the emergence of Gangsta Rap, the tide had started to turn for Public Enemy. By 1991, Michael Dyson, quoted in Ciccariello-Maher, writes, ‘‘the rules
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and rulers of hip-hop were changing, with biting black nationalist commentary and an Afrocentric worldview giving way to sexual hedonism and the glamorization of violence. Public Enemy failed to react.’’ In 1994, Public Enemy met unfavorable critical reception of its Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess. Undeterred, the group returned to prominence with a soundtrack to Spike Lee’s He Got Game, a soulsearching film that is complemented by Public Enemy’s introspective lyrics and innovative beats. At the close of the decade, the group released an album available only on the Internet, There’s a Poison Goin’ On. The vibe of Public Enemy has continued into the twenty-first century with Revolverlution, released in 2004. With eight albums spanning over two decades, and with musical roots stretching back to the 1960s, Public Enemy casts a long shadow over African American popular culture, and their legacy remains present with today’s emerging hip-hop stars. Along with Chuck D, Flava Flav is deeply tied to Public Enemy. Even with his oversized sunglasses, trademark clock around his neck (versions of which he can be seen doling out to potential love interests on the MTV show Flava of Love), and his antics, Flava Flav never distracted from the social and political messages of Public Enemy. Indeed, he accentuated the words and their meanings as he flashed his grill. The first hip-hop artist to wear a grill (teeth of gold, silver, or platinum), Flava Flav set into motion a trend that continues today among the young artists of the ‘‘dirty South’’ and ‘‘crunk’’ genres, as well as the artists creating Houston’s ‘‘chopped and screwed’’ music. See also: Rap Music and Rappers; Rap, Crossover Forms Further Reading Bynoe, Yvonne. 2006. ‘‘Public Enemy (aka PE).’’ In Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture. Yvonne Bynoe, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Ciccariello-Maher, George. 2007. ‘‘Public Enemy.’’ Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Mickey Hess, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Public Enemy. 1990. ‘‘Fight the Power.’’ Fear of a Black Planet. New York: Def Jam/ Columbia Records. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Publishers and Publishing Publishing has played a crucial role within African American popular culture, resulting in a wealth of literature that features diverse themes and experiences in black culture and life. Indeed, African Americans have made enormous contributions either as publishers or authors and have been published by mainstream as well as black-owned publishing companies. Some authors have resorted to self-publishing. Historically, black writers and black publishing companies have
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had to overcome Herculean obstacles. Through their works, both black publishers and black writers have preserved the history and culture of their community. During the nineteenth century, blacks faced slavery in the South and economic, social, and political oppression elsewhere. The dominant white publishing companies did not generally publish works by African Americans. Works that dealt with subjects such as slavery were written by white authors and oftentimes generated controversy or were celebrated only by an exclusive group of liberal whites. Poverty, racism, and illiteracy were other issues that prevented blacks from publishing and writing. For all these reasons, blacks were hardpressed to express their unique voice and talents in any formal way; however, several found a way. A few African Americans started their own presses. The Freedom’s Journal was established in 1827 by blacks. This was the first blackowned and operated newspaper in the nation. Its emergence was critical, demonstrating that African Americans could exert independence and autonomy in a racist society, providing relevant news for African Americans, and establishing a strong voice for a race that was disempowered and bitterly oppressed. More black presses, including religious presses, would follow. Among the many religious presses included the African Methodist Episcopal Book Concern, established in 1817 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the National Baptist Publishing Board of Nashville, launched in 1896. These presses produced religious as well as nonreligious works, such as that described by Kinohi Nishikawa as ‘‘literary and informational periodicals, political essays, history textbooks, autobiographies, and a good amount of poetry.’’ Slave Narratives Turn-of-the-century and early-twentieth-century African American writers tried alternative means of publishing when conventional routes were unavailable to them. Nishikawa explains that many ‘‘African Americans were forced to selfpublish much of their writing because their access to White-owned print technologies was severely restricted under slavery and for decades thereafter.’’ Harriet Ann Jacobs could not find a publisher to publish her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, so she self-published it in 1861. Other former slaves, like Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, were so famous and influential among blacks and whites that they had little, if any trouble, finding mainstream publishers to publish their slave narratives. (Well-known Social Activists, like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Huey P. Newton, and others in subsequent decades would also easily publish autobiographies.) Douglass wrote several autobiographies. His first book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a best-seller, was published in 1845 by Dover Publications. My Bondage and My Freedom was published by Miller, Orton, and Mulligan in 1855. The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass was published by Park Publishing in 1881. However, even Douglass saw the merit of owning a press. He published several abolitionist newspapers, the North Star,
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Frederick Douglass Weekly, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Douglass’ Monthly, and New National Era. Booker T. Washington’s book, Up from Slavery (1901) was published by Doubleday, a reputable mainstream company in New York. Jacobs, Douglass, and Washington were only a few of the many African Americans to write slave narratives. Most of these narratives, however, were published between 1936 and 1938 during the Great Depression. Among the new projects President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched under his New Deal program was the Works Project Administration (WPA), which published numerous Slave Narratives. Literature of the Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance, which spanned the 1920s and 1930s, was a prolific period for publishing and black publishers. Harlem, a predominantly black neighborhood in New York, was populated in large part by the Great Migration, a massive exodus of blacks from the rural South to the North. Since slavery, many blacks regarded the North as a haven, but it was far from it. Racism and discrimination unified blacks, and shared cultural traditions and experiences nurtured a unique cultural voice, giving rise to distinct black music, dance, and literature. African American poets, Playwrights, and Fiction writers, such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, James Weldon Johnson, and Countee Cullen became household names. Many writers, such as Hughes and Hurston, often depended on white patrons or white publishers; they were, nonetheless, critical of these relationships. Liberal white patrons and publishers frequently stifled black talent or offended blacks by demeaning them in often subtly racist ways. To be sure, some of the most critically acclaimed works were produced during the Harlem Renaissance. These works were revolutionary, featuring the rich inner and social worlds, trials, and joys of black life. Black newspapers and periodicals also published black writers. Marcus Garvey, who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, launched the Negro World, a newspaper, in New York in 1917. Crisis (magazine), the official organ of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois. Du Bois, and subsequent editors regularly supported African American writers. Some of the writers featured in the Crisis were Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, and Countee Cullen. Literature of the Black Power Movement Until the 1960s, African American writers were mostly published by white publishers. Black publishers emerged during the era of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). Amiri Baraka, a social activist and writer, launched BAM in Harlem, New York, during the height of the Black Power Movement. The black power movement fueled Afrocentric fashion, philosophy, and artistic expressions. This period saw the introduction of Black Studies programs in colleges and universities and a grittier, more forceful critical analysis of white racism and black oppression. Black publishers formed, among other things, out of a need to create outlets for new writers and poets whom mainstream publishers would not
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publish. According to Nishikawa, black publishers, such as Third Press, Broadside Press, Lotus Press, and Third World Press ‘‘printed the most revolutionary verse of the period, composed by the likes of Nikki Giovanni, Lance Jeffers, Etheridge Knight, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Jill Witherspook Boyer, and Randall and Madhubuti.’’ Today, literature of this period is recognized as an important contribution within African American literature. Urban Literature Since the 1960s, African American publishers have been responsive to socioeconomic changes taking place during the post–civil rights era. Literacy among African Americans was increasing, and African Americans were consuming more. Dominant white culture, however, did not traditionally address the needs and interests of African American audiences. Black writers specializing in urban or street fiction have either self-published or acquired black publishers, like Teri Woods Publishing, Triple Crown, and Black Pearl Books. Urban literature reflected the lives of the large populations of blacks who lived in urban environments. Unlike the proliferation of serious literary black writers, like Hughes, James Baldwin, and Richard Wright, who also dealt with black urban life, the urban fiction of the 1960s and beyond did not cater to audiences that were looking for character development, symbolism, or an intellectual vocabulary. Books like Slim’s Pimp (1967) and Whoreson (1972) were written in unembellished styles, using African American slang and vernacular that black youth understood and appreciated. The protagonists of these tales grappled with racism and wielded cunning and other survival skills as they navigated the tough terrain of city life. The growing popularity of urban literature, as well as Hip-Hop literature, has attracted mainstream publishers, who currently vie for the attention of urban writers. Hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs, like Russell Simmons, LL Cool J, Jermaine Dupri, and 50 Cent, who have contributed to hip-hop literature, have popularized the genre all the more. Urban Christian Literature Urban Christian literature is a subgenre of urban literature. Black publishers, such as Walk Worthy Press and Literally Speaking Publishing House, have published urban Christian literature since the late 1990s. African American Christian publishers have published well-known authors such as T. D. Jakes, a nondenominational preacher who broadcasts one of the most popular Christian programs. Urban Christian fiction provides an alternative to mainstream Christian fiction, which features mostly white characters in situations that do not resonate with Christian black readers. Some Christian nonfiction and fiction has crossed over to white audiences. Romance Novels For several decades, white publishing companies dominated the romance novel industry. Waiting to Exhale (1995), a novel by Terry McMillan that was
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adapted to film, ushered in an era of black romance novels. Popular writers included Rochelle Alers, Gwynne Forster, and Eric Jerome Dickey. Dickey is one of the most well-known black writers of popular fiction. The enormous popularity of black romance writers has fueled the success of black-owned publishers and impelled mainstream publishers to publish black romance fiction aimed at black audiences. Wilbur and Dorothy Colom founded Genesis Press, one of the largest blackowned publishers in the nation, in 1993. Genesis Press specializes in a broad array of romance novels, as well as nonfiction. The Indigo imprint provides traditional love stories. Indigo Love Spectrum focuses on interracial love narratives, and Indigo After Dark features erotica. Comic Books Blacks have, historically, been unrepresented in comic books as publishers, artists, or as superheroes. The first comic book appeared in the 1930s. Since then, white superheroes have dominated the industry, while African Americans, when they were portrayed in comic books, were depicted as subordinate characters or were not represented at all. The Black Panther, Black Lightning, and Storm were among the first major black superheroes to appear in comic books produced by mainstream comic book publishers. (This was over thirty years after the first comic book debuted in the United States.) Black comic book publishers emerged, several decades later, in the 1990s. African Americans established Milestone Media in 1992. Milestone Media has published several series, including Blood Syndicate, Hardware, Icon, and Static. These series covered themes such as gangs, drugs, slavery, racism, sexism, and teen pregnancy. The pioneering publisher ceased publishing comic books in 1997. CQ Comics Group was founded in Atlanta Georgia in 1997 by Shawn Askew. With the emergence of characters like Blackman, created by CQ Comics Group, black protagonists took the stage as the stars of their own comic book series. Current Status Black publishers continue to enjoy substantial success in the new millennium. Black fiction and nonfiction remain in demand with black readers, as well as a growing number of white readers, as some genres have crossed over into mainstream society. Still, the primary readers of books published by African American publishers are African Americans. Black publishers, including black university presses, are responsible for an extensive amount of black nonfiction and fiction in assorted genres—urban, Christian, romance, and detective. New African American writers are plentiful, demonstrating how far African Americans have come. Still, writing, as well as publishing, is a competitive field. Notwithstanding the fact that African American publishers contend with fewer obstacles than in past years, black publishers must compete with larger white-owned publishers who are increasingly targeting black markets. These mainstream publishers tend to have
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access to larger resources, staff, and budgets. To be sure, black publishers remain as relevant as ever, as they continue to give priority to African American voices and to support their intellectual and creative literary expressions. See also: Graphic Novels and Books; Literature, Classic African American; Literature, Contemporary African American Further Reading Black Expressions Book Club. (Online bookstore.) http://www.blackexpressions.com/. Carter, James Bucky. 2005. ‘‘CQ Comics Group.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Joyce, Donald Franklin. 1991. Black Book Publishers in the United States: A Historical Dictionary of the Presses, 1817–1990. New York: Greenwood Press. Joyce, Donald Franklin. 1983. Gatekeepers of Black Culture: Black-Owned Book Publishing in the United States, 1817–1981. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Nishikawa, Kinohi. 2005. ‘‘Publishers and Publishing.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, eds. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Gladys L. Knight
Q Quilts and Quilting Traditions The African American quilting tradition, which began in the colonial era, represents a broad selection of bed coverings and sewing styles. Over the years, these functional products—comprised of a cover, batting, and backing—have reflected shifting cultural influences and technological changes. Many West Africans, who were kidnapped and brought to this country as enslaved workers during the colonial era, arrived as skilled textiles artisans. They brought with them specialized manufacturing techniques from Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Zaire. These new arrivals combined their knowledge of applique, embroidery, and piecework with European quilting techniques to produce a uniquely American art form. Both enslaved and free blacks created this functional item for themselves and others. Because early white settlers had few opportunities to purchase manufactured quilts from England and other European cities, bed coverings were made at home, generally by women. Black women followed the practice of piecing together scraps of unused cloth, which was then sewn to a fabric backing and stuffed with cotton or corn shucks. Enslaved women provided many of the quilts for the plantation and their own families. By combining the basic techniques and patterns provided by whites with their own African traditions and innate skills, the enslaved worker became a highly skilled artist. Traditionally, older women, usually mothers or grandmothers, passed these sewing techniques on to younger women in the family. There have been, however, occasions when men have carried on the legacy, as in the case of Yellow Bill, who was enslaved. Few quilts have survived from slave families; however, some of these early quilts were
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kept safe by descendants of the plantation owners, and are now found in museums and historical houses. Quilting bees, or an assembly of quilt makers, often resulted in the creation of one quilt that was usually made from pieces of recycled cloth. Also popular among free black and enslaved black communities, these scheduled gatherings presented an opportunity to share valuable news of the day about family and friends. Today, quilting bees continue to provide a means through which encouragement and education are shared. Prior to the collecting of family keepsakes, such as photographs, quilts became the personal items that linked the present to the past. This heirloom was sometimes created with pieces of fabrics associated with ancestors and their struggles, determination, and triumphs. By taking cover under a family quilt, one could, literally, be wrapped in personal history. Historical Women Quilt Makers A select number of quilt makers and quilts are especially significant. Harriet Tubman, known for leading over three hundred enslaved blacks to freedom, was a self-taught quilt maker who made a patchwork quilt in 1843. In the North, a cradle quilt was sold by the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society Fair in 1836. Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Todd Lincoln’s personal seamstress, created a quilt that reflected current history and had the word ‘‘Liberty’’ embroidered in its center. In the 1870s, a quilt made by Martha Ricks, a former slave from Virginia, was presented to Queen Victoria of England. Beginning in the 1800s, commercial patterns for quilts became more available to the quilt maker. Patterns such as the log cabin, star quilt, reel, and album design provided popular images that enhanced bedroom decor. Astute feed and flour companies packaged their products in reusable cloth bags that contained both interesting patterns and the organization’s trademark. The early works created by black quilt makers range from classically simple to ornate and complex. From the beginning, piecing together geometrical designs was central to the visual aesthetics adapted by black Americans. Assembling, sometimes randomly, scraps of fabrics and sewing them to create original designs has remained one preferred method of construction. The strip quilt is one approach to piece work, while the use of various-sized geometric shapes, materials, and colors represents another. More than improvisational, these styles offer insights into problem-solving that uses creative critical thinking to design and construct. During the 1920s, African Americans continued to migrate in large numbers from the South to the North, escaping the declining economy and widespread racial violence. As they traveled, women carried with them their many domestic skills—including sewing and quilting. The ability to create a product that was very much in demand for the cold winter nights of the North provided extra income for many families. Cities and large metropolitan areas began to provide
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more opportunities for quilt makers to connect through sewing organizations, senior centers, and churches. Story quilts, beginning with religious narratives, have played an important role in black quilting history. The prominence of religious worship in the black community led to an interest in creating Bible quilts. Perhaps the best known and documented are two Bible quilts made by Harriet Powers (1837–1911), a former slave from Athens, Georgia. Her narrative work portrays the stories of Adam and Eve and the crucifixion. The tradition continued into modern times with commemorative church quilts that illustrated institutional and denominational history, using both pictorial and text messages. Her 1886 Bible Quilt belongs to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, while her 1895– 1898 Bible Quilt is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Some story quilts offer messages that are more secular. Clementine Hunter, best known for her paintings of life on Louisiana’s Melrose Plantation, recounts everyday farm scenes on her sewn works. Sometimes the narratives show contemporary scenes as in ‘‘The People of the World’’ by Lillian Beattie. Through his jazz series, Michael Cummings’s appliqued musicians render faces that are inspired by traditional African masks. Multimedia artist Faith Ringgold captures the lives and deeds of noted historical figures in her multicolored quilts. During the 1960s, black women began to organize into community groups and quilting cooperatives. Created for economic empowerment, the Freedom Quilting Bee, Gees Bend, Alabama, continues to receive national recognition through exhibitions, the media, and in publications. In Washington, DC, Viola Canady assembled the Daughters of Dorcas & Sons organization to share techniques and pass on the traditions by offering classes in partnership with local institutions. Similar guilds can be found in Denver; Pittsburgh; Clairborne County, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; Chicago, and other cities. Before 1970, the African American quilting tradition was largely ignored. Some, even in the black community, have dismissed the art form as having little cultural value. In recent years, however, an appreciation for the art of quilt making has gained respect and prominence in popular culture. Today’s women and men quilt makers are trained, self-taught, and have been introduced to the art form through the visual arts. They represent a long and honored sewing tradition that has included thousands of like-minded creative spirits. Further Reading Benburry, Cuesta. 1992. Always There: The African American Presence in American Quilts. Louisville: Kentucky Quilt Project. Breneman, Judy. 2001. African American Quilting: A Long Rich Heritage. Womenfolk .com. http://www/womenfolk.com/quilting_history/afam.htm. Grudin, Eva Ungar. 1990. Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts. Williamstown, MA: Williams College Museum of Art. Robert L. Hall
R R & B (Rhythm and Blues) R & B, or rhythm and blues, is a music genre that African Americans created in the early twentieth century. R & B singers have, historically, produced some of the most iconic music within African American popular culture. Although R & B started out as a genre exclusive to African Americans, it is now considered a genre used to classify singers of any race and ethnicity. History R & B has an unusual history. Although it is a music genre, the term was originally coined in the late 1940s by Jerry Wexler, who was a major producer in the music industry between the 1950s and 1980s. Before World War II, ‘‘race music’’ was used to classify all black music, whether, for example, it was blues or jazz. In the late 1940s, however, criticism erupted over the use of the term ‘‘race music,’’ and Wexler’s term, rhythm and blues, took its place. As a musical genre, rhythm and blues is difficult to define. At its essence, it is a musical form that is derived from blues, jazz, spirituals, and gospel music; however, it continues to evolve today, incorporating ever-changing mixtures of rhythm and vocal patterns and styles. To white listeners hearing R & B for the first time, during the 1940s and 1950s, R & B was like nothing they had heard before, and it appealed to their senses. Some whites secretly went to segregated black neighborhoods to purchase R & B records. To satiate the new tastes of white teenagers, white record labels produced covers, which Maultsby describes as ‘‘sanitized renditions’’ of black R & B songs sung by white artists. This practice gradually developed into
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Rock and Roll, which is essentially a white stylistic version of R & B. Rock and roll was a hit with white audiences, while blacks regularly consumed diets of black R & B artists. Eventually, however, traditional black R & B artists crossed over to white audiences in the 1950s, only the music industry sometimes called the music rock and roll to make black artists more acceptable to white audiences. (R & B was associated with blackness.) The classification of rhythm and blues music would change several times, being referred to as soul in the late 1960s, black music in the 1980s, and then back to R & B in the 1990s. R & B Singers Throughout History From the 1940s to the present, popular R & B singers and their sounds changed considerably. Quoted by Jerry Zolten, Arnold Shaw, a music executive, described the years between 1945 and 1960 as the ‘‘pure period.’’ Motown Records would play an instrumental role in imbuing soul, pop, and other genres and distinctive styles in 1960s R & B music. Influences in subsequent decades included, among other things, disco in the 1970s and 1980s, and Hip-Hop in the 1990s. 1940s and 1950s By and large, Louis Jordan dominated Billboard magazine’s list of number one hits during the 1940s. With upbeat hits like ‘‘Ration Blues’’ and ‘‘G. I. Jive’’ in 1944, ‘‘Caldonia’’ in 1945, ‘‘Don’t Worry ’bout That Mule’’ and ‘‘Ain’t That Just Like a Woman (They’ll Do It Every Time)’’ in 1946, and a string of others, Jordan epitomized the sound of the late 1940s. Born on July 8, 1908, in Brinkley, Arkansas, Jordan established his career in big band swing jazz in the 1930s. His subsequent music, featuring Jordan and his Tympany 5, incorporated upbeat rhythms and folksy and comedic lyrics. Jordan’s fame allowed him to sing duets with many popular artists, black and white, of his day. The subsequent decade saw more popular R & B singers, such as Ruth Brown, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry. Ruth Brown, who was born in in 1928 Virginia during the heyday of blues music, sang the 1950 hit song, ‘‘Teardrops from My Eyes.’’ Brown continued to top charts through the 1950s. Little Richard, the charismatic, piano-playing singer, was born on December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia. His music was often set at a febrile pace, accented by shrill shouts, shrieks, and groans—stylistic flairs that were unconventional in mainstream music. One of his most legendary hits was the song ‘‘Tutti Frutti,’’ which was released in 1955. One of the signature songs of Louisiana-born Fats Domino was ‘‘Blueberry Hill,’’ which featured him playing the piano and singing a lilting melody. Bo Diddley, who hailed from Mississippi, and Chuck Berry, from Missouri, were both vocalists and guitarists who became household names in the 1950s. 1960s Onward Motown Records, a successful black-owned record company, loomed large in the 1960s, yielding numerous popular artists and singing groups who continued
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making hits in subsequent decades. Many contemporary singers, black and white, were influenced by Motown singers and singing groups. Marvin Gaye, born in Los Angeles, California, in 1939, sang in multiple genres, including soul, pop, funk, rock and roll, disco, as well as R & B. The Supremes, an all-woman group from Detroit, Michigan, originally featuring Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown, recorded numerous hits. The Jackson Five, five young brothers from Gary, Indiana, started with Motown in the mid-1960s and was enormously popular. Many of the stars of Motown, such as Diana Ross, Michael Jackson—the youngest member of the Jackson Five, and Stevie Wonder, produced popular music, fused with disco, pop, and contemporary sounds, from the 1970s onward. Other popular R & B artists of the 1980s included Deniece Williams, Rick James, and Kool and the Gang. The 1990s and beyond have seen a plethora of new R & B stars, such as Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly, and Beyonce. See also: Bebop Music; Blues and Blues Festivals; Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Pop Music; Rap Music and Rappers; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Maultsby, Portia K. 2006. ‘‘Rhythm and Blues.’’ In African American Music: An Introduction. Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby, eds. New York: Routledge. Ripani, Richard J. 2006. The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues, 1950–1999. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Zolten, Jerry. 2006. ‘‘Rhythm and Blues.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gladys L. Knight
Race and Ethnicity Race and ethnicity have occupied a complicated position in the history and fabric of the United States of America, beginning with how the first settlers interacted with the indigenous people whom they encountered—the Indians. Although the indigenous people were helpful and cautiously welcoming to the first European settlers, white people considered Native Americans to be primitive and savage. This characterization of being savage arose more from the distrust of the Indian’s skin color, which to the white people, seemed coppery or red, than from any acts of barbarism committed by the Native Americans. History reveals that the whites committed the barbaric acts of forcibly removing the Native Americans from their lands and at least on one occasion provided the Native Americans with smallpox-infected blankets. Similarly, white people treated the dark-skinned Africans as less than human merely because their race was different. Whites used the Africans’ differences in origin and ethnicity as a
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basis upon which to build the degrading and dehumanizing system that began as slavery and later evolved into the Black Codes, Jim Crow, and racial segregation. These codified deprivations of rights and access would deprive society of the full participation and unfettered brilliance of people of African descent as well as cripple and disenfranchise the people of African ancestry for over four hundred years. The impact of the discrimination and limitations placed on people of color by whites simply because the people were not white is still felt by people of African descent and Native Americans today. Unfortunately, whites did not only rely on race or skin color as a means to justify discrimination against entire groups of people. After the arrival in the United States of people from Ireland, though they possessed white skin, the Irish were soon targets of ridicule and discrimination. Immigrants from Italy and Poland were equally derided and marginalized. Jewish people were also the subjects of discrimination. While those emigrating from Italy, Sicily, or Israel might have had a slightly different hue to their skin, they were white in comparison to the Mexicans, Native Americans, and African Americans who had experienced brutality and discrimination at the hands of the white majority. It was the difference in ethnicity and origin, which caused the ‘‘Americans,’’ those had settled earlier in the towns and cities of the United States, to treat the newcomers as second class or noncitizens. There was an exception to this tainted blood rule for residents of Virginia who claimed to be descendents of the Native American princess Pocahontas. These descendants could be considered white provided they had no more than one-sixteenth Native American blood or ancestry. Although the United States has been called the great American melting pot, people of color and white people in particular have been extremely aware of the distinctions in race and ethnicity. During periods in American history, those in power have gone to great measures to either eradicate the differences or to ensure that a blending of the races or melting of the ethnicities never occurs. Early in American history, the ‘‘One Drop Rule’’ was established. The rule provided that a person with as little as one drop of black blood in their heritage was to be considered black. A lineage that boasted just one sixteenth as coming from African descent was enough to be considered tainted and therefore black. The person, no matter how fair in skin color or marked by Caucasoid features, was considered black and denied the rights and privileges of citizenry. During slavery, white plantation owners and overseers had sexual relations with slaves, and children of various skins tones were born. The slave owners quickly classified the offspring, their own children, as black slaves. As early as 1871, after the abolition of slavery, Congress moved to enact a constitutional amendment banning Miscegenation and prohibiting sexual relations or marriage between whites and nonwhites. When the proposed amendment did not become a national law, several states enacted their own version of a racial purity law. Between 1901 and 1930, the one drop rule was made law in eighteen states. People with just 1/32 of ‘‘black blood’’ were considered black. Through articles and books published in the early 1900s which espoused eugenics and the superiority of the Nordic race, people were told how mixed race, now known as biracial or multiethnic people,
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should be classified. The products of a white and nonwhite union were described as an inferior nonwhite. The result of a mixture between of any of the three European races and a Jew were held to result in the birth of an inferior Jew. Terms taken from Latin were used to describe the progeny of parents of two different ethnicities or races. Mulatto, which is thought to come from an analogy to a mule which is an offspring of horse and a donkey, was used to describe the offspring of a white and nonwhite. Classifications under the term mulatto were used on the United States Census until 1930. Other terms, taken from Latin, were also used to classify people as black. Someone with one black grandparent and three white grandparents was a quadroon. This term also applied to someone with one white grandparent and three black grandparents. A quadroon would also be someone with one biracial parent and one white parent or black parent. The term octoroon was used to describe someone with only one great grandparent of African ancestry and seven great grandparents who were white. A quintroon is considered one sixteenth black because they have one parent who is an octoroon and one parent who is white. Despite the repeated attempts to prevent a mingling of or intermarrying of races and ethnicities, the 2000 U.S. Census reported that 281.4 million people in the United States identified themselves as being of more than one race or ethnicity. See also: Civil Rights Cases Further Reading Davis, F. James. 2001. Who is Black: One Nation’s Definition. 10th Anniversary ed. University Park, PA: Penn State Press. Grant, Madison. 1918. The Passing of the Great Race. New York: Arno Press. Maillard, Kevin Noble. 2006. The Pocahontas Exception: American Indians and Exceptionalism in Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924. March 13. Bepress Legal Series. Working Paper 1187. http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/1187/. Murray, Pauli. 1997. States’ Law on Race and Color. 2nd ed. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Angela Espada
Race Records During the course of a three-decade time span, music has seen changes that directly affected the lives of African Americans. As early as the 1920s, music, like most things at the time, had been a segregated entity. African Americans were scarcely represented in the music industry, including recordings, radio time, and live performances, which were limited to segregated venues and audiences. By the 1920s the music recording industry was only two decades old with only a handful of black artists having been recorded. Music performed and recorded solely by African Americans was considered ‘‘race music’’ or ‘‘race records.’’ The
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term ‘‘race’’ was initially preferred and used in a positive sense especially in urban African American communities during the 1920s by those who wanted to promote Black Nationalism. Although heavily impacted by the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression of the late 1920s, the 1930s was a creative time for music. It expanded the popularity of swing music, a style that grew from big band jazz ensembles. During the 1940s the need for separate catalogs waned due to the nation’s involvement in World War II, causing the industry to curtail its number of releases. In 1942, the American Federation of Music (in a union dispute) banned all recorded music, forcing studios to close for two years. Once the ban was lifted music companies focused on mass-market sales and neglected their race catalogs. Black cabaret singer Mamie Smith forever changed the music industry with her 1920 recording of Perry Bradford’s tune ‘‘Crazy Blues’’ under the Okeh record label. Although the label did nothing to promote her, she met with huge success, eventually selling over one million copies. Seeing the success of Smith, the three main record labels, predominantly white Columbia, Okeh, and Paramount realized they could profit from exclusive direct marketing to African American communities and clubs. These recordings were thought inferior by the white recording industry and were sold under separate catalogs. However, records with a substantial white audience, primarily black dance orchestras and jazz bands, were listed in the mainstream pop catalogs. Okeh Records was the first label to incorporate a race division within its company, calling it the ‘‘Original Race Records.’’ Under this division, recorded artists included Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Fats Waller, Clarence Williams, Sippie Wallace, Lonnie Johnson, Sarah Martin, and Victoria Spivey. They also recorded preachers J. M. Gates and Richard Bryant. Columbia Records followed suit with big-name artists Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, and Clara Smith. Paramount also pursued the industry billing itself as a ‘‘Premier Race Label.’’ In the 1930s Decca Records had the sub-label ‘‘Sepia Series.’’ These labels recorded blues music which was considered primitive, gospel which was seldom heard outside of the black community, and sermons with singing. These genres included artists such as Ma Rainey, Blind Boy Fuller, the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet, the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, and preachers J. C. Burnett and J. Gordan McPherson. Other types included jazz, vocal quartets, string bands, jug-and-washboards, oral performances, stories, and comic routines. The music business was lucrative but black artists were exploited by hungry companies and paid far less than their white counterparts for recording sessions. Black artists were more profitable than whites but due to their lack of copyright law knowledge, accounting experience, and sales tracking tools, record companies were able to pocket their profits. An example of this practice involved singer Bessie Smith. Dubbed ‘‘Empress of the Blues,’’ Smith was a wildly successful entertainer whose talent was known throughout the nation. However, she was not financially savvy, and had little to no knowledge of
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contracts. Happy to be signed with a record company, Smith signed a contract that included a ‘‘no royalties’’ clause; although she was paid a small stipend for each recording she never received royalties for at least one hundred sixty songs she recorded for Columbia Records. There are those however, who have learned from this shady practice and learned the necessary information in order to collect their royalties. Despite shady practices of some companies, a major milestone had been reached in the 1920s with the creation of two black-owned and black-operated labels: Black Swan and Black Patti from New York and Chicago, respectively. Both were short-lived but afforded opportunities for future labels. Black Swan was the predominant black record label established in 1921 by Harry Pace under the Pace Phonograph Company. It was named in honor of concert singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, known as ‘‘the Black Swan.’’ Black Swan had its first hits with Ethel Waters’s 1921 recordings, ‘‘Down Home Blues’’ and ‘‘Oh, Daddy’’ and dance recordings by pianist and musical arranger Fletcher Henderson. Artists signed with Black Swan traveled on vaudeville tours, performed in over fifty cities, and achieved overwhelming success. Due to the tours’ high level of success, Pace was able to introduce other genres of music to his label including opera, choral groups, and symphony orchestras. Black Swan folded in 1924 but stayed in business longer than its successor Black Patti Records. Beginning as an advertisement in May 1927, Black Patti Records was a relatively short-lived label marketed under the Chicago Record Company formed by Mayo Williams. It was named for Sissieretta Jones, an African American singer nicknamed after Italian opera singer Adelina Patti. The label, the second African American–owned record company, initially began with advertisements in May 1927 reporting a musical roster of jazz, blues, gospel, sermons, spirituals, and vaudeville acts. The majority of the entertainers were African American. However, due to low sales, the business was not lucrative and Williams closed months later. He later worked for other ‘‘race’’ labels. Although they did not use the term ‘‘race records,’’ other popular labels emerged in the Midwest and South to include Chess, King, and Vee Jay. The music industry continued to be a segregated entity, yet the mixture of the military and the mixture of cultures resulted in a mixture of regional music and traditions gaining nationwide acceptance. With the production of radios, music in the 1940s and 1950s became readily available to the masses, eliminating the need to produce race records. After two decades the terms ‘‘race music’’ and ‘‘race records’’ were replaced in the late 1940s by the current term ‘‘rhythm and blues’’ or ‘‘R & B.’’ See also: Entertainment Industry; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Kirchner, Bill, ed. 2001. The Oxford Companion to Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Phinney, Kevin. 2005. Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture. New York: Billboard Books. Weusi, Jitu K. (n.d.) ‘‘The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records.’’ The Red Hot Jazz Archive. http://www.redhotjazz.com/blackswan.html. Christina D. Cruse
Race Riots Race riots are violent disturbances that result from racial tensions or animosity. American history is riddled with numerous race riots that have occurred since slavery times onward, underscoring the pervasiveness and deeply entrenched roots of racial unrest in American society. Historically, African American and white mainstream popular culture attitudes towards race riots have differed, furthering the problematic nature of race relations in the United States. The earliest violent racial outbreaks occurred in the North. Although the North, considered a haven for racial equality, was home to many free blacks and the destination spot for numerous escaped slaves from the South, racism proliferated there. White mobs and racist organizations brutally attacked and ravaged black communities. Northern abolitionists were also targeted with violence. A white mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, attacked property, businesses, and an abolitionist newspaper in 1829. Riots also occurred in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1831, and New York City in 1834. Philadelphian blacks suffered through seven riots between 1820 and 1849. Blacks frequently defended their homes and families with guns, but they were usually outnumbered and outarmed. Among the many reasons for racial violence in this region was that many whites opposed racial equality and the growth of black populations. Because of prevailing anti-black attitudes, white mobs, more often than not, got away with their crimes without consequence, or received light punishment. The period between the turn of the century and the early twentieth century was fraught with increasing anti-black violence. During Reconstruction, white mobs attacked African Americans throughout the South as African American men attempted to vote for the first time in history. In Memphis, Tennessee, a riot broke out in 1866 after black Union soldiers attempted to stop Irish police officers from harassing a fellow soldier. A gun fight ensued. Some time later, a white mob pillaged a local black neighborhood. The mob set homes afire, raped women, and murdered some forty-six African Americans. In response, the Republican-controlled government provided military aid in the South to protect blacks. After southern whites (Democrats) regained political power in the region, virulent attacks on blacks worsened. During this dismal period, blacks received little or no protection from local authorities or the North. A number of riots that occurred in the early twentieth century in the North and South were allegedly caused by real or imagined assaults by black men on white girls or women. By and large, black men were unlawfully charged with
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imagined crimes against white women. Frequently such charges were intended to provide an opportunity for racist whites to attack blacks, not just the presumed perpetrator but all innocent black men in the vicinity, as well as the black community at large. In some cases, a race riot was sure to follow after an extralegal Lynching or murder of a black man. Frequently, mainstream newspapers incited riots by way of racist and malicious coverage, false stories, or rumors. Early twentieth-century attitudes and press coverage on racial violence was not equal. Mainstream presses frequently ignored or downplayed anti-black violence. Frequently, white newspapers villainized blacks and goaded whites to commit violence against alleged black criminals. Black presses and social activists, like Ida B. Wells-Barnett, William Monroe Trotter, and W. E. B. Du Bois, were among those who vituperated racism and anti-black violence despite the danger of doing so. Wanton attacks on blacks spurred individuals and groups to action. Indeed, it was in response to the Springfield, Illinois, riot in 1908 that whites and blacks joined forces to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Du Bois regularly covered race riots and lynchings in the NAACP’s organ, the Crisis (magazine). To the general public, racial violence was of no major concern, reflecting dominant white society’s low perception of blacks in the early twentieth century and the little influence black leaders exerted in mainstream popular culture. Despite the efforts of activists, rioting continued as blacks tried to forge a living in this turbulent world. At least ten riots occurred between 1910 and 1920. In 1923, whites attacked peaceful black residents of Rosewood, Florida. As a steady migration of blacks moved northward in search of work and opportunity, racial tensions between blacks and whites and immigrant groups escalated, resulting in several riots. Riots of the 1960s and Beyond The majority of riots that emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century, beginning in the 1960s, were unlike anything the United States had seen before. Instead of mobs of whites rampaging into black neighborhoods (or towns) intent on racial violence, these rioters were mostly individual blacks who acted out in their own neighborhoods. While activists led high-profile protest campaigns to end segregation in the South, blacks in the North still bitterly suffered an onslaught of social problems, such as unemployment, racism, and poverty. Law enforcement routinely harassed and brutally attacked black youth and males. Feelings of despair, anger, and alienation were exacerbated by unhealthy living conditions in dilapidated ghettos, along with Crime, and drug use. When these problems combined with a triggering incident, such as police brutality, the result could be explosive. Riots broke out in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Washington, DC, and elsewhere. Despite the enormity of the damage inflicted on property, few deaths occurred. Deaths or injuries normally occurred when law enforcement intervened to stop rioting.
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The riots of the 1960s sparked divergent responses. Militant black leaders of the Black Power Movement referred to these race riots as rebellions. They contended that blacks rioted to protest oppressive conditions, racism, as well as injustice, and to force the world to take notice of them. Urban race riots generally have had identifiable causes. Contributing factors included persistent problems, such as racism, discrimination, and poverty, and triggering events such as beatings and shooting deaths of youths wherein white perpetrators received little or no punishment. Several riots broke out in response to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968. A number of black power proponents empathized with or unabashedly encouraged black rioters. Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton documented social problems in urban black communities that contributed to violent outbreaks in the book Black Power: The Power of Liberation (1967). In 1967, H. Rap Brown was charged with inciting a riot for one vitriolic speech he gave in Maryland. Robert F. Williams encouraged armed self-defense and regularly promoted race riots on his radio program that broadcast from Cuba while he was in exile. Radical black leaders were not alone in their empathy for urban blacks. Conservative leaders of the Civil Rights Movement also publicly acknowledged the plight of blacks in the North. Although they did not condone violence, they understood the conditions that led to such extreme behavior. Before King’s assassination in 1968, King established a campaign to address racism and economic disparities in urban black communities. Jesse Jackson supervised King’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. Civil rights leaders played instrumental roles in exposing the race problem in the North and goading the government to action. President Lyndon B. Johnson put forth the most revolutionary plan of action when he established the War on Poverty program, the Kerner Commission to investigate the causes of urban riots, and other endeavors to address social problems in the North. Notwithstanding the support of Johnson, the mainstream press attitude toward black rioters was disconcerting. Mainstream media depicted rioters as hoodlums and juvenile delinquents and mostly blamed the problems in the ghettos on blacks themselves. A number of whites were confounded by the race riots of the 1960s and did not recognize or understand the serious impact of racism and oppression on marginalized groups. Race riots continue to be a relevant issue in contemporary times. The plight of the survivors and descendents of the Rosewood, Florida, riot in 1923 was publicized by journalists in the 1980s; the Rosewood Bill, passed in 1994, compensated survivors and descendents. In 1996, Michael D’Orso published the book Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood, and, in 1997, African American film director John Singleton released the film Rosewood. The historic triumph for Rosewood survivors came amidst unremitting violence. Indeed, riots have broken out in every decade since the 1960s. One of the most notorious riots to date was the 1992 riot in Los Angeles, California, that
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was sparked after police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King. In 2001, the Cincinnati, Ohio, riot broke out in response to the shooting death of a young black man. Causes of contemporary riots differ little from what prompted blacks to riot in the 1960s, and mainstream media continues to portray rioters as thugs and hoodlums. Many serious social problems in black urban communities remain unresolved. See also: Economic Development; Education: Public and Private; Employment, Unemployment, and Income; Law Enforcement Further Reading Abu-Lughod, Janet L. 2007. Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York. New York: Oxford University Press. Harris, Darryl B. 1993. The Logic of Black Urban Rebellions: Challenging the Dynamics of White Domination in Miami. Westport, CT: Praeger. Hine, Darlene Clark, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. 2000. The African-American Odyssey. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Horne, Gerald. 1997. Fire this Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. Rucker, Walter, and James Nathaniel Upton, eds. 2007. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gladys L. Knight
Racial Profiling Racial profiling, as defined by the American Civil Liberties Union, ‘‘refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.’’ Primary victims have been African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and young men believed to be gang members. Since the September 11, 2001, bombings of the World Trade Center, Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians have become victims of racial profiling. Law enforcement officials accused of this injustice extend beyond police officers, though this group has received the most notoriety. Others include sheriffs, security guards (especially in department stores), border patrol officers, airport security personnel, and airplane pilots. Racial profiling is so prolific that tongue-in-cheek expressions have been spawned related to it: ‘‘driving while black,’’ ‘‘walking while black,’’ ‘‘bicycling while black,’’ ‘‘bitten while black,’’ ‘‘voting while black,’’ and ‘‘flying while black.’’ Although several ethnic groups have been victims of racial profiling, blacks have been particularly targeted. A study cosponsored by the Washington Post showed that a disproportionate number of males of African descent have been victims; as many as 52 percent of black men have experienced racial profiling. While nonwhites are stopped by policemen, few white Americans suffer the
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humiliation that black men endure. Sometimes police officers are overly aggressive, sarcastic, accusatory, disrespectful, abusive, and combative when they stop black males. These confrontations occur when officers misuse their authority and stop drivers with little or no cause. Excessive testimonials about the inconvenience, humiliation, beatings, even killings that have occurred against black men who have been falsely accused of crimes are evidenced in local and national television news reports, newspapers across the country, and sworn testimony in courts of law. Racial discrimination crosses African American men of various backgrounds. No African American male is immune to the possibility of racial profiling. Testimony in the public domain about black men who have been accosted due to racial discrimination goes beyond ordinary people. Additional victims include college students, professional athletes, state legislators, military personnel, and celebrities from various arenas. Celebrities who have undergone indignities due to racial profiling are music stars, R. Kelly and Miles Davis; actors Danny Glover, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Blair Underwood, Wesley Snipes, and LaVar Burton; NFL Hall of Fame star, Marcus Allen; attorney Christopher Darden, author Walter Mosley, and Princeton University professor, Cornel West. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard University professor and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, was arrested July 16, 2009, for disorderly conduct at his house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when police, called by a witness, thought he was trying to break into the house. Charges were dropped five days after the incident. Gates and the police officer who arrested him were later invited to the White House by President Obama for an informal talk about racial prejudice. On April 23, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that police officers were not violating the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. Though the amendment specifically requires that search and arrest warrants be sanctioned by an officer of the court and supported by probable cause, numerous victims of racial profiling and witnesses testify that proper procedures are not always followed by police officers. Black men and other targeted groups have been stopped while driving when no traffic violation occurred and without cause. They have been questioned because of driving late model, expensive cars or for driving in the ‘‘wrong neighborhood.’’ Their cars have been searched without probable cause. They have been detained in police stations, sometimes spending time in jail. As of this writing, the tug-of-war continues between courts giving police carte blanc to infringe upon citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights and victims’ struggle to maintain their rights under the law. See also: Law Enforcement Further Reading American Civil Liberties Union. 2005. ‘‘Racial Profiling: Definition.’’ November 23. http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/racial profiling/21741res20051123.html.
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Cloud, John. (n.d.) ‘‘What’s Race Got To Do With It? Time.com. http://www.time .com/time/covers/1101010730/cover.html. Fortunato, Stephen J. Jr. 2008. ‘‘Supreme Court OKs Racial Profiling.’’ In These Times, May 19.http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3685/supreme_court_oks_racial _profiling/. Jewell B. Parham
Radio Shows and Hosts Radio shows and hosts have occupied an important place in African American popular culture. Since the beginning of radio history in the 1920s, radio has progressively become one of the most popular and powerful mediums in the African American community. William Barlow, the author of Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio (1999), writes that black radio is the ‘‘community’s most vital source of information and culture’’ and has played a far-reaching role, ‘‘helping shape the always changing urban black vernacular, mobilizing African Americans around political and cultural issues, and galvanizing a sense of community among African Americans—especially at the local level.’’ At the heart of black radio are the radio shows and hosts that popularized them. However, African Americans in the radio industry had a difficult start. For many decades, whites, who still dominate the radio industry today, marginalized and stereotyped blacks. With the exception of local radio shows that broadcast in major cities with large black populations, white radio station owners and managers failed to market to black audiences and avoided broadcasting music performed by African American entertainers. When race music (the label given to music performed by black entertainers) was broadcast on the radio, it was substituted with cover versions. A cover version is music originally performed by blacks redone by white entertainers to appeal to white audiences; the resulting product was generally a toned-down version of the original. When blacks were depicted in radio commercials or dramas, white actors were cast in the roles. In the tradition of the blackface minstrels originating in the 1800s, whites exaggerated stereotyped speech patterns and vernacular. The development of black radio was gradual. In the 1930s and 1940s, the United States saw increasingly more black radio shows that appeared concurrently with mainstream radio shows depicting derogatory images of black men and women. In the late 1940s, significant developments occurred in black radio with the emergence of black appeal radio and dramatic new communication styles employed by black hosts. African American radio hosts like Jack Gibson and Douglas Henderson let loose, speaking at fast and rhythmic tempos, using the expressive and slang-laden jargon that was popular with black audiences. (Prior to the 1940s, black radio show hosts spoke in a restrained and formal fashion that was characteristic of white radio broadcasters.) In ensuing decades, black radio hosts and shows increased in number and influence. During the Civil Rights Movement and black power era, black radio
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show hosts were vital transmitters of critical news and information, new music genres, gossip, as well as black slang and trends. During the Black Power Movement, some radio hosts endorsed militant ideology and prominent black power leaders, and, occasionally, violent rebellion; many others helped to quell race riots. Beginning in the 1970s, black radio flourished in most major cities in the United States, particularly in densely black-populated areas. Radio hosts immersed their shows with slang, African American–style Humor, references to popular black foods, films, clothes, hairstyles, and dances, and relevant local and national news. Black radio stations provided a lineup of community news and popular black music genres like Rhythm and Blues, soul, Hip-Hop, jazz, and gospel music. Many radio stations broadcast Sunday morning worship services, as well as popular syndicated shows, like the Tom Joyner Morning Show, which launched in 1994. In striking contrast, in cities with small black populations, black radio shows were either nonexistent or appeared on AM stations which generally have poor reception, depriving blacks of a vital link to popular black culture. In the twenty-first century, black radio remains a pivotal source of music, news, and entertainment for many blacks. A number of locally and nationally known hosts have, like in previous years, achieved celebrity status. Some of the nationally known hosts include social activist Al Sharpton, comedian Steve Harvey, gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, and political commentator Tavis Smiley. Well-known women in radio have included Wendy Williams, who now appears on her own syndicated television show; Oprah Winfrey, talk show mogul; and Cathy Hughes, radio and television entrepreneur. Early Twentieth Century In the early years of radio, during the 1920s, African Americans were hardpressed to find a radio show of their liking, unless they lived in any one of the major cities, like New York, Chicago, or Pittsburgh. Many blacks had migrated to locations, such as New York and Chicago, to escape the oppressive South, as well as to find work. New York, in particular, was a natural spot for black radio shows to take root and flourish. New York was the birthplace of the artistic and literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. Beginning in the 1920s, Harlem blacks cultivated a rich culture of dance, music, art, and literature. Blues and jazz music bloomed; jazz artists, like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington, became progenitors of popular trends in slang, dance, and fashion. Although most African American jazz singers and musicians were excluded from mainstream radio, local black programming regularly broadcast jazz music, as well as other genres of music by black artists. Black audiences tuned in regularly. At that point in time, however, black radio hosts spoke formally, despite the lively vernacular that was pervasive in urban black communities. Barlow notes that this practice demonstrated ‘‘that a black broadcaster could be as civil and well spoken as his white competitors in the industry’’ and was ‘‘an exercise in cultural assimilation.’’
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Popular Black Images in Radio While blacks projected dignity on the airwaves, whites in mainstream radio created stereotypical black images, such as ‘‘bumbling ignoramuses’’ for men and mammies for women, writes Barlow. These roles were problematic for numerous reasons. For one, the images appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows, major networks, and popular commercials; consequently, the images reached large audiences. Generations of whites grew up listening uncritically to shows like Amos ‘n’ Andy and commercials featuring mammy characters played by white actors and actresses. By and large, these images were frequently perceived, by whites, to be the norm, when, in actuality, the images reinforced and perpetuated racism and the ideology of white superiority and black inferiority. Black Radio Shows and Hosts of the 1920s and 1930s While negative and harmful black images loomed large in white radio, black radio produced programs that gave blacks employment, and depicted black life, humor, and culture from the black perspective, as well as put the spotlight on black radio hosts. Jack Cooper was considered one of the most successful black radio pioneers and entrepreneurs of his time. A former black vaudeville performer, Cooper enjoyed an illustrious radio career starting in the 1920s and lasting through the 1950s. He was the host of the massively popular show, The All-Negro Hour, which debuted on WSBC in Chicago, Illinois, in 1929. This program featured music and comedy routines by African Americans. Cooper also produced gospel programs and news programs, like the Defender Newsreel and Search for Missing Persons. According to Barlow, the radio show Our Community Marches On showcased black achievement and was hosted by John M. Ragland, a ‘‘well-known social worker and activist.’’ These news programs filled a glaring gap in mainstream radio. (White radio programs not only stereotyped blacks but disregarded issues that were relevant to them.) Cooper capped his success with the establishment of an advertising company. All in all, Cooper blazed a remarkable trail through an industry that did not favor African Americans; if anything, blacks were fodder for ridicule and amusement. In the 1930s, popular African American radio hosts included men like Eddie Honesty, Bass Harris, and Hal Jackson. Eddie Honesty broadcast a mixture of black and white swing bands on his show, Rocking in Rhythm, from the radio station, WJOB, located in Hammond, Indiana. Swing band music was also the mainstay on the Seattle-based radio station hosted by Bass Harris. The radio show, the Negro Swing Parade, which was broadcast on WDAS in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was hosted by multiple black disc jockeys and featured black music exclusively. Hal Jackson is credited for starting ‘‘Washington, D.C.’s first regular African American–hosted radio program,’’ which showcased prominent African American men and women, writes Barlow. Guests, such as educator Mary McLeod Bethune, challenged pervasive negative black stereotypes that regularly appeared in radio, as well as in film and television.
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Mid-Twentieth Century World War II heralded revolutionary changes in black radio. For the first time ever, the federal government, led by President Franklin Roosevelt, launched a campaign to improve the radio industry. William Barlow explores many social factors, such as civil rights activism, racial violence, and black participation in the war, which contributed to the government’s efforts to transform radio. Civil rights groups, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and social activists like A. Philip Randolph, played enormous roles challenging the federal government to address the rampant social and racial problems affecting blacks. Racial conflict, such as the race riot that broke out in Detroit, Michigan, in 1943, also goaded the federal government to action. One of the steps taken by the federal government to address racial issues was to implement progressive radio programming, like Freedom’s People, a series which exposed the plight of blacks in the United States and featured progressive and successful African Americans. Programs such as this one helped to counteract racist images in mainstream media. The federal government also established black radio programming for segregated black units during the war. Throughout World War II, the Armed Forces Radio Service provided unprecedented opportunities, albeit comparatively few, for blacks in military radio, and broadcast black talent and music. African American soldiers, like comedian Wonderful Smith, served as radio hosts on military radio broadcast stations. Mildred Bailey, a prolific singer, hosted her own show, and the brightest stars and celebrities in black music performed on the hit show, Jubilee. At war’s end, the military terminated most black programs, but more shows and hosts appeared elsewhere. Black Radio Shows and Hosts of the 1940s and 1950s While black radio shows, like The Nat King Cole Show, a gospel show hosted by famous singer Mahalia Jackson, and The Jackie Robinson Show, on civilian stations were ephemeral, other shows garnered critical success and were longer lasting. New World a-Coming and Destination Freedom were cases in point. New World a-Coming broadcast out of New York on WMCA and ran from 1944 to 1957. The show featured dramas and documentaries and tackled serious issues, such as racism and black stereotypes. One of the individuals who played a starring role in this program, mostly as a narrator, Canada Lee, had a background in black theater, performing in many plays, such as the adaptation of the novel Native Son by Richard Wright, that dealt with issues such as racism, and film. The radio show New World a-Coming was nothing short of the serious, distinguished, and revolutionary work to which Lee was accustomed. Destination Freedom, which broadcast on WMAQ, a radio station in Chicago, between 1948 and 1950, was a hard-hitting show. This show, written by its creator, Richard Durham, highlighted historical figures, like Harriet Tubman, and dealt with wide-ranging issues, which Barlow identifies as ‘‘political and social conflicts,’’ ‘‘the horrors of Southern slavery, Jim Crow segregation, lynching, and disenfranchisement from the perspective of the victims,’’ as well as discrimination as it affected blacks in the North and the South.
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Black radio programs, like New World a-Coming and Destination Freedom, were not the only new phenomenon in postwar black society. ‘‘Black appeal’’ radio and new delivery styles by black radio personalities were two important developments. Black appeal radio refers to radio programs that were established to market to the fast-growing black consumer population in the South. Most of these programs were white-owned but hosted by African Americans. Most hosts were male; however, a few women debuted as hosts for shows geared towards housewives. The first black appeal radio shows that emerged in the late 1940s were considered radical; local whites, at first, protested vociferously. Eventually, black radio programming proliferated throughout the South. Another significant development that occurred in the 1940s was the emergence of black disk jockeys using black vernacular, sometimes employing flashy pseudonyms, rapid-fire dialogue riddled with slang and catchphrases, and having flamboyant personalities. In other words, many African American disk jockeys abandoned the practice of speaking Standard English that previous radio personalities worked diligently at perfecting. Barlow writes that black urban growth and ‘‘radical developments in music, dance, language, and fashion’’ had a lot to do with the new way black disk jockeys presented themselves over the airwaves. Among the well-known pioneers who popularized new styles of black radio hosting were Al Benson, Jack the Rapper, Daddy-O Daylie, Jocko Henderson, and Doctor Hep Cat. Al Benson, who was known as the ‘‘Godfather of Black Radio in Chicago,’’ was a favorite for black and white audiences. His ungrammatical speaking style endeared him to Chicago blacks, many of whom had migrated from the South, like Benson, who hailed from Mississippi, and appreciated the opportunity to hear music that could not be heard elsewhere. Jack ‘‘the Rapper’’ Gibson started out with one of the first black-owned radio stations, WERD, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Gibson is credited with popularizing the phrase ‘‘tellin’ it like it T-I-S’’ and is notable for having founded the National Association of Radio Announcers for black deejays. He was among the first to broadcast social activists during the Civil Rights Movement, and Motown and hip-hop music. He launched his music magazine, Jack the Rapper’s Mellow Yellow, in 1975. Jocko Henderson, Daddy-O Daylie, and Doctor Hep Cat were famous for blending innovative styles with African and African American oral traditions, such as rhyming and Signifying. Scholars contend that rhyming disk jockeys may have influenced the emergence of rap music. Barlow refers to signifying as ‘‘a mainstay of the black oral tradition since slavery’’ and defines it as ‘‘the art of humorous verbal warfare, in which the combatants employ a range of devices— from ridicule to cockiness—in order to humiliate their adversaries and enhance their own status.’’ These styles were frequently emulated by white radio hosts; black audiences, however, remained faithful to black hosts. Black Radio Shows and Hosts of the 1960s and 1970s In the 1960s and 1970s, black hosts continued to develop sounds that reflected evolving popular black culture and set them apart from white radio personalities. As always, black radio hosts were considered celebrities in black
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communities (and were lesser known, if at all, to mainstream audiences); however, they would play greater roles during the Civil Rights Movement and black power era. During the Civil Rights Movement, radio hosts helped keep blacks abreast of current events and helped coordinate demonstrations. During the Black Power Movement, hosts broadcast protest songs and helped restore order to black neighborhoods during race riots. Some radio programs, however, like Robert F. William’s Radio Free Dixie, which broadcast from Cuba, featured popular music, as well as scathing exhortations to black listeners in the United States to riot. Late Twentieth Century The late 1980s marked a definitive decline in black radio; nonetheless, radio hosts and their programs remain to this day an enduring part of black life. Underscoring the profound impact of black radio is the presence of black radio personalities in the media, such as the popular mainstream television show, WKRP in Cincinnati, which ran between 1978 and 1982 and featured a soulful African American disk jockey, Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid) and one of the most critical films by Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing (1989), which portrays a fasttalking radio disk jockey, ‘‘Mister Se~ nor Love Daddy’’ (Samuel L. Jackson), who injects incisive commentary into the film narrative. Black Radio Shows and Hosts of the Late Twentieth Century Onward Tom Joyner, Steve Harvey, and Wendy Williams are household names with many blacks in the new millennium. Tom Joyner started his radio career in the South. In the 1980s, he hosted shows in Dallas, Texas. and Chicago, Illinois. In 1994, he launched his nationally syndicated program, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, which featured rhythm and blues music, celebrities, soap opera, comedy, news, and political commentary. In 2005, his television show, The Tom Joyner Show, debuted. Joyner’s folksy, unpretentious, and expressive personality is a hit with black audiences, particularly with individuals over twenty-five years old. Steve Harvey has enjoyed a productive career in comedy, television, film, as well as radio. Between 1993 and 2000, Harvey hosted the television show, It’s Showtime at the Apollo, a challenging feat in itself considering the legendarily critical predominately black audiences. Harvey’s appearance—debonair suits and well-groomed and fashionable hairstyles—and his flair for managing his audience and generating laughs made him one of the more memorable hosts. In 2000, Harvey transferred his onstage persona to radio. The Steve Harvey Morning Show features, among other things, a segment in which Harvey gives relationship advice to callers. This experience inspired him to write an immensely popular book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man (2009). Wendy Williams launched a morning show, in the late 1980s, on 98.7 KISS FM. Williams regularly disclosed celebrity gossip and interviewed mostly African American celebrities. (Frequently, black stars are overlooked in mainstream media.) In
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2001, Williams went into syndication in several cities. In 2009, she left radio to launch The Wendy Williams Show on television. The movie Queen of Media, which is based on Williams’s life, is of this writing, still in production, according to the Internet Movie Database. Williams has published several books, such as a bestselling autobiography entitled Wendy’s Got the Heat (2003) and popular fiction novels, such as Drama is Her Middle Name (2006) and Ritz Harper Goes to Hollywood (2009). See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Deejaying; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Language; Rap Music and Rappers; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Barlow, William. 1999. Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Bradley, Anthony B. 2008. ‘‘Steve Harvey Offers Hope for Black Radio.’’ Action Institute. February 27. http://www.acton.org/commentary/433_steve_harvey_black_radio.php. Hilmes, Michele. 2002. Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio. New York: Routledge. RadioBlack. (n.d.) ‘‘Black Radio Stations’’ (listing). http://www.radioblack.com/all _webcast.html. Smiley, Tavis. 2006. What I Know for Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America. New York: Doubleday. Williams, Gilbert A. 1989. Legendary Pioneers of Black Radio. Westport, CT: Praeger. Gladys L. Knight
Ragtime Ragtime is a heavily syncopated music similar to jazz that emerged in the United States during the 1890s. While the exact origin of the music itself is obscure, we do know that the music derived from African American folk music and was developed in bordellos and saloons by African American pianists. The term ‘‘rag’’ was used both to highlight the ‘‘ragged’’ or syncopated manner in which pianists performed the music and to refer to a type of African American folk tune. Ragtime playing technique has roots that extend to slavery. Although the first piano was built in the United States in 1775, they were prohibitively expensive, and most homes did not have a piano until the end of the nineteenth century. For Africans in bondage, fiddles and banjos were within reach, and these instruments often served as respite and entertainment following the backbreaking work of concentrated plantation labor. In the antebellum United States, black musicians who played banjos and fiddles used their feet as percussive elements. This technique was closely tied to dances that often accompanied the music. This same tendency we see with the advent of ragtime music, whose syncopated melodies often accompanied dances such as the cakewalk. In terms of piano technique, ragtime musicians use their left hands as percussion while their right
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hands play syncopated melodies, a nod to the tradition of playing established by the banjo and fiddler players during the time of slavery and connected to ragtime’s strong connection to dance. In the 1890s, millions of middle-class white Americans bought sheet music, pianos, and piano rolls that were fed into player pianos to enjoy ragtime music, with its origins in saloons and bordellos, in the comfort of their own parlors. The appeal of ragtime music was not just limited to the homes of the white middle class. At the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, twenty million people were in attendance and were, according to reports, thrilled by a ‘‘new’’ syncopated music. While some of the pioneers of ragtime music were in attendance, we do not know if they actually performed, but what we do know is that the time was proving right for the acceptance of this new music form on a broad scale. The tremendous commercial success of these early rags became the impetus behind the American recording industry, and the music itself sounded a declaration of musical independence from what Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted in ‘‘The American Scholar,’’ called the ‘‘courtly muses of Europe.’’ According to James Weldon Johnson, in 1893, Czech composer Antonın Dvorak (1841–1904) had proclaimed that ‘‘that the future music of this country [the United States] must be founded upon what are called the Negro melodies,’’ and this proclamation was coming into fruition with ragtime music, which marked a move away from the music of western Europe to a style and sound that was uniquely American. The relationship between ragtime and Minstrelsy proves rather vexed. On the one hand, the acceptance of the music by the white middle class was spurred by the minstrel stage and plantation traditions that portrayed blacks as lazy and incompetent. Yet, middle-class whites who appreciated ragtime were appreciating virtuosity by African American musicians. On the other hand, some of the earliest rags actually banked on the stereotypes established by the minstrel stage and plantation traditions to sell copies of music. We see this in white bandleader William H. Krell’s ‘‘Mississippi Rag,’’ which owes a debt to the minstrel stage. Some of the early rags too were marketed as ‘‘coon songs.’’ Particularly noteworthy was African American songwriter Ernest Hogan’s All Coons Look Alike to Me, a work that was a commercial success in the United States and abroad, and opened a market for ragtime music. African American composer and pianist Scott Joplin (1868–1917), widely known as the father of ragtime, wrote perhaps the most famous ragtime song of all time. His ‘‘Maple Leaf Rag’’ sold over a million copies in sheet music from 1899 until 1909, and his ‘‘Original Rag’’ remains one of the classics of the genre. Joplin, along with black composer James Scott and white composer Joseph Lamb, helped bring ragtime music to a wide range of listeners, making it popular throughout the United States. By the turn of the twentieth century, ragtime was one of the most popular forms of music in the United States, and the energy of the music captured the spirit of the times for the emerging nation. African American songwriter, novelist, and one of the framers of the Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson explored the larger import of ragtime music in his 1912 novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. In that novel, shortly after arriving to New York City, the protagonist hears, as he describes it, ‘‘music of a kind I had never heard before. . . .
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The barbaric harmonies, the audacious resolutions often consisting of an abrupt jump from one key to another, the intricate rhythms in which the accents fell in the most unexpected places, but in which the beat was never lost, produced a most curious effect.’’ Joplin’s music inspired and deeply influenced the music of jazz musician and composer Jelly Roll Morton. A New Orleans musician, Morton often played in cafes, and his music was heard by Louis Armstrong who, as a young boy walking the streets of New Orleans, often heard the ragtime-inflected melodies. While ragtime music was by its nature highly improvisational, what survives today, largely the result of sheet music and recordings, is stylized improvisation, where we see a distinct pattern in the structure of the music. ‘‘Classic’’ rags follow patterns such as AA BB A CC DD, with each letter representing one section of the overall composition. Yet within the seeming rigidity of the form, each rag player achieves individuality and style based on rhythmic flexibility. By the end of the World War I, ragtime had largely been integrated into the music form of jazz, yet the music itself, in its inventiveness and exuberance, had helped set the stage for the American Jazz Age. See also: Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading Bennett, Eric. 1999. ‘‘Joplin, Scott.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Bennett, Eric. 1999. ‘‘Ragtime.’’ In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books. Berlin, Edward A. 2001. ‘‘Ragtime.’’ In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 20. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, eds. New York: Macmillan. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 1983. ‘‘The American Scholar.’’ In Essays and Lectures. Joel Porte, ed. New York: Library of America. Hughes, Langston. 1982. Jazz. New York: Grolier. Johnson, James Weldon. 2007. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble. Southern, Eileen. 1997. The Music of Black Americans: A History. 3rd ed. New York: Norton. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Rainbow Coalition The Rainbow Coalition is devoted to political empowerment, social justice, and education. It was founded in 1984 by Jesse Jackson (Sr.) as a national social justice organization based in Washington, DC. It was during Jackson’s campaign for the presidency of the United States that the coalition was founded and focused on political action and racial equality. The coalition was created to
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represent the nation’s minorities with empowerment, education, social justice, and mobilization. During the presidential campaign it was emphasized that the country was like a rainbow, inhabited by people born of many colors and nationalities. The coalition was to serve as the political arm of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), an organization founded in 1971 by Jackson. The focal points of PUSH were economic empowerment and capitalization of educational, business, and employment opportunities for the disadvantaged and people of color. In 1993 Jackson’s son and namesake, Jesse L. Jackson Jr. became a field director for the National Rainbow Coalition. In this position Jackson Jr. implemented programs to register over one million new voters. As a gateway to understand the importance of voting, a voter education program was developed to assist potential voters. Also involved in the program was the utilization of technology in the political process. In 1996 the two organizations—PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition—merged to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition with Jackson Sr. as the president of the merger. See also: Organizations and Associations Further Reading Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. 2001. Black Heroes. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Sobel, Richard. 2008. ‘‘Jackson, Jessie Louis, Jr.’’ In African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Oxford African American Studies Center. http://www.oxfordaasc .com/article/opr/t0001/e2301. Sharon D. Brooks
Rainey, Ma (1886–1939), Blues Singer ‘‘Ma’’ Rainey was one of the first professional African American female blues singers to perform to broad audiences and record blues music. Ma Rainey was born Gertrude Pridgett, one of five children, in Columbus, Georgia, on April 26, 1886, to parents who were minstrel show performers. The South was a tumultuous region in 1886. After the emancipation of slaves in 1863, African Americans endured Jim Crow laws and racial violence. Although many blacks searched for better lives elsewhere, many more African Americans remained in the rural South, working as sharecroppers, an occupation which kept blacks impoverished and subordinate to whites. Rainey’s life with her performing parents contrasted sharply with other southern black children; nonetheless, she would still be treated with the same contempt by the dominant white culture. Rainey traveled throughout the South with her parents. Unlike white minstrel performers, who frequently painted their
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faces black and profited from parodying stereotypical black behavior, black minstrel shows featured comedy acts, plays, and songs that were popular and appealing to southern blacks. Rainey’s singing career began when she was a teenager, with a minstrel group called Rabbit Foot Minstrels. In 1904, Rainey married William ‘‘Pa’’ Rainey and took on the sobriquet ‘‘Ma’’ Rainey. Blacks enjoyed her humor, her down home appeal, and her forceful, deep voice. She was a southern sensation and would eventually develop into a persona that, in many ways, defines the archetype of the black woman blues singer. Rainey’s style is considered flamboyant, folksy, no-nonsense, as well as controversial. Rainey was a study in unconventional beauty, dark-skinned and stout, and her body was covered with jewelry. Born and raised in the South, Rainey was comfortable among her people. She understood their joys and sorrows, and her songs reflected their shared experiences. She also crooned songs that were bold, and at times, bawdy. Her songs covered such topics as chain gangs, relationships, erotic love, and homosexuality. Among some southern blacks, particularly non-churchgoing blacks who enjoyed going to juke joints, coarse jokes and sexual innuendos were not considered taboo. Traditionally, within blues culture, women were given the same freedom as men to sing about topics that, in mainstream culture, would be considered indecent. Frequently, these singers, male and female, lived as unguardedly as the lyrics they sang. Indeed, scholars contend that Rainey’s personal life was uninhibited. Rainey was known for her extramarital affairs with men and women, and her indulgent parties. Rainey’s generosity was also illimitable; she and her husband adopted a young man in their vaudeville group, and Rainey frequently helped out those in need and supported other black singers. In 1923, Rainey transitioned from local southern talent to professional singer when she signed on with Paramount Records. She was among several black singers who toured the nation, performing for segregated audiences, exposing larger audiences to a music that had, for years, been confined to southern black communities. Rainey recorded a total of ninety-two records in five years. The last years of Rainey’s life were greatly affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s. The careers of many black singers suffered during the economic turmoil in the United States. Rainey settled in Georgia, managed two theaters, and converted to the Baptist faith. Although Rainey’s last years were quiet, her music had influenced and made way for a new generation of blues singers. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals Further Reading Harrison, Daphne Duval. 1988. Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press Jackson, Buzzy. 2005. A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them. New York, New York: Norton. Gladys L. Knight
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Randolph, A. Philip (1889–1979) Union Organizer, Labor Leader, Civil Rights Activist His work as a labor leader and union organizer earned A. Philip Randolph an iconic image in American popular culture. He has been called the greatest African American trade unionist of the twentieth century. Although Randolph called off his proposed March on Washington in summer 1942 to protest federal apathy toward the rights of African Americans, the very idea of the march advanced the civil and economic rights of blacks. So determined and relentless was Randolph in his quest for racial equality in trade unions and in life for African Americans that some labeled him the ‘‘most dangerous Negro in America’’ during his time. James William Randolph and his wife Elizabeth Robinson Randolph had two sons—Asa Philip and James Jr. The Randolphs lived in Crescent City, Florida, where Asa was born on April 15, 1889. Although the elder Randolph was a tailor and later an AME minister who served poor and small churches in Florida, his income was meager, causing the family to remain desperately poor. Despite their poverty and the lack of books in their home, James Randolph instilled in his children the importance of reading and, Asa Philip Randolph, American Socialist, labor leader, and by example, pride in civil rights activist. In 1925 he founded the first major nationwide African American union, the Brotherhood of their black heritage. Sleeping Car Porters. (Library of Congress)
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Asa Randolph graduated from the former Cookman Institute in Florida, which later merged with Bethune College to become Bethune-Cookman College, then University. His early life, coupled with his education at Cookman, enabled Randolph to hold intellectual interests, give public readings, sing, and do amateur acting. Determined to become an actor, he and a friend from Jacksonville left for Harlem in 1911. Randolph held menial jobs and became a waiter on a boat; he was fired for his attempt to organize the waiters and kitchen staff on their return trip from Boston to New York City. After Randolph abandoned his plans to become an actor, he enrolled in City College where he had free tuition. Before long he became involved in dissent activities and joined radical students at the school. He also developed an interest in socialism that would follow him throughout his life. Randolph held a series of short-lived jobs, including work as a porter for Consolidated Gas Company. At Consolidated Gas, he organized the Independent Political Council, a political action group. In 1914, he met and married Lucille Campbell Green, who became a successful beauty salon operator, having received her training under hair care magnate Madam C. J. Walker. By 1916, Randolph was well on his way to becoming a well-known socialist, and, along with his close friend Chandler Green, joined the Socialist Party; they also became soap-box orators on the sidewalks of Harlem. Beginning January 1917, they edited the monthly magazine, Hotel Messenger, the official journal of the Headwaiters and Sidewaiters Society of Greater New York. They were fired in August that year and in November they began a new magazine called the Messenger, which continued publication until 1928. The magazine published, among other works, stories by Harlem Renaissance figures such as writer Langston Hughes and poet Georgia Douglass Johnson. Organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Randolph continued his work with the Messenger and socialism, and by 1925, when his various political and trade union activities had floundered, he embarked on a new venture that would change his life and that of many African Americans who would follow his leadership. The Pullman Company, which employed numerous African American men, protested efforts of the black porters whom they hired to form a union and to seek better salaries and working conditions. Following Randolph’s successful talk on collective bargaining before a group of porters in New York, he solicited their support and organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) on August 25, 1925. The New York group hailed the efforts, while those in Chicago, where the largest number of porters were based, were reluctant; they feared retaliation from the Pullman Company. The persuasive Randolph, with the assistance of Milton White, won them over. Their efforts were encouraged by the Railway Labor Act of May 20, 1926, which gave them the right to organize. Efforts to call a strike against the Pullman Company were unsuccessful both in 1928 and in 1932, although in 1928 Randolph led the BSCP into the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Meanwhile, the Pullman Company continued to fire those porters who sought to organize.
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In summer 1935, the BSCP became the porters’ legal bargaining agent—the first such union to achieve this recognition for blacks. The Pullman Company finally bargained with the BSCP on August 25, 1937. Behind Randolph’s interest in the BSCP was, of course, his interest in civil rights. He became the founding president of the National Negro Congress in February 1936. He condemned the United States’ tolerance of discrimination in employment, housing, and the armed forces. In March 1941, he issued a public call for a March on Washington to be held on July 1 that year. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration became alarmed over the possibility of some one hundred thousand African Americans converging on Washington and on June 25, 1941, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 banning discrimination in employment in the defense industry and in government. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the armed forces. Randolph’s work with unions continued. The AFL and CIO merged in 1955 and began a positive and progressive stance on behalf of its black members. Along with Willard Townsend of the CIO, Randolph became one of the two blacks who served on the new organization’s Executive Committee. As civil rights activities began to take hold in the South, Randolph joined the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and supported such efforts. Although he was now an elder statesman, he organized the Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington and, after consulting with King, in 1962 asked Bayard Rustin to organize the historic March on Washington. Randolph delivered his last major speech before the crowd of two hundred thousand assembled at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. There he also gave his last public plea for the unemployed, regardless of their race (for he spoke for all the dispossessed) and for the millions living in poverty. Randolph died in New York City on May 16, 1979, when he was 90 years old. His achievements are written in the annals of American history and culture and publicly preserved, for example, in the Black Heritage Month postage stamp issued in his honor in 1989. His work for political and economic justice is extended in the A. Philip Randolph Institute that he and Bayard Rustin founded in Washington, DC, in 1965. In 1995, the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum was founded in his honor in Chicago. See also: Organizations and Associations Further Reading A. Philip Randolph Institute. (n.d.) ‘‘Biographical Notes on A. Philip Randolph 1889–1979.’’ http://www.apri.org/ht/d/sp/i/225/pid/225. Brazeal, Bailsford R. 1946. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. New York: Harper. Franklin, John Hope, and August Meier, eds. 1982. Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Johns, Robert L. 1999. ‘‘A. Philip Randolph.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Pfeffer, Paula F. A. 1990. A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Jessie Carney Smith
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Rap Music and Rappers Rappers are individuals who perform rap music, a genre that emerged as a definitive form in New York in the 1970s. Rap music is defined as spoken words delivered in assorted styles at a variety of tempos, usually rapid and rhythmic, and accompanied to music. Since the 1970s, rap music has increasingly flourished, looming in the new millennium as one of the most popular music genres in African American popular culture.
History of Rap Rap music is believed to have its roots in many different traditions. Among the earliest examples of rapping traditions include traditional West African oral storytelling. In West Africa, griots, or storytellers, frequently recounted historic narratives or folk stories with the accompaniment of drums or other instruments. An important element of this craft was the griot’s ability to produce an effective and effortless delivery and captivate audiences. From this skill, the griot attained status and prestige. Dawn M. Norfleet contends that rap also incorporates ‘‘African-derived oral traditions [such as], ‘boasting’ (self-aggrandizement), ‘toasting’ (long narrative poems that sometimes bestow praises), and ‘playing the dozens’ (competitive and recreational exchange of verbal insults).’’ Rap music also resembles music genres and phenomenon that developed in early U.S. history. For example, blues musicians in the 1920s, like the Memphis Jug Band, incorporated rap-style lyrics in their songs. Swing and jazz musicians like Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway integrated lively repartee in popular songs. In the 1940s and 1950s, black radio show hosts regularly spoke ‘‘jive talk,’’ a form of rapid, melodic, seamless jargon. Jamaican deejays emulated African American radio show hosts, speaking rhythmically over music playing in the background. In the 1960s, poets created an urbane genre referred to as spoken word. Spoken word poetry could be set to drums, jazz, or other music. Spoken word albums gained popularity throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Jivetalk was also a popular form of black speech, as reflected in blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Kool DJ Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash, popular deejays who performed in the Bronx, New York, in the 1970s, played instrumental roles in developing the sounds and culture that were significant to first generation rap music. These new sounds, as well as the street dances, including Break Dancing, which also originated in New York, would emerge as two prominent features of Hip-Hop culture. Kool Herc, Bambaataa, and Flash all hailed from the West Indies. Kool Herc was well-known for his prowess at the turntable; Bambaataa encouraged black youth to express their frustrations through, among other things, dance, rather than participate in violent gang activity, and Flash is notable for creating the electronic beat-box sound. These deejays produced the sounds from which rap music was founded.
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From this period in the early development of hip-hop music, rap music emerged. Early on, rapping was performed underground. In 1979, the Sugar Hill Gang produced ‘‘Rappers Delight,’’ which was credited as the first commercial hit for rap music. Since then, rap music has evolved and metamorphosed. Norfleet classifies rap music in four phases, representing rap music’s growth and development. Between 1979 and 1985, rap music increasingly emerged as a mainstream phenomenon, although it was still exclusively part of black popular music. Between 1979 and 1985, rappers signed on with major record labels with access to larger markets and budgets. Between 1988 and 2000, rap music fragmented into three distinct styles: East Coast rap (where rap originated), West Coast rap (which emerged in the late 1980s in California), and southern rap (which appeared in the late 1990s, debuting rappers from a variety of southern states, like Atlanta, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama). Gangster rap (or Gangsta Rap), a subgenre within rap, was pioneered by West Coast rappers. Sir MixA-Lot, a Seattle, Washington native, representing the Pacific Northwest, a location not known for producing rappers, debuted during the nascent rise of California rappers in the late 1980s. Sir Mix-A-Lot, however, made a name for himself with hits, such as ‘‘Baby Got Back.’’ Southern rap is differentiated from other regional rap subgenres largely by stylistic differences and the use of southern slang and vernacular. Each phase saw the debut of new rappers, many of whom would become icons in the industry. Rappers 1979–1984 The pioneers of rap music brought forth what is now considered old-school fashion and sounds. Trademark sounds of this phase included, among other things beatboxing, an array of vocally produced sounds and percussion beats, and scratching, a term used to describe the electronic ‘‘scratch’’ sound produced on turntables. Some of the most popular rappers were the Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Moe Dee, Run-DMC, Whodini, the Fat Boys, Roxanne Shante, and the Beastie Boys. Kurtis wore a Jheri curl hair style, which was enormously popular in the 1980s. He was born Kurtis Walker in New York in 1959. He was immersed in hip-hop culture early on in his youth, break dancing and performing as a deejays and an master of ceremonies before beginning his rapping career in the late 1970s. He produced several hits, including ‘‘Christmas Rappin,’’ ‘‘The Breaks,’’ and ‘‘If I Ruled the World.’’ He later became a record producer. Kool Moe Dee, another New York native, was born in 1962. He exhibited an urban, sophisticated style. He was rarely seen without a hat that matched his outfits and his trademark Porsche 5620 sunglasses. His second album, How Ya Like Me Now, was a sensation; the title would become a popular catchphrase. Other standout rappers included Run-DMC, Roxanne Shante, and the Beastie Boys. Run-DMC was a rap trio featuring Joseph ‘‘Run’’ Simmons, Darryl
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‘‘D.M.C.’’ McDaniels, and Jason ‘‘Jam-Master Jay’’ Mizell. Joseph Simmons is the brother of Russell Simmons, who pioneered one of the first black-owned hip-hop record labels, Def Jam, and produced Def Poetry Jam, a HBO television series. The rappers of Run-DMC were well-known for their trendsetting appearance. They wore fedora hats, over-sized gold chain necklaces, and Adidas without shoelaces. Like subsequent hip-hop styles which integrated street and prison-influenced styles, wearing shoes without shoelaces was prohibited for prisoners, to prevent hangings. Run-DMC also popularized tough posturing, such as crossing the arms in front of the chest and bearing a stony-faced expression, which was emblematic of urban cool and dignity. A significant moment in Run-DMC’s career was when they teamed up with Aerosmith rock legends Steven Tyler and Joe Perry for ‘‘Walk this Way.’’ Simmons, who since became a minister, starred in Run’s House, a MTV reality show, featuring him and his family. This series ran from October 13, 2005, to July 13, 2009. While Run-DMC helped to define rap music in the 1980s, Roxanne Shante and the Beastie Boys challenged the conventions of the genre. Rap music, in this decade, was dominated by African American males in their twenties or older. Shante, however, was one of the first major female rappers in the industry, and she was only fourteen when she debuted her first single, ‘‘Roxanne’s Revenge.’’ Shante went on to produce two albums and several singles. The Beastie Boys, comprising three white artists, Michael ‘‘Mike D’’ McDonald, Adam ‘‘MCA’’ Yauch, and Adam ‘‘Ad-Rock’’ Horovitz, started out as punk group and then, in the mid-1980s, experimented in rap music, producing several hits, including a best-selling album, License to Ill, which was released in 1986. The Beastie Boys were noteworthy not only for being the first successful white rappers in the industry but for exposing rap music to white audiences, who did not traditionally listen to black music in the 1980s.
1985–1988 The start of the next phase in rap music saw the release of the popular film, Krush Groove (1985), which featured many of the predominant rappers of the first generation. However, new rappers would proliferate in the ensuing years. Some of the most popular rappers, between 1985 and 1988, were Doug E. Fresh, Salt-N-Pepa, Ice-T, and Public Enemy. Salt-N-Pepa, a female rap group, featuring a female deejay who went by the name of Spinderella, generated an enormous fan base with their New York–accented and forcefully executed lyrics, synchronized dance moves, and up-to-date hairdos, including asymmetrical styles, blonde dyes, and bobs. Public Enemy produced songs loaded with political and racial themes and social criticism. The group consisted of Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, DJ Lord, and the S1W. Flavor Flav, adorned with an oversized clock as a necklace, had a unique and erratic rapping style that helped to modernize rap music’s sound. Public Enemy’s ‘‘Fight the Power’’ song appeared on the soundtrack of one of the iconic Spike Lee films, Do the Right Thing (1989).
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1988 and Beyond The number of rappers who have appeared since the late 1980s have increasingly proliferated, representing every region in the United States. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Queen Latifah, and MC Hammer were among the leading rappers to usher forth a new era in rap music. Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff were clean-cut rappers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During their rapping careers, they crossed over into television, where Will Smith became the star of the television series, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and then, in the 1990s, became a major movie star. New Jersey native Queen Latifah, whose rap songs frequently incorporated critical analysis of sexism and racism, successfully transitioned from rap music to television and the movies. Hammer, who was born in New York, was one of the most influential mainstream rappers, popularizing trends, such as male hair styles, the Hammer dance, and Hammer pants, in black communities during the apex of his career. He produced hits like ‘‘U Can’t Touch This,’’ which included song samples from Rick James’s ‘‘Super Freak,’’ and ‘‘Too Legit to Quit.’’ With a clean image and sanitized lyrics, Hammer translated easily into mainstream media. This would not be the case for the majority of new rappers. The emergence of West Coast rappers, like N. W. A and Snoop Dogg, beginning in the late 1980s, added a new dimension to rap music. Many of these rappers had troubled pasts, coming from poor, crime-ridden and violent neighborhoods, and single-headed households. Several individuals had been in gangs, sold drugs, and served time in prison. These experiences would, in the rap industry, function as emblems of authenticity, masculinity, and status. These life experiences would also provide a plethora of material from which West Coast rappers crafted controversial rap songs, songs that were regarded by many critics as misogynistic, violent, materialistic, and debased. But the subgenre was popular with many black youth, and, in the 1990s, the music expanded into predominantly white communities. In that same decade, East Coast rappers, like the groups Wu-Tang Clan and Onyx, and Notorious B. I. G. were also producing gangster rap. References to hardcore rap songs increasingly appeared in mainstream society and media. Rappers, however, not only rapped about hard lives, many of them lived hard and fast lives. Entangled in the notorious phenomenon known as East Coast– West Coast hip-hop rivalry, Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. both ended up mysteriously murdered. Several rappers, like T. I., one of the pioneers in southern rap music, Shyne, DMX, Lil’ Boosie, and Lil’ Wayne have found themselves in trouble with the law over assorted charges for, among other things, violating drug and gun laws. However, T. I., for example, has used his experiences to motivate black youth to make better choices in life. Despite what many regard as its negative side, rap music and industry continue to thrive. Rap has inspired new forms and subgenres, like reggaeton, created by Latin American youth, and Christian rap, and rap headliners, like Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott, Common, and 50 Cent, maintain sensational and productive careers. See also: Rap, Crossover Forms
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Further Reading Hess, Mickey, ed. 2007. Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Keyes, Cheryl L. 2002. Rap Music and Street Consciousness. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Norfleet, Dawn M. 2006. ‘‘Hip-Hop and Rap.’’ In African American Music: An Introduction. Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby, eds. New York: Routledge. Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press. Gladys L. Knight
Rap, Crossover Forms Rap is a form that combines elements of music with spoken word as opposed to singing, and is considered to be one of the elements of the Hip-Hop culture. It had its origins in the black urban communities of New York. Another element of this culture is Break Dancing, a style of dancing the involves athletic movements including difficult spins done on a piece of cardboard or hard plastic that is placed on the ground. The first break dancers were African American youths, but the style was later picked up by Hispanic youths. Early hip-hop deejays played recordings at outdoor parties using two turntables, a practice taken from radio stations that played a record on one turntable while preparing the next record on the other, giving a seamless transition from one recording to the other. Early rap deejays used this practice of alternating between two turntables with two copies of the same record to repeat instrumental passages of music or breaks as a way to excite the dancers and listeners. This often included the use of instrumental passages or breaks from Latin music. This practice was an early example of sampling. A record label that helped to bring rap music to the attention of white audiences was Def Jam Records. Founded by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, who were college students at New York University, this label recorded some of the leading rappers of this time, including LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, and Run-DMC. Run-DMC, a group founded in the early 1980s by Joseph ‘‘DJ Run’’ Simmons, Darryl ‘‘DMC’’ McDaniels, and Jason ‘‘Jam-Master Jay’’ Mizell was one of the first groups to use breaks from rock recordings. The rock music influence can heard in their music. One of their best examples of this is their use of the Aerosmith song ‘‘Walk This Way.’’ Instead of sampling from the original recording, the tracks were recorded by rock musicians Steven Tyler and Joe Parry. This song was one of the first that featured rappers and rock musicians together and is credited with bringing rap into the popular music mainstream. Other rappers who sampled rock songs included Ice-T, the Fat Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and Whodini. The Beastie Boys, a group of white rappers who originally performed punk rock, became the first group to use digital sampling in their recordings. This allowed them to repeat the samples seamlessly numerous
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times. Their song ‘‘(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party),’’ recorded in 1986, hit number seven on the pop charts in 1987. This song was included on their album License to Ill which became the first rap record to hit number one on the pop charts. A more recent style of music is country-rap. This is a style that blends country music with rap and hip-hop. This style is also known as hick-hop, hill hop, hip hopry, and country hop-hop. Artists in this genre include Bubba Sparxxx, Cowboy Troy, Nappy Roots, and Colt Ford. See also: Pop Music; Rap Music and Rappers; Urban Culture Further Reading Chang, Jeff. 2005. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: Picador. Covach, John Rudolph. 2009. What’s that Sound?:An Introduction to Rock and its History. New York: Norton. Anthony Williams
Raspberry, William J. (1935– ), Journalist, Educator William James Raspberry is the former syndicated Washington Post columnist who received the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in 1994. Raspberry was born on October 12, 1935, in Okolona, Mississippi, to educators James and Willie Mae Raspberry. After graduating from high school in 1954, Raspberry attended Indiana Central College (now known as the University of Indianapolis). During Raspberry’s undergraduate years, he was a reporter, photographer, proofreader, and editorial writer for the Indianapolis Recorder, an African American newspaper. After Raspberry received his BS degree in history in 1958, he continued to work at the Recorder, where he was managing editor, until 1960. For the next two years, Raspberry, stationed in Virginia, served in the United States Army as a public information officer in Washington, DC. Raspberry’s forty-three year tenure with the Washington Post began in 1962 when he was hired as a teletype operator. During the next few years, Raspberry received four promotions: obituary writer, general assignment reporter, copy editor, and assistant city editor. In 1966, he married Trinity College English instructor Sondra Patricia Dodson and began writing articles for the paper’s local column, ‘‘Potomac Watch.’’ When Raspberry’s column was moved to the op-ed page five years later in 1971, he started writing about national issues while still discussing topics of local interest. Raspberry’s column was syndicated in 1977 and was published in more than 225 newspapers. Also during the 1970s, Raspberry began appearing as a commentator on television. Raspberry, the selfdescribed ‘‘solutionist,’’ consistently offered practical solutions to problems that plagued the Washington Metropolitan Area as well as the nation. In 1991, he
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published Looking Back at Us, a compilation of his columns focusing on education, family, race, and criminal justice. Raspberry, who taught journalism at Howard University in the 1970s, returned to academe after winning the Pulitzer in 1994 when he was appointed the Knight Professor of Journalism and Public Policy Studies at Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. In addition to the Pulitzer, Raspberry is the recipient of honorary degrees and awards such as the Capital Press Club’s Journalist of the Year Award (1965), the National Association of Black Journalists’ Lifetime Achievement Award (1994), and the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award (2004). Raspberry, one of the nation’s most respected journalists, retired from the Post in 2005 after writing the column for thirty-nine years, and he retired from Duke in 2008. He is currently president of Baby Steps, an organization he founded in 2003 in Okolona to teach parents of preschoolers how to help their offspring gain success in school and life. Children remain important to Raspberry, the father of three. In ‘‘A Path Beyond Grievance,’’ an editorial published in the Washington Post on November 11, 2008, Raspberry opined that the election victory of Barack Obama may lead to African American children seeing ‘‘life as a series of problems and possibilities and not just a list of grievances.’’ See also: Journalism and Journalists; National Association of Black Journalists Further Reading Fibich, Linda. 1994. ‘‘The Solutionist.’’ American Journalism Review 16 (May): 28–33. Garrett, Marie. 1994. ‘‘William J. Raspberry.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale, 1999. Linda M. Carter
Rastafarianism (1930s) Rastafarianism is a religious movement founded in Jamaica in the early 1930s. The tenets of the movement are based on interpretations of the Bible and repatriation to Africa. Most proponents of the Rastafari ideology believed in a biblical prophecy of Isaiah 9:6 which indicated a king would come as the prince of peace and the government would be upon the shoulders of this king; the coronation of Prince Tafari Makonnen (also known as Haile Selassie I, ‘‘Power of the Trinity’’) as the Emperor of Ethiopia confirmed many black Christians’ belief that the king referred to in Isaiah would be a black man. Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican black nationalist had prophetically proclaimed to blacks that a king of African descent would come to redeem them from oppressive treatment. As a result, Selassie became the representation of God as his direct descendant. Hence, the name ‘‘Rastafari’’ emerged as the blended name of ‘‘Ras,’’ the Amharic definition of prince, and ‘‘Tafari.’’
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Three early leaders of the Rastafari Movement—Leonard P. Howell, Joseph Hibbert, and Archibald Dunkley—met in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica, during the early 1930s while a combination of African religions, Ethiopianism, and Christianity was being practiced by the lower classes in Jamaica. Later, Kingston became the hub for Rastafarianism. Howell began to preach the message of Ras Tafari as the only savior of black people. Hibbert and Dunkley, along with Howell were arrested, forcing the Rastafari movement to operate secretly. Rastafari ideology embraces certain rituals and practices such as reasonings and binghi. Reasonings are gatherings of members to pray and smoke the marijuana which is known as the holy weed. Marijuana serves as a source of income and means of communing with God as well as other brethren and sistren in the faith. Binghi are all-night merriments which celebrate memorable dates and occasions such as the New Year (January 7), the birthday of Marcus Garvey, the coronation date of Emperor Haile Selassie I, and emancipation from slavery. Rastafarians also view Dreadlocks as priestly and symbolic of wisdom. Fundamental Rastafarians exercise a vegetarian diet in an effort to remain pure. Repatriation to Africa is a significant principle of Rastafarianism along with the belief in reparations. Although Rastafarianism has been a monumental religion in Jamaica, Britain, and the Caribbean, since the 1980s, the religion has become worldlier in that the spiritual and ideological beliefs have been lost as a result of a lack of influence on the young people of Jamaica. Young people around the world have made dreadlocks, Rasta colors (red, green, and gold), and smoking marijuana more like trends and fashion statements than cultural and religious values. Two Rastafari groups are operative and well Rastafarian Ras Moses teaches a fellow Rastafarian from a Bible in Barbados. (Tony Arruza/Corbis) organized. Both of the
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groups are housed in Jamaica: the Bobos and the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Bobos reside in a communal compound outside of Kingston and make and sell brooms for income. The Twelve Tribes of Israel meet regularly and honor the decisions of a group of elders who resolve conflicts between the brethren. The connection between the social movement known as Rastafarianism and reggae music is well demonstrated in the life and work of Jamaican Bob Marley and the Wailers. In fact, Marley has been dubbed the most popular reggae artist as he and his group popularized Jamaican reggae. They also helped it to become an international phenomenon. In the mid-1960s, Marley converted to Rastafarianism, added dreadlocks to his hair, and in his music promoted his new faith. Rastafarianism greatly influenced the island’s culture and its spirituality, and sought to unify blacks worldwide. Rastafarianism is still an influential presence in Jamaica. Its rebellion against racial inequality, prejudice, and respect for African heritage and beliefs posits itself as an important component of history. See also: Afrocentric Movement; Reggae, Reggaeton Further Reading Boyd, Todd. 2008. ‘‘African Americans and Popular Culture.’’ Vol. 3, Music and Popular Art. Westport, CT: Praeger. Edwards, Roanne. 2005. ‘‘Early Rastafarian Leaders.’’ 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. Edwards, Roanne. 2005. ‘‘Rastafarians.’’ 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. Sakaana, Amon Saba. 2007. ‘‘Rastafarianism.’’ In The Oxford Companion to Black British History. David Dabydeen, John Gilmore, and Cecily Jones, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. LaVie T. Leasure
Reggae, Reggaeton Reggae music has become one of the most popular and expanding music genres. Originating in Jamaica, the meanings and origins of the term reggae are varied. Purportedly it evolved from the word streggae, the Jamaican Creole describing someone who does not dress well, while Bob Marley, the most prominent reggae artist, claimed that the term originated from the Spanish term regis which means ‘‘the king’s music.’’ Reggae is characterized by an emphasis on the off-beat, usually by a rhythm guitar, piano, or synthesizer. It is played in 4/4 time or swing time and initially an entire song was made up of one or two chords. Originally, reggae lyrics only contained messages of peace, love, positive social
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and family values, and culture and history, embodying aspects of the Rastafarian lifestyle and jargon such as Jah, for God. While reggae continues to make social commentaries, contemporary reggae artists may include negative lyrics, debasing women and encouraging crime and violence. Reggae was influenced by earlier music genres—mento, ska, and rocksteady. Mento fused African and European music. Jamaican musicians combined ska and rocksteady, leading to the creation of reggae. Bunny Lee, known as Bunny Wailer, is one of the first known originators of reggae, using the organ and rhythm guitar to create this new sound. Two of the earliest known producers of reggae are Duke Reid and Clement Dodd. The Pioneers’s 1967 track ‘‘Long Shot Bus Me Bet’’ is documented as the earliest recording of reggae. Other early recordings were ‘‘Say What You’re Saying’’ (1967) by Clancy Eccles and ‘‘People Funny Boy’’ (1968) by Lee ‘‘Scratch’’ Perry. Toots and the Maytals’s ‘‘Do the Reggay’’ is the first song to include the word reggae in the lyrics. The popularity of reggae music has increased immensely. Prince Buster, Kackie Mittoo, Desmond Dekker, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer were major contributors who helped to establish reggae music throughout the world. Jimmy Cliff brought reggae music to film and increased its popularity in the U.S.A. in The Harder They Come (1972). Later, Chris Blackwell, a reggae producer, and Maxi Priest, a reggae artist, were instrumental in spreading reggae music in the United Kingdom. Other reggae groups and artistes include Steel Pulse, Third World, Black Uhuru, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott, Buju Banton, Sizzla, Shaggy, and international artists such as Aswad and UB40. However, Bob Marley is known as the greatest pioneer of reggae music. In 1984, reggae’s impact on the music world led to the creation of the category Best Reggae Album at the Grammy Awards. That year, Black Uhuru received the award for their album, Anthem. Some of the other recipients include: Jimmy Cliff, Steel Pulse, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Shabba Ranks, Sean Paul, Toots and the Maytals, and Ziggy Marley. Reggae also forms the soundtracks of many American and European films. Reggae has evolved into different genres such as roots reggae, dancehall, and lover’s rock and has led to the creation of another music genre, reggaeton. Reggaeton Emerges Reggaeton is a fusion of Spanish rap and Hip-Hop, gaining popularity since the mid-1990s. The origin of reggaeton is not absolute. It started with elements of Jamaican reggae and dancehall, North American hip-hop, and contemporary R & B mixed with Latin American music such as cumbia, bomba, and plena; however, many other Latin American music beats have been incorporated. The ‘‘Dem Bow’’ beat—named after Shabba Ranks’s song ‘‘Dem Bow’’—is a drummachine track that is exclusive to reggaeton with an interplay of a steady kick drum and a syncopated snare. Reggaeton also embodies electronically synthesized melodies that are produced with keyboards, electric guitars, and other
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electronic instruments. It is very flexible in its ability to accommodate different types of beats and is most popular among Latino youths. Panama and Puerto Rico are credited for the development of reggaeton. In Puerto Rico, reggaeton earned the name, ‘‘under’’ due to its vulgar lyrics and because it was not openly accessible to the public. Presumably, the term reggaeton was also created to differentiate Spanish reggae—reggae music translated to Spanish—from the fusion of reggae and hip-hop. Some Latin Americans refer to reggaeton as ‘‘perreo,’’ meaning ‘‘doggie,’’ which is a term that describes a reggaeton dance form resembling sexual positions. Reggaeton lyrics discuss street life, but are often vulgar, exploiting women and discussing sexual relationships. Panamanian El General Edgardo A. Franco and Puerto Rican Vico C are known as pioneers of reggaeton. Other early producers of reggaeton are Daddy Yankee, O. G. Black, and Master Joe. DJ Playero’s albums ‘‘Playero 37,’’ ‘‘The Noise: Underground,’’ ‘‘The Noise 5,’’ and ‘‘The Noise 6’’ were some of the major promoters of this new sound. More modern producers of reggaeton are Luny Tunes, Noriega, and Eliel. Reggaeton has expanded outside of Puerto Rico and Panama, airing in Peru, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and in large Spanish communities in the United States of America. In 2004, reggaeton exploded outside of Spanish borders with Latin American artists such as Daddy Yankee’s ‘‘Barrio Fino,’’ Tego Calderon’s ‘‘El Enemy de los Guasibiri,’’ and Ivy Queen’s ‘‘Diva’’ and ‘‘Rea’’ gaining airplay in the U.S. In its growing popularity, reggaeton facilitated the creation of the former radio station Fuego XM90 in the U.S., playing exclusively reggaeton, and the modern Latin-American commercial radio, Hurban—a term fusing Hispanic and urban. Hurban is a bilingual radio station that plays reggaeton, hip-hop, and dance music. Reggae and reggaeton have Caribbean roots and have incorporated traditional and nontraditional music to create unique forms of music. Both genres can be heard internationally. See also: Caribbean Cultural Influences Further Reading Bradley, Lloyd. 2007. Reggae: The Story of Jamaican Music. London: BBC. Bradley, Lloyd. 2001. This is Reggae. The Story of Jamaica’s Music. New York: Grove Press. O’Brien Chang, Kevin, and Wayne Chen. 1998. Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music. Kingston, Jamaican: Ian Randle Publishers. Reggaeton in Cuba. (n.d.) ‘‘What is Reggaeton?’’ http://www.reggaeton-in-cuba.com/en/ what-is-reggaeton.htm. Rivera, Racquel. 2009. Reggaeton. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Scaruffi, Piero. 2002, 2003. ‘‘A Brief Summary of Jamaican Music.’’ In The History of Popular Music. Scaruffi.com (author’s Web site). http://www.scaruffi.com/history/ reggae.html. Renee Latchman
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Reid, Antonio ‘‘L. A.’’ (1956– ), Songwriter, Producer, Record Company Executive, Singer Antonio M. ‘‘L. A.’’ Reid’s contribution to African American popular culture lies in his inimitable ability to identify, develop, and promote musical talent. Born June 7, 1965, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Reid lived with his mother, Emma Reid, and four siblings; he had an absentee father. Reid’s interest was playing drums— a talent he expanded when he became a luminary member of the Hughes Center High School marching band. He later discovered his passion for producing music, one that he assiduously pursued, becoming one of the most powerful black men in the music industry. In 1980, Reid founded the group Essence which later became the Deele, comprising vocalist Carlos ‘‘Satin’’ Green, Stanley Burke, Darnell ‘‘Dee’’ Bristol, and Kevin Roberson. Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face’’ Edmonds, a left-handed guitar player from Indianapolis, also joined the group and he developed a good rapport with Reid. In 1989, Reid and Baby Face created the LaFace label, which was marketed through Arista Records. After LaFace merged with the Arista label in 2000, LaFace dissolved, and Reid became the CEO of Arista Records for four years. Reid faced difficulties as the new CEO, but he proved a success to the record label. The first artist Reid signed for the new label was Damian Dan, followed by Jermaine Jackson. Other successes include Avril Lavigne, Usher, Pink, Boyz II Men, Whitney Houston, and OutKast, whose albums each sold over five million copies. Reid left Arista in 2004 and joined the Universal Music Group’s Island Def Jam label, where he still serves as chairman. On the Def Jam label, Reid has been working with many renowned artists, including Kanye West, Rhianna, LL Cool J, Nas, Ne-Yo, Jay-Z, Patti LaBelle, and Mariah Carey. He is also Chairman/CEO of Hitco Music Publishing where he has expanded his talent search to songwriters and producers. Reid received Grammy awards for songwriter, Best R & B Song for End of the Road (1992), Boyz II Men; Producer of the Year Non-Classical (1992); and producer, Album of the Year for The Bodyguard (1993), Whitney Houston. Reid’s success in the music industry has brought him recognition, since he has produced several genres of music. Reid represents one of the few African Americans who have attained executive status, allowing him to make decisions about black music and musicians. Reid is not only instrumental in scouting new African American musical talents, but he is also involved in the creation of music beats that are popularly used in Hip-Hop and rap. Although Reid is often occupied with his music career, his family is of paramount importance. He married Erica Holton in 2000 after divorcing R & B singer Pebbles in 1995. Reid has five children: Aaron and Ashley from his marriage with Pebbles, Antonio, Jr., from his marriage with Victoria Robinson, and Arrianna Manuelle and Addison from his current marriage. Further Reading Alexander, George. 2000. ‘‘Spin Control Clive Davis is Out, ‘L. A. Reid is in at Arista.’’ Black Enterprise 30 (July): 21.
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EMB Publishing. [n.d.] ‘‘Hitman Business as Usual.’’ Embpublishing.com. http://www/ ebmpublishing.com/articles/09july/hitman.htm Norment, Lynn. 2003. ‘‘‘L. A.’ Reid: The Most Powerful Black in the Music Business— Biography.’’ Ebony 58 (June): 116–17, 120, 122, 124. http://www.musicianguide .com/biographies/1608003821/Antonio-Reid.html. USA Today. 2004. ‘‘Arista President and CEO Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid Exits.’’ January 13. http://www.usatoday/com/life/music/news/2004-01-13-reid-exits_x.htm York, Jennifer M. 2001. ‘‘Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 28. Detroit: Gale Group. Renee Latchman
Religious Customs and Traditions One could not rightly say that the black church in the United States was ever a totally homogenous entity, or for that matter, neither can one adequately describe what the black church is to one unfamiliar with its dimensions. In the earliest development of the black church, the black church representing congregations of all black worshippers, those who made up its memberships had family ancestries from varying continents and consisted of both free persons and slaves. Thereafter, migrations prompted by war and discrimination served to ensure that the black church was diverse in its styles, denominational ties, and congregational makeup. Nevertheless, a close examination of the religious customs and folk traditions among black churches shows a unique commonality in culture and identification among its memberships. One may be unable to adequately describe what is meant by the black church worship experience, but those persons intimately familiar with it will be able to ‘‘feel’’ its absence or presence. While some of the customs or traditions may be ones shared by nonblack churches, it is the manner in which they are followed and passed on to later generations that gives the black church a unique identity in popular culture. In the fledgling nation of America many persons sought to form houses of worship. Institutionalized slavery, however, posed a particular dilemma for slaveowners who sought to Christianize their black slaves. The presence of the latter and other free black persons in churches brought to the forefront the duality of a white theology that espoused equality among humankind but turned a blind eye to segregation among the races. Attempts to maintain segregation in religious worship settings provided the catalyst for the development of formal black churches. Informal ones had already existed on plantations in ‘‘hush harbors’’ in the hollows, and less visible places, where slaves met surreptitiously to worship in the manner of their own traditions. Typically, these worship services were led by slave preachers. Whether in formal or informal settings, these earliest black churches resembled one another in at least one stark regard—they chose to be distinctively nonwhite in nature, even when using many of the same popular hymns and forms of worship found in those churches. With good cause, blacks felt compelled to be distinct and distinctive. Black parishioners in the formal church services shared with whites were often humiliated
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when asked to sit in the back of the church or were otherwise unable to sit on the same pews as a white person. In some cases, blacks were forbidden from holding worship services until the services for whites had concluded. Thus, many blacks refused to serve God under these circumstances and left with the intention of establishing their own place of worship where they could fully express their faith. In point of fact, the historically black denominations which were founded in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were formed as a direct response to the racism faced by blacks in white Christian churches. The traditions which developed out of that forced segregation were born out of the intense spiritual relationships which formed among black church members who were trying to cope with a hostile and often violent society. The black church was literally a refuge for blacks, ‘‘a very present help in time of need.’’ These traditions and customs have served to affirm the black worshipper as a child of God as well as to bring the worshipper into a sustaining relationship with God and his or her neighbor. The major thrust of these early traditional black churches was to utilize the creativity invested within each one of its worshippers so that he or she could be active participants in the singing, praying, preaching, and giving which are the traditional elements of the black worship experience even today. And more so, these traditions and customs help to foster a celebratory attitude during the time of worship, for worship represents a sacred encounter with the sovereign God who frees people out of their bondage. Churchgoers can celebrate, despite and in spite of their status in society, because they believe their God is working all things together for their good. This act of celebration through worship demonstrates the congregation’s thankfulness for a God who cared enough about them to become flesh and dwell among them. But even more, it demonstrates the congregation’s assurance that God is still carving out a future and a hope for each one of them, and all of them, an anticipated future that brings goodness, peacefulness, safety, and total freedom. Blacks are drawn to the black church because there they can drink from the spring of living water, finding refreshment for the soul—a renewing of the psyche and a reenergizing of the spirit. Traditions on the Day of Worship In days past, so strong was the fervor with which congregants looked forward to the worship experience that black worshippers engaged in almost cleansinglike preparatory rituals the day before. Many families limited the types of activity that could occur on the day of worship because that was the Lord’s Day and they saw the Lord’s Day as a holy and ‘‘high’’ day that required them to dress their best, act their best, and give their best to the Lord. Just as God had sacrificially given to them they sought to give themselves totally to God’s church. Thus, such beliefs necessitated that cooking, ironing, shining of shoes, and cleaning be done a day ahead of time. Modern worshippers sometimes find this tradition along with others somewhat undesirable but these emanated out of a deep desire to honor God fully, faithfully, and reverently. Great care was taken in how one
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dressed to go church. Men wore their best overalls or suits and ties, if they could afford them, and ladies would not dare go into the sanctuary without stockings or a hat. For some, a hat signified one’s submission to the authority of God; for others, it demonstrated one’s desire to feel and look their best when they met the Lord. The celebratory nature of the black church is most evident in the music and preaching event, although denominational traditions may vary considerably. Music today in most black churches has a central role in worship, but this was not always the case. Although black slaves had incorporated intense shouting, singing, dancing, and musical instruments into their services, debate arose among later black church leaders about the introduction of any of that into theirs. Yet, music, as one scholar describes it, was the soul of black people. It was a way of communicating oral tradition and instructive messages about everyday life activities. As during the days when Spirituals were developing, music today still represents a way of communicating African values and African American traditions. Praise step teams and liturgical dancers as well as usher boards that praise God by Stepping are evidence of the historical link between Africans and African Americans in their worship traditions. In the early part of the twentieth century, what was then considered secular music captured the imagination of black religious composers like Thomas A. Dorsey and Roberta Martin and led to the introduction of a new kind of musical genre—gospel—into worship services. This new genre dramatized the everyday life experiences of blacks but it also drew considerable ire from preachers and congregants. It was felt that the sacredness of the service was being diminished. Today, contemporary gospel music is both loved and deemed suspect when added into the worship setting. Yet, contemporary music sung by the likes of CeCe Winans, Kirk Franklin, or Tonex still incorporates much of the improvisational, rhythmic dynamics of African music and still speaks to persons in a way that binds them to the black church even if they are not regular attendees. Today, blacks are much more integrated into the fabric of the larger society than they were in the nineteenth century and are adept at creatively experimenting with new styles of music. And it is not uncommon to hear a variety of musical styles in one worship service. In addition, there were also other musicians who were identified as secular entertainers who wrote sacred music for performance in Sunday worship, such as Duke Ellington. In addition to the use of spirituals, which were popularized by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, early black churches utilized the meter hymns composed by Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, but also those popularized by the Englishman Isaac Watts. Worship Through Song, Preaching, and Prayer Although in the early black church everyone was encouraged to participate in singing, in later years choirs were formed, sometimes robed or uniformed, but this new development was also met with some skepticism. However, choirs were a useful way to edify services in places where it was discovered that the
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congregation was unable to read the hymns of the church. The addition of instruments to the worship service other than the piano and organ have added another dimension to the vital role of music in the vitality of black churches. Nonetheless, some churches have immensely spiritual and spirited services without the use of any instruments, relying totally upon a cappella singing, for it is in the foot stomping, in the clapping, and in the melding of spirits together in harmony with the eternal that God appears. Also, music in the black church was and continues to be a form of social activism, a natural extension of the church’s theology that its God is a liberating God. Whether chancel or sanctuary choirs sing anthems, gospel choirs sing contemporary music, or only soloists sing; whether the choirs sing out of hymnbooks and folders or by memory, their style is different than that of anything found in most nonblack churches. Even when hymnals published by African Americans for use as a liturgical resource are available, musicians and singers exercise stylistic freedom. Notes on a page may call for a particular response, but the yielding of the spirit to the chords from deep within the soul of the faithful call for a different type of witnessing. Music is sung and played, as one scholar put it, ‘‘according to a black sense of timing, syncopation and rhythm.’’ For blacks sing songs out of a different context, that of being denied freedom and equality in varying degrees across the centuries. It is a tie that binds blacks into the ‘‘black church,’’ whatever their denomination or religious tradition may be. Just as music evokes enthusiastic and passionate displays of emotions and shouting throughout the congregation, preaching does too. This is so no matter what the preaching style. In the black church the preached word speaks to both the emotion and the intellect of the hearer. The minister is the conduit through which God speaks to the people of God, the anointed and ordained one upon whose life God has placed a call. The preacher and the congregation dialogue with each other and with God, maybe in spoken call and response fashion, through moans that say so much more than words could ever do, maybe by standing and clapping, or maybe just through inward assents. Whether in churches with a formal order of worship and bulletin or in those where there seemingly is little structure, prayer plays a major role in centering the congregation. In altar calls one is reminded of his or her own human frailties and the magnificence of the unseen God who looks beyond these imperfections and moves each one towards perfection. No human concern is too small or too big to lay before the altar. The collective community draws strength from one another because of the shared ethos that erupts into moans and groans, into ‘‘Thank you, Lord’’ and ‘‘Lord, have mercy.’’ It has always been the collective community of God’s people that has brought a sense of power and self-determination to the black church. Traditions and customs that have fostered this gathering of the community have been: Homecoming Day wherein former or relocated members return and fellowship together in worship and meals; Men’s and Women’s Day wherein laity have opportunities to speak and highlight the accomplishments of their particular group in the life of the church; Watch Night services where the community can look forward to the continued presence of God in their future; church revivals that bring other congregations
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to the community and renew the larger black community of believers; and a pastor’s anniversary where the community can express their thankfulness for the faithfulness of their leader, their messenger from God. Other traditions serve to recognize the emerging community—the children and youth: Youth day, which gives opportunities to youth to have active and visible roles in leading the worship services; Sunday school for these age groups and others, that provides opportunities to make God personal in the lives of young people; Tom Thumb weddings and other children’s events that provide other opportunities to instill black culture through socially accepted behaviors; and dedications and christenings of babies, that provide opportunities for the congregation to covenant with families to maintain the bond of unity. Still other traditions serve to deeper the theological witness of the community: invitational call to discipleship, or a reminder that the coming together of the community is for the purpose of advancing God’s work to bring justice and truth to the world; and rituals of communion and baptism, as a reminder of the love and sacrifice of God on behalf of God’s people. An important distinguishing feature of black church worship is the congregation’s anticipation of the spirit of God descending upon the assembled and empowering them to live and serve. Subsumed in the black church consciousness, at its best, has been the notion that the distinctions that serve to identify and divide people within the larger society, e.g., race, status, economic standing, have no bearing within the church. Thus the preacher may be employed as a postal worker, the chairman of the trustee board as a janitorial worker; a deaconess of the Mother Board may be a nurse’s aide. In the church they are elevated from whatever status they came in with and given the privilege of being the sons and daughters of the ever present God of their ancestors. The black church is evolving as new generations wrestle with their theological focus. Consequently, some of the historical traditions and customs have been abandoned in favor of newer ones. Yet, the focus of the black church is still on freedom and equality in all of the ways in which that manifests itself to be lacking in the lives of black people. As a people, blacks have bonded together in spirit, even if not in physical presence, to take the best of African religious traditions, the best of other ethnic religious traditions and fuse them into a black church sensibility that provides the encouragement, sustenance, and inner strength needed by blacks to keep confronting the evil forces of inequality and enslavement, in whatever form they take in the modern world, so that the community of God’s people can be reconciled one to another and to God. See also: Black Theology; Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Further Reading Costen, Melva Wilson. 1993. African American Christian Worship. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. Cunningham, Michael, and Craig Marberry. 2000. Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats. New York: Doubleday.
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Holmes, Barbara A. 2004. Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Johnson, Jason Miccolo. 2006. Soul Sanctuary. New York: Bullfinch Press. McCall, Emmanuel L, comp. 1986. Black Church Lifestyles: Rediscovering the Black Christian Experience. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press. Perry, Dwight. 1998. Breaking Down Barriers: A Black Evangelical Explains the Black Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Watley, William D. 1993. Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land: the African American Churches and Ecumenism. Geneva (Switzerland): WCC Publications. Weekes, Melinda E. 2005. ‘‘This house, this music: exploring the interdependent interpretive relationship between the contemporary black church and contemporary gospel music.’’ Black Music Research Journal 25 (Spring–Fall). http://0-find.gale group.com.waldo.library.nashville.org/gtx/start.do?prodId=ITOF. Wilmore, Gayraud S., ed. 1989. African American Religious Studies: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Vivian C. Martin
Reparations The National Coalition of Blacks defines reparations as ‘‘payment for a debt owed; the act of repairing a wrong or injury; to atone for wrongdoings; to make amends; to make one whole again; the payment of damages to repair a nation; compensation in money, land, or materials for damages.’’ Since the publication of The Debt by Randall Robinson in 1999, the only topic that has enjoyed more discussion in black popular culture is the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. Reparations are talked about both in the barbershop and beauty shop as well as in the halls of Congress. It is one of the few topics in black popular culture that transcends national lines and is discussed in the Caribbean, throughout Europe, and in Africa as well. In 1441, the Portuguese captains Ant~ao Goncalves and Nuno Trist~ao kidnapped twelve Africans from Cabo Branco (present day Mauritania) and took them to Portugal, marking the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It ended officially in 1888 when Brazil became the last nation in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. This 447-year period saw the forced removal of tens of millions of Africans from their homelands to the auction blocks of Europe, North and South America, the Caribbean, and Western Asia. When asked how many Africans were actually enslaved during this period, John Henrik Clarke in his book, Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust and the Rise of European Capitalism, said the following: ‘‘The Middle Passage, Our Holocaust! It is our holocaust because this is a holocaust that started 500 years ago and it is not over. We do not start our count at six million, we start at sixty million, and we have just begun to count. Now I don’t mean to negate the German and the European Holocaust. Whether the number was six or sixty million, even if it was wrong.’’
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It is a sobering fact that the past millennium can be referred to as the ‘‘Millennium of Slavery,’’ since nearly five hundred of its thousand years involved the buying and selling of Africans. Indeed, the reparations movement did not begin in 1865 with Sherman’s Field Order Number 15, but when the first Africans organized against their capture. Resistance and reparations have been the two core values of the African experience since the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Roy Brooks argues that the African repatriation movement (‘‘Back to Africa’’) must be considered a part of the reparations struggle. He quotes scholar Robert Johnson who writes, ‘‘resettlement was seen as a means of righting a wrong that had begun two centuries earlier. . . . [T]he return to Africa was understood to be a specific, narrowly tailored form of restitution for slavery.’’ The ‘‘Black Redress Movement’’ as Brooks notes is not of recent vintage and expands the definition of reparations to include ‘‘any form of rebellion against enslavement and seeking restorative justice for wrongs against victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.’’ Belinda’s Petition Though rebellions were spontaneous, the first formal recorded petition for black redress occurred in Massachusetts in 1782–83, when an ex-slave known only as ‘‘Belinda’’ [Royall], petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for reparations from her former master, Isaac Royall, whom she claimed ‘‘had denied the enjoyment of one morsel of that immense wealth, a part whereof hath been accumulated by her own industry.’’ Her enslaver had been loyal to the British before the American Revolution and fled to Nova Scotia at the beginning of the war leaving his twenty-seven enslaved charges behind. Eight years later, in 1783 Belinda decided to petition the legislature for the unpaid years of serving her former enslaver. Her Petition of an African Slave, to the Massachusetts legislature is an eloquent statement and captures the essence of the reparations struggle by Africans in America. The opening sentences reveal Belinda’s sense of dislocation wrought by her enslavement. Belinda calls herself an ‘‘African’’ and speaks longingly of her Ghanaian homeland and the mental anguish of being stolen at twelve and placed in bondage. The ‘‘Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome’’ (PTSS) is a recurring theme in the black reparations movement and has been documented by several writers. The Petition argues that her labor had enriched her enslaver and that she had a right to lay claim to his estate. Her appeal for her and her daughter, Prine, was successful. She was granted »15, 12 shillings per year from the wealth that had been accumulated by the Royall family on the Ten Hills Plantation as restitution for her forty years of enslavement. As a footnote, scholars speculate that Belinda could not have written the actual petition since she was illiterate. Either black poet Phillis Wheatley or Primus Hall, the son of Prince Hall who founded the first black Masonic lodge in the United States, was its likely author. Belinda’s Petition is a milestone in reparations history. First, it shows how deeply embedded the black redress movement is in the chronicle of Africans in America. Again, there are those who wish to mark the beginning of the reparations
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movement with ‘‘Forty Acres and a Mule’’ occurring over eighty-three years after Belinda’s Petition. However, this severely distorts the history of the black redress movement. Second, the Petition shows that even during enslavement, some legal bodies recognized the justice of reparations for unpaid labor and unjust enrichment as a crime against humanity. This would be affirmed sixty years later when President John Tyler on December 6, 1842, in his second State of the Union address quoted from the Tenth Article of the Treaty of Ghent, signed by the United States and Great Britain that ended the War of 1812. It plainly and unequivocally stated ‘‘The traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and justice.’’ Third, the Massachusetts legislature did not view Belinda’s Petition as a ‘‘handout’’ but rather a compensatory act for an injustice perpetrated on her and her family. It supported Belinda’s efforts to secure reparations from those who committed crimes against humanity in the form of slavery. Forty Acres and No Mule It is difficult for contemporary Americans to understand that reparations for enslaved Africans were considered nonnegotiable and nondebatable for most Africans in the U.S. and white abolitionists in the antebellum United States. It was assumed that after their manumission, some form of compensatory mechanism would be created that would atone for the chattel slavery that economically crippled four million people for nearly 250 years. The Republican Party’s 1860 platform on which Abraham Lincoln ran proposed a ‘‘gradual emancipation’’ (roughly ten years) where enslavers would voluntarily liberate their bondsmen and women for $300 each and if they could convince them to emigrate to either Liberia or Haiti, an additional $100 would be thrown in. By the time of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, such compensatory schemes were being widely discussed since the North became increasingly confident that it would win the war. It did, and by the time Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, William Tecumseh Sherman had already distributed nearly 400,000 acres of land to 40,000 freedmen beginning on January 16, 1865. Field Order Number 15 by Sherman never promised a mule, but was clear that the newly freed Africans were entitled to reparations for enslavement. Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865, and Andrew Johnson’s accession to the presidency saw the erosion of reparations, most notably a halt to the distribution of land to the newly freed Africans. By September 1865, Johnson had revoked all such land distribution and began a compensatory program for southern landowners who had ‘‘suffered’’ because of the civil war. The 400,000 acres of land were confiscated and redistributed to southern slave owners. The Petition of Callie House The ‘‘Ex-Slave Pension and Bounty Bill’’ introduced in the House of Representatives in 1890, influenced Callie House of Nashville, Tennessee, to create
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the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty & Pension Association. House recruited hundreds of thousands of members and raised dues to pay for literature, an annual convention, and lobbying in Washington, DC. To get a charter, a local group paid $2.50 and it is estimated that House recruited over 200,000 persons at the height of the movement. Beginning in 1902, the Justice Department and the Post Office’s surveillance of House would eventually lead to mail fraud charges against her since the government considered pensions for ex-slaves ‘‘fraudulent.’’ House brought a lawsuit against the Federal Government and claimed that the Treasury Department owed black people $68,073,388.99 which was the amount of cotton collected between 1862 and 1868 and that this amount should be paid directly to the ex-slaves in the United States in the form of pensions. In 1917, the government indicted House for mail fraud and sentenced her to one year in federal prison in Tennessee. After her release, House died of cancer a few years later but her influence was felt in the narratives collected during the Franklin Roosevelt administration when several ex-slaves petitioned FDR to provide something for the work that Callie House did in the form of pensions for those few remaining ex-slaves. The Influence of Queen Mother Audley Moore The Black Nationalism movement of Jamaican Marcus Garvey would inspire Africans throughout the world but especially in the United States and Jamaica. His influence in the United States bore one of the reparations movement greatest advocates, Queen Mother Audley Moore. Moore was born in New Iberia, Louisiana, on July 27, 1898. In 1972, she traveled to Ghana where she was officially installed in an Ashanti ceremony as a ‘‘Queen Mother.’’ Nelson Mandela met with her during his visit to New York in 1990. Louis Farrakhan featured her, Rosa Parks, and Dorothy Height prominently at the 1995 Million Man March. She was founder of the Committee for Reparations for Descendants of U.S. Slaves and in 1963 presented to John F. Kennedy on the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation over a million signatures to petition the government for reparations on behalf of the descendants of American slaves. Her direct link with Garvey and her lifelong activism influenced Malcolm X to say in a speech in Paris on November 23, 1964 (recorded in Malcolm X Speaks), ‘‘If you are the son of a man who had a wealthy estate and you inherit your father’s estate, you have to pay off the debts that your father incurred before he died. The only reason that the present generation of white Americans are in a position of economic strength . . . is because their fathers worked our fathers for over 400 years with no pay. . . . We were sold from plantation to plantation like you sell a horse, or a cow, or a chicken, or a bushel of wheat. . . . All that money . . . is what gives the present generation of American whites the ability to walk around the earth with their chest out . . . like they have some kind of economic ingenuity. Your father isn’t here to pay. My father isn’t here to collect. But I’m here to collect and you’re here to pay.’’
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James Forman and the Black Manifesto May 4, 1969, is felt by many to be the birth of the ‘‘modern’’ black reparations movement which occurred a little more than a year after the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) was founded that demanded five states in the South (Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina) and $400 million in reparations for Africans in the United States. At the 11:00 A.M. mass at New York’s Riverside Church, James Forman, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), walked to the front of the church and presented The Black Manifesto. Forman had been in attendance at the National Black Economic Development Conference (NBEDC) where the Manifesto had first been presented and finally approved on May 1, 1969. The mainstream press had all but ignored the Manifesto until Forman presented it in the worship service at Riverside. The Disciples of Christ best describe the reaction to Forman’s unexpected disruption of the service and recorded in their journal Reconciliation the interruption of the service: ‘‘That day Forman interrupted Riverside Church’s 11 A.M. communion service, walked up in front of the congregation and presented the NBEDC’s demands, shocking churchgoers. After Forman began his declaration, nearly two-thirds of the multiracial congregation left, including the church’s Reverend Ernest Campbell, who expected Forman only to distribute copies of the Black Manifesto outside of church, after mass.’’ The Manifesto came just over a year after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. who had said just fourteen months earlier, ‘‘It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself up by his bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to a bootless man that he should lift himself up by his bootstraps. We must come to see that the roots of racism are very deep in our country, and there must be something positive and massive in order to get rid of all the effects of racism and the tragedies of racial injustice.’’ The Manifesto challenged faith communities to carry on the work of King by calling for ten items abbreviated as follows: 1. A southern land bank to help our brothers and sisters who have to leave their land because of racist pressure and for people who want to establish cooperative farms but who have no funds. 2. Four major publishing and printing industries . . . to be funded with ten million dollars each . . . to be located in Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York. 3. Four of the most advanced scientific and futuristic audio-visual networks to be located in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C. 4. A research skills center [for] . . . research on the problems of black people. 5. A training center for the teaching of skills in community organization, photography, movie making, television making and repair, radio building and repair, and all other skills needed in communication. 6. Recognizing ‘‘the role of the National Welfare Rights Organization . . . We call for ten million dollars to assist in the organization of welfare recipients.’’
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7. $20,000,000 to establish a National Black Labor Strike and Defense Fund . . . for the protection of black workers and their families who are fighting racist working conditions in this country. 8. The establishment of the International Black Appeal (IBA) . . . to be funded with no less than $20,000,000. . . . and charged with producing more capital for . . . cooperative businesses in the United States and in Africa, our Motherland. 9. A black university to be founded with $130,000,000 to be located in the South. 10. We demand that IFCO allocate all unused funds in the planning budget to implement the demands of this conference. The Manifesto was met with a round of criticism from faith communities around the country. Its importance is that it continued the discussion on the nation’s obligation to confront its history of slavery and its obligations to the descendants of its victims. The International Reparations Movement Today The Million Man March and Queen Mother Moore’s call for reparations came at a time when several groups provided a conceptual framework for understanding the current discussion of reparations: grassroots organizers, legislators, attorneys, scholars, and students. A similar convergence of cooperation occurred during the late 1940s that resulted in what is now called the Civil Rights Movement. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union established by A. Phillip Randolph (grassroots) began conversations with Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall (legal) who consulted with politicians such as Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota (legislative) as well as psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark (academics). SNCC and other youth organizations helped organize students on campuses around the nation to rally for the cause of ‘‘civil rights.’’ Together they formed national networks that led to the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. The modern reparations movement has a similar history. After James Forman’s Black Manifesto was published, grassroots organizations such as the December 12th Movement (D12), the National Council of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), and the National Black United Front (NBUF) worked closely with legislators in the mid-1980s, for example, John Conyers (D-MI), and collaborated with the Reparations Coordinating Committing (RCC) consisting of attorneys such as Willie Gary, Randall Robinson, and Johnnie Cochran and academics such as Ron Walters and Charles Ogletree. What united them, however, was a common goal of pressing for reparations on a global level for African people. The fertile ground for nourishing the movement came during the early 1990s when the December 12th Movement along with other grassroots organizations lobbied the United Nations to convene a ‘‘World Conference Against Racism.’’
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The 2001 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, and the preparatory conferences preceding it, presented an opportunity to press the issues of reparations at the global level. An ‘‘All African’’ meeting held in Vienna, Austria, in May 2001, solidified the strategy of focusing on the three core issues adhered to consistently by the December 12th Movement that helped unify the struggle in the late 1990s were: declaration of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and slavery as a crime against humanity; reparations for people on the African continent and in the Maafa, and the economic base of racism. The National Black United Front (NBUF) under the direction of Conrad Worrill, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), the December 12th Movement (D12), and Silis Muhammad of All For Reparations and Emancipation (AFRE) worked for nearly forty years in internationalizing the struggle for reparations at the United Nations and are the primary organizations advocating for reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They were clearly ahead of the traditional ‘‘civil rights establishment’’ who had only recently seen the importance of reparations as a vital element in the human rights struggle for African Americans and is in the process of playing catch-up in aligning themselves with traditional Black Nationalist organizations. It is also important to note that Black Nationalist organizations such as NBUF have no white benefactors and are not nearly as dependent on white financial support as are mainstream civil rights organizations. The civil rights organizations face a major dilemma in that the reparations movement is a grassroots movement similar to the United Negro Improvement Association of Marcus Garvey during the early twentieth century, with few whites involved. These groups face the same challenge during early 1995 when Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam began organizing the Million Man March that took place in October of that year. The boards of these organizations distanced themselves from Farrakhan because they feared a white backlash from donors with deep pockets who were frightened by Farrakhan. Recently the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced that it would be pursuing reparations from corporations who had ties to enslavement. Events immediately following the World Conference Against Racism ignited a global push for reparations and united African people in the United States and abroad on the issue of reparations. On October 1–6, 2002, a little over a year after the WCAR ended in Durban, nearly one thousand Africans from thirty-five nations met in Barbados to form the Global Afrikan Congress (GAC). The group continued the work begun before Durban and sought to establish a global pan-African movement similar to what Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, and W. E. B. Du Bois had envisioned during the twentieth century. The GAC grew rapidly with chapters in nearly forty countries including Europe; the United States; Caribbean; North, South and Central America; Africa; and Australia. A convention was held in October 2004 in Paramaribo, Suriname, where a constitution was adopted and ratified by four hundred persons. At the core of the GAC’s mandate is the struggle for global reparations and it has held organizational meetings on the subject around the world.
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It is also important to understand how the struggle for reparations in the U.S. is international and intimately related to the work of Africans throughout the Maafa. Thus, the Ndaba Movement (a South African word that means ‘‘A Big SitDown or Conference) of the early twenty-first century drew from the pioneering work of M. K. O. Abiola of Nigeria. Attorneys for plaintiffs in South Africa in their pursuit of reparations for apartheid era atrocities are also working with plaintiffs in the United States. United States reparations scholars have lectured in England, France, Suriname, and the Netherlands and helped those nations shape their views of reparations. It is no exaggeration to say that the reparations movement is global and unites the African diaspora. The Internet has facilitated these relationships with listservs and blogs devoted to sharing news, information, and action on compensatory measures for Africans and their descendants. Some Conclusions There is anxiety among those white conservatives who equate the election of Barack Obama as the beginning of a push for reparations at the highest level of government. During the 2008 presidential debates, Obama responded to this question about his support for reparations with a rhetorical answer of needing jobs and education more than reparations. It was a ‘‘safe’’ response but did not quell the questions about Obama’s stance on the issue. There is also mounting concern among Black Nationalists, the most vocal advocates of reparations, to see Obama’s presidency as somehow hindering the struggle for reparations. What these critics fail to understand is that the reparations struggle has always been independent of the tenure of elected officials and not dependent on any administration in office. This is not only true in the United States but internationally as well. Nigerian M. K. O. Abiola’s strong advocacy of reparations took place under the repressive regimes of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. Similarly, the work of Queen Mother Moore, Marcus Garvey, and James Forman took place during periods when reparations for enslaved American Africans were unthinkable. The anxious and conspiratorial reaction to the Obama presidency by Black Nationalists fails to consider the legacy of American Africans’ struggle for justice regardless of who is in office. Obama’s election should be viewed as an achievement and not a victory, since the struggle for justice will continue. If anything, Black Nationalists should view his election as an opportunity to consolidate the drive toward reparations by politically educating American Africans at a time when black political organizing is much easier given Obama’s popularity in black communities both nationally and internationally. The reaction to his election should be understood not only politically, but psychologically as well. The tears American Africans shed on the night of November 4, 2008, should be understood in the context of their ancestral struggle for justice. Local, state, and national political action has always been a hallmark of the American African struggle for reparations beginning with Belinda’s Petition and continuing with the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama. See also: Consciousness and Identity, African American
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Further Reading Berry, Mary F. 2006. My Face Is Black Is True. New York: Vintage. Bittker, Boris. 2003. The Case for Black Reparations. Boston: Beacon Press. Brooks, Roy L. 2003. ‘‘History of the Black Redress Movement.’’ Guild Practioner 60 (Winter): 1–12. Clarke, John H. [1992] 1999. Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism. New York: A & B Books. Kedron, Amy. 2008. ‘‘Freedom, Reparations and the Black Manifesto.’’ (CURE) Caucasians United for Reparations & Emancipation. March 12. http://www.reparationsthecure.org/articles/kedron/blackmanifesto. Robinson, Randall. 2001. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. New York: Dutton. Winbush, Raymond A. 2009. Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Philadelphia: XLibris. Winbush, Raymond A, ed. 2003. Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins. Raymond A. Winbush
Rice, Condoleezza (1954– ), Diplomat, Educator, Writer Following her confirmation on January 28, 2005, Condoleeza Rice, who became the first African American woman to hold the position of U.S. secretary of state, was ranked by Forbes magazine as the most powerful woman in the world. As a professor of political science and an expert in Soviet and Eastern European studies, her academic career was launched at Stanford University. Rice was appointed the first female, first black, and youngest provost in 1993. During her six years as provost, she received praise for balancing the school’s budget but criticism for her caustic interactions with minority groups and her conservative views on Affirmative Action. She is fluent in Russian, and is an accomplished pianist. Her achievements and popularity make her a political icon in popular culture. Rice’s career in public administration is tied primarily to both of the Bush presidential administrations. In 1987 she served as George H. W. Bush’s senior director of Soviet and Eastern European Affairs. She met with Gorbachev, and wrote drafts of speeches on Soviet policy. She became foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush during his run for the presidency. He appointed her national security advisor, the first woman to hold the position, and nominated her as secretary of state. As his friend and advisor she helped set foreign and domestic agendas. She was involved in negotiating agreements in the Middle East and nuclear arms talks with North Korea and India. She defended removal of Saddam Hussein, searching for weapons of mass destruction, and the preemptive strike against Iraq. She supported ‘‘transformational diplomacy’’ that included expanding, developing, and sustaining democracy in strategic regions and restructuring distribution of foreign aid.
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice waves in front of Zhong Nan Hai, the Chinese government complex, in Beijing in March 2005. Just a few days before Rice arrived, China released Rebiya Kadeer, a political prisoner and Chinese businessperson. (U.S. Department of State)
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on November 14, 1954, her road from that racially segregated city to fourth in line for the presidency is considered as fulfillment of the American dream. Her educated grandparents and parents stressed that education would transcend racism. Even though the family moved to Denver when she was twelve, she did not participate in but remembers the era of Freedom Riders, church bombings, and protest marchers. Her mother, Angeleena, a teacher and pianist, and her father, John Rice, a Presbyterian minister and football coach, expected her to excel. She studied piano, flute, and violin, learned the game of football from her father, and poise, social graces, cooking fried food, and a passion for shopping from her mother. She considered music as a career but upon entering the University of Denver at the age of fifteen chose political science. After graduating in 1974, she received a master’s degree in political science from Notre Dame in 1975. In 1981, she completed her doctorate at the school of International Studies from the University of Denver. Although polite and soft-spoken she earned the nicknames Steel Magnolia and Warrior Princess for her ability to make difficult decisions. Before the election of Barack Obama, she was mentioned as a likely candidate for the presidency, vice presidency, or NFL Commissioner. Rice has
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returned to Stanford as senior fellow in public policy and professor of political science. She is listed on Ebony magazine’s 25 African American women ‘‘who make everyone stand up and notice.’’ Rice plans to write a book on her diplomatic experiences. See also: Politics and Government Further Reading Brown, Mary Beth. 2007. Condi: The Life of a Steel Magnolia. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. Bumiller, Elisabeth. 2007. Condoleezza Rice: An American Life, a Biography. New York: Random House. Hoover Institution. 2009. ‘‘Condoleezza Rice eturns to Hoover Institution, Stanford’’ (press release) March 6. http://www.hoover.org/pubaffairs/releases/40867202.html. The Nomination of Dr. Condoleezza Rice to be Secretary of State, hearings before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate 109th Congress, first session, January 18 and 19, 2005. S. hrg. 109–151 U.S. G.P.O, Supt of Docs. 2005. Gloria Hamilton
Rice, Jerry (1962– ), Professional Football Player Many consider Jerry Rice to be the greatest wide receiver in the history of the National Football League, and he might even be the greatest receiver in the history of college football. Rice and quarterback Willie Totten had legendary careers at tiny and historically black Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, Mississippi. The football stadium on their campus is now named RiceTotten Stadium in their honor. In his NFL Hall of Fame career, Rice also helped to build the Hall of Fame credentials of quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young. Rice was one of the hardest workers in the history of professional sports. In the off-season he was known for leading tours of professional players on fitness trips around the world where his workouts made grown men cry. Rice was born October 13, 1962, and is a native of Crawford, Mississippi, where his father was a brick mason. His hands became strong when he worked for his father and caught bricks thrown to him by his brothers. If the brothers had thrown the bricks directly at Rice during horse play, Rice likely would have eluded those also. He possessed a unique combination of speed, strength, explosiveness, and agility. Because he was most dangerous at catching the short pass and turning it downfield into a long gainer, usually after eluding or overpowering a defender, coach Bill Walsh was able to innovate the West Coast offense around Rice. In college, the Rice-Totten show reached its zenith in 1984 when their team averaged 59 points a game and Rice averaged 10 catches, playing for legendary
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coach Archie ‘‘the Gunslinger’’ Cooley. Rice totaled 51 touchdown receptions over his college career. In his senior season, Rice was a consensus All-American, and he finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting. Remarkably, his NFL career is even more impressive. Rice is a 13-time Pro Bowl selection, and he holds records in nearly every receiving category. He won three Super Bowl rings in sixteen seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, and he advanced to another Super Bowl in three seasons with the Oakland Raiders. For the 49ers, he was the 1988 Super Bowl MVP. He is the NFL’s all-time leader in touchdowns with 208. He also won various MVP and Offensive Player of the Year awards. Rice was not a slow starter in the NFL. Although he did drop a few passes early in his rookie year, he rebounded to catch 49 passes for 927 yards, good enough to be named NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year. One year later, Rice led the league with 86 catches for 1,570 yards and 15 touchdowns. In all, Rice led the league six times in receiving and touchdown receptions. Rice has also found success off the field. In 2006, he finished second place on the ABC television show Dancing with the Stars, where his work ethic was credited with helping him and his partner rise rapidly from among the underdogs. In 2010, he launched a professional Golf career. See also: Sports Further Reading Jerry Rice. (Homepage.) www.jerryricefootball.com. Kram, Mark. 1994. ‘‘Jerry Rice.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 5. Detroit: Gale Research. Rice, Jerry, and Brian Curtis. 2006. Go Long! My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame. New York: Ballantine Books. David Squires
Richie, Lionel (1949– ), Singer, Musician, Songwriter Lionel Ritchie has spent the last forty years riding a wave that few artists have enjoyed. He has sold nearly 100 million albums, won five Grammys, had twentytwo top ten hits, won an Oscar for best song for a motion picture, won a Golden Globe, won several People’s Choice awards, and eighteen American Music Awards. During his first ten years in the music business, he spent his time with the funk pop band, the Commodores. His solo career spanned twenty years. A list of his top thirty hits compiled by Chart Beat columnist Fred Bronson includes tunes from his time with the Commodores, as well as solo hits, and his duet with Diana Ross, which was the title song from the movie Endless Love. Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on June 20, 1949, Lionel Brockman Richie grew up challenging normal conventions and doing the unexpected. He grew up on the Tuskegee Institute campus with his father, Lionel Richie Sr., a U.S. Army
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systems analyst, and his mother, Alberta Richie, an educator who later became a school principal. As a child, he was surrounded by various types of music. His maternal grandmother, a lover of classical music, taught Richie piano for about three weeks, until she realized that he was playing by ear. She told him that when got serious about his music, he should come back and see her. He was strongly influenced by northern black pop and southern soul. Because Richie was interested in becoming an Episcopal minister, he was particularly drawn to gospel. He also admits that he was also influenced by country music. Richie enrolled in Tuskegee, where he met the other students who would come together to form the Mystics. The other members of the group were very impressed with Richie because he owned a saxophone. Little did they know that he barely knew how to play it. The group randomly selected the name ‘‘Commodores’’ out of a dictionary. The group did not gain instant fame and fortune. In 1969, as they struggled to grow a fan base in Alabama, on a trip to New York, all of their equipment was stolen. The group recovered, landed some club appearances, and signed on with Benny Ashburn. Ashburn became the Commodores’ manager, mentor, and friend. He played a vital part in their career until his sudden death in 1982 from a heart attack at age fifty-four. The Commodores appeared on the music scene in the 1970s. For a short time the group was signed with the Atlantic Records label; however, their careers went nowhere. In 1971, the Commodores caught the attention of Suzanne de Passe, an executive with Motown Records. She helped the group to gain recognition by having them open for the Jackson Five on tour. Their first hit album was Machine Gun in 1974. Even though their funky style was vastly different from the smooth style of Motown, their first album was popular and broke into the Top Ten with the song ‘‘Sweet Love’’ in 1976. Richie was featured as the lead singer. Some of their other hits were ‘‘Brick House,’’ ‘‘Just To Be Close To You,’’ ‘‘Sail On,’’ ‘‘Still,’’ and ‘‘Easy.’’ It was the disco era, and upbeat music such as funk and pop and Rhythm and Blues dominated the day. Producers and fans alike expected the group to stick with the formula. Richie stepped out on faith and wrote the song ‘‘Three Times a Lady’’ (1978)—a slow ballad. The waltz tempo showed how Richie had been influenced by not only classical music, but country music, as well. The Commodores’ fans loved Richie’s ballads, so he continued to write the beautiful, timeless songs that have been the mainstay of their popularity. Their songs have been the soundtrack of many fans’ lives. Begins Solo Career Richie’s solo career evolved because of his strong composing skills and creative talent. Richie was in demand. In 1980, the pop star Kenny Rogers’s hit ‘‘Lady’’ was written and produced by Richie. He also wrote ‘‘Endless Love,’’ and performed the duet with Diana Ross. These tunes climbed the U.S. pop charts and remained on top for six and nine weeks respectively.
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Motown came to Richie and suggested that the timing was perfect for him to do a solo album. He never officially left the group; however, the other group members didn’t understand the change of focus. The press wanted to know who Richie was and some people began to refer to the group as Lionel Richie and the Commodores. The name was not officially changed by the group. In addition, when the press interviewed them, most of the questions went to Richie. Reviewers, in their articles, referred to Richie by name and seemed to consider him the ‘‘main event.’’ The final insult came when Richie was asked why a guy like him was playing with a funk band. Richie’s first solo album was Lionel Richie (1982). Its hit singles were ‘‘Truly’’ and ‘‘You Are.’’ His second and third albums Can’t Slow Down (1983) and Dancing on the Ceiling (1986) were among the most successful music of the 1980s. The leading hit ‘‘All Night Long’’ from his second album was like nothing else out in the R & B, disco, and funk market at the time. The tune was upbeat and had a tropical feel to it. Further acclaim came Richie’s way when he cowrote the tune ‘‘We Are the World’’ with pop star Michael Jackson. They recorded the song with an all-star group of artists directed by Quincy Jones. The profits from sales and performances were given to the African famine relief. Richie continued to collaborate with other artists through the late 1980s. He won an Academy Award for Best Song and hit the number one spot on the charts again with ‘‘Say You, Say Me’’ from the movie White Nights. Richie climbed the country charts when he wrote and recorded the song ‘‘Deep River Woman’’ with the group Alabama. Through the 1990s, Richie recorded Back to Front featuring the single ‘‘Do It to Me’’ which topped the charts. During this period, Richie moved to Mercury Records where he released Louder Than Words (1996) and Time (1998). Both of these albums stuck with the Richie style and stayed away from the Hip-Hop influence. In 2000, Richie appeared as the opening act for soul superstar Tina Turner on her farewell tour. He also recorded Renaissance with the popular ‘‘boy-band,’’ the Backstreet Boys. The album was well received in Europe and gained popularity in the U.S. in 2001. Following a public, acrimonious divorce from his second wife, Diane, Richie recorded Just for You (2004). In 2006, Coming Home included the collaborative efforts of the top hit producers Jermaine Dupri, Raphael Saadig, Sean Garrett, Chucki Booker, StarGate, and Dallas Austin. While the CD was fresh and hip, it was still classically Lionel Richie. Richie continued to produce. In 2007, he recorded Live in Paris. His most recent CD, Just Go, was released in 2009. In this creative endeavor, Richie collaborates with Akon, who sings the hit single ‘‘Just Go’’ and young producers and writers such as Ne-Yo, Terius ‘‘The Dream’’ Nash, Stargate, Christopher ‘‘Trickey’’ Stewart, Johnta Austin, the Movement, and Taj Jackson. In addition, in 2010 Richie went on a world tour. Richie shows no sign of stopping. He has married and divorced twice. Richie has three children: one from his first marriage, Nicole, twenty-seven, and two
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from his second, Miles, fifteen, and Sofia, eleven. He also has his first grandchild, Harlow, one. See also: Pop Music; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Block, Debbie Galante. 2002. ‘‘Lionel Richie 20th Anniversary: Flying Solo For 20 Years.’’ Billboard 114 (March 2): 28–42. Henderson, Shirley. 2009. ‘‘Lionel Richie.’’ Ebony 64 (June): 30. Island Records. (n.d.) ‘‘Lionel Richie: Biography’’ (sponsored official Web site). http:// www.islandrecords.com/site/artist_bio.php?artist_id=342. Manheim, James M. (n.d.) ‘‘Lionel Richie.’’ http://www/answers/com/topic/lionel -richie?&. Neal, Chris. 2009. ‘‘Can’t Slow Down.’’ Performing Songwriter 16 (January): 44–50. Waldron, Clarence. 2009. ‘‘Lionel Richie: At 60, He’s Still Making Cool Music.’’ Jet 115 (May 18): 36–9. Waldron, Clarence. 2006. ‘‘Lionel Richie Comes Home To R & B After 30 Years In Music.’’ Jet 110 (September 18): 54–9. Joy McDonald
Robeson, Paul (1898–1976), Actor, Singer, Activist Paul Leroy Robeson gained national and international prominence during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first African American males to be a Phi Beta Kappa inductee, member of the All American Football Team, professional football player, and graduate of Columbia Law School, as well as a successful and critically acclaimed actor, concert singer, and recording artist. Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 9, 1898. He was the youngest of seven children born to William Drew Robeson, a pastor and former slave; and Maria Louisa Bustill Robeson, a former schoolteacher who died a few months before Robeson’s sixth birthday. In 1915, Robeson began attending Rutgers College (now University) on a four-year academic scholarship. He was the third African American student to attend the institution that was founded in 1766 and the only African American student during his matriculation. Robeson earned fourteen varsity letters in Baseball, Basketball, and Track and Field as well as football and was twice named to the All-American Football Team. Robeson, elected to Phi Beta Kappa during his junior year and inducted into Rutgers’ Cap and Skull Honor Society during his senior year, was the valedictorian of his 1919 graduating class. Robeson’s subsequent move to Harlem, New York, coincided with the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. While attending Columbia Law School from 1920 to 1923, Robeson paid his tuition by playing on three American Professional Football League teams: the Hammond Pros in 1920, the Akron Pros in 1921, and the Milwaukee Badgers in 1922. In
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1921, he married Eslanda (Essie) Cardozo Goode, who was the head histological chemist at New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Surgical Pathological Laboratory. After Robeson received his law degree in February 1923, he was briefly employed at the Stotesbury and Miner law office in New York City until racial discrimination caused him to leave the firm. Robeson, as an actor and concert artist, became one of the most influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1920 he made his debut as an actor in the lead role in the Colored Players Guild at the Harlem YMCA’s revival of Simon the Cyrenian. One year later, Robeson was a member of the chorus in Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle’s Broadway musical, Shuffle Along. He returned to Broadway in Taboo in April 1922 and toured the English provinces in the summer production of the play after it was renamed Voodoo. He had starring roles in three 1924 productions: Roseanne, All God’s Chillun Got Wings, and Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones as well as the 1926 play, Black Boy. The following year, the Robesons’ only child, Paul Robeson Jr., was born. Robeson’s portrayal of Joe in the London production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s musical, Show Boat, in 1928 solidified his status as a prominent actor; the critical consensus was that Robeson’s singing of ‘‘Ol’ Man River’’ was the highlight of the show that ran for nearly a year. When he played the title role in William Shakespeare’s Othello for six weeks at the Savoy Theatre in London and during a brief tour of the English provinces in 1930, he was the first African American actor since Ira Aldridge to portray Othello in nearly a century. In subsequent years, Robeson starred in the 1935 London play, Stevedore, and in the 1940 New York musical, John Henry; he also reprised his roles in Show Boat, The Emperor Jones, and Othello in New York. When Robeson returned to Broadway in Othello in 1943, he was the first African American male to play the lead role, and the production became the longest-running Shakespearean play on Broadway. In 1959, he starred in Othello in Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon in England. During Robeson’s successful stage career, he concurrently enjoyed a career as a concert artist that won him additional critical acclaim. As early as 1925, Robeson was one of the first to sing African American Spirituals on the American concert stage. His final concert tour was in 1960 when he traveled to Australia and New Zealand. Robeson’s baritone voice can be heard on various recordings including The Complete EMI Sessions 1928–1930 (2008). Robeson made his cinematic debut in Body and Soul (1924), a silent movie written, directed, and produced by fellow African American, Oscar Micheaux. Borderline (1930) featured Eslanda playing his wife and was made in Switzerland; it was the first of Robeson’s seven foreign films: Sanders of the River (1935), Song of Freedom (1936), King Solomon’s Mines (1937), Jericho/Dark Sands (1937), Big Fella (1937), and Proud Valley (1939). Big Fella was based on Banjo (1929), a novel by Robeson’s Harlem Renaissance contemporary, Claude McKay, and featured Eslanda in a supporting role. The Emperor Jones (1933) is Robeson’s most well-known movie, and his portrayal of Brutus Jones as an intelligent, strong, confident African American male is his finest celluloid performance. Show Boat (1935) was Robeson’s fifth film, yet the first one to be produced by a major
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Hollywood studio (Universal Studios). Tales of Manhattan (1942), Robeson’s eleventh film, was produced by Twentieth Century Fox. After unsuccessful attempts to purchase the rights and prints for Sanders of the Rivers and Tales of Manhattan because he was displeased with the negative images of African Americans, Robeson announced that he would no longer appear in films. However he continued to narrate and sing in several documentaries. Robeson, who became a civil rights activist in the 1930s, sought President Harry Truman’s support for anti-Lynching legislation. His remarks to Truman during a meeting in 1946, along with other incidents, led to Robeson being questioned by the California Legislative Committee on Un-American activities. Although Robeson stated that he was not a communist, his passport was revoked during the height of the McCarthy hearings. Consequently he was unable to accept lucrative engagements abroad, and his American bookings decreased significantly. After performing at Carnegie Hall on May 9, 1958, and having his passport reinstated in June, Robeson returned to Europe in July and toured successfully until illness forced him to retire in 1961. Robeson died in Philadelphia on January 23, 1976. Posthumous recognitions for Robeson include induction into the College Football Hall of Fame (1995), a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement (1998), and a commemorative postage stamp (2004). See also: Actors and Performers; Entertainment Industry; Film and Filmmakers; Musicians and Singers Further Reading Boyle, Sheila Tully, and Andrew Bunie. 2001. Paul Robeson: The Years of Promise and Achievement. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Duberman, Martin B. 1989. Paul Robeson: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Gerlach, Larry R. 2008. ‘‘Paul Robeson.’’ In African American National Biography. Vol. 6. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Robeson, Paul. [1958] 1998. Here I Stand. Boston: Beacon Press. Robeson, Paul, Jr. 2001. The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist’s Journey, 1898– 1939. New York: Wiley. Linda M. Carter
Robinson, Frank (1935– ), Professional Baseball Player, Manager Frank Robinson was a Hall of Fame Baseball star with the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles and in 1974 he became the first black Major League Baseball manager with the Cleveland Indians. Robinson is the only major leaguer to win Most Valuable Player honors in both the National (1961) and American leagues (1966). He also won a Triple Crown—leading American League players in home runs, batting average, and
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runs batted in—as an Oriole in 1966. He was a member of two Oriole teams that won the World Series between the years 1966 to 1970. Robinson also holds the record for eighth most career home runs (586) during his playing career. In 1956, less than a decade after Major League Baseball was declared integrated with the triumphant entry of Jackie Robinson into the Dodger organization, the lean and lithe body of Frank Robinson became one of the mainstays on the Cincinnati Red legs team. Throughout his playing career Robinson was known to crowd the plate and recklessly challenge pitchers in an era when hurlers threw at batter’s heads without apology. With his aggressive stance and hard sliding on the base paths, Robinson was one of the most feared hitters of his era. Robinson tied Wally Berger’s rookie record of 38 home runs and led the National League with 122 runs scored. During Robinson’s rookie season, as a team the Reds hit what was then a National League record of 221 home runs in 154 games. Robinson was the Reds’ undisputed leader for the next 10 seasons. Recurring trouble with his arm caused a slump in 1958 when his batting average sank to .269. That same year, however, Robinson won a Gold Glove for his defensive play in left field. In 1962, the five leading National League home run hitters were black and Robinson was in that mix with Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Orlando Cepeda. By 1963 Robinson found himself playing with multiple injuries. That same year he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in an unpopular deal that saw the Reds’ morale plummet. Robinson capped his season with the Orioles by being named MVP and finishing second in the batting crown race with a .311 average. Robinson was born August 31, 1935, in Beaumont, Texas. He was the youngest of ten children; his parents divorced. The family moved to California and Robinson attended legendary McClymonds High School in Oakland and was a Basketball teammate of Bill Russell, plus Vada Pinson, a future teammate of Robinson’s on the Cincinnati Reds. Robinson became outspoken about civil rights during his time in Baltimore. He originally declined membership in the NAACP unless the organization promised not to make him do public appearances. After witnessing first hand Baltimore’s discriminatory real estate practices he changed his mind. Throughout his playing career Robinson made no secret of his desire to be the first black manager in the major leagues. During the off season he went to Puerto Rico and managed players. In 1972, Robinson was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers; then a year later he was moved across town to the California Angels of Anaheim. The trade of Robinson to the Cleveland Indians in 1974 came about in part as a result of Robinson’s open campaigning for the manager’s job. Robinson managed the Cleveland Indians to a 186–189 record. Robinson also managed the San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles, and, finally, Washington Nationals in the early twenty-first century. See also: Sports
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Further Reading Ashe, Arthur R. Jr. 1988. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete Since 1946. New York, Warner Books. Kram, Mark. 1995. ‘‘Frank Robinson.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Research. Schneider, Russell J. 1976. Frank Robinson: The Making of a Manager. New York, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. Kip Branch
Robinson, Jackie (1919–72), Baseball Player Jackie Robinson became a household name in the United States in 1947 after signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers and becoming the first African American to play Major League Baseball. Robinson used his celebrity status to champion civil rights and equal opportunity for African Americans, thus earning continuing acclaim in popular culture for his accomplishments in two areas. Born Jack Roosevelt Robinson on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, Robinson was the last of five children born to sharecropper parents Jerry and Mallie McGriff Robinson. He was given the middle name Roosevelt in honor of U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt, an ardent critic of racial discrimination. Five months after Jackie’s birth, Jerry Robinson abandoned his family, leaving them destitute. Desirous of a better life away from southern segregation, Mallie, her children, and seven other relatives migrated to Pasadena, California. Robinson was plagued by poverty as a child but had a relatively normal upbringing as a result of becoming involved in Sports. An older brother Mack (who later became a silver medalist on the 1936 U.S. Olympic men’s track team) fueled young Jackie’s competitive drive. A multisport athlete in high school and later junior college, Robinson enrolled in UCLA, where he met Rachel Isum, a student who later became his wife. Economic hardship forced Robinson to leave UCLA in 1941 (a semester before graduating) and to take a job with the National Youth Administration. He later played semiprofessional Football and Basketball. In 1942, Robinson was drafted into the U.S. Army. At Ft. Riley, Kansas, Robinson met and befriended another soldier—heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis—who used his influence to thwart military segregation and gain entrance for Robinson and others into Officers Candidate School. After being transferred to Ft. Hood, Texas, Robinson was involved in an incident that almost destroyed his military career. He was charged with disorderly conduct for not submitting to Jim Crow law and going to the back of a commercial passenger bus, but was later acquitted after the case received national attention. In need of employment after being honorably discharged from the army in 1944, Robinson coached briefly at Sam Houston College and later signed a
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contract with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Baseball Leagues. His stint with the Monarchs was short because on August 28, 1945, Robinson signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers and became the first African American to play Major League Baseball. A year later, in 1946, Robinson married his college sweetheart, Rachel Isum, in Los Angeles, California. The couple had three children: Jackie Jr., Sharon, and David. Robinson was a sensational player during his years with the Dodgers and was named ‘‘Rookie of the Year’’ in 1947. Jackie Robinson is shown in his Kansas City Monarchs However, sports-related uniform. Before Robinson signed with the Brooklyn injuries took their toll and Dodgers and became the first African American to play Robinson retired from the Major League Baseball, he played in the Negro leagues game in 1956. He was with the Monarchs. He then signed with the Dodgers honored for his baseball and began his major league career in 1947, winning the first Rookie of the Year award that year. Robinson also exploits in 1962 and won the Most Valuable Player award in 1949, and he inducted into the Baseball was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Hall of Fame. (Library of Congress) After baseball Robinson was actively engaged in numerous professional, civic, and political activities: a personnel executive for the Chock Full O’ Nuts restaurant chain, a private business owner, and a civil rights activist. From the 1950s to the 1960s he was the writer of a syndicated column ‘‘As I See It.’’ Jackie Robinson died in 1972 from complications stemming from diabetes. See also: Paige, Satchel Further Reading Rampersad, Arnold. 1997. Jackie Robinson: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Robinson, Jackie. 1972. I Never Had it Made. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Carter B. Cue
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Robinson, Max (1939–88), Television Broadcaster, Journalist Max Robinson was the first black journalist to anchor primetime evening news on a major television network. He coanchored ABC’s World News Tonight program from 1978 to 1983. Born Max Cleveland Robinson in Richmond, Virginia, Robinson’s education included a year at Oberlin College, and attendance at Virginia Union University. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1958 where he received training in the Russian language. He entered the media business fortuitously when he was hired as a newsreader in Portsmouth, Virginia. Robinson read the news from behind a screen until he revealed his identity and was fired. He engaged in various pursuits until 1965 when he was hired by WTOP-TV in Washington, DC, for general studio duties. An on-air audition revealed his natural baritone voice and ability to connect with his audience. The station promoted him to reporter and cameraman. From 1966 to 1969, he was the morning news anchor and correspondent for NBC’s WRC-TV. Robinson won several awards for journalism, including one for his coverage of the 1968 civil rights riots. He returned to WTOP in 1969 first as midday news anchor, then on the evening news. At WTOP, Robinson distinguished himself as a national and international newscaster. His calm, unbiased coverage of the 1977 Hanafi Muslim crisis contributed to the release of the hostages. When ABC offered him the network news anchor position in 1978, Robinson was already a familiar face on television news. He was visibly attractive, charming, with a dignified presence. Stationed at the national news desk in Chicago, he coanchored with Peter Jennings in London and Frank Reynolds in Washington. Robinson won an Emmy for his coverage of the 1980 presidential election. His tenure at ABC began with high expectations but ended awkwardly after five years. Although Robinson manifested a commanding on-air presence, he complained publicly about racism in the media. He was particularly vocal about the discriminatory practices prevalent at the time, lower pay, increased pressure to perform, and fewer opportunities for advancement. In a speech at Smith College in 1981, he described the news media as a racially biased mirror. This controversy and his failure to show up for Frank Reynolds’s funeral service contributed to his subsequent demotion at ABC. He left the network in 1983 and returned Chicago to anchor for WMAQ. That position ended in 1987 when he was hospitalized for alcoholism. Robinson seemed obsessed with racism. He also suffered from depression. He was uncomfortable as a role model for aspiring young black youths. Married and divorced three times, with four children, his private life was less than iconic. Robinson was forty-nine years old when he died of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1988. He requested that the nature of his illness be kept secret until his demise, then revealed to help emphasize to the black community the importance of AIDS education. Robinson often dismissed the appellation ‘‘The First Black Network Anchorman.’’ He wanted to be remembered for his journalistic skills, the quality of his work, and his efforts to bring attention to the racial inequities in the media. See also: Journalism and Journalists; Television
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Further Reading Boyer, Peter J. 1989. ‘‘The Light Goes Out.’’ Vanity Fair (June): 68–84. Hobson, Charles, and Chris Thomassini. 2006. ‘‘Television.’’ In Encyclopedia of AfricanAmerican Culture and History. 2nd ed, Vol. 5. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Schmidt, Christopher W. 2008. ‘‘Frank Robinson.’’ In American National Biography, Vol. 18. Eds. John A. Garrity and Mark V. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press. Siegler, Dhyana. 1989. ‘‘Max Robinson, Jr: Turbulent Life of a Media Prophet.’’ Journal of Black Studies 20 (September): 97–112. Wilson, Clint C. 1991. Black Journalists in Paradox: Historical Perspectives and Current Dilemmas. New York: Greenwood. Janette Prescod
Robinson, Randall (1941– ), Activist, Lobbyist, Writer Randall Robinson was one of the key players in the fight for the end of apartheid in South Africa. Robinson also spent years in Washington, DC, lobbying against racism not only against African Americans, but in countries around the world. Randall Robinson was born July 6, 1941, in Richmond, Virginia. He is the son of school teachers Maxie Cleveland and Doris Griffin. He is the second of four siblings including older sister Jewell, older brother Max Robinson, and younger sister Jean. Robinson graduated from Armstrong High School in Richmond and then entered Norfolk State College (now University) in 1959. He left the school during his junior year and was drafted into the United States Army in 1960, serving for twenty-one months. Robinson returned to college, earning a bachelor of arts in sociology from Virginia Union University in 1967, and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1970. Upon completion of his law degree Robinson won a Ford Foundation fellowship which allowed him to work in Tanzania from 1970 to 1971. Beginning in 1972, Robinson worked as a community development director in Roxbury, Massachusetts, at the Roxbury Multi-Service Center. He left Roxbury in 1975 to become an assistant to U.S. Representative William Clay of Missouri and in 1976 to U.S. Representative Charles C. Diggs of Michigan. Clay and Diggs were instrumental in teaching Robinson how to write public policy. From 1976 to 1977, Robinson worked as staff attorney for the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights. Robinson founded TransAfrica in 1977 after visiting South Africa with leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus. At its inception, TransAfrica focused on apartheid in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, the organization has shifted to the plight of Africans in Africa and the Caribbean. In 1984, Robinson formed the Free South Africa Movement which was able to successfully lobby for United States sanctions against South Africa. In 1994, he staged a twentyseven-day hunger strike which helped to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power
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in Haiti in October 1994. Robinson served as executive director of TransAfrica from 1977 to 1995 and then as president from 1995 to December 2001, when he stepped down to move to the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. Robinson still serves as a board member of TransAfrica. A writer as well, Robinson’s works include his memoir Defending the Spirit: A Black Life In America (1998), which tells how he felt as a black growing up in the United States and how his life ultimately caused him to lobby against South African apartheid. Robinson wrote The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks in 2000. This book focuses on the need for reparation payments to all African Americans not only because of slavery but because of the way blacks have been treated in the United States since the end of the Civil War, and the costs of ignoring race problems. In 2002, Robinson wrote The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe to Each Other, which looks at what more financial secure and/or educated blacks owe to their poor and/or uneducated counterparts. He argues that blacks should help each other to rise above poverty, ignorance, and discrimination. In 2004, Robinson wrote Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land. He discusses why he moved his family to St. Kitts in the eastern Caribbean and contrasts the cultures of St. Kitts and Haiti to that of the United States. He also tells how black American leaders have failed their people. In 2007, Robinson wrote An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President in which he discusses life in Haiti from its roots in slavery to the removal of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president in 2004. Through his work as an activist and author, Robinson has always attempted to educate people. He has lectured at a variety of colleges and universities in the United States including the University of California at Berkeley in 2002. In 2008, Robinson was named Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law. Simultaneously, he was appointed to the faculty of Penn State’s School of International Affairs. Robinson was married to Brenda Randolph, a librarian, in the 1970s and they had two children—Anike and Jabari. The couple divorced in 1982. In 1987, Robinson married Hazel Ross, a foreign policy adviser, who was originally from St. Kitts. The Robinsons and their daughter, Khalea, have lived in St. Kitts since 2001. Robinson also maintains a home in Virginia. See also: Social Activists Further Reading Contemporary Black Biography. 2005. Vol. 46. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Robinson, Randall. 1995. Defending the Sprit. New York: Plume Books. Robinson, Randall. 2004. Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man From His Native Land. New York: Plume Books. Rosen, Isaac, Barbara Carlisle Bigelow, and Rom Pendergast. 2005. ‘‘Randall Robinson.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 46. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Anne K. Driscoll
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Robinson, Smokey (1940– ), Singer, Songwriter, Recording Executive Aside from Berry Gordy Jr., no one has had more influence on the music of Detroit during the Motown era than Smokey Robinson. During his fifty-plus years in the industry, he has written over 4,000 songs, including ‘‘My Girl,’’ ‘‘My Guy,’’ and ‘‘Tears of a Clown,’’ been awarded numerous Grammys, and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987). Smokey Robinson, founder of the soul group the Miracles, not only wrote and produced for his group, but also for the Temptations (‘‘My Girl,’’ ‘‘Get Ready’’), Mary Wells (‘‘My Guy,’’ ‘‘Two Lovers’’), the Marvelettes (‘‘Don’t Mess With Bill’’), and Marvin Gaye (‘‘Ain’t That Peculiar,’’ ‘‘I’ll Be Doggone’’). As vice president at Motown Records from 1960 to 1988, Robinson brought in such talent as Little Stevie Wonder and the Supremes. In addition to his role in the business, Robinson was a trusted, close friend of Gordy. Robinson’s smooth, falsetto voice and hypnotic green eyes drove females crazy. His greatest talent was his ability to write songs, both lyrics and music, that evoked strong emotions. Bob Dylan named him America’s greatest living poet. Between the years of 1959 and 1975, Robinson and the Miracles had fortysix Hot 100 hits. Twenty-nine of those hits were in the Top 40. He was a prolific songwriter, astute talent scout, and knowledgeable producer. Robinson wrote or collaborated on such tunes as ‘‘Tracks of My Tears,’’ ‘‘You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,’’ ‘‘Since I Lost My Baby,’’ and ‘‘Ooo Baby Baby.’’ Born William Robinson Jr. on February 19, 1940, he was nicknamed ‘‘Smokey Joe’’ by his uncle because of his skin color and unusual green eyes. Robinson, a Detroit native, formed his first group, the Five Chimes, when he was a teenager attending Northern High School in 1954. This group evolved into the Matadors. When one of the singers joined the army, he was replaced by his sister, Claudette. She was in the counterpart band, the Matadorettes. Robinson and Claudette married in 1959 and had two children, Berry and Tamla. In the summer of 1957 in New York City, the Matadors were auditioning for Jackie Wilson’s manager. Even though Robinson had written all of the songs for the performance, the manager thought the group was too much like the Platters. Gordy, who at the time was Wilson’s songwriter (‘‘Reet Petite,’’ ‘‘Lonely Teardrops’’) liked Robinson’s tunes and introduced himself. Gordy and Robinson hit it off, so Gordy suggested that they work together when they got back to Detroit. Gordy took Robinson, more than ten years his junior, under his wing. He coached Robinson in songwriting and helped him become a well-rounded musical talent. Gordy encouraged the enthusiastic Robinson to write songs that had meaning and told a story—a beginning, a middle, and an end. The Matadors were renamed the Miracles. Gordy signed the group to his newly formed management company. Gordy added another asset to his company by hiring Eddie Holland. This group was the core of his new business venture. Initially, Gordy licensed the first two Miracles’ records ‘‘Got a Job’’ and ‘‘Bad Girl’’ to End Records and Chess respectively. The return on this arrangement
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was not as high as Gordy had hoped. Robinson encouraged him to start his own label. In 1960, Gordy started Tamla and signed the Miracles. ‘‘Shop Around’’ was the first tune produced by Gordy’s startup label. Robinson had demonstrated business acumen that prompted Gordy to make him second in command. Robinson was vice president until the business was sold to MCA in 1988. Gordy started grooming Robinson by allowing him to manage the Miracles—writing, arranging, and producing. As Robinson got better, Gordy put him in charge of the careers of Mary Wells and the Marvelettes. Robinson seemed to have the golden touch. In 1972, Robinson retired from the Miracles to focus on his executive responsibilities at Motown and his family. A year later, Robinson launched his solo career with the release of ‘‘Baby Come Close,’’ a number seven R & B hit. His first number one R & B solo hit ‘‘Baby That’s Backatcha’’ was released in 1975 on Quiet Storm, his third solo album. The overall mood and tone of this album was mellow and romantic. As a matter of fact, the title cut has become the theme music of a popular radio format called ‘‘Quiet Storm.’’ Robinson made history in 1987 when his ‘‘Just to See Her’’ and ‘‘When Smokey Sings’’ (a tribute song to Robinson released by the British band ABC) both made the Top 10. Robinson had ups and downs. For two years he was hooked on cocaine and marijuana. He was in his forties and admitted he should have known better. He was rescued from his addiction when his friend Leon Isaac invited him to a prayer service. He walked in an addict, but says he walked out free. During this time, he also had a daughter by a woman named Kandi. That contributed to the end of his twenty-seven-year marriage to Claudette. Musically, Robinson has ventured into the spiritual genre with his ‘‘Food for the Spirit.’’ The tunes are still classic Smokey; however, they express the embracing of his spiritual self. He is a frequent guest and mentor on American Idol. Robinson promoted the Australian singing group Human Nature. They performed in Las Vegas at the Imperial Palace under the show title ‘‘Smokey Robinson Presents Australia’s Human Nature—The Ultimate Celebration of Motown.’’ Between 1996 and 2008, the group released nine albums. Robinson released a new album, Time Flies When You’re Having Fun. The ten original Robinson song project also includes Nora Jones’s ‘‘Don’t Know Why.’’ Featured on three of the songs are Carlos Santana, India.Arie, and Joss Stone. Over the years, Robinson has garnered many accolades. In addition to being a Grammy Award winner, and an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the 1999 Grammys’ Lifetime Achievement Award, is a Kennedy Center honoree (2006), and was awarded an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Rhythm and Soul Achievement Award. His amazing versatility and smooth classic Motown sound continues to draw fans from across generations. Robinson has not slowed down. He remarried in 2002. He and his wife, Frances, an interior designer, share the same birthday. They were friends for 25 years
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before they developed deeper feelings for each other. The couple resides in San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles. See also: Pop Music; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Christian, Margena A. 2007. ‘‘Smokey Robinson, the Poet Laureate of Soul Celebrates 50 Years of Music.’’ Jet 111 (April 2): 56–60. Collier, Aldore. 2004. ‘‘Journey of Faith: From Fame to Drugs to ‘Food for the Spirit.’ ’’ Ebony 59 (June): 81–89. Gulla, Bob. 2008. Icons of R & B and Soul: An Encyclopedia of the Artists Who Revolutionized Rhythm. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Mitchell, Gail. 2009. ‘‘Smokey’s Time.’’ Billboard 121(August 29): 29–30, 32. Patrick, Donovan. 2009. ‘‘Smokey Really Has a Hold on Soul Life.’’ The Age (Melbourne) (December 11):18. Newspaper Source Plus, EBSCO host. Joy McDonald
Robinson, Sugar Ray (1921–89), Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson was considered one of the toughest boxers in history and one of the most widely loved in popular culture. He was known for his agility, speedy footwork, and powerful punching. Born Walker Smith Jr., in Detroit, Michigan, Robinson moved to Harlem, New York, with his mother around the age of twelve. It was reported that Robinson borrowed his name from a fighter named Ray Robinson in order to box as an amateur and to prevent his mother from finding out what he was doing. The name Sugar was added supposedly by a bystander or reporter who claimed Ray’s Boxing style was sweet as sugar. As an amateur, he was 85–0, with an unbelievable 69 knockouts, and 42 of them recorded in the first round. At the age of nineteen, he began to fight professionally, winning his first 40 fights. In 1943, Robinson joined the United States Army and boxed in numerous exhibitions. One of his unique attributes as a boxer was his ability to fight at different weights. This was evident by the fact that he fought as a featherweight as an amateur, began his professional career as a lightweight, and his first championship as a professional came as a welterweight in December 1946. He would hold that title from 1946 to 1951. Also, Sugar Ray was the middleweight champion five times between 1951 and 1960. In 1947, Robinson fought Jimmy Doyle in Cleveland, Ohio. It was reported that a week before the fight, Sugar dreamed that he killed the fighter in the ring. Unfortunately, he knocked Doyle out in this fight in the eighth round and the fighter died as he had predicted. His bouts with Jake LaMotta were legendary which Robinson won five out of the six times that they fought. Beyond his brilliance as a boxer, Robinson was an astute businessman and lived an extravagant lifestyle. Because so many other boxers suffered financial hardship at the hands of dubious agents and managers, Robinson played a major
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role in the management of his boxing career as well as his business ventures. Nicknamed the Black Prince of Harlem, it was said that he owned an entire block of businesses in Harlem. Some of the businesses were a barbershop, a dry cleaner, a bar, and a lingerie store. Following his second retirement in 1965, Robinson presumed his entertainment career. He appeared regularly on the The Flip Wilson Show, Mission Impossible, Fantasy Island, and The Mod Squad. In addition, he appeared in several motion pictures such as The Detective (1968), starring Frank Sinatra, and Candy (1968), starring Marlon Brando and Richard Burton. His philanthropic endeavors included the Sugar Ray Youth Foundation, founded in 1969. The foundation was located in Los Angeles and provided a means for tens of thousands of young people to participate in sports and other programs. Robinson was known for his lavish spending and his custom-made suits, diamonds, and silk shirts and ties. It was said that he traveled extensively with a twenty-person entourage. He always drove the latest Cadillac convertible. In his final years, Robinson suffered from Alzheimer’s disease; he died in 1988 in Culver City, California. In 1999, the Associated Press named Robinson the fighter of the century; Muhammad Ali was second. See also: Johnson, Jack Further Reading Boyd, Herb. 2005. Pound for Pound: a Biography of Sugar Ray Robinson. New York: Amistad. Shropshire, Kenneth L. 2007. Being Sugar Ray: The Life of Sugar Ray Robinson, America’s Greatest Boxer and First Celebrity Athlete. New York: Basic Civitas. Sherman E. Pyatt
Rock and Roll In the 1920s and 1930s, some black churches in the South worshipped in what was called the ‘‘rocking and reeling’’ style that originated from the Sanctified and Holiness black churches. These churches worshipped in the ring shout fashion and used instruments such as guitars, drums, and horns in their church services. In 1929, the Graves brothers of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, used this style to record two songs for Paramount Studios: ‘‘Barbeque Bust’’ and ‘‘Dangerous Women.’’ With their unique guitar riffs and thumping beats they were instrumental in laying the foundation for what we call rock and roll today. In the 1900s, black musicians cultivated an intricate body of folk music, which originated mainly from church songs. White artists fostered a distinct style that was influenced by gospel, country, bluegrass, and honky tonk, or what has been labeled rockabilly. Rock and roll inevitably became a mixture of black church styles, blues, R & B, and rockabilly; thus, the culmination of these
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unique genres produced music that reflected the cultural interaction between white and black musicians. Ultimately, it was black artists who initially created the musical foundations of rock and roll, and it is this unique style and technique that has defined this music genre. Rock and roll music was understood by mainstream America and some affluent blacks as ignorant, violent, lower class, and from an oversexed segment of society. The term ‘‘rock and roll’’ derived from the sex slang used by black musicians to refer to sexual intercourse. DJ Alan Freed is credited for coining the phrase rock and roll as it applies to the music. There is still a great deal of debate about who made the first rock-and-roll song; some claim it was Bill Haley’s ‘‘Rock Around The Clock,’’ which was featured in the movie Blackboard Jungle. Others say that it was Jackie Brenston and Ike Turner’s song ‘‘Rocket ’88.’’ Blackboard Jungle was an important movie because it introduced rock-and-roll music to mainstream America and inspired a countercultural movement. Many white bands covered black musicians’ songs: The Crew-Cuts covered the Chords’ R & B hit Sh-Boom, and Pat Boone covered Fats Domino’s Ain’t that a Shame and Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti. Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Fats Domino are considered the central architects of rock and roll. These artists used their blues and R & B roots to define rock and roll’s sound; for example, church call-and-response techniques, distorted guitars, and amplifiers. Reebee Garofalo concluded that popular music in the twentieth century can be described by ‘‘Black innovation and White popularization.’’ Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis not only adopted the musical style of black rock-and-roll artists but also the hairstyles, dress, and dance. In the early and mid-1950s Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley broke into the pop charts, and rock and roll’s time had begun. By 1956 Elvis Presley was featured on TV, and rock-and-roll music saw a level of unprecedented popularization and commodification by mainstream audiences. The industry changed for black artists when music executives realized how much money could be made; consequently, who and what would be played on radio stations was manipulated. Through payola scandals and record label restructurings, black rock-and-roll artists were pushed aside for white artists who arguably had more mass appeal. In the 1960s, rock and roll was in full bloom; it was the music of a cultural movement; unfortunately, very few black artists were able to participate in what they created. European bands such as Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Kinks were highly influenced by blues and R & B artists; now they dominated the industry and thus the charts. By the 1970s, with the exception of Jimi Hendrix, the music industry labeled only a small number of black acts rock and roll. Hendrix sound was instrumental to rock and roll; his ingenuity and masterful riffs changed the way musicians conceived of and played the guitar. Hendrix’s style and skills are rivaled by few; many musicians are still trying to master his sound, and his work is now understood as the cornerstone of heavy metal rock and roll today.
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White artists have enjoyed a high degree of success due to their ability to be recognized by the music establishment. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine listed the fifty greatest rock-and-roll artists; the Beatles were first, Bob Dylan second, and Elvis Presley third. This controversial list placed the pioneers and founders of rock and roll, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Fats Domino, after these three white artists. Currently, an organization called Black Rock Coalition is challenging the mainstream rock establishment’s marginalization and pigeon-holing of black rock-and-roll artists. Their goal is to reclaim rock and roll’s roots by sponsoring and promoting black rock-and-roll artists for generations to come. See also: Entertainment Industry; Pop Music Further Reading Crazy Horse, Kandria. 2004. Rip It Up: The Black Experience in Rock ‘N’ Roll. New York: Palgrave. DeCurtis, Anthony, and Henke, James. 1992. The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music. New York: Random House. Eisenstadt, Peter, and Jonathan Gill. 2006. ‘‘Rhythm and Blues.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. Second ed. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference Garofalo, Reebee. 2005. Crossing Over: From Black Rhythm & Blues to White Rock ’N Roll in R & B, Rhythm and Business: The Political Economy of Black Music. Norman Kelly, ed. New York: Akashic Books. Lockard, Craig A. 2008. ‘‘Rock ‘n’ Roll.’’ In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences., 2nd ed. William A. Darity Jr., ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference. Robins, Wayne. 1993. ‘‘At the Barricades.’’ Crisis 100 (June/July): 10. Rolling Stone. 2004. ‘‘The Immortals: The First Fifty.’’ 946 (April 15): 61–2. Walser, Robert. 1999. ‘‘Rock and Roll.’’ In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 18. John A. Garraty and Mark V. Carnes, eds. New York: Macmillan. Tahirah Akbar-Williams
Rock, Chris (1965– ), Comedian, Actor, Talk Show Host, Producer Christopher Julius Rock III’s career began in stand-up comedy and spiraled to include author, Emmy and Grammy award–winning actor, producer, television executive, talk-show host, The Chris Rock Show, Oscar host, writer, and subject of his own television sitcom, Everybody Hates Chris. He is noted for acerbic wit; shockingly creative confrontational social commentary delivered in a comic fashion; eloquent, provocative rants; antic film roles; and a surprisingly unsympathetic view of African Americans who look for shortcuts to avoid hard work. Perhaps the piece that really thrust him onto the world stage was Niggers vs. Black People from his Bring the Pain HBO special. He was influenced by comedians like Richard
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Pryor, Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson, Dick Gregory, and Rodney Dangerfield, whose material he listened to over and over. Chris Rock was born at Andrews, South Carolina, on February 7, 1965, to Rosalie Tingman Rock, a teacher and social worker, and Julius Rock, a truck driver for the New York Daily News. He credits his father for his comic view and credits his timing to his grandfather, Alan Rock, a minister. When Chris was twenty-three, his father died, and in 2006, his brother Charles died. He has younger brothers Tony and Kenny who are also in the entertainment business. A pivotal event in his youth was moving to Bedford Stuyvesant, where he was bused to an all-white school. He was teased and beat up there. Many of his racial views were forged by living in an all-black area while attending an all-white school. After quitting school at seventeen, Chris began performing at small comedy arenas. In 1986, he met Eddie Murphy, who became a mentor, giving Chris a cameo role in Beverly Hills Cop II. Rock joined Murphy on the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1990 but left in due course, because he believed that the show’s writers were underusing his talent. In 1991, critics acclaimed Chris for the role of ‘‘Pookie’’ in the film New Jack City. He also released a comedy album, Born Suspect. His film career continued to accelerate with roles in Dogma, Beverly Hills Ninja, Lethal Weapon 4, Nurse Betty, The Longest Yard, Bad Company, and a starring role in Down to Earth, and more. He has branched into music videos, but he excels mostly in film and stand-up comedy. Rock has ruffled feathers on several notable occasions. Hosting the 2005 Oscars, Rock made remarks that displeased members of the Academy. At the 2007 Live Earth Special in London, he embarrassed the BBC by using profanity. He remains an unconventional host who keeps the audience guessing what he might say next. Chris has been married since 1996 to Malaak Compton Rock, executive director of a nonprofit organization. They have two daughters, Lola Simone, born in 2002, and Zahra Savannah, born in 2004. Chris has spoken in interviews about how having children has given him added incentive to succeed. In spite of rocky moments in the marriage (the couple announced plans to divorce in 2006, but managed to work out their differences), the marriage appears to have survived. In 2007, Kali Bowyer, a freelance journalist Rock met at a club, claimed he had fathered her son, but DNA testing proved this false. The family lives in Alpine, New Jersey. An ardent New York Mets fan, Rock attends every game. With Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and a new HBO comedy special, Kill the Messenger, coming soon, Chris Rock shows no signs of losing his frenetic energy. The man called ‘‘the funniest man in America’’ by Time magazine will likely make people laugh for years to come. See also: Comedy and Comedians Further Reading ‘‘Chris Rock: Top 25 Hollywood Moneymakers.’’ 2008. Black Enterprise 38 (March):100. Peters, Ann M., and David Oblender. 1999. ‘‘Chris Rock.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 22. Detroit: Gale Research.
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Redmond, Shana L. 2008. ‘‘Chris Rock.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 7. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Rock, Chris. 1997. Rock This! New York: Hyperion. Elizabeth Sandidge Evans
Rodman, Dennis (1961– ), Professional Basketball Player By any measure, Dennis Rodman’s life and fourteen-year National Basketball League career was one of wonder, and, to some pundits, one of merriment. His career was not without rancor or upheaval. Rodman’s NBA work, however erratic, merits careful consideration from a twenty-first-century perspective. In large measure it was Rodman who, knowingly or not, infused into contemporary basketball players the idea of personal, artistic, and professional expression. Rodman was born on May 31, 1961, in Trenton, New Jersey. He was the product of a nonnuclear black family which, some observers say, propelled him to fully develop his basketball talents from a young age. His sisters became AllAmerica basketball players, yet Rodman did not go out for basketball in high school and stood at 5 feet 11 inches when he graduated. At age twenty, he was living in Texas and working as a janitor at the Dallas– Fort Worth International Airport. After high school, Rodman grew eight additional inches. He enrolled at Cooke County Junior College and played basketball, then transferred to Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he blossomed into a rebounding and scoring star. In 1986, Rodman was the 27th player selected in the second round of the NBA draft. His NBA career included stints with the Detroit Pistons, where he was a member of the 1989 and 1990 champion ‘‘Bad Boys,’’ the San Antonio Spurs, then the Chicago Bulls, where he teamed with the great Michael Jordan and all-star Scottie Pippen. Rodman wound up his career with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks. From the beginning of his NBA career and throughout, Rodman was known for his defense, his hustle on the court, and his offensive and defensive rebounding prowess. Rodman won seven consecutive rebounding titles. Dallas-area friends nicknamed Rodman the ‘‘worm’’ because he squirmed while playing pinball, yet the moniker could alternately define his knack for squirming, creeping, and crawling around and under opponents in order to get the ball. Rodman at 6 feet 7 inches tall played small forward in Detroit, a position relatively undefined except that such players were beyond categorization because they were bigger than guards (even big ones) and smaller than the size of ‘‘traditional’’ forwards. It was not unusual for Rodman to be given the assignment to guard the opposing team’s top scoring big guard or small forward, which he did to the notice of his coaches, basketball fans, and other players. Rodman also on occasion guarded centers and power forwards. He was a two-time NBA Defensive Player of
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the Year. Rodman’s talents exploded in the 1996 NBA finals when he snared 11 offensive rebounds twice, an NBA record. During his fourteen years in the NBA, Rodman played in 911 games and scored 6,683 points. NBA.com calls Rodman ‘‘arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history and one of the most recognized athletes in the world.’’ Enigmatic, moody, and individualistic, at the end of his career Rodman captured the public’s attention for his elaborate tattoos, his ever-changing hair color, and an alternative lifestyle that included cross-dressing. He even dressed in a wedding gown and had a wedding in which he claimed to have married himself. Rodman actually married Hollywood starlet Carmen Electra but the marriage was annulled ten days later. A year later Rodman met his subsequent girlfriend, Michelle Moyer, who bore him two children, a son, DJ (2000) and a daughter, Trinity (2001). They married in 2003, on Rodman’s forty-second birthday. The colorful Rodman has a checkered past with the law which includes numerous run-ins and offenses including drug use and domestic violence. Now retired from basketball, Rodman makes personal appearances throughout the world. See also: Sports Further Reading Dennis Rodman. (Homepage.) http://dennisrodman.com. NBA. (n.d.) ‘‘Dennis Rodman’’ http://www.nba.com/playerfile/dennis_rodman/bio.html. Rodman, Dennis. 1997. Bad As I Wanna Be. New York: Dell/Random House. Rodman, Dennis, and Michael Silver. 1997. Walk on the Wild Side, New York: Delacorte Press. Telander, Rick. 1993. ‘‘Demolition Man: Dennis Rodman, Who Has Brought His Unique Act to San Antonio, Is a Relentless Rebounder, a Ferocious Competitor—and a Strangely Tormented Soul.’’ Sports Illustrated 79 (November 8): 124. Kip Branch
Roker, Al (1954– ), Television Broadcaster and Weatherman Al Roker is the jovial meteorologist seen by millions of viewers on NBC’s The Today Show. Since joining The Today Show in 1995, Roker’s gregarious personality and ability to bond with Television and live audiences have made him a favored television personality frequently asked to appear on game, home improvement, and cooking shows. In addition to being a television personality, Roker is author of several nonfiction books. Because of his numerous talents the multi-faceted Roker has become something of a popular culture renaissance man. Albert Lincoln Roker Jr., the oldest of six children, was born August 20, 1954, to Albert Sr. and Isabel Roker. Albert and Isabel were natives of Jamaica and the
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Bahamas respectively. Young Roker matriculated through the New York City public schools. After high school he enrolled in the State University of New York at Oswego where he majored in graphics communications. To fulfill a science requirement in his course of study, he took a class in meteorology, which eventually led to a part-time job his sophomore year as a weatherman on WTVHTV in Syracuse, New York. Following graduation in 1976, Roker moved on to WTTG-TV in Washington, DC, then on to a station in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1983, Roker was Al Roker is shown on the NBC Today television back in his birthplace program in New York. (AP/Wide World Photos) of New York City at WNBC, handling weekend anchor duties. During this time he met fellow meteorologist Willard Scott, who had a great impact on Roker’s career. Roker would later take Scott’s place on The Today Show in 1995. Roker married fellow NBC journalist Deborah Roberts in 1995. They are parents of two daughters and a son, whom Roker mentions in his self-penned book Don’t Make Me Stop This Car: Adventures in Fatherhood. In addition to his work as a meteorologist, Roker is an entrepreneur. His multimedia company, Al Roker Productions, has produced and developed shows for the Food Network, Court TV, Fine Living, Lifetime, his own show, Roker on the Road, and the acclaimed PBS special Savage Skies. In 2002, Roker underwent gastric bypass surgery to lose weight after years of failed diet attempts. He reportedly lost one hundred pounds in eight months. Though considered jovial in temperament Roker has been outspoken on several controversial issues. In 2007, he called on MSNBC to terminate the contract of host Don Imus for racist comments he made concerning the African American women on the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. In that same year, Roker came under attack for his alleged comments about the 2012 Summer
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Olympics scheduled to take place in Britain. Some television viewers thought Roker was ridiculing persons suffering from epilepsy—a charge he denied firmly. See also: Journalism and Journalists Further Reading Roker, Al. 2005. Big Shoes: In Celebration of Dads and Fatherhood. New York: Hyperion. Roker, Al. 2000. Don’t Make Me Stop This Car: Adventures in Fatherhood. New York: Scribner. Roker, Al. 2007. ‘‘Enjoy the Lazy Days.’’ Redbook (August): 32. Carter B. Cue
Roots, Television Miniseries In 1976, Alex Haley published the ground-breaking history of his family, which he had traced from the twentieth century back through slave days and then back further, to Africa. His work was based in part on genealogical records, on family stories, and on over twelve years of historical research. As a child, Haley was told stories of his ancestors in the American South and in Africa. Alex Haley’s life work, Roots, was a reflection of this foundation. He was already well known for his historically conscious work, including The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Roots was turned into a historic television miniseries that enthralled a record number of viewers. The miniseries’ widespread popularity was in part due to its graphic displays of resistance to slavery and the display of racial pride, which were not usually associated with the recounting of the enslavement period. Haley’s work popularized African American genealogy and spurred many families to pursue their roots, previously thought to be an impossible task given the disruptions of slavery. Thus his novel secured for him an influential place in popular culture. The epic story begins in the late eighteenth century with the experiences of Haley’s ancestor, Kunta Kinte, and his life in Africa. Haley writes of Kunta Kinte’s life in the African village of Juffure, his capture, the horrific experience of the Middle Passage, and enslavement. Kunte Kinte is eventually taken to a plantation in Virginia where he is renamed Toby. The novel details Kunte Kinte’s resistance to both his physical and mental enslavement. Haley continues the story with the descendants of the rebellious slave, Kizzy and Chicken George. The story is remarkable because it is told primarily from the perspective of the enslaved Africans and emphasizes the brutality with which enslaved Africans were reduced and their humanity was undermined. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the epic novel was made into a television miniseries in 1977. The miniseries provided a larger audience for Haley’s story and effectively brought visual images to the horror of slavery in the United States. Later, another miniseries, Roots, the Next Generation, continued the family saga into the twentieth century.
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Roots, the television miniseries that brought to the American mainstream the story of slavery in America, remains among the most-watched programs in the history of television. The program, from the novel by Alex Haley, created a whirlwind of interest in black genealogy and finally established in popular view that African Americans had a rich history before and during the dark days of slavery. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The success of Haley’s epic novel and the subsequent miniseries were important to the way the African American experience is understood and presented in the media. Prior to Roots, there was a decided neglect of presentation of the experiences of African American people, from black or even sympathetic
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perspective. Either the experiences of black people were ignored by the media or depicted in a way that suggested black people were worthy of dismal or inferior treatment. Roots captured the historical and tragic experiences of black people from a black perspective and in a manner that was a revealing treatment of race by the American society. In other words, Roots’ success inaugurated not necessarily the admission of criminal acts, but at least the need to document the history, especially of slavery, that acknowledged the experiences of black people. Moreover, the popular success of the book and miniseries informed academic studies. Increasingly in the 1980s American universities offered courses on the black experience, the Slave Narratives, and African American history and literature. Thus, Roots was instrumental to the introduction of the revision of black history and popularity of the neo-slave narrative. While Haley’s work was based on his family’s history, there were questions raised when two lawsuits were filed claiming plagiarism. One of the suits was dropped; the other, by Harold Courlander, claimed that Haley borrowed from his book, The Africans. This suit was settled out of court. Despite the suits, Haley’s book inspired a momentous shift in the celebration and revisiting of the African American experience. The research into genealogy and an academic interest in studies of the enslavement period grew, in particular the experience as understood by African Americans in the slave narratives and oral histories. See also: Africa and the African Diaspora; Afrocentric Movement; Genealogy and DNA Testing Further Reading Berger, Roger. 1997. ‘‘Roots.’’ In The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William Andrews, Frances S. Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Haley, Alex. 1976. Roots. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Valade, Roger M. 1996. The Essential Black Literature Guide. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Rebecca S. Dixon
Rosewood A small town called Rosewood, Florida, from January 1 to January 8, 1923, was the scene of a race war. A pre-Civil War settlement founded in 1845, Rosewood is located nine miles from Cedar Key in western Levy County, Florida. It adopted its name from the abundance of red cedar that grew in the area. John Singleton’s movie Rosewood in 1997 revived discussions and study about this town’s historic catastrophe. A community of 344 African Americans and 294 white residents in the post-World War I era, Rosewood blacks sustained peaceful relations with surrounding whites as long as racial etiquette was not violated. For blacks in 1920 this meant existing without threatening the progress of whites. It
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An African American home in flames, the work of a white mob during the burning of Rosewood in 1923. The town was burned by a racist mob who also murdered at least eight other African American residents. (UPI-Bettmann/Corbis)
was necessary for blacks to respect racial segregation laws and customs. If ever there was a breach in racial etiquette, the result was racial unrest or violence. From 1917 to 1923, this unrest erupted in many United States cities in the massive violence against black World War I veterans. After fighting for the United States, most black veterans expected the same respect that white soldiers and seamen received but they found that the opposite was true. Against this backdrop, Rosewood became an important symbol in African American popular culture. Preceding the massacre that riveted the town of Rosewood in historical memory was a 1920 dispute over voting rights in Ocoee, Florida. Blacks, though entitled to vote by law, were deterred through different practices from exercising this right. This dispute caused seven deaths and the obliteration of African American property including twenty-five homes, two churches, and a Masonic lodge. One year later, tempers flared again and white residents of the Wauchula community lynched a black man after an alleged assault of a white woman. On the eve of the Rosewood massacre, a massive Ku Klux Klan parade was held in Gainesville to demonstrate the restoration of white dominance.
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On New Year’s Day of 1923, Frances ‘‘Fannie’’ Taylor, a married white woman, alleged that an unidentified black man assaulted her in her home. Lacking substantial evidence of Taylor’s claims beyond her bruises, Taylor’s outcry was nevertheless accepted by white residents. News of Jesse Hunter, a black convict, fleeing from a local chain gang, led white residents to believe Hunter was the responsible culprit. In pursuit of Hunter, a black man suspected of being his accomplice was apprehended, shot, and lynched by white vigilantes for providing insufficient information. Inadequate leads rendered blacks with any ties to Hunter a suspect. Bloodhounds led the white posse to the home of Aaron Carrier. He was not at home so they went to the home of Emma Carrier, Aaron’s mother. There Aaron was found, dragged from bed, and probed to prove his innocence before being allowed to escape by one of the vigilantes. It was shortly after the release of Aaron Carrier that the posse confronted Aaron’s relative, Sylvester Carrier, an ex-convict and hunter, and mandated his departure from Rosewood. Sylvester refused, and instead chose to protect his mother’s home. After a relentless pursuit for Hunter that produced no answers, on January 2 and 3, whites arrived at the home of Sarah Carrier, the mother of Sylvester, to find fifteen to twenty-five blacks barricaded inside. The posse, lacking a comparable number, quickly garnered enough support from whites to surround the Carrier home. After two whites were shot and killed for boldly approaching the Carrier home, the massacre of African Americans began. On Friday, January 5, approximately two hundred to three hundred whites converged on Rosewood. Acting without restraint, they burned churches, destroyed houses, and killed innocent blacks. Those who were able to withstand Friday’s atrocity fled to the woods and swamps in fear for their life. On Saturday, January 6, a train evacuated refugees to Gainesville while others simply left Rosewood, not knowing their next destination. At the death of the flames that had scorched every black establishment in Rosewood, only charred bodies and animals remained. Black residents left Rosewood never to return. On February 15, 1923, a grand jury concluded after investigation that ‘‘insufficient evidence’’ was found to prosecute any persons. Contemporary reports suggest that a total of six blacks and two whites died in the massacre, while hundreds more were wounded. See also: Race Riots Further Reading Chalmers, David. 1987. Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan. 3rd ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Colburn, David R., and Richard Scher. 1980. Florida’s Gubernatorial Politics in the Twentieth Century. Tallahassee: University Presses of Florida. Displays for Schools.com. 2007. ‘‘Remembering Rosewood.’’ A Web site approved by Rosewood family members, it includes pictures of the survivors, information about the Rosewood Scholarship, and a description of bus tours. http://www .displaysforschools.com/rosewood.html. D’Orso, Michael. 1996. Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Newman, Richard. 1999. ‘‘Rosewood Revisited.’’ Transition 80:32–39. Enimini I. Ekong
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Ross, Diana (1944– ), Singer, Actress Diana Ross was the lead singer for the 1960s girl group the Supremes, whose original members also included Mary Wilson (1944– ) and Florence Ballard (1943–76). Their success—not only as women but also as African American women—at the time rivaled the success of the Beatles. The Supremes helped put Motown Records, then a fledgling label started by Berry Gordy Jr., on the map and launched the careers of many other artists. The success of the Supremes showed the music business and the United States that female African American singers were a viable commercial force, and during their rise girl groups spiked in commercial popularity. Ross later went on to a successful solo singing and acting career. Diana Ernestine Earle Ross, born in Detroit on March 26, 1944, was supposed to be named Diane, but because of a clerical error in the hospital in Detroit was instead named Diana. Regardless, most of her family called her Diane, except her mother, who called her Diana. Ross was the second child and daughter of six children. Overall, her childhood was relatively stable and the family worked hard but was not poor, in contrast to some of their neighbors; Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard met in the late 1950s as young teenagers in Detroit’s Brewster housing project. The name for their first singing group was ‘‘The Primettes,’’ and in that incarnation they were a quartet that also included Betty McGlown. Ross was the third person to come to the group. Ballard had auditioned for Milton Jenkins, a manager who was working with a group called the Primes, who wanted to find a companion group of women to pair them with. In July 1960, the Primettes performed at a talent contest near the Canadian border and won first place. A buzz started to develop about the four teenaged girls. Ross was just sixteen. At the show, a man approached Ballard and handed her his card. He was a talent scout for Berry Gordy, who had been working for several years writing songs and recording artists such as the young Smokey Robinson. The label Gordy was starting to form would eventually take the name of Motown Records. Curiously, Ballard remained mum about it to the group. It was Ross who managed to get them time with Gordy, whose hit-making had been proven with Smokey Robinson (‘‘Got a Job’’) and Barret Strong’s ‘‘Money (That’s What I Want).’’ Ross contacted Robinson, who contacted Gordy, and the four teenaged girls from Detroit headed to Gordy’s self-styled studio, which he dubbed ‘‘Hitsville USA,’’ for an audition. By 1961, they were called the Supremes. The group’s music blended soul and pop, but their songs about love, loss, and relationships kept their content, some would argue, predictable and formulaic. In hindsight, some critics have seen their music as superficial or thin, at least in terms of their biggest hit songs. Some critics also have viewed the band as more of a promotional (and financial) tool for Berry Gordy, who oversaw their rise to fame, rather than acknowledging the merits of the Supremes’ own singing
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stylings, fashionable (and trend-setting) stage presence, and performance appeal. Through the years, the original group members of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard had their differences, which were aired both publicly and privately in newspapers and autobiographies. Ballard, who had been fired by Gordy in 1967, and replaced by Cindy Birdsong, died in 1976 of cardiac arrest when she was only thirty-two. Ross faced an easy transition to a solo career; in 1967 Gordy renamed the group ‘‘Diana Ross and the Supremes,’’ and by 1970 she was ready to explore her other options. Through the course of the 1970s she released several charttopping albums, appeared in three films, and had several number one hit singles, starting with ‘‘Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)’’ in 1970 and moving into the 1980s with ‘‘Upside Down’’ and ‘‘I’m Coming Out.’’ During this decade she was still a Motown artist, but in the early 1980s she switched to RCA, which released the bulk of her records through the decade with the exception of a few records, including the soundtrack to the 1981 film Endless Love, which went gold, propelled by the title track duet between Ross and Lionel Richie. Ross’s music and her presence have been pervasive; she has worked in music, television, film, and Broadway, with success at nearly every turn and with every new project. Many of her concerts from live television programs were released as albums and were a tremendous success. Over the course of her career, both with the Supremes and during her solo years, Ross started to develop a reputation as a diva, partly due to her flair for the dramatic and her unapologetically ambitious nature. During the early part of her solo career, she was often referred to as ‘‘the black Streisand’’ by the media. Ross’s personal life has been fraught with tabloid-interest controversy, from her affair with Motown Records president Berry Gordy to speculation about the paternity of her first daughter. When the 1990s arrived, Ross’s prolific recording output slowed down considerably, and she released The Force Behind the Power, produced by Peter Asher, in 1991, followed by Take Me Higher in 1995, and 1999’s Everyday is a New Day, all of which fared much better on the U.K. and European charts than either the pop or R & B charts in the United States. Ross attempted to reunite the Supremes and tour with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, but neither would participate because the pay they would receive paled in comparison to Ross’s fees. Instead, Ross replaced them with two late-period Supremes, Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne, and the three toured a handful of dates with the Return to Love tour. However, sales were not remarkable, so the show was cancelled after only nine dates. Ross and Motown parted ways yet again in 2002. Late that same year, Ross was arrested in Tucson, Arizona, for drunk driving. She remained intermittently active, appearing with Rod Stewart on ‘‘I Got a Crush On You’’ on his Great American Songbook record on 2005. Motown released a collection of Ross’s jazz standards that had been shelved for over thirty years called Blue, and it hit number two on the jazz album chart. In early 2007, Ross released her first new album since 1999, I Love You.
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Ross has chalked up a number of awards and accolades, and when her Supremes years and solo careers are considered, her track record is formidable and difficult to match. The Supremes scored an impressive array of number one singles, including ‘‘Baby Love’’ (1964), ‘‘Where Did Our Love Go?’’ (1964), ‘‘Stop! In the Name of Love.’’ (1965), ‘‘You Can’t Hurry Love,’’ (1966), and ‘‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’’ (1966), all written and produced by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Edward Holland (known professionally as Holland-Dozier-Holland). As a solo artist, twenty of her songs have placed on the rhythm and blues and Pop Music charts. Her album sales are estimated worldwide at over 100 million copies, she has been awarded one Tony Award, seven American Music Awards, and one Golden Globe for her role playing Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, and has been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards and an Oscar for Best Actress. In 2007, she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor for distinguished performance. She is the mother of five children and has been married and divorced twice. See also: Musicians and Singers; Race Records Further Reading Ross, Diana. 2002. Going Back. New York: Rizzoli/Universe. Ross, Diana. 1993. Secrets of a Sparrow: Memoirs. New York: Villard. Taraborrelli, J. Randy. 2007. Diana Ross: A Biography. New York: Citadel Press. Carrie Havranek
Rudolph, Wilma (1940–94), Runner Wilma Glodean Rudolph overcame childhood poverty, illnesses, and racial discrimination to become the fastest woman runner in the world. Born on June 23, 1940, in Clarksville, Tennessee, she was the twentieth of twenty-two children born to Ed Rudolph, a railroad porter, and Blanche Rudolph, a domestic worker. Rudolph was born prematurely and weighed only four-and-a-half pounds. A sickly child, she battled pneumonia, scarlet fever, and other illnesses, then survived a bout of polio at age four. Afterwards, her left leg was weak and crooked, and she could only walk with the support of a heavy metal brace. Seeking treatment for Wilma, Blanche Rudolph took her on weekly trips, riding fifty miles each way, to an all-black hospital in Nashville. At home, she massaged Wilma’s leg and urged her to exercise her leg and foot. Rudolph dreamed of walking someday and later said, ‘‘The only thing I ever really wanted when I was a child was to be normal. . . . to be able to run, jump, play, and do all the things the other kids did in my neighborhood.’’ At age twelve, Rudolph was walking without a brace. She had often sat and watched others play basketball; now, she was ready to play herself. With her long legs and great speed she became a top player in high school, where she also joined the track team. While serving as a referee at a high school game, Coach
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Ed Temple of Tennessee State University saw Rudolph playing and invited her to spend the summer at the university, training in Track and Field with other top athletes. In 1956, Rudolph tried out for the Olympic team and became its youngest member. The six-foot, eighty-nine-pound runner did not win any individual medals at her first Olympics but resolved to do better next time. She earned a third-place bronze medal as part of the 4 100–meter relay team. Rudolph received a scholarship to attend Tennessee State University, where she trained hard and studied to maintain the B average that Coach Temple expected from his Tigerbelles team. Several Tigerbelles, including Rudolph, competed in the 1960 Olympics, held in Rome. Just before her first qualifying race, Rudolph injured her ankle but still managed to win the 100-meter dash with a time of 11 seconds. She won a second gold medal in the 200-meter race, then pushed herself hard in the relay race, where the U.S. team won by three tenths of a second, setting a new record of 44.5 seconds. ‘‘The Tennessee Tornado’’ was now the most famous woman athlete in the world, praised both for her athletic skill and charming manners. The people of Clarksville held a victory parade for her, the first integrated event in the town’s history. Rudolph visited the White House, received numerous awards, and became a popular public speaker. Returning to college, she continued to compete in amateur races, retiring in 1962. The next year she finished college and became a teacher, then married, eventually raising four children. During the 1960s, Rudolph took part in the black Civil Rights Movement and helped to develop and lead programs for young people. She worked as a television commentator, a model, and in the field of public relations. In 1977, her autobiography was published, and a television movie about her life was made. In 1980, she was named to the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. The next year, she started her nonprofit Wilma Rudolph Foundation to help young people succeed in school and in sports by providing books, tutors, free coaching, and help with travel expenses. Later, Rudolph called the foundation ‘‘my legacy.’’ In 1988, Rudolph was voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, and the Black Athletes Hall of Fame, now called the Afro-American Hall of Fame. She is also honored in the Olympic Hall of Fame and was the first woman to receive the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Silver Anniversary Award. In 1994, Wilma Rudolph died at age fifty-four of a brain tumor. See also: Women and Sports Further Reading Berkow, Ira. 1994. ‘‘Forever the Regal Champion,’’ New York Times, November 13. Litsky, Frank. 1994. ‘‘Wilma Rudolph, Star of the 1960 Olympics, Dies at 54,’’ New York Times, November 13. Smith, Maureen M. 2006. Wilma Rudolph: A Biography. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press. Victoria Sherrow
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Russell, Bill (1934– ), Basketball Player Bill Russell was a professional, collegiate, and Olympic Basketball champion who revolutionized the sport. Tall yet agile, he introduced shot blocking to the American sport in the 1950s and demonstrated that the defensive skill was a potent weapon. As a defensive stopper, sure-handed rebounder, and clutch scorer when needed, Russell guided the Boston Celtics to a record 11 NBA championships in thirteen years. Russell was also a pop culture figure during and after his playing days. Despite the shorts and sneakers, the goateed 6 foot 10 inch man conjured up images of a regal ancient African monarch who had time-traveled to the 1950s and 1960s to become an ambassador of the hardwood. Self-confident and emotionally strong during those civil rights years, Russell resisted second-class treatment, yet he could disarm people with his smile and uninhibited laughter. During life after basketball, Russell was a sought-after guest and host. He hosted Saturday Night Live in 1979 and was a guest host for the Dick Cavett Show in 1972. Russell was a guest on an eclectic mix of TV shows, Laugh-in (1971 and 1972), Soul Train (1972), The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (1972 and 1973), and recently The Late Show with David Letterman and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Russell’s authoritative screen presence led him to be cast as ‘‘Judge Ferguson’’ in a 1986 episode of the buddy cop drama Miami Vice. Aside from talking sports, Russell was an engaging conversationalist with a lot to say about contemporary social and political issues. William Felton Russell was born February 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana, the son of Charles Russell, a paper bag factory worker, and Katie Russell, a homemaker. Young Bill had vivid Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics shoots a free throw during memories of poverty and a game at Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Russell racial oppression in the played for the Celtics from 1956 to 1969. (Getty Images) Deep South. His father
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moved the family to Oakland, California, after he found factory work there. Bill Russell began McClymonds High as a clumsy athlete who initially shared the fifteenth team uniform with another player, then developed into a tall, graceful player good enough to win a scholarship to the University of San Francisco. The Jesuit school was not regarded as a basketball force; however, Russell’s arrival in the early 1950s signaled change. With K. C. Jones, a future professional teammate, they led USF to top national rankings in 1954–55 and 1955–56 that included 55 consecutive wins and two national championships. Russell was unusual for his height; basketball big men were often dominating scorers but rarely quick and agile shot blockers and defenders. After graduation in June 1956, Russell played with the gold medal U.S. Olympic basketball team at the games in Melbourne, Australia. That year he married college sweetheart Rose Swisher. Russell later signed on to play professionally with the Boston Celtics. Before his arrival, the Celtics had just become a winning basketball team because of potent offensive stars such as Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman. However, the team was not championship caliber because of weak defense. Russell filled the void. The Celtics with Russell won its first NBA championship in the 1956–57 season and went on a championship run of 11 titles, including seven in a row from 1958–59 to 1965–66. Russell was named most valuable player five times and was an 11-time All-Star. In 1966, coach Arnold ‘‘Red’’ Auerbach passed the leadership to Russell, who became the first African American to coach a professional basketball team. During that 1966–67 season, player-coach Russell’s Celtics lost the division championship to the Philadelphia 76ers, which was led by the league’s other dominant big man, Wilt Chamberlain. In 1967–68, Russell’s Celtics regained the NBA title, and repeated in 1968–69. Russell’s one-on-one battles with 7-footer Chamberlain were epic, comparable to Muhammad Ali–Joe Frazier title fights or the battle between Civil War ironclads the Monitor and Merrimack. Chamberlain usually scored prolifically, but Russell, a master of strategy and psychology, often made a key block or stop that resulted in Celtic victories. In 1962, when Chamberlain averaged 50 points per game—a record that still stands—and scored 100 points in a single game—also a record that still stands—Russell was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. Before the start of the 1969–70 season, Russell retired and ended a thirteenyear career. In 1973–74, he was hired to coach the Seattle SuperSonics. The following season, the Sonics made the playoffs for the first time. In February 1975, Russell was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame; however, the famous contrarian and nonconformist objected. Later that year, the trustees inducted Russell anyway. Unfortunately, stats for Russell’s signature individual skill—shot blocking—are unknown because pro basketball did not record such statistics during Russell’s era. Among other athletes the feat was rare. Shot blocking was recorded after 1973. In 1996, the fiftieth anniversary of the NBA, Russell was named one of the 50 Greatest Players. By twenty-first century pro basketball standards, Bill Russell was an adequate scorer—15 points per game—and an extraordinary rebounder,
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22.5 per game career average. The other attribute that places Russell at the top of the mountain as pro basketball’s greatest player was winning. The 11 championship seasons on his watch remain a standard that will be difficult to eclipse. At the start of the twenty-first century, Russell was a senior citizen but his influence lived on. The 2001 book Russell Rules: 11 Lessons on Leadership from the 20th Century’s Greatest Winner, applied these ideas to other pursuits: Lesson One, Commitment begins with curiosity; Lesson Two, Ego = MC2; Lesson Three, Listening is Never Casual; Lesson Four, Toughness or Tenderness: Creating Your Own Leadership Style; Lesson Five, Invisible Man; Lesson Six, Craftsmanship; Lesson Seven, Personal Integrity; Lesson Eight, Rebounding, or How to Change the Flow of the Game; Lesson Nine, Imagination, or Seeing the Unseeable; Lesson Ten. Discipline, Delegating and Decision making, and Lesson Eleven, Everyone can win. Russell mentored Kevin Garnett, a longtime superstar with the Minnesota Timberwolves who scored prolifically, defended ferociously, but lacked an NBA championship ring. When Garnett was traded to the Celtics, Russell counseled the appreciative 7-footer. Garnett and the Celtics earned the 2008 NBA championship. The star player and his teammates continue to compete for additional rings. See also: Olympics; Sports Further Reading Ashe, Arthur R., Jr. 1988. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete since 1946. New York: Warner Books. Nelson, Murry, R. 2005. Bill Russell: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Russell, Bill, and David Falkner. 2001. Russell Rules: 11 Lessons on Leadership from the 20th Century’s Greatest Winner. New York: New American Library. Thomas, Ron. 2002. They Cleared the Lane: The NBA’s Black Pioneers. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. Wayne Dawkins
Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture Volume 4 S–Z 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
S Scat Singing Scat is a vocal style characterized by onomatopoeia and improvisation. In scat, singers employ a wordless, rhythmic combination of vowel and consonant sounds that mimic popular jazz instruments, such as saxophones and trumpets, in tone and articulation. Scat is often the vehicle for a voice equivalent of an instrumental jazz solo. According to legend, it was the renowned American jazz singer and trumpeter Louis Armstrong who invented the art of scat in 1926 when he inadvertently dropped his lyrics sheet during a live recording of the song ‘‘The Heebie Jeebies’’ and opted to wing it. Though generations of music lovers have been charmed by the tale, in truth, other jazz and Ragtime singers performed and recorded scat during Armstrong’s childhood, and music historians have traced the style’s origins to centuries-old West African vocal traditions, such as that of attaching particular syllables to drumming patterns. In the first decade of the twentieth century, ragtime performers Ben Harney and Tony Jackson gave live performances featuring scat. Jazz singer Jelly Roll Morton said he used scat as a vocal ‘‘novelty’’ as early as 1906. Among the first recordings of scat were ragtime singer Gene Greene’s 1909 ‘‘King of the Bungaloos’’ and Al Jolson’s 1911 ‘‘That Haunting Melody,’’ as well as bouts of vocal experimentation by Don Redman and Red Nichols. On the heels of Armstrong’s history-making scat came performances by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra that drew attention to the style, most notably in the 1931 ‘‘Minnie the Moocher,’’ the scat chorus of which earned Calloway the nickname ‘‘The Hi-De-Ho Man,’’ and in the 1932 ‘‘The Scat Song.’’
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If trendsetting Armstrong was responsible for both influencing fellow musicians and introducing scat to a general audience (through songs such as ‘‘I’m a Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas’’ in which scat is prefaced by the exclamation, ‘‘I done forgot the words!’’), it was singer Ella Fitzgerald, also known as the First Lady of Song, who made scat a jazz staple. One of her earliest improvisational recordings, the 1947 ‘‘Flying Home,’’ featured scat riffs interspersed with samples of compositions made famous by Lionel Hampton, Chick Webb, and Dizzy Gillespie. The same year, her tracks ‘‘How High the Moon’’ and ‘‘Lady Be Good,’’ and, later, ‘‘Mack the Knife,’’ cemented her reputation as a scat master. Upon Fitzgerald’s death in 1996, singer Mel Torme, who often had called her ‘‘the greatest singer on the planet,’’ said that Fitzgerald ‘‘pioneered scat singing.’’ ‘‘Scat singing is the alter ego of what instrumentalists play,’’ he said, ‘‘the implementation of the voice singing extemporaneously. And that’s what Ella did better than anybody ever,’’ he said on the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, on PBS, June 17, 1996. In the 1940s and 1950s, scat entered the realm of bebop, where vocalist Sarah Vaughan performed scat improvisations to complement the melodic lines Charlie Parker was playing on the saxophone, her instrumental counterpart. Their performances were widely broadcast on radio and television programs, which pushed scat further into the mainstream by the 1960s. At the same time, Betty Carter, who later won a Grammy award, launched a career as a bebop/jazz singer by scatting alongside famous instrumental jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, and Miles Davis, and by recording duets with Ray Charles. It isn’t merely music that has felt the influence of scat. In jazz poetry, scat has gained ground through the work of writers including Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, and Bob Kauffman, who have infused performances of their poems with lines of syllables that seem to reach beyond the constraints of ordinary language and emphasize the emotive qualities of the voice. While some scholars may attribute the presence of scat in poetry to the influence of scat in music, composer Dick Higgins once suggested a veritable reversal of the cause-and-effect relationship, recognizing the impact of the spoken word on singing: ‘‘In Black American music there is a sound poetry tradition, possibly based originally on work calls, which we find [transformed] into the scat singing of the popular music of the 1930s.’’ By the 1980s, the use of the human voice as an instrument had shifted in role from melodic to percussive in popular music, but jazz vocalists true to the form continued to experiment with scat. Hush, the 1992 album that singer and conductor Bobby McFerrin recorded with popular cellist Yo-Yo Ma, combining Ma’s classical strings with McFerrin’s scat, sold more than a million copies. See also: Bebop Music; Blues and Blues Festivals; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Poets and Poetry Further Reading Calloway, Cab. 1932. ‘‘The Scat Song.’’ In Cab Calloway and His Orchestra 1931–1932. Melodie Jazz Classic. CD.
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Higgins, Dick. 1980. ‘‘A Taxonomy of Sound Poetry.’’ Ubu Web. http://www.ubu.com/ papers/higgins_sound.html. Torme, Mel. 1996. ‘‘Interview with Mel Torme, ‘Remembering Ella Fitzgerald’ by Jeffrey Kaye.’’ PBS, MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, June 17. http://www.pbs.org/news hour/bb/remember/ella_fitzgerald.html. Karen Pojmann
Science and Scientists Science is described as the systematic knowledge of the physical and material world gained through observation and experimentation. Scientists are individuals who have expert knowledge of one or more sciences. The term ‘‘sciences’’ refers to an assorted number of studies, such as anatomy, which is the study of the structure of the body, astronomy, the study of celestial bodies, biology, the study of life, and geography, the study of the surface of the earth and its inhabitants. Given the history of slavery, the exclusion of Africa Americans in mainstream life and barriers preventing blacks from careers, such as in science, African American achievement in science is considered a vitally important subject within African American popular culture. That African Americans have contributed to science dispels numerous misconceptions that blacks are inherently unintelligent and have contributed little, if anything, to America’s advancement. On the contrary, blacks have been, since their arrival in America as slaves, an indispensable part of America’s foundation and growth and development. Black scientists, as well as inventors, have made major impacts on society; however, they rarely receive mention in the media or in school textbooks. Among the reasons black scholar, Carter G. Woodson, started Black History Week (now Black History Month) in 1926, was so that African Americans would recognize African American achievement. The recognition of important black figures nurtures esteem, helping to repel contradictory messages from white society and inspire others to attain greatness. Black History Month continues to this day and is in large part the reason why black children and youth can name some of the most famous African American scientists, like Benjamin Banneker, George Washington Carver, and Madam C. J. Walker (also of hair care fame). Banneker, Carver, and Walker have become household names, and yet, there were (and are) many more African American scientists. In the new millennium, African Americans work in a variety of fields. Blacks remain underrepresented in the sciences, black women even more so. Black children and youth still lag considerably behind whites in terms of academic performance and the attainment of college degrees and upward mobility. Some contend that these disparities are proof that blacks have not fully recovered from the effects of slavery, racism, and poverty and that blacks receive fewer opportunities than whites.
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Black Pioneers The prevailing thought, during America’s early history, was that Africans were uncivilized, cannibals, and incapable of advanced and complex thought. But history has proved that Africans lived in rich and vibrant civilizations and kingdoms. Indeed, certain individuals in African societies delved into scientific matters, whether it was to study the habits and behavior of animals for hunting, to read the environment for signs of storms, to create medicine for healing, or to study the land to yield healthier crops. However, Africans brought to the new world as slaves were regarded as property, as nonhumans. The popular science of the day justified the horrific treatment of blacks, contending that blacks were biologically and intellectually inferior. Exacerbating these ideas were laws that forbid slaves to learn how to read and write. Even still, black scientists, existed in this hostile environment. According to African American Voices of Triumph, Benjamin Banneker is ‘‘America’s first African American scientist.’’ Some contend that it is possible that there were slaves who also devised important inventions but, because of the times, did not get credit. But Banneker was not a slave; he was born free in Baltimore County, Maryland, in 1731. At forty years old, he embarked on an ambitious self-study of astronomy and produced a best-selling almanac in 1791. He also made the first striking clock in America. More black scientists emerged in the nineteenth century. Thomas L. Jennings’s dry-cleaning process was patented in 1821. In the 1840s, a slave named Benjamin Bradley constructed a steam engine for a warship. Because he was a slave, he could not patent his invention; however, after selling the steam engine, he bought his freedom. Norbert Rillieux, who was born free, created ‘‘a device that revolutionized sugar refining,’’ according to African American Voices, and it was patented in 1846. Rillieux’s invention made him wealthy. While the majority of African Americans remained illiterate and uneducated, blacks made critical achievements. In 1876, Edward Bouchet, who hailed from New Haven, Connecticut, was the first African American to receive a doctorate from an American university. He obtained a PhD in physics from Yale University. In the late nineteenth century, Elijah McCoy invented automatic lubricating devices for trains. As noted in African American Voices, Granville T. Woods invented, among other things, a steam-boiler furnace and an ‘‘overhead electric power supply system for trains and streetcars.’’ Lewis Latimer is a name often associated with Thomas Edison, credited for developing the modern-day light bulb. Unbeknownst to many, Latimer was an African American and an inventor in his own right. He became a member of Edison’s research team in 1884. Scientists of the Twentieth Century and Beyond African American scientists in the twentieth century onward have increased, representing a broad spectrum of fields, producing life-saving devices and advancements in hair products, farming practices and medicine. Madam C. J. Walker, born in Delta, Louisiana, in 1867, is one of the most celebrated
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self-made and extraordinarily successful entrepreneurs. She started out working in typical occupations, like domestic work. Within the first decade of the 1900s, she had established a profitable career selling black hair care products she created for black women. By 1917, notes African American Voices, her spectacular rise to fame was known throughout the nation; she ‘‘was making half a million dollars a year in gross revenues, her factory payroll came to $200,000 a year, and she had 2,000 salespersons, known as agents.’’ Walker, however, was not only a businesswoman, she was a popular speaker, generous philanthropist, and supporter of the early century civil rights activism. Garrett Morgan was a man of multiple talents, and George Washington Carver is the man who popularized the peanut. Garrett Morgan was born in 1875 in Paris, Kentucky. He invented a hair straightener, a gas mask, and a traffic light. Morgan first used his gas mask to help save the lives of two survivors trapped in a tunnel. He created the traffic light in an effort to prevent car accidents. George Washington Carver, who had been born in slavery in 1864 or 1865, became a well known botanist. While teaching at Tuskegee Institute (now University), he produced numerous bulletins reporting on farming practices that became popular with mainstream farmers. His ideas helped save farmers in the South during a boll weevil infestation. Carver invented numerous products, like woven rugs made from okra stalks, and over one hundred products from sweet potatoes. Another well known figure in the annals of science is Charles Drew, a medical doctor. A popular myth within African American popular culture is that Drew invented blood transfusions and that he died because a white hospital refused to give him a life-saving blood transfusion. In reality, Drew is credited for establishing blood banks, and white doctors did attempt to save his life, to no avail, after a car accident. Drew was born in Washington, DC, in 1904. As an adult, he quickly advanced within the medical industry. Because of his in-depth research in blood preservation and blood plasma, he is celebrated for creating the modern day blood bank, which saved lives during World War II. Drew headed a program, based on his blood bank design, to collect blood for the military. Because of rampant racism and discrimination (blacks served in segregated units), blacks were not at first allowed to donate blood. Later, African Americans were allowed to donate blood for segregated supplies. Outraged, Drew left the program and resumed teaching at Howard University. In black history, most well-known narratives feature men, but women also played a prominent role in the sciences. Jane Wright, a medical doctor, was the daughter of Louis Wright, another doctor. Her father had founded a research center at Harlem Hospital in Harlem, New York. She started out, in 1949, at her father’s research center. As cited in African American Voices, among her notable contributions were ‘‘many of the first important advances in cancer chemotherapy.’’ The extraordinary Shirley Ann Jackson held the distinction of becoming the first African American woman to obtain a PhD degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973, and the first African American woman in the nation to receive a doctorate in physics. She is currently the first black president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. It was hard going for Jackson
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being the only black woman; she was often ostracized by her peers. Katherine Johnson was an aerospace technologist in the prestigious U.S. space program. Johnson was born in rural West Virginia and graduated from West Virginia State College in unconventional subjects, mathematics and French. From the start, Johnson would challenge the status quo in the midst of Jim Crow rule. When, at the time, most African American women were limited to working as domestics, she aspired beyond cultural and social limitations and shattered popular racist perceptions. Johnson worked for NASA between 1953 and 1986. In 1987, Mae Jemison was named the first African American woman astronaut. She was science mission specialist on the eight-day historic flight of space shuttle Endeavor launched on September 12, 1992. At first a chemical engineer, in 1981 Jemison received her medical degree from Cornell Medical School. African American scientists in modern times continue to dispel racist and discriminatory attitudes, long after the eradication of Jim Crow laws, and surpass societal expectations. When James West, an acoustician and inventor at Johns Hopkins University, decided he wanted to study physics, he went against his parents’ wishes. They had hoped his son, who had been born in 1931 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, would become a doctor. His father contended that there would be little opportunity to work in his son’s preferred field. However, West has enjoyed a prolific career, obtaining some two hundred patents, helping to develop a foil electric microphone, completing a long and successful career, and founding the Association of Black Laboratory Employees. He is currently a research professor at Johns Hopkins. Other unsung heroes in science include Aprille Ericsson, an aerospace engineer at NASA. She is credited for being ‘‘the first woman (and the first African American female) to receive a PhD degree in mechanical engineering, from Howard University, and the first African American female to receive a PhD in engineering at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.’’ In 1997, she won the ‘‘Women in Science and Engineering’’ award for best female engineer in the federal government. Unlike many black scientists, she has been featured in the media, such as on NBC and in Essence magazine. Other modern-day scientists include Warren Washington, born in Portland, Oregon, who is an atmospheric scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, William M. Jackson, who is a chemist at the University of California at Davis, and Agnes A. Day, who is a microbiologist at Howard University. One of the major challenges today is to encourage black children and youth to not only consider a career in science but to do well in traditionally challenging courses in mathematics and science. Some African Americans criticize black youth culture, wherein doing well in any academic subject is considered ‘‘uncool’’ or where careers in entertainment, such as rapping, or sports like Football and Basketball are more popular. In some cases, African Americans are routed to community colleges or technical schools upon graduation. Although these students may go on to obtain rewarding careers, African Americans argue that these students are not presented with other opportunities that are available to them. Increasingly, programs are being launched to address these issues and provide youth with more opportunities in math and science. Professor David Scott, who
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teaches math and computer science, at the University of Puget Sound, a predominantly white private institution in Tacoma, Washington, has devoted time and energy to encourage underprivileged students. He has worked with MESA, a program that targets youth to prepare them for four-year institutions and develop their skills in the sciences and math. He also directed, for many years, the Academic Challenge Program, a program that is similar to MESA. See also: Education: Public and Private; Inventors and Inventions; Technology Further Reading Klein, Aaron E. 1971. The Hidden Contributors: Black Scientists and Inventors in America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Sammons, Vivian O. 1990. Blacks in Science and Medicine. New York: Hemisphere Publishing. Science Update. (n.d.) ‘‘Spotlight: African American Scientists. James West.’’ http:// www.scienceupdate.com/spotlights/africanamerican.php. Time-Life Books. 1994. African American Voices of Triumph: Leadership. Alexandria, VA. Van Sertima, Ivan, ed. 1983. Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Warren, Wini. 1999. Black Women Scientists in the United States: Race, Gender, and Science. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Gladys L. Knight
Scott, Jill (1972– ), Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Actress Jill Scott has been recognized as a leading neo-soul singer since the release of her highly successful debut album in 2000. Scott, the daughter of Joyce Scott and the granddaughter of a lady known as Blue Babe, was born on April 4, 1972, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Inspired by the verse of Nikki Giovanni, Scott began writing poetry when she was in the eighth grade. After graduating from high school, Scott matriculated at Temple University where she majored in English and planned to become a high school English teacher. In her spare time, she read her poetry at local venues. She left Temple after she received a theatrical apprenticeship, and was cast as the character Seasons of Love in the Canadian version of the musical Rent. Scott then gained attention as a songwriter and singer. She cowrote ‘‘You Got Me,’’ for the Philadelphia Hip-Hop band, the Roots (now the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon), and the song won the 1999 Grammy for Best Rap performance for the Roots and Erykah Badu. That same year, producer Jeff Townes (aka DJ Jazzy Jeff) gave Scott several tracks, and she wrote a few songs, including ‘‘A Long Walk.’’ After Townes sent out demo CDs, Scott signed as the debut artist with Hidden Beach Recordings, a company that was founded by Steve McKeever,
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the former senior vice president of artists and repertoire at Motown Records, in 2000 with Michael Jordan as one of Hidden Beach’s investors. During the company’s first year, it released Scott’s debut album, the double-platinum Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol.1 (2000). Scott’s subsequent albums are Experience: Jill Scott 826þ (2001), Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2 (2004), Collaborations (2007), The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3 (2007), Live in Paris (2008), and The No.1 Lady Remixed (2009). In addition to the aforementioned 1999 Grammy Award, Scott has received three more: for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for ‘‘Cross My Mind’’ in 2005, Best Traditional R & B Vocal Performance for ‘‘God Bless the Child’’ with George Benson and Al Jarreau in 2007, and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for ‘‘Daydreamin’’ with Lupe Fiasco’’ in 2008. Her additional honors include Soul Train Awards and being named by People magazine as one of the Fifty Most Beautiful People in the World (2001). Unwilling to confine her talents to the music industry, Scott has continued to act; her acting credits include Girlfriends, Hounddog, Why Did I Get Married? and the starring role of Precious Ramotswe in the HBO series The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Scott has also published her first volume of verse, The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott, in 2005 and developed the Butterfly Collection, a line of full-figure bras. Scott’s first marriage ended in divorce. In June 2008, Scott and Lil’ John Roberts, a musician, announced their engagement, and in April 2009, their son, Jett Hamilton Roberts, was born. See also: Poets and Poetry; Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading McMillan, Terry. 2007. ‘‘Jill Scott: Things Fall Apart.’’ Interview. Essence 38 (September): 176 et seq. Sanchez, Sonia. 2002. ‘‘Who Is Jill Scott? Interview.’’ Essence 32 (January): 84 et seq. Toure. 2001. ‘‘Soul Sister Number One.’’ Rolling Stone (April 26): 36 et seq. Linda M. Carter
Scott, Wendell Oliver (1921–90), Racecar Driver Wendell Scott was the first African American to win a National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) event, formerly known as the Grand National. In a sport that historically is dominated by white racecar drivers, Scott made the sport popular in black culture as well, showing the versatility of black achievers. He broke racial barriers in stock car racing, paving the way for other African Americans, such as Willy Ribbs, who emerged in 1991 as the first of his race to complete in the famed Indianapolis 500. Born in Danville, Virginia, on August 21, 1921, Wendell Oliver Scott was the son of mechanic William Scott and his wife Martha. He grew up in the ‘‘Crooktown’’
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section of that city. Later the family moved to Pittsburgh and then to Louisville, where they lived with Scott’s mother’s aunt. Scott returned to Danville with his mother and siblings. To earn a living, he worked as a taxi cab driver from 1939 to 1943; some sources claim that he may have owned the business. He joined the U.S. Army and from 1943 to 1945 served as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne unit and as a mechanic. On returning to Danville immediately after that, he was involved in city service from 1943 to 1949, yet his main love and side job was that of hauling moonshine from illegal stills in the area to the fairgrounds. Motor sports were in their infancy at this time, yet, in a sense, Scott had his own racing profession as a local bootlegger. He kept his car in topnotch condition and outran all local police cars simply because none of their vehicles could exceed 95 miles per hour. Scott’s engine, however, was powered enough to reach 118 miles per hour in high gear and 95 in second gear. By 1949, Scott already had an interest in motor sports, as he regularly watched the many races held at Danville’s Fairgrounds Speedway. The next year, he was actually sought out as a racer, when Martin Rogers, promoter of Danville’s racing, asked the local police to suggest the name of a black driver who might drive for him. The primary interest, however, was in giving new life to Danville’s dirt track and to draw a larger crowd to the event. The police knew Scott’s driving record; after all, they had chased him through southern Virginia many times as he hauled moonshine. Wendell Scott was their man. Although his old ‘‘liquor car’’ had served Scott well, he had sold it to his brother-in-law because it was too well-known for him to drive. Now he borrowed it for the races. He also bought a used racecar and sought an entry into the amateur NASCAR held at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The track was not yet racially integrated, and although Scott’s light complexion and steely eyes misled racing officials into thinking that he was white, no one would sell him the safety belt that he needed before driving. Locals knew that he was black. As well, later on in his career some tracks denied him access, just as some spectators booed him, and threw various objects toward him when he did race. He was denied the points that he earned while driving and thus the money he should have received for finishing as he actually did. Scott Joins the Dixie Circuit In time, Scott was allowed to make his debut at the Danville Fairgrounds Speedway, making him the first African American racer in the Dixie Circuit. He won over eighty Dixie Circuit events held in Virginia and North Carolina, where that circuit operated. NASCAR, however, did not recognize the circuit. In 1954, he was allowed to join NASCAR’s Modified Division and became one of the most popular stock car racers in the South. Scott competed successfully in a major event in 1958—the Virginia State Championship—and the next year the Southside Speedway Championship in Richmond. In 1961, he entered NASCAR’s elite form of racing, known as the Grand Nationals and eventually known as the Winston
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Cup, and made his debut at the Spartanburg, South Carolina, Fairgrounds. He made enough money each week to feed his family. Driving his 1962 Chevrolet all of this time, he won again on December 1, 1963, finishing first after 202 laps at Jacksonville Speedway in Florida. Again, officials denied Scott the race and earnings, claiming that another driver, Buck Baker, was ahead. Scott protested and scoring records showed an error; nevertheless, Baker had the $1,000-purse, the trophy, and the honor. Sometime later, Scott received his winnings along with a block of wood that officials claimed was a trophy. Scott was actually the first and only member of his race to win the GN trophy, or the NASCAR Winston Cup. Racial discrimination of unbelievable proportions followed Scott’s early career. Inspectors required more of him than they did of white drivers; for example, he was required to repair all chips in the paint of his car. Competitors often maneuvered to run him off track as cheering crowds looked on. The racial unrest in Birmingham in 1961 during the Civil Rights Movement unnerved him, as whites threatened to turn his car over and set it afire. While racecar drivers need the best equipment possible to help ensure success, Scott did the best he could with what he had, often facing equipment breakdowns. An excellent mechanic, he was skilled enough to keep his inferior equipment repaired. With racing in his blood, Scott drove on. He said in Dirt Tracks to Glory, ‘‘I never made enough money where I could go and buy anything I needed.’’ Although his usual earnings were around $7,000, at one time he managed to earn $13,000 from the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company just for running their tires. As with other drivers, Scott knew that racing was as dangerous as it was a challenge. There could be car pileups leading to injury as well as death. In 1960, he was in a thirty-seven-car pileup at Daytona’s speedway but it was his injury in an eighteen-car pileup during the Talladega races in 1973 that led to his retirement. He was injured with broken pelvis bones, three broken ribs, multiple breaks in a leg, and a lacerated arm requiring seventy stitches. Although he retired full-time, Scott continued to race. All told, he ran over 500 races in his lifetime and had 128 career wins in both modified and sportsman events. He had 506 GN starts and during his 147 NASCAR starts, he was in the top ten. Some writers rank Scott with other great racers, such as A. J. Foyt and Mario Andretti, both of whom competed at the Indianapolis 500—America’s leading racing event. Wendell Scott continued to operate his automobile repair garage while on and off the race track. He confessed in Dirt Tracks that, ‘‘I never drank a drop of liquor in my life. I just hauled it.’’ His life was showcased in the 1977 film Greased Lightning, with Richard Pryor playing the role of Scott. The pioneer black automobile racer was rewarded numerous times for his accomplishments. In 1977, he was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame. With his help, in 1986, Les Montgomery, of Atlanta, established a Wendell Scott Racing Foundation to provide scholarships to young people who had an interest in racing. He received the Early Dirt Racers Driver of the Year Award in 1990. Scott was president of the Black American Racing Association and served the organization with honorary lifetime membership. He received proclamations from two of the cities in
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which he had raced: Atlanta, Georgia, and Danville, Virginia. His hometown also honored its former moonshine-hauling icon by declaring August 8, 1990, Wendell Scott Day, and later naming the street on which he had lived Wendell Scott Drive. On December 23, 1997, an emblem bearing Scott’s number 34 racecar and inscribed with the words ‘‘NASCAR Racing Legend,’’ was installed at intersections near his street. Finally, shortly after his death, the Virginia Senate passed a resolution honoring Scott as a sportsman, trailblazer, and as one who persevered. Wendell Scott died of spinal cancer on December 23 that year, when he was sixty-nine years old. The pioneer black racecar driver had run his last race. He was survived by his wife, three sons, four daughters, and fifteen grandchildren. See also: Car Racing Further Reading Daily, Eileen. 1999. ‘‘Wendell Oliver Scott.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 19. Detroit: Gale Research. Smith, Frederick Douglas Jr. 1999. In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, eds. Detroit: Gale Research. 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. Wilkinson, Sylvia. 1983. Dirt Tracks to Glory: The Early Days of Stock Car Racing as Told by the Participants. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books. Frederick D. Smith
Scottsboro, Alabama Scottsboro, Alabama, gained notoriety as an example of the inequity before the law that African Americans faced prior to the enactment of the civil rights acts of 1957 and the 1960s. Nine African American males, mostly teenagers, Haywood Patterson (age 18), Roy Wright (age 12), Clarence Norris (age 18), Andy Wright (age 19), Willie Roberson (age 15), Charlie Weems (age 20), Ozzie Powell (age 15), Olen Montgomery (age 17), and Eugene Williams (age 13) were charged and convicted of raping two white women. A mistrial was declared in the case of the twelve-year-old because while the prosecutor had requested a life sentence for the youth, eleven of the twelve jurors wanted the death penalty. The eight other young men were quickly convicted and sentenced to death. The youths were jailed and initially tried in the northern Alabama city of Scottsboro.
On the Train The youths were not from Alabama, but were hoboing, riding illegally, on the Southern Railroad freight train from Chattanooga to Memphis. The train traversed a section of Alabama. The time was March 1931 and during the Great Depression many rode the trains in search of work without the funds to purchase
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These nine African American youths, known as the Scottsboro Boys, were imprisoned in Scottsboro, Alabama, after being falsely accused of raping two white women in a freight car. Here, the young men are pictured conferring with civil rights activist Juanita Jackson Mitchell in 1937. The boys’ convictions were overturned in Powell v. Alabama (1932), when the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the defendants, who had not been given adequate time to prepare a defense, were denied due process. (Library of Congress)
a train ticket. White youths tried to hitch a ride on the freight train and were rebuffed by the African American males. After being forced from the train, the white males complained to a station manager in Stevenson, Alabama, that they had been removed from the train by a mob of Negroes. This information was relayed to an upcoming stop in Paint Rock, Alabama, and by the time the train arrived at the station, a mob of angry deputized whites had gathered. Two white women—Ruby Bates and Victoria Price—were riding the train illegally. When they were discovered to have been on the train with the Negroes, they were asked if Negroes had bothered them. The women alleged rape by the nine youths. Despite no signs of vaginal tearing, which would have been consistent with a gang rape perpetrated by nine assailants, the nine were charged with rape as well as the initial charge of attempted murder on the white boys who had been removed from the train. The Negro males were charged and arrested in Alabama and then transported approximately twenty miles to a jail in Scottsboro. Legal Outcomes The first trial of the nine African American males, who came to be known as the Scottsboro Boys, took place in Scottsboro a mere twelve days after their arrest. Over the next twenty years the cases were appealed and retried. The case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court and established the principle that defendants in a criminal trial require effective assistance of counsel. When the Scottsboro Boys were arraigned they neither were given the opportunity to consult with counsel prior to
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the arraignment, nor were they represented at the arraignment. In response to the Scottsboro Boys’ plight, the Supreme Court also ruled that people could not be de facto excluded from jury service on the basis of race. All of the Scottsboro boys spent time in prison; Roy Wright, Roberson, Williams, and Montgomery were released in 1937. Weems was paroled in 1943, and Andy Wright was paroled in 1944. Powell was released in 1946, and Patterson, who was tried four times and sentenced to death three times, died in prison while serving time for another offense. In 1976, segregationist George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, issued a pardon for Norris, the last Scottsboro defendant still bound by the Alabama penal system. See also: Law Enforcement; Lynching Cases Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587 (1935). Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932).
Further Reading Aretha, David. 2008. The Trial of the Scottsboro Boys. Greensboro, North Carolina: Morgan Reynolds Publishing. Goodman, James. 1994. Stories of Scottsboro. New York: Pantheon Books. Angela Espada
Shaft (film) Shaft is one of the primary and most popular examples of blaxploitation films. Its popularity lies in its presentation of an African American male as an action hero protagonist in a plot that has crime and sex and African American funk and soul music as its theme music. The film fits into several other genres— action, crime, thriller, and drama. Along with the original Shaft, there are two other sequels, completing the trilogy, a remake, and a television series. The original Shaft film was produced by Joel Freeman, directed by Gordon Parks, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1971. The film’s plot is fashioned on Ernest Tidyman’s 1971 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Tidyman, author of the novel, and John D. F. Black. Richard Roundtree plays the main character, a macho African American private detective, John Shaft. Roundtree serves as the major character in the trilogy and television series. In the 2000 film, Roundtree appears as John Shaft, but he hands over the main role to Samuel L. Jackson. Shaft depicts the life of an African American male detective who seeks justice using heroic, crafty, and sophisticated methods. He is a tough, energetic, and fashionable character whose life presents the paradox of morality and immorality. Applying elements of film noir, Shaft is a crime drama with many sexual overtones.
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Shaft’s Big Score (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973) complete the trilogy. Shaft’s Big Score is second in the trilogy, having a similar plot to the first film. Although a big success, one major difference is the soundtrack which was done by Parks, the director, instead of Isaac Hayes, who did the initial track. The final film in the trilogy, Shaft in Africa, has a similar plot, but the setting changes from New York to Africa. Shaft in Africa, directed by John Guillermin and written by Stirling Silliphant and Ernest Tidyman, was not as successful as the first two sequels. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer then sold the rights to CBS, and Shaft made its television debut in 1973. There were only seven television episodes, airing from October 9, 1973, until February 19, 1974. There were, however, differences in producers and musical scores. The original theme musical score, written and recorded by Isaac Hayes with the original film in 1971, was rerecorded for the 2000 film. It had been a major hit during the release of the original Shaft movie. Produced by Stax Records Enterprise, the score was converted from a longer musical version to fit the first film. The musical score, ‘‘Shaft,’’ rocketed to number one on the Billboard Hot hits in 1971. The song, ‘‘Shaft,’’ won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1972. Hayes’s musical score made him the first African American to win an Academy Award in this category or any non-acting category. In 1994, Roundtree won a lifetime movie award from MTV for his roles in all the Shaft films. The original Shaft was also selected, in 2000, to be preserved in its original form by the United States National Film Registry for its cultural, historic, and aesthetic significance. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded Tidyman, the originator of the character, John Shaft, with a NAACP Image Award in 1972. The film is lauded for successfully proving that African Americans can support the box office. Shaft’s undying popularity and critical reception has earned it a place in history. See also: Film and Filmmakers Further Reading Internet Movie Datebase http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067741/ Nelson, George. 2002. Blackface: Reflections on African-Americans and the Movies. New York: Cooper Square. Sampson, Henry T. 1995. Blacks in Black and White: A Source Book on Black Films. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. TV Party! http://www.tvparty.com/recshaft.html. Denise Jarrett
Shakur, Tupac (1971–96), Rapper, Actor Legendary Tupac Shakur is well-remembered for his rapping skills and as a multitalented artist who also promoted foul language and violence. He was born on June 16, 1971, into a family surrounded by crime. His mother, Afeni Shakur,
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Tupac Shakur on the set of the film Gridlock’d, 1997. The rapper, actor and activist began his musical career as a dancer and back-up vocalist for the group Digital Underground. Although he was often surrounded by legal difficulties, he was able to endear himself to audiences and became one of the world’s top rappers. (Photofest)
was a member of the Black Panther Party and involved in several cases of conspiracy against the U.S. government and New York landmarks. His godfather was convicted of murder. Shakur’s stepfather and sister were also imprisoned. Shakur was enrolled in Harlem’s famous 127th Street Ensemble and had his first major role as Travis in A Raisin in the Sun. In 1984, Shakur and his family moved to Baltimore where he attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and the Baltimore School for the Arts. He studied jazz, poetry, acting, and ballet. In high school, Shakur was well-known for his sense of humor, his rapping skills, and his ability to interact with all crowds. Four years later, Shakur and his family moved to Marin, California. He was hired as a backup dancer and roadie for the group Digital Underground. He released his first album entitled 2Pacalypse Now in 1991. This album depicted the struggles of black men but was criticized for language full of expletives and descriptions of violence by and against law enforcement. His next album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993. Shakur found fame because of two hits from this album: ‘‘Keep Ya Head Up’’ and ‘‘I Get Around.’’ These and other song titles later became coined phrases used by black urban youth.
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As Shakur’s career expanded, his personal life became engrossed in ‘‘thug’’ life. Many of Shakur’s songs had angry tones. Some young black men during the early and late 1990s were characterized as ‘‘angry and violent.’’ Shakur’s songs mirrored the experiences and feeling of some of these men. Shakur was beginning to be caught in legal and criminal cases, including his $10 million suit against the Oakland Police Department after being savagely beaten. In 1993, Shakur was accused of sexually abusing a woman in a hotel room. In 1994, Shakur was convicted of attacking a former coworker. The following year, charges were brought against Shakur in a wrongful death lawsuit for the murder of a six-year-old boy who was caught in a gun battle between Shakur’s posse and a rival group. It was later discovered that Shakur and his group were not responsible for the murder. Shakur soon became a target of the violence that surrounded him. He was shot five times in the lobby of Quad Recording Studios while in New York. He blamed rappers Sean (Diddy) Combs and Notorious B. I. G. for setting him up. Shakur served his sentence for the sexual assault charges in February 1995. He later released his third album entitled Me Against the World. He is the only artist to have an album ranked first on the Billboard 200 while incarcerated. The following year, Shakur released his fourth album entitled All Eyez on Me, which was the last album to be released while he was living. His final album, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory was released in November 2006. Though Shakur faced difficulties in his personal life, his professional career managed to soar. He made appearances on television shows A Different World and In Living Color in 1993. Shakur was featured in movies, including Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), Above the Rim (1994), and Bullet (1996). A lover of literature and the writers Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, Shakur wrote a book of poetry called The Rose that Grew from Concrete, published in 1999, after his death. Shakur’s marriage to Keisha Morris ended in 1996. That same year Tupac Shakur was fatally shot, on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He died on September 13, 1996, after complications from the gunshot wounds. See also: Gangs; Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading Dyson, Michael Eric. 2001. Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. New York: Basic Civitas. Monjauze, Molly, Gloria Cox, and Staci Robinson. 2008. Tupac Remembered: Bearing Witness to a Life and Legacy. San Francisco: Chronicle. Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation. (Tupac Shakur tribute site.) http://www.tasf.org. Jemima Buchanan
Shange, Ntozake (1948– ), Playwright, Writer, Poet, Performer When for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem opened at the Booth Theater in New York City on September 15, 1976, its creator, Ntozake Shange, became the second African American woman
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to have her play performed on Broadway. Shange is also credited with introducing the ‘‘choreopoem,’’ a dramatic art form that combines music, prose, poetry, and dance, to American theatergoers. Born Paulette Williams on October 18, 1948, in Trenton, New Jersey, Shange is the oldest of four children born to Paul Williams, a surgeon, and Eloise Williams, a psychiatric social worker. Shange was raised in Trenton; St. Louis, Missouri; and Lawrenceville, New Jersey. During Shange’s childhood, she and her siblings met such African American icons as W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Chuck Berry, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie when they visited her parents. Shange’s earliest years as an adult were marked by a failed marriage and various suicide attempts. In spite of those catastrophic events, Shange graduated with honors with a bachelor’s degree in American studies in 1970 from Barnard College. One year later, she changed her name to Ntozake (En-to-za-ke) Shange (Shong-ga); in Zulu her first name means ‘‘she who comes with her own things,’’ and her surname means ‘‘as one who walks with lions.’’ In 1973, Shange received a master’s degree in American studies from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. Since then, Shange has taught at a number of colleges and universities including Sonoma State College, University of Houston, Villanova University, and the University of Florida. Shange and her second husband, jazz saxophonist David Murray, are the parents of one daughter. The marriage ended in divorce. Shange is best known for for colored girls which was performed 120 times at the Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theatre in New York City before it moved to Broadway for 742 additional performances. Shange’s choreopoem was the first drama by an African American playwright staged on Broadway since Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. Shange’s play won an Obie Award in 1977 for ‘‘Best Original Play’’ and was nominated for Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Awards. She played Lady in Orange, and Trazana Beverly, who was cast as Lady in Red, won the 1977 Tony Award for ‘Best Featured Actress in a Play.’ In 1981, Shange received her second Obie Award for Mother Courage and Her Children which won for ‘Outstanding Adaptation.’ The following year, for colored girls was broadcast on PBS stations as an American Playhouse production. Shange’s other plays include A Photograph: Lovers in Motion (1981), Spell # 7 (1981), and The Love Space Demands: A Continuing Saga (1993). Shange has also written novels, such as Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo (1982), Betsey Brown (1985), and Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter (1994); volumes of poetry including From Okra to Greens (1984) and Lavender Lizards and Lilac Landmines: Layla’s Dream (2003); a cookbook, If I Can Cook/You Know God Can (1998); and the critically acclaimed documentary, Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002; cowritten with Walter Dallas). Although Shange is a prolific and versatile writer, her status in African American popular culture is secured by one work: for colored girls. Shange, heir to Hansberry’s groundbreaking achievement, anticipates the success enjoyed by Anna Deavere Smith, Susan-Lori Parks, and Lynn Nottage in the 1990s and beyond. See also: Dance and Dance Companies; Hansberry, Lorraine; Playwrights; Poets and Poetry
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Further Reading Eaton, Alice Knox. 2008. ‘‘Ntozake Shange.’’ In African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. New York: Oxford University Press. Lyons, Brenda. 1987. ‘‘Interview with Ntozake Shange.’’ Massachusetts Review (Winter): 687–96. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ed. 2004. African American Dramatists: An A-to-Z Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Linda M. Carter
Sharpton, Al (1954– ), Minister, Civil Rights Activist Born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 3, 1954, Alfred ‘‘Al’’ Charles Sharpton Jr., African American Pentecostal minister and civil rights activist, has used his passion for justice and his strong media status to become an iconic figure in African American popular culture. A ‘‘preacher without a pulpit’’ (to borrow the phrase from Zora Neale Hurston), Sharpton has several pulpits in the form of the streets, and his sermons, rendered in sound bites, are often broadcast on the evening news, transforming couches into pews, and a nation into his congregation. Sharpton began his career as a Pentecostal preacher when he entered the pulpit at the age of four. While on the preaching circuit, he earned the nickname ‘‘the Wonderboy,’’ and one of his tours included delivering the word with the legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. (Kathy Jordan-Sharpton, Sharpton’s wife, is a gospel singer and had been one of James Brown’s backup singers.) Sharpton became an ordained minister when he was ten years old, and as a teenager he preached the word at the Washington Temple Church in Brooklyn, New York. In 1969, Sharpton was appointed youth director of Operation Breadbasket by Jesse Jackson. In his work with Operation Breadbasket, Sharpton was in charge of ensuring that businesses hired minorities, and if hiring practices were questionable along racial lines, he was to arrange boycotts and protests. An activist to the core of his being, Sharpton met great success as youth director, and in 1970, he started the National Youth Movement. From 1973 until 1980, along with his work as an activist, Sharpton also was one of James Brown’s tour managers. In 1978, Al Sharpton became the first African American to run for New York State Senate. The 1980s witnessed the emergence of Sharpton’s captivating media presence. In 1985, following Bernard Goetz’s shooting of four black men in the New York City subway, Sharpton brought his activist style to bear on the case, and he wasted no time in becoming involved in the fight for justice following the racial incident at Howard Beach, when a white mob chased a black man, Michael Griffiths, onto a highway, where he was struck and killed by a car. At the close of the decade, Sharpton sought justice when a black youth was shot and killed by a white mob in Bensonhurst. While leading a demonstration in Bensonhurst in 1991, Sharpton was stabbed with a kitchen knife by Michael Riccardi.
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Throughout the 1990s, Sharpton took his activist style from neighborhood streets to the governmental level, running for the United States Senate in 1992 and 1994, followed by a strong showing in 1997 as he ran for mayor of New York City in the Democratic primary. At the close of the decade, Sharpton brought national attention to the cases of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant violated by New York City police officers with a toilet plunger in 1997, and Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant shot and killed by four white police officers in 1999. In his sustained longing The Rev. Al Sharpton leads a protest to stop the execution of Troy Davis, a Georgia death row inmate, October 2008. for social justice, Sharpton (Katherine Welles/Dreamstime.com) too has entered the arena of Women and Sports. On April 4, 2007, a day marking the thirty-ninth-year anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Don Imus called the women’s basketball team ‘‘nappy-headed hos,’’ a statement that prompted Sharpton to fight for what he believed to be right. Within a short time, Sharpton proved instrumental in staging protests, garnering media attention, and bringing the use of Language into closer scrutiny by the nation as a whole. ‘‘Somewhere we must draw the line in what is tolerable in mainstream media,’’ he explained in ‘‘Radio Host.’’ ‘‘We cannot keep going through offending us and then apologizing and then acting like it never happened.’’ At the 2007 BET Music Awards, Sharpton paid tribute to his longtime friend and mentor James Brown. ‘‘James Brown gets credit for laying the musical foundations of hip hop, but he set some attitudes for the culture as well. He was problack, pro-strong,’’ Sharpton said in Cohen’s article. ‘‘It’s time for us to pick up the legacy and teach another generation to wear their shoulders back and hold their heads high and be able to say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud.’’ As friendship is often a kind of mirror, the same sentiments hold true for Al Sharpton himself. See also: Social Activists
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Further Reading Cohen, Sandy. 2007. ‘‘BET Awards Pay Tribute to Legends.’’ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 28. Kloer, Phil and Rodney Ho. 2007. ‘‘Radio Host Imus Suspended Over Racial Remarks: Calling His Own Comments ‘Repulsive,’ He Will Be Taken Off the Air for Two Weeks with the Promise That He Will Change His Show.’’ Atlanta Journal– Constitution, April 10. Pearsall, Rachel. 2006. ‘‘Sharpton, Alfred Charles (1954– ).’’ In Encyclopedia of American Civil Rights and Liberties. Otis H. Stephens, John M. Scheb, and Kara E. Stooksbury, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Tuttle, Kate. 1999. ‘‘Sharpton, Alfred (Al), Jr.’’ 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
Shepherd, Sherri (1970– ), Comedian, Talk Show Host, Actress A multitalented woman, Sherri Shepherd contributes to African American popular culture through her work as comedian, the various roles she plays in film, and especially her work in television, where she has concentrated her efforts. Whether she performed with stars such as her idol, Queen Latifah, Bernie Mac, or Jamie Foxx, she has been successful in all of her undertakings; her accomplishments have brought her widespread popularity. Sherri Evonne Shepherd was born on April 22, 1970, in Chicago, and when she reached age eleven, the family moved to the white suburb, Hoffman Estates. Lawrence A. Shepherd, her father, was a food service manager for Sambo’s Restaurant and her mother, LaVerne, cleaned homes to supplement the family’s income. Sherri’s parents divorced while she was still young and then LaVerne Shepherd moved to California with Sherri and her three sisters. Upon graduation from high school, Sherri planned to become a mortician or a secretary and chose to enter the latter profession. She attended a trade college and then worked as a legal secretary in Beverly Hills. Sherri Shepherd had always been a comic of sorts, for she had a talent for making her friends and family laugh. After she and some of her friends watched Andrew Dice Clay perform, they persuaded her to try her hand at stand-up comedy. This led to performances at night and on weekends in different sites around the area while still working her day job. Finally, in 1995, Shepherd got a big break in show business, appearing in NBC’s new series Cleghorne! Ellen Cleghorne, of Saturday Night Live fame, starred in the show. For Shepherd, this led to other performing roles later on. When a career as comedian and actress seemed promising, Shepherd left her day job and took acting classes to hone her talent. As reward, she had guest starring roles on Living Single (1997), Friends (1998), and Suddenly Susan (1997, 1999–2000). She was the first African American to hold a guest spot on Friends.
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Shepherd moved on to recurring roles on Everybody Loves Raymond (beginning in 1998) and The Jamie Foxx Show (1999–2001). From there she became a regular on Chef Emeril Lagasse’s show, Emeril, playing the role of Melva, his uncouth stage manager. She had other roles as well, appearing in Less Than Perfect (2002–2006), and Joan of Arcadia (2003); she was a voice in the Disney Channel’s Brandy & Mr. Whiskers animated show (2004–2006). In 2007 and 2009, she appeared in the Emmy-winning 30 Rock, as Tracey Morgan’s wife. Among the talk shows on which she has appeared are Politically Incorrect, Ellen, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Shepherd turned her talent to films as well, appearing with Queen Latifah in Beauty Shop (2005); in the 2005 remake of Guess Who, with Bernie Mac; and in Who’s Your Caddy (2007); she costarred in the Dreamworks’ feature Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Comedy is still special to Sherri Shepherd; she has performed at the Comedy Store, the Improv, and the Laugh Factory, and has released DVDs and a CD of her routine, ‘‘No Refund, No Exchange.’’ She stars in, and is executive producer of, Lifetime’s comedy show Sherri, which is a take-off of her life and stand-up comedy. A regular and one of the cohosts of ABC’s popular daytime talk show The View, since 2007 Sherri Shepherd has become a fixture in many households through their television sets. She won the 2009 Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host on The View. Her autobiography, Permission Slips: Every Woman’s Guide to Giving Yourself a Break, was released in October 2009 by Grand Central Publishing. Now divorced from her husband, comedian and actor Jeff Tarpley, she is the mother of their son, Jeffrey Charles Tarpley. See also: Comedy and Comedians Further Reading Answers.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Sherri Shepherd.’’ http://www.answers.com/topic/sherri-shepherd. AOL Television. (n.d.) ‘‘Sherri Shepherd Biography.’’ http://television.aol.com/celebs/ sherri-shepherd/1980655/biography. Henderson, Ashiya N. 2006. ‘‘Sherri Shepherd.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 66. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Jessie Carney Smith
Shucking Shucking or ‘‘shuckin’’’ is a defensive strategy. Shuckin’ and jivin’ are sometimes used interchangeably or simultaneously and include verbal acts, nonverbal acts, or any combination thereof. In some contexts, they refer to lying. Generally, jivin’ occurs when an individual wants to reap some benefit or advantage. Shuckin’ is a defensive maneuver African Americans developed during slavery. Today, it is considered a demeaning and undesirable behavior.
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Originally in the South, and later in the North, the black learned that American society had assigned him a restrictive role and status. Among whites his behavior had to conform to this imposed station, and he was constantly reminded to ‘‘keep his place.’’ He learned that before white people it was not acceptable to show feelings of indignation, frustration, discontent, pride, ambition, or desire; that real feelings had to be concealed behind a mask of innocence, ignorance, childishness, obedience, humility, and deference. As noted by Kockman, the terms used by the black to describe the role he played before white folks in the South was ‘‘tomming’’ or ‘‘jeffing.’’ Failure to accommodate the white southerner in this respect was almost certain to invite psychological and often physical brutality. African Americans commonly practice shuckin’, particularly when in a confrontation with white authority figures, such as police officers, judges, and teachers. Because of high instances of Racial Profiling in African American communities, the innocent, as well as the ‘‘street thug,’’ knows how to shuck his or her way out of an alleged offense. Shuckin’ is reminiscent of the antics of African American folk figures, such as Brer Rabbit and High John the Conqueror, whose survival depended upon verbal skill and strategic theatrics. African Americans ‘‘use the total orchestration of speech, intonation, gesture, and facial expression to produce whatever appearance would be acceptable. It was a technique and ability that was developed from fear, a respect for power, and a will to survive,’’ notes Kockman. In most situations, Kockman continues, African Americans are successful at shuckin’ ‘‘‘to stay out of trouble,’ ‘avoid arrest,’ or ‘get out of trouble’ when apprehended.’’ On the other hand, shuckin’ is ineffective when performed on an individual who is privy to how shuckin’ is done. Historically, African Americans have constructed elaborate ways of surviving slavery and various forms of racism and oppression. Shuckin’ has been an effective means African Americans used to evade harm or danger. During the shuckin’ performance, they demonstrate cunning verbal and nonverbal prowess. On the other hand, shuckin’ reinforces white superiority and African American inferiority. Thomas Kochman believes this relationship is changing and illustrates this point in the following excerpt of a conversation during a shoe shine, in which an African American man responds to a question with no sign of deference: I asked [the attendant] whether the [polishing] machine made his work any easier. [He] responded in a loud voice that he ‘‘never had a job that was easy, that he would give me one hundred dollars for any easy job I could offer him, that the machine made his job ‘faster’ but not ‘easier.’?’’ I was startled at the response because it was so unexpected, and I realized that here was a new ‘‘breed of cat’’ who was not going to shuck for a big tip or ingratiate himself with ‘‘whitey’’ anymore.
In fact, by the twenty-first century, shuckin’ or ‘‘tomming’’ behavior is associated with ‘‘the old days’’ and is generally disparaged. See also: Language; Uncle Tom
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Further Reading Kochman, Thomas. 1972. ‘‘Toward an Ethnography of Black American Speech.’’ In Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out, 241–64. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Gladys L. Knight
Signifying Signifying is a speech act involving indirection. Signifying is a cultural tradition within African American communities that can be expressed and defined in various ways. In ‘‘Signifying, Loud-Talking and Marking’’ (1972), Claudia Mitchell-Kernan addresses several ways in which signifying is used. She explains how Roger D. Abrahams describes signifying as a ‘‘toast, a carp, a cajole, a needle and lie,’’ as well as a means ‘‘to circumvent, make fun, and to trick someone.’’ Mitchell-Kernan points out that these forms of signifying can also refer to shucking and marking, and she also discusses how Thomas Kochman asserts that signifying occurs when ‘‘the signifier reports or repeats what someone else has said about the listener’’ in order to ‘‘arouse feelings of anger and hostility,’’ and also when the signifier taunts another person in order ‘‘to arouse feelings of embarrassment, shame, frustration, or futility, to diminish someone’s status.’’ Both Abrahams’s and Kochman’s notion of signifying is commonly found in the Signifying Monkey stories. According to other scholars, signifying also occurs within verbal insult games, such as the Dozens, sounding, or woofing. Less studied is Mitchell-Kernan’s definition, which states that signifying ‘‘refers to a way of encoding messages or meanings.’’ This definition describes signifying at its essence as it is used in a wide array of communication events, from the preacher’s sermon to everyday interactions. According to Mitchell-Kernan, ‘‘signifying involves the recognition and attribution of some implicit content or function which is potentially obscured by the surface content or function.’’ She writes that signifying is also dependent upon the signifier’s motive (which varies), how the signifier conveys meaning, and how the target of signifying interprets the message. Moreover, signifying allows an individual to express his or her message without having to confront the target directly. The socially acceptable or easily digested message stands as a metaphor for the intended message. In this way, ‘‘the apparent meaning of [a] sentence ‘signifies’ its actual meaning.’’ Mitchell-Kernan provides an example of this point in an exchange between a husband and a wife. The husband dresses up for work, which is not his normal routine. The wife asks the husband where he is going. He says that he is going to work. The wife then responds by signifying, ‘‘[You’re wearing] a suit, tie and white shirt? You didn’t tell me you got a promotion.’’ The apparent meaning of this remark is the wife’s suggestion that her husband’s job now requires him to wear a suit. This serves as an acceptable justification of her husband’s suit and tie. Her intended message is ‘‘that he is not going to work;
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moreover, [she believes] he is lying about his destination.’’ This exchange prevents a direct confrontation between the husband and wife. If the husband is savvy, he will know that his wife is suspicious of his behavior and he has an opportunity to correct it, thus avoiding a full-blown encounter. In any given signifying act, the signifier must expertly and cautiously allude to his or her real meaning. In the same respect, the target of signifying must be able to identify the signifying remark and interpret the messages within it. The target may save face or receive recognition if he or she is able to signify back. Expert signifiers are adept at using the popular jargon and phrases of the day, and are knowledgeable of the values and shared knowledge within their community. Importantly, the initial signifiers have the advantage since they ‘‘[reserve] the right to subsequently insist on the harmless interpretation rather than the provocative one.’’ Signifying has distinct features. These features include the use of Humor and the exchange of cultural knowledge and values. Other aspects include audience participation, negative commentary, verbal and nonverbal cues, and stylistic and artistic effect. Humor is often used to disguise the intended message. Mitchell-Kernan offers an example of individuals engaged in signifying. In this example, three young men approach Mitchell-Kernan in a park. One of the men initiates a conversation by saying ‘‘Mama, you sho is fine.’’ Mitchell-Kernan jibes, ‘‘That ain’t no way to talk to your mother.’’ In this statement, ‘‘mother’’ indicates MitchellKernan. Mitchell-Kernan’s message implies that the young man is too young to come on to her. The dialog continues with both participants signifying in a casual and witty manner. This exchange is laced with multiple meanings including moments where the young man acknowledges Mitchell-Kernan’s adeptness at signifying. Essential to this exchange is Mitchell-Kernan’s understanding that the young man ‘‘does not expect to be taken seriously’’ and is ‘‘not attempting to engage the hearer in anything other than a conversation. He is merely demonstrating his ability to use persuasive language. He is playing a game, and he expects his addressee and audience to recognize it as such.’’ For Mitchell-Kernan to dismiss the young man and walk away angrily would break the rules of the game. Also significant to this encounter is the role of the other men who intermittently interject with laughter and comments such as ‘‘Talk that talk.’’ An audience, however, is not required. Signifying can occur between two individuals. Nevertheless, an audience’s responsiveness and participation enhance the signifying performance. The audience is also expected to interpret the verbal and nonverbal cues and messages in order to respond appropriately. Mitchell-Kernan points out how signifying often consists of messages that ‘‘carr[y] some negative import for the addressee.’’ The example above is an exception as it illustrates how signifying can be executed as a form of flattery. Preachers also may engage in signifying during a sermon. Although the remarks may be negative, they serve to teach or ‘‘bring home’’ a pertinent message. Negative comments directed at an individual may include ‘‘What a lovely coat; they sure don’t make coats like that anymore. (Glossed: Your coat is out of style),’’ and ‘‘You must be going to the Ritz this afternoon. (Glossed: You’re looking tacky).’’ Signifying is also ‘‘thought of as a kind of art—a clever way of conveying messages,’’ Mitchell-Kernan writes. The art is an element of many different kinds of
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speech genres among African Americans, including Jokes, the dozens, sounding, capping, songs, and sermons. Mitchell-Kernan asserts that it takes ‘‘skill to construct messages with multi-level meanings, and it sometimes takes equal expertise to unravel the puzzle presented in all of its many implications.’’ Some messages can even be imparted and understood nonverbally. Generally, messages consist of nonverbal and verbal cues. Nonverbal cues include any body movements or facial expressions which lend understanding to the signifier’s message, such as the ‘‘highly stylized leer’’ the young man wore while signifying to Mitchell-Kernan. The nonverbal cues also augment the entire performance. Signifiers tend to utilize black speech and voice modulation while engaged in signifying. Often the word ‘‘nigger’’ is used, as well as popular phrases. Voice modulation can be used to direct an audience away from the obvious message to the underlying message. Moreover, ‘‘A speaker’s artistic talent is judged upon the cleverness used in directing the attention of the hearer and the audience to this shared knowledge.’’ See also: Signifying Monkey, The; Woofing/Wolfing Further Reading Mitchell-Kernan, Claudia. 1972. ‘‘Signifying, Loud-Talking, and Marking.’’ In Rappin’ & Stylin’ Out, Thomas Kochman, ed., 315–35. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Gladys L. Knight
Signifying Monkey, The A popular trickster figure in African American narrative poetry, the Signifying Monkey is known for disempowering opponents through a technique of using clever rhyme and rhetorical wordplay known as ‘‘Signifying.’’ The Monkey is both defined by and representative of the act of signifying, which is a language game or style of innuendo, cajoling, insult, deceit, or indirect and figurative doublespeak. More than just a folk hero who has mastered the technique of satirical wordplay, the Monkey literally is the technique. According to Gates, it is the character that signifies upon something—that ‘‘wreaks havoc upon the Signified.’’ This usually takes the form of a withering verbal assault meant to deflate, demystify, delionize, or otherwise render powerless someone through linguistic play. This trickster figure as a motif in black Folklore and mythology is known to have originated in black cultures in Africa, the Caribbean, and South America and to have been carried by slaves to the New World. According to Gates, the trope can be traced back to a larger, collectively unified trickster figure known as Esu-Elegbara, who appears in numerous black cultures across the diaspora. In the African American oral tradition, signifying is commonly known as a way of dismantling an opponent or oppressor through satirical rhyme and/or rhetorical assault. This assault often takes the form of insult and needling but need not be
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restricted to them; deceiving the other, stultifying the other, talking around the other, or speaking through hand and eye gestures are also common modalities of signifying. The act tends to be figurative instead of literal; it is described by Abrahams as ‘‘the language of trickery, that set of words or gestures which arrives at direction through indirection.’’ As early as the eighteenth century, instances of signifying, while not yet named as such, have been recorded in black songs, tales, and poetry. In such instances, slaves commonly used rhymes and lyrics to signify upon their oppressors through a process of satirical jargon and clever wordplay. The act of ‘‘signifying’’ thus accomplishes two goals: (1) the empowerment of the signifier, who signifies upon someone or something, through (2) the disempowerment of the signified, upon whom the signification is directed. In the African American tradition, signifying is a technique of linguistic play in which the more clever and artful the technician, the more superior he or she becomes to the other. As a rhetorical strategy, signifying as such can be historically traced directly to the Signifying Monkey tales. These tales, or toasts as they are customarily known, are narrative myths typically depicting three characters—the Monkey, the Lion, and the Elephant—with the Monkey being physically the weakest but rhetorically the most powerful of the three. In most versions of the tale, the guileful trickster Monkey relays to the Lion some form of insult allegedly coming from the Elephant. This insult is a figurative one, but the Lion takes it literally and demands that the Elephant apologize. The Elephant refuses and proceeds to bash the Lion, dethroning him of both his ego and his status as ‘‘king of the jungle.’’ Realizing that he had been duped all along, the emasculated Lion confronts the Monkey in a rage. This prompts the Monkey to signify upon the lion through a barrage of ridicule and insult. In some versions of the tale, the Monkey then falls from his branch to be set upon by the Lion but escapes through more artful signifying that confuses the Lion into letting him go. In the end the Lion, the dupe, whose physical power over the weaker trickster Monkey is unquestioned, nevertheless cannot understand the true meaning of the Monkey’s satirical play on words and is rendered powerless as a result. The Monkey’s triumph therefore lies in his wit and reason. While Humor and linguistic gymnastics are ostensible facets of the Monkey tales, the stories’ common themes of power struggle and role reversal speak to the oppressive history from which the tales originate—African American slavery. Many scholars thus interpret the tales as Slave Narratives celebrating selfempowerment over an oppressive Other; the Monkey, the physically weakest and most helpless character in the stories, nevertheless reverses the Lion’s status as ‘‘king’’ through strength of mind. The Monkey’s use of signifying is the means by which the Lion is insulted, stultified, deceived, led astray, and thereby rendered powerless. The fact that the Lion is disempowered by the Monkey, the latter being a classically racist image often ascribed to African Americans during the time of slavery, represents a final and ironic act of what scholar and literary critic Henry Louis Gates Jr. called ‘‘repeating and reversing.’’ In this way, African Americans are taking the racist image of themselves as monkeys and both repeating and reversing it in the form of the Signifying Monkey, the rhetorical genius and playful artisan who beats the Lion, not with
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physical strength but with his mind. This repeating and reversing is in itself an act of signifying; it is as much the purpose of the tales as it is the trickster Monkey’s own technique. Gates gave this mythical trickster figure new life when, in his famous work The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African American Literary Criticism, he cited it as a metaphor for African American literary discourse. For Gates, the Monkey represented more than just the artful pugilist, the Iago deceiver, the bandying genius. Gates argued that what he called ‘‘Signifyin(g),’’ and the trickster Monkey who represents it, ‘‘constitutes all of the language games, the figurative substitutions, the free associations . . . which disturb the seemingly coherent linearity of the syntagmatic chain of signifiers.’’ In other words, the poems exist as a ‘‘play of differences,’’ where no fixed text exists and emphasis is placed rather on the continual repeating and reversing of the same text, not the creation of new ones. It is this principle of repetition and reversal which Gates cited as ‘‘crucial to the black vernacular forms of Signifyin(g),’’ and represented for Gates a ‘‘trope for black intertextuality in the Afro-American formal literary tradition.’’ While many theorists have argued that the tales of the Signifying Monkey posit a black/white binary opposition or a dialectical relationship in American society, Gates took issue with this conclusion as too simplistic, although for him the Monkey tales are a form of daydream of the ‘‘Black Other,’’ in which the reversal of power relationships is fantasized. Gates emphasizes that the third party in the tales plays just as important a role as do the two primary characters, the Lion and the Monkey. The Monkey does not simply insult the Lion but also blames it on the Elephant, the third party in the story. ‘‘The third term both critiques the idea of the binary opposition and demonstrates that Signifyin(g) itself encompasses a larger domain than merely the political. It is a game of language, independent of reaction to white racism or even to collective black wish fulfillment vis-a-vis white racism.’’ Thus, while signifying is a technique used in response to white racism, its existence is not determined by that racism; rather, it is a technique of language play and word difference historically tied to black culture, ‘‘which black people learn as adolescents, almost exactly like children learn traditional figures of signification in classically structured Western primary and secondary schools.’’ Through signifying, Gates argues, a sense of blackness arises via the rhetorical process of repeating and reversing, and it is this very process that the tales of the Signifying Monkey symbolize. Ultimately, the Signifying Monkey becomes for Gates a metaphor for the role of the literary critic. The critic as trickster in this case is a person who ‘‘lifts one concept from two discrete discursive realms, only to compare them.’’ In other words, signifying can mean any form of rhetorical play in which an existent text is subverted not through the creation of a new text but through the repetition and revision of one that exists already. Here the Signifying Monkey becomes the inspiration for a new way of seeing the role of literary theory in African American discourse. ‘‘When one text Signifies upon another text, by tropological revision or repetition and difference, the double-voiced utterance allows us to chart discrete formal relationships in Afro-American literary history. Signfiyin(g), then, is a metaphor for textual revision,’’ according to Gates.
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For Gates, the Signifying Monkey is not just a folktale but also a powerful metaphor for textual revision and black discourse, while the character of the Monkey remains an inveterate trope of wordplay and self-empowerment for many. Its status as a consummate trickster whose mastery of language empowers it with the ability to both affirm itself and reverse oppressive power relationships has inspired generations—everyone from slaves in the American South to black literary critics and musicians of present day. The most common poetic form in which Signifying Monkey tales appear is the rhyming couplet pattern A-A-B-B. However, this form can also be modified to a variety of other patterns, including, for instance, A-A-B-B-C-C, A-A-BBC, or A-A-B-C-C. Rhyming is an important way in which the humorous element of these poems is delivered. Their retelling over generations has spanned both oral and music traditions. In black music for example, influential jazz and blues artists such as Count Basie, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Willie Dixon, and many others have recorded songs about signifying or about the Signifying Monkey itself. The motif of the Signifying Monkey, along with the poetic and rhetorical elements the tale embodies, continues to be an enduring component of African American culture. See also: Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc. Further Reading Abrahams, Roger D. 1963. Deep Down in the Jungle: Negro Narrative Folklore from the Streets of Philadelphia. Chicago: Aldine Publishing. Gates, Henry Louis Jr. 1988. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press. Jackson, Bruce, ed. 1974. Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: Narrative Poetry from Black Oral Tradition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Alysia E. Garrison
Simmons, Russell (1957– ), Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Activist Russell Wendell Simmons is an American entrepreneur, with an estimated net worth of $340 million in 2007, who made his first fortune in the Hip-Hop music industry. In 1984, he cofounded the Def Jam recording label with fellow New Yorker and record producer Rick Rubin. Their talent pool included the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and Run-DMC, a group that featured Simmons’s younger brother Joseph ‘‘Rev. Run’’ Simmons; these were all acts that would become hip-hop powerhouses. Russell Simmons and Rubin built Def Jam into a major force in the music world, thrusting it into the cultural mainstream; but by the late 1980s, the two went their separate ways. Simmons retained ownership of Def Jam until 1996,
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when he sold 50 percent of the company to the PolyGram label for $33 million. Three years later, he sold his remaining shares of Def Jam to Seagram, parent firm of Universal Music, for $100 million. The sale of Def Jam allowed Simmons to expand his creative enterprises under the Rush Communications corporate umbrella. In 1992, he launched Def Comedy Jam, an HBO show hosted by Martin Lawrence, that served as a venue to showcase African American stand-up comedians. The original run of the show lasted five years. It returned to the air in 2006. The list of performers includes some of the most notable names in comedy: Jamie Foxx and the Original Kings of Comedy: Steve Harvey, D. L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and the late Bernie Mac. Def Poetry Jam joined the Simmons entertainment family in 2002, targeting television and stage audiences. In collaboration with producer/director Stan Lathan, Simmons created Def Poetry Jam as a platform to display rising and established spoken word artists. Hosted by rapper-turned-actor Mos Def, the television version of Def Poetry Jam airs on HBO. The stage version, Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, was presented at the Longacre Theater from November 2002 to May 2003. The Simmons empire also encompasses the clothing line Phat Fashions: Phat Farm, established in 1992, and Baby Phat in 1998. He sold the business to Kellwood Company in 2004 for $140 million, but he and former wife Kimora Lee Simmons remain as principal players in the management and creative operations. Through the years, the Simmons megacorp has included, in sole or collaborative management arrangements, Oneworld magazine, Def Jam University clothing line, Rush Media, SLBG Entertainment, Def Pictures, Run Athletics, Rush Card prepaid Visa, and Def Con 3 energy drink. In January 2009, Simmons assumed the position of editor in chief of Global Grind, a digital media company that targets the hip-hop community. Simmons was born October 4, 1957, in Queens, New York, the second of three sons born to Daniel and Evelyn Simmons, both educators and graduates of Howard University. As a middle school student, he succumbed to the lure of the streets and dabbled in the drug trade, selling marijuana. He also joined a gang called the Seven Immortals for a brief period. Arrested twice, he received a sentence of probation each time. Simmons enrolled in the City College of New York at eighteen to study sociology. He gave up the gang life but continued to sell drugs, sometimes dealing fake cocaine. After visiting a club where a deejays engaged the crowd in a hiphop call-and-response, Simmons decided to use his entrepreneurial skills to promote parties and entertainers instead of drugs. He left college without his degree to give full attention to his new vocation. The early years were lean, and Simmons needed the moral and financial support of his mother to stay in business. While his father encouraged him to go back to school, his mother kept him afloat when money ran low. By the time he met Kimora Lee Perkins, who would become his wife, his name had become synonymous with the term ‘‘hip-hop.’’ The two met at a fashion show in 1993. He was a thirty-five-year-old millionaire; she was a
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seventeen-year-old model who had traveled the world and spoke several languages. They were married in 1998. The Baby Phat clothing line for women was launched in 1998, and the new Mrs. Simmons took the helm as creative director. The family expanded with the birth of daughters Ming Lee in 2000 and Aoki Lee in 2002. The Simmonses separated in 2006 and divorced in January 2009. The couple remains on amicable terms and they continue to work together in Phat Fashion. Simmons’s older brother Daniel Jr. (‘‘Danny’’) is an accomplished abstractexpressionist painter, and Joseph (‘‘Joey’’/‘‘Rev. Run’’) is a minister and reality TV star. Both of them team with Russell on creative and charitable projects. An avowed vegan, Simmons is both health conscious and concerned about animal welfare. He openly supports People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Simmons is also a devout practitioner of yoga sutras. Young people and the disenfranchised are the focus of much of Russell Simmons’s beneficence. In 1995, he and his brothers founded the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation to give disadvantaged urban youth a means to learn about and develop an appreciation for the arts. It also provides opportunities for new and budding minority artists. The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, established in 2001, is an empowerment organization that encourages young people’s involvement in effecting social change. The Diamond Empowerment Fund, founded in 2007, supports education for disadvantaged people in diamond-rich areas of Africa. In May 2009, Simmons was appointed as a goodwill ambassador to promote the building of a permanent memorial for victims of slavery. See also: Clothing and Fashion Industry; Drugs and Popular Culture; Poets and Poetry Further Reading Chappell, K. 2003. ‘‘The Half-Billion-Dollar Hip-hop Empire of Russell Simmons.’’ Ebony 58 (July): 168–78. Leung, R. 2004. ‘‘Russell Simmons unplugged: Charlie Rose interviews the godfather of ‘hip-hop.’’’ CBS News.com, February 9. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/ 09/60II/main598970.shtml. McLeod, K. 2001. Owning Culture: Authorship, Ownership, and Intellectual Property Law. Vol. 1: Popular Culture and Everyday Life. New York: Peter Lang. PBS. (2004). ‘‘Russell Simmons.’’ They made America. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theyma deamerica/whomade/simmons_hi.html Simmons, Russell, with N. G. Crown. 2001. Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, þ God. New York: Three Rivers Press. Simmons, Russell, with C. Morrow. 2008. Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success. New York: Gotham Books. Marilyn L. Roseboro
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Simpson, O. J. (1947– ), Professional Football Player, Actor Orenthal James ‘‘O. J.’’ Simpson was born in San Francisco, California, on July 9, 1947, and would go on to become an American football player famed for his exploits on the field as well as known for his highly publicized legal trial, where he was accused of the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. The son of Jimmie, a bank custodian and chef, and Eunice (Durton) Simpson, a hospital administrator, O. J. Simpson grew up in the projects of San Francisco. At San Francisco’s Galileo High School, Simpson lettered in Football, Baseball, and track, and in 1965, he elected to attend City College of San Francisco, where he set junior-college rushing records in football and drew the attention of top collegiate football programs throughout the United States. In 1967, Simpson arrived on the campus of the University of Southern California, and on the strength of his speed and grace, he led the Trojans to a national championship. The following season, Simpson won the John W. Heisman Memorial Trophy, college football’s highest honor. In 1969, Simpson was the first overall pick by the American Football League’s Buffalo Bills, and his performance during his first three seasons was respectable. In 1972, his fourth season in professional football, Simpson’s combination of speed and power became evident as he rushed for 1,251 yards. In 1973, Simpson became the first player ever to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season, finishing with 2,003 yards and averaging 6 yards a carry. As one of the elite backs in all of professional football, Simpson continued to run through opposing defenses as he accumulated over 1,000 yards of each of his next three seasons. Following the 1977 season, in which Simpson played a half season for the Bills, he was traded to the San Francisco Forty-Niners. Following two seasons with San Francisco, Simpson returned from football with career totals of 2,404 carries, 11,236 rushing yards, and 61 rushing TDs. In 1985, he was enshrined in the National Football League Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. While Simpson was one of the greatest running backs in the history of professional American football, his looks earned him several screen appearances. In 1977, he was in the made-for-television miniseries Roots, and he played roles in the cult favorite Naked Gun comic films. Simpson, too, was a color sports commentator and was featured in nationally televised ads. On June 12, 1994, Simpson attracted the attention of millions when his exwife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were both found murdered in Los Angeles. Suspected of the acts, Simpson led police on a car chase in his white Bronco before surrendering at his Los Angeles home. What followed was the landmark People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson (1995), the longest trial in the history of the United States. Simpson’s legal team, dubbed the legal Dream Team, led by Johnnie Cochran, made its defense based on what it believed to be racism and the mishandling of
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Samples of media accounts of the 1994 O.J. Simpson murder trial. (Elisa Marusak)
evidence. During the trial, Simpson published the best-seller I Want to Tell You, a ninety-minute audio recording and book he produced in jail in response to the letters he had received. As Lori Weintraub, president of Time Warner AudioBooks, explained, ‘‘The coverage of O. J. Simpson’s arrest and of the hearings leading toward his trial has captured the attention of millions. Lawyers, family members and friends have spoken on O. J. Simpson’s behalf, but he has not had the opportunity to speak for himself. In this dramatic audio message, people will hear at least O. J.’s personal thoughts and feelings, expressed in his own voice, in his own words,’’ in ‘‘Simpson Speaks Out.’’ On October 3, 1995, after a year of being sequestered during the widely televised and sensationalistic trial, jurors voted 12–0 in favor of an acquittal of O. J. Simpson. The reaction to the verdict ran across lines of race, with one poll indicating 85 percent of blacks agreeing with the ruling, and only 32 percent of whites concurring. A CNN/USA Today/ Gallup Poll of 1996 reported that 20 percent of white Americans agreed with the verdict of the criminal trial, as opposed to 62 percent of black Americans. In the criminal trial, eight jurors were African American; in a later civil trial of 1997, the jury was predominantly white. As historian Walter L. Hixson notes, ‘‘While the Simpson crime had no apparent connection with race, the Simpson case was decided in a community and nation riven by racial tensions.’’ While Simpson was freed of murder charges and was released from jail following sixteen months of incarceration, he was still held responsible in a civil trial. In 1996, Simpson published another bestseller, If I Did It, a two-hundred-and-forty–page
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exploration of how he would have murdered his ex-wife and her friend. On February 4, 1997, in the case of Fred Goldman v. O. J. Simpson, a Santa Monica jury determined that Simpson would pay $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman families. ‘‘In the U.S. system, when there is a crime, the criminal gets sentenced in criminal court and then lawyers divvy up his worldly goods in the civil one,’’ Christopher Caldwell observed. ‘‘In the Simpson case, that system went haywire. In the eyes of the law, Mr. Simpson is both innocent of the 1994 murder and liable for it. This makes little logical sense.’’ In September 2007, Simpson was incarcerated following an armed robbery and kidnapping of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. He was charged with eleven charges, released on $125,000 bail, and ordered to surrender his passport. His trial in 2008 ended in his conviction and a sentence of at least nine years in prison, a maximum of thirty-three years. Before his slow-speed chase through Los Angeles in 1994, Simpson scrawled a note: ‘‘Don’t feel sorry for me. I’ve had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real O. J. and not this lost person.’’ Simpson was a tremendous football player who met immeasurable success in his sport. The verdict remains to be determined on Simpson’s legacy off the playing field, making his life an open study of our growing fascination with sport, celebrity, media, and society. Birth of a Nation’hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case, edited by Toni Morrison and Claudia Brodsky Lacour, offers a wide spectrum of readings and insights into one of the landmark cases of American legal history. See also: Consciousness and Identity, African American; Crime; Sports Further Reading Caldwell, Christopher. 2007. ‘‘The Many Trials of O. J. Simpson.’’ Financial Times (August 24): 1. Hixson, Walter L. 2002. ‘‘Simpson, O. J., Trials of.’’ In The Oxford Companion to American Law. Kermit L. Hall, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. New Pittsburgh Courier. 1995. ‘‘O. J. Simpson Speaks Out From Jail.’’ City Edition, February 4. Pro Football Reference.com. (n.d.) ‘‘O. J. Simpson Statistics.’’ http://www.nfl.com/players/ o.j.simpson/careerstats?id=SIM593235 Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Single Parenting Single parenting is an enormous and complex issue in African American popular culture. Statistics demonstrate that this issue grows with each passing decade. For example, ‘‘in 1960, only 22% of African American families with minor children present were headed by women, compared to 32% in 1970 and 46% in
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1980,’’ writes Betty J. Dickerson in African American Single Mothers. In 1990, 55 percent of black families were headed by single parents. This phenomenon is exacerbated by mainstream society’s stigmatization and misconceptions of African American single parents and their children. Single parenting is not a new issue. Since slavery, African Americans have had to cope with attacks on their families. Although slave marriages were not recognized by the law, slaves did marry. These marriages were frail institutions, since, at any moment, white slave masters could sell one or both of the individuals. Many times, the parents of slave children lived on different plantations. Single parenting among slaves as well as free blacks was common. Recent studies have shown that, despite the colossal hurdles facing black families, the black family, whether single parent or two-parent, endured. One of the reasons that scholars believe black families were not completely devastated was because of the strong network of familial and nonfamilial relationships. In the African tradition, family extended beyond bloodlines. Thus, racial bonds united African Americans, and the entire community participated in raising children and sharing resources. Single parenting in African American communities was at the forefront of mainstream news in the mid-1960s. Riots throughout the decade erupted in cities in the North, exposing long-standing socioeconomic problems, such as poverty, crime, unemployment, poor housing situations, and alarming school dropout rates. In 1965, the Moynihan Report concluded, among other things, that single parent households headed by the African American matriarch was mostly to blame for dysfunction in black communities. From the 1960s onward, mainstream reports, studies, institutions, and media coverage have sustained negative and stereotypical images of the black family. Black women have had to contend with the image of the aggressive and irresponsible welfare mother. The black father has been portrayed as uninvolved and inept. Black children are inundated with problematic labels, such as ‘‘atrisk,’’ ‘‘disadvantaged,’’ and ‘‘special needs.’’ Although black youth are disproportionately affected by chronic issues, such as low academic performance, drug use, gang involvement, teen pregnancy, and crime, single parenting is not necessarily or always the cause. (There are many examples of African American adults, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Benjamin S. Carson, Kanye West, and others, who were raised by single parents in challenging environments.) The lingering effects of slavery, as well as racism, discrimination, and poverty are other factors contributing to problems in black communities. Several efforts have been made to challenge negative images of African American single parenting in the media. In the television sitcom Julia, which ran between 1968 and 1971, Diahann Carroll portrayed a single parent who maintained her dignity as she navigated the welfare system and challenges of raising a family alone. Cicely Tyson played a stalwart mother who, with the help of her boyfriend, fought to save her heroin-addicted son in the film, A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich (1978). Other television shows, such as Good Times and The Cosby Show, depicted traditional black nuclear families of diverse income
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levels, challenging the ‘‘broken family’’ stereotype. Movies, such as The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and Daddy’s Little Girls (2007), featured the oft-neglected issue of single African American fathers. See also: Million Man March Further Reading Coles, Roberta L. 2009. The Best Kept Secret: Single Black Fathers. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. Connor, Michael E., and Joseph White. 2006. Black Fathers: An Invisible Presence in America. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Dickerson, Bette J. 1995. African American Single Mothers: Understanding their Lives and Families. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Gant, Ann L. 2007. African American Single Mothers Raising Sons: Strategies and Dilemmas. Baltimore: University of Maryland. Green, Tara T. A Fatherless Child: Autobiographical Perspectives of African American Men. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. Hamer, Jennifer. 2001. What It Means to Be Daddy: Fatherhood for Black Men Living Away from Their Children. New York: Columbia University Press. Mahogany Momma Magazine. http://www/msoyonline.com/mahogany_momma/ index.php McAdoo, Harriet Pipes. 2007. Black Families. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Single Black Parents: Raising Our Children. http://www.singleblackparents.com/ index.php Gladys L. Knight
Sit-in Movement Throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century, numerous celebrations were held in commemoration and remembrance of a range of significant events in the modern Civil Rights Movement. Such tributes and recollections have included the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision; the Lynching of fourteen-year-old Emmitt Till; the Montgomery Bus Boycott; the Clinton (Tennessee) Twelve and Bobby Cain, as the first black to graduate from a formerly all-white high school in the South; the Little Rock Nine and their desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas; and the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, among others. In February 2010, many paused to remember the student led sit-ins of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Notwithstanding the students’ courageous act of defying the Jim Crow South and reinvigorating the Civil Rights Movement, their actions were among many in the long and continuous American black struggle for freedom. The student led sit-in movement of the early 1960s that is embedded in the history and popular culture focuses on the February 1, 1960, event that took
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place in Greensboro, North Carolina, when four freshman male students, Ezell A Blair Jr. (now known as Jibrell Khazan), David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain, entered and took seats at the Woolworth’s lunch counter. Although North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State College’s four male students captured national attention, soon they were joined by their female counterparts, both black and white. Three white female students from the University of North Carolina Women’s College campus in Greensboro and dozens of black female college-age students from Greensboro’s all-black Bennett College participated in the sit-ins. This student-led movement caught the nation off guard. By taking hold of the initiative and launching a mass grassroots movement, they, with some difficulty, wrested away influence from the adult leadership of the Civil Rights Movement, which set the stage for a tug-of-war between the old and the new, a struggle in which Ella Baker played a prominent role. Baker, an unfaltering and steadfast trailblazer of the movement for civil rights, witnessed the thrust of the Montgomery mass movement dissipate, as well as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s voter registration drive. Fearing the same outcome for the studentdriven sit-in movement, in April 1960, she served as the catalyst for the establishment of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Early Sit-in Protest Contrary to popular belief, this was not the first time that American blacks sat-in to protest unequal treatment at lunch counters and other public accommodations, not even in the South. In 1866, blacks in Tennessee staged their first ‘‘freedom rides,’’ by boarding streetcars operated by a private Nashville streetcar company, paying the fare, and refusing to sit in the ‘‘colored section.’’ Later, when the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that guaranteed equal access to public accommodations, black Nashvillians tested the act with sit-in demonstrations in March, the same month that the act was passed. Believed to be a new tactic to combat racial segregation, earlier protest actions of this type by American blacks have been forgotten. Established in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which was an interracial group, used Gandhian tactics of direct nonviolent action in the struggle for racial equality. During the 1940s, it organized sit-ins and pickets to protest racial segregation in public accommodations. The civil rights organization successfully desegregated some public facilities in the North. Sit-ins had also taken place in 1950, 1958, and 1959 in Washington, DC; Wichita, Kansas; Oklahoma City; and in St. Louis, Missouri; respectively, demonstrating that the Civil Rights Movement was not just a southern occurrence, but a national one in its earliest days. Mary Church Terrell, who was well into her eighties, led a successful crusade to desegregate eateries in the District of Columbia. In February 1950, she and three other colleagues (one white and two blacks) entered the Thompson Restaurant and were refused service. When Church and her associates were denied service, they filed a lawsuit. While
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awaiting the court’s decision in the District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. case, Terrell targeted other restaurants, this time using tactics such as boycotts, picketing, and sit-ins. Her direct action campaign proved successful. On June 8, 1953, the United States Supreme Court rendered its decision and affirmed that segregated eating establishments in the nation’s capital were unconstitutional. In July 1958, members of the local NAACP Youth Council decided to protest restaurants that denied services to blacks in Wichita, Kansas. They organized a sit-in at Dockum Drugstore, a part of the Rexall Company and the largest drugstore chain in Kansas. A popular eatery with a soda fountain, for the next three weeks the polite, well-dressed students remained quietly seated as employees refused them service at the whites-only lunch counter. Often sitting for hours, their presence unnerved the traditional customers. Launched in violation of the national NAACP’s instructions, the Wichita, Kansas, sit-in was the beginning of the first sustained and successful student sit-in of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Because of their defiance of the racial code of behavior, they were taunted and threatened by some of the patrons. Notwithstanding, their sustained effort not only resulted in the desegregation of the Dockum Drugstore in Wichita but also all of the Rexall Drug Stores in Kansas. The NAACP remained silent about the Wichita NAACP youth group’s achievement and, consequently, the Dockum sit-it never received or achieved national visibility. A year-and-a-half later, sit-ins broke out across the South and attracted considerable media attention. Having been trained in the sit-in methodology, Clara Luper’s NAACP Youth Council group in Oklahoma conducted sit-ins at the same time as the Wichita NAACP Youth Group. Less than a week later after the Wichita sit-ins, Luper’s students chose numerous segregated restaurants in downtown Oklahoma City, including Katz Drug Store, Veazy’s Drug Store, S. H. Kress, and John A. Brown’s, the largest department store in Oklahoma. In August 1958, Luper and members of the Youth Council entered Katz and requested service. After two days of nonviolent direct action, the management changed its policy and served blacks. Katz not only desegregated the lunch counter in Oklahoma City but all of its stores in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa. Because of the action of Katz’s management, Veazy’s Drug Store changed its policy and served all people. S. H. Kress also changed its policy by removing stools from the lunch counter ‘‘to facilitate service.’’ Although the NAACP Youth Council met with some success, its greater challenge and longest battle was with Brown’s Department Store. The Brown’s sit-in began on August 22, 1958, and continued without ceasing until June 23, 1961. Reportedly, the nation’s longest single sit-in campaign, it ended after Brown’s agreed to end bias in the lunchroom, soda fountains, and rest rooms throughout the store. The sit-in tactics of the Oklahoma City youth were soon replicated in St. Louis, Missouri, a border state community where segregation was less fanatically held than in the states of the former Confederacy. Following the formation of the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference (NCLC) by minister Kelly Miller Smith Sr. and others, in 1958, the city’s black leaders and students launched an attack on Jim Crow segregation. They utilized
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the concept of Christian nonviolence to combat de jure and de facto racial segregation. Minister James Lawson, a devoted adherent of the Gandhi philosophy of direct nonviolent protest, trained Nashville residents and college students in the techniques of nonviolence. In November and December 1959, NCLC leaders and college students staged ‘‘test sit-ins’’ to affirm the city’s racial segregation policy in eating establishments. After confirming the segregation policy, the Nashville students planned to conduct sit-ins against the city’s lunch counters beginning in 1960. It was less than two month months after the Nashville ‘‘test’’ sit-ins before the methodology of sit-ins appeared in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 1, 1960. The 1960s Sit-in Movement Although the Greensboro sit-in captured national attention in February 1960, they were preceded by seven young African American Durhamites, who three years earlier, entered the Royal Ice Cream parlor and went to the whitesonly section and requested service. Because the Royal Ice Cream parlor was located in the African American community and those seeking service were required to enter by the back door and stand, it was selected as the protest site. Student protesters, led by minister Douglas E. Moore, took seats on June 23, 1957, and were subsequently arrested and fined $25 each. It was their hope that their actions would test Durham’s segregation laws. However, no redress came from the judicial branch of government. Sit-ins in North Carolina had occurred as early as 1943, and like the Durham sit-in of 1957 received little or no publicity. While the protestors’ actions did not result in a change of Jim Crow policy, they did signal the growing restlessness with the U.S. apartheid system of racial separateness. The mass mobilization of student protesters emboldened by the action of the Greensboro Four was a new tool in black Americans’ arsenal for racial liberation. The Greensboro students’ noncooperation with segregated public spaces in the South changed the esprit de corps of the Civil Rights Movement that ultimately dismantled de jure and de facto racial segregation. Twelve days after the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-in, Nashville’s African American students launched their first full-scale sit-ins on February 13, 1960. Holding steadfastly to the concept of Christian nonviolence, shortly before Easter, black Nashvillians boycotted downtown stores. As racial tension escalated, segregationists lashed out at civil rights activists. The April 19 bombing of the home of civil rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby caused thousands of blacks and some whites to silently march to City Hall, where Mayor Ben West conceded to Diane Nash of Fisk University that lunch counters should be desegregated. Nashville became the first major city to begin desegregating its public facilities on May 10, 1960. Building on one of the best organized and most disciplined movements in the South, many of Nashville’s student participants became leaders in the civil rights struggle.
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By August 1961, the student sit-in movement attracted over 70,000 participants and over 3,000 arrests. They continued in some areas of the South after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Students in the racial liberation movement used the direct nonviolent tactic to desegregate other public accommodations. SNCC, the student organization that the sit-ins birthed, continued to play a pivotal role in the movement for civil rights. They showed that nonviolent direct action and youth were very useful weapons in the crusade against racial exclusion. Popular Media and the Sit-in Movement The sit-ins of the 1960s were reported as a new tactic representative of a new militancy on the part of young American blacks. The popular media played an important role in shaping the message of the sit-in movement. Print media like the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Washington Post covered the students’ protests against racial exclusivity. Electronic media advanced the sit-in movement by communicating its development directly to viewers across the South, the nation, and indeed the global society. The Southern Regional Council announced that racial segregation could not be maintained. The sit-ins advanced all actions by establishing the efficacy of direct nonviolent protest. The sit-ins were used to promote political, social, and/or economic change. This method of demonstration was victorious because it caused disruption that drew attention to the protest and alternatively to the liberation struggle. Notwithstanding the perception of popular culture, the self-directed young people who changed the country’s racial order were significant and crucial players in the political system. Those who participated in the sit-ins and other direct-nonviolent tactics were part of a radical continuum that began in the 1930s when the NAACP established youth programs and collegiate chapters that ultimately pressed the movement for civil rights to a world-shattering course of action. With their eyes on the prize, the agencies of young people led to the defeat Jim Crow accommodations in all arenas of American society. See also: Social Activists Further Reading Chafe, William H. 1981. Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press. Eick, Gretchen Cassel. 2007. Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954–1972. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Lovett, Bobby L. 2005. Civil Rights in Tennessee: A Narrative. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Wynn, Linda T. 1991. ‘‘The Dawning of a New Day: The Nashville Sit-ins, February 13–May 10, 1960.’’ Tennessee Historical Quarterly 50 (Spring): 42–54. Linda T. Wynn
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Sixteenth Street Baptist Church The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, constructed in 1911, but with origins dating back to 1880, is located in Birmingham, Alabama, at the intersection of 16th Street and 6th Avenue. In the 1950s and 1960s the church housed meeting and planning sessions for civil rights advocates. Mass rallies were conducted at the church and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the church’s pulpit on numerous occasions. Other luminaries to speak at the church included W. E. B. Du Bois, activist and Harvard University’s first African American PhD graduate; Mary McLeod Bethune, scholar and founder of the today’s Bethune-Cookman University; Paul Robeson, athlete, entertainer, and political activist; and later Ralph Bunche, Howard University professor, under-secretary to the United Nations and a Nobel Prize recipient. In addition to hosting educated and talented speakers, the church also served as a place of comfort for members of the African American community who were forced to withstand the degradation of a segregated society in which they were treated as inferior beings who were neither respected nor allowed life’s simple dignities. On the morning of September 15, 1963, without warning, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The church had received bomb threats before, but none had been issued on the morning of September 15th, Youth Day. At the time of the bombing, there were approximately four hundred people in the church and almost one hundred of them were children. The bomb blew out a section of the east wall of the church, shattered windows in buildings several blocks away and flattened cars. Many church members were left bloodied and battered by the blast. Four children were killed: Addie Mae Collins, 14; Carol Robertson, 14; Cynthia Wesley, 14; and Denise McNair, 11. The bombing and desecration of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church which murdered the four girls sickened and outraged people throughout the United States. The mayor of Birmingham, Albert Boutwell, is reported to have wept while giving a statement following the bombing. When Martin Luther King Jr. gave the eulogy at three of the girls’ funeral, (the other victim’s family chose to have a private ceremony) over 7,500 mourners, black and white, grieved with the family and loved ones of the victims. The bombing was the fourth one in as many weeks and added to the moniker, ‘‘Bombingham’’ that Birmingham had earned after forty-eight unsolved racial bombings that had occurred between 1948 and 1957. In 1958, there were seven home bombings and four church bombings. The home of minister Fred Shuttlesworth, local civil rights leader, was bombed three times in 1958. The most devastating bombing, which demolished the home, occurred on Christmas Day. The church bombing of 1963 proved to be a catalyst for other events and interactions between blacks and whites in Birmingham. Despite blanketing the city with police and three hundred state troopers sent by Governor George Wallace, violence erupted. A sixteen-year-old black youth, Johnnie Robinson, was shot and killed by police for throwing rocks at an automobile of white passengers.
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Another black youth, thirteen-year-old Virgil Ware, was killed by two sixteenyear-old white Eagle Scouts. Virgil Ware was simply riding his bike when he was shot by the Confederate flag–brandishing whites. In Fountain Heights, which was referred to as Dynamite Hill because of prior bombings attacks, a fire bomb was thrown at the home of an African American family. The Fountain Heights area had been terrorized by bombings earlier in 1963 when affluent blacks had moved into the once all-white neighborhood. Later, a larger fire combusted in an African American neighborhood on Fourth Avenue South and at least five businesses owned by African Americans were set ablaze that night. Calls mounted for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of the Sixteenth Street Church bombing. The FBI investigated the bombing and identified four white klansmen as the murderers. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover withheld the identification of the suspects and the case was closed in 1968. In 1971, the case was reopened and in 1977, Robert Chambliss was convicted; later Thomas Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry were charged with the murder of the four girls. Blanton was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison on May 1, 2001. Cherry was finally found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on May 22, 2002. The fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, died before he could be brought to trial. In 2005, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was declared a National Historic Landmark. See also: Civil Rights Movement; Jim Crow Further Reading Gado, Mark. (n.d.) ‘‘Bombingham: The City of Fear.’’ TruTV Crime Library. http:// www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/birmingham_church/3.html. Osgood, Arthur. 1963. ‘‘Racial Tensions Mounts in Birmingham after Four Killed in Church Bombing.’’ Montgomery Advertiser, September 15. Angela Espada
Slang and Unconventional English Slang and unconventional English have figured prominently in African American popular culture and greatly impacted communication in mainstream society. Slang and unconventional English, commonly referred to as slang, are defined as informal words and expressions that are not considered a part of Standard English. Although slang usage may be high among some individuals, scholars assert that slang exhibits characteristics that distinguish it from the English language and nonstandard varieties thereof, such as African American Vernacular English. In other words, slang is not considered a language in itself but comprises the words and expressions used during communication.
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Characteristics of Slang Slang tends to be transitory and, at times, cyclical. Unlike language, slang words are not permanent but come and go in rapid fashion. Some terms like ‘‘hip,’’ referring to something that is fashionable, and expressions like ‘‘I dig it,’’ meaning ‘‘I understand,’’ were used prominently in the 1970s but would now be considered out-of-date. Other words, like ‘‘cool,’’ which was a popular term in the jazz era of the 1940s, are still in use today. Still other words are cyclical, coming in and out of fashion repeatedly over time. For example, the phrase ‘‘right on,’’ meaning ‘‘exactly right,’’ was in fashion during the 1970s and was recycled temporarily by young adult whites in the early twenty-first century. Another characteristic of slang is that it has implicit rules. A long-standing joke on the Sanford and Son television show, which ran from 1972 to 1977, was when the white police officer, Officer ‘‘Smitty,’’ mispronounced slang words or used them incorrectly, as when, in one episode, he said ‘‘right up’’ instead of ‘‘right on.’’ Slang used by African Americans frequently involves subtle rhythmic fluctuations, corresponding facial expressions or body gestures, or alternate pronunciations of Standard English words, like ‘‘aah-ite’’ for ‘‘alright’’ and ‘‘brutha’’ for ‘‘brother.’’ Any individual who violates one of the unspoken rules of slang may be subjected to teasing or not be deemed a genuine member of the community in which slang is spoken. On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a sitcom which aired in the 1990s, the character Will Smith was projected as the epitome of ‘‘coolness’’ and urban blackness through his usage of Hip-Hop slang and the trendy clothes he wore. In contrast, his cousin, Carlton Banks, who spoke in a near parody of proper English and wore preppy clothes, was associated with white culture. In another context, a white person who tries too hard to act and speak like an African American, may be classified as a ‘‘wigger,’’ which combines ‘‘nigger’’ with ‘‘w’’ for white person. However, the lines that once rigidly delineated blackness and whiteness have softened somewhat by the mass popularity of slang in mainstream society. In recent history, many slang terms that were once restricted to African American communities have turned mainstream. Rap stars, online slang dictionaries, television shows, films, advertisements, and the acceptance of slang terms, such as ‘‘bling’’ to refer to anything showy, like jewelry, into reputable English dictionaries have contributed to the prevalence of hip-hop slang in communities that are racially isolated or may have once denigrated slang usage. Types of Slang Southern Slang Although it is difficult to determine the exact origins of southern black slang, it is evident that African American experiences in slavery and the melding of African and English languages have contributed to unique ways in which African Americans express themselves. Words like ‘‘fixin,’’ meaning ‘‘about to,’’ and
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‘‘people’’ to refer to ‘‘relatives’’ have been in long use in southern communities. Many slang terms attributed to African Americans are also in use in workingclass southern white communities. Jazz Slang Since the 1900s, African American musicians, particularly in the blues and jazz industries, have created slang terms and expressions that have become wildly popular among blacks and whites. In the 1940s, anyone could learn the latest slang terms popularized by Cab Calloway, who published his Hepster’s Dictionary in 1944. The slang terms or ‘‘jive,’’ as Calloway called it, included such words as ‘‘corny,’’ meaning ‘‘old-fashioned,’’ ‘‘gimme some skin,’’ meaning ‘‘shake my hand,’’ and ‘‘groovy’’ or ‘‘fine.’’ White radio jockeys frequently imitated the quick, rhythmic talk and borrowed slang words and expressions of trendsetters like Calloway. Street Slang of the 1960s and 1970s The development of slang in African American urban communities had many influences. In the 1940s and 1950s, jazz slang was in fashion. In the 1960s and 1970s, street slang absorbed the popular terms and expressions of the Black Power Movement, an era in which African Americans strongly affirmed their racial identity and heritage and openly criticized, resisted, and challenged racist institutions and white superiority. Among the popular slang words of that period were ‘‘blood’’ to refer to a friend, ‘‘the Man,’’ meaning a racist white person who oppresses and exploits blacks, and ‘‘boogie’’ or ‘‘to dance.’’ Black slang was further popularized in a number of popular television shows and films. White hippies also adopted many of the slang terms, like ‘‘pig,’’ to refer to a police officer. Hip-Hop Slang Hip-hop slang was a by-product of the hip-hop culture that emerged in the 1970s. Both street slang and hip-hop slang borrowed terms associated with criminal, gang, and prison culture. Many contend that there is no difference between the slang of the street and hip-hop culture. Rap artists have played a great role in innovating hip-hop slang terms. Rapper Snoop Dogg popularized the practice of adding the suffix ‘‘izzle’’ to words, such as the word ‘‘shizzle,’’ which means ‘‘sure.’’ In addition to words, such as ‘‘bling’’ and ‘‘phat,’’ hip-hop has been responsible for a number of derogatory and sexist slang words, such as ‘‘hoochie mama.’’ Many African Americans are concerned not only with sexist slang words but with slang usage itself. These critics argue that slang use stigmatizes black youth as gangsters and criminals and impedes the academic development and social advancement of inner-city youth. See also: Black English; Rap Music and Rappers
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Further Reading Major, Clarence, ed. 1994. Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang. New York: Viking Penguin. Gladys L. Knight
Slave Narratives Slave narratives are the autobiographical experiences of enslaved people of African descent who escaped the bonds of slavery to freedom. The narrative’s purpose was to inform the reader of the inhumane and immoral conditions of slavery as well as to compel the reader to support the abolition of this barbaric system. The extraordinary ability of the enslaved to use the language of their captors as a tool of resistance is an important part of African American literary tradition. 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. The slave narrative was a direct response to the condition of being enslaved and a means to offer the truth regarding a system that allowed one human being to be the property of another. Publication of the narratives of slaves began as early as the 1740s. One of the most well known of the slave narratives during this time period was The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789). Equiano’s narrative offered a strong voice for the abolition of slavery and a resistance to the racist ideas of African inferiority. Equiano’s capture, his treatment as a slave, biblical and Christian references, and his escape to freedom, became a familiar prototype for slave narratives. Other narratives during this period included A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverance of Briton Hammon (1760); A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (1770); The Life, History, and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, the African Preacher, Compiled and Written by Himself (1811); and The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Related by Herself (1831). The slave narratives offered the only firsthand perspectives of what blacks endured within the institution of slavery. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the United States not only had states that supported slavery, but some states had abolished it. With the issuance of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America (1776) and an end to the American Revolutionary War (1783), black soldiers were recognized by many in the northern states as a key part of the new nation’s victory. This idea also coincided with a growing industrial economy in the North and increased immigration from Europe which made slavery less viable. Many Northern states decided to abolish slavery, or to end slavery gradually over a period of years. Although the system of slavery was abolished in the North, laws were still
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passed that restricted movement and opportunities for freed blacks, and further solidified racist beliefs about blacks. The southern states did not abolish slavery during this time because free labor was the backbone of their agriculturally based economy. Every aspect of southern life depended on the productivity of the slave. The differences between northern and southern states regarding slavery, and slavery’s place in the nation’s western expansion and its economy, moved the United States closer to Civil War. The slave narrative’s purpose became even greater in the antislavery movement because slavery remained a national institution and was included within the Constitution of the United States (Article I, Sections 2 & 9). By the 1840s, the Anti-Slavery Society headed by William Lloyd Garrison, saw the stories of fugitive slaves, both oral and written, as a means to authenticate the atrocities of the South and the degenerative nature of slavery on the nation. The Narrative from Douglass to Jacobs For slave narratives to establish their place on the literary scene, whites had to confirm the slave’s character and virtue. Each publication had an introduction about the slave as well as other evidence of authentication. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself (1845) was one of the most popular and well-known slave narratives. Douglass’s narrative, endorsed by white abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, spoke of Douglass’s character and truthfulness. Douglass’s narrative told of his years in slavery, his escape, and a critique of slavery in the South as an abomination, and racial prejudice in the North as hypocritical. Douglass also shows the evolution of his sense of self from a slave to a man. Not knowing either his father or his birth date, and having only a short time with his mother, left Douglass unsure about himself. In his early years, after a period of continuous whippings, humiliation, and unceasing fieldwork, Douglass came to a point where he refused to be beaten any longer. It is at this point of resistance that he takes control of his destiny and transitions from a slave to a man. This transformative moment in Douglass’s narrative is a prominent part of the history of antebellum slave narratives because it separates Douglass as property from Douglass as a man. Like other antebellum slave narratives, he ended with his escape to freedom and his dedication to the antislavery movement. Since Douglass was a fugitive when his narrative was published, he had to flee to England. He later returned and his freedom was purchased. Douglass in subsequent years wrote two other narratives about his life: My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). Influencing the audience, while appealing to their moral consciousness, was a complex challenge, but even more so for the female slave. The narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself (1861), by Harriet Jacobs, brought a new dimension to slave narratives. Her narrative which focused on the female perspective had an introduction by the well known white abolitionist, Lydia Marie Child. Child attested to Jacobs’s moral character and Christian
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values. In the narrative, Jacobs presents her life as a black woman who was not inevitably a victim. She showed a new model of female expression, selfhood, and heroism based on her own cultural definition of womanhood. Since black women were not treated with the sense of purity and piety that applied to white women, the white standard of womanhood could not apply. Black women were raped, used as breeders, and brutalized on a physical and mental level. Their survival was itself an act of heroism which provided a greater chance for the survival of the family and the community. Jacobs in her narrative not only addresses the immorality of slavery, but indicts both the master and the mistress for their brutality. She often focused her statements directly to her female reader and their role in resisting and abolishing slavery. For women of any color to express a sense of their own identity was revolutionary and added yet another dimension to the slave narratives and the perspectives within the African American and American literary tradition. Influential Period of the Slave Narrative The period that led up to the Civil War, known as the Antebellum Period (1840–1861), was the most influential period of the slave narrative, with more than seventy that were published, inclusive of The Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave Written by Himself (1847); Narrative of the Life and Adventure of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1849); The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave Now an Inhabitant of Canada, As Narrated by Himself (1849); Narrative of Sojourner Truth a Northern Slave, Emancipated by the State of New York in 1828, edited by Olive Gilbert (1850); Twelve Years a Slave, Narrative of Solomon Northrup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington DC in 1841 and Rescued in 1853 from the Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana (1853), and Life of James Mars A Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut, Written by Himself (1864). Many of the narrative titles set the tone of their journey from slavery to freedom, to encourage greater readership. Most antebellum slave narratives did not begin with capture, since slaves by this time were primarily born in the United States. Other aspects of the earlier prototypes for slave narratives were incorporated into the antebellum slave narratives while further emphasizing the hypocrisy between Christian values and the ideas presented in the Declaration of Independence of the United States (1776). The slave narrative had a tremendous influence on America’s literary scene as well as the political scene. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. Her book intensified the nation’s debate about slavery. Stowe’s characters were informed by many of the slave narratives but there was a direct connection with the life and narrative by Josiah Henson written in 1849. Henson served as the basis for a highly romanticized main character, Uncle Tom. In Henson’s narrative he references a situation when he stayed at the bedside of his sick master during a visit to a northern state and he did not try to escape. He stayed with his master because to escape while in the North would have forced him to leave his family in slavery in the South. Henson returned to
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the South and later escaped with his family to Canada. Stowe’s novel, which romanticized Uncle Tom as a blindly faithful, childlike character, went on to expose the brutality and immorality of the slave master. Her book created such controversy that even President Abraham Lincoln commented on her novel. Slave narratives greatly influenced attitudes about slavery and about blacks and were published well after the Civil War ended in 1865. They continued to address the transition of the slave from captivity to freedom while confronting racist and paternalistic ideas about blacks. The Federal Writers Program and Former Slaves It was not until 1936 that a move toward preserving the last remaining firsthand accounts of slavery was organized. The collection of these slave narratives was viewed as a preservation of not only African American history but American history. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt developed agencies to support the New Deal in the 1930s, to put Americans to work, the Federal Writers Program (FWP) was initiated. Between 1936 and 1938 the project recorded the memories of 2,300 former slaves in seventeen different states. The oral interviews which were catalogued and preserved were transcribed into written texts as well. Unlike slave narratives and autobiographies, which sought to make the narratives more compatible to the language of the reader, the FWP writers were charged to reproduce as closely as possible the language they heard during the oral interviews. The slave narratives serve as a message and reminder about a time when freedom was not available for all and how the enslaved found ways to influence the destiny of themselves and others. See also: African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010; Douglass, Frederick; Truth, Sojourner; Tubman, Harriet Further Reading Andrew, William L., ed. 1992. African American Autobiography: A Collection of Critical Essays. Princeton, NJ: Prentice Hall. Andrew, William L., and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. 2000. Slave Narratives: James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Olaudauh Equiano, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Henry Bibb, Sojourner Truth, William & Ellen Craft, Harriett A. Jacobs, Jacob D. Green. New York: Library of America: Library of America Series. Foster, Francis Smith. 1994. Witnessing Slavery: The Development of Ante-bellum Slave Narratives. 2nd ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Library of Congress. (n.d.) ‘‘Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project 1936–1938’’ American Memory: African American History. http://lcweb2 .loc.gov/ammem/snhtml. Library of Congress. (n.d.) ‘‘Voices from the Days of Slavery’’ (audio). American Memory. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/. Rawick, George P. ed. 1972–1979. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. 17 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
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Rohrbach, Augusto. 2001. ‘‘Making it Real: The Impact of Slave Narratives on the Literary Marketplace.’’ Prospect 26 (Annual): 137. Smith, Valerie. 1991. Self Discovery & Authority in Afro-American Narratives. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Tricomi, Albert. 2006. ‘‘Dialect and Identity in Harriet Jacobs’s Autobiography and other Slave Narratives.’’ Callaloo 29 (Spring): 619. University of North Carolina. (n.d.) ‘‘Autobiographies: Chronologically Listed.’’ North American Slave Narratives: Documenting the American South. http://docsouth .unc.edu/neh/chronautobio.html. University of Virginia. (n.d.) ‘‘American Slave Narratives: On Line Anthology.’’ American Studies. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html. Lean’tin L. Bracks
Slim, Iceberg (1919–92), Writer, Pimp Iceberg Slim is the street name of famed pimp and writer Robert Beck. Beck’s first book, Pimp: The Story of My Life (1969), written under the name he earned for the ability to stay cool in dangerous situations, is a fictionalized memoir spanning from birth until he was released from a final jail stint in 1960. According to his biographer, Peter A. Muckley, and his publisher, Holloway House Books, sales of Pimp and Slim’s seven other books make him the ‘‘best-selling African American author of all time.’’ Slim’s contribution to African American popular culture begins with his written works, but it does not end there. His influence extends into the black popular consciousness, where his stories of violence, exploitation, poverty, hustling, and sexual excess have helped to formulate a conception of the pimp in contemporary black and popular culture. Iceberg Slim was born Robert Lee Maupin in Chicago in 1918. He survived a difficult childhood, being forced to endure physical and sexual violence from a very young age. In spite of his harsh upbringing, he excelled as a student and eventually earned a scholarship to attend Tuskegee Institute in 1935. His matriculation did not last long, as he was expelled during his first year for trafficking in liquor on campus. With his college career prematurely ended, Slim returned to the streets of the South Side of Chicago to pursue a very different kind of education. He earned what money he could hustling and pimping, pursuits that landed him in and out of several correctional institutions. When he was not in jail, Slim continued to pimp hard, amassing a formidable ‘‘stable’’ of women and living quite comfortably by street standards; but a hard life of Crime and an appetite for drugs soon took its toll and Slim found himself incarcerated yet again. It was during this stint in Cook County Jail in 1960 that Slim decided to change his life. After being released, he went straight. Just a few years later, in 1969, his first book, Pimp, was published. The book did not receive much critical attention, and it certainly has never been afforded the kind of critical viewing that its popularity might demand. It
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has enjoyed a kind of underground popularity, appealing to the black masses and serving as both a confession and a celebration for its author. Even without its popularity among black readers and its accompanying impact on black culture, Slim’s autobiography would still hold a place of importance as an ethnographic study of the streets of Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s. More specifically, his vivid descriptions and explanation of ‘‘the life’’ have made Pimp an essential primer for understanding the motivations and psychology of the pimp and, perhaps to a lesser extent, his women. Despite the fact that Slim’s approach to pimping is now often thought of as old fashioned, his rendering of pimp and prostitute still has a significant importance for any understanding of ‘‘the life’’ today. In many ways, Pimp is the urtext of pimp narratives or ‘‘pimpnographies.’’ Iceberg Slim both mined elements of black folk culture in creating a realistic and compelling landscape for his life story and also injected what were once relatively unknown folk elements into the broader culture, helping to introduce an important black folk figure into the American consciousness. See also: Drugs and Popular Culture; Prostitution Further Reading Iceberg Slim. 1969. Pimp: The Story of My Life. Los Angeles: Holloway House Books. Muckley, Peter. 2003. Iceberg Slim: The Life as Art. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing. David Todd Lawrence
Smiley, Tavis (1964– ), Political and Social Commentator, Radio and Television Journalist Tavis Smiley was named most likely to succeed on his graduation from high school in 1982. He made a national list of top fifty future leaders in 1994. Smiley, an ambitious achiever, is a media commentator and talk show host with several books to his credit. His achievements have made him an icon in popular culture. Smiley’s family relocated from his birthplace in Gulfport, Mississippi, to the Midwest when his father, an Air Force officer, was reassigned to Grissom Air Force Base in Indiana. A trailer was home to his immediate family of ten, as well as his deceased aunt’s five children. Family values and morals were shaped by his mother Joyce and the Pentecostal Apostolic Church that they faithfully attended. Smiley graduated from Maconaqah High School and enrolled in Indiana University at Bloomington. His experiences and education at Indiana University helped frame his personal and professional ideals. Membership in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, with its emphasis on public service, allowed him to acquire a wide array of
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experience in social and political activities. Smiley organized and led protest activities on behalf of a friend who died at the hands of Indiana police officers. After graduating from Indiana with a double major in law and public policy, he worked as an aide to Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley from 1986 until 1990. Although Smiley lost his campaign for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1991, his career continued to thrive as he gained national exposure. He began his foray into journalism on local radio with a series of sixty-second commentaries on national and local issues affecting the African American community. He also cohosted an African American current affairs talk show for the Los Angeles market. In 1996, Smiley became a social and political commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, a nationally syndicated radio show focusing on urban issues and music. Next was a nightly show airing on Black Entertainment Television (BET), BET Talk, later branded as BET Tonight. Smiley discussed national and local issues with political figures and celebrities. Beginning in 2000, Smiley collaborated with Joyner to host meetings that centered on issues and problems plaguing African American families and communities entitled ‘‘The State of the Black Union.’’ These town hall–style events featured panels of mostly black professionals, and became an important vehicle to promote, inform, and educate the African American public. Smiley was particularly vocal regarding discriminatory practices in the media and government. In 2001, Smiley’s contract with BET was not renewed. The dismissal was attributed to payback for providing his interview with Sara Jane Olson, a former Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist, to a rival network. From 2001 to 2004, Smiley hosted The Tavis Smiley Show on National Public Radio (NPR) but left because NPR failed to reach a diverse audience. Smiley’s late night talk show on the Public Broadcasting Service network is rebroadcast in a two-hour version on Public Radio International. He moderated two presidential election forums in 2007. He severed ties with the Tom Joyner Show in 2008. Smiley’s numerous awards include honorary doctorates, an NAACP Image Award, and the Du Bois Medal from Harvard University. He manages the Tavis Smiley Foundation, and SmileyBooks, a publishing company. He is involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors in addition to his media and speaking commitments. See also: Radio Shows and Hosts; Television Further Reading Answers.com. ‘‘Tavis Smiley.’’ http://www.answers.com/topic/tavis-smiley. Current Biography Yearbook. 2003. New York: H. W. Wilson. French, Ellen Dennis, and Bob Jacobsen. 2009. Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 68. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Smiley, Tavis. 2006. What I Know For Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America. New York: Doubleday. Timothy Vasser
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Smith, Bessie (1894–1937), Blues Singer Bessie Smith, widely recognized and celebrated as the ‘‘Empress of the Blues,’’ is one of the most prolific and influential singers in the genre of classic blues music, and her life and legacy has inspired artists and intellectuals who have followed in her wide wake. Born in the Blue Goose Hollow of Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 15, 1894, Smith took the soul-crushing poverty of her childhood and transformed it into soulful lyrics. Following the untimely death of her parents, Smith and her siblings were raised by their older sister Viola. The family struggled for economic survival, and Viola, feeling her childhood taken away from her, added to the tension of the home. In 1910, Smith’s older brother Clarence left home, and inspired by his example, Bessie Smith started her career as a singer and dancer on the streets of her hometown, with her brother Andrew, who played guitar; whatever coins the duo collected was brought to their home in Blue Goose Hollow to help make ends meet. By 1912, Smith had honed her talent to the extent that when her brother Clarence, as a member of the Moses Stokes Company, returned to Chattanooga, he arranged an audition for his younger sister. Bessie Smith earned a part in the company, bringing with it an opportunity to escape the limited and limiting confines of her hometown. Because the company already featured Ma Rainey, Smith sang in the chorus, creating a cultural moment in which, according to Anand Prahad, ‘‘the two most imposing classic blues singers of any generation found themselves poised for greatness, sharing storefront stages in a raggedy touring company.’’ The two towering figures of classic blues vocals, Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, would perform together until 1914, when Bessie Smith set out on her own road. The first location where the Empress of the Blues held court was in Atlanta, Georgia, at the 81 Theater. Building upon her success there, Smith performed in the major cities along the Eastern Seaboard and took up residence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was well on her way to becoming one of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance. The Roaring Twenties ushered in opportunity for black female vocalists as white-owned record labels crossed the color line. In 1921, the Okeh Company signed Mamie Smith, marking the first time a black singer signed with a white recording company. The trend would continue as a result of the commercial success of jazz and blues music during the Jazz Age. It is in this context that Bessie Smith became a recording artist and national sensation. Her recording career began with Columbia Records in 1923, and with this label she recorded her first song, ‘‘Down Hearted Blues,’’ on February 1, 1923. Over the next decade, Smith would go on to record some one hundred eighty songs, about forty-five of which were her original compositions. Some of her most famous works are ‘‘I Got the World in a Jug,’’ ‘‘Empty Bed Blues.’’ and ‘‘Yellow Dog Blues.’’ From 1924 until 1929, Bessie Smith’s records sold more than four million copies, making her the top-selling artist of her day as well as a stunning commercial success, with earnings, at one point, of $75,000, which she spent freely. While a blues musician at her core, Smith showed virtuosic range, performing and recording with some of the leading jazz musicians of her age.
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While she used her art to transform her life from one of dire poverty to becoming one of the leading lights of her generation, an artist who was photographed by Carl Van Vechten, her life did have its blue devils. Bessie Smith was a heavy drinker, and she struggled with alcoholism. Along with drinking, Smith gained the reputation of being something of a brawler, and she had affairs with both men and women. Smith, too, shattered stereotypes of popular music and femininity by singing openly of sexuality. Her lyrics were hard lyrics, and they matched the type of woman she was. As a result of the complexity of her character, Bessie Smith has been and continues to be important for countless generations of artists. Her contemporary, Langston Hughes, considered Bessie Smith as part of the emerging generation of black artists invested in creating an authentic art. Poets such as Robert Hayden have composed their odes to Bessie Smith, and her legacy continues to serve as a source of inspiration for feminist and queer writers, artists, and intellectuals, notably Alice Walker in You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down, published in 1982. ‘‘Bessie had a wonderful way,’’ her biographer Chris Albertson notes, ‘‘of turning adversity into triumph, and many of her songs are the tales of liberated women.’’ Along with her influence in the literary arts and cultural criticism, Smith casts a deep shadow over the landscape of American popular music, particularly vocals, where her technique has influenced such singers as Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. Quoted on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Web site, the classic rock and folk singer Janis Joplin said, ‘‘[Bessie Smith] showed me the air and taught me how to fill it.’’ In a testament to her significance in popular culture, Bessie Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and while her likeness was issued on a stamp by the United States Postal Service in 1994, we will never look upon the likes of a Bessie Smith again. Smith died from injuries sustained in a car accident along a Mississippi highway on September 26, 1937. Shortly following her death, speculation erupted on whether or not Smith’s death was avoidable. When she arrived in the emergency room, Smith, with her arm nearly severed, had been left to bleed to death in the white hospital, many believed, as a result of racial prejudice; since then, these speculations have been disproven. Bessie Smith was on her way to a performance scheduled in Clarksdale, and her lover Richard Morgan, not her husband, was behind the wheel. Smith was buried in Philadelphia at the Mount Lawn Cemetery, and as her body lay in state, over 10,000 people paid their respects to one of the greatest blues singers ever to grow out of the context of American and African American popular culture. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Pop Music Further Reading Albertson, Chris. 2006. ‘‘Smith, Bessie (1894–1937).’’ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, Vol. 3. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
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Burdex, Monica J. 2002. ‘‘Smith, Bessie.’’ In Women and Music in American Since 1900: An Encyclopedia. Kristine H. Burns, ed. Westport, CT: Oryx Press. Pittsburgh Courier. 1937. ‘‘Down-Beat Charges Proven.’’ December 18. Rodriguez, Raquel. 2005. ‘‘Smith, Bessie (1894–1937).’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rowe, Billy. 1937. ‘‘Moanin’ Blues Voice Of Bessie Smith, Who Made $60,000 A Year, Will Never Be Stilled By Death: Public Bought Four Million of Her Records Between ’24 and ’29—Popularity Waned With Advent of Radio and Crooners— Believed That ‘Money Was Made to Be Spent.’’’ Pittsburgh Courier, October 9. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Smith, Emmitt (1969– ), Professional Football Player Emmitt Smith is the NFL’s all-time rushing leader and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010. He was USA Today’s and Parade Magazine’s high school player of the year as a senior and an all-American at the University of Florida. He played most of his career with the Dallas Cowboys. Smith married a former beauty pageant queen, and a year after retiring from football, he won a popular televised dancing competition. Emmitt James Smith III was born May 15, 1969, in Pensacola, Fl., to Mary and Emmitt James Smith II. In his first game as a freshman at Escambia High School, Emmitt III gained 148 yards and scored twice. He led Escambia to the state football championship in his sophomore and junior seasons. He scored 106 touchdowns and rushed for 8,804 yards. The Florida High School Athletic Association named Smith its Player of the Century in 2007. At 5 feet 9 and under 200 pounds, he was deemed too small but went anyway to play for Galen Hall at the University of Florida in 1987. He did not start his first two games but in the second week, ran 66 yards for a touchdown and gained 109 yards on 10 carries. The next week, against Alabama, Smith broke Florida’s rushing record, gaining 224 yards and scoring twice. He finished the season with 1,341 yards. A knee injury in week 5 shortened Smith’s sophomore season. In his junior year (1989), when Hall was forced to resign midseason over NCAA rule violations, Smith rushed for a Florida record of 1,599 yards, including 316 against New Mexico, and 14 touchdowns. He finished seventh in voting for the Heisman Trophy. Pass-oriented coach Steve Spurrier was hired for 1990, when the Gators went on NCAA probation. Smith chose not to return and entered the NFL draft instead. He finished his college career with a school record of 3,928 rushing yards. Despite his lack of size, the Cowboys traded up and took Smith with the seventeenth pick overall. He proved naysayers wrong, becoming the first NFL player to rush for more than 1,400 yards in five consecutive seasons and scoring 10 touchdowns in seven straight. On October 27, 2002, he broke the record for career rushing, held by his childhood hero, Walter Payton. Smith finished with
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18,355 yards and 164 rushing touchdowns. Moreover, he helped the Cowboys establish a mini-dynasty in the 1990s, when they won three Super Bowls. He set NFL postseason records for rushing yards (1,586) and rushing touchdowns (19). Although plainly one of the all-time greats—The Sporting News ranked him number 68 on its list of the 100 Greatest Football Players three years before he broke Payton’s yardage record—Smith was more efficient than sparkling. He was strong and durable, the all-time NFL leader with 4,409 carries. He also caught 515 passes for 3,224 yards and 11 touchdowns and was an excellent pass-blocker. He played his final two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals but then signed a one-day contract for no money with Dallas and immediately retired as a Cowboy in 2005. Smith married Patricia Southall, a former Miss Virginia USA on April 22, 2000. They have a son (Emmitt IV) and a daughter. Smith also has a daughter by a former girlfriend and a stepdaughter with Southall. He began a brief, unsuccessful career as a sportscaster in 2005. In recent years, he has focused on developing major real estate projects. In 2006, Smith and professional dancer Cheryl Burke partnered to win ABC-TV’s Dancing with the Stars competition in its third season. Smith is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. He finished his degree in public recreation at Florida in 1996. Further Reading Hitzges, Norm. 2007. The Greatest Team Ever: The Dallas Cowboys Dynasty of the 1990s. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. Klancnik, Rudy. 2002. Emmitt: Run With History. Dallas, TX: Calvert Group. Pearlman, Jeff. 2008. Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty. New York: Harper. Schwartz, Kris. (n.d.) ‘‘Emmitt Gives New Meaning to Sweetness.’’ ESPN Classic: Sportscentury Biography. http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Smith_Emmitt.html. Smith, Emmitt, and Steve Delsohn. 1994. The Emmitt Zone. New York: Crown Publishing. Telander, Rick. 1987. ‘‘Growing Up Fast.’’ SIVault, November 16. http://sportsillustrated .cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066692/index.htm. Richard Kenney
Smith, Jada Pinkett (1971– ), Actress, Singer Jada Pinkett Smith, a contemporary actress in African American popular culture, is a mainstream success. Pinkett Smith’s career began in the 1990s with small roles in television series, such as True Colors, 21 Jump Street, and Doogie Howser, M.D. Between 1991 and 1993, Pinkett Smith played a reoccurring role as a character with a bold, streetwise personality in the television series, A Different World. For several years, Pinkett Smith was a fixture in black films, beginning
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with her film debut, Albert and Allen Hughes’s Menace II Society (1993), a film that explores black ghetto life. By the mid- to late-1990s, Pinkett Smith became one of few African American women to be regularly cast in high-grossing films, starring some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Her appearance in films like The Nutty Professor (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and two Matrix films, demonstrated that she could break through a century-old barrier that prevented blacks from succeeding in the mainstream film industry and that limited African American women to stereotypical and negative roles. To be sure, Pinkett Smith’s life consists of more than just films. She is married to the popular and talented Will Smith. They have three children, Willard Trey III (Pinkett Smith’s stepson), Jaden Christopher Syre, and Willow Camille Reign. She is also involved in philanthropy, publishing, and making music in a rock band, Wicked Wisdom. She and her husband also produced a sitcom, All of Us (2003–2007), loosely based on their family. Pinkett Smith, who was born on September 18, 1971, in Baltimore, Maryland, was raised in a single-parent home. Her father, Robsol Pinkett, and mother, Adrienne Banfield, divorced shortly after their marriage. Pinkett Smith’s mother and grandmother, Marion Banfield, made sure that she had a rewarding childhood, providing her with enriching experiences, such as dance, piano, and gymnastics lessons. Pinkett Smith went on to attend the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts. After attending the North Carolina School of the Arts for a short period of time, Pinkett Smith pursued opportunities to act in Los Angeles. For the first half of her career, she appeared in television series on major network stations and a steady flow of black films. These films were in keeping with a long tradition of African American directors who catered to black audiences and provided employment to African Americans. (With an exception of a handful of top money-making actors, blacks have, historically, played a minor role in the Hollywood film industry.) Pinkett Smith’s early films include Menace II Society, The Inkwell (1994), Jason’s Lyric (1994), and A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994). In Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), Pinkett Smith played a rarely seen female African American superhero. In Set it Off (1996), Pinkett Smith played a member of an all-woman bank-robbing team. The film exposed some of the bleak socioeconomic realities of black life. Pinkett Smith’s assorted roles in these films helped to fill the need for African American characters for black audiences and characters that challenge the status quo. Pinkett Smith’s leap to mainstream films was equally significant, resulting in her breaking barriers in an exclusive industry. She played a love interest to the protagonist, played by African American comedian and actor Eddie Murphy, in the box-office success, The Nutty Professor. Pinkett Smith chiseled her diminutive frame for the role of a tough leader in the widely popular Matrix films. In 2008, she played the only African American among a group of women friends in the film, The Women. In 2009, Pinkett Smith received her own television series. The series, Hawthorne, in which Pinkett Smith plays Christina Hawthorn, an
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RN in a hospital, emerged during a trend when many movie stars made the transition from film to television. See also: Actors and Performers Further Reading Jada Pinkett Smith. (Homepage.) http://www.jadapinkettsmith.com/. Kinnon, Joy Bennett. 2004. ‘‘Jada Pinkett Smith: Redefining Marriage, Motherhood, and Stardom.’’ Ebony 59 (September): 88–98. Gladys L. Knight
Smith, James Todd See L L Cool J Smith, Lovie (1958– ), Football Coach Lovie Smith is famously known for being one of two of the first African American NFL Football coaches to lead their team to the Super Bowl in 2006, a historical moment in African American popular culture. On that day, February 4, Smith, coach for the Chicago Bears, outfaced his friend, Tony Dungy, head coach for the Indianapolis Colts. Although Smith’s team lost, he showed himself to be a formidable contender in the pursuit for victory in the NFL’s most prestigious arena. He would forever be remembered as making history, garnering much discussion and excitement within the African American media and community. For African Americans, the historic day underscored a major victory against the historical racial disparities in the NFL. It was only in 1988 that the first African American quarterback played in a Super Bowl game. In 2007, there were ‘‘only six black head coaches out of 32,’’ although blacks consisted 70 percent of the football players, wrote Moorehead in ‘‘Tony Dungy.’’ Smith’s strong presence in the industry demonstrates increasing, albeit slow-going, progress. That Smith actively pursued a career in coaching says much about his selfassurance and defiant attitude towards societal and racial conventions. Lovie Lee Smith was born on May 8, 1958, in Gladewater, Texas, and raised in Big Sandy. (His first name is a variation of his great aunt’s name, Lavana.) In 1964, Smith was only six when the civil rights act ended de jure segregation and discrimination. Racism and de facto segregation and discrimination persisted, and Race Riots in urban cities in the North were headlined in the news. Smaller towns, like Big Sandy, however, were often less troubled by happenings in the rest of the nation. Despite disturbing national events, Smith excelled in sports. In high school, he helped lead the football team in three state championships between 1973 and 1975 and was bestowed with all-state honors in positions as a defensive end and linebacker. Smith was among the growing number of blacks who pursued educational advancement. At the University of Tulsa, he continued to play well. However, Smith desired not to become a professional football player but to procure a leadership position within the industry. To be sure, few African Americans followed this path, and those who did faced obstacles.
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The progression to head coach was a slow and steady process for Smith. Steely focus kept Smith undeterred. It also helped that, in the 1980s, when he started his professional career, blacks enjoyed increasing mobility. In 1980, Smith worked as a defensive coordinator at his high school. In 1981, he worked at Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Between 1983 and 1992, he worked his way into collegiate sports coaching linebackers at the University of Tulsa, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Arizona State University, and the University of Kentucky. Between 1993 and 1995, he coached defensive backs at the University of Tennessee and Ohio State University. With over ten years of solid experience, Smith was ready for the NFL. Between 1996 and 2003, he coached linebackers for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and worked as a defense coordinator for the St. Louis Rams. Smith’s career as head coach with the legendary Chicago Bears began in 2004 and continues to this day. Smith has participated in two Super Bowl games but has yet to claim victory. Smith is married to MaryAnne Smith and has three children. He and his wife established the Lovie and MaryAnne Smith Foundation to provide college scholarships. See also: Sports
Further Reading Chicago Tribune 2006. Bears Roar: Meet the Men Who Put the Swagger Back in Chicago Football. Chicago: Triumph Entertainment. Jet. 2007. ‘‘Friends Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy Make History Together as First Black Coaches in Super Bowl.’’ 110 (February 5): 62. Jet. 2006. ‘‘Lovie Smith Overcomes ‘Growing Pains,’ Honored as 2005 NFL Coach of the Year.’’ 109 (January 23): 8. Moorehead, Monica. 2007. ‘‘Tony Dungy, Lovie Smith Make Super Bowl History.’’ Worker’s World, February 6. http://www.workers.org/2007/us/super-bowl0215/. Gladys L. Knight
Smith, Mamie (1883–1946), Blues Singer Mamie Smith is generally recognized as the first to record in her genre. Smith’s version of ‘‘Crazy Blues’’ on Okeh Records was the first major hit of the blues that led other record labels to record previously neglected blues musicians. One of Smith’s greatest accomplishments was this recording, which created the first viable market for blues recordings. Smith began her professional career and danced with the Tutt-Whitney Smart Set Company when she was a teenager. By 1920 she relocated to New York City to perform as a singer in several Harlem nightclubs. She also recorded her first blues songs with Percy Bradford, who had written a substantial amount
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of the songs and who persuaded some of the white recording companies that there was a potential black audience that would purchase recordings by black musicians. Bradford was successful in getting an appointment with RCA Victor Records, and on January 10, 1920, Smith was given a trial session to record ‘‘That Thing Called Love,’’ a vaudeville-type ballad. Although Victor did not release it, Bradford and Smith did not give up. On February 14, 1920, at Phonograph Okeh Studio, Smith was able to record several songs that included ‘‘That Thing Called Love’’ and ‘‘You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down.’’ A talented group of musicians that included Johnny Dunn (trumpet) and Willie ‘‘The Lion’’ Smith (piano) backed her on these songs. The recordings were not released until the summer. However, when released, they sold enormously, and as a result Okeh agreed to have Smith record another session in August 1920 when she recorded ‘‘Crazy Blues.’’ This recording set off a recording boom that was previously unheard of. The target of the publicity campaigns soon became known as the ‘‘race market,’’ a term that was coined by Ralph Peer, the Okeh recording manager. Within its first month of release, ‘‘Crazy Blues’’ sold over 75,000 copies, and within a year it sold nearly a million copies. In less than a year the race market was booming with many blues singers. Mamie Smith was propelled into the limelight by rave reviews that appeared in the black press. Between September and December, 1920, Smith made six recordings for Okeh that included a mixture of blues and vaudeville-type songs. Okeh’s success with Mamie Smith sent many other record companies in search of women blues singers for promotion in the race market. Because of her fame and musical contribution, Smith is often regarded as the first ‘‘pop’’ singer, in that she influenced other women in the 1920s to record not only blues but also popular and vaudeville songs. For approximately three years after recording ‘‘Crazy Blues,’’ Smith continued to record with Okeh Records. In many of these recordings, Smith is featured with her group, known as the Jazz Hounds, and also with musicians and instrumentalists such as James P. Johnson (also known as the father of stride piano), Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone), Ward Andrews (trombone), Ernest Elliott (clarinet), and Leroy Parker (violin). See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Race Records; Smith, Bessie Further Reading Erlewine, Michael. 1996. All Music Guide to the Blues: The Expert’s Guide to the Best Blues Recordings. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. Harrison, Daphne Duval. 1993. Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s. Newark, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Oliver, Paul. 1970. Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues Singers. New York: Stein and Day. Clarence Bernard Henry
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Smith, Tubby (1958– ), College Basketball Coach Tubby Smith is a well-known and accomplished college Basketball coach. Indeed, he is one of the most sought-after coaches in collegiate sports, a field wherein African Americans are drastically underrepresented. Smith’s spectacular career as a professional head coach includes a National Championship, four Elite Eight appearances, and nine Sweet Sixteen appearances. An Elite Eight refers to the final eight teams competing in the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship and Sweet Sixteen refers to the top sixteen teams competing in the third round of the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship. As cited in the article ‘‘Tubby Smith,’’ Smith also ‘‘has the 12th-best active winning percentage of any coach at the Division I level with a 407–159 record’’ and has accumulated many awards, including five conference coach of the year awards and three national coach of the year honors. In his long career, Smith has coached for the University of Tulsa, University of Georgia, and University of Kentucky. He has also helped coach the 2000 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team in Sydney, Australia, and coached at least eight players who went on to the NBA. Smith currently coaches the Golden Gophers Men’s Basketball Team at the University of Minnesota and serves on the NCAA Committee. Orlando ‘‘Tubby’’ Smith was born on June 30, 1951 in Scotland, Maryland, the sixth of seventeen children. His parents, Guffrie and Parthenia Smith, were sharecroppers. Smith was nicknamed ‘‘Tubby’’ for his childhood penchant for the family washtub. While attending High Point College (now known as High Point University) in North Carolina, he played basketball and met his wife, Donna Smith. In 1973, he graduated with a bachelor of science degree in health and physical education. Six years later, Smith began his career as an assistant coach. Between 1979 and 1986, he helped coach at Virginia Commonwealth University, contributing to the team’s three Sun Belt Conference Championships. In 1986, he transferred to the University of South Carolina and stayed there three years before moving on to the University of Kentucky. There, Smith played an instrumental role in turning around a poorly performing team. In 1991, Smith headed off to the University of Tulsa, his first of several appointments as head coach. He spent his first two years developing the Golden Hurricanes into a formidable team. Under his direction, they eventually won season titles, two Sweet Sixteen appearances, and, in 1995, played in tournaments during March Madness. In 1995, Smith made an historic first, becoming the first African American head coach for the Bulldogs at the University of Georgia. Smith guided the team to a Sweet Sixteen appearance. The team also made the first round of the NCAA. In 1997, Smith returned to the University of Kentucky. As head coach of the Wildcats, he consistently led his team to victories. In ten seasons, the team won
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an NCAA championship, several SEC regular season championships, SEC Tournament titles, and made several Elite Eight and Sweet Sixteen appearances. After a strong ten-year career at the University of Kentucky, Smith headed the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers Basketball Team. Since his arrival, he has helped build up a team that had been floundering. The Golden Gophers made it to the first round of the NIT during the first season and to the first round of the NCAA during the following two seasons. Smith has three adult sons, Orlando, Saul, and Brian Smith, all of whom are assistant coaches. See also: Sports Further Reading Klemash, Christian. 2006. How to Succeed in the Game of Life: Interviews with the World’s Greatest Coaches. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel. Stricklin, Scott, ed. 2006. Echoes of Kentucky Basketball: The Greatest Stories Ever Told. Foreword by Tubby Smith. Chicago: Triumph Books. Tubby Smith. (Homepage.) http://www.tubbysmith.com/. Gladys L. Knight
Smith, Will (1968– ), Actor, Singer Will Smith’s teachers called him ‘‘Prince Charming,’’ presaging a life that so far has been charmed. After early success in rap and Hip-Hop, Smith became a music producer, played a lead role in the hit television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and segued successfully into motion pictures. His popularity rose steadily, and today, he is a major international star who commands more per film than Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp. Born on September 25, 1968, in Philadelphia to Willard C. Smith Sr., owner of a refrigeration design and installation service, and Caroline Smith, who worked for the Philadelphia Board of Education, Smith has an older sister, Pam, and younger twin siblings, Ellen and Harry. He grew up in an all-black, middleclass neighborhood in Philadelphia, but attended Roman Catholic schools where he had mostly white classmates. His went to Overbrook High School in Winfield, Pennsylvania. Smith has said in interviews that growing up in a mostly African American community while attending mostly white schools taught him to get along with everyone. His entire family was musical. He studied piano, his father played guitar, and the entire family held jam sessions. He began writing his own raps and was performing at house parties at the age of twelve. At one of these events he met Jeffrey Townes, who called himself DJ Jazzy Jeff. They became instant friends, sharing the same passionate interest in hip-hop music, and began making records in Townes’s basement. In the mid-1980s, a small recording label released their first album, Rock the House. Jive Records executives noticed the twosome and felt they had great
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potential, so Jive Records bought out their first contract, and released two singles, ‘‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’’ and ‘‘Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble.’’ Both singles became instant hits. The 1988 album He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper, sold three million copies. Smith decided early on to keep his lyrics free of profanity. He has been quoted as saying he wanted to make music his mother could listen to. Criticized sharply for watering down or misrepresenting hip-hop culture, being too bland, mainstream, and noncontroversial, he counters by saying in an interview in USA Today, ‘‘Whenever you’re on the rise, people are going to take shots at you.’’ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince’s third album was And in This Corner, which sold one million copies. The popularity of Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince was so great at that time that when a phone line was set up for fans to pay by the minute to hear the latest news about them, this service earned $10 million. Smith was so young when celebrity and wealth descended on him that he was too immature to handle it. He confesses to becoming greedy and overindulging in everything—jewelry, cars, luxury items, and travel. In his early twenties, he had spent so lavishly that he was almost insolvent. Serendipitously, in December 1989, a chance to regain his lost earnings presented itself. Smith was in Los Angeles to perform on an NBC television special, and Benny Medina, head of the black music division of Warner Brothers Records, was in the audience. Medina had an idea for a television sitcom based on his own life story. Medina had been adopted from foster homes and juvenile detention into a white family in Bel-Air, and he thought Smith might be the perfect person to play him. The show was accepted and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air became an increasingly popular, award-winning, and long-running show. Smith focused on his acting career, beginning with minor roles in films like Where the Day Takes You and Made in America. The first role he received critical praise for was the character Paul in Six Degrees of Separation. Critics felt he displayed great depth and complexity for so young an actor. Smith’s next film, Bad Boys, costarring Martin Lawrence, was a smash hit, grossing $15.5 million in its first weekend. Critics panned the movie, but fans loved it. Independence Day, released in 1996, had a record-setting first week, earning $100 million. Men in Black, costarring Tommy Lee Jones, also scored massive box office draws, and was followed by Enemy of the State. The appeal of Will Smith to audiences is his goofy, boyish antics and positivity. However, he has demonstrated the depth to play more complex roles, such as in the films Ali, Pursuit of Happyness, and I am Legend. Smith was nominated for Best Actor for Ali and for Pursuit of Happyness. He is reportedly such a natural actor that renowned director Barry Sonnenfeld said of him in Lynn Norment’s article, ‘‘Once you work with Will, you want to work with him forever.’’ Smith’s personal life seems equally blessed. As a man who values keeping his promises, his 1995 divorce from actress Sheree Zampino Smith was especially painful because the couple has a son, Willard Smith III, who was two years old at the time of the divorce. However, in the midst of these painful days, Will reunited with longtime friend, Jada Pinkett, whom he had met on the set of Fresh Prince. Jada had auditioned for the role of his girlfriend, but the show’s producers bypassed her for the role because they thought she was too short. When they met again, Jada
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had also ended a relationship and she and Will Smith were able to console each other. Jada has reported in interviews that until then she never considered Will romantically; he was just ‘‘Goofy Will Smith.’’ Eventually, Will and Jada began to date, and in a secret wedding in Baltimore at the Cloisters Mansion on New Year’s Eve, 1997, they married. Will and Jada have two children—son Jaden Christopher Syre and daughter Willow Camille Reign. Will calls his wife ‘‘Miss Jada,’’ an endearment that mirrors the mutual respect the couple has for each other. Being honest with each other, putting family first, and spending as much time as possible with their children has given Will and Jada a Hollywood romance that works. Will Smith is not slowing down. One recent film, Seven Pounds (2009), has a different type of ending which leaves the audience to draw their own conclusions. He reports being a bit nervous about this because his fans are accustomed to car chases, uplifting music of stringed instruments, and climatic happy endings. He is making his mark in the world of philanthropy. He and Jada Pinkett Smith have founded the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation, and support numerous causes such as youth, disaster relief, children, health, the Red Cross, the Dream Foundation, and many others. He and Jada are going into the future as a strong family and creative actors. See also: Actors and Performers; Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby; Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading Hellard, Peta. 2009. ‘‘Will Smith on Spring after Winter in Seven Pounds.’’ (Australia) Herald Sun, January 8. Iannucci, Lisa. 2010. Will Smith: A Biography. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press. ‘‘Look to the Stars: World of Celebrity Giving. Will Smith’s Charity Work, Events, and Causes.’’ Look to the Stars, 2006–2010. http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/150-will-smith Nama, Adilifu. 2009. ‘‘R is for Race, Not Rocket: Black Representation in American Science Fiction Cinema.’’ Quarterly Review of Film and Video 26 (March): 155–66. Norment, Lynn. 1999. ‘‘Why Will Smith is Hollywood’s Biggest Summer Attraction.’’ Ebony 54 (July): 46–8. Robb, Brian J. 2000. Will Smith: King of Cool. London: Plexus. Smith, Will. 1990. ‘‘Interview with Tom Green.’’ USA Today, August 24. Elizabeth Sandidge Evans
Snoop Dogg (1971– ), Rapper, Record Producer, Actor Snoop Dogg debuted as a West Coast rapper in the 1990s, rapidly ascending as one of the premier rappers in the nation. Snoop Dogg has established himself as an icon in African American popular culture. His style includes a laid-back rapping voice and unflashy, oversized clothes endemic to black Urban Culture. Among his signature hairstyles include Afro styles, twisted pony tails, one on each
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A controversial popular culture icon, Snopp Dogg is one of the nation’s key rappers. Although he uses offensive language, embraces criminal activities, and gives problematic representations of women in his videos and albums, he has had a stellar career as rap artist. (Shutterstock)
side of his head or the base of his neck, Cornrows, and straightened styles. Snoop Dogg’s appearance, as well as the lyrics and themes of his rap music and images in his rap videos, embody modern black life and the culture of the ghetto, or ‘‘the hood.’’ Snoop Dogg’s rap songs and videos, however, are rife with problematic representations of women and criminal activities, and offensive language. Snoop Dogg was born Cordazar Calvin Broadus on October 20, 1971, in Long Beach, California. His mother nicknamed him Snoop after the famous beagle, Snoopy, from the Peanuts comic strip. He and his siblings were raised by a single mother and in church. Snoop Dogg sang and played the piano in a Baptist church. He also started rapping in the sixth grade. However, Snoop Dogg joined the Crips gang and repeatedly got in trouble with the law while in high school. After graduating from high school, he served three years in jail. Shortly after his last stint in jail, Snoop Dogg was discovered by rapper Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg appeared on Dr. Dre’s album, The Chronic (a slang term for marijuana), which was released in 1992. In 1993, Snoop Dogg’s first album, Doggystyle, was released, and it was an immediate success. Snoop Dogg’s popularity was largely based on his persona. Among rap artists, credibility and authenticity often entails negative experiences with law enforcement, past gang membership, and jail time. Like numerous rappers, Snoop Dogg’s conflicts with the law persisted, intermittently, during his professional career. His most notorious entanglement involved a murder case, but he was cleared of any wrongdoing in 1996.
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Snoop Dogg’s rap career has been both spectacular and controversial. Snoop Dogg will forever be associated as the rapper who popularized the suffix ‘‘izzle,’’ which he used in rap lyrics and which has been mimicked by blacks and whites in everyday situations and in the media. His fame has spread as he has made appearances on popular television shows and at national and international music events. He and his family, wife Shante and two sons, appeared in a reality show, Snoop Dogg’s Fatherhood, in 2007 and 2008. Fame notwithstanding, Snoop Dogg is a controversial figure. Indeed, the majority of rappers indulge in lyrics infused with profanity and themes and images that promote the objectification of women and drug and alcohol use. See also: Censorship and Offensive Language and Lyrics; Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading Diallo, David. 2007. ‘‘Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.’’ In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Mickey Hess, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gladys L. Knight
Social Activists Social activists are individuals who advocate for any number of causes, such as political, economic, and social justice and equality. From slavery through most of the twentieth century, activists contributed greatly to the eradication of discriminatory laws, the enactment of seminal civil rights legislation, and the general progress African Americans enjoy today. At the forefront of every major social movement that involved black protest were African American activists who figured prominently as leaders and achieved near-mythic status in African American popular culture. Among the factors that contributed to the immense popularity of social activists, beyond the fact these individuals faced terrible hurdles, hostility, and resistance, was that they appealed to black popular culture sensibilities and values. Prominent activists also appropriated, if not occasionally methodically employed, the ever-changing cultural traits, mannerisms, and dress styles that were popular with large segments of the black community. Antislavery Movement The first wave of social activists emerged during slavery and included such formidable men and women as Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass. Turner was able to mobilize participants in one of the most infamous but unsuccessful slave rebellions in 1831, in large part, because of his revered status among slaves. Not only could Turner read and write, he was considered a spiritual leader, leading worship services, regularly fasting and
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praying, and receiving visions. Slaves called Turner ‘‘The Prophet,’’ which in biblical terms refers to one who receives divine instruction from God. Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass emerged as social activists after they had obtained freedom. Truth and Douglass were widely known as popular speakers; Tubman was famous for actively guiding blacks to freedom in the Underground Railroad. The agedness, religious faith, and ordinariness of Truth and Tubman endeared them to blacks. Douglass was celebrated largely because he attained status—refined clothes and speech, economic mobility—and broke social, economic, and political barriers, while retaining his racial pride and staying in the vanguard of the struggle for civil rights and equality until his death. Early Twentieth Century Activism The next major wave of social activists consisted mostly middle-class African Americans, reflecting the growth and influence of upwardly mobile black communities. Activists Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell represented the growing involvement of women in community-building work, the popular women’s clubs movement, as well as social activism. Unlike many of their white women counterparts who were increasingly moving away from traditional conventions and roles, black women activists of this era, like Wells-Barnett and Terrell, retained many black values and traditions. They were active church members, blended faith and activism, and married and raised children. Women’s involvement notwithstanding, Marcus Garvey and the men of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) dominated leadership roles during the early twentieth century. In the second decade of the century, Marcus Garvey took black America by storm, strategically creating a larger-than-life persona and a philosophy of black pride and self-determination that captivated black audiences, until he was deported to Jamaica in 1927. The NAACP, which was established in 1909, had an enduring presence in the United States. Over time, blacks in the NAACP became the dashing modernday heroes and symbols of achievement blacks valorized. Among the most notable NAACP heroes were Walter White, executive secretary, who went, disguised like an undercover secret agent, into the South to investigate crimes against blacks. Roy O. Wilkins, executive secretary and director who wore fedoras and dapper suits, and Thurgood Marshall, the tall, handsome, and well-dressed attorney. They were celebrated for vanquishing seemingly unconquerable foes and the fiend known as Jim Crow. W. E. B. Du Bois, scholar, activist, and famous editor of the Crisis magazine, daringly condemned racism in all its forms. Civil Rights Movement The wave of social activism that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century reflected the diversity of black popular culture. On one hand, the majority of middle-class, Christian blacks in the South were strongly drawn towards
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Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King’s masterful oratory style, Baptist affiliation, and natural charisma enabled him to amass support from blacks who had customarily refrained from challenging white domination. A growing segment of college-aged black youth helped popularize young civil rights leaders, like Stokely Carmichael. Activists like Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer cultivated rapport with rural blacks with their down-home ways of relating. Black Power Movement By the late twentieth century, the Civil Rights Movement had helped bring forth the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which largely benefited blacks in the South, while poverty, racism, and other social ills, undeterred, bred serious problems in black urban regions in the North. Northern urban black culture, however, was dramatically different than black culture in the mostly rural South. Blacks in the North favored leaders who were able to authentically speak black slang and vernacular, as well as leaned towards the militant and Afrocentric philosophy of the Black Power Movement; consequently, the influence of leaders like King was limited. A youthful, Afro- and dashiki-wearing Jesse Jackson, representing the SCLC, however, merged easily with Chicago’s black community. At the start of his activism, Malcolm X generated large urban audiences with his fiery talk of armed self-defense and ridicule of whites. Huey P. Newton and his organization, the Black Panther Party, spoke popular vernacular and outfaced abusive white police officers. He created fashionable uniforms, black leather jackets, powder blue shirts, and black berets, which he wanted to appeal to urban blacks. Elaine Brown, the first female Black Panther leader, was forceful and fast-talking. A product of tough city upbringing, Brown was a prototype for female black action heroines in films of the 1970s, and Angela Davis’s Afro became a powerful symbol of resistance when she appeared, sporting the hairstyle, on an FBI Most Wanted poster for a crime from which she would be acquitted. In the twenty-first century, social activists are still vaunted as heroic figures and symbols. In their lifetime, activists reflected as well as influenced black popular culture, popularizing protest songs, Spirituals, radical speeches and phrases, black slang, hairstyles, fashion, as well as hand symbols, like the clenched fist salute of the Black Power Movement. Their images, imprinted on posters, buttons, T-shirts, church fans, and framed pictures, have an enduring place in black popular culture and will forever be associated with resistance and struggle. See also: African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010; Afrocentric Movement; Urban Culture Further Reading Knight, Gladys L. 2008. Icons of African American Protest: Trailblazing Activists of the Civil Rights Movement. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rummel, Jack. 2003. African-American Social Leaders and Activists. New York: Facts on File.
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Smith, Jessie Carney, and Linda T. Wynn, eds. 2009. Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of African American Civil Rights Experience. Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press. Gladys L. Knight
Sororities. See Greek Letter Organizations
Soul , African American cultural movements have embraced many aspects of the black experience; the development of the term ‘‘soul’’ and its various meanings is one of them. The term ‘‘soul’’ is especially meaningful in the black community and became popular in the 1960s, when various symbols of black soul were readily seen. Soul is variously defined and applied to foods, music, dress, and thought; it is a strong, deep, and spiritual way of feeling and expression. It is an emotional fervor that is more commonly expressed by black American performers. Soul is seen as something not detached from the body. According to Norman E. Whitten Jr. in The Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, it is ‘‘an enduring and empowering concept of expanded brotherhood and sisterhood across numerable boundaries and barriers.’’ Brought on by the urban riots, sit-ins, and other protests of Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, increasingly blacks identified with and formed positive emotional bonds with each other. Their ‘‘soulness’’ gave them self-esteem, self-respect, and sensitivities toward other blacks. Although not entirely separated from this meaning of soul is the idea that, in American culture, it is as quality as well as an expressive consciousness that considers all aspects of art, oration, music, and dance. It is a type of oneness, togetherness, mutual feeling, and mutual experience. It engages the inner self. In the academic arena, Black Studies looks at soul as something that possesses meaning. When events, personalities, and certain situations arise, they may work together to enable soul to emerge, and when it does emerge, everyone who has participated in the historical reality of African people knows it and feels it. The Encyclopedia of Black Studies calls soul ‘‘a psychological fact—a feeling, a mood, and an attitude.’’ Certain contemporary concepts of blackness suggest that some African Americans consciously want to be faithful to themselves, and thus retain their ‘‘soul.’’ Some believe that soul is ‘‘a defining symbol of black urban culture’’ as well as ‘‘an important cultural characteristic of African Americans.’’ As the Black Power Movement of the 1960s grew, so did efforts toward black liberation and a social revolution; blacks identified with each other. This response to white rage and white power that they had seen for so long before these movements began led them to form positive emotional bonds with each other. Many, particularly younger African Americans, called themselves ‘‘Soul
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Brothers’’ and ‘‘Soul Sisters.’’ A common expression in different racial environments is the term ‘‘soul mate,’’ which refers to a deep, positive emotional bond that two people have for each other, rather than something that only African Americans feel. Many discussions of soul equate the term more with music than with other forms of cultural expression, claiming that it is much easier to delineate through the music genre than in other aspects of black culture. In the 1940s and 1950s there were black gospel music groups that carried the term ‘‘soul’’ in their names; African American jazz of the 1950s embraced a form known as soul; then soul music was the name given to Rhythm and Blues when certain gospel feelings and forms were included. Among the African American singing groups that became icons of soul music and who promoted such music were Booker T. and the MGs, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Supremes, and the Temptations. Single artists who sang soul included Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Carla and Rufus Thomas, and Jackie Wilson. Perhaps the most endearing and enduring use of soul as it relates to a music icon is the crowning of Aretha Franklin, who emerged in the late 1960s, as the undisputed ‘‘Queen of Soul.’’ By that time, soul music had become extremely popular and Franklin was one of the first women to sing soul. In the 1970s, however, the interest in soul music waned. Some scholars claim that, as relationships developed between African American and Afro-Caribbean musicians, Jamaicans tended to aggravate the gender tensions sometimes seen in African American popular culture. When that occurred, and as popular music transitioned from soul and eventually to Hip-Hop, R & B was seen as the music of women, while hip-hop remained male-dominated. In some cultures—African, for example—soul challenged black masculinity. Common in the black community is the use of the term ‘‘Soul Food,’’ which, in the view of some, simply means food that is prepared with ‘‘feeling and care.’’ It is that, and more. Soul food emerged from African customs and was mixed with southern practices of the American slave, who could neither read nor write and thus could not cook from recipes. What the slave woman prepared evolved from her very soul. Since mealtime was a time to share feelings with family— whether happiness or sorrow—slave women used meal preparation, or soul food, as a way to feel free. Soul food is used to refer to specific foods, such as fried chicken, turnip greens, Barbecue, black-eyed peas, and sweet potato pie. The history of soul food and recipes for its preparation are given in the numerous soul food Cookbooks that have been published; they help to preserve the meaning of soul as expressed in African American foods. Soul continues to be preserved in African American popular culture, as seen, for example, in the self-determination visible in the work of artists, writers, and performing artists. See also: Consciousness and Identity, African American; Soul and Funk (Music)
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Further Reading Asante, Molefi Kete, and Ama Mazama, eds. 2005. Encyclopedia of Black Studies. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Fink, Robert. 2005. ‘‘Soul.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Society. Vol. 2. Gerald D. Jaynes, ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Smythe, Mabel M., ed. 1976. The Black American Reference Book. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Thompson, Kathleen. 2006. ‘‘Soul.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Vol. 3. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Whitten, Norman E. Jr. ‘‘Diasporic Cultures in the Americas.’’ 2006. In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. 2nd ed., Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Jessie Carney Smith
Soul and Funk (Music) Soul and funk are two music styles that emerged during the second half of the twentieth century. Characterized by heavy rhythms, soul and funk both were instrumental in expressing black pride and at times black rage during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Derived from Rhythm and Blues (R & B), soul music emerged during the 1960s. Funk, an extension of soul, emerged during the 1970s, and both forms together offered useful models for artists to express themselves musically in African American pop culture. During the turbulent times of the 1960s in the United States, typified by the March on Washington in 1963, by John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising black-gloved fists during the medal ceremony of the 1968 Olympic Summer Games in Mexico City as a gesture of solidarity with the Black Power Movement, and even by the protests on college campuses as a result of the Vietnamese conflict, soul music, in many ways, was a suitable soundtrack. Derived from gospel music and often expressing black militancy, soul took the music of R & B to a new level of social consciousness with lyrics that moved away from love and human relationships to matters of social injustice. This new genre in music, one that moved black music away from strands of Minstrelsy and entertainment to activism and social engagement, was pioneered by James Brown, often called the ‘‘Godfather of Soul’’ and ‘‘Soul Brother, No. 1,’’ along with Aretha Franklin, the ‘‘Queen of Soul.’’ Beginning her career as a gospel singer in her father’s church, Aretha Franklin displayed tremendous virtuosity and range as an artist, with a style that moved from gospel to R & B to soul. Along with Brown and Franklin, Nina Simone, the ‘‘High Priestess of Soul’’ and Ray Charles helped infuse popular music with new registers of African American intellectualism and creativity. In 1968, James Brown released Black is Beautiful: Say It Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud, an album that, by its very title alone, served as a manifesto for the
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new popular music being produced by African American Musicians and Singers. ‘‘When one stops to take a look at all the beautiful, nappy hair styles black men and women are wearing today,’’ observed Skinner, a San Francisco reporter, ‘‘and then realize that just months ago most of those individuals wouldn’t have dared to wear their hair in its natural state, there has to be an admission that something beautiful is happening to black people. Actually, what is happening is black people are in the process of curing a case of national blindness. Not of themselves alone, but the entire society.’’ Aretha Franklin, too, encouraged the broader American society to reconsidered its point of view in the 1967 hit ‘‘R-ES-P-E-C-T,’’ a song in which Franklin, with a voice full of strength and urgency, commands respect. ‘‘All I’m askin’ / Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit),’’ Franklin sings. The manifesto aspect of soul music becomes particularly emphatic with Edwin Starr’s 1970 hit ‘‘War.’’ Carried by Starr’s forceful baritone and phrasing that is reminiscent of preachers in a black church, the song expresses with urgency that war is good for ‘‘absolutely nothing.’’ This type of soulful, authentic expression thrilled listeners during times of tremendous change in the United States. Funk and Heavy Rhythm During the 1970s, soul evolved into funk music. Much like soul, funk is distinguished by its heavy rhythm, yet it is a music that revolves around sex and drugs, with a message that’s less politically motivated. Funk still continued to express racial pride. The band Sly and the Family Stone, one of the leading funk innovators during the 1970s, produced ‘‘Don’t Call Me a N***** Whitey,’’ which was very much in line with the Black is Beautiful sentiment of soul artists. Sly and the Family Stone, too, were the first interracial rock band in the United States, one that also had male and female artists playing together. Born in San Francisco, the city that gave us popular culture such bands as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone also integrated psychedelic elements into their music. Earth, Wind, and Fire was another of the great funk bands of the time, and with their characteristic strong bass lines and utopian lyrics, as seen in such songs as ‘‘Fantasy,’’ captured the heart of the funk enterprise. Both soul and funk expressed the African American insistence for equality, yet funk expressed this longing in a manner that was at times surrealistic. George Clinton, an African American musician born in North Carolina in 1940, before becoming one of the most outlandish performers in the history of funk, used to sing doo wop style in a Newark, New Jersey, barbershop with his band called Parliament. Using psychedelic elements present in the music of the 1960s, Clinton stretched the limits of funk with innovative music and performances. With two bands, Parliament and the Funkadelics, which combined into P-Funk, Clinton became one of the most important pioneers of funk. ‘‘The PFunk Earth Tour, 1976–1977 A.D.’’ was the most ambitious tour ever undertaken by a group of black musicians, with performances in one hundred cities. Among his varied stage antics was his distinctive landing of a spaceship on stage. While
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entertaining audiences with wild acts of the imagination, Clinton developed music with a message, such as his ‘‘Chocolate City,’’ which explores the possibility of a world under an all-black government. Towards the close of the 1970s, funk music contended with punk rock and disco in the landscape of popular music. Even as funk began to dwindle among listeners, George Clinton extended funk into the 1980s. As Clinton himself said in Moore’s article ‘‘The Mothership,’’ ‘‘We want to take funk to heaven.’’ As a nod to his continued significance, and by extension that of soul’s and funk’s, George Clinton has performed with OutKast. The Hip-Hop group Funkdoodiest, three rappers from Los Angeles, cites Clinton as one of their chief influences. ‘‘I’m Son Doobie bringing the hard core funk,’’ said Jason Vasquez, using his stage name, ‘‘and that’s basically the tip we’re on. We’re like the rap version of the P-Funk All-Stars. Like George Clinton and them, we don’t really get too political. . . . We are just come as ourselves, you know, like old school times,’’ he said in Marsha Mitchell’s Los Angeles Sentinel article. Taken together, soul and funk together helped set the stage for hip-hop music, where authenticity, above all else, remains the order of the day. See also: Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups; Pop Music; Soul Further Reading Mitchell, Marsha. 1993. ‘‘Funkdoobiest—The New Shepherds of Hip-Hop.’’ Los Angeles Sentinel, May 27. Moore, Marie. 1977. ‘‘The Mothership Connection Lands in New York This Weekend.’’ New York Amsterdam News, September 10. Moore, Marie. 1976. ‘‘Report On The ‘Parliafunkadelicment thang’ In ‘Nawline.’’’ New York Amsterdam News, November 27. Sellman, James Clyde. 1999. ‘‘Funk.’’ 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. ‘‘Soul 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. Skinner, M. Regina. 1968. ‘‘Woman’s View: Black and Proud.’’ [San Francisco] Sun Reporter, November 30. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Soul Food Soul food may be the quintessential symbol of the African American’s journey from Africa to America. This culture been referenced as far back as 1600s and has been sustained over time. From their motherland to North America, slaves embraced memories of the soul and spirit of their country. These precious memories were laced and woven into the fabric of U.S. history, most distinctly
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threaded through cuisine. To survive the arduous labor of the fields, slaves incorporated their cuisine into American culture. Their sustainability rested largely with the richness of the slave’s culture that in the beginning had very little to call its own. From the plantation owner’s table to the slave quarters, leftover meats and vegetables were transformed into hearty and tasty meals. For instance, fish was turned into croquettes and stale bread became bread pudding. Hence the birth of the tradition of ‘‘soul food’’ emerged as the beginning of a contribution which is recognized as an icon in popular culture today. From slavery to civil rights, food exhibited the transparency of slaves as they transitioned to the New World. The institutionalization of slavery was challenging for families and their freedom. In order to survive slavery, families had to find ways to celebrate during the suffering and struggles of daily life. Cooking of food allowed for their gifts and talents to be displayed. Slaves were able to express unspoken words and to extend love with a sense of freedom through cooking. Cookbooks were not available for their use, nor could they read them if they were on hand. They prepared meals from instinct and feeling, which expressed their hopes of life getting better. They were able to draw from their lives in Africa and make the connection to the new food choices. Their cooking styles were one of the few things they could call their own and celebrate. After a long day of work, where communication was mainly with their owners, they knew that the supper table was a safe place. Their nostalgia for Africa was shared through storytelling and conversations to preserve their heritage as they shared food. The art of cooking from memory and creating meals to sustain the challenges of life warrants the strong legacy of soul food. This legacy was handed down through oral traditions—conversations and storytelling. The existence of soul food comes from and remains a major contribution of African American history. By the mid-1960s, when the low state of civil rights for African Americans was being challenged, soul food provided an all-encompassing concept that represented the many souls of black folks. It is the dynamic presence that greatly exceeds the culinary identities, such as okra, grits, collard greens, black-eyed peas, fried chicken, and candied yams. Soul food is a powerful duo that some would call indefinable. In her book Black Hunger Food and the Politics of U.S. Identity, Doris Watts included an excerpt from Nicholas Cooper-Lewter and Henry Mitchell that refers to soul as a style of cooking as well as ‘‘a complicated handshake, a widely popular genre of music, or an identity (Soul sister or brother).’’ Others call soul a ‘‘natural rhythm, emotive spontaneity, or a cultural compulsion to compassion.’’ Still others say that it is the ‘‘sum of all that is typically or uniquely Black,’’ and ‘‘one who has to ask what it is can never know.’’ Adding the concept of food to soul represents a richer basis for quality of lives. Literally speaking, life could not continue without food. Theoretical food could be the action role of soul. Action must be taken in order to benefit from food. This discussion, therefore, addresses soul food in the broadest sense. Soul is life; therefore, the soul of African Americans can be studied in great detail from this point of view. Soul has the power that once the life begins, the soul becomes a
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forever entity commanding the routine functions necessary to continue existence of humanity. Nurturing soul suffixes such as soul music, soul mate, soul man, soul brother, and so on provide endless possibilities for new discoveries and discussions. Some connect soul food to poverty; they also simply call it southern cooking. Clearly the culinary expertise of chefs and cooks transcended regions, as they moved from one location to another, and blended new ingredients with traditional methods of cooking. Currently not only are soul food recipes accessible in cookbooks and in oral tradition but the rich family stories surrounding them are recounted creating a documentary for this phenomenon. Unlike some of the African American music and dances, soul food cooking could not be stolen or fully duplicated because of the spiritual existence surrounding it. Soul food, as we know it today, is larger than life; it has been established as a recognizable world cuisine. What is less discussed, however, is the powerhouse of nutrients in any soul food, as seen, for example, in sweet potatoes, turnip greens, black-eyed peas, and fruit cobbler. It is now known that the traditional method of cooking with fat makes soul food unhealthy. Nevertheless, soul food provided hearty nourishment for slaves and those engaged in heavy labor, as was the case with many southern blacks. Perhaps the long-lasting favor of soul food is the graceful rhythm of attitude. This contributes to the notion of soul food: the creator is unable to resist the opportunity of creating something new from his or her soul. When following the recipe, one adds a little of his or her flavoring to make the recipe extra special. During soulful celebrations for special occasions, usually different dishes are assigned to family members. With recipes to follow, it is known that someone makes the best collard greens, macaroni, fried chicken, or pound cake. There are available numerous soul food cookbooks as well as recipes and discussions of soul food in African American cookbooks The magic of cooking from the heart, however, keeps the legacy growing strong and stronger. See also: Barbecue; Fish Fry; Folk Foods; Food and Cooking Further Reading Williams-Forson, Psyche. 2006. Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Witt, Doris. 1999. Black Hunger: Food and the Politics of U.S. Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thura Mack
Soul Train Soul Train was the essence of African American popular culture television programming of the 1970s. The music and dance program aired from 1971 to 2006. During Soul Train’s thirty-five-year run, the program featured a host,
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predominantly black audiences who danced to music as cameras scanned the crowds, and big-name performers in Rhythm and Blues, soul, and Hip-Hop music. The program was enormously popular with black youth. (Dance and music are fundamental cultural elements of black youth culture.) A large part of the program’s success is attributed to Don Cornelius, host and founder of the show. He was the epitome of coolness, a highly valued trait in urban black culture, ever adapting to the vicissitudes of African American trends and fashion. Cornelius hosted the show between 1971 and 1993. He sold the program to MadVision Entertainment in 2008. However, the series ended in 2006. The series inspired the Soul Train Music Awards, the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, and Soul Train Christmas Starfest. Don Cornelius, a Chicago native, started out as a radio disc jockey in Chicago and hosted a traveling caravan he called the Soul Train. The Soul Train featured local groups which toured Chicago high schools. Dance was already massively popular among black youth, and disco music and clubs were increasingly becoming popular with mainstream audiences. With the exception of a few television shows and films, black youth dance culture was largely overlooked. American Bandstand was one of the few televised programs that spotlighted dance and youth culture; however, blacks and the music that was popular with black audiences rarely appeared in early episodes. The popular host, Dick Clark, and the predominately white dancers did not intrigue black audiences. The clothing styles, dance styles, and culture were considered extremely conservative. Cornelius’s revolutionary new program, Soul Train, which debuted in 1971, was significant for many reasons. For one, Cornelius, the host and founder, owned the show. Although African Americans appeared with increasing frequency in television and film, few blacks were positioned as owners, producers, and directors in the industry. Moreover, Cornelius cast everyday African Americans as the stars of the show. The program also featured revealing glimpses into popular black dance styles, fashion trends, and hairstyles of several decades, as well as exposed popular black music and artists. The program was famous for, among other things, its opening, including an animated train, the soulful beats of the opening theme music, the lively, high-pitched announcement, ‘‘it’s the sooooooul train,’’ as well as the dapperly dressed host, Don Cornelius. Cornelius was well-known for catchphrases like ‘‘love, peace, and soul,’’ words he used to close each episode. The show featured popular music and assorted live performers that were, often, exclusively known to blacks. The ‘‘Soul Train Line’’ was a popular element in the program. At the conclusion of each show, attendees formed two lines, while couples, facing the camera, danced down the line. Soul Train Lines can be viewed on the popular video-sharing website, YouTube. Soul Train spawned award shows and a special. These programs provided further exposure and recognition for African Americans who, historically, were underrepresented in similar type programs that catered to mainstream audiences, as well as promoted solidarity among black artists. In 1987, the Soul Train Music Awards debuted. This awards program features a different celebrity host each year. Two other annual programs, Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, which debuted
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in 1995, and Soul Train Christmas Starfest, which debuted in 1998, ended in 2006. See also: Children and Youth; Dance and Dance Companies; Soul and Funk (Music); Urban Culture Further Reading Lehman, Christopher P. 2008. A Critical History of Soul on Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Soul Train. http://www.soultrain.com/. Gladys L. Knight
South, The, The South is a region of the United States characterized by specific folkways and historically by particular ethnic settlement patterns and by its allegiances to the Confederacy. Mythologically, it often represents the home and birthplace of African Americans; a kind of hell out of which black American culture emerged and with which it has a love/hate relationship. The U.S. Bureau of the Census defines the following sixteen states as constituting the South: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. The South is often further divided into geographic areas consisting of the Deep South, which includes Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina; the upper South, which includes the border states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia; and the mid-South, which includes Tennessee, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Other regions of the South include ethnically distinct Louisiana with its Creole and Cajun folkways, the Appalachian folk culture and that of the Ozark Mountains, as well as the Gullah folk traditions of South Carolina and the Georgia Sea Islands. Aside from a geographic South, there exists a cultural South, which extends to include Missouri. On the other hand, many people do not consider Delaware southern, neither geographically nor culturally, and many parts of Texas as well as southern Florida have become less southern culturally due to shifting demographics. The region always has been culturally diverse with folk traditions from Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, and France, as well as Spain, Portugal, and various parts of Africa. All of these folkways as well as Native American influences contributed to the lore of the American South. However, the area south of the Mason-Dixon Line received more enslaved Africans than did any other region of what eventually became the United States of America. This large African presence in the South was a decisive factor in shaping southern folk culture, from folktales to cuisine.
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Many African traditions once thought to have been lost during the Middle Passage remained intact in spite of the efforts of slaveholders to season or strip Africans of all cultural vestiges from their homeland. Through the oral tradition, body language, facial expressions, Humor, and sentiment, cultural and racial memory survived. The massive numbers of black people in the South were not only able to retain African survivals in terms of words and language patterns (Gullah and Sea Island, for instance) and African lore, but they created new myths, tales, songs, Jokes—a new world lore. Chief among the African American folk traditions of the South is folk music. Black folk music consists of the Spirituals, blues, jazz, work songs, and field hollers. The banjo, an instrument introduced by slaves, was based on the West African instrument called the banjar, constructed of a calabash gourd and gut strings. During slavery, drums were outlawed (except in selected localities, such as New Orleans), as slaveholders were aware of the West African tradition of the talking drums. Used as a means of communication for slave rebellions, the drum was the heartbeat of African music. African American folk music substituted for the missing drum with homemade instruments like jugs, bottles, and washboards to keep rhythm, or they used body percussion, called ‘‘hambone,’’ a rhythm created by using the hands to hit or slap the thigh or chest. While black folk music began in the South, it spread and influenced all of American music. The spirituals or Sorrow Songs, as W. E. B. Du Bois called them, were a culmination of African rhythms and Christian imagery. While many of the lyrics of the spirituals came directly from the Bible, often these biblical lyrics were encoded messages for the enslaved to escape their hell on Earth and not an expression of their willingness to wait for freedom in the great hereinafter, as first thought by those who studied the traditions. The spiritual ‘‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’’ was the signal that Harriet Tubman was coming to carry the enslaved to freedom. ‘‘Jacob’s Ladder’’ was another song shrouded in Biblical imagery but intended for instructions to a better life on Earth. ‘‘Follow the Drinking Gourd’’ was a secular song within the same tradition. Storytelling, while not exclusive to the South, is a central part of southern culture and a mainstay in African American culture. Folktales, many of which have African origins, especially the animal tales, were a means for enslaved people to not only pass on ethnic mores and wisdom, but the tales also provided an outlet for Signifying or talking about the slave owners and/or white people in general. These animal tales, once thought of as quite simplistic, served as social criticism and were political attacks on the injustice of those in power. Brer Rabbit was a metaphor for the slave, whereas Brer Bear, large and powerful, symbolized the great white planter. Brer Rabbit lived by his wits, as did all of the enslaved people of the South. Many of the tales include highly sophisticated metaphor, initially dismissed by whites as slave superstitions. High John the Conqueror is one example of the African understanding of spirit and the absolute need for forgiveness within the human experience. Southern cultural traditions all bear the mark of that ‘‘peculiar institution’’ of slavery. Southern cuisine, often referred to as Soul Food, was greatly influenced
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by black cooks. As with music and other aspects of African American folk culture, enslaved peopled used what was available to them. Chitterlings, fatback, neck bones, hog maws, pig feet, pig tail, and mountain oysters became ‘‘soul food’’ because these were the foods available to the slaves after the owners had taken for themselves the most nutritious parts of whatever was available. Given what was left, these Africans in America created delicacies. They did so by combining traditional African seasonings like salt, onion, garlic, and an abundance of peppers. Vegetables like okra and eggplant were imported either with or by the enslaved men and women from Africa. Poke salad, pokeweed, mustard, kale, and collard greens were vegetables that were boiled and seasoned with fatback, called salt pork in some areas of the South, or with some other meat, hog maws, and eaten with cornbread or hoecake. The juice from the boiled greens, called pot likker, was eaten like broth, often with day-old cornbread crumbled in the bowl. In the South, also known as the Sunbelt, heat and high humidity produced what is known as porch culture and southern drinks to accompany the porch sitters. Sweet tea, which is still popular throughout the South, the famed mint julep, wines made from southern-grown fruits, blackberries (dewberries), muscadine grapes, and peaches were typical southern drinks served ice cold. Folks made their own drinks, sang, told stories or lies, as the case might be, while sitting on front porches of shotgun houses (West African architectural style) or in clean-swept yards reminiscent of African compounds to pass the time and catch a cool breeze before the inventions and affordability of air conditioning and television. The South figures prominently in African American oral traditions. Genres such as blues, Jokes, legends, and folktales often reflect some of the ambivalence that African Americans have toward the region and its culture. It was in the periods following slavery when African Americans migrated North and West that this ambivalence emerged. In black, southern mythology, the North had during the slavery period been a land of ‘‘milk and honey,’’ of freedom and equality. When African Americans began migrating North only to be met with different forms of racism and with cultural and familial isolation, the South took on a new significance. On the one hand, many of those who had left the South began to view it in nostalgic terms, remembering the close bonds of black communities but also the slower pace of life. At the same time, the horrors of southern life were not forgotten. Hence, the South became a mythological land into which one might wander in hopes of becoming spiritually renewed through contact with loved ones, but in which one had to always be aware of ever-present dangers. Lawrence Levine describes the attitude of comedian Moms Mabley toward the South as representative of the general attitude among African Americans in the North: ‘‘She referred to the South as ‘down home,’’’ the place which harbored so many relatives and friends and which was still symbolic of much of Afro-American culture. Yet more often the South was spoken of as something exotic, aberrant, and dangerous which was better left behind. She referred to it as ‘‘down there,’’ ‘‘behind the scorched curtain,’’ and ‘‘no man’s land number two.’’ Leaders in the New South have made great efforts to distinguish it from the stereotypical Old South defined as the ‘‘Bible belt,’’ Christian fundamentalist or
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fanatic, politically conservative or racist, place of vigilante justice and Ku Klux Klan violence. Following the success of the Civil Rights Movement, many African Americans began to return to the so-called New South. At the beginning of the twentieth century, 90 percent of African Americans lived in the South. By 1970 the numbers had dwindled to less than 50 percent. The Great Migration was reversed in the 1980s. Still intact, however, are the icons of the Old South, including the rebel flag and other images of the Confederacy. Organizations such as ‘‘League of the South’’ and the ‘‘Southern Agrarians’’ represent new efforts to resist the liberal democracy expressed by many citizens of the New South. Perhaps the newest aspect of African American southern lore is that it is now urban rather than rural. While blues, jazz, Rhythm and Blues, and gospel remain classic, urban lore with its toasts, jokes, and signifying is growing in popular culture. Hip-Hop is a popular urban form of Folklore in many southern cities. Atlanta, Miami, Houston, and New Orleans are cities with growing multicultural communities, Hispanic, Asian, and transplanted northerners, black and white, who sometimes outnumber native southerners. See also: Africa and the African Diaspora; African Americans in the U.S., 1619–2010; African Cultural Influences; Blues and Blues Festivals; Caribbean Cultural Influences; Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading Holloway, Joseph E. 1990. Africanisms in American Culture. Bloomington: Illinois University Press. Levine, Lawrence W. 1977. Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press. Turner, Lorenzo D. [1949] 1973. Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Walker, Sheila S. 2001. African Roots/American Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Nagueyalti Warren
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in 1957 and is considered to be the originator of the first southern-wide Civil Rights Movement dedicated to racial desegregation in the United States. SCLC was initially founded by Martin Luther King Jr., and a group of more than sixty fellow young African American ministers who met at a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, organized by Baynard Rustin. All of these ministers were active in local civil rights protest across the South. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference soon became the primary organization through which the southern black church made significant contributions to the black freedom struggle of the 1960s.
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Initially labeled the ‘‘Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration’’ by King and Rustin, the conference met three times in 1957 before finally adopting Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as its actual name. Wanting to avoid competition and conflict with the NAACP, SCLC chose to compose its membership of local organizations such as civic leagues, ministerial alliances, and individual churches instead of individual memberships. When the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed, black Americans faced many obstacles to economic and political equality despite decades of gradual social reforms. Other advocacy organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League had begun and made significant gains but operated chiefly in the North. These organizations had comparatively little impact on black southerners, who lived in perennial poverty and social ostracism. Black Americans in many parts of the country were prohibited from voting. They were subjected to segregationist barriers that impeded advancing economically and socially. This was particularly the case in the southern states where black Americans faced formidable barriers that had stood firm and even intensified in spite of significant legal victories against segregation in interstate transportation and education. SCLC drew together southern ministers who believed that the black church had a responsibility to act in the political arena and who sought an organizational vehicle for coordinating their activism. Three principal influences shaped SCLC’s foundation. First, in Alabama, was the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and 1956, a successful local 381-day protest effort triggered by the bold defiance of Rosa Parks, a black seamstress who refused to give up her seat for a white passenger. The boycott brought King to national attention and made him a symbol of new black activism in the South. Second, young ministers in other cities such as Birmingham, Tallahassee, New Orleans, and Atlanta sought a forum for exchanging ideas and experiences. Third, New York–based civil rights activists Bayard Rustin, Ella Baker, and Stanley Levison, who had helped garner funds and publicity for the Montgomery protest in the North, began advocating for the formation of a region-wide organization in the South that could spread the influence of Montgomery’s mass movement and provide King with a larger platform. In pursuit of a goal beyond the desegregation of city bus lines, King and the other ministers leading the conference—C. K. Steele of Tallahassee, Fred L. Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, Joseph E. Lowery of Mobile, and Ralph D. Abernathy of Montgomery, focused on the right to vote and sought to develop a program, staff, and financial resources with which to pursue its goals. Through a series of aggressive demonstrations throughout April and May 1963, SCLC put the violent excesses of racist southern lawmen on the front page of newspapers throughout the world and civil rights rose as never before to the top of America’s national agenda. See also: Freedom Riders; Protest Marches; Sit-in Movement
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Further Reading Branch, Taylor. 1988. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–65. New York: Simon and Schuster. DeBlasio, Donna M. 2009. ‘‘Southern Christian Leadership Conference.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present. Vol. 4. Paul Finkelman, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Peake, Thomas R. 2006. ‘‘Southern Christian Leadership Conference.’’ In African American History. Vol. 3. Carl L. Bankston III, ed. Pasadena, CA & Hackensack, NJ: Salem Press. Rose M. Powell
Sparks, Jordin (1989– ), Singer, Model, Actress Jordin Sparks was well-received by American Idol fans and others after she won the television show talent contest in 2007. Her fans are as pleased with her voice as they are with her warmth and charm. At only seventeen years old, she became a very popular idol and role model for young women in African American popular culture, and continues to claim admiring attention when she appears in public. She successfully took the fast track to critical acclaim, for which she has received honors and other recognitions. Jordin Brianna Sparks was born on December 22, 1989, in Glendale, Arizona, to former NFL football player Phillippi Sparks and Jodi Weidmann Sparks. She has a younger brother called P. J., for Phillippi Sparks Jr. Jordin is biracial, the daughter of a black father and a white mother. She is managed by her maternal grandmother, Pam Wiedmann. Her maternal great-aunt Shari, an actress and model, is her manager. When Jordin reached fame as a contestant on the television show American Idol, she was home-schooled to strengthen her concentration on singing. To round out her life, she is an Evangelical Christian and enjoys Football, reading, and music. The singer has been performing since she was eighteen months old. She had two noted auditions in 2003, which led to her appearances in 2004, when she appeared twice on the America’s Most Talented Kids television show, winning in her first appearance. In that year as well, Sparks finished second in the coveted Music in the Rockies, a national competition for aspiring contemporary artists. She also won Gospel Music Association’s GMA Academy competition, Colgate Showdown, and Drug Free Arizona Superstar Search. In Arizona, Sparks was named Best Young Artist for three consecutive years. The talented Sparks continued her involvement in modeling and as an actress while competing in musical contests. For example, in 2006, she was one of two contestants who were successful in the Phoenix Torrid’s search for the ‘‘Next Plus Size Model.’’ Seventeen magazine published a full-page advertisement featuring Sparks. She was also pictured in a number of Torrid advertisements and promotional pieces. Drawing on her skill as an actress, Jordin has performed in several plays, including one shown in Franklin, Tennessee. On several occasions,
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she has performed with Valley Youth Theater located in Phoenix. In March 2002, she appeared as an Emerald City dancer and a poppy in The Wiz. When American Idol was in its sixth season, Jordin Sparks appeared on January 17, and earned a ‘‘gold ticket’’ to the Hollywood Round, an important step for the Idol ‘‘wannabees.’’ By then, she had become a favorite contestant. Prior to her appearance on the show, she won KSAZ-TV’s Arizona Idol contest. When the final count between contestants was made May 23, 2007, Sparks was crowned winner. Then seventeen years old, she remains the youngest contestant to win Idol. Following her win, Sparks toured nationally with fellow Idol contestants. She also performed twice on the next season of American Idol—once on the Idol Gives Back and again in the May 13, 2009, episode of the show. A second tour came when she joined Alicia Keys for the opening act of her ‘‘As I Am’’ tour in New York City in early 2008. She missed some dates with the tour due to a health scare resulting from lack of sleep, tiredness, and excessive singing and talking. After weeks of vocal rest, she was able to join the tour in April. She also joined Keys for the Australian leg of her tour, which started in December 2008. Keys and Sparks have mutual admiration for each other. Keys said in Jet magazine that ‘‘Jordin is such a sweetheart’’ and that, when Keys’s career was in its fancy, ‘‘People game me a shot. . . . so I’m happy to do the same for her.’’ Sparks called Keys ‘‘inspirational’’ and ‘‘a strong woman and the epitome of what girls want to become.’’ Sparks released her self-titled debut CD in November 2007; three crowdpleasers included are ‘‘Tattoo;’’ the duet ‘‘No Air,’’ which she recorded with singer Chris Brown; and ‘‘One Step At a Time.’’ These singles have sold nearly nine million downloads/ringtones. For ‘‘No Air’’ she earned two Teen Choice Award nominations and a nomination for Breakout New Artist. Her CD reached number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, earned U.S. platinum status, and earned for her the Outstanding New Artist honor at the 39th Annual NAACP Image Awards in 2008. Since winning Idol, Sparks reflects on her most memorable moments. She gave tribute to Diana Ross in December 2007 during the 30th ‘‘Annual Kennedy Center Honors.’’ In February 2008, she sang the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLII held in her hometown, Glendale, Arizona, and at the NBA All Star Game on February 15, 2009. ‘‘I have never been more scared in my life,’’ Sparks said in Jet magazine. She gave tribute to the ‘‘Queen of Soul’’ Aretha Franklin during the NAACP’s Image Awards that year. Sparks was proud to visit villages in Africa with President George W. Bush in February 2008, and to distribute mosquito nets to help fight the malaria epidemic. In July 2009, Sparks released her second album, Battlefield, which is also the title-track of her first single. A songwriter as well, she cowrote four of the album’s tracks. She has made numerous television appearances, on such shows as The Tyra Banks Show, Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular, Regis and Kelly, So You Think You Can Dance, Good Morning America, and Canadian Idol, The Today Show, The Early Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The View. Sparks is especially concerned about finding a cure for cancer, especially since many people who have been close to her have had the disease. That concern led
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her to appear in the opening act of the Jonas Brothers North American leg of their fifty-two-date tour on May 11, 2009, to raise funds for children with cancer. She also joined ‘‘The Circus Starring Britney Spears’’ tour in 2009, appearing on the second North American leg for most shows. Another charitable effort was her appearance with many popular artists in the 2010 remake of ‘‘We Are the World 25,’’ a charity single made to raise funds for Haiti in the aftermath of its devastating earthquake. Further Reading ‘‘Jordin Sparks Biography.’’ Official Site. http://www.jordinsparks.com/us/biography Manheim, James. 2008. ‘‘Jordin Sparks.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 66. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Parham, Marti. 2008. ‘‘After ‘American Idol’ Jordin Sparks.’’ Jet 113 (July 7): 44–48. Jessie Carney Smith
Spirituals Spirituals, often previously referred to as Negro Spirituals, were vocal songs created by African American people who were held as slaves in the United States. It is difficult to trace the exact development of the spiritual as this music was not originally written down during its creation but was passed on as an oral tradition, meaning that they were taught by rote rather than through notated music. It is largely believed that the majority of the spirituals were created between the years 1700 and 1865. The spirituals spoke of the subjects of God, heaven, and freedom and often contained hidden messages to help the slaves plot escapes. The ‘‘call-and-response’’ form is common in spirituals. In this form, a leader will sing a sentence or phrase (call) and the people respond with a short phrase, often made up of a few words (response). The call-and-response tradition is common in music of Africa. Following the abolishment of slavery in the United States, many African Americans did not want to sing this music as it was seen as a reminder of slavery. Spirituals were introduced to the public in 1871 with the tours of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a small group of singers from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, whose primary goal was to raise money for the university. Spirituals are found today primarily in choral arrangements and arrangements for solo voice and piano. The Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University was the first group to publicly perform the Negro spiritual. This ensemble of nine singers, under the direction of Fisk professor George White, was formed to tour the country and raise money for the financially strapped university. Originally, their programs consisted of lighter European classical music with a few spirituals at the end but later consisted of mostly spirituals. The funds raised from this tour saved the school and purchased the land on which the university is located. Subsequent tours took the singers to
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Europe. During an 1873 tour, the singers performed for Queen Victoria of England, who commissioned her court painter to paint a portrait of the singers. This portrait hangs in Jubilee Hall, a residence facility on the Fisk University campus. Completed in 1876, Jubilee Hall is the first permanent structure built on the Fisk University campus from funds raised by the singers. After the success of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, other groups dedicated to the performance of the spiritual began to appear in the United States in the twentieth century. These groups included the Hall Johnson Negro Choir, founded by composer and arranger Hall Johnson in 1925, and the Tuskegee Institute Choir under the direction of William Dawson. Following the American Civil War in 1865, collections of Negro spirituals began to appear in publication. The first publication of spirituals, entitled Slave Songs of the United States, compiled and edited by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, was published in 1867. This collection contained 136 melodies from different regions of the southern United States. Another collection was Jubilee Songs: As Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University by Theodore F. Seward, published in 1872. It was sold during performances of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Other significant publications of spirituals include New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, complied by John W. Work II in 1901; The American Negro Spiritual by James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926 respectively; and American Negro Songs and Spirituals by John W. Work III published in 1940. Folk Song of the American Negro by John W. Work II, published in 1915, was the first treatise written about the spiritual. John W. Work II, often referred to as the ‘‘rescuer of the Negro folk song,’’ worked to bring acceptance to this music. In addition to publishing the first treatise on the spiritual, Work, along with his brother Frederick, founded a publishing company in Nashville dedicated to the publication of the Negro spiritual. Both John W. Work II and John W. Work III served as director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Spirituals appear today in concert arrangements, intended to be performed on the concert stage or, in some cases, in church. The most common arrangements of spirituals are for solo voice and piano, choral arrangements and instrumental, especially organ. The purpose of these arrangements is to get the spiritual into the mainstream concert repertoire. Arrangers of spirituals include Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866–1949) and Hall Johnson (1888–1970), both of whom wrote arrangements for the African American contralto Marian Anderson. Other arrangers include R. Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943), William Dawson (1889– 1990), Edward Boatner (1898–1981), John W. Work III (1901–67), Jester Hairston (1901–2000), and Moses Hogan (1957–2003). See also: Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups Further Reading Lovell, John, Jr. 1972. Black Song: The Forge and The Flame. New York: Macmillan. Marsh, J. B. T. 2003. The Jubilee Singers and Their Songs. Reprint. New York: Dover.
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Ward, Andrew. 2001. Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. New York: HarperCollins. Work, John W. III. 1998. American Negro Songs. Reprint. New York: Dover. Anthony Williams
Sports African American athletes are richly ingrained in American popular culture. At the start of 1900s, black athletes like boxer Jack Johnson were feared because their athletic prowess and bold style apart from their sports challenged or circumvented Jim Crow and white supremacy. Then the daring, barrier-breaking feats of African American athletes in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s ran parallel to the civil rights revolution. In the early twenty-first century, black athletes are often some of the most beloved and admired figures in sports and society. They are the ubiquitous pitchmen and women who sell products and inspire dreams, whether citizens are encouraged to ‘‘Be like Mike’’ (Michael Jordan), ‘‘Just do it’’ like Tiger Woods, or hail to the ‘‘king’’ (LeBron James). The progress of African American athletes in popular culture continues to evolve and can easily be categorized by major sports: Baseball For most of the first half of the 1900s, Major League Baseball barred blacks from playing the game, yet African Americans made profound statements on the national pastime. One of the best players in the Negro Baseball Leagues was Satchel Paige, the Kansas City Monarchs pitcher who would later join the desegregated major leagues at age forty-two. He famously said, ‘‘Don’t look back; something might be gaining on you.’’ Josh Gibson, another Negro Leaguer, and the strong, stoic catcher of the Homestead Grays of Pittsburgh, was reputedly the best black baseball player white America did not see. In the 1970s movie Bingo Long’s Traveling All-Stars, one of the baseball players said Gibson was the only man to ever hit a home run out of Yankee Stadium. Buck O’Neil, another Kansas City Monarch, became a folk hero in the late 1990s as the memorable character who told colorful anecdotes in the Ken Burns PBS documentary Baseball. Jackie Robinson, the young Negro League baseball star who was tapped to break the color barrier in 1947, is an enduring figure. Admirers memorialized him in the Buddy Johnson and Count Basie song, ‘‘Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?’’ and the signature film footage of Robinson is of the infielder feinting off third base them making a mad dash and successfully scoring by stealing home, much to the consternation of fellow future Hall of Famer Yogi Berra. In American popular culture, the Jackie Robinson metaphor is used to describe people who shatter racial barriers in many professions.
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Willie Mays, who joined the New York Giants in 1951, remains arguably the greatest all-round baseball player ever because he hit, caught, threw, and ran spectacularly. Mays, however, will be defined by ‘‘the catch,’’ the moment during the 1954 World Series when Vic Wertz hit a ball more than 400 feet and well over the centerfielder’s head. At the crack of the bat, Mays turned and ran with his back to airborne ball until he caught up with the sphere. After the catch, Mays spun around and threw a strike to the infield to the shock and delight of Polo Grounds fans. Other Mays folklore was the story of him playing stickball with Harlem children on his days off. The year 1964 was special because the World Series pitted the New York Yankees with their power hitting and overwhelmingly white roster vs. the St. Louis Cardinals with its base running and defensive speed and star black players Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, and Lou Brock. The Cardinals won the series. In 1968 when they returned to play the Detroit Tigers, Gibson was most dominating at pitching. He had a record low 1.12 earned run average (an ERA of 3.00 is considered excellent) and Gibson won 22 games, 13 of the wins shutouts. Willie Mays’s peer was Hank Aaron, a slugger who played in near obscurity for the Milwaukee then Atlanta Braves. Aaron hit 35 to 40 home runs each year in the late 1950s and through the 1960s. By the early 1970s people noticed that Aaron was about to achieve the impossible: surpass Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record of 714 which had stood for thirty-nine years. Aaron became the second man in modern league baseball to surpass 700 home runs then he broke Ruth’s record in 1974; he finished his career with 755. Roberto Clemente, the high-batting average hitter with a cannon-like throwing arm, became a humanitarian casualty. On the last day of 1972, the native of Puerto Rico died in a plane crash while trying to deliver aid to hurricane victims in Nicaragua. In the 1992 movie Grand Canyon, staring Danny Glover and Kevin Kline, Kline’s son was named Roberta as a tribute to the star. In 1977, slugger Reggie Jackson of the Yankees became a cultural phenomenon during the World Series. He was known as ‘‘Mr. October’’ after hitting three home runs in one game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1986, Mookie Wilson, a hustling centerfielder for the New York Mets, hit a weak ground ball that inexplicably rolled through the legs of Red Sox infielder Bill Buckner for an error that saved the Mets from elimination. They went on to win the World Series. Bo Jackson, a two-sport phenomenon, had a brief but spectacular stint with the Kansas City Royals in the early 1990s that validated his ‘‘Bo knows’’ pitch line in Nike athletic shoe commercials. Barry Bonds, son of big-league slugger Bobby Bonds, became a superstar with the Pittsburgh Pirates, then the San Francisco Giants. In 2008, Bonds shattered the all-time home run record with homer 756 in August 2007. In 2001, he set the single season home run record with 73. Instead of being a celebrated sports figure for his milestones, he is largely scorned; Bonds has been accused of using performance enhancing drugs to bulk up his body.
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While Reggie Jackson was respectfully called ‘‘Mr. October’’ a generation ago, Derek Jeter is affectionately known as ‘‘Mr. Yankee’’ in the twenty-first century because of the shortstop’s clutch hitting, vacuum cleanerlike fielding, and hustle. Football Paul Robeson was a stirring vocalist, dramatist, and human rights activist. He was also a Football star at Rutgers University in the late 1910s and made AllAmerican. Robeson was an exception because few blacks played college football during the early 1900s except at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In the late 1950s, Jim Brown led football power Syracuse University. The running back was drafted by the NFL Cleveland Browns where he became the league’s most punishing running back for nine seasons. Brown retired from football in 1965 and has enjoyed a lengthy movie career, with roles in Rio Conchos, The Dirty Dozen, and Original Gangstas. Brown helped recruit his successor, Ernie Davis, known as the ‘‘Elmira Express’’ because of his feats at an upstate New York high school. Davis won the Heisman Trophy, college football’s highest honor, and led Syracuse to a national championship in 1959. Davis was even drafted by the Browns to play alongside his idol, but Davis never played as a pro and died from leukemia at age twentythree. In 2008, The Express was a movie about Davis’s remarkable life. Through the 1960s, as pro football grew in popularity because of television and visionary marketing by the NFL, the profile of black players rose too. Gayle Sayers was the elusive running back with the Chicago Bears. Ebony magazine published a condensed milk advertisement that read, ‘‘Gayle Sayers was a Carnation baby, and baby look at him now!’’ Bob Hayes, an Olympic sprinter at that time, was ‘‘the world’s fastest man’’ for running 100 yards in less than 10 seconds. Hayes’s speed made him a pass receiving threat with the expansion Dallas Cowboys. Roosevelt Grier was a formidable defensive lineman for the New York Giants, then the Los Angeles Rams. After football he served in Robert F. Kennedy’s security detail. In June 1968, Grier was one of men who pinned Sirhan Sirhan after the assassin shot the presidential hopeful at close range. That year, the University of Southern California had a phenomenal running back, O. J. Simpson, who won a Heisman trophy, and later as member of the Buffalo Bills in the NFL he broke Brown’s career rushing records. Like Brown, after football he moved on to a long acting career. Simpson was synonymous with Hertz rental car commercials. He would sprint through airports to depict Hertz’s speed and convenience. By the late 1980s, Simpson appeared in several Naked Gun movie comedies with Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley. Then in 1994 Simpson’s pop culture status flipped from likable athlete turned actor to murder suspect and villain. Simpson’s wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman were both found fatally stabbed at the Simpson’s Los Angeles area home. During the police investigation Simpson led authorities on a long, low-speed chase that occurred during the time the New York Knicks played the Houston
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Rockets for the NBA championship. The Basketball game was notable because at least one TV network showed the game and the Simpson police chase on a split screen. Simpson was put on trial for double murder. During the trial, Simpson’s lead attorney, Johnnie Cochran, charged that a rogue police officer planted evidence to frame Simpson. The football star was acquitted in fall 1995. Simpson was shunned by society. Thirteen years later he was convicted in Las Vegas for armed robbery involving his own memorabilia; he is serving a nine-year prison sentence. The Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of four Super Bowls in the 1970s, were dominant and had several notable African American stars. Defensive lineman ‘‘Mean Joe’’ Greene was a member of the feared ‘‘Steel curtain,’’ an all-black lineup. In 1979, Coca-Cola produced a commercial in which a meek little boy followed Greene down the tunnel toward the locker room and offered a weary and grateful Greene a bottle of pop. Greene drank the Coke, smiled, and gave the kid his jersey as a souvenir. For decades that commercial was the most popular promotion aired during the Super Bowls. Another Steelers star was running back Franco Harris who is remembered for his ‘‘immaculate reception.’’ During the 1972 league championship against the Oakland Raiders, an end-of-the-game pass intended for a teammate ricocheted off a defensive player. Harris lunged and caught the ball at his shoe tops then raced to the end zone with the game-winning touchdown. Wide receiver Lynn Swann was also memorable for his acrobatic catches. Some football players with journeyman or brief athletic careers enjoyed more success as actors. Fred ‘‘the Hammer’’ Williamson had roles in M.A.S.H., Mandingo, and he was briefly a color commentator on ABC Monday Night Football. Bernie Casey had movie roles in Tick, Tick, Tick, Black Gunn, and Under Siege. Dwayne Johnson, known as ‘‘The Rock,’’ was the understudy to Baltimore Raven defensive star Ray Lewis at the University of Miami. Johnson left college for pro wrestling, then for the movies, where his raised eyebrow and other physical comedy was a crowd pleaser in The Scorpion King, The Rundown, and Gridiron Gang. In 1987, Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins was the first black quarterback to lead a team to a Super Bowl win. Williams was part of the first wave of blacks who in the 1970s and 1980s who challenged conventional wisdom that African Americans were not equipped to play the glamour position. After a stint in Canada, Warren Moon of the Houston Oilers became a star quarterback and Steve McNair came one yard short of leading his of the Tennessee Titan to a Super Bowl XXXIV win in 2000. College stars who made unqualified leaps to the NFL as franchise quarterbacks included Vince Young of National Champion University of Texas to the Tennessee Titans, and Michael Vick of Virginia Tech to the Atlanta Falcons. In 2007, Vick’s good-guy image was sullied after he was convicted for being part of a dog-fighting ring. Vick served time in prison. In summer 2009 he returned to the NFL as a backup quarterback with the Philadelphia Eagles. The 1988 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears had a superstar in running back, Walter Payton, and a character in gap-toothed defensive lineman William ‘‘the refrigerator’’ Perry, notorious because of his girth.
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Some fans called the 2007 Super Bowl the ‘‘soul bowl’’ because both the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts were led by black head coaches. Tony Dungy’s AFC Colts defeated Lovie Smith’s NFC Bears. In college football, the Bayou Classic in New Orleans between Grambling and Southern universities is the signature football and social event in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The game receives network TV coverage. The halftime battle of the bands introduced mainstream American to the well-known black college tradition. In major college football, September 12, 1970, in Birmingham, Alabama, was a defining moment. Sam Cunningham led his USC Trojans into a game with host and perennial power Alabama. The all-white Crimson Tide was pummeled 45–21 by the integrated Trojans. Alabama and other major southern schools realized they could no longer resist recruiting black athletes and expect to remain competitive. They changed. Bo Jackson played at Auburn University in Alabama and later became a two-sport professional star in football and baseball. Sylvester Croom, one of the student-athletes who desegregated a major southern university roster (Alabama) and later became the first black football coach in the SEC, became head coach of Mississippi State University in 2004. Tyrone Willingham coached Stanford University, then was hired at Notre Dame and revived the once-storied school that had endured a long slump. Willingham lasted two years and returned West in 2004 to the University of Washington. The University of Miami, a football powerhouse for many years, added a rare African American collegiate head coach, Randy Shannon. In the early twenty-first century, some black NFL superstars are pitchmen for wholesome products such as Campbell’s Chunky Soup. Then Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan then McNabb said he liked New England clam chowder ‘‘anyway’’ even though the team from that region, the Patriots, beat his team in Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. San Diego Charger running back LaDainian Tomlinson devoured his beef stew in one scene, and in another scene the voiceover announcer compares Tomlinson’s dive into the end zone to a challenging day at the office. Basketball Approximately 80 percent of National Basketball Association players in 2008 were African American; however, blacks had to persuade whites to desegregate the sport. White leaders claimed that black athletes did not have the physical or mental skills to play at the pro or major college level. Abe Saperstein recruited top black athletes for the Harlem Globetrotters, an exhibition team. The Globetrotters’ trickery and clowning was often dismissed as less than competitive sport. The Globetrotters, however, became a recognizable brand. Their theme song ‘‘Sweet Georgia Brown’’ is ingrained in American culture. There was an animated cartoon show on CBS in the 1970s. In the twenty-first century, the Globetrotters still play exhibition games. Three tall, agile African American athletes dominated basketball and forced the institution to change rules in order to contain them. Bill Russell led the
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University of San Francisco to consecutive collegiate championships in the late 1950s. In addition to rebounding, his great gift was shot-blocking, a skill that was initially dismissed by opposing coaches. Russell was so skilled that strict rules banning goal tending were instituted. In addition the three-second lane near the basket was widened to twelve feet from the narrow key-shaped width. Russell led the Boston Celtics to thirteen NBA championships during the 1950s and 1960s. Seven-footer Wilt Chamberlain was nearly impossible to guard close to the basket. Chamberlain remained dominant through the 1960s. He scored 100 points in a 1962 game, and one season he averaged 50 points a game. Both records still stood as of 2008. One-on-one match-ups between Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors and later 76ers vs. Russell of the Celtics were spellbinding battles of goateed giants. By the late 1960s, 7 foot 2 inch Lew Alcindor enrolled at UCLA. His physical size and skill was so dominant the NCAA from 1967 to 1976 prohibited anyone from dunking the basketball. Alcindor endured constant triple-teaming yet he averaged at least 24 points per game and led UCLA to (three) consecutive titles. He changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and won NBA championships with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. One of Abdul-Jabbar’s Milwaukee teammates was Oscar ‘‘the Big O’’ Robertson, who some observers credited with fostering racial desegregation as a standout high school player from Indianapolis. Robertson was a star at the University of Cincinnati, and in the NBA the muscular, 6 foot 5 inch guard was the only player to ever average a triple double in points, rebounds, and assists during a season. Elgin Baylor, a similar-sized forward with the Lakers of Minneapolis and later Los Angeles, amazed fans and hapless opponents with his ‘‘hang time,’’ his ability to float and evade defenders. Willis Reed of the New York Knickerbockers was memorable for his physical sacrifice. In the 1970 championship vs. Chamberlain and the Lakers, Reed’s knee buckled and it was unlikely that the underdog Knicks would have their center to contain the formidable Chamberlain. For the pivotal seventh game, Reed numbed his injured knee with drugs and hobbled on to playing floor to a roaring home crowd. The first two times Reed touched the ball he shot and scored. His inspired Knick teammates needed no more scoring from their leader. They routed the Lakers. One of Reed’s teammates was Walt Frazier, the smooth play-maker who was called ‘‘Clyde’’ because of his flashy Bonnie & Clyde–styled wardrobe off court. In the 1970s, Julius Erving gained notoriety as ‘‘Dr. J.,’’ the big-Afroed star with an endless assortment of high-flying dunks and gravity-defying lay ups. Erving operated with the Virginia Squires and New York Nets of the ABA and finished his career with the Philadelphia 76ers. A 2008 Dr. Pepper soda pop commercial has gray-haired yet still lanky Erving tossing an ice cube into a drinking glass in slow motion, and then he assures viewers: ‘‘Trust me, I’m a doctor.’’
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In spring 1980 two 6 foot 9 inch Midwestern basketball stars, Larry Bird, white and from Indiana State University, and Magic Johnson, black and from Michigan State University, battled for the NCAA championship. Johnson’s Spartans beat previously unbeaten Indiana State. The Bird-Johnson rivalry continued in the NBA through the 1980s with Bird’s long-range shooting and court savvy leading the Celtics and Johnson’s no-look passes and will to win leading the Lakers. Lakers-Celtics championship matches became a staple for much of the 1980s because of the two fierce competitors. In 1991, Johnson announced he was HIV-positive and soon he retired from basketball but he remains visible as a successful urban developer and TV sports analyst. In 1984, Michael Jordan of the University of North Carolina was chosen by the Chicago Bulls and was the second NBA draftee. Like Dr. J., Jordan had gravity-defying dunking, plus long- and medium-shooting range and stifling defensive skill. Jordan had greater skill as pitchman. He eclipsed O. J. Simpson as the highest-paid black athlete endorsing products, and Jordan demolished the conventional wisdom that black athletes could not convincingly endorse products that the white majority would buy. Jordan was associated with Nike, Hanes, and Gatorade. He starred in the animated Space Jam Warner Brothers movie in 1997, and as an NBA superstar Jordan led the Bulls to six championships. Other NBA stars who are commercial household names include Charles Barkley (Philadelphia 76ers, Houston Rockets, TV analyst); Shaquille O’Neal or ‘‘Shaq’’ (Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns); Kobie Bryant (Lakers), and Allen Iverson (76ers, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons). Emerging superstars of the twenty-first century include Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat and T-Mobile, Converse, Ford) and LeBron James (first with the Cleveland Cavaliers and now the Miami Heat and Nike, Vitamin Water). Like Jordan, Wade and James’s endorsement power matches their livelihood earnings. The 1966 NCAA basketball champion Texas Western University of El Paso made history by putting an all-black starting five on the court against the University of Kentucky, a frequent champion that at the time fielded all-white teams. The historic showdown was depicted in the 2006 Disney film Glory Road. In 2008, the ESPN documentary Black Magic chronicled the struggle in the 1950s and 1960s to integrate college and professional basketball, and also celebrate black college basketball, which produced stars like Earl ‘‘the Pearl’’ Monroe and still has the popular and lucrative CIAA basketball tournament of small college teams. Boxing Jack Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion. When he won the title in 1908, Jim Crow segregation was tightening its stranglehold on the American South. Johnson was an unrepentant black man who dominated white opponents and openly flaunted his association with white women. Johnson was prosecuted for transporting a white woman—his future third wife—across state lines for immoral purposes.
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The ‘‘Great White Hope’’ phenomenon, the need to find a white man who can unseat a black champion, was associated with Johnson. Former champ Jim Jeffries was coaxed out of a five-year retirement to fight, but in 1910 he was beaten handily by Johnson in Reno, Nevada. At thirty-seven, Johnson was beaten in 1915 by Jess Willard by a knockout during the 26th round of a scheduled 45-round fight staged outdoors in the sweltering heat of Havana, Cuba. Johnson’s prowess and bravado was celebrated in The Great White Hope (1970), a movie starring James Earl Jones, and jazz trumpeter Miles Davis’s 1971 recording titled ‘‘Jack Johnson.’’ In the late 1930s, Joe Louis emerged as the ‘‘Brown Bomber,’’ the bruising, yet humble champ out of the ring. After a string of wins, a 12th-round knockout loss to German Max Schmeling in June 1936 felt like a dagger in the collective abdomen of black America. Furthermore, Schmeling was promoted by Nazis as symbol of Aryan superiority. Louis got a rematch in June 1938 and demolished the German before 70,000 spectators at Yankee Stadium. Louis earned white American’s praise as ‘‘a credit to his race.’’ Louis became a marketing symbol as well. He was pressed into the U.S. Army and Louis was used as a role model to promote enlistment. Louis was heavyweight champ for a dozen years, through 1949, when he retired. Louis was victimized by IRS troubles, and he came out of retirement to fight in order to pay off his debts. He remains an endearing sports figure. In Detroit, an arena bears his name. The post-World War II years, the 1950s through 1970s, were golden years for African American boxers. With the rapid rise of televisions in homes in the 1950s, promoters feared that southern whites would protest and boycott sponsors if blacks were victors of too many mixed race bouts. Blacks did win many bouts however and the white backlash did not materialize. In fact, from 1949 through 1984, black boxers made more money than all black professional athletes combined. Many of the winners had colorful nicknames: Sugar Ray Robinson (formerly Walker Smith Jr.), a middleweight and sometime welterweight (Robinson was honored on a U.S. Postal Service stamp in April 2006); ‘‘Jersey’’ Joe Walcott had memorable battles with Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano. Walcott became New Jersey State Athletic Commissioner; Floyd Patterson beat Archie Moore to become heavyweight champ in 1955, and then lost the crown to Swede Ingemar Johansson in 1959. Patterson became the first heavyweight to regain the title when he knocked out Johansson in a rematch a year later. In 1962, the likable Patterson was knocked out in the first round by Charles ‘‘Sonny’’ Liston, an ex-felon who was disliked and feared by much of the public. In July 1963, Liston beat Patterson in a rematch. That December, Liston donned a Santa Claus suit and posed on the cover of Esquire magazine. Editors joked that Liston was the last man on Earth America wanted to see coming down its chimney. A few months later in 1964, Liston fought Cassius Clay, a baby-faced boxer with a big mouth (for example, Clay called the menacing Liston ‘‘a big ugly bear’’
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before the fight). At the start of the seventh round in Miami, Liston said he could not move his left arm and refused to leave his corner. Clay was declared the winner. At the rematch in May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine, Clay had a new name, Muhammad Ali. Ali knocked Liston to the canvas in the first round and the older bruiser did not get up. In 1967, Ali refused to submit to the draft. He was indicted and sentenced to five years in jail. Ali spent nearly 2 1=2 years in exile. He appealed his sentence and in 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Ali free on a technical error. WBA champion Joe Frazier beat Ali in a 15-round battle at Madison Square Garden in March 1971. Ali lost another fight to Ken Norton in March 1973, but won a rematch that September. Ali beat Frazier in a January 1974 rematch. George Foreman was the WBA champ because he beat Frazier in January 1973. Ali fought Foreman in Zaire, Central Africa in October 1974, in what was billed ‘‘the Rumble in the Jungle.’’ Foreman fell in the eighth round. Ali applied a ‘‘rope-a-dope’’ strategy in order to wear out the younger and stronger fighter. Ali became the second man to regain the heavyweight title. In September 1975, Ali and Frazier fought their third epic battle, the ‘‘Thrilla in Manila’’ in the Philippines. Ali was the victor after 14 rounds in what observers called the greatest fight in the history of the sport. Ali held the title until 1978. In the 1980s and 1990s, Larry Holmes was a champion and Mike Tyson reigned as the most feared heavyweight fighter. Tyson’s knockouts were quick and spectacular, and his personal life was scandalous. He was married briefly to actress Robin Givens, and in 1991 Tyson was convicted of sexually assaulting a Miss Black America contestant in Indianapolis. In 1997 in a losing fight, Tyson bit the ear of champion Evander Holyfield. Foreman the former heavyweight champ, became pitchman of a cooking grill that bears his name. Other notable boxers of the late 1900s included Ray Charles ‘‘Sugar Ray’’ Leonard, ‘‘Marvelous’’ Marvin Hagler, and Thomas ‘‘Hit Man’’ Hearns. Olympics and Track Jesse Owens, four-time gold medal winner at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, symbolized excellence and grace that momentarily extinguished the flame of racist assumptions. Adolf Hitler of host Germany attempted to demonstrate Aryan superiority on the athletic field but Owens’s wins made a mockery of such notions. Owens’s wins were inspiring even as many nations prepared to go to war against the Germans. Wilma Rudolph was the first American woman to win three gold medals in Olympic competition when she accomplished the feat in Rome in 1960. She ran track at Tennessee State University. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos won gold and bronze medals respectively in the 200-meter dash. On the medal stand, during the playing of the national anthem, both men bowed their heads and raised a single gloved fist in the air in recognition of the civil rights and black liberation movement at home. Both men were immediately removed from the
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U.S. team and for decades were ostracized by the American mainstream. Forty years later in 2008, both men received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for their principled stand. In 1984, Carl Lewis overwhelmed Olympic Track and Field, winning four gold medals, a feat last achieved by Jesse Owens in 1936. Lewis’s high-top fade haircut was as sleek as his running. Jackie Joyner-Kersee, was called Wonder Woman, because like the comic book heroine, she showed spectacular athletic prowess. Joyner-Kersee’s feats were all the more amazing because she has asthma. Joyner-Kersee’s sister-in-law Florence Griffith-Joyner, aka ‘‘Flo Jo,’’ was fast and fashion forward. She wore a red, white, and blue leotard and sported sculptured nails. She won three gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. A decade later Griffith-Joyner died at age thirty-eight. Edwin Moses of HBCU Morehouse College was a 400-meter hurdler champion at the 1976 and 1984 Olympic Games. Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson held the ‘‘world’s fastest man’’ title in the 1990s for 100-meter sprints. In the twenty-first century a Coors beer commercial starring Johnson played on his fame. Golf and Tennis Charlie Sifford was the most famous black golfer between World War II and 1970. In 1959, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, rescinded its ‘‘Caucasian only’’ clause and issued Sifford a PGA card. He won four PGA open tournaments and moved on to the senior circuit. The next breakthrough player was Lee Elder. During his seventh year, as a pro, Elder was invited to the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, one of the majors (U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship as the Masters is not one of ‘‘the others.’’). He won four PGA tournaments from 1974 to 1978, then retired to the senior tour. In 1979, Elder became the first black member of the Ryder Cup team. Calvin Peete did not caddie or hit Golf balls until he was age twenty-three, yet when friends convinced him to play, he persevered on the courses and excelled. Peete won eight PGA tournaments from 1979 to 1984 (four of them in 1982) and racked up $1.2 million in earnings. In 1997, there was an earthquake of sorts at the Masters. Tiger Woods, a recent student at Stanford and amateur star, won the tournament at age twentyone and changed the face of golf. The child of a black Vietnam veteran Lee Woods and a Thai mother, Kultida, Woods tried to deflect questions about his racial identity by calling himself a ‘‘Cablinasian,’’ a mix of three heritages. Soon, rivals and fans focused less on Woods’s ethnicity and more on his dominance on the courses. From 1996 to 2008, he won 65 PGA tournaments and 14 PGA major events and earned nearly $83 million. Eight of the thirteen years Woods ranked number one in earnings. Woods’s endorsement deals became unprecedented: Nike, General Motors, American Express, Gillette, and others. Like the jungle cat, Woods has a habit of unnerving competitors because he is hard to catch if he is ahead, yet he has a knack
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for making dramatic comebacks. At the 2008 U.S. Open in June, Woods came back and forced a sudden-death match, then won. Woods’s victory was all the more extraordinary because he played the entire tournament with a double stress fracture of his left leg. In late 2008 Woods had knee surgery and was in rehabilitation. Woods’s status sank spectacularly when he crashed his car near the driveway of his Florida home on Thanksgiving 2009. Soon, numerous women claimed they had extramarital affairs with the husband and father of two young children. Woods took a five-month break from the pro tour and resumed play in spring 2010. He continues to struggle to rebuild his career. In Tennis, Althea Gibson made history when in 1956 she won the Wimbledon tournament, one of the Grand Slam events (the U.S., French, and Australian opens are the others). A decade later, Arthur Ashe, a dignified, courtly Virginian, won a series of tournaments including Wimbledon, and the Australian and French opens in individual and doubles events. Ashe was more than an athlete, he was a soft-spoken activist. He was arrested for demonstrating against apartheid in the 1980s. In 1992, Ashe revealed he had contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during heart surgery. He became an HIV-AIDS awareness advocate until his death in February 1993. Venus and Serena Williams are sisters who were encouraged to play tennis on public courts in Compton, California. Upon turning professionals, the sisters have dominated tennis. They have earned a combined twenty Grand Slam Singles titles and twenty-four Grand Slam Doubles titles. The Williams sisters have battled each other in four Grand Slam finals. Other Sports Lawn jockey statues of African Americans can elicit varied reactions, anger or shame over perceived stereotyping and ridicule, or reverence from knowledge that the statues were used as signals to guide enslaved blacks to freedom on the Underground Railroad. The lawn statues also acknowledged black jockeys’ dominance in horse racing until the start of the twentieth century. African American riders won 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbys. Isaac Murphy and Major Walker were among the great black jockeys of the late 1800s. These riders’ dominance resulted in them being driven out of the sport through physical violence or rules banning their participation. At the end of the twentieth century, Debbie Thomas wowed audiences with her figure skating skill, and Dominique Dawes was a gymnastics medal winner in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. National Hockey League players of color, mostly black Canadians, made a mark. A few dreadlocked New York Rangers did a cameo on a 2003 sitcom starring Whoopi Goldberg. Sports and sports figures continue to hold an important place in African American popular culture. A few sports commentators have said that admired, likable African American athletes may have eased the path for the election of President Barack Obama. See also: Joyner-Kersee, Jacqueline ‘‘Jackie’’; Williams, Venus, and Williams, Serena
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Further Reading Ashe, Arthur R. Jr. 1988. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete Since 1946. New York: Amistad/Warner Books. Ashe, Arthur R. Jr., and Arnold Rampersad. 1993. Days of Grace: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Bennett, Lerone Jr. 2003. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. New Millennium Ed. Chicago: Johnson Publishing. Dawkins, Wayne. 2003. Rugged Waters: Black Journalists Swim the Mainstream. Newport News: August Press. Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown Publishers. Seal, Mark. 2010. ‘‘The Temptation of Tiger Woods,’’ Parts I and II. Vanity Fair (April, May). Skipper, John [executive producer]. 2008. ‘‘Black Magic.’’ ESPN. Wayne Dawkins
Sports Announcers and Commentators The rise of professional Football eclipsed Baseball as the national pastime sometime in the 1970s and also marked the gradual acceptance then embrace of African Americans as sports play-by-announcers, color commentators, and anchors. In the 1980s, when ESPN established itself as a twenty-four-hour sports cable Television network, black faces—whether they were former athletes or journalists—became familiar guests in sports fans’ homes through the start of the twenty-first century and remain icons in sports popular culture. Sports announcers include Stuart Scott, the in-your-face, yet endearing ESPN anchor and play-by-play talker. Scott’s pop-culture status was affirmed in September 2009 when a British-accented professor character on the NBC sitcom Community yelled ‘‘Boo-yaa!’’ after he played a trick on a lazy student, Scott’s trademark yell. Scott is also known for quips such as ‘‘He’s like butter because he’s on a roll,’’ or ‘‘cool as the other side of the pillow.’’ Contrast Scott’s antics with the grace of Robin Roberts, the first black woman to anchor on ESPN’s Sports Center in the late 1980s and who later moved on to announce WNBA basketball, the Olympics, and U.S. Open Tennis. Roberts became the smooth, comforting coanchor of ABC-TV’s Good Morning America, and won over many fans who witnessed her battle with breast cancer that led her to shave her head and wear a wig on camera. Meanwhile, Mike Wilbon of the Washington Post, a scribe turned sportscaster, is part of the buddy team with fellow Washington Post writer Tony Kornheiser of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, a weekday evening sports talk show. Fans know Wilbon’s sign-off, ‘‘Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.’’ Wilbon is also a studio color commentator for NBA basketball on ABC. In 2009, his work was honored with the Lifetime Achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
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By the 1970s it was not that unusual to watch or hear black sportscasters; however, they usually were in regional markets or were familiar only to fans of black college sports. A crossover breakthrough occurred in 1975 when Irv Cross joined a three-member anchor team for The NFL Today on CBS and they produced separate pregame, halftime, and postgame shows. Cross was a former Philadelphia Eagles defensive back, and had an affable yet knowledgeable on-air delivery. In 1978, CBS achieved another milestone: Jayne Kennedy, a former dancer on The Dean Martin Show, replaced Phyllis George, a white woman trailblazer who coanchored with Cross, as a member of the NFL Today team. Kennedy had little professional experience and knowledge of football, but the starlet’s good looks was intended to add a feminine touch to the male-dominated game. Kennedy’s stint was brief and ended in the early 1980s. The Brothers Gumbel Bryant Gumbel sold a freelance article to Black Sports magazine in the early 1970s and soon became editor of the publication. From 1976 to 1981 he was sports director of KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, and then he jumped to national prominence as cohost of The Today Show on NBC. He had a lengthy run from 1982 to 1997. In 1998 he launched Real Sports on the HBO cable network, a venture that earned him more than ten Emmy Awards. In 1999 Gumbel returned to morning show news-talk with The Early Show on CBS and that stint lasted until 2002. Bryant’s older brother Greg, a former college baseball player, worked as a coanchor at ESPN Sports Center from 1981 to 1986 and also did play-by-play for the MSG (Madison Square Garden) cable network that broadcast New York Knicks Basketball games. Greg Gumbel was the first African American to do the play-byplay at a Super Bowl (2001, and again in 2004). From 1994 to 1998 he anchored the NFL on NBC pregame, halftime, and postgame shows. Between the brothers, Greg was confident and likeable and worked like a traffic controller who kept a panel of color commentators on schedule and on message. Bryant meanwhile was erudite, authoritative, and opinionated, which either won him many fans or critics. In 1983, pass receiver Bobby Moore completed eleven seasons as a star with the Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills. He converted to Islam and changed his name to Ahmad Rashad. The name change did not endear him to sports management or some fans; nevertheless, Rashad pursued a broadcasting career. He became a sports commentator on NFL on NBC through 1998 and reported from the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. In 1998 he became producer of NBA Inside Stuff. During a football broadcast Rashad proposed in front of national audience to Phylicia Ayers-Allen, ‘‘Clair Huxtable’’ of The Cosby Show. She said yes, and the couple was married from 1985 to 2001. Long before his fall from grace in the late 1990s, football legend O. J. Simpson did color commentary for Monday Night Football from 1983 to 1985 with Howard Cosell and Co. John Saunders, a native Canadian who played hockey, joined ESPN in 1986 and in the twenty-first century is a familiar face on ESPN and ABC. He is
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longtime host of The Sports Reporters, a Sunday talk show in which top newspaper sportswriters discuss sports. Saunders currently anchors the Saturday College Football halftime report on ABC. On sibling network ESPN, longtime sportscaster Mike Tirico does play-by-play for Monday Night Football. Tirico also does play-by-play for the NBA on ABC in the winter and spring. Hardest Working Man at Fox James Brown, a basketball star at Harvard in the 1970s, became a familiar sportscasting face as moderator of The NFL Today on CBS. He joined the network in 1984. In the mid-1990s, when CBS lost the National Football Conference broadcast contract to the brash, young Fox network, Brown jumped ship and became moderator of the newcomer’s raucous halftime show. Brown was the friendly but firm lion tamer who kept the high-testosterone lineup of Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, and Jimmie Johnson from roaring out of control. Fox also had Pam Oliver, a sideline analyst. Oliver is an attractive woman, but unlike the days of Jayne Kennedy, she was not on-air primarily for her good looks. The Florida Agricultural and Mechanical (A & M) University alumna is a dogged reporter who kept the most ardent fan informed on the latest injury, strategy, or personnel change during games (a familiar image is Oliver covered up with stylish knitted cap, scarf, and overcoat during late fall in a frigid Midwest city). CBS regained football and resumed broadcasting AFC games in the late 1990s. In 2006, Brown returned to CBS in the familiar role of host of the halftime show. At Fox, Curt Menefee, an African American, succeeded Brown as halftime host. His persona is anonymous, like a competent baseball umpire. Doors have opened to many black sportscasters—whether they were star athletes or coaches—to brief or long-term stints at the mics. Success was often not determined by reputation or notoriety on the field or court. Preparation and professionalism mattered in order to enter that new field. Tiki Barber, the compact Super Bowl champion running back with the New York Giants, pulled off the broadcast equivalent of a reverse play and retired from sports to enter broadcasting through the news door as a correspondent with NBC on The Today Show. Barber does sports, too, as a color analyst with Sunday Football Night in America on NBC. See also: Radio Shows and Hosts Further Reading Randolph, Laura B. 1992. ‘‘Jayne Kennedy Overton. ‘I was over 200 pounds, devastated and embarrassed.’’’ Ebony 12 (October): 66–70. Riley, Sam G. 2007. African Americans in the Media Today. Vols. I and II. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Schwatz, Lou. 2007. ‘‘Women in Sportscasting: A Brief History.’’ americansportcasters online.com (blog), April 30. Williams, Jim. 2009. ‘‘Irv Cross: The Quiet Pioneer.’’ Washington Examiner, August 2. Wayne Dawkins
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Sports Classics Sports classics are, with an exception, Football rivalries at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). They are as widely known as the annual Bayou Classic between Grambling State and Southern universities that is nationally televised and played in the New Orleans Superdome, or rivalries as old as the Turkey Day Classic in Montgomery, Alabama, between Alabama State and Tuskegee universities. These sports classics are more than athletes colliding on the field. There are fierce competitions between the marching bands. Generations of alumni come out to see which school will have bragging rights as the best in their state or region. The events attract top African American entertainers to perform, or just be seen in the crowds. Also, many of the classics are revenue-boosters for host cities. Furthermore, revenues from the games and auxiliary events support a number of philanthropic causes. The first football classic began in 1924 when Alabama State College played Tuskegee Institute. Both colleges have grown into universities. The traditional Thanksgiving Day game continues, and the year 2010 marks the 87th classic. On to Bigger Stages In 1974, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Louisiana rivals Grambling State and Southern University competed in the Bayou classic. The inaugural game was played in Tulane Stadium in New Orleans before 77,000 spectators. The venue was moved to the Superdome and in 1991 NBC began televising the annual game. This coverage brought black college sports into the American mainstream and the Bayou Classic grew as a pop culture icon. Viewers unfamiliar with the HBCU experience soon learned that the battle of the Grambling State and Southern marching bands at halftime could be as spirited as the athletic play. In addition, a nonstop party atmosphere rolls throughout the host city. About 200,000 visitors come to New Orleans for the Bayou Classic weekend and an estimated $30 million in tourist activity boosts the local economy. The year 2010 marks the 37th classic. While the Bayou Classic is the most recognizable sporting event, the Florida Classic in Orlando, Florida, recently surpassed the former as the most-consistent high-attendance event. In-state rivals Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) and Bethune Cookman University began playing each other in 1978. Subsequent games rotated at the home cities of the schools, Tallahassee and Daytona Beach, and Tampa was sometimes used as a neutral site. Recent games have been played in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, traditionally on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The 2003 game drew 73,400 fans. Every game since then has attracted well over 70,000 fans. The year 2010 marks the 31st classic. Rivalry that has grown into a high-attendance, high-energy, big-city event is the Atlanta Classic, played in late September. Interstate rivals FAMU and Tennessee State University of Nashville play inside the Georgia Dome. About
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57,000 spectators witnessed the 2007 game and previous attendance has been higher; 67,000 spectators came in 2002. The year 2010 marks the 22nd classic. Another classic that is a northern incursion is the Urban League Classic played in Giants Stadium in metropolitan New York in September. In recent years, Hampton University of Virginia played Morgan State University of Baltimore. In the mid-1960s, black college football was showcased when Morgan State played Grambling State in Yankee Stadium. A 1964 game started the tradition. In 1968, the tumultuous year of the Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations, the Vietnam War, and campus strife, organizers fretted that there would be little interest in the black college game. Instead, the football game at Yankee Stadium was sold out. Other black college football classics that rate high for attendance and popularity include the Circle City Classic in Indianapolis, the Magic City Classic in Birmingham, the Southern Heritage Classic in Memphis, and the State Fair Classic in Dallas. In all, there are about fifty fall HBCU football classics. These games fit into three categories. In the first category, many are traditional rivalries that have grown so large that school playing fields cannot accommodate the crowds, so the games are staged in NFL or college bowl stadiums. In addition to the high-profile Bayou, Florida, and Atlanta classics, there are popular, traditional rivalries that include North Carolina Central vs. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (Aggie-Eagle Classic); Benedict vs. South Carolina State (Palmetto Classic); and Jackson State vs. Alcorn State (Capital City Classic). The second variety of classics is host schools that play different opponents each year, also in big-city stadiums off campus. Pre- and postgame social events add excitement. Examples are the Gold Bowl in Richmond, Virginia, hosted by Virginia Union University; the Fish Bowl in Norfolk, Virginia, hosted by Norfolk State University; the Gulf Coast Classic in Mobile, Alabama, hosted by Alabama State; and the Gateway Classic in Jacksonville, hosted by Bethune Cookman. These fall football classics usually are staged close to Labor Day or Thanksgiving. The third category of classics is games that have identities of their own. Different teams are invited each year. Examples are the New York Urban League Classic that attracts thousands of Northeast alumni who attend the mostly midAtlantic and southern schools that play, or the Circle City Classic in Indianapolis that serves as a Midwest homecoming for thousands of HBCU alumni. Classic football games routinely draw larger crowds than college homecoming games because they have room, a bigger stadium, and are played in a major city. New games include the Las Vegas Classic and the Lone Star Classic in Dallas. Other Sports Classics Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) basketball evolved into a sports classic event in the twenty-first century. The CIAA tournament began in 1946. The level of play was rated as small college Division II basketball. A number of member schools left and established the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
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(MEAC) in order to compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Eleven remaining CIAA schools thrived because of loyal support from generations of alumni. In nine years from 1999 to 2008, attendance tripled to 165,000 visitors for the week-long event. When the tournament moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, in the early 2000s, syndicated radio deejays and philanthropist Tom Joyner hosted ‘‘Sky Show’’ parties, and his foundation raised money for participating CIAA schools. At the tournament, men’s and women’s teams qualified for berths in the NCAA Division II tournament. Southern cities have taken note of the economic boost the CIAA provides, and communities compete to host the event. The CIAA moved from Richmond to Raleigh in 2000, then to Charlotte in 2006. In Charlotte, an estimated $2 million in scholarship funds was raised, and in 2007 an estimated $15 million in tourist revenue was pumped into the local economy. Entertainment was provided by syndicated radio host/comedian Steve Harvey and other celebrities. In the last eight decades, sports classics have evolved from collegiate sports rivalries into spectator sports, entertainment, and fund-raising events that unite alumni, boost the economies of major cities, and inform mainstream audiences about the culture and traditions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. See also: Olympics Further Reading Ebony. 2007. ‘‘CIAA Basketball: The Tournament of Tournaments.’’ 62 (February): 178–179, 182, 186, 188. Moore, Eric. (n.d.) ‘‘Black College Football Classic Games: A Taste of the HBCU Athletic Experience.’’ www.collegeview.com/articles/CV/hbcu/classic_games.html. Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown Publishers. Squires, David, ed. 2003. BlackVoices.com: Black College Football Classics Guide. Chicago. Wayne Dawkins
Steele, Shelby (1946– ), Writer, Researcher Since the publication of his first book in 1990, Shelby Steele has been a prominent observer of racial issues and a critic of affirmative action. His works, which are on popular topics, are widely received by readers. Steele was born on January 1, 1946, in Chicago, to Shelby Steele Sr. and his wife, Ruth. Steele’s parents, an African American truck driver and a white social worker, were civil rights activists who met through their volunteer work with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Steele, Claude (his identical twin brother who is currently the Lucy Stern Professor of Psychology at Stanford University), and his two sisters grew up in Phoenix, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and attended antidiscrimination events with their parents. In 1964, after Steele graduated from high school in Harvey, Illinois, he matriculated at Coe College in
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Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and earned a BA degree in political science in 1968. Steele taught high school in East St. Louis while he attended graduate school at Southern Illinois University; he earned an MA in sociology in 1971. Three years later, after Steele received a PhD in English from the University of Utah, he taught English at San Jose State University until 1991. In 1991 as well, Steele won an Emmy Award, a Writer’s Guild Award, and a San Francisco Film Festival Award for his work with the PBS Frontline documentary Seven Days in Bensonhurst (1990), about the murder of Yusef Hawkins, a sixteen-year-old African American, by young white residents of Bensonhurst (Brooklyn), New York in 1989. Steele also cowrote and narrated the 2000 PBS Frontline documentary, Jefferson’s Blood, about President Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemmings, a slave. In 1994 Steele was appointed a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute where he is currently the Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow. Since the 1980s, Steele’s articles have appeared in periodicals such as American Scholar, Commentary, Harper’s (where he is currently a contributing editor), New Republic, Newsweek, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Steele is the author of four books. The first, The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America (1990), published while Steele taught at San Jose State University, was a best-seller and won the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction. Content, a collection of essays, was followed by books written after Steele became affiliated with the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank; they include his second essay collection, A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America (1998); White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era (2006); and A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited about Obama and Why He Can’t Win (2007). After the November 4, 2008, presidential election, Steele defended the contents of A Bound Man although he acknowledged he would change the book’s subtitle for a paperback edition. Steele has received additional awards for his writing; he is the recipient of the 2004 National Humanities Medal and the 2006 Bradley Prize. Steele continues to offer commentary on a variety of television programs including 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, and Hardball with Chris Matthews. His articles, books, television appearances, and lectures generate debate as he opines on Affirmative Action, social policies, diversity, victimization, and other controversial issues in popular culture. Steele lives in Monterey, California, with his wife, Rita, who is a psychotherapist and daughter of Holocaust survivors. They are parents of two children. See also: Television Further Reading Chura, Patrick. 2008. ‘‘Shelby Steele.’’ In African American National Biography, Vol. 7. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Strumolo, Amy Loerch. 1997. ‘‘Shelby Steele.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale Research. Linda M. Carter
Stepping Stepping is a complex performance involving synchronized percussive movement, singing, speaking, chanting, and drama that developed among African American college fraternities and sororities as a ritual of group identity. Members of the nine historically black Greek letter societies that comprise the National Pan-Hellenic Council celebrate their organizations through performances known as step shows, which present new members to the public (probate or neophyte shows). Members perform in competitive shows to raise money for social causes. Popularized in films and television programs such as School Daze (1988) and A Different World (1987–93), stepping is now performed by multicultural, Asian, Latino, and occasionally white fraternities and sororities, as well as by community groups and youth in many African American churches. Stepping has become a dynamic and vital performance for the expression and celebration of African American identity. The founders of the first black college fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, were closely associated with black Masonic societies and held their first initiation in 1906 at a Masonic Hall, where they borrowed Masonic costumes for their ritual. Stepping may have grown out of the popular drill team traditions of black mutual aid and Masonic societies. It reflects the same kind of emphasis on synchronized clapping and stomping. There is a militaristic element apparent at times in the stepping or marching tradition, which may be related to this early influence. The earliest written reference to what may be stepping on the Howard University campus appears in 1925, when an article on ‘‘Hell Week’’ in the campus newspaper describes Alpha Phi Alpha and Omega Psi Phi pledges ‘‘marching as if to the Fairy Pipes of Pan.’’ Stepping grew out of the black Greek ritual of ‘‘marching on line,’’ in which pledges expressed their brotherhood or sisterhood by walking in a line across campus, displaying their group’s colors and symbols. Over the years, groups added singing, chanting, and synchronized clapping and stomping. Early shows were often in counterclockwise circles, but as stage performances for audiences became more common in the 1960s, line formations became prevalent. Terms for stepping vary among campuses and change over time and include such terms as demonstrating, marching, stomping, bopping, hopping, and blocking. Stepping routines are orally composed and transmitted. When the stepmaster or leader is an adult, leading younger steppers, he or she may teach the routine by ‘‘breaking it down’’ into smaller rhythmic units which are imitated until everyone masters them. In groups in which everyone is the same age,
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composition is often collaborative. Circulating videotapes of step shows aid in the transmission process. A number of regional and national competitions, along with a televised nationally syndicated stepping competition and regional and national meetings of the nine black Greek letter societies, further help to disseminate steps. ‘‘Trade’’ or ‘‘signature’’ steps of the nine black Greek letter societies are performed by college chapters throughout the nation and convey the character and style of the organizations. These trade steps have names and members within the black Greek system that recognize them as belonging to particular organizations by their visual and oral patterns. Nevertheless, other groups might also perform the trade steps of another organization to pay tribute to that group (called ‘‘saluting’’), or to mock them (called ‘‘cracking’’), by performing the step in an inept or comic manner. Some well-known signature steps include Alpha Phi Alpha’s ‘‘The Grand-Daddy’’ and ‘‘Ice, Ice’’; Alpha Kappa Alpha’s ‘‘It’s a Serious Matter’’; Zeta Phi Beta’s ‘‘Sweat’’ and ‘‘Precise’’; Phi Beta Sigma’s ‘‘Wood’’; and Iota Phi Theta’s ‘‘Centaur Walk.’’ Stepping styles incorporate recent influences such as Break Dancing and Hip-Hop, as well as earlier elements from slave dances, such as patting juba and ring shouts, and aesthetic features common in western and central African dances. When drums were outlawed by slaveholding states, slaves used their clapping hands and stomping feet to create the rhythm for their dances. The counterclockwise circular movement of early step routines recalls both patting juba and ring shouts, as well as the common dance pattern in Kongo culture. One of the most striking stances of African American stepping, the ‘‘get-down’’ position, in which steppers bend deeply from the waist or step with knees deeply bent, is common in Africa. Other features of African dance, according to Robert Farris Thompson, include call-and-response, dances of derision, striking moralistic poses, correct entrance and exit, personal and representational balance, establishing clear boundaries around dances, looking smart, the mask of the cool, and polyrhythm or multiple meter. African American steppers exhibit all of these features as well, demonstrating the continuity of stepping with African culture. See also: Greek Letter Organizations; Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Further Reading Fine, Elizabeth C. 2003. Soulstepping: African American Step Shows. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Kimbrough, Walter M. 2004. Black Greek 101: The Culture, Customs, and Challenges of Historically Black Fraternities and Sororities. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Malone, Jacqui. 1996. Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
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Nomani, Asra Q. 1989. ‘‘Steeped in Tradition, ‘Step Dance’ Unites Blacks on Campus.’’ Wall Street Journal, July 10. Thompson, Robert Farris. 1979. African Art in Motion: Icon and Act. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Elizabeth C. Fine
Stewart, James ‘‘Bubba’’ (1985– ), Motocross/Supercross Racer An aspect of African American popular history changed when James ‘‘Bubba’’ Stewart became a motocross racer and broke down racial barriers to become the first African American to dominate the sport of motocross. He is an inspiration for young blacks to enter the sport and he gained recognition in 2003 as one of ‘‘20 Teens Who Will Change the World.’’ Almost daily he flies through the air off massive jumps with barely any fears—except that of being consumed by an alligator or a shark. Born on December 21, 1985, in Bartow, Florida, Bubba Stewart, as he is best known, went on his first motorcycle ride while he was still in diapers. When Bubba was just two days old, his father, James Stewart Sr., a motocross enthusiast, took him on a dirt bike ride. When he was four, he entered his first race. He became a sponsored rider at age seven, and was on his way to enjoy success as an amateur racer. The next year Stewart became a big fan of racer Jeff ‘‘Chicken’’ Matiasevich, and was so enamored with him that he began calling himself ‘‘Baby Chicken.’’ He also traveled the country in a motor home with his family and competed in motocross races. Since they were a mobile family, the Stewarts home-schooled Bubba and his brother, Malcolm. By age seventeen, Stewart was already making millions of dollars as a racer and winning nearly every dirt bike race that he entered. While he was an amateur racer, Stewart won nine national titles and was recognized for his blazing speed and big air—an unheard of accomplishment for such a young rider. He turned professional in 2002 and, in his debut pro season, was named the 2002 Rookie of the Year in his sport. Crashes and mistakes prevented Stewart from winning the 125 West Supercross Title in 2002; he still dominated the 2002 125cc national championship. Crashes and injuries also forced him to sit out the first few rounds of the 2003 AMA Motocross series, diminishing any hope for winning that series. In 2004, he won the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) 125 East Supercross championship as well as the AMA 125 Motocross National Championship. In 2008, he became the second rider ever, after Ricky Carmichael, to have a perfect motocross season, with 24 wins in 24 competes, achieving all of this after returning from knee surgery. He capped off his magnificent record with the AMA Speed Athlete of the Year award in 2008. In 2009, Stewart won 11 of 17 Supercross events ending with the 2009 Supercross Championship with 4 points over his opponent, Chad Reed. He struggled in his competitions in early 2010 and also suffered more injuries.
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Stewart’s indelible impression on motocross was set firmly when he broke its color line and was named the first African American to dominate in this sport. Bubba Stewart has demonstrated his ability to promote products, and has accomplished much in endorsements. His sponsors include Kawasaki, Gator Aid, and Oakley. He contributed to the MX 2002 videogame for Playstation. Stewart wears number 259 on his clothing in honor of his hero, motocross racer Tony Haynes, who broke his neck in a competition in 1993 and became paralyzed from the waist down. Bubba Stewart lives in Haines City, Florida, where he has an outdoor motocross track and sports equipment to keep him fit, such as a trampoline, and a pool table. So keen is Stewart as a competitor that he has been called an enigma and a freak on two wheels. He aims to reclaim his 2007 supercross championship and to retain his undefeated motocross run. He has entertained the idea of driving in NASCAR after his two-wheel career ends. See also: Car Racing Further Reading James Stewart. (Homepage.) http://js7.com/. James Stewart Bio. AMA Motocross and Supercross Rider Profile. www.motorcycle -usa.com/493/1094/Motorcycle-Article/James-Stewart-Bio.aspx KidzWorld. (n.d.) ‘‘Baby Bubba Stewart.’’ http://kidzworld.com/article/3776-james -bubba-stewart-biography. Frederick D. Smith
Still, William Grant (1895–1978), Composer William Grant Still, the ‘‘Dean of African American Composers,’’ composed over two hundred musical works; his importance is that his concert music uses true black musical traditions. Still established black music as an integral part of American music’s uniqueness; he contributed to music forms thought to be the province of Europeans. Some may recall the original themes for the 1950s Perry Mason, or Gunsmoke television shows, whose themes, soundtracks and/or portions of soundtracks, were composed or arranged by William Grant Still. Still graduated from high school as valedictorian in 1911. He first attended Wilberforce University, but later enrolled at Oberlin in 1917 to study music. Still served in the U.S. Navy (1918–19), which typically limited blacks to ‘‘mess duties’’; however, he was assigned to play violin for officers’ meals. Still studied under George Chadwick and Edward Varese at the New England Conservatory (1921–23). Contemporary composers Nathaniel Dett, Harry T. Burleigh, and Will Marion Cook encouraged Still’s work in European concert tradition. In 1921, he worked for Noble Sissle’s and Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along. From 1921 to 1924, Still directed for Black Swan Records. He composed for Columbia
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Broadcasting System (CBS) radio; his ‘‘Fantasy on the ‘St. Louis Blues’’’ was the first such arrangement of an American classic to be recorded. Still made uniquely American music by fusing European traditions with black music traditions, eschewing Minstrelsy, then held to be black music’s essence. His successful 1932 ‘‘African-American Symphony’’ established Still as a concert music composer. Still reversed the European style of progressing from minor to major; his symphony moved from A-flat major to its minor on F. In the Scherzo, theme 1A, a minstrel theme is heard once, depicting the black presence as seen through white eyes, then the movement shifts, into African American selfexpression. Theme 1A is heard in Gershwin’s, ‘‘I Got Rhythm.’’ Still orchestrated and composed for CBS radio’s Deep River Hour; and he accepted a job conducting, becoming the first black to conduct on white radio. He left when the show moved to NBC, which refused to hire a black conductor. In the 1930s, Still composed music for the movies Pennies from Heaven (1936) and Stormy Weather (1943). He composed music for the original Perry Mason Show and Gunsmoke (1954), but was never credited for his contributions to these shows. His tenure with Columbia Pictures was difficult; the music director refused his work, yet lied to others that Still could not do the work. Once in Still’s hearing a coworker loudly referred to him as a ‘‘nigger.’’ On July 23, 1936, Still led the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in the Hollywood Bowl, the first black to do so. He composed the theme for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Despite the success of his 1939 opera Troubled Island (which received 22 curtain calls on opening night), Time magazine’s and other critics gave Still’s opera poor marks. His works included La Guiablesse (1927), Lenox Avenue (1937), A Bayou Legend (1941), Darker America (1924), and Africa Suite (1930). His outstanding awards and honors included the Harmon Award (1927) and the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1934). Still created music until he was eighty; he died at eighty-three, leaving a legacy of blues, jazz, classical music, and popular orchestrations. The music of today’s movies and television owes much to the genius of William Grant Still. See also: Handy, W. C.; Joplin, Scott; Ragtime Further Reading AfriClassical. (2009 update.) ‘‘William Grant Still (1895–1978), African American Composer, Arranger, Conductor and Oboist—Dean of African American Composers.’’ November. http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/Still.html. Arvey, Verna. 1984. In One Lifetime. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. Gwendolyn M. Rees
Stringer, C. Vivian (1948– ), Basketball Coach Women’s Basketball has become a highly attractive, competitive, and popular sport, due in part to the work and success of C. Vivian Stringer, who has raised the bar to new levels. Wherever she served as head coach, Stringer built giants
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where there were none, and without trying to also achieved many honors and fame in the process. Women’s basketball has become an important part of popular culture, both where African Americans and other races are concerned, and at times attracting sold-out crowds. Ironically, though, there have been incidences of racism for Stringer, both in her early life and in recent years, where she least expected it. One of seven children, Charlene Vivian Stringer was born on March 16, 1948, in the small coal-mining town of Edenborn, Pennsylvania, to Charles H. Stoner, a coal miner and musician, and Thelma Stoner. At an early age Vivian Stringer was athletically inclined and hoped to play on her high school’s track or basketball team. At that time, there were no girls’ teams at her school. Instead, she became a cheerleader, the first African American girl to do so in Edenborn; however, on weekends she managed to play basketball with the boys’ varsity teams. She attended Slippery Rock University and played basketball, field hockey, softball, and tennis. Her performance in these sports earned her entry into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. She also met Bill Stringer, whom she married. The Stringers moved to Cheyney State University, an historically black college where both held teaching positions beginning in 1971. Vivian Stringer also volunteered to coach the women’s basketball team; later she was named coach, sharing the basketball court with legendary John Chaney. They became lifelong friends, each achieving fame as a basketball coach. Stringer earned her master’s degree from Slippery Rock in 1972. After ten years at Chaney, and developing a nationally competitive basketball program and taking the team to the Final Four competition of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) championship basketball tournament, in 1983, she accepted the head coaching post at the University of Iowa. Vivian Stringer made Iowa’s basketball program exciting and successful. Her win-loss record over twelve seasons was 269–84 (.760). Iowa came in at 29–2 in 1987–88 and won its first BTC title outright, and for eight consecutive weeks was ranked first nationally. Despite the sudden death of her husband in late 1992 and her daughter’s illness, she continued her coaching duties, leading the Hawkeyes to the NCAA Tournament in 1993. She was the first women’s coach to lead two different college teams to the NCAA Final Four. Stringer was named Naismith Coach of the Year. Her coaching success continued, and in 1993–94 her record was 509–118, with a winning percentage of .812. She ended the year with the honor of bring the third woman coach ever with 500 wins. The tragedy in Stringer’s personal life discouraged her from staying on, despite her fine record. In spring 1995, she accepted an offer at Rutgers, which made her the highest-paid woman’s coach in the United States. In 2000, Stringer took the Scarlet Knights to the NCAA tournament, where they were in the Final Four. This made her the only coach, male or female, to lead three different teams to the Final Four. As Stringer’s teams progressed, Stringer’s honors increased. Sports Illustrated named her Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year in 1991. She was named the BTC Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year in 1991 and 1993. In 1993 and again in 1998 she was named WBCA Basketball Coach of the Year, and in
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1998, 1999, and 2000, she was named Coach of the Year by the Metropolitan Basketball Coaches Association and the Metropolitan Basketball Writers’ Association. In 2001, Stringer was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, in Knoxville, Tennessee. She has served as international coach for several American women’s basketball teams, and helped to establish the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. In addition, she has won numerous other awards and recognitions. Both in the world of basketball and among the general public, in April 2007, Vivian Stringer and the women’s basketball team at Rutgers bore the brunt of public ugliness. This came as result of radio host Don Imus’s hurtful and insulting remarks made after Rutgers’ loss in the national title game with the University of Tennessee’s Lady Volunteers, after which he derided the Rutgers team as ‘‘nappyheaded hos.’’ Stringer had known similar insults before, when the German Township (Pennsylvania) High School, which she attended early over forty years earlier, first denied her a spot on the cheerleading squad, all done with undertones—or overt tones—of racism. Stringer and her team handled the Imus situation with dignity and grace, meeting with him and accepting his apology. The team said that they were insulted and angry; one member said in USA Today that Imus has ‘‘stolen a moment of pure grace for us.’’ Ultimately, Imus was fired from his talk show and Vivian Stringer and her team continued their winning ways. The matter became fully entrenched in African American popular culture. See also: Women and Sports Further Reading Answers.com. (n.d.) ‘‘C. Vivian Stringer.’’ http://www.answers.com/topic/c-vivian -stringer. Hawkes, Nena Ray, and John F. Seggar. 2000. Celebrating Women Coaches: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Johnson, Anne Janette. 1997. ‘‘C. Vivian Stringer.’’ Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale. Whiteside, Kelly. 2007. ‘‘Rutgers Coach Has History of Standing Firm.’’ USA Today. April 11. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/womensbasketball/2007-04-10stringer_N.htm. Winters, Kelly. 2003.‘‘C. Vivian Stringer.’’ In Notable Black American Women, Book III. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Jessie Carney Smith
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) (1960) The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was established in April 1960 during a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Two months subsequent to this conference, black students attending
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North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University participated in the Woolworth sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina. In order to assist students in structuring and publicizing their antisegregation protest, Ella Baker of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) invited student activists to the Shaw conference. Baker, Martin Luther King Jr., and other civil rights activists recognized the importance of youth involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and extended their support to students. As a result, delegates attending the conference were southern lunch counter sit-in participants, northern college students, a few white students, and members of SCLC, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), National Student Association (NSA), and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). During the conference, Marion Barry, a student activist who later became mayor of Washington, DC, became SNCC’s first chairman elect. Two adults, Ella Baker and Connie Currie, were selected to serve as adult advisors to SNCC. SNCC adopted a Founding Statement which summarized its nonviolent direct action philosophy. According to this statement, ‘‘[w]e affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of our purpose, the presupposition of our belief, and the manner of our action. Nonviolence, as it grows from Judeo-Christian tradition, seeks a social order of justice permeated by love. Integration of human endeavor represents the crucial first step toward such a society.’’ After the establishment of SNCC, student sit-ins occurred throughout the South and resulted in desegregation of many restaurants and lunch counters. However, SNCC’s work involved more than student sit-ins. Members of SNCC collaborated with other civil rights organizations during the 1961 Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, the 1964 Freedom Summer voter education campaign, and Freedom Schools in Mississippi. Therefore, SNCC was actively involved in the fight for equal justice, voting rights, and educational opportunities. SNCC’s contribution to African American culture is best stated by Julian Bond (in 2000), one of its original members: By 1965, SNCC fielded the largest staff of any civil rights organization in the South. It had organized nonviolent direct action against segregated facilities, as well as voter registration projects, in Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, Louisiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi; built two independent political parties and organized labor unions and agricultural cooperatives; and given the movement for women’s liberation new energy. It inspired and trained the activists who began the ‘‘New Left.’’ It helped expand the limits of potential debate within black America, and broadened the focus of the civil rights movement. Unlike mainstream civil rights groups, which merely sought integration of blacks into the existing order, SNCC sought structural changes in American society itself.
Despite SNCC’s success, the organization’s nonviolent philosophy was challenged by some of its members, resulting in disagreements within the ranks of
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the organization. This rift in SNCC became even more pronounced when Stokely Carmichael replaced John Lewis as chairman. SNCC’s move away from a nonviolent philosophy became evident in 1967 when H. Rap Brown replaced Carmichael and renamed SNCC the Student National Coordinating Committee to reflect the shift away from a nonviolent stance. By 1970, SNCC’s membership had substantially diminished. The organization was eventually dismantled. See also: Freedom Riders; Sit-in Movement Further Reading Bond, Julian. 2000. ‘‘SNCC: What We Did—Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.’’ Monthly Review 52 October): 14–28 Ibiblio. (n.d.) ‘‘SNCC 1960–1966: Six Years of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.’’ http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/index.html. Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis60.htm. Olethia Davis
Sullivan, Leon H. (1922–2001), Minister, Activist Leon H. Sullivan was a minister who not only nourished the spiritual life of his parishioners, but a civil rights activist who propagated community development, equal opportunity, and economic self-help for African Americans. His job training programs in urban areas focused on eradicating blight and empowering poor, disenfranchised people. These programs were greatly lauded by government and social service agencies. Sullivan’s efforts were not confined to the United States but later spread to Africa where he sought to develop business relations between Africa and the African diaspora business sector, address trade policy disparity issues between Africa and the United States, and lobby American corporations to divest from Apartheid era South Africa. Sullivan’s work defined a new socioeconomic empowerment model that is utilized today by many popular culture personalities in the U.S. and abroad. Leon Howard Sullivan was born October 16, 1922, in the coal mining town of Charleston, West Virginia, to young parents who later separated. Young Leon was raised by his maternal grandmother, a very religious, hardworking woman who instilled in him an adherence to Christian values and ethics. Sullivan was a tall youngster and his height helped him get an athletic scholarship to West Virginia State College to play football and basketball in 1943. While in college Sullivan pastored several rural churches in West Virginia. During Sullivan’s sophomore year in college, as his beloved grandmother lay dying, he became aware of his life’s mission as a minister. As an ordained minister, while still a college student, Sullivan was mentored by minister Moses Newton and the outspoken, controversial, New York politician and minister Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Upon Sullivan’s graduation from college in 1943, he moved
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to New York City at the encouragement of Powell, and completed further study at Union Theological Seminary in 1945. He completed the MA degree in religion from Columbia in 1947. While in Harlem, Sullivan came under the influence of A. Philip Randolph, president and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first black union in the U.S. Randolph, who helped plan the first national march on Washington in 1941, appointed the twenty-one-year-old Sullivan president of the national march movement, where he collaborated closely with civil rights luminaries such as Bayard Rustin. This first March on Washington never took place because President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 ending black government worker discrimination. In 1950, Sullivan assumed the pastorate of Zion Baptist Church, located in poverty-stricken, crime-ridden north Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was here that his social ministry to educate, house, and provide jobs for the poor took root. During his first five years at Zion Baptist Sullivan initiated several successful social help programs: a youth job placement program; the Selective Patronage Program which fought youth employment discrimination, and the nationally renowned Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC). The OIC was founded in 1964 and provided skills training in various technical and vocational jobs for undereducated, disenfranchised African Americans. By 1969 Sullivan had established over seventy OICs and enrolled over 20,000 trainees. Sullivan’s economic work also extended to Africa, and in 1977 he established the Sullivan Principles. The Sullivan Principles set forth six core concepts designed to gain economic empowerment and social equity for black workers in South Africa under apartheid. In 1991 Sullivan headed up the first African– African American summit in Ivory Coast, West Africa. Sullivan died April 24, 2001, at seventy-eight years of age, after a brief battle with leukemia. See also: Churches; Pan-Africanism Further Reading Sullivan, Leon H. 1972. Alternatives to Despair. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press. Sullivan, Leon H. 1969. Build Brother Build. Philadelphia: Macrae Smith. Sullivan, Leon H. 1998. Moving Mountains: The Principles and Purposes of Leon Sullivan. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press. Carter B. Cue
Superstitions A superstition is a belief or notion not based on reason or knowledge; superstitions are also a system or collection of beliefs—a custom or act based in something other than reason or knowledge. Superstitions are also false beliefs
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concerning a supernatural power. Sometimes the powers can be especially cruel. African Americans have many beliefs that are tied to folk culture as well as to religious and spiritual practices originating with their African ancestors. Because these practices and beliefs were neither understood nor accepted by society, these cultural practices and religious traditions were typically identified under the single category of superstition. African slaves were brought to the United States with their hands and feet bound by shackles. In addition to their physical chains, their minds and spirits were also bound. The slaves were intentionally kept ignorant. They were prohibited from being formally educated and learning how to read or write. To become educated was punishable by death. With the slaves on a continent far away from their homelands and surrounded by strange looking people who spoke what was at first an unintelligible language, the slaves tried to understand, explain, and control their surroundings. They, like others before them, attempted to explain what they could not understand in ways that made sense to them. In this respect, the development and belief in superstitions is similar to how people look to religion or scientific inquiry to explain their surroundings. Having no power over any aspect of their lives, slaves and others developed superstitions in an attempt to have some predictability over events in their life. The superstitions often involved magic or an occult force. There was also the belief in an active spirit. Other common traits found in superstitions included the superstitions becoming active after a specific occurrence. Depending on the population who believed in the superstition, the superstitions could also vary in different areas. Additionally, over time, the superstitions could lose their significance to the believers. Some of the superstitions could be modified to meet the needs of the believers. Other superstitions are easily perpetuated because they rely on immature minds. This is evidenced by the stories of the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Many of the early superstitions espoused by African Americans could be divided into two types: superstitions that promised a reward and those that forebode danger. Although the outcomes varied greatly between these types of superstitions, they are similar in that there is an action that leads to a consequence. If a cat was allowed near a newborn baby, it was believed that the feline would kill the baby by stealing its breath. Another type of consequence superstition is the belief that placing a purse or pocketbook on the floor will cause the owner’s money to be taken from them. Superstitions based on false perceptions are common. There are also superstitions which reward certain behavior. An example of a rewarding superstition is the belief that cooking and eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day will ensure prosperity for the upcoming year. Another is the belief that placing a small amount of money in a new wallet or purse will attract money to the owner. There is another class of superstitions which are based on totems or material objects. Items are believed to have or attract luck or misfortune. The totems
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which attract luck or good fortune create a special relationship between the object and its owner. See also: African Cultural Influences; Caribbean Cultural Influences Further Reading Carroll, William. 1998. Superstitions: 10,000 Things You Need to Know. San Marcos, CA: Coda Publications. Puckett, Newbell N. 1926. Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Read, Carveth. 1925. Man and His Superstitions. Cambridge: London at University Press. Angela Espada
Sykes, Wanda (1964– ), Comedian, Actor, Writer Stand-up comic Wanda Sykes is a funny, quick-witted entertainer who has had success in film and on television as well. As a comic, Sykes deals with issues common in African American popular culture, such as karma, gay marriage, politics, Racial Profiling, and the pressure of being a woman. She wins over audiences as she blends stinging Humor with outspoken honesty. Wanda Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, on March 7, 1964. Her father served as a colonel in the U.S. Army while her mother worked as a journalist and a bank manager. With her parents and an older brother, she moved to Anne Arundel County, Maryland, near Baltimore. Her humorous side was evident while she was still in Arundel High School, as she joked her way through school and her school’s yearbook published comments from her classmates noting how comical she was. There she also enrolled in theater classes. The outspoken comic spent two years at a community college and then transferred to Hampton University, graduating in 1986 with a bachelor of science degree in marketing. From 1986 until 1991, she was employed with the National Security Agency, the federal government’s high-tech communications and intelligence gathering arm; she worked her way up to become a contract specialist. Overlapping that position for five years was her work as a stand-up comedian. In 1987, a local radio station staged a Coors Light Super Talent Showcase in Washington, DC. One of the categories included was comedy. On a lark, she decided to enter, making this her first appearance before a live audience. Although unsuccessful on that showcase, she received positive feedback and encouragement to continue in comedy. Some writers believe that her career in comedy began with that showcase. After that, she performed at comedy clubs around the District of Columbia and in Baltimore. When she was confident that she could become a successful comic, she quit her day job and focused on stand-up comedy full time.
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Sykes relocated to New Jersey in 1992 and regularly performed in New York City. As time passed, she achieved well and, according to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, became known as ‘‘an on-stage persona of a know-it-all, nononsense woman who does not take grief from anyone or put up with any stupid situation.’’ She developed a number of comedian friends, including Chris Rock. Her friendship with Rock led to her opening for him in 1995. Later, Rock hired her on his writing staff and gave her a spot on The Chris Rock Show which aired from 1997 to 2000. Around the same time she also wrote for the Keenen Ivory Wayans Show. Her work with Chris Rock led to an Emmy Award for the writers, including Sykes, in 1999. Prior to that, in 1998, Sykes began her career in film acting, making her debut in Tomorrow Night. By the time Rock’s show ended, Sykes, a lifelong football fan, had become a field correspondent for Inside the NFL, aired on HBO and hosted by Bob Costas. Ironically, she paved the way for her spot on the show by crashing a wrap party for Inside the NFL and blasting Costas and the producers with heavy insults and quick witticisms. For her work on the show, she was awarded Emmys in 2002, 2004, and 2005. In 2001, she had won the American Comedy Award for ‘‘Outstanding Female Stand Up Comic.’’ From 2000 to 2005, Sykes appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm and then had a turn on The Drew Carey Show. In 2000, she appeared in Nutty Professor II: The Kumps and other films as well. Since 2001, she has appeared numerous times on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Her own television series was launched in 2003, when she was writer, producer, and a performer on Wanda at Large; it was cancelled the next year. Still the talented and versatile performer’s career blossomed in other ways. In 2003, she was one of several hosts of the Emmys and also did a one-hour stand-up special called Wanda Sykes: Tongue Untied, which was shown on Comedy Central. She also joined Comedy Central’s national tour in 2004 and 2005. Sykes had no difficulty moving in and out of television shows and films, as her career blossomed continuously. In the 2005 hit comedy Monster in Law, she had a co-starring role with Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda. Sykes also appeared in Clerks II and the romantic comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend, both in 2006, and the next year in Evan Almighty, a sequel to Bruce Almighty. Wanda Sykes: Sick & Tired, her HBO comedy special, made its debut in October 2006, and for that she was nominated for a 2007 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special. Sykes lent her voice to a number of popular feature-length animated films in 2006, including Over the Hedge for Dreamworks and The Barnyard for Paramount Pictures. By 2007, however she was cast as a regular in CBS’s situation comedy, The New Adventures of Old Christine. Her first book, Yeah, I Said It, hit the stores in September 2004. The humorous collection of essays on her life, family, and current events touches on politics, dieting, race, vanity, transsexuals, and relationships. In October 2004, she began what she called her Cotton T-Shirt Tour to promote her book. Sykes’s marriage in 1991 to record producer Dave Hall ended in divorce. In October 2008, she married Alex, her female partner whom she met two years
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earlier. Sykes publicly came out as lesbian in November 2008, and in April 2009 her partner gave birth to twins Olivia Lou and Lucas Claude. See also: Comedy and Comedians; Entertainment Industry Further Reading Answers.com. (n.d.) ‘‘Wanda Sykes.’’ http://www.answers.com/topic/wanda-sykes. Bethel, Kari. 2005. Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 48. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Wanda Sykes. (Homepage.) http://www.wandasykes.com/. Jessie Carney Smith
T Tap Dance Tap dance is a good example of how African dance retentions have helped blacks to survive during slavery, enhanced African American culture, help to develop choreography for black R & B groups, given the United States an indigenous art form, and gained world acclaim. Improvisation, jazz rhythms, and syncopation mark the tap genre and make it uniquely African American. Tap’s Early Beginnings When slaveholders discovered African slaves could communicate with each other across long distances by using drum messages, the use of drums by slaves was banned in the U.S. South. In the absence of drums, slaves used other forms of percussion in dances that used hands, feet, thighs, and bodies to produce rhythm; in so doing, they retained aspects of their African culture—a method of communicating with each other. Giouba is a West African (sacred or secular) dance that was known by enslaved Africans. The giouba included intricate steps and the stamping out of rhythm with the feet. Similarly, the African ring shout was a ritualistic ‘‘calland-response’’ song which was danced with singing, short and precise shuffle steps, hand-clapping, foot stomping, and sometimes the pounding of a stick on a wooden floor. Dancers in Congo pose (fixed facial expression, forward leaning stance with knees slightly bent) would slide one foot forward a few inches, then the next (legs did not cross in a step), in a single-file line that moved in a counter-clockwise circle. Hands, arms, belly, feet, legs, were involved; and hips could shake and sway; but shoulders were kept stiff.
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Slave laws of the 1740s banned drumming but blacks popularized giouba (juba or hambone) which featured hand-clapping, the patting or slapping of the body as if it were a drum, and percussive footwork (unique heel tapping and stomping). By the late 1700s the juba, with its hip movement, relaxed torso, and percussive footwork, began to be melded with the Irish dance style of a stiff torso, minimal hip movement, and dexterous footwork. This new style was called jigging and was considered a Negro form of dance; it was accompanied by ‘‘ragged’’ or syncopated fiddling; the Irish jig, ‘‘clogging,’’ ‘‘soft shoe,’’ and the ‘‘hornpipe’’ had no syncopation. William Henry Lane, ‘‘Father of Tap’’ William Henry Lane (1825–52) may be the only African American in minstrel shows before 1858. He danced in saloons, dancehalls, and cabarets in the racially mixed forerunner of Harlem in New York City. Written accounts of positive and negative eyewitness descriptions have noted the sounds that William Henry Lane’s (‘‘Master Juba’’) feet made when he danced, and of his control over the making of these sounds, suggesting that Lane used tapping in his dancing career (1842–52). Lane competed at local dance contests and defeated all comers. In 1844, he defeated the best white Irish step dancer, Jack (John) Diamond twice, and won the five hundred dollar prize twice. Lane’s defeat of the Irishman in every contest they entered brought him fame. He was billed as the ‘‘Greatest Dancer in the World,’’ and handbills called him a ‘‘God of Dance.’’ One match Lane did lose was to a younger black man also named John Diamond. Lane traveled abroad as well. In 1848, London billed Lane as ‘‘Boz’s Juba’’ after ‘‘Boz,’’ as the English writer Charles Dickens was called, saw Lane perform in 1842, and wrote of Lane’s dancing as ‘‘resembling the noises of the fingers on a tambourine.’’ Dickens’s description of the unique percussive sounds Lane’s dancing made may be among the earliest records of tap dance. Lane, among the most influential dancers of the nineteenth century, founded a dance studio in England where he remained until his death in 1852. Lane is credited with grafting an African style of stepping and shuffling onto the European step style dance; it is largely because of Lane that tap dancing in the minstrel period kept its African American integrity. Buck Dancing Closely related to juba, buck dancing is probably as old as juba, and older than clogging and soft shoe. The words ‘‘buck’’ and ‘‘buccaneer’’ are thought to come from the words ‘‘bukra’’ and ‘‘bockorau’’ used by Africans in the Carolinas and the Caribbean to describe whites. Slaves were periodically exercised by being brought topside and forced to dance. The dance male slaves did gained popularity with Irish sailors, and was called buck dancing, an early form of tap. Combined with British clogging, it became known as the buck and wing.
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Jazz Tap Dancing and its Masters As tap dance began to absorb Ragtime and jazz rhythms, it became jazz tap dance, and was characterized by syncopation. The 1898 all-black musical, Clorindy, exemplifies this. Bert Williams and George Walker performed cakewalks and the buck-and-wing in Dahomey, in 1902. The cakewalk, which parodied Europe’s minuet, is now performed by black drum majors. In the 1900s, tap dancers had to win buck-and-wing/cakewalking dance contests to gain the status of professional dancers, and for entry into the world of Broadway. Each tap dancer has his or her own time step, a repetitive step used to tell the band what tempo the dancer requires. In tap dance, a dance challenge made by one dancer to another tests dancers’ mastery of the dance, their improvisational skills, and helps tap to evolve. ‘‘King of Tap’’ and Other Dancers In 1900, Bill ‘‘Bojangles’’ Robinson (1878–1949) challenged Irishman Harry Swinton to a buck-and-wing contest in New York, and won. The resulting publicity and the gold medal then made Robinson the top man in dance, and to challenge. Robinson, the drum major for the famed ‘‘Harlem Hellfighters’’ (369th Infantry, in France), led his regiment up Fifth Avenue during the World War I victory parade. Robinson introduced the style of tap dancing on the toes, rather than flat footed, and his signature ‘‘stair dance’’ is now a classic. His nickname ‘‘Bojangles’’ came from an elder’s calling him, ‘‘bo jangler’’ (or contentious). Robinson invented the phrase, ‘‘Everything’s copacetic’’ (or great). His dancing is showcased in the movie Stormy Weather. Tap dancers before John Bubbles used flash (or specialty) steps, tapped on their toes, and did two taps per bar. John Bubbles (1902–86) made tap dancing fuller and more dimensional rhythmically by dropping the heels on the off beat, accenting rhythm with the toes, adding unusual syncopations, putting more beats in a bar, then further lengthening rhythmic phrases beyond eight bars. These changes in tap dancing opened the way for modern jazz percussion and earned him the title, ‘‘Father of Rhythm Tap.’’ His dancing may be seen in the movie, Cabin in the Sky. Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold Nicholas (1921–2000) combined jazz rhythms, acrobatics, ballet, and black vernacular dance in their style of tap dancing. Their rhythmic excellence, their eloquent footwork and the musicality of their tapping is unsurpassed. Their signature moves included spectacular series of leaps, ending in unbelievable splits; and the seeming running up of a wall, ending in a back flip. In the opening scene of the movie, Men in Black, an alien seeking to elude capture, executes this signature Nicholas Brothers dance move. In Stormy Weather, the brothers leap over each other down a flight of steps, each leap ending in a smooth and classy split on a step. Gregory Hines’s style has been described as smooth and classic. Hines (1946– 2003) is credited with bringing a resurgence of tap dancing throughout the world with his mastery of jazz rhythms, improvisation, and choreography. In 1992 he
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was nominated for Best Choreography in Jelly’s Last Jam. His dancing was featured in the movie, The Cotton Club (1984). Savion Glover (1973– ) debuted at the age of nine, as the title character in the November 16, 1983, preview of Broadway’s smash hit, The Tap Dance Kid. Glover’s tap style uses his whole foot to make music, and regards tap shoes as drums. Glover appeared alongside Gregory Hines in the Broadway productions, Black and Blue and Jelly’s Last Jam; and in the movie, Tap. At the 39th annual Grammy Awards on February 27, 1997, Colin Dunn, star of Riverdance—The Musical, offered Glover, the star and choreographer of Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, a dance challenge. At stake were the dancers’ reputations and the supremacy of the dance forms each show represented. Glover won the challenge when Dunn lost his ability to recreate Glover’s dance steps, allowing Glover to end and win the challenge with a flick-kick. Other tap dance greats included Peg Leg Bates, Bunny Briggs, Charles ‘‘Cholly’’ Atkins (who choreographed R & B groups in the 1960s), Charles ‘‘Honi’’ Coles, Sammy Davis Jr., ‘‘Baby Laurence’’ Jackson, ‘‘Sandman’’ Sims, and Jimmy Slyde. See also: African Cultural Influences; Stepping Further Reading Albright, Ann Cooper, ed. 2005. Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press. American Tap Dance Foundation. (n.d.) ‘‘Tap Dance Hall of Fame.’’ http://www.atdf .org/hall.html. Buck Dancing (dance). Britannica Online Encyclopedia. http://www.britanica.com Hill, Constance Valis. 2002. ‘‘Tap Dance in America: A Very Short History.’’ Tap Dance.org. http://www.tapdance.org/images/up/File/TAPENCY2002cites.pdf. Johnson, Stephen. 2003. ‘‘Juba’s Dance: An Assessment of Newly Acquired Information.’’ Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars. University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland, June 26–29. Watson, Sonny. (n.d.) ‘‘Stage Name: Master Juba.’’ Sonny Watson’s Streetswing.com. http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2juba1.htm. Gwendolyn M. Rees
Taylor, Koko (1928–2009), Singer The earthy, downhome music of blues singer Koko Taylor occupies an enduring place in African American popular culture. Taylor, whose singing career began in the 1960s, comes from a long line of African American women who sang the blues professionally. Beginning with the progenitors, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, and others who rose to prominence during the 1920s and 1930s, the women of blues turned sadness, misery, loneliness, jilted love, violence, oppression, as well as joy, into a popular art form. Liberating themselves from the mundane and backbreaking work on the farm or in white homes as
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domestics, they established profitable careers. With the passage of time, blues music migrated from secluded juke joints and nightclubs in the South to urban neighborhoods in the North. Taylor, with her bold, assertive, and uninhibited voice, taught herself how to sing by listening to the blues greats. When she moved to Chicago, she became known as the ‘‘Queen of Chicago Blues’’ and launched an award-winning career that spanned more than four decades. Cora Walton was the name of the baby that arrived on September 28, 1928, in Memphis, Tennessee, to parents who were sharecroppers. Later, Cora would receive the nickname ‘‘Koko,’’ because of her love for chocolate. Taylor’s mother died in 1938. Her father cared for Taylor and her siblings, making sure that they went to the local Baptist church on Sundays and other special occasions. To be sure, he received help from extended family and neighbors in the community. Taylor and her five siblings liked to imitate the blues stars, like Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, when their father was not around (he believed that blues music was immoral). Taylor belted out her favorite songs, while her siblings played on homemade instruments. At church, Taylor sang the familiar Spirituals and gospel songs that were passed along over many generations. Becomes Queen of Chicago Blues In 1953, a grown up Taylor, in her mid-twenties, married Robert Taylor. He was a truck driver for a living. He also liked to sing the blues. Sometime after their marriage, the couple moved to Chicago. In general, rumors and letters from transplanted friends and relatives told of excitement and opportunities in the North. To be sure, the South was more racially oppressive than the North. Nonetheless, racial discrimination in housing and employment was rampant there as well. Opportunities were not unlimited for blacks. In Chicago, Taylor found work as a domestic, taking care of white children, laundering clothes, and making little money. Taylor’s husband found a job in a slaughterhouse. The Taylors were drawn to the local nightclubs, where they listened to blues music; sometimes, they performed. Frequently, Taylor sang with other blues singers and musicians. She was rapidly becoming known in the predominately black section of the city, the South Side, where she was dubbed the ‘‘Queen of Chicago Blues.’’ Koko Taylor was discovered by Willie Dixon, a prolific blues musician, singer, and record producer, in 1962. Dixon produced her first single and wrote her trademark song ‘‘Wang Dang Doodle.’’ In this upbeat song, Taylor makes use of powerful growled vocals to get her message across. The song was an enormous success, selling a million copies. Chess Records produced Koko Taylor in 1969 and Basic Soul in 1972. In the same year, Taylor performed at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. (She would become a regular at jazz festivals around the nation.) Although blues music was increasingly being passed over for the new sounds of the 1970s, such as soul and disco, Taylor refused to submit to changing trends. With her husband as her manager, the couple embarked on a professional career, maintaining the timelessness of blues music, their cultural roots, and making a living doing what they loved best.
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In her lifetime, Taylor produced many albums and ventured into the nightclub business. Alligator Records produced I Got What it Takes, Queen of the Blues, and Earthshaker in 1975, a very busy year for Taylor. In 1984, Atlantic produced Blues Explosion. Taylor went back to Alligator for her last three albums, Force of Nature in 1993, Royal Blue in 2000, and Old School in 2007. Taylor produced more than a dozen total albums during her career. She was not only active in the studio; she maintained a busy schedule touring and performing live in nightclubs and at blues festivals. In 1999, she and her daughter, Joyce Threatt, operated a nightclub, Koko Taylor’s Celebrity. The nightclub closed in 2001. Her daughter currently manages the Koko Taylor Celebrity Aid Foundation to provide financial support to aspiring blues performers Taylor was a recipient of numerous awards. Her first award came in 1980, a W. C. Handy Award for Best Contemporary Female Artist. Taylor received over twenty W. C. Handy awards in all. The awards were named after the man known as the ‘‘Father of the Blues.’’ He is equally famous for playing the blues and translating it to sheet music. In 1985, Taylor received her first Grammy Award, an extraordinary recognition demonstrating that blues was still a thriving music form. In 1996, she received the Howlin’ Wolf Award and, in the following year, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In 1999, she received the Blues Foundation Lifetime of Achievement. The National Endowments for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship was awarded to her in 2004. Before Taylor’s death, she received yet another award at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, Tennessee, at eighty years old. Taylor also performed at the Blues Music Awards show before many adoring fans. Following complications from surgery, Taylor died on June 3, 2009. She was survived by her second husband, Hays Harris, and daughter, Joyce Threatt. (Robert Taylor died in 1989.) See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading Beauchamp, Lincoln T. Jr., ed. 2010. Blues Speak. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Dicaire, David. 1999. Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ‘‘Koko Taylor: The Queen of the Blues.’’ (Tribute site.) http://www.kokotaylor.com/ news.html. Gladys L. Knight
Taylor, Susan L. (1946– ), Editor, Writer, Journalist, Activist Susan L. Taylor has played a principal role in the development of Essence magazine for over three decades as a writer, editor, and quintessential face of the magazine’s brand. She is well-known for her column, ‘‘In the Spirit,’’ one of
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the magazine’s most popular features which she wrote for twenty-seven years. Taylor is also an author, having penned four books: In the Spirit: The Inspirational Writings of Susan L. Taylor (1994); Lessons in Living (1998); Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives (1999), which she coauthored with her husband, Kephra Burns; and All About Love (2008), which is dedicated to Amina Suzanne King, her daughter with Burns. As Editor in Chief Emerita of the magazine, Taylor remains active as a popular lecturer and advocate for African American social causes and personal empowerment. Taylor started her career with the magazine in 1971, a year after the magazine’s debut, as a part-time freelance beauty editor. She moved through the ranks, as fashion and beauty editor and editorial director, to become the magazine’s editor in chief in 1981. In 1983 Taylor became the host/executive producer of the television show Essence, a syndicated program airing for four seasons in markets in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. For her business acumen, Taylor was promoted to vice president of the magazine’s publisher, Essence Communications in 1986 and senior vice president in 1993. During her tenure with Essence, Taylor was the executive producer of the Essence Awards, an annual awards show honoring the accomplishments of notable African Americans. She was also the major force behind the Essence Music Festival, a showcase for accomplished musicians and empowerment seminars. The annual festival, which premiered in New Orleans, attracted large crowds prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastating the city in 2005. In the storms’ aftermath, Taylor used her celebrity to support rebuilding efforts in affected communities. For her accomplishments, Taylor was recognized by the Magazine Publishers of America in 1999 with the Henry Johnson Fisher Award, making her the first and only African American woman to receive the industry’s highest honor. She also holds the distinction of being the first African American woman inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame. Taylor is also the recipient of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) President’s Award for her visionary leadership and holds several honorary doctorates from colleges and universities across the United States. Taylor was born in New York City on January 23, 1946. Her father and mother, Lawrence and Violett Taylor, are of Caribbean descent. A fourth-generation entrepreneur, Taylor grew up in Harlem working in the women’s clothing store her father owned. This early experience inspired her to develop a cosmetic line, Nequai Cosmetics, named in honor of her oldest daughter, Shana-Nequai. In the 1970s when few African American women owned businesses, Taylor successfully sold her products in New York and expanded her business to the Caribbean. Despite having only a high school diploma and cosmetology license, Taylor’s fashion and business savvy led to her hire as beauty editor for Essence. While working at Essence, Taylor graduated from Fordham University in 1991 with a degree in sociology. Taylor has been called ‘‘Black publishing’s inspirational godmother’’ by Black Issues Book Review for supporting the literary careers of many African American female writers including Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat, Bebe
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Moore Campbell, and Terry McMillan. By featuring their work in the magazine, Taylor’s editorial direction made these writers accessible to more African American readers. Taylor’s life and writings have been studied by scholars in womanist theory and literary criticism. Her work is noted for interweaving the everyday experiences of African American women into strategies for social change and empowerment. Taylor remains committed to uplifting African American communities. She founded the National CARES Mentoring Movement in 2006. Originally known as Essence Cares, the CARES Movement is a national campaign to recruit adults as mentors for youth. The goals of the CARES Movement are to improve high school graduation rates, stop violence, and end the rise in incarceration rates among African American youth. Taylor is cofounder of Future PAC, a national political action organization supporting African American women seeking federal and state-level political offices. She also cochairs Shared Interest, with actor/ activist Danny Glover, which raises money to build housing and foster entrepreneurship in South Africa. She serves on several national boards including the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and Girl Scouts of the USA. See also: Feminism; Womanism Further Reading Arango, Tim. 2007. ‘‘Essence Editor is Leaving Magazine.’’ New York Times, July. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/business/media/28mag.html. deGregory, Crystal A. 2006. ‘‘Susan L. Taylor.’’ In Encyclopedia of African American Business. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Hamlet, Janice D. 2006. ‘‘Assessing Womanist Thought: The Rhetoric of Susan L. Taylor.’’ In The Womanist Reader. Layli Phillips, ed. New York: Routledge. McHenry, Susan. 2004. ‘‘Black Publishing’s Inspirational Godmother.’’ Black Issues Book Review. (November–December). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HST/is_6_6/ ai_n8706605/?tag=content;co11 National CARES Mentoring Movement. http://caresmentoring.com/about-us/executive -bios.php. Patti, Nicholas. ‘‘Susan L. Taylor: Biography.’’ http://www.answers.com/topic/susan -l-taylor Taylor, Susan L. 2008. All About Love. West Babylon, NY: Urban Books. Elizabeth Ann Williams
Technology Technology typically refers to humankind’s manipulation of natural resources in an effort to control its environment. At a fundamental level, we seek to advance technology by easing a variety of environmental pressures brought about by conditions that are in many cases unfavorable to our survival. Factors impacting our survivability are at the core of humankind’s technology strategy.
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Once basic survival has been satisfied, technology tends to expand to encompass those factors that impact our quality of life and those which help to satisfy our curiosity. Other aspects of a culture such as economic condition and social status can have an impact on the level of pursuit toward new technologies. In cultures where the economic climate is stressed, greater emphasis tends to be placed on technologies that will satisfy basic needs for survivability. In modern society, new technology is in large part dependent on the advancements of scientific research. Throughout the history of civilization, many technological innovations owe their existence to the pressures of war or the competition for resources between different cultural groups. For instance, the advancement of metal-smelting technology provided an array of utility in daily life, however it was the specific application of advancing military power that pushed its development. During World War II, the modern computer was developed to support the many complexities in designing, building, and deploying modern weaponry systems. Historically in the United States, African Americans were characterized as technically incompetent. It was argued that African Americans lacked the intellectual capacity for innovation. This idea was perpetuated during the slavery and Jim Crow periods in an effort to justify the African American’s inferior social ranking. In spite of these perpetuated myths, African Americans have been making significant contributions toward the development of technology in the United States since their first arrival on the American continent. Rice cultivation is one of the earliest examples and was a technical skill brought to the New World from Africa. Early African slaves taught their slave owners the complex skills needed to produce a successful rice harvest. By 1850, nearly 215,000 acres were devoted to rice production in South Carolina and Georgia alone. African American slaves were denied the right to apply for patents and were therefore unable to establish legal ownership for any technical creativity. There are, however, a number of patents on record of inventions created by free African Americans during the antebellum period. By the end of the nineteenth century, African Americans had patented the furniture caster, hand stamp, the fountain pen, a pencil sharpener, an eggbeater, a bread-kneading machine, ironing board, the golf tee, and a mop, to name a few. Many of these inventions came along during the beginnings of the second industrial revolution and the early stages of mass production. By the beginning of the twentieth century, African Americans were moving North to work in factories, helping manufacturers meet the demands for mass-produced goods. In many instances, southern African Americans were recruited by factories in northern cities. Many individuals relocated North, which became known as the Great Migration. In Detroit alone, the African American population went from 6,000 in 1910 to 120,000 by 1930. This group of African American migrants played a crucial role in the country’s economic growth and development, making it possible for the United States to develop mass production for its many new technologies. In the modern age, engineering professionals have become the link between societal needs and technology development. In 1975, African Americans represented 1.9 percent of the population holding engineering bachelor degrees. The number
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increased to 5 percent by 2000, however, growth has slowed relative to other ethnic groups, particularly Asian, over the last several years. With only 5 percent of the total number of engineers currently in the United States, African Americans are underrepresented in the area of technology design and development. African American incomes have risen faster than the population of the United States as a whole in the last twenty years. This has led to more disposable income and increasing opportunities to become consumers of new technology. Despite the underrepresentation on the development or engineering side, African Americans have embraced technology as consumers. African American households devote nearly twice the amount of their entertainment budget for consumer electronics than the average American household. At the same time, they spend considerably less on entertainment in general than the average American. Not only do they spend more on consumer electronics, they also tend to be early adopters of new electronics products and consequently represent an important segment for advertisers to marketing goods and services. A recent trend by advertisers has been the use of Hip-Hop personalities and images to market consumer technology. This new marketing strategy is having tremendous success throughout mainstream culture, as it appeals to urban as well as suburban youth of all ethnicities. The arrival of the Information Age and its associated technologies has brought about new opportunities but also some new concerns. The term ‘‘digital divide’’ has been used to describe inequalities with regard to information technology access. Factors such as income, education, race, ethnicity, gender, age, and geography all have an impact on information technology’s level of penetration among different demographic groups. For example, the rapid growth of online government publications and political information has created disparities for certain groups in their ability to stay informed about issues related to civics, as well as the ability for basic participation in certain political processes. In 2005, nearly 70 percent of African American households owned a computer; however, only 34 percent had Internet access. Another 42 percent of the adult African American population is using the Internet outside of the home. This leaves more than 20 percent of African American households with no access to the Internet. Like the general population in the United States, African Americans are most likely to use the Internet to send and read e-mail. In school districts with more African American students, the computer-to-student ratio is decreasing, indicating that there has been some success at addressing the larger digital divide problem of the mid-1990s. Computer illiteracy has been labeled the new illiteracy by those in the education community. See also: Inventors and Inventions; Science and Scientists Further Reading Headrick, Daniel R. 2009. Technology: A World History. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Sinclair, Bruce. 2004. Technology and the African American Experience: Needs and Opportunities for Study. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Sluby, Patricia Carter. 2004. The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity. Westport, CT: Praeger. Anthony Smith
Television The depiction of African American popular culture in television and the entertainment media is a complex issue in the African American community, generating both criticism and acclaim over the years. This view is borne out as we explore the historical and contemporary portrayals of African American popular culture on network television, as well as the interplay of media representations. Early on, black popular culture in television and the media was either not represented or depicted in exploitive and derogatory ways. Throughout the years, African Americans have appeared in television with greater frequency and in ever-changing roles. Although critics argue that many shows, particularly black sitcoms, continue to depict African Americans and black culture in problematic ways, many black sitcoms are popular with black audiences who identify with the characters and cultural expressions. In many ways, black sitcoms have played pivotal roles in black communities, providing entertainment that is interesting, appealing, and relevant to black audiences and that facilitates shared cultural experiences and collective memories. However, black programs are, nonetheless, in short supply on mainstream television, necessitating the establishment of black cable networks, like Black Entertainment Television (BET), founded in 1980, and TV One, established in 2004. Origin of Network Television Since the first television broadcast in the United States was broadcast in 1948, whites have dominated television programming. Overall, early programs represented an idyllic white world—ordered, pleasant, and reserved—and was predicated on popular white mannerisms, speech patterns, humor, trends, and fashion. Typical television hosts were white males decked in conservative suits who entertained audiences with straight-laced banter and humor. Television shows, like The Lone Ranger, featured the archetypal white male hero, and Leave It to Beaver presented pop culture’s subdued middle-class white family, including a working father, an impeccably dressed homemaker, and two boys. While whites dominated mainstream television shows in this period, mainstream networks and printed media did cover some social news that affected blacks, such as developments in civil rights issues. At the same time, other forms of media, like radio, regularly broadcast demeaning programs that parodied blacks. However, blacks were increasingly building careers as disk jockeys, gaining popularity with
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black audiences with their animated radio shows; intrigued, many whites tuned in to these programs, as well. In the first decade of network television history, African Americans occupied a limited space. At first, African Americans, like Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sammy Davis Jr., appeared as celebrity guests on popular variety programs, like Toast of the Town, later known as The Ed Sullivan Show, which debuted in 1948, and The Tonight Show, which premiered in 1954. These celebrities offered a glimpse of popular black music that, historically, was limited to black audiences. In the 1950s, blacks hosted their own programs, like The Billy Daniels Show, which only ran several months in 1952 and The Nat King Cole Show, which lasted one season, between 1956 and 1957. Many of the shows that featured African American hosts were short-lived. Other than exposing black music forms performed by African American artists to broader audiences, African American hosts spoke and behaved in the same reserved manner as whites on television. Notwithstanding the sterilized depiction of blacks in television, the presence of black entertainers was an extraordinary milestone. Other depictions of blacks and black culture were less progressive. In fact, these images perpetuated century-old black stereotypes. The Beulah Show, which originated on radio, appeared on television between 1950 and 1953. This popular show featured the subservient mammy figure. Beulah was the epitome of the mammy figure, the benevolent, perpetually smiling, rotund black woman who attends to the domestic and emotional needs of her white employers. In Beulah, the mammy figure cared for a husband, wife, and their young son. In a promotional photo, Beulah, smiling happily, stands behind a middle-class white family who sit on a couch. Her position was indicative of the social status of African Americans who were regulated to the periphery in American society. Outside of Beulah’s codependent relationship with her white employers, she reveals little of a cultural life. Amos ‘n’ Andy and The Little Rascals were other television shows that depicted blacks in derogatory ways. Amos ‘n’ Andy, which ran between 1951 and 1953, cast two African American males in starring roles that were originally portrayed by whites during its run as a popular radio show. In Fred MacDonald’s Blacks and White TV, Amos was regarded as a ‘‘low-key, compliant Uncle Tom’’ and Andy was depicted as ‘‘an easy-going dimwit.’’ Both characters used exaggerated nonstandard English, and their mannerisms were characteristic of the horrendous blackface minstrels of the nineteenth century. The Little Rascals debuted on television in 1955 and included the derisive image of a black in the character known as Buckwheat. Buckwheat, a token black character, provided much laughter. With unkempt hair, tattered clothes, exaggerated facial expressions, and poor English language usage, Buckwheat lent no distinction to black popular culture. Indeed, he reinforced the pervasive racist idea that poverty, infantile behavior, and buffoonery were features of black culture. Organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) objected to demeaning images that were rampant in not just television but film, radio, advertisements in print media, and elsewhere. However, the NAACP’s protest campaigns were not always successful, as they had to contend with a society that was entertained by racist images.
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1960s Beginning in the 1960s, while the Civil Rights Movement occupied significant space in mainstream print media and televised news, black actors and actresses brought forth sophistication and class to roles as protagonists and supporting characters in various television programs; however, black popular culture was scarcely represented. Angela M. Nelson pointedly notes that ‘‘black television characters . . . were fully assimilated into American culture and made little reference to black culture in their appearance and behaviors.’’ Iconic black characters included Julia Baker (Diahann Carroll) in Julia and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) in I Spy. African Americans, like James Earl Jones who played a doctor on The Guiding Light and As the World Turns, appeared in mainstream soap operas. However, blacks were frequently depicted in segregated story lines and were, rarely, if ever, represented with black popular culture in mind. Nonetheless, mainstream black television characters of the 1960s were progressive images, and they challenged racist stereotypes in the media.
1970s The 1970s, however, was a watershed era for popular television programs depicting black popular culture. From this point onward, blacks were mostly featured in situation comedies, a fact that has garnered criticism from scholars and critics who contend that blacks have been mostly excluded from serious dramas and limited to adverse characterizations. Indeed, a number of dramas that emerged, featuring formidable actors, like Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, were not successful; but, blacks thrived in comedic genres. The top shows of the 1970s included The Flip Wilson Show, Soul Train, Sanford and Son, Good Times, and The Jeffersons. These shows provided abundant images of black popular culture. Comedian Flip Wilson hosted the eponymous comedy show that debuted in 1970 and lasted four seasons. He depicted a number of characters that were deemed derogatory by some critics but enjoyed by black audiences. Wilson’s limitless medley of characters, according to MacDonald, included a mammy figure, a loud-speaking Geraldine Jones, Reverend Leroy, ‘‘the effusive gospel-shouting pastor of the Church of What’s Happening Now,’’ and some ‘‘inner-city stereotypes.’’ Soul Train (1971 to 2006) featured Don Cornelius, an African American host, popular black music, and predominately black audience members. The show was a cornucopia of popular black fashion, hairstyles, and dance styles. The long-running Sanford and Son (1972 to 1977) sitcom featured an ornery but loveable junk dealer and his son who lived in the predominately black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles, California. The series and its protagonist, Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx), made many references to black popular culture. In ‘‘Brother, Can You Spare an Act?,’’ Sanford and his son performed a song and tap dance routine. African American entertainers, like Lena Horne, Della Reese, and B. B. King, frequently appeared.
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Black-based humor played a central part in the series. Sanford regularly delivered witty insults, inspired by African American oral traditions known as playing the Dozens, woofing, and Signifying. One of Sanford’s favorite targets for insults was Esther Anderson (LaWanda Page), otherwise known as Aunt Esther. Anderson, always dressed as if she were coming from or going to church, was an expressive, deeply religious, and sanctimonious churchgoer, ever-ready to exchange insults with Sanford or try to pummel him with her purse. Anderson’s character was based on a church woman archetype found in black churches. Quick to raise her hands or move her body in a spontaneous posture of praise, Anderson epitomized the expressive nature of traditional black worship styles. The tone of her voice and mode of her delivery were distinctly black. Anderson and Sanford represented an older generation of blacks who did not have the same opportunities as Sanford’s son. Nevertheless, Sanford had a strong sense of identity and racial pride. His ethnocentric outlook and cultural expressiveness provided a comedic contrast whenever the proper-talking white police officer, Officer ‘‘Hoppy’’ Hopkins appeared in a scene. As hard as he tried, Hopkins could never properly speak black slang and vernacular, badly muddling words, phrases, and the rhythm of his delivery. Good Times (1974 to1979) depicted black life in Chicago housing projects. This show was allegedly based on the real life of Eric Monte, one of the creators of the series. The series was a rarity when it debuted; the majority of familybased series depicted white families virtually untouched by societal problems, or focused on the coming-of-age narratives of white youths. Good Times addressed hard-hitting issues, like racism, poverty, and unemployment. The primary cast included hardworking and supportive parents, James (John Amos) and Florida Evans (Esther Rolle), and their three children, James, known as J. J., (Jimmie Walker), Thelma (Bern Nadette Stanis), and Michael (Ralph Carter). With the exception of J. J., many of the characters displayed mainstream behavior and standard communication styles. Black popular culture was epitomized in various ways on Good Times. Thelma enjoyed black actors and music. Willona Woods (Ja’net DuBois), a friend of the family, employed effusive facial expressions, vocal intonations, and body movement that were emblematic of African American verbal and nonverbal communication styles. However, J. J. upstaged the other characters with his controversial personality and ostentatious parody of popular black culture. Bami Haggins writes in ‘‘The Black Situation Comedy’’ that J. J. ‘‘morphed from an aspiring artist and jive-talking teen to a seventies version of the coon, complete with toothy grin, Sambo-esque strut, and bug-eyed mugging.’’ A coon is an offensive term referring to an undignified black person; Sambo is a racist term referring to a lazy, happy, and irresponsible black male. Amos and Rolle were confounded by J. J.’s problematic character and eventually left the show. The Jeffersons (1975–85) blended imagery of black popular culture and assimilated culture. The Jeffersons included George (Sherman Hemsley), a dry-cleaning magnate, his wife, Louise (Isabel Sanford), and their adult son Lionel (Mike Evans). They lived in a prestigious penthouse in New York and employed an
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African American maid named Florence Johnston (Marla Gibbs). Images of middle-class life abounded. George and his wife dressed conservatively. Louise wore straight hairstyles, when natural hairstyles, in the 1970s, were largely attributed to blackness, and she spoke in a refined manner. However, George Jefferson’s excitable manner of talking, strutting walk, spontaneous dance demonstrations, and frequent comedic verbal sparring with Johnston positioned him as a conduit of black popular culture. To be sure, black popular culture in network television was represented as light and nonthreatening. (Some critics argued that the depictions of black culture were derisive.) Other entertainment media forms depicted contradictory images. Back in the mid-1960s, Race Riots made headline news; however mainstream media generally portrayed blacks, not as victims of society and racism, but as violent and aggressive hoodlums whose behavior was cultivated in the squalor of the ghetto. Blaxploitation films in the 1970s characterized black culture as fashion-obsessed, aggressive, violent, oversexed, and hostile towards whites. The depictions of the ghetto hoodlum and stone-faced supercool ‘‘brother’’ or ‘‘sister,’’ reinforced the stereotype that black culture was menacing and intimidating. 1980s The 1980s onward ushered forth a hodgepodge of representations of black popular culture and blacks in innovative and wide-ranging roles, many of them depicted as successful and progressive. These characters challenged dominant images in other forms of media. For example, in the news, film, and mainstream television, blacks were largely depicted as welfare recipients, gang members, criminals, and athletes. Rap, which would become a mainstream phenomenon, also perpetrated the erroneous conception that black culture was based on materialistic lifestyles, aggressive posturing, Hip-Hop slang and African American vernacular, and promiscuity. Institutions, like high schools, or neighborhoods with high racially diverse populations were branded as dangerous, when, in actuality, this was not always the case. One of the foremost black sitcoms of the 1980s was The Cosby Show (1984 to 1992). In Haggins’s view, this show featured ‘‘an idealized notion of a black upper-middle-class experience—a colorized iteration of the American dream,’’ while in Frank’s Place (1987 to 1988), the ‘‘Ivy League-educated’’ protagonist ‘‘discover[s] . . . the richly complex culture of his father’s New Orleans and black working-class life.’’ A Different World (1987 to 1993) featured a wide-ranging cast of predominately black students at a historically black college. 1990s and Beyond The ensuing decade began with the popular sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990 to 1996). This series was based on the cultural contrasts between an urban youth played by Will Smith, who was then a popular rapper, and his relatives, the Banks, a high-society black family. Although the parents periodically affirmed
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their black identity, their children were portrayed as disconnected with black popular culture. Will often served as a cultural guide, instructing his cousins on popular black culture or commenting on their white-like behavior. Martin (1992–97) and Living Single (1993–98) reflected urban black culture. Martin Lawrence portrayed several characters, such as Sheneneh, a ghetto stereotype. Living Single, among other things, showcased characters, like Maxine Felice Show (Erika Alexander) and Kyle Barker (T. C. Carson) who were depicted as Afrocentric urban black professionals. Popular shows in the new millennium, such as The PJ’s (1999 to 2001), Everybody Hates Chris (2005 to 2006), Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (2007 to present), and Meet the Browns (2009 to present), are largely centered on popular black culture and lively characters. At the same time, a small number of black actors have joined predominately white casts on prime time television shows like Law & Order, CSI, and Scrubs, but the racial identity of these characters, like black characters in predominately white shows of previous years, largely play a minor role. The medical drama, ER (1994 to 2009), however, was a notable exception, owing to the strong roles of African American characters played by Eriq LaSalle, Michael Michele, and Angela Bassett. An exception to this pattern has been demonstrated in films, like the Rush Hour franchise, which played on contrasts between a straight-and-narrow Chinese detective, Lee (Jackie Chan), and a wise-cracking, hip-hop dancing African American detective, James Carter (Chris Tucker). See also: Entertainment Industry; Woofing/Wolfing Further Reading Balkaran, Stephen. 1999. ‘‘Mass Media and Racism.’’ Yale University articles, 21.1 (October). http://www.yale.edu/ypq/articles/oct99/oct99b.html. Haggins, Bami. 2008. ‘‘The Black Situation Comedy.’’ In African Americans and Popular Culture. Todd Boyd, ed. Westport CT: Praeger. MacDonald, Fred. 1983. Blacks and White TV: Afro-Americans in Television since 1948. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Nelson, Angela M. 2008. ‘‘African American Stereotypes in Prime-Time Television: An Overview, 1948–2007.’’ In African Americans and Popular Culture. Todd Boyd, ed. Westport, CT: Praeger. Ross, Karen. 1996. Black and White Media: Black Images in Popular Film and Television. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press. Gladys L. Knight
Television Evangelism In the broadest sense, television evangelism involves access to television production facilities, stations, and/or networks for the purpose of broadcasting religious content. Everything from a thirty-second religious commercial to
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twenty-four hours, seven days a week of continuous religious programming from sources such as the cable and satellite-based Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) can be considered as a form of this concept and activity. The first instances of African American involvement in television for religious purposes include appearances on broadcasts during the early days of television. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) featured the Southernaires, a black gospel quartet, on a fifteen-minute Sunday night program in September 1948 but ended the program after two months. Gospel icon Mahalia Jackson made an appearance on national television as early as 1952, but other black pioneers in religious programming on television would begin their efforts at the local level. ‘‘Elder’’ Solomon Lightfoot Michaux was documented as the first black ‘‘television preacher’’ when his sermons were broadcast over WTTG-TV in Washington, DC, also in 1948. One example of consistent religious broadcasting by African Americans on local television was the Community Worship program on WSM(V)-TV in Nashville, Tennessee, which began in 1963 and continued for nearly forty consecutive years. Minister and university chaplain/professor William James Simmons split the thirty-minute program into music and preaching segments, featuring various local singers and groups in renditions of hymns, Spirituals, and/or gospel music as well as his concise sermons. Requests from viewers for reprints of his messages resulted in the 1967 publication of a book, One Great Fellowship, which included texts of selected TV sermons. Although locally based, Simmons states in his book that the station’s signal broadcast into several other states, causing the program to reach an estimated audience of one million people. The same station launched the television career of gospel singer Bobby Jones in 1976, whose Bobby Jones Gospel became nationally syndicated as one of the early programming staples of Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 1980. While not presenting himself as a preacher or evangelist, Jones’s widespread broadcasting of gospel music for more than thirty years (including internationally to U.S. military bases via the American Forces Radio and Television Service) can also considered a form of television evangelism. Major gospel artists BeBe Winans and CeCe Winans also gained early public attention as part of the Praise The Lord (PTL) Singers on the once-successful PTL television network led by televangelist Jim Bakker in the 1980s. Black Televangelists as Religious Entrepreneurs Other pioneer televangelists included Roman Catholic bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Rex Humbard, Oral Roberts, and Billy Graham in the 1950s, and Pat Robertson, who created the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in 1961. Television became a primary marketing tool for their ministries, using airtime not only to present sermons, messages, and/or worship services, but also to make direct financial appeals to the viewing audience. While legendary singer/actress Ethel Waters began appearing as a guest on Graham’s televised crusades during the early 1970s, the first African American
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televangelists to gain national recognition were Ben Kinchlow, Frederick K. C. Price, and Carlton Pearson. Kinchlow joined CBN as cohost of the 700 Club program in 1975, and continued with CBN in various executive roles until 1996. Price, whose church and ministry were based in the media capital of Los Angeles, broadened his appeal through his Ever Increasing Faith broadcasts which began in 1978 and were eventually syndicated coast to coast. The Crenshaw Christian Center grew to megachurch proportions under his leadership, and Price became recognized as a national figure in the Pentecostal/charismatic church movement. Pearson, a protege of Roberts at his Oral Roberts University (ORU) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, first gained media exposure as a member of the World Action Singers on Roberts’s television programs in the 1970s. Pearson eventually went into ministry as pastor/bishop of Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa, which also became a megachurch, while also continuing his career as a gospel singer and televangelist with regular programs on TBN. As host of several successful Azusa conferences of Pentecostal/charismatic Christians at ORU during the 1990s, Pearson helped draw thousands of visitors to the Tulsa area for the annual event and helped further the careers of the next generation of black televangelists and gospel music artists due to recordings and broadcasts on TBN and other media. Pearson began preaching a controversial ‘‘gospel of inclusion’’ in 1999 that alienated him from nearly all of his former colleagues and supporters, and he lost influence as a major Christian media personality. T. D. Jakes was a little-known minister from West Virginia during the early 1990s, but after receiving television exposure from preaching appearances at Azusa and other TBN broadcasts he also became a national figure. Jakes eventually relocated to Dallas, Texas, to establish the Potter’s House, a church which quickly grew to become one of the largest ministries in the United States. Jakes not only became a fixture on TBN, but his success in producing and marketing his sermons, worship services, books, musical recordings, stage productions, annual conferences, and films catapulted him beyond Christian circles into the American mainstream. After he appeared on the cover of Time magazine (September 17, 2001), Jakes was speculated as the successor to Billy Graham as the most influential Christian evangelist. Jakes has met and consulted with presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and he delivered the message at the private worship service (which ironically was not televised) prior to the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African American and 44th U.S. president, on January 20, 2009. Two African Americans, Eddie Long and Creflo Dollar, were among six televangelists cited for investigation in 2007 by the Senate Finance Committee. The committee chairman, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, referred to reports of church donations being misused by these ministers for personal luxuries as justification for the investigation. Long and Dollar stated that their ministries would fully comply with requests for their financial records, and the charges against them have not been substantiated. Advances in technology have expanded and redefined the television medium (including additional outlets such as the Word Network, TV One, Gospel Music
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Channel, Internet video from church/ministry websites, YouTube, etc.). As a result, numerous other ministers and ministries have entered the age of television evangelism, and can decide the level of their involvement based on their resources. Viewers can now experience a variety of religious outreach programming, at whatever time they choose, from their computers, cell phones, and other electronic equipment as well as the regular TV set. See also: Megachurches and Ministers Further Reading Bogle, Donald. 1988. Blacks in American Films and Television: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing. CBS News. 2007. ‘‘Senate Panel Probes Six Top Televangelists.’’ November 6. http:// www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/06/cbsnews_investigates/main3456977.shtml. Crawford. Selwyn. 2009. ‘‘The Fall and Rise of Carlton Pearson.’’ Dallas Morning News, March 3. http://www.dallasnews.com. Fearn-Banks, Kathleen. 2006. Historical Dictionary of African-American Television. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Jones, Bobby. 2000. Make a Joyful Noise: My Twenty-Five Years in Gospel Music. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Lee, Shayne. 2005. T. D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher. New York: New York University Press. Lewis, Dwight. 2003. ‘‘Minister, Professor Simmons Dies at 92.’’ Nashville Tennessean, July 9. Martin, William. 1988. ‘‘Mass Communications.’’ In Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience. Charles H. Lippy, and Peter W. Williams, eds. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Newcomb, Horace, ed. 2004. Encyclopedia of Television. 2nd ed. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. Sampson, Henry T. 2005. Swingin’ On the Ether Waves: A Chronological History of African Americans in Radio and Television Broadcasting, 1925–1955. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Fletcher F. Moon
Tennis Tennis arrived in the United States from England in the 1870s, roughly a decade before Golf, and its early development was relegated to the American upper class. By the late 1880s, wealthy black families had tennis courts installed on their property, and competitive collegiate tennis was occurring on the campuses of several black colleges, including Howard, Lincoln, and Tuskegee. With the turn of the century, tennis was played at private black clubs, and the growing interest in the game led to formation of the American Tennis Association (ATA) in 1916 geared towards promoting the participation of African Americans in tennis. The
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first black sports organization, the ATA hosted its first national championship in 1917. Over the next two decades, the ATA circuit featured numerous standout tennis players such as Talley Holmes, Lucy Diggs Slowe, Eyre Saitch, Isadore Channels, Jimmy McDaniel, and Ora Washington, the circuit’s premier player from 1929 to 1937, garnering eight ATA championships in women’s singles. While the ATA flourished, black tennis players were not recognized by the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), the national governing body of tennis. In 1948, however, this lack of recognition was challenged when Oscar Johnson, the self-taught tennis prodigy from California, became the first African American to win a USLTA event. Johnson’s victory helped open the door for the generations of black tennis players to come. Two of the most important players in the history of tennis are Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe. Born in a four-room cabin in South Carolina and raised in Harlem, Althea Gibson would go on to international fame in the game of tennis, becoming the first African American, male or female, to win a Grand Slam event when she won the French Open in 1956. Born in Richmond, Virginia, on July 10, 1943, Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. began playing tennis when he was seven years old, and in 1968, twelve years after Gibson’s historic feat of winning the French Open, he became the first African American male to win a Grand Slam event with his five-set victory over Dutch tennis player Tim Okker in the finals of the U.S. Open. Gibson and Ashe both came of age in tennis during a time when the United States was undergoing its profoundly moving and transformative Civil Rights Movement. Both athletes handled the challenges of tennis and of social change with extraordinary grace and character. Susan Rayl quotes Ashe, who said ‘‘Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.’’ Ashe’s last Grand Slam victory was Wimbledon, where he faced the heavily favored Jimmy Connors, also of the United States, in the 1975 finals. Winning in four sets, Ashe referred to this victory as the greatest of his career. Besides Arthur Ashe, no black man has ever won a tennis Grand Slam event. During the 1980s, the African American presence in tennis continued. Lori McNeill, Zina GarrisonJackson, and MaliVali Washington have all achieved notoriety in the world of tennis. Yet a new era was ushered in on October 31, 1994, when Venus Williams, a six-foot, one-inch fourteen-year-old with hair braided and beaded, made her professional debut at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, California, defeating the player ranked fifty-ninth in the world. Her sister, Serena, made her debut the following year, when she too was fourteen-years old. Within the history of tennis, the game has never seen dominance at the level and longevity as the world has seen with the Williams sisters, both of whom by late 2010 have garnered twenty women’s singles Grand Slam titles, twenty-four Grand Slam Doubles titles, along with 76 career titles and have helped spread the game of tennis, similar to what Tiger Woods has done for golf, to a broader audience, making tennis, once a bastion of social privilege and exclusivity, a part of the conversation of American and African American popular culture. See also: Sports; Williams, Venus, and Williams, Serena
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Further Reading Cesa, Thomas. 2000. ‘‘Tennis.’’ In Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. George B. Kirsch, Othello Harris, and Claire E. Nolte, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Ladda, Shawn. 2008. ‘‘Althea Gibson.’’ In African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. Matthew C. Whitaker, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rayl, Susan. 2008. ‘‘Arthur Ashe.’’ In African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. Matthew C. Whitaker, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Terrell, Mary Church (1863–1954), Educator, Orator, Writer, Civil and Women’s Rights Activist Mary Church Terrell is best known for her social activism on behalf of African Americans and women in the United States and abroad. The daughter of Memphis, Tennessee, natives Louisa Ayres, a hairdresser and shop owner, and Robert Reed Church, an entrepreneur and the first black millionaire in the South, Terrell was given the best education that the middle-class status of her newly emancipated parents could offer. As a child, Terrell attended the Model School at Antioch College in Ohio. In 1884, she later graduated with a four-year bachelor’s degree in classical languages from Oberlin College (a feat almost unheard of for women at the time). In opposition to her father who wanted her to return to Memphis to serve as a society woman, Terrell accepted a teaching position at Wilberforce College in 1885. She left Wilberforce in 1887 to teach at the famous M Street Colored High School in Washington, DC. At M Street, Terrell met her future husband, Robert Herberton Terrell who at the time headed the language department but who would go on to receive bachelor’s and master’s of laws degrees in 1889 and 1893, respectively. He would be named a municipal court judge in DC by President William Taft in 1910. Terrell herself was awarded a master’s degree from Oberlin in 1888. Her father then funded a two-year trip to Europe for her that same year. When Terrell returned to the states, she married Robert Herberton and was determined to be a housewife. However, the Lynching of her friend Thomas Moss in Memphis, spurred her to action. She and Frederick Douglass lobbied President Benjamin Harrison. Harrison granted them a meeting but made no public denouncement of the act. As a result, Terrell became active in black women’s clubs of the time, helping to found the Colored Woman’s League in Washington in 1892. In 1896, the League joined forces with other clubs and became the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), in which Terrell served as president. Through NACW, Terrell was able to fight for women’s issues, including education,
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health, and child care, among others. Her activism would continue throughout the years. She supported Booker T. Washington’s economic position of self-help among blacks. She spoke on behalf of women’s right to vote at the 1898 National American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1909, she, along with W. E. B. Du Bois and others, was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During the middle twentieth century, Terrell advocated for employment rights for black women and girls who were entering the traditional American work force as black men went off to war. In 1940, she chronicled her life’s experiences as a black female activist in her autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World. After World War II ended (1945), she was active in the cause of black soldiers who had fought for freedom abroad and yet returned home to face discrimination. In 1950, she sat in at a local segregated Washington, DC, restaurant owned by John Thompson. After a three-year legal battle, the restaurant and public establishments like it in DC were desegregated. Terrell died a year later at the age of ninety. See also: Social Activists Further Reading Church, Roberta, and Ronald Walter. (n.d.) ‘‘Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954).’’ Tennessee State University, A Profile of African Americans in Tennessee History. www.tnstate.edu/library/digital/terrell.htm. Jones, Beverly W. 1990. Quest for Equality: The Life and Writings of Mary Eliza Church Terrell, 1863–1954. New York: Carlson. Sterling, Dorothy. 1988. Black Foremothers: Three Lives. New York: Feminist Press. Terrell, Mary Church. [1940] 2005. A Colored Woman in a White World. Foreword by Debra Newman Ham. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books. Tomeiko Ashford Carter
Theater and Drama The use of people of African descent as dramatic characters in the Western literary canon evolved from the European fascination with the Moors, a term that generally encompassed darker individuals, usually of the Islamic faith, during the late 1500s and early 1600s. This manifested itself into several characters in Shakespeare’s dramatic canon: Othello from the play of the same name, the Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice, Caliban from The Tempest, and Aaron from Titus Andronicus. While Europeans had a curious fascination with Africans, many white playwrights, directors, producers, and entertainers in the Americas used the idea of race in dramatic works as a way of establishing and solidifying the often racist perceptions of African descendants by the larger white community.
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Early History in the United States As the United States of America developed, African descendants continued to engage the attention of the larger white public, and even the institution of slavery became fodder for dramatic entertainment. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which opened in 1852, became one of the most famous plays of that period. As American theater continued to evolve, so did the popularity of Minstrelsy, a racially exaggerated form of the English vaudeville show structure, inclusive of dramatic performances with heavy racial, social, and political overtones, and often characterized by humorous skits, singing, and dancing, sometimes performed in blackface. Blackface, an ash-based makeup, was usually worn by white performers to mimic prevailing African American stereotypes of the day, although some African American performers took to wearing blackface, as well. Blackface found its way into the first nonlinear edited film, D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, a film that stirred the racial anxiety of the period and gave rise to the return of the Ku Klux Klan. It was also featured in the first audio-synched motion picture, The Jazz Singer. Although blackface is not commonly used anymore, it has taken on the figurative meaning of actors behaving in a manner that endorses or illustrates traditional negative African American stereotypes. While it is arguable as to whether or not certain contemporary African American shows contain minstrelsy, the underlying vaudevillian style continues to remain a popular show structure. The Twentieth Century Over the course of the twentieth century, African American theater has took on many shapes, whether it incorporated a vaudevillian style, musical numbers, comedic sketches and monologues, dramatic acting, or a combination of all of these. Many African American performers created shows that were extremely popular with the larger white audiences. Among these performers, who were often heavily criticized for their stereotypical portrayals of African Americans, were Bert Williams and Lincoln Perry, better known as Stepin Fetchit, who was widely recognized as the first black millionaire actor. Additionally, Josephine Baker, who began as a vaudeville dancer but would eventually become a world-famous entertainer, moved to Paris, developing a racy show that involved singing, dancing, nudity, and allusions to racial stereotypes. While many plays were written by well-established African American writers of the day, a number of plays written by white playwrights, using talented African American actors, rose in popularity. One of the more lasting of these was George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, an opera-esque play first performed in 1935, based on the inhabitants of a place called Catfish Row. However, the nature of African American theater was dramatically transformed when A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway in 1959, making Lorraine Hansberry the first African American female playwright to have that honor, while marking Lloyd Richards as the first African American director to direct a Broadway show. The title A Raisin in the Sun was inspired by a line from a Langston Hughes poem, ‘‘Harlem.’’ The play told the story of a black
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family in the South Side of Chicago looking to integrate a white neighborhood using the insurance money of their deceased patriarch. The play continues to be a seminal work in the African American dramatic canon. Other Notable Black Plays of the Twentieth Century In addition to Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, there were a number of Broadway plays featuring predominately African American casts. Although there were many critically acclaimed plays in the twentieth century, such as The Colored Museum, by George C. Wolfe and The Dutchmen by Amiri Baraka, that never made it to Broadway, several plays reflecting the diversity of the African American experience have been performed on Broadway. The following list, while not exhaustive, contains many of those plays that ran during the twentieth century: The Emperor Jones (1920); Cabin in the Sky (1940); Carmen Jones (1943); Purlie (1970); The Wiz (1975); Your Arms Too Short to Box with God, which marked the first Broadway show to be directed by an African American woman, Vinnette Carroll (1976); For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1977); Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978); Eubie (1978); Dreamgirls (1981); Sophisticated Ladies (1981); Sarafina! (1988); Black and Blue (1989); Once on This Island (1990); Mule Bone (1991); Five Guys Named Moe (1992); Jelly’s Last Jam (1992); and Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk (1996). In particular, one key playwright met with enormous success during the latter part of the twentieth century, thereby opening the door for many of writers of color to follow: August Wilson. August Wilson, born Frederick August Kittel Jr. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, succeeded in creating a ten-play series, widely recognized as The Pittsburgh Cycle. The cycle includes Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Fences, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, King Hedly II, Gem of the Ocean, and Radio Golf, most of which have been performed on Broadway. In the series, Wilson wrote plays set in each decade of the twentieth century. Of those ten plays, Wilson won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for Fences in 1985 and one for The Piano Lesson in 1989. Wilson’s first play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the only play set in Chicago, was originally performed in 1982. Following Wilson’s death, the Virginia Theater renamed itself the August Wilson Theater, making it the first Broadway theater to bear the name of an African American. Actors in Theater and Film Many African American film actors began in the theater. Because of the images of African Americans portrayed in many films in the first half of the twentieth century, a number of actors would continue to work the theater circuit, while pushing for improvements in the motion picture industry. Several African American Academy Award winners, including Sidney Poitier, Louis Gossett, Jr., Denzel Washington, and Whoopi Goldberg, came from the theater and sought to build upon the foundations of the actors of both film and theater that came before them, such as Paul Robeson, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Beah Richards.
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The Twenty-First Century: The Rise of Parks and Perry The continued diversity of the African American theater, as well as the accompanying critical and commercial success, was further amplified by the successes of two individuals in particular, Suzan-Lori Parks and Tyler Perry. Between them and their peers, they were able to reflect very different dramatic approaches, as well as the ability to appeal to widely different audiences, helping to expose a new generation of theatergoers to African American plays. A protege of James Baldwin and Wendy Wasserstein, Parks was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She published her first play, The Sinner’s Place, in 1984, and won several dramatic awards for her subsequent plays Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom and Venus. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for In the Blood, but she gained greater acclaim and recognition when she was selected as a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation ‘‘Genius’’ Grant in 2001. The following year, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her play Topdog/ Underdog, which was performed on Broadway with Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def (after Don Cheadle left the production) and was nominated for a Tony Award in the area of Best Play. As a part of her time as a ‘‘Genius’’ fellow, she wrote 365 Days/365 Plays, a collection of plays written each day from November 2002 to November 2003. Parks continues to write plays, screenplays, and novels. Born Emmitt Perry Jr., Perry overcame many obstacles, including homelessness, to bring to light his plays, which are a blend of gospel-inspired, comedic stories tackling serious subject matter. Although his plays found success on the Chitlin Circuit, the colloquial term for African American shows performed largely in the South and Southeast, word of mouth helped both his plays and DVDs to become nationwide successes, making Perry one of the wealthiest African American playwrights ever. Inhabiting the character of Madea, a guntoting grandmother who spouts lessons on life, his success not only set records in theater ticket sales, but also opened the doors to his triumph in television and film. Noted African American Directors Other noted African American directors included, but are not limited to Lloyd Richards, former dean of the Yale School of Drama and the first African American to direct a Broadway show when he directed Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun; George C. Wolfe, who served as artistic director for the Public Theater from 1993 to 2004, directed numerous plays, including the 1996 multi-Tony Award-winning Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk; Kenny Leon, former head of the Alliance Theatre Company in Atlanta; and Vinnette Carroll, the first African American woman to direct a Broadway show when she directed Your Arms Too Short to Box with God. See also: Men, African American, Images of; Playwrights; Women, African American, Images of
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Further Reading Hill, Errol G., and James V. Hatch. 2003. A History of African American Theater. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shine, Ted, and James V. Hatch. 1996. Black Theatre, USA: Plays by African Americans: The Recent Period, 1935–Today. New York: Free Press. Shine, Ted, and James V. Hatch. 1996. Black Theatre USA Revised and Expanded Edition. Vol. 1: Plays by African Americans, The Early Period 1847 to 1938. New York: Free Press. Randolph Walker
Thomas, Clarence (1948– ), U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas is the second African American to serve as a justice in the United States Supreme Court. However, Thomas’s nomination, subsequent confirmation hearings, and final confirmation were one of the most controversial moments in the history of African American popular culture. When, in 1991, President George W. Bush nominated Thomas as a judge, African American leaders representing various civil rights organizations voiced their disapproval, owing to Thomas’s conservatism. During the confirmation hearings, Anita Hill, an African American, testified that Thomas had spoken to her in an inappropriate and sexual manner during the time that she worked with him at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Thomas, nevertheless, assumed office as a U.S. justice on October 19, 1991. Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in Pin Point, Georgia. He lived in abject poverty where Jim Crow was the rule. After his father left the family, Thomas, at seven years old, went to live with his grandparents in Savannah, Georgia. His grandfather, Myers Anderson, was an enormous influence on Thomas. Anderson, who had little education, had attained some prestige and a comfortable living with a fuel oil business he owned. He taught Thomas to be hardworking and independent in a world that provided little, if any, assistance to marginalized and underprivileged groups. Thomas was destined to experience greater opportunities than any of his family members. He attended schools where he was one of few blacks or the only black. At sixteen years old, he attended St. John Vianney’s Minor Seminary and Conception Seminary College, with the intention of becoming a Roman Catholic priest. Later, Thomas studied at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, where he helped establish a Black Student Union. He graduated in 1971 with an AB cum laude in English literature. After he received a Juris Doctor degree in 1974 from the prestigious Yale Law School, Thomas entered the workforce. Like many blacks, Thomas confronted much racism and
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discrimination as he broke into careers historically accessible only to white males. Prevailing over racial barriers, Thomas ascended on an ever-upward path to success. Between 1974 and 1981, Thomas worked as an assistant attorney general, an attorney, and a legislative assistant. In the 1980s, he worked as an assistant secretary for education for the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education and Chairman of the EEOC. Thomas was wellknown for his conservative philosophy. When, on July 1, 1991, it was announced that President Bush had nominated Clarence Thomas was seated on the U.S. Supreme Thomas to replace ThurCourt in 1991. He is the only African American good Marshall, who planned justice now serving on the Supreme Court and has to retire, the African generally voted conservatively in Court decisions. American community was (U.S. Supreme Court) alarmed. African American leaders and organizations, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), communicated their displeasure publicly. Criticisms of Thomas abounded, such as concerns that Thomas would not support minority and women’s issues, particularly as Marshall, a famous champion of civil rights, had done. Controversy escalated when Anita Hill’s allegations became public. Her testimony during the confirmation hearings was heavily broadcast and reported on in newspapers, generating heated debates. Some individuals and groups, like black feminists, sided with Hill, while others sided with Thomas. Thomas maintained his innocence. The controversy did not end after Thomas assumed office. Social activist Al Sharpton led a group of four hundred individuals in protest in front of Thomas’s home in 1995. Although Thomas’s presence on the Supreme Court is historic, he is still a controversial figure. Thomas has been married twice and has one child, Jamal Adeen. See also: Judges; Law and Law Schools
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Further Reading Foskett, Ken. 2004. Judging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence Thomas. New York: HarperCollins. Thomas, Clarence. 2008. My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir. New York: HarperCollins. Gladys L. Knight
Thompson, John R. (1941– ), College Basketball Coach In 1984, Georgetown University Basketball coach John R. Thompson became the first black head basketball coach to win the coveted NCAA men’s division I basketball crown when his Georgetown Hoyas, led by center Patrick Ewing, defeated the University of Houston and their star center Hakeem Olajuwon 84–75. In addition to winning the 1984 championship, Thompson’s accomplishments at Georgetown’s helm include winning regional championships and taking his teams to the Final Four in 1982, 1984, and 1985; plus winning the Big East championship in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1989. Thompson served as one of the assistant coaches for the United States’ gold medal-winning Summer Olympics team in 1976. He left coaching to become a sports color analyst and radio commentator. At 6 feet 10 inches tall and about three hundred pounds, Thompson was an imposing presence on the sidelines for his players and referees alike. With his trademark white towel and ever-present scowl, Thompson’s entire demeanor on the court was one of serious business—that of basketball. Thompson is noted also for having produced some of the best contemporary basketball players who became stars in their own right in the National Basketball Association. They are centers Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, and Dikembe Mutombo; forwards Reggie Williams and David Wingate; and guard Allen Iverson. Under Thompson, twenty-six Georgetown players were chosen in the NBA draft, eight in the first round—Ewing by the Knicks in 1985 and Iverson in 1996 by the Philadelphia 76ers. Thompson was born in September 1941 and grew up in Washington, DC. He led Archbishop Carroll High School to three consecutive championship games in the late 1950s. Thompson played college basketball at Providence College in Rhode Island. He advanced to the NBA and was backup center to Bill Russell on the Celtics. When Thompson began as Georgetown coach in fall 1972, the team had a paltry record of 3–23 the previous season. Over the next two decades or more, Thompson-led teams compiled a 596–239 record, including 24 post-season performances, 20 in the NCAA (including a fourteen-year streak from 1979 to 1992 which included three Final Four performances: 1982, 1984, and 1985). Thompson’s team and its players often found themselves confronting charges that they and their coach had not only a racial bent but racial animus. Thompson’s
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players—almost all of them black—were viewed by some in the media as Twelve Angry Men, and, more specifically Twelve Angry Black Men. Sports journalists labeled the basketball team’s posturing as ‘‘Hoya paranoia.’’ Thompson, never one to hide from the media, defended his team and himself by secluding his team from the media and making his practices off-limits in order to protect his players. Controversy occurred in 1975, a few years before the extended run of winning seasons, when following a mediocre season, a sign appeared in the university’s gym which read: ‘‘Thompson the Nigger Flop Must Go.’’ There was also Thompson’s confrontation with reputed Washington, DC, drug lord Rayful Edmond III, who was friendly with several of Thompson’s players. According to sources, Thompson unleashed a profanity-laced series of remarks in telling the drug lord that he had crossed the line with his players. In the late 1980s, Thompson famously protested the NCAA Proposition 42 eligibility rules that raised academic standards for freshman student athletes. Thompson was the counterpoint to another black sportsman, tennis legend Arthur Ashe, who unequivocally championed the minimum standards. Thompson, citing marital difficulties, in January 1999 upended the coaching world by announcing his resignation as Georgetown’s head coach. He was replaced by longtime assistant Craig Esherick who was fired in 2004 and replaced by Thompson’s son, John Thompson III, who was coaching Princeton University. Since retiring as a coach, Thompson has remained active in the basketball arena serving as a commentator for professional and college games. He has also hosted the John Thompson Show on ESPN 980 (formerly Sports Talk 980) radio in Washington, DC. Further Reading Associated Press. 1989. ‘‘NCAA Presidents Urge Delay on Proposition 42.’’ New York Times, January 20. Fimrite, Ron. 1991. ‘‘The Head Hoya—a Revealing Look.’’ Sports Illustrated. February 18. [Review of the book ‘‘Big Man’’ by Leonard Shapiro.] http://sportsillustrated .cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1118867/index.htm. Shapiro, Leonard. 1991. Big Man on Campus: John Thompson and the Georgetown Hoyas. New York: Henry Holt. Kip Branch
Thornton, Big Mama (1926–84), Singer, Musician Big Mama Thornton (Willie Mae Thornton) was a blues shouter who also played harmonica and drums. She was born on December 11, 1926, in Montgomery, Alabama, and died on July 25, 1984, in Los Angeles, California. She was influenced by Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, toured with Sammy
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Green’s Hot Harlem Revue in the 1940s, and settled in Houston in 1948. She then was discovered by Don Robey and signed with Peacock in 1951. She joined Johnny Otis’s Rhythm and Blues Caravan with whom she made her debut at the Apollo Theater in Harlem in 1952. Her ability to connect with audiences quickly led Otis to make her the headliner. On her third recording date with Johnny Otis’s band, she recorded her only national hit, ‘‘Hound Dog’’ (with Pete Lewis on guitar and Otis on drums), which stayed on the charts for seven weeks in 1953 and was answered by Rufus Thomas (‘‘Bear Cat’’), before going on to become an even bigger hit for Elvis Presley. Although there have been many conflicting stories and a lawsuit over the authorship of ‘‘Hound Dog,’’ it appears that Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber wrote the song, perhaps with some rewriting by Johnny Otis, and Big Mama Thornton personalized it in performance and on record with barking and an extended ad lib. During 1956 and 1957, Thornton left Peacock, toured the West Coast with Gatemouth Brown, and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area playing drums and harmonica with local bands. She was enthusiastically received at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1964, where she scatted with jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie. In 1965, she toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival, and recorded Big Mama in Europe for Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie. The latter album includes inspired, improvised, country-styled duets with Fred McDowell on slide guitar, along with several hard-driving urban Chicago blues tunes backed by Buddy Guy, Eddie Boyd, Walter Horton, and Fred Below. In 1966, Thornton was recorded in concert in San Francisco with the Chicago Blues Band, including Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, and James Cotton. In 1968, one of her bestknown original compositions, ‘‘Ball & Chain,’’ became a big hit for Janis Joplin. She was signed to Mercury in 1969, recording two albums, and in the mid-1970s, Thornton made three albums for Vanguard, two of which were recorded live at prisons, Sassy Mama (1975) and Jail (1975), while the third, Saved (1973) was a studio album of gospel standards. While she weighed over two hundred pounds in the 1950s, toward the end of her life Thornton had become thin and emaciated from alcohol abuse. A heavy drinker, she was hospitalized for cirrhosis of the liver in the early 1980s. She died of a massive heart attack while drinking with her sister and friends in her room in a Los Angeles boardinghouse. She was fifty-eight. That same year she was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. Thornton’s recorded repertoire included several songs by her early idol, Memphis Minnie (‘‘Me and My Chauffeur,’’ ‘‘Looking the World Over,’’ ‘‘Bumble Bee,’’ and ‘‘Black Rat’’). Like Minnie, Thornton has been an inspiration for many female singers and players who have followed in her footsteps, including Janis Joplin and Gaye Adegbalola. A formidable and commanding presence, Thornton could fill any room with her powerful voice. Characteristically loud and raspy, her voice could just as soon be soft and subdued when the mood struck (e.g., The Rising Sun Collection, 1994). Her singing was characterized by a high degree of freedom
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coupled with a remarkable ability to control dynamics, pitch, inflection, rhythm, and phrasing for expressive effect. Forthright and independent, Thornton spoke her mind, performed what she felt in the moment, and dressed as she pleased, often defying gender conventions with men’s suits and a Stetson hat. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals Further Reading Carpenter, Bill. 1992. ‘‘200 Pounds of Boogaloo.’’ Living Blues 106 (November/December): 26–32. Davis, Thulani. 1980. ‘‘The Blues Talk Back.’’ Village Voice (July 9–15): 56–57. Hess, Norbert. 1989. You Ole Houn’ Dawg, liner notes for recording (Ace CHAD 277). Strachwitz, Chris. 1965. Big Mama Thornton in Europe, liner notes for recording (Arhoolie F1028). Thornton, Willie Mae ‘‘Big Mama.’’ [1953] 1989. ‘‘Hound Dog’’ (Peacock, reissued on You Ole Houn’ Dawg, Ace CHAD 277). Maria V. Johnson
Till, Emmett Louis (1941–55), Civil Rights Movement Inspiration The Lynching of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 shocked the nation and became an instigating force propelling the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Not long after the Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision rendered the segregation of public schools unconstitutional, Till entered one of the most segregated states in the union, Mississippi, where white supremacists were still seething from the high court’s verdict. Though the school-age African American boy had come from Chicago, Illinois, to rural Mississippi to visit relatives on his summer vacation, his path soon intersected with disaffected segregationists. Till never made it back to his home state alive. On August 24, 1955, Till and several of his cousins drove to Bryant’s, a grocery store in the small town of Money, Mississippi. Reports vary widely about the ill-fated events that took place at the store that evening. The most commonly cited account is that Till ‘‘wolf-whistled’’ at Carolyn Bryant, the store owner’s wife who was working the counter the day he and his cousins came in to buy candy. Roy Bryant, the storeowner, was out of town when the alleged offense took place, but upon his return Carolyn Bryant told him a story about the encounter that incited Bryant and his half-brother, J. W. Milam, to kidnap Till from his uncle’s house. Moses Wright, the uncle with whom Till was vacationing, went to the police after his nephew’s disappearance and, on August 29, Bryant and Milam were arrested. Originally charged with kidnapping, their indictment grew to include murder by August 31, when Till’s corpse was discovered by a fisherman in the Tallahatchie River.
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Till’s mother, Mamie TillMobley, insisted that her son’s remains be sent back to Chicago. Once her son’s body arrived, she examined it carefully, discovering that he had been brutally beaten, shot through the skull, weighted down by a cotton-gin fan tied with barbed wire around his neck, and submerged in the river for several days. TillMobley decided that the bloated, bullet-hole ridden and battered corpse lying in front of her had to be exposed so that others could see the savage effects of white supremacy. She held an open casket public funeral, during which thousands of mourners filed passed her lynched child’s remains. Till-Mobley also allowed periodicals like Jet magazine and the Chicago Defender to publish a picture of Till lying in his casket. Although Till-Mobley’s deciThe murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till by sion to publicize her son’s brutalvigilantes in Mississippi in 1955 caused national outrage and helped publicize the horror of racial ized corpse garnered both violence. His death and the miscarriage of national and international attenjustice at the trial of his murderers gave impetus tion, Bryant and Milam were to the emerging Civil Rights Movement. never brought to justice. On (Library of Congress) September 23, 1955, at the end of a week-long trial held at a segregated courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, a jury composed of twelve white males deliberated for little over an hour before finding the defendants ‘‘not guilty.’’ Five months later, journalist William Bradford Huie paid Bryant and Milam $400,000 for their account of the murder, which was published in the January 24, 1956, edition of Look magazine. The killers’ unapologetic confession, like the widely circulated image of Till’s remains, has kept the memory of his death alive and unsettling in America’s collective conscience. Nearly fifty years later, the Justice Department reopened the Emmett Till murder investigation—persuaded by recently released documents suggesting there were more people involved in the crime. Though both Bryant
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and Milam are now dead, the search continues for additional people who might be implicated in the lynching of Emmett Till. See also: Law Enforcement Further Reading Anderson, Devery. 2009. ‘‘Emmett Till Murder.’’ http://www.emmetttillmurder.com./ Houck, Davis W. and Matt Grindy. 2008. Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Maegan Parker Brooks
Toni Morrison Society. See Morrison, Toni
Townsend, Robert (1957– ), Actor, Filmmaker, Director, Writer Robert Townsend gained fame for his 1987 movie satire on the experience of black actors in a Hollywood system that treated them with disdain, called Hollywood Shuffle. It was one of the first successful movies about the black experience in the movie business. Cowritten with Keenen Ivory Wayans, the movie shows Bobby Taylor (Townsend) go through a maze of cattle-call type auditions. Taylor’s fantasies of playing roles usually reserved for white actors provide some funny parodies: a black action hero, a black detective, black movie critics a la Siskel and Ebert (the most well-known movie critics of the time), and even a tale of the South and Reconstruction. The comedy is funny and incisive; it took the sting out of a bleak and depressing experience for black talent in Hollywood, trying to find work that was not stereotypical in nature and substance. It was a primer for aspiring black actors. Robert Townsend was born in 1957 in Chicago. His ambitions led him to join a theater group of black actors in his hometown. At age sixteen he was the youngest member of a group called EXBAG (Experimental Black Actors Guild). Additional experience and training came in the Second City improvisation group. (Second City is most famous for providing many of the cast members of the original Saturday Night Live television program.) Townsend started college in Chicago at Illinois State University. His talent earned him work in two feature films being shot in the area. The first was Cooley High (1975), directed by Michael Schultz. Schultz saw Townsend performing in local theater, liked what he saw, and offered him a small role in the film. He transferred from Illinois State to William Patterson College in New Jersey. While in New Jersey he also commuted to New York to study and work with the Negro Ensemble Company. Later, he ended his academic career at Hunter College in New York City. Townsend’s talent landed him work within the first week of being in New York. He obtained a recurring role on a public television series, Watch Your Mouth, as an
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aristocratic African prince. His penchant for comedy brought him work in nightclubs doing stand-up, sometimes alongside Eddie Murphy. They both auditioned for Saturday Night Live, and Murphy got the job. Townsend continued his training as an actor and studied with Stella Adler. Townsend acted as an extra in films; had bit parts in Mahogany (1975) and The Wiz (1978); acted off-Broadway with Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis in a play entitled Take It from the Top; and did commercials. His work on national television commercials enabled him to buy video equipment, which he used to record himself practicing his craft. In 1982, Townsend moved to Los Angeles and landed a role in the feature film Streets of Fire (1984). His movie roles enabled him to learn more about the filmmaking process and its techniques. He used a variety of credit cards and his savings and invested the money in his first feature film. Acting was always a means to an end for Townsend; in 1987, one year after Spike Lee burst on the Hollywood and American scene with She’s Gotta Have It (1986), Townsend produced, directed, cowrote and featured in his debut film, Hollywood Shuffle (1987). The film was a success (although modest by blockbuster standards), grossing over fifty times its cost. As a writer of films, Townsend wants to entertain, amuse, and provide a message. His inspiration comes from people like Oscar Micheaux, whose courage and independence fueled his own creative output during an even more difficult period for African American filmmakers. Townsend felt if Micheaux could deal with the odds of his day, then he (Townsend) could do it. Townsend also found inspiration in the talent and work of Melvin Van Peebles, Francis Ford Coppola, Elia Kazan, and screenwriter Budd Schulberg. Townsend sees his comedy style as a mix of Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby. After the success of Hollywood Shuffle, he directed a concert film called Eddie Murphy Raw in 1988; and The Five Heartbeats, in 1991, again cowritten with Keenen Ivory Wayans, a story about a musical group called The Five Heartbeats. It was not a box office success, possibly because of a poor marketing campaign. Robert Townsend has gone on to direct other movies and to work in television. See also: Film and Filmmakers Further Reading Harris, Erich Leon. 1996. African American Screen Writers Now: Conversations with Hollywood’s Black Pack. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press. Kendell, Stephen D. 1994. New Jack Cinema. Silver Springs, MD: J. L. Denser. Menell, Jeff. 1991.‘‘The Five Heartbeats.’’ Hollywood Reporter (March 25): 49. Spencer Moon
Toys. See Games, Video Games, and Toys
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Track and Field Track and field is a sporting event that consists of footraces up to 10,000 meters (9.3 miles) along an oval track with contests of jumping and throwing; the athleticism inherent in track and field has often served as a metaphor for social activism for athletes of color. Formal footraces were held in the United States beginning in the early nineteenth century, initially as side attractions to horse racing. Modern Track and Field emerged as a nineteenth-century social and cultural institution connected to ethnicity. Scottish, Irish, Polish, and Czechoslovakian immigrants formed clubs that sponsored athletic competition. Field events such as jumping, the shot put, and the hammer throw were part of Scottish Highland Societies that found their way into Caledonian Clubs. While athletic clubs had strong ethnic origins, when the time turned to competition, the clubs encouraged athletes from varied ethnic backgrounds to compete. And so, in a racially divided United States, it was not uncommon to see white European immigrants compete against Native American and African American athletes. By the late nineteenthcentury, track and field events were part of mainstream American culture and helped lay the foundation for what we know as the modern Olympic Games. Competition across color lines was very much alive at the opening of the twentieth century. As W. E. B. Du Bois would write in his 1903 work, The Souls of Black Folk, ‘‘That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examinationtime, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads.’’ And a year later, in 1904, George Poage would become the first African American to medal in the Olympic Games. During America’s Jazz Age, in the eyes of the dominant white culture, track events were not deemed suitable for ‘‘proper’’ women. Nonetheless, black women established their dominance in track and field. In 1929, Tuskegee instituted its powerhouse women’s track program that would dominate the 1930s and the 1940s, until the rise of Tennessee State University with Olympian Wilma Rudolph. By the 1950s, black women made up more than two-thirds of all American women runners selected to compete in international and Olympic events. Indeed, black women, overcoming stereotypes of femininity and outright racial injustice (white women were picked over black women during the Olympic Games of 1932 and 1936), had managed to excel in a hostile world with speed, grace, and determination. In 1948, Alice Coachman became the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal when she excelled in the high jump. Yet, when she returned home to Georgia, she was not allowed to speak at the reception held in her honor. In the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Mildrid McDaniel also won a gold medal in the high jump, setting a world record in the process. During those same Games, Wilma Rudolph, then in high school, took a bronze medal as a member of the 4 x 100 meter relay team. In 1960, Rudolph, then a student at Tennessee State University, won three gold medals. It would not be until the 1984 Games that another woman would win three gold medals in the same Olympiad: Valerie
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Brisco-Hooks who, only the year before, contemplated retirement following the birth of her son. Along with equaling the feat set by Wilma Rudolph, BriscoHooks set one of her own, becoming the first woman to win a gold medal in the 200 and 400 meters during the same Olympiad. One of the greatest athletes in track and field history, Jackie Joyner-Kersee excelled in the heptathlon, a seven-event contest spanning two days. She earned a silver medal in the event during the 1984 Olympiad, and four years later, in Seoul, South Korea, Joyner-Kersee scored 7,291 points in the event, a record that stands to this day, earning a gold medal. The Seoul Games, too, served as the stage for the global emergence of Florence Griffith Joyner, or ‘‘Flo-Jo’’. In those Games, Flo-Jo, with her six-inch nails, established herself as the fastest female in the history of track and field, winning gold medals in both the 100 and 200 meters. She ran the 100 meters in 10.54 seconds and the 200 meters in 21.34 seconds. In the 2000 Games, held in Sydney, Australia, Marion Jones won three gold medals. Black Men Excel Black male athletes, too, garnered their share of gold and accolades in track and field. Jesse Owens’s stirring performance in the 1936 helped open the way for myriad black male Olympians. ‘‘I first saw Jesse Owens,’’ Harrison Dillard, Olympic champion, remembered in Forty Million Slaves, ‘‘when he came back to Cleveland for a parade following his Berlin victories. I remember exactly what he was wearing. He had on a navy blue suit with a pinstripe, a white shirt, and a dark tie. When his car passed us, Jesse looked down, winked, and said, ‘How are you doing?’ Of course, we thought this was the greatest thing in the world. Our idol had actually spoken to us. Back then we had three idols: Jesse, Joe Louis, and Henry Armstrong. At that time, black history wasn’t taught, so we naturally took our heroes from sports.’’ Dillard would go on to become a hero in his own right, dominating hurdles during the 1940s and 1950s and winning four Olympic gold medals. In the 1960 Olympiad, Rafer Johnson, a student at UCLA, took the gold medal in the decathlon and Ralph Boston, a student at Tennessee State University, set an Olympic record on his way to claiming the gold medal in the long jump. Nor did the dominance of African American men rest there. From the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s, there was perhaps no more feared and revered hurdler than Edwin Moses, who changed the way the 400-meter hurdles was run; during one stretch of competition, Moses won 122 consecutive races. One of the greatest athletes in the history of track and field, Carl Lewis dazzled spectators in the 1984 Summer Games, claiming three gold medals. Over the course of his career, Carl Lewis won nine gold medals in four Olympiads, a testament to his longevity and commitment to sport. At the Sydney Games, Marion Jones was hailed (in Porter) as ‘‘the most celebrated of all the U.S. athletes as the Games began.’’ On the track, she excelled, garnering five medals in all—three gold and two bronze. Nonetheless, Jones’s
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performance was tarnished over the role of her involvement with designer steroids—in particular, tetrahydrogestrinone or more popularly, THG or ‘‘the clear,’’ distributed by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). Following a prison term in Texas, Marion Jones made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show where she tried to clear her name. ‘‘All I ask myself is if I hadn’t been given ‘the clear’ would I have still won?’’ she said. ‘‘I usually tell myself yes,’’ she said in New Nation. While Jones’s words open up room for speculation, the shadow cast on track and field as a result of performance-enhancing drugs has challenged the popular notion of validity and credibility. ‘‘Drugs are not a track and field problem or just a sports problem,’’ Craig Masback, Chief Executive Officer of USA Track and Field (USATF), said in Rhoden’s article in the New York Times. ‘‘This is a problem in all facets of American life. They’ve just asked us to test for them.’’ Michael Johnson, who became a legend during the 1996 Games in Atlanta, and the first sprinter to run in gold shoes, was on hand to watch Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter, claim the title of fastest man in the world. Bolt ran a 9.69 100 meters and a 19.30 200, both world records. Despite his stellar achievements, Bolt recognized the suspicion that surrounds the current state of affairs in track and field. ‘‘The sport has been humiliated,’’ Bolt said in Runner’s World. ‘‘People believe that anyone who runs fast is taking drugs. When people say that to me, I understand. All I have to do is stay clean, and over time the talk will stop.’’ Michael Johnson, too, believes that Bolt can resurrect the importance of track and field in the popular imagination. ‘‘You had a situation where swimming and gymnastics had surpassed track and field as the premier sports on TV,’’ Johnson said in Butler’s article in Runner’s World. ‘‘Now, because of Usain, track and field has a chance to regain the status it once had for the 2012 Games.’’ Track and field, ultimately, holds particular significance in the context of African American popular culture. Even from the origins of the sport, African Americans were invited to participate in events held by other social clubs. And yet, their performance took on increased significance because of the odds they faced. ‘‘African Americans were so disconnected from the American dream,’’ William C. Rhoden writes in the New York Times, ‘‘that sports often seemed the only venue where the battle for self-respect could be vigorously waged.’’ To this very moment, the connection between physical excellence and moral excellence continues to be one we continue to explore in popular culture. This connection reveals the true value of sport as a form of human expression and possibility, one that is both inspired and inspiring for spectator and athlete alike. See also: Olympics; Women and Sports Further Reading Butler, Charles. 2008. ‘‘Heroes of Running.’’ Runner’s World (December): 79. Du Bois, W. E. B. 2003. The Souls of Black Folk. Farah Jasmine Griffin, ed. New York: Barnes and Noble. Edelson, Paula. 2002. A to Z of American Women in Sports. New York: Facts on File.
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Kirsch, George B., Othello Harris, and Claire E. Nolte, eds. 2000. ‘‘Track and Field.’’ Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. New Nation. 2008. ‘‘Jones Still Defiant after Prison Term.’’ (November 3): 34. Porter, David L., ed. 2004. ‘‘Florence Griffith Joyner (December 21, 1959–September 21, 1998)’’ Latino and African American Athletes Today: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Porter, David L., ed. 2004. ‘‘Marion Jones (October 12, 1975– ).’’ Latino and African American Athletes Today: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rhoden, William C. 2006. Forty Million Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown Publishers. Rhoden, William C. 2004. ‘‘Track and Field Needs A Very Public Defender.’’ New York Times, July 16. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
TransAfrica TransAfrica is an organization that was established in Washington, DC, in 1977 as a result of the Black Leadership Conference convened by the Congressional Black Caucus. It is an organization concerned with the lack of African American presence in international affairs and compares foreign policies of United States governmental allowances and how it affects Africa and other countries of the African Diaspora. As described in its Web site, TransAFrica’s main work is as follows: ‘‘We believe the success of Afro-Americans is bound up with the emancipation of all African peoples and also other dependent peoples and laboring classes everywhere.’’ Still located in the nation’s capital, TransAfrica is the oldest and largest human rights and social justice advocacy organization that is continually dedicated to the diversity and equity of African Americans and African and Caribbean communities. The organization’s main objective is to lobby Congress and other organizations for corporate funding, corporate grants, and individual donations to bring direct focus on changing United States policies towards Africa and the Caribbean. In 1981, the organization’s affiliate, the TransAfrica Forum, was created by the executive director, lawyer, and human rights activist, Randall Robinson. The TransAfrica Forum seeks to highlight and impact foreign policies by way of advocacy and education in countries of the African diaspora by utilizing its resources, fostering relationships, and targeting specific South African and South American countries to study models of democratic, economic, and political structures. One of TransAfrica’s greatest achievements in seeking social equality was its 1985 participation in efforts to end apartheid in South Africa and southern African countries, particularly Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia.
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The organization was instrumental in conducting daily demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience. As a result, Congress passed the Comprehensive AntiApartheid Act of 1986 overriding President Reagan’s veto. The U.S. placed an embargo against South Africa, contributing to the downfall of apartheid. Outside of Africa, Robinson imposed a hunger strike in 1994 to protest denied entrance into the United States by Haitian refugees. After nearly a month of protesting, the U.S. finally agreed to ease its admission policy. TransAfrica was also successful in restoring governing power to Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. During the following year, TransAfrica launched a successful campaign that was instrumental in forcing the eleven-year military governmental rule in Nigeria to return to a civilian-ruled democracy. Delegates of the TransAfrica Forum traveled to Cuba in the late 1990s calling for improved race relations and an end to a trade ban that affected the Cuban economy. The organization aims for people of African descent to be self-reliant, resourceful, and socially and economically successful. They also support human rights endeavors, refugee efforts, famine assistance, democracy, gender impartiality, debt relief, cessation of the drug war, and socioeconomic development practices. They are continually working to build a closer alliance between American, African, Latino and Caribbean people of African descent. In trying to provide socioeconomic unity, TransAfrica and the TransAfrica Forum work to alleviate the embedded racism and inequalities of human rights, wealth, power, and access to basic resources. The organization is dedicated to exposing these inequalities and injustices that impact millions of people worldwide. Bill Fletcher replaced Randall Robinson as TranAfrica’s president in 2001. The organization continues its efforts to lobby U.S. foreign policy, and obtain governmental funds to seek equal socioeconomic rights for all people of the African diaspora. See also: Organizations and Associations Further Reading Robinson, Randall. 2001. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. New York: Plume. Robinson, Randall. 1999. Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America. New York: Plume. TransAfrica Forum. http://www.transafricaforum.org. Christina D. Cruse
Travel and Tourism The history of African American travel and tourism contains an essential irony. Until relatively recent decades, African Americans, who had been captured and brought by force to the New World, were also forcibly restrained from movement by the slave system. Prior to emancipation, movement was restricted
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to free blacks living in slave states, blacks who lived in free states like Kansas, and slaves who were bought and sold to owners in other locations. Slaves were allowed to attend church services and were sometimes allowed to visit each other under special circumstances. As Cita Cook writes in The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ‘‘members of the lower classes have faced restrictions on their ability to unify through visiting since the earliest slave traders prevented Africans with the same language from being chained next to each other.’’ Due to this very restricted past, the final years of the Civil War and emancipation brought a frenzy of movement, with scores of former slaves rushing toward Union forces and toward places rumored to provide refuge and work. Many traveled in search of family members. In the twentieth century, African Americans slowly gained economic means and increased leisure time, but Jim Crow laws continued to restrict travel and the types of accommodations available to the traveler. Black performers were booked by organizations like the Theater Owners Booking Association to play the black circuit. In personal interviews, stories have been told of light-skinned black travelers who ‘‘passed’’ as white in order to have better accommodations. In an interview with Montrose Taylor Brown, of Hampton, Virginia, on September 14, 2005, she told the author a particular story that involved a young woman who traveled from Virginia to Maryland on board a ship. At the urging of a young white woman, she attended a whites-only dance on the upper deck. Travel to visit friends and relatives has been a time-honored pastime in the United States for all races. National holidays provided leisure time for most Americans, and the invention of Ford’s motorcar with an affordable price brought increased black mobility. African Americans, like many families, organized Family Reunions. Church and civic groups held gatherings in places likes city parks, homes, church grounds, hotels, restaurants, and community centers. Special occasions such as weddings, funerals, the birthday of a family elder, and homecomings from war or prison were opportunities for families to gather. Organizing for social advancement and equal rights was another reason to travel. During the Jim Crow years, African Americans formed their own groups for communication, fellowship, racial advancement, and workers’ rights. At the turn of the century, almost 84 percent of the black population lived in the agrarian South. African American Pullman porters were held in high esteem within the black community and had access to travel denied to most. African American income has risen. In addition to a large black middle class, there are many wealthy families. Today, travel is limited only by imagination and economics. Museums and other sites of African American history abound. African Americans take cruises, travel to sporting events, and attend college homecomings. Travel services catering to African American clients include singles tours and galas. Black college students are welcomed at spring break and other student-oriented events. No city or travel agency today fails to recognize the power of the African American dollar, and in spite of some incidents, most African Americans travel
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throughout the United States and the world free of the restraints and dangers of the previous centuries. See also: Chitlin Circuit Further Reading Brown, Montrose Taylor. Interview with the author, September 14, 2005. Cook, Cita. 2006. ‘‘Visiting.’’ The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. 2nd ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Griffin, Farah. 1998. A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African American Travel Writing. Boston: Beacon Press. Ritterhouse, Jennifer. 2006. ‘‘Etiquette of Race Relations in the Jim Crow South.’’ The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. 2nd ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Elizabeth Sandidge Evans
Truth, Sojourner (1797–1883), Traveling Preacher, Abolitionist, Women’s Rights Activist Sojourner Truth is a celebrated historic figure in African American popular culture. Truth, a former slave, catapulted to fame as a public speaker during the nineteenth century. One of her most notable appearances took place at a Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851, where she gave her most wellknown speech, ‘‘Ain’t I a Woman?’’ Truth is also credited for having brandished her arm muscles, among other things, to dramatically make a point. Although Truth started her career as an itinerant preacher, she was most known by white liberals and black intellectuals of her day as an advocate for the eradication of slavery and the struggle for women’s rights. Truth’s highly public career was atypical, owing to her humble beginnings, her race and gender, and the hostile and oppressive context in which she lived. In the nineteenth century, white women were considered second-class citizens; black women, however, were relegated to a status worse than that. For most of Truth’s life, the majority of blacks in the U.S. lived as slaves. Within and without slavery black women were excluded from social, economic, and political power, and they contended with a society that bombarded black womanhood with negative images. However, it was Truth’s transcendence over these challenges and harrowing times that, in large part, magnified her appeal to the public then and now. In the twentieth century and beyond, Truth’s popularity was maintained by a steady proliferation of biographies and works profiling her life, speaking career, and significance to issues concerning racial or women’s resistance. She also appeared in books featuring a host of other important black men and women in history. According to historian and biographer Nell Irvin Painter, Truth has emerged as an
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important symbol for several modern-day groups, such as conservative and militant black organizations and white and black feminists. From Slavery to Freedom Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in Ulster County, New York. Baumfree or Bomefree, meaning ‘‘tree’’ in Dutch, was the surname bestowed upon her father by her Dutch slave masters, the Hardenberghs. (Slaves were often given no surnames or took on the last names of their slave owners.) Truth’s parents, James and Mau-mau Bett, were not legally married. Black slaves were, generally, not permitted to marry and were often forced to procreate with individuals chosen by Sojourner Truth was a former slave, abolitionist, their white slave owners. Slave women’s rights activist, and preacher. She was one offspring were frequently sold of the most famous race women in the nineteenth to other slave owners. The macentury. (National Archives) jority of Truth’s siblings (ten or more), were forcibly scattered in this way. Truth endured several slave masters during her lifetime. At nine years old, Truth was sold to John Neely. Most of Truth’s whippings during this time were brought on because she only spoke Dutch and had not yet learned English. Truth’s prayer for relief materialized in the form of a new master, Martin Scriver. In 1810, she was sold to John Dumont. She was sixteen years old. His benevolence, however, was as problematic to Truth as the violence she experienced as a slave. For several years, Truth succumbed to obsequious behavior, one of many responses or coping mechanisms blacks used to survive the degradations of slavery. Indeed, Truth was powerless as a slave. She toiled exceedingly hard to garner the approval of her master. Denied the love of her own choosing, she was required to produce children from a slave chosen by her master. Truth gave birth to five children. She would, however, only raise two of those children.
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Truth would obtain her freedom two decades after New York passed an emancipation law, in 1817, freeing slaves that were forty years or older. Dumont, however, did not follow through with his promise to free Truth. Truth would have her freedom just the same. She left her master’s property, with her youngest child, in 1827. The Van Wageners, who were Quakers, took her in and purchased her and her child’s freedom, but not before Truth dramatically stood up to her former master, telling him that neither she nor her child would return to him. After Truth obtained her freedom, she sought legal assistance to take back another child, Peter, who had been illegally sold across state lines. Becoming Sojourner Truth After living in New York City for some time, Truth reinvented her life. This event was underscored by her famous name change from Isabella Van Wagener to Sojourner Truth. The new name was well-chosen considering she had decided to become a traveling preacher. Symbolically, the name change represented Truth’s newfound empowerment as a free woman. Defying social conventions, Truth had named herself, as well as opted, in 1843, to embark upon a preaching and speaking career usually reserved to men. Truth’s fame accelerated after she joined the abolitionist movement and lent her powerful voice and commanding presence (she was nearly six feet tall) to the nascent women’s rights movement. In 1850, a white woman named Olive Gilbert wrote her narrative. Slave Narratives were critical literary forms that helped expose the atrocities of slavery, humanize blacks who had so long been depicted as insensate brutes, and promote the antislavery movement. Biographies and autobiographies also helped to further the celebrity status of rising black celebrities, like the illustrious abolutionist and former slave, Frederick Douglass. The Narrative of Sojourner Truth was followed by a secession of works and endeavors to popularize Truth that continues to this day. Individuals who have written about Truth have included white abolitionists and suffragists, civil rights leaders, black power militants, historians, and black feminists, most notably bell hooks, whose seminal works include Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism (1981). The creation of paraphernalia, such as T-shirts, buttons, and other items, bearing Truth’s stalwart image has further popularized her with mainstream black audiences. See also: Feminism; Womanism Further Reading Gilbert, Olive. 1997. Narrative of Sojourner Truth. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. Nyquist, Corinne. rev. 2009. ‘‘On the Trail of Sojourner Truth in Ulster County, New York.’’ http://www.newpaltz.edu/sojourner_truth/. Painter, Nell Irvin. 1996. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. New York: Norton. Gladys L. Knight
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Tubman, Harriet (c. 1820–1913), Underground Railroad Conductor, Feminist, Union Spy, Nurse There is perhaps no more important person in the history of the Underground Railroad than Harriet Tubman. Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, as Araminta ‘‘Minty’’ Ross, she changed her name to Harriet, after her mother. With ancestral roots extending to the Ashanti tribe of West Africa, Harriet labored as a domestic, and later she took on arduous tasks of field labor such as driving oxen and lifting heavy barrels. From her field experience, she learned to read the night sky, which she would put to use in bringing herself and others to freedom in the North, becoming, in the process, an inspiration for countless others in bondage. When she was twelve years old, Harriet received a head trauma by a twopound weight flung by an overseer; she was protecting a person who had attempted to run away, and, as a result of the blow, Harriet was in a coma for several months. Throughout the rest of her life, she experienced narcoleptic seizures, or blackouts, and often spoke of dreams and visions. In 1844, when she was about twenty-five years old, Harriet married John Tubman, a free black. Such practices were not uncommon in Maryland, particularly near the port city of Baltimore, with its sizeable population of free African Americans. While Harriet Tubman worked on the Brodas plantation during the day, she spent her evenings at home with her husband. Upon learning in 1849, following the death of her master, that she was to be sold, she decided to escape from slavery. Reading the night sky to make her way north, Harriet Tubman made her way to freedom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she worked, saved money, then made her way south to Baltimore to free some of her family members. Her career as ‘‘The Moses of Her People’’ had begun. Of her escape, Tubman never told her husband, only informing her sister, yet upon one of her early journeys back to the southern slave states, she asked her husband to return with her, but he refused. After gaining her bearings in the north, Tubman settled with family members in Auburn, New York. The city of Auburn, centrally-located in the state of New York, would become the base for Tubman’s work as an abolitionist and social activist. More than the use of rhetoric, Tubman made her mark in history with her actions. With nineteen trips south as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman personally escorted roughly three hundred people from slavery to freedom, at times travelling as far as Canada to ensure the safety of her ‘‘passengers.’’ Never once was she caught; never once was anyone lost or captured. ‘‘I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years,’’ reads the inscription on the Harriet Tubman Memorial in Auburn, New York, ‘‘and I can say what most conductors can’t say—I never ran my train off the track or lost a passenger.’’ The Underground Railroad was a multicultural enterprise in which abolitionists, black and white, banded together to emancipate African Americans from
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slavery in the South. The railroad itself was a network of tunnels, of improvised dirt roads, and of hidden rooms in houses along the way. In operation as early as the colonial period of the United States, the Underground Railroad was at its most active from the 1830s until the end of the Civil War. Estimates suggest that around one hundred thousand African Americans gained their freedom as a result of the Underground Railroad and its operatives. In her work as a conductor, Tubman demonstrated effective strategy and cunning. Tubman arranged her escapes for Saturday nights because she knew that slave masters would not post wanted posters until Mon- Harriet Tubman, often called ‘‘The Moses of Her day. A woman of masks, Tub- People,’’ was a fearless leader of the Underground man had an unassuming Railroad. Born a slave, she escaped in 1849 and manner, at times walking and over an eight-year period led about 300 blacks from singing, yet she always carried a slavery to freedom. (Library of Congress) gun. She once even escaped capture by pretending to read one of her wanted posters. At the height of her work, the bounty for Harriet Tubman was $40,000, dead or alive. Along with escorting people from slavery to freedom, Tubman worked with Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and other leading abolitionists. Nor did her efforts cease when with the eruption of the Civil War. When African Americans were permitted to join the Union forces, Tubman began her military service as a cook for Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts, the only black regiment to fight during the Civil War. When not tending to the cooking and nursing duties, Tubman ventured out into the field of battle where she worked as a spy and an armed scout. Her fieldwork proved instrumental in the Combahee River raid that freed some 750 African Americans from slavery in South Carolina. Following the Civil War, Tubman returned to her family in Auburn. After hearing of the death of her husband, Harriet Tubman married Nelson Davis, a Civil War veteran, in 1870. A legend in her own lifetime, Tubman was sought out by Sarah Elizabeth Bradford, who wrote the first biography of the icon, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. As a true testament to her magnanimity, Tubman took the profits from her
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biography and combined it with her military pension towards the establishment of a home for elderly former slaves, which today is known as the Harriet Tubman Home. Toward the close of the century, Tubman continued her social activism, fighting for education among free blacks as well as fighting for women’s rights; in 1896, she helped to found the National Association of Colored Women. When Tubman died from pneumonia on March 10, 1913, she was around ninety-three years old. She was buried with full military honors at the Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York. The officials of Cayuga County were quick in placing a bronze plaque commemorating the life and achievements of Tubman on the courthouse, and a civic holiday was proclaimed in her honor. Known as ‘‘The Moses of Her People,’’ Harriet Tubman, with her quiet strength and calm resolve, has remained a persistent presence in popular culture. In 1944, Eleanor Roosevelt christened a ship the Harriet Tubman; in 1978, and again in 1995, stamps commemorating the life and work of Harriet Tubman were issued by the United States Postal Service; in 1978, Tubman’s life was depicted in a film A Woman Called Moses. As Tubman used to tell her passengers, as they travelled that perilous passage from slavery to freedom, ‘‘I’ll see you in the morning safe in the promised land.’’ With these words of such simplicity and of such weight, Harriet Tubman has secured her legacy within the realm of American and African American popular culture. See also: Social Activists Further Reading King, Anita. 1981. ‘‘Harriet Ross Tubman.’’ Quotations in Black. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Mallory, Devona. 2005. ‘‘Tubman, Harriet Ross (c. 1820–1913).’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Mungazi, Dickson A. 2000. ‘‘Obstacles to the Journey: Conflict in the Strategy.’’ In The Journey to the Promised Land: The African American Struggle for Development since the Civil War. Westport, CT: Praeger. Schultz, Jeffrey D., Kerry L. Haynie, Anne M. McCulloch, and Andrew L. Aoki. 2000. ‘‘Underground Railroad.’’ In Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics. Vol. 1: African Americans and Asian Americans. Westport, CT: Oryx Press. Sterling, Dorothy. 1997. ‘‘Tubman, Harriet (c. 1820–1913).’’ In Dictionary of AfroAmerican Slavery. Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Tucker, Chris (1972– ), Actor, Comedian Chris Tucker is one of the big names in contemporary comedy in African American popular culture. After breaking into show business as a comedian,
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Tucker appeared in successful films, such as Friday (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), and the blockbuster film series Rush Hour (1998, 2001, 2007). Most of his comedy and film work reflects Tucker’s cultural identity. In Gates’s book, America Behind the Lines, Tucker makes a telling statement that ‘‘we have a culture of our own here in America that’s bigger than just doin’ a cookout.’’ As African Americans increasingly make more headway in mainstream society, the perception is that black culture becomes compromised. To be sure, cultural assimilation does occur, but African Americans have always found ways to maintain ties with their cultural heritage and preserve the particular and varied ways of behaving, communicating, and expressing that are uniquely black. Black comedy, for example, is based on racial and cultural experiences in the United States. The subject matter of comedy may deal with racism, cultural differences between whites and blacks, personality types in black communities, and other topics and issues that relate to African Americans. With the exception of comedians like Bill Cosby, who represents African American middle-class sensibilities, black humor frequently leans towards racy subject matter and draws inspiration from working class to low-income experiences. Black humor also tends to make use of African-derived techniques, such as expressive delivery styles. In this way, the comedian becomes, like the African griot, a masterful storyteller, relying heavily upon a responsive audience to adjust the performance accordingly. Born on August 31, 1972, in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Decatur, Georgia, Chris Tucker has deep roots in black culture. Family, neighbors, church members, as well as the black community-at-large sustained a distinct black identity. His parents, Norris Tucker, who owned a cleaning business, and Mary Louise, a church missionary, passed on religious values. Growing up, Tucker frequently went to the movies. He has stressed the fact that he and his family, including five siblings, only watched black films. Historically, mainstream films, which primarily cater to white audiences, rarely address black issues and cast black actors, and seldom appeal to the interests, preferences, and experiences of African Americans. Tucker enjoyed going to the movies and intently observed the audience’s reactions to what they saw. Tucker harbored dreams of one day becoming an actor and an entertainer. Tucker enjoyed entertaining others. Indeed, his amateur comedy career began at home and in talent shows at school. He received his training from watching the comic icons, including Robin Harris, Eddie Murphy, and Richard Pryor. Through the years, Tucker developed his own signature rhythm, mannerisms, and style. When he was a teen, Tucker tried out his material on a real audience at a local adult comedy club in Atlanta. Charming his way onto the stage (he was under age), Tucker discovered that he had what it took to entertain strangers. After high school, Tucker moved to Los Angeles, California, with aspirations of becoming a star. Los Angeles is the destination of many young hopefuls wishing to make it as models, actors, writers, and comedians. Tucker rapidly became popular at local nightclubs and attracted his first major break when, in 1992, he appeared on the Russell Simmons television show, Def Comedy Jam, an HBO series that primarily showcased young urban black talent. Tucker, a favorite on the
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show, returned for several performances. Opportunities frequently came to Tucker after someone saw him perform. For example, Kid ’N Play, the popular rap duo and stars of the House Party film series (1990, 1991, 1994), asked Tucker to appear in the third film in the series after seeing him at a nightclub. Tucker’s part in the film was minor, only lasting ninety seconds; however, that was enough time for him to catch the attention of the creators of the black cult classic film Friday, who cast him in the role of Smokey. Tucker’s character was so named because of his excessive marijuana use. The film is set in an urban black neighborhood in Los Angeles and follows the antics and troubles of two friends, Craig Jones and Smokey. Tucker’s character provided a large part of the comedic relief, humorously contrasting with Ice Cube’s character, Craig Jones. Tucker utilized his signature style—high-pitched voice, vocal stuttering, rapid-fire speech, and comical facial expressions—to portray the popular character. In contrast, Jones, a regular guy, is cool-headed and somber. Another notable film in which Tucker appears is The Fifth Element, which billed Bruce Willis as the action hero. The film, unconventionally, featured several black actors. Tom Lister played a black president in the film. Lister had also appeared as the menacing antagonist, Deebo, in Friday. Tucker was cast as the flamboyant, melodramatic, and bleach-blonde Ruby Rhod, an interstellar radio personality. Tucker appeared in several major scenes, again, providing comedic relief. Unlike Friday, which was a movie mostly popular with black audiences, mainstream audiences viewed Willis’s film. Tucker proved that he could be a hit with broader audiences. The Rush Hour films cast Tucker alongside martial arts legend, Jackie Chan. Tucker’s broad appeal and popularity won him top pay. The film played off the cultural differences between the suave, wise-cracking, and ‘‘hip’’ James Carter (Tucker) and a serious-minded and masterful martial arts fighter Lee (Chan). More than once, Tucker’s character broke out in popular African American dances and vernacular. Tucker’s dance moves came in handy when he made appearances with Michael Jackson, the late pop singer. Tucker performed trademark Michael Jackson moves in Jackson’s video ‘‘You Rock My World’’ and 30th Anniversary Special in 2001. Tucker has come a long way since his beginnings as a local favorite in LA night clubs. He has emerged as one of the top-earning stars in Hollywood. However, some critics contend that Tucker has based his career on stereotypical and negative images, which have, for centuries, degraded African Americans. Tucker has acknowledged his responsibility as an actor in his project selections, and, since turning to Christianity during the first decade of the new millennium, he has a different outlook, desiring to expand into more dramatic and positive roles. Further Reading Chris Tucker. (Homepage.) http://www.christucker.com/.
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Gates, Henry Louis Jr. 2004. America Behind the Color Lines: Dialogues with African Americans. New York: Warner Books. Spigner, Clarence. 2009. Still Buffoons? July 18. BlackPast.org (blog). http://www.black past.com/?q=still-buffoons. Gladys L. Knight
Turner, Tina (1939– ), Singer, Songwriter, Actress Tina Turner, also known as ‘‘The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,’’ has been entertaining people around the world for over fifty years. Besides being a legendary Rock and Roll star, Turner has also had several notable movie roles. Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Nutbush, Tennessee. As a teenager in St. Louis, Turner met musician Ike Turner who recognized her talent, changed her name, and made Tina the lead singer of his band which became the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. The couple married in 1958 and shared four sons. While the Revue was known for their high-energy live stage shows, the group had few chart hits. The Phil Spector produced ‘‘River Deep, Mountain High’’ in 1966 was not a success in the United States but was a big hit in Europe. The group’s biggest hits were ‘‘Nutbush City Limits,’’ written by Tina, and their cover of ‘‘Proud Mary,’’ which remains Tina’s signature song today. In 1974, Turner was introduced to Buddhism by a friend. In her autobiography, I, Tina, Turner credited her Buddhist faith with giving her the strength and courage to leave Ike who, she claimed, was physically abusive and a drug addict throughout their marriage. In the divorce settlement, Turner was allowed to keep her stage name but was held responsible for the debt caused when the group’s tour was cancelled after she left Ike. The couple’s relationship and careers were depicted in the film What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993) which was based on Turner’s autobiography. Turner started from scratch rebuilding her career, playing anywhere she could. In 1979, Roger Davies became Turner’s manager and performances with Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones helped introduce Turner to new audiences. In 1983, Turner covered Al Green’s song ‘‘Let’s Stay Together,’’ which became a hit in Europe. The song’s eventual popularity in the United States convinced Capitol Records to give Turner more support. The album Private Dancer, featuring the song ‘‘What’s Love Got to Do With It,’’ Turner’s only number one song, was released in 1984 and catapulted Turner to a new level of stardom. The album and Turner went on to win four Grammy Awards. Ten more successful albums and six world tours followed. During her career, Turner has appeared in four motion pictures. The two most notable roles were as the Acid Queen in the film Tommy (1975) and as Aunt Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Turner received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress for her performance in Mad Max and
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another hit single for the film’s theme song ‘‘We Don’t Need Another Hero,’’ which was nominated for a Grammy and a Golden Globe Award. From 1984 through 2000, Turner had six highly successful, record-breaking international tours. The 1990 Foreign Affair European Tour broke records for total number of fans and shows played. After the 2000 Twenty Four Seven Tour, Turner became the Guinness World Record holder for most concert tickets sold by a solo performer in music history. In 2008, Turner undertook another world tour to celebrate fifty years of performing. Turner has received a number of notable honors throughout her career. Besides receiving eight Grammy Awards, two of Turner’s songs, ‘‘River Deep, Mountain High’’ and ‘‘Proud Mary,’’ have been included in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 but neither attended the ceremony. In 2005, Turner was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. See also: Musicians and Singers; Pop Music Further Reading Alexander, Amy. 1999. Fifty Black Women Who Changed America. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub. Group. Havranek, Carrie. 2009. Women Icons of Popular Music: The Rebels, Rockers, and Renegades. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Turner, Tina and Kurt Loder. 1986. I, Tina. New York: William Morrow. Mary K. Huelsbeck
Tuskegee Airmen Tuskegee Airmen are known as the legendary African American heroes of World War II (1939–1945). In their day, the Tuskegee Airmen, a term that refers to the African American pilots who fought bravely in a racially segregated unit, were celebrated with numerous military honors and held in high esteem by African American leaders and the black community. Mainstream society, however, regarded the Tuskegee Airmen with the same disdain rendered to blacks in the mid-twentieth century. The low social status of blacks notwithstanding, the Tuskegee Airmen made enormous contributions to the United States, the Allied victory, and the early developments in changing the way whites viewed African Americans and paving the path for opportunities, full equality, and civil rights for African Americans. In 1939, at the onset of America’s entrance in World War II, African Americans were denied the same freedoms, opportunities, and access to social, political, and economic power as whites. In the South, blacks lived under Jim Crow law. Under Jim Crow, social customs and laws delineated separate social spaces for blacks and whites. Separate schools, restrooms, and hospitals were the norm. Racial etiquette demanded that blacks defer to whites in all situations. These
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Ike and Tina Turner performing in Paris in a 1975 concert at the Olympia. (Richard Melloul/Sygma/Corbis)
laws and customs reinforced the racist view that whites were superior and that blacks were inferior. Blacks in the North faced problems as well. A disproportionate number of blacks lived in poverty, and were subject to racism. Racial violence was visited upon blacks in the North and South. In any region, the insensitive treatment of blacks was commonplace and prevalent. Organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) were pivotal in addressing the grim conditions besetting blacks in the North and South, helping to change racist perceptions, opening doors and opportunities for blacks, dismantling discriminatory laws and practices, and ushering forth the integration of African Americans into American life. When World War II began, NAACP leaders saw an opportunity presented before them. Not only would African American support in the war effort help bring about freedoms for others, like Jews and other races and marginalized groups from genocide wrought by Adolf Hitler, it would potentially help the cause of African Americans on the homefront. The NAACP and many prominent black newspapers encouraged blacks to enlist in the military. Many African Americans did so readily, though blacks were forced to participate in segregated units and were largely required to do menial work. Due to the efforts of the NAACP, blacks were, however, for the first time ever, admitted as officers. In 1941, the United States Congress initiated another first in American history when it established a combat unit for blacks in the Army Air Corps.
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Admission into this unit was difficult, as requirements included flight experience, college education, and high scores on the army’s intelligence tests. Remarkably, a number of African Americans received higher educations from mostly historical black colleges and participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee Institute, a black college in Tuskegee, Alabama, that Booker T. Washington established in 1881. Training for the all-black unit took place at Tuskegee Institute. Training was arduous and opposition was high. Local whites harassed students when they came into town. Nonetheless, Tuskegee yielded four squadrons, the 99th, the 100th, 301th, and 302d. After considerable delay, the 99th had its first experience in combat when, in the summer of 1943, they fought against German fighter planes near Pantelleria, an island in the Mediterranean Sea. None of the pilots of the 99th were harmed; however, at least one of the German planes was observed with significant damage. After the fight, Colonel William W. Momyer accused the black pilots of incompetency. He tried to publicly discredit them. A report coming out of the University of Texas alleged that blacks were intellectually inferior and incapable of handling difficult and demanding tasks. Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, a black commander, and Colonel Emmett O’Donnell came to the Tuskegee Airmen’s defense. In 1944, the four squadrons combined to form the 332nd Fighter Group. Their primary task was to escort heavy bombers. During this period, the Tuskegee Airmen amassed an impressive record, winning the respect of other nations and fellow white soldiers. Germans called the pilots ‘‘Black Birdmen,’’ and the Allied forces called them ‘‘Redtails’’ or ‘‘Redtail Angels’’ for the trademark red coloring on the aircrafts. White bombers frequently requested Tuskegee Airmen to escort them on assignments. News of the exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen reached home, mostly by way of black journalists who proudly featured articles about them. African Americans were immensely proud, and the federal government was challenged to see African American soldiers in a different light. Three years after the war, President Harry Truman put into effect Executive Order 9981, thus integrating the U.S. armed services; however, the complete dismantling of segregation in all aspects of society did not come about until 1964. In the late twentieth century, Tuskegee Airmen would become increasingly more recognized. African Americans, especially active soldiers and veterans, proudly wore shirts, hats, and other paraphernalia bearing the names of iconic black units, like the units of the Tuskegee Airmen. Museums incorporated exhibits giving honor to the legacy and harrowing struggles of Tuskegee Airmen. In 1996, Laurence Fishburne starred in an HBO movie, The Tuskegee Airmen. A forthcoming movie, tentatively titled Red Tails, is set to be a major blockbuster film developed by George Lucas, a prominent director famous for the Star Wars film series. In 2007, former President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to some three hundred Tuskegee Airmen at the Capitol in Washington, DC, and in 2008, more than one hundred eighty Tuskegee Airmen attended the inauguration of the first African American president in history, Barack Obama. See also: Military
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African American Army Air Corps cadets report to Benjamin O. Davis Jr. (National Archives)
Further Reading Buckley, Gail Lumet. 2002. American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm. New York: Random House. Horman, Lynn M. and Thomas Reilly. 2001. Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing. Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. (n.d.) ‘‘Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen?’’ http://www.tuskegee airmen.org/Tuskegee_Airmen_History.html. Gladys L. Knight
Tyson, Cicely (1933– ), Actress, Model, Singer, Humanitarian Cicely Tyson, a talented stage and screen actress, is recognized for her acting ability and also for her refusal to portray any role that perpetuated the racial stereotypes of African Americans in popular culture. She insists that her image on stage and screen be that of a strong black woman. Tyson was born in Harlem, New York, on December 19, 1933, to parents who were immigrants from Nevis, an island in the Caribbean Sea. Her mother left her
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father to raise their children on her own when Tyson was only ten years old. Meanwhile, her mother immersed the family in the Baptist and Episcopalian Christian denominations, and the church nurtured Tyson’s talents in entertaining and performing. Tyson became a concert pianist and performed throughout New York. When she entered the workforce, it was as a secretary for the American Red Cross. Her modeling career began when Walter Johnson asked Tyson to model his hairstyles. In order to gain more modeling experience, she enrolled in a modeling school. By the 1950s, Tyson was one of the top ten black models in the United States. In 1956, she was photographed for the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar magazines. It was at this time that she became concerned about her success as a model. Tyson made the acquaintance of Evelyn Davis, an actress, who convinced her to audition for the lead role in the film Spectrum, an independent film. Tyson got the part, but the film was never released. In 1957, she had her first role in the released film Dark of the Man. In 1963, Tyson starred in East Side/West Side, which made her the first black actress to have a regular role on television. Tyson played the character Rebecca Morgan in the film Sounder. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and was awarded the National Society of Film Critics award for her performance. She viewed her role as Rebecca Morgan as a model for the public to see African Americans as humans and not just comic relief. In 1974, Tyson played the role of Jane Pittman. This was one of her greatest achievements, for in the film she had to be aged from 19 to 110 and change her demeanor appropriately. The role of Jane Pittman earned her two Emmy awards; one made Tyson the first African American woman to win for outstanding performance. In 1981, Tyson married jazz musician Miles Davis; the couple divorced eight years later. In 1989, Tyson worked with Oprah Winfrey in the film The Women of Brewster Place, which showcased the lives of African American women. She began to accept roles which permitted her the opportunity to pay respect to historical figures and educate the audience about race relations in the United States. In 1998, Tyson played the role of Flora Palmer in Mama Flora’s Family; the script was a gift from Alex Haley, given to Tyson just three days before his death. Cicely Tyson takes her image as a role model very seriously. She spends no less than one month a year touring colleges to speak about the value of education, human rights, self-esteem, and race relations. Her awards are numerous. She was named the Woman of the Year by the NAACP four times. Tyson has received honorary degrees from Loyola, Atlanta, Lincoln, and Marymount universities, and has also had schools named after her. See also: Actors and Performers; Davis, Ossie, and Dee, Ruby Further Reading Chism, Monique. 2005. ‘‘Tyson, Cicely.’’ In Black Women in America. 2nd ed. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Oxford African American Studies Center. http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0003/e0442.
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Hoehne, Felicia H. (Felder), and Barbara Lynne Yarn. 1992. ‘‘Cicely Tyson.’’ In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research Iset, Anuakan R. 2008. ‘‘Tyson, Cicely.’’ In African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Oxford African American Studies Center. http://www.oxfordaasc .com/article/opr/t0001/e3947. Catherine Culver
Tyson, Mike (1966– ), Boxer Mike Tyson, also known as ‘‘Iron Mike,’’ is a Boxing legend in African American popular culture. Emerging after boxing greats such as Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali, Tyson represented a new generation of heavyweight boxing champions of the 1980s. Tyson’s ferocity and meteoric knockouts in the ring, as well as his notoriously controversial moments, such as the time he bit off part of boxer Evander Holyfield’s ear, made sensational news in the media. In 1986, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion at the age of twenty. Between 1985 and 1991, he fought in 42 fights, winning all but one of his bouts and yielding an extraordinary 36 knockouts. In 1992, Tyson served three years in jail after being convicted for sexually assaulting Desiree Washington. Tyson experienced a series of dismal losses during his comeback fights. He retired from professional boxing in 2006. Michael Gerard Tyson had a difficult childhood. Born on June 30, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York, much of Tyson’s hard life was symptomatic of the socioeconomic problems of inner cities. When Tyson was two years old, his father, Jimmy Kirkpatrick, abandoned the family. Tyson and his siblings were raised by their mother, Lorna Tyson, for several years in deep poverty. Single parenting was not easy in the city, where temptations and influences were rampant. Tyson, who had been bullied for part of his childhood because of his small size, high-pitched voice, and lisp, fell prey to criminality. He was arrested repeatedly. Tyson’s life made a sudden turn after his mother died when he was sixteen years old. After the death of his mother, Tyson moved in with Constantine ‘‘Cus’’ D’Amato, a popular boxing manager. Having lived in the tough and dangerous world of the streets all his life, Tyson had a difficult time trusting anyone, including D’Amato. D’Amato was steadfast, however, showering Tyson with unconditional love, providing a clean and healthy home, and helping to set the foundation for Tyson’s spectacular career. Tyson learned the art of boxing, rigorously studied the masters, and developed the essential fighting and mental techniques to become a great boxer. Tyson made his professional debut in 1985. In that same year, D’Amato died of pneumonia. Tyson was devastated yet went on to win bout after bout. He had a fearsome presence in the ring. Many boxers cowered under Tyson’s glare before the fights began. His intimidating stare was compounded by his forceful punching power.
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Increasing wins brought Tyson glory, media attention, and wealth. His fights became massively popular, profitable, and star-studded affairs. Tyson’s seemingly glamorous life was marred by media storms. His marriage to African American actress Robin Givens in 1988 was controversial, considering, among other things, the couple appeared to be polar opposites. The marriage ended in 1989, in the shadow of allegations of domestic violence on Tyson’s part. His problems mounted in subsequent years. In 1991, He was arrested and in 1992 sentenced to prison for the rape of an eighteen-year-old girl; he served three years and was released in 1995. Tyson’s excessive violence against Evander Holyfield during a 1997 fight, a bankruptcy, lawsuits against him, and an anticlimactic end to his boxing career have left Tyson introspective. In a revealing documentary, Tyson (2008), Tyson, who was then in his early forties, discussed his triumphs and defeats and recited poetry that he had written. As a testament of his standing in popular culture, he has made several recent media appearances, such as in the film The Hangover (2009) and several World Wresting Entertainment programs. Tyson has been married three times and has seven children, one of whom died in an accident in 2009. See also: Sports Further Reading Ellis, Cashmore. 2005. Tyson: Nurture of the Beast. Malden, MA: Polity Press. Heller, Peter. 1995. Bad Intentions: The Mike Tyson Story. New York: Da Capo Press. O’Connor, Daniel, ed. 2002. Iron Mike: A Mike Tyson Reader. New York: Thunder Mouth’s Press. Toback, James. 2008. Tyson. Sony Pictures Classics. Gladys L. Knight
U U.S. Commission on Civil Rights The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, was established by Congress as a nongovernmental, nonpartisan agency. The commission was formed with the purpose of assessing, investigating, and reporting on equality in voting, education, and housing, particularly focusing on the rights of African Americans. President Eisenhower appointed six members, confirmed by the Senate, to be on the first commission: Justice Stanley Reed, who withdrew his name; John A. Hannah (the president of Michigan State University), chairman; Robert G. Storey (dean of the Southern Methodist University Law School), vicechairman; John S. Battle (former governor of Virginia and a national political figure); Theodore M. Hesburgh (a priest and the president of the University of Notre Dame); J. Ernest Wilkins (former undersecretary of labor); and Doyle E. Carlton (former governor of Florida). J. Ernest Wilkins was the only African American member, but became ill and passed away in 1959. He was replaced with another African American, George M. Johnson (dean of the Howard University law school). The commission gathered information on how civil rights laws and policies were being interpreted and upheld and created reports to the president and Congress detailing allegations of civil rights abuse. Recommendations based on subpoenas and witnesses from public hearings as well as findings from other government agencies and officials were included in these reports. State advisory committees, whose members were appointed without pay, were created a year after the commission was formed. These advisory committees helped the commission investigate and report on discrimination practices in local regions. Based on their findings between 1959 and 1965, the commission repeatedly recommended legislation be passed that would eliminate discrimination in voting, particularly in
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states where voter registration forms, poll taxes, and literacy tests were used in order for African Americans to qualify to vote. Although the commission’s power was only to recommend minimal details of proposed legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed with the efforts of the members of the commission. In 1963, the commission recommended a single agency to investigate and report on equal opportunities in employment, which helped form the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Based on findings of the commission indicating discrimination in housing, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Housing Community Development Act of 1974 were passed. Equal opportunities for minorities, specifically African Americans, who wanted to own homes in typically white neighborhoods were established. From the beginning of the commission, school desegregation was high on the list of priorities with over thirty reports published, the most recent being in October 2007. Since 1957, the commission expanded its investigative reports of discrimination in education, voting, and housing to include employment, immigration, disabilities, age, hate crimes, Affirmative Action, and health care. Other government agencies, such as the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services), and the Department of Labor, followed the commission’s lead and conducted their own investigations into civil rights abuse. What was supposed to be a temporary agency to help with civil rights agendas has continued until the present day with each commission receiving some form of congressional reauthorization. In the United States Commission on Civil Rights Act of 1983, the commission was reinvented from six members to eight members, with four members appointed by the president and four appointed by Congress. Despite continued problems with lack of scope and purpose, the commission still exists to investigate and report on allegations of all types of discrimination. See also: Civil Rights Movement Further Reading Dulles, Foster Rhea. 1968. The Civil Rights Commission: 1957–1965. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. Frye, Jocelyn C., et al. 1987. ‘‘The Rise and Fall of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.’’ Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 22 (Spring): 449– 505. Thurgood Marshall Law Library: Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/index.html. Melissa Johnson
Uncle Tom A term which had its origins in Harriett Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ‘‘Uncle Tom’’ became commonly used during the American Civil Rights Movement to designate African American persons who purportedly
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had rejected their African heritage and become assimilated into the dominant European American macroculture. However, the term is a complicated one and according to some scholars has been based on efforts to promote a more submissive style of behavior on the part of African American people. Thus, the phrases such as ‘‘Toms’’ or ‘‘Uncle Toms’’ sometimes referred to African Americans who ‘‘sold out’’ to European Americans. In doing so, they were often viewed as persons who had rejected their Africanness. Harriett Beecher Stowe, in her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, characterized Uncle Tom as a man who was civilized, sympathetic, and assimilative. He had acquired refined tastes and feelings, and his acculturation involved learning how to read the Bible. He accepted his status as a slave and somehow felt that his predicament was part of God’s plan. Even when he learned that he would be sold away from his family, he somehow decided that it was part of God’s plan and things would be better in his next life. Uncle Tom harbored a profound sense of loyalty and did not try to escape to the North. However, in spite of these characteristics, he refused to administer a beating to Cassy when ordered to do so by his master. Thus, Uncle Tom became a metaphor during the American Civil Rights Movement. See also: Armstrong, Louis; Poitier, Sidney Further Reading Wilson Jeremiah Moses. 1982. Black Messiahs and Uncle Toms. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Bruce Mitchell and Robert E. Salsbury
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly (1852), by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is the nineteenth century’s most popular novel and, with the exception of the Bible, the century’s best-selling book. According to legend, President Abraham Lincoln, upon meeting Stowe, commented, ‘‘So this is the little lady who made this big war!’’ Whether Lincoln actually made the statement has not been ascertained. However Stowe’s novel provided greater impetus for the antislavery movement, promulgated African American stereotypes (pickaninnies, mammies, tragic mulattos, and contented slaves), and resulted in the name Uncle Tom being added to the lexicon as a description for an African American who acts in a sycophantic manner towards whites. Stowe (1811–96), motivated by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin (UTC) to attract the attention of people who were oblivious to slavery, and to protest slavery’s refusal to recognize the humanity of the enslaved. UTC was published in installments in the National Era in 1851, and the antislavery periodical’s readership increased by 11,000 during the novel’s
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serialization. UTC was published in book form in March, 1852; by March, 1853, the melodrama sold more than 300,000 copies in the United States, and by 1857, UTC was translated into more than twenty languages. The novel was published the same year Frederick Douglass delivered his ‘‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’’ speech and sixty-three years after the publication of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; seven years after the publication of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; and five years after the publication of Narrative of William W. Brown. Although the aforementioned slave narratives were widely read, UTC proved more appealing to white Americans who overwhelmingly preferred reading a fictitious version of slavery by a white female instead of firsthand accounts of bondage by Equiano, Douglass, Brown, and others. While abolitionists endorsed UTC, plantation owners despised the novel and considered it propaganda. Stowe, responding to the negative reactions from southerners, published A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Presenting the Original Facts and Documents Upon Which the Story Is Founded Together with Corroborative Statements Verifying the Truth (1853). In this work, she mentions a parallel between Uncle Tom and Josiah Henson, author of The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave (1849). Consequently Henson referred to himself as Uncle Tom. Theatrical adaptations of UTC were popular through at least the first decade of the twentieth century and film versions were made in 1903, 1914, 1927, and 1987. The last was a made-for-television adaptation that was directed by Stan Lathan, and starred Avery Brooks as Uncle Tom, Paula Kelly as Cassy, Phylicia Rashad as Eliza, and Troy Beyer as Emmeline. See also: Uncle Tom Further Reading Ammons, Elizabeth, ed. 2007. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: A Casebook. New York: Oxford University Press. Rosenthal, Debra J., ed. 2004. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: A Sourcebook. New York: Routledge. Wallace, Michele. 2000. ‘‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Before and After the Jim Crow Era.’’ Drama Review 44 (Spring):137–56. Linda M. Carter
Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad is a term that has become familiar to many through assorted means, such as Black History Month programs, multicultural education, documentaries, television, films, newspapers, literature, and Internet sites. The Underground Railroad refers to the system of escape by which black slaves obtained freedom prior to the abolition of slavery in the U.S. in 1863.
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Slaves escape by way of the Underground Railroad. An informal network, conductors and leaders of the Underground Railroad helped guide slaves to safety across the Canadian border or into free states during the years prior to the American Civil War. (Library of Congress)
Given the options to fight (revolt) or flee, the Underground Railroad provided an effective mode of resistance to slavery. In general, to revolt meant certain capture and capital punishment. Fleeing, however, preserved life, though blacks still faced possible capture. The severe circumstances of slavery—the violent overseers, cruel masters, family separations that occurred whenever slaves were sold—as well as the fundamental desire to escape bondage and the many degradations associated with slavery outweighed the risk. Slaves used any number of locations for their destinations. In the earliest years of slavery, some black slaves were adopted by Native American tribes. Others fled to nearby swamps, islands, and other enclaves; however, after the Underground Railroad emerged and became more advanced with increasing number of operators who participated and routes that were made available, black slaves fled to locales outside of the South, areas where slavery had been abolished. Canada was a popular destination, but black slaves also settled in free states in the North and the West. Many details about the Underground Railroad are not known. For example, no one knows exactly who coined the term or when the Underground Railroad officially started. Letters written by George Washington in 1786 discussed an organized effort by Quakers to help facilitate slave escapes. Scholars contend that such efforts may have occurred even earlier. It is certain that, by the midnineteenth century, the Underground Railroad was thriving and that blacks, throughout all the slave states, had access to a vast number of routes (though
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some states had fewer routes than others) to freedom, with or without the aid of Underground Railroad operators. Other information, such as the exact number and location of all the escape routes, remains a mystery; however, through records kept by operators, narratives by former slaves, and interviews, scholars and historians have obtained a good understanding of many other aspects of the Underground Railroad. For example, it is known that songs about freedom, as well as the whereabouts of escape routes, were cloaked in the guise of Spirituals, or religious songs, folktales, such as the popular one about flying African slaves who fly back to Africa, and the popular biblical narrative about Moses who orchestrated, through God’s direction, the freedom of the Israelites who had been enslaved to the Egyptian Pharaoh. Carefully guarded knowledge about key players in the Underground Railroad was frequently accessible within black slave populations. Although not all black slaves required assistance from operators and volunteers in the Underground Railroad, the majority of black slaves found the intricate network indispensable to their aims. The decision to travel alone or with assistance was usually predicated on a number of factors. Black men would often travel alone, especially if they had knowledge of how to survive off the land and navigate shrewdly in public spaces when necessary. Famed African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass describes his heroic escape in three autobiographies. After two failed attempts, he successfully made his escape disguised as a sailor. When fleeing from slavery in small or large groups, especially with women and children, assistance was essential. The assistance provided by the Underground Railroad was remarkably thorough, even though this system was not a formal organization with conventional rules and modes of operation, save for the mandate of utmost secrecy and the loosely based voluntary functions that Underground Railroad operators, black and white, affluent and poor, played as the presidents, the agents or conductors, and the station-keepers. According to Siebert, one of the most prominent presidents, a title that was considered to be ‘‘complimentary and figurative’’ of the Underground Railroad was Levi Coffin. Coffin, who also had cousins who were involved in the Underground Railroad, began his work in North Carolina in the early eighteenth century. His home was well-known among slaves as a safe place to go to receive food, shelter, clothing, and other assistance. Coffin continued to assist black slaves throughout his life, ‘‘aid[ing] more than 3,000 slaves in their flight.’’ The agents, also known as conductors, of the Underground Railroad served as guides for black slaves. One of the most well-known agents was Harriet Tubman, an extraordinary black woman, who had escaped slavery herself in 1849. Known as ‘‘Moses,’’ Harriet Tubman was an unassuming woman whose cunning, courage, expertise, resourcefulness, and religious faith made her a formidable weapon against slavers. She facilitated the escape of other family members, including her sister, two nieces, brother, and parents. All together, it is believed she conducted nineteen trips, rescuing some three hundred blacks from slavery. Like other operators, Tubman frequently depended upon the financial support of donors. But she alone provided the leadership necessary to evade dangers, harm,
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and capture, and guide the fugitive slaves to freedom. Like other agents, Tubman traveled frequently at night and backtracked her steps when necessary, staying in concealed locations for days or longer to circumvent detection. If, for some reason, she had to leave her group, she announced her return with a song. Sometimes when slaves lost heart, she encouraged them with a revolver she carried along on these trips, ‘‘declaring, ‘Dead niggers tell no tales, you go on or die,’’’ wrote Siebert. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Tubman worked as a spy, a scout, and a nurse. In addition to the presidents and the agents, the station-keepers played critical roles in the Underground Railroad. The station-keepers were individuals, families, churches, and schools who opened their homes and buildings for the purpose of sheltering, concealing, and providing food and clothing to the fugitives. Station-keepers were sometimes alerted by letter, embedded with coded messages, of forthcoming visitors, or, at other times, simply by a special knock on the door. Black fugitives were frequently provided lodging in inconspicuous locales, like barns and hidden rooms in ordinary homes and church buildings. The length of stay depended upon each situation. Fugitives would lodge at any number of stations during their journey. Disguises were sometimes provided for black slaves when traveling took place during the day, in public places, or on public modes of transportation, such as steam railroads or by boat. Otherwise, wrote Siebert, black fugitives might be secreted away in ‘‘covered wagons, closed carriages and deep-bedded farm wagons.’’ Black fugitives and their helpers faced obstacles along the way. For one, white masters went to great lengths to restore their expensive chattel. Notices of runaway slaves, frequently containing rewards for their return, were published in newspapers and posted throughout southern towns and cities. White slave hunters attempted to track down the runaways using dogs and wielding guns. Fugitive Slave Laws were established to penalize with heavy fines and possible imprisonment anyone harboring or abetting black slaves and to force the return of runaways to their masters. In addition to these tactics, white sympathizers were frequently stigmatized for their beliefs and actions. Even in the North and the West, white abolitionists were not always popular. According to Siebert, the majority of northerners ‘‘were willing to let slavery alone and desired that others should let it alone.’’ Many northerners and westerners held racist ideas about blacks. Black laws were also established in many free states, severely restricting the freedoms and civil rights of free blacks; racial attacks against blacks were not uncommon. Canada, however, provided comparatively more freedoms. Upon settling in Canada, many fugitives did not experience brutal and rampant harassment or contend with segregation laws as blacks did in the free states in the U.S. prior to emancipation or in the South after President Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery. The phenomenon of the Underground Railroad has not always been public knowledge. For many centuries, African American experiences and history were largely confined to African American scholars, like Carter G. Woodson and W. E. B. Du Bois, who contended that the study of black culture had value and
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was an inextricable part of the American experience. It was not until the 1960s, through the protests of black militants and culturalists, that Black Studies programs in colleges and universities were established. Public discussions in film, television, newspapers, and other media forms concerning the neglect of white society to acknowledge and advance the contributions and experiences of African Americans, as well as the efforts to disseminate black history, have helped to further the mainstreaming of black experiences, like the Underground Railroad. See also: Slave Narratives Further Reading National Geographic Online. (n.d.) ‘‘The Underground Railroad.’’ http://www.national geographic.com/railroad/. Siebert, Wilbur H. 2006. The Underground Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. Gladys L. Knight
United Negro College Fund The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) was founded in 1944 in response to economic conditions very similar to the meltdown of 2008. Today the Fund, as it is known, supports thirty-nine member schools, and awards more than four hundred scholarships and internship programs. From the time of emancipation until the end of the nineteenth century, colleges for African Americans were formed and supported by religious and charitable groups. At the close of the century, however, such groups were unable to continue funding. As the twentieth century began, a new group of donors emerged to help with funding. Negro colleges became the ‘‘cause celebre’’ of several wealthy Northern industrialists, like George Foster Peabody, Andrew Carnegie, and Julius Rosenfeld. The stock market crash and the Great Depression ground donations to a virtual halt. Many philanthropists had lost their fortunes and now felt that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was overtaxing them. The Roosevelt years were particularly hard on African Americans. Farm subsidies were enacted to discourage production in an effort to drive up farm prices. This caused many subsistence black farmers to lose everything. There was no money in the average black family to send students to college at that time. Donations from wealthy Americans and charitable groups were the backbone of the Negro colleges and provided a great percentage of the schools’ operating funds. In turn, the schools used some of these funds to financially assist students. At some schools, unusually gifted administrators like Robert Russa Moton of Tuskegee, developed a loyal group of wealthy supporters.
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In 1935, Moton retired and a scholarly veterinarian Frederick D. Patterson was thrust into the limelight to become the next president of Tuskegee. Patterson was only thirty-four years old, and realized he lacked the fundraising finesse of Moton. In 1943, Patterson published an open letter to the presidents of private black schools advocating that they pool resources and raise funds together. Thus, in 1944, after exploratory meetings, a group of twenty-seven college presidents met in what Patterson jokingly called ‘‘the greatest bunch of organized poverty in the U.S.,’’ and the United Negro College Fund, later known simply as the Fund, was born. William J. Trent Jr. became the first executive director of the Fund, a post he held for twenty years. Betty Stebman, who was Caucasian, was hired as the Fund’s secretary. She used her considerable organizational skills to recruit for the Fund. John D. Rockerfeller Jr. was one of the greatest supporters and enlisted the aid of his wealthy friends. Mrs. Hall Park McCullough, a New York socialite, started the Women’s Division. The 1955 Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing segregation in American public education led to a perception that Negro colleges no longer needed separate funds, but UNCF members mounted a campaign to explain to the nation the value of the Fund. To date, UNCF schools have graduated 70 percent of African American physicians and dentists, 50 percent of African American engineers, 50 percent of African American public school teachers, and 30 percent of African American lawyers. Eight of the ten top schools in U.S. News’ 2008 ‘‘America’s Best Black Colleges’’ list are members, and many of the United States’ most influential African Americans are graduates of UNCF schools. The UNCF continues to prove the Young and Rubicam Advertising Company’s brilliant slogan, ‘‘a mind is a terrible thing to waste.’’ Today the UNCF is headed by Michael L. Lomax, the former president of Dillard University. The Fund’s new initiatives include the Institute for Capacity Building, which offers technical and financial support, a program to involve more minority students in the sciences, and the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute dedicated to the study of the unique challenges of minority education and the best practices for meeting these challenges. See also: Education: Public and Private Further Reading Fields, Cheryl D. 2001. ‘‘HBCUs Get Savvy about Fund Raising.’’ Black Issues in Higher Education 18 (August 30): 38. Gasman, Marybeth. 2007. Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College Fund. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Stanfield, John. 1985. Philanthropy and Jim Crow in American Social Science. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. United Negro College Fund. 2008. UNCF Empower Me Tour Media Kit. 1st. Fairfax, VA: United Negro College Fund. Elizabeth Sandidge Evans
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Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) (1914) The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), also known as the Universal Negro Improvement and African Communities (Imperial) League or UNIA-ACL), was founded by Marcus Garvey on August 1, 1914, in Jamaica. The UNIA sought economic and political independence and social justice for people of African ancestry and influenced persons who later embraced Black Nationalism. The greatest growth and success of the UNIA occurred after 1917 with the opening of its New York City division. This division was the first of more than eleven hundred UNIA divisions established in the U.S. and in more than forty countries between 1918 and the early 1920s. The growth of the UNIA may be attributed to the 1918 founding of a weekly magazine entitled the Negro World which was distributed worldwide and printed in several languages. Garvey utilized this magazine as a means to promote the Black Nationalist ideas of the UNIA. With a dramatic increase in the number of dues-paying members to at least ten million persons, the UNIA was able to purchase several Liberty Halls in the United States and abroad; these halls served as meeting places for UNIA members. This significant increase in membership had positive implications with regard to the UNIA’s economic might, thus permitting it to partake in multiple economic ventures. Most noteworthy of these economic endeavors was the incorporation of the Black Star Steamship Line and the Negro Factories Corporation. The UNIA sold shares of the steamship line and used the profit to purchase three vessels used by UNIA members and rented for use by other organizations. The Negro Factories Corporation was established in 1919 and consisted of a conglomeration of businesses which included grocery stores, restaurants, and a publishing house. The UNIA’s emphasis upon economics was in line with Garvey’s vision of self-sufficiency among blacks and the improvement of black communities. The UNIA also purchased farms in several U.S. states and land in Claremont, Virginia, in order to establish Liberty University. The UNIA’s first convention was held in New York’s Madison Square Garden during August 1920. This month-long convention was significant for three main reasons. First, the UNIA’s ‘‘Declaration of Rights’’ was espoused at this convention. This declaration, like the U.S. Declaration of Independence, emphasized the merits of social justice and full citizenship. Second, UNIA members selected Marcus Garvey as their first elected president-general. Third, an official flag consisting of the colors red, black, and green, which later became the earmark colors adopted by Black Nationalists, and anthem entitled ‘‘Ethiopia the Land of Our Fathers’’ were designated by the UNIA. In the mid-1920s, the UNIA experienced three major obstacles to its success: Garvey was convicted of mail fraud and later deported to Jamaica; members were in opposition about the original mission of the UNIA; and some black leaders expressed concerns about Garvey’s interpretation of Black Nationalism. After Garvey’s deportation, the UNIA became a splinter organization with Garvey loyalists continuing to support him despite the election of George Weston as its
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second president-general. The split in the organization became official when Garvey organized a rival organization, the ‘‘UNIA-ACL August 1929,’’ and a rival publication, the New Negro World. Though the UNIA remained the parent organization, both the UNIA and ‘‘UNIA-ACL August 1929’’ never reached the level of preeminence enjoyed between 1918 and the early 1920s. Despite the split in the UNIA, the parent organization is still in existence, and its impact on the Black Nationalist or the Black Power Movement in the United States cannot be denied. The ‘‘UNIA-ACL August 1929’’ operated under Garvey’s leadership until his death on June 10, 1940. See also: Afrocentric Movement Further Reading UCLA African Studies Center. (2010.) ‘‘Marcus Garvey and the UNIA.’’ http:// www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/mgunia.asp. Universal Negro Improvement Association and Africa Communities League. http:// www.unia-acl.com/. Olethia Davis
Urban Culture, In the early 1900s, Louis Armstrong took his trumpet and talent and hopped on a riverboat in New Orleans, his hometown urban center, then sailed up the Mississippi to Chicago, a fast-growing metropolis. The exuberant, bug-eyed musician brought with him a new collection of words and phrases, such as ‘‘heebie jeebies,’’ that quickly spread across urban American and its culture. African American urban culture that influenced mainstream U.S. culture often was expressed in music, through fashion, and portrayed on television and depicted in film. In 1911, the National Urban League was established in New York to acclimate rural, southern blacks who migrated to northern cities for work and opportunity. The Great Migration then was a trickle compared to the faucet that gushed out in the next five years. In Chicago, Robert Abbott published the Chicago Defender and he urged southern blacks to drop their plows and cotton sacks and come work in the industrialized North. From 1916 to 1919, a half-million blacks arrived at a rate of ten thousand people a week, and by the 1920s a million blacks settled on the South Side of Chicago, the black metropolis where Armstrong entertained black and white fans. Abbott used his newspaper to educate arriving southerners about city life. One list of rules Abbott published included advice for men, such as ‘‘don’t parade on the boulevard in your hog-killing overalls’’ and for women, ‘‘if you’re going to flirt with the butcher, pick the lint out of your hair after you get out of bed.’’ Opportunity hinged on appearance that mirrored white, middle-class standards. The mass appeal and availability of the straightening comb promoted by
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then-millionaire Madam C. J. Walker afforded female domestic workers a suitable, chic imitation of rising stars in all-black theater such as Shuffle Along (1921) dancers Florence Mills and Josephine Baker, and Black Swan recording artist, Ethel ‘‘Stringbean’’ Waters. The leave-the-country-ways behind edict was depicted in the 2008 movie Cadillac Records, in the scene where Muddy Waters (played by Jeffrey Wright) was scolded by a nattily dressed black man accompanied by similarly well-dressed black women for playing acoustic blues guitar for loose change on the street. The offended city folk did not want to be reminded of the South where they packed dingy, dilapidated ‘‘juke joints’’ on Fridays and the weekends to retreat from the gritty labor of the week. Soon, Waters amplified his guitar. The often raucous and heated hully gully, slow drag, and black bottom dances, as well as street ‘‘jigging’’ or tap dancing moved indoors, making the rounds to corner bars and tenement and boarder house rent parties. Many fans wanted the down-home blues after all, but electrified for urban spaces. In art, Jacob Lawrence depicted the trek to urban points north in a folksy, yet modern stylized, sixty-panel series called The Migration of the Negro (1940– 1941). Archibald J. Motley Jr., also a Harlem Renaissance painter who was influenced by other urban experiences (he was a New Orleans native who later lived in Chicago and Washington, DC) captured color, sensuality, and drama of city streets in Black Belt (1934) and the diversity of class and skin color in Barbecue (1935). Urban-style travel was celebrated in the brassy Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn 1941 tune, recorded in Hollywood, Take the A Train, where the vocalist sings the line still true in the twenty-first century: ‘‘It’s the quickest way to get to Harlem,’’ because of the five-minute express run from West 59th Street in midtown to 125th Street, the heart of Harlem. 1930s: Going to Kansas City Jazz was America’s popular music in the first half of the twentieth century. The genre’s greatest artists celebrated and memorialized cities in song, whether it was ‘‘St. Louis Blues,’’ performed by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra, ‘‘East St. Louis [Illinois] Toodle-Do,’’ by Ellington and his Washingtonians, or ‘‘Echoes of Harlem,’’ also by Ellington. In the 1930s, Los Angeles was a city in development and future metropolis, but Kansas City, Missouri, was a western urban outpost with a notable black community. It was the home of Kansas City Monarchs Negro League baseball with stars like Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil. And there was jazz, epitomized by Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Jay McShann, Mary Lou Williams, and Charlie Parker. The film noir Kansas City (1996) with Harry Belafonte as the character Seldom Seen captured that era. The work of play took on new dimensions for children growing up in the new urban centers. Youth often mimicked the leisure activities of adults, which
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required a negotiation of the environment. Debris and found objects were recycled as paper hats and boats, box cart scooters and private cardboard clubhouses. A broken broom handle, a manhole cover, and a street hydrant served as bat and stable bases for stickball. Stoops and porches became outdoor meeting rooms; chalk-lined streets set boundaries. Children whose parents were established families in the cities could afford organized play, and were trained in classic dance, music, and sports indoors. As the Great Depression started to wane in 1938, the ‘‘by invitation only’’ Jack and Jill Club of America was founded in Philadelphia and provided social and educational opportunities for middle- and upper-class children. 1940s to 1950s: Pre- and Post-World War II During the swing jazz era, big band leader Benny Goodman and the Lindy Hop dance swelled downtown. Uptown in Harlem, the Count Basie Orchestra and the precision Scat Singing of Ella Fitzgerald reigned. Billie Holiday of Baltimore wowed audiences with her distinctive voice and delivery. The Savoy Ballroom’s legendary ‘‘battle of the bands’’ between Basie and Chick Webb had blacks and whites jitterbugging well into the 1940s. Black youth distinguished their frenetic dance style with a sartorial swagger. Male dancers, including a conked-hair Malcolm Little (later Malcolm X), sported V-shaped, long coats with ballooned pants clutched at the ankles in a thundering ensemble performance of cultural expression and identity. The national dance craze sparked coastto-coast ‘‘zoot suit riots’’ in 1943. Stomping at the Savoy Ballroom was silenced briefly the same year when suspected by city officials to be a den of Prostitution and drug sales. Southern white military officers were suspected of provoking the devastating Harlem race riot later that year. Nevertheless, from the 1940s to the 1950s, Harlem was the nexus of black life in New York and the draw for black masses from all over. From the South and other regions, the area’s boundless energy and artistic bent beamed as the home of black culture and the home-away-from-home for black artists. During the 1940s, Harlem flourished with writers and dancers and other creative artists, many of whom were regularly seen strolling Harlem’s streets. Documenting this bloom of authentic black life were academic and entrepreneurial photographers who grew businesses from notoriety gained in postwar work programs. Cornelius Marion Battey worked in Cleveland and New York and headed the photography department at Tuskegee Institute; a portrait of W. E. B. Du Bois was included in his body of work. Winifred Allen relished capturing the diverse Harlem community and women-owned businesses. For three decades, Morgan and Marvin Smith quilted a patchwork of daily life and leisure in Harlem with environmental portraits of civil servant workers, political newsmakers, entertainment and sports celebrities, as well as their children at play. One of the most notable artists of the period was the photographer James Van Der Zee, who worked more than forty years chronicling Harlem life with his Kodak Brownie camera. With a knowing eye, Van Der Zee recorded Harlem life,
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death, religious and cultural activity, sports, and virtually any other aspect of uptown life. A 1958 Esquire magazine photograph by Art Kane, ‘‘A Great Day in Harlem,’’ depicted a galaxy of jazz virtuosos who posed on the steps and curb of a brownstone. The photograph became the subject of a 1990s documentary. From the 1960s until the 1980s, the Tree of Life Bookstore was a favorite gathering spot. The Tree stood on the corner of 125th street and what is now Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and was the scene for regular oratory by Malcolm X during the 1950s. Harlem was also the political home which launched the career of preacher Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and the combative congressman’s memorable refrain ‘‘Keep the faith, baby.’’ While music undergirded the cultural life of black New York during the 1940s and 1950s, Harlem also had writers and actors and playwrights including Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Nella Larsen, Jean Toomer, and Alain Locke, who is widely credited with having given birth to a new black aesthetic and the term ‘‘The New Negro.’’ Novelist Walter Mosley chronicled post-World War II Los Angeles through the eyes of reluctant hero and moonlighting private eye Ezekiel ‘‘Easy’’ Rawlings. The debut novel Devil in a Blue Dress was made into a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington as Rawlings, Don Cheadle as his homicidal sidekick ‘‘Mouse,’’ and Jennifer Beals as the tragic mulatto Daphne Monet. Mosley’s fiction documented a migration reality: Many blacks traveled from Texas and Louisiana to settle in Los Angeles and in Oakland to the North. In northern cities a round of postwar migration was evident in Alabama blacks who flocked to Detroit, Mississippians who continued going to Chicago, and Virginians and North Carolinians who favored New York and Philadelphia. There was limited freedom and opportunity up North, unlike American apartheid down South. In 1955, Emmit Till was the Chicago teenager who made the fatal mistake of talking fresh to a white woman in the South after a dare by local boys in Money, Mississippi. Till, fourteen, was murdered and his horrific death images became iconic when published in Jet magazine. In 1959, A Raisin in the Sun, the play by Lorraine Hansberry, explained the dilemma of urban blacks who wanted to leave city slums for the suburbs, but their dreams were deferred. Barbershops and Beauty Shops were hubs for neighborhood and national news, both terrifying and celebratory. Patrons would trade stories in the oral tradition about day-to-day routines, leisure activities, and familial accomplishments. Jet magazine and the older, coffee table-sized Ebony magazine covered social issues and celebrities with an optimistic spin targeted to the middle class. The Ebony Fashion Fair, was a ‘‘must see’’ extravaganza and fund-raising gala for urban communities featuring statuesque brown-and-tan black women modeling the artistry of emerging designers and fashion stylists. High style filled brownstones, row houses, churches, and social club ballrooms for elite cotillions, parties, and holiday fetes and continued into the twenty-first century. A politically diverse and new militant working class was evident in the emergence of the Nation of Islam, which sprouted in Detroit during the 1930s, then spread to Chicago and New York. Guided by the philosophy of economic
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independence, the frontline sales force were clean-shaven brothers dressed in conservative suits, white shirts, and ties, peddling trademark bean pies and the widely circulated Mohammed Speaks newspaper on street corners. A 1959 broadcast by CBS correspondent Mike Wallace revealed to the nation the religion’s strength in numbers and confirmed its iconic status in black urban culture. 1960s: Motown’s Soundtrack for the Decade By the 1960s, most major American cities east of the Mississippi River were decaying and losing jobs to the emerging Sunbelt cities of the West and South. White middle- and working-class residents fled to suburbs that surrounded the urban core cities. Cities grew blacker and poorer and the inhabitants were left to fend for themselves. Motown Records music, the booming sound from Detroit, served as the soundtrack for much of the 1960s. Berry Gordy Jr., a former automobile worker, applied assembly line standardization to Rhythm and Blues and produced black Pop Music that initially did not reference struggles in cities, but focused on love, such as the Miracles’ ‘‘Shop Around’’ (1960) and Mary Wells’s ‘‘Two Lovers’’ (1962). As the decade wore on, the music became more issue-oriented, with the lyrics ‘‘Love child . . . never meant to be . . . Love child, born in poverty,’’ sung by Diana Ross and the Supremes (1968), or ‘‘People moving out, people moving in, all because of the color of their skin,’’ from the Temptations’ ‘‘Ball of Confusion’’ (1970). Most of the time Motown songs focused on love and romance and the Gordy touch guided Detroit’s version of black pop music to cross over to enthusiastic white listeners. Music combined with plenty of employment for black blue-collar workers courtesy of automakers Ford, GM, and Chrysler, put a spotlight on the Motor City. Public intellectual Cornel West in 1998 said that in the 1960s, the cultural center of black America probably shifted to Detroit from Harlem, which by that time was no longer the largest black community in New York City. (Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn was.) Cooley High (1975) was a coming-of-age movie about teenagers in Chicago in the mid-1960s. The movie showed the perils of adolescent urban living such as violent deaths and close calls and those who escape to better lives. It was New York artist Romare Bearden, however, continuing in the tradition of Jacob Lawrence, who captured the journey and baggage urban life now offered blacks. Bearden’s collages were often assembled from items from personal history in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Harlem, revealing the layered and negotiated existence of the villagers’ collective legacy. The Block (1971), a six-panel, eighteenfoot melange of various media, shouts, screams, cries, and sings the woven reality of the personal and private lives of a Harlem streetscape. Detroit also lingers in 1960s pop culture consciousness because it was among three urban areas identified with the most devastating Race Riots of that decade. The others were the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965, followed by Detroit, and Newark, New Jersey. The tumultuous 1960s decade was also marked by the
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first elected black mayors of major cities, Carl Stokes in Cleveland and Richard Hatcher in Gary, Indiana, and militants and activists who became household names, whether it was Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) in Newark, or Chicago Seven member Bobby Seale. By 1968, the silent tug-of-war for cultural authenticity, empowerment, and unity erupted in a bone-shaking mantra. Enter the ‘‘Godfather of Soul,’’ James Brown, urging urban blacks to ‘‘Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud,’’ stirring the essential ingredients that guaranteed survival in decades past. From clothes to hair to food, an affinity for what was considered ‘‘natural’’ took center stage, combating the ‘‘pathological’’ indictments thrust upon the black family and community. Black women struggled with their dual souls as the demand for power branched from the civil rights and black power movements towards Feminism. The stalled passage of the Equal Rights Amendment pushed the competition for jobs between blacks and whites of both genders into the Affirmative Action battleground. Activist leaders such as Shirley Chisholm, Florynce Kennedy, and writer bell hooks voiced the intricacies of the black and white feminist divide through politics, letters, and the distinction of ‘‘firsts’’ in individual accomplishment. Often emulated, the epitome of black female beauty and power was the iconic Afro hairstyle of Black Panther affiliate and UCLA professor Angela Davis. By the late 1960s, the dark-skinned, regal Naomi Simms was the first black model to grace the New York Times fashion supplement and the Ladies Home Journal magazine. A mass-mediated image found on the small screen was Diahann Carroll in the title role of the NBC show Julia (1968). She played a Negro single mother who finds work as a nurse in Los Angeles. Carroll was the first black actor cast as the lead in a television drama. 1970s: ‘‘Chocolate’’ Cities and Message Music During the 1970s, Essence magazine, located in Times Square, evolved in tandem with the black women’s literary movement, introducing writers Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, editor Toni Cade Bambara, and others. The magazine targeted college-educated women, and was political in its voice, promulgating black feminism, and covered the lifestyle concerns of food, fashion, and finance. Essence’s editor-in-chief, Marcia Gillespie, later became the first African American woman to manage the decidedly mainstream feminist magazine Ms. The urban experience rang true in ‘‘message songs,’’ a new styling in the Motown repertoire. Anthems included ‘‘What’s Goin’ On?’’ (1971) by Marvin Gaye, who made a statement about black soldiers who returned from the Vietnam War drugged, unemployed, and wandering the streets. Predominantly black Edison High School in North Philadelphia had the highest per capita Vietnam War casualty rate of any U.S. school. ‘‘Living for the City’’ (1973) by Stevie Wonder, was the cautionary tale of a na€ve young man who was devoured by the mean streets.
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In Memphis, the everyday working-class struggles of the heart and soul rang painfully true in the music of Stax Records, the company that was the sweaty, funky, and southern counterpoint to Motown and Detroit’s polish and upward mobility. At Stax a representative urban tune might be the theme from the movie Shaft by Isaac Hayes, about the city detective who plays by his own rules. This was the decade of blaxploitation movies and the backdrop was urban spaces, like ‘‘Across 110th Street’’ in Harlem as Bobby Womack famously crooned in the movie soundtrack title song. On television, observers of black culture were quick to acknowledge that the theme of family dynamics in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun influenced television shows Good Times and The Jeffersons. Both sitcoms echo the racial pride of African American families living in urban spaces. In Good Times, a two-parent, working-poor family often faced adversity but love and cohesiveness pulled them through. In The Jeffersons, George and Louise (‘‘Weezy’’) moved on up, as the theme song celebrated, ‘‘to a deluxe apartment in the sky’’ in Manhattan. In the 1970s, Parliament/Funkadelic referenced in song an undeniable demographic reality: the emergence of predominantly black ‘‘Chocolate Cities’’ that included Detroit, Washington, and Atlanta. Citizens of these cities also elected their first black mayors—respectively Coleman Young, Walter E. Washington, and Maynard Jackson. While the northern cities struggled with blight, Crime, and image problems, Atlanta in the South was positioned as the mecca for a growing, prosperous black middle class. A movie that captured that optimism was the Bill Cosby–Sidney Poitier comedy, Let’s Do It Again (1975) in which the duo are blue-collar workers in Atlanta who promise to raise funds for their fraternal order. In Washington, DC, the Blackbyrds (a group made up of Howard University students) extolled the joys of frolicking in the song ‘‘Rock Creek Park,’’ and lamented the grind of urban life in their album City Life. Another Washington musician, Gil Scott-Heron, warned fans off ‘‘The Bottle,’’ and ‘‘Angel Dust,’’ yet praised the conga-playing brothers on ‘‘17th Street.’’ In the 1970s, the phrase ‘‘inner city’’ emerged as a code word for predominantly black and economically stressed central city neighborhoods. Regarding music, R & B as a radio format was relabeled ‘‘urban contemporary’’ by New York DJ Frankie Crocker because the music crossed over to mass audiences living in cities. 1980s: The Rise of Buppies, B-Boys, and the Girls By the 1980s, many American cities were distressed, empty doughnut holes unlike the sweet, chewy suburbs ringing them. Rap and Hip-Hop music were emerging genres that often reflected the rage and frustration of inhabitants in inner cities. For example, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five recorded ‘‘The Message,’’ with the lyrics ‘‘Don’t push me ’cuz I’m close to the edge’’ in 1982. This was a period of performances in urban spaces, whether it was Break Dancing or roller skating in parks to danceable beats. Brooklyn-born artist JeanMichel Basquiat’s street art graffiti, often tagged ‘‘SAMO,’’ moved to downtown
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and international galleries. His haunting urban images depicting conflicted questions of identity have sold for over $10 million in recent years. All city life was not gritty or grim, at least in how it often was portrayed in mass media. The influence of A Raisin in the Sun advanced from Good Times to The Jeffersons, to The Cosby Show, featuring the Huxtables, an upper-middle-class African American family in 1984. Heathcliff (Bill Cosby) and Clair (Phylicia Rashad) and their kids did not live in the ghetto, but in tony Brooklyn Heights. Cosby used the sitcom to showcase jazz and blues and fine art, for example, prints by Synthia St. James. Brooklyn, part of Kings County, New York, in the 1970s lost population for the first time that century but became blacker; at two million strong, it was still among America’s most populous counties. It resumed growing and was a backdrop to showcase the rise of Buppies, black upwardly mobile professionals. Borough native Spike Lee directed She’s Gotta Have It, in which female lead Nola Darling (Traci Camilla Johns) was a graphic artist who lived in a loft in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. Darling was a representative of independent and sexually assertive women of the decade. Apartment living in Washington, DC, was celebrated in the 1985–90 sitcom 227, starring Marla Gibbs. The cast was often shown sitting outside on the apartment house’s stone steps. In 1989, Spike Lee directed Do the Right Thing, a story of racial and ethnic conflict on the hottest day of the summer in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant. Also that year, Quincy Jones zeroed in on urban woes in Back on the Block, also the title tune of his multi-Grammy-winning album. Rappers Ice-T, Big Daddy Kane, Cool Moe Dee, and Mele Mel each called for reclaiming urban neighborhoods. The foursome could also be called ‘‘B-Boys,’’ or block boys. There were ‘‘B-girls’’ too, and representatives included rappers MC Lyte and Roxanne Shante. The queen of them all, Dana Owens, a precocious actor and singer who remade herself as Queen Latifah, emerged at the start of the next decade. 1990s and Early Twenty-First Century Influxes of crack cocaine in the 1980s ravaged struggling cities. The movie New Jack City (1991) depicted the condition with a character loosely based on Harlem heroin kingpin Nicky Barnes. Cross country in Los Angeles, Boyz n the Hood (1991) by director John Singleton, was a story of a high school football star who misses a chance to escape gangs and brutal cops for a better life. About that time, Rodney King was beaten and hogtied by Los Angeles police and at least one citizen documented the brutality with a camcorder. The movie Grand Canyon (1991) commented on LA’s affluence and lush beauty with an underbelly of crime, poverty, and rage. A companion story was the novel Brothers and Sisters by Philadelphia transplant Bebe Moore Campbell which described relations—trusting and antagonistic—among white, black, Latino, and Asian southern Californians.
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On the lighter side, in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith played an inner-city kid from West Philadelphia whose concerned family considered him too enamored with hip-hop culture, and sent him to greater Los Angeles to live with his dignified and affluent uncle. The sitcom Living Single (1993–98) depicted Buppies sharing a Brooklyn brownstone. The best-selling novel by Terry McMillan, Waiting to Exhale, was made into a 1996 movie that showcased the lives of four black women in western cities such as Denver and Phoenix. Accomplished in their careers yet outcast from the traditional role of wife and mother, the four ‘‘she-roes’’ nurtured their sisterhood of friendship while navigating the unpredictable waters of romantic love. In the early 1990s, two girl groups from the newly burgeoning urban centers set the standard for love and money. Oakland singers En Vogue proclaimed that once scorned, ‘‘My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),’’ and Atlanta-based hip-hop divas TLC dismissed ‘‘Scrubs,’’ opting to ‘‘Creep.’’ The bluesy, Afro-funk lyrics of Erykah Badu, India Arie, and Angie Stone punctuated the decade of the confident and economically secure female urbanite. By 2008, songwriter Ne-Yo gallantly embraced girl power in the album Year of the Gentlemen with his chart-topping song, ‘‘Miss Independent.’’ In Chicago, the movie Soul Food (1997) harkened back to the Younger family from A Raisin in the Sun nearly forty years before. Again, there was a strongwilled matriarch, but this time the extended family owned their house in the city, and the adult children were a mix of middle- and working-class people. Love Jones (1997) depicted upwardly mobile characters in the same city. In the post-9/11 U.S., three notable black mayors were elected in November 2001: Shirley Clarke Franklin became the first woman mayor of Atlanta; Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit was sometimes labeled the hip-hop mayor because of his relative youth; and Lee Brown, a former police chief in several major cities, became mayor of Houston. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi, yet the devastation was most memorable in New Orleans, one of the United States’ deepest, richest centers of African American culture. The federal response was slow and inept and most Americans were introduced to the term Lower Ninth Ward, the historic black neighborhood that was still in ruins as of 2010. The urban experience for African Americans in popular culture arguably began with the migration of southern, rural blacks to northern cities in the early 1900s, whether it was to escape poverty and racial oppression for industrial jobs, or to practice performing arts if it were Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, and other entertainers. Once acclimated, city dwellers used music, fashion, and creative forms of public performance to profoundly influence the majority culture and eventually blend into the mainstream. Throughout the decades, the owner of Jet and Ebony magazines, Johnson Publishing, has amassed the largest archive of photographs documenting the terror, beauty, and political vicissitudes of black cultural life. A 2009 exhibit in Portsmouth, Virginia, featured Ebony magazine covers spanning six decades.
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Hip-hop, the former underground culture of the 1980s and 1990s inner cities, has fully integrated its music, clothing, and language into mainstream American culture and its economy. As the second decade of the twenty-first century unfolds, new forms of expression percolating from the cities document and expand the cultural legacy. The ‘‘Black is Beautiful’’ installation by artist and culture critic Hank Willis Thomas is a slice of wall papered from floor to ceiling with Jet magazine’s ‘‘Beauty of the Week’’ feature dating from the 1950s to the turn of the century. A portion of the wall left blank suggests an undeniable continuum. See also: Aerosol Art; Black Bottom, The (Dance); Drugs and Popular Culture; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; Negro Baseball Leagues; Rap Music and Rappers; Tap Dance Further Reading Alter, Jonathan. 2005. ‘‘Poverty, Race & Katrina: Lessons of a National Shame.’’ Newsweek (September 19): 42–48. Bennett, Lerone. 2003. Before the Mayflower. New Millennium Ed. Chicago: Johnson Publishing. Bogle, Donald. 2002. Prime Time Blues: African-Americans on Network Television. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Campbell, Bebe Moore. 1994. Brothers and Sisters. New York: Putnam. Cunard, Nancy. 1996. Negro: An Anthology. New York: Continuum. Evanzz, Karl. 1999. The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad. New York: Pantheon. Havers, Richard, and Richard Evans. 2009. Jazz: The Golden Era. Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books. McElroy, Guy C. 1990. Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710–1940. San Francisco: Bedford Arts. Smith, Morgan, and Marvin Smith. 1998. Harlem: The Vision of Morgan and Marvin Smith. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. 2002. Jazz: A History of America’s Music. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Williams, Monte. 2000. ‘‘Frankie Crocker, a Champion of Black-Format Radio, Dies,’’ New York Times, October, 24. Willis, Deborah. 2009. Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present. New York: Norton. Kip Branch, Kissette Bundy, and Wayne Dawkins
V Van Peebles, Mario (1957– ), Director, Actor, Producer, Writer Mario Van Peebles describes his parents in the book Panther: A Pictorial History of the Black Panthers and the Story behind the Film (1995): ‘‘two nonconformist, nonmaterialistic, interracial, avant-garde, crazy-ass parents who made an inyour-face art of kicking down almost any racist or sexist barriers placed before them.’’ Mario traveled the world as a young child, from Mexico (where he was born in Mexico City in 1957) to Morocco, Amsterdam, and Paris. His father, movie director Melvin Van Peebles, and mother, German actress Maria Marx, initially raised Melvin in Europe, but his family eventually settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. Young Mario was acting by age eight, making his debut in a local production of A Thousand Clowns. As a young teen he made his screen debut in his father’s groundbreaking film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971). His German-born mother taught him her avocation, photography. Taking his photography skills, and using self-portraits and his natural good looks and personality, Mario worked as a model for the famous Ford Agency. His father instilled in him early the need to know the business side of show business. An economics degree led him for a time to work in the office of New York City Mayor Edward Koch as a budget analyst. After studying acting with Stella Adler, the pull of show business eventually saw him take to the boards off-Broadway. His turns in theater led to film roles as actor; later, working with his father on a variety of projects in theater, film, and television, he eventually landed in the director’s chair for both film and television. His debut as film director was very auspicious. New Jack City in 1991 created a firestorm of controversy within the first week of its opening. There was violence attendant to several of its nationwide screenings. The violence led to the usual
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chicken-and-egg routine: Do films with violence cause violence, or is it inherent in a violent society? The net result was widespread publicity surrounding the film and its content and intent. Produced for $8.5 million, shot in the Bronx and Harlem, the film grossed over $100 million worldwide including videocassette sales. In a New York Times Op-Ed page, Mario and Melvin Van Peebles exchanged letters to each other regarding this violence and its implications for African American films and filmmakers working through the Hollywood system. Melvin put the whole thing in perspective with his usual sage wisdom. His own film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, originally could not find distribution. When Melvin himself put the film in two theaters (one in Detroit and one in Atlanta) and people bought tickets in droves, Hollywood came knocking. They came for the love of money. As Melvin adroitly puts it, ‘‘Hollywood isn’t as much black and white as it is ultra-green.’’ Despite bad publicity, the film New Jack City became an international box office hit. Mario not only knows from whence he came but is very clear about where he’s going. He said in an Ebony Man magazine article (1995), ‘‘As a director I’ve made the films I have to make. As an actor I’ve made the films I want to make.’’ Pretty clear thinking, but you’d expect no less from the son of the now-legendary black film maven Melvin Van Peebles. In their various projects together as father and son, Mario puts things in proper perspective when he says, ‘‘I’m dealing with the person who changed my diapers. We’re two different filmmakers, but I think that is healthy.’’ In the book No Identity Crisis (1990), Mario says of his father, ‘‘His method of working is a revelation from which I have gained many valuable lessons.’’ See also: Entertainment Industry; Film and Filmmakers Further Reading George, Nelson. 1994. Blackface: Reflections on African Americans and the Movies. New York: HarperCollins. Hill, George, and Spencer Moon. 1991. Blacks in Hollywood: Five Favorable Years, 1987–1991. Los Angeles: Daystar Press. Van Peebles, Mario, and Melvin Van Peebles. 1990. No Identity Crisis: A Father and Son’s Own Story of Working Together. New York: Simon & Schuster. Van Peebles, Mario, Ula Y. Taylor, and J. Tarika Lewis. 1995. Panther: A Pictorial History of the Black Panthers and the Story behind the Film. Prologue by Melvin Van Peebles. New York: New Market Press. Spencer Moon
Van Peebles, Melvin (1932– ), Filmmaker, Playwright, Writer Although Van Peebles is best known for his filmmaking, he is also the author of plays, screenplays, novels, memoirs, books on finance, and works of nonfiction. Melvin Van Peebles was born August 21, 1932, on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois,
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and grew up in the suburb of Phoenix, Illinois. In 1953, he graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in English literature. After college, he served four years in the U.S. Air Force as a flight navigator, from 1953 to 1956. He married Maria Marx around 1956 and they had three children: Mario, Meggan, and Melvin. Unable to find employment in the domestic aviation industry, Van Peebles moved to San Francisco, California, where he worked as a cable car operator. In 1959, he published The Big Heart, dealing with his employment in San Francisco, and was fired from his cable car job. After experimenting with some low budget films, Van Peebles was frustrated that he could not find employment with a major film studio. He moved his family to the Netherlands, where he briefly studied at the University of Amsterdam. After breaking up with his wife in 1960, Van Peebles moved to France and continued to explore artistic possibilities on the continent. Although his French was self-taught, Van Peebles published five novels in France. In 1967, he directed The Story of a Three Day Pass, about an affair between a black American soldier and a young, white French woman. Favorable reviews of The Story of a Three Day Pass led Van Peebles to return to the United States, and an assignment from Columbia Pictures to direct Watermelon Man (1970), featuring the comedian Godfrey Cambridge. Reviews for Watermelon Man were mixed, but the film did make money. Van Peebles used his profits from the film to finance Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971). Many film historians credit Sweetback as beginning the wave of blaxploitation films of the 1970s by which, for better or worse, Hollywood discovered black audiences. Made on a shoestring budget of $500,000 dollars and shot in only nineteen days, Sweetback grossed over $10 million. Van Peebles wrote, directed, and starred in this picture, which he credited as featuring the black community. Essentially, the film tells the story of a black pimp and sexual performer whose consciousness is aroused when he sees a community activist beaten by the police. Sweetback attacks the police officers and becomes the subject of an intensive manhunt. Through his ingenuity, sexual prowess, and, most important, support from the black community, Sweetback is able to flee the authorities and escape into Mexico. The film concludes with the caption, ‘‘A Baadasssss Nigger Is Coming Back to Collect Some Dues.’’ After his success with Sweetback, Van Peebles turned his attention to Broadway, producing Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971) and Don’t Play Us Cheap (1972). He also tried his hand at television with Just an Old Sweet Song (1976) and the well-regarded 1981 miniseries The Sophisticated Gents. His 1982 autobiographical play, Waltz of the Stork, was poorly received, but Van Peebles the hustler continued to make money, enjoying success as a floor trader on Wall Street and describing his business success in Bold Money: A New Way to Play the Options Market. His business interests did not distract Van Peebles from pursing his artistic endeavors. In 1986, his teleplay The Day They Came to Arrest the Book won an Emmy. In 1990, he directed his son Mario Van Peebles in Identity Crisis, and in 1993 the son reciprocated by featuring his father in Posse. Their collaboration continued in 1995 with Panther, a film about the origins of the Black Panther Party, from a novel and script produced by Melvin which his son Mario directed.
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Van Peebles remains a renaissance man pursing his business and artistic concerns. See also: Film and Filmmakers Further Reading Bogle, Don. 1988. Blacks in American Films and Television: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. Loeb, Anthony. 1982. Filmmakers in Conversation. Chicago: Columbia College Press. Van Peebles, Melvin. 1973. Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death. New York: Bantam Books. Van Peebles, Melvin. 1986. Bold Money: A New Way to Play the Options Market. New York: Warner Books. Van Peebles, Melvin. 1973. Don’t Play Us Cheap: A Harlem Party. New York: Bantam Books. Van Peebles, Melvin. 1972. The Making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. New York: Lancer Books. Van Peebles, Melvin, and Mario Van Peebles. 1990. No Identity Crisis: A Father and Son’s Own Story of Working Together. New York: Simon & Schuster. Ron Briley
Vandross, Luther (1951–2005), Singer Luther Vandross, R & B singer, is an enduring figure in African American popular culture. When he died at age fifty-four from a heart attack on July 1, 2005, the world mourned. The loss was especially poignant among African Americans as his music had been a fixture in African American homes since the 1980s, years before his music became popular with mainstream audiences. His style was a throwback to many black entertainers in the 1970s, who, in the absence of million-dollar technology and flamboyant fashion, stood out for their authentic and unadulterated talent and soulful renditions. Vandross’s silky smooth voice and signature ascending vocal acrobatics garnered enormous excitement from audiences. In the early years of Vandross’s solo career, he appealed across generations; however, in later years, he competed with Hip-Hop, a genre that comprises amplified and energetic beats and edgy lyrics. Luther Vandross was born on April 20, 1951, in New York City. Vandross’s family, including his father, Luther Vandross, Sr., mother, Mary Ida, and three siblings were close. When Vandross was eight years old, his father died, but music helped him cope with his grief. Music also played a profound role in the household. Vandross’s family enjoyed popular black music, sang, and played instruments. In the 1950s, his sister, Patricia, was in a singing group called the Crests. New York itself was a hotbed of music and entertainment. Musicals showcased talents on Broadway and other venues. The Apollo Theater was home to music legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, and the Jackson Five. Vandross’s life-changing epiphany—the
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moment he decided he wanted to be a professional singer—happened while watching Dionne Warwick perform in Brooklyn. He was fourteen years old. Vandross did not wait until he was an adult to pursue a singing career. At sixteen years old, he joined the Apollo Theater’s all-black music ensemble called Listen, My Brother. Vandross and the group produced an album and appeared on Sesame Street, the children’s television program that began in 1969 and is wellknown to promote diversity. This chapter in Vandross’s life did not reap the success of his dreams. After graduation, Vandross pursued singing with greater diligence. Early on, he dropped out of Western Michigan University so he could concentrate on singing. He sold songs that he wrote and sang backup for several singers. One of his notable songs was ‘‘Everybody Rejoice (A Brand New Day),’’ which was featured in the musical and film The Wiz, an African American version of the mainstream classic The Wizard of Oz. Vandross’s work with David Bowie during the mid-1970s, was a breakthrough, providing him opportunities to write and sing backup for a highprofile performer. Vandross was in demand as a backup singer, singing with an eclectic mix of performers such as Bette Midler, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Carly Simon, and Peabo Bryson; nonetheless, Vandross yearned for a career of his own. His subsequent singing group, called Luther, produced two albums. Vandross finally achieved success in 1981 when he launched a solo career. His debut album, Never Too Much, was an instant success. Although Vandross did not win as many awards as other black performers throughout his career, he amassed loyal fans and prominence. ‘‘Luther’’ quickly became a household name, and his songs, such as ‘‘Here and Now,’’ became fixtures at weddings and received significant amounts of airtime on the radio. By the time of his death, Vandross had produced more than a dozen studio records. His discography also includes many classics, special collections, and holiday albums, as well as collaborations with other big-named singers. See also: Pendergrass, Teddy; Soul; Soul and Funk (Music) Further Reading Luthervandross.com. ‘‘Luther Vandross’’ (Luther Vandross tribute site.) http://www .luthervandross.com/. Seymour, Craig. 2004. Luther: The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross. New York: HarperCollins. Gladys L. Knight
Vick, Michael (1980– ), Football Player Michael Vick is an extraordinarily talented NFL quarterback, one who, despite controversy, may go down in history as one of the greatest Football players. Troubles shrouded Vick’s career several years after his debut with the Atlanta Falcons in 2001. Indeed, Vick’s troubles have dominated mainstream media and,
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frequently, overshadowed his many accomplishments. In 2005, he was hit with a lawsuit. A woman claimed that Vick had given her a sexually transmitted disease. Vick has been fined for making an obscene gesture toward fans and was sentenced to twenty-three months in jail for financing an illegal dog fighting operation and participating in the killing of some of the dogs. After serving his time, Vick returned to the NFL, submitting to special conditions and facing a deluge of opposition. Many critics think the NFL should not have welcomed Vick back. To be sure, Vick’s return has been a challenge as he works to reclaim his glory. Sports, as well as fishing, were what Michael Dwayne Vick did for fun and to stay out of trouble in his youth. Born on June 26, 1980, in Newport News, Virginia, Vick and his three siblings grew up in housing projects, largely raised by their mother, Brenda Vick, and grandmother. Vick’s father, Michael Boddie, worked long hours. When he could not find work in the vicinity, he pursued job opportunities in other states. Vick was nine years old when his parents married. Despite Boddie’s long absences, he played an instrumental role in Vick’s life, such as introducing him to football at an early age. Vick’s rise to football excellence began in high school. He received one-on-one attention from his coach, Tommy Reamon. Vick’s stunning high school football career made him a top pick among college football scouts. After graduation, Vick attended Virginia Tech. He did not play his first year; coaches wanted Vick to spend his time studying the game. When Vick emerged onto the football field, he excelled, leading his team to several victories. During his college career, Vick built a strong reputation on his ability to elude formidable opposition on the field, run swiftly, and throw with precision. For many, his impromptu and creative moves were simply enjoyable to watch. Following a glowing college football career, Vick signed on with the Atlanta Falcons for a multimillion-dollar deal. His emergence as an NFL quarterback is of special import considering that African Americans have, historically, been disproportionately represented in that position. One of his milestones during his early career included the time he led the Falcons to victory, in 2003, over the seemingly unbeatable Green Bay Packers. Vick’s luminous career was studded with major endorsements from companies like Nike and Powerade. He appeared in commercials and was fast becoming one of the most celebrated NFL football players. In 2007, Vick became more known for his crime, illegal dogfighting, than his talent. Some contend that the media targeted Vick as a criminal for an activity that had been an old tradition in parts of the South. Some felt that Vick’s stardom and race had more to do with his harsh depiction in the media. In the wake of Vick’s jail sentence, the contrite Vick has become a volunteer spokesperson for the Humane Society. In 2010, The Michael Vick Project debuted, a reality series on how Vick has been coping with the condemnation his actions aroused. See also: Crime; Sports
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Further Reading Maske, Mark, and Sarah Kehaulani Goo. 2005. ‘‘A Commonplace Case Complicated by Fame.’’ Washington Post.com, March 13. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/ wp-dyn/A30000-2005Mar12?language=printer. Vick, Michael. (Homepage.) http://michaelvickzone.com/. Rhoden, William C. 2007. Third and Mile: From Friz Pollard to Michael Vick—an Oral History of the Trials, Tears, and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback. Holmes, PA: ESPN. Gladys L. Knight
Video Games. See Games, Video Games, and Toys Voodoo, Tricks, and Tricksters, etc. Voodoo, tricks, and tricksters are concepts that fall under the category of Folklore and have had a pronounced influence on mainstream life and culture. Voodoo, in its original meaning, is a complex religion blending traditional African belief systems with newfangled experiences and practices that were acquired by African slaves transplanted to North America, the Caribbean, and South America. Tricks, frequently associated with magical and supernatural ability and methods, refer to maneuvers to manipulate or influence people, events, and experiences in the natural world and to divine future events. Tricks may also be classified as non–magical-derived methods of cheating or deceiving someone. Tricksters allude to any person, entity, or folk figure that plays tricks using supernatural or natural methods. Constructs such as love spells, curses, and zombification have become wellknown to the broader society, due in large part to rumors, newspapers, magazines, comic books, literature, television, films, advertisements, as well as the process of commodification of Voodoo. The mainstreaming of Voodoo has been problematic, owing to the fact that some scholars contend that popular depictions of Voodoo are often misrepresented, erroneous, and stigmatizing. Voodoo: Origins and Practice Voodoo is traditionally depicted in American films as a practice involving frightful-looking, one-dimensional men and women (‘‘witch doctors’’) garnished with bones, skulls, and animal feathers, and having superstitious followers. In reality, Voodoo is a complex religion derived from various African religions, incorporating ancestor worship, the application of ritual ceremonies and various concoctions used for a variety of curative or adverse purposes, the belief in one supreme deity and numerous lesser gods or spirits, and the invocation of deities and ancestor spirits. The spiritual leaders, male or female, provide guidance and
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aid in the spiritual, emotional, and physical health of all members of the community and are believed to be gifted and trained in supernatural abilities, such as assembling special potions or objects (all objects, herbs, and roots are believed to contain unique properties which bring about certain outcomes), foretelling the future, controlling the weather, shape-shifting, and healing. The practice of traditional African religions varied by region, but in any society, religion served important functions, such as empowering the community to make sense of the world and to effectively navigate through social experiences and difficult times. Traditional African religions underwent many changes after Africans were brought to the Americas and Caribbean islands during slavery. On the plantation, where oftentimes Africans were not permitted to worship in traditional ways or were separated from their tribe, African religions became integrated with the religions of their captives and other African slaves. For example, spirits, referred to as loas or orishas, were sometimes associated with Roman Catholic (Christian) saints. African religions also transformed due to the influences of the new environment and experiences in slavery. Voodoo is not a finite religion; it can be practiced in any number of ways. For example, the terms Voodoo, Hoodoo, conjure, and rootwork can be used interchangeably or referred to as separate sets of beliefs and practices. Some practitioners regard Voodoo exclusively as a religious belief and worship experience and argue that Hoodoo or conjure is primarily a form of folk magic. Rootwork is a term designating a practice based on esoteric knowledge and preparation of roots and herbs. The religion known as Santerıa, which blends traditional African and Native American religions and Roman Catholicism, encompasses many of the same concepts and practices of Voodoo and Hoodoo but is commonly practiced in Cuba and by Spanish-speaking devotees. In New Orleans, Louisiana, many practitioners meld Voodoo (religious practice), Hoodoo, and Santerıa in their interpretation of voodooism. As a religious practice, Voodoo incorporates distinct elements. Ceremonies are facilitated by priests. Male priests are called houngans, and female priests are called mambos. Ceremonies may take place in a temple or ounfu and comprise singing, offerings, divination, animal sacrifices, and spirit possession. Voodoo priests may also be contacted in private for support, advice, and help for an assortment of ailments and troubles. Both Marie Laveau, known in her lifetime as the ‘‘Voodoo Queen of New Orleans’’ and ‘‘Mama Lola,’’ who receives clients in her New York home, have held prominent places in their communities as mambos. Tricks Priests have at their disposal any number of ‘‘tricks’’ to address the needs and requests of persons (or clients) who seek them out. Charms and amulets are frequently given to clients. During slave revolts, African slaves sometimes wore special amulets promising invincibility to wearers. Candles, ranging in a variety of colors, can be burned to obtain wealth, love, and protection. Magic bags containing
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an assortment of concoctions (i.e., bones, animal parts, human hair, herbs, and graveyard dirt), are carried or buried under the ground. Spells, hexes, and potions may be crafted for good or evil purposes. Contemporary reports from Africa illustrate that tricks, similar to Voodoo ‘‘magic,’’ are still widely accepted as real. In 2009, Nigerian vigilantes charged that a thief turned into a goat while trying to elude capture. Also in the twentyfirst century, so-called witch doctors in Tanzania have been accused of murdering albinos and using the body parts of the victims for potions. Tricksters In folklore, the trickster figure, the entity that performs tricks, permeates folk stories. In Africa, well-known tricksters include Anansi the spider, as well as a host of other animals with anthropomorphic traits. In the United States, African slaves constructed new trickster figures, like Brer Rabbit and John the Conqueror. These stories enabled slaves to create worlds in which the underdog outwits, conquers, and overcomes a symbol of oppression, fear, and predatory power. Tricksters are noted for their cunning, mischievousness, and ability to navigate in dangerous environments and to deceive and ‘‘trick’’ an entity or person that is larger and apparently more powerful than it. Ultimately, the trickster figure is in command of his circumstances and other entities. The trickster figure is a term that is also used to refer to Voodoo priests, particularly the ones who dabble in so-called magic. During slavery, slaves were without economic, social, and political power. One way in which some slaves empowered themselves was through the practice of Voodoo. Among slaves, Voodoo priests were perceived to have performed powerful functions in the community and were known to use their abilities against slave masters and sundry enemies or on behalf of other slaves. Slave lore is filled with stories of the mystic exploits of Voodoo priests. Many known Voodoo priests were frequently revered or feared by slaves. Like the trickster figure, Voodoo priests may appear morally ambiguous, arbitrarily using their abilities for good or ill-will. In general, priests may have access to so-called good (white magic) and evil (black magic) powers. Owing to their exclusive knowledge and abilities, Voodoo priests, like the trickster figure, dominate their environments, allegedly manipulating individuals and experiences to create desired effects and outcomes. Voodoo priests in the twenty-first century who use their knowledge to wield control over other people and circumstances continue to exemplify the spirit of the trickster figure, but they do so in a world in which the representations of Voodoo are ever-changing. Voodoo and Popular Culture Perceptions of Voodoo have undergone significant changes throughout history. From the start, Africans who practiced Voodoo were characterized as cannibals. Fears of the unknown and prevailing racist beliefs about Africans fueled a
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number of erroneous ideas conceived by whites (who controlled the images of blacks), about Voodoo and its practitioners. Voodoo was not considered a legitimate religion. Voodoo devotees and priests were depicted as evil, superstitious, and barbaric. Whites also exploited the magical aspect of Voodooism in a number of comic book narratives, television episodes, and films that feature grisly, fictitious Voodoo tales. Comic book narratives and television episodes include storylines about evil Voodoo doctors, curses, and other horrors. An array of films, such as I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Black Voodoo (1978), Angel Heart (1987), and Voodoo Dawn (1990) sensationalize Voodoo magic and, in so doing, stigmatize the religion and, as scholars contend, disregard the fact that in real life, witchcraft plays a minor role in Voodoo. Due to rumors, lore, and various media forms, zombies have become inextricably linked to Voodoo. Rumors that zombies wander, for example, in the streets of Haiti or the French Quarter in New Orleans are tempered by the argument that the existence of zombies is a common misconception in Voodoo lore. Others, like ethnobotanist Wade Davis, contend that zombification is merely a particular physiological state that is induced by the exposure to certain poisons found in nature. Davis’s controversial book, The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985), claims that tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin, is what induces zombification. Counteracting the mainstream (white) depiction of Voodoo were the works of musicians, writers, and others who gave voice to neglected subjects, such as folk experiences, or attempted to legitimize the Voodoo belief system through documentation. In some rural southern communities, Voodoo lore permeates the culture and is perceived as an ordinary part of everyday life. Ma Rainey, Bo Didley, Chuck Berry, and Junior Wells are blues artists who incorporate terminology and innuendos from Voodoo practices, thus reflecting the unique cultural experiences of black southerners. Influenced by the African American progenitors of blues music, white artists have also included references to Voodoo in songs. Writers like Zora Neale Hurston and Catherine Yronwode have published works that explore Voodoo and Hoodoo religions. Attempts to conceptualize Voodoo in a serious manner have been undermined by the fact that Voodoo has become increasingly associated with entertainment and commercialism. Early on, practitioners practiced Voodoo in the byways, backwoods, and other out-of-the-way places in African American and Afro-Hispanic communities. With time, Voodoo magic shows became incorporated in circus and other traveling acts. Contemporary magic shops are now frequently visited by practitioners, as well as the general public, for Voodoo paraphernalia. Mardi Gras festivals in New Orleans and mainstream stores have also commodified Voodoo products, like the alleged Voodoo doll, which does not, scholars argue, originate with Voodoo. Further complicating the representations of Voodoo are the controversial Voodoo priests who have emerged over the years, scamming individuals longing for good fortune and answers to life’s problems. Miss Cleo was a popular figure featured in commercials broadcast on Black Entertainment Television. Although
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she did not call herself a Voodoo priest, she described herself as a shaman and psychic, she dressed in Afrocentric clothing, and she spoke with a Jamaican accent. Some radio hosts and newspaper advertisers claim to have Voodoo powers; they promote false and outlandish miracle-producing abilities and products. Scholars argue that in incidences where Voodoo is depicted as gimmicky and extravagant, Voodoo is made to appear trivial and fictitious. Belief in Voodoo is in constant flux. In some countries, such as in Nigeria, where social belief systems allow for the existence of supernatural powers (like the thief that allegedly turned into a goat), there is evidence that some beliefs are becoming modernized. (The Nigerian police later released the goat after first apprehending it; they declared that they could not prove scientifically that humans can shape-shift.) Still, a growing number of African Americans have embraced Voodoo as a cultural and religious birthright and practice it with pride and dignity. See also: African Cultural Influences; Caribbean Cultural Influences; Religious Customs and Traditions Further Reading Anderson, Jeffrey. 2005. Conjure in African American Society. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Chireau, Yvonne. 2003. Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press. Courlander, Harold, ed. 1976. A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore. New York: Crown Publishers. Fandrich, Ina. 2005. The Mysterious Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveaux: A Study of Powerful Female Leadership in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans. New York: Routledge. Hyatt, Harry Middleton. 1978. Hoodoo–Conjuration–Witchcraft–Rootwork, 5 vols. Hannibal, MT: Western Pub. Co. Long, Carolyn. 2001. Spiritual Merchants: Magic, Religion and Commerce. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Pisano, Thomas Emmon. 2009. ‘‘Voodoo Priests, Practitioners, Assailants of Soul.’’ Seoul Times, May. http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/news/international/ america/america.php. Prahlad, Anand, ed. 2006. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, 3 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Gladys L. Knight
Voting Patterns African Americans have a complex history with voting. People of African descent were first denied the right to vote because they were branded as chattel and not recognized as United States citizens who were able to participate in local or national elections. Following the Civil War, although recognized and supported
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by amendments to the United States Constitution, African American were still prevented from voting when southern states enacted laws and codes which effectively banned them from voting. Additionally, coercion, intimidation, and fear of economic reprisals prevented African Americans from casting ballots for the candidates of their choice. On Easter Sunday, in Colfax, Louisiana in 1873, over one hundred African American men were killed when they banned in opposition to racist voting procedures. Voting with the Party of Lincoln Following the Civil War, many of African ancestry associated themselves with the Republican Party which was then the party of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator. It had also been the Republicans who had championed the reconstruction laws and efforts which enabled the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This act declared that all persons born in the United States were citizens without regard to race, color, or previous condition. On paper, this gave the African Americans the right to sue, make contract, inherit, sell, hold, or convey property. The Republicans also wrote and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, the Republicans were instrumental in establishing the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. Through it, former slaves could obtain rations and clothing. More importantly, the Freedmen’s Bureau worked with clerics to help establish some of the first colleges for African Americans, which are now known as the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Southern Democrats regained political control and began dismantling the gains garnered by African Americans through the enactment of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, which limited the access and rights of African Americans. During this period, Republicans did little to assist African Americans, and without the power to vote, African Americas were a silenced group that the local and national candidates ignored. This continued until 1928, when Democratic candidate Al Smith reached out to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) leaders James Weldon Johnson and Walter White in an effort to show that the Democratic Party cared about the African American electorate. The Al Smith for President Colored League was formed, which led to Smith receiving a greater percentage, almost triple the number, of African American votes than previous Democratic candidates. The 1936 election marked the shift to the Democratic Party. African Americans took note of Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first administration. They watched the president and the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, invite African Americans to the White House. Roosevelt strengthened his standing with the African American public by appointing African Americans to federal positions. African Americans were also reassured of Roosevelt’s commitment to the black community when he established the ‘‘Black Cabinet.’’ This unofficial cabinet of African Americans, led by Mary McLeod Bethune, ensured that African Americans were employed within the federal agencies as well as assisted black
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employees when necessary. In the 1936 election, African Americans voted for Democrats and the New Deal. The result of this voting bloc earned Roosevelt and the Democrats 75 percent of the African American vote. Since that time, no Democratic candidate has been able to win a presidential election without the support of African Americans. In 1960, John F. Kennedy received 49.72 percent of the popular vote, while his opponent Richard M. Nixon received 49.55 percent. The margin of victory between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon was just .8 percent. Without the support of African Americans, John F. Kennedy would not have been inaugurated as the president of the United States of America that following January 1961. The passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts in 1957 and the 1960s strengthened the Democratic Party’s connection with the African American populace as well as allowed for greater voter participation. The 2008 presidential election once again found African Americans voting overwhelmingly Democratic. Record numbers of African Americans went to the polls to vote for and elect the Democratic Party’s first African American candidate, Barack Obama. Further Reading Goldman, Robert M. 2001. Reconstruction and Black Suffrage: Losing the Vote in Reese and Cruikshank. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. Sequra, Gary M., and Shaun Bowler. 2005. Diversity in Democracy: Minority Representation in the United States. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. Weiss, Nancy J. 1983. Farewell to the Party of Lincoln. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Angela Espada
W Walker, Aaron ‘‘T-Bone’’ (1910–75), Musician, Guitarist T-Bone Walker was a self-taught tenor banjoist, dancer, pianist, guitarist, bandleader, singer, and architect of the Texas blues who influenced practically all electric guitarists after him, including contemporary bluesman Duke Robillard, a disciple of Walker. He was the first to record electric blues and influenced blues, jazz, and, later, rock guitarists. He was also a major influence on the California blues idiom. Born in Linden, Texas, on May 10, 1910, Walker hailed from a musical family (mother played guitar, stepfather played bass among other instruments), and his extended musical family consisted of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Huddie Ledbetter, who was better known as Leadbelly. Jefferson nurtured Walker in his preteen years. Walker used to lead Jefferson from beer joint to beer joint in Texas, passing the cup for money. Walker’s music served as a link between the older, rural country blues that Jefferson played and the so-called city, classic blues singers such as Ida Cox and Ma Rainey (with whom he played in the late 1920s and early 1930s) as well as to Bessie Smith and the jazz-influenced, urban blues of the 1940s. Walker was one of the first to record electric blues, thus further defining, refining, and providing the musical language employed by successive guitarists. Walker was a musician’s musician; his musicality was impeccable. His melodic inventions, phrasing, balance, and improvisations carried the blues to a higher aesthetic level than had previously been attained. He serenaded women with his songs of unrequited love, whose lyrics often gave a clue to the paradox of his own existence. ‘‘I drink to keep from worrying / And Mama I smile to keep from crying / That’s to keep the public from knowing / just what I have on my mind’’ is an example from ‘‘Mean Old World.’’ Unfortunately, Walker couldn’t escape
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the pitfalls of street life during his musical apprenticeship and began gambling and drinking. He could set a serious mood musically with his guitar, like a Baptist preacher setting the tone and preparing his congregation for a serious sermon, before singing notes that carried tremendous weight and convincing clarity. When Walker played, one listened. Musically, Walker’s single-note melodic phrases, his harmonic sense, and his manner of voicing accompanying chords as riffs owed much to jazz. His innovative melodic phrases on guitar effectively responded to his vocal lines so that each musical phrase and sentence was thoroughly convincing. He made extensive use of jazz chords and chromaticism that transitioned effectively from one musical line to the next, as evidenced in ‘‘Long Lost Lover Blues.’’ Walker remained equally at home in both jazz and blues. Promoters billed Walker as ‘‘Daddy of the Blues’’ and ‘‘Father of Electric Blues.’’ Walker was one of the principal architects of the California and Texas blues. Some of his songs that have become classics of the blues repertoire are ‘‘Stormy Monday’’ (also on National Public Radio’s Top 100 list), ‘‘T-Bone Shuffle,’’ ‘‘Bobby Sox Blues,’’ ‘‘Long Skirt Baby Blues,’’ and ‘‘Mean Old World,’’ among others. Walker was injured in a car accident with jazz saxophonist Eddie ‘‘Cleanhead’’ Vinson in the early 1970s and never fully recovered. He stopped performing in 1974 and, after a severe stroke, died a year later on March 16, 1975. ‘‘In a very real sense the modern blues is largely his [Walker’s] creation. . . . Among blues artists he is nonpareil: no one has contributed as much, as long, or as variously to the blues as he has’’ noted Pete Welding in a Blue Note reissue of Walker’s work (United Artists, 1975, BN-LA533 LP). See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading Collins, Willie R. 2000. ‘‘Aaron ‘T-Bone’ Walker.’’ In The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast, eds. Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press. Dance, Helen Oakley. 1987. Stormy Monday: The T-Bone Walker Story. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Evans, David. 2000. ‘‘Musical Innovation in the Blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson.’’ Black Music Research Journal 20 (1): 98. Walker, T-Bone. 1990. The Complete Recordings of T-Bone Walker 1940–1954. Six–CD box set. Mosaic Records, MD6130. Walker, T-Bone (stenographic notes by Jane Greenhough). 1947. ‘‘T-Bone Walker’s Story in His Own Words.’’ Record Changer (October): 5–6, 13. Willie Collins
Walker, Alice (1944– ), Poet, Writer, Activist, Editor Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Color Purple, released as a film in 1985, created a stir of controversy as it presented an unflinching portrayal
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of a southern black woman’s experiences of abuse, violence, and incest. Although the female character and other characters, both male and female, find redemption by the end of the story, it is the presentation of the male characters as negative and abusive that causes African American men in particular to accuse Walker of exaggerated characterizations. In the final analysis Walker’s film offered an honest and painful story of struggle and selfempowerment reflective of southern African American women’s experiences and those of One of the best and most influential writers of her generation, Alice Walker (seen here in 1990) has other women of color. Alice Malsenior affected modern American life not only through her brilliant poetry and novels, but through her actions as a Walker was the last born black feminist (‘‘womanist’’) and social activist. Her of eight children to share- novel The Color Purple is perhaps her most popular work croppers Willie Lee and so far. It was made into a movie starring Oprah Winfrey Minnie Tallulah in the ru- in 1985. (AP/Wide World Photos) ral southern town of Eatonton, Georgia. As the youngest, Walker was closest in age to her five brothers, which often demanded that she be able to defend herself. In her world she saw black women as continually confronting the lack of education, the sexism, the violence, and the crippling poverty that affected her family and others. Walker found a way to operate in the world of boys, white folks, and violence, but in spite of this, she was accidentally shot in the eye with a BB gun by one of her brothers. Walker lost vision in her eye and a white film began to cover it. She became more and more reclusive and dreamed of suicide as a solution. Walker’s mother was instrumental in helping her to move beyond her world of isolation and the limiting world of the South. She allowed Walker to read well past the time that chores and other housework should be done. Walker read books written by some of the world’s greatest writers, who opened a new world to her. When Walker graduated from high school her mother gave her three gifts: a sewing machine to make her clothes and thus be independent; a handsome suitcase that encouraged her to travel beyond the world of Eatonton, Georgia; and a typewriter, which gave Walker permission to tell her own story. Walker received
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a scholarship from the state of Georgia and headed to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1961 armed with the gifts from her mother. Spelman, an African American woman’s college, exposed Walker to other young women whose activist spirit influenced and encouraged her own growth as an activist and an agent for change. Walker later left Spelman and transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1963, which allowed her the opportunity to travel to Africa and experience a more global community. After graduation from Sarah Lawrence in 1965, Walker returned to Georgia and continued her activism by participating in voter registration and working to promote change in the South. During this time Walker married a white civil rights lawyer in 1967 in spite of community dissension. In 1968 after suffering the loss of her first child, she wrote a series of poems that reflected on the pain of loss. The collection, Once, published in 1968, was her first work of poetry. It began a career of literary contributions that gave expression to experiences of African American women of the South and women in the global community. She gave voice to how racism and poverty strained relationships, which resulted in cruelty and violence. In 1969, Walker published her first novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland. Her work, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, explored the journey of a father and son who used violence, alcohol, and the abuse of their women as their legacy. Granger is only redeemed when he teaches self-love and independence to his family to break the cycle. Walker followed this work with a second volume of poetry, Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems and a collection of short stories, In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973). Walker’s work continued to expose and refute the taboos surrounding the lives of African American women. By 1977–78, Walker was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship after publishing and doing research and recovery on the life and literary works of Zora Neale Hurston. While continuing to produce poetry and short stories, Walker became internationally known with the publication of her novel, The Color Purple (1982), which earned the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1983. The book created controversy as it offered a singular voice of an uneducated woman who experiences incest, abuse, violence, and lesbianism within a rural southern African American town. Walker presents an honest and truthful story while at the same time provides through relationships and spiritual growth a means toward redemption. Some critics considered the inclusion of family experiences in Africa as not authentically presented or historically correct. The intensity of the controversy became greater when the book was made into a film in 1985. Even though the film offered redemption for the characters, the greatest criticism about the film was regarding the role of ‘‘Mr. ___’’ and his abusive and oppressive treatment of Celie, the main character. No other film has created such a firestorm of reactions. Walker presents her response to the controversy surrounding the film in her 1996 collection of essays, The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult, which also shares her own struggle with Lyme disease during the production of the film. As the feminist movement came to the forefront in the 1980s, Walker clearly saw that the interests of African American women and women of color were not
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considered in the goals of a movement based on the experiences of white women. Change and progress for African American women had to be strongly rooted in their cultural traditions of survival, not only for themselves but also for their community. In exploring the works of African American women and the feminist perspective, Walker invoked the term ‘‘Womanist’’ in her essays In Search of Our Mother’s Garden: Womanist Prose (1983). Womanism refers to a black folk tradition of strong black women and the specific issues of culture, tradition, and spirituality. Walker explores these issues of culture and community in her second collection of short stories, You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down (1991) and in 1992, her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy, which brings attention to female genital mutilation. Walker continued to share her political as well as her spiritual sense of the challenges and the healing needed for the global community in Sent by Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit, After the Bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (2002). Walker was inducted into the Georgia Writers’ Hall of Fame at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2001 and beginning in 2007 her papers are being collected for preservation and study, as a part of Emory’s archives. See also: Feminism; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Bloom, Harold, ed. 2000. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple: Modern Critical Interpretation Series. New York: Chelsea House. Muellero, Michael E. 1992. ‘‘Black History, Alice Walker.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research. Walker, Alice. 1983. The Color Purple. New York: Washington Square Press. Walker, Alice. 1996. The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult, a Meditation of Life, Spirit, Art, and the Making of the Film, The Color Purple. Accord, MA: Wheeler Publishing. Walker, Alice. 2003. In Search of our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose. San Diego, CA: Harcourt. White, Evelyn C. 2004. Alice Walker: A Life. New York: Norton. Lean’tin L. Bracks
Walker, Madam C. J. (1867–1919), Hair Care Magnate, Philanthropist Madam C. J. Walker was a black entrepreneur who created a line of hair care products when she was thirty-seven years old and was soon catapulted to fame. She started, owned, and operated the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis, Indiana. The goal of her business was not just to make a profit for herself; the business centered on corporate responsibility, social betterment, and racial justice. She also dreamed of helping other black women become economically independent. Walker observed the power of women’s collective
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achievement and built upon it to create a sense of pride among black women. She is widely discussed in works on African American history and culture. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, to former slaves in Delta, Louisiana. Her parents, Minerva and Owen Breedlove, worked as sharecroppers after being declared free. Madam C. J. Walker changed her name during her third marriage. At the age of seven, Walker’s parents passed away only months apart, leaving her and her siblings orphaned and struggling. Her brothers, who were old enough to find work, had to relocate to other cities to provide basic needs for the family. Her brothers eventually saved enough money to open a Barbershop. Walker lived with an older sister until she turned fourteen. At this time, she married a man named Moses McWilliams and gave birth to a girl named Lelia on June 6, 1885. Two years later, Moses McWilliams died. Walker, determined to create a better life for her daughter, found a job as a laundress and worked in that capacity for twenty years. In 1894, she married John Davis, an alcoholic with a violent temper. Walker and her daughter moved to St. Louis. She often had to leave her daughter in the care of the women at the St. Louis Colored Orphans Home while she worked as a live-in maid. The women were kind to Walker and her daughter; one woman, in particular, encouraged her to leave John Davis and focus on creating a prosperous life for herself and her daughter. Walker saved money to send her daughter to a boarding school for high schoolers on the campus of Knoxville College in Tennessee. While her daughter was away at school, Walker became active in her church and served as a member of the Mite Missionary Society. This organization assisted less-fortunate members of the community. During her time with this organization, she raised funds to provide groceries to the needy. Walker worked alongside prominent, welleducated black women in the missionary society who caused her to view herself differently and inspired her to become a community leader. She was also impressed by the women’s dress and mannerisms. Her exposure to black women who appeared to be of a completely different status made Walker self-conscious about her own appearance. Walker became desperate for a solution to grow her hair and heal her damaged scalp. She knew that many black women only washed their hair once a month, resulting in damaged hair and scalp. Walker began working for a woman named Annie Turnbo Malone. Malone sold a hair growing product, but Walker was convinced that she could create a better product and organize a stronger business. In July 1905, Walker relocated to Denver to test the market for hair care products. She found a job as a cook, but spent some time working on formulas for a new product that would heal scalps and cause hair to grow. In 1906, she finalized her formula and marketed several products including Wonderful Hair Grower, Glossine, and Vegetable Shampoo. She used photographs of herself to advertise her products and began to attract customers who supported her. Walker remarried in 1906, to Charles Joseph Walker, a newspaper sales agent who had the necessary skills and connections to promote his wife’s business. She
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renamed herself as ‘‘Madam C. J. Walker’’ to make her customers think of Paris. She also renamed her products as ‘‘Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.’’ As her business expanded, she wanted to bring other young black girls with her so that she could teach them the operations of the business. In 1908, Walker relocated to Pittsburgh, which was experiencing an increase in the black population. She moved into an area where prominent blacks lived. She and her daughter, Lelia, opened a Beauty Shop and a training school. Stylists who graduated from the Lelia College of Beauty Culture were called ‘‘hair culturists.’’ Increasingly she accumulated wealth and constantly welcomed the opportunity to expand her business. In 1910, Walker moved to Indianapolis. This relocation allowed her to transport products with more ease because of the railway system. Her expansion ideas were not only beneficial to herself but to other black women in the area and beyond. She sought to get her products to women in other states and then she hired people to advertise for her. Women also were given the chance to run establishments that Walker founded in places where she once lived. Women who would have otherwise have had to take jobs as domestic servants received the opportunity to make money for themselves by styling hair or selling hair care products. A disagreement in the handling of finances caused Walker to divorce her husband in 1912. At the age of forty-four, Walker attended the National Business Negro League convention where other successful black business owners were present. It was founded in 1900 by Booker T. Washington to promote black economic independence and to stimulate black business development. Washington, however, was not receptive to Walker’s profession and refused to allow her to speak at this particular convention. Walker would not accept being ignored; instead, she stood up and spoke when she had not been called upon. Because this was a time when women were not involved heavily with business ventures, she was clearly outnumbered, but her unscheduled speech gained the attention of the convention’s attendees and Walker seized business opportunities at the meeting. Some of the women in attendance wanted to know more about who she was—a concern that the men found disturbing. Some time later, at a dedication ceremony for the Young Men’s Christian Association, Washington unofficially apologized for his refusal to acknowledge Walker’s accomplishments and said that her achievements should make all people proud. This apology came after Walker contributed $1,000 to the YMCA building fund. Her contribution stunned officials, as it was the largest sum ever received by any black donor. Dedicated to creating business opportunities for others, Walker and her daughter bought a townhouse in Harlem, opened a beauty salon, and another Lelia College of Beauty. In November 1913, she took her business and instruction abroad. She sailed to the West Indies and Kingston, Jamaica. She also went to Cuba, Haiti, Costa Rica, and the Panama Canal Zone to demonstrate her hair care methods. Walker suffered from high blood pressure and was frequently warned by doctors to eliminate fried and fatty foods from her diet. They also recommended
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that she relinquish some of her business duties to people she trusted. Walker still believed that there was too much work to be done to slow down. Walker was also politically active. When the debate about black men enlisting to fight in World War I arose, she joined the work of activists W. E. B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson and encouraged black men to be patriotic and join forces with white men. She visited training camps around the United States and offered moral support to young black soldiers. When Lynching became a major problem in the United States, Walker worked so that national officials would make lynching a federal crime. She and several other workers went to the White House to present President Woodrow Wilson with a petition to make lynching illegal. Although the workers were told that the president was too busy to meet with them, they left the petition at the White House and went home. In 1916, Walker purchased land in Irvington-on-Hudson, which was an affluent area in New York. Her goal was to build a mansion. Wealthy businessmen including John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould also owned estates in this area. White neighbors were shocked that a black woman would even consider the neighborhood. In 1917, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a journalist and anti-lynching crusader, visited the property with Walker during construction. Wells commented that Walker’s achievements caused her to take new pride in black womanhood. In 1918, Walker moved into the thirty-room mansion called Villa Lewaro. She hosted meetings and parties for black leaders and entertainers; many people competed for the chance to be invited to her mansion. As Walker’s health continued to decline, doctors again warned that her medical condition was precarious. Lawyers drafted her will, naming her daughter as her principal heir, but several organizations and other individuals were beneficiaries. Madam C. J. Walker died at her estate on May 25, 1919. In 1998, Walker became the twenty-first African American to be featured in the United States Postal Service’s Black Heritage Series. The cultural arts center in Indianapolis, Madame Walker Theatre Center, is still visited today. Her mansion in Westchester County, New York has been restored and is now privately owned. See also: Clothing and Fashion Industry; Cornrows; Dreadlocks; Hair and Hairstyles Further Reading Bundles, A’Lelia. 2008. Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. Bundles, A’Lelia. 2002. On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker. New York: Scribner. Stille, Darlene R. 2007. Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur and Millionaire. New York: Compass Point Books. Jemima Buchanan
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Ward, Clara (1924–73), Gospel and Nightclub Singer One of the greatest soloists in the history of gospel music, Clara Ward is one of a few early gospel singers to take gospel music from the church to the nightclub. Born August 21, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Clara Mae Ward grew up in a working-class household. She sang her first solo at Philadelphia’s Ebenezer Baptist Church at the age of five and was studying the piano by age eight. In 1931, Ward’s mother, Gertrude Mae Murphy Ward, founded a group, which was called at times the Consecrated Gospel Singers, the Ward Trio, or the Ward Singers, which consisted of Clara, mother Gertrude, and sister Willa. Gertrude Ward’s business savvy led the trio to a host of performances at local and regional churches and eventually a performance at the 1943 National Baptist Convention. During the 1940s both Gertrude and Willa Ward left the group to Clara Ward, although Gertrude continued to keep a hand in the business end of things and created and managed a second group, the Clara Ward Specials, who accompanied the Ward Singers. Gertrude’s departure began a cycle of rotating in new singers, including Henrietta Waddy, Marion Williams, Frances Steadman, Kitty Parham, and others, who left primarily because their demands for equal pay and reimbursement of hotel expenses were rejected by Ward. Ward was known for her expertise in singing hymns, flamboyant alto voice, colorful gowns, ornate wigs, luxurious jewelry, and wide commercial appeal. The renamed Ward Singers substituted traditional choir robes for more glamorous apparel. Ward was influenced vocally by Queen C. Anderson and Clara Hudson (‘‘The Georgia Peach’’), and she revolutionized the gospel music sound with her unique arrangements. However, she was subjected to much criticism and ridicule for this by numerous choir folks. Still, the Ward Singers began a prosperous recording career in 1947. The group toured extensively during the 1940s and were renowned for Ward’s arrangement of ‘‘Surely God is Able,’’ the first million-selling gospel record. In 1953, Clara and Gertrude Ward opened Ward’s House of Music in Philadelphia. A second store was opened in 1963. In 1957, Clara Ward and the Ward Singers were the first gospel group to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival. Ward took the gospel show to Las Vegas, Disneyland, and other nontraditional settings in 1961, further upsetting gospel fundamentalists. She also starred as Birdie Lee in the staged performance of the first gospel musical, by Langston Hughes, Tambourines to Glory (1963). Always conscious of social and political issues, Ward canceled five weeks’ worth of engagements to travel to Vietnam as a representative of the United Services Organization (USO) for a three-week tour. By the 1970s, the group often needed a police escort to restrain exuberant fans as they traveled to and from performance venues in Ward’s Italian-built, twelvepassenger, eight-door, cream-colored Chrysler. Ward’s health was a constant struggle after she suffered a stroke in 1967. After her unexpected full recovery, she was often called ‘‘Miracle Girl.’’ Ward was not as fortunate when she suffered a second stroke in 1972. Clara Ward died in Los
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Angeles, California, on January 16, 1973, at the age of forty-eight. Among other posthumous awards and honors for her tremendous influence on gospel music, she was recognized by the United States Postal Service with a stamp issued in her honor on July 15, 1998. See also: Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups; Jazz and Jazz Festivals Further Reading Ward-Royster, Willa, with Toni Rose. 1997. How I Got Over: Clara Ward and the World-Famous Ward Singers. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Emmett G. Price III
Warwick, Dionne (1940– ), Singer, Activist Through her music and her humanitarian work, Dionne Warwick has inspired and empowered millions of people around the world. Warwick has had a long and successful career singing Pop Music, and was one of the first African American recording artists to reach and firmly connect with the mainstream audience. She is an established international music star as well. She was born Marie Dionne Warrick on December 12, 1941, in East Orange, New Jersey, but changed her name legally to Warwick after a typo made that name famous. (Other family members followed suit.) Her mother, Lee, managed and sang with the Drinkard Sisters, a popular African American singing group. Her father, Mancel, was a chef and butcher; he was also a gospel music promotion director for Chess Records. Her family consisted of two younger siblings, Dee Dee and Mancel Warwick Jr. Music has always been a central part of family life for the Warwicks. Dionne received voice training early on and initially sang in church. When she was fourteen years old, she, her sister, and a cousin, Cissy Houston (mother of Whitney Houston), formed a group known as the Gospelaires; for seven years they performed locally, sometimes doing backup singing as well. Warwick studied at the University of Hartford’s Hartt College of Music from 1959 to 1962. She also began regular trips to New York City, where she sang behind big names such as Dinah Washington, Brook Benton, and others. In 1962, composer Burt Bacharach heard her singing during a backup session for the Drifters and asked her to record some of his songs on demo. Bacharach passed the demo on to the president of Scepter Records, and after that, Warwick entered a twelve-year association with that label. During their first decade together, Warwick did thirty hit singles and nearly twenty best-selling albums with Bacharach and his partner, Hal David. Their songs included ‘‘Reach Out For Me,’’ ‘‘This Girl’s In Love With You,’’ and ‘‘Do You Know The Way to San Jose?’’ In 1968, she won a Grammy Award for the latter song, becoming the first
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African American solo female of her generation to win the Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance award. This year she also became the first African American female performer to appear at a Royal Command Performance for the Queen of England. After that, Warwick performed before numerous kings, queens, presidents, and other leaders. She recorded a number of title songs for movies, such as ‘‘Alfie’’ (better known as ‘‘What’s It All About, Alfie?’’ from Alfie, 1966) becoming one of the first female artists to popularize such themes. Race matters in the 1960 were cause for concern. Warwick faced her share of race-related problems, sometimes from bigoted hecklers in the audience as well as insults from department store clerks who questioned her ability to pay for expensive clothing. In 1970, Warwick received her second Grammy Award, for I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, a best-selling album. She signed with Warner Brothers Records and recorded half-a-dozen albums as well. Success continued and for the first time, in 1974, she went top of the charts with ‘‘Then Came You,’’ which she recorded with the Spinners; the song sold a million copies. Fresh from receiving her master’s degree in 1976 from the Hartt College of Music, Warwick signed with Arista Records. In 1979, Barry Manilow produced her first platinum-selling album, Dionne. Included on the album were her backto-back hits, ‘‘I’ll Never Love This Way Again,’’ and ‘‘Deja Vu,’’ for which she earned two Grammy Awards—one in the Pop Female Vocal category and the other in Rhythm and Blues Female Vocal category. Warwick became even more visible in 1980 when she hosted the television show Solid Gold. Because of artistic differences, she was replaced on the show in spring 1981. According to Contemporary Black Biography, ‘‘the producers wanted a younger host to attract a younger audience.’’ Some claim that Warwick was ‘‘temperamental and difficult to work with.’’ Warwick, however, denied that she was temperamental and accused the producers of sexism and racism. The next year the title song from her album Heartbreaker went to the top ten on the Billboard chart. A few years later, she did another stint hosting Solid Gold. Throughout the decade, she collaborated with many of her musical peers, including Johnny Mathis, Smokey Robinson, and Luther Vandross. She also worked with Stevie Wonder as music coordinator for the Academy Award–winning soundtrack album The Woman in Red. As well, she was a key participant in the first all-star charity single ‘‘We Are The World,’’ and later in ‘‘Live Aid.’’ Warwick has supported AIDS research for many years. In 1985, she reunited with Bacharach, and connected with longtime friends Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John and recorded ‘‘That’s What Friends Are For,’’ an AIDS benefit song. Her interest in astrology led her to become known as spokesperson for the Psychic Friends Network (1992–97). Warwick is divorced and has two children, David and Damon. In 2003, she published her first book, My Point of View, which offers her wisdom on various subjects. See also: Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups
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Further Reading Dionne Warwick. (Homepage.) http://www.dionnewarwick.info/biog.html. Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. 2005. Black Women in America. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Kalfatovic, Mary. 1998. ‘‘Dionne Warwick.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 18. Detroit: Gale Research. LaPrade, Candis. 1992. ‘‘Dionne Warrick.’’ In Notable Black American Women. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Musician Guide. (n.d.) ‘‘Dionne Warwick Biography.’’ http://www.musicianguide.com/ biographies/1608000434/Dionne-Warwick.html. Jessie Carney Smith
Washington, Booker T. (1856–1915), Educator Booker Taliaferro Washington rose up from slavery to become a renowned educator and the preeminent African American leader of his day. Washington was born in 1856 on a farm in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. His mother was a cook and his father a white man who lived in the area. In his autobiography Washington recalled learning about emancipation when a visitor arrived one morning. He recalled ‘‘we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased.’’ At the age of nine, Washington, along with his brother, sister, and mother moved to Malden, West Virginia, to join his stepfather, whose last name was Washington. Booker found a job in a salt mine that began at 4:00 A.M. so he could attend school during the day. When he was sixteen, Washington enrolled in Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. The school, located in Hampton, Virginia, was established to educate African American and Native American students. After graduating, Washington worked as a teacher in West Virginia for three years. In 1878 he attended Wayland Seminary in Washington, DC, but left after a brief stay. In 1879 Washington returned to Hampton to take a teaching position. In 1881 Washington was appointed principal of a new school in Tuskegee, Alabama, housed in a run-down building owned by a local church. By 1888, thanks to his efforts, the Tuskegee Institute owned five hundred and forty acres of land and enrolled more than four hundred students. The school provided teacher training. Students were also instructed in basic farming, carpentry, brick making, and other practical subjects. Washington believed that the ‘‘value of industrial education is to give to the students habits of industry, thrift, economy and an idea of the dignity of labor.’’ In 1895 Washington stood on a platform in what is now a park in Atlanta, Georgia. He addressed a large and mainly white audience at the Cotton States Exposition. Washington shared the platform with a distinguished group that included Georgia’s governor. During the speech, cited by Harlan in the Booker T. Washington Papers, Washington said ‘‘[t]he wisest among my race understand
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that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.’’ Extending one hand toward the audience, Washington invoked a powerful metaphor that would be seen as the solution to the race issue in the South. He said ‘‘[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.’’ The crowd responded with thunderous applause. Georgia’s governor rushed over to shake Washington’s hand. Newspapers across the nation carried accounts of the remarks. Washington’s speech was delivered at the end of the Reconstruction Era. In 1877 former Confederate officials who had been disenfranchised were allowed to participate in the electoral process. Federal troops were withdrawn from the South and whites moved quickly to reassert their predominance. The Ku Klux Klan conducted a reign of violence and terror. Black officeholders were beaten and murdered; their houses were burned. Black voters were prevented from casting ballots. Washington’s Atlanta speech offered a solution to the strife that plagued the South. Blacks would serve whites as laborers and servants using the training that the Tuskegee model provided. In 1896 the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson endorsed racial segregation in an opinion that contained echoes of Washington’s speech. The Court found that that ‘‘legal equality’’ was not the same as ‘‘social equality.’’ The laws requiring segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment if the facilities provided for blacks were equal to those available to whites. Washington’s 1901 autobiography, Up From Slavery, was a best-seller that catapulted him to international fame. He became an advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt and was the first African American to dine at the White House. Wealthy philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller provided generous support to Tuskegee. The ‘‘Wizard of Tuskegee’’ became the most influential black person in the United States. Washington promoted practical education and implicitly acquiesced to segregation. He said if blacks worked hard, achieved economic stability, and cooperated with whites, they would eventually obtain civil rights and social equality. Tuskegee’s success persuaded southern school officials to embrace the industrial model. W. E. B. Du Bois and others challenged Washington’s ideas. DuBois was educated at Fisk University and Harvard University where he earned a PhD degree. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois expressed his vision of a ‘‘Talented Tenth’’ consisting of a college-educated, black elite that would uplift the masses from deprivation and poverty. In one essay, ‘‘Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,’’ Du Bois charged that Washington’s policies had led to segregation, disfranchisement, and the imposition of a subordinate legal status. Washington was married three times. He wed Fannie Smith in 1882. The couple had one child, Portia M. Washington. Fannie died in May 1884. Washington married Olivia A. Davidson in 1885. This marriage produced two sons, Booker T. Washington Jr. and Ernest Davidson Washington. Olivia died in
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1889. In 1893 Washington married Margaret James Murray. The marriage did not produce any children. In 1915 Washington died at the age of fifty-nine and was buried on the grounds of Tuskegee Institute. Washington was the most influential African American of his time but his legacy is mixed. To some Washington was a pragmatist who made the best of difficult circumstances. Commenting on the Atlanta Compromise, Ishmael Reed contended ‘‘Washington knew that in order to win over the confidence of white supporters,’’ wrote Ishmael Reed, ‘‘he had to pacify the primal fear of many Southern white men . . . [who] became psychotic at the idea of black men and white women intermingling.’’ Others believe Washington was a shrewd opportunist who acquiesced to segregation in exchange for personal power and influence. See also: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Jim Crow Further Reading Harlan Louis R. 1972. Booker T. Washington: The Making of a Black Leader, 1856–1900. New York: Oxford University Press. Harlan Louis R. 1986. Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee 1901–1915. New York: Oxford University Press. Harlan Louis R, ed. 1974. The Booker T. Washington Papers. Vol. 3, 583–87. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Reed, Ishmael. 2004. Another Day at the Front: Dispatches from the Race War. New York: Basic Books. Washington, Booker T. 1901. Up from Slavery: An Autobiography. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Leland Ware
Washington, Denzel (1954– ), Actor, Director, Producer Denzel Washington was born Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. on December 28, 1954, in Mt. Vernon, New York, a primarily African American suburb of New York City. His mother was a beautician and his father an ordained Pentecostal minister who also worked for the city’s public works department. After his parents separated in 1968, Washington had a short-lived ‘‘thug’’ life that ended when his mother sent him to military school in upstate New York. He graduated from Fordham University in 1977 with a degree in journalism but had become passionate about acting after working as a camp counselor for the Boys Clubs and appearing in staff-run talent shows. He starred in university productions of Othello and Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, which helped him secure a scholarship to the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where he dropped out after a year to begin acting professionally. He made his first screen appearance in the TV movie Wilma (1977), which also featured Pauletta Pearson, whom he married in 1983 and with whom he has four children.
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Washington’s big screen debut came with the 1981 comedy Carbon Copy, about a long-lost black son of a prominent white businessman. He then returned to the stage, earning an Obie award for his role in an off-Broadway production of A Soldier’s Play before landing the plum role of Dr. Philip Chandler on the NBC hospital drama St. Elsewhere, which he performed from 1983 to 1988. During this period, he continued making films, mostly for TV, until his breakout role as the anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), earning him his first Academy Award nomination. Two years later he won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for portraying the ex-slave turned soldier in the Civil War drama Glory (1989). Subsequently, Washington garnered more Oscar nominations for portraying other real-life figures: Malcolm X in the eponymous 1992 epic film by Spike Lee, and wrongfully imprisoned boxer Rubin Carter in The Hurricane (1999). Further critical acclaim came with his risk-taking role as the homophobic lawyer of an AIDS-ravaged homosexual in Philadelphia (1993), and he found box office gold with his portrait of Coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (2000). But it was Washington’s rare turn as a villainous cop in Training Day (2001) that finally won him the Oscar for a leading role—only the second given to a black actor in Hollywood history, the first having been given to Sidney Poitier in 1962. Washington now holds the record for Oscar nominations for African Americans, having earned five to date. Despite his award-winning but ferocious LAPD cop, Washington has played more than a dozen honorable cops, in one guise or another, including in Tony Scott’s Deja Vu (2006), and heroic defenders in the previous Scott films Crimson Tide (1995) and Man on Fire (2004). He had similar roles in The Pelican Brief (1993) and Courage Under Fire (1996). Washington experimented with playing a hero and a villain in 2007, in The Great Debaters as Melvin B. Tolson, who led his 1930s allblack debating team to victory over Harvard’s, and as Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas in American Gangster. Despite a career largely devoted to men of virtue, Washington’s darker portraits have earned him his biggest box office hits and been deemed largely responsible for his current salary of more than $20 million a film. He returned to portraying a hero cop in The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 in 2009, representing his fourth collaboration with Scott. In pre-production is yet another cop role and fifth partnership with Lee for the sequel to their 2006 film Inside Man. Other Lee-Washington films include Mo’ Better Blues (1990) and He Got Game (1998). Washington has expanded into directing, directing himself in Antwone Fisher (2002) and in The Great Debaters, which he also coproduced with Oprah Winfrey. His latest films include The Book of Eli and the Unstoppable, both in 2010. See also: Actors and Performers Further Reading Brode, Douglas. 1996. Denzel Washington: His Films and Career. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel. Nickson, Chris. 1996. Denzel Washington. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Parrish, James Robert. 2005. Denzel Washington: Actor. New York: Ferguson Publishing. Marilyn Yaquinto
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Waters, Muddy (1915–83), Electric Guitarist, Blues Singer Muddy Waters was the central figure of modern Chicago blues. His vocal skills and electric guitar playing influenced both black and white audiences and modern day musicians, earning him the title of ‘‘father of modern Chicago blues.’’ Muddy Waters was born McKinley Morganfield on April 15, 1915, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, to sharecropper parents, Ollie Morganfield and Bertha Grant. As a child he enjoyed playing in the swampy puddles near his home thus acquiring his childhood nickname ‘‘Muddy Waters’’ by his grandmother. After his mother’s death, Waters lived with his grandmother, Della Grant, at Stovall’s plantation in Clarksdale. He attended school through the third grade and began working in the fields. It was during this time that he was introduced to musical instruments and began playing the harmonica. After marrying his first wife, Mabel Berry, in 1932, Waters bought his first guitar the same year and began taking lessons, learning from his peers and closely studying and emulating Mississippi Delta guitarists Son House and Robert Johnson. After a year, Waters mastered the bottleneck style and learned to sing with power and expression. Playing rural venues to sharpen his technical skills, Waters’s talent for playing the blues became known throughout the area. Briefly moving to St. Louis, Missouri, he returned to Mississippi several months later. There he was discovered in 1941 in the Mississippi fields by Alan Lomax, a music archivist for the Library of Congress. Lomax was originally looking for guitarists whose style was similar to Robert Johnson’s but was impressed enough by Waters’s talent to record him twice on separate occasions in solo and band contexts. Having divorced Mabel in 1942, Waters married Sallie Ann Adams and continued to farm and perform Portrait of blues musician Muddy Waters in with Silas Green whenever in the 1964. A blues musician, Muddy Waters Clarksdale region. Moving to Chilearned the folk traditions of the ‘‘down home cago with hopes of becoming a fullblues’’ in his native Mississippi. He built on that tradition in Chicago by exploiting the time professional blues player, Waters use of electrically amplified instruments and performed manual labor during the creating the Chicago blues. (Library of day and performed music by night. Congress)
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His first big break came after an invitation to open for Big Bill Broonzy, an established Chicago guitarist. In 1945 Waters was given his first electric guitar, enabling him to be heard over noisy club crowds, changing the sound of his musical career. Waters met with commercial success in 1946 as a supporting band member for the 20th Century and Columbia record labels. His first release, ‘‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’’ with ‘‘I Feel Like Going Home,’’ sold out within forty-eight hours. This record introduced his talents to mainstream audiences, solidifying him as an impressive and competent musician. Working for Chess Records in the 1950s, Waters recorded what are considered his most important and popular songs, ‘‘Long Distance Call,’’ ‘‘I Just Want to Make Love to You,’’ and ‘‘Got My Mojo Working,’’ among other hits. Because of his success, Waters became an international artist and toured England with the Chris Barber Band. He played at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Newport Folk Festival in 1960. After recovering from an automobile accident, Waters played larger festivals, including the Ann Arbor Festival and the Monteux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The 1970s brought about change, including the death of his third wife, the establishment of Muddy Waters Productions/Watertoons Music to protect his composing rights, his parting with Chess Records after twenty-eight years, and marriage to his fourth wife, Marva Jean Brooks. Waters influenced black and white musicians alike, including artists Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, and the Rolling Stones—who named themselves after one of Waters’s songs. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Muddy Waters died in his sleep on April 30, 1983. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals; Delta Blues Further Reading Muddy Waters. (n.d.) ‘‘Welcome to the Official Muddy Waters Website’’ (Muddy Waters tribute site.) http://www.muddywaters.com. Phinney, Kevin. 2005. Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture. New York: Billboard Books. Christina D. Cruse
Wayans Brothers, Entertainers, Filmmakers The Wayans brothers, Keenen Ivory Wayans (born June 8, 1958), Damon Kyle Wayans (born September 4, 1960), Shawn Mathis Wayans (born January 19, 1971), and Marlon (born July 23, 1972), have been a staple in the African American entertainment industry and in popular culture since the early to
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mid-1980s. The two youngest brothers of the immediate family, Shawn and Marlon, have particularly made their marks in the entertainment world in recent years. Their ideas are primarily marketed to young people; however, people of all ages and races have been drawn to their talents. Shawn Wayans was born on January 19, 1971, and Marlon was born on July 23, 1972 in New York City to Howell and Elvira Wayans. They are the youngest of ten siblings. Elvira Wayans was a social worker and Howell Wayans was a supermarket manager. Growing up in one of Manhattan’s housing projects allowed the Wayans to have an understanding of living life with impoverished conditions. Their success has also given them a familiarity with a more privileged lifestyle. With access to and experience with both sides of the economic and social spectrums, the Wayans brothers’ creative output appeals to a wide range of viewers. Shawn and Marlon Wayans appeared in 1988 in the film of their older brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, a movie entitled I’m Gonna Get You Sucka (1988). Keenen Ivory Wayans wrote and directed this movie, categorized as a black exploitation film (or blaxploitation, because it stereotypically focused on black life in the ghetto). Shawn and Marlon later began performing on the television comedy show created by their older brothers Keenen and Damon, called In Living Color, along with Keenen, Damon, sister Kim Wayans, David Alan Grier, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez, and others. It ran on Fox TV from 1990–1994. The Wayans brothers are probably best known and remembered for being on this television show. The goal of the program was to offer comedic relief while focusing on issues that were important to the black community. Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez, and Jamie Foxx all became more widely known as a result of their regular appearances on In Living Color. Live musical performances featured Hip-Hop and rap moguls of the 1990s, including Queen Latifah, Tupac Shakur, and Heavy D. The show pushed boundaries through its use of language and taboo topics, but it succeeded in making viewers laugh. After members of the Wayans family began to leave the show, ratings decreased and the show ended in 1994. In 1995, Shawn and Marlon created and costarred in The Wayans Brothers. The comedic sitcom was loosely based on the brothers’ real lives as youngsters and focused on their relationship with their father, Pops, whose role was played by John Witherspoon. The show ran successfully for four years. It is currently shown on networks including BET (Black Entertainment Television) and the WB (Warner Brothers). In the late 1990s, Shawn and Marlon Wayans wrote their first movie, Scary Movie, a satire of then-recently released horror films, which premiered in 2000 and grossed $153 million in the United States. The film was directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. Teens and young adults also supported the three sequels to Scary Movie produced in later years. Damon Wayans starred in, cocreated, and wrote for the television show My Wife and Kids from 2001–2005 and continues to produce, write, direct, and act in television and movies, as does Keenen Wayans, who has directed and
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produced movies starring Shawn and Marlon. In 2010, Damon Wayans released a novel, Red Hats (Simon & Schuster), the story of a widow who must find a new life for herself. The Wayans brothers delighted some moviegoers in 2004 with their performances in White Chicks. Shawn and Marlon costarred as FBI agents forced to work undercover as two spoiled, affluent, Caucasian girls after destroying a big drug operation bust; critics of the film, directed by Keenen, called it tasteless and crass, and wondered why the talented entertainers engaged in such nonchallenging films. In May 2009, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, along with brother Keenen Ivory Wayans, cousin Craig Wayans, and nephew Damien Dante Wayans, wrote Dance Flick, a parody of popular dance films. Their nephew, Damien Dante Wayans, directed the movie. Damon Wayans Jr., another nephew (son of Damon Wayans), generally pleased audiences with his performance. In August 2009, Marlon Wayans appeared in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra as Ripcord. The Wayans brothers all began with small roles and worked to become leaders in the entertainment industry. Their belief in supporting each other has also provided many opportunities for multiple family members. See also: Film and Filmmakers; Humor Further Reading Carbon, Hyacinth B. 2007. ‘‘The Family.’’ Black Enterprise 37 (March): 126. Donallson, Catherine Victoria. 2001. ‘‘Marlon and Shawn Wayans.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 29. Detroit: Gale Group. Fernandez, Jay A. 2006. ‘‘Three Wild and Crazy Guys.’’ Premiere 19 (Jul/Aug): 86–90. Jemima Buchanan
Wedding Customs and Traditions Wedding customs and traditions in the African American community have undergone various transformations; nevertheless, the act of uniting man and woman remains a highly valued practice. Such unions suggest obligations, bonds, and connections between two people and often have implications for family connections and ties as well. The act of marriage, and especially those customs and traditions surrounding the event, remains a central part of popular culture. Given the history of African Americans in this country, one must look to the African heritage and give credit to the phase ‘‘jumping the broom’’ that emerged from the African wedding tradition. It is also casually used to refer to weddings in the black community. Historian John Hope Franklin provides a framework for tracing African American marriage and wedding traditions. He found that the slave family was important to African Americans, yet there was hardly a stable basis for it to be
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sustained. Slave owners failed to recognize and respect the slave family and often sought to destroy it. Rarely did courtship before marriage exist. Those slave owners who manifested a genuine interest in the religious and moral development of their slaves, however, did allow their slaves to unite in religious ceremonies. Unions that involved slaves on separate plantations distressed slave owners, for it often took a slave away from his or her own plantation for a time. Some masters bought or sold their slave to their spouse’s owner. When couples were able to work and live together, their slave marriage became more permanent. In time, the free black family emerged. Free blacks who married obtained licenses and united in a civil or religious ceremony; thus, the immoral and uncivilized attitudes that society had toward slave marriages (informal unions) or a free black’s marriage to a slave were challenged. When slavery ended, some of the unions without licenses were not legally recognized; however, many of the ‘‘marriages’’ were based on mutual attraction, love, and faithfulness, and the couples legalized their unions. Jumping the Broom Cultural links are seen from African American weddings to traditions in other cultures. For example, West Indian Black Cake may be prepared; it serves as a remnant of Caribbean and African legacies. There is also a lesser-known tradition of crossing sticks—a tradition used among the Samburu of Kenya in which the groom branded his prize cattle and gave the stick to his bride to finalize their wedding vows. The most popular known cultural wedding ritual in the African American community is the act of ‘‘jumping the broom’’—a ceremonial activity in which the couple jumps over a broom to symbolize their union. In some instances one person holds one end of the broom and another holds the other; in other instances, the broom is placed on the floor and the newlyweds jump over it together. Some claim that this is an African custom in which brooms are seen as cultural objects with a magical and spiritual meaning, and are associated with feared gods. Since brooms have a wild quality and represent untamed nature, once a couple jumps over it they shift from wild, undomesticated life to a settled and domesticated life. Whether or not they were used in wedding ceremonies, they were used as traditional rites of maturation. Slave marriages in the United States included jumping the broom as a part of the ceremony; it symbolized sweeping away the past and welcoming a wonderful future. The best-selling book Roots, by Alex Haley helped to popularize broomjumping in African American weddings, as he dramatized Kunta Kinte and his bride, Bell, who took these steps to their married life. Especially since the 1970s those African Americans who chose to honor their heritage during their wedding ceremony embraced this tradition. Those who choose an African American theme wedding may also select traditional African garb, such as tunic-style gowns and headdresses of African fabrics (such as Kente cloth from West Africa) that incorporate strong colors like red, green, black, orange, and yellow. The bride and other
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women in the party may wear African jewelry (including especially cowrie shells). The African heritage may also be reflected in the wedding invitations and in the dress that the guests wear. Drums may be played during the ceremony, African dancers may perform, and in rich tradition, a warrior, or best man, precedes the groom toward the bride and holds a shield in front to protect the bonding of the two families. Elders may be honored during the ceremony, and African food may be served for the reception. Broom-jumping, of course, is a central part of the ceremony. Many weddings in the African American community embrace more traditionally American formats, with elaborate gowns, flowing veils, and so on, but especially since the 1990s they end the activity with broom-jumping; in the case of older couples, stepping over a broom may follow. Wedding brooms, whether used for Afrocentric or Western style unions, may be crafted by a family member and handed down from one family member to another. Ribbon, artificial flowers, natural corn fibers, and a variety of items may be used to decorate the broom. Often provisions are made for guests to sign the broom after the wedding. A broomcarrier is used to take the item to the altar for use at the end of the ceremony. Since their use is so popular, many commercial establishments offer brooms for sale online. See also: African Cultural Influences; Religious Customs and Traditions Further Reading Bird, Stephanie Rose. 2006. ‘‘Jumping the Broom.’’ In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. Vol. 2. Anand Prahlad, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Cole, Harriet. 1993. Jumping the Broom: The African-American Wedding Planner. New York: Henry Holt. Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred A. Moss Jr. 1994. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. 7th ed, 138–39, 157–58. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rutledge, Essie Manuel. 2005. ‘‘Marriage.’’ In Black Women in America. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Darlene Clark Hine, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Jessie Carney Smith
Welfare Rights Movement The Social Security Act launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 created Aid for Families of Dependent Children (AFDC) to primarily assist the large numbers of poverty-stricken women in the Depression-era United States. However, social welfare also became stigmatized and subject to numerous prejudices. To combat the inequalities suffered by women receiving AFDC numerous welfare rights organizations came into existence. The welfare rights organizations’ ability to quickly organize large numbers of people has been taken to a higher level by popular culture’s computer-savvy youth.
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The 1963 March on Washington served as an incubator for a multitude of welfare rights organizations that sprang up across the United States in its wake. Highly organized groups such as Aid to Needy Children (ANC) were formed in Los Angeles, California; Mothers for Adequate Welfare (MAW) was formed in Boston; and Northside Welfare Rights Organizations formed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These grassroots organizations’ activities ranged from forcing the U.S. Postal Service to put locks on mailboxes to prevent check theft to negotiating with welfare authorities in one state to pay for child care while the mother went to job training. The welfare rights movement in total was very diverse and included men and women, and persons of various ethnicities and educational backgrounds. However, with the founding of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) in 1967, the heretofore disparate, regional groups of AFDC recipients united into a well-organized national body, 85 percent of which consisted of African American women who now had the ability to affect public policy. Many of these early activists who met in Washington, DC, in 1966, a year prior to the founding of the NWRO, had been influenced by the philosophies and writings of college social work professors Richard Clowers and Frances Fox Riven. At its height between 1969 and 1975, the NWRO claimed an active membership of over 25,000 dues-paying members. The organization’s first executive director was George A. Wiley, a veteran of the civil rights organization CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and college professor at Syracuse University, who had resigned in order to work full-time with civil rights and antipoverty programs. By 1968 welfare rights activists were beginning to receive recognition from civil rights organizations and leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., who counted the welfare activists and their leaders as an integral part of his poor people’s campaign. One of the early leaders of the NWRO and longtime welfare rights activists was Johnnie Tillmon. She understood and identified with the plight of mothers on AFDC because she herself was poor, black, and the single mother of six children. Tillmon, a laundry worker and union shop steward in Los Angeles, had had to go on welfare when illness prohibited her from working. She saw firsthand the demeaning consequences associated with welfare and formed a local welfare advocacy group in Los Angeles. Tillmon became widely known as the public face of the NWRO after publishing an article entitled ‘‘Welfare is a Women’s Issue’’ in a 1972 issue of Ms. magazine. In 1970 the NWRO began to have major internal conflicts centered on issues of gender and class, which diminished the group’s political might and ability to affect public policy. NWRO executive director George Wiley wanted to strengthen the organizations by including issues affecting men and the working poor. The predominantly female membership believed the proposed direction would diminish their efforts help women and children. In 1972 Wiley resigned and Tillmon was elected executive director of NWRO. Under her leadership the NWRO became a female welfare recipient–led organization.
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Many nonprofits were affected by 1970s inflation; the NWRO folded after going bankrupt in 1975. See also: Organizations and Associations Further Reading Nadasen, Premil. 2005. Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States. New York: Routledge. Orleck, Annelise. 2005. Storming Caesar’s Palace: How Black Mothers Fought their Own War on Poverty. Boston: Beacon Press. Piven, Frances Fox. 1977. Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. New York: Pantheon Books. Carter B. Cue
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. (1862–1931), Journalist, Civil Rights Activist At the dawn of the Jim Crow era in the late nineteenth century, Ida B. Wells-Barnett launched an international anti-lynching movement that helped lay the groundwork for the modern Civil Rights Movement. The outspoken crusader against racial terrorism in the United States investigated hundreds of cases of racially motivated murders by lawless mobs then wrote and published newspaper articles and pamphlets revealing the ultimate reason for such atrocities as white fear of black progress. Her meticulous documentation of the murders of African American men, women, and youths provided fuel for the struggle for anti-lynching legislation for decades to come. Subsequently, Wells-Barnett worked to expose racial injustice wherever she found it and spearheaded efforts to improve the quality of life of indigent African Americans. Moreover, the unyielding activist became a catalyst for the Black Women’s Club Movement and a pioneering organizer during the battle for women’s voting rights. Ida Bell Wells was born to enslaved parents in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862, as Civil War battles raged in and around her hometown. She was the eldest of eight children born to Jim Wells, a skilled carpenter, and his wife Elizabeth, a well-known cook. Young Ida inherited her father’s bravery and passion for justice and her mother’s discipline and resolve, according to her biographer Linda McMurry. During slavery Elizabeth Wells was beaten repeatedly by her white captors, but held on to her dignity. After slavery Jim Wells defied the threats of white supremacists to exercise his newly won voting rights and attend political meetings. When he was fired from his carpentry job for his audacity, Wells father set up his own carpentry business across the street from his former employer. The Wells sent their children to a school founded in Holly Springs in 1866 to educate newly freed African Americans. Jim Wells was a trustee at the institution that eventually became Rust College, a historically black college. Young
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Ida did not graduate because she was expelled for arguing with the institution’s white president. In 1878 after Wells’s parents and baby brother died during a devastating yellow fever epidemic, she rebuked her community’s plan to place her siblings with other families. The sixteen-year-old got a teaching job in a neighboring community, sent for her grandmother to stay with her younger brothers and sisters during the week, and traveled back home on the back of a mule each weekend to be with her family. In 1883, she accepted a teaching job in Memphis, Tennessee, and continued her education by taking classes at LeMoyne Institute in Memphis and Fisk University in Nashville. Wells’s first public act of defiance against racism and Ida B. Wells was a civil rights activist, journalist, segregation occurred in 1883 and crusader against lynching. During World War I she campaigned for racial equality in the military. when she was forced off a train outside Memphis because she (Library of Congress) refused to move to the segregated car designated for African Americans. The twenty-one-year-old schoolteacher won a lawsuit against the Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railroad in 1884 for this violation of existing equal accommodations statues. However, the ruling was overturned in 1887 by the Tennessee State Supreme Court. Over the next decade, legal validation of racial discrimination by local and state courts became ubiquitous and emboldened white supremacists dedicated to using violence to maintain the status quo. The ruling also foreshadowed the U.S. Supreme Court’s ‘‘separate but equal’’ mandate that would occur in the next decade. Ida B. Wells wrote about her ordeal and court case in articles published by black newspapers in the North and South. In 1889 she left teaching to become part owner of the Free Speech and Headlight newspaper in Memphis. Writing under the pen name ‘‘Iola,’’ she used the paper as her weapon against social injustice.
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Becomes Anti-Lynching Crusader Lynching steadily increased during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and peaked in 1892. That year alone a total of 230 murders occurred at the hands of lawless mobs; 161 of those killed were African Americans, according to statistics of the Tuskegee Institute. Three black men were massacred in Memphis in 1892 because the grocery store they owned created competition for a nearby white grocer. The murdered men had been Wells’s friends; their deaths became the catalyst for her anti-lynching crusade. For weeks Wells scoured newspaper accounts of racially motivated murders of African Americans, visited lynching sites throughout the South and West, interviewed witnesses and even hired a private detective to assist her in her quest to document the murders of seven hundred men, women, and youths. She wrote scathing editorials in the Free Speech, asserting that the lynching of her friends and other African Americans was not retribution for the rape of white women or other crimes as white racists claimed. Ultimately, she said, lynch mobs were motivated by whites’ fear of the advancement of African Americans. She encouraged her fellow black citizens to leave Memphis and go west to escape the threat of racial violence. Scores of Memphis’ black citizens followed her advice. Her audacity provoked a white mob to destroy her newspaper office; the local white newspaper urged white citizens to lynch the audacious editor. Wells relocated to New York where she became part owner of The New York Age, founded by T. Thomas Fortune, often called the dean of black journalism. She continued to publish articles to raise the nation’s awareness of lynching and published her findings in the pamphlet Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892). Later she would publish a second anti-lynching pamphlet called A Red Record (1895). Venerable civil rights leader Frederick Douglass wrote the preface to Wells’s first pamphlet and worked with her and her future husband, attorney and newspaper publisher Ferdinand L. Barnett, to author a publication to protest racial discrimination at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Wells took her campaign against lynching to audiences all over the country, particularly motivating black women to organize chapters of a club named in her honor. Eventually she would be a founder of the National Association of Colored Women, which united black women’s clubs across the United States. Wells lectured extensively in Great Britain in 1893 and 1894, inspiring the Duke of Argyll to establish a chapter of her Anti-Lynching Committee in London; its membership included members of Parliament and the Archbishop of Canterbury. After marrying widower Ferdinand Barnett in 1895, Wells-Barnett became a stepmother to his two sons and became editor-in-chief of her husband’s newspaper, the Conservator. Wells-Barnett would later give birth to four children— Charles (1896), Herman (1897), Ida (1901), and Alfreda (1904). However,
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she did not abandon the fight for social justice. After the brutal murder of the African American postmaster of Lake City, South Carolina, and his infant son in February 1898, Wells-Barnett traveled to the White House with a delegation of Illinois congressmen to lobby for federal anti-lynching legislation. She met face-to-face with President McKinley in the White House and urged him to address ‘‘the national crime of lynching,’’ notes writer Dorothy Sterling. Unfortunately, the president was unmoved by her plea, asserting that even though the black postmaster was a federal employee, the lynching was a state matter. Considered too outspoken and radical by some of her contemporaries, she was initially snubbed by the organizers of the NAACP in 1909. She was invited by W. E. B. Du Bois to join meetings of the founders of the organization only after her supporters protested her exclusion. The predominantly white ‘‘Committee of Forty’’ shaping the agenda of the NAACP rejected Wells-Barnett’s proposal to include anti-lynching legislation as one of the organization’s objectives. WellsBarnett immediately resigned. In 1910, the relentless activist founded the Negro Fellowship League, to provide social services to African Americans flowing into Chicago from the rural South during the Great Migration. Then in 1913 she founded what historians have called the first suffrage organization for black women. Wells-Barnett spoke out against the accommodationist stance of Booker T. Washington, but she was an ardent supporter of the black pride and self-help philosophy of Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey and even delivered a speech to Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1916. In 1929, frustrated by the lack of attention to pervasive racial injustices, Wells-Barnett campaigned for the Illinois state senate; though she continued to raise public awareness, she lost the race. The crusader spent the last two years of her life writing her autobiography to document her contributions for future generations. Ida B. Wells-Barnett died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931, at the age of sixtyeight. Her autobiography was published posthumously by her daughter, Alfreda M. Duster. See also: Black Nationalism; Social Activists Further Reading McMurry, Linda. 2000. To Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of Ida B. Wells. New York: Oxford University Press. Myrick-Harris, Clarissa. 2002. ‘‘Against All Odds: The Life of Ida B. Wells.’’ Smithsonian 33 (July): 70–77. Schecter, Patricia. 2001. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880–1930. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Sterling, Dorothy. 1988. Black Foremothers: Three Lives. New York: Feminist Press. Wells, Ida B. 1970. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Clarissa Myrick-Harris
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West, Cornel R. (1953– ), Philosopher, Educator, Activist, Writer Cornel Ronald West, after advancing to the highest echelons of academe, becoming a best-selling author, and receiving additional acclaim as a public intellectual, gained the status of a popular culture celebrity via his role as Councillor West in two sequels to The Matrix (1999): The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), and his lectures infused with R & B and HipHop on recordings such as ‘‘Sketches of My Culture’’ (2001), ‘‘Street Knowledge’’ (2004), and ‘‘Never Forget: A Journey of Revelation’’ (2007). He has also endorsed the hip-hop band named in his honor, the Cornel West Theory. Whether in the classroom, public lecture hall, movie studio, television studio, or recording studio, West steadfastly continues his life’s odyssey of addressing issues that are relevant to contemporary society in general and African Americans in particular. West, the son of Clifton L. West Jr. and Irene West, was born on June 2, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His father was a civilian U.S. Air Force administrator; and his mother was an educator. In 1958 the family, which included West’s three siblings, moved to Sacramento, California, from Topeka, Kansas, where the family had resided since West was two years old. As early as age ten, West revealed social activist proclivities when he, along with other family members, participated in a Sacramento civil rights demonstration. During West’s high school years, his passion for African American studies led to a successful citywide strike by high school students who demanded courses in African American studies. In 1970, at the age of seventeen, West began his matriculation at Harvard University; he graduated three years later with a bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, in Near Eastern languages and literature. West then studied philosophy at Princeton University, where he received a master of arts degree in 1975 and a doctoral degree in 1980. From the late 1970s until the late 1980s, West taught at a variety of institutions, including Union Theological Seminary, Williams College, Yale University Divinity School, and the University of Paris. In 1988 he returned to Princeton after he received dual appointments as professor of religion and director of the Program in Afro-American Studies. Six years later, West joined the faculty of Harvard’s Afro-American Studies Program where Henry Louis Gates Jr. was the director, and in 1998 West was appointed the Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor. His ‘‘Introduction to Afro-American Studies’’ course was so popular that an overflow of students, in violation of fire regulations, sat on the floor in the filled-to-capacity room until the course was moved from the Lowell Lecture Hall to the Sanders Theater. However, after a highly publicized dispute in 2001 with Harvard’s then-president, Lawrence Summers, who questioned some of West’s professional activities such as his recording of the aforementioned CD, ‘‘Sketches of My Culture,’’ West left Harvard one year later for Princeton where he is currently the Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion and African American Studies.
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To date, West’s most critically acclaimed book is Race Matters (1993), a collection of essays that marked his debut as a public intellectual. He has written twenty additional books, including Black Theology and Marxist Thought (1979), Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (1982), Prophetic Fragments (1988), Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism (1993), Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America (1994), The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country (coauthor Henry Louis Gates Jr., 2002), Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (2004), Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom of Cornel West (2008), and Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir (2009). In addition to being a prolific author, West has edited at least thirteen books, including the Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History (coedited with Jack Salzman and David Lionel Smith, 1996). West’s books, especially Race Matters and Prophesy Deliverance!, were among the influential sources for Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski, creators, writers, and directors of The Matrix trilogy. The Wachowski brothers, who persuaded West to make cameo appearances in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, impressed him with their efforts to present African Americans in nonstereotypical roles in their intellectual action movie trilogy. In addition to West’s association with the previously mentioned films, his collaborations with R & B artists such as Prince and Gerald Levert as well as hip-hop stars such as Andre 3000 and KRS-One on ‘‘Never Forget’’ and other CDs have increased the high visibility quotient that West has maintained for decades. West, traveling nationally and internationally, has remained extremely active on the lecture circuit. In December 2003 West, along with Tavis Smiley and Michael Eric Dyson, embarked on a six-city speaking tour titled ‘‘Pass the Mic!’’ where they presented their views on current issues, such as West’s perspective on living in what he labeled a ‘‘pigment-o-cratic society,’’ before interacting with audience members who shared their comments and questions. West has been interviewed or served as a commentator on a variety of television shows including The Colbert Report, The Tavis Smiley Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, and The Mo’Nique Show. West is the father of a son and daughter. Despite setbacks in his personal life that include prostate cancer surgery in 2002, failed marriages, and death threats from white supremacists, his career continues to flourish. West is the recipient of the James Madison Medal, which is the highest award Princeton gives to graduate alumni; he has also received the American Book Award and more than twenty honorary degrees. See also: Class Structure, African American Upper-, Middle-, Underclass; Education: Public and Private; Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Further Reading Appiah, Kwame Anthony, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. 2005. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Gordon, Lewis R. 2008. ‘‘Cornel West.’’ In African American National Biography. Vol. 8. Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. New York: Oxford University Press. Sharlet, Jeff. 2009. ‘‘The Supreme Love and Revolutionary Funk of Dr. Cornel West, Philosopher of the Blues.’’ Rolling Stone (May 28): 54–61. Warren, Nagueyalti. 1999. ‘‘Cornel West.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. West, Cornel, and David Ritz. 2009. Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir. New York: Smiley Books. Yancy, George, ed. 2001. Cornel West: A Critical Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Linda M. Carter
West, Kanye (1977– ), Singer/Rapper, Composer, Producer Though Kanye West’s icon status in the annals of Hip-Hop history is largely still a work in progress, by the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, he seems well on his way. Both 2004’s The College Dropout and 2005’s Late Registration were Billboard chart toppers with successful singles. The former’s ‘‘Jesus Walks’’ won the Best Rap Song Grammy for 2004, and the latter gave us ‘‘Gold Digger,’’ featuring celebrity titan Jamie Foxx, ‘‘Diamonds (From Sierra Leone),’’ ‘‘Heard ’Em Say,’’ and ‘‘Drive Slow.’’ The singles represented a variety of sounds and were widely played in various corporate radio formats and on free and college radio as well. West was making guest appearances and producing on an ever-expanding number of high-profile records, including, in 2005, Common’s highly regarded Be (released by West’s own G. O. O. D. Music label). In addition to the Grammy for ‘‘Jesus Walks,’’ he had won a series of others for his own work, plus more for production and writing he had done for others. West had been included in Time’s 2005 year-end ‘‘People Who Mattered’’ issue and graced that magazine’s cover on August 29, 2005. Finally, and arguably most importantly, West’s solid entrenchment in various political skirmishes in wider debates over issues like censorship and minority and gay rights, in which he didn’t so much choose a side as emerge from the melee unscathed by the right or left, marked him as a singular, accessible voice not only to the so-called hip-hop generation, or the under-thirty crowd, but to a wide swath of the American public. Kanye Omari West was born June 8, 1977, to Donda and Ray West, then living in Atlanta, Georgia, the latter a former Black Panther Party member and prize-winning photographer, the former an English professor who would find work at Chicago State University when Kanye was three. West got a scholarship to attend Chicago’s American Academy of Art to study painting but shortly thereafter transferred to Chicago State University, where his mother taught, as an English major. But he also began to get a few breaks as a producer. Around this time, among his first major beats sold were to Chicago rapper Gravity and Bad Boy Records’ Mase. West’s class schedule wouldn’t allow him to devote the
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time to his production work he felt he needed, so against his mother’s wishes he dropped out. This move would define the young man’s future work. His first album as an MC, The College Dropout (2004), would be devoted to selfaffirmation, the rapper-producer’s life presented as a grand metaphor for trusting your instincts and living life your own way. His mother, Donda, told the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot, ‘‘It was drummed into my head that college is the ticket to a good life . . . but some career goals don’t require college. For Kanye to make an album called College Dropout, it was more about having the guts to embrace who you are, rather than following the path society has carved out for you.’’ He’s a different sort of rapper, for sure. Counting flamboyant pink shirts and Gucci loafers among his eclectic wardrobe, he never played the hustler’s game— not traditionally, anyway. He cites Roc-A-Fella Records’ initial reluctance to take him on as a rapper, in spite of his obvious skills, as a product of this slick image, a direct opposite of the rough-hewn gangsta character of many of that label’s rappers, and the outgrowth of West’s childhood, a relatively placid American life outside the black market economy of guns and drugs. What they didn’t understand at first, West told Time, was that he ‘‘had to hustle his own way.’’ He contends that life itself is a hustle—we all do what we have to do to get by. And somewhere therein lies his appeal. West emerged in a myopic age, when the number of bullets a man had taken seemed to represent the gauge of his possible success as a rapper. In the wake of the seemingly endless mythologizing surrounding the bulletriddled corpses of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B. I. G. (Biggie Smalls), West’s contemporary, 50 Cent, despite debatable skills as an MC, has ridden thug appeal to its apotheosis in his success. West redefined boundaries, bringing millions of fans with him in the process. But his valuable critique of hip-hop’s contradictory cultural identity—his stance in opposition to homophobia, his antithug persona, his portraits of the women in his life as characters with more than a single dimension, and so on—was not only a critique. West managed via a complex strategy to at once deliver the contradictions in all their splendor. Rather than occupy a pulpit, he seemed to prefer the populist’s strategy: he walks among his fellow travelers in the game, including his fans. His lyrics, though often quite personal, just as regularly proceeded from a point of view as theatrical as that of Andre 3000 of fellow genre-benders OutKast. He spoke from the heart, undercutting hip-hop convention, and at once played the part of the MC as it has been traditionally known—as in the work of a genre-defying novelist, there’s just enough separation between the two stances to render his message in the minds of listeners as simultaneously authentic, told from a singular perspective, and the product of a brilliant artist with an important agenda. He is unique in this light, in addition to being among the select company of Dr. Dre and Wu-Tang’s RZA as an MC-producer to see success in both arenas simultaneously. With two albums in the bag, by mid-2006 Kanye had played a prominent performing role in the hip-hop feature film Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and was working on his own film, a grouping of short stories linked by a central theme and backed by his music, with multiple directors overseen by George C. Wolfe
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(director of the erstwhile TV miniseries Lackawanna Blues). West was likewise working on a third in what he had planned as a sort of tetralogy of records connected by an overarching scholastic theme. The first sees the protagonist dropping out of school to do things his own way. On the second he’s back in; the planned third album sees his triumphant Graduation, to be followed hopefully by A Good Ass Job, still in the works in 2010. The jury was out on whether West could sustain the wild success of the first two, The College Dropout and Late Registration, but he has shown little sign of becoming complacent. His extreme selfconfidence—many of his detractors called it arrogance and predicted it would be his tragic flaw—led him down a path toward either greatness or hubristic dissolution. But meanwhile his legacy with regard to the genre on the whole, still far from certain, was beginning to solidify. He released the album Late Registration in 2006, and in 2008, 808s & Heartbreak, referring to the death of his mother and the break up with his fiancee. In 2009, he caused a brief but well-publicized stir when he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for best female video award at the MTV Music Video Awards to explain that Beyonce Knowles should have won. West apologized to Swift later. See also: Rap Music and Rappers Further Reading Brown, Jake. 2006. Kanye West in the Studio: Beats Down! Money Up! The Studio Years (2000–2006). Phoenix, AZ: Colossus Books. Kot, Greg. 2006. ‘‘The Grammys Just Don’t Get It.’’ Chicago Tribune, February 5. Kot, Greg. 2004. ‘‘Rapper’s Rise: From South Side to Top of Charts.’’ Chicago Tribune, February 11. Schaller, Robert Jr. 2009. Kanye West: A Biography. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press. Todd Dills
Wheatley, Phillis (c. 1753–84), Poet Phillis Wheatley, author of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) and self-proclaimed ‘‘Afric’s muse,’’ was the first African American as well as the second American woman to publish a book. She was the most well-known African American woman in Colonial America and the first African American writer to receive international attention. More importantly Wheatley, upon the publication of Poems, became the progenitor of African American belles-lettres as well as literature by African American women. Wheatley, born circa 1753 in West Africa, was kidnapped when she was seven or eight years old. After enduring the traumas of the Middle Passage, Wheatley arrived in Boston on board the slave ship Phillis during the summer of
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1761. The young girl, who had only a soiled carpet to shield her naked body, was forced to stand with other Africans before potential buyers at a slave auction. She was purchased by John Wheatley, a prominent businessman, after his wife, Susanna, selected the child. The Wheatleys owned several adult slaves, yet Susanna wanted to train a young slave to assist her as she grew older. Apparently Phillis only performed light chores due to her consistent health problems and Susanna’s evident fondness for her. Shortly after Phillis’s arrival at the Wheatley mansion, she frequently attempted to write on a wall with chalk or charcoal. Impressed with her intellectual potential, the Wheatleys defied a major tenet of slavery when they allowed Phillis to learn how to read and write. The fact that she was provided with educational opportunity in Colonial America is unusual because of Wheatley’s dual identity as a slave and a female. Within sixteen months of her arrival in America, she had mastered the English language to the extent that she could read the most difficult biblical passages. As Wheatley continued to progress, she added literature and Latin to her studies while education for white girls during the Colonial period generally consisted of mastering household duties in preparation for marriage. The Wheatley residence was located at the corner of Mackerel Lane and King Street (now known as Kilby and State Streets) several blocks from the Old State House. Thus, as Wheatley grew up during the earlier years of the American Revolutionary Era, events such as the Stamp Act Riot in August 1765, as well as the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, took place in her neighborhood. Wheatley wrote ‘‘On the Affray in King-Street, on the Evening of the 5th of March,’’ which honors Crispus Attucks, an African American and the American Revolution’s first martyr. The growing tension between the American Colonies and England was even reflected, at times, in church attendance. On August 18, 1770, Wheatley became a member of the Old South Church, which tended to be favored by those who were anti-British. However, John and Susanna Wheatley were members of the New South Church, which tended to be favored by those who were pro-British. Publishes Poems Wheatley’s earliest known writing is a letter, written in 1765 and apparently lost, to Samson Occom, a Native American minister. To date, there are twentythree extant Wheatley letters, and eight are addressed to her friend, Obour Tanner, an African American woman who lived in Newport, Rhode Island. Wheatley’s first published poem, ‘‘On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,’’ appeared in the Newport Mercury, on December 21, 1767, when Wheatley was thirteen or fourteen years old; she was inspired to write the poem after hearing how the two men narrowly escaped becoming drowning victims during a Cape Cod storm. She garnered greater attention when her poem, ‘‘On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield. 1770,’’ was published as a broadside in America and reprinted in 1771 in London where it appeared in Ebenezer Pemberton’s Heaven
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the Residence of Saints. Wheatley’s poetic tribute to Whitefield would prove pivotal to her career. She endeavored to publish a volume of verse as early as 1772, and a proposal seeking subscribers was published in Boston newspapers during the first half of the year; however Wheatley’s proposal was unsuccessful because many people did not believe that an African American could create poetry. Later that year, Wheatley, who was either eighteen or nineteen years old, was interrogated by a panel of eighteen respected and influential Bostonian males who ascertained that Wheatley was the author of the poems; the panel’s attestation was published in Poems. After Selina Hastings, the countess of Huntingdon, read the poem about Whitefield, her former chaplain and realized the obstacles Wheatley faced attempting to publish the book in America, Hastings agreed to pay for the London publication of Poems. In 1773, after a doctor advised a voyage to improve Wheatley’s frail health, she sailed from Boston aboard the London Packet, a schooner owned by her master, in May and arrived in London in June. While in England, Wheatley attended to matters related to the publication of Poems and met Benjamin Franklin as well as a number of prominent British men and women. When she received word that Susanna was ill, she sailed from England in late July, on board the London Packet, and arrived in Boston in September, the same month that Poems was published in London. In addition to Wheatley’s verse, Poems is significant for its frontispiece illustration of Wheatley, which may be the single extant work by Scipio Moorehead, a fellow slave in Boston and the subject of ‘‘To S.M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works,’’ included in Poems. Also in 1773, an even greater milestone than the publication of Poems occurred in Wheatley’s life when her writing talent led to her liberation; in October her master, urged by Wheatley’s London acquaintances, emancipated her. Wheatley was an abolitionist; she voiced her opposition to slavery in a February 11, 1774, letter to Samson Occom, and that letter was published in newspapers across New England. Wheatley’s verse was favored by nineteenth century abolitionists who reprinted her poems in various periodicals in their campaign to end human bondage. On April 1, 1778, Wheatley married John Peters, who was a free African American and grocer prior to engaging in other occupations that proved financially unsuccessful. However, just as slavery had been unable to stifle Wheatley’s literary voice, neither could marriage. After her wedding, she signed her poems as Phillis Peters. She bore three children, yet they did not live beyond early childhood. While Wheatley dealt with grief and health problems, she wrote a proposal for a second book, Poems and Letters, on Various Subjects, that appeared in the Evening Post and General Advertiser in 1779 and in The Boston Magazine in September, 1784; yet the three-hundred-paged manuscript was never published, and most of the poems are lost. Among the last verse published during Wheatley’s lifetime are two 1784 poems: the four-page pamphlet, ‘‘Liberty and Peace,’’ which celebrates America’s independence; and ‘‘An Elegy on Leaving,’’ which was published five months before Wheatley’s death and focuses on hope in spite of imminent death. Wheatley, at the age of thirty or thirty-one, died in Boston
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on December 5, 1784, and was buried in an unmarked grave. Ironically the first American edition of Poems did not appear until two years later, when it was published in Philadelphia, thirteen years after its initial London publication. Throughout the centuries following her death, Phillis Wheatley has remained one of the most well-known names in African American literature, yet until the last decades of the twentieth century, Wheatley’s poetry has generally been misunderstood and/or ignored because of her perceived acquiescence to the institution of slavery. However, what is now being realized is that Wheatley, although enslaved, dared to create an identity for herself as a poet that forced Colonial America to acknowledge her humanity and writing competence. Wheatley not only learned the language of the oppressor; she excelled in language usage as she used her pen to affirm her African heritage as well as religious beliefs and to advocate American independence and slavery’s abolition. See also: Poets and Poetry Further Reading Bly, Antonio T. 1998. ‘‘On the Affray in King Street.’’ Explicator 56 (Summer): 177– 80. Literature Resource Center. Caretta, Vincent, ed. 2000. Phillis Wheatley: Complete Writings. New York: Penguin Books. Foster, Frances Smith. 1993. ‘‘‘Sometimes by Simile, a Victory’s Won’: Lucy Terry Prince and Phillis Wheatley.’’ In Written by Herself: Literary Production by African-American Women, 1746–1892. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Gates, Henry Louis Jr. 2003. The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America’s First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers. New York: Basic Civitas Books. Kaplan, Sidney, and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. 1989. ‘‘Phillis Wheatley.’’ In The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Rev. ed. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Odell, Margaretta Matilda. 1834. Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave. Boston: Geo. E. Light. In (online facsimile) Documenting the American South. http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/wheatley/menu.html. O’Neale, Sondra. A. (n.d.) ‘‘Phillis Wheatley.’’ The Poetry Foundation. http://www .poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81619 Shields, John C. 2008. Phillis Wheatley’s Poetics of Liberation: Backgrounds and Contexts. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Linda M. Carter
Whitaker, Forest (1961– ), Actor, Director, Producer Forest Whitaker is a prominent actor, director, and producer who became the fifth African American to win an Academy Award in a leading role, for his portrayal of Idi Amin in the 2006 motion picture, The Last King of Scotland.
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Whitaker was born in Longview, Texas, in 1961. His father, an insurance salesman, and mother, a teacher, moved the family to Los Angeles and later Carson, California, where Whitaker attended high school. After receiving a football scholarship to California State University at Pomona, his interest in music and drama became his focus, and he transferred to the University of Southern California. His first non-extra role was in the 1982 motion picture Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He also appeared in The Color of Money (1986), A Rage in Harlem (1991), The Crying Game (1992), The Great Debaters (2007), and Vantage Point (2008). Whitaker also made appearances in television series and movies, earning him nominations for a 2006 Satellite Award and a 2007 Emmy Award for The Shield and ER respectively. Other television appearances include Criminal Justice (1990), Lush Life (1993), The Enemy Within (1994), and Deacons for Defense (2003). Whitaker is known for immersing himself into roles, focusing on painstaking details for realistic portrayals. To prepare for his role as Charlie ‘‘Yardbird’’ Parker in the film Bird, he took saxophone lessons, which he still plays, and researched the effects drug abuse had on the jazz player. For this hard work and dedication to research, Whitaker received the best actor award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. In preparation for portraying the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, Whitaker learned Swahili and imitated Amin’s accent during the making of the film, even when he was off the set. This role gained Whitaker the most success, not only receiving an Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but a Golden Globe for best lead actor, the NAACP Image Award for outstanding actor in a motion picture, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor. Whitaker is not only a successful actor but has contributed to his craft as a director and producer, owning a multimedia company, Spirit Dance Entertainment. His directorial debut in 1993’s Strapped was awarded an International Critics’ Award for best new director. Whitaker also has directed the feature films Waiting to Exhale (1995), Hope Floats (1998), and First Daughter (2004). As executive producer of the made-for-television movie Door to Door (2002), he earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie. In 2007 he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Whitaker lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children. See also: Entertainment Industry; Parker, Charlie Further Reading Alexander, George. 2003. Why We Make Movies: Black Filmmakers Talk about the Magic of Cinema. New York: Harlem Moon. Donalson, Melvin Burke. 2003. Black Directors in Hollywood. Austin: University of Texas Press. Kram, Mark, Sara Pendergast, and Derek Jacques. 2008. ‘‘Forest Whitaker.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 67. Detroit: Gale. Melissa Johnson
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White, Walter (1893–1955), Organization Executive, Civil Rights Leader, Writer The courage, energy, and determination of Walter White did much to bring to the political stage the matter of race relations in this country. He is one of the leaders and pioneers on whose shoulders stand younger stars in the fight for wholesome race relations. His work with the NAACP has been pivotal, especially as he put in place the mechanism to fight racial segregation in public education that ended in the famous Brown v. Board of Education decision. All that White did is still felt today in some aspect of African American popular culture. Born in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta on July 1, 1893, Walter Francis White was the son of George and Madeline Harrison White—the fourth of their seven children. Although the blue-eyed, blond-haired, faircomplexioned White actually looked Caucasian, his looks did not always protect him; for example, in 1906 he and his father witnessed a disturbing racial crisis near their home when he was thirteen years old. The Atlanta Race Riot had spread, and a blood-thirsty white mob almost invaded his home. This instilled in young Walter ‘‘what it meant to be a Negro.’’ When he received his first hotel job later on, he inadvertently passed as white. In 1915, White left his hotel job and sold policies on a part-time basis for Standard Life Insurance, headed by Harry Pace, who later founded Black Swan records. White became familiar with living conditions for rural blacks, for he spent much of his time selling insurance in the areas where they lived. After graduating from Atlanta University in 1916, he joined the company full-time, became active in black Atlanta’s civic life, and helped to campaign against the mounting racial discrimination that the board of education practiced. In that year as well, the local school board made high school education available to whites but planned to end provisions for blacks beyond the sixth grade. This incensed the black community and late that year black leaders formed a branch of the NAACP to take up the fight. NAACP field secretary James Weldon Johnson addressed the first public meeting of Atlanta’s NAACP chapter, becoming impressed with Walter White’s fiery address at the meeting. Later, Johnson wrote to White offering him employment at the New York office. White moved to New York City in 1918 and joined the NAACP’s staff as assistant secretary. He was concerned about the organization, however, for the small organization was still in its infancy and in shaky condition. On February 12, Johnson learned about lynchings in Estill Springs, Tennessee, and accepted White’s decision to go to the scene. Again White passed for Caucasian as he made an on-site investigation, but put his life in jeopardy. During the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the NAACP sent White there to organize a defense for local blacks who were erroneously charged with attacking whites. His life was at risk there too, and he barely escaped a bullet in the aftermath of that disorder. After Johnson became the NAACP’s first African American secretary in 1920, he and White worked closely and helped to make the NAACP the leading
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racial advancement organization in the African American community. Johnson and White had different but complementary personalities. His wide range of political, civic, and literary contacts, as well as diplomacy, made Johnson a suitable ambassador to both the white and black communities. On the other hand, White was an excellence administrator and later mastered complex legal matters that the NAACP faced. Both Johnson and White were important during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. White aimed to become a successful writer and thus published three books. Fire in the Flint, published in 1924, is a novel about a black doctor who confronts racism head on. His second novel, Flight, came in 1927, and deals with the theme of passing. His book Rope and Faggot, published in 1929, explores the racial situation in the United States and gives an analysis of the causes of Lynching. White used his writings as well as his work in the field to crusade for the rights of black people. Johnson grew tired and frail, and the organization needed a new leader. Having on hand the able Walter White, who had a good relationship with the board, in 1931 the organization appointed White to succeed Johnson as NAACP secretary. Board member Joel E. Spingarn was elected president. Between 1930 and 1935, the men worked well together to forge a strong administration. Their relationship weakened later on, however, after Spingarn initiated financial retrenchment due to a fiscal crisis. Internal struggles led to Spingarn’s resignation as chairman of the board in 1935; however, he remained on the board until 1939, when he died. Between 1937 and 1938, White worked hard, though to no avail, to secure passage of an anti-lynching bill. White’s continuous battle to fight racial segregation resulted in a foundation grant to the NAACP to hire noted black lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston as its legal counsel. The somewhat independent legal team soon included such luminaries as William H. Hastie and Thurgood Marshall. The team’s legal campaign to dismantle legal segregation resulted in the famous Brown v. Board of Education, passed in 1954 not long before White died in March 1955. White must be credited for helping to form the United Nations in 1945. In 1948, he was also a delegate to the U.N.’s General Assembly in Paris. White regularly wrote articles for major magazines, such as the Saturday Evening Post and Reader’s Digest, and columns for the Chicago Defender and the New York Herald Tribune. After he was called to investigate the conditions of black troops during World War II, White decided to become a war correspondent for the New York Post as well. Among his last books were A Rising Wind (1945), A Man Called White (1948) and, after his death, How Far the Promised Land (1955). Walter White married Leah Gladys Powell in 1922; after their divorce, he married Poppy Cannon in 1950. While he died before the Civil Rights Movement flowered, he had made his mark in his thirty-year fight against racial discrimination, lynchings, racial stereotyping in the Entertainment Industry, and Race Riots. See also: Social Activists
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Further Reading Canon, Poppy. 1956. A Gentle Knight: My Husband, Walter White. New York: Rinehart. Connor, Tim. 1993. ‘‘Walter F. White.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Detroit: Gale Research. Johns, Robert L. 1999. ‘‘Walter White.’’ In Notable Black American Men. Jessie Carney Smith, ed. Detroit: Gale Research. Meier, August, and Elliott Rudwick. 1982. ‘‘Walter F. White.’’ In Dictionary of African American Negro Biography. Rayfod W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds. New York: Norton. White, Walter. 1948. A Man Called White. New York: Viking. Jessie Carney Smith
Whitfield, Lynn (1954– ), Actress Lynn Whitfield is a woman of poise, grace, and charm. These traits, coupled with her skill in acting, helped to land important roles for her often alongside well-known black stars. African American popular culture recognizes her particularly for the roles she has played in films by black writers. She has become a prime figure in the African American community. Lynn Smith, as Whitfield was known, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on February 15, 1954 (or May 6, 1953), to Valerian Smith, a dentist, and Jean Butler Smith, a financial officer. The Emmy Award–winning actress is said to be of African American and Native American (Cherokee) descent and the oldest of four children. Whitfield’s interest in acting developed when she was a young child and watched Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn in old movies. Later she was introduced to popular African American actresses, such as Dorothy Dandridge, Diahann Carroll, and Diana Sands. She set her aim on becoming more than an actress, but a star entertainer. Whitfield’s parents were also instrumental in developing their daughter’s interest in acting, as her father drew on his experience in a community theater in Baton Rouge, and her mother, an accomplished amateur musician and costume designer, helped her cultural development. Still, they were disappointed when their daughter chose show business as her career. Whitfield graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC, with a bachelor of fine arts degree. While a student there, she studied and performed with the local Black Repertory Company and appeared in the musical Owen’s Song and the play Changes. Around this time she married playwright and director Vantile Whitfield; they divorced five years later. Lynn Whitfield moved to New York and soon appeared in off-Broadway shows, such as The Great MacDaddy and Showdown. She was cast in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, co-starring Alfre Woodard and Mary Alice; its national tour took her to Los Angeles. Hollywood beckoned and Whitfield responded, making her film debut in 1983 in a bit role in the comedy Doctor Detroit, with Dan Ackroyd. Her career in films
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and television developed rapidly, and in 1986 she appeared in the television movie The George McKenna Story. The African American community welcomed her in the 1989 television miniseries The Women of Brewster Place, in which Oprah Winfrey costarred. Whitfield had other television appearances, finally starring in the 1991 HBO cable film The Josephine Baker Story, beating out such high profile women as Diahann Carroll, Irene Cara, and Whitney Houston. During the filming she and director Brian Gibson fell in love and married in London in 1990; they divorced in 1992. When the film premiered in March 1991, Whitfield received excellent reviews, compared to the mixed reviews that the film was given. According to some critics, this was the peak of her career. For her portrayal of Josephine Baker, Whitfield received an Emmy Award as well as a CableACE award. In 1992, she appeared in the television film Stompin’ at the Savoy and won an NAACP Image Award for her performance. Her costars included Vanessa Williams, Jasmine Guy, and Vanessa Bell Calloway. Whitfield continued to appear with high profile figures; for example, in 1994 she appeared in the short-lived The Cosby Mysteries, alongside Bill Cosby. Whitfield joined other African American actresses of that time and experienced some difficulty in landing roles. Her career saw an upsurge in the late 1990s, however, when she landed roles in several films, including the much-feted Eve’s Bayou in 1997 and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate in 1998. In 1998 as well, Whitfield appeared in Oprah Winfrey’s miniseries, The Wedding, and in 2004, with Jamie Foxx in Redemption. She has had recurring roles in the television series Without a Trace. In 1998, I Want to Sing, and in 2006 in Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion, she appeared in The Women, in 2009 in the film Mama. As result of her successful appearances on stage, screen, and on television, Whitfield has become a cultural icon.
Further Reading International Movie Database. (n.d.) ‘‘Biography for Lynn Whitfield.’’ http://www .imdb.com/name/nm0005551/bio. Kalfatovic, Mary. 1998. ‘‘Lynn Whitfield.’’ Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 18. Detroit: Gale. Lynn Whitfield. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005551/ Jessie Carney Smith
Wilkens, Lenny (1937– ), Basketball Coach, Professional Basketball Player Lenny Wilkens is a pioneering NBA Basketball player and coach, a modern day hero in African American popular culture. In the 1960s, when Wilkens started out as a basketball player in the NBA, becoming, shortly thereafter, the
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second African American coach in the industry, Wilkens was a role model for African Americans. In those early years, African Americans were poorly represented in the industry, and the NBA was not the glamorous money-making industry it is now. For many years, Wilkens was rarely recognized for his many talents, especially as a coach who had an uncanny ability of transforming failing basketball teams. However, he would be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame as a basketball player in 1989 and a coach in 1998, only one of three players with that distinction. In 1996, the NBA bestowed him with more glowing accolades as one of fifty of the greatest basketball players and ten greatest coaches. Currently, Wilkens holds the record for participating in more games as a basketball player and coach and the most wins as a coach. Wilkens retired from coaching in 2005. Leonard Randolph Wilkens Jr. began life on October 28, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Leonard, an African American, and Henrietta, an Irish woman. Tragically, when Wilkens was just five years old, his father died. Henrietta Wilkens carried her family, including four children, through many financial hardships. To help support the family, Wilkens started working at only nine years old. Wilkens’s memories of childhood were bittersweet, including the painful loss of his father, indignities of being on welfare, confrontations with racism, as well as the rich life in the culturally diverse Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up Roman Catholic and attending Holy Rosary School made a lasting impact on Wilkens. During those years, Thomas Mannion, a priest, played a pivotal role in Wilkens’s life, watching over him and facilitating his entrance into basketball. Wilkens played basketball on the Boys High School team and then received an athletic scholarship to attend Providence College in Rhode Island. Wilkens, who has always been proud of both his African and Irish American heritage, was forced to deal with racism as a child and an adult. For most of the twentieth century, racism in the United States was overt and lacked the social stigma that it has now. Nonetheless, Wilkens blazed trails as an officer in the armed forces. Between 1960 and 1968, he played with the St. Louis Hawks. In 1968, he took second place to Wilt Chamberlain, another African American, as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. He became a Seattle favorite when he played on the Seattle SuperSonics team and, as a coach, took the team to its first-ever win in the championships in 1979. (He has also served as the team’s general manager.) Wilkens also played a pivotal role in the successes of other teams, such as the Portland Trail Blazers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors, and New York Knicks. As an assistant coach, Wilkens helped win a gold medal for the Dream Team in the U.S. Olympics. In 1996, he was the head coach in the U.S. Olympic basketball team. Wilkens, who is well-known for his quiet dignity and integrity, has been married to his wife, Marilyn, since 1962. They have three children. See also: Sports
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Further Reading Lenny Wilkens Foundation. (Homepage.) http://www.lennywilkensfoundation.org/. NBA. (n.d.) ‘‘Coach Bio: Lenny Wilkens.’’ http://www.nba.com/coachfile/lenny_wilkens/. NBA. (n.d.) ‘‘Lenny Wilkens.’’ NBA Encyclopedia. http://www.nba.com/history/players/ wilkens_summary.html. Wilkens, Lenny. 1974. The Lenny Wilkens Story. New York: Paul S. Eriksson. Wilkens, Lenny, and Terry Pluto. 2000. Unguarded: My Forty Years Surviving in the NBA. New York: Simon & Schuster. Gladys L. Knight
Wilkins, Roy O. (1901–81), Newspaper Reporter, Civil Rights Leader, Organization Leader Since its founding in 1912 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has been the leading civil rights organization advocating equally under the law for African Americans. This national organization saw substantial growth in its membership, and took on a more progressive role in American life under the leadership of Roy Wilkins. Wilkins’s fortitude and sense of justice are emulated today by younger social activists whose worldview is greatly influenced by Facebook and Hip-Hop, and other components of American popular culture. Wilkins was born August 30, 1901, in St. Louis, Missouri, to William and Mayfield Edmundson Wilkins. The oldest of three children, Roy was born a year after his parents abruptly left Mississippi, after the elder Wilkins beat a white farmer for insulting him. In 1905 Wilkins’s mother died of tuberculosis, and he and his two siblings were sent to St. Paul, Minnesota, to live with his mother’s sister and her husband. Elizabeth and Sam Williams provided an enriching and stable home life for the Wilkins children in a multiethnic neighborhood. In 1919 Wilkins graduated as salutatorian of his high school and entered the University of Minnesota that fall. In high school an English teacher, Mary Copley, encouraged his interest in literature. Later at the University of Minnesota, Wilkins studied journalism and worked on the campus newspaper staff as a reporter, the first African American to do so. In 1922, while still a college student, Wilkins worked as a reporter for the St. Paul Appeal, an African American weekly newspaper. While at the newspaper his awareness of racial injustice was greatly enhanced, particularly after becoming the paper’s managing editor. Following graduation from college in 1923, Wilkins found work as a reporter for the Kansas City Call. During this time he met Minnie Badeau, a social worker. The couple wed in 1929.
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Roy Wilkins holds a noose typical of those that white segregationists, mobs and Ku Klux Klan members used to intimidate or lynch blacks. Wilkins was a lifelong activist in the Civil Rights Movement and a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for nearly 50 years. (Library of Congress)
In 1931, at the urging of NAACP executive secretary Walter White, whom Wilkins had first met as a reporter in Kansas City, Wilkins was asked to assume the position of assistant executive secretary for the organization. In 1931 Roy and Minnie Wilkins moved to New York City, and Wilkins became White’s assistant. In 1934 with the resignation of W. E. B. Du Bois, the longtime editor of the NAACP’s publication, the Crisis Magazine, Wilkins became the editor of the venerable magazine. His background as reporter and editor led to decisions that increased the magazine’s circulation. Wilkins’s friend and mentor Walter White died in 1955 and Wilkins was selected to take over the leadership. His tenure as executive secretary coincided with the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas) case recently won by the NAACP. Often referred to as ‘‘Mr. Civil Rights,’’ Wilkins was a moderate pragmatic strategist who believed in using the legal system and government allies to effect change in the scope of African American civil liberties. He rarely employed
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direct confrontation as a strategy, but instead preferred to work behind the scenes using the NAACP’s considerable resources to assist the more vocal and visible civil rights leaders of the 1960s. Black nationalists such as Malcolm X and younger Black Power Movement leaders sometimes considered Wilkins’s moderate views and tactics controversial and ineffective. The historic March on Washington took place in 1963 and Wilkins and the NAACP were major contributors to its success. By 1976 Wilkins had been a part of the NAACP for forty-five years, and his health was suffering due to a recurrence of cancer. He officially retired from the helm of the organization in 1977 and died on September 8, 1981. See also: Black Nationalism; Social Activists Further Reading Meier, August. 1970. Black Protest in the Sixties. Chicago: Quadrangle Books. Miller, Calvin C. 2005. Roy Wilkins: Leader of the NAACP. Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds. Wilkins, Roy, and Tom Mathews. 1982. Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins. New York: Viking. Carter B. Cue
Williams, Deniece (1950– ), Singer, Songwriter, Actress Deniece Williams’s singing career spans over three decades; even so, the pinnacle of her popularity occurred between the 1970s and 1980s. Williams’s distinctive voice, with its four-octave range, reminiscent of the controlled tremulous quality of a flute, is deemed one of the trademark sounds of African American music that emerged following the golden age of Motown music, between 1961 and 1971. Motown Records, the first African American–owned record label, originally located in Detroit, Michigan, was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in 1959. The record label produced a flurry of performers, such as the Miracles, the Marvelettes, the Four Tops, and Marvin Gaye, establishing a soulful, urban sound that appealed to blacks and whites. After singing backup with Stevie Wonder and other performers, Williams pursued a solo career, mostly gaining popularity with black audiences. Among her hit songs were ‘‘Free,’’ which was released on her This is Niecy album in 1976; ‘‘Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,’’ a 1978 duet with Johnny Mathis; ‘‘It’s Gonna Take a Miracle’’ from her 1982 Niecy album; and ‘‘Let’s Hear It for the Boy,’’ a song that was featured on the soundtrack for the popular film Footloose (1984). Since the late 1980s, Williams has recorded gospel and secular music, performed in plays, and made cameo appearances on television. Born June Deniece Chandler on June 3, 1950, in Gary, Indiana, to vocally talented parents, Lee, a preacher, and Alma, a nurse, Williams was just three years
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old when she was encouraged to sing in church choirs. Williams’s career was greatly influenced by gospel music, as well as the enormously popular Motown music. Williams’s professional singing career began early. While a high school student working at a record store, Williams, at the behest of the store owner, recorded her first single, ‘‘Love is Tears,’’ in 1968. Upon hearing this song, Stevie Wonder hired Williams for one of his backup singers. She sang backup with several other singers, including white performers like Tom Jones and James Taylor, spawning her interest in nontraditional black music, and performed in clubs to save money for college (she wanted to be an anesthetist). After marrying Ken Williams, she had two sons, Ken and Kevin. This marriage eventually ended in divorce. Maurice White, the lead singer of Earth, Wind, and Fire, is largely responsible for taking Williams to the next level in her career. Dazzled by her talent, White helped Williams record her debut solo album, This is Niecy, in 1976. Her album’s success came during the milieu of disco fever; however, Williams was mostly known for her romantic ballads. While working with White, Williams’s career further developed through writing several songs, gaining knowledge about the music industry, and producing a steady output of albums. Williams was productive throughout the 1980s. Although a second marriage ended in another divorce, Williams enjoyed increased popularity with mainstream audiences with hits like, ‘‘It’s Gonna Take a Miracle’’ and ‘‘Let’s Hear It for the Boy.’’ By the end of the decade, Hip-Hop music emerged, eclipsing conventional vocal talent. Williams made significant career changes near the close of the 1980s. She crossed over into gospel music, performed in theaters in London and Japan, and recorded a radio show for the British Broadcasting Corporation. She also married briefly for a third time, giving birth to two more sons, Forrest and Logan. In 2007, Williams recorded her seventeenth album. Currently, she is working on a forthcoming book about divorce and supporting her sons’ aspirations in film and rap music. See also: Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups Further Reading Bogdanov, Vladimir, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Erlewine, eds. 2003. All Music Guide to Soul: The Definitive Guide to R & B and Soul. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. Carpenter, Bill. 2005. Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. Suosalo, Heikki. (n.d.) ‘‘Deniece Williams.’’ Soul Express Interview/Article. http://www .soulexpress.net/deniecewilliams.htm. Williams, Deniece. 1993. Lullabies to Dreamland. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers. Gladys L. Knight
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Williams, Juan (1954– )Television and Radio News Correspondent, Journalist Juan Williams is a senior national correspondent for National Public Radio and a frequent panelist or commentator on Fox news programs such as Fox News Sunday, Hannity and Colmes, and the O’Reilly Factor. An Emmy Award–winning journalist, news analyst, author, and radio and television correspondent, Williams was born in April 10, 1954, in Colon, Panama. He moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, in 1958 and lived there until he left for Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where he majored in philosophy. Because of a newspaper internship during his college years, he decided that journalism was his life work. Williams graduated from Haverford in 1976 and landed a job at the Washington Post the same year. He stayed at the Post until 1999, serving as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist, and White House correspondent. While still at the Post, he along with a production team produced the 1987 book Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–65. This book accompanied a fourteen-hour PBS television series of the same name. The series won numerous awards and has re-aired many times. This book and the series document the thousands of ordinary people—black and white—who became the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement. He also wrote scripts for a series of documentaries, including ‘‘Politics—The New Black Power,’’ ‘‘A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom,’’ and ‘‘Marian Anderson.’’ During his tenure at the Washington Post, Williams got critical attention when he argued in 1991 that allegations against conservative Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas were wholly unsubstantiated. Although Williams continued to write, he left the Post. In 1996, he became host of a television program, America’s Black Forum, featuring political commentary by activists and journalists. He joined Fox News in 1997. The next year he published a biography entitled, Thurgood Marshall: An American Revolutionary (1998). As a senior national correspondent for National Public Radio, he provides analysis of major events. He also provides commentary on programs such as CNN Crossfire. A prolific author, he has dozens of books and articles to his credit. Has written for Ebony, Fortune, GQ, and the New Republic His 2006 book Enough! The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—And What We Can Do About It, led to much spirited debate about the state of African Americans. Other books by Williams show his multifaceted interest in African American history and culture. These include This Far by Faith: Stories from the AfricanAmerican Religious Experience (with Quinton Dixie, 2003); I’ll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (2004); and My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience (2004). Williams is presently on a number of boards, including the Haverford College Board of Trustees, the Aspen Institute of Communications and Society Program, Washington Journalism Center, and the New York Civil Rights Coalition. See also: Journalism and Journalists; Television
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Further Reading NPR. (n.d.) ‘‘Juan Williams, News Analyst.’’ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story .php?storyId=1930705. Williams, Juan. 2006. Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It. New York: Crown Publishers. Williams, Juan. 1998. Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary. New York: Times Books. 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, with the Eyes on the Prize production team. 1987. Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–63. New York: Viking Penguin. Debra Newman Ham
Williams, Vanessa (1963– ), Actress, Singer The vitality and endurance of her artistic work have proved wrong any detractors who wrote that Vanessa Lynn Williams’s career was over after her reign as the first African American woman to be crowned Miss America ended abruptly in scandal. After decades of solid artistic work in the entertainment field, Vanessa Williams today is one of the most respected singers, songwriters, and film, television, and stage actresses. Famous for her enduring beauty and grace, she is a notable fashionista, spokesperson, and philanthropist; she mostly recently starred in the popular television series Ugly Betty, now cancelled in fall 2010 she joined the popular television series Desperate Housewives. Vanessa Williams was born on March 18, 1963, in Tarrytown, New York, to music teachers Helen and Milton Augustine Williams Jr. She and her younger brother Chris, also an actor, grew up in Millwood, New York, in a primarily white subdivision. Vanessa’s parents enforced strict music practice regimens on their children, which eventually benefited her in her career. She studied French horn, piano, voice, and dance. After winning a scholarship to Syracuse University, she left to pursue a musical career. She was later awarded an honorary degree from Syracuse. In 1988, after the Miss America controversy died down (after embarrassing photographs of her surfaced in Penthouse magazine, she had to resign her title), Williams scored a recording deal for her first album, The Right Stuff, which climbed to the top ten on the Billboard charts. Her second album, The Comfort Zone, contained the major hit of her career, ‘‘Save the Best for Last,’’ which charted number one in the country for five weeks, as well as hitting in overseas markets. The Comfort Zone sold 2.2 million copies, went triple platinum, and earned three Grammy nominations. Her third album, The Sweetest Days, also certified platinum and earned two Grammy nominations. Over the years, Williams released several other albums, all with commercial success. Branching out into acting, she debuted in music videos. Her 1984 television debut came in The Love Boat, followed by a sprinkling of guest appearances in
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made-for-television movies, miniseries, and advertisements. After television, Williams acted in several feature films, notably, Soul Food, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Eraser (costarring Arnold Schwarzenegger), My Brother, And Then Came Love, and Hannah Montana: The Movie. She currently alternates between television, film, and stage appearances. Williams appeared on Broadway in Into the Woods in 2002 and Kiss of the Spiderwoman in 1995. Back on Broadway in 2010, she is a star in the musical Sondheim on Sondheim at Studio 54. Vanessa Williams has been married twice, first to her then-manager, Ramon Hervey II from 1987 until 1997. She has three children from this marriage. Her second marriage was to former NBA basketball player, Rick Fox. This marriage produced a daughter, Sasha Gabriella, born in 2000, but came to an end after the National Enquirer published photographs of Fox kissing another woman. Williams has said in interviews that each divorce was like a kind of death, the death of a dream. In the long run, she has managed to blend her family and sometimes entertains at holidays with both of her former husbands sitting down together at the table. As her brother Chris says, ‘‘Any woman who can have one ex-husband cook Thanksgiving dinner and have the other ex-husband clean up after dinner, that’s pretty special. . . .’’ Williams comes from a family of optimists. Her parents were together for fifty years, making the 2006 death of her father difficult for the entire family. In addition to other charitable organizations, Williams works for SOS Children’s Villages. Many who have worked with Vanessa Williams consider her the ultimate professional. Her beauty, perseverance, and talent continue to inspire her fans. See also: Beauty Pageants Further Reading Cole, Harriette. 2008. ‘‘Claiming Her All.’’ Ebony 63 (May): 64–70, 72. Norment, Lynn. 2002. ‘‘You Can Have It All: Vanessa Williams.’’ Ebony 57 (May): 46–48, 50. Pilchak, Angela M., ed. 2006. Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music. Vol. 4. Detroit: Thomson Gale. Elizabeth Sandidge Evans
Williams, Venus (1980– ) and Williams, Serena (1981– ), Tennis Players Venus and Serena Williams, sometimes known as the Williams Sisters, are professional American Tennis players who, through their unique blend of grace, power, and style, have challenged the definition of tennis and of femininity. The Williams Sisters are the most influential black female tennis players since Althea Gibson, who broke the color barrier in tennis in 1950 and went on to win major championships, including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the late 1950s.
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The daughters of Richard and Oracene Brandi Williams, Venus was born on June 17, 1980, in Lynwood, California, and her younger sister Serena was born September 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan. With their father as their first coach, the Williams Sisters began their tennis careers in the projects of Watts and Compton in southern California, and then moved to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where the sisters trained with Rick Macci. On October 31, 1994, the 6 foot 1 inch, fourteenyear-old Venus Williams, with her hair beaded in the African American fashion, stepped onto the court of the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, Tennis pros and sisters Venus and Serena Williams. The California. She beat Shaun Williams sisters are multiple winners of the Grand Slam Stafford, then ranked numin tennis. (Shutterstock) ber 59 in the world, and in her second professional match, Williams faced Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, ranked second in the world, and lost in three sets. By all measures, the pro debut of Venus Ebone Starr Williams was a success as she showcased a powerful arsenal of shots, intelligence, and quickness on the court. In 1995, Serena Williams, aged fourteen, sporting beaded braids, made her professional debut at the Bell Challenge in Quebec, losing in straight sets but launching an equally auspicious career as well. The court domination of the Williams Sisters is unrivaled in the history of tennis. In the finals of the 2001 U.S. Open, the Williams Sisters faced each other in the finals, marking the first time such an incident had occurred in the sport. Their sisterly firsts also include gold medals in the 2000 Olympic Games as partners in doubles as well as winning a doubles title in a Grand Slam event. Venus and Serena Williams have been honored with a range of awards, testifying to their court domination. By late 2010 Venus had earned seven and Serena thirteen Grand Slam singles titles. Venus Williams had stood victorious at Wimbledon’s Centre Court five times, along with capturing two U.S. Open titles, and
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Serena Williams has won four Australian Open titles, two Wimbledon titles, one French and two U.S. Open titles. Over the course of the 2002–2003 season, Serena Williams won each of the four Grand Slam events, the first player ever to win a Grand Slam over the course of two seasons, prompting tennis commentators and enthusiasts alike to call the achievement the ‘‘Serena Slam.’’ Both sisters have been ranked number one in the world, and both have generated substantial revenue for their sports, for advertisers, and for themselves. Serena set a money record in the 2009 Australian Open tennis final and became the top money-winner in women’s sports history. With endorsements that include Nike, Reebok (Venus’s five-year, $40 million contract was the most lucrative ever for a female athlete), Avon, Wilsons Leather, and McDonald’s, along with an acting career for Serena, the Williams Sisters have played an invaluable role in promoting the visibility of women in sport as well as the visibility of African Americans and their culture on national and international stages. L. Jon Wertheim, a Sports Illustrated writer, offers an important and engaging account of Venus Williams’s cultural significance in Venus Envy: A Sensational Season Inside the Women’s Tennis Tour. Jaqueline Edmonson’s recent biography of the Williams Sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, is also good, as is Matthew C. Whitaker’s biographical essay on the Williams Sisters in his African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. See also: Women and Sports Further Reading Edmondson, Jacqueline. 2005. Venus and Serena Williams: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Polite, Fritz G. 2005. ‘‘Williams, Venus and Serena.’’ In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. 2nd ed. Colin A. Palmer, ed. Detroit: Gale Group. Wertheim, L. Jon. 2002. Venus Envy: Power Games, Teenage Vixens, and Million-Dollar Egos on the Women’s Tennis Tour. New York: Harper Paperbacks. Whitaker, Matthew C., ed. 2008. African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Williamson, Sonny Boy I (Williamson, John Lee, 1914–48) and Williamson, Sonny Boy II (Miller, Aleck Ford ‘‘Rice,’’ 1899–1965), Blues Harmonica Players, Singers, Composers There were two blues performers known as Sonny Boy Williamson. The first Sonny Boy Williamson, born John Lee Williamson in 1914, was one of the most innovative and influential blues harmonica players of the pre–World War II era. One of his major contributions was to make the harmonica a legitimate lead instrument in blues bands. As a child, Williamson worked constantly on learning
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to play the harmonica. By his teenage years, he had achieved technical and musical proficiency. Williamson’s style was a synthesis of earlier styles, such as the rural whoops of harp players like Sonny Terry, the chordal rhythmic style of musicians like Hammie Nixon, and newer sounds that emerged in Chicago. In his playing one can detect the merging of the Brownsville, Helena, and Memphis styles. One element of his style was ‘‘cross-note’’ playing, in which the key of the harmonica that is played is a fourth above the key of the song being played. With this crossnote playing, the player uses the notes produced by drawing in breath rather than blown notes, which facilitates the vocalization, slurring, bent notes, hand muting, and various tonguing and breath-control effects used in most blues harmonica playing. All of these techniques allowed Williams to begin performing with several local groups in the Tennessee area as a teenager. Williamson relocated to Chicago in 1934, and because of his extreme versatility on the harmonica, he won a contract with Bluebird Records, a division of RCA Victor, in 1937. His first recordings on Bluebird included ‘‘Good Morning School Girl,’’ ‘‘Sugar Mama,’’ and ‘‘Blue Bird Blues.’’ The following year he recorded ‘‘Decoration Blues’’ and ‘‘Whiskey Headed Woman Blues.’’ Between 1937 and 1947, Williamson recorded more than one hundred twenty songs under the RCA label. Many of Williamson’s songs have been performed and rerecorded by various Chicago blues artists. The legacy of Williamson is that as a blues artist he seemed to reach out to audiences with his music. Williamson died in a street mugging at the age of thirty-four at the height of his popularity. One of his last songs, ‘‘Shake that Boogie,’’ became a national hit on the Rhythm and Blues charts in 1947. Sonny Boy Williamson II was Aleck Ford Miller, who in many ways is the ultimate blues legend, and not only because he was the second Sonny Boy Williamson. By the 1930s, Williamson was traveling throughout the Mississippi Delta working under the alias ‘‘Little Boy Blue.’’ By the early 1940s, he was the star of KFFA radio’s King Biscuit Time, one of the first radio programs in the United States. For promotional purposes, the sponsors had suggested that Miller would receive more attention by posing and performing as Chicago’s John Lee ‘‘Sonny Boy’’ Williamson, who was already a national star. After the real Sonny Boy Williamson’s untimely death in 1948, Miller became a true replacement and was the ‘‘new’’ Sonny Boy Williamson for the remainder of his career. Between 1951 and 1954, Williamson recorded for Trumpet Records in Jackson, Mississippi, and in 1955, he received a contract with Chess Records in Chicago and recorded ‘‘Don’t Start Me to Talkin,’’’ which became a hit on the rhythm and blues charts. In 1963, Williamson embarked on his first European tour as part of the American Blues Festival. During the tour, Williamson recorded concerts he performed with the Yardbirds and the Animals that were later released as live albums. He made one of his final recordings with Yardbirds’ guitarist Jimmy Page, titled ‘‘I’m Trying to Make London My Home.’’ Williamson was elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. See also: Blues and Blues Festivals
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Further Reading Erlewine, Michael, ed. 1996. All Music Guide to the Blues. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books. Larkin, Colin. 1998. The Virgin Encyclopedia of the Blues. London: Virgin Books. Rowe, Mike. 1975. Chicago Blues: The City & the Music. New York: Da Capo Press. Clarence Bernard Henry
Wilson, August (1945–2005), Playwright August Wilson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his play Fences in 1987 and his play The Piano Lesson in 1990. He was the recipient of numerous other awards including the Tony and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Wilson is well known for his twentieth century cycle of ten plays that were historical and cultural productions hat broke free from the often sensationalized drama of the Black Arts Movement. His focus on themes from popular culture, such as the blues and other forms of music, black lifestyles, identity, and black life in all decades of the twentieth century helped him take his place as a cultural icon in the African American community and beyond. August Wilson was born Frederick Kittel on April 27, 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father, Frederick August Kittel, was a European immigrant, and his mother, Daisy Wilson Kittel, was African American. When Wilson’s parents divorced, his mother married David Bedford and Wilson became estranged from his birth father. His childhood experiences in the Pittsburgh area were replete with poverty and racism. After dropping out of high school, Wilson joined the army in 1963. Upon leaving the military, he began working with theater and art groups. In 1969 he married Brenda Burton; the couple had a daughter, Sakina Ansari, in 1970. The marriage ended in 1972. August Wilson married Judy Oliver in 1981 and divorced her in 1990. He married Constanza Romero in 1994 and they had a daughter, Azula Carmen. In 1971, he published his first poem, ‘‘Bessie.’’ The poem recounted his feelings about the legendary blues singer, Bessie Smith. This publication was followed by the publication of a number of other poems and in 1973 he completed his first play, Rite of Passage. In 1982, Wilson’s play Jitney was performed; it offered a look at life during the 1970s. However, Wilson’s first major success was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) a mythical rendering of the life of blues legend Blind Lemon Jefferson, set in the 1920s. This play’s success was a turning point in Wilson’s career and inaugurated his successful venture in the theater. Jitney and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom were the first of the plays Wilson wrote dedicated to the decades on the twentieth century. While the plays were not written in the order of the decade they represented, by the time of his death, all the decades in the twentieth century were represented. In each play of the ‘‘Pittsburgh Cycle,’’ Wilson reveals the cultural benchmarks of African American identity.
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While most of the plays are set in an urban area, in particular Pittsburgh, the plays contain the cultural vestiges of the South, retained and fundamental to the lifestyle and worldview of African Americans. The first decade of the twentieth century is reflected in Gem of the Ocean (2003), the 1910s by Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1910), the 1920s by Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the 1930s by The Piano Lesson (1990), the 1940s by Seven Guitars (1995), the 1950s by Fences (1987), the 1960s by Two Trainings Running (1991), the 1970s by Jitney (1982), the 1980s by King Hedley II (1999), and the 1990s, the end of the cycle, with Radio Golf (2005). August Wilson died on October 2, 2005, from liver cancer. Wilson’s plays continued to be recognized for their dynamic insight into black life in the United States. In 2008, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presented a month-long program in which Wilson’s cycle of ten plays was performed; the performance was a tribute and celebration of Wilson’s contribution to art, theater, and black culture. See also: Playwrights Further Reading Abruzzese, Sarah. 2008. ‘‘August Wilson’s 1900s to Be a Cycle Onstage.’’ New York Times, February 20. http://www.nytimes.com. Elkins, Marilyn. 1997. ‘‘Wilson, August.’’ In The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. William Andrews, Frances S. Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. New York: Oxford University. Isherwood, Charles. 2005. ‘‘August Wilson, Theater’s Poet of Black America, Is Dead at 60.’’ New York Times, October 3. http://www.nytimes.com. Rawson, Christopher. 2005. ‘‘August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle of Plays. Pittsburgh PostGazette, October 3. http://www.post-Gazette.com. Rebecca S. Dixon
Winans, BeBe (1964– ), Gospel Singer, Songwriter, Actor, Music Producer As an acclaimed gospel vocalist, songwriter, and music producer, BeBe Winans contributes to the evolution of contemporary gospel by integrating modern musical styles with inspirational biblical themes. Benjamin ‘‘BeBe’’ Winans was born on September 17, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan. Winans is the seventh of ten offspring born to Delores and David Winans, also known as Mom and Pop. Winans entered the gospel singing family affair as a background vocalist for his brothers, known as ‘‘The Winans.’’ In the early 1980s, he joined the PTL (Praise the Lord) singers along with his sister, CeCe Winans. The dynamic duo gained great acclaim for their five inspirational albums: BeBe & CeCe Winans, Heaven, Different Lifestyles, First Christmas, and Relationships. The groups’ hits include titles such as ‘‘Heaven’’ and ‘‘I’m Lost Without You.’’ ‘‘Addictive Love’’ and ‘‘I’ll Take You There’’
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are two of their most popular number one hits. BeBe Winans’s pursuit of a solo career was equally successful. In this well-regarded gospel singing family, BeBe Winans’s receipt of numerous contemporary gospel honors including NAACP, Grammy, Dove, Stellar, and Soul Train Music Awards is no surprise. As a solo artist, Winans’s discography includes the following titles: BeBe Winans (1997), Love & Freedom (2000), Live and Up Close (2002), My Christmas Prayer (2003), Dream (2005), and Cherch (2007). The single, ‘‘I Have A Dream,’’ from his 2005 recording was selected for 2008 Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s, Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement album. Winans demonstrates versatility as he balances music, acting, and entrepreneurship. Winans created his own record label, the Movement Group. This collaboration with Hidden Beach Recordings’ inspirational music subsidiary, Still Waters, to launch Winans’s projects included his 2005 release. In 2007, The BeBe Winans Radio Show launched in ten radio markets. The weekly radio show that combines urban, gospel, and inspirational music with one-on-one celebrity conversations is presently available on thirty-three radio stations nationwide. The Manchurian Candidate served as Winans’s feature film debut in 2004. Musical theater performances in off-Broadway plays include King Solomon Lives, A Nubian Love Story, and The Diary of a Black Man. Winans’s Broadway shows include Civil War, Don’t Get God Started, and What’s On the Hearts of Men. In January 2008, BeBe Winans joined Black Entertainment Television (BET) as a judge on its reality show, Sunday’s Best, a search for the next big gospel star. During this time period, Winans’s star shined even brighter as he played Harpo alongside Chaka Khan on Broadway in Oprah Winfrey Presents The Color Purple. The much-awaited release of a new album, Still, from BeBe and CeCe Winans was released in October 2009. The success of Still resulted in a nationwide tour with sister, CeCe Winans. See also: Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups Further Reading BeBe Winans. (Homepage.) http://www.bebewinans.net/. DeRemer, L.A. 2001. Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music. Detroit: Gale Research. Larkin, Colin, ed. 2006. ‘‘Winans, BeBe.’’ Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Shantrie Collins
Winans, CeCe (1964– ), Gospel Singer, Author, Songwriter, Philanthropist CeCe Winans carries on a long tradition of ministering the gospel through song while using secular music production and collaboration to attract a mainstream audience. CeCe Winans was born Priscilla Marie Winans, in Detroit,
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Michigan, on October 8, 1964. As the eighth child of the famous gospel-singing Winans family, CeCe has solidified her place in history and in popular culture as an acclaimed gospel artist. The depth of CeCe’s vocal talent has garnered success with gospel enthusiasts as well as R & B and contemporary Christian fans. Winans’s doorway into the music industry began with older brother BeBe Winans as members of the PTL (Praise the Lord) Club singers. Before a thriving solo career, the Winans duo gained a reputation for producing chart-topping gold and platinum albums including albums Different Lifestyles (1991), Lord Lift Us Up (1985), and Count on Me (1996). Winans has been rewarded for excellence in the recording industry with multiple Grammy, Stellar, and Dove awards throughout her career. From the mid-1990s to the present day, Winans’s discography comprises eight solo albums with her debut album, Alone in His Presence documented as Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Platinum. This album won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. The following three albums were Gold-certified: Everlasting Love (1998), Alabaster Box (1999), and CeCe Winans (2001). Winans exhibited her entrepreneurial spirit by starting her own recording company, PureSprings Gospel. As a consummate performer, Winans is often called upon to perform or appear on a wide range of television shows. Appearances on the morning news show circuit, television specials, and award shows have led to hosting gigs for the Dove and Stellar awards. CeCe Winans has graced the covers of Christian and secular magazines like Black Enterprise, Women’s World, and Charisma. The multitalented Winans has had acting roles on 7th Heaven, DOC, Living Single, Martin, and All My Children. Her repertoire includes touring with gospel greats like Shirley Caesar, Kirk Franklin, and the entire Winans family. Winans’s has written three books to date: a memoir, a devotional, and a self-help/empowerment book for young women. Her philanthropic endeavors include her founding Sharing the Vision, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that seeks to educate children and encourage teens in their Christian faith. The annual Always Sisters/Forever Brothers Conference has become an annual event preparing youth to deal with problems facing the millennial generation such as the AIDS epidemic, teen suicide, teen pregnancy, and dating violence. An international gospel superstar, CeCe Winans balances a greatly successful musical career with being a wife and mother. Winans’s eighth solo album, Thy Kingdom Come, tapped into her songwriting talents as she wrote or cowrote 60 percent of the songs for her 2008 recording. Thy Kingdom Come is ranked as one of the top Christian albums on Billboard charts, peaking at the number two position. In the Hot Gospel Songs category, Waging War was on the charts for twenty-seven weeks. To build on the success of the previous album, Winans has embarked upon the Kingdom Tour. The much-awaited release of the ninth album, Still, from BeBe and CeCe Winans was released in October 2009. Winans released her ninth solo album, Songs of Emotional Healing, in September 2010. See also: Gospel Choirs and Singing Groups
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Further Reading ‘‘CeCe Winans: Thy Kingdom Come.’’ (Homepage.) http://www.cecewinans.com. Larkin, Colin, ed. 2006. ‘‘Winans, CeCe.’’ Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Winans, C. 1999. On a Positive Note: Her Joyous Faith, Her Life in Music, and Her Everyday Blessings. New York: Pocket Books. Shantrie Collins
Winfrey, Oprah (1954– ), Talk-show Host, Actor, Entrepreneur, Producer Oprah Gail Winfrey is one of the most outstanding and influential African Americans in the United States. She was born on January 29, 1954, to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her parents were never married, and Winfrey’s maternal grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee, raised her on her farm during her early childhood. During these years, her grandfather, Earless, a very strict man, influenced Winfrey, as did her grandmother, who taught her good morals and encouraged her to become educated. In 1960, she moved to Milwaukee to live with her mother, meeting her younger sister, Patricia and brother, Jeffrey. When Winfrey turned eight, she went to spend a year with her father and his wife in Nashville, Tennessee. After returning from her father’s house, under her mother’s care, Winfrey suffered sexual abuse from relatives. Her abuse led to serious behavioral problems in school and at home until her mother became frustrated and sent her to live with her father in Nashville in 1968. Winfrey enjoyed the change because at her father’s house, she faced no abuse. With her father’s guidance, she did extremely well in speech and drama, entering speech contests and speaking at church. Her outstanding performance in speech led to her career in broadcasting in 1971 at seventeen years old. With her grandmother’s help, Winfrey started reading at age three. While living with her mother in Milwaukee, Winfrey’s educational talent was realized, and she was placed in an Upward Bound program in a wealthy suburb. She was the only African American student in the school. In Tennessee, while living with her father, Winfrey attended East High School, an integrated school. During her high school years, in 1971, Winfrey was chosen with another student from the state of Tennessee as a representative at a National White House Conference on Youth in Estes Park, Colorado. Her father was a stern disciplinarian who ensured that she was an outstanding student. In fall of 1971, she enrolled in Tennessee State University on a scholarship she had won at an Elks Club oratorical contest; she majored in Speech and Drama. In 1988, the school awarded her a bachelor’s degree. Begins Colorful Career Winfrey credits the success of her early career to the political climate of the time, where diversity was encouraged through Affirmative Action laws. Because
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of her talent, race, and gender she was promoted in radio and television news broadcasting. Her first job as a seventeenyear-old was at WVOL, a radio station in Nashville. In her sophomore year at Tennessee State University, she became the first female coanchor on an evening broadcast with WTVF-TV. Barbara Walters, the first female coanchor on an evening news broadcast, was an early influence. Upon Winfrey’s graduation from college, she left college and accepted an offer with WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland, an Oprah Winfrey, shown here on the cover of her O affiliate of ABC TV, magazine, is a successful talk show host and entrepreneur. where she became the She is one of the most outstanding and influential African cohost of the morning Americans in the United States. (AP/Wide World Photos) talk show, Baltimore is Talking. Winfrey’s presence on the show during her seven-year tenure greatly increased the show’s popularity; however, she was dissatisfied as the producers tried to change her appearance because she had unprocessed hair. Winfrey was also dissatisfied with her job, where her broadcasting ability was also criticized. Having found a niche in hosting talk shows, however, in 1984, she moved to Chicago where she improved the ratings of A.M. Chicago. Because of the success of A.M. Chicago it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and was aired for one hour instead of a half hour. As the popular host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the show began with the exciting themes that engaged the audience; however, Winfrey was not satisfied with providing the sensational experience that was popular on talk shows at that time. Her desire to reach out to people and make a difference in their lives led to the creation of the new theme, ‘‘Change Your Life TV.’’ With this theme, Winfrey focused on encouraging people to live healthier lives, accept and understand themselves, and shape good habits. The Oprah Winfrey Show is aired in over one hundred countries in the world and has millions of viewers.
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Becomes Actress and Producer In 1985, Winfrey was given a lead female role, Sophia, in the movie of The Color Purple, based on the novel by Alice Walker, and coproduced by Quincy Jones. Winfrey’s performance in this film earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. In 1986, she played a major role in the film version of Native Son, from the novel by Richard Wright. In 1998, Winfrey starred in her production of Beloved, by Toni Morrison, one of several books for which Winfrey has purchased film rights along with Paradise, another novel by Morrison. While experiencing success as a talk show host and actress, Winfrey formed her own production company, Harpo Productions in 1986, using this company to develop her own projects. Harpo (‘‘Oprah’’ spelled backwards) Productions became the owner of The Oprah Winfrey Show, giving her sole rights to the production of the show. The aim of Harpo Productions is to introduce more people of color into the television and film industry. In 1989, she purchased her own television and movie production studio. Through Harpo Productions, Winfrey produced a miniseries based on The Women of Brewster Place, from the Gloria Naylor novel; it later led to the creation of the network drama series, Brewster Place, in 1990. Other Harpo Productions include the films: There are No Children Here (1993), Before Women Had Wings (1997), and The Great Debaters (2007), starring award-winning actor, Denzel Washington. In addition, Winfrey became involved in the creation of Oxygen Media in late 1998 with a great interest in a cable television station aimed at women. Awards Winfrey has won many awards in her life, beginning in 1971, when as a teenager she won the Miss Black Nashville and Miss Black Tennessee titles, became the first black woman to be Nashville’s Miss Fire Prevention, and was a contestant in the Miss Black America pageant. In 1986, she was awarded for her unique contributions to Chicago’s community by the Academy for the Arts and was named a Woman of Achievement by the National Organization for Women. In 1987 and 1991, Winfrey received three Emmy Awards for The Oprah Winfrey Show in the category of outstanding host of a talk/service show and as supervising producer of an outstanding talk/service show. In 1993, she won the Horatio Alger Award, and in 1994, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Time magazine named Winfrey one of America’s 25 Most Influential People in 1996, the same year she received the George Foster Peabody Individual Achievement Award and the International Radio and TV Society’s Gold Medal Award. Also in 1996, Oprah started her book club, Oprah’s Book Club—a television-aired reading club. At the People’s Choice Awards in 1997, Winfrey was named TV Guide’s Television Performer of the Year and the favorite female Television Performer. In 1998, Entertainment Weekly named Winfrey the most powerful person in show business, and she also gained an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement. In that same year she established Oprah’s Angel Network. The
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National Book Foundation gave Winfrey its 50th Anniversary Gold Medal in 1999 for promoting reading in the United States. In 2000, Harpo Productions launched O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, and in 2002, she received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for contributions to broadcasting. In 2005, Winfrey was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Winfrey is a billionaire, and on the Forbes list she was named in the top three hundred richest people in the United States. Winfrey is credited with being the richest African American of the twenty-first century. Oprah’s Foundation Winfrey has also become widely acclaimed for the work of her foundation. On January 2, 2007, Winfrey opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy—a school for underprivileged girls in Henley-on-Klip, South Africa. The new school is the realization of a pledge Winfrey made to Nelson Mandela when she visited the country in 2000. The school opened at the seventh and eighth grade level with the expectation of student enrollment consistently increasing, leading to the creation of higher grades up to grade twelve. The mission of the school is to transform positively the lives of young women who in turn will influence their community and the world. Winfrey’s plans for educating deprived young children include opening a coeducational school in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. Through her foundation as well, Winfrey donated $365,000 to a private inner-city academy in south Atlanta, Georgia, in December 2008. The Future In November 2009, Oprah Winfrey announced that she would end her network television show in September 2011 and will appear instead on her cable television channel, to be called the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which will be co-owned by Harpo Productions and the Discovery Channel, and planned for a starting date of January 2011. See also: Entertainment Industry; Television Further Reading Academy of Achievement. ‘‘America’s Beloved Best Friend,’’ Entertainment Executive. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/win0bio-1. Alter, Judy. 2008. Life Skills Biography: Oprah Winfrey. Ann Arbor: Cherry Lake. Associated Press. 2007. ‘‘Oprah opens school for girls in South Africa: Lavish leadership academy aims to give impoverished chance to succeed.’’ MSNBC Online, January 2. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16435995/. Farley, Christopher John. 1998. ‘‘Queen of All Media.’’ Time 154 (October 5): 82–85. Oprah.Com. ‘‘Harpo Films Feature Films and TV Movies.’’ Harpo Productions. http:// www.oprah.com/article/harpofilms/allfilms/20080701_films_all.
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Raatma, Lucia. 2001. Oprah Winfrey Entertainer, Producer, and Businesswoman. Chicago: Ferguson Publishing. Turner, Dorie. 2008. ‘‘Atlanta inner-city school gets $365K from Oprah,’’ Associated Press, December 31. USAToday Online. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/ 2008-12-31-oprah-school_N.htm. Ward, Kristin. 1999. Learning About Assertiveness from the Life of Oprah Winfrey. New York: Rosen Publishing. Renee Latchman
Womanism The term ‘‘womanism,’’ which originated from the term ‘‘womanish,’’ used in black folk culture, was coined by author Alice Walker (1944) which received attention in the 1980s, responded to the neglect of Feminism in recognizing African American women’s experiences and struggles. As feminism in the 1980s became a representative term to realize the liberation of women, it became clear that it was not inclusive of issues for black women or women of color. Alice Walker, an established author in the 1980s, grew up in the rural South and well understood black folk culture and the difficult lives many black southern women experienced. The expression, acting ‘‘womanish,’’ addressed the audacious, willful, and sometimes aggressive behavior the female child displayed in wanting to ‘‘act like a woman.’’ The female child wanted to do or know more than was good for them. Folk traditions that focused on southern black women were spiritual journeys of strength, self-definition, and redemption that supported a whole community. Walker invoked the term womanism in her essay ‘‘Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Cox Jackson,’’ published in her 1983 collection, In Search of Our Mother’s Garden: Womanist Prose. Jackson was an itinerant preacher in the midto late-nineteenth century (1795–1891). Jackson’s autobiography, entitled Gifts of Power, was seen as an enlightening document describing her spiritual journey. Yet criticism that centered on Jackson’s other writings speculated about one of her female relationships; a modern day interpretation of that relationship could be a lesbian one. Walker makes clear in her essay response that the womanish tradition of strong black southern women who built relationships with other women was not about alienation from the community, but about making the connection of survival and wholeness a greater reality for the community. The cultural traditions of black southern women, along with her travels in Africa and other experiences, clarified for Walker a global view of the culture and traditions of women of color. Womanism became an appropriate term in response to feminism’s neglect of the issues of black women. It is rooted in tradition and cultural experiences and it confronts racist and classist perspectives based on limited and biased approaches. The term black feminism has a comparable focus and the terms are
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often used interchangeably. Womanist ideas and the term itself require a woman-centered perspective based on cultural traditions of African American women and women of color. See also: Prophets and Spiritualists Further Reading Alexander-Floyd, Nikoi G., and Evelyn M. Simien. 2006. ‘‘Revisiting ‘What’s in a Name?’’’ Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 27 (January): 687. Literature Resource Center. Hayes, Diana L. 1995. Hagar’s Daughter: Womanist Ways of Being in the World. New York: Paulist Press. Walker, Alice. 2003. ‘‘Gift of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Cox Jackson.’’ In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose, 71. New York: Harcourt. Weems, Renita J. 2008. ‘‘A Womanist.’’ Somethingwithin.com: for thinking women of faith (blog). March 10. http://somethingwithin.com/blog/?cat=101. Lean’tin L. Bracks
Women and Sports ‘‘The story of American women in sports is an epic of struggle, of inequity, of frustration, and of triumph,’’ writer and producer Paula Edelson has noted. ‘‘There is no doubt that women in every field have had to fight for recognition and opportunity; but if there is one profession that has been owned and dominated by men throughout American history, it has been athletics.’’ Whether the conversation turns to Senda Berenson, who organized the first women’s basketball contest in 1892, or Ann Meyers, who attended UCLA on a basketball scholarship in 1974, making her one of the earliest beneficiaries of Title IX legislation, the relationship between women and sports in the United States reveals a legacy of pioneers willing to shatter stereotypes and to march the long road towards equality. The ideal of true womanhood, cultivated in the United States beginning in the early nineteenth century, assigned to women the sphere of the home along with four character traits—piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Nowhere in this list of traits is there room for competition, for sweat, for physical expression. Women in the Victorian age of American society were corseted and bound to home and children, and indeed, the bias against women as social equals was particularly seen with the rise of Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1911, of Norwegian descent, Zaharias would go on to become recognized as the best female athlete during the first half of the twentieth century. Even as a teenager, Zaharias, according to Schwartz, cited her life’s goal as becoming ‘‘the greatest athlete who ever lived.’’ In the Track and Field trials for the 1932 Olympic Games, Zaharias won six gold medals and set four world records in the
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course of one afternoon; in the Olympiad, she won three medals, two gold, one silver, and set two world records. While a track and field standout, Zaharias’s greatest success came on the Golf course, where she won eighty-two tournaments and was one of the pioneers of the Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (LPGA). Because of her success in sports, and by extension the world of men, Zaharias became the target of numerous male sports commentators. ‘‘It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up and waited for the phone to ring,’’ was one characteristic comment quoted by Schwartz. According to Edelson, another journalist feigned confusion, expressing his inability on whether to address Zaharias as ‘‘Miss, Mr., or It.’’ Nonetheless, the legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice offered hope that male sportswriters might be able to overcome their stereotypical view of women and appreciate Zaharias on her terms. ‘‘She is beyond all belief until you see her perform,’’ Rice wrote. Quoted by Schwartz, he said: ‘‘Then you finally understand that you are looking at the most flawless section of muscle harmony, of complete mental and physical coordination, the world of sport has ever seen.’’ With her record-breaking performance at the 1960 Summer Games in Rome, Wilma Rudolph fostered a new angle of vision on the topic of women and sports. ‘‘Statistics didn’t give Rudolph an extended shelf life,’’ remembered journalist William C. Rhoden. ‘‘It was style. Tall, graceful, flowing, she redefined, or at least extended, the concept of femininity in athletics. A woman, she signaled to us, could be tall and lithe with the good looks associated with fashion and still run with a vengeance.’’ Even during the height of her popularity, from 1960 until 1963, Rudolph possessed the ability to appeal to the sensibilities of a mainstream media through her athleticism as well as her gender identity. ‘‘Because mainstream media—newspapers, television, magazines, film—lacked positive images of Black womanhood, an elegantly dressed Olympic track star [Wilma Rudolph] photographed with the U.S. President [John F. Kennedy] represents a battle won for the social status of Black women,’’ notes scholar Ramona J. Bell. ‘‘The visibility of Rudolph’s body in what appears to be a pleasant visit to the White House in 1961 stands in stark contrast to the images on television and newspapers seen daily around the world of Black citizens being sprayed with fire hoses and beaten by U.S. officials during civil rights protests.’’ Title IX Legislation has Impact Figures like Zaharias and Rudolph, Olympians who loom large over the athletic landscape, cast shadows over the deeper and more invidious injustices that limit the achievement of women in athletics. For this reason, Title IX legislation has proved instrumental in leveling the playing field. Often misunderstood, Title IX, signed by President Richard Nixon and passed in 1972, states that ‘‘No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.’’ And its most fundamental level, Title IX suggests that the federal government will not fund discrimination,
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and the results of this legislation have produced both gains and losses. In the United States today, more girls and women than ever before participate in athletic competition. Indeed, an iconic moment on the American sports scene is the U.S. women’s soccer team winning the 1999 World Cup, followed by Brandi Chastain celebrating in her sports bra. That victory should have been a clarion trumpet and call to change in the wider society, but the long road and struggle continues. The popular understanding of women and sports continues to be mediated through a mainstream media that has its own blind spots. Not less than a decade following the triumph of the U.S. women’s soccer team, on the morning of April 4, 2007, shock jock Don Imus stunned a nation of listeners and viewers when he called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team ‘‘nappy-headed hos.’’ The fallout cost Imus his job with MSNBC and prompted the nation to consider its use of language, as well as misogyny, racism, and inequality. Women have made strides in sports since the Victorian era during which they were relegated to home and children, but women continue to make significantly less money than their male counterparts. Additionally, in the media representations of the games they play, women continue to battle persistent stereotypes that limit the way they are seen in the wider world. See also: Olympics; Women, African American, Images of Further Reading Acosta, R. Vivian and Linda Jean Carpenter. 1998. ‘‘Title IX: Its Effect on Women in Sport.’’ In Encyclopedia of Women and Sport in America. Carole A. Oglesby et al., eds. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press. Bell, Ramona J. 2008. ‘‘Competing Identities: Representations of the Black Female Sporting Body from 1960 to the Present.’’ PhD diss., Bowling Green State University. Cohen Greta, Laquia. 2001. ‘‘Zaharias, Mildred Didrikson (‘Babe’).’’ In The Oxford Companion to United States History. Paul S. Boyer, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Edelson, Paula. 2002. A to Z of American Women in Sports. New York: Facts on File. Rhoden, William C. 1994. ‘‘Sports of The Times: The End Of a Winding Road.’’ New York Times, November 19. Schwartz, Larry. 2007. ‘‘Didrikson Was a Woman Ahead of Her Time.’’ ESPN.com. http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00014147.html. Delano Greenidge-Copprue
Women and the Civil Rights Movement Historians have long agreed that women, particularly American black women, were pivotal in the critical battles for racial equality. However, when the modern movement for civil rights enters the consciousness of the general population, men dominate the collective memory. Popular culture, including
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movies, documentaries, and books, has regaled the public with accounts of Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., A. Phillip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, John Lewis, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and others who put their lives on the line in the African American struggle for civil rights. Although there is a popular perception that most of the activists were men, women were at the core of the modern Civil Rights Movement, which most historians begin with the United States Supreme Court’s 1954 enunciation in its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka [347 U.S. 483] decision. Women were critical to every aspect of the struggle to end America’s legally endorsed system of racial apartheid from the Brown v. Board of Education decision to the 1963 March on Washington and even beyond the voting rights struggle. For most, however, Rosa Parks and the wives of the movement’s triad of prominent male leaders, Coretta Scott King, Betty Shabazz, and Myrlie Evers Williams, were among the most visible women in the struggle. Conceivably one of the most iconic moments of the modern Civil Rights Movement is the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where King delivered his ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech. However, despite the active role and leadership provided by Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Daisy Bates, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, and others, no woman was given the opportunity to add her voice to the activities of the day, with the exception of Mahalia Jackson, who sang ‘‘I Been ‘Buked and I Been Scorned,’’ before King took podium. Although they, like Rosa Parks, Dorothy Height, Pauli Murray, and others were invited to the march, no woman was included in the male delegation of leaders that went to the White House to meet with President John F. Kennedy. Many consider the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case and the Montgomery Bus Boycott the following year as signaling the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. While both played pivotal roles in launching American blacks’ quest for full citizenship, the Montgomery Bus Boycott signified a different strategy in the ongoing struggle for freedom, equality, and justice. It indicated a mark of demarcation from the litigious route taken by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) by instituting mass participation as a line of attack in the protest activities of the movement. Notwithstanding, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was an acme in a series of highs and lows that antedated the modern Civil Rights Movement for a number of centuries. Historians and others who have studied the modern era of the Civil Rights Movement have long recognized the legal victories of the NAACP, the protest activities of returning soldiers from the Second World War, and other activities of similar ilk, especially during the 1940s and the early 1950s. After the signal events, other direct action protest events took place with rapidity, including the school desegregation efforts of 1957, the early 1960s sit-ins, the 1961 Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, the Birmingham campaigns, the Freedom Summer campaigns of 1964, the voting rights struggles, and other efforts to gain full participation as citizens of the United States. These comprised the Civil Rights Movement. Leaders and participants added and employed tactics such as mass meetings, organizing, marches, boycotts, and other strategies
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to the movement as they sought their constitutional rights. From the beginning, women played an integral role in advancing the civil rights cause. Roots of Activism Paradoxical to popular belief, women’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement did not start with Irene Morgan, Margie Jumper, or even with Rosa Parks. The roots of American black women’s protests dates back to slave resistance in the antebellum South. Racial segregation, proscription, and anti-black mob violence increased with the empowerment of poor white men in the late 1820s and 1830s. Racial oppression solidified free black Americans’ sense of themselves as a racial people and inspired antiracist protest. Black women such as Maria Stewart (1803–79), Sarah Parker Remond (1826–94), Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806–82), Sojourner Truth (1797–1883), and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911) made their voices heard. Stewart, who is considered America’s first black woman political writer, was not only an opponent of slavery but also was an opponent against economical and political exploitation. She invoked both the Bible and the United States Constitution as documents proclaiming the universal rights of justice and freedom. Remond, an abolitionist and an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society, gave speeches throughout the United States and Great Britain about the horrors of slavery. She also lectured on issues that related to women’s rights and spoke out against racial discrimination, and stressed the sexual exploitation of black women under slavery. An advocate for equal educational opportunities for people of all races, Redmond became involved in interracial politics in 1853, when she committed her first act of civil disobedience by refusing to sit in the segregated gallery of the Howard Anthenaeum in Boston during a concert. When asked to leave, an argument ensued and the Athenaeum’s management called law enforcement agents. One of the officers handled Remond roughly. Refusing to be intimidated, she sued and won $500 in damages. Once the Civil War began, Remond worked to build support in Britain for the Union blockade of the Confederacy and did much to influence public opinion in Britain in support of the North. After the American Civil War, Remond, a proponent of universal suffrage, worked with Frederick Douglass and others of the American Equal Rights Association. Realizing that the omnipresent spirit of racial prejudice still prevailed in the United States and rather than live under the racism’s pervasive shadow, after leaving England in 1866, Sarah Parker Remond moved to Italy, where she remained for the rest of her life. Sarah Mapps Douglass, African American abolitionist, teacher, and lecturer, served as recording secretary, librarian, and manager for the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. By the 1830s, she had emerged as one of the few black women who spoke publicly in support of the antislavery cause. In 1832, she addressed the Female Literary Society of Philadelphia and urged her audience to focus on abolitionism. A contributor to the Liberator and the Anglo-African
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Magazine, Douglass, a Quaker, protested the separate ‘‘Negro seats’’ of the sect’s meeting houses. She became a fund-raiser for the black press, gave numerous public lectures, and served as vice chair of the Women’s Pennsylvania Branch of the American Freedmen’s Aid Commission. Born Isabella Baumfree, Sojourner Truth rose from the viciousness of thralldom to become one of the most imposing antislavery and feminist orators of the nineteenth century, in spite of her illiteracy. A civil and women’s rights advocate, the Garrisonian abolitionist toured the North and West as a lecturer. Although incorrectly, Truth is iconically recognized as the originator of the famous rhetorical question ‘‘ar’n’t I a woman?’’ (Coined some twelve years after Truth appeared at an 1851 women’s right meeting in Akron, Ohio, this rhetorical question was crafted by feminist writer Frances Dana Gage.) Notwithstanding, Truth contributed to the movement against slavery and for women’s rights as the persuasive, sharp-witted quintessence of enslaved women. She, like Ida B. Wells-Barnett after her, protested and staged sit-ins against the unjust treatment received at the hands of transportation officials on railroad cars. In May 1884, Wells purchased a first-class ticket on a local Memphisto-Woodstock, Tennessee line. Taking a seat in the white women’s coach and refusing to move to the segregated ‘‘smoker’’ car as instructed by the conductor, Wells was ejected from the train. She subsequently filed suit against the railroad company. In December 1884, the Memphis circuit court ruled in her favor and awarded her $500 in damages, a decision that the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed in 1887. Later, in 1896 at the founding of the National Association of Colored Women, the failure of women to gain justice in the court system against the Jim Crow public transportation system became one of the issues discussed. The association of women agreed to use direct action to make change and endorsed a proposal to boycott the railroads. Since the nineteenth century, American black women have played key roles in the freedom struggle for equality and justice. They organized and led struggles for the right of the franchise, access to educational opportunities, anti-lynching laws, the abolishment of poll taxes and white primaries, access to educational opportunities, all in an attempt to dismantle Jim Crow laws. From the nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, black women continued the practice of noncooperation with the Jim Crow system. Women as Contributors to the New Negro Period After World War I, the search for connection and for significant associations became issues of discussion and display in an increasing black public sphere. In plays, pageants, dance, music, film, literature, and the visual arts, black intellectuals, activists, and organizations sought to give standing to the American black community through a new awareness of itself. Although Jim Crow attempted to suppress American blacks, this 1830s minstrel character met a strong and resilient opponent in the ‘‘New Negro,’’ a term popularized by Alain L. Locke, philosopher of the Harlem or Negro Renaissance. Associated with uplift and
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resistance, the New Negro emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century. The emergence of a new generation of creative artists that gathered in Harlem was emboldened by black civil rights leaders to use their gifts to break down racial barriers. Through civil rights organizations and their publications, they were give avenues to express their voices. The founding of the NAACP (1909) that included Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell among its founders; the National Urban League (1910), which was originally founded as the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes and in 1911 merged with the Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions among Negroes in New York; and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women, signaled a change in the spirit of American blacks. Although from the 1890s to the 1950s it seemed that Jim Crow might defeat the New Negro, every obstacle thrown their way was met with a renewed civil rights effort. Even modes of creative expression changed, as writers, visual artists, poets, and others sought new ways to articulate the civil rights demands of American blacks. After returning home from fighting in the First World War, black soldiers faced oppression, violence, and the absence of democracy for them that mirrored the 1890s. The summer of 1919 witnessed so much white-led rioting, bloodshed, and senseless killing that James Weldon Johnson gave it the moniker ‘‘Red Summer.’’ Although Jim Crow seemed permanently embedded in the American fabric, civil rights efforts gained momentum and women played an active role on all fronts. As black Americans migrated from the rural South to the urban cities of the industrial North, they brought their culture with them to places like New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Yet, it was New York’s Harlem that became the focal point of the Negro renaissance, popularly called the Harlem Renaissance. Notwithstanding its designation as a rebirth, the new movement in fact was not a rebirth but a birth. There had never been anything like it before in the history of the black American experience. The NAACP’s Crisis Magazine, edited by W. E. B. Du Bois, took on political issues and also published fiction and poetry, which symbolized the new race consciousness of American blacks. Serving as literary editor, Jessie Redmon Fauset promoted such writers as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer. Her role in discovering, promoting, and giving a platform to African American writers helped to create an authentic ‘‘black voice’’ in American literature. A contributor to the Crisis herself, Fauset, a novelist, wrote about people who adjusted to American race relations without internalizing the negative stereotypes and images that whites projected upon them. Hallie Q. Brown, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen, among others, addressed issues of race, gender, barriers to economic and social participation in American society, and cultural issues of passing. Brown was an educator, public lecturer, president of the National Association of Colored Women from 1920 to 1924, and a contributor to the Negro Renaissance. An advocate of civil rights for black Americans, in 1924 she addressed the Republican National Convention and pointedly reminded the delegates of the party’s historical commitment to civil
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rights. A year later, she organized a black boycott of the International Council of Women’s All-American Musical Festival in protest against Jim Crow seating in the theater. Brown, as a contributor to the new literary movement, made an important contribution as an author. Emphasizing respectability, domesticity, and elocution, Brown’s works were disharmonious with the political cadence of the period; however, they were inculcated with her conviction and commitment to racial service. Musicians also lent their voices to the struggle for civil rights as they had done since the days of slavery when such songs as ‘‘The Drinking Gourd’’ were used to convey covert forms of communication. As Reconstruction gains slipped into the Jim Crow deficits, American black music such as jazz and blues evolved. Delving into the emotional state of frustration, deprivation, and desolation that many in the black community experienced, the music also began to serve as a catalyst for social change. Before the 1960s, songs that promoted social activism were rare. However, in 1938 jazz singer Billie Holiday sung ‘‘Strange Fruit,’’ one of the earliest songs of protest. Written by Abel Meeropol under the pseudonym Lewis Allen, ‘‘Strange Fruit’’ was a powerful story about the Lynching of African Americans in the South. Holiday performed ‘‘Strange Fruit’’ regularly and it was considered her signature song. Because of the timbre of the time and the context of the song, Holiday was deemed a race heroine. As the effects of the Great Depression took hold in the 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance ended and because of the economic downturn Harlem’s prominent contributors to the movement departed. During the Great Depression, black protests increased against discrimination. Black women were hit hardest by the economic downturn of the Great Depression. They protested the refusal of white-owned businesses in all-black neighborhoods to hire black salespersons. The black Housewives’ Leagues launched ‘‘Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work’’ boycott campaigns in major cities, and called for job creation during the Depression. Women Blazing a Path to the Modern Civil Rights Movement As black women entered the decades of the 1940s and 1950s, they became more involved in the movement for civil rights. Women like Pauli Murray, Septima Clark, and Modjesta Simpkins took an active role and blazed a path to the modern Civil Rights Movement. In 1938, with assistance from the NAACP, Murray began a campaign to enter the University of North Carolina, an allwhite educational institution. Although her case received national publicity, she was refused admittance. Two years later, she was arrested for refusing to sit at the back of a bus in Petersburg, Virginia. Because Murray refused to move, she was charged with disorderly conduct, jailed, and fined. While a student at Howard University’s school of law, she and fellow law students conducted a series of sitins in Washington, DC’s restaurants. As the NAACP prepared for the Brown v. Board of Education case, it used her paper which argued against the ruling in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. Referred to as the ‘‘Mother of the Civil Rights
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Movement,’’ by Martin Luther King Jr., Septima Clark had been at the forefront of the movement for civil rights. She labored to end the inequity of pay between black and white teachers in South Carolina. Working with the principal of Booker T. Washington High School, NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, and South Carolina civil rights attorney Harold R. Boulware, to prepare the court case, their work came to fruition when Federal District Judge J. Waties Waring ruled in their favor in 1945. In 1952, she became affiliated with Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. Clark hosted the first regional conference for students during the Sit-in Movement. Like her fellow South Carolinian, Modjesta Simpkins was active in the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, especially in challenging segregation in the public schools. Women and the Legal Quest for Civil Rights Black women fought to make the South and the nation adhere to mandates as enunciated by the United States Supreme Court, as in the case of Irene Morgan, on whose behalf the 1946 case of Morgan v. Virginia [328 U.S. 373] was litigated. The same year that the U.S. Supreme Court adjudicated the Morgan v. Virginia case, Margie Jumper, another Virginian, refused to yield to the proscriptions of Jim Crow public transportation. Eleven years after Morgan and nine years after Jumper, in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery bus and provided the impetus for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In the 1940s, women such as Ada Sipuel fought to gain access to higher education. The NAACP brought her legal action to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided in her favor in the Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma [332 US 631 (1948)] case. Modjeska Simpkins, a forthright and intrepid leader of the NAACP in South Carolina from the 1930s to the 1970s, aided in drafting the petition for desegregated schools in the Briggs v. Elliott [342 U.S. 350 (1952)] case, which was the first filed of five cases combined into the Brown v. Board of Education case. Just as important as Simpkins was to the Briggs case, Constance Baker Motley, as a part of the NAACP legal team, had a major impact on ending racial discrimination. She participated in writing briefs for the 1954 Brown case and was involved in the school desegregation case in Little Rock, Arkansas, which caused Governor Orville Faubus to call out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School. From 1961 to 1964, Motley litigated and won nine of ten civil rights cases she argued before the court, including James Meredith’s successful suit to attend the University of Mississippi. When the movement transitioned from the court to direct nonviolent resistance, women provided strong leadership. They played pivotal roles in organizing marches, leading protests, distributing leaflets, and expanding the voter registration drives. Although the United States fought World War II (1939–45) purportedly to save a democratic world from fascist dictatorship, at the end of the war most of the racial restrictions enforced upon American blacks remained sanctioned in
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the United States by both custom and law. The nation’s infamous Jim Crow system classified blacks as inferior and stigmatized them as a group. Unrepentant racialists deprived blacks of an equal education, public accommodations, the right to vote, and other rights and privileges granted to citizens across the South and indeed, the country. Removed from the political process in the 1890s, blacks were subjugated by Jim Crow from the cradle to the grave. Yet, the civil rights activities of the 1940s and 1950s signaled a cyclonic change for the nation’s race relations. Although the Brown v. Board of Education case ruled that the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doctrine was unconstitutional, the United States refused to acknowledge the growing dissatisfaction of its black citizens with institutionalized racism. However, the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott not only captured America’s attention, it also brought the nation’s treatment of its black citizens to international attention and catapulted a young Martin Luther King Jr. into the forefront of the modern movement. Women and the Modern Civil Rights Movement Many perceive the Montgomery Bus Boycott as a decisive moment for the Civil Rights Movement because it demonstrated that coordinated and sustained economic pressure produced victory. However, prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, black women were in the forefront of Louisiana’s 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott, which served as a prototype for Montgomery. Although Rosa Parks served as the catalyst for tens of thousands of people in Montgomery to boycott the transit system, the Women’s Political Council (WPC), which was started by Mary Fair Burks in 1946, played a crucial role. Before Parks’s arrest, black women through the WPC had focused their attention on the Jim Crow bus rules a year earlier. Because women were often the targets and suffered from the abuses perpetrated by the white bus drivers, in March 1954 Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, president of the WPC, met with W. A. Gayle, the mayor of Montgomery, and enumerated desired changes to the Montgomery bus laws to no avail. In March and October 1955, respectively, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith were arrested for refusing to surrender their seats to white passengers. Neither of these cases galvanized the black community like the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955. When the Montgomery black community decided to adhere to the request put forth by black leaders to launch a long-term boycott, women played a critical role in sustaining the boycott, especially the anonymous cooks and maids who made long walks to and from home for a year to accomplish the goal of desegregating the buses. A year later, after the United States Supreme Court ruling in the Browder v. Gayle case, Montgomery blacks returned to riding a now-desegregated public system of transportation. During the last years of the century’s fifth decade women continued in the civil rights struggle. Daisy Lee Gaston Bates was a mentor to the black students who became known as the Little Rock Nine and were in the forefront of desegregating Central High School in 1957. Both gained the attention of the nation and the international communities for their steadfastness and courage when
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Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent their entrance to the school building. As a civil rights advocate and active participant in the NAACP, Bates came to the attention of white Arkansans during the pretrial proceedings of the federal court case of Aaron v. Cooper that set the stage for the desegregation of Central High School. Two years after the Little Rock school desegregation crisis, the first daring struggle for voting rights in the rural South began in Tennessee’s Fayette and Haywood Counties. Viola McFerrin, Minnie Jamison, Wilola Mormon, their husbands, Gertrude Beasley, and others, led blacks in a revolt against the Jim Crow voting system, causing whites to evict thousand of black sharecroppers from their homes and enforce other economic reprisals. Because they were evicted, they were forced to live in a makeshift community that became known as Tent City or Freedom Village and foreshadowed the struggle that American blacks would wage to gain their constitutional right of the franchise. In 1959, Black Fayette Countians filed the first suit of its kind under the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Because of the actions and reactions to what took place in West Tennessee, the long shadow projected onto other voter registration movements throughout the South, especially in Mississippi and Alabama. As James Forman noted, if black participation in the electoral process could be achieved in West Tennessee, Mississippi seemed possible. In addition to Parks, who symbolizes the shift from the litigious route to direct nonviolent protest, Ella Baker pioneered the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and mobilized democratic coalitions in grassroots community associations across the country. She went to Highlander Folk School to assist Septima Clark in enabling black southerners to exercise their voting rights. One of her most important contributions to the movement was helping students to establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. A strong supporter of decentralized leadership, Baker encouraged the students to be their own leaders. Diane Nash was an indomitable force in the Nashville Student Movement. She caused then-mayor Ben West to declare that Nashville lunch counters should be desegregated. In 1961, she was in the forefront of the resurrected Freedom Rides that CORE terminated because of violent retaliatory action by white mobs. Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, a founder of SNCC and the first and only woman to serve as the organization’s executive secretary, became involved in the Civil Rights Movement because of her exposure to racial discrimination in her natal city of Atlanta, Georgia, the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the February 1960 sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina; these experiences caused her to become an activist. As a SNCC field representative Robinson assisted in organizing chapters in the South. In February 1961, she and other SNCC leaders, including Diane Nash, traveled to Rock Hill, South Carolina, to participate in that city’s sit-in movement. Because of their ‘‘jail-no-bail’’ tactic, they were given a thirty-day jail sentence. Robinson, a participant in the 1961 Freedom Rides, served a forty-five-day jail term in Mississippi’s Parchman Penitentiary where the young activist was brutalized by prison guards. SNCC members also concentrated their efforts on voter registration drives in the Deep South. One of the most important contributors to this phase
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of the movement was Fannie Lou Hamer, who became a member of the youthful political organization in 1962. In 1963, Hamer became a registered voter and a SNCC field secretary. She worked hard with voter registration drives in various locales and helped develop programs to assist economically deprived African American families. She also played a major role in the 1964 formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), established to challenge the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. A representative to the Democratic National Committee in August 1964, Hamer was one of the representatives who testified before the party’s Credentials Committee and gained national recognition doing so. In 1965 Hamer, Victoria Gray, and Annie Devine ran for Congress and challenged the seating of the regular Mississippi representatives before the U.S. House of Representatives. Although unsuccessful in their challenge, the 1965 elections were later overturned. Hamer continued to be politically active and from 1968 to 1971 was a member of the Democratic National Committee from Mississippi. The participation in the movement by women was not limited by age or education. Clearly, the most vividly recalled actions of civil disobedience came from two young females. The first, Autherine Lucy, became the first black student to enter the University of Alabama in 1955 as she walked through jeering crowds to register for classes after being admitted in 1952 and then denied because she was black. The other was six-year-old Ruby Bridges, who was depicted in the Rockwell painting as she entered William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960. Regardless of the popular perception that most of the activists in the modern Civil Rights Movement appeared to be men, women faced real dangers as they participated in the movement. Even traditional female labor such as cooking became acts of subversion against the white power structure. They fought alongside with men to achieve a more racially just nation. As the modern Civil Rights Movement moved toward the Black Power Movement, women continued to be active participants and shared in leadership roles. They were women like Elaine Brown who became the first of her gender to chair the Black Panther Party, which was established by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, in October 1966; Kathleen Cleaver, a former member of SNCC and a grassroots organizer of the party; and Angela Davis, an activist with SNCC and later with the Black Panthers. These women among others joined those who continued the American black struggle with a different approach. See also: Feminism Further Reading 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. Houck, Davis W., and David E. Dixon. 2009. Women and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1965. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
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Painter, Nell Irvin. 2006. Creating Black Americans: African-American History and its Meanings, 1619 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. Painter, Nell Irvin. 1996. Sojourner Truth, a Life, a Symbol. New York: Norton. Richardson, Marilyn, ed. 1987. Maria W. Stewart, America’s First Black Woman Political Writer, Essays and Speeches. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Robnett, Belinda. 1997. How Long? How Long? African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights. New York: Oxford University Press. Roses, Lorraine Elena, and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph. 1997. Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers 1900–1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Rosenberg, Rosalind. 2008. Divided Lives: American Women in the Twentieth Century. New York: Hill and Wang. 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. Schneider, Mark Robert. 2006. African Americans in the Jazz Age: A Decade of Struggle and Promise. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Linda T. Wynn
Women, African American, Images of Historically, negative images of African American women have inundated film, television, music, literature, and other forms of mass media. Mostly, these images stem from slavery. Unlike white women, contending with stereotypical images as weak, virginal, and pure individuals, African American women were portrayed as childlike and happy slaves, sex objects, and animals. Black feminist scholars have labeled these stereotypical images as the mammy, the Jezebel, and the beast. Other degrading images that emerged after slavery include the matriarch and the welfare queen. Black feminists contend that the images of African American women are problematic. One reason is that the images are erroneous. One of the pioneers of black feminist thought, bell hooks, asserts that negative images of African American women tend to be based on myths and fantasies, not reality. Feminists also assert that the images are racist and sexist, frequently designed by a dominant group to manipulate others. During slavery, privileged white men concocted stereotypes to maintain control and dominance over blacks. For example, by propagating the mammy image, a woman who is preternaturally happy— despite the grim realities of her condition—and devoted to her white oppressors, whites perpetrated the idea that slavery was not the grisly institution that abolitionists and many slaves themselves claimed. Patricia Hill Collins, a prominent black feminist scholar, wrote that the Jezebel image, a highly sexualized and immoral woman, ‘‘provid[ed] a powerful rationale for the widespread sexual assaults by white men typically reported by black slave women.’’ After slavery, stereotypes continued to cause difficulties for African Americans. Stereotypes helped reinforce segregation, essentially ‘‘mak[ing] racism, sexism, and poverty appear to be natural, normal, and an inevitable part of everyday life.’’
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Once legal segregation ended with the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, images of African American women remained negative, thus reinforcing and perpetrating racism and sexism. According to feminists, negative images are harmful to society, as well as to the individuals the stereotypes describe. Reports of racial violence and young women suffering low self-esteem and internalized racism are evidence of some of the consequences of stereotyping. Due to the damaging effects of negative images, black feminists, as well as other groups, monitor, police, scrutinize, and protest, if necessary, the ways in which African American women are represented in mass media, in the past and in the present. The Mammy Image The mammy figure is obese, dark-complexioned, and cloaked in a head wrap and mammoth apron. She might even be religious. The mammy’s matronly physical appearance is critical. Had she been perceived as alluring, she would have posed a threat to the affluent white southern family; however, the mammy is depicted as an asexual woman. Within the white family unit, she plays various roles as a domestic, surrogate mother figure to the children, as well as nurturer, confidant, and advisor to white adults. She is indispensable to the physical health and emotional well-being of white families, yet she neglects her black community. Though she may have had wisdom and play a prominent role in white society, even demonstrating assertiveness from time to time, she is still considered inferior and functions solely to attend to the needs of whites. The mammy was a common caricature to appear in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. During those years, Hattie McDaniel was regularly cast in the mammy role. Her most memorable role was as ‘‘Mammy’’ in Gone With the Wind (1939). She received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance, becoming the first African American to win the prestigious award, provoking controversy in the process. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization, stridently opposed stereotypical roles like the mammy image, and protested when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bestowed upon McDaniel the Oscar. Nearly a half century later, Oprah Winfrey premiered a new talk show, rapidly becoming, to her predominately white audience, one of the most beloved personalities on television. Many African American women, however, observed her guardedly, coming to the conclusion that Winfrey was a modern day mammy. Feminists made parallels between the disturbing mammy image and Winfrey’s role as ‘‘therapist,’’ ‘‘cheerleader,’’ and ‘‘confidant’’ to her largely white audience. Jezebel, Mulatta, and Hoochie Mama Image Unlike the mammy figure, the Jezebel image is sexual. She is ‘‘the epitome of a wild, sultry, seductive, mysterious, exotic sexuality that stopped men in their tracks.’’
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Although the Jezebel image was conceived during slavery, the image reappeared in numerous books and films that were produced between the 1920s and 1950s and, in recent history, Hip-Hop music and rap videos. One of the most popular characters of the early twentieth century was that of the biracial or mulatta woman, depicted as beautiful (light-complected), beguiling, and sensual—an ideal beauty type; she was frequently projected as a tortured soul. The mulatta image was popularized in books, such as Dark Lustre (1932) by Geoffrey Barnes and Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen, and films, like Carmen Jones (1954), featuring actress Dorothy Dandridge. The Jezebel image has resurfaced in contemporary times under the guise of the terms slut, ho, and hoochie mama. In hip-hop culture, African American and Latino males dominate, while women primarily function as objects of sexual fantasy. Rap artists have profited from lyrics that debase and promote violence against women; rap music has popularized derogatory terms, like ‘‘ho,’’ a slang term for prostitute, and ‘‘hoochie mama,’’ the title of the 1997 song by 2 Live Crew, and various expletives directed at women. What has aggravated matters is that some young women refer to each other using these destructive names. Another issue is that these songs have permeated a broad audience, including white suburban neighborhoods and mainstream culture, through advertisements, video games, television shows, and movies. Another phenomenon that has exacerbated sexist images, like the hoochie mama, in hip-hop culture is rap videos. In these videos, women are frequently shown dancing provocatively, dressed in tight and revealing clothing, such as short shorts or bikinis, while the camera fetishizes the female body by way of close-ups designed to produce an erotic response. According to Urbandictionary.com, the women who dress and dance erotically in rap videos are only one illustration of the hoochie mama type. Other examples include women who are or perceived to be sexually promiscuous, women like the two protagonists in the comedy B*A*P*S (1997), who represent ghetto culture, wearing oversized gold earrings, flamboyant processed hairstyles, and tight clothing, and women who are confident in their sexual appeal to men. The Beast Image Another image rooted in slavery is the beast. The beast image portrayed African American women as nonhuman, amoral, instinctual (not intelligent), and exceptionally fertile. This woman was perceived to be large, strong, and aggressive. One reason for the creation of the bestial image is that the stereotype enabled white slave masters to justify the social practice of forcing black women to work as equals with black men on plantations, while white women were prohibited from men’s work because they were typecast as delicate. The beast image, combined with the matriarch and welfare queen, resurfaced in the Alien movies (1979, 1986, 1992, 1997), starring Sigourney Weaver, a white woman, as the protagonist. Although the acid-spewing alien monsters in the popular science fiction films did not resemble African American women in
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any physical way, film critics Ximena Gallardo-C. and C. Jason Smith in Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley (2004) link the monster (the beast personified) symbolically to the African American matriarch and welfare queen. The authors assert that the Alien Queen in the films was the ‘‘black, horrifying mother of all rapists, a creature as well as a killer, the sole ruler of a matriarchal, collective world’’ that ‘‘bears a suspicious resemblance to . . . the black welfare mother—that parasite of the economy whose uncurbed productive drive reduced hard-working taxpayers to bankruptcy.’’ Matriarch and Welfare Queen The matriarch was defined not only by her position as head of household, but as a woman who was aggressive and controlling. The matriarch image was largely prompted by the Moynihan Report that was released in 1965. This report, led by U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was designed to provide an analysis of the tumultuous condition of black families in the ghettos. Among the problems affecting these families were poverty, drug abuse, crime, and unemployment. The Moynihan Report, in effect, blamed the condition of the black family on the profusion of single mothers who headed the households. Later, in 1968, following an investigation into the causes of multiple riots occurring in the 1960s, the Kerner Commission would charge that it was institutional racism that was at the heart of the problem of the dire social conditions in the ghettos. An extension of the matriarch image is the welfare queen, a stereotype that originated in the late twentieth century. The welfare queen is lazy and promiscuous. She abuses social welfare programs and drugs and alcohol, heads a dysfunctional home, and gives birth to multiple children, all of whom may have different fathers and may be victims of her neglect and physical abuse. Ingrid Banks, author of ‘‘Women in Film,’’ classified both the matriarch and welfare queen as ‘‘bad mothers.’’ Halle Berry has portrayed the bad black mother in at least two films. In Losing Isaiah (1995), Berry’s character is forced to give up her son due to drug addiction and an unwholesome home environment. In Monster’s Ball (2001), Berry is cast as a poor, single mother with a drinking problem. The film was considered controversial owing to the explicit sex scenes and stereotypical images. When Berry won an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance, critics were alarmed. Resistance Opposition to negative images of African American women has materialized in many forms. The female superhero protagonists in black films of the 1970s, were, to some, ‘‘empowering roles.’’ African American women writers, such as Lorraine Hansberry, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Toni Morrison, have created works in which they expose erroneous stereotypes or define the experiences and complex images of women from their own perspectives. Groundbreaking television shows, like The Cosby Show and Living Single, provide alternative images of
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African American women who are successful, powerful, and progressive. African American magazines, such as Ebony, Jet, and Essence, project positive and empowering images of women. A popular subject in magazines and other media forms is Michelle Obama, the wife of Barack Obama, the first African American president. The consensus among many writers is that Michelle Obama, touted as an accomplished and beautiful dark-skinned woman, a successful wife and mother, will greatly influence the perception of African American women the world over and help shatter centuries-old images that have controlled African American women. See also: Feminism Further Reading Banks, Ingrid. 2008. ‘‘Women in Film.’’ In African Americans and Popular Culture: Theatre, Film, and Television. Todd Boyd, ed. Westport, CT: Praeger. Collins, Patricia Hill. 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge. Gallardo-C., Ximena, and C. Jason Smith. 2004. Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley. New York: Continuum Stanley, Tarshia L. 2007. ‘‘The Specter of Oprah Winfrey: Critical Black Female Spectatorship.’’ In The Oprah Phenomenon. Jennifer Harris and Elwood Watson, eds. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Gladys L. Knight
Wonder, Stevie (1950– ), Singer, Songwriter, Keyboardist Stevie Wonder was born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan. He was later known as Stevland Morris; Wonder’s birth name is sometimes given as Steveland, but he actually uses Stevland. He became known to the world as Little Stevie Wonder when his debut single, ‘‘Fingertips, Part 2,’’ went to number one on the Billboard pop charts in 1963. Wonder had become blind as an infant as a result of an accident in his incubator; however, as a child he became proficient as a singer, and on drums, keyboards, and harmonica. He came to the attention of Motown Records, which signed Wonder to its Tamla label in 1961. Because of his unique musical talents, Stevie Wonder—he eventually outgrew the ‘‘Little’’ moniker—became one of the first and only Motown artists who could exercise complete artistic control over the writing, arranging, performance, and production of his studio work. After his initial success with ‘‘Fingertips, Part 2,’’ Wonder released singles that made the Billboard pop charts in every year between 1963 and 1988. In total, 64 of his singles made the top 100, with 10 of them reaching number one. Most of these recordings were of songs Wonder wrote or cowrote, including such wellknown compositions as ‘‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life,’’ ‘‘My Cherie Amour,’’
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‘‘I Just Called to Say I Love You,’’ ‘‘Living for the City,’’ ‘‘Higher Ground,’’ ‘‘Superstition,’’ ‘‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours),’’ and ‘‘Sir Duke.’’ Wonder’s 1982 duet with Paul McCartney, ‘‘Ebony and Ivory,’’ held the number one position in the Billboard pop charts for seven weeks and was among the fifty top-selling singles of the period 1955–2000. According to Joel Whitburn’s book Top Pop Singles, 1955–1996, Stevie Wonder was the fourth most successful singles artist of the period, trailing only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Elton John. In addition to writing most of his best-known hits, Wonder has also written or cowritten songs for other performers, with one of the best remembered of these songs being the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles number one pop hit ‘‘The Tears of a Clown.’’ Throughout his career Stevie Wonder has also garnered critical success. He received praise in particular as a keyboardist in the first half of the 1970s, when he virtually defined the new funk synthesizer-clavinet-based style that was in vogue at the time. Wonder was also praised for his compositions and performances on albums such as Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness First Finale (1974), and Songs in the Key of Life (1976), a period of time in which he dealt with subjects such as racism, ghetto life, and spirituality. As a singer on these albums and on his albums of the 1980s, Stevie Wonder has been compared with some of the great jazz singers of the past in his subtle phrasing. Noted rock critic Robert Christgau wrote of Wonder, ‘‘Overlaying track after track in the studio, he’s a font of melody, a wellspring of rhythm, a major modern composer.’’ Wonder’s albums of the 1972–1980 period were particularly notable for their displays of political and social consciousness. Songs such as ‘‘Living for the City,’’ ‘‘Big Brother,’’ ‘‘You Haven’t Done Nothin’,’’ ‘‘Village Ghetto Land,’’ and ‘‘Happy Birthday’’ deal with such topics as the struggle for racial equality, urban poverty, and political corruption. Because of his well-established mainstream appeal as an artist, Wonder brought these issues, as well as the spiritual topics he addressed in his work of the 1970s, to a wider audience than any other musician. In 1991, Wonder resumed his socially conscious work when he wrote and recorded the soundtrack for the Spike Lee film Jungle Fever, a movie about interracial dating. Wonder addressed poverty and genocide (among other, more pleasant topics) in songs on the 1995 album Conversation Peace. In addition to addressing social issues through his music, Stevie Wonder lobbied for the creation of a national holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr., during the 1970s and early 1980s. He has also been active in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and for AIDS awareness and handgun control in the United States. He has been active in the fight against world hunger. Stevie Wonder has received numerous awards, including twenty-two Grammy awards over the years and Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and in 1999, received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. President Barack Obama gave Stevie Wonder the second Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2009, at a special concert in the East Room of the White House in celebration of African American History Month. As a singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist, Wonder’s influence can be heard in the music of Prince,
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Usher, Michael Jackson, Maxwell, and others. Wonder’s compositions and recordings continue to be sampled by Hip-Hop and contemporary Rhythm and Blues artists on a regular basis. Stevie Wonder continues to perform at benefit concerts into the twenty-first century. His latest albums are A Time 2 Love, released by Motown in October 2005, and a greatest hits CD, Number Ones, in 2007. See also: Pop Music Further Reading Cain, Joy Duckett. 1984. ‘‘Stevie Wonder: Still Reaching for Higher Ground.’’ Essence 15 (December): 66 et seq. Perone, James E. 2006. The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music. Westport, CT: Praeger. Ribowsky, Mark. 2010. Signed, Sealed, and Delivered: The Soulful Journey of Stevie Wonder. New York: Wiley. Whitburn, Joel. 1997. Top Pop Singles, 1955–1996. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research. James E. Perone
Woods, Tiger (1975– ), Golfer At the height of his career, Tiger Woods made the sport of Golf a true religion. He amassed a following outshining that of his legendary counterparts. His standard of play has been deemed iconic. The distinctive phrase used to brand his image, ‘‘I am Tiger Woods,’’ gave golf a new face and a new meaning for all to embrace. Woods gave golf widespread acceptability throughout African American popular culture. Especially since he became the first African American to win the Masters Tournament, many African Americans adopted an increased affinity for sport because of the sportsmanship and genius that Tiger brought to professional golf. In 2009 Tiger’s fortress of fame, reverence, and stability as the billion-dollar athlete and role model was breached by the unfolding exposure of his highly profiled and publicized epoch of infidelities. Eldrick Tont (Tiger) Woods was born in Long Beach, California, on December 30, 1975, to Earl and Kultida Woods. The nickname ‘‘Tiger’’ was bestowed upon him by his father in remembrance of a dear friend, Nguyen Phong, a South Vietnamese soldier, who fought by his side and saved his life in Vietnam. Reared in a loving home with two distinctly different cultures, he has a multifaceted racial heritage made up of African American, Thai, Native American, Chinese, and Caucasian. As Tiger matured, he coined a term for discerning his roots and existence by calling himself a Caublanasian. During his formative years he resided in Cypress, California. His proven talent and ability for the game of golf was recognized early on by his father, Earl
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Woods. Before the tender age of four, Tiger was victorious with his first competitive golf win. At sixteen, he made his first appearance on the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) Tour at the Los Angeles Open. After a rigorous two-year stint while golfing under the auspices of Stanford University and majoring in economics, on August 28, 1996, Tiger made the compelling decision to become a professional golfer. A celebrated champion of many firsts, he is recognized as the youngest person to have achieved multimillionaire status in the history of professional golf. Tiger’s wide reach and international appeal gave him the leverage to become a branding and marketing powerhouse. Since he joined the PGA Tour, television Tiger Woods, a professional golfer, is the first viewership ratings of the tour African American to win the Masters were the highest ever, es- Tournament. Although his social indiscretions pecially from those tuning in scarred his image, in December 2009 he was voted representative of the African the best athlete of the decade. (Shutterstock) American culture. Endorsements deals that were closely synonymous with his name have included the brands Nike, GM-Buick, Accenture, American Express, Tag Heuer, and many more. In 1997, Tiger’s crowning achievement at the start of his professional career was his win at the Masters, formerly known as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament held annually in Augusta, Georgia. With this win he became the third man of African American descent to hold membership in this exclusive golf club, and the first to do so by winning the acclaimed golf tournament at the age of twenty-one. Before him, Lee Elder, an African American, was invited to play at Augusta in 1975. Lauded as the endurance of hope and emblem of those making great strides in this exclusionary sport before him, with this historic win Tiger opened the floodgates for change and inclusion for those he represents culturally and more importantly his own family. He went on to win three other Masters Tournaments, two of them consecutively in 2001 and again in 2002, and another in 2005.
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As his career continued on an upswing of unfettered growth and precision his personal life was moving perfectly in tandem. On October 5, 2004, he married Elin Nordegren of Stockholm, Sweden, in a private ceremony on the 19th hole of a luxury golf resort in St. James, Barbados, West Indies. Still making great strides in golf, upon his 2005 win of the Buick Invitational, Tiger had consecutive first place finishes in 2006, 2007, and 2008. The year 2006 was filled with gains and losses. Woods’s 2006 Buick Invitational victory marked his fiftieth title win as a member of the PGA Tour. And he was the first to achieve this awesome feat at age thirty. With tremendous difficulty, Tiger experienced the loss of his father after a long bout with prostate cancer. He then went on to add two other titles to his roster of wins which included the PGA championship as well as the British Open. Tiger’s wife Elin gave birth to a daughter in 2007, just one day after Woods had a second place finish in the U.S. Open. Tiger’s 2008 win at the U.S. Open in La Jolla, California, contributed to his running total of fourteen majors victories. The need for reconstructive knee surgery caused Tiger to retire from the remainder of that tour to allow for proper healing and rest. During his 2009 hiatus, Tiger and his wife Elin became parents to a second child, a son. Shortly after, Woods made his comeback, with a total of six wins in 2009. In November of that year, Tiger had a car accident, colliding into a neighbor’s tree and a fire hydrant. Speculation arose about his wife smashing the vehicle’s rear window with a golf club. After further investigation and weeks of constant media probes, an open-ended tale of betrayal was uncovered: Tiger Woods had been leading a life of constant extramarital affairs. Tiger’s image was stained, threatening the continuity of several of his endorsement deals, though Nike stood by him. With his marriage on the rocks, Woods decided to step away from golf once more to regain control of his life. On a live television broadcast on February 19, 2010, Woods admitted guilt and apologized for all his misdoings. Woods made his return to golf by beginning his 2010 season in April at the Augusta National Golf Club in the Masters Tournament. He tied for fourth place. Now divorced, Woods’s playing is in a severe slump and so is viewership of golf tournaments. See also: Men, African American, Images of Further Reading Barkley, Charles. 2005. Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? New York: Penguin Press. Callahan, Tom. 2003. In Search of Tiger: A Journey Through Golf With Tiger Woods. New York: Crown Publishers. Gillis, Charlie, John Intini, and Anne Kingston. 2009. ‘‘Tiger’s Fall from Glory.’’ Maclean’s 122 (December 11): 38–41. People. 2006. ‘‘Earl Woods.’’ May 22. Robinson, Eugene. 2010. ‘‘The Deconstruction of Tiger Woods.’’ Ebony 65 (March): 64.
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Rosaforte, Tim. 1997. Tiger Woods: The Making of a Champion. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Tiger Woods. (Homepage.) Tigerwoods.com. Tresniowski, Alex, et al. 2009. ‘‘Tiger in the Rough.’’ People 72 (December 14): 82–89. Whitaker, Matthew C., ed. 2008. African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Wilbon, Michael. 2010. ‘‘Tiger Woods: His Life Fell Apart, and Now So Has His Game.’’ Washington Post, August 10. Dantrea Hampton
Woofing/Wolfing Woofing, sometimes called ‘‘wolfing,’’ is a communication strategy used to insult or threaten an opponent. It is rooted in African oral traditions of verbal skill and play. African Americans have traditionally used words to precede a physical fight, prevent or take the place of a fight, entertain one another, or demonstrate verbal ability. Consequently, verbal skill is as significant as physical prowess. Woofing varies from region to region. Generally, woofing takes two forms. It can be an insult game or a demonstration of intimidation. Woofing is played like the Dozens in some communities. It consists of two individuals who battle it out with insults, gestures, Humor, rhymes, and other tactics. The insults are commonly directed at the opponents’ mother as well as other immediate and extended family members. The audience encourages the performance with lively acclamation and laughter. The winner is the person with the most creative technique and performance. The loser is expected to maintain poise. He or she loses face by responding in anger, provoking a fight, or retaliating in some mean-spirited way. Woofing builds esteem and identity, releases tension, and teaches self-control and verbal skill. In a school setting, teachers may interpret this behavior as hostile and inappropriate (and sometimes it is), and as a result, discipline the participants. Woofing, or ‘‘selling woof’’ or ‘‘wolf tickets,’’ is a form of boasting and intimidation that is often misinterpreted or misunderstood by white Americans. For instance, in the 1970s, the Black Panther Party waged a verbal war against whites, whom they believed had systematically oppressed African Americans. Jargon such as ‘‘Death to the racist exploiters!’’ aroused whites to ‘‘launch an allout military campaign’’ against the Panthers. Many in the black community took the Panthers’ threats less seriously, interpreting them in the context of woofing. Woofing was also a key element of boasting behaviors engaged in by former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, whose verbal performances were also misconstrued by the white media and audiences. Evelyn Baker Dandy describes how youths attempt to intimidate teachers through verbal and nonverbal acts. Youths target teachers they perceive to be pushovers. Teachers label students who sell woof tickets as troubled youth and do not
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realize the youth are responding to perceived weakness. Dandy suggests that teachers incorporate woofing in the classroom. In this way, teachers gain respect from their African American students. Dandy states that woofing and other verbal strategies are ‘‘an asset rather than a hindrance to learning. What are essentially cultural strengths can be transferred into positive classroom experiences.’’ See also: Men, African American, Images of; Signifying Further Reading Dance, Daryl Cumber, ed. 2002. From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore. New York: Norton. Dandy, Evelyn Baker. 1991. Black Communications: Breaking Down the Barriers. Chicago: African American Images. Smitherman, Geneva. 1977. Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Smitherman, Geneva. 2000. Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture and Education in African America. New York: Routledge. Gladys L. Knight
Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. (1941– ), Educator, Pastor, Writer, Religious and Civic leader Jeremiah Alvesta Wright Jr., a theologian regarded as one of the most influential black ministers in the United States, was plunged into the national spotlight in a social and political controversy years after preaching sermons whose Language mainstream America viewed as intemperate. During the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama, wide news media attention focused on a sermon Wright preached the Sunday following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on New York City. In it, Wright enumerated atrocities that he believed the United States had perpetuated on her people and on others of the world. He then followed the list of America’s government terrorist activities by proclaiming (quoting Malcolm X after another national tragedy), ‘‘America’s chickens are coming home to roost.’’ Two years later, in a sermon delivered September 2003 citing government injustices, Wright remarked, ‘‘God damn America!’’ These statements and others made by him were regarded as incendiary, especially when quoted out of context. Political rivals of Barack Obama used Wright’s language to create a firestorm against the 2008 democratic presidential nominee. Since Wright was Obama’s long-time minister, mentor, and friend, it was feared that voters would refuse to separate the minister’s words from the Democratic nominee. Wright had welcomed Obama to his church and baptized him, and for twenty years Obama had been a member of the 10,000–strong Trinity United Church of Christ in
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Chicago. The minister performed the marriage ceremony of Barack and Michelle Obama, and baptized their two daughters. Moreover, Obama’s bestseller, The Audacity of Hope, was inspired by a sermon preached by Wright. A tape ministry made Wright’s sermons accessible to campaign strategists, who took full advantage to discredit Obama based upon his close association with Wright. Radio stations aired sound bites of Wright’s sermons. Major television stations and news stations played excerpts of the sermons unrelentingly, selecting segments that could be misunderstood when taken out of context. People also viewed the clips on YouTube. Wright’s series of ‘‘Good News!’’ sermons were ignored. Many African Americans believe that the media-play excerpts of several sermons were presented to a majority audience who did not understand the history of the black church or the tradition of religion in black folk culture. Wright’s sermons are steeped in traditions that characterize the black folk preacher relative to cadence, delivery, message, and tone. His sermons have a distinctive cadence and a highly stylized dramatic flair. His scholarly messages expound on scriptures, and are replete with metaphors and parables woven to connect religious dogma to present-day issues, often from the perspective of black liberation and transformation theology. Wright’s sometimes strident delivery can seem vitriolic to those who do not understand that his tone emulates the black preacher rooted in folk tradition. A whirlwind of negative accusations and attacks put Wright on the defensive, prompting him to make public appearances to explain the message of his sermons. When the barrage of negative publicity threatened to cost Obama the presidential election, social and political pressures forced Obama’s advisors to remove Wright from the campaign’s African American Religious Advisory Committee, and Obama distanced himself from his longtime minister. In May 2010, the Associated Press reported on a letter from Wright to a charity, in which Wright described his great disappointment with President Obama and with his White House advisors. Many believe that a more accurate understanding of Wright and his sermons can be assessed via his 2008 presentation at the National Press Club. He offers a lucid, articulate explanation of his mission as a gospel minister and the need for the United States and the world to right past and present wrongs so that righteous transformations can occur in the United States and abroad. See also: Black Theology; Churches; Language Further Reading Neumiester, Larry. 2010. ‘‘Ex-Obama pastor: ‘Obama threw me under the bus.’’’ Associated Press, May 18. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WRIGHT_OBAMA? SITE=NCKIN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT.
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Ross, Brian, and Rehab El-Buri. 2008. ‘‘Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11.’’ ABC News.go.com, the Blotter, March 13. http://abcnews.go .com/Blotter/story?id=4443788&page=1. Wallsten, Peter. 2008. ‘‘The Rev. Jeremiah Wright was an Early Concern, Obama Aide Admits.’’ Los Angeles Times, Top of the Ticket, March 16. http://latimesblogs .latimes.com/washington/2008/03/throughout-his.html. Wright, Jeremiah A., Jr. 1995. Africans Who Shaped Our Faith. Chicago: Urban Ministries. Wright, Jeremiah A., Jr. 1995. Good News!: Sermons of Hope for Today’s Families. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press. Wright, Jeremiah A., Jr. 2008. ‘‘Transcript: Rev. Jeremiah Wright Speech to the National Press Club.’’ Chicago Tribune, April 28. Jewell B. Parham
Wright, Richard (1908–1960), Writer, Journalist Richard Wright was featured on a sixty-one cent postal stamp in April 2009, forty-nine years after his death, evidence of his impact; he represents a benchmark in African American literature that speaks to the lasting nature of his thoughts and style. He identifies many of the fundamental issues, perceived or real, of black identity and sets the standard for the way in which twentieth and twenty-first-century African American literature is defined. He writes about black people where they are: their oppression and their inability to be agents over their own identity. As a major African American writer, he is best known for Black Boy and Native Son, both bestsellers before his relocation to France (1947). Yet, Wright is very political, as is evident in works like Black Power, and writes with a complex simplicity. The breadth of both his development as a writer and as an intellectual is evident in his style, political thrusts, themes, and his thinking about Christianity, naturalism, and existentialism. Wright continues his most prominent themes and images in the over 4,000 haiku he wrote prior to his death in Paris. Haiku: This Other World, is a collection of Wright’s haikus. Despite his accomplishments, he is overshadowed by the writers he influenced: James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. Richard Nathaniel Wright was born September 8, 1908, on the Rucker plantation near Roxie, Mississippi, east of Natchez, to Nathan Wright, a sharecropper, and Ella Wilson Wright, a school teacher. His grandmother, Margaret Bolton Wilson, was a devout Seventh Day Adventist, who barred books from the house. This greatly impacted Wright’s upbringing, but did not deter him from reading. He and his brother, Leon Alan, born in 1910, spent a peripatetic life moving from place to place both with and without the family and experienced frequent disruptions in their formal education. These events built his anger and frustration, yet they did not deter his intellectual growth. Wright worked a myriad of menial jobs, and used them to his advantage. A voracious reader, he seized every opportunity to read everything available to him in that
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segregated society in which he grew. By the time he graduated the ninth grade, valedictorian, he had published a short story, ‘‘The Voodoo of Hell’s Half Acre’’ (1924). Following graduation (1925), Wright found work, continued to read, write, and pursue his education. Using his ingenuity, he gained access to the ‘‘whites only’’ library and continued his reading; he read and was influenced in both his social protest and naturalism by H. L. Mencken, Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, Frank Harris, and O. Henry. Wright moved to Chicago (1927) where he held various jobs and simultaneously honed his craft. Important to his development, he became ac- Richard Wright (photographed in 1939) is best known for his first published novel, Native Son, which quainted with both the introduced a new realism to literary treatments of activities of the Communist America’s racial problems, rendering sympathetically Party and members of the the always fearful, sometimes violent psychology of Chicago John Reed Club of the oppressed. (Library of Congress) leftist and Marxist workers; he became both a Communist and a Marxist. He published two poems and worked on his fiction, and worked on the Federal Writers’ Project (1935). He moved to New York (1937), where he helped start New Challenge, became editor of the Daily Worker, and coeditor of Left Front. In 1938, he won a prize for ‘‘Fire and Cloud,’’ published his short story collection Uncle Tom’s Children, and worked on a novel. During the 1940s, he published Twelve Million Black Voices (1941), Black Boy (1945), a short story, and an essay, ‘‘I Tried to be a Communist’’ and broke with the Communist Party. In 1947 he moved permanently to France, where he worked with Leopold Senghor, Aime Cesaire, and Alioune Diop on a publishing project. He continued to travel, write, and publish. Wright married twice: Rose Dhimah Meadman (1938), and Ellen Poplar (1941), with whom he had two daughters, Julia and Rachel. Wright died November 28, 1960, of a heart attack in Paris, France.
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In his essay ‘‘Blueprint for Negro Writing,’’ Wright argued for social realism, that literature should serve the black populace, not just the bourgeoise, and that it must result in a broader change in both the material and the social conditions of African Americans. His ‘‘The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch’’ was published in American Stuff (1937); it is an education in race relations and its concomitant racism. Wright began his poetry writing in the 1930s with such titles as ‘‘I Have Seen Black Hands’’ and ‘‘Between the World and Me’’ and ended his writing career with haikus. In those early poems are the seeds of the imagery, themes, protest, and southern connections that are apparent in his works. His short story collections are Uncle Tom’s Children and Eight Men, one published early in his career and the other posthumously (1961). The short stories in the first collection are set in the South following slavery and address the life of black people under oppression and racism. The reception to this collection led Wright to say he would no longer have characters who elicited pity; he wanted them to gain acceptance and recognition on their own merit. Thus, his characters would be heroes or villains, not buffoons; their claim to justice would not be innocence, but the protection of the law; they would not be paradigms of virtue; and he would demand justice. The final collection focuses on eight men who are at odds with the white world and the violence and racism evident. Even though much of his writing has elements of the autobiographical, the avowedly autobiographical works are Black Boy (1945) and American Hunger (1977), which initially were parts of one book, but were divided for publication purposes. Black Boy has more action and is set in the South. American Hunger, which explores Wright’s life in the North, his enchantment with the promises of communism, and later the disenchantment, shows him to be inside and outside simultaneously. The exchanges between Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre and the existentialist thrust in Wright’s works are evident in The Outsider (1953) and ‘‘The Man Who Lived Underground.’’ Both show characters who transcend Bigger Thomas (from Native Son), but share some of the same problems, and are forging meaning and gaining knowledge which subsequently they must share; in the sharing they die. Wright’s political travels, his journalism, and his recognition of oppression are presented in his Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos (1954), The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference (1956), Pagan Spain (1957), and White Man Listen! (1957). Native Son (1940), like Black Boy, has not lacked for accolades and study. Native Son, which has been staged and filmed, and Black Boy are taught at all levels. Themes, style, and the simple complexity apparent in his earlier works are evident in the posthumous novel, A Father’s Law (2008) which was begun the summer before his death. The success of Native Son and Black Boy has been a two-edged sword for Wright’s literary reputation. On the one hand he has received critical study of his fiction and his life’s impact, but on the other it has been limiting, for its focus has not looked at the total genius of the writer and his craft.
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Richard Wright’s ashes are at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris and the major collection of his papers is at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Other materials are at the New York Library, Princeton University, and the Schomburg Library. See also: Literature, Classic African American Further Reading Boyd, Melba Joyce, ed. 2009. Richard Wright Centennial Conference. Special issue, Black Scholar 39 (Summer): 2–88. Kinnamon, Kenneth, and Michel Fabre. 1993. Conversations with Richard Wright. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Smethurst, James Edward. 1999. The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930–1946. New York: Oxford. Walker, Margaret. 1988. Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius. New York: Warner Books. Wright, Richard. 2008. Black Power: Three Books from Exile: Black Power; The Color Curtain; and White Man Listen! Introduction by Cornel West. New York: HarperPerennial. Wright, Richard. 2008. A Father’s Law. New York: Harper. Helen R. Houston
Y Yard Art This term refers to artistic material expressions found in outdoor spaces: yards and gardens. Studies of African American gardening and yard art traditions have been scarce until recently. Most extant works trace the distinctiveness and ‘‘flexible visual vocabulary’’ of these vernacular spaces to a process of creolization of African, European, and American traditions, a process that is continually evolving today due to such factors as increased urbanization, acculturation, and changes in American material culture in general. Although the historical documentation of domestic outdoor spaces in Africa and among early African American slaves is scarce, available photographs and descriptions make clear that the yard adjacent to the house or cabin became an extension of the kitchen itself, filled with objects such as a washtub, a cutting table, a rain barrel, and a fireplace, as well as animals (e.g., hogs and chickens). Some African practices were not retained in the New World, but other African influences are readily observable, giving shape to elements of the New World landscape for the slaves, their descendents, and even southern whites. According to Robert Farris Thompson, African retentions evident in the yards and gardens of contemporary African Americans reveal principles and iconography derived from the Central African kingdom of Kongo, from which many of the captured slaves brought to the United States originated. Such Africanisms include mirrors, jars or vessels, emblems of motion (e.g., wheels, tires, hubcaps, hoops, pinwheels, directional orientation), cosmograms (i.e., representing four moments of the sun or the four stages of the soul, sometimes appearing in the form of diamonds or circles), herbs or flowers encircled protectively (i.e., with a tire or a rock border), trees hung with shiny objects (e.g., bottles, light bulbs, tinfoil,
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metal pieces), swept-earth yards, graveyard-type decorations (e.g., shells, pipes, rock piles), and an assortment of other objects (e.g., dolls, found images, stuffed or sculptured animals, seats, or ‘‘thrones’’). Most practitioners (whose descriptions vary depending on age, class, and region) refer to their own ever-evolving activities as ‘‘yard work,’’ ‘‘working in the yard,’’ or ‘‘gardening,’’ language that downplays the artistic significance in their work. Thompson writes that outside observers of these same yards prefer to speak of ‘‘dressing the yard’’ and ‘‘yard art,’’ focusing on how the meaning and function of everyday objects, for example, are transformed to express essential values, aesthetics, and spiritual beliefs. In this schema, African American yards display continuities and consistencies in terms of organizing principles (e.g., motion, containment, figuration, and medicine). Decorative ornaments, recycled materials, and the arrangement of yards are taken to be rich in meaning and associations for the owners. Gundaker found that mirrors on the porch, for instance, are said by scholars ‘‘to keep certain forces at a distance,’’ jars or vessels placed near doors are said ‘‘to send back evil to its sources,’’ bottle trees ‘‘ward off evil,’’ tying and wrapping are ‘‘traditional ways of enclosing charms and . . . sealing intentions,’’ and swept-earth yards are kept clear of plants and evil spirits (e.g., snakes) that could otherwise hide in vegetation. Moreover, natural features of the landscape (e.g., trees and rocks) become ‘‘invested with spiritual significance . . . interwoven with the life courses of individuals.’’ It is important to note, however, in light of these theories that, when questioned about these meanings, practitioners rarely articulate such explicit views or philosophies. Many gardeners, in fact, deny African ancestry in their behavior; African influences apparently are ‘‘seen to be contrary to their [Christian] religious beliefs,’’ writes Westmacott. Certainly there are some decorative impulses that are not as clearly linked to the spiritual or supernatural; for instance, artificial grass, painted or sculptured mailboxes, painted brick steps, pink flamingoes, chimes, and decorative arrangements of flowering plants. In either case, it remains clear that African American yard art is a material manifestation of unique personal experiences and cultural values that contains identifiable evidence of African, European, and New World influences and, most significantly, is always evolving to fit the aesthetic predilection of the gardeners. See also: Aerosol Art; African Cultural Influences Further Reading Arnett, Paul, and William Arnett, eds. 2000. Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South. Vol. 1. Atlanta: Tinwood Books. Gundaker, Grey. 1993. ‘‘Tradition and Innovation in African-American Yards.’’ African Arts 26 (April): 58–71, 94–96. Gundaker, Grey, and Tynes Cowan, eds. 1998. Keep Your Head to the Sky: Interpreting African American Home Ground. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. LeFalle-Collins, Lizzetta. 1987. Home and Yard: Black Folk Life Expressions in Los Angeles. Los Angeles: California Afro-American Museum.
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Mintz, Sidney W. 1974. ‘‘Houses and Yards among Caribbean Peasantries.’’ In Caribbean Transformations, 225–50. New York: Columbia University Press. Thompson, Robert Farris. 1983. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. New York: Random House. Thompson, Robert Farris. 1989. ‘‘The Song That Named the Land: The Visionary Presence of African-American Art.’’ In Black Art: Ancestral Legacy. Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art. Westmacott, Richard. 1992. African-American Gardens and Yards in the Rural South. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. LuAnne Roth
Young, Andrew (1932– ), Clergyman, Civil Rights Leader, Politician, Diplomat Andrew Jackson Young Jr. has made an indelible mark as a clergyman, civil rights leader, politician, ambassador, and businessman. Young was born in New Orleans on March 12, 1932, to Andrew Jackson Young Sr., a dentist, and Daisy Fuller Young, a teacher. Living in a predominantly Italian and Irish community, Young became aware of racial segregation in the South and violent defense tactics, but realized that violence was not the answer to segregation. Starting his education at public schools in New Orleans, he then attended Gilbert Academy and spent one year at Dillard University. He graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC, with a bachelor of science degree in biology, and Hartford Theological Seminary, Connecticut, with a bachelor of divinity. After he was ordained a minister of the United Church of Christ in 1955, Young went south, where he pastored at Marion, Alabama, and also two smalltown churches in Thomasville and Beachton, Georgia. He moved to New York in 1957 and became associate director of the Department of Youth Work of the National Council of Churches. After four years with the council, in 1961, the United Church of Christ aided African American voters in the South with a voter education program under Young’s leadership. Young encouraged African Americans to register to vote in Atlanta, Georgia, and its surroundings. Using Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent methods of resistance, already adapted by Martin Luther King Jr., Young organized his church members and community groups in passive actions against segregation, placing himself in danger at times. In Atlanta, he became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, under King’s leadership, becoming King’s administrative assistant in 1992. Young was instrumental in the drafting of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In addition, in 1964, he became executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), organizing many peaceful protests. He traveled with King, protesting social and economic injustices mainly in the South. Although opposing King’s decision to
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go to Memphis, Tennessee, to support the sanitation worker’s strike in 1968, he joined in the cause and was in earshot when King was killed. Unsuccessfully running for a seat in Congress, Young ran again and was elected in 1972, becoming Georgia’s first African American congressional representative since Reconstruction. He served Congress for three terms, as he was reelected in 1974 and 1976. President Jimmy Carter appointed Young as the United States ambassador to the United Nations in 1976; he served until 1979 and then resigned because of controversy over his meeting with the Palestinian Liberation Organization. He was First as a civil rights activist, then as a congressman, mayor of Atlanta begindiplomat, and mayor, Andrew Young has devoted his ning 1981 and was relife to improving the quality of life for African Americans and poor people both in the United States elected in 1985. In 1996, Young co-chaired the comand around the world. (Library of Congress) mittee for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Young is founding principal and co-chair of Good Works International, helping with human rights issues globally. He also served as president of the National Council of Churches in 2000–2001. Young was awarded the Pax-Christi Award, St. Johns University, 1970; Spingarn Medal, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 1978; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Carter, 1980. He has published two books, A Way Out of No Way and An Easy Burden. Young lives in Atlanta with his second wife, Carolyn, and is the father of three daughters and one son by his deceased first wife, civil rights activist Jean Childs. He also has grandchildren. See also: Social Activists
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Further Reading Connor, Tim, and Tom Pendergast. (n.d.) ‘‘Andrew Young Biography—Learned from King, Joined Political Process, Became UN Ambassador, Elected Mayor of Atlanta.’’ Online African American Biographies 2. http://biography.jrank.org/ pages/2439/Young-Andrew.html. Young, Andrew. 1994. A Way Out of No Way: The Spiritual Memoirs of Andrew Young, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. Young, Andrew. 1996. An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America. New York: HarperCollins. Denise Jarrett
Young, Whitney (1921–71), Civil Rights Leader, Social Worker As head of the National Urban League during the turbulent years of the modern Civil Rights Movement, Whitney Young was aggressive in his pursuit of programs to provide equal opportunity for African Americans in many arenas. He is nationally known for his work in areas still widely discussed in popular culture. Whitney Moore Young Jr., the son of Whitney Moore Young Sr., a college president and Laura Ray, a teacher, was born July 31, 1921, in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky. He was one of three children. He began his educational matriculation in Kentucky’s segregated public school system. He completed his high school education at the Lincoln Institute where his father was the president of this private college for blacks. This is where Young witnessed early on in his life the inner workings of a successful multiracial work environment. The college faculty of Lincoln Institute was a combination of blacks and whites. In 1937, Young moved to Frankfort, Kentucky, to attend Kentucky State Industrial College, as it was known at that time. He earned a BS degree in 1941; shortly after graduation, Young accepted a dual position in which he worked as an assistant principal as well as a coach in Madison, Kentucky, at the Julius Rosenwald High School. In 1944 he married Margaret Buckner, his college sweetheart, with whom he had two daughters. Education was the foundation in which he deeply rooted his reality and his experience. Upon completion of service in the military, Young went further in his educational pursuits at the University of Minnesota, where he obtained a masters degree in social work in 1947. He then began working for the National Urban League (NUL) chapter of St. Paul, Minnesota, as the industrial relations secretary. After two years he went to Omaha, Nebraska’s NUL chapter to accept an appointment as executive secretary. With each appointment came impressive changes as Young advocated on the behalf of black workers to gain acceptance as being highly employable by employers who otherwise would not have given them an opportunity. He also grew each of the chapter’s intake of memberships, thus increasing its financial standing.
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As a civil rights partisan and director of the National Urban League, Whitney Young was sometimes criticized by more militant African American leaders as being too conservative and in the pay of the white establishment. (Bettmann/Corbis)
While maintaining his service to the NUL in Nebraska and building its strength and presence as a social service organization fueled by social work, Young also made time to teach courses at both the University of Nebraska and Creighton University. This led him to Atlanta University (AU), where he was hired for the position of dean for the School of Social Work in 1954. His experience of growth and expansion with the NUL permeated throughout his term at AU as he increased the school’s budget, monies for professional development, and salaries for its teachers. As executive director of the National Urban League, a position he had taken on in 1961, Young endured backlash from the black community on account of his stance against active protests and demonstrations, including bus boycotts, sit-ins, and freedom rides. This caused an onslaught of divisive verbal attacks by militant blacks and the groups and organizations they represented. Young and his battle for surmountable economic and political status for blacks were not very well received by blacks who were certainly deemed as the underclass. As a social service organization, the NUL’s principal focus was to establish a framework that offered blacks the chance for inclusion and acceptance socially and economically. The NUL fought to change afflicting stereotypes of inferiority. Through this organization Young built unwavering relationships in arenas such as politics and government in which he garnered a reputation that was both national and international for his leadership and commitment to civil rights. His
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presence was so far-reaching and well-received that he was asked to and served under two presidential administrations, that of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Seeing the need for the revitalization of ghettos, Young outlined a Domestic Marshall Plan in a book he wrote titled To Be Equal (1964) and President Lyndon B. Johnson used the structuring of this plan to create and launch programming to fight what he called the War on Poverty. In 1969, President Johnson awarded Young the highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. At the age of 49, Young died while attending a conference in Lagos, Nigeria. As he was swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, he endured physical complications which caused him to drown. An elementary school in Louisville is named in his honor, and his birth place now bears an historic marker recognizing Young. See also: Social Activists Further Reading Burwell, N. Yolanda. 2005. ‘‘Young, Whitney (1922–1971).’’ In Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America. John Henrick and Paul Stuart, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference. Fay, Robert. 2005. ‘‘National Urban League.’’ 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. Fay, Robert. 2005. ‘‘Young, Whitney Moore, Jr.’’ 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. Luker, Ralph E. 2008. ‘‘Young, Whitney Moore, Jr.’’ In African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Dantrea Hampton
Z Zoot Suits The zoot suit was the first stylized men’s outfit or garb associated with jazz dance that did not come from high society, like the formal dress suit with top hat and tails or the tuxedo. Adopted and popularized by young black male urbanites in the early 1940s, the suit’s coat was long with broad shoulders and narrow at the waist, and the matching trousers were wide at the knee but very narrow at the cuff. Pants were worn high above the waist near the armpits, and a long keychain was draped from the belt for all to see. Sometimes the garment had an unusual color or pattern, and some zoot-suiters wore thick-soled shoes or a hat with a long feather to accent their attire. Harlemites were among the first to don the zoot, but black and white urbanites throughout the nation as well as Italian, Mexican American, and Filipino youth proudly wore this style when they dressed up. By 1942 it was advertised in African American newspapers from coast to coast. Some argued the long coat derived from Clark Cable’s white suit in the popular film Gone with the Wind (1939). Undisputed was the fact that zoot-suiters were also avid dance band fans, like Malcolm Little (later Malcolm X) who loved jazz and dancing, the Lindy Hop, or jitterbug, as jazz dance was known at this time. As the long coat flapped around it highlighted the movement of the dancer, while the narrow cuffs prevented one from tripping on one’s clothing, so that the suits were ideal for the dance floor and for acrobatic stunts. The bands of Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw were the favorites of swing fans, Lindy Hoppers, and zoot-suiters in the early 1940s. When Ellington and Calloway appeared in films wearing versions of the suit, this marked its acceptance by the older generation.
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The suit came with its own argot; ‘‘zoot suit with the reet pleat’’ was one of the expressions. This was a variant of swing slang or jive talk popularized by Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Lester Young. Men were ‘‘cats’’ or ‘‘’gators’’ (for alligators) and women were ‘‘chicks.’’ ‘‘God’’ was the ‘‘head knock,’’ and prison was the ‘‘house of many slammers.’’ Then there were catchy phrases, such as ‘‘Let’s get racy, with Count Basie.’’ Journalists like Dan Burley developed and popularized the jive slang in newspaper columns and books like Burley’s Handbook of Harlem Jive. In California and the Southwest, Pachuco, a hip Spanish variant similar to swing slang, was used in the popular songs of Lalo Guerrero in the 1940s. During World War II, many urban residents associated the style with young thugs or hoodlums, and with Gangs and juvenile delinquency. Because of the rationing of cloth, some government agencies outlawed the zoot suit as wasteful and unpatriotic, but innovative tailors simply cut the larger sizes down to get around these restrictions. When military veterans combined with irate urban dwellers and physically attacked the wearers of zoot suits as draft dodgers, as disloyal, or as young gangsters, the so-called zoot suit riots attracted the attention of the press and government agencies. The worst riot was in Los Angeles in June 1943, when hundreds of sailors and soldiers attacked zoot-suiters, barging into movie houses, stopping streetcars, and beating the wearers and stripping them of their clothing. Some of the victims were not wearing the suit; they were simply unfortunate Mexican American and black youth who were victimized by rioting crowds looking for scapegoats. White racism, not the suit, was at the core of this violence against people of color. Police did not interfere but often arrested the victims, and the unrest lasted for days. Similar incidents took place in other cities that year as the press sensationalized the alleged crimes committed by zoot-suiters. Zoot-suiters attracted the attention of journalists seeking sensational stories, policemen on the lookout for criminals, federal officials searching for draft dodgers, social workers trying to help, and writers like Chester Himes and Ralph Ellison portraying the lives of inner-city residents. The 1944 ‘‘Sleepy Lagoon’’ or zoot suit trial in Los Angeles, in which several young men, many of them Mexican American, were tried and convicted for murder, garnered the attention of sensation seekers along with liberals and radicals. No one, however, could explain exactly what the suit had to do with crime or poverty. Sometimes the suit was worn as a disguise. For example, an FBI agent in 1944 donned a zoot suit in Los Angeles, befriended Count Basie sidemen Lester Young and Jo Jones when they were performing at a local club, bought them drinks, and earned their confidence. Then he suddenly flashed his badge and told them to report for induction into the armed services immediately or go to jail. Near the war’s end, Bebop Music attracted the attention of jazz journalists, and new dress styles started to replace the zoot suit. Dizzy Gillespie popularized a beret, horn-rimmed glasses, and the goatee associated with beboppers, who wore suits with chalk stripes and ties with modern art designs. Nevertheless, after World War II and even in the early 1950s, the zoot suit was in fashion for urbane
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city dwellers—black, brown, and white—from coast to coast; it also spread to London and other cities where swing bands and jazz dance held sway in certain night spots. As the zoot suit faded into history, clean-cut, progressive jazzmen wore conservative business suits, youthful ‘‘Ivy League’’ styles, and the tuxedo and formal dress of the modern jazz quartet. In the 1970s, Luis Valdez’ play Zoot Suit, and later the movie of the same name, dramatized the lives of the Mexican American defendants in Los Angeles’ Sleepy Lagoon trial of 1944 and used the Pachuco, the zoot-suited Mexican American hipster and narrator, who appeared from time to time and spoke to the characters or commented on the action. In subsequent years, the zoot suit experienced a revival among young singers and entertainers and in movie scenes depicting the big band era. See also: Clothing and Fashion Industry Further Reading Daniels, Douglas Henry. 1997. ‘‘Los Angeles Zoot: ‘Race Riot,’ the Pachuco, and Black Music Culture.’’ Journal of Negro History 82 (Spring): 201–20. Douglas H. Daniels
Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities See Hurston, Zora Neale Zydeco Music Zydeco is the lively syncopated Afro-Creole music and dance of southwest Louisiana and Texas. This music is uniquely African American, despite its Creole and English lyrics, and its similarity to Afro-Caribbean and the Afro-Creole music of islands off the coast of Africa. Zydeco may contain elements of the blues or Rhythm and Blues, however, it almost always has that beat or rhythm called ‘syncopation’ which is a hallmark of African American popular music. Zydeco is not ‘Cajun’ music, or a spin off of Cajun music; it is older than Cajun music, which owes much of its substance to Louisiana’s Afro-Creole music. Louisiana’s Afro-Creole Culture The French referred to any person, black or white, born in the Louisiana Territory as being ‘‘creole.’’ In 1724, Governor Bienville instituted France’s Black Codes of 1685 to control Louisiana’s enslaved Africans and their descendents (Afro-Creoles) because their population threatened to outnumber that of whites. Recaptured runaway slaves were branded with the Fleur de Lis Louisiana’s Afro-Creole (free and slave descendents of Africans) culture has had a strong influence on southern culture; and the Afro-Creole (African American) culture of the Louisiana Territory pre-dates the arrival of white Acadians from Canada by at least forty years. By the time Acadians began arriving in Louisiana (1765–1785), Afro-Creole culture— cuisine, language, music traditions, and customs—was already firmly established
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and flourishing. It was the Afro-Creoles and Indians who helped the Acadians to survive in Louisiana’s swamps, and who influenced Cajun traditions. Origins Influence of Afro-Creole Music Like blues, jazz, Ragtime, and black gospel music, zydeco comes from the black music of the old Louisiana Territory. The area, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, portions of Alabama, and west Texas, has been called the Deep South. The culture of the Deep South was developed early on by enslaved African peoples brought into the region directly from West Africa’s Senegambian coast. Early Afro-Creoles would have ‘‘jures,’’ which were dances set to the rhythms produced by the syncopated clapping of hands, stomping of feet, and the scraping or clicking of animal bones. When some families faced hard times, they would have a house dance to raise funds. They would charge an admission fee of ten or fifteen cents and sell bowls of gumbo, homebrewed beer, and lemonade to raise money at these house dances. Churches in the area also held similar benefit dances. Grand Coteau, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Mamou, Port Barre, Opelousas, and Ville Platt are a few of the Louisiana towns where early jures and house dances took place. Afro-Creole musicians added more instruments—the violin or fiddle, the rub board (also called a washboard or scrub board), the harmonica, the triangle, spoons, and eventually drums—however, the newly invented accordion would become the definitive instrument of the music that would be later termed zydeco. The Accordion and the Frottoir Shape Zydeco Music Patented in Austria in 1829, the accordion became a popular musical instrument for several reasons; it was sturdy, it was portable, it never went out of tune, and it was loud enough to be heard on the dance floor. A daguerreotype in the Louisiana State Museum, circa 1850, shows that the accordion had found its way into the hands of Afro-Creole musicians, a mere twenty years after its invention. In the picture, an Afro-Creole musician sits holding an accordion, at the ready with his fingers on the keys. Early Creole music featured the single-row accordion; however by the 1930s and 1940s, musician began using double and triple row accordions, along with drums and guitars. This early fusion of blues and rhythm and blues with AfroCreole music was called ‘‘La La.’’ The second essential instrument in zydeco is the ‘‘frottoir,’’ which was just a rub board or washboard. Early musicians would scrape on rub boards to get a rasping sound, common in early jazz and southern folk music. The rub board has African musical antecedents like the West African notched gourd, which produces scraping or scratching sounds. The rub board is similar to the metal ‘‘Ferro,’’ which is played with accordions in the Cape Verde Islands. Rub boards or washboards were made of heavy glass or metal. Musicians either held them in
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their laps or hung them around their necks with string, and scraped them with coins, spoons, or other metal objects. Afro-Creole musicians preferred to play the rub boards that came with their ice boxes, and which were intended to hold the icebox’s ice, over the more common laundry rub boards. The modern frottoir, or rub board, designed by zydeco’s Clifton Chenier in Port Arthur, Texas, is a corrugated metal vest worn over the shoulders. The development of the wearable metal frottoir gave the musician more freedom of motion during performances. Early Afro-Creole Music Pioneers Among the early Afro-Creole musicians was Amede Ardoin. He was born on March 11, 1898, and is the acclaimed pioneer of Louisiana’s Afro-Creole music and the ‘‘Father of Zydeco.’’ His stirring vocals and syncopated accordion work defined the Creole style. His ‘‘Crowley Blues’’ is said to be the song in which Ardoin points the way to zydeco. Five or six dollars was good pay for musicians in those times, yet Ardoin, who was immensely popular with both blacks and whites, could sometimes make as much as eighty dollars at a dance. Late at night after playing for white dances, Ardoin would return to his community where he played old African hollers, the blues, and some of the old jure songs on his accordion. Ardoin made his first recordings on December 9, 1929. His ‘‘Two Step de Eunice’’ and ‘‘Two Step de Prairie Soileau’’ are traditional standards. Many of the thirty-four songs from his four recording sessions are recorded on I’m Never Coming Back (Arhoolie). Besides being among the first to record Afro-Creole music, Amede Ardoin is credited with laying the groundwork for Cajun music, and for bringing the blues style to it. Some other popular early Creole musicians include fiddlers Joseph ‘‘Bebe’’ Carriere, Bee Canray Fontenot, and Amede Ardoin’s cousin, Alphonse ‘‘Bois Sec’’ Ardoin, and accordionists Frank Andrus, Sydney ‘‘Blind’’ Babineaux, Louis Broussard, Bee Fontenot, Clarence ‘‘Bon Ton’’ Garlow, Anderson Moss, Ambrose Sam, Herbert ‘‘Good Rockin’’’ Sam, Hiram Sampy, and Walter Polite. Modern Zydeco Music Comes of Age The word zydeco is thought to result from the convergence of West African words particularly the Yula, a zare, which means ‘‘I dance’’; cari zarico, the name of the Afro-French music of the Rodrigues Islands; and the French words for snap beans, les haricots. Widespread coinage of the word zydeco has been attributed to Clifton Chenier, and his 1955 recording of a song called, ‘‘Zodico Stomp.’’ In his next song, ‘‘Zydeco sont pas sale,’’ Chenier used the z-y-d-e-c-o spelling, which became the popular form. Clifton Chenier, who would later be called the ‘‘King of Zydeco,’’ was born on June 25, 1925, to sharecropper parents. Chenier became a popular Creole accordionist whose style melded the lively danceable melodies of Creole music with the rhythms of the ‘‘low-down blues’’
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in a manner that had not been done before. A good example of his style is the song ‘‘Black Gal,’’ which Chenier recorded with his uncle, Morris Chenier. His use of the piano key accordion enhances his unique style. Chenier’s brother Cleveland revolutionized the playing of frottoir by using twelve bottle-openers, six in each hand, as scrapers. Clifton Chenier and his Red Hot Louisiana Band further refined zydeco music and increased its popularity throughout the U.S. Other contemporary zydeco musicians include: the Ardoins, Delton and Jeffery Broussard (Zydeco Force), Wilson Anthony Chavis (Boozoo Chavis), C. J. Chenier, Geno Delafose, John Delafose, Stanley Dural Jr. (Buckwheat Zydeco), Andrus Espre (Beau Jocque), ‘‘Queen’’ Ida Guillory, ‘‘Rockin Sydney’’ Simien, and Nathan Williams. Recent popular zydeco songs include: ‘‘Zydeco Sont Pas Sale’’ and ‘‘Black Gal’’ by Clifton Chenier; ‘‘My Toot-Toot’’ by Rockin’ Sydney Simien; ‘‘Lula Don’t You Go To Bingo’’ and ‘‘Motor Dude’’ by Boozoo Chavis; ‘‘Beau Jocque Boogie,’’ ‘‘Get It Beau Jocque!’’ and ‘‘Give Him Cornbread’’ by Beau Jocque. Zydeco festivals held annually in Plaisance, Louisiana, offer good opportunities to hear and participate in this unique Afro-Creole music tradition. See also: African Cultural Influences; Blues and Blues Festivals; Caribbean Cultural Influences; Jazz and Jazz Festivals; New Orleans Further Reading Ancelet, Barry J., ed. 1994. Cajun and Creole Folktales: The French Oral Tradition of South Louisiana. New York: Garland Publishing. Fuselier, Herman. (n.d.) ‘‘Zydeco Is Not Cajun Music.’’ ZydecoEvents.com. http:// www.zydecoevents.com/History2.html. Hall, Gwendolyn M. 1992. Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of AfroCreole Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Louisiana’s Code Noir. 1724 . The Black Past Remembered and Reclaimed. http:// www/blackpast.org?q=primary/louisianas-code-noir-1724 Tisserand, Michael. 1998. The Kingdom of Zydeco. New York: Arcade Publishing. Valdman, Albert, ed. 1998. Dictionary of Louisiana Creole. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Gwendolyn M. Rees
Appendix A: Selected List of African American Films Gladys L. Knight
The following list includes selected films that feature predominately African American casts or one or more African Americans in substantial roles. In some instances, such as in films that were produced during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, African Americans were portrayed by white actors in blackface. 1890s–1950s
1896 1897 1898
1899 1900 1901
Many films that were produced during these years portrayed blacks in derogatory and stereotypical ways. Donald Bogle’s Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films (1973) thoroughly explores this issue. A Watermelon Contest, produced by Edison Manufacturing Dancing Darky Boy, produced by Edison Manufacturing Colored Troops Disembarking, produced by Edison Manufacturing Ninth U.S. Calvary Watering Horses, produced by Edison Manufacturing Steamer Mascotte Arriving at Tampa, produced by Edison Manufacturing Miss Jewett and the Baker Family of Negroes, American Mutoscope & Biograph The Gator and the Pickaninny, produced by American Mutoscope & Biograph Bally-Hoo Cake Walk, produced by American Mutoscope & Biograph
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1904 1905
1907 1908 1910–48
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African American Films
On the Old Plantation, produced by American Mutoscope & Biograph Native Woman Coaling a Ship and Scrambling for Money, produced by Edison Manufacturing Native Woman Coaling a Ship at St. Thomas, D. W. I., produced by Edison Manufacturing Native Woman Washing a Negro Baby in Nassau, B. I., produced by Edison Manufacturing Native Woman Washing Clothes at St. Vincent, D. W. I., produced by Edison Manufacturing West Indian Boys Diving for Money, produced by Edison Manufacturing West Indian Girls in Native Dance, produced by Edison Manufacturing Wharf Scenes and Natives Swimming at St. Thomas, D. W. I., produced by Edison Manufacturing Uncle Tom’s Cabin Parade, produced by Selig Polyscope A Nigger in a Woodpile, produced by American Mutoscope & Biograph Everybody Works But Father (blackface), produced by American Mutoscope & Biograph The Wooing and Wedding of a Coon, produced by Selig Polyscope The Dancing Nig, directed by Gilbert M. Anderson The Zulu’s Heart, starring Charles Inslee, George Gebhardt, and Harry Solter, written and directed by D. W. Griffith Notable Facts: Over five hundred race movies were produced by African American and white directors during this period. The term race film refers to films with racial themes and/or predominantly African American casts. Pickaninnies and Watermelon, produced by Republic Motion Picture Manufacturing The Railroad Porter, starring William Foster, Lottie Grady, Edgar Litterson, and Jerry Mills, directed by William Foster Notable Facts: William Foster founded the first African American film production company, Foster Photoplay. The Railroad Porter was the first independent African American film. The Fall Guy, produced by Foster Photoplay Zeb, Zack and the Zulus, directed by Arthur Hotaling Rastus Among the Zulus, directed by Arthur Hotaling
African American Films 1914 1915
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Coon Town Suffragettes, produced by Lubin Manufacturing Swami Sam, directed by John A. Murphy, written by E. W. Sargent Birth of a Nation, starring Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh, directed by D. W. Griffith, written by Thomas F. Dixon Jr. Notable Facts: This movie is heralded as an iconic film in American film history; however, African Americans have historically censured the film’s glorified portrayal of the Old South and its racist black images. It Happened on Wash Day, starring John Edwards and Mattie Edwards, directed and written by Arthur Hotaling The Cannibal King, starring Oliver Hardy and Frances Ne Moyer, directed by Frank Griffin and Arthur Hotaling, written by Edwin R. Coffin In Zululand, starring John Edwards and Mattie Edwards, directed and written by Willard Louis Escapades of Estelle, directed and written by Harry Palmer The Realization of a Negro’s Ambition, starring Bessie Baker and Lottie Boles, directed by Harry A. Grant Dat Blackhand Waitah Man, starring Bert Murphy and Frank Pollard Shine Johnson and the Rabbit Foot, produced by Ebony Film A Black Sherlock Holmes, starring Sam Robinson, directed by R. W. Phillips Negro Soldiers Fighting for Uncle Sam, produced by Peter P. Jones Film The Homesteader, starring Charles D. Lucas and Evelyn Preer, directed by Oscar Micheaux and Jerry Mills, written by Oscar Micheaux Notable Fact: This was director Oscar Micheaux’s first film, and the first feature film to be produced by an African American. The Birth of a Race, starring Louis Dean and Harry Dumont, directed by John W. Noble, written by George F. Wheeler and Rudolph De Cordova Notable Fact: This movie was a response to D. W. Griffith’s offensive Birth of a Nation (1915). This movie, however, was overlooked in its time. Dark and Cloudy, starring George Ovey and Lillian Biron, directed and written by Craig Hutchinson Heroic Negro Soldiers of the World War, directed by William S. Smith
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Within Our Gates, starring Evelyn Preer, directed and written by Oscar Micheaux Notable Fact: This film boldly addressed racial violence and hostility in the United States Home Brew, starring Charles Dorety and Connie Henley, directed and written by Tom Buckingham The Symbol of the Unconquered, starring Iris Hall and Walker Thompson, directed and written by Oscar Micheaux As the World Rolls On, starring Jack Johnson and Blanche Thompson The Burden of Race, starring Percy Verwayen and Edna Morton The Call of His People, starring George Edward Brown and Edna Morton, written by Aubrey Browser A Giant of His Race, starring Billopps and Mabel Holmes The Man from Texas, directed by Ben F. Wilson A Modern Cain, starring Norman Ward and Ted Williams, directed by J. W. Fife and Norman Ward, written by J. W. Fife The Virgin of Seminole, starring Louise Borden, directed and written by Oscar Micheaux Body and Soul, starring Paul Robeson, directed and written by Oscar Micheaux Notable Fact: This film launched the film career of bass-baritone concert singer Paul Robeson. The Conjure Woman, starring Evelyn Preer, directed and written by Oscar Micheaux The Prince of His Race, starring Harry Henderson and William A. Clayton Jr., directed by Roy Calnek Let’s Do Black Bottom, produced by Castle Films Ham and Eggs at the Front (blackface), starring Tom Wilson and Heinie Conklin, directed by Roy Del Ruth, written by Robert Dillon and James A. Starr Black Gold, starring Laurence Criner and Kathryn Boyd Kentucky Jubilee Singers, produced by Fox Film Harlem Mania, starring the Norman Thomas Quintette, directed by Murray Roth Black Narcissus, starring Ford Washington Lee and John William Sublett, directed by Paul Powell, written by Sidney Lazarus and Hugh Wiley Black and Tan, starring Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard, directed and written by Dudley Murphy
1921
1922 1924
1925 1926
1927
1928 1929
African American Films 1930 1931
1932 1933
1934
1935 1938
1939
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Minstrel Days, starring Jess Brooke and Mosby’s Blues Blowers Easy Street, directed by Oscar Micheaux The Exile, directed by Oscar Micheaux Notable Fact: This film was the first talkie directed by an African American. Harlem is Heaven, starring Bill (Bojangles) Robinson and Eubie Blake & His Orchestra, directed and written by Irwin Franklyn Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson and Dudley Digges, directed by Dudley Murphy, written by Eugene O’Neill (play) and DuBose Heyward Imitation of Life, starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers, directed by John M. Stahl, written by Fannie Hurst (novel) and William Hurlbut Zouzou, starring Josephine Baker and Jean Gabin, directed by Marc Allegret, written by G. Abatino and Carlo Rim Murder in Harlem, starring Clarence Brooks and Dorothy Van Engle, directed and written by Oscar Micheaux Swing!, starring Cora Green and Larry Seymour, directed and written by Oscar Micheaux Two-Gun Man from Harlem, starring Herbert Jeffrey and Mantan Moreland, directed by Richard C. Kahn, written by Fred Myton Gone with the Wind, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel, directed by Victor Fleming, written by Sidney Howard Notable Facts: Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Academy Award. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy. Blood of Jesus, starring Cathryn Caviness and Spencer Williams, directed and written by Spencer Williams. Notable Fact: This film was considered one of the most popular films in its time directed by an African American. Cabin in the Sky, starring Ethel Waters, Eddie Rochester, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington & His Orchestra, directed by Vincente Minnelli, written by Joseph Schrank Stormy Weather, starring Lena Horne, Bill (Bojangles) Robinson, Cab Calloway, and Katherine Dunham & Her Troupe, directed by Andrew L. Stone, written by Jerry Horwin and Seymour B. Robinson (story), and Frederick J. Jackson, Ted Koehler, and H. S. Kraft Look-Out Sister, starring Louis Jordan and Suzette Harbin, directed by Louis Jordan and Bud Pollard, written by John E. Gordon and Will Morrissey
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1946
Song of the South, starring James Baskett and Hattie McDaniel, directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson, written by Joel Chandler Harris and Dalton S. Reymond Ebony Parade, starring Cab Calloway, the Mills Brothers, and Count Basie, hosted by Mantan Moreland Hi-De-Ho, starring Cab Calloway, directed by Josh Binney, written by Hal Seeger The Betrayal, starring William Byrd and Leroy Collins, directed and written by Oscar Micheaux Notable Fact: This was the last film of Micheaux’s prolific career. He produced a total of forty-four films. Intruder in the Dust, starring David Brian and Juano Hernandez, directed by Clarence Brown, written by Ben Maddow Notable Fact: This film was a forerunner of Hollywood films that portrayed African Americans sympathetically and addressed serious social and racial issues. Bright Road, starring Dorothy Dandridge, Philip Hepburn, and Harry Belafonte, directed by Emmet Lavery and Gerald Mayer Carmen Jones, starring Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge, directed by Otto Preminger, written by Harry Kleiner Notable Fact: Dorothy Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Carmen Jones. Something of Value, starring Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter, and Sidney Poitier, directed by Richard Brooks, written by Richard Brooks Tamango, starring Dorothy Dandridge and Curt Jurgens, directed by John Berry, written by John Berry and Lee Gold St. Louis Blues, starring Nat King Cole and Eartha Kitt, directed by Allen Reisner, written by Ted Sherdeman and Robert Smith Anna Lucasta, starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Jr., directed by Arnold Laven, written by Philip Yordan Black Orpheus, starring Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn, directed by Marcel Camus, written by Marcel Camus and Jacques Viot Porgy and Bess, starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge, directed by Otto Preminger, written by Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward Jazz on a Summer’s Day, starring Louis Armstrong and Dinah Washington, directed by Aram Avakian and Bert Stern, written by Albert D’Annibale and Arnold Perl The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, starring Eddie Hodges, Tony Randall, and Archie Moore, directed by Michael Curtiz, written by Mark Twain (novel) and James Lee
1947
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1953 1954
1957 1958
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African American Films 1961 1962
1963
1965 1966 1967
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A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sidney Poiter and Ruby Dee, directed by Daniel Petrie, written by Lorraine Hansberry To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Gregory Peck and Brock Peters, directed by Robert Mulligan, written by Harper Lee (novel) and Horton Foote Lilies of the Field, starring Sidney Poitier, directed by Ralph Nelson, written by William E. Barrett (novel) and James Poe Notable Fact: Sidney Poitier won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Homer Smith, becoming the first African American to win this award. Blues for Lovers, starring Ray Charles and Tom Bell, directed by Paul Henreid, written by Paul Henreid and Burton Wohl A Man Called Adam, starring Sammy Davis Jr., directed by Leo Penn, written by Lester Pine and Tina Pine Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, starring Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton, directed by Stanley Kramer, written by William Rose Notable Facts: This film explored interracial romantic relationships, a subject matter that was widely considered taboo in the United States. Laws prohibiting interracial relationships were not ruled unconstitutional until some six months after the film was released. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 1, starring Patricia Ree Gilbert and Don Fellow, directed and written by William Greaves The Scalphunters, starring Burt Lancaster and Ossie Davis, directed by Sydney Pollack, written by William W. Norton The Learning Tree, starring Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, and Estelle Evans, directed and written by Gordon Parks Notable Facts: This was director Gordon Parks’s first film. Parks was an acclaimed photographer, musician, novelist, and film director. He was also active in the Civil Rights Movement. Cotton Comes to Harlem, starring Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques, directed by Ossie Davis, written by Chester Himes (novel) and Ossie Davis Notable Facts: Cotton Comes to Harlem and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song launched the blaxploitation film movement that lasted through the 1970s. This film was one of five films directed by the prominent actor Ossie Davis. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song Notable Facts: Cotton Comes to Harlem and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song launched the blaxploitation film movement that lasted through the 1970s. The majority of films were produced by
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1973
1974
African American Films
white directors who capitalized on the genre. Blaxploitation is a black film genre that featured urban African American pop culture trends of the decade. Shaft, starring Richard Roundtree, directed by Gordon Parks and written by Ernest Tidyman Notable Facts: This was one of the most iconic films of the socalled blaxploitation genre. Isaac Hayes won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the ‘‘Theme from Shaft.’’ Brother John, starring Sidney Poitier and Will Geer, directed by James Goldstone, written by Ernest Kinoy Farewell, Uncle Tom, starring Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi, directed and written by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi Buck and the Preacher, starring Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, directed by Sidney Poitier, written by Ernest Kinoy and Drake Walker Across 110th Street, starring Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto, directed by Barry Shear, written by Wally Ferris (novel) and Luther Davis Super Fly, starring Ron O’Neal, directed by Gordon Parks, written by Phillip Fentry Notable Fact: This is one of the most iconic blaxploitation films. Curtis Mayfield produced the soundtrack, which outgrossed the film. Sounder, starring Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield, directed by Martin Ritt, written by William H. Armstrong and Lonne Elder III Lady Sings the Blues, starring Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams, directed by Sidney J. Furie, written by Chris Clark and Suzanne De Passe Notable Fact: Diana Ross was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as singer Billie Holliday. Coffy, starring Pam Grier, directed and written by Jack Hill Notable Fact: This was the first of the popular blaxploitation films featuring an African American woman in a leading role. Cleopatra Jones, starring Tamara Dobson and Bernie Casey, directed by Jack Starrett, written by Max Julien and Sheldon Keller Blacula, starring William Marshall, directed by William Crain, written by Raymond Koenig and Joan Torres Foxy Brown, starring Pam Grier, directed and written by Jack Hill Gordon’s War, starring Paul Winfield and Carl Lee, directed by Ossie Davis, written by Howard Friedlander and Ed Spielman
African American Films
1975
1976
1977
1567
Three the Hard Way, starring Jim Brown and Fred Williamson, directed by Gordon Parks, written by Eric Bercovici and Jerrold L. Ludwig Uptown Saturday Night, starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby, directed by Sidney Poitier, written by Richard Wesley Black Samson, starring Rockne Tarkington and William Smith, directed by Charles Bail, written by Daniel B. Cady and Warren Hamilton Jr. The Black Six, starring Robert Howard, Gene Washington, and ‘‘Mean’’ Joe Greene, directed by Matt Cimber, written by George Theakos and Matt Cimber The Black Godfather, starring Rod Perry and Damu King, directed and written by John Evans Aaron Loves Angela, starring Moses Gunn and Kevin Hooks, directed by Gordon Parks, written by Gerald Sanford Mahogany, starring Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams, directed by Berry Gordy Jr., written by Toni Amber and John Byrum Mandingo, starring James Mason and Ken Norton, directed by Richard Fleischer, written by Kyle Onstott and Jack Kirkland Sheba, Baby, starring Pam Grier, directed by William Girdler, written by William Girdler and David Sheldon Friday Foster, starring Pam Grier and Yaphet Kotto, directed by Arthur Marks, written by Orville H. Hampton and Arthur Marks Cooley High, starring Glyn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, directed by Michael Schultz, written by Eric Monte Cornbread, Earl and Me, starring Moses Gunn and Rosalind Cash, directed by Joseph Manduke, written by Ronald Fair (novel) and Leonard Lamensdorf Sparkle, starring Philip Michael Thomas and Irene Cara, directed by Sam O’Steen, written by Howard Rosenman and Joel Schumacher Car Wash, starring Franklyn Ajaye, Ivan Dixon, and Richard Pryor, directed by Michael Schultz, written by Joel Schumacher The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, starring Billy Dee Williams and James Earl Jones, directed by John Badham, written by William Brashler (novel) and Hal Barwood Notable Fact: James Earl Jones has appeared in over seventy-one motion pictures. He is one of three African Americans to appear in over fifty motion pictures. The Greatest, starring Muhammad Ali and Ernest Borgnine, directed by Tom Gries and Monte Hellman, written by Muhammad Ali and Richard Durham
1568
1978
1980s
1980
1982
1983
1984
African American Films
Greased Lightning, starring Richard Pryor and Beau Bridges, directed by Michael Schultz, written by Kenneth Vose and Lawrence DuKore Which Way is Up, starring Richard Pryor and Lonette McKee, directed by Michael Schultz, written by Lina Wertm€uller and Carl Gottlieb A Hero Ain’t Nothing But a Sandwich, starring Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield, directed by Ralph Nelson, written by Alice Childress The Wiz, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, directed by Sidney Lumet, written by L. Frank Baum and William F. Brown Notable Facts: This decade in black film history is referred to as the ‘‘New Black Wave,’’ a label that denotes the emergence of new African American directors utilizing fresh and bold interpretations of African American history and contemporary African American narratives and experiences. An increasing number of African American actors also emerged, carving out successful careers in the mainstream film industry. Fame, starring Eddie Barth and Irene Cara, directed by Alan Parker, written by Christopher Gore Stir Crazy, starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, directed by Sidney Poitier, written by Bruce Jay Friedman Some Kind of Hero, starring Richard Pryor and Margot Kidder, directed by Michael Pressman, written by Robert Boris and James Kirkwood Jr. An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Richard Gere and Louis Gossett Jr., directed by Taylor Hackford, written by Douglas Day Stewart Notable Fact: Louis Gossett Jr. won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as gunnery sergeant Emil Foley. Flashdance, starring Jennifer Beals, directed by Adrian Lyne, written by Thomas Hedley Jr. and Joe Eszterhas Notable Fact: Irene Cara won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, ‘‘Flashdance (What a Feeling).’’ D.C. Cab, starring Max Gail and Mr. T, directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Topper Carew and Joel Schumacher A Soldier’s Story, starring Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Ceasar, and Denzel Washington, directed by Norman Jewison, written by Charles Fuller Breakin’, starring Lucinda Dickey and Adolpho Quinones, directed by Joel Silberg, written by Charles Parker and Allen DeBevoise
African American Films
1985
1986
1987
1569
Purple Rain, starring Prince, directed by Albert Magnoli, written by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn Notable Facts: Prince is the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score, for this film. Herbie Hancock would become the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Original Score, for Round Midnight (1986). The Brother from Another Planet, starring Joe Morton, directed and written by John Sayles Beverly Hills Cop, starring Eddie Murphy, directed by Martin Brest, written by Danilo Bach and Daniel Petrie Jr. Notable Facts: This was the first popular mainstream action comedy with Eddie Murphy in the titular role. The film spawned two sequels. The Cotton Club, starring Richard Gere and Gregory Hines, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, written by William Kennedy and Francis Ford Coppola Krush Groove, starring Sheila E. and Joseph Simmons, directed by Michael Schultz, written by Ralph Farquhar The Color Purple, starring Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Alice Walker (novel) and Menno Meyjes Notable Facts: Whoopi Goldberg has appeared in over fifty motion pictures. She is one of three African Americans (and the only African American woman) to appear in over fifty motion pictures. Producer Quincy Jones is the first African American to be nominated for Best Picture, for this film. Crossroads, starring Ralph Macchio and Joe Seneca, directed by Walter Hill, written by John Fusco JoJo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, starring Richard Pryor and Debbie Allen, directed by Richard Pryor, written by Rocco Urbisci and Paul Mooney Under the Cherry Moon, starring Prince and Jerome Benton, directed by Prince, written by Becky Johnston She’s Gotta Have It, starring Tracy Camila Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, and Spike Lee, directed and written by Spike Lee Jumpin’ Jack Flash, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Stephen Collins, directed by Penny Marshall, written by David Franzoni Lethal Weapon, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, directed by Richard Donner, written by Shane Black Notable Fact: This popular mainstream film had three sequels.
1570
1988
1989
1990
African American Films
Hollywood Shuffle, starring Robert Townsend, directed by Robert Townsend, written by Robert Townsend and Keenen Ivory Wayans Disorderlies, starring Mark Morales and Darren Robinson, directed by Michael Schultz, written by Mark Feldberg and Mitchell Klebanoff Raw, starring Eddie Murphy, directed by Robert Townsend, written by Eddie Murphy and Keenen Ivory Wayans Mississippi Burning, starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe, directed by Alan Parker, written by Chris Gerolmo School Daze, starring Laurence Fishburne and Giancarlo Esposito, directed and written by Spike Lee Colors, starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall, directed by Dennis Hopper, written by Richard Di Lello and Michael Schiffer Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, directed by John Landis, written by Eddie Murphy and David Sheffield Bird, starring Forest Whitaker, directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Joel Oliansky Notable Fact: Willie D. Burton won an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for this film. I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, starring Keenen Ivory Wayans, directed and written by Keenen Ivory Wayans Do the Right Thing, starring Danny Aiello and Ossie Davis, directed and written by Spike Lee Harlem Nights, starring Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, directed and written by Eddie Murphy Glory, starring Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington, directed by Edward Zwick, written by Robort Gould Shaw (letters) and Lincoln Kerstein Notable Facts: Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Private Silas Trip. The film won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. Tap, starring Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr., and Suzzanne Douglass, directed and written by Nick Castle Lean on Me, starring Morgan Freeman and Beverly Todd, directed by John G. Avildsen, written by Michael Schiffer The Long Walk Home, starring Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg, directed by Richard Pearce, written by John Cork Ghost, starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg, directed by Jerry Zucker, written by Bruce Joel Rubin
African American Films
1991
1992
1571
Notable Fact: Whoopi Goldberg won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as psychic Oda Mae Brown. Mo’ Better Blues, starring Denzel Washington and Spike Lee, directed and written by Spike Lee Mississippi Masala, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, directed by Mira Nair, written by Sooni Taraporevala New Jack City, starring Wesley Snipes and Ice T, directed by Mario Van Peebles, written by Thomas Lee Wright The Five Heartbeats, starring Robert Townsend and Michael Wright, directed by Robert Townsend, written by Robert Townsend and Keenen Ivory Wayans A Rage in Harlem, starring Forest Whitaker and Gregory Hines, directed by Bill Duke, written by Chester Himes (novel) and John Toles-Bey Jungle Fever, starring Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra, directed and written by Spike Lee Boyz n the Hood, starring Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr., directed and written by John Singleton Notable Fact: John Singleton is the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. Ricochet, starring Denzel Washington and John Lithgow, directed by Russell Mulcahy, written by Fred Dekker and Menno Meyjes Boomerang, starring Eddie Murphy and Robin Givens, directed by Reginald Hudlin, written by Eddie Murphy and Barry W. Blaustein Bebe’s Kids, voices of Faizon Love and Vanessa Bell Calloway, directed by Bruce W. Smith, written by Robbin Harris and Reginald Hudlin Bopha!, starring Danny Glover and Malcolm MacDowell, directed by Morgan Freeman, written by Percy Mtwa (play) and Brian Bird White Men Can’t Jump, starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, directed and written by Ron Shelton Sister Act, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith, directed by Emile Ardolino, written by Joseph Howard Mo’ Money, starring Damon Wayans and Stacey Dash, directed by Peter MacDonald, written by Damon Wayans South Central, starring Glenn Plummer and Byron Minns, directed by Stephen Milburn Anderson, written by Donald Bakeer (novel) and Stephen Milburn Anderson Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett, directed by Spike Lee, written by Alex Haley and Malcolm X
1572
African American Films
1993
Posse, starring Cynthia Hayman, Mario Van Peebles, and Stephen Baldwin, directed by Mario Van Peebles, written by Sy Richardson and Dario Scardapane Menace II Society, starring Tyrin Turner and Larenz Tate, directed and written by Albert and Allen Hughes What’s Love God to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, directed by Brian Gibson, written by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder Poetic Justice, starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, directed and written by John Singleton Cool Runnings, starring Leon and Doug E. Doug, directed by Jon Turteltaub, written by Lynn Siefert and Michael Ritchie Above the Rim, starring Duane Martin, Leon Robinson, and Tupac Shakur, directed by Jeff Pollack, written by Jeff Pollack and Brian Medina Crooklyn, starring Alfre Woodard and Delroy Lindo, directed by Spike Lee, written by Cinque Lee and Joie Lee Shawshank Redemption, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, directed by Frank Darabont, written by Stephen King (short story) and Frank Darabont Jason’s Lyric, starring Allen Payne and Jada Pinkett, directed by Doug McHenry, written by Bobby Smith Jr. Hoop Dreams, starring William Gates and Arthur Agee, directed by Steve James, written by Steve James and Frederick Marx A Low Down Dirty Shame, starring Keenen Ivory Wayans and Charles Dutton, directed and written by Keenen Ivory Wayans Higher Learning, starring Omar Epps and Kristy Swanson, directed and written by John Singleton Losing Isaiah, starring Jessica Lange and Halle Berry, directed by Stephan Gyllenhaal, written by Seth Margolis (novel) and Naomi Foner Bad Boys, starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, directed by Michael Bay, written by George Gallo and Michael Barrie Friday, starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker, directed by F. Gary Gray, written by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Courtney B. Vance, directed by John N. Smith, written by LouAnne Johnson and Ronald Bass Clockers, starring Harvey Keitel and John Turturro, directed by Spike Lee, written by Richard Price
1994
1995
African American Films
1996
1997
1573
Devil in a Blue Dress, starring Denzel Washington and Tom Sizemore, directed by Carl Franklin, written by Walter Mosley (novel) and Carl Franklin Dead Presidents, starring Larenz Tate and Keith David, directed and written by Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes Vampire in Brooklyn, starring Eddie Murphy and Angela Bassett, directed by Wes Craven, written by Eddie Murphy and Vernon Lynch White Man’s Burden, starring John Travolta and Harry Belafonte, directed and written by Desmond Nakano Cry the Beloved Freedom, starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris, directed by Darrell Roodt, written by Alan Paton (novel) and Ronald Harwood Waiting to Exhale, starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett, directed by Forest Whitaker, written by Terry McMillan When We Were Kings, starring Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, directed by Leon Gast A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, starring Martin Lawrence and Lynn Whitfield, directed and written by Martin Lawrence Original Gangstas, starring Fred Williamson and Jim Brown, directed by Larry Cohen, written by Aubrey K. Rattan The Nutty Professor, starring Eddie Murphy and Janet Jackson, directed by Tom Shadyac, written by David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac, and Steve Oedekerk Get on the Bus, starring Richard Belzar and De’aundre Bonds, directed by Spike Lee, written by Reggie Rock Bythewood Set It Off, starring Jada Pinkett-Smith and Queen Latifah, directed F. Gary Gray, written by F. Gary Gray and Takashi Bufford and Kate Lanier Jerry Maguire, starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr., directed and written by Cameron Crowe Notable Fact: Cuba Gooding Jr. won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Rod Tidwell. The Preacher’s Wife, starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, directed by Penny Marshall, written by Robert Nathan (novel) and Robert E. Sherwood B*A*P*S, starring Halle Berry and Martin Landau, directed by Robert Townsend, written by Troy Beyer Good Burger, starring Nel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson, directed by Brian Robbins, written by Dan Schneider and Kevin Kopelow
1574
1998
African American Films
Eve’s Bayou, starring Debbi Morgan and Vondie Curtis-Hall, directed and written by Kasi Lemmons 4 Little Girls, starring Maxine McNair and Chris McNair, directed by Spike Lee Amistad, starring Morgan Freeman and Nigel Hawthorne, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by David Franzoni Rosewood, directed by John Singleton, written by Gregory Poirier Rhyme and Reason, starring Notorious B. I. G. and Kurtis Blow, directed by Peter Spirer Love Jones, starring Larenz Tate and Nia Long, directed and written by Theodore Witcher Men in Black, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, written by Lowell Cunningham (comic) and Ed Solomon Notable Fact: The third film in this series is scheduled to be released in 2012. Soul Food, starring Vanessa Williams and Vivica A. Fox, directed and written by George Tillman Jr. Jackie Brown, starring Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Quentin Tarantino, written by Quentin Tarantino and Elmore Leonard Notable Facts: Samuel L. Jackson has appeared in sixty-four motion pictures. He is one of three African Americans to appear in over fifty motion pictures. He Got Game, starring Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, directed and written by Spike Lee Dr. Dolittle, starring Eddie Murphy and Ossie Davis, directed by Betty Thomas, written by Hugh Lofting, Nat Mauldin, and Larry Levin Blade, starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, directed by Stephen Norrington, written by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan (comic book) and David S. Goyer Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, directed by Brett Ratner, written by Ross LaManna (story) and Jim Kouf Beloved, starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Toni Morrison (novel), Akosua Busia, Richard LaGravenese, and Adam Brooks Notable Fact: Toni Morrison received a Pulitzer Prize for the novel, Beloved (1987). Enemy of the State, starring Gene Hackman and Will Smith, directed by Tony Scott, written by David Marconi
African American Films
1999
2000
2001
1575
Down in the Delta, starring Alfre Woodard and Al Freeman, directed by Maya Angelou, written by Myron Goble The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, directed and written by Andrew Wachowski and Laurence Wachowski Notable Fact: This popular mainstream film includes three installments. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, starring Forest Whitaker and John Tormey, directed and written by Jim Jarmusch In Too Deep, starring Omar Epps and L L Cool J, directed by Michael Rymer, written by Michael Henry Brown and Paul Aaron The Best Man, starring Taye Diggs and Nia Long, directed and written by Malcolm D. Lee The Green Mile, starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan, directed by Frank Darabont, written by Stephen King (novel) and Frank Darabont The Visit, starring Billy Dee Williams, Hill Harper, and Marla Gibbs, directed by Jordan Walker-Pearlman, written by Kosmond Russell (play) and Jordan Walker-Pearlman Love and Basketball, starring Glenndon Chatman and Jess Willard, directed and written by Gina Prince-Bythewood Big Momma’s House, starring Martin Lawrence and Nia Long, directed by Raja Gosnell, written by Darryl Quarles Shaft, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Vanessa L. Williams, directed by John Singleton, written by Ernest Tidyman (novel) and John Singleton The Original Kings of Comedy, starring Steve Harvey and D. L. Hughley, directed by Spike Lee, written by Cedric the Entertainer and Steve Harvey Bamboozled, starring Damon Wayans and Savion Glover, directed and written by Spike Lee The Queens of Comedy, starring Adele Givens, Laura Hayes, and Mo’Nique, directed by Steve Purcell Monster’s Ball, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, directed by Marc Forster, written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos Notable Facts: Halle Berry became the first African American actress to win an Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role as Leticia Musgrove. The Brothers, starring Morris Chestnut and D. L. Hughley, directed and written by Gary Hardwick
1576
2002 2004
2005
African American Films
Shrek, voices of Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, written by William Steig and Ted Elliott Notable Fact: The fourth film in this popular mainstream film series was released in 2010. Training Day, starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by David Ayer Notable Fact: Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Detective Alonzo Harris. Bones, starring Snoop Dogg and Pam Grier, directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, written by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe Ali, starring Will Smith and Jamie Foxx, directed by Michael Mann, written by Gregory Allen Howard (story) and Stephen J. Rivele Notable Fact: Will Smith was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Muhammad Ali. Drumline, starring Nick Cannon, directed by Charles Stone III, written by Shawn Schepps (story) and Tina Gordon Chism I, Robot, starring Will Smith, directed by Alex Proyas, written by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman Alien vs. Predator, starring Sanaa Lathan, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, written by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett Ray, starring Jamie Foxx, directed by Taylor Hackford, written by James L. White Notable Fact: Jamie Foxx won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as singer Ray Charles. Million Dollar Baby, starring Clint Eastwood, Hillary Swank, and Morgan Freeman, directed by Clint Eastwood, written by F. X. Toole (short story) and Paul Haggis Notable Fact: Morgan Freeman won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris. Hotel Rwanda, starring Don Cheadle, directed by Terry George, written by Keir Pearson and Terry George Notable Fact: Don Cheadle was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Paul Rusesabagina. Hitch, starring Will Smith, directed by Andy Tennant, written by Kevin Bisch Diary of a Mad Black Woman, starring Kimberly Elise, directed by Darren Grant, written by Tyler Perry
African American Films
2006
2007
1577
Hustle & Flow, starring Terrence Howard, directed and written by Craig Brewer Notable Facts: Terrence Howard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as an aspiring rap artist named DJay. Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman, and Paul Beauregard won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, ‘‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.’’ Madea’s Family Reunion, starring Tyler Perry, directed and written by Tyler Perry Inside Man, starring Denzel Washington and Clive Owen, directed by Spike Lee, written by Russel Gewirtz Akeelah and the Bee, starring Keke Palmer and Laurence Fishburne, directed and written by Doug Atchison Miami Vice, starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, directed and written by Michael Mann IdleWild, starring Andre Benjamin and Big Boi, directed and written by Bryan Barber The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker, directed by Kevin Macdonald, written by Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock Notable Fact: Forest Whitaker won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Deja Vu, starring Denzel Washington, directed by Tony Scott, written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith, directed by Gabriele Muccino, written by Steve Conrad Notable Fact: Will Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Chris Gardner. Dreamgirls, starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, and Anika Noni Rose, directed by Bill Condon, written by Tom Eyen and Bill Condon Notable Facts: Jennifer Hudson won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Effie White. Willie D. Burton won an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing in this film. Stomp the Yard, starring Columbus Short and Meagan Good, directed by Sylvain White, written by Robert Adetuyi and Gregory Anderson Norbit, starring Eddie Murphy, directed by Brian Robbins, written by Eddie Murphy and Charles Q. Murphy Daddy’s Little Girls, starring Idris Elba, directed and written by Tyler Perry
1578
2008
2009
African American Films
I Think I Love My Wife, starring Chris Rock and Kerry Washington, directed by Chris Rock, written by Louis C. K. and Chris Rock Why Did I Get Married?, starring Tyler Perry, Janet Jackson, and Jill Scott, directed and written by Tyler Perry American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, directed by Ridley Scott, written by Steven Zaillian This Christmas, starring Delroy Lindo and Idris Elba, directed and written by Preston A. Whitmore II I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, directed by Francis Lawrence, written by Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, directed by Rob Reiner, written by Justin Zackham Meet the Browns, starring Angela Bassett and Rick Fox, directed and written by Tyler Perry Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard, directed by John Favreau, written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby Hancock, starring Will Smith, directed by Peter Berg, written by Vince Gilligan and Vincent Ngo The Family That Preys, starring Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates, directed and written by Tyler Perry The Secret Life of Bees, starring Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, and Sophie Okonedo, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, written by Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sue Monk Kidd (novel) Cadillac Records, starring Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright, directed and written by Darnell Martin The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt, Kate Blanchett, and Taraji P. Henderson, directed by David Fincher, written by Eric Roth Notable Fact: Taraji P. Henderson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Queenie. Notorious, starring Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, and Derek Luke, directed by George Tillman Jr., written by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker Madea Goes to Jail, starring Tyler Perry, directed and written by Tyler Perry Star Trek, starring Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana, directed by J. J. Abrams, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
African American Films
2010
1579
I Can Do Bad All by Myself, starring Taraji P. Henson and Adam Rodriguez, directed and written by Tyler Perry The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron, directed by John Lee Hancock, written by Michael Lewis Precious, starring Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique, directed by Lee Daniels, written by Geoffrey Sapphire (novel) and Fletcher Notable Facts: Gabourey Sidibe was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Mo’Nique won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Geoffrey Fletcher was the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, directed by Clint Eastwood, written by John Carlin (novel) and Anthony Peckham Notable Fact: Morgan Freeman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as former South African President Nelson Mandela. Avatar, starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, directed and written by James Cameron Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington, directed by Albert and Allen Hughes, written by Gary Whitta Why Did I Get Married Too?, starring Tyler Perry and Janet Jackson, directed and written by Tyler Perry Death At a Funeral, starring Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence, directed by Neil LaBute, written by Dean Craig
For further reading and comprehensive lists of African American films: Berry, S. Torriano. Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007. Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/. Iverem, Esther. We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986– 2006. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2007. Reid, Mark A. Redefining Black Film. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Richards, Larry. African American Films through 1959: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Filmography. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1998. Sylvester, Melvin, ed. ‘‘African-Americans in Motion Pictures: The Past and Present.’’ Long Island University C. W. Post Campus. [1999] 2010. http://www.cwpost.liunet .edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/movies.htm.
Appendix B: Selected List of African American Radio Shows Gladys L. Knight
1920s–50s
1928–43
1929–35/6
1930s
During the early years of radio history, African American singers and musicians were largely prohibited from performing on the radio. With few exceptions, whites performed popular black songs for radio broadcasts. Due to rampant racism and discrimination, African Americans were frequently excluded from hosting radio shows and working in the radio industry; defamatory racial stereotyping on the radio was a popular form of entertainment. WMAQ; Chicago, Illinois. Amos ‘n’ Andy, voiced and written by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll Notable Facts: This massively popular series originally starred white men performing a blackface minstrel act. The original radio series spawned a radio serial (1928–43), a situation comedy (1943–55), a disc-jockey program (1954–60), and a television series (1951–53). This series also influenced the creation of a number of similar radio programs. Generally, African Americans regarded programs such as these as racist and derogatory. WSBC; Chicago, Illinois. The All-Negro Hour, produced and hosted by Jack Cooper Notable Fact: Jack Cooper is regarded as the first African American disc jockey. He produced several radio shows in his lifetime. This decade saw the emergence of the spectacular careers of black disc jockeys, such as Jack Cooper (WSBC; Chicago, Illinois),
1582
1930s–1947
1933
1937
1938–47 1941–42
1941–42
1942
1942–53
1943
African American Radio Shows
Eddie Honesty (WJOB; Hammond, Indiana), Ed Baker (WJIB; Detroit, Michigan), and Hal Jackson (WOOK; Washington, DC). WGAR; Cleveland, Ohio. The Negro Hour (later renamed Wings Over Jordan), created by Glenn T. Settle, a pastor at Gethsemane Baptist Church NBC. The Ethel Waters Show, starring blues and jazz vocalist Ethel Waters Notable Facts: Like many of the black radio shows that emerged in the early twentieth century, Ethel Waters’s show had a brief run due to lack of financial support from commercial sponsors. Nonetheless, Ethel Waters’s titular role in a radio show was monumental, particularly considering African American women were largely portrayed as stereotypical servile characters, like the Mammy caricature, in radio shows such as Lulu and Leander. CBS. The Louis Armstrong Show, hosted by Louis Armstrong Notable Fact: Louis Armstrong’s show aired opposite Jack Benny’s show, a popular radio program featuring white actors and an African American, Eddie Anderson, who was cast in a subordinate role as a chauffeur. CBS. Wings Over Jordan, featured guests such as Langston Hughes, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Mary McLeod Bethune NBC. Freedom’s People, starring Paul Robeson, Count Basie, and A. Philip Randolph Notable Fact: This program explored African American contributions in various fields, such as music, theater, and the military. NBC. Quizzicale, hosted by Cab Calloway Notable Fact: Jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway infused his weekly program with his popular slang words and phrases. Wonderful Smith becomes one of the first African American disc jockeys to join the Armed Forces Radio Network. This was Smith’s first opportunity to appear on radio without using a derogatory black dialect. (African Americans often were expected to speak in this way on popular mainstream radio programs.) Smith was one the most popular disc jockeys to provide music for African American soldiers. AFRS. Jubilee, showcased a number of prominent African American stars, such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, the Ink Spots, Ella Fitzgerald, and Butterfly McQueen CBS. Open Letter on Race Hatred, written by William Robson Notable Fact: Walter White, NAACP president, played a pivotal role in the creation of this radio program. The program was,
African American Radio Shows
1944–45 1944–57
1945
1945–54
1946
Late 1940s
1948
1583
in large part, a response to the Detroit race riot of 1943 and was a recipient of the Peabody Award for broadcasting excellence. CBS. The Mildred Bailey Show, hosted by jazz singer Mildred Bailey WMCA; New York, New York. New World A-Comin’, narrated by Canada Lee, directed by Michael Grayson, written by Roi Ottley CBS. The Negro in the War Notable Fact: This groundbreaking show highlighted the important contributions of African Americans during World War II. NBC. Too Long America, narrated by Edward G. Robinson Notable Fact: This radio broadcast addressed the color line in America. CBS. The Beulah Show, starring Marlin Hurt, Ethel Waters, Hattie McDaniel, and Louise Beavers Notable Facts: Beulah, the titular character, was originally played by a white man. Beulah, a Mammy caricature, was an example of the limited roles available to African Americans. NBC. The Nat King Cole Show, hosted by jazz pianist and vocalist Nat King Cole Notable Facts: Nat King Cole’s radio show only lasted three months. Other ephemeral radio shows included a gospel show hosted by Mahalia Jackson on CBS and The Jackie Robinson Show, hosted by popular baseball player Jackie Robinson on ABC. This period inaugurated a milestone in the history of black radio. An increasing number of white-owned radio stations replaced their traditional radio programming, which had been geared toward white audiences, with programming targeting African American audiences. A number of African American disc jockeys emerged during this period using a distinctive rhythmic style and African American slang and vernacular. Some of the pioneers of this new style on the radio waves included Al ‘‘The Ole Swingmaster’’ Benson, James Early, Holmes Bailey (Daddy-O Daylie), and Lavada Durst ‘‘Doctor Hep Cat.’’ WDIA; Memphis, Tennessee. Tan Town Jamboree, hosted by Nat D. Williams Notable Fact: Nat D. Williams, a pioneer in black radio, hosted a number of radio shows, including Brown America Speaks, a serious program that featured African American leaders who addressed social and racial issues.
1584 1948–50
1949
1950s
1950s–60s 1960s
1965–70 1967–1970(?)
1972
African American Radio Shows
WMAQ; Chicago, Illinois. Destination Freedom, created and written by Richard Durham Notable Fact: Richard Durham also wrote the popular black radio soap opera, Here Comes Tomorrow. The first black-owned radio station was WERD in Atlanta, Georgia. WDIA; Memphis, Tennessee. Sepia Swing Club, hosted by Maurice ‘‘Hot Rod’’ Hulbert This decade saw the rise of white disc jockeys, like Wolfman Jack, who imitated the communication styles of African American disc jockeys, as well as the emergence of African American women on the airwaves. Among the women who entered the radio industry during the 1950s are the following: WSOK; Nashville, Tennessee. A Woman Speaks, hosted by Louise Fletcher WOV; New York, New York. Ladies Day, hosted by Hilda Simms WHOD; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Gospel Train, hosted by Mary Dee WHAT and WDAS, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; WLIB, New York, New York. Rocket Ship, hosted by Douglas ‘‘Jocko’’ Henderson In this decade, certain radio stations were well-known for their disc jockeys, popular black music programs, and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Among the popular radio stations and disc jockeys of this period include the following: WDIA; Memphis, Tennessee; disc jockeyed by Nat D. Williams WEDR; Birmingham, Alabama; disc jockeyed by Paul White WLIB; New York, New York; disc jockeyed by Hal Jackson and Jocko Henderson WVON; Chicago, Illinois; disc jockeyed by Purvis Spann, Herb Kent, and Wesley South The Black Power Movement influenced the music that was broadcast on many African American radio stations. WLIB-FM; New York, New York; KAGB-FM; Los Angeles, California. The Total Black Experience in Sound, hosted by Del Shields Notable Facts: The Total Black Experience in Sound was a groundbreaking format that featured new African American music genres, such as rhythm and blues and soul. This format preceded what is commonly referred to as urban contemporary. WBLS-FM; New York, New York. The Total Black Experience in Sound, hosted by Frankie Crocker
African American Radio Shows
1979 1980s
1983–93
1994–present 2000–5 2002–4 2004-present 2005-present
2006–7 2006–present
2009–present
1585
Notable Fact: Frankie Crocker would become one of the most famous and influential radio personalities of the decade. Cathy Hughes founded Radio One Local black radio stations continue to play popular African American music but compete with mainstream radio stations. One of the top African American disc jockeys was Tom Joyner, who commuted for years between two radio stations located in different states. KKDA-FM; Dallas, Texas. Morning show hosted by Tom Joyner WGCI-FM; Chicago, Illinois. Afternoon show hosted by Tom Joyner ABC Radio (network). The Tom Joyner Morning Show, hosted by Tom Joyner Radio One (network). The Steve Harvey Morning Show, hosted by comedian Steve Harvey NPR (network). The Tavis Smiley Show, hosted by Tavis Smiley PRI (network). The Tavis Smiley Show, hosted by Tavis Smiley Premier Radio Networks and Inner City Broadcasting Corporation. The Steve Harvey Morning Show, hosted by comedian Steve Harvey Notable Fact: Inner City Broadcasting Corporation was founded by a group of African Americans in 1971. This is one of the largest radio broadcasting companies that targets African American audiences. WBLS; New York, New York. The Wendy Williams Experience, hosted by Wendy Williams Syndication One (network). Empowering Moments, hosted by T. D. Jakes, minister of the Potter’s House WWRL; New York, New York; Radio One, Syndication One. Keepin’ It Real with Al Sharpton, hosted by civil rights activist Al Sharpton WEAA-FM; Baltimore, Maryland. The Michael Eric Dyson Show, hosted by scholar Michael Eric Dyson
Appendix C: Selected List of African American Television Shows Gladys L. Knight
The following list includes sitcoms, animated series, talk shows, and miniseries that feature predominately African American casts or African Americans in leading roles. Many of the original television shows that appear on this list have been cancelled but continue to be broadcast as popular reruns on television network and cable stations. BET and TV One, cable networks that target African American audiences, regularly broadcast reruns, such as Good Times, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Martin, Living Single, and Everybody Hates Chris. 1950s The Beulah Show October 3, 1950–December 23, 1952; CBS, ABC; starring Ethel Waters, Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel, Ernest Whitman, David Bruce, and Ruby Dandridge; directed by Jean Yarbrough Notable Facts: This was the first television show to cast an African American woman in a starring role; however, Beulah, the protagonist, was considered a stereotypical role. Hattie McDaniel, one of the actresses who portrayed the titular character, was the first African American to win an Oscar, which she received for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939). The Amos ’n Andy Show June 1951–April 1953; CBS; starring Alvin Childress, Spencer Williams, and Tim Moore; created by Freeman F. Gosden and Charles J. Correll
1588
African American Television Shows
Notable Fact: The NAACP staged protests denouncing the degrading and stereotypical depictions of the African American protagonists in this show. The Nat King Cole Show November 5, 1956–December 17, 1957; NBC; starring Nat King Cole, directed by Bob Henry and Jim Johnson Notable Fact: Nat King Cole was the first African American to host a television musical variety show. Cole’s show debuted without any sponsors. 1960s East Side/West Side September 23, 1963–April 27, 1964; CBS; starring Cicely Tyson; directed by John Berry, Herschel Daugherty, and Tom Gries Notable Fact: This was the first television show to feature an African American woman in a nonstereotypical role. I Spy September 15, 1965–April 15, 1968; NBC; starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, developed by David Friedkin and Morton Fine Notable Fact: This was the first television show to cast an African American man in a nonstereotypical leading role. Julia September 17, 1968–March 23, 1971; NBC; starring Diahann Carroll, created by Hal Kanter Notable Fact: This show is celebrated for its progressive characterization of an African American single mother and featured one of the first positive leading roles for an African American woman. The Mod Squad September 24, 1968–August 23, 1973; ABC; starring Michael Cole, Clarence Williams, Peggy Lipton, and Tige Andrews; created by Bud Ruskin The Bill Cosby Show September 14, 1969–March 21, 1971; NBC; starring Bill Cosby, Fred Pinkard, and Joyce Bulifant; created by Ed Weinberger, Bill Cosby, and Michael Zagor Sesame Street November 10, 1969–present; NET, PBS; starring Hal Miller, Loretta Long, and Olamide Faison; created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett
African American Television Shows
1589
Notable Fact: This award-winning children’s program is considered groundbreaking for its diverse cast and progressive themes. 1970s Soul Train October 2, 1971–March 25, 2006; syndication; hosted by Don Cornelius, created by Don Cornelius The Electric Company October 25, 1971–April 15, 1977; PBS; starring Morgan Freeman, Judy Graubart, Skip Hinnant, Rita Moreno, and Bill Cosby; written by Sarah Compton and Paul Dooley Notable Facts: This show was one of the pioneering children’s programs that featured a diverse cast. Morgan Freeman, an original cast member, would go on to become an acclaimed film actor, receiving an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Eddie ‘‘Scrap Iron’’ Dupris in Million Dollar Baby (2004). On January 19, 2009, a new version of the show debuted. Sanford and Son January 14, 1972–March 25, 1977; NBC; starring Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson, created by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin Notable Fact: Among the top ten rated shows of the 1974–75 season were Sanford and Son (#2), The Jeffersons (#3), and Good Times (#7). Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids September 9, 1972–May 14, 1985; CBS, syndication; voice of Bill Cosby, created by Bill Cosby and Ken Mundie Roll Out October 5, 1973–January 4, 1974; CBS; starring Ed Begley Jr., Garrett Morris, and Rod Gist; created by Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds Good Times February 8, 1974–August 1, 1979; CBS; starring Esther Rolle, John Amos, Jimmie Walker, Ja’net DuBois, Bern Nadette Stanis, and Ralph Carter; created by Eric Monte and Michael Evans Notable Facts: Among the top ten rated shows of the 1974–75 season were Sanford and Son (#2), The Jeffersons (#3), and Good Times (#7). Esther Rolle and John Amos openly criticized the demeaning caricature of the character known as ‘‘J. J.’’ Rolle and Amos eventually left the show. The show, however, is considered iconic due to the portrayal of an African American family living in a housing project.
1590
African American Television Shows
That’s My Mama September 4, 1974–December 24, 1975; ABC; starring Clifton Davis, Theresa Merritt, Theodore Wilson, and Lynne Moody; created by Chris Bearde, Allan Blye, and Dan T. Bradley Get Christie Love! September 11, 1974–April 4, 1975; ABC; starring Teresa Graves, directed by William A. Graham Notable Fact: Teresa Graves was the first African American woman to be cast as a detective in her own series. She was among the female pioneers in action TV. The Jeffersons January 18, 1975–July 2, 1985; CBS; starring Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley, Marla Gibbs, Roxie Roker, and Franklin Cover; created by Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, and Bernie West Notable Facts: Among the top ten rated shows of the 1974–75 season were Sanford and Son (#2), The Jeffersons (#3), and Good Times (#7). The Jeffersons ran for eleven seasons and is the longest-running black sitcom. Grady December 4, 1975–March 4, 1976; NBC; starring Grady Whitman Mayo, Carole Cole, and Joe Morton, directed by Gerren Keith The Jacksons June 16, 1976–March 9, 1977; CBS; starring Rebbie Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Tito Jackson, La Toya Jackson, Marlon Jackson, Michael Jackson, Randy Jackson, and Janet Jackson; directed by Bill Davis What’s Happening!! August 5, 1976–April 28, 1979; ABC; starring Ernest Lee Thomas, Haywood Nelson, Fred Berry, and Danielle Spencer; created by Eric Monte Roots, Miniseries January 23, 1977–January 30, 1977; ABC; starring Ben Vereen, LeVar Burton, John Amos, Louis Gossett Jr., Leslie Uggams, and O. J. Simpson; created and written by Alex Haley Notable Facts: This miniseries was based on a novel by Alex Haley. The finale of this miniseries was ranked third highest of the top-rated shows of all time. The Sanford Arms September 16, 1977–October 14, 1977; NBC; Starring Theodore Wilson, LaWanda Page, and Don Bexley
African American Television Shows
1591
I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali Fall 1977–January, 1978; NBC; voice of Muhammad Ali, created by Fred Calvert, Kimie Calvert, and John Paxton Baby, I’m Back January 30, 1978–April 17, 1978. NBC; starring Demond Wilson, Denise Nicholas, Helen Martin, and Kim Fields; created by Lila Garrett and Mort Lachman King, Miniseries February 12–14, 1978; NBC; starring Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson, directed by Abby Mann Notable Fact: This miniseries featured Martin Luther King Jr.’s four children and prominent figures in the Civil Rights Movement. WKRP in Cincinnati September 18, 1978–September 20, 1982; CBS; starring Gary Sandy, Tim Reid, and Howard Hesseman; created by Hugh Wilson Diff’rent Strokes November 3, 1978–March 7, 1985; NBC, ABC; starring Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges, Conrad Bain, and Dana Plato; created by Jeff Harris and Bernie Kukoff The White Shadow November 27, 1978–March 16, 1981; CBS; starring Ken Howard, Byron Stewart, and James Hayward; created by Bruce Paltrow A Woman Called Moses, Miniseries December 11 and 12, 1978; NBC; starring Cicely Tyson, directed by Paul Wendkos Roots: The Next Generations, Miniseries February 18, 1979–February 24, 1979; ABC; starring James Earl Jones, Dorian Harewood, and Irene Cara; created and written by Alex Haley Notable Fact: This miniseries was based on a novel by Alex Haley. Benson September 13, 1979–April 19, 1986; ABC; starring Robert Guillaume, created by Susan Harris
1592
African American Television Shows
1980s Sanford March 15, 1980–July 10, 1981; NBC; starring Redd Foxx, Dennis Burkley, Nathaniel Taylor, and LaWanda Page Hill Street Blues January 15, 1981–May 12, 1987; NBC; starring Michael Warren The Sophisticated Gents, Miniseries September 29, 1981–October 1, 1981; NBC; starring Sonny Jim Gaines, Bernie Casey, Rosey Grier, Melvin Van Peebles, and Paul Winfield; directed by Harry Falk Gimme a Break! October 29, 1981–May 12, 1987; NBC; starring Nell Carter, Kari Michaelsen, Lauri Hendler, and Lara Jill Miller; created by Mort Lachman and Sy Rosen Reading Rainbow June 6, 1983–November 10, 2006; PBS; hosted by LeVar Burton, directed by Larry Lancit and Mark Mannucci Webster September 16, 1983–March 10, 1989; ABC; starring Emmanuel Lewis, Alex Karras, and Susan Clark; created by Lew Erlicht The Cosby Show September 20, 1984–April 30, 1992; NBC; starring Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Sabrina Le Beauf, Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe, and Keshia Knight Pulliam; created by Ed Weinberger, Michael Leeson, and Bill Cosby Notable Facts: The Cosby Show was rated number one in the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive seasons and was one of the most popular television shows of the 1980s. This show is the third longest-running black sitcom. Miami Vice September 28, 1984–January 25, 1990; NBC; starring Don Johnson, Philip Michael Thomas, and Olivia Brown; produced by Michael Mann What’s Happening Now!! September 7, 1985–March 26, 1988; syndication; starring Ernest Thomas, Haywood Nelson, Fred Berry, and Shirley Hemphill; created by Eric Monte
African American Television Shows
1593
227 September 14, 1985–May 6, 1990; NBC; starring Marla Gibbs, Hal Williams, and Regina King; created by C. J. Banks and Bill Boulware Charlie & Co. September 18, 1985–May 16, 1986; CBS; starring Flip Wilson, Gladys Knight, and Kristoff St. John; created by Allan Katz Shaka Zulu, Miniseries November 24–November 26, 1986; South African Broadcasting; starring Henry Cele, created by Ed Harper Notable Fact: The miniseries Shaka Zulu was originally released in South Africa but enjoyed wide appeal in American and abroad. The Redd Foxx Show January 18, 1986–April 19, 1986; ABC; starring Redd Foxx, created by Bob Comfort, Rick Kellard, and Stuart Sheslow The Oprah Winfrey Show, Talk Show September 8, 1986–present; syndication; starring Oprah Winfrey, created by Oprah Winfrey Notable Fact: This show is hosted by one of the most influential television moguls in history. Oprah Winfrey announced in 2009 that she will end her talk show in 2011. Amen September 27, 1986–May 11, 1991; NBC; starring Sherman Hemsley, Clifton Davis, and Anna Maria Horsford, created by Ed Weinberger Showtime at the Apollo September 12, 1987–present; syndication; currently hosted by Rudy Rush, directed by Don Weiner and Christopher Broughton Frank’s Place September 14, 1987–March 22, 1988; CBS; starring Tim Reid, Daphne Maxwell Reid, Tony Burton, Virginia Capers, and Robert Harper; created by Tim Reid and Hugh Wilson Notable Facts: Hugh Wilson received an Emmy award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and an Humanitas Prize for his role in this series. Tim Reid, the lead character, received an NAACP Image Award and a Viewers for Quality Television Award.
1594
African American Television Shows
A Different World September 24, 1987–July 9, 1993; NBC; starring Lisa Bonet, Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell, and Sinbad; created by Bill Cosby Notable Fact: This landmark series took place at a fictional historically black college. The show’s run coincided with the increasing popularity of historically black colleges and universities. In the Heat of the Night March 6, 1988–May 16, 1995; NBC, CBS; starring Carroll O’Connor, Howard Rollins, Alan Autry, and Anne-Marie Johnson; created by John Ball The Arsenio Hall Show, Talk Show January 3, 1989–May 27, 1994; syndication; starring Arsenio Hall, created by Arsenio Hall and Marla Kell Brown Notable Facts: This award-winning talk show popularized trends in mainstream society, such as barking and pumping the fist in a circular motion to show approval. One of the show’s iconic episodes was the appearance of former president Bill Clinton, who was then campaigning for president, playing the saxophone. A Man Called Hawk January 28, 1989–May 13, 1989; ABC; starring Avery Brooks, created by Robert B. Parker The Women of Brewster Place, miniseries March 19, 1989–March 20, 1989; ABC; starring Oprah Winfrey, Robin Givens, Jackee Harry, Paul Winfield, and Lynn Whitfield; directed by Donna Deitch Notable Fact: This two-part miniseries was based on a novel by Gloria Naylor. Generations March 27, 1989–January 25, 1991; NBC; starring Lynn Hamilton, Vivica A. Fox, and Kristoff St. John; created by Sally Sussman Morina Notable Fact: This was the first soap opera to establish an African American family in the original storyline. The Robert Guillaume Show April 5, 1989–August 1, 1989; ABC; starring Robert Guillaume, Wendy Phillips and Marc Joseph; created by Sy Rosen
African American Television Shows
1595
Family Matters September 22, 1989–July 17, 1998; ABC, CBS; starring Reginald VelJohnson, Jo Marie Payton, Judyann Elder, Darius McCrary, Kellie Shanygne Williams, and Jaleel White; created by William Bickley and Michael Warren Notable Facts: This award-winning show is the second longest-running black sitcom and featured one of the most recognizable nerds in television history, Steve Urkel, played by Jaleel White. 1990s In Living Color April 15, 1990–May 19, 1994; Fox; starring Damon Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Kim Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Kim Coles, David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey; created by Keenen Ivory Wayans New Attitude August 8, 1990–September 7, 1990; ABC; starring Sheryl Lee Ralph, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, and Bebe Drake True Colors September 2, 1990–February 27, 1992; Fox; starring Frankie Faison, Cleavon Little, Stephanie Faracy, and Nancy Walker; created by Michael J. Weithorn The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air September 10, 1990–May 20, 1996; NBC; starring Will Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro, James Avery, Janet Hubert-Whitten, Daphne Maxwell Reid, Karyn Parsons, Tatyanna Ali, Ross Bagley, and Joseph Marcell; created by Andy Borowitz and Susan Borowitz Notable Fact: This show was the fifth longest-running black sitcom. Gabriel’s Fire September 12, 1990–June 6, 1991; ABC; starring James Earl Jones, created by Donald Boyle, Coleman Luck, and Jacqueline Zambrano Roc August 24, 1991–May 10, 1994; Fox; starring Charles S. Dutton, Ella Joyce, Rocky Carroll, and Carl Gordon; created by Stan Daniels The Royal Family September 18, 1991–May 13, 1992; CBS; starring Redd Foxx, Della Reese, Mariann Alda, and Sylver Gregory; created by Eddie Murphy
1596
African American Television Shows
The Montel Williams Show, Talk Show September 30, 1991–May 16, 2008; syndication; starring Montel Williams, directed by Peter Kimball and Martin Pasetta Martin August 27, 1992–May 1, 1997; Fox; starring Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell, Thomas Mikal Ford, and Carl Anthony Payne II; created by John Bowman, Martin Lawrence, and Topper Carew Notable Fact: Martin, Living Single, and New York Undercover were among the most popular television shows for African American audiences in the 1990s. Out All Night September 19, 1992–July 9, 1993; NBC; starring Patti LaBelle, Morris Chestnut, Vivica A. Fox, Duane Martin, and Simon O’Brien; created by Andy Borowitz, Susan Borowitz, and Rob Edwards Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper September 22, 1992–August 30, 1997; ABC; starring Mark Curry, Holly Robinson Peete, Dawnn Lewis, Raven-Symone, Marquise Wilson, and Saundra Quarterman; created by Jeff Franklin The Jacksons: An American Dream, Miniseries November 15 and 18, 1992; ABC; starring Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Angela Bassett, Wylie Draper, Terrence Howard, Holly Robinson Peete, and Billy Dee Williams; directed by Karen Arthur Star Trek: Deep Space Nine January 3, 1993–June 2, 1999; UPN; starring Avery Brooks, created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller Notable Fact: This show featured the first African American lead in a Star Trek television franchise. Homicide: Life on the Street January 31, 1993–May 21, 1999; NBC; starring Clark Johnson, Andre Braugher, and Yaphet Kotto; created by Paul Attanasio Getting By March 5, 1993–June 18, 1994; ABC, NBC; starring Telma Hopkins, Cindy Williams, and Merlin Santana; created by William Bickley and Michael Warren
African American Television Shows
1597
Living Single August 29, 1993–January 1, 1998; Fox; starring Queen Latifah, Kim Coles, Erika Alexander, and Kim Fields; created by Yvette Lee Bowser. Notable Fact: Living Single, Martin, and New York Undercover were among the most popular television shows for African American audiences in the 1990s. This groundbreaking show featured the lives of six successful African American singles. Thea September 3, 1993–February 14, 1994; ABC; starring Thea Vidale, Adam Jeffries, Brandy Norwood, and Jason Weaver; created by Bernie Kukoff The Sinbad Show September 16, 1993–April 21, 1994; Fox; starring Sinbad, T. K. Carter, Erin Davis, and Willie Ray Norwood, Jr.; created by Sinbad Sister, Sister April 1, 1994–May 23, 1999; ABC, the WB; starring Tia Mowry, Tamera Mowry, Tim Reid, and Jackee Harry; created by Kim Bass, Gary Gilbert, and Fred Shafferman 704 Hauser April 11, 1994–May 9, 1994; CBS; starring John Amos and Lynnie Godfrey, T. E. Russell; created by Norman Lear New York Undercover September 8, 1994–June 25, 1998; Fox; starring Malik Yoba and Michael DeLorenzo, created by Kevin Arkadie and Dick Wolf Notable Fact: New York Undercover, Martin, Living Single were among the most popular television shows for African American audiences in the 1990s. My Brother and Me October 15, 1994–February 2, 1995; Nickelodeon; starring Arthur Reggie III, Ralph Woolfolk IV, Jimmy Lee Newman Jr., and Aisling Sistrunk; created by Calvin Brown Jr. and Ilunga Adell The Wayans Bros. January 11, 1995–May 20, 1999; the WB; starring Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, and John Witherspoon; created by Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Leslie Ray, and David Steven Simon
1598
African American Television Shows
The Watcher January 17, 1995–June 7, 1995; UPN; starring Sir Mix-a-Lot, directed by Vern Gillum, Keva Rosenfeld, and Michael W. Watkins The Parent ’Hood January 18, 1995–July 25, 1999; the WB; starring Robert Townsend, Suzzanne Douglass, Ashli Amari Adams, and Curtis Williams; created by Robert Townsend, Andrew Nicholls, and Darrell Vickers Children of the Dust, Miniseries February 26, 1995–February 28, 1995; CBS; starring Sidney Poitier, directed by David Greene In the House April 10, 1995–August 11, 1999; NBC, UPN; starring L L Cool J, Kim Wayans, Maia Campbell, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Debbie Allen; created by Winifred Hervey Cleghorne! September 10, 1995–January 28, 1996; the WB; starring Ellen Cleghorne; created by Steve Pepoon, David Silverman, and Stephen Sustaric Moesha January 23, 1996–May 14, 2001; UPN; starring Brandy Norwood, William Allen Young, Countess Vaughn, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Marcus T. Paulk; created by Ralph Farquhar, Sara V. Finney, and Vida Spears Notable Fact: This show was the sixth longest-running black sitcom. Buddies March 5, 1996–April 3, 1996; ABC; starring Dave Chappelle and Christopher Gartin; created by Carmen Finestra, David McFadzean, and Peter Tolan Kenan & Kel July 15, 1996–July 22, 2000; Nickelodeon; starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, created by Kim Bass The Steve Harvey Show August 25, 1996–February 17, 2002; the WB; starring Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and Merlin Santana; created by Winifred Hervey
African American Television Shows
1599
Goode Behavior August 26, 1996–May 19, 1997; UPN; starring Sherman Hemsley and Dorien Wilson; created by Robert Illes, Brian Pollack, Dennis Pollack, and Mert Rich Malcolm & Eddie August 26, 1996–May 22, 2000; UPN; starring Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Eddie Griffin, created by Joel Madison Sparks August 26, 1996–March 2, 1998; UPN; starring James Avery, Robin Givens, and Terrence Howard; created by Ed Weinberger Homeboys in Outer Space August 27, 1996–May 13, 1997; UPN; starring Flex and Darryl Bell, created by Ehrich Van Lowe The Jamie Foxx Show August 28, 1996–January 14, 2001; the WB; starring Jamie Foxx, Garcelle Beauvaus, Christopher B. Duncan, Ellia English, and Garrett Morris; created by Bentley Kyle Evans and Jamie Foxx Notable Fact: Jamie Foxx would become the third African American male to receive an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the titular character in the film Ray (2004). Cosby September 16, 1996–April 28, 2000; CBS; starring Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, and T’Keyah Crystal Keymah, and Doug E. Doug; created by Bill Cosby The Chris Rock Show, Comedy Talk Show February 7, 1997–November 3, 2000; HBO; starring Chris Rock Smart Guy April 2, 1997–May 16, 1999; the WB; starring Tahj Mowry, John Marshall Jones, and Jason Weaver; created by Danny Kallis The View, Talk Show August 11, 1997–present; ABC; hosted by Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Sherri Shepherd; created by Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie
1600
African American Television Shows
Notable Fact: Two of the five female hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost (1990), and Sherri Shepherd, are African American. Good News August 25, 1997–May 19, 1998; UPN; starring David Ramsey, Roz Ryan, and Guy Torry; created by Ed Weinberger Between Brothers September 11, 1997–March 2, 1999; Fox, UPN; starring Kadeem Hardison, Dondre T. Whitfield, Kelly Perine, and Tommy Davidson; created by Barry O’Brien and Cheryl Alu The Gregory Hines Show September 15, 1997–February 27, 1998; CBS; starring Gregory Hines, Brandon Hammond, and Wendell Pierce; created by Nat Bernstein and Mitchel Katlin For Your Love March 17, 1998–August 11, 2002; NBC, the WB; starring Holly Robinson Peete, James Lesure, and Tamala Jones; created by Yvette Lee Bowser The PJs April 5, 1998–May 20, 2001; Fox, the WB; voices of Eddie Murphy, Loretta Devine, and Cassi Davis; created by Eddie Murphy, Larry Wilmore, and Steve Tompkins The Hughleys September 22, 1998–May 20, 2002; ABC, UPN; starring D. L. Hughley, Elise Neal, Dee Jay Daniels, and Ashley Monique Clark; created by D. L. Hughley and Matt Wickline Guys Like Us October 5, 1998–January 18, 1999; UPN; starring Bumper Robinson, Maestro Harrell, and Chris Hardwick; created by Dan Schneider The Temptations, Miniseries November 1 and 2, 1998; NBC; starring Charles Malik Whitfield, D. B. Woodside, Leon Robinson, Terron Brooks, and Christian Payton; directed by Allan Arkush
African American Television Shows
1601
Grown Ups August 1, 1999–May 22, 2000; UPN; starring Jaleel White, Dave Ruby, and Marissa Ribisi; created by Matthew Miller The Parkers August 30, 1999–May 10, 2004; UPN; starring Countess Vaughn, Mo’Nique, Jenna von Oy, Ken Lawson, Yvette Wilson, and Dorien Wilson; created by Ralph Farquhar, Sara V. Finney, and Vida Spears Judge Mathis September 29, 1999–present; syndication; starring Greg Mathis, directed by Joey Ford, written by Jeffrey Hackl 2000–Present City of Angels January 16, 2000–December 21, 2000; CBS; starring Blair Underwood, Vivica A. Fox, and Michael Warren; created by Steven Bochco, Paris Barclay, and Nicholas Wootton Notable Fact: This show was the first medical drama featuring a predominantly African American cast. Soul Food June 28, 2000–May 26, 2004; Showtime; starring Nicole Ari Parker, Malinda Williams, Vanessa Williams, Rockmond Dunbar, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Aaron Meeks, and Boris Kodjoe; created by George Tillman Jr. Notable Fact: This series was based on the popular film directed by George Tillman Jr. in 1997. Girlfriends September 11, 2000–February 11, 2008; UPN, the CW; starring Tracee Ellis Ross, Golden Brooks, Persia White, Jill Marie Jones, and Keesha Sharp; created by Mara Brock Akil Notable Fact: This series was the fourth longest-running black sitcom. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation October 6, 2000–present; CBS; starring Laurence Fishburne (2009–present); created by Anthony E. Zuiker Boston Public October 23, 2000–January 30, 2004; Fox; starring Chi McBride, created by David E. Kelley
1602
African American Television Shows
My Wife and Kids March 28, 2001–May 17, 2005; ABC; starring Damon Wayans, Tisha CampbellMartin, and George O. Gore II; created by Don Reo and Damon Wayans One on One September 3, 2001–May 15, 2006; UPN; starring Flex Alexander, Kyla Pratt, and Robert Ri’chard; created by Eunetta T. Boone The Proud Family September 15, 2001–August 19, 2005; Disney Channel; voices of Kyla Pratt, Tommy Davidson, and Paula Jai Parker; created by Bruce W. Smith Scrubs October 2, 2001–March 17, 2010; NBC, ABC; starring Zach Braff and Donald Faison; created by Bill Lawrence Notable Fact: Donald Faison received BET Comedy Awards, Teen Choice Awards, and NAACP Image Awards for his role as Christopher Turk, the protagonist’s best friend, in the television series. The Bernie Mac Show November 14, 2001–April 14, 2006; Fox; starring Bernie Mac, Kellita Smith, Jeremy Suarez, Camille Winbush, and Dee Dee Davis; created by Larry Wilmore The Wire June 2, 2002–March 9, 2008; HBO; starring Dominic West and Idris Elba, produced and written by David Simon American Idol June 11, 2002–present; Fox; starring Simon Cowell (2002–10), Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul (2002–09); created by Simon Fuller Notable Fact: This show has been a star-making vehicle for several African Americans, such as Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Jennifer Hudson, and Jordin Sparks. CSI: Miami September 23, 2002–present; CBS; starring Khandi Alexander (2002–2009) Half & Half September 23, 2002–May 15, 2006; UPN; starring Rachel True, Essence Atkins, Chico Benymon, Valarie Pettiford, Alec Mapa, and Telma Hopkins; created by Jeffrey Klarik
African American Television Shows
1603
Abby January 6, 2003–March 4, 2003; UPN; starring Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Kadeem Hardison, and Tangie Ambrose That’s So Raven January 17, 2003–November 10, 2007; Disney Channel; starring RavenSymone, Orlando Brown, Kyle Massey, and Anneliese van der Pol; created by Michael Poryes and Susan Sherman Chapelle’s Show January 22, 2003–July 23, 2006; Comedy Central; starring Dave Chappelle, Charlie Murphy, and Donnell Rawlings; created by Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan Wanda at Large March 26, 2003–November 7, 2003; Fox; starring Wanda Sykes, Phil Morris, Dale Godboldo, and Tammy Lauren; created by Lance Crouther, Les Firestein, Bruce Helford, and Wanda Sykes Clean House September 3, 2003–present; the Style Network; hosted by Niecy Nash, written by Dana Drake and Lorrie Meyer Notable Fact: Niecy Nash is one of the first and most popular African American hosts of a home makeover television show, a television format that has gained enormous popularity in the twenty-first century. All About the Andersons September 12, 2003–February 12, 2004; the WB; starring Anthony Anderson, John Amos, and Roz Ryan; created by Anthony Anderson Romeo! September 14, 2003–July 23, 2006; Nickelodeon; starring Romeo, Master P, Erica O’Keith, Noel Callahan, Zachary Isaiah Williams, Natashia Williams, and Victoria Jackson; created by Fracaswell Hyman, Thomas W. Lynch, and Percy Miller Eve September 15, 2003–May 11, 2006; UPN; starring Eve, Jason Winston George, and Ali Landry; created by Meg DeLoatch
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All of Us September 16, 2003–May 14, 2007; UPN, the CW; starring Duane Martin, LisaRaye McCoy, and Elise Neal; created by Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, and Betsy Borns Like Family September 19, 2003–April 22, 2004; the WB; starring Holly Robinson Peete, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Dianne Farr; created by Dan Fogelman The Tracy Morgan Show December 2, 2003–March 20, 2004; NBC; Tracy Morgan, Tamala Jones, Marc John Jefferies, and Bobb’e J. Thompson; created by David Israel and Jim O’Doherty Fatherhood June 20, 2004–November 27, 2005; (Nickelodeon) Nick at Nite; voices of Blair Underwood, Sabrina Le Beauf, and Giovonnie Samuels; created by Bill Cosby and Charles Kipps CSI: New York September 22, 2004–present; CBS, starring Hill Harper (2004–2010) Grey’s Anatomy March 27, 2005–present; ABC; starring Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Justin Chambers, and Chandra Wilson, created, written, and produced by Shonda Rhimes Notable Facts: Shonda Rhimes, an African American writer, producer, and director, has received considerable acclaim for her work in this massively popular medical drama. Chandra Wilson, an African American actress, who is cast as a general surgeon in the series, has received numerous nominations and awards for her role. Barbershop: The Series August 14, 2005–October 16, 2005; Showtime; starring Omar Gooding, Gbenga Akinnagbe, and Anna Brown; created by Mark Brown Notable Fact: This series was based on the popular film, Barbershop (2002), directed by Tim Story, which included a sequel, Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan. Like the film, the television series explored racial, social, and political issues within the context of the African American barbershop, a seminal cultural institution in the African American community.
African American Television Shows
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Everybody Hates Chris September 22, 2005–May 8, 2009; UPN, the CW; starring Tyler James Williams, Terry Crews, Tichina Arnold, Tequan Richmond, and Imani Hakim; created by Chris Rock and Ali LeRoi Notable Fact: This iconic show is one of the first black sitcoms based on the coming-of-age years of an African American youth. The Boondocks November 6, 2005–present; (present) Cartoon Network; voices of Regina King, John Witherspoon, and Cedric Yarbrough; created by Aaron McGruder The Unit March 7, 2006–May 10, 2009; CBS; starring Dennis Haysbert, Regina Taylor, and Scott Foley; created by David Mamet Tyler Perry’s House of Payne June 21, 2006–present; TBS; starring Allen Payne, LaVan Davis, Cassi Davis, Demetria McKinney, Lance Gross, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Larramie ‘‘Doc’’ Shaw, China Anne McClain, and Denise Burse; created by Tyler Perry Notable Fact: This series launched acclaimed film director Tyler Perry’s debut in the television industy. Blade June 28, 2006–September 13, 2006; Spike; starring Kirk Jones, created by David S. Goyer The Game October 1, 2006–May 15, 2009; the CW; starring Tia Mowry Hardrict, Brittany Daniel, and Wendy Raquel Robinsn; created by Mara Brock Akil Lincoln Heights January 8, 2007–November 9, 2009; ABC; starring Russell Hornsby, Nicki Micheaux, Chadwick Boseman, Erica Hubbard, Rhyon Nicole Brown, and Mishon Ratliff; created by Seth Freeman The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency March 23, 2008–present; British Broadcasting Corporation, HBO; starring Jill Scott, based on the novels by Alexander McCall Smith
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The Wendy Williams Show, Talk Show July 14, 2008–present; BET; starring Wendy Williams, created by Wendy Williams Meet the Browns January 7, 2009–present; TBS; starring David Mann, Tamela Mann, and Lamman Rucker; created by Tyler Perry Notable Fact: This series is popular film director Tyler Perry’s second television project. Southland April 9, 2009–May 21, 2009, January 12, 2010–present; NBC, TNT; starring Regina King, created by Ann Biderman The Cleveland Show September 27, 2009–present; Fox; voices of Mike Henry, Sanaa Lathan, Reagan Gomez-Preston, and Kevin Michael Richardson; created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry, and Richard Appel The Mo’Nique Show October 5, 2009–present; BET; hosted by Mo’Nique, created by Mo’Nique and Sidney Hicks. Hawthorne June 16, 2009–present; TNT; starring Jada Pinkett Smith, created by John Masius Notable Fact: Jada Pinkett Smith became the first African American woman in the twenty-first century to headline her own medical drama. Treme April 11, 2010–present; HBO; starring Khandi Alexander and Rob Brown, created by Eric Overmyer and David Simon Notable Fact: This fictional series is set in New Orleans several months after Hurricane Katrina, a real-life disaster that occurred in 2005 and devastated the mostly African American population.
Appendix D: Selected African American Pop Culture Collections at Research Centers, Libraries, and Universities The collections listed here support both casual and scholarly interest in African American popular culture from a historical perspective. These collections provide a wide range of materials that can serve as an introduction to the many historic records and documents available, and as core sources for indepth research. Alabama State University National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture Levi Watkins Library 915 South Jackson St. Montgomery, AL 36101 Tel: (334) 229-4876 Fax: (334) 229-4940 E-mail: [email protected] URLs: http://www/lib/a/asu.edu http://www.lib.alasu.edu/natctr/collections The center has a sizeable collection of historical documents in a variety of formats available for research into the modern Civil Rights Movement and Montgomery’s role in the movement. Includes the papers of E. D. Nixon (who figured prominently in the movement), and the Montgomery Improvement Association.
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Amistad Research Center 6823 St. Charles Ave. Tilton Memorial Hall Tulane University New Orleans, LA 70118 Tel: (504) 865-5535 Fax: (504) 862-8961 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/ An independent research center housed on the campus of Tulane University, the collections relate to race relations, civil rights, and other aspects of popular culture. The center’s extensive holdings include the papers of artist Elizabeth Catlett, poet and writer Countee Cullen, the American Missionary Association, Benjamin Hooks and his work with the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Rosenwald Foundation, nursing leader Mabel Keaton Staupers, and over one thousand works of African American Art. Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives and Special Collections 111 James P. Brawley Dr., SW Atlanta, GA 30314 Tel: (404) 798-2052 Fax: (404) 978-2109 E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.auctr.edu/rwwl/Home/archivescollections Collections document civil rights, race relations, education, literature, visual and the performing arts, religion, politics, and social work. Notable among the resources there is the Martin Luther King Jr. Collection of Morehouse College; others are the Countee Cullen/Harold Jackman Memorial Collection, papers of Hoytt Fuller, Maude Cuney Hare, C. Eric Lincoln, John and Lugenia Burns Hope, Maynard Jackson, Harry V. Richardson, and Hale Woodruff. Organizational records include those of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, Atlanta Student Movement, Commission on Interracial Cooperation, Southern Regional Council, Southern Conference for Human Welfare, Southern Education Foundation, Freedmen’s Aid Society, the Chautauqua Circle, the Moles, College Language Association, and the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. Auburn Avenue Research Library 101 Auburn Ave. Atlanta, GA 30303 Tel: (404) 730-4001 Fax: (404) 730-5879 URL: www.afplweb.com/aarl
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The collection contains manuscripts, oral histories, artifacts, recordings, numerous photographs, and works of art by African and African American artists. There are the papers of Andrew J. Young as well as research materials on the culture of people of Atlanta and the Southeast. Slave documents, funeral programs, and other items are also collected. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture 125 Bull St. (near Ashley Avenue) Charleston, SC 29401 Tel. (843) 953-7609 Fax: (843) 953-7607 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://avery.cofc.edu A division of the College of Charleston, the center maintains research facilities and resources that tell the story of African Americans from their origins in Africa through emancipation, segregation, migration, the Civil Rights Movement, and progress toward social and political equality. The collections document the African American experience in Charleston, the low country, the state, and beyond. There are records of the Friendly Moralist Society, family papers, family records documenting the enslavement of Africans and persons of African descent, the institution of slavery, plantations, and capitation records for the free people of color in Charleston. The collections contain the papers of Septima Clark, Bernice Robinson, Lucille S. Whipper, Cleveland Sellers, J. Arthur Brown, Robert Rosen, Arthur McFarland, oral histories documenting the Civil Rights Movement, education in Charleston, and Gullah culture. Bennett College for Women Holgate Library 900 East Washington St. Greensboro, NC 27401 Afro-American Women Collection Tel: (336) 517-2100 URL: http://www.bennett.edu/archives.asp The library houses books and pamphlets on African American women as well as the Norris Cuney Collection and the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Collection. Bethune-Cookman University Carl S. Swisher Learning Resources Center 640 Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Blvd. Daytona Beach, FL 32114 Tel: (336) 481-2189 E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.cookman.edu/academics/library/index.html The archives contain documentary, photographic, and other works of the school’s founder, Mary McLeod Bethune.
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Bethune Museum and Archives 1318 Vermont Ave., NW Washington, DC 20005 Tel: (202) 673-2402 Fax: (202) 673-2414 URL: http://www.nps.gov/mamc/ Collections document African American women’s history. Included are the papers of the National Council of Negro Women, Mabel Keaton Staupers, and numerous items that document Mary McLeod Bethune’s life and achievements. Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center 771 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA 02215 Tel: (617) 353-3696 Fax: (617) 353-2838 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.bu.edu/dbin/archives/index.php Included in the collections are the papers of Lonnie Elder III, Loften Mitchell, Samuel R. Delany, Rosa Guy, Gayl Jones, John Oliver Killens, Carlene Polite, Dorothy West, Frank Yerby, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Ted Joans, Cab Calloway (currently closed to researchers), Ella Fitzgerald, Denyce Graves, Edward W. Brooke, Horace Cayton, Martin Luther King Jr. (currently closed), Edward O. Gourdin, E. Frederick Morrow, Howard Thurman, Sue Bailey Thurman, Sterling Tucker, Clifton R. Wharton, James Haskins, Jesse L. Johnson, George R. Metcalf, Elizabeth Carnegie, E. Simms Campbell, and Elton Fax. Chicago History Museum Archive and Manuscript Collections 1601 North Ave. & Clark St. Chicago, IL 60614 Tel: (312) 642-4600 Fax: (312) 266-2077 URL: www.chicagohs.org/research/aboutcollection/archivesmanuscripts Includes records of individuals, businesses, and organizations. The resources are particularly informative on Chicago’s early history, social conditions, and problems. There are resources on African American history, civil rights, politics, labor, social reformers, and other subjects in popular culture. Papers of Claude A. Barnett, Etta Moten Barnett, and Irene Gaines are also collected. Chicago Public Library Carter G. Woodson Regional Library Vivian G. Harsh Research Collections of Afro-American History and Literature 9525 S. Halsted St.
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Chicago, IL 60628 Tel: (312) 747-6900 URL: http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/archivalcoll/index.php The Woodson Library, named for the ‘‘father of African American history,’’ houses the papers of beauty culture icon Marjorie Stewart Joyner, Robert S. Abbott-John H. Sengstacke Family, Etta Moten Barnett, Leonidas Berry, Black Radical Congress, Horace Cayton, Chicago Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (Chicago), Lucy Smith Collier, Cyrus Colter, Earl B. Dickerson, Juanita Hall, Langston Hughes, Illinois Writers Project ‘‘Negro in Illinois,’’ Ralph Metcalf, E. Frederic Morrow, Willard Motley, National Black Nurses Association (Chicago Chapter), Prince Hall Freemasonry, Quinn Chapel A. M. E. Church, Charlemae Hill Rolllins, Doris E. Saunders, William Edouard Scott, Era Bell Thompson, Joan Wallace, Val Gray Ward, Edith Wilson, Susan Cayton Woodson, and Richard Wright. Chicago Public Library Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago, IL 60605 Tel: (312) 747-4300 URL: http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/archivalcoll/index.php Resources include the Black Ensemble Theater Collection, and the Chicago Blues Archives. College of Charleston. See Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture. Columbia College Black Music Research Center 600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605 Tel: (312) 369-7586 E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.colum.edu/cbmr A comprehensive research center with collections that cover all idioms in black music of the United States and the African diaspora. The collections include the Sue Cassidy Clark Pop Music Collection, with research files, photographs, and oral histories on African American popular musicians and singers; and the research files, interviews, and musical scores belonging to musicologist Eileen Southern; musicologist, writer, and composer Helen Walker Hill; and music librarian Dena Epstein. Cornell University Carl A. Kroch Library Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections
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Ithaca, NY 14853 Tel: (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 URL: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu Manuscripts on American history and culture include Civil War materials, such as holdings on Harriet Beecher Stowe and Lydia Marie Child, and a prominent collection of antislavery materials, diaries, muster rolls, photographs, and other items. Detroit Public Library Special Collections 5201 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI 48202 Tel: (313) 833-1460 Fax: (313) 833-5039 E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.detroit.lib.mi.us/hackley/hackley_index.htm The E. Azalia Hackley Collection of Negro Music, Dance and Drama includes materials on dancers such as Rael Lamb and Lavinia Williams, singer Roland Hayes, and many other concert and opera singers. There are also materials on organizations such as Motown Record Corp. and the National Association of Negro Musicians. The Recorded Sound Collection includes music performed or composed by African American musicians and documents the development of black music; there are recordings of Negro spirituals, jazz, gospel, ragtime, opera, orchestral music, soul, and rhythm and blues. The Sheet Music Collection includes examples of popular music produced in the late nineteenth century as well as contemporary popular music composed and performed by African American musicians. Dillard University Will W. Alexander Library Special Collections 2601 Gentilly Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70122 Tel. (504) 816-4246 Fax: (504) 816-4787 E-mail: [email protected] The archives provide information on Flint-Goodrich Hospital, Straight University, New Orleans University, the American Missionary Association, New Orleans history, Harold Patton (stage manager for Ray Charles), and an oral history collection. Duke University Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Library John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
African American Pop Culture Collections
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103 Perkins Library Durham, NC 27708-0185 Tel: (919) 660-5822 Fax: (919) 660-5934 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/franklin Representative collections include the LeRoy T. Walker Africa News Service Archive, John Hope Franklin Papers, Nell Irvin Painter Papers, Asa and Elna Spaulding Papers, oral history collections, and a jazz archive. Duke also shares with North Carolina Central University, Shepard Library, the papers of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance. Emory University Manuscripts, Archives, & Rare Books Library (MARBL) Robert W. Woodruff Library 540 Asbury Cir. Atlanta, GA 30322 Tel: (404) 727-6887 Fax: (404) 727-0360 URL: marbl.library.emory.edu/collection-overview Subjects in the African American collections are represented in four broad fields of African American history and culture: civil rights and post-civil rights movements, black print culture, African Americans and the left, and African American literature. MARBL has the papers of Camille Billops, Bricktop, William L. Dawson, Vincent Harding, James V. Hatch, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, John Oliver Killens, Louise Thompson Patterson, and Alice Walker; and organizations such as the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Fisk University Special Collections and Archives John Hope and Aurelia Elizabeth Franklin Library Nashville, TN 37208 Tel: (615) 329-8646 Fax: (515) 329-8761 E-mail: bhowse@fisk.edu URL: http://www.fisk.edu/Academics/Library/SpecialCollections.aspx The extensive collections include papers of artists, educators, singers and musicians, lawyers, writers, and others. Represented in the collections are Charles Waddell Chesnutt, Alice Coachman Davis, Thomas Andrew Dawson, Aaron Douglas, W. E. B. Du Bois, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Roland Hayes, George Edmund Haynes, Langston Hughes, Pauline Hopkins, Elmer S. Imes, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, Scott Joplin, John Mercer Langston, Jimmie Lunceford, John B. Nail, J. A. Rogers, Sigma Pi Phi (the Boule), Thomas W. Talley, and John Wesley Work III. Organizational papers include
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the Julius Rosenwald Fund Archives and its Rural Negro Schools Collection. The library has an oral history collection that includes some Harlem Renaissance figures, musicians, artists, writers, scientists, and others. Additional transcripts of taped interviews with leaders from the Nashville Sit-In Movement are in the Partners of the Heart Collection, and videotapes and transcripts of interviews with prominent and lesser-known African American elders are in the National Visionary Leadership Project (NVLP). Over 200 minstrel sketches as well as a set of slave shackles and rare books on African Americans are in the library. There is also a collection of TV Gospel Time tapes and some recordings of the Library of Congress/Fisk University Mississippi Delta project. Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University Samuel H. Coleman Memorial Library Special Collections 1500 S. Martin Luther King Blvd. 525 Orr Dr. Tallahassee, FL 32307 Tel: (850) 599-3361 Fax: (850) 561-2293 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.famu.edu/index.cfm?library&SpecialCollections The Florida Heritage Collection represents Florida’s history, culture, arts, literature, social sciences, and the sciences. Materials in the collection are taken from other archives and special collections in ten state universities in Florida. Fulton County Library. See Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. Hampton University Hampton University Museum Hampton, VA 23668 Tel: (757) 727-5308 Fax: (504) 727-5170 E-mail: [email protected] URL: museum.hamptonu.edu The University Archives, housed in the university’s museum, is a comprehensive collection of materials on the history and culture of African Americans and Native Americans. The materials cover American education, educational philosophy, labor, politics, business, and international relations. The extensive African American art collection includes works by artists Romare Bearden, John T. Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Richard Mayhew, and Henry Ossawa Tanner. Harvard University Massachusetts Hall Cambridge, MA 02138
African American Pop Culture Collections
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Tel: (617) 495-2449 URL: lib.harvard.edu/libraries The vast African American holdings of primary resources in Harvard University’s 22 libraries and museums are best identified in the Guide to African American and African Primary Sources at Harvard University, by Barbara A. Burg, Richard Newman, and Elizabeth E. Sandager (ABC-CLIO, 2000). This eBook is described as ‘‘an invaluable source for academic research [and] demonstrates the breadth, depth, range, and nature of Harvard’s collection of primary African and African American materials, which includes artifacts, diaries/letters, manuscripts, maps, oral histories, photographs, political posters, sheet music, and works of art. William Stanley Braithwaite, George T. Downing, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alain Locke, Robert Russa Moton, Tappan family, William Monroe Trotter, Oswald Garrison Villard, Booker T. Washington, Walter White, and others are represented in manuscript collections or in correspondence available in various other collections. William R. and Norma B. Harvey Library 130 E. Tyler St. Hampton University Hampton, VA 23668 Tel: (757) 727-5372 Fax: (757) 727-5952 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.hamptonu.edu/academics/libraries.cfm The special Peabody Collection contains over 1,200 antislavery pamphlets. There are other documents on slavery and the Reconstruction period in the United States. Howard University Moorland-Spingarn Research Center 500 Howard Pl., NW Washington, DC 20059 Tel: (202) 806-7480 Fax: (202) 806-6405 URL: www.founders.howard.edu/moorland-spingarn Resources provide extensive documentation of African American life and history and address the development of families, organizations, institutions, social and religious consciousness, and the struggle for civil and human justice. Holdings include the papers of Mary Frances Berry, W. Montague Cobb, Charles Drew, E. Franklin Frazier, Frankie Muse Freeman, Charles Hamilton Houston, Vernon Jordan, Ernest R. Just, Rayford Logan, Kelly Miller, Paul Robeson, Mabel Keaton Staupers, Daniel Hale Williams, Louis T. Wright, and Max Yeargan. The center also houses the Ralph J. Bunche Collection, previously known as the Civil Rights Documentation Project, and the Voting Rights Act Oral History Project.
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Indiana Historical Society Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center 450 West Ohio St. Indianapolis, IN 46202 Tel: (317) 232-1882 URL: www.indianahistory.org Papers of Madam C. J. (Sarah Breedlove) Walker are collected. There are also the papers of the Black Women in the Middle West Project; Federation of Associated Clubs; Indiana Association of Colored Men; Indianapolis Asylum for Friendless Colored Children; the Indianapolis Recorder; National Black Political Convention; and National Council of Negro Women, Indianapolis Section. Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center P.O. Box 17008 Jackson, MS 39217 Tel: (601) 979-3935 Fax: (601) 979-5929 E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.jsums.edu/margaretwalker Collections include the papers of Margaret Walker Alexander and oral history projects on black churches, blacks in education in Jackson, Farish Street Historic District, Piney Woods School, and veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. Kentucky State University Center of Excellence for the Study of African Americans (CESKAA) 400 East Main St. Frankfort, KY 40601 Tel: (502) 597-6925 URL: www.kysu.edu/about/heritage/ceskaa CESKAA collects, preserves, interprets, and disseminates materials about African Americans in Kentucky and others with a Kentucky connection. The archival collections include papers of Winona Lee Fletcher, A. Russell Brooks, Joseph S. Cotter Sr., Gus Ridgel, Frank B. Simpson, as well as Civil War pension papers. Langston University Melvin B. Tolson Black Heritage Center P.O. Box 1600 Langston, OK 73050 Tel: (405) 466-3292 Fax (405) 466-3459 E-mail: [email protected]
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URL: http://www.lunet.edu/lib/M.TolsonBlackHeritageCenter1.htm The center is the national repository for the National Association for the Study and Performance of African and African American Music (otherwise known as NASPAAM). The Melvin B. Tolson Black Heritage Center also houses a number of African artifacts. Library of Congress American Folklife Center 101 Independence Ave., SE Washington, DC 20540 Tel: (202) 707-5510 Fax: (202) 707-2076 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/guides/fisk/html The Library of Congress/Fisk University Mississippi Delta collection includes a portion of the materials gathered from a field project conducted in 1941 and 1942 through a joint Library of Congress Archive of American Folksong and Fisk University. The project aimed to ‘‘explore objectively and exhaustively the musical habits of a single Negro community in the Delta, to find out and describe the function of music in the community, to ascertain the history of the music in the community, and to document adequately the cultural and social backgrounds for music in the community.’’ The site chosen for the study was the Coahoma County area, which was then the economic and social center of the Mississippi Delta. Alan Lomax, members of the Fisk faculty (including Charles S. Johnson, Lewis Jones, and John W. Work) were involved in the exploration of this folk culture project. Field workers recorded secular and religious music, sermons, testimonials, children’s games, jokes, folktales, lying contests, interviews, speeches, and dances. The Folklife Center also has over 200 original videotaped interviews with prominent as well as lesser-known African American elders from the National Visionary Leadership Project Collection of African American Oral Histories. Library of Congress Manuscript Division 101 Independence Ave., SE Washington, DC 20540 Tel: (202) 707-5000 General Information (202) 707-5383 Reading Room Fax: (202) 707-7791 URL: http://www.loc.gov/index.html Collections include a wealth of information on African Americans. Examples are: Booker T. Washington Papers, Frederick Douglass Papers, the Harlem Renaissance (and a Guide to Harlem Renaissance Materials), Slavery Resource Guide, a Guide to Materials for Rosa Parks, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Collection, and NAACP Register of
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Visual Materials. The African American Sites in the Digital Collections, the flagship of the library’s digital collections, online exhibits, and other areas of the library’s Web site provide a broad range of digitized materials pertaining to the African American experience. There are numerous digital resources related to Brown v. Board of Education. Other resources included are Images of AfricanAmerican Slavery and Freedom from the Collections of the Library of Congress; Photographs of African Americans During the Civil War: A List of Images in the Civil War Photograph Collection (includes illustrations); Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination: Documentation by Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Photographers (includes illustrations); Images of 20th Century African American Activists: A Select List (includes illustrations); the Civil Rights Era in the U.S. News and World Report Collection: A Select List; Edward William Brooke Papers; and Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Records. The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material related to civil rights, including photographs, documents, and sound recordings. This guide compiles links to civil rights resources throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on civil rights and a bibliography containing selections for both general and younger readers. Lincoln University of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania University Archives/Ethnic Studies Center 1570 Baltimore Pike P.O. Box 179 Lincoln University, PA 19352 Tel: (484) 365-7261 Fax: (484) 365-8106 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.lincoln.edu/library/specialcollections/index.html The special collections department is named for the celebrated poet, Harlem Renaissance and popular culture icon Langston Hughes, an alumnus of the university. The collection contains significant materials and popular culture items that belonged to Hughes. Meharry Medical College Archives 1005 Dr. D. B. Todd Jr. Blvd. Nashville, TN 37208 Tel: (615) 327-6470 Fax: (615) 327-6448 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://library.mmc.edu/archives.html The archives contain the history of the historically black medical and dental school, its former pharmacy and nursing schools, an oral history collection of black nurses, and papers of some of the college’s early physicians.
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Minnesota Historical Society Archives and Manuscripts 345 West Kellogg Blvd. St. Paul, MN 55102 Tel: (651) 259-3000; (800) 657-3773 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.mnhs.org/collections/manuscripts/african.htm Included in the collection are oral history tapes, 1945; Ethel Ray Nance Papers; Hallie Q. Brown Community House Records, 1861-1960s; and other records that document the history of Minnesota’s people of color. New York Public Library. See Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. North Carolina A & T State University Archives 1601 E. Market St. Greensboro, NC 27411 Tel: (336) 285-4176 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.library.ncat.edu/resources/archives/index.html?searchterm=special þcollectionsl The collection includes information on civil rights activist Jesse Jackson (an alumnus of the school), the Sit-in Movement in Greensboro and the ‘‘Greensboro Four’’ (A & T students who started the movement), and astronaut Ronald McNair. North Carolina Central University James E. Shepard Memorial Library Treasure Room P.O. Box 19436 Durham, NC 27707-3129 Tel: (919) 530-6473 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://web.nccu.edu/shepardlibrary/resources/special-collections.html The library is named for African American educator James E. Shepard. The historic archival collection of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance, though housed at Duke University’s Library Service Center, is administered in part by the NCCU Archives, Records, and History Center. Corporate leader John Merrick is represented in the collection. The archives provide a link to the city of Durham and its African American business section known as ‘‘Black Wall Street.’’ Oberlin College Oberlin College Library Special Collections 148 West College Street
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Oberlin, OH 44074-1575 Tel: (440) 775-5043 Fax: (440) 775-6586 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www2.oberlin.edu/library/special The Anti-Slavery Collection housed in Special Collections includes slave narratives, biographies of leaders of the antislavery movement, documents from antislavery societies, addresses, poetry, songs, bills of sale for slaves, manumission papers, slave shackles, and other items that outline the moral, religious, economic, and legal aspects of the slavery debate. Rust College Leontyne Price Library 150 Rust Ave. Holly Springs, MS 38635 Tel: (662) 252-8000 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.rustcollege.edu/WEB/speccolllib.html The library is named for opera singer Leontyne Price, a Mississippi native. Included in Special Collections is the Roy Wilkins Collection, consisting of papers, artifacts, photographs, awards, and other items that belonged to this NAACP leader. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 515 Malcolm X Blvd. New York, NY 10037 Tel: (212) 491-2200 URL: www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html The collection contains numerous papers or collections of such people or organizations as Ira Aldridge, American Negro Theatre, Arthur Ashe Jr., Ella Baker, James Baldwin, Romare Bearden, Harry Belafonte, Gwendolyn Bennett, Black Academy of Arts and Letters, Black Gay and Lesbian Archive, Black Panther Party (Harlem Branch), Black Theology Project, Jane Matilda Bolin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, John Edward Bruce, Ralph J. Bunche, Alice Childress, Kenneth B. Clark, John Henrik Clark, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Alexander Crummell, Countee Cullen, Angela Davis Legal Defense, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Beauford Delaney, Aaron Douglas, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar letters, Elton Fax, Federal Writers’ Project (for New York), Meta Warwick Fuller, Gay Men of African Descent, Alex Haley, Lorraine Hansberry, Harlem Riot of 1943, Langston Hughes, Alberta Hunter, Zora Neale Hurston, James Earl Jones, Nella Larsen letters, Claude McKay, Florence Mills, National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, National Negro Congress, A. Philip Randolph, Paul Robeson, Augusta Savage, Harriet Tubman, Milton Webster, Maya Angelou, and Richard Wright.
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Shango Project, The P.O. Box 2341 Bloomington, IN 47402-2341 The Shango Project: National Archives of Black Lesbians and Gay Men collects, preserves, and maintains ‘‘materials of historical interest which document aspects of African American Lesbian and Gay existence in contemporary and historical society.’’ Items include newspapers, articles, books, journals, recordings, interviews, film, video, song texts, art pieces, folklore, and poetry. Talladega College Savery Library 627 West Battle St. Talladega, AL 35160 Tel: (256) 761-6443 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.talladega.edu/academics/library.asp The Amistad Murals on the walls of the library are the work of popular artist Hale Aspacio Woodruff and are among his best works. In three panels—‘‘The Revolt,’’ ‘‘The Court Scene,’’ and ‘‘Back to Africa’’—they document the slave ship La Amistad and its cargo on a trip from the area now known as Sierra Leone during a horrific journey to Havana, Cuba. Temple University Special Collections Samuel L. Paley Library 1210 Polett Walk Philadelphia, PA 19122 Tel: (215) 204-4371 E-mail: [email protected] URL:http://library.temple.edu/collections/special_collections/?bhcp=1 Among the collections at Temple are the Urban Archives and the Contemporary Culture Collection, both containing documents on African Americans. The library also contains the extensive Charles L. Blockson Collection of books (many rare), pamphlets, artifacts, and miscellaneous materials on African Americans. Tennessee State University Special Collections & Archives Martha M. Brown-Lois H. Daniel Library 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd. Nashville, TN 37209 Tel: (615) 963-5219 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.tnstate.edu/interior.asp?mid=732&ptid=1
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The numerous awards and trophies that the university’s famed women’s track team, the Tigerbelles, won over thee years are housed in the library. Texas Southern University Robert James Terry Library Special Collections 3100 Cleburne St. Houston, TX 77004 Tel: (713) 313-4416 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.tsu.edu/pages/123.asp Among the manuscript collections are the papers of Barbara Jordan, an alumna of the university, the first African American woman to serve in the Texas State Senate and the first African American to represent Texas in the U.S. Congress. Tuskegee University Tuskegee University Libraries Special Collections Ford Motor Company Library/Learning Resource Center (formerly Hollis Burke Frissell) Tuskegee, AL 36088 Tel: (334) 727-8894 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/story.asp?S=1185150&nav=menu200_13 Papers of educator and the school’s founder, Booker T. Washington and his wife, Margaret Murray Washington, are in the collections. The library also houses papers of other notable leaders, such as Robert Russa Moton, Frederick D. Patterson, and Monroe Nathan Work. University of Chicago Joseph Regenstein Library Special Collections Research Center 1100 E. 57th St. Chicago, IL 60637 Tel: (773) 702-8705 Fax: (773) 702-3728 URL: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl The collections include the Ida B. Wells papers; the American Civil Liberties Union, Illinois Division, Records, with information on the Black Panthers and the Ghetto Project; Commission on Race and Housing Records (including Charles S. Johnson and problems of housing for African Americans); and Julius Rosenwald Papers and his commitment to race relations and rural African American education. There is also a Chicago jazz collection that could have relevant resources.
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University of Massachusetts, Amherst W. E. B. Du Bois Library 154 Hicks Way Amherst, MA 01003 Tel: (413) 545-2780 Fax: (413) 577-1399 E-mail: http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/askanarc.htm (for link to email reference form) URL: http://www.library.umass.edu/speccoll/umarmot/?page_id=545 Many of the papers of W. E. B. Du Bois are in the Special Collections and University Archives and support research in African American history. These include extensive correspondence. The library has built other collections around the Du Bois collection, ‘‘adding other important printed and manuscript materials both in African American history and the history of efforts to promote social change.’’ These collections include papers of the abolitionist Hudson Family of Northampton, and sociologist, educator, and former black college president Horace Mann Bond, the Urban League of Springfield (Massachusetts), records of the Massachusetts Special Commission on Unequal Education Opportunities, and others. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Wilson Library Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890 Tel: (919) 962-1143 Fax: (919) 843-8936 E-mail: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/shc/ The Southern Historical Collection contains papers and records of plantations, the slave trade, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the historic Penn School (St. Helena Island, South Carolina), and other subjects. University of Virginia Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library P.O. Box 400110 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4110 Tel: (434) 243-1776 Fax: (434) 924-4968 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/small African American collections in the library include papers of the Southern Education Fund, with personal correspondence of Julian Bond, the SEF’s chairman. Virginia State University 1 Hayden Dr. Petersburg, VA 23806 Tel: (804) 524-5749
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E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://library.vsu.edu/Special_Collections.htm Special Collections and Archives includes a black newspaper collection (for Southside, Virginia) and papers of Daryl Dance, the Luther Porter Jackson Family, Altona Johns, William Henry Johnson, the Intercollegiate Music Association, Prince Edward County (Free School), the Virginia Intercollegiate Association, the Virginia Teachers Association, and other subjects. Virginia Union University L. Douglas Wilder Library & Learning Resource Center 1500 N. Lombardy St. Richmond, VA 23220 Tel: (804) 278-4117 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.vuu.edu/library/archives_special_collections.aspx Videotapes and other documents from the life and career of L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia’s 66th governor and the first elected African American governor and the state’s first black lieutenant governor are in the collection. Western Reserve Historical Society Library/Archives & Genealogy Center 10825 East Blvd. Cleveland, OH 44106 Tel: (216) 721-5722 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.wrhs.org/index.php/library Represented in the collections are abolitionists and other subjects. Wilberforce University Rembert E. Stokes Library & Information Commons 1055 N. Bickett Rd. Wilberforce, OH 45384 Tel: (937) 708-5277 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.wilberforce.edu/student_life/library_archives.html The archives include information on the history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Xavier University of Louisiana Library Resource Center 1 Drexel Dr. New Orleans, LA 70125 Tel: (504) 520-7655 Fax: (504) 520-7917 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.xula.edu/library/archives.php
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African American and southern U. S. writers are especially well represented in the collection of rare books, and the repository is noted for having one of the most comprehensive collections of works by African American protest and crime fiction writer Chester Himes, with most titles represented in every English-language edition and translation into foreign languages that have been published. Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library 121 Wall St. New Haven, CT 06520-8240 Tel: Circulation: (203) 432-2972; Reference: (203) 432-2972 Fax: (203) 432-4047 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke Collections related to African Americans are the papers of James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Henry T. Burleigh, Countee Cullen, William Grant Still, and Jean Toomer.
Selected Bibliography Aaron, Hank. I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African American Achievement. New York: William Morrow, 1996. Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. African-American Sports Greats: A Biographical Dictionary. David L. Porter, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. Aldridge, Delores P., and Carlene Young, eds. Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000. Alexander, Amy. Fifty Black Women Who Changed America. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub. Group, 1999. Alexander, Amy, ed. The Farrakhan Factor: African-American Writers on Leadership, Nationhood, and Minister Louis Farrakhan. New York: Grove Press, 1998. Alexander, George. Why We Make Movies: Black Filmmakers Talk about the Magic of Cinema. New York: Harlem Moon, 2003. Alexander, Sadie T. M., ed. Who’s Who Among Negro Lawyers. Philadelphia: National Bar Association, 1945. Anderson, Jeffrey. Conjure in African American Society. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Anderson, Marian. My Lord, What a Morning. New York: Viking Press, 1956. Anderson, Sam E. The Black Holocaust for Beginners. New York: Writers and Publishers, 1995. Anderson, Terry H. The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Andrew, William L., ed. African American Autobiography: A Collection of Critical Essays. Princeton, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992. Andrew, William L., and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. Slave Narratives: James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Olaudah Equiano, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, William
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Wells Brown, Henry Bibb, Sojourner Truth, William & Ellen Craft, Harriett A. Jacobs, Jacob D. Green. New York: Library of America, 2000. Andrew, William L., Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Andrews, George Reid. Afro-Latin America, 1800–2000. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Appiah, Kwame Anthony, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. 5 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Aretha, David. The Trial of the Scottsboro Boys. Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2008. Arsenault, Raymond. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Asante, Molefi Kete. Afrocentricity. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1988; Chicago: African American Images, 2003. Asante, Molefi Kete., and Ama Mazama, eds. Encyclopedia of Black Studies. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005. Ashby, LeRoy. With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2006. Ashe, Arthur R. Jr. A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete Since 1946. New York: Amistad, 1988. Ashe, Arthur R. Jr., and Arnold Rampersad. Days of Grace: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Asim, Jabari. The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Asim, Jabari. What Obama Means . . . For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Asseng, Nathan. Black Inventors. New York: Facts on File, 1997. Assensoh, A. B., and Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh. African Military History & Politics, 1900–Present. New York: Palgrave St. Martin’s Press, 2001. Austin, Algernon. Achieving Blackness: Race, Black Nationalism, and Afrocentrism in the Twentieth Century. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Austin, Curtis J. Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2006. Awkward, Michael, ed. New Essays on Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Baker, Houston A. Jr. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Baldwin, James Arthur. ‘‘If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is?’’ In The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 1948–1985. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985. Bambara, Toni Cade, ed. The Black Woman: An Anthology. New York: New American Library, 1970. Banham, Martin. A History of Theatre in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Baraka, Amiri, and Larry Neal, eds. Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing. New York: William Morrow, 1968.
Selected Bibliography
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Barksdale, Richard. Langston Hughes: The Poet and His Critics. Chicago: American Library Association, 1977. Barlow, William. Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999. Barrett, Ronald Keith. Contemporary African-American Funeral Rites and Traditions. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1995. Barton, Paul Alfred. Mom’s Caribbean and Americas Soulfood Cooking for Excellent Health and a Long Life. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2004. Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. New York: Washington Square Press, 1994. Beardsley, Edward H. A History of Neglect. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987. Beauchamp, Lincoln T. Jr., ed. BluesSpeak. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010. Bego, Mark. Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989. Belafonte, Harry. The Long Road to Freedom: An Anthology of Black Music. New York: Buddha Records, 2001. Bell, Stephen, Ronna Cook, Camilla Heid, and Michael Lopez. Head Start Impact. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishing, 2006. Benburry, Cuesta. Always There: The African American Presence in American Quilts. Louisville: Kentucky Quilt Project, 1992. Bennett, Lerone Jr. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. 8th ed. Chicago: Johnson Publishing, 2007. Berendt, Joachim-Ernst. Jazz: A Photo History. New York: Schirmer Books, 1978. Bergman, Peter M. The Chronological History of the Negro in America. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. Berry, Faith. Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem. Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill, 1983; New York: Wings, 1992. Berry, Mary F. My Face Is Black Is True. New York: Vintage, 2006. Berry, S. Torriano, and Venise T. Berry. The Fifty Most Influential Black Films. New York: Citadel Press, 2001. Berry, S. Torriano, and Venise T. Berry. Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007. Bittker, Boris. The Case for Black Reparations. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003. Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007. 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, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008. Bland, Sterling Lecater Jr. African American Slave Narratives: An Anthology. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Blassingame, John W., ed. The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series One, Speeches, Debates, and Interviews. 5 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979–1992. Blassingame, John W., ed. Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews and Autobiographies. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977. Blassingame, John W., John R. McKivigan, and Peter P. Hinks, eds. The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series Two, Autobiographical Writings. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999. Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: Langston Hughes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
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Bobo, Jacqueline, Cynthia Hudley, and Claudine Michel, eds. The Black Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004. Bogle, Donald. Blacks in American Films and Television: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, 1998. Bogle, Donald. Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. New York: Continuum Publishing, 1992. Bogle, Donald. Prime Time Blues: African-Americans on Network Television. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. Bontemps, Arna, ed. The Harlem Renaissance Remembered. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1972. Bordman, Gerald, and Thomas S. Hischak, eds. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Borjas, George, Jeffrey Grogger, and Gordon H. Hanson. ‘‘Immigration and African American Employment Opportunities: The Response of Wages, Employment and Incarceration to Labor Supply Shocks.’’ National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, September 2006. Boston, Lloyd. Men of Color. New York: Artisan, 1998. Botkin, Benjamin Albert, ed. A Treasury of Southern Folklore: Stories, Ballads, Traditions, and Folkways of the People of the South. New York: Crown Publishers, 1949. Bowen, William G., and Derek Bok. The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. Bowser, Benjamin P. Black Middle Class: Social Mobility and Vulnerability. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007. Boyd, Herb. Pound for Pound: A Biography of Sugar Ray Robinson. New York: Amistad, 2005. Boyd, Todd, ed. African Americans and Popular Culture. Vols. 1–3. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008. Boyd, Valerie. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner, 2002. Bradley, Lloyd. Reggae: The Story of Jamaican Music. London: BBC, 2007. Bradley, Lloyd. This is Reggae. The Story of Jamaica’s Music. New York: Grove Press, 2001. Branch, Taylor. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–1968. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. Bradley, Lloyd. Parting the Waters: An American in the King Years 1954–63. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. Bradley, Lloyd. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. Brazeal, Bailsford R. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. New York: Harper, 1946. Brazile, Donna. Cooking with Grease: Stirring Pots in American Politics. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Brode, Douglas. Denzel Washington: His Films and Career. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel, 1996. Brodie, James Michael. Created Equal: The Lives of Black American Innovators. New York: William Morrow, 1993. Brooks, Christopher, and Christopher Lance Coleman. Dangerous Intimacy: Ten African American Men with HIV. Deer Park, NY: Linus Publications, 2009. Brooks, Roy L. ‘‘History of the Black Redress Movement.’’ Guild Practitioner 60 (Winter 2003): 1–12.
Selected Bibliography
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Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992. Brown, Kevin. Race, American Society and the Law: Four Perspectives on Desegregation and Resegregation. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. Brown, Nikki L. M., and Barry M. Stentiford. The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. Brown, Tamara L., Gregory S. Parks, and Clarenda M. Phillips, eds. African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005. Brown, Tony. Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880–1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. Buckley, Gail Lumet. American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm. New York: Random House, 2002. Bundles, A’Lelia. Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2008. Bundles, A’Lelia. On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker. New York: Scribner, 2002. Burnim, Mellonee V., and Portia K. Maultsby, eds. African American Music: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2006. Burns, Kristine, ed. Women and Music in America Since 1900: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Oryx Press, 2002. Buster, Larry Vincent. The Art and History of Black Memorabilia. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2000. Bynoe, Yvonne, ed. Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. Byrd, Ayana D., and Lori L. Tharps. Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2001. Cadman, Chris, and Craig Halstead. Michael Jackson: For the Record. Gamlingay, UK: Authors Online, 2007. Caesar, Shirley. The Lady, the Melody, and the Word: The Inspirational Story of the First Lady of Gospel Music. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998. Callahan, John. In the African-American Grain: Call and Response in Twentieth-Century Black Fiction. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2001. Callahan, Tom. In Search of Tiger: A Journey Through Golf With Tiger Woods. New York: Crown Publishers, 2003. Campbell, Bebe Moore. Brothers and Sisters. New York: Putnam, 1994. Campbell, Mary Schmidt. Harlem Renaissance: Art of the Period. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994. Canon, Poppy. A Gentle Knight: My Husband, Walter White. New York: Rinehart, 1956. Carmichael, Stokely, and Charles V. Hamilton. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America. New York: Vintage, 1967. Carnegie, Mary Elizabeth. The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing, 1854–1984. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1986. Carpenter, Bil. Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2005. Carson, Ben, and Cecil Murphey. Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing, 1990.
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Selected Bibliography
Carson, Ben, and Cecil Murphey. Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992. Carson, Clayborne. Civil Rights Chronicle: The African American Struggle for Freedom. Lincolnwood, IL: Legacy Publishing, 2003. Carson, Clayborne., gen. ed. The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader. New York: Penguin, 1991. Cayley, David. The Expanding Prison: The Crisis in Crime and Punishment and the Search for Alternatives. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press and House of Anansi Press, 1998. Chafe, William H. Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. Chambers, Jack. So What: The Life of Miles Davis. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Chaney, Michael A. ‘‘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 2007): 175–200. Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of Hip Hop Culture. New York: Picador St. Martin’s Press, 2005. Chapman, Abraham, ed. Black Voices: An Anthology of African-American Literature. New York: Signet Classics, 2001. Chilton, John. Billie’s Blues. New York: Stein and Day, 1975. Chireau, Yvonne. Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Chireau, Yvonne., and Nathaniel Deutsh, eds. Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Clarke, John H. Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism. New York: A & B Books, 1999. Clegg, Claude A. III. The Price of Liberty: African Americans and the Making of Liberia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Clinton, Catherine. The Plantation Mistress. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. Coffey, Dennis. Guitars, Bars, and Motown Superstars. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004. Cole, Johnnetta B., and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Collier-Thomas, Bettye, and V. P. Franklin, eds. Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights–Black Power Movement. New York: New York University Press, 2001. Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 1990. Collins, Wanda, and Amy Doolittle. ‘‘Personal Reflections of Funeral Rituals and Spirituality in a Kentucky African American Family.’’ Death Studies 30 (2006): 957– 69. Comer, James P., and Alvin F. Poussaint. Raising Black Children. New York: Plume, 1992. Cone, James H., and Gayraud S. Wilmore, eds. Black Theology: A Documentary History. 2 vols. New York: Orbis Books, 1993. Connor, Michael E., and Joseph White. Black Fathers: An Invisible Presence in America. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. Conrad, Cecelia, ed. African Americans in the U.S. Economy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
Selected Bibliography
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Contemporary Black Biography. 90 vols. Detroit: Gale, 1992–2010. Cooper, Ralph and Steve Dougherty. Amateur Night at the Apollo: Ralph Cooper Presents Five Decades of Great Entertainment. New York: HarperCollins, 1990. Copage, Eric V. Fruits of the Harvest: Recipes to Celebrate Kwanzaa and Other Holidays. New York: Amistad, 2005. Copage, Eric V. Kwanzaa: An African-American Celebration of Culture and Cooking. New York: Quill William Morrow, 1991. Cothran, John C. A Search of African American Life, Achievement and Culture. Carrolton, TX: Stardate Publishing, 2006. Courlander, Harold, ed. A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore. New York: Crown Publishers, 1976. Covach, John Rudolph. What’s That Sound?: An Introduction to Rock and Its History. New York: Norton, 2009. Cowan, William Tynes. ‘‘Plantation Comic Modes.’’ International Journal of Humor Research 14 (June 2001): 1–24. Craig, Maxine Leeds. Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Crawford, Vicki L., Jacqueline Anne Rouse, and Barbara Woods. Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941–1965. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Crazy Horse, Kandia. Rip It Up: The Black Experience in Rock ‘N’ Roll. New York: Palgrave, 2004. Creel, Margaret Washington. A Peculiar People: Slave Religion and Community. New York: New York University Press, 1988. Cronon, Edmund David. Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1955. Cryan-Hicks, Kathryn, ed. Pride and Promise: The Harlem Renaissance. Lowell, MA: Discovery Enterprises, 1993. Cullen, Countee. My Soul’s High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance. Gerald Early, ed. New York: Doubleday, 1991. Cunard, Nancy. Negro: An Anthology. New York: Continuum, 1996. Cutler, James E. Lynch-Law: An Investigation into the History of Lynching in the United States. 1905. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969. D’Emilio, John. Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. New York: Free Press, 2003. Dace, Tish. Langston Hughes: The Contemporary Reviews. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Daniels, Cora. Ghettonation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless. New York: Doubleday: 2007. Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. New York: HarperCollins Perennial, 2002. Darden, Robert. People Get Ready: A New History of Black Gospel Music. New York: Continuum, 2005. Davidson, Basil. The African Slave Trade: Precolonial History, 1450–1850. Boston: Little Brown, 1961. Davis, Angela Y. Are Prisons Obsolete? Toronto: Hushion House, 2003. Davis, F. James. Who is Black: One Nation’s Definition. 10th Anniversary ed. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 2001.
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Selected Bibliography
Davis, Francis. The History of the Blues: The Roots, The Music, The People. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003. Dawkins, Wayne. Black Journalists: The NABJ Story. Merrillville, IN: August Press, 1997. Dawkins, Wayne. Rugged Waters: Black Journalists Swim the Mainstream. Newport News, VA: August Press, 2003. De Young, Karen. Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. DeCurtis, Anthony, and James Henke. The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: The Definitive History of the Most Important Artists and Their Music. New York: Random House, 1992. Dicaire, David. Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999. Dickerson, Bette J. African American Single Mothers: Understanding their Lives and Families. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995. Dickson-Carr, Darryl. The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African American Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Dineen, Catherine. Michael Jackson in His Own Words. London: Omnibus Press, 1993. Donalson, Melvin Burke. Black Directors in Hollywood. Austin: University of Texas, 2003. Donovan, Brian. Hard Driving: The Wendell Scott Story. New York: Steerforth Press, 2008. Douglass, Frederick. The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Reprint. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1983. Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. Reprint. Grand Rapids, MI: Candace Press, 1996. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Reprint. West Berlin, NJ: Townsend Press, 2004. Drake, St. Clair. Black Folk Here and There. San Francisco: University of California Press, 1991. Du Bois, W. E. B. 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, 1968. Du Bois, W. E. B. Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1940. Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Reprint. New York: Vintage, 1990. Duberman, Martin B. Paul Robeson: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Duffy, Damian, John Jennings, and Keith Knight. Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art and Culture. New York: Mark Batty Publisher, 2010. Dulaney, W. Marvin. Black Police in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996. Dulles, Foster Rhea. The Civil Rights Commission: 1957–1965. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1968. Dundes, Alan, ed. Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel: Readings and Interpretations of Afro-American Folklore. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973. Dupri, Jermaine, and Samantha Marshall. Young, Rich, and Dangerous: The Making of a Music Mogul. New York: Atria Books, 2007. Durham, Philip, and Everett L. Jones. The Negro Cowboys. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
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Dyson, Michael Eric. Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2006. Dyson, Michael Eric. Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2005. Early, Gerald L. The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1994. Early, Gerald L. One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture. Rev. and updated ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004. Easter, Erick D., Michael Cheers, and Dudley M. Brooks, eds. Songs of My People: African Americans: A Self-Portrait. Boston: Little, Brown, 1992. Edelman, Marian Wright. The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. Eick, Gretchen Cassel. Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954–1972. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. Elam, Harry J. Jr., and David Krasner. African-American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Ellington, Edward Kenney. Music is My Mistress. New York: Da Capo Press, 1973. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage, 1990. Engle, Ron, and Tice L. Miller, eds. The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Entman, Robert M., and Andrew Rojecki. The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Erenberg, Lewis A. Swingin the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Esedebe, P. Olisanwuche. Pan-Africanism. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1982. Etheridge, Eric. Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders. New York: Atlas, 2008. Evanzz, Karl. The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad. New York: Pantheon, 1999. Falola, Toyin, and Kevin D. Roberts. The Atlantic World, 1450–2000. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. Fandrich, Ina. The Mysterious Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveaux: A Study of Powerful Female Leadership in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans. New York: Routledge, 2005. Farley, Reynolds. Growth of the Black Population: A Study of Demographic Trends. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1970. Fauset, Arthur. Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults of the Urban North. New York: Octagon Books, 1970. Feather, Leonard. From Satchmo to Miles. New York: Da Capo Press, 1972. Felton, Sharon, and Michelle C. Loris, eds. The Critical Response to Gloria Naylor. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. Fern-Banks, Kathleen. Historical Dictionary of African-American Television. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006. Field, Ron. Civil Rights in America, 1865–1980. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Finch, Minnie. The NAACP: Its Fight for Justice. New York: Scarecrow Press, 1981. Finkelman, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
1636
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Finlayson, Reggie. We Shall Overcome: The History of the Civil Rights Movement. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2003. Fishel, Leslie H., and Benjamin Quarles. The Negro American: A Documentary History. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman, 1967. Fisher, William, III. Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment. Stanford, CA: Stanford Law and Politics, 2004. Fleming, Robert. ‘‘Beyond Funny: Black Voices in the World of Comics and Graphic Novels.’’ Black Issues Book Review, July 1, 2006. Floyd, Samuel A. Jr., ed. International Dictionary of Black Composers. 2 vols. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999. Fogg-Davis, Hawley. The Ethics of Transracial Adoption. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002. Foner, Eric. Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction. Rev. ed. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. Foster, Francis Smith. Witnessing Slavery: The Development of Ante-bellum Slave Narratives. 2nd ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994. Foster, William H. III. Looking for a Face Like Mine. Waterbury, CT: Fine Tooth Press, 2005. Fouche, Rayvon. Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Fox, Ted. Showtime at the Apollo. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1983. Fraden, Rena. Blueprints for a Black Federal Theatre, 1935–1939. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Franklin, John Hope. Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. Franklin, John Hope., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. From Slavery to Freedom. 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Franklin, John Hope., and August Meier, eds. Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982. Fraser, Gertrude Jacinta. African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. Frazier, E. Franklin. The Negro Church in America. New York: Schocken Books, 1963. Frazier, E. Franklin. The Negro Family in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939. Free, Marvin D. Jr. Racial Issues in Criminal Justice: The Case of African Americans. Monsey, New York: Criminal Justice Press, 2004. Gaertner, Samuel L., and John F. Dovidio. Reducing Intergroup Bias: The Common Ingroup Identity Model. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 2000. Gaines, Fabiola. The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes. Alexandria, VA: American Diabetes Association, 2006. Garofalo, Reebee. Crossing Over: From Black Rhythm & Blues to White Rock ’n’ Roll in R & B, Rhythm and Business: The Political Economy of Black Music. Norman Kelly, ed. New York: Akashic Books, 2005. Garrow, David. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. New York: William Morrow, 1986. Garvey, Amy Jacques, ed. Garvey and Garveyism. London: Collier, 1970. Garvey, Amy Jacques, ed. The Philosophy & Opinions of Marcus Garvey. 1923. Reprint. Dover, MA: Majority Press, 1986.
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Gasman, Marybeth. Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College Fund. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Gates, Henry Louis Jr. America Behind the Color Lines: Dialogues with African Americans. New York: Warner Books, 2004. Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Colored People: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the ‘‘Racial’’ Self. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Gates, Henry Louis Jr., ed. The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Gates, Henry Louis Jr., and Cornel West. The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country. New York: Touchstone Simon & Schuster, 2000. Gates, Henry Louis Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. 8 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Gates, Henry Louis Jr., and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: Norton, 1997. Gatewood, William B. Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880–1920. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. Gaunt, Kyra D. The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Gay, Kathlyn. African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations: The History, Customs, and Symbols Associated with both Traditional and Contemporary Religious and Secular Events Observed by Americans of African Descent. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2007. Gayle, Addison Jr., ed. The Black Aesthetic. New York: Anchor Books, 1971. Gayle, Addison Jr., ed. The Way of the New World: The Black Novel in America. New York: Anchor Books, 1975. George, Nelson. Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of Motown. London: Omnibus, 2003. Giddins, Gary. Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong. New York: Doubleday, 1988. Gill, Glenda Eloise. White Grease Paint on Black Performers: A Study of the Federal Theatre of 1935–1939. New York: P. Lang, 1988. Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. Gender and Jim Crow. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Ginsburg, Benjamin, et al. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics. 7th Essentials ed. New York: Norton, 2009. Gips, Terry, et al. Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 1998. Giroux, Henry A., and Peter McLaren, eds. Between Borders: Pedagogy and the Politics of Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 1994. Gitler, Ira. The Masters of Bebop: A Listener’s Guide. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2001. Glass, Barbara S. African American Dance: An Illustrated History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007. Goia, Ted. The History of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press USA, 1998. Goldman, Robert M. Reconstruction and Black Suffrage: Losing the Vote in Reese and Cruikshank. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001.
1638
Selected Bibliography
Goldsmith, Francisco. The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Graphic Novels. Chicago: American Library Association, 2010. Goldstein, Nancy. Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008. Gospel Music. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998. Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Gralia, Lino. Disaster by Decree: The Supreme Court Decisions on Race and the Schools. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1976. Green, J. Ronald. With a Crooked Stick—The Films of Oscar Micheaux. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. Greenberg, Jack. Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1994. Greenberg, Jack. Crusaders in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement. Anniversary ed. New York: Twelve Tables Press, 2004. Gregory, James Noble. The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Grudin, Eva Ungar. Stitching Memories: African-American Story Quilts. Williamstown, MA: Williams College Museum of Art, 1990. Gulla, Bob. Icons of R & B and Soul: An Encyclopedia of the Artists Who Revolutionized Rhythm. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. Haddad, William F., and Douglas Pugh, eds. Black Economic Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969. Hager, Steve. Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music, and Graffiti. New York: Saint Martin’s, 1984. Haley, Alex. The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997. Haley, Alex. Roots. Garden City: Doubleday, 1976. Hall, Gwendolyn M. Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992. Ham, Debra Newman, ed. The African American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1993. Hanson, Joyce A. Mary McLeod Bethune and Black Women’s Political Activism. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003. Harlan, Louis R. Booker T. Washington: The Making of a Black Leader, 1856–1900. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972. Harlan, Louis R. Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee 1901–1915. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Harlan, Louis R, ed. The Booker T. Washington Papers. 13 vols. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972–1984. Harley, Earl. ‘‘The Forgotten Story of Defunct Black Medical Schools in the 19th and 20th Centuries and the Impact of the Flexner Report.’’ Journal of the National Medical Association 98 (September 2006): 1426–29. Harmon, J. H. Jr., Arnett G. Lindsay, and Carter G. Woodson. The Negro as a Business Man. Washington, DC: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1929.
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Harris, Cecil, and Larryette Kyle-DeBose. Charging the Net: A History of Blacks in Tennis from Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe to the Williams Sisters. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007. Harris, Darryl B. The Logic of Black Urban Rebellions: Challenging the Dynamics of White Domination in Miami. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993. Harrison, Daphne Duval. Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1988. Haskins, Jim, and Kathleen Benson. Black Stars: African American Religious Leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. Hauser, Thomas. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Havers, Richard, and Richard Rvans. Jazz: The Golden Era. Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books, 2009. Havranek, Carrie. Women Icons of Popular Music: The Rebels, Rockers, and Renegades. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2009. Hayes, Reginald B. Evolution of the Club and Juke Joints in America: A Social Renaissance. Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing, 2008. Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina. Jookin’: The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990. Heisler, Mark. Giants: The 25 Greatest Centers of All Time. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2003. Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977. Herskovits, Melville, J. The Myth of the Negro Past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958. Hess, Mickey, ed. Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Hey, David, ed. The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Hill, Errol G., and James V. Hatch. A History of African American Theater. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Hill, George, Lorraine Raglin, and Charles Floyd Johnson. Black Women in Television: An Illustrated History and Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990. Hill, Levirn, ed. Black Colleges and Universities. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. Hill, Lynda Marion. Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1996. Hilliard, David. Huey: Spirit of the Panther. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006. Hilmes, Michele. Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio. New York: Routledge, 2002. Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. Black Women in America. 2 vols. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, 1993. Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. The African-American Odyssey. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. Black Women in America. 2nd ed. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Hine, Darlene Clark, ed., William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold. African Americans: A Concise History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Hitzges, Norm. The Greatest Team Ever: The Dallas Cowboys Dynasty of the 1990s. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007.
1640
Selected Bibliography
Hogan, Wesley C. Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC’s Dream for a New America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Holiday, Billie, and William Dufty. Lady Sings the Blues. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1956. Holloway, Joseph. Africanisms in American Culture. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1990. Holloway, Karla F. C. The Character of the Word: The Texts of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Greenwood Press, 1993. Holloway, Karla F. C. Passed On: African American Stories. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. Hopson, Darlene Powell and Derek S. Hopson. Different and Wonderful: Raising Black Children in a Race-Conscious Society. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990. Horman, Lynn M., and Thomas Reilly. Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2001. Horne, Gerald. Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995. Hotaling, Edward. The Great Black Jockeys: The Lives and Times of the Men Who Dominated America’s First National Sport. Rocklin, CA: Forum, 1999. Houck, Davis W., and Matt Grindy. Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008. Houck, Davis W., and David E. Dixon. Women and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954– 1965. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2009. Howard, Lillie P. Zora Neale Hurston. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Huggins, Nathan, ed. Harlem Renaissance. Updated Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Hughes, Langston. Jazz. New York: Grolier, 1982. Hull, Gloria T. Color, Sex, and Poetry. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. Hunter, James Davison. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Control the Family, Art, Education, Law, and Politics in America. New York: Basic Books, 1991. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Hutton, Frankie. The Early Black Press in America, 1827 to 1860. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. Hyatt, Harry Middleton. Hoodoo, Conjuration, Witchcraft, Rootwork: Beliefs Accepted by Many Negroes and White Persons These Being Orally Recorded among Blacks and Whites. 5 vols. Hannibal, MO: Western Publishing, 1970–78. Hydra, Derek S. The New Urban Renewal: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Ifill, Gwen. The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. New York: Doubleday, 2009. Ingham, John N., and Lynne B. Feldman, eds. African-American Business Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Irons, Edward D. On Black Economic Development: Myths and Facts. Austin: University of Texas at Austin, 1971. Iton, Richard. In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics & Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Jackson, Buzzy. A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them. New York: Norton, 2005.
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Jackson, Cynthia L., and Eleanor F. Nunn, eds. Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2003. Jackson, Jesse. Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord! The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel Singers. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1974. Jarrett, Beverly, ed. Tributes to John Hope Franklin: Scholar, Mentor, Father, Friend. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003. Jaynes, Gerald D., gen. ed. Encyclopedia of African American Society. 2 vols. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005. Jemison, Mae. Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life. New York: Scholastic Press, 2001. Jewell, K. Sue. From Mammy to Miss America and Beyond. New York: Routledge, 1993. Johnson, Charles. The Spirit of a Place Called Meharry. Franklin, TN: Hillsboro Press, 2000. Johnson, Charles, and Patricia Smith. Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998. Johnson, James Weldon. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2007. Johnson, Karen Ann. 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, 2000. Jonas, Gilbert. Freedom’s Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle against Racism in America, 1909–1969. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2007. Jones, Gayl. Liberating Voices: Oral Tradition in African-American Literature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991. Jones, James Earl. James Earl Jones. New York: Scribner, 1994. Jones, James H. Bad Blood: The Scandalous Story of the Tuskegee Experiment: When Government Doctors Played God and Science Went Mad. New York: Free Press, 1981. Jones, James M. Prejudice and Racism. New York: McGraw Hill, 1997. Joseph, Janice. Black Youths, Delinquency, and Juvenile Justice. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. Joyce, Donald Franklin. Black Book Publishers in the United States: A Historical Dictionary of the Presses, 1817–1990. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. Joyce, Donald Franklin. Gatekeepers of Black Culture: Black-Owned Book Publishing in the United States, 1817–1981. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983. Kaplan, Carla, ed. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. New York: Doubleday, 2002. Kaplan, Sidney, and Emma Nogrady Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. Rev. ed. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. Karenga, Maulana. Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press, 1998. Katz, William Loren. The Black West. 3rd ed. Seattle: Open Hand Publishing, 1987. Keiler, Alan. Marian Anderson, A Singer’s Journey. New York: Scribner, 2000. Kelley, Margot Anne., ed. Gloria Naylor’s Early Novels. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. Kellner, Bruce, ed. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era. New York: Methuen, 1987. Kennedy, Randall. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. New York: Pantheon, 2002. Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. New York: Penguin, 1976.
1642
Selected Bibliography
Kesteloot, Lilyan. Black Writers in French: A Literary History of Negritude. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1991. Keyes, Cheryl L. Rap Music and Street Consciousness. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. King, Anita. Quotations in Black. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. King, Coretta Scott. My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969. King, Martin Luther Jr. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York: Harper, 1958. Kinnamon, Kenneth, and Michel Fabre. Conversations with Richard Wright. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993. Kirsch, George B., Othello Harris, and Clair E. Nolte, eds. Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in AfricanAmerican Culture. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002. Klancnik, Rudy. Emmitt: Run With History. Dallas, TX: Calvert Group, 2002. Klein, Aaron E. The Hidden Contributors: Black Scientists and Inventors in America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971. Klemash, Christian. How to Succeed in the Game of Life: Interviews with the World’s Greatest Coaches. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2006. Knight, Gladys L. Icons of African American Protest: Trailblazing Activists of the Civil Rights Movement. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2009. Kontos, Louis, and David C. Brotherton, eds. Encyclopedia of Gangs. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Kruger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. Lace, William W. The Pittsburgh Steelers Football Team. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1999. Landry, Bart. The New Black Middle Class. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. Larkin, Colin, ed. Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Leckie, William H., with Shirley A. Leckie. The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Black Calvary in the West. Rev. ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003. Lee, Shayne. T. D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher. New York: New York University Press, 2005. Lehman, Christopher P. A Critical History of Soul on Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Lehman, Christopher P. The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, 1907–1954. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007. Leininger-Miller, Theresa. New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light, 1922–1934. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Levine, Daniel. Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. Levinsohn, Florence H. Looking for Farrakhan. Chicago: Ivan R. Dees, 1997. Levy, Peter B. The Civil Rights Movement. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988. Levy, Peter B. Let Freedom Ring: A Documentary History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992.
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Lewis, David Levering. W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919. New York: Henry Holt, 1993. Lewis, David Levering. W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919–1963. New York: Kensington, 2003. Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. Lewis, John, and Michael D’Orso. Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. Light, Alan, ed. The Vibe Story of Hip Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999. Lincoln, C. Eric, and Lawrence H. Mamiya. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990. Lisandrelli, Elaine Slivinski. Maya Angelou: More Than a Poet. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1996. Littleton, Daryl J. Black Comedians on Black Comedy: How African-Americans Taught Us to Laugh. New York: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, 2006. Livingston, Ivor Lensworth, ed. Praeger Handbook of Black American Health: Policies and Issues Behind Disparities. 2nd ed. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Lombardo, Robert M. The Black Mafia: African-American Organized Crime in Chicago. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Lomotey, Kofi, ed. Encyclopedia of African American Education. 2 vols. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2009. Long, Carolyn. Spiritual Merchants: Magic, Religion and Commerce. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2001. Love, Nat. The Life and Adventures of Nat Love: Better Known in the Cattle Country as ‘‘Deadwood Dick.’’ 1907. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1968. Lovell, John Jr. Black Song: The Forge and the Flame. New York: Macmillan, 1972. Lovett, Bobby L. Civil Rights in Tennessee: A Narrative. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005. Lowery, Charles D., and John F. Marszalek, eds. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. Lusane, Clarence. Hitler’s Victims: The Historical Experiences of Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans, and African Americans in the Nazi Era. New York: Routledge, 2003. MacDonald, J. Fred. Blacks and White TV: Afro-Americans in Television since 1948. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1983. Major, Clarence, ed. Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang. New York: Viking Penguin, 1994. Malcolm X., with Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. New York: Grove Press, 1966. Malone, Jacqui. Steppin on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996. Manning, Susan. Modern Dance, Negro Dance: Race in Motion. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. Marable, Manning. W. E. B. Du Bois: Black Radical Democrat. New York: Twayne, 1986. Marsh, J. B. T. The Jubilee Singers and Their Songs. Reprint. New York: Dover, 2003. McCall, Emmanuel, comp. Black Church Life-styles: Rediscovering the Black Christian Experience. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1986. McCartney, John. T. Black Power Ideologies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.
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McCluskey, Audrey Thomas, and Elaine M. Smith, eds. Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World, Essays and Selected Documents. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. McElroy, Guy C. Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710–1940. San Francisco: Bedford Arts, 1990. McGilligan, Patrick. Oscar Micheaux, the Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. McKay, Claude. Home to Harlem. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1987. McLaren, Joseph. Langston Hughes: Folk Dramatist in the Protest Tradition, 1921–1943. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. McLoyd, Vonnie, Nancy E. Hill, and Kenneth A. Dodge. African American Family Life: Ecological and Cultural Diversity. New York: Guilford Press, 2005. McMurry, Linda. To Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of Ida B. Wells. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Meally, Robert G., ed. The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Meier, August. Black Protest in the Sixties. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1970. Miller, Leonard W. Silent Thunder: Breaking Through Cultural, Racial, and Class Barriers in Motorsports. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press, 2004. Miller, Patrick B., and David K. Wiggins, eds. Sport and the Color Line: Black Athletes and Race Relations in the Twentieth-Century America. New York: Routledge, 2004. Miller, R. Baxter. The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1989. Miller, Randall M., and John David Smith, eds. Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery Updated. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. Mjagkij, Nina, ed. Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations. New York: Garland Publishing, 2001. Montgomery, Elvin Jr. Collecting African American History: A Celebration of American’s Black Heritage through Documents, Artifacts, and Collectibles. New York: Stewart, Tabor & Chang, 2001. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Plume, 1977. Morse, David. Motown and the Arrival of Black Music. London: Studio Vista, 1971. Mostern, Kenneth. Autobiography and Black Identity Politics: Racialization in Twentiethcentury America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Muhammad, Elijah. The True History of Master Fard Muhammad. Maryland Heights, MO: Secretarius Publications, 2002. Mullen, Edward J. Critical Essays on Langston Hughes. Boston: Hall, 1986. Murdock, Steve H. An America Challenged: Population Change and the Future of the United States. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Murray, Albert. Stomping the Blues. New York: Da Capo Press, 2000. Murray, Pauli. States’ Law on Race and Color. 2nd ed. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 1997. Nadasen, Premil. Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States. New York: Routledge, 2005. Napier, Winston, ed. African American Literary Theory: A Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Nash, Roy. ‘‘Memorandum for Mr. Phillip G. Peabody on Lynch-Law and the Practicability of a Successful Attack Thereon.’’ May 22, 1916, NAACP Papers, Reel l.
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Also available in Waldrep, Christopher. 2002. The Many Faces of Judge Lynch. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2008, with Chartbook. Hyattsville, MD: NCHS, 2009. National Council of Negro Women. The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000. Natly, Bernard C. Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military. New York: Free Press, 1986. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ed. African American Authors, 1745–1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ed. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. Newkirk, Pamela. Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Newman, Richard. African American Quotations. Westport, CT: Oryx Press, 1998. Newton, Huey. Revolutionary Suicide. New York: Writers and Readers Publishing, 1973. Nichols, Elaine. Last Miles of the Way: African American Homegoing Traditions, 1890– Present. Columbia: South Carolina State Museum, 1989. Nicholson, Stuart. Billie Holiday. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1995. Nickson, Chris. Denzel Washington. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Oates, Joyce Carol. On Boxing. New York: Harper, 2006. Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown, 2006. Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Random House, 1995. O’Brien Chang, Kevin, and Wayne Chen. Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music. Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, 1998. Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. Hip Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007. Ogbu, John U. Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003. Oh, Minya. Bling Bling: Hip Hop’s Crown Jewels. New York: Wenner Books, 2005. O’Meally, Robert G., ed. The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Opie, Frederick Douglass. Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Orleck, Annelise. Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005. Ostrom, Hans. Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1993. Ostrom, Hans., and J. David Macey, eds. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. Ostrom, Hans. Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977. Ostrom, Hans. Sojourner Truth, a Life, a Symbol. New York: Norton, 1996. Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans: African-American History and its Meanings, 1619 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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Palmer, Colin A. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. Second ed. 6 vols. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. Palmer, Colin A., ed. Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Palmer, Robert. Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta. New York: Penguin Group, 1981. Parks, Rosa, with Gregory J. Reed. Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994. Parrish, James Robert. Denzel Washington: Actor. New York: Ferguson Publishing, 2005. Pattillo, Mary E. Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pattillo-McCoy, Mary. Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Payne, Charles M. I’ve Got the Light of Freedom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Pearlman, Jeff. Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Penial, Joseph E. Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil Rights-Black Power Era. New York: Routledge, 2006. Penial, Joseph E. Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. New York: Henry Holt, 2006. Perata, David D. Those Pullman Blues: An Oral History of the African American Railroad Attendant. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1999. Perepener, John O. African-American Concert Dance: The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001. Peterson, Robert. Only the Ball Was White. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970. Pfeffer, Paula F. A. A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990. Phinney, Kevin. Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture. New York: Billboard Books, 2005. Pierce, Joseph A. Negro Business and Business Education. 1947. Reprint. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971. Pinn, Anthony B., and Benjamın Valentin, eds. Creating Ourselves: African Americans and Hispanic Americans on Popular Culture and Religious Expression. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009. Piven, Frances Fox. Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. New York: Pantheon Books, 1977. Pluto, Terry. 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, 1992. Pollard, Deborah S. When the Church Becomes Your Party: Contemporary Gospel Music. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008. Powell, Colin. My American Journey. New York: Random House, 2005. Powell, Richard J. Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Prahlad, Anand, ed. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. 3 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.
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Puckett, Newbell N. Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926. Quarles, Benjamin. Black Abolitionists. New York: Da Capo Press, 1991. Rabinowitz, Howard N. Race Relations in the Urban South, 1865–1890. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978. Rampersad, Arnold. The Art and Imagination of W. E. B. Du Bois. New York: Schocken Books, 1990. Rampersad, Arnold. Jackie Robinson: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. Vol. 1: 1902–1941: I, Too, Sing America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. Vol. 2: 1941–1967: I Dream a World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Randall, Joe, and Toni Tipton-Martin. A Taste of Heritage: The New African-American Cuisine. New York: Macmillan, 1998. Randall, Vernellia. Dying While Black. Dayton, OH: Seven Principles Press, 2006. Ransby, Barbara S. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. Ratliff, Ben. Coltrane: The Story of a Sound. New York: Picador, 2008. Ravitch, Diane. The Troubled Crusade: American Education 1945 to 1980. New York: Basic Books, 1980. Rawick, George P. ed. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. 17 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1972–1979. Reagon, Bernice Johnson, ed. We’ll Understand it Better By and By. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. Redford, Dorothy Spruill. Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage. New York: Doubleday, 1998. Remnick, David. King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. Rhoden, William C. Forty Million Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. Ribowsky, Mark. A Complete History of the Negro Leagues, 1884 to 1955. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group, 1997. Ricard, Ronyelle, and M. Christopher Brown II. Ebony Towers in Higher Education: The Evolution, Mission, and Presidency of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2008. Richardson, Marilyn, ed. Maria W. Stewart, America’s First Black Woman Political Writer, Essays and Speeches. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. Riley, Sam G. African Americans in the Media Today. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Rivera, Racquel. Reggaeton. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009. Roberts, Deotis J. Black Theology. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987. Roberts, John Storm. Black Music of Two Worlds: African, Caribbean, Latin, and African-American Traditions. 2nd ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 1998. Robeson, Paul Jr. Here I Stand. 1958. Reprint. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. Robeson, Paul Jr. The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist’s Journey, 1898–1939. New York: Wiley, 2001. Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983.
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Robinson, Jackie. I Never Had it Made. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972. Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987. Robinson, Randall. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. New York: Dutton, 2001. Robinson, Randall. Defending the Spirit. New York: Plume Books, 1995. Robnett, Belinda. How Long? How Long?: African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Roker, Al. Big Shoes: In Celebration of Dads and Fatherhood. New York: Hyperion, 2005. Roker, Al. Don’t Make Me Stop This Car: Adventures in Fatherhood. New York: Scribner, 2000. Rome, Dennis. Black Demons: The Media’s Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Root, Maria P. Racially Mixed People in America. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1992. Rosaforte, Tim. Tiger Woods: The Making of a Champion. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1994. Rosenberg, Rosalind. Divided Lives: American Women in the Twentieth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 2008. Roses, Lorraine Elena, and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph. Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers 1900–1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. Ross, Karen. Black and White Media: Black Images in Popular Film and Television. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996. Rucker, Walter, and James Nathaniel Upton, eds. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Russell-Brown, Katheryn. The Color of Crime. 2nd ed. New York: New York University Press, 2009. Said, Edward W. Representation of the Intellectual: The Reith Lectures. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Sammons, Vivian O. Blacks in Science and Medicine. New York: Hemisphere Publishing, 1990. Sampson, Henry T. Swingin’ On the Ether Waves: A Chronological History of African Americans in Radio and Television Broadcasting, 1925–1955. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005. Samuels, Allison. Off the Record: A Reporter Lifts the Velvet Rope on Hollywood, Hip Hop and Sports. New York: Amistad, 2007. Sanfield, Steve. The Adventures of High John the Conqueror. New York: Orchard Books, 1989. Savitt, Todd L. Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in Antebellum Virginia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978. Schecter, Patricia. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880–1930. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. Schiffman, Jack. Harlem Heyday: A Pictorial History of Modern Black Show Business and the Apollo Theatre. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984. Schinder, Scott, with Andy Schwartz. Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. Schlesinger, Arthur M. The Disuniting of America. New York: Norton, 1992. Schneider, Mark Robert. African Americans in the Jazz Age: A Decade of Struggle and Promise. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.
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Schoener, Allon, ed. Harlem on My Mind. New York: Random House, 1968. Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Schultz, Jeffrey D., Kerry L. Haynie, Anne M. McCulloch, and Andrew L. Aoki, eds. Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics. Vol. 1: African Americans and Asian Americans. Westport, CT: Oryx Press, 2000. Schwerin, Jules. Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson Queen of Gospel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Scott, Emmett J. Scott’s Official History of the American Negro in the World War. New York: Arno Press, 1996. Seale, Bobby. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1996. Segura, Gary M., and Shaun Bowler. Diversity in Democracy: Minority Representation in the United States. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. Negritude Women. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2002. Shine, Ted, and James V. Hatch. Black Theatre, USA: Plays by African Americans: The Recent Period, 1935–Today. New York: Free Press, 1996. Shine, Ted, and James V. Hatch. Black Theatre USA. Rev. and expanded ed. Vol. 1: Plays by African Americans, The Early Period 1847 to 1938. New York: Free Press, 1996. Shropshire, Kenneth L. Being Sugar Ray: The Life of Sugar Ray Robinson, America’s Greatest Boxer and First Celebrity Athlete. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2007. Siebert, Wilbur H. The Underground Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2006. Simmons, Russell, with N. G. Crown. Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money, þ God. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001. Sinclair, Bruce. Technology and the African American Experience: Needs and Opportunities for Study. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney, W. Paul Coates, and Thomas C. Battle, eds. Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1990. Sluby, Patricia Carter. The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Smethurst, James Edward. The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930–1946. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Smith, Earl. Race, Sport, and the American Dream. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2007. Smith, Gloria R. ‘‘From Invisibility to Blackness: The Story of the National Black Nurses’ Association.’’ Nursing Outlook 23 (April, 1975): 225–28. Smith, Jessie Carney. Black Academic Libraries and Research Collections: An Historical Survey. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977. Smith, Jessie Carney. Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. 2nd ed. Detroit: Visible Ink, 2003. Smith, Jessie Carney., ed. Encyclopedia of African American Business. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. Smith, Jessie Carney., ed. Images of Blacks in American Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988.
1650
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Smith, Jessie Carney., ed. Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale, 1999. Smith, Jessie Carney., ed. Notable Black American Men, Book II. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. Smith, Jessie Carney., ed. Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale, 1992. Smith, Jessie Carney., ed. Notable Black American Women. Book II. Detroit: Gale Research, 1996. Smith, Jessie Carney., ed. Notable Black American Women. Book III. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2003. Smith, Jessie Carney, and Linda T. Wynn, eds. Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2009. Smith, Morgan, and Marvin Smith. Harlem: The Vision of Morgan and Marvin Smith. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1998. Smythe, Mabel M., ed. The Black American Reference Book. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976. Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 1997. Spaulding, Henry D. Encyclopedia of Black Folklore and Humor. Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David Publishers, 1972. Stanton, Mary. Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Burst. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2003. Sterling, Dorothy. Black Foremothers: Three Lives. New York: Feminist Press, 1988. Steven, Tracy. Langston Hughes and the Blues. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988. Stille, Darlene R. Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur and Millionaire. New York: Compass Point Books, 2007. Story, Rosalyn. And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert. New York: Warner Books, 1990. Stricklin, Scott, ed. Echoes of Kentucky Basketball: The Greatest Stories Ever Told. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2006. Str€ omberg, Frederik. Black Images in the Comics: A Visual History. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2003. Stuckey, Sterling. Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Styles P. A Gangster and a Gentleman. New York: Ruff Ryders, 2002. Sullivan, Leon H. Alternatives to Despair. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1972. Sullivan, Leon H. Build Brother Build. Philadelphia: Macrae Smith, 1969. Sullivan, Leon H. Moving Mountains: The Principles and Purposes of Leon Sullivan. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1998. Summer, L. S. The March on Washington. Mankato, MN: Child’s World, 2001. Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. New York: Little, Brown, 1993. Taraborelli, J. Randy. Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness. London: Pan Books, 2004. Taraborelli, J. Randy. Motown: Hot Wax, City Cool, and Solid Gold. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1986. Taylor, Charles A. Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom. Greensboro, NC: Open Hand Publishing, 2002. Teachout, Terry. Pops, A Life of Louis Armstrong. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Thomas, Clarence. My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.
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Thomas, Hugh. The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440–1870. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. Thomas, Ron. They Cleared the Lane: The NBA’s Black Pioneers. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002. Thompson, J. Phillip III. Double Trouble: Black Mayors, Black Communities, and the Call for Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Thompson, Nathan. Kings: The True Story of Chicago’s Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers: An Informal History. Chicago: Bronzeville Press, 2003. Thompson, Vincent Bakpetu. The Making of the African Diaspora in the Americas 1441– 1900. New York: Longman, 1987. Thoms, Adah B. Pathfinders: A History of the Progress of Colored Graduate Nurses. New York: Kay Printing, 1929. Tillman, Linda, ed. The SAGE Handbook of African American Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2009. Toffler, Alvin. Revolutionary Wealth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Toppin, Edgar. A Biographical History of Blacks in America Since 1528. New York: David McKay, 1969. Troupe, Quincy. Miles and Me. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Tucker, Mark, ed. The Duke Ellington Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Turner, Tina, and Kurt Loder. I, Tina. New York: William Morrow, 1986. Valade, Roger M. The Essential Black Literature Guide. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1996. Van Deburg, William L., ed. Modern Black Nationalism. New York: New York University Press, 1997. Van Sertima, Ivan. Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1983. Van Sertima, Ivan., ed. They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in America. New York: Random House, 1976. Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi. American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. Vinovskis, Maris. The Birth of Head Start: Preschool Education Policies in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Vivian, May. Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2007. Vogel, Todd, ed. The Black Press: New Literary and Historical Essays. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Walker, Juliet E. K. Encyclopedia of African American Business History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. Walker, Juliet E. K. The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship. New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1998. Walker, Margaret. Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius. New York: Warner Books, 1988. Walker, Samuel, Cassia Spohn, and Miriam DeLone. The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007. Walker-Hill, Helen. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. Westport, CT: Greenwood, Press, 2007. Wall, Cheryl A., ed. Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs and Other Writings. New York: Library of America, 1995. Ward, Andrew. Dark Midnight When I Rise, the Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers: How Black Music Changed the World. New York: Amistad, 2001.
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Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. Jazz: A History of America’s Music. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Ward, Thomas Jr. Black Physicians in the Jim Crow South. Little Rock: University of Arkansas Press, 2003. Warren, Wini. Black Women Scientists in the United States: Race, Gender, and Science. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. Washburn, Patrick S. The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2006. Washington, Booker T. The Negro in Business. 1907. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1971. Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery: An Autobiography. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1901. Watkins, Mel. African American Humor: The Best Black Comedy from Slavery to Today. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2002. Watson, Steven. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African American Culture, 1920–1930. New York: Pantheon Books, 1995. Wellman, Sam. T. D. Jakes. New York: Chelsea House, 2000. Wells, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. Werner, Craig. Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul. New York: Crown Publishers, 2004. West, Cornel, and David Ritz. Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir. New York: Smiley Books, 2009. West, Kanye. Late Registration. New York: Roc-A-Fella Records, 2005. Whitaker, Matthew C., ed. African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage, and Excellence. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. White, Constance C. R. Style Noir: The First How-To Guide to Fashion Written with Black Women in Mind. New York: Diane Publishing, 1998. White, Joyce. Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections from African-American Churches. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. White, Katherine. The Wayans Brothers: Famous Families. New York: Rosen Publishing, 2005. White, Walter. A Man Called White. New York: Viking, 1948. Wiggins, William H. Jr. O Freedom: Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987. Wilborn, Deborah. Eddie Murphy (Black Americans of Achievement). New York: Chelsea House, 1993. Wilentz, Sean, ed. David Walker’s Appeal. Rev. ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995. Wilkins, Roy, and Tom Mathews. Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins. New York: Viking, 1982. Wilkinson, Sylvia. Dirt Tracks to Glory: The Early Days of Stock Car Racing as Told by the Participants. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1983. Williams, Christine L. Inside Toyland: Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Williams, Eric E. Capitalism & Slavery. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Williams, Gilbert A. Legendary Pioneers of Black Radio. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1989. Williams, Juan, with Dwayne Ashley and Shawn Rhea. I’ll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. New York: Amistad, 2004.
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Williams, Juan, with the Eyes on the Prize Production Team. Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–63. New York: Viking Penguin, 1987. Williams, Rhonda Y. The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against Urban Inequality. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Williams-Forson, Psyche. Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Willis, Deborah. Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present. New York: Norton, 2009. Willis, Deborah. Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present. New York: Norton, 2000. Willis, Deborah., and Emily Bernard, eds. Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs. New York: Norton, 2010. Wilmore, Gayraud S. African American Religious Studies: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989. Wilmore, Gayraud S. Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Examination of the Black Experience in Religion. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press Doubleday, 1973. Wilmore, Gayraud S., ed. Black Religion and Black Radicalism: An Interpretation of the Religious History of African Americans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998. Wilson, Kathryn Sondra, ed. The Crisis’’ Reader: Stories, Poetry, and Essays from the N.A.A.C.P.’s Crisis Magazine. New York: Modern Library, 1999. Winbush, Raymond A. Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Philadelphia: XLibris, 2009. Winbush, Raymond A., ed. Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations. New York: Amistad, 2003. Witham, Barry. The Federal Theatre Project: A Case Study. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Witt, Doris. 1999. Black Hunger. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Wolffe, Richard. Renegade: The Making of a President. New York: Crown Publishers, 2009. Woodson, Carter G. The African Background Outlined. New York: Holt, 1939. Woodward, C. Vann. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. New York: Oxford University Press, 1957. Work, John W. III. American Negro Songs. Reprint. New York: Dover, 1998. Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983. Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. Africans Who Shaped Our Faith. Chicago: Urban Ministries, 1995. Wright, John D. The Language of the Civil War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Wright, Richard. Black Boy. New York: Harper, 1998. Wright, Richard. Black Power: Three Books from Exile: Black Power; The Color Curtain; and White Man Listen! Introduction by Cornel West. New York: HarperPerennial, 2008. Wynn, Linda T. Journey to Our Freedom: African American Markers in Tennessee. Nashville: Tennessee Historical Commission, 1999. Yancy, George, ed. Cornel West: A Critical Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001. Zack, Naomi. Race and Mixed Race. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993. Zangrando, Robert. The NAACP Crusade against Lynching, 1909–1950. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980. Zook, Kristal Brent. I See Black People: The Rise and Fall of African American-Owned Television and Radio. New York: Nation Books, 2008.
Index Boldface page numbers indicate main entries. A Aaron, Hank, 1–2, 111, 177, 435, 898, 1006, 1223, 1335 Abbott, Robert, 1020, 1433 ABC Radio Network, 790 Abdul, Paula, 739 Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, 2–4; early years, 3–4; professional career, 4 Abel, Dan, 496 Abernathy, Ralph, 957, 1329 abolitionists: African American, 26–27 Abrahams, Roger D., 420, 422, 1273, 1276 Abramoff, Jack, 190 Abyssinian Baptist Church, 293, 296–297, 647, 925, 1127 Academic Challenge Program, 1257 Ackroyd, Dan, 1494 activists. See Social Activists actors/performers, 5–9; Caribbean, 246–247; civil rights movement era, 7–9; drama, 1390; early black entertainment, 6–7 Adams, Carolyn, 10 Adams, Stacy Hawkins, 860 Adams, Yolanda, 9–10, 302 Adeen, Jamal, 1393 Adger, Robert, 180
Adinkra symbols, 38–39 Adler, Stella, 1400, 1443 Administration for Children and Families, 654 adoptions, 10–11 aerosol art, 11–13 affirmative action, 13–15 Africa and the African Diaspora, 15–19; in Africa, 17–18; African carryovers into American culture, 15–17; in America, 18–19 African American English. See Black English African American Health Coalition, 916 African American Methodist Episcopal Church, 684 African American theater, history of, 492–495 African American Vernacular English (AAVE), 148, 282, 284–286, 1291 African American Women in Cinema Film Festival and Conference, 515 African American Writers’ Conference, 196 African Americans in United States, 1619-2010, 20–34; abolitionists, 26–27;
1656 artisans, 22; Booker T. Washington Era, 30–31; Civil Rights Era, 32–34; Civil War, 27–30; free population, 24–25; Great Depression, 32; New Deal, 32; slavery, 20–22; World War I and postwar society, 31–32; World War II, 32 African cultural influences, 34–40; art, 38–40; clothing, 37–38; dance, 40; food, 35; music, 40; permanent body adornments, 40 African Grove Theater, 469 African Methodist Episcopal Book Concern, 1153 African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ), 292, 299 Afrocentric Movement, 41–43 Afrocentricity, 42–43, 850, 1070 Afrocentrism, 800 Afro-Hispanic blending, 43–45; America, 44–45; Caribbean, 44; Central America, 44; Puerto Rico, 45; South America, 44 Agassi, Andre, 167 Aguilera, Christina, 454 Agyeman, Jaramogi Abebe, 1138 Aid for Families of Dependent Children (AFDC), 1477–1478 Aid to Needy Children (ANC), 1478 AIDS. See HIV/AIDS Aiken, Jim, 873 Aiken, Loretta Mary. See Mabley, Moms Ailey, Alvin, 46–47, 95, 356, 394, 582, 762 Ajaye, Franklin, 338 Alaia, Ozzedine, 234 Alan, Leon, 1540 Albert, Benjamin, 526 Albert, Fat, 257, 337, 343 Albertson, Chris, 964 Alcindor, Ferdinand Lewis Jr. See Abdul–Jabbar, Kareem Alers, Rochelle, 858 Alexander, Archibald, 292 Alexander, Elizabeth, 848 Alexander, Erika, 1382 Alexander, Karen, 953–954 Alexander, Margaret Walker, 666
Index Alexander, Raymond Mouse, 964 Alexander, William, 634 Alfred, Paul, 530 Alger, Horatio, 115 Ali, Laila, 47–49 Ali, Muhammad, 3, 49–51; early years, 49–50; retirement, 51 Alice, Mary, 1494 Alien, Richard, 26 All For Reparations and Emancipation (AFRE), 1212 All-American Football Team, 1220 Allen, Dudley, 693 Allen, Marcus, 1174 Allen, Richard, 41, 157, 292, 843, 1057, 1203 Allen, Robert, 442 Allen, William Francis, 1333 Allen, Winifred, 1435 Allensworth State Historical Park, 344 Alpha Kappa Alpha, 377, 623, 683, 1062, 1353 Alpha Phi Alpha, 622, 625 Alsberg, Fred G., 499 Alston, Charles, 117, 119 Alvin, Glenda, 441, 996 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, 46, 319, 394 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), 50, 411, 1064 America: African foods in, 35–37; Afro-Hispanic blending, 44–45; slavery in, 20–22 American Academy in Rome, 457 American Academy of Arts and Letters, 97 American Anti-Slavery Society, 1520 American Automobile Association (AAA), 238 American Ballet Theater, 46 American Baptist Theological Seminary, 837 American Bar Association (ABA), 828, 1012, 1339 American Basketball Association (ABA), 1012 American Basketball League (ABL), 115 American Black Film Festival (ABFF), 514, 517
Index American Broadcasting Company (ABC), 135, 191, 338–340, 651, 705, 737, 746, 788, 1217, 1226, 1271, 1345–1346, 1383 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 1173–1174 American Civil Rights Movement, 1072, 1424–1425 American Civil War, 692, 1333, 1427, 1520 See also Civil War American Colonization Society (ACS), 26, 156 American Communist Party, 211, 430 American Conservatory Theater, 1470 American Dance Center, 46 American Diabetes Association, 434, 530 American Double Dutch League (ADDL), 566 American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFLCIO), 1144 American Federation of Music, 1168 American Film Institute (AFI), 1110 American Folk Blues Festival, 1396 American Football League (AFL), 1012, 1187–1188 American Freedmen’s Aid Commission, 1521 American Friends Service Committee, 397 American Historical Association, 550 American Jazz Age, 1183 American Missionary Association, 294, 664, 1009 American Models and Black Beauties, 953 American Motorcyclist Association, 1354 American Muslim Mission, 296, 987 American Nursing Association (ANA), 1036–1037 American Pentecostalism, 754 American Political Science Association (APSA), 211 American Professional Football Association, 533 American Revolutionary Era, 1488
1657 American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), 119, 964, 1230 American Society of Muslims, 490 American Studies Association, 550 American Teachers Association, 138 American Tennis Association (ATA), 166, 590, 1385–1386 American Theater for Poets, 97 American Urban Radio Networks, 670 Amos, Emma, 119 Amos, John, 337, 515, 1380 Amos, Wally, 219 Ancient Order of Freemasons, 480 Anderson, Anthony, 102, 514 Anderson, Esther, 1380 Anderson, Garland, 1096 Anderson, James H., 1020 Anderson, James P., 304 Anderson, John Berkley, 52 Anderson, Major Michael P., 72 Anderson, Marian, 52–53, 300, 1146, 1333, 1501 Anderson, Myers, 1392 Anderson, Queen C., 1465 Anderson, Sherwood, 1541 Anderson, Veronica Porsche, 47 Andretti, Mario, 240, 1260 Andrews, Inez, 300 Andrews, Ward, 1308 angel dust, 1439 Angelou, Maya, 54–55, 366, 471, 623, 723, 739, 778, 991, 993, 1081 Ann, Lydia, 634 Ann Arbor Blues, 1371 Anne, Judy, 40 Anschutz Entertainment Group, 748 Anthony, Carl, 60 Anthony, Kwame, 607, 1017, 1070, 1133, 1484 Anthony, Susan B., 27 antislavery movement, and social activists, 1314–1315 Antoine, Caesar, 1009 Apex Beauty Products, 126 A. Philip Randolph, 32, 316, 647, 819, 838, 881, 895, 957, 1022, 1060, 1142, 1178, 1186, 1188, 1361, 1501
1658 Apollo Theater, 7, 56–57, 266, 405, 593, 1446–1447 appropriations of black folklore, 57–59 Arbian, Paul, 580 architecture, 39–40, 59–63 Arkush, Michael, 209 Arlen, Harold, 520 Armed Forces Radio Service, 1178 Armour, Philip, 1034 Armstrong, Henry, 1402 Armstrong, Louis ‘‘Satchmo,’’ 7, 63–66, 86, 90, 128, 130, 381, 424–425, 456, 468, 647, 657, 677, 1014–1015, 1433–1434; early life, 64–65; and music, 65–66 Army Air Corps, 1417 Army Nurse Corps, 1037 Arnett, Benjamin W., 182 Arnett, William, 1546 Arrington, Laren, 122 art/artists, 38–40; aerosol, 11–13; African American, 39 Asante, Molefi Kete, 41, 163 Ash, Juliet, 1091 Ashburn, Benny, 1218 Ashe, Arthur, 67–68, 166, 487, 591, 671, 768, 1343, 1386–1387 Asher, Peter, 1245 Ashford, Nick, 1079 Ashley, Dwayne, 34, 1502 Ashley, Maurice, 69–70 Askew, Shawn, 1156 Association for Diversity in Motorsports, 241 Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), 70–71, 138, 155, 217, 222, 646 Association of American Medical Colleges, 911, 915 Association of Black Laboratory Employees, 1256 Association of Black Women Historians, 1062 Association of Colored Physicians and Surgeons Day, 479 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), 167 associations. See organizations and associations, African Americanf
Index Astronauts, 71–73; in popular culture, 73 athletic excellence, 667–668 Atlanta Compromise, 479, 1470 Atlanta Race Riot, 1492 Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue, 480 Atlantic Ritchfield, 1065 Atlantic slave trade, 617, 622 Attaway, William, 118, 619 Auer, Leopold, 489 Augello, Nikki, 803 Augusta National Golf Club, 1536; Invitation Tournament, 1535 August Wilson Theater, 1099, 1390 Auld, Sophia, 414 Aunt Jemima, 74–76 Austen, Jane, 961 Austin, Algernon, 462 Austin, Dallas, 1219 Autry, Gene, 380 Ayanna, Taylor, 10 Ayres, Ian, 359 B ‘‘Baby Come Close,’’ 1230 ‘‘Baby Gangsta,’’ 170 Baby Face. See Edmonds, Kenneth Brian Backstreet Boys, 1219 Backwater Blues, 1010 Bacon, Kevin, 128 Bad Boy Entertainment, 333, 1031–1032 Badeau, Minnie, 1497 Badu, Erykah, 77–78 Baer, Max, 863 Baez, Joan, 691, 1146 Bailey, Bill, 393 Bailey, Clyde, 55 Bailey, Cynthia, 954 Bailey, DeFord, 380–382 Bailey, Harriet, 414 Bailey, Lee, 807 Bailey, Mildred, 1178 Bailey, Pearl, 251, 366, 874 Bailey, Peter, 47 Bain, Conrad, 739 Baines, Brandon, 906 Bak, Richard, 863
Index Baker, Anita, 168 Baker, Brian, 1081 Baker, Buck, 1260 Baker, Ella, 78–80, 297, 667, 1286, 1316, 1329, 1359, 1519, 1526 Baker, Evelyn, 1538 Baker, Frankie, 542–545 Baker, Georgianna Ross, 79 Baker, Houston, 1105 Baker, Joe, 1081 Baker, Josephine, 147, 318, 320, 474, 648, 763, 952, 1146, 1389, 1434, 1495 Baker, Kyle, 609 Baker, Nikki, 508 Baker, Frankie, 545 Baker, William J., 112 Baldwin, James, 81–83, 281, 315, 388, 473, 506, 581–582, 641, 846–847, 850, 852–853, 906, 1097, 1099, 1146 Baldwin, Ruth Standish, 998 Ball, James Presly, 1085 Ball, Lucille, 39 Ball & Chain, 1396 Ballard, Florence, 1244–1245 Ballet, Joffrey, 46 Bambara, Toni Cade, 83–85, 847, 850, 855 Bamford, Suzanne Kay, 251 bands/bandleaders, 1920s-1950s, 85–90; swing era, 87–90 Banfield, Adrienne, 1305 Banfield, Marion, 1305 Banks, Ann, 501 Banks, Carlton, 1292 Banks, Carrie, 117 Banks, Ernie, 1006, 1223 Banks, Ingrid, 1531 Banks, Leslie Esdaile, 612 Banks, Spunk, 720 Banks, Tyra, 90–91, 463, 633, 954, 1331 Banneker, Benjamin, 1253–1254 Bannerman, Helen, 496 Bannister, Christiana Carteaux, 125, 220 Bantu Migration, 616 BAPS (Black American Princesses), 92– 93 baptisms, 93–95
1659 Baraka, Amiri, 95–98, 102, 145–146, 471, 498, 515, 529, 841, 847–848, 854, 991, 1070, 1099, 1103, 1105, 1148–1155 barbecue, 98–100 Barber, Tiki, 1347 barbers, black leaders, 101–102 barbershops, 100–102 Barclay, Neil, 991 Barden, Don, 103–104 Barden, Herbert, 103 Barker, Brian, 166 Barker, Elizabeth Cardozo, 126 Barker, Kyle, 1382 Barkley, Charles, 2, 104–107, 563 Barlow, William, 1175, 1178 Barnard, Henry, 447 Barnes, Geoffrey, 1530 Barnes, Paula, 852 Barnett, Claude, 374 Barnett, Dick, 668 Barnett, Ferdinand, 1019 Barnett, Ross, 1145 Barnum & Bailey Circus, 305–306 Barrett, Leonard E. Sr., 423 Barrino, Fantasia, 707, 1120–1121 Barrow, Samuel June, 1134 Barry, Marion, 667, 1359 Barthelemy, Sidney, 1013 Bartholomew, Joseph, 599 Barton, Clara, 1034 Bascom, Lionel C., 501 baseball, 107–111, 1334–1336; color line, 110–111; twentieth century, 108–110 basketball, 111–115, 1338–1340; African American players, emergence of, 112–113; gender lines, 113–115 Basquiat, Jean-Michel, 13 Bassett, Angela, 1382 Bates, Daisy, 1146, 1519, 1525 Bates, Kathy, 1082 Bates, Ruby, 1262 Battista, Judy, 909 Battle, John S., 1423 Battle, Thomas C., 183, 842 Bauer, Steven, 386 Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), 178–179, 1403
1660 Baylor, Elgin, 1339 Bayou Mardi Gras, 883 Beach, Howard, 1268 Beale Street, 116 Beals, Jennifer, 1436 Beam, Joseph, 582 Beamon, Bob, 835 Bean, Frank D., 145 Beard, Mathew, 336 Bearden, Romare, 117–119 Beasley, Gertrude, 1526 beast image, 1530–1531 Beattie, Lillian, 1161 beautillions. See botillions; cotillions beauty pageants, 120–125 beauty shops, 125–128; icons of, 126–128 Beavers, Louise, 336 bebop music, 128–130 Bechet, Sidney, 1011 Beck, Robert, 856, 931 Beckford, Tyson, 954 Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League (BSPL), 287 Beecher, Henry Ward, 27 Belafonte, Harry, 130–131, 230, 246, 248, 318, 338, 511, 638, 874, 993, 1144, 1434 Bell, Alexander Graham, 732 Bell, Annie, 590 Bell, Bernard, 846 Bell, Earlest, 364 Bell, Ramona J., 1517 Bell, Roseann P., 850 Belmar, Linda, 861 Below, Fred, 1396 Benjamin, Andre, 327 Benjamin, Regina, 914 Bennett, Gwendolyn, 473, 646, 649, 1105 Bennett, Hal, 846 Bennett, Joy, 357, 1306 Bennett, Lerone, 988 Bennett, Stanley, 650 Bennett, Tony, 1078 Bennett, William, 976 Benson, George, 1258 Bentley, Gladys, 647 Berenson, Senda, 113, 1516
Index Berger, Wally, 1223 Berlin, Ira, 18 Berlin, Irving, 520, 585 Berry, Chuck, 132–134, 273, 585, 1164, 1233–1234, 1267, 1452 Berry, Halle, 135–136, 464, 512, 516, 1531 Berry, Mabel, 1472 Berry, Marion, 606 Berry, Mary Frances, 136–137, 841, 943, 1029 Best, Willie, 336 Bethune, Albert McLeod Jr., 138 Bethune, Albert McLeod Sr., 138 Bethune, Mary McLeod, 137–139, 840, 993, 1059, 1118, 1290, 1454 Bevel, James, 637 Beverly, Trazana, 1267 Beyer, Troy, 1426 Beyince, Tina, 140 Beyonce, 140–142 Bibb, Henry, 236, 1296–1297 bibliophiles, 180–183 Bickerstaffe, Isaac, 469 Biden, Joe, 729, 730 Bierce, Ambrose, 611 Big Apple (dance), 142–143 Big Band Era, 174–175 Big Momma, 484 Big Poppa, 1031 Big Top Circus, 307 Biggers, John, 62 Bigsby, Clayton, 271 Bill, Little, 342 Binga, Jesse, 1083 Bingham, Howard, 1086 BioTechnical Communications (BTC), 922 biracialism, 143–144 Bird, Larry, 773, 1340 Bird, Stephanie Rose, 518 Birdsong, Cindy, 1245 Bishop, Eric Marlon, 541 Bismark, Paul, 179 Black Aesthetic Movement. See Black Arts Movement (BAM) Black American Racers (BARA), 239–240
Index Black Arts Movement (BAM), 94–96, 145–147, 149, 155, 161, 196, 248, 506, 516, 562, 581, 609, 1097, 1103, 1105–1107, 1154 Black Birdmen, 1418 Black Bottom, The (dance), 147–148 Black Bottom Blues, 148 Black Bottom Stomp, 148 Black Christian Nationalist Movement, 1138 Black Church: early developments in the HIV/AIDS era, 673; and HIV/AIDS initiatives, 673–675; 1990s, 673–675; politics and, 1117–1119 Black Codes, 293, 308, 620, 825–827, 1007, 1009, 1166, 1454, 1555 black comedy, 337–338; 1980s, 338–339; 1990s, 339–341 Black English, 148–150 Black Enterprise, 150–151 black entertainment, early, 6–7 Black Entertainment Television (BET), 152–153 Black Family Reunion Celebration, 486, 488, 994 Black Family Reunion Festival, 488 Black Fayette Countians, 1526 black folklore, 57–59 black gospel, 40 Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video (BHIFFV), 514, 517 Black Hebrews, 153–154 Black History Month, 41, 70–71, 155–156, 351, 680, 684, 1253, 1426 Black Law Student Association, 1046 Black Leadership Conference, 1404 Black Liberation Theology, 161 Black Lightning, 609, 1156 Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR), 295 Black Music Association, 1062 Black Music Month, 681 Black Nationalism, 156–158 Black Opal Color Cosmetics, 375 Black Panther Party, 158–160, 1025 Black Patti Records, 1169 Black Poetry Day, 681 black power, 1061
1661 Black Power Movement, 160–162, 398; and fiction, 506–507; literature of, 1154–1155; social activists, 1316 black pride, 680–681 Black Pride Festival, 680 black quarterbacks, 533–535 Black Student Movement, 163 Black Studies, 162–163 black theology, 164–165 Black Vegetarian Society of New York, 922 Black Wall Street, 548 Black World Championship Rodeo, 383 Blackman, Garfield, 231 Blackwell, Chris, 888, 1198 Blair, Billie, 374 Blair, Ezell Jr., 667 Blair, Jayson, 789 Blake, Charles, 299, 925 Blake, James Riley, 166–167, 317 Blake, Thomas Jr., 167 Blakely, Nora Brooks, 196 Blakely, Henry L. II, 196 Blakely, Henry L. III, 196 Blanchard, Terence, 1014, 1016 Blanchet, Patricia, 188 Bland, James A., 468 Blanton, Thomas Jr., 1291 Blass, Bill, 952 Bledsoe, Jules, 647 Blige, Mary J., 168–169, 333, 662, 906, 1031, 1120, 1165 Blige, Thomas, 168 bling and grillz, 169–171 Bloch, Susan, 893 Blockson, Charles L., 182 Bloom, Allan, 976 Bloomfield, Mike, 655 Blow, Kurtis, 171, 266, 436, 1190 Blue Bird Blues, 1506 Blueberry Hill, 1012, 1164 blues and blues festivals, 171–175; Big Band Era, 174–175; Classic Blues Era, 173–174; development of, 172–175; field research, 173; festivals, 171–175, 679–680; in New Millennium, 175; origins, 172 Blues, Delta. See Delta Blues
1662 Bly, Nellie, 542 Blyden, Edward, 1069 Boatner, Edward, 1333 Bobby Jones Gospel, 152, 1383 Boddie, Michael, 1448 body embellishments, development of, 170–171 Boldt, Beth, 234 Boley, John, 347 Bolton, Sharon Sayles, 606 Bond, Horace Mann, 666 Bond, Julian, 176–177 Bonds, Barry, 2, 111, 177–179, 1335 Bonds, Patricia Howard, 177 Bonner, Estelle, 660 Bontemps, Arna, 179–180 Bontemps, Maria Caroline, 179 book collectors, as cultural keepers, 181–183 Booker, Cedalla, 887 Booker, Chucki, 1219 bookstores and bibliophiles, 180–183 Boop, Betty, 228 Bosh, Chris, 755 Bostic, Earl, 331 Boston, Ralph, 668, 1402 Boston Guardian, 1019–1020 botillion, 378–379 Botkin, Benjamin A., 499 Bouchet, Edward, 1254 Boutwell, Albert, 1290 Bowie, David, 1447 Bowyer, Kali, 1235 boxing, 183–186, 1340–1342 Boxley, Addie, 1070 Boyce, Mary Flowers, 791 Boyd, Eddie, 1396 Boyd, Gerald, 789 Boyd, Richard H., 295 Boyd, Todd, 385, 450, 539, 597, 768, 1382, 1532 Boyer, Jill Witherspook, 1155 Boyer, Paul S., 864, 1518 Boynton v. Virginia (1960), 312 Braddock, James, 863 Bradford, Percy, 1307 Bradford, Perry, 1168 Bradford, Sarah Elizabeth, 1411
Index Bradley, Adam, 689 Bradley, Ed, 187–188 Bradley, Thomas J., 373, 605, 1300 Bradshaw, Terry, 534, 1347 Bradshaw, Tiny, 519 Bradstreet, Anne, 1104 Brady, King, 545 Brady, Wayne, 342 Braithwaite, Edward, 245 Braithwaite, Junior, 888 Branch, Kip, 67, 401, 909, 1224, 1237, 1395, 1442 Brando, Marlon, 131, 1146 Brandon, Barbara, 257 brands, 358–361 Brawley, Benjamin G., 182 Braxton, Josephine, 1035 Braxton, Toni, 445 Brazier, Arthur, 925 Brazile, Donna, 188–191 Brazile, Lionel, 188 break dancing, 191–192 Brecher, Leo, 56 Breedlove, Owen, 1462 Brennan, Neal, 271 Brenston, Jackie, 1233 Brewster, Herbert, 300 Bridges, Todd, 338, 739 Bridges-Woods, Marjorie, 652 Brimmer, Andrew., 193–194 Brimmer, Vella Davis, 193 Briscoe, Connie, 858 Briscoe, Marlin, 533 Bristol, Darell, 445 British Broadcasting Corporation, 1500 Britt, Allen, 543 Brock, Lou, 111, 1335 Brock, Paul, 988 Brodie, James Michael, 731 Brokaw, Tom, 629 Bronson, Fred, 1217 Brooke, Edward, 34, 194–195, 1114 Brooks, Gwendolyn, 195–196, 281, 418, 506, 846, 1106, 1531 Brooks, Mel, 270, 1149 Brooks, Roy, 1207 Brooks, Sharon D., 78, 92, 281, 472, 900, 1184
Index Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), 880–881, 957, 1060, 1112, 1142, 1187–1188, 1211, 1361 Brotherton, David C., 571 Broton, Jimmy, 364 Broussard, Jeffery, 1558 Browder v. Gayle (1956), 311–312 Brown, Anthony, 341, 790 Brown, Bobby, 445 Brown, Catherine Davis, 203 Brown, Cecil, 546 Brown, Cheryl Adrienne, 124 Brown, Chris, 1120 Brown, Dale, 1052 Brown, Dennis, 1198 Brown, Elaine, 197–198, 844, 1026, 1316, 1527 Brown, Foxy, 632, 823 Brown, Frank Dexter, 346 Brown, Hallie Q., 220, 1522 Brown, Herbert Lee, 1146 Brown, James, 56–57, 97, 198–199, 200, 266, 318–319, 393, 789, 1121, 1151, 1268–1269, 1318–1319, 1347, 1438 Brown, Jazbo, 467 Brown, Jim, 200–202, 356, 516, 534, 635, 944, 1341; acting career, 202 Brown, John, 27, 416, 1287 Brown, Judge Joe, 202–203 Brown, Lee, 1441 Brown, Montrose Taylor, 1406 Brown, Oliver Leon, 1118 Brown, Ray, 520 Brown, Ruth, 1164 Brown, Sterling, 145, 500–501, 847–848, 1106 Brown, Theresa, 200 Brown, Tony, 203–204 Brown, Torchy, 257 Brown, Tracy, 459 Brown, William Alexander, 493 Brown, William Anthony, 203 Brown, William Wells, 472, 504, 848, 1296, 1297, 1426 Brown v. Board of Education, 204–206, 311 Browne, Theodore, 496 Bruce, Blanche K., 34
1663 Bruce, John Edward, 182, 504 Bruce, Lenny, 1235 Bruce Almighty, 557, 1364 Brunson, Rick, 269 Bryant, Arthur, 99 Bryant, Carolyn, 763, 1397 Bryant, Joe, 207 Bryant, Kobe, 207–209 Bryant, Pam, 207 Bryant, Richard, 1168 Bryant, Roy, 763, 1397 Bubbles, John, 648, 1369 Buchanan, Tom, 532 Buck, Pearl, 771 buck dancing, 1368, 1370 Buckner, Bill, 1341 Buffalo Soldiers, 209–210 Bullard, Edward, 473 Bumpass, Thelma, 226 Bunch, Fred, 210 Bunche, Ralph, 210–212, 1290 Bunkley, Anita Richmond, 857 Bunny Briggs, 1370 buppies, 212–213 Burghardt, Mary Silvina, 427 Burke, Glenn, 582 Burke, Melvin, 1491 Burke, Selma, 39, 41 Burke, Stanley, 445, 1200 Burks, John, 657 Burks, Mary Fair, 1525 Burleigh, Harry T., 1355 Burley, Dan, 1554 Burnett, Charles, 511 Burns, Dewey, 599 Burns, Helen, 740 Burns, Jesse, 740 Burns, Ken, 67, 892, 1442 Burns, Kristine H., 1303 Burns, Matilda, 740 Burns, Tommy, 185 Burr, Aaron, 827 Burris, Roland, 1115 Burrows, Stephen, 952 Burton, Richard, 1232 Bush, George W., 1129, 1131, 1134, 1214, 1384 Bush, Lynn J., 794
1664 business and commerce, 213–222; African American enterprises and industrial age, 214–216; biographies, 220–222; contemporary business leaders, 222; emergence, studies on, 217–220; golden age, 216–217; slave narratives, 213 Buster, Prince, 1198 Butler, Keith, 298, 925 Butler, Octavia, 846 Butts, Calvin, 925 Bynum, Juanita, 1139–1140 Byrd, Bobby, 199 Byrd, Jeff, 514 Byrd, William, 292 Byzantine, Christian, 1049 C Cable News Network (CNN), 191, 254, 384, 713, 788–789 Cade, Helen, 84 Cade, Toni, 83–85, 147 Caesar, Adolph, 752 Caesar, Jim, 225 Caesar, Shirley, 225–227, 300, 1122, 1510 Cagle, Yvonne, 72 Cain, Bobby, 1285 Calder, Alexander, 118 Caldwell, Christopher, 1283 Caldwell, Earl, 788 Caldwell, Kirbyjon, 299, 925 Calhoun, John C., 822 California, African American communities, 344 California Colony and Home Promoting Association (CCHPA), 344 Calipari, John, 269 Callahan, John F., 158, 458, 526, 583, 822, 982 Callen, Maude, 939 Callender, James, 587 Calliste, Leroy, 231 Calloway, Cab, 7, 86, 89, 227–228, 393, 592, 648, 874, 1189, 1251–1252, 1293, 1378, 1553–1554 Calloway, Vanessa Bell, 1495 calypso music, 228–231
Index Campanella, Roy, 232–233, 1006 Campbell, Bebe Moore, 858 Campbell, Elmer Simms, 118, 257 Campbell, Lucie, 300 Campbell, Luther, 266 Campbell, Moore, 1374 Campbell, Naomi, 233–235, 954; early life, 233–234 Campbell-Martin, Tisha, 905 Camus, Albert, 1542 Canada, 236–237 Canadian Multiculturalism Act, 976 Cannon, Dyan, 4 Cannon, Nick, 969 car racing, 237–242; Mr. Ribbs, 240–241; off track, 241–242; pioneers in, 237–239; taking ownership, 239–240; at Vanguard, 315 card games, 561–562 Carey, Alfred Roy, 242 Carey, Mariah, 56, 242–243, 437, 464, 705, 748, 1200 Carey, Patricia, 242 Carey, Percy, 611 Caribbean cultural influences, 243–249; actors, 246–247; African American popular music, contemporary influences on, 248–249; Afro-Hispanic blending, 44; food, 246; literature, 244–245; music, 247–248; political leaders, 244; rap music and, 248; religious movements, 245–246 Carlos, John, 356, 535, 1051, 1319, 1342 Carlton, Doyle E., 1423 Carmichael, Stokely, 82, 161, 249–250, 1070, 1153, 1172, 1316, 1360, 1519 Carnegie, Andrew, 1430, 1469 Carnegie, Mary Elizabeth, 1033 Carney, Harry, 452 Carr, Johnnie, 957 Carraby, Antoine, 572 Carrey, Jim, 341, 1474 Carrier, Sylvester, 1243 Carroll, Diahann, 251–252 Carson, Benjamin S., 252–254 Carson, Johnny, 337, 635, 806, 1248 Carson, Sonya, 252
Index Cartagena, Joseph, 248 Carter, Betty, 1252 Carter, Charlotte, 508 Carter, James, 1382, 1414 Carter, Jimmy, 137, 659, 812, 1029, 1548 Carter, Linda M., 140, 197, 243, 256, 267, 271, 280, 388, 409, 490, 578, 650, 791, 965, 1099, 1195 Carter, Patricia, 1377 Carter, Ralph, 1380 Carter, Shawn Corey, 384, 435 Carter, Stephanie, 276, 449 Carter, Stephen L., 254–255 cartoons/cartoonists, 256–258 Carver, George Washington, 37, 180, 258–260, 365, 623, 667, 733, 840, 1253, 1255 Carver, Susan, 258 Cary, Mary Ann Shadd, 27 Casey, Bernie, 1337 Cash, Herman Frank, 1291 Castro, Fidel, 152 Catlett, Elizabeth, 260–263 Catlett, Mary Carson, 261 Causewell, Duane, 269 Cee, Jay, 658 Cee-lo, 562 celebrations. See festivals/celebrations censorship and offensive language, 264– 266 Center for Civil and Human Rights, 840 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 669–670, 672, 919–920, 923 Central America, Afro-Hispanic blending, 44 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), 686, 1349–1350 Cepeda, Orlando, 1223 Chadwick, George, 1355 Chainey, Martha, 611 Chamberlain, Wilt, 2, 4, 106, 267–268, 1249, 1496 Chambers, Julius, 834 Chambers v. Florida (1940), 310 Chambliss, Robert, 1291 Chan, Jackie, 342, 1382, 1414 Chandler, Chas, 656 Chandler, Philip, 1471
1665 Chaney, James, 354 Chaney, John, 268–270 Chappell, Kevin, 306 Chappelle, Dave, 270–271 Charles, Ezzard, 185 Charles, Ray, 271–273, 981 Charles, Suzette, 124, 374 Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, 913–914 Charleston, Oscar, 109, 1068 Charline, Barbara, 784 charter schools, 274–276 Chastain, Brandi, 1518 Chatmon, Sam, 409 Checker, Chubby, 1078 Cheek, Donna Marie, 694 cheerleading, 276–278 Cheers, Michael, 1087 chefs, 363–364 Chen, Wayne, 1199 Cheney, Dick, 730 Chenier, Clifton, 1557–1558 Cherry, Bobby Frank, 1291 Chestnut, Morris, 571 Chesnutt, Andrew, 279 Chesnutt, Charles W., 278–279, 433, 845, 847 Chevannes, Barry, 423–424 Chewing, Patrick, 478 Chicago Defender, 117, 196, 220, 280–281, 442, 461, 787, 847, 853, 1019–1020, 1095, 1398, 1433, 1493 Chicago Race Riot, 1492 Chicago Theological Seminary, 742 Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM), 444 children and youth, 281–285; culture, 1930s–1950s, 283; 1960s–1970s, 283–284; 1980s and beyond, 284–285; and toys, 566; and video games, 566–567 Childress, Alice, 1097 Chinese Exclusion Act, 144, 974 Chinn, Alva, 952 Chisholm, Conrad, 287 Chisholm, Shirley, 286–288, 355, 1111, 1118, 1438 chitlin circuit, 288–290
1666 Christgau, Robert, 656 Christian, Barbara, 846 Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), 1383–1384 Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME), 294, 671, 674 Christie, Angela, 9 Christine Moore Corporation, 127 Church, Mary, 871, 1387–1388 churches, 290–302; in civil rights, politics, and economics, 296–298; leadership, women in, 299–300; megachurches and megapreachers, 298–299; music, 300–302; new faith, 291–293; in new millennium, 302; in nineteenth century, 293–294; in twentieth century, 294; in urban setting, 295–296 Cincinnati Royals, 756 circuses, 303–307; racial barriers, breaking, 304–305; racial segregation in, 303–304 City College of New York (CCNY), 69, 84, 112, 244, 408, 964–965, 1127, 1129, 1279 civil rights cases, 307–312, 667–668; cases, 309–312; inequality and discrimination, history of, 308–309; legal struggle for, 309–312; marches, premodern, 1142–1144 Civil Rights Act, 14, 33, 161, 195, 206, 253, 312, 318, 321, 354, 505, 811, 826, 881, 1114–1115, 1423–1424 Civil Rights Era: and African Americans, 32–34; comedy as commentary in, 336–337 Civil Rights Movement, 11, 79–80, 159–163, 256–257, 311, 313–319, 321, 638, 800, 807–809, 834–835, 880–882, 1059–1061, 1285–1286, 1315–1317, 1359–1360, 1518–1527; actors and performers during, 7–9; direct nonviolent protest, precursors to, 316–317; and fiction, 505–506; modern, 317–319; premodern, 314–316; social activists, 1315–1316; women and, 1518–1527
Index civil rights organizations, 1059–1060 Civil War, 27–30; Thirteenth Amendment, 29; Fourteenth Amendment, 29; Fifteenth Amendment, 29; Reconstruction and, 28 Clair, St. Stephanie, 562 Clapton, Eric, 445, 689, 807, 1473 Clark, Dick, 134, 1324 Clark, Dorothy, 197 Clark, Joe, 557 Clark, Larry, 511 Clark, Mattie Moss, 301 Clark, Michele, 789 Clark, Patrick, 364 Clark, Rasheed, 507 Clark, Septima, 314, 837, 1523–1524, 1526 Clark, Wahida, 859 Clarke, Donald, 678 Clarke, John Henrik, 42, 847, 1206 Clarke, Sarah, 489 class structure, upper, middle, underclass, 320–322; Great Migration, impact of, 320–321; new black middle class and upper class, 321–322; working class and underclass, 322 Classic Blues Era, 173–174 Claude, Lucas, 1365 Clay, Henry, 26 Clay, Odessa, 49–50 Clay, Richard, 543–545 Clay, William, 355, 1227 Clayton, Alonzo, 693 Clayton, Frances, 591, 861 Cleage, Albert, 1138 Cleage, Pearl, 858 Cleaver, Eldridge, 570 Cleaver, Emmanuel, 298, 1118 Cleaver, Kathleen, 1527 Clegg, Claude A. III, 17 Cleghorne, Ellen, 1270 Clemente, Roberto, 1335 Cleveland, James, 602 Cleveland, Pat, 952 Cleveland Browns, 200–201, 532–534 Cleveland Buckeyes, 1005 Cleveland Cavaliers, 209, 755–757, 1345, 1496
Index Clinton, Bill, 55, 134, 244, 340, 440, 550, 604, 783, 813, 894, 943, 1086 Clinton, Catherine, 19 Clinton, George, 1121, 1320–1321 Clinton, Hillary, 609, 1041 clothing and fashion industry, 37–38, 323–327. See also fashion Clowers, Richard, 1478 Cobb, William Montague, 997 Cochran, Johnnie, 1211, 1281, 1337 cocoa, 36 Cody, Bill, 383 coffee, 35–36 Coffin, Levi, 1428 COGIC (Church of God in Christ), 294–295, 299, 301, 925, 928, 1139 Cole, Keshia, 1120 Cole, Larry, 856 Cole, Nat King, 7, 289, 520, 585, 1120 Coleman, Johnnie, 299 collectibles, black, 327–329 Collins, Bernice, 305 Collins, George, 355 Collins, Patricia Hill, 1528 Colom, Dorothy, 1156 Color Purple, The, 330 Colored Golfers Association, 599 Colored National Labor Union, 819 Colored Speedway Association, 238 Colored Women’s League, 368, 1387 Colter, Cyrus, 847 Coltrane, Gertrude, 331 Coltrane, John, 3, 97, 331–332, 352, 468, 657, 679, 758, 956, 981 Columbia, Beatrice, 62 Columbus, Christopher, 18, 570, 595, 1206, 1214 Combs, Sean, 332–334 comedy/comedians, 334–343, 468; 1980s, 338–339; 1990s, 339–341; black comedy, 337–338; commentary in Civil Rights Era, 336–337; minstrel era, 335–336; new talents and opportunities, 341–343 comics, 1156. See also graphic novels and books commentators. See sports announcers/ commentators
1667 commerce. See business and commerce Commission on Civil Rights, 136–137, 826, 943, 1147, 1423 Commission on Interracial Cooperation, 260 Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR), 176 Committee on Racial Equality, 353 Committee on Urban Conditions, 998, 1522 Common School Act, 236 communities, African American, 343–348; California, 344; Florida, 344–345; Kansas, 345; Louisiana, 345–346; Mississippi, 346; North Carolina, 346; Oklahoma, 347; South Carolina, 347–348; Texas, 348 Community Empowerment Association (CEA), 488 Community Reinvestment Act, 783 composers, 348–352; early twentieth century, 351–352; late twentieth century, 352; mid-twentieth century, 352; post-slavery, 349–351; slavery, 349 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, 1405 Cone, James, 161 conformity, and consumerism, 360–361 Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), 353–354 Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), 33, 190, 354–355, 638, 670, 841, 882, 1115, 1117, 1227, 1404 Connor, Chris, 468 consciousness and identity, African American, 356–358 Constantine, John, 610 consumerism, shopping, and brands, 358–361; and conformity, 360–361; factors affecting, 358–359; and individuality, 360; and social equalization, 360; as social solidarity, 359 Conyers, John, 355, 1074, 1211 Conyers, John Jr., 812 Cook, Howard, 94 Cook, Marion, 432, 1355 Cook, Samuel DuBois, 1013 Cook, Suzan Johnson, 300
1668 cookbooks, 361–367; African influences, 362–363; black colleges and universities, 365; classics, 366; family reunions, churches, and heritage collections, 363; Kwanzaa, 366–367; restaurateurs and chefs, 363–364 Cooke, Janet, 788 Cooke, Sam, 301, 318, 981, 1318 Cooke, Tamara M., 731 cooking. See food/cooking Coolidge, Calvin, 575 Cooper, Algernon Johnson, 828 Cooper, Anna Julia, 182, 367–368, 473, 646 Cooper, Lula Elizabeth, 46 Copage, Eric V., 366 Copley, Mary, 1497 Coppin, Fanny Jackson, 31 Coppola, Francis Ford, 1400 cornbread, 36 Cornelia, Yolanda, 593 Cornish, Samuel, 786 cornmeal, 36 cornrows, 369 Correll, Charles, 336 Cosby, Bill, 7–8, 131, 265, 285, 336–337, 339, 342–343, 370–371, 468, 556, 668, 700, 715, 874, 1148, 1235 Cosby Show, The, 372–373 Cosby, Camille, 1084 cosmetics, 373–375 Costas, Bob, 1364 cotillion and botillions, 376–378 cotton, 37–38 Cotton, James, 1396 Cotton Club, 7, 88–89, 391, 452, 648, 874, 980, 1027, 1127, 1370 Council for United Civil Rights, 984 country music, black, 380–381 Couric, Katie, 629 Courlander, Harold, 1241 Court of Federal Claims, 793–794 Court of International Trade, 793–794 Cousy, Bob, 1249 Covey, Edward, 415 Cowan, Denys, 608 cowboys and rodeos, 382–384 Craft, Ellen, 24, 1075 Craft, Jerry, 612
Index Crafts, Hannah, 577 craps, 562 Crawford, Hank, 806 Crawford, Vicki L., 638 Cribb, Tom, 184 crime, 384–385 Crisis (magazine), 386–387, 1021–1022 Crocker, Frankie, 405, 407, 1442 Cromwell, John Wesley, 182 Croninger, Robert G., 276 Croom, Sylvester, 1338 Cross, Ben, 713 Cross, Irv, 1346 Crosthwaite, Minnie Lou, 365 Crouch, Donald, 778 Crowell, Thomas Y., 745 Crowley, James, 578 Cruise, Tom, 152, 516 Crum, George, 37 Crummell, Alexander, 840, 1069 Cruse, Christina D., 593, 807, 1072, 1170, 1405, 1473 Cruse, Harold, 850 cubism, 39–40 Cue, Carter B., 52, 179, 204, 235, 470, 834, 978, 1225, 1239, 1361, 1479, 1499 Cuffe, Paul, 25, 1083 Cullen, Countee, 387–388 culture: celebrations, 681; influence, Africa, 34–40; influence, Caribbean, 243–249; urban (see urban culture) Cummings, Michael, 1161 Cunningham, Randall, 113 Cunningham, Sam, 113, 1343 Cunningham, Shirley A., 695 Curlin, Charles, 695 Currier, Theodore, 548 Curry, Mark, 340 Curtis, Austin M., 1034 Curtis, Brian, 1217 Curtis, Namahyoke, 1034–1035 Curtis, Tony, 131 Cutler, James, 866 D Dabydeen, David, 947, 1197 Daley, James, 576 Daley, Phyllis, 1037
Index Dallas, Walter, 1267 Daly, John, 600 Damani, Vernon, 851, 860 Dan, Damian, 1200 Dana, Charles, 184, 765, 1049 dance and dance companies, 389–394; 1900–1930s, 391; 1960s, 392; 1970s, 392; 1980s, 392–393; 1990s, 393–394; African American, 40, 468–469; companies, 394; free blacks, 390–391; origins, 389; slave dances, 390 Dandridge, Dorothy, 7, 394–395, 511, 952, 1494 Dandridge, Rudy, 395 Daniel, Edgar, 957 Daniels, Douglas H., 1555 Daniels, Lee, 512, 951 Danver, Steven L., 228 Darden, Norma Jean, 952 Darden, Paul, 563 Darin, Bobby, 1078 Darity, William A. Jr., 1234 Darling, Nola, 1440 Dash, Julie, 511 David, Hal, 1466 David, John, 545 Davidson, Adenike, 712, 1000 Davidson, Basil, 618 Davidson, Tommy, 341 Davies, Roger, 1415 Davis, Angela, 396–398, 570, 844, 1134, 1438, 1527 Davis, Arthur P., 847 Davis, Charles T., 577 Davis, Clive, 704, 803 Davis, Colonel Benjamin O., 1418 Davis, Doris A., 606 Davis, Ernie, 1336 Davis, Evelyn, 1420 Davis, Frank, 396 Davis, Irma, 623 Davis, John, 1462 Davis, Michael, 608 Davis, Mike, 612 Davis, Miles, 64, 331, 352, 399–401, 424, 611, 758–759, 890, 981, 1174, 1252, 1267 Davis, Ossie and Dee, Ruby, 401–403
1669 Davis, Sally, 396 Davis, Sammy Jr., 251, 337, 635, 1146, 1370, 1378 Davis, Shani, 403–404 Davis, Troy, 1269 Davis, Willie, 668 Davis Cup, 167 Dawkins, Wayne, 5, 67, 107, 209, 478, 733, 751, 757, 789, 876, 1250, 1347, 1350, 1345, 1442 Dawson, William, 355, 933, 1333 Day, Aaron, 612 Day, Agnes A., 1256 DCHR (Detroit Council for Human Rights), 1145 Deadwood Dick. See Love, Nat DeAnne, Cheryl, 114 DeBurke, Randy, 611 DeCarava, Roy, 1086 Deck, Alice, 76 Dee, Ivan R., 591 Dee, Ruby. See Davis, Ossie and Dee, Ruby deejaying, 405–407; events and clubs, 406; toasting, 406–407 DeFrantz, Thomas F., 143, 897 Dekker, Desmond, 1198 Delafose, Geno, 1558 Delafose, John, 1558 Delaney, Martin, 27 Delaney, Paul, 988 Delany, Elizabeth, 408 Delany, Henry Beard, 408 Delany, Martin, 145, 1069 Delany, Samuel R. Jr., 407–408 Delany, Sarah, 408 DeLavallade, Carmen, 46 DeLay, Tom, 190 DeLeon, Robert, 252 DeLoach, Nora, 856 Delonas, Sean, 265 DeLone, Miriam, 1135 Delsohn, Steve, 1304 Delta blues, 409–410 Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, 190 Democratic National Convention, 80, 176, 198, 708, 782–783, 1527
1670 Democratic Select Committee (DSC), 354 Den Dulk, Kevin R., 1119 Denard, Carolyn, 962 Dennis, Ellen, 713, 1300 Dent, Gina, 399 Dent, Tom, 146 Denver Broncos, 533 Depass, Rusty, 265 Depp, Johnny, 1310 DePriest, Oscar, 1114 Desselle, Natalie, 92 DeSylva, Buddy, 148 Dett, Nathaniel, 1333 Deutsh, Nathaniel, 154, 165 DeVaughn, Raheem, 1120 Deveraux, Dominique, 251 Devine, Annie, 1113, 1527 Devine, Loretta, 514 DeVore, Ophelia, 953 Dewey, John, 974 Dexter, Frank, 348 dice games, 562 Dickerson, Betty J., 1284 Dickerson, Chris, 410–412 Dickerson, Henry, 411 Dickerson, Mahala Ashley, 411 Dickey, Eric Jerome, 613, 1156 Diddley, Bo, 874, 1164 Diddy. See Combs, Sean Didrikson, Mildred, 1518 Diggs, Charles, 354, 1144 Dightman, Myrtis, 383 Dillard, Harrison, 1402 Dillit, Ann, 1035 Dills, Todd, 1487 Dilward, Thomas, 6 DiMaggio, Joe, 750, 898, 1068 Dingle, Derek T., 151, 608 Diop, Alioune, 1541 Dior, Christian, 952 direct nonviolent protest, precursors to, 316–317 directors, African-American, 1391 Disney, 122, 929 Disneyland, 75, 1465 Divas of Gospel, 10 dives, 1026–1028 Dixie, Quinton, 1501
Index Dixon, Louise, 541 Dixon, Melvin, 582, 846 Dixon, Rebecca S., 661, 972, 987, 1070, 1133, 1241, 1508 Dixon, Sheila, 606 Dixon, Thomas, 279, 313 Dixon, Thomas Jr., 929 Dixon, Willie, 1275, 1371 DNA testing, 587–589 Dodd, Clement, 1198 Dodds, Johnny, 1048 Dodson, Owen, 182 Dollard, John, 422 Domingo, Santo, 416 Donnerson, Darnell, 706 Dooley, Bill, 542 Doris, Walter, 805 Dorsey, Jimmy, 757 Dorsey, Lee, 1012 Dorsey, Thomas A., 300, 352, 602, 743, 1122, 1203 Dorsey, William H., 182 Doty, Leslie, 11 Double Dutch, 412–413, 795 Dougherty, Steve, 57 Douglas, Aaron, 386, 841 Douglas, Buster, 687 Douglas, Mike, 874 Douglas, Robert, 26 Douglass, Charles H., 493 Douglass, Emma Lee, 659 Douglass, Frederick, 24, 26–27, 180, 184, 214, 279, 356–358, 413–417, 432, 474, 530–531, 787, 820, 1153, 1295, 1314–1315; blacks and women, equal rights for, 416–417 Douglass, Sarah Mapps, 1520 Dove, Billie, 676 Dove, Elvira, 418 Dove, Ray, 418 Dove, Rita, 417–419, 848, 1107 Dove-Viebahn, Aviva Chantal, 418 Dovidio, John F., 932 Downs, Jordon, 197 Doyle, Jimmy, 1231 dozens, 419–422 Dozier, Lamont, 968, 1246 Dozier, Richard K., 61
Index drama. See theater/drama drama, African American, 469 Draper, Eric, 1086 Drayton, William Jonathan Jr., 1151 dreadlocks, 423–424 Dreesen, Tom, 338 Drew, Benjamin Alvin Jr., 73 Drew, Charles, 368, 532, 912, 1249 Drew, Timothy, 970, 985 Drexel, Katharine, 1010 drugs and popular culture, 424–427; and hip-hop culture, 426–427 Du Bois, Alfred, 427 Du Bois, Nina Gomer, 430 Du Bois, W. E. B., 427–431; and Booker T. Washington’s views, 429–431 Duberman, Martin, 583 DuBois, Ja’Net, 337 Dudley, Bessie, 469 Dudley, Joe L., 127 Duffy, Damian, 614 Dufty, William, 677–678 Dukakis, Michael, 189, 1111 Duke, Bill, 514 Dulf, George, 473 Dumont, John, 1408 Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 431–433 Dundee, Angelo, 50 Dungy, Kevin, 433 Dungy, Tony, 433–435, 535, 1306–1307 Dungy, Wilbur, 433 Dunham, Katherine, 148, 394, 469, 763 Dunham, Stanley Ann, 1039 Dunkley, Archibald, 1196 Dunlap, Erica, 124 Dunn, Colin, 1370 Duplex, Edward Park, 605 Duplex, Prince, 605 Dupree, Cornell, 436 Dupri, Jermaine, 435–437, 1155 Durham, Malcolm, 239 Durham, Richard, 1178 Durst, Claudia, 571 Duryea, Etta, 767 Duster, Alfreda M., 1482 Dutrey, Honore, 1048 Dutton, Charles S., 752
1671 Dutton, Thomas A., 63 Duval, Daphne, 1185, 1308 Dweck, Stephen, 421, 423 Dylan, Bob, 134, 656, 1146, 1229, 1234 Dynamite, Willie, 511 Dynamos, the, 797–798 Dyson, Michael Eric, 596, 943, 1484 E Earl, James, 777–779 Earl, Robert, 777 Earley, Margaret, 1000 Early, Gerald, 184, 186, 358, 650, 766 Earnhardt, Dale, 240 Eaton, Captain Josiah, 344 Ebonics. See Black English Ebony (magazine), 439–441 Ebony Cookbook, 366 Ebony Man (magazine), 440, 540–541, 771 Eckstine, Billy, 87, 1071 economic development, 441–443 Edelman, Marian Wright, 443–444 Edgar, John, 1108 Edison, Thomas A., 731, 1254 Edmonds, Kenneth ‘‘Baby Face,’’ 445–446 Edmonds, Randolph, 494, 647 Edmonds, Tracey, 446 Edmondson, William, 39, 41 Edmonson, Jaqueline, 1505 education: public and private, 446–448 Edwards, Al, 800 Edward, Harry, 498 Edward, James, 87, 1543 Edward, Thomas, 933 Edwards, Harry, 115, 1050 Edwards, John, 730 Edwards, Rosa, 1072 Edwyna, Dale, 695 Effa, 1005 Egan, Pierce, 184 Eikerenkoetter, Frederick II, 1138 Eisenhower, Dwight, 39, 53, 874, 880 Elam, Harry J., 290 Elarese, Jose, 262 Elba, Idris, 1081 Elder, Lee, 449–450, 1349, 1535 Elder, Sadie, 450
1672 Eldridge, Roy, 86, 592, 758 Elena, Lorraine, 1528 El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. See Malcolm X Elie, Lolis Eric, 1016 Elise, Kimberly, 1081 Elizabeth, Glenda, 1117 Elizabeth, Mary, 1038 Elizabeth, Nancy, 990 Elizabeth, Queen, 591 Elizabeth II, Queen, 123 Ellington, Duke, 7, 86–88, 117, 128–129, 351, 381, 451–453, 520, 592, 647, 679, 757, 760, 779, 980–982, 1011 Elliott, Chad, 436 Elliott, Ernest, 1308 Elliott, Missy, 140, 454–455, 633, 823, 1192 Ellis, Dave, 119 Ellis, Jimmy, 553 Ellison, Daisy Kennedy, 87 Ellison, Ida, 456 Ellison, Lewis, 455–456 Ellison, Ralph, 82, 97, 102, 115, 129, 158, 315, 455–458, 500–501, 506, 525–526, 579, 583, 587, 822, 852–853 Elmore, Richard E., 276 Emancipation Proclamation, 344 Emanuel, Charles, 296 Embassy and Peace Corps, 72 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 425, 427, 1182 Emmon, Thomas, 1453 employment, unemployment, and income, 458–464; black, and income, 462; black achievers and, 462–464; unemployment in arts, literature and media, 459–462 English, Black. See Black English Enlistment Act, 941 entertainment industry, 465–470; blues, 467; celebrations and festivals, 466– 467; comedies, 468; dancing, 468–469; drama, 469; future of, 470; hip-hop, 469–470; jazz, 467–468; music in New World, 466; origins, 465–467 entertainment spots, 1026–1028 Equal Rights Amendment, 1438 Equiano, Olaudah, 446, 449, 466, 522, 524, 1294, 1426
Index Equitable Life Assurance Society, 471 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas, 906 Escovedo, Sheila, 247 Esdaile, Leslie, 612 Essence (magazine), 471–472 Essence Communications Partners, 471–472 Estefan, Gloria, 779 Estes, Rufus, 362 Eterno, John, 385 ethnicity. See race/ethnicity Eubanks, Jonathan, 1086 Europe, and African Americans, 472–474; artists, 472–473; Negro spirituals, 473 Evan, Alice, 1082 Evan Almighty, 557, 1364 evangelism. See television evangelism Evans, Darryl, 364 Evans, Elizabeth, 1236, 1312, 1407, 1431, 1503 Evans, Lorraine, 276 Evans, Mike, 1380 Evans, Pat, 953 Evans, Richard, 1442 Evans, Vance, 534 Everett, Ron, 814 Evers, Charles, 151 Evers, Medgar, 475–476 Ewing, Dorothy, 477 Ewing, Patrick, 477–478, 1394 expos, 681–682 expos, black, 478–481 F Fabre, Michel, 661, 1543 Facebook, 302, 1497 Fair, Ronald L., 846 Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), 316, 703, 994, 1143 Fair Housing Act, 162, 318, 811, 1114, 1424 Fairfax, Frankie, 592 Falkner, David, 1250 Fallon, Jimmy, 1257 family celebrations, 682 family life, 483–485
Index family reunions, 485–488; ancestral searching and, 486; national family reunion celebrations, 486–487; Pittsburgh black family reunion, 488; Sweet Auburn SpringFest, 487–488 Fard, Wallace, 971–972, 986–987 Fard Muhammad, Wallace D., 42 Fargas, Antonio, 338 Farmer, James, 288, 353, 554, 838, 1054–1061 Farmer, Sharon, 1086 Farr, Elnora, 805 Farrakhan, Louis, 296, 488–490, 742, 942, 972, 987, 1023, 1209, 1212 Farris, Robert, 1354, 1547 fashion, 323–327; men, 325–327; women, 324–325 Fat Tuesday. See Mardi Gras ‘‘Father of Tap,’’ 1368 ‘‘Father of the Blues,’’ 173 Faubus, Orville, 1524 Fauley, Lynne, 143, 148 Faulk, Marshall, 201 Faulkner, William, 961, 1075 Fauntroy, Walter, 355, 1118 Fauset, Jessie Redmon, 386, 473, 505, 646, 845, 1522 FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), 65, 162, 385, 396, 430, 570, 613, 637, 879, 1108, 1291, 1475, 1554 Federal Arts Project, 499 Federal Aviation Agency, 934 Federal Council on Negro Affairs, 139, 1112 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 1015–1016 Federal Fair Employment Practices Act, 1143 Federal Magistrate Judges Association, 795 Federal National Relief Agency, 528 Federal Theatre Project (FTP), 491–498, 501, 513; Chicago, Illinois, 496–497; Harlem, New York, 498; major issues and controversies, 495–498; Negro Theatre Unit, 491–498; Seattle, Washington, 495–496 Federal Trade Commission, 659
1673 Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), 499– 501, 1297, 1541 Female Literary Society of Philadelphia, 1520 feminism, 502–503 Fenty, Adrian M., 606 Fenty, Monica, 248 Ferris, William, 278 Ferro, Marc, 511 Fest, Zora, 722 festivals/celebrations, 679–686; black pride, 680–681; blues and jazz fests and festivals, 679–680; cultural celebrations, 681; expos, 681–682; family celebrations, 682; freedom celebrations, 682–683; Greek letter and service organizations’ conventions, 683; holidays, 683–684; Juneteenth, 799–800; religious celebrations and festivals, 684–685; sports classics, 685–686 Fetchit, Steppin, 717, 874 Fiasco, Lupe, 1258 fiction, 503–508; Black Power Movement Era and, 506–507; Civil Rights Movement Era and, 505–506; Harlem Renaissance and, 504–505; history of, 503–504; 1970s and beyond, 507–508 Fierce, Jonathan, 613 Fierce, Sasha, 140, 142 50 Cent, 508–510 Files, Lolita, 858 film/filmmakers, 510–513 film festivals, 513–516 Final Call to Islam, 1023 Fine, Elizabeth C., 1354 Finkelman, Paul, 91, 103, 177, 539, 660, 672, 695, 730, 764, 768, 875, 924, 990, 1089, 1095, 1330 Finley, Robert, 25 Finn, Huckleberry, 707 Finney, Nikky, 848 Firestone, Ross, 252 Fischer, Nancy, 569 fish fry, 517–518 Fishburne, Laurence, 464, 569, 1418 Fisher, Antwone, 514, 1471 Fisher, Bernice, 554 Fisher, Miles Mark, 466
1674 Fisher, Rudolph, 845, 856, 965 Fitzbutler, William Henry, 911 Fitzgerald, Ella, 518–521 Fitzgerald, William, 519 Flack, Roberta, 623 Flake, Floyd, 298–299, 925, 1118 Flanagan, Hallie, 491 Flash, Jack, 511, 598 Fleming, Victor, 313 Fletcher, Alphonse Jr., 1483 Fletcher, Bill, 1405 Flippin, George, 531 Flood, Curt, 1335 Florida, African American communities, 344–345 Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), 345, 1348 Florida State Teachers Organization, 138 Floyd, John, 23 Flusser, Alan, 327 Foley, Judge Maurice B., 794 folk foods, 521–523 folk medicine. See medicine, folk folklore, 524–526; black, 57–59 Follis, Charles, 532 Folwell, Ann, 85 Fonda, Jane, 1364 Foner, Eric, 621 Fontenot, Bee Canray, 1557 food/cooking, 526–530; African, 35; among slaves, 527–528; soul food and black culture, 528–530 football, 530–535, 1336–1338; black quarterbacks, 533–535; pioneers in, 531–533 Forbes, George, 1019 Ford, Glenn, 1108 Ford, Harold, 961 Ford, Nick Aaron, 846 Foreman, George, 51, 366, 535–537, 552, 1342 Foresman, Scott, 621 Forman, James, 442, 637, 1061, 1210–1205, 1213, 1526 Forten, James, 26, 764 Fortune, Timothy Thomas, 31, 787, 1019, 1481 Foster, Frances S., 661, 851, 860, 1241, 1508
Index Foster, Rube, 537–539 Foster, Sarah, 538 Foster, William D., 335 Foster, William H. III, 614 Foundation for Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation (FAIRR), 807 Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now (FFAWN), 169 Fowler, Bud, 1002 Fox, Frances, 1479 Fox, Rick, 1503 Fox, Vivica, 540 Foxx, Jamie, 152, 464, 516, 541–542, 706, 1270, 1279, 1474, 1495 Foxx, Redd, 265, 289, 336–339, 468, 714, 1379 Fraden, Rena, 491 France, David, 424 Frances, Mary, 136–137 Francis, Connie, 1078 Francis, Norman, 1012, 1016 Frankie and Albert/Johnny 542–546 Franklin, Aretha, 546–548 Franklin, Benjamin, 1489 Franklin, Donald, 1157 Franklin, John Hope, 18, 387, 548–550, 620, 723, 841, 849, 1475 Franklin, John Whittington, 549 Franklin, Kirk, 285, 302, 550–551, 1122–1123, 1203, 1510 Franklin, Martha, 1036 Franklin, Shirley, 606 fraternities and sororities, 1062–1063 Frazier, Franklin, 15, 71, 484, 850 Frazier, Joe, 552–553 Frazier-Lyde, Jacqui, 48–49 Frederick Douglass Book Center, 181 Frederick Douglass Day, 684 Freed, Alan, 1233 Freedmen’s Bureau, 30, 279, 294, 308, 441, 664, 911, 1454 freedom celebrations, 682–683 Freedom Riders, 553–555 Freeland, William, 415 Freeman, Joel, 1263 Freeman, Morgan, 556–557, 931 Freeman, Roland, 1086 Fresh, Doug E., 1191
Index Friedan, Betty, 191 FSAM (Free South Africa Movement), 137, 1029, 1227 Fudge, Ann M., 222 Fugitive Slave Act, 27, 236, 1425 Full Employment Act, 355 Fuller, Bruce, 276 Fuller, Charles H. Jr., 849, 1098 Fuller, Hoyt, 97, 146 Fuller, Meta Warrick, 648 funerals, 557–560; home, 559–560 funk. See soul and funk Furstenberg, Von, 955 Futch, Eddie, 552 G Gabbin, Joanne V., 848 Gabriella, Sasha, 1503 Gaines, Ernest, 507 Gaines, Wilbur, 238 Gaines, William, 964 Galante, Debbie, 1220 Galbraith, Robert, 939 gambling and gaming, 561–563; card games, 561–562; dice games/Cee-lo/ craps, 562; famous African American gamblers, 563; kingpins of gaming/ numbers, 562–563; numbers/lotteries, 562; on sporting events, 563 games, video games, and toys, 564–567; jump rope, 796–798 Gandhi, Mahatma, 353, 1138, 1547 gangs, 568–571 gangsta rap, 571–573 Gantt, Harvey, 61 Gardener, Caleb, 349 Gardner, Joseph, 198 Garner, Margaret, 357 Garnett, Kevin, 460 Garofalo, Reebee, 1233 Garraty, John A., 621, 990, 1065, 1234 Garrett, David, 280 Garrett, Sean, 1219 Garrison, William Lloyd, 27, 415, 1295, 1411 Garrison, Zina, 591 Garvey, Amy Ashwood, 1023 Garvey, Amy Jacques, 244, 850, 1017
1675 Garvey, Marcus, 42, 157, 160, 244–245, 515, 574–576, 632, 684, 850, 877, 888, 986–987, 1021–1022, 1069, 1195–1196, 1212–1213, 1315 Gary, Willie, 1211 Gasol, Pau, 209 Gates, George W., 99 Gates, Henry Louis Jr., 42, 130, 163, 221, 265, 290, 576–578, 818, 947–948, 982, 1108, 1183–1184, 1197, 1321, 1483–1485, 1551 Gates, Henry Louis Sr., 577 Gates, Pauline, 577 Gay, Tyson, 578–579 gay and lesbian culture, 579–583; in protest, 581–583 Gaye, Marvin, 56, 78, 584–586, 965–960, 968, 1079, 1120, 1165, 1229, 1318, 1438, 1499 Gehrig, Lou, 750 genealogy and DNA testing, 587–589 General Motors, 103, 240, 990, 1343 Gentry-Huyghe, Josephine, 124 George, Bruce, 1103 George, Eddie, 908 George, Nelson, 213 George Foreman Grill, 536 Georgia Dome, 490, 1348 Gephardt, Dick, 189 Geraldine, Audrey, 861 Gershwin, George, 251, 1389 Gershwin, Ira, 228, 520 Gertrude, Cynthia, 634 Giants, Lincoln, 1003 Gibbs, Marla, 337, 339, 1381 Gibson, Althea, 578, 589–591, 1344, 1386–1387, 1503 Gibson, Amid, 591 Gibson, Bob, 111 Gibson, Daniel, 590 Gibson, Jack, 1175 Gibson, Josh, 109, 1334 Gibson, Kym, 364 Gibson, Reginald W., 794 Gibson, Tamiko, 122 Gibson, Thelma, 77
1676 Gilbert, Olive, 1296 Gill, Johnny, 1081 Gill, Jonathan, 1234 Gillespie, Dizzy, 128–129, 520, 591–593, 890, 981, 1252, 1267, 1396, 1548 Gillespie, James, 592 Gillespie, Marcia, 1438 Gilliam, Joe, 534 Gilpin, Charles, 647 Gimelstob, Gerry, 269 Giovanni, Nikki, 84–85, 146, 471, 593–594, 666, 848, 854, 1103, 1107, 1155, 1257 Gipson, Allie Will, 916 Gipson, Jim, 346 Givens, Robin, 1422 Glaser, Joe, 65 Glass, Barbara S., 391 Gleason, Ralph, 656, 759 Global Afrikan Congress (GAC), 1212 globalization, 595–597 Gloucester, John, 292 Glover, Danny, 515, 642, 723, 1097, 1335 Glover, Savion, 1370 Godfrey, Arthur, 251 Goines, Donald, 931 Goines, Victor, 1014 Gold, Todd, 1150 gold teeth, 40 Goldberg, Whoopi, 270, 340, 597–598, 706, 716, 1390 Goldman, Fred, 1283 golf, 598–600, 1343–1344 Gomes, Peter J., 582 Goode, Cardozo, 1221 Gooden, Angela M., 73, 153, 212, 443, 753 Goodman, Andrew, 354 Goodman, Benny, 87, 89, 520, 676, 757 Goodman, Robert, 490 Gordon, Penny, 738 Gordone, Charles, 849, 856, 1098 Gordon-Reed, Annette, 589 Gordy, Anna, 585 Gordy, Berry Jr., 8, 219, 222, 436, 585, 694, 737, 966, 1229, 1244, 1437, 1499
Index Gospel choirs and singing groups, 601–603 Gossett, Louis Jr., 8, 641, 778, 1390 Gottlieb, Peter, 619 Gould, Jay, 1464 governors and mayors, 603–606. See also mayors, African American Grace, Charles Emmanuel, 1137 Grace, Daddy, 296, 1139 Gradual Abolition Act, 24 graffiti art. See aerosol art Graham, Billy, 674, 1383–1384 Graham, Martha, 46 Graham, Shirley, 497, 499 Grant, Bertha, 1472 Grant, Bradford C., 60–61 Grant, Cary, 544 Grant, Della, 1472 Grant, Frank, 108 Grant, George, 599 Granger, Gordon, 798 Grant, Ulysses S., 601, 1009, 1111 Grant, William, 1355 graphic novels and books, 607–614; African American themes, 608–610; publishing, 608; writers, characters, and series, 610–613; writers from traditional literary forms, 613–614 Grassley, Charles, 928, 1384 Graves, Earl G., 150, 222, 614–616, 982 Gray, Deborah, 946 Gray, Edward B., 531 Gray, Fred, 309 Gray, Todd, 674 Gray, Victoria, 1113, 1527 Great Depression, 32 Great Migration, 616–621; and class structure, 320–321; enslavement and black migration to the Americas, 617–618; return migration, 620–621 Greaves, William, 511 Greek letter organizations, 622–625, 683; rites of passage, 624–625 Green, Jacob D., 1297 Green, Nancy, 75 Green, Paul, 497, 852 Green, Silas, 1472 Green, Tyrone, 977
Index Greenberg, Jack, 834 Greene, Carlos, 445 Greene, ‘‘Mean Joe,’’ 625–626 Greenhough, Jane, 1458 Greenlee, Gus, 109, 157 Greer, Robert O., 508 Greer, Sonny, 88 Greggs, Sandra R., 213 Gregory, Dick, 265, 289, 336, 366, 468, 529, 627–628, 714, 875, 944, 1148, 1235 Gregory, Frederick D., 72 Gregory, James Frances, 108, 531 Gregory, Presley, 627 Grier, David Alan, 341, 1474 Grier, Pam, 8, 540, 699 Grier, Roosevelt, 1336 Griffin, Bessie, 300 Griffin, Doris, 1227 Griffin, Eddie, 265 Griffin, Merv, 874, 1148 Griffin, Richard, 1151 Griffiths, Michael, 1268 Grigg, Wendy, 449 ‘‘grillz,’’ 169–171 Grimes, Andrew, 346 Grimk, Angelina Weld, 581 Grimm, Ben, 613 Grissom Air Force Base, 1299 grits, 36 Grogger, Jeffrey, 464 Grossman, James R., 619 Groth, Gary, 610 Grubbs, Naima, 331 Gruenfeld, Lee, 688 Grutter, Barbara, 828 Guevara, Che, 610 Guillaume, Robert, 338 Guillermin, John, 1264 Gumbel, Bryant, 628–629, 788, 1346 Gumbel, Greg, 1346 Guy, Buddy, 1396 Guy, Jasmine, 1495 Guy, Joe, 678 H Haggins, Bami, 1380 Haggins, Robert, 1086
1677 hair and hairstyles, 631–633; in slavery period, 631–632; twentieth century and beyond, 632–633 Haki, Mwalimu, 59 Haley, Alex, 633–636 Haley, Bertha George Palmer, 634 Haley, Bill, 1233 Hall, Robert L., 329, 1006, 1087, 1161 Ham, Debra Newman, 34, 219, 417, 1388, 1502 Hama, Larry, 609 Hamberg, Cheryl, 411–412, 672, 924 Hamer, Fannie Lou, 636–638, 827, 1113, 1316, 1527 Hamilton, Gloria, 10, 136, 152, 387, 835, 1216 Hamilton, Ian, 98 Hamlin, Larry Leon, 681, 992 Hammerstein, Oscar, 1221 Hammond, Fred, 302, 1122 Hampton, Lionel, 89–90, 520, 592, 760, 779, 1252 Hancock, Herbie, 352, 890 Handy, W. C., 639–640 Hannah, John A., 1423 Hannon, Malcolm, 238 Hanrahan, Edward, 934 Hansberry, Lorraine, 640–642 Hanson, Gordon H., 464 Hardin, Lil, 65, 1048 Harding, President Warren G., 938 Hardison, Bethann, 954 Hardison, Kadeem, 339 Hardy, James Earl, 582 Hardy, Rob, 514 Hare, Nathan, 163, 507 Harell, Andre, 168, 967 Haring, Keith, 13 Harlem Globetrotters, 642–644 Harlem Renaissance, 179, 386–388, 494–495, 504–505, 580–581, 644–648, 718–719, 851–852, 904, 947, 978, 1074–1075, 1095–1097, 1105–1106, 1154, 1220–1221; and fiction, 504–505; literary artists, 646–647; literature of, 1154; visual arts and artists, 647–648 Harlem Writers’ Guild, 506, 907
1678 Harleston, Edwin, 1020, 1094 Harper, Francis Ellen Watkins, 27 Harper, Michael S., 1107 Harrell, Willie J. Jr., 887 Harris, Abram L., 217 Harris, Barbara, 299 Harris, Bass, 1177 Harris, E. Lynn, 649–650 Harris, Ezra Enoch, 694 Harris, Franco, 1337 Harris, Frank, 1541 Harris, Hays, 1372 Harris, Ira, 133 Harris, James, 534 Harris, Jennifer, 1532 Harris, Jessica B., 366 Harris, Joel Chandler, 929 Harris, Lusia, 114 Harris, Mary, 922 Harris, Robin, 716 Harris, Ruth Ethel, 212 Harris, Steve, 1081 Harris, Sybil, 939 Harrison, Donald, 1014 Harrison, George, 134 Harrison, Jennifer K., 627 Harrison, John, 108, 364 Harrison, Philip, 1052 Harrold, Stanley, 34, 622, 1063, 1173 Hart, Lorenz, 520 Hartfield, Clarence, 65 Harvard, Nikki Chase, 856 Harvey, Jesse, 650 Harvey, Steve, 341, 463, 650–652, 712, 1180, 1279 Harwick, Kevin R., 812 Haskins, Jim, 1074 Hastie, William H., 1493 Hatch, James V., 499, 1392 Hatcher, Richard, 1438 Hathaway, Donny, 1120 Havranek, Carrie, 1246 Hawkins, Augustus, 355, 1114 Hawkins, Coleman, 86, 678, 758, 1308 Hawkins, Edwin, 1122 Hawthorn, Christina, 1305 Hayden, Dolores, 61 Hayden, Palmer, 648
Index Hayden, Robert, 418, 500, 1106, 1302 Hayes, Bob, 668, 1336 Hayes, Elvin, 4 Hayes, Eula, 653 Hayes, Isaac Jr., 653 Hayes, Roland, 300, 647 Hayle, Tamara, 856 Haynes, Dion, 460 Haynes, George Edmund, 667, 998 Haynes, Julius P., 108 Haynes, Roy, 758 Haynes, Thomas M., 347 Haysbert, Dennis, 931 Haywood, Gar Anthony, 508, 856 Haywood, George Washington, 367 HBO (Home Box Office), 135, 265, 340–341, 514, 516, 629, 907, 919, 964, 1016, 1191, 1258, 1279, 1346, 1364, 1413 Head Start, 654–655 health: community projects, 921; disparities, efforts to decrease, 914–921; government projects, 920–921; internet resources, 921–922; outlook, 923; print resources, 922–923; status, African American, 919–920 Health Emergency Declaration (HED), 922 Healy, James Augustine, 294 Heartman, Charles L., 182 Hebrews, Black. See Black Hebrews Hecht, Michael L., 266 Hedly II, King, 1390 Hefner, Hugh, 627 Hegan, Jim, 1067 Height, Dorothy, 486–487, 944, 994, 1059, 1209, 1519 Hein, Jean Patrick, 240 Helfer, Andrew, 611 Helms, Jesse, 812 Hemings, Eston, 587 Hemings, James, 363 Hemings, Sally, 472, 474, 587 Hemingway, Ernest, 424, 961 Hemmings, Sally, 1351 Hemphill, Essex, 582 Hemphill, Shirley, 338 Hemsley, Sherman, 337, 340, 1380
Index Henderson, David, 146 Henderson, Douglas, 1175 Henderson, Erskine, 693 Henderson, Fletcher, 86, 648, 757 Henderson, Harry, 120, 263 Henderson, Jeff, 367 Henderson, Jocko, 1179 Henderson, Rickey, 111 Henderson, Stephen, 146, 848 Hendrix, Jimi, 424, 426, 655–657, 1233 Heneke, James, 133 Henley, Barry Shabaka, 516 Henrick, John, 1551 Henry, Douglas, 1555 Henry, Jim, 446 Henry, John, 496, 1221 Henry, William, 757 Henson, Josiah, 1296, 1426 Hepburn, Audrey, 1494 Herald, Christian, 1094 Herald, Fisk, 386 Herald, Langston, 347 Herc, Kool DJ, 657–658 Herman, George, 109 Herman, Woody, 757 Herndon, Alonzo F., 101 Herndon, James, 300 Hernton, Calvin, 146 Hervey, Ramon II, 1503 Hesburgh, Theodore M., 1423 Hewlett, James, 469 Hibbert, Joseph, 1196 Hicks, Sidney, 951 Higginbotham, A. Leon, 659–660 Higgins, Robert, 1002 Hilfiger, Tommy, 141 Hill, Anita, 1392, 1393 Hill, Cobble, 833 Hill, Donna, 858 Hill, Forest, 590 Hill, Leroy, 364 Hill, Nancy E., 485 Hill, Patricia, 503, 1532 Hill, Teddy, 592 Hill Chisholm, St. Shirley Anita, 286 Hillard, Asa, 42 Hill-Burton Act, 997 Hilliard, Ira V., 925
1679 Himes, Chester, 315, 385, 402, 505, 660–661, 845, 852, 856, 965, 1554 Hines, Darlene, 936 Hines, Earl, 592 Hines, Gregory, 1369–1370 Hines, Ron, 240 Hinton, Milt, 228 hip-hop, 40, 469–470, 661–663, 795, 1293; culture, and drugs, 426–427 Hiramoto, Akira, 611 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), 664–668; characteristics of, 665–666; literary and creative pursuits, 666–668 Hitler, Adolf, 932, 1064, 1417 HIV/AIDS, 669–672; conspiracy theories, 671–672; initiatives, black church and, 673–675; optimism, 670–671 HIV/AIDS Initiatives and the black church, 673–675 Hobson, Joyce, 735 Hocker, Marcia, 124 Hogan, Carl, 133 Hogan, Ernest, 350, 1182 Hogan, Hulk, 48 Hogan, Moses, 1333 Hogarth, William, 118 Holbert, Susan, 899 Holder, Eric, 914 Holder, Wesley, 287 Holiday, Billie, 56, 88, 424, 468, 675–678, 757–758, 980, 1302, 1435, 1522; addictions, 678; pop music, 676–678 Holiday, Clarence, 675 holidays, festivals, and celebrations, 679– 686. See also festivals/celebrations Holland, Brian, 1246 Holland, Eddie, 968 Holliday, Billie, 7, 78, 174–175 Holliday, Jennifer, 707 Holloway, Joseph, 15 Holly, Buddy, 273, 1233 Hollywood Black Film Festival, 514, 517 Hollywood Clubs, 87 Holmes, Katie, 823 Holmes, Larry, 1342
1680 Holmes, Margaret Cardozo, 126 Holte, Clarence L., 182 Holton, Hugh, 508, 856 Holty, Carl, 118, 120 Holyfield, Evander, 463, 686–688, 1422 Homiak, John P., 423 Honesty, Eddie, 1177 ‘‘hoochie mama,’’ 1530 Hooker, John Lee, 409, 680, 688–689, 691 Hooks, Benjamin, 623 Hoover, Edgar, 575, 1291 Hoover, Herbert, 139 Hope, Bob, 135 Hope, John, 31, 34, 548–550, 1126, 1188, 1477 Hopkins, Harry, 491 Hopkins, Lightnin’, 689–691 Hopkins, Pauline E., 504, 1096 Hopkins, Sam, 689 Hopkinson, Nalo, 857 Hopper, Isaac, 1134 Hopson, Derek S., 286 Horne, Lena, 7, 46, 187, 336, 395, 511, 623, 952, 1146, 1378–1379 Hornets, Charlotte, 207 Hornsby, Sadie, 518 Horovitz, Adam, 1191 horse racing and jockeys, 691–695; current racing events, 694–695 Horton, George Moses, 1105 Horton, Lester, 46 Horton, Walter, 1396 Houghton, Katharine, 1109 House, Son, 409, 979 House of Representatives, 22, 34, 176, 190, 194–195, 287, 294, 783, 812, 819, 839, 934, 1009, 1028–1029, 1127– 1128, 1208 Houseman, John, 498 Houser, George, 554 Housing Community Development Act, 1424 housing as lifestyle, 695–701; early twentieth century, 697–699; late twentieth century and onward, 700–701; mid-twentieth century, 699; post slavery, 697; slavery, 696–697
Index Houston, Charles Hamilton, 309, 701– 703, 827, 834, 841, 984, 1061, 1211 Houston, Cissy, 301, 1466 Houston, Whitney, 227, 302, 445, 704–706, 1079, 1200, 1466, 1495 Howard, Dwight, 107 Howard, Elston, 233 Howard, John, 1134 Howard, Leslie, 916 Howell, Leonard P., 1196 Howser, Doogie, 1304 Hubbard, George Whipple, 912 Hubert, James, 336 Hudlin, Reginald, 609 Hudson, Clara, 1465 Hudson, Jennifer, 706–708, 1120 Hudson, Karen, 61 Huelsbeck, Mary K., 57, 132, 403, 541, 548, 1416 Huff, Corinne, 124 Huff, Leon, 1078 Huggins, Ericka, 198 Hughes, Cathy, 222, 708–709, 1176 Hughes, Dewey, 709 Hughes, John, 973 Hughes, Langston, 709–711 Hughley, Charles, 712 Hughley, D.L., 712–713 Hughley, Stephanie, 991, 992 Hull, Gloria T., 850 Human Rights Day, 813 humor, 713–717; in current popular culture, 716–717; in post–Civil Rights Era, 715–716; in slave community, 714–715 Humphrey, Doris, 46 Humphrey, Hubert, 638, 933, 1211 Hunter, Alberta, 173, 473, 647 Hunter, Charity, 17 Hunter, Janis, 586 Hunter, Jesse, 1243 Hunter, Maurice, 954 Hurricane Katrina, 141, 378, 510, 790, 891, 925, 1014–1016, 1017, 1441 Hurston, John, 718 Hurston, Lucy Potts, 718–719 Hurston, Zora Neale, 356, 417, 494, 505, 522, 524, 580, 588, 624, 646, 666,
Index 711, 718–723, 844–845, 946; Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities, 722–723 hush/bush harbors, 724–725 Hussein, Saddam, 1214 Hutchins, Dougherty, 101 Hutson, Wendell, 461 Huxtable, Clair, 285, 1346 Huxtable, Cliff, 8 Huxtable, Denise, 285 I Ice Cube, 727–729 Ida, Mary, 1446 identity. See consciousness and identity Ifill, Eleanor, 729 Ifill, Gwen, 729–730, 789 Imes, Mo’Nique. See Mo’Nique, 731 Immigration Act of 1907, 819 income, and black employment, 462 Indiana Black Expo (IBE), 434, 480–481 Indiana Black Expo’s Summer Celebration, 681 indigo, 37–38 individuality, and consumerism, 360 Ingham, John N., 218 Ingram, Rex, 388 Ingres, Dominique, 118 Innis, Roy, 354 International Black Appeal (IBA), 1211 International Black Panther Film Festival (IBPFF), 515, 517 International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness (IFBB), 411 International Labor Defense (ILD), 703 International Labor Organization, 1128 International Olympics Committee, 835, 1051 Intini, John, 1536 inventors and inventions, 731–733; late 1800s, 732–733 Iota Phi Theta, 1353 Irvin, Nell, 622, 1409, 1527–1528 Isum, Rachel, 1224–1225 Iverson, Allen, 734–735 Ivey, Phil, 563–564
1681 Ivy, James W., 386 Ivy Queen, 1199 J Jabbar, Kareem Abdul, 3 Jackson Five, 737 Jackson, Andrew, 1008 Jackson, Blyden, 847 Jackson, Bo, 1335, 1338 Jackson, Charles, 740 Jackson, Clara, 749 Jackson, Curtis James III. See 50 Cent Jackson, George, 396, 967 Jackson, Hal, 1177 Jackson, Harold, 182 Jackson, Hosea, 727 Jackson, Janet, 152, 393, 437, 737–739, 740 Jackson, Jermaine, 748, 1200 Jackson, Jesse, 189, 298, 572, 623, 740–743, 755, 943, 1054–1055, 1111, 1172, 1183, 1268 Jackson, Jesse L. Jr., 1184 Jackson, John, 743 Jackson, Joseph, 738 Jackson, Katherine, 738, 745 Jackson, Mahalia, 300–301, 366, 602, 743–745, 981, 1144, 1146, 1302, 1519 Jackson, Martinez, 749 Jackson, Maynard, 1439 Jackson, Michael, 130, 298, 338, 352, 393, 436, 445, 464, 569, 738, 745–748, 779, 967, 981, 1031, 1043 Jackson, O’Shea. See Ice Cube Jackson, Reggie, 748–751, 1341 Jackson, Sabrina, 509 Jackson, Samuel L., 343, 512, 751–752, 1180, 1263 Jackson, Shirley, 602 Jackson, Thornton Andrew, 1057 Jackson, Tony, 1251 Jackson, Vera, 1086 Jackson, William M., 1256 Jackson, Willis, 739 Jacobs, Harriet Ann, 764, 1153 Jacobson, Linda, 461 Jakes, T.D., 753–754 JALC (Jazz at Lincoln Center), 930, 981, 1014
1682 Jamerican Film & Music Festival, 515 James, Curtis III, 737 James, Elmore, 409 James, Etta, 585 James, Florence, 495 James, Gloria, 755 James, LeBron, 209, 460, 463, 597, 754–756, 1334, 1340 James, Monty, 1081 James, Rick, 967, 1165, 1192 James, St. Synthia, 1440 James Baldwin Award, 650 Jarboro, Catherina, 648 Jarrett, Denise, 654, 678, 1264, 1549 Jarrett, Vernon, 788, 988 jazz/jazz festivals, 40, 467–468, 679–680, 757–761, 979–982; artists, 757–760; legendary musicians, 760–761; slang, 1293; tap dance, 1369 Jea, John, 1294 Jean, Billie, 981 Jean, Norma, 364 Jean, Sean, 359 Jeans, Lee, 234 Jeezy, Young, 1121 Jeffers, Lance, 1155 Jefferson Airplane, 426, 691, 1320 Jefferson, Blind Lemon, 174, 806, 1451–1458 Jefferson, George, 337, 715, 1381 Jefferson, Thomas, 17, 60, 363, 472, 474, 587–588, 1351 Jefferson, William, 1013 Jeffries, Jack, 185 Jekyll, Walter, 903 Jemie, Onwuchekwa, 421 Jemison, Dorothy, 761 Jemison, Mae, 761–762 Jemison, Theodore J., 296 Jenkins, Beverly, 857 Jenkins, Milton, 1244 Jennings, Brent, 752 Jennings, John, 614 Jennings, Peter, 1226 Jennings, Thomas L., 1254 Jerome, Eric, 859 Jesus Freak, 550 Jet (magazine), 763–764
Index Jeter, Derek, 1336 jezebel, 1529–1530 Jim Crow, 764–765 Jobson, Richard, 465 jockeys. See horse racing Johansson, Ingemar, 1341 John, Annie, 245 John, Elton, 437, 1467, 1533 John, Mabel, 508 John, Sean, 333, 359 John Coltrane Memorial Concert, 760 Johnnie Johnson Trio, 132 Johnny B. Goode, 132–134 Johns, Robert L., 824 Johns, Traci Camilla, 1440 Johnson, Alma Vivian, 1131 Johnson, Andrew, 29, 1208 Johnson, Bailey, 54 Johnson, Ben, 836 Johnson, Bernice, 353, 638 Johnson, Beverly, 953–954 Johnson, Bill, 1048 Johnson, Buddy, 1334 Johnson, Caroline, 1034 Johnson, Caryn Elaine, 597 Johnson, Charles S., 182, 646–647, 719, 840, 849, 869 Johnson, Dwayne, 1337 Johnson, Emma Harris, 597 Johnson, Eunice, 440, 771–772, 953 Johnson, Frances B., 349 Johnson, Fred, 590 Johnson, George M., 1423 Johnson, Georgia Douglas, 646, 1096 Johnson, Gertrude Jenkins, 770 Johnson, Helen, 768 Johnson, Jack, 47, 184–185, 609, 765–768, 862, 1340 Johnson, James P., 88, 1308 Johnson, James Weldon, 109, 351, 357, 386, 433, 601, 645, 666, 768–770, 840, 844–845, 946–947, 980, 1106, 1182 Johnson, Jean, 660, 661 Johnson, Jimmie, 1347 Johnson, John Arthur Jack, 765, 766 Johnson, John H., 222, 315, 375, 439–441, 763–764, 770–772, 790 Johnson, John Rosamond, 351
Index Johnson, Judy, 109, 1068 Johnson, Katherine, 1256 Johnson, Linda, 772 Johnson, Lonnie, 806, 1168 Johnson, Lucy, 211 Johnson, Lyndon, 14, 193, 659, 826, 874, 893, 1112, 1146, 1172, 1551 Johnson, Magic, 4, 112, 115, 222, 671, 772–774, 785, 1053, 1340 Johnson, Mal, 988 Johnson, Maria V., 1397 Johnson, Melissa, 1424, 1491 Johnson, Michael, 1051, 1403 Johnson, Mordecai, 1144 Johnson, Oscar, 1386 Johnson, Richard, 1002 Johnson, Robert, 6, 153, 409, 611, 979, 1472 Johnson, Robert J. Jr., 597 Johnson, Roy S., 107 Johnson, Sharon D., 203, 399, 724, 743, 963 Johnson, Thomas, 393 Johnson, Vivian, 54 Johnson, Walter, 67, 1420 Johnson, William Arthur, 531 Johnson, William H., 648 Johnson, William W., 94 Johnson, Yvonne, 606 Joins, Scott, 1259 jokes, 774–776 Jones, Bobby, 301 Jones, Carmen, 46, 131, 247, 315, 395, 1390, 1530 Jones, Craig, 1414 Jones, Eddie, 269 Jones, Elaine R., 834 Jones, Emma Berdis, 81 Jones, Everett LeRoi. See Baraka, Amiri Jones, Grace, 954 Jones, James Earl, 8, 515, 777–778, 1099, 1379; theater, film, and television career, 778 Jones, James Francis Marion, 1137 Jones, Leonard, 168 Jones, LeRoi, 95, 146, 847, 854, 956, 1097, 1103, 1438 Jones, Lois Mailou, 261, 648
1683 Jones, Mariah, 545 Jones, Marion, 1402–1404 Jones, Nora, 1230 Jones, Pamela, 511 Jones, Quincy, 90, 129, 222, 271, 352, 420, 635, 747, 759, 779–780, 1219, 1440, 1513 Jones, Rufus, 336 Jones, Sissieretta, 1169 Jones, Toccara, 955 Jones, Tom, 1500 Joplin, Janis, 1396 Joplin, Scott, 6, 45, 350, 647, 780–781, 840 Jordan, Barbara, 781–783, 840, 1115, 1118 Jordan, Benjamin M., 782 Jordan, Bernard, 1138 Jordan, Charles, 782 Jordan, Louis, 133, 199, 1164, 1189 Jordan, Michael, 112, 115, 200, 222, 463, 478, 563, 595–597, 600, 762, 784–786, 1043, 1053, 1092, 1258, 1334 Jordan, Vernon, 841, 998 Jordan-Sharpton, Kathy, 1268 Joseph, Charles, 1010 Joseph, Gloria, 862 journalism/journalists, 786–789 Jowett, George, 531 Joyce, Melba, 1543 Joyner, Florence Griffith, 1051, 1402, 1404 Joyner, Frances, 790 Joyner, Mary, 791 Joyner, Tom, 668, 790–791, 1180 Joyner-Kersee, Jacqueline ‘‘Jackie,’’ 791–792 judges, 792–795; Article I Federal Judge, 794–795; Article III Federal Judge, 793–794; State Court Judge, 795 Judkins, Stevland Hardaway, 1532 juke joints, 1026–1028 Julian, Percy, 731, 733 Julien, St. Marion, 693 Jumper, Margie, 1520, 1524 jump rope rhymes/games, 796–798 Juneteenth, 798–800; celebrations, 799–800; mainstreaming of, 800; origin of, 799 Justice, Charlotte, 856
1684 K Kahn, Roger, 750 Kani, Karl, 359 Kansas, African American communities, 345 Kaplan, Emma Nogrady, 1490 Karenga, Maulana, 813 Karenga, Ron, 145–146, 814, 1062 Karp, Sarah, 11 Karriem, Elijah, 971, 986 Karstens, Bob, 643 Kauffman, Bob, 1252 Kazan, Elia, 1400 Kebede, Liya, 954 Keckley, Elizabeth, 844, 1160 Keep a Child Alive (KCA), 804 Kellner, Douglass, 596 Kelly, Grace, 395 Kelly, Norman, 1234 Kelly, Paula, 1426 Kelly, Susan, 914 Kelso, Beverley, 888 Kemp, Ray, 532 Kenan, Randall, 847, 853 Kennedy, Adrienne, 1097 Kennedy, Caroline, 1041 Kennedy, Dennis, 642 Kennedy, Edward, 87, 453, 980 Kennedy, Florynce, 1438 Kennedy, Henry B., 117 Kennedy, Jayne, 1346, 1347 Kennedy, John F., 14, 53, 131, 318, 475, 555, 659, 878, 893, 1050, 1112, 1209, 1455, 1517, 1551 Kennedy, Michael, 453 Kennedy, Robert F., 319, 1336, 1349 Kennedy, Rosa, 117 Kenney, Richard, 242, 268, 627, 688, 836, 1304 Kent, Clark, 658 Kenton, Stan, 757 Kentucky Derby, 693–694 Keppard, Freddie, 1048 Kern, Jerome, 520, 1221 Kerouac, Jack, 129, 425 Kersands, Billy, 468 Kersee, Bob, 792 Kevin, Slade, 961 Key, Cedar, 1241
Index Keyes, Alan, 1040 Keys, Alicia, 437, 464, 803–804, 1331 Khrushchev, Nikita, 317 Killens, John Oliver, 376 Killicks, Logan, 721 Kinchlow, Ben, 1384 King, B. B., 804–807 King, Charles, 305 King, Coretta Scott, 807–809 King, Henry, 693–694 King, Jerry, 305 King, Martin Luther Jr., 809–811 King, Martin Luther Jr., National Holiday, 812–813 King, Nora Ellen, 805 King, Regina, 339 King, Rodney, 596, 830, 1173, 1440 King, Scott, 583 King Holiday and Service Act, 813 ‘‘King of Tap,’’ 1369–1370 Knight, Bob, 269 Kirkpatrick, Jimmy, 1421 Kironde, Katiti II, 953 Kitchener, Lord, 231 Kitt, Eartha, 640 Kitt, Sandra, 507 Kittel, Daisy Wilson, 1507 Kittel, Frederick August, 1507 Klein, Calvin, 234 Kline, Kevin, 1341 Knight, Gladys, 57, 706, 967, 1467 Knight, Keith, 612, 614 Knowles, Beyonce. See Beyonce Knowles, Matthew, 140 Koch, Edward, 1443 Kochman, Thomas, 420, 422, 1272, 1276, 1278 Kodjoe, Boris, 515, 1081 kola (cola), 36–37 Komunyakaa, Yusef, 1107 Korner, Kwanza, 991 Krebs, Albin, 66 Kristina, Bobbi, 705 Kross, Kris, 436 Krzyzewski, Mike, 269 Ku Klux Klan, 30, 238, 294, 309, 313, 555, 568, 753, 829, 929, 1072, 1111, 1145, 1243, 1290, 1328
Index Kuczynski, Robert R., 618 Kwanzaa, 366–367, 813–815; observance, 815; origins, 814–815 Kweli, Talib, 1121 L L L Cool J, 817–818 LaBelle, Patti, 366, 981, 1120, 1200 labor movement, 818–820 Labov, William, 149, 420 Lacasade, Suzanne, 1001 Lacour, Claudia Brodsky, 1283 Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (LPGA), 1517 Lafon, Thomy, 1083 LaMotta, Jake, 1231 Lampkin, Daisy, 867 Landry, Bart, 699 Landry, Pierre Caliste, 605 Lane, Isaac, 294 Lane, William Henry, 6, 468, 492, 1368 Laney, Lucy Craft, 138 Lang, Pearl, 46 Langston, John Mercer, 365, 840 language, 820–822 Larkin, Colin, 453 Larsen, Nella, 505, 646, 845, 1436, 1522, 1530 Latchman, Renee, 47, 164, 195, 890, 1199, 1201, 1515 Latham, Alison, 382 Lathan, Sanaa, 514 Lathan, Stan, 1103, 1426 Latifah, Queen, 822–824 Latimer, Lewis, 1254 Lauren, Ralph, 91, 234, 954 Laurence, Lynda, 1245 Laurents, Arthur, 315 Laveau, Marie, 1009, 1136, 1450 law and schools, 824–828; aiding African Americans, 825–827; negative effect of laws, 824–825 law enforcement, 829–830 Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), 828 Lawrence, Brenda L., 606 Lawrence, Donald, 302
1685 Lawrence, Jacob, 118, 1434, 1437 Lawrence, Jill, 1044 Lawrence, Martin, 340, 342, 464, 1279, 1382 Lawrence, Sarah, 1460 Layne, Janice L., 663 Leab, Daniel, 228 Leadbelly, 467, 831 Leahy, Michael, 786 Lear, Norman, 635 Ledbetter, Huddie William, 467, 831 Lee, Aoki, 1280 Lee, Barbara, 1115 Lee, Bunny, 1198 Lee, Canada, 1178 Lee, Debra L., 153 Lee, Douglass, 364 Lee, Jennifer, 123, 1150 Lee, Robert W., 364 Lee, Shelton Jackson, 832 Lee, Spike, 42, 135, 340, 393, 402–403, 463, 512, 514–516, 624–625, 635–636, 651, 712, 824, 832–833, 876, 1145–1152 Lee, Ulysses, 847 Leeds, Alan, 200 Leeds, Maxine, 125, 375 Leffel, Tim, 437 Legal Defense Fund (LDF), 444, 834–835 Leger, Fernand, 118 Leggett, Josephine, 121 Lehrer, Jim, 730 Leiber, Jerry, 1396 Leighton, Mel, 238, 241 Leland, Frank C., 538 Leland, John, 425 Leland Giants, 538 Lennon, John, 396 Leno, Jay, 1014, 1364 Leon, Erich, 1400 Leon, Kenny, 1391 Leonard, Hal, 890 lesbian. See gay and lesbian Letterman, David, 1248 Levert, Gerald, 1484 Levine, Lawrence, 724, 1327 Levinson, David, 1017
1686 Levison, Stanley, 79, 1329 Lewaro, Villa, 1464 Lewis, Carl, 835–836, 1051, 1348, 1402 Lewis, Earl, 1117 Lewis, Edna, 364, 366 Lewis, Edward T., 471 Lewis, Evelyn, 835 Lewis, Frederick Carlton, 835 Lewis, George, 693 Lewis, Guy, 268, 269 Lewis, Ira R., 1095 Lewis, Isaac, 693 Lewis, Jerry Lee, 1233 Lewis, John, R., 297, 555, 837–838, 881, 1060–1061, 1519 Lewis, Oliver, 693 Lewis, Pete, 1396 Lewis, Reginald, 1084 Lewis, Terry, 739 Lewis, William Henry, 531 Lewis, Willie Mae, 837 libraries, 839–842; HBCU Library Alliance, 841–842; keepers of African American culture, 840–841 Liggins, Alfred III, 708–709 Lightfoot, Karla, 93 Ligon, Alfred, 181 Ligon, Joe, 981 Lilly, Eli, 923 Lincoln, Abraham, 17, 596, 701, 799, 983, 1208, 1454 Lincoln, Eric, 850 Linden, Daniel, 129 Lion, Jules, 1085 Lister, Tom, 1414 literature, classic African American, 842–851; redefining, 855–857; romance novels, 857–859; and social change, 854; urban fiction; 859–860, women writers, 854–855. See also publishers/ publishing literature, contemporary African American, 852–860 Little, Cleavon, 1097 Little, Earl, 877 Little, Louise, 877 Little, Malcolm, 635, 986, 1553 Lloyd, Earl, 668
Index Locke, Alain, 71, 261, 402, 451, 456–457, 473, 645, 667, 841, 904, 1106, 1137, 1436 Lockwood, Junior, 806 Logan, Rayford W., 221, 841 Lois, Anna, 95 Lomax, John, 173, 831 Lomax, Michael L., 990, 1431 London, Carolyn, 90 Lone Ranger, 1092, 1377 Long, Eddie, 298, 925, 928, 1384 Long, Howie, 1336 Looby, Alexander, 1144, 1288 Lopez, Jennifer, 248, 1364, 1474 Lopez, Sessilee, 955 Lorde, Audre, 860–862 Loren, William, 865 Lorraine Motel, 811 Lott, Eric, 128 lotteries, 562 Louis, Emmett, 1397–1398 Louis, Harlan, 1470 Louis, Henry, 180, 712, 724, 752 Louis, Jessie, 1184 Louis, Joe, 47, 183, 185, 578, 599, 640, 766, 862–863, 1050, 1346–1347, 1402, 1421 Louise, Mary, 1413 Louisiana, African American communities, 345–346 Louisiana State University (LSU), 189, 1052 Love, Nat, 864–865 Loving, Mildred, 312, 949 Loving v. Virginia (1967), 312 Low, Susan, 895 Lowe, Daisy Gay, 578 Lowery, Charles D., 355 Lowery, Joseph E., 1329 Lubert, Howard L., 812 Lucas, Elizabeth, 387 Lucas, George, 1418 Lucas, Sam, 468 Lucas, Sharon, 807 Lucasta, Anna, 402 Luke, Derek, 333 Lumet, Gail, 1419 Luna, Donyale, 953
Index Lunceford, Jimmie, 89, 757 Lupica, Mike, 751 Lyle, Ron, 537 Lyles, Aubrey, 647–648 Lyn, Gerald, 969 lynching, 865–870; definitions of, 860–867; random aspects of, 868–870; statistics, 867–868 Lyne, Bill, 851, 860 Lynk, Miles Vandahurst, 911 Lyons, Billy, 543 Lyons, Henry, 927 Lyons, Jimmy, 759 lyrics, 264–266 M Mabley, Jack, 873 Mabley, Moms, 873–875 Mac, Bernie, 341–342, 651, 1270–1271 MacAlister, Marti, 856 Macci, Rick, 1504 MacDowell, Andie, 128 Macey, David, 116, 186, 508, 1157, 1412 Mack, Craig, 333 Mackie, Anthony, 516 Macon, Mark, 269 MacPherson, Elle, 235 Madison, Joe, 875–876 Maher, Bill, 1484 Mahler, John, 241 Mahoney, Mary, 1035 Majors, Monroe A., 220 Makeba, Miriam, 130, 250 Maker, Melody, 519, 656 Makonnen, Tafari, 245, 1195 Malcolm X, 876–879 Malone, Annie Minerva Turnbo, 373, 632 Malone, David M., 212 Malone, Karl, 2, 106 Malsenior, Alice, 1459 Malveaux, Suzanne, 789 Mamiya, Laurence., 850 mammy, 1529 Mandela, Winnie M., 946 Manilow, Barry, 1467 Mankiewicz, Joseph L., 1108
1687 Manley, Effa, 1005 Mann, Horace, 447 Mann, Michael, 186 Mann Act, 767 Manning, Sam, 230 Manning-Miller, Carmen L., 153 Mannion, Thomas, 1496 Manuel, Essie, 1477 Marcano, Neville, 231 March on Washington, 879–882, 1146 Marchand, Paul, 279 Marciano, Rocky, 863, 1341 Marcille, Eva, 955 Mardi Gras, 882–884; history of, 883; traditions, 883 Mardi Gras costumes and masks, 884–886 Mardi Gras Day, 883, 887 Marguerita Ward Cosmetics Company, 374 Marie, Teena, 967 Mario, Young, 1443 Marley, Bob, 247, 273, 426, 887–888, 1197–1198 Marley, David Nesta, 889 Marley, Norval, 887 Marley, Stephen, 888, 969 Marley, Ziggy, 889–890, 1198 Marr, Warren, 386 Marrant, John, 292 Marriner, William, 256 Marsalis, Pianist Ellis Jr., 1013 Marsalis, Wynton, 453, 890–891, 930, 991, 1014, 1016 Marshall, George Preston, 1076 Marshall, Paula, 245 Marshall, Robert, 531 Marshall, Samuel, 347 Marshall, Thurgood, 33, 96, 309, 313, 317, 448, 549, 622, 665, 701, 834, 892–894, 1061, 1115, 1211, 1495–1502 Martin, Billy, 748, 751 Martin, Blind Lemon, 467 Martin, Charles Douglass, 182 Martin, Dean, 520 Martin, Helen, 337 Martin, Michel, 789 Martin, Roberta, 300, 1203
1688 Martin, Roland, 281, 460, 789 Martin, Sallie, 602 Martin, Sarah, 467, 1168 Martin, Tony, 181 Martin, Vivian, 155, 166, 1119, 1206 Martinez, Angie, 248 Martin Luther King Day. See King, Martin Luther Jr., National Holiday Marusak, Elisa, 1282 Marx, Jeffrey, 836 Marx, Karl, 895 Marxism, 895–896 Mary Mary, 9, 1123 Masback, Craig, 1403 mashed potato (dance), 896–897 Mason, Biddy, 1084 Mason, Charles Harrison, 294 Mason, Charlotte, 710, 719 Mason, Perry, 1355 Mason-Dixon Line, 532, 1114, 1325 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 61, 73, 531, 1255 Mathau, Walter, 131 Matheus, John F., 647 Mathews, Tom, 1499 Mathias, Buster, 553 Mathis, Johnny, 366, 1120, 1499 matriarch, 1531 Matthews, Artie, 173 Matthews, Chris, 1351 Matzeliger, Jan, 731–732 Mauldin, Cecilia, 435 Mauldin, Jermaine Dupri, 435 Mauldin, Michael, 436 Maupin, John E. Jr., 913 Maus, Derek C., 965 Maxim, Hiram, 732 Maxson, Troy, 777 Mayer, John, 748 Mayfield, Curtis, 318, 548 Mayfield, Irvin, 1014 Mayhew, Richard, 119 Maynard, Robert C., 788 mayors, African American, 605–606; earliest black mayors, 605; 1967 to present, 605–606; women, 606. See also governors, African Americanf
Index Mays, Benjamin, 850 Mays, Willie, 111, 177, 897–898, 1006, 1223, 1335 McCabe, Edward P., 345 McCain, Franklin, 667, 1286 McCain, John, 1042–1043 McCall, Nathan, 844 McCargo, Aaron, 367 McCarter, Charles, 1081 McCarthy, Joseph, 711 McCartney, Paul, 1533 McCauley, James, 1072 McCauley, Leona Edwards, 1072 McCleod, Alice, 331 McClure, Doug, 1088 McClurkin, Donnie, 302 McCormick, Mack, 420 McCoy, Elijah, 731–732, 1254 McCoy, Viola, 173 McCullers, Carson, 315 McCulloch, Derek, 611 McDaniel, Hattie, 7, 313, 899–900, 1529 McDaniel, Henry, 899 McDaniel, Jimmy, 1386 McDaniel, Mildrid, 1401 McDonald, Audra, 1097 McDonald, Henry, 532 McDonald, Joy, 407, 1220, 1231 McDonald, Michael, 969 McDonogh, Gary W., 501 McDowell, Deborah E., 851 McDowell, Fred, 410, 1396 McDuffie, Dwayne, 608 McFerrin, Viola, 1526 McGee v. Sipes (1948), 310–311 McGeehan, Patrick, 460 McGlown, Betty, 1165 McGruder, Aaron, 609 McGruder, Robert G. Jr., 900–901 McGuirk, Bernard, 264 McKay, Claude, 473, 500, 505, 645–646, 841, 844–845, 902–904, 1105, 1154, 1221, 1522 McKay, David, 972, 987 McKay, Louis, 678 McKay, Nellie Y., 180, 577, 847 McKay, Thomas Francis, 902
Index McKee, Lonette, 516 McKeever, Steve, 1257 McKenzie, Vashti, 926 McKie, Aaron, 269 McKim Garrison, Lucy, 1333 McKinney, Nina Mae, 7 McKissack, Floyd, 354, 1060 McKivigan, John R., 417 McKnight, Brian, 905–906, 969 McLaren, Peter, 976 McLemore, Joseph L., 545 McLeod, Mary, 137–139 McLeod, Patsy, 138 McMillan, Terry, 459, 507, 846, 858, 906–907, 1155, 1374, 1441 McNair, Denise, 1290 McNair, Steve, 908–909, 1337 McNeil, Claudia, 1097 McNeil, Joseph, 667, 1286 McNeil Ives, Irving, 819 McNeill, Lori, 1386 McShann, Jay, 1071, 1434 McVeigh, Timothy, 187 McWilliams, Moses, 1462 McWilliams, Sarah Breedlove, 732 Meadows, Tim, 338 medical schools, 909–914 medicine, folk, 915–916; historical background, 917–919 medicine, health, and healing, 916–923 Medina, Benny, 1311 Meeres, Paul, 648 Meeropol, Abel, 1523 megachurches and ministers, 924–928; church organizations, controversies in, 927–928; and innovations, 926–927 Meharry, Samuel, 912 Meharry Medical College, 912–913 Melvin, Harold, 1078 Melvin, Leland D., 73 memorabilia, black, 327–329 men, African American, images of, 928–932; entertainment industry, 930–931; fashion, 325–327; general wear, 326–327; media stereotypes, 931–932 Mendez, Leopold, 262 Menefee, Curt, 1347
1689 Mercer, Johnny, 520 Meredith, James, 475, 1146 Merrick, John Henry, 101 Merrill, Charles, 444 Messenger, The, 1022 Metcalfe, Ralph H., 932–934 Meyers, Ann, 114, 1516 Meyers, David, 532 Meyjes, Menno, 330 Mfume, Kweisi, 355 MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association), 136, 810, 957–958, 1073 Michael, Dwayne, 1014 Michael, Eric, 586 Michael, George, 547 Michael, James, 733 Michael, John, 63 Micheaux, Oscar, 511, 648, 934–936, 1221, 1400 Michel, Claudine, 164 Michele, Michael, 1382 middle class, black, 321–322 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), 1349 Midler, Bette, 1447 midwives/midwifery, 936–939; in history, 938–939 migration: and pop music, 1121–1123; and population, 1125–1126 Milestone Media, 608, 1156 military, 940–942 Miller, Aleck Ford, 1506 Miller, Flournoy, 647–648 Miller, Glenn, 757 Miller, Irving, 148 Miller, Ivor, 12 Miller, James, 101 Miller, Kelly, 31 Miller, Leonard T., 240 Miller, Leonard W., 241 Miller, Zack, 1088 Milliner, David, 281 Million Man March, 942–944; women and celebrities, 944 Million Woman March, 945–946 Milner, Ron, 146, 849, 854 Mingus, Charles, 90, 725, 981 ministers. See megachurches
1690 minstrelsy, 946–947 Minton, Paris, 856 miscegenation, 948–949 Miss Black USA Princess Program, 122 Mississippi, African American communities, 346 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), 80, 314, 637–638, 1061, 1112–1113, 1527 Mitchell, Arthur, 394 Mitchell, Coco, 954 Mitchell, George, 178 Mitchell, Greg, 578 Mitchell, Henry, 1322 Mitchell, Margaret, 313 Mitchell, Melvin, 60 Mitchell, Parren, 355, 1118 Mitchell-Kernan, Claudia, 1276 Mix, Tom, 1088 mixed race. See Biracialism Mizell, Jason, 509 Mizrahi, Issac, 234 Mo’Nique, 950–951 modeling, 952–955 Mohammad, Elijah, 1137 Molineaux, Tom, 47, 184, 186 Mollison, Irvin C., 794 Momyer, Colonel William W., 1418 Mondale, Walter, 189 Monk, Thelonious, 64, 331, 352, 468, 592, 955–956 Monnig, Hugo, 545 Monroe, Johnnie, 678 Montana, Hannah, 1503 Monte, Eric, 1380 Monterey Jazz Festival, 759, 761, 1396 Montgomery, Isaiah T., 346 Montgomery, Les, 1260 Montgomery, Lou, 532 Montgomery Bus Boycott, 957–959 Moody, Anne, 844 Moon, Carolina, 956 Moon, Cherry, 1132 Moon, Fletcher F., 303, 343, 476, 669, 761, 928, 945, 959, 1017, 1140, 1385 Moon, Henry Lee, 386 Moon, Spencer, 1400, 1444 Moon, Warren, 908, 1337
Index Mooney, Paul, 1149 Moore, Archie, 1341 Moore, Audley, 1209 Moore, Bill, 1145 Moore, Jessica Care, 1103 Moore, Richard B., 181 Moore, Rudy Ray, 336 Moore, Stephanie Perry, 860 Moore, Tim, 336, 468 Moorer, Michael, 687 Moores, Merrill, 870 Moran, Gladys, 702 Morehouse School of Medicine, 914 Moreland, Mantan, 336, 468, 714 Moreland, Nate, 1005 Morgan, Garrett, 1255 Morgan, Henry M., 102 Morgan, Irene, 310, 1520, 1524 Morgan, Rebecca, 1420 Morgan, Tracy, 338 Morganfield, Ollie, 1472 Morgan v. Virginia (1946), 310 Morial, Marc, 998, 1013 Mormon, Wilola, 1526 Morrill Act, 664 Morris, Bob, 252 Morris, Garrett, 338 Morris, Stevland, 1532 Morrison, George, 899 Morrison, Mary B., 859 Morrison, Toni, 42, 84, 102, 319, 356– 357, 417, 471, 507–508, 525, 620, 666, 846, 855, 857, 959–963; Toni Morrison Society, 962–963 Morrison, Van, 273 Morrow, William, 5, 147, 403, 423, 595, 812, 824, 942, 955–956, 1416 Morton, Jelly Roll, 963–964 Morton, Paul, 925, 1015 Moseley-Braun, Carol, 34 Moses, Edwin, 1348, 1402 Moses, Ras, 1196 Moses, Sheila P., 628 Moses, Susan, 824 Moskowitz, Henry, 429 Mosley, Ella, 964 Mosley, Walter, 508, 613, 856, 964–965, 1436
Index Moss, Albert A., 34 Moss, Alfred Jr., 18 Moss, Anderson, 1557 Moss, Carlton, 498 Mothers for Adequate Welfare (MAW), 1478 Motherwell, Robert, 118 Motley, Archibald, 648 Motley, Constance Baker, 834–835, 1524 Motley, Willard, 845 Motown Records, 965–969; early artists and hit records, 967–968; early years, 966–967; Motown Sound, 968; productions, 968–969 Mott, Robert, 493 Mottola, Tommy, 242 Mourning, Alonzo, 1394 Mowery, Tamera, 338 Moyer, Michelle, 1237 Moynihan, Daniel Patrick, 1531 ‘‘Mr. October,’’ 751 Mr. Ribbs, 240–241 Mtume, James, 515 MTV (Music Television), 135, 454, 981, 1015, 1123, 1152, 1191, 1264 Muckley, Peter A., 1298 Mugabe, Robert, 888 Muhammad, Elijah, 51, 296, 488–490, 576, 878, 969–972, 985–987, 1023, 1442 Muhammad, Silis, 1212 Muhammad, Wallace, 972, 987 Muhammad, Warith Deen, 490, 972, 987 Muhammad, Charlene, 1051 mulatta, 1530 multiculturalism, 972–976; Eurocentric tradition, 975–976; urban and ethnic diversity, 973–975 Munro, Karen, 904 Murphy, Eddie, 338–339, 342, 371, 511, 717, 977–978, 1109, 1235, 1400, 1413 Murphy, Edward Reagan, 977 Murphy, Isaac, 693, 1350 Murphy, John H., 1019 Murphy, Lillian, 977 Murray, Albert, 688, 979 Murray, Anna, 415
1691 Murray, Arthur, 143 Murray, Cecil, 925 Murray, Victoria Christopher, 860 Murray v. Pearson (1936), 309–310 music, African American, 40 Music Corporation of America (MCA), 967 musicians/singers, 978–982; blues, 973–982; jazz, 979–982 Mutombo, Dikembe, 1394 mutual aid societies, 1057–1059 MVP (Most Valuable Player), 106, 178, 268, 734, 757, 785, 898, 1076, 1222, 1225, 1249, 1496 Myers, Isaac, 819 Myrick-Harris, Clarissa, 915, 1482 N NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), 118, 157, 237, 257, 290, 314, 386, 505, 700, 769, 892, 902, 945, 983–985, 997, 1059, 1417 Nabrit, James, 665 Nagin, Ray, 1013 Naismith, James, 111 Napier, James Carroll, 221 Nardal, Jane, 1001 Nardal, Paulette, 1001 narratives, slave. See slave narratives Nasenyana, Ajuma, 955 Nash, Diane, 1145–1146, 1288, 1519, 1526 Nathan, Syd, 199 Nation of Islam (NOI), 42, 49, 51, 158, 161, 246, 296, 488–490, 529, 576, 636, 876–879, 969–972, 985–987, 1023, 1137 National Action Network, 670 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 72–73, 762, 1256 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 219 National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, 668 National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), 238–242, 774, 1258–1260, 1355
1692 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 118, 157, 237, 257, 290, 314, 386, 505, 700, 769, 892, 902, 945, 983–985, 997, 1059, 1417 National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), 187, 441, 787–788, 901, 987–988, 1062, 1195, 1345 National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW), 11 National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), 1032, 1035–1037 National Association of Colored Physicians, 996 National Association of Colored Professional Baseball Clubs, 539 National Association of Colored Women (NACW), 139, 1058–1059, 1387, 1412, 1481, 1521–1522 National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), 447 National Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, 109 National Association of Radio Announcers, 1179 National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools, 138 National Baptist Convention of America, 295, 297 National Baptist Publishing Board, 297 National Bar Association (NBA), 989–990 National Black Arts Festival (NBAF), 681, 990–992 National Black Catholic Congress, 674 National Black Church Initiative, 922 National Black Economic Development Conference (NBEDC), 1210 National Black Labor Strike and Defense Fund, 1211 National Black Media Coalition, 1062 National Black Nursing Association (NBNA), 1032, 1037 National Black Police Association, 1062 National Black Political Convention, 163 National Black Theater Festival (NBTF), 681, 992–993
Index National Black United Front (NBUF), 1211–1212 National Book Critics Circle Award, 1351 National Business Negro League, 1463 National CARES Mentoring Movement, 1374 National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1256 National Center for Black Philanthropy, 1084–1085 National Center for Children in Poverty, 461 National Championship in Chicago, 782 National Child Welfare Commission, 139 National Civil Rights Museum, 403 National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, 1212 National Colored Base Ball League, 537 National Colored Woman’s League, 1058 National Conference of Black Mayors, 606 National Conference on Black Power, 442 National Conservatory of Music, 351 National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, 300 National Council of Black Studies, 163 National Council of Blacks for Reparations in America, 1211 National Council of Churches, 1547–1548 National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), 139, 365, 367, 486–487, 944, 993–994, 1059, 1063 National Council of Women, 417, 993 National Criminal Justice Commission Act, 1134 National Democratic Convention, 638 National Dental Assistants Association, 996 National Dental Association, 995–996 National Dental Hygiene Association, 996 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), 196, 861, 1014, 1460 National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty & Pension Association, 1209 National Federation of Afro-American Women, 1058
Index National Football Conference, 533, 535, 1347 National Golden Brown Beauty Contest, 121 National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR), 919 National HIV Prevention Conference, 671 National HIV Testing Day, 671 National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), 670 National Hockey League, 1350 National Institute of Arts and Letters, 119, 196 National Interscholastic Championship in Chicago, 1063 National Junior High School Championship, 70 National Junior Indoor Singles, 68 National Labor Union, 819 National Library of Medicine, 921 National Medical Association (NMA), 911, 915, 939, 996–997, 1036 National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 297 National Museum of African American History and Culture, 838 National Museum of Racing, 693 National Negro Business League (NNBL), 216, 222–223, 667 National Negro Congress (NNC), 211 National Negro Doll Company, 564 National Negro Health, 918 National Negro League, 1004, 1006 National Newspaper Publishers Association, 770 National Organization for Women, 1115, 1513 National Pan-Hellenic Council, 1352 National Park Service, 994 National Public Radio (NPR), 191–192, 476, 658, 729, 789, 1077, 1080, 1300, 1501–1502 National Rainbow Coalition, 742, 1054, 1056, 1184 National Register of Historic Places, 57, 116 National Relief Agency (NRA), 528
1693 National Security Agency, 1363 National Security Council, 1130 National Student Association (NSA), 1359 National Student Education Fund, 189 National Urban League (NUL), 31, 139, 217–218, 220, 223, 286, 297, 314, 322, 440, 545, 880, 998–999, 1059–1061, 1143, 1549–1551 National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, 671 National Youth Movement, 1268 nationalism, black. See black nationalism Navy Relief Fund, 1005 Naylor, Gloria, 84, 109, 356, 507, 581, 846, 855, 999–1000, 1513 Nazi Germany, 787, 862, 949 NBA (National Basketball Association), 104–107, 113–115, 207–209, 267–268, 643–644, 734, 755–756, 773, 784–785, 989–990, 1053, 1093–1094, 1236–1237, 1248–1250, 1344–1345, 1495–1497 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), 2, 4, 105, 267, 477–478, 579, 835, 933, 1065, 1303, 1309–1310, 1338, 1344–1345, 1357, 1394 NCLC (Nashville Christian Leadership Conference), 297, 837, 1287–1288 Neal, Bailey, 611 Neal, Larry, 145–147, 161, 498, 507, 847, 854, 1107 Neely, Barbara, 856 Neely, Gina, 366 Neely, John, 1408 Negritude, 1001–1002 Negro American Labor Council, 819 Negro American League (NAL), 109–110, 1005 Negro Art Theatre, 647 Negro baseball leagues, 1002–1006; major league ball, 1005–1006; Negro American League, 1005 Negro Dance Troupe, 394 Negro Leagues Baseball, 539, 1006 Negro National League (NNL), 109–110, 537, 539, 897, 1002–1006
1694 Negro Southern League, 1004 Negro Spirituals, 1332–1333 Negro Swing Parade, 1177 Negro Working People’s Day, 479 Negro World, 1022–1023 Negroes, freed, 91 Negrophobia, 26 Neimark, Paul, 1065 Nelson, Angela M., 1379 Nelson, John, 1132 Nelson, Prince Rogers. See Prince Nelson, Thomas, 227, 537, 688, 1216, 1304, 1549 Nelson Mandela Foundation, 609 Nemiroff, Robert, 642 Nequai Cosmetics, 1373 Nesta, Robert, 889 Neville, Cyril, 1012 Newark Black Film Festival, 515, 517 New Deal, 32 New Orleans, 1006–1016; early history, 1007; in early twentieth century, 1009– 1011; Hurricane Katrina, 1014–1016; in late twentieth century, 1013; in mid-twentieth century, 1011–1013; musicians, 1013; in nineteenth century, 1007–1009; new generation, 1013–1014 New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), 1013 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, 760, 1013 New Orleans Jews, 64 New Orleans World Trade Center, 1016 New Power Generation, 1132–1133 New School for Social Research, 97 New York Amsterdam News, 1020–1021 New York Black Yankees, 1005 New York Brown Bombers, 533 New York City Commission on Human Rights, 1029 New York City Department of Social Services, 118 New York City’s Town School Library, 861 New York Civil Rights Coalition, 1501 New York Historical Society, 870 New York State Emancipation Act, 1034
Index New York University (NYU), 112, 117–118, 251, 387, 408, 457, 532, 641, 780, 833, 1193 Newberry, Paul, 403–404 Newman, Floyd, 653 Newman, Paul, 1146 Newman, Ronald B., 423 Newman, Susan, 674 Newport Folk Festival, 1473 newspapers/periodicals, 1017–1023; during black nadir, 1018–1019; current status, 1023; in early twentieth century, 1019–1023; during slavery, 1018 Newton, Huey P., 158, 161, 197, 570, 581, 830, 896, 1024–1026, 1062, 1151, 1153, 1316, 1438, 1527 Newton, Walter, 1025 NFL (National Football League), 73, 200–202, 434, 533–535, 625–626, 629, 908, 1012, 1076–1077, 1216–1217, 1303, 1306–1307, 1336–1338, 1346–1349, 1364, 1448 Nicholas, Harold, 1369 Nicholson, Jack, 4 nightclubs, entertainments spots, dives, and juke joints, 1026–1028 Nightingale, Florence, 1033 Nishikawa, Kinohi, 1153 Nix, Robert, 355 Nixon, Edgar Daniel, 317 Nixon, Hammie, 1506 Nixon, Richard, 1115, 1517 Nkrumah, Kwame, 430, 576, 1212 Nobs, Claude, 759 Nolte, Claire E., 116, 384, 600, 774, 1387, 1404 Nonviolent Action Group (NAG), 249 Noonan, Peggy, 1042 Noone, Jimmie, 1011 Norfleet, Dawn M., 1189 Norment, Lynn, 804, 1311 Norris, Clarence, 1261 Norris, Michele, 789 North Carolina, African American communities, 346 North Carolina Agricultural State University, 219 North Carolina Central University, 828
Index North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance, 217 North Carolina State University, 346 Northrup, Solomon, 1296 Norton, Eleanor Holmes, 1028–1030 Norton, Ken, 1342 Norville, Deborah, 629 Norwood, Dorothy, 300 Notorious B. I. G., 1030–1032 Notre Dame, 1215, 1338, 1423 Nottage, Lynn, 1098, 1267 Nu Pop Movement, 437 Nugent, Bruce, 580 Nuggets, Denver, 1340 numbers game, 562 Nunez, Elizabeth, 245 nurses/nursing, 1032–1037; early accounts of, 1033–1035; formal training, 1035–1036; professional associations, 1036–1037 Nuyorican, Team, 1103 O Oakland Board of Education, 149–150 Oaks, Sherman, 181 Obama, Barack, 9, 34, 127, 141, 144, 151–152, 329, 371, 387, 441, 458, 462, 670, 701, 742, 754, 827, 1039–1044, 1213, 1532–1533, 1538; campaigns, 1042–1044 Obama, Michelle, 265, 485, 611, 1043, 1045–1047, 1532, 1539 O’Casey, Sean, 641 Occom, Samson, 1488–1489 O’Donnell, Neil, 908 O’Donnell, Rosie, 9 Odum, Howard W., 173 offensive language, 264–266 Office of Minority Health (OMH), 922, 924 Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), 670 Ogletree, Charles, 1211 Okker, Tom, 68 Oklahoma, African American communities, 347 Old Testament, 164, 291, 601, 673 Oldham, Todd, 91 Oliver, King, 64, 468, 648, 1010, 1047–1048, 1168
1695 Olson, Lute, 269 Olympics, 1049–1051, 1348; early, 1049–1050; protest, 1050–1051 ombre dye patterns, 38 O’Meally, Robert, 678 O’Neal, Buck, 1003, 1006 O’Neal, Gail, 954 O’Neal, Lucille, 1052 O’Neal, Shaquille, 1052–1054 O’Neil, Buck, 1340, 1434 O’Neill, Eugene, 1221, 1470 Onweagba, Oluchi, 955 Operation PUSH, 1054–1056 Opper, Frederick Burr, 256 Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC), 298, 1361 Oral Roberts University (ORU), 1384 Orban, Maria, 280 organizations and associations, 1056–1063; African Societies, 1056–1057; black power, 1061; civil rights organizations, 1053–1060; CORE, 1061; early, 1057; fraternities and sororities, 1062–1063; mutual aid societies, social clubs, and women’s organizations, 1057–1059; NAACP, 1060–1061; NUL, 1061; professional, 1061; SCLC, 1060; SNCC, 1061 Orlandersmith, Dael, 856 Ormes, Jackie, 257–258 Otis, Johnny, 1396 Otis, Karla, 954 Overground Railroad, 876 Ovington, Mary, 429 Owen, Chandler, 1022 Owen, Gary, 152 Owen, Jesse, 578 Owens, Emma Fitzgerald, 1063 Owens, Henry, 1063 Owens, Jesse, 185, 532, 835–836, 932, 1050, 1063–1065, 1348, 1402 Oxendine, Mandy, 279 P Pace, Harry, 1169, 1492 Pager, Devah, 461 Paige, Satchel, 1067–1068
1696 Palin, Sarah, 609, 730 Palmer, Flora, 1420 Pan-Africanism, 1068–1070 Panichgul, Thakoon, 1047 Pan-Negroism, 1069 Parham, Kitty, 1465 Paris Harlem, 473 Parker, Bettye J., 850 Parker, Charlie, 64, 87, 128–129, 399, 424, 468, 592, 760, 981, 1070–1072, 1252, 1434, 1491 Parker, Daisy, 65 Parker, Leroy, 1308 Parkey, Ricky, 687 Parks, Gregory S., 1063 Parks, Rosa, 102, 311, 317, 419, 554, 809, 827, 957–958, 1060, 1072–1074, 1146, 1153, 1209, 1329, 1519–1520, 1524–1525 Parks, Suzan-Lori, 856, 1391 Parry, Joe, 1193 Parsons, James B., 793 Parton, Dolly, 705 passing, 1074–1075 Paterson, David Alexander, 604 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 920 Patrick, Deval Laurdine, 604 Patten, John Ed, 782 Patterson, Floyd, 185, 1347 Patterson, Gilbert O., 299 Patterson, Haywood, 1261 Patton, Charley, 657, 979 Paul, Sean, 1198 Paul, Thomas, 293 Pauley, Jane, 629 Pax-Christi Award, 1548 Payne, Donald, 944 Payne, Ethel, 788 Payne, Scherrie, 1245 Payton, Alyne, 1076 Payton, John, 834 Payton, Nicholas, 1014 Payton, Walter, 1076–1077, 1303, 1343 Peabody, George Foster, 1430 peanut butter, 37 Pearl, Bill, 411 Pearson, Carlton, 753, 928, 1384–1385
Index Pearson, John, 720 Peebles, Betty, 299, 926 Peele, Beverly, 954 Peer, Ralph, 1308 Peete, Calvin, 450, 599–600, 1349 Pendergrass, Jesse, 1078 Pendergrass, Teddy, 704, 1077–1079 Pennybaker, Shadina, 48 performers. See actors/performersf Perkins, James, 693 Perkins, Kimora Lee, 1279 permanent body adornments, 40 Perone, James E., 1534 Perry, Benjamin, 345 Perry, Emmitt Jr., 1391 Perry, Nannie, 640 Perry, Stepin Fetchit, 336, 338 Perry, Tim, 269 Perry, Tyler, 9, 342, 463, 485, 512, 716, 856, 1080–1082, 1098, 1391 Perry Sanitarium and Nurses’ Training School, 1036 Peterson, Louis, 849 Peterson, Oscar, 520 Peterson, Robert, 111 Petry, Ann, 315, 846–847, 852–853, 852 PGA (Professional Golfers Association), 450, 599–600, 1348–1349, 1535–1536 Phi Beta Kappa, 130, 387, 577, 1220 Phi Beta Sigma, 379, 683, 1304, 1353 Philadelphia International Records (PIR), 1078–1079 philanthropy, 1082–1085; need for, 667–668 Philip, Asa, 1186 Phillips, Caryl, 245 Phillips, Gary, 611 Phillips, Irving Sr., 1086 Phillips, Kimberley L., 619 Phillips, Nancy, 939 Phillips, Wendell, 1295 photography, 1085–1087 Pickett, Bill, 1087–1089 Pickett, Thomas Jefferson, 1087 Pickett, Tydia, 1050 Pierce, Frankie, 1143 Pierce, Joseph, 102 pierced ears, 40
Index pimp walk, 1089–1091 Pinchback, Nina, 604, 1092 Pinchback, P. B. S., 603–604, 1091–1092 Pinchback, William, 603, 1091 Pindell, Annie Pauline, 350 Pinson, Vada, 1223 Pinto, Maria, 1047 Pippen, Scottie, 1092–1093 Pitt, Brad, 1310 Pittman, Jane, 1420 Pitts, Helen, 417 Pittsburgh Courier, 1020, 1094–1095 Platt, Ville, 1556 Playboy Jazz Festival, 760 playwrights, 1096–1099 Plessy, Homer, 1075 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), 1100–1102 Poage, George, 1051, 1401 Poe, Edgar Allan, 611 poetry jams, 1102–1103 poets and poetry, 1104–1107; Black Arts Movement, 1106–1107; nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century, 1105–1106 Pointer, Deborah, 1103 Poitier, Sidney, 131, 247, 251–252, 315, 402, 511, 556, 641, 931, 993, 1097, 1108–1110, 1146, 1471 politics and government, 111–116; executive branch, 1111–1113; and government, 1111–1116; judicial branch, 1115–1116; legislative branch, 1113–1115 politics and the black church, 1117–1119 Polk, James A., 1085 Pollard, Fritz, 531–533, 535 Poole, Elijah, 970–971, 986 Poole, Paul, 1085 Poole, Wallace, 970 pop music, 1119–1123; artistic expression, need for, 1121–1123; migration, impacts of, 1120–1121 Poplar, Ellen, 1541 popular culture, humor in, 716–717 Popular Opinion Leader (POL), 672 population, 1123–1126; history, 1118–1125; migration, international/ domestic, 1125–1126
1697 Porter, Cole, 520, 585 Porter, James A., 261 Porter, Thelma, 124 post–Civil Rights Era, humor in, 715–716 Poston, Ted, 787 potato chips, 37 Powell, Adam Clayton Jr., 1127–1128 Powell, Adam Diago, 1128 Powell, Colin, 244, 462, 1041, 1129– 1131 Powell, Mattie Fletcher, 1127 Powell, Ozzie, 1261 Powell, Richard J., 981 Power, Tyrone, 39 Power Memorial Academy, 3 Powers, Austin, 141, 779 Powers, Harriet, 39–40, 1161 Pratt, Sharon, 606 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, 1142, 1144 Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington, 1188 Preminger, Otto, 395 Preserve the Eatonville Community (PEC), 681, 722–723 Presley, Elvis, 58, 116, 243, 273, 302, 704, 1233–1234, 1396, 1533 Presley, Priscilla, 1336 Price, Florence, 351, 647 Price, Leontyne, 635 Price, Lloyd, 1012 Price, Victoria, 1262 Pride, Charley, 381–382 Prim, Richard, 674 Primus, Pearl, 469 Prince, 1132–1133 prison reform, 1133–1134 professional/legal studies, 665–666 Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), 297 prophets and spiritualists, 1135–1140; Great Migration, practices following, 1137; prophetic activists, 1137–1139; of Slave Era, 1135–1137; women, 1133–1140 Prosser, Gabriel, 293 prostitution, 1140–1142 protest marches, 1142–1147; March on Washington, 1146; of 1960s,
1698 1138–1145; pre-modern civil rights marches, 1142–1144 Pryor, Alice, 545 Pryor, Marie, 1148 Pryor, Richard, 265, 290, 338–339, 341–342, 371, 468, 715, 717, 778, 1148–1150, 1260, 1400, 1413 Pryse, Marjorie, 851 PTL (Praise The Lord), 1383, 1508, 1504 Pub, Carol, 1416 Public Enemy (PE), 1151–1152 publishers/publishing, 1152–1157; Black Power Movement, literature of, 1154–1149; comic books, 1156; current status, 1156–1157; Harlem Renaissance, literature of, 1154; romance novels, 1155–1156; slave narratives, 1153–1154; urban literature, 1155, Christian, 1155. See also literature, African American Puckett, Newbell, 16 Puerto Rico, Afro-Hispanic blending, 45 PUSH, 742, 1054–1055, 1184 Q Quartet, Norfolk Jubilee, 1168 Queen Mother Moore, 1213 Queen of Chicago Blues, 1371–1372 quilts and quilting traditions, 1159– 1161; historical women quilt makers, 1154–1161 Quincy Jones Entertainment (QJE), 779 Quincy Jones Foundation, 780 Quincy Jones Media Group, 780 Quinn, Cameron, 611 Quintet, Johnson, 743 R R & B (Rhythm and Blues), 1163–1165; history, 1163–1164; 1940s and 1950s, 1164; 1960s, 1164–1165; singers, 1158–1165 race/ethnicity, 1165–1167 race records, 1167–1169 race riots, 1170–1173; of 1960s and beyond, 1171–1173
Index Racial Integrity Act, 949, 1167 racial profiling, 1173–1174 radio shows/hosts, 1175–1181; early twentieth century, 1176–1177; late twentieth century, 1180–1181; mid-twentieth century, 1178–1180 Radio-Television News Directors Association, 187 Ragland, John M., 1177 ragtime, 1181–1183 Railway Labor Act, 1187 Rainbow Coalition, 189, 298, 1056, 1183–1184 Rainey, Joseph H., 1113 Rainey, Ma, 1184–1185 Raitt, Bonnie, 689 Ralph, Sheryl Lee, 247, 517 Ralph, Son, 932 Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, 211 Ramirez, Blandina Cardenas, 137 Rampersad, Arnold, 848, 1345 Randall, Dudley, 146, 848 Randolph, A. Philip, 1186–1188; Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), 1187–1188 Randolph, Asa, 1187 Randolph, Brenda, 1228 Randolph, James, 1186 Randolph, John, 26 Rangel, Charles, 355 Ranks, Shabba, 1198 rap music and rappers, 40, 1189–1192; history of, 1183–1190; rappers, 1190–1192 rap, crossover forms, 1193–1194 Rashad, Ahmad, 1346 Raspberry, William J., 1194–1195 Rastafarianism, 245–246, 424, 632, 888, 1140, 1195–1197 Rawls, Lou, 704 Ray, Francis, 858 Ray, James Earl, 202–203 Ray, Laura, 1549 Rayl, Susan, 1386 Reagan, Ronald, 119, 273, 813, 1042, 1130 Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 602 Reamon, Tommy, 1448 Reconstruction, 28. See also Civil War
Index Reconstruction Era, 249, 825, 995, 1125–1126, 1469 Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 1510 Rector, Eddie, 469 Redford, Dorothy Spruill, 486 Reed, Chad, 1354 Reed, Gregory J., 959 Reed, Ishmael, 507, 846, 848, 1470 Reed, Jimmy, 133, 409 Reed, Willis, 668, 1339 Reggae reggaeton, 1197–1199 Reggaeton, 1198–1199 Reid, Antonio ‘‘L. A.,’’ 1194 Reid, Daphne Maxwell, 1013 Reid, Duke, 1198 Reid, Emma, 1200 Reid, Margaret, 1107 Reid, Maxwell, 955 Reid, Tim, 338, 1180 Reimers, Fernando, 461 religious customs and traditions, 1201–1205; celebrations and festivals, 684–685; day of worship, traditions on, 1202–1203; worship, 1197–1205 reparations, 1206–1213; Callie House, 1208–1209; International Reparations Movement, 1211–1213; James Forman and Black Manifesto, 1210–1211; Queen Mother Audley Moore, influence of, 1209 Reparations Coordinating Committing (RCC), 1211 Republican National Convention, 1111, 1522 Republican Party, 27, 416, 603, 1208, 1454 Republican State Convention, 1092 Republic of New Afrika (RNA), 1210 research centers, 839–842 Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), 244, 1129 restaurateurs, 363–364 Revolutionary Action Movement, 506 Rex, King, 883 Reynolds, Burt, 201 Reynolds, Frank, 1226 Rhoden, William C., 157, 1403 Rhodes, Ted, 450
1699 Rhone, Sylvia, 222, 967, 969 rhymes: jump rope, 796–798 Ribbs, William Theodore, 240, 1258 Riccardi, Michael, 1268 Rice, Condoleezza, 1214–1216 Rice, Jerry, 1216–1217 Rice, John, 1215 Rice, Linda Johnson, 441, 772 Rich, Wilbert, 675 Richards, Ann, 783 Richards, Beah, 337, 1390 Richards, Reed, 613 Richardson, LaTanya, 752 Richie, Lionel, 1217–1220 Rick, Slick, 171 Rickey, Wesley Branch, 110, 532 Riefenstahl, Leni, 1064 Rihanna, 248, 463 Rios, Christopher Lee, 248 Riven, Frances Fox, 1478 Roberson, La Tavia, 140 Roberts, Flori, 374 Roberts, John Storm, 229 Robeson, Maria Louisa Bustill, 1220 Robeson, Paul, 1220–1222 Robeson, William Drew, 1220 Robinson, Chanel Iman, 955 Robinson, Frank, 1222–1223 Robinson, Jackie, 1224–1225 Robinson, Max, 1226 Robinson, Randall, 1227–1228 Robinson, Smokey, 967–969, 1229–1231, 1244, 1318, 1467, 1533 Robinson, Sugar Ray, 1231–1232, 1341 Roby, Kemberla Lawson, 859 rock and roll, 1232–1234 Rock, Chris, 1234–1235 Rock, Malaak Compton, 1235 rodeos, 382–384 Rodman, Dennis, 1236–1237 Rogers, Norman Lee, 1151 Roi, Sonji, 51 Roker, Al, 1237–1239 romance novels, African American, 1155–1156 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 771, 1412, 1454 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 32, 39, 185, 863, 994, 1297, 1430
1700 Roosevelt, Theodore, 259, 1469, 1224 Roots, television miniseries 1239–1241 Rosamond, John, 768 Rosenfeld, Julius, 1430 Rosewood, Florida, 1241–1243 Ross, Diana, 338, 436, 445, 677, 965, 967, 969, 1165, 1217–1218, 1244–1246, 1331, 1437, 1447 Ross, Harriet, 1412 Ross, Karen, 276 Ross, Rick, 1121 Rossmore, Julia, 1081 Roundtree, Richard, 8, 699, 1263 Rowan, Carl, 787, 988 Rowe, Ryan, 346 Rowland, Kelendria, 140 Rowland, Kelly, 142 Royall, Isaac, 1207 Rubin, Rick, 817, 1193 Rucker, Annie Delilah, 52 Rucker, Lamman, 514 Rudolph, Blanche, 1246 Rudolph, Wilma, 668, 1050, 1246–1247, 1348, 1401–1402, 1517 Ruffin, George Lewis, 827 Ruffins, Kermit, 1014 Ruiz, Jose L., 262 Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, 1280 Russell, Bill, 4, 115, 267, 1223, 1248–1250, 1338, 1394 Russell, Charles, 1248 Russell, Katie, 1248 Russell, Nipsey, 289, 336 Russell, William Felton, 1248 Russwurm, John, 786 Rust, Rod, 626 Rustin, Bayard, 79, 581, 880, 882, 1029, 1144, 1188, 1361, 1519 Rustin, Candy, 253 S Saadig, Raphael, 1219 Sadat-Singh, Wilmeth, 532 Said, Edward W., 570 Saint Domingue, 1007 Sampson, Charles, 383 Sampy, Hiram, 1557
Index San Francisco Black Film Festival (SFBFF), 516–517 Sanchez, Sonia, 84, 146, 854, 991, 1103, 1155 Sandburg, Carl, 1106 Sanders, Barry, 201 Sanders, Betty, 878 Sanders, Evelyn, 122 Sandole, Dennis, 331 Sands, Diana, 641, 1097, 1494 Sandy, Joseph, 660 Sanford, Fred, 1379 Sanford, Isabel, 337, 1380 Santana, Carlos, 689, 1230 Saperstein, Abe, 643, 1338 Sapp, Marvin, 1122 Saramago, Jose, 596–597 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 1542 Satcher, David, 913, 919 Satcher, Robert L., Jr., 73 Satchmo. See Armstrong, Louis Satchmo SummerFest, 680 Saunders, Gertrude, 473 Saunders, John, 1346 Savage, Augusta, 648 Savannah, Zahra, 1235 Savitt, Todd, 937 Saxon, Wolfgang, 691 Sayers, Gayle, 1341 scat singing, 1251–1252 Schiffman, Frank, 56 Schmeling, Max, 863 Schmoke, Kurt, 944 Schomburg, Arthur, 71, 646 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 221, 841, 1092 Schuler, George S., 1095 Schuller, Gunther, 453 Schultz, Michael, 516, 1399 Schulz, Charles M., 257 Schuyler, George, 845 Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 410 Schwerner, Michael, 354 science/scientists, 1253–1257; black pioneers, 1254; of twentieth century and beyond, 1254–1257 Scott, Alexander, 1379 Scott, Benny, 239, 241
Index Scott, Bernice, 807 Scott, Christian, 1014 Scott, David, 1256 Scott, Dred, 22, 824, 829, 1008 Scott, Emmett Sr., 197 Scott, Horace, 197 Scott, Jill, 1257–1258 Scott, John T., 1012 Scott, Joyce, 1257 Scott, Patricia Bell, 850 Scott, Spencer, 1097 Scott, Stuart, 789, 1345 Scott, Tony, 1471 Scott, Wendell Oliver, 1258–1261; joins Dixie Circuit, 1259–1261 Scott, Willard, 629 Scott-Heron, Gil, 1103, 1439 Scottsboro, Alabama, 1261–1263 Screen Actors Guild (SAG), 135, 402, 951 Scriver, Martin, 1408 sculptors, African American, 39 Seacole, Mary, 1033 Seale, Bobby, 158, 161, 197, 1024–1025, 1062, 1527 Second American Revolution, 313 Seder, John, 218 Sedran, Bernard, 112 Seeger, Pete, 691 Seigelman, Peter, 359 Sejour, Victor, 846, 1096 Sekora, John, 356 Seldon, Helen, 194 Sellman, James, 157 Semple, Jesse B., 710, 853, 1096 Senghor, Leopold, 1541 Sengstacke, John, 281, 1095 Senstacke, Robert A., 1086 Separate Car Act, 1100–1101 Seward, Theodore F., 1333 Seymour, William J., 295 Shabazz, Betty, 487, 944, 1519 Shaft, 1263–1264 Shaft, John, 1263–1264 Shakespeare, William, 777 Shakur, Afeni, 1264 Shakur, Tupac, 1264–1266
1701 Shange, Ntozake, 1266–1267 Shannon, Randy, 1338 Shante, Roxanne, 822–823, 1190–1191, 1440 Sharkey, Jack, 863 Sharman, Bill, 1249 Sharpton, Al, 1268–1269 Shaw, Arnold, 1164 Shaw, Bernard, 788 Shaw, Ted, 834 Shelburne, John, 532 Shepherd, LaVerne, 1270 Shepherd, Lawrence A., 1270 Shepherd, Sherri, 1270–1271 Sheridan, John, 509 Sherman, Joe, 132 Sherman, William Tecumseh, 531, 1208 Shields, John, 1104–1105 Shippen, John, 599 Shlaes, Amy, 565 shopping, 358–361 Shore, Dinah, 520 Showell, Andre, 459, 465 Shuck, Reginald, 404 shucking, 1271–1272 Shultz, George P., 14 Shuttlesworth, Fred, 1144 Sifford, Charlie, 450, 1343 signifying, 1273–1275 signifying monkey, 1275–1278 Silvera, Rashid, 954 Simien, Sydney, 1558 Simmons, Alex, 612 Simmons, Danny, 1103 Simmons, Evelyn, 1279 Simmons, Joseph, 1191 Simmons, Russell, 219, 266, 327, 333, 817, 1103, 1155, 1191, 1193, 1278–1280, 1413 Simmons, William J., 220 Simon, Carly, 1447 Simone, Lola, 1235 Simone, Nina, 78, 318, 1319 Simpkins, Modjesta, 1523–1524 Simpson, Donnie, 152 Simpson, Floyd, 1145 Simpson, O. J., 1281–1283
1702 Simpson, Samuel, 706 Simpson, Valerie, 1079 Sims, Naomi, 375, 953, 955 Sinatra, Frank, 39, 405, 520, 585, 779 singers. See also musicians/singers: R & B, 1164–1165 single parenting, 1283–1285 Singleton, John, 512, 514, 569, 571, 573, 1241 Singleton, Robert, 163 Sinnock, John, 39 Sipuel, Ada, 1524 sit-in movement, 1285–1289; early, 1286–1288; 1960s, 1288–1289; popular media and, 183 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, 1290–1291 slang/unconventional English, African American, 1291–1293; characteristics of, 1292; hip-hop, 1293; jazz, 1293; southern slang, 1292–1293; street slang of 1960s and 1970s, 1293 Slaughter, Henry Proctor, 182 slave community, humor in, 714–715 slave narratives, 1294–1297; influential period, 1296–1297; Federal Writers Program, 1297 slavery: composers, 349; in America, 20–22; resistance, 22–24 Sleet Scales, Jessie C., 1035 Slim, Iceberg, 1298–1299 Slowe, Lucy Diggs, 1386 Smallwood, Richard, 301 Smiley, Glenn, 959 Smiley, Tavis, 1299–1300 Smith, Akili, 534 Smith, Alpha, 65 Smith, Amanda Berry, 1135 Smith, Anna Deavere, 1098, 1267 Smith, Anthony, 1377 Smith, Augustus, 498 Smith, Barbara, 581, 850 Smith, Bessie, 6, 147, 173, 289, 380, 467, 493, 647, 676, 1099, 1301–1302, 1370–1371, 1395, 1457, 1507 Smith, Brian, 1310 Smith, Caroline, 1310 Smith, Charlie, 532
Index Smith, Cherry, 888 Smith, Chris, 737 Smith, Clara, 1168 Smith, Clarence O., 471 Smith, Donna, 1309 Smith, Emmitt, 535, 1303–1304 Smith, Frederick D., 70, 168, 405, 412, 435, 451, 539, 695, 768, 865, 934, 1261, 1355 Smith, Gus, 498 Smith, Homer, 1109 Smith, Jada Pinkett, 339, 342, 1304–1306, 1312 Smith, James Todd. See LL Cool J Smith, Jason, 1531–1532 Smith, Jean Butler, 1494 Smith, Jim, 348 Smith, John David, 384, 1412 Smith, Kelly Miller, 297 Smith, Lonnie E., 310 Smith, Lovie, 1306–1307 Smith, Lucy, 299 Smith, Lynn, 1494 Smith, Mamie, 147, 173, 647, 1307–1308, 1370 Smith, Margaret Charles, 939 Smith, Marvin, 1435, 1442 Smith, Mary Louise, 1525 Smith, Morgan, 1086 Smith, Nipsey, 130 Smith, Pinkett, 1304–1305 Smith, Roxie Dentz, 1035 Smith, Stephen, 1083 Smith, Tasha, 515 Smith, Thunder, 690 Smith, Tommie, 356, 535, 1051, 1319, 1348 Smith, Tubby, 1309–1310 Smith, Valerian, 1494 Smith, Will, 1310–1312 Smith v. Allwright (1944), 310 Smitherman, Geneva, 149 Smithsonian Institution, 800 Sneed, Paula A., 222 Snellings, Rolland, 854 Snipes, Wesley, 385–386, 1174 Snoop Dogg, 1293, 1312–1314 social activists, 1314–1316; antislavery movement, 1314–1315; Black Power
Index Movement, 1316; Civil Rights Movement, 1315–1316; early twentieth century, 1315 social clubs, 1057–1059 social equalization, and consumerism, 360 Social Security Act, 1477 social solidarity, and consumerism, 359 Soetoro, Lolo, 1039 Solomon, Minnie Ruth, 1063 Son Doobie, 1321 sororities. See Greek Letter Organizations soul, 1317–1318 soul and funk, 1319–1321; and heavy rhythm, 1320–1321 soul food, 1321–1323 Soul Train, 1323–1324 Sound of Philadelphia, The (TSOP), 1078 South, The, 1325–1328 South America, Afro-Hispanic blending, 44 South Carolina, African American communities, 347–348 Southeastern Federation of Colored Women, 139 Southern Baptist Convention, 293 Southern California Timing Association, 238 Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 78–79, 297, 314, 637, 667, 742, 810, 812, 880–881, 1012, 1059–1061, 1074, 1112–1113, 1146–1147, 1328–1329, 1359 Southern Conference Education Fund, 80 Southern Manifesto, 206 Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration, 1329 Southern Regional Council, 1289 Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO), 1016–1017 Southwestern Colored Cowboys Association, 383 Spaeth, Sigmund, 545 Spanish American War, 209 Spann, Otis, 474, 1396
1703 Sparks, Jodi Weidmann, 1330 Sparks, Jordin, 1330–1332 Spears, Britney, 192 Special Counsel for Ethics, 783 Speedskating Club, 404 Spence, Eulalie, 494 Spencer, Anne, 1105 Spielberg, Steven, 330, 779 Spingarn, Arthur B., 386 Spinks, Leon, 51 Spirit House Theater, 97 spiritualists. See prophets/spiritualists spirituals, 1332–1333 Spitzer, Eliot, 604 Spivey, Victoria, 1168 Spoehr, Luther W., 599 sports, 1334–1344; baseball, 1334–1336; basketball, 1338–1340; boxing, 1340–1342; celebrations, 685–686; football, 1336–1338; gambling on, 563; golf and tennis, 1343–1344; Olympics and track, 1342 sports announcers/commentators, 1345–1347; Brothers Gumbel, 1346 sports classics, 1348–1350 Sports Club Car of America (SCCA), 239–241 Springsteen, Bruce, 134, 656 St. John Vianney, 1392 St. Julien, Marlo, 694 St. Louis Browns, 1067 St. Louis Giants, 1003 St. Louis Hawks, 1496 St. Louis Rams, 908, 1307 Stahl, Jesse, 383 Stallworth, Monikka, 728–729 Stanley, Hannah, 367 Stanton, Alysa, 300 Starks, Joe, 721 Starmichael, Stokely, 250 Starr, Brenda K., 242 Starr, Edwin, 1320 State Court Judge, 795 Staupers, Mabel K., 1037 Stavrou, Sarah, 954 STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), 670 Steadman, Frances, 1465 Steamship Clerks, 819
1704 Stebman, Betty, 1431 Steele, Shelby, 1350–1351 Stein, Alan Harris, 228 Stephens, Lee, 120 Stephens, Otis H., 1270 stepping, 1352–1353 Steven, Broderick, 650 Stevens, David, 636 Stewart, Christopher, 1219 Stewart, Eliza, 1091 Stewart, James ‘‘Bubba,’’ 1354–1355 Stewart, Jon, 1248 Stewart, Maria, 1069, 1520 Still, Karen, 1079 Still, William Grant, 24, 182, 351, 647, 1355–1356 Stokes, Carl, 1438 Stokes, Louis, 355 Stokes, Louise, 1050 Stone, Angie, 1441 Stone, Chuck, 788 Stoney, George C., 939–940 Storey, Moorfield, 984 Storey, Robert G., 1423 Storm, Johnny, 613 Stoute, Steve, 169 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 27, 929, 1296, 1424–1425 Strachwitz, Chris, 1396 Strauss, Levi, 38 Strayhorn, William, 452, 1434 Streisand, Barbra, 64 Stringer, Bill, 1357 Stringer, C. Vivian, 1356–1358 Stringer, Vickie, 859 Stuckey, Sterling, 157 Studdard, Ruben, 1120 Student National Coordinating Committee, 1360 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 78, 80, 131, 161, 176, 249–250, 553–556, 636–638, 667, 837– 839, 880–881, 1059–1061, 1112–1113, 1210–1211, 1358–1360, 1526–1527 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), 1359 Sullivan, Leon H., 298, 1360–1361 Sullivan, Louis W., 914
Index Summers, Donna, 170 Summers, Lawrence, 1483 Summers, William E. III, 694 Summit, Pat, 114 Sundance Film Festival, 512 superstitions, 1361–1363 Supreme Court Justice, 793 Sutton, Eddie, 268 Swedish Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, 453 Sweet Auburn SpringFest, 480, 487–488 Swing Era, 87–90 Swinton, Harry, 1369 Sykes, Wanda, 1363–1365 Syre, Jaden Christopher, 1305 Sze-Fai Shiu, Anthony, 567 T Tabachnick, Stephen, 614 Taft, Seth, 605 Taft, William Howard, 531 Tagg, Phillip, 1119 Taliaferro, George, 533 Talley, Estelle, 541 Tallulah, Minnie, 1459 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 434, 1307 Tanner, David, 693 Tanner, Henry Ossawa, 39, 41, 981 Tanner, Obour, 1488 tap dance, 1367–1370; buck dancing, 1368; jazz, 1369; ‘‘King of Tap,’’ 1369–1364; Lane, William Henry, 1368 Tate, Claudia, 846 Tate, Mary, 299 Tavis Smiley Foundation, 1300 Taylor, Bobby, 1399 Taylor, Fannie, 345, 1242 Taylor, Fred Barney, 408 Taylor, James, 1500 Taylor, Koko, 1370–1372; Queen of Chicago Blues, 1371–1372 Taylor, Quintard, 495 Taylor, Robert R., 61 Taylor, Susan L., 471, 1372–1374 Taylor, Tyrone, 305 Taylor, Violett, 1373 TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network), 1383–1384
Index T-Bone Walker, 133, 806, 1457–1458 technology, 1374–1376 Teer, Barbara Ann, 146 television, 1377–1382; 1960s, 1379; 1970s, 1379–1381; 1980s, 1381; 1990s and beyond, 1381–1382; origins of, 1377–1378 television evangelism, 1382–1385; and religious entrepreneurs, 1383–1385 Tellez, Tom, 835 tennis, 1343–1344, 1385–1386 Terrell, Mary Church, 31, 866, 1058, 1286, 1315, 1387–1388, 1522 Terrell, Tami, 585 Terry, Clark, 90 Terry, Lucy, 504, 1104, 1490 Terry, Sonny, 467, 474, 1506 Terry, Wallace, 788 Texas, African American communities, 348 Tharpe, Rosetta, 300, 602 theater/drama, 1388–1391; actors in, 1390; African-American directors, 1391; early history, 1389; twentieth century, 1389–1390; twenty-first century, 1391 Theatre, Douglass, 493 Theatre Owners Booking Association, 289 Theodore DeResse Pendergrass, 1078 Thomas, Clarence, 1392–1393 Thomas, Cleo, 625 Thomas, Debbie, 1344 Thomas, Ernest, 338 Thomas, Gertrude, 1148 Thomas, Hugh, 617 Thomas, Irma, 1012 Thomas, Pamela, 508 Thomas, Ricardo, 1086 Thomas, Rufus, 1318, 1396 Thomas-Graham, Pamela, 856 Thompson, Gina, 454 Thompson, John R., 1394–1395 Thompson, Kathleen, 148, 172–174 Thompson, Theophilus, 69 Thompson, Walter, 75 Thoms, Adah Bell, 1036 Thoreau, Henry David, 353, 1138
1705 Thornton, Big Mama, 1395–1397 Thornton, Willie Mae, 1395 Thrower, Willie, 533 Through the Ivory Gate, 419 Thug Lovin’, 859 Thumb, Tom, 1205 Thurman, Wallace, 494, 580, 646–647, 845, 1436 Thurmond, Strom, 206 Tidwell, John Edgar, 1106 Tidyman, Ernest, 1263–1264 tie-dye patterns, 38 Tilghman, Amelia L., 350 Till, Emmett Louis, 196, 763, 1097, 1397–1399 Tillery, Carolyn Quick, 365 Tillman, George, 530 Tillman, Henry, 687 Till-Mobley, Mamie, 1398 Tillmon, Johnnie, 1478 Tindley, Charles Albert, 602 Title IX Legislation, 1517–1518 TJMS (Tom Joyner Morning Show), 790, 1176, 1180, 1300 toasting, 406–407 TOBA (Theater Owners Booking Association), 335–336, 873, 899, 1406 Tobey, Henry, 432 Tolbert, William R. Jr., 17 Toliver, Kittie, 1035 Tolson, Melvin B., 1471 Tomlinson, LaDainian, 1338 Tompkins, Shaniqua, 510 Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, 929–930 Toni Morrison Society. See Morrison, Toni Tont, Eldrick, 1534 Tooks, Lance, 608, 611 Toomer, Jean, 473, 505, 604, 646, 845, 904, 1092, 1138, 1436, 1522 Tosh, Peter, 888, 1198 Toure, Kwame, 667 Toussaint, Allen, 760 Tower, Steve, 651 Townes, Jeffrey, 1310 Townsend, Ella, 636 Townsend, Fannie Lou, 636
1706 Townsend, Robert, 340–341, 512, 1399–1400 Townsend, Willard, 1188 track and field, 1348, 1401–1403 TransAfrica, 1404–1405 TransAfrica Forum, 1404–1405 travel/tourism, 1405–1407 Trent, William J. Jr., 1431 Trethewey, Natasha, 1107 Trey, Willard III, 1305 Tribbett, Tye, 302, 1122 Tribeca Film Festival, 516 tricks, 1450–1451 tricksters, 1445 Trio, Stevens, 132 Trio, Ward, 1465 Trist~ao, Nuno, 1206 Trotter, William Monroe, 788, 1019, 1171 Troupe, Quincy, 773, 1107 Troy, Cowboy, 1123, 1194 Truman, Harry, 39, 139, 1112, 1418 Trumbull Tennis Club, 166 Truth, Sojourner, 1407–1409 Tubman, Harriet, 24, 293, 365, 841, 941, 1034, 1058, 1136, 1160, 1178, 1314–1315, 1326, 1410–1412, 1428 Tucker, Chris, 342, 1382, 1412–1414 Tucker, DeLores, 191, 266 Tucker, Lorenzo, 7 Tucker, Mark, 453 Tucker, Norris, 1413 Tuckett, LeToya, 140 Tuff Gong, record label, 889 Tully, Sheila, 1222 Ture, Kwame, 161, 249–250 Turlington, Christine, 235 Turner, Debbye, 124 Turner, Henry McNeal, 41, 1018 Turner, Lorenzo, 16 Turner, Nikki, 859 Turner, Tina, 981, 1120, 1415–1416 Tuskegee Airmen, 1022, 1416–1419 Tuskegee Veterans Hospital, 918 Twain, Mark, 611 Twentieth Century Fox, 772, 1222 Tyler, John, 1208 Tyler Perry Studios, 1080
Index Tyree, Omar, 859 Tyson, Cicely, 8, 778, 1034, 1081, 1284, 1379, 1419–1420 Tyson, Lorna, 1421 Tyson, Mike, 186, 333, 463, 686–687, 1342, 1421–1422 Tyus, Wyomia, 668 U U.S. Auto Club (USAC), 238 U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge, 794–795 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1423–1424 U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, 793 U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge, 794 U.S. Court of International Trade Judge, 794 U.S. District Court Judge, 793 U.S. Magistrate Judge, 794 U.S. Olympics Committee (USOC), 836 U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), 671, 918 U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1091 U.S. Tax Court Judge, 794 UCLA (University of California Los Angeles), 3–4, 68, 202, 396, 398, 727, 913, 1224, 1339, 1402, 1438 UGA (United Golfers Association), 450, 599 Ukpolo, Victor, 1016 Ulanov, Barry, 452, 980 Ulmer, Kenneth, 298, 925, 927 UMC (United Methodist Church), 295, 299, 925 UNCF (United Negro College Fund), 298, 377, 624, 668, 772, 1084, 1424–1431 Uncle Tom, 65, 74, 504, 564, 932, 985, 1272, 1296, 1424–1425 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (UTC), 1425–1426 unconventional English. See slang/unconventional English underclass, black, 322 Underground Railroad, 20, 24, 27, 236, 416, 635, 1034, 1058, 1083, 1096, 1134, 1136, 1315, 1344, 1410–1412, 1426–1430
Index Underwood, Blair, 514, 623, 1081, 1174 Underwood, Charles, 74 UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association), 157, 244–245, 574–576, 877, 970, 986, 1021–1023, 1060–1061, 1069, 1086, 1154, 1432–1433, 1482; African Communities (Imperial) League (UNIA-ACL), 1432 Union Baptist Church, 52 United Church of Christ (UCC), 296, 925, 1138, 1547 United Methodist Church (UMC), 295, 299, 925 United Nations, 53, 139, 211, 297, 604, 994, 1012, 1211–1212, 1290, 1493, 1548 United Negro College Fund (UNCF), 1430–1431 United Negro Golfers Association, 450 United Negro Improvement Association, 1212 United Press International (UPI), 1053 United Services Organization, 1465 United States, African Americans in. See African Americans in United States United States Air Force, 96 United States Army, 475, 863, 1129, 1194, 1227, 1231 United States Capitol, 943 United States Commission on Civil Rights Act, 1424 United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), 1386 United States League of Professional Baseball Clubs, 538 United States Tennis Association (USTA), 68 Unity Democratic Club, 287 Universal Big Top Circus, 306–307 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 596 Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), 1432–1433; and African Communities Leagues, 574 UPN (United Paramount Network), 341–342, 780
1707 upper class, black, 321–322 urban culture, 1433–1442; 1930s, 1428–1435; 1940s to 1950s, 1435–1437; 1960s, 1437–1438; 1970s, 1432–1439; 1980s, 1439–1440; 1990s, 1440–1442 USATF (USA Track and Field), 1403 V Valdes, Beverly, 952 Valdez, Luis, 1555 Van Der Zee, James, 648, 1085–1086 Van Deusen, John G., 620 Van Peebles, Mario, 1443–1444 Van Peebles, Melvin, 511, 516, 611–612, 1400, 1444–1446 Van Sertima, Ivan, 18, 20, 36, 41, 1257 Van Wageners, 1409 Vandergelder, Horace, 228 Vanderhorst, Richard, 294 Vandross, Luther, 57, 140, 1120, 1446–1447, 1467 Vann, Robert L., 787, 1095 Varese, Edward, 1355 Vason, Lu, 1089 Vasquez, Jason, 1321 Vassell, Olive, 894 Vaughan, Sarah, 128 Vaughn, Terri J., 516 Veeck, Bill, 1067 Vehnanen, Kosti, 53 VelJohnson, Reginald, 340 Vicario, Arantxa Sanchez, 1504 Vick, Brenda, 1448 Vick, Michael, 463, 534, 1337, 1447–1448, 1449 Victoria, Queen, 473, 601, 1160, 1333 video games. See games, video Vince Lombardi Trophy, 535 Vincent, Marjorie Judith, 124 Vinson, Eddie, 331 Vlach, John Michael, 61–62 Von Eeden, Trevor, 609 voodoo, tricks, and tricksters, etc., 1449–1453; and popular culture, 1451–1453 voting patterns, 1453–1455; with party of Lincoln, 1454–1455
1708 Voting Rights Act (1965), 33, 162, 195, 312, 318, 321, 354, 638, 700, 783, 811, 838, 881–882, 959, 1112–1113, 1146 Voumard, Geo, 759 W Wachowski, Andy, 1484 Wachowski, Larry, 1484 Wade, Dwayne, 755 Wade, Ernestine, 336 Wagener, Isabella Van, 1409 Wagner, Robert, 591 Wagstaff, Lee, 613 Wailer, Bunny, 888, 1198 Walcott, Alvan, 489 Walcott, Derek, 245 Walcott, Jersey Joe, 185, 863, 1341 Walker, Aaron, 1457–1458 Walker, Albertina, 300 Walker, Alice, 84–85, 330, 356, 417, 471, 507, 581, 666, 718, 722, 779, 841, 846–847, 851, 855, 1458–1461 Walker, Charles Joseph, 1462 Walker, David, 145, 157, 1018, 1024, 1069 Walker, Eunice, 771 Walker, George, 1369 Walker, Jimmie, 1380 Walker, John, 146 Walker, Joseph A., 849, 856, 1098 Walker, Juliet, 218 Walker, Kurtis, 266 Walker, Lelia, 646 Walker, Madam C. J., 1461–1464 Walker, Maggie Lena, 221, 1084 Walker, Margaret, 844, 848 Walker, William, 693 Wall, Paul, 170 Wallace, Bobby, 238 Wallace, Christopher, 333, 573 Wallace, George, 1290 Wallace, Henry A., 259 Wallace, Perry, 113 Walters, Ron, 1211
Index Walton, Bill, 115 Walton, Cora, 1371 Warburg, Eugene, 472 Ward, Billy, 690 Ward, Clara, 300, 1465–1466 Ward, Gertrude, 1465 Ward, Maybell, 386 Ward, Samuel Ringgold, 236 Ward, Theodore, 497–498 Ward, Willa, 1465 Ware, Charles Pickard, 1333 Warfield, Marsha, 339 Waring, J. Waties, 1524 Warmouth, Henry C., 603, 1091 Warner, John, 876 Warner Brothers (WB), 341, 541, 651, 1132, 1311, 1346, 1467, 1474 Warren, Mathew, 460, 465 Warwick, Dionne, 57, 1447, 1466–1467 Warwick, Mancel Jr., 1466 Washburn, Patrick, 1094 Washington, Booker T., 30–31, 156, 180, 197, 216, 259, 428–431, 442, 479–480, 504, 574–575, 664, 733, 799, 840, 844, 1468–1470; and African Americans, 30–31 Washington, Denzel, 458, 464, 512, 752, 1390, 1470–1471, 1513 Washington, Dinah, 289, 468, 1302, 1466 Washington, Elsie B., 858 Washington, Ernest Davidson, 1469 Washington, Harold, 606, 740, 1118 Washington, Isabel, 1127 Washington, Mary Helen, 368, 850 Washington, Raymond Lee, 570 Washington, Sarah Spencer, 126, 373–374 Washington, Walter E., 1439 Washington, Warren, 1256 Washington Society for Colored Dentists, 995 Wasserstein, Wendy, 1391 Waters, Ethel, 7, 173, 315, 336, 467, 469, 473, 647, 1168–1169 Waters, Gina, 905 Waters, Maxine, 876 Waters, Muddy, 1472–1473
Index Watkins, Mel, 289 Watkins Glen International, 239 Watson, Steven, 1027 Watts, Doris, 1322 Watts, Isaac, 1122 Waxman, Sharon, 1150 Wayans, Damon, 222, 1474–1475 Wayans, Elvira, 1474 Wayans, Keenan, 468 Wayans, Kim, 341 Wayans, Marlon, 341, 1474–1475 Wayans, Shawn, 1474 Wayans Brothers, 1473–1475 Wayne, Lil, 463–464 Webb, Frank G., 845 Webb, Senator Jim, 1133 Webb, Veronica, 953–954 Weber, Carle, 859 Webster, Ben, 678 Webster, Daniel, 26 Webster, Milton P., 819 wedding customs/traditions, 1475–1477 Weeks, Thomas, 1139 Weems, Charlie, 1261 Weidman, Charles, 46 Weight-control Information Network, 921 Wek, Alek, 955 Weld, Theodore, 27 welfare queen, 1531 Welfare Rights Movement, 1477–1479 Welles, Orson, 498, 771, 852 Wells, Jim, 1479 Wells, Mary, 585, 967, 1229–1230, 1437 Wells-Barnett, Ida B., 1479–1482; as anti-lynching crusader, 1481–1482 Wertheim, L. Jon, 1505 Wesley, Valerie Wilson, 856 West, Cornel, 1483–1484 West, Dorothy, 501, 506 West, Harold D., 912 West, James, 1256–1257 West, Jerry, 115 West, Kanye, 140, 327, 384, 426–427, 459, 464, 510, 595–596, 662, 1015, 1121, 1123, 1284, 1485–1487 West, Mae, 544–545 West, Ray, 1485
1709 Weston, George, 1432 Weston, Kim, 585 Wexler, Jerry, 1163 Wezithombe, Umlando, 609 Wheatley, John, 1488 Wheatley, Phillis, 264, 446, 504, 577, 1104, 1107, 1487–1490; poems, 1488–1490 Wheatley, Susanna, 1488 Wheatstraw, Peter, 525 Whicher, Stephen E., 427 Whitaker, Forest, 1490–1491 White, Blanche, 856 White, Charles, 262 White, Cheryl, 694 White, Clarence Cameron, 647 White, Effie, 706 White, George L., 601 White, James, 168 White, Jessica, 955 White, Josh, 1146 White, Joyce, 363 White, Maurice, 1500 White, Michael, 1014 White, Milton, 1187 White, Raymond, 694 White, Slappy, 468, 874 White, Walter, 139, 386, 611, 770, 1061, 1095, 1315, 1454, 1492–1493 White Citizens Council, 958 Whitefield, George, 1488 Whiteman, Paul, 757 Whitfield, James, 145 Whitfield, Lynn, 1494–1495 Whitmore, Preston, 514 Wideman, John Edgar, 384 Wiedmann, Pam, 1330 Wiggins, Blind Tom, 349 Wiggins, David K., 116, 786 Wiggins, William H. Jr., 98 Wilbon, Michael, 107, 789 Wilde, Oscar, 580 Wilder, Gene, 1110 Wilder, Lawrence Douglas, 604–605, 1091 Wiley, George A., 1478 Wiley, Stephen, 1123 Wilkens, Henrietta, 1496
1710 Wilkens, Lenny, 1495–1496 Wilkes, Sybil, 790 Wilkins, Ernest, 1423 Wilkins, Minnie, 1498 Wilkins, Roy O., 386, 838, 1021, 1060, 1144, 1315, 1497–1499 Willard, Jess, 185, 1341 William, Joseph, 552 Williams, Andy, 520 Williams, Anthony, 1334 Williams, Bert, 335, 494, 1369, 1389 Williams, Christine, 359 Williams, Clarence, 1168 Williams, Clifton, 364 Williams, Deniece, 706, 1165, 1499–1500 Williams, Doug, 534 Williams, Edward Christopher, 646 Williams, Elizabeth Ann, 1374 Williams, Eloise, 1267 Williams, Ephraim, 305, 306 Williams, Eric, 19, 230 Williams, Eugene, 1261 Williams, Hank, 380 Williams, Hosea, 1147 Williams, Hype, 454 Williams, Juan, 789, 1501 Williams, Malik, 570 Williams, Marion, 1465 Williams, Maurice, 789 Williams, Mayo, 1169 Williams, Michelle, 140, 142 Williams, Milton Augustine Jr., 1086, 1502 Williams, Myrlie Evers, 1519 Williams, Nicole, 374 Williams, Pat Ward, 1087 Williams, Paul, 39, 41, 61, 1267 Williams, Robert, 149, 1172 Williams, Roshumba, 954 Williams, Sam, 1497 Williams, Saul, 1103 Williams, Saundra, 122 Williams, Serena, 1503–1505 Williams, Toni, 305 Williams, Tyler, 515 Williams, Vanessa, 124, 906, 1502–1503
Index Williams, Venus, and Williams, Serena, 186, 591, 1386, 1503–1505 Williams, Virginia, 519 Williams, Wendy, 1180 Williamson, Fannie, 1072 Williamson, Joel, 869 Williamson, Sonny Boy I, and Williamson, Sonny Boy II, 1505–1506 Williamson, Sonny Boy II, 409, 1505–1506 Willingham, Tyrone, 1338 Wills, Bob, 380–381 Wilson, August, 290, 498, 725, 777, 849, 856, 1099, 1390, 1507–1508 Wilson, Carl, 134 Wilson, Edith, 75 Wilson, Frank, 498 Wilson, Jackie, 746, 966, 1078, 1229, 1318 Wilson, Lionel, 198, 1026 Wilson, Margaret Bolton, 1540 Wilson, Mary, 1165, 1244–1245 Wilson, Michael, 643 Wilson, Mookie, 1335 Wilson, Nancy, 991 Wilson, Ted, 96 Wilson, Teddy, 676 Wilson, Woodrow, 1112, 1143 Winans, BeBe, 1508–1509 Winans, CeCe, 227, 302, 1122, 1203, 1509–1510 Winans, David, 1508 Winans, Vickie, 302, 1122 Windsor Village United Methodist Church, 925 Winfrey, Oprah Gail, 1511–1514; as actress and producer, 1513; awards, 1513–1514; career, beginning, 1505–1512; Oprah’s Foundation, 1514 Winfrey, Vernon, 1511 Wingate, David, 1394 Winkfield, Jimmy, 694 Winston, Michael R., 221, 1494 Winston Cup 240 Witherspoon, Jimmy, 690 Witherspoon, John, 1474 Witherspoon, Robert L., 545
Index Wofford, Ramah, 960 Wolfe, George C., 1390–1391, 1486 Wolfe, Tom, 84 Womack, Bobby, 1439 womanism, 1515–1516 Woman’s Boxing Archive Network (WBAN), 48 women: in black churches leadership, 299–300; organizations, 1057–1059; preaching, 1139–1140; writers, 848–855 women and sports, 1516–1518; Title IX Legislation, 1517–1518 woman and civil rights movement, 1518–1527; activism, roots of, 1514–1521; modern, 1525–1527; New Negro Period, 1521–1523 women, African American, images of, 1528–1532: beast image, 1530–1531; fashion, 324–325, general wear, 324–325, religious wear, 325; hoochie mama, 1530; jezebel, 1529–1530; mammy image, 1529; matriarch, 1531; mulatta, 1530; resistance, 1531–1532; welfare queen, 1531. See also feminism Women Involved in Life Learning from Other Women (WILLOW), 672 Women’s Christian Temperance Union, 899 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), 114–115, 1345 Women’s Political Council (WPC), 1525 Wonder, Stevie, 8, 56, 78, 140, 352, 548, 585, 748, 779, 905, 944, 965–966, 968–969, 1467, 1499–1500, 1532–1534 Woodard, Alfre, 1082 Woodberry, Bill, 511 Woods, Dewayne, 1122 Woods, Granville T., 731–732, 1254 Woods, Paula L., 856 Woods, Richard, 569 Woods, Sylvia, 364 Woods, Tiger, 200, 265, 449, 458, 463, 599–600, 1043, 1334, 1349–1350, 1386, 1534–1536 Woods, Willona, 1380
1711 Woodson, Carter G., 16, 31, 70–71, 156, 222, 365, 646, 850, 1023, 1253, 1429 Woodward, Alfre, 919 Woodward, Vann, 479 woofing/wolfing, 1537–1538 Woolard, Jamal, 333 Work, John W. II, 1333 Work, John W. III, 1333 working class, black, 322 Workmen’s Compensation Act, 782 Works Progress Administration (WPA), 180, 491, 496–497, 499, 501, 1086, 1154 World Boxing Association, 51, 687 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), 1211–1212 World Series of Poker (WSOP), 563 World War I, 31–32 World War II, 32, 1416 World Wresting Entertainment, 1422 Worth, Robert, 662 Wright, Andy, 1261, 1263 Wright, Ella Wilson, 1540 Wright, Erica, 77 Wright, Ernie, 1005 Wright, Jane, 1255 Wright, Jeffrey, 1391, 1434 Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr., 299, 925, 1041, 1538–1539 Wright, Louis, 1255 Wright, Maggie, 444 Wright, Morris, 457 Wright, Moses, 1397 Wright, Nathan, 1540 Wright, Richard, 82–83, 102, 185, 196, 315, 356, 457, 474, 497–498, 500, 506, 841, 844–845, 852–853, 1540–1543 Wright, Roy, 1261, 1263 Wright, William Jr., 77 Wright State University’s Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center, 270 Y Yankee, Daddy, 1199 yard art, 1545–1546 Yerby, Frank, 857 York, Richard, 121 Young, Andrew, 1547–1548
1712 Young, Coleman, 1439 Young, Jimmy, 537 Young, Lester, 86, 676, 1554 Young, Steve, 1216 Young, Whitney, 838, 998, 1060–1061, 1549–1551 Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO), 212 Young Gentlemen’s Circle, 379 Young Negroes’ Cooperative League (YNCL), 79 youth. See children and youth Youth Black Faith, 245, 423 Youth Council, 1287
Index Z Zaharias, Babe Didrikson, 1516 Zimmerman, Charles, 1144 Zolten, Jerry, 1164 zoot suits, 1553–1555 Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities, 722–723 Zuniga, Francisco, 262 zydeco music, 40, 1555–1558; accordion and frottoir shape zydeco music, 1556–1557; early Afro-Creole music pioneers, 1558; Louisiana’s Afro-Creole culture, 1555–1556; modern, 1557–1558; origins of Afro-Creole Music, 1556
About the Editor and Contributors THE EDITOR Jessie Carney Smith earned her PhD in academic library administration from the University of Illinois in Urbana. She is dean of the library and William and Camille Cosby Professor in the Humanities at Fisk University. She has written or edited over twenty books, the most recent including Notable Black American Women (Books I–III), Notable Black American Men (Books I–II), Black Firsts, Encyclopedia of African American Business, and with Linda T. Wynn, Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience. Among her numerous honors are Academic/Research Librarian of the Year by the Association of College and Research Libraries; Distinguished Alumni Award, Peabody Library School of Vanderbilt University; and from the University of Illinois Graduate Library and Information Science. THE CONTRIBUTORS Saheed A. Adejumobi is an assistant professor of history and global African studies at Seattle University. He has contributed to several books and journals on the intellectual and cultural history of modern Africa and the African diaspora. He is currently writing a book on Ethiopia that will be part of the Greenwood History of Modern Nations series. In addition, he is revising a manuscript on global and regional politics of development and social welfare reform in post– World War II Nigeria. Tahirah Akbar-Williams is a librarian in the Services and Collections Department, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
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Chris Albertson is a New York–based freelance writer and historian. He has written articles and reviews on jazz and blues for numerous publications and was a contributing editor to Stereo Review magazine for twenty-eight years. He has also produced many recording sessions and is the recipient of two Grammy Awards, the Montreux Jazz Festival’s Grand Prix du Disque, and Billboard magazine’s 1971 Trendsetter Award. An expanded edition of Bessie, his biography of blues singer Bessie Smith, was published in 2003. Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh is a political science professor and dean of the Office for Women’s Affairs at Indiana University. She is also an attorney in Bloomington, Indiana. Glenda Alvin is assistant director for collection management and administration for the Brown-Daniel Library, Tennessee State University. She has contributed articles to Understanding the Business of Library Acquisitions (1999), Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), and Notable Black American Men (Book II, 2007). Emeka Anaedozie is a doctoral student in history at Morgan State University. He plans to expand his master’s thesis, which focuses on U.S. foreign policy toward Nigeria 1967–70, into his doctoral dissertation by demonstrating the contributions of African Americans in the shaping of U.S. foreign policy in Africa. A. B. Assensoh holds a PhD degree in history from New York University. He is professor in the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department of Indiana University. He is the author of several books and scholarly and popular articles. Hilary Mac Austin is an independent scholar and photo researcher. She served as a writer and photo editor for the forthcoming Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, second edition. She is coeditor with Kathleen Thompson of three books: America’s Children: Images of Childhood from Early America to the Present (2003), Children of the Depression (2001), and The Face of Our Past: Images of Black Women from Colonial America to the Present (2000). Kimberly J. Banks is an assistant professor of English at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She recently completed revisions for her manuscript Framing Diasporic Memory: Walrond, Hurston, McKay, and Dunham Negotiating Nostalgia. Her article, ‘‘‘Like a Violin for the Wind to Play’: Lyrical Representations of Lynching in Short Fiction by Du Bois, Hughes, and Toomer,’’ which appeared in African American Review, is part of a new project on written and visual representations of lynching from 1865 to 1955. Stephanie Rose Bird was an assistant professor of painting and drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1987 to 2003. She is currently an independent
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scholar, curator, and lecturer. Her artwork concerning West African traditional beliefs was included in the U.S. Department of State’s Arts-in-the Embassy Program in Cotonou (Benin, Africa). Her book Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo and Conjuring with Herbs (2004) explores African ethnobotany, African American folklore, ritual, and the magical and spiritual uses of plants. Bird’s Motherland Herbal: The Story of African Holistic Health (2005), is a practical guide that combines African and African American folklore, ethnobotany, health, and ritual. She has also written Four Seasons of Mojo: An Herbal Guide to Natural Living (2006). Lean’tin L. Bracks is associate professor of African American literature at Fisk University. She specializes in African American biographies and literary criticism. Her research also focuses on women of the African diaspora. In 2008 she received an honorary doctorate for her accomplishments in scholarship and education. Adam Bradley is an assistant professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College. He received his doctorate in English from Harvard University, where he submitted a dissertation under the direction of Henry Louis Gates Jr. titled ‘‘The Liberation of Perception: Evil’s Emergence in 20th Century African American Fiction.’’ In addition, Bradley is currently serving as collaborating editor of the scholarly edition of Ralph Ellison’s second novel, along with senior editor and Ellison’s literary executor, John F. Callahan. Bradley is also at work on a critical study of Ellison’s compositional methods, looking at Invisible Man and the untitled second novel’s textual relationship. Kip Branch is a journalism educator with thirty years of teaching experience primarily in the University of North Carolina system. He is author of a novel, Gnawing at My Soul (1981) and contributed to A Hard Road to Glory: The History of the African-American Athlete in America, with the late tennis great Arthur R. Ashe Jr. Branch is also a contributor to a number of other publications. Orella Ramsey Brazile is vice chancellor for academic affairs at Southern University in Shreveport, and former university librarian at the university. She earned her PhD in library and information science from the University of North Texas. Ron Briley teaches at Sandia Preparatory Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Christopher Brooks is professor of anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University. He contributed a chapter to The Souls of Black Folk: Can a DoubleConsciousness Be Heard? (2003) and edited the African American Almanac, 10th edition (2007) and 12th edition (2010). A nationally recognized biographer, he has produced several book-length manuscripts, including the best-selling I Never Walked Alone: The Autobiography of an American Singer (2003), and Follow Our
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Heart: Moving with the Giants of Jazz, Swing, and Rhythm and Blues (2008). He recently released the book Dangerous Intimacy: Ten African American Men with HIV (2009). He is completing a book on the great African American tenor, Roland Hayes. Brooks was the recipient of a senior Fulbright scholarship in 1999–2000 and conducted research in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Maegan Parker Brooks received her PhD degree in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and teaches courses on race, rhetoric, and theory at the University of Puget Sound. She has recently published articles about James Foreman and Ida B. Wells, and in 2010 published a book-length rhetorical biography of Fannie Lou Hamer. Sharon D. Brooks is media services librarian at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. She has been a contributor to Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006) and Notable Black American Men. Her publication specialty is biography. Cecil Brown earned his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993. His folklore dissertation was published as Stagolee Shot Billy in 2003. He is also a novelist and lives in the San Francisco Bay area. Kevin Brown is professor of law and Harry T. Ice Faculty Fellow and director of the Hudson & Holland Scholars Program at Indiana University. He was a Fulbright Lecturer in the National Law School of Indiana University in 1996–97. He earned his JD degree from Yale Law School. In addition to writing numerous articles on law and desegregation, he published Race, Law and Education in the Post-Desegregation Era: Four Perspectives on Desegregation and Resegregation (2005). Patrick Brunson is a doctoral student at Morgan State University. His dissertation focuses on school integration in Clarendon County, South Carolina. Jemima Buchanan lives in Baltimore and teaches English at a local middle school. She is a graduate student at Morgan State University. Her most recent research examines gothic tropes in black literature and what they reveal about humanity. Kissette Bundy is assistant professor at Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism. She has served as senior producer, programming unit manager for television, staff writer/editor for both newspapers and magazines, and corporate communications coordinator. She received an Emmy as producer and for series development of the WNET-13 ‘‘The Kids Are Not All Right,’’ and the John Patterson Broadcast Award. Bundy was a Capital Cities/Columbia University David Jayne Fellow. Recent writing includes the entries ‘‘Women Journalists, African American’’ and ‘‘Youth Television News,’’ both for the Encyclopedia of American Journalism History. Richard Allen Burns earned his doctorate in anthropology/folklore at the University of Texas in 1990 and is currently an associate professor of English and
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folklore at Arkansas State University. While pursuing research on folklife in the Arkansas Delta, he continues his research on military and prison folklore. He is revising and expanding his dissertation, ‘‘Texas Prison Folklore,’’ to include an examination of southern prison folklore in general. Burns also helps organize Arkansas State University’s Delta Blues Symposium, which is held at the Jonesboro main campus each spring. Yvonne Bynoe is an author and lecturer whose work combines the relevant issues of politics, culture, and economics within the context of American popular culture. She is the author of the book Stand and Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership and Hip Hop Culture (2004). Bynoe’s writings have appeared in such publications as the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and the National Urban League’s 2001 State of Black America. Bynoe currently provides political and social commentary to the National Public Radio program News and Notes with Ed Gordon. Linda M. Carter is associate professor of English at Morgan State University. She is coeditor of James Baldwin: In Memoriam (1992); Images of the Black Male in Literature and Film: Essays in Criticism (1994); Humanities in the Ancient and Pre-Modern World: An Africana Emphasis (1999), and Humanities in the Modern World. She has written more than one hundred articles on African American literature and culture that have appeared in scholarly journals. Stephanie Carter is associate professor in literacy, culture, and language education at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her scholarship in the field of education focuses primarily on secondary education and issues of language and diversity. She coauthored Discourse Analysis and the Study of Classroom Language and Literacy Events: A Microethnographic Perspective (2005) and On Discourse Analysis in Classrooms: Approaches to Language and Literacy Research (2008). Tomeiko Ashford Carter is visiting scholar at the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also received her doctorate in English from UNC. Ashford writes extensively about African American literature and culture, particularly about African American women’s spiritual literature. Her most recent work is Virginia Broughton: The Life and Writings of a National Baptist Missionary (2010). Mark Christian, a native of Liverpool, holds a PhD degree from the University of Sheffield, UK. He is a fellow of the National Council for Black Studies and a senior Fulbright Scholar recipient (Kent State University). He is professor in black world studies and sociology at Miami University. Christian edited a special issue of the Journal of Black Studies (2006), and the Journal of Black Studies issue on Marcus Garvey (November 2008), and was coeditor of the International Journal of Africana Studies (Spring 2009). His published books include Multiracial Identity: An International Perspective (2000). He edited Black Identity in the 20th Century: Expressions of the US and UK African Diaspora (2002). He is currently the book review editor for the Journal of African American Studies and is completing a book on African diaspora cultural resistance.
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Ryon Cobb is a Ford Foundation Fellow and graduate student at Florida State University’s Department of Sociology. His research interest revolves around the intersections of race, religion, and social attitudes. Shantrie Collins is research assistant professor in the John C. Hodges Library, University of Tennessee. Willie Collins is the principal of the Consortium for California Cultural Conservation, a cultural-resource consulting firm based in Oakland. Collins earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology, specializing in African American music, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has worked in academic as well as in public-sector folklore in the cities of Los Angeles and Oakland. Collins has published numerous articles on African American folklore and music. Sonjurae Mikel Cross is a graduate student at Morgan State University. Christina D. Cruse teaches at New Town High School in Owing Mills, Maryland. She is also a graduate student at Morgan State University. She has written and published articles in several newspapers and is coauthor of Concrete Roses: An Open Forum Anthology. She collects African American artwork, books, music, and movies. Carter B. Cue is the special collections librarian at the Stanford L. Warren Branch of the Durham County Library System in North Carolina. He has contributed reviews and articles to nonprofessional publications and professional journals. He was film archivist for the highly praised ESPN documentary Black Magic, which chronicles the role of black college basketball players and coaches in the context of segregation in America and the Civil Rights Movement. Catherine Culver is a public school educator with the Anne Arundel Public School System in Maryland and is a graduate student at Towson State University. Douglas H. Daniels is a social and cultural historian. He was born and educated in Chicago, graduating from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1964. He obtained a master’s degree in 1969 and a doctorate in history in 1975 from the University of California, Berkeley. Daniels has written Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and Cultural History of Black San Francisco (1980) and Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester ‘‘Pres’’ Young (2004). His latest book, One O’clock Jump: The Unforgettable History of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils, was published in 2004. Adenike Davidson is associate professor of English and director of the honors program, Fisk University. Her book, Black Nation Novel: Imagining Homeplaces in Early African American Literature was published in 2008.
About the Editor and Contributors
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Olethia Davis received her PhD in political science and public administration from Louisiana State University. She is a faculty member, Department of Social Sciences, Winston-Salem State University. Wayne Dawkins is assistant professor in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism, Hampton University. His writings include ‘‘Black Journalists: The NABJ Story’’ and ‘‘Rugged Waters: Black Journalists Swim the Mainstream.’’ He is a founding member of the William Monroe Trotter Group (for columnists). Thomas F. DeFrantz is an associate professor of music and theater arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published extensively on African American performance and is the author of Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture (2004). He is currently at work on a study of ‘‘beauty’’ in dance performance. Crystal A. deGregory is a doctoral student in history at Vanderbilt University. She has contributed articles to African American National Biography (2008), Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), Notable Black American Men (Book II, 2007), and Freedom Facts and First: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience (2009). Todd Dills is the editor and publisher of The 2nd Hand, the Chicago broadsheet and online magazine for new writing he founded in 2000. In 2004, he edited a best-of collection, All Hands On: A THE2NDHAND Reader. He is the author of a novel, Sons of the Rapture, and a collection of short stories, For Weeks Above the Umbrella. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in several publications, including the Chicago Reader. He holds an MFA from Columbia College of Chicago’s fiction writing department. Rebecca S. Dixon is assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Literature, and History at Tennessee State University. Her concentrations are in American, African American, and Caribbean literature. She has contributed to the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006) and Freedom Facts and First: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience (2009). Anne K. Driscoll is lead reference librarian at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. She has contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006) and Notable Black American Men (Book II, 2007). Enimini I. Ekong is a graduate student at Morgan State University in the African American Studies program. His research interest is black male education. Angela Espada is associate dean for student services and admissions at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis. She holds the JD degree from the
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University of Indianapolis. The Indiana State Bar Association honored her for promoting diversity within the legal profession. David H. Evans is a professor of music at the University of Memphis. He received his doctorate in folklore and mythology from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1976. He is the author of Tommy Johnson (1971), Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues (1982), and The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Blues (2005), and coauthor (with John Minton) of ‘‘The Coon in the Box’’: A Global Folktale in African-American Tradition (2001). He has also written many journal articles, book chapters, and record album notes, and produced many LPs and CDs of field and studio recordings. Evans is editor of the American Made Music book series for the University Press of Mississippi. Elizabeth Sandidge Evans is a librarian at Hampton University. She has contributed to the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006) and Notable Black American Men (Book II, 2007). Elizabeth C. Fine is a professor and the chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. She is the author of Soulstepping: African American Step Shows (2003) and The Folklore Text: From Performance to Print, (1994 [1984]). She is coeditor of Performance, Culture and Identity (Praeger, 1992). Lew Freedman is a Chicago-based sportswriter and the author of thirty-five books. A graduate of Boston University, he has a master’s degree from Alaska Pacific University, and has worked on the staff of the Anchorage Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Marie Garrett is English studies and theater librarian at the John C. Hodges Library, University of Tennessee. She has contributed entries to Notable Black American Women, Books I and II (1992, 1996), Notable Black American Men, Books I and II (1999, 2007), and the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006). Alysia E. Garrison is a doctoral student in English at the University of California, Davis, where she studies twentieth-century British and postcolonial literature and critical theory. Angela M. Gooden is an associate librarian at the University of Cincinnati. Jenifer Lyn Grady is director of the Allied Professional Association of the American Library Association. She has also been engaged in Web marketing and promotion, knowledge management, and research. Areas of her expertise include general administration, public speaking, professional writing, publishing, statistical analysis, and continuing and professional education programming.
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Delano Greenidge-Copprue received his doctoral degree from Columbia University, where he studied the jazz cadence of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, from Herman Melville to Ralph Ellison. GreenidgeCopprue continues to write about and discuss the interdisciplinary nature of jazz. He has published writings on Zora Neale Hurston, Mark Twain, nineteenthcentury African American history, and sports culture. He has recently completed a novel about baseball, memory, and migration. He teaches at Columbia University and Manhattan School of Music. Robert L. Hall is associate director for education and visual arts specialist at the Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, DC. His professional career includes the development of exhibitions and accompanying publications, the development of teacher workshops, educational packets for schools, the creation of museum and city tours on African American art, and lectures on art. He has served as a panelist for the District of Columbia Arts Commission, an advisor to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, a national panelist for the Institute for Museum and Library Science, and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Debra Newman Ham served as black history specialist at the National Archives (1972–86) and as specialist in African American history and culture at the Library of Congress (1986–95) before becoming professor of history at Morgan State University. She compiled Black History: A Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives (1984) and edited African American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture (1993). She has contributed to Notable Black American Women, Notable Black American Men, and the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006). Cheryl Jones Hamberg is associate librarian for technical services at Fisk University, and former library director at Meharry Medical College. She has contributed to Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), and Freedom Facts and Firsts (2009). Gloria Hamilton is head of operations, Acquisitions Department, at the University of Chicago Library. She has contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of African America Business. Neil A. Hamilton is a professor of history at Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama. He has written several books and articles, including the ABC-CLIO Companion to the 1960s Counterculture in America (1997); American Social Leaders and Activists (2002); and Atlas of the Baby Boom Generation (2000). Dantrea Hampton is periodicals librarian and instructor at Paul G. Blazer Library, Kentucky State University. She has entries in the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006).
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Willie J. Harrell Jr. is an assistant professor of English at Kent State University, where he teaches courses in African American literature and cultural studies and other ethnic literatures. His research interests include nineteenth-century American literature and cultural studies with an emphasis on African American literature and cultural studies, African American Jeremiadic rhetoric, slave narratives, Charles Chesnutt, Martin Delany, oral history, and historicizing text. Harrell’s most recent essay is forthcoming in the Canadian Review of American Studies. Carrie Havranek is the author of Women Icons of Popular Music: The Rebels, Rockers, and Renegades (Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2008) and has written about music for The Village Voice, Salon, Paste, and Performing Songwriter, and has contributed to Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians Since 1990 (2004). Clarence Bernard Henry received his doctorate in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2000. He is currently an assistant professor of ethnomusicology in the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Kansas. His main interests include the music of Africa, the African diaspora, and African Americans in the United States. LaMonda Horton-Stallings is an assistant professor of English at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Her areas of research and teaching are African American literature and culture and gender and sexuality studies. She is currently completing work on a manuscript titled, ‘‘Mutha Is Half a Word!’’: Trickster-troping, Folk-queered/Queer-folk Readings of Desire in Black Female Culture. Helen R. Houston is professor of English at Tennessee State University. Her publications include The Afro-American Novel, 1965–1975 and articles in the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), Notable Black American Women (Books I and II), Notable Black American Men (Books I and II), and the Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Beth Madison Howse is Special Collections librarian and director of the MiniCollege at Fisk University. She collects African American cookbooks. Mary K. Huelsbeck is the archivist at the Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University. Laura C. Jarmon received a bachelor’s degree at Howard University, a master’s degree at Fisk University, and a doctorate at the Catholic University of America. She began teaching in 1972 and is currently a professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Martin. In 1993 she coedited The Negro Traditions, a collection of black folktales; in 1994, she authored Arbors to Bricks, a public research project; and she wrote Wishbone: Reference and Interpretation in Black Folk Narrative, published in 2003 and winner of a 2004 Choice Outstanding Book Award.
About the Editor and Contributors
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Denise Jarrett, a native of Jamaica, West Indies, is a PhD candidate at Morgan State University. Her focus is on multicultural literature. Her current research is on the development of boys in postcolonial Anglophone Caribbean societies. dele jegede is the chair of the Department of Art at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He holds a PhD in Art History from Indiana University, has published numerous articles, and has participated in many group shows and exhibitions. Maria V. Johnson is an associate professor of ethnomusicology in the School of Music at Southern Illinois University. A blues performer, Johnson’s articles on women’s blues and African American women’s literature as performance have appeared in journals such as African American Review, Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies, Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, and the books Black Orpheus: Music in African American Fiction from the Harlem Renaissance to Toni Morrison (2000) and More Than the Blues: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Black Women and Music (2005). She is currently working on a book titled Kickin’ Ass and Takin’ Names: Saffire and the Tradition of Uppity Women’s Blues. Melissa Johnson is electronic services and serials librarian at Abilene Christian University. She has contributed to the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006) and the Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (2004). Sharon D. Johnson is instruction librarian at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee, where she works directly with the departments of Education, Sociology, Social Work, and African American Studies. Taffie N. Jones graduated from Indiana University School of Law and practices patent law in Chicago. Richard Kenney is the Scripps Howard Endowed Professor of Journalism at Hampton University in Virginia. Amy Kirschke received her PhD degree from Vanderbilt University. She is associate professor of art history and African American studies at the University of North Carolina–Wilmington. Her writings include Aaron Douglas: Art, Race, and the Harlem Renaissance (1995) and Art in Crisis: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Struggle for African American Identity and Memory (2007). Gladys L. Knight is author of Icons of African American Protest: Trailblazing Activists of the Civil Rights Movement (2008). She has contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of African American Literature and lectured on African American storytelling and dance, traditional African American communities, and slave life on southern plantations.
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About the Editor and Contributors
Renee Latchman is a graduate student in English at Morgan State University. David Todd Lawrence is an assistant professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He specializes in African American literature and culture as well as folkloristics and ethnographic writing. His current research explores the role of the pimp figure in black expressive culture. Janice L. Layne is a Chicago-based freelance writer who is interested in capturing the lives of everyday people in print like her hero, Studs Terkel. She has contributed to local publications such as the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Defender, En La Vida, Blacklines, Nightlines, and Jam Sessions. Her work has also appeared nationally in the Lambda Book Report, Out, and the Advocate magazines. She is a board member of Fire and Ink, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender group for writers of African descent. LaVie T. Leasure earned her PhD degree in literature and criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is an assistant professor of English at Winston-Salem State University. Her interests are in writings by African American women as well as inspirational works. Valerie Lee is a professor of English and women’s studies at Ohio State University. The author of Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers: Double-Dutched Readings, she publishes in the areas of critical race feminism, feminist theory, black women’s literary studies, multicultural pedagogy, and folklore. Her forthcoming book is The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women’s Literature. Monique Leslie-Akassi is lecturer in English composition and rhetoric at Morgan State University. Thura Mack is training librarian and associate professor at the John C. Hodges Library, University of Tennessee. She has contributed to Notable Black American Women [Books I and II (1996, 2003)], and Notable Black American Men (1999). M. M. Manring is the author of Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima (1998). He lives in Columbia, Missouri. Michael T. Martin is director of the Black Film Center/Archive and professor of African American and African diaspora studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the editor/coeditor of Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States; Studies of Development and Change in the Modern World; Cinemas of the Black Diaspora; and New Latin American Cinema (2 vols). His essays appear in Film Quarterly, Framework, Research in African Literatures, Race & Class, Third World Quarterly, Phylon, and the Quarterly Review of Film and Video. Forthcoming works will appear in Third Text, Cinema Journal, and Black Camera.
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Vivian C. Martin holds the JD degree from St. John’s University in New York. She is a certified lay speaker in the United Methodist Church and has worked as a staff accountant, assistant district attorney, and college educator. Theresa Mastrodonato is information technology librarian at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Phyllis M. May-Machunda is the chair of American Multicultural Studies at Minnesota State University, Moorhead. Trained as a folklorist and ethnomusicologist specializing in African American cultural traditions, her other research interests include multicultural studies, disability studies, and social justice. For several years prior to joining the faculty at Minnesota State University, she was employed as a folklorist at the Smithsonian Institution and conducted fieldwork on cultural traditions of African Americans throughout the South and Midwest. A native Iowan, she is a graduate of the University of Iowa and Indiana University. Joy McDonald is assistant professor in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University. She teaches courses in media in a multicultural society and media ethics. Jacqueline L. McGrath is an assistant professor of English at the College of DuPage, where she teaches writing, literature, and folklore studies. Her work has appeared in Southern Folklore, the Journal of American Folklore, and Pif Magazine. Her current project is writing her dissertation on Dorothy Day and the Catholic worker movement. Mattie L. McHollin is archivist at Fisk University. She has contributed to Notable Black American Men (Book II, 2007) and the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006). Her article on the ‘‘History of Meharry Medical College’’ appeared in a special edition of Contempora Magazine (2001). Shawnrece D. Miller is an assistant professor of English and the director of African studies at Stetson University. She is currently working on a manuscript titled ‘‘Eating and Drinking Culture: ‘Soul Food’ and Its Role in the Living Cultural Memory of Americans of African, Hispanic and Asian Descent.’’ Bruce Mitchell is Professor Emeritus of Education at Eastern Washington University. While he taught there he directed and facilitated school desegregation projects in the northwestern states and California. He is coauthor, with Robert E. Salsbury, of Multicultural Education: An International Guide to Research, Policies, and Programs (Greenwood, 1996). Soncerey L. Montgomery is interim director of the Honors Program and assistant professor at Winston-Salem State University. She received her PhD degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
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About the Editor and Contributors
Fletcher F. Moon is associate professor and head reference librarian at Tennessee State University in Nashville. He has contributed writings to several reference works, including Notable Black American Men (Book II), Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), and Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience (2009), and has edited a variety of book projects and online publications. He is also an accomplished musician and ordained minister and has previously worked in music, advertising, and television production. Spencer Moon is an instructor of black cinema at City College in San Francisco. He has over twenty-five years of experience in independent filmmaking, broadcast production, curating and managing film exhibition programs, and writing on the filmmaking industry. He has been listed in Who’s Who in Entertainment since 1989 and is coauthor (with George Hill) of Blacks in Hollywood: Five Favorable Years, 1987–1991 (1991). Baiyina W. Muhammad has completed research on the black press and PanAfrican consciousness among African diaspora communities. She currently teaches in history at North Carolina Central University in Durham. Clarissa Myrick-Harris, PhD, is vice president of One World Archives, a public history organization based in Atlanta. She is also a program director for the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building. Currently, she is coauthoring the book All Day, All Night: The History of the Atlanta Medical Society. Vorris Nunley is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at Pennsylvania State University, where he is focusing on the rhetoric of African American hush harbors. Nunley is coeditor with Keith Gilyard of Rhetoric and Ethnicity (2004). Hans Ostrom is professor of English and James Dolliver National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Along with J. David Macey, he is the editor of the five-volume Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature (Greenwood Press, 2005). He is also author of Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction (1993) and A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2002). Jewell B. Parham, an instructor at Tennessee State University, specializes in African American literature and children’s literature and creates innovative teaching strategies for these courses. Among other publications, she has written for Notable American Black Men (Book II, 2007). She is also a lecturer and workshop/seminar planner and organizer.
About the Editor and Contributors
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James E. Perone is associate professor of music at Mount Union College, Ohio. He is the author of nearly a dozen books, including Woodstock: An Encyclopedia of the Music and Art Fair (2005); Music of the Counterculture Era (2004); and Songs of the Vietnam Conflict (2001). He currently serves as the series editor for the Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection series. Sheila R. Peters is associate professor of psychology at Fisk University. She received her PhD in clinical and community psychology from Vanderbilt University. She is a national expert on gender-specific programming for females. Her research focuses on social justice, cultural competence, and race relations. Karen Pojmann is a widely published freelance writer and editor based in the San Francisco Bay area. She recently studied Igbo culture and folk traditions in Nigeria. Her current projects include a collection of poetry. Rose M. Powell is an assistant professor, cataloger and system administrator in the library at Southern University, Shreveport. Anand Prahlad is a professor of English at the University of Missouri, Columbia, where he teaches courses in creative writing, folklore, and film. He has a doctorate in folklore and mythology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has published extensively in folklore and literary journals. He is the author of one book of poems, Hear My Story and Other Poems (1982), and two academic works, African American Proverbs in Context (1996) and Reggae Wisdom: Proverbs in Jamaican Music (2001). He is currently completing a memoir, a collection of short stories, and a second book of poems. Janette Prescod is the government documents librarian at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has contributed articles to Notable Black American Women (Book II, 1996), the Encyclopedia of African American Business (2006), and Notable Black American Men (Book II, 2007). Emmett G. Price III is chair of the Department of African American Studies and associate professor of music and African American Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He is executive editor of The Encyclopedia of African American Music, with associate editors Tammy L. Kernodle and Horace J. Maxile Jr. (Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2010). He is also the author of Hip Hop Culture (ABC-CLIO, 2006) and The Black Church, Hip Hop Culture and the Dilemma of Generational Divide (2011) with additional work appearing in numerous periodicals and anthologies. Sherman E. Pyatt is head of the Reference Department at the Miller F. Whittaker Library, South Carolina State University. He has served as archivist at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture in Charleston. His publications include Martin Luther King Jr., Annotated
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About the Editor and Contributors
Bibliography and A Dictionary and Catalog of African American Folklife of the South. His book Emma’s Cast Iron Skillet: Recipes and Untold Stories is forthcoming. Richard D. Ralston is a professor emeritus of African American studies, integrated liberal studies, and folklore at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has published extensively on biographies, comparative social history, prison studies, popular culture, and the folklore of the African diaspora, including chapters in The UNESCO General History of Africa, The Biographical Dictionary of Modern British Radicals, and Comparative Perspectives on South Africa (1998). His scholarly interests include the African diaspora and working-people’s history, liberation theory and the practice of Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Cubans in Africa, the migration of an African board game, and comparative folklore of the disempowered and disappeared—prisoners, domestic workers, youth gangs, mineworkers, and traditional healers. Gwendolyn M. Rees earned her doctorate in biomedical sciences at Meharry Medical College. She is a staff member of the HIV vaccine unit at Vanderbilt Medical Center. For ten years she directed the Jr. Southern Heir’s Club, Tennessee Chapter, an African American history club for children. Currently, she is compiling and recording her family’s history. Edward J. Rielly chairs the English department at Saint Joseph’s College in Maine, where he teaches, among many other courses, ‘‘The Modern Novel, Baseball, and Society.’’ He holds a doctorate in English from the University of Notre Dame. His previous books include a study of Gulliver’s Travels and eight books of poetry. A cultural history of the 1960s is forthcoming. Rielly’s interest in baseball began on his family’s farm in Wisconsin, where he listened to the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Braves on radio and devoted many hours to hitting baseballs against the wall of an old barn. Marilyn L. Roseboro is a PhD candidate in conflict analysis and resolution at Nova Southeastern University and associate professor of mass communications at Winston-Salem State University. She has served as a broadcast journalist and public relations practitioner. She is a member of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications. LuAnne Roth is an instructor in the English department at the University of Missouri, Columbia, where she teaches courses in American folklore, particularly folk art and material culture in America, food and culture in America, and family folklore. She is also managing editor of the Journal of American Folklore. Her writings include Shakedown Street: The Art of Deadheads (forthcoming) and personal experience narratives of vegetarians within the discourse of mainstream American foodways (forthcoming in the journal Food, Culture, and Society). She is currently working on a project exploring the explosion of ethnic restaurants in the United States.
About the Editor and Contributors
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Robert E. Salsbury is professor of education at Eastern Washington University. He has extensive experience participating in school desegregation programs in California and the northwest. He is coauthor, with Bruce M. Mitchell, of Multicultural Education: An International Guide to Research, Policies, and Programs (1996). Lisa Scrivani-Tidd is the author of volume 1 of The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History: The Early Years, 1951–1959 (Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2005). She is a professor of music in the State University of New York (SUNY) at Jefferson and has taught for the education department at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Mordu Serry-Kamal is associate professor of political science and public administration at Winston-Salem State University. Victoria Sherrow is the author of The Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History (Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2006), For Appearance’s Sake: The Historical Encyclopedia of Good Looks, Beauty, and Grooming (Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2001); the Encyclopedia of Youth and War: Young People as Participants and Victims (1999); and Women and the Military: An Encyclopedia (1996), a 1996 References and User Services Association Outstanding Reference award winner. Robert Sims is associate professor of voice at Northern Illinois University. In 2005, he made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall. He has performed in concert at New York’s Lincoln Center; the Smithsonian Institution; the Ravinia, Chautauqua, Savannah, Grant Park, and Big Arts summer music festivals; the Latour de France International Music Festival; and the celebrated American Church in Paris. Under the auspices of Canti Classics, Community Concerts, and the Live On Stage Series, Sims has performed more than one hundred fifty recitals throughout the United States. Anthony Smith is a library associate professor at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Chris Smith is a Vancouver-based writer and photographer who has served as music editor for Performing Songwriter, editor in chief for Inside New York, and associate editor for University of Chicago Magazine. His work has appeared in dozens of publications, including Rolling Stone, Billboard, Time Out New York, the Sydney Morning Herald, Texas Music, the Village Voice, and the Journal of Visual Anthropology. In addition to music and film journalism, Chris has worked as a combat correspondent, a festival producer, a wildlife photographer, and a musician. Frederick D. Smith is an information resource support specialist for the state of Tennessee, and owner of the digital library design company DigiDox. He has
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About the Editor and Contributors
contributed articles to Notable Black American Men (Books I and II) and the Encyclopedia of African American Business. David Squires is a veteran columnist, blogger, and freelance writing coordinator for the Daily Press which covers Hampton Roads, Virginia. He is perhaps best known for his biting columns every Thursday in the Daily Press, with statements on race. His long career as a writer and editor in news and sports has included stints at the New York Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Detroit Free Press. Before joining the Daily Press in 2004, Squires was the original editor in chief at BlackVoices.com and BVQ magazine. M. J. Strong is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Davis. She studies nineteenth-century American literature and has completed a designated emphasis in feminist theory and research. Strong’s work emphasis issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the American fin de siecle period. Her other research interests include nostalgia, domestic labor, feminist science fiction, and popular culture. She presented a paper titled ‘‘Father of the Year: The Sanctification of Eminem in Popular Culture’’ at the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association’s 2003 meeting. Strong teaches in the departments of English and Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis. Myron Strong is a PhD student in sociology at the University of North Texas. He has written an award-winning column in college that focused on social issues and systematic oppressions. He has also published in the fields of poetry, chemistry, and activism. He has dedicated his life to activism and the struggle for equality. Dan Thomas-Glass is earning his doctorate in English at the University of California, Davis. His areas of interest include the poetics of revolution, music and performance theory, and experiments in mass self-consciousness. Kathleen Thompson is coauthor, with Darlene Clark Hine, of A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America. She was editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of Black Women in America and recently served on the board of senior editors for Oxford University Press’s revision of the landmark reference Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. She is president of OneHistory, an organization dedicated to making all voices of American history heard. Timothy Vasser is an archivist and resides in Knoxville, Tennessee. Randolph Walker is an assistant professor of English at Hampton University. He received a Certificate in Publishing from New York University, and a JD from The George Washington University Law School. In addition to teaching, he has worked in magazine and book publishing, working for such magazines and publishers as the New Yorker, Routledge, Forbes, Vibe/Spin Ventures, and the Source. He is also a
About the Editor and Contributors
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licensed lawyer whose former practice included the areas of small business, entertainment, soft intellectual property, personal injury, social security disability, medical malpractice, and chancery-related law. He was awarded the Mississippi Arts Commission Fellowship in Nonfiction and received an artist grant from the commission. Walker is also a Hurston-Wright Foundation Writers Week alumnus. His work has appeared in DrumVoices Revue and various fiction anthologies. David Wall has a PhD in American culture from Bowling Green State University. He has taught in universities in both the United States and the United Kingdom and has published widely in film and visual culture. He is a visiting professor of film and visual culture in the department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University. Leland Ware is the first holder of the Louis L. Redding Chair for the Study of Law and Public Policy at the University of Delaware. Previously, he was a professor of law at St. Louis University School of Law. He was also a visiting professor at Boston College Law School, and at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. Professor Ware has served as university counsel at Howard University, and as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, in Washington, DC. He practiced with a private firm in Atlanta, Georgia, and with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. His writings include eighty articles in academic journals and other publications on various aspects of civil rights law. He is a coauthor, with Robert Cottrol and Raymond Diamond, of Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture and the Constitution (2003). He has lectured and made other presentations to numerous audiences in the United Sates and Europe. Professor Ware is a graduate Boston College Law School. Nagueyalti Warren is associate dean for undergraduate education at Emory University and adjunct professor in the Department of African American Studies. She coedited Southern Mothers: Fact and Fictions and edited the 2005 anthology Temba Tupu! (Walking Naked) Africana Women’s Poetic Self-Portrait. Warren is a poet and Cave Canem fellow. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Fisk University and master of arts degrees in English and Afro-American studies from Simmons College and Boston University and a doctorate from the University of Mississippi. She is currently pursuing a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at Goddard College. Lynn Washington is a doctoral candidate in English at Morgan State University. Her research and teaching interests include twentieth-century African American women writers, African American and Caribbean literature, literary criticism, and musico-literary aesthetics. Langston Collin Wilkins is a graduate student in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and African-American and African Diaspora Studies at
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About the Editor and Contributors
Indiana University. His research interests include African American popular music and culture, popular music, and subcultures. Anthony Williams holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the American Conservatory, where he wrote his dissertation on composer John W. Work; the dissertation is under revision for publication. He is associate professor of music and university organist at Fisk University, and previously served as director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. He has also taught on the faculty of Dillard University in New Orleans. Charles Williams is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Memphis. He is also director of Graduate Studies in Anthropology and the Alcohol and Drug Prevention Research Center (ADPRC) at the University of Memphis. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses pertaining to global diasporas and the African diaspora. Previously he directed African and African American Studies at the University of Memphis. Elizabeth Ann Williams is assistant professor of public health, Tennessee State University. Her research interests include health disparities, cancer survivorship, cultural competence, and social empowerment among people of color and the medically underserved. Hilda B. Williams earned her doctorate in education from the University of Memphis where she is adjunct professor of education, College of Education. She is also a full-time teacher at Overton High School in the Memphis City School System. Since her tenure at the University of Memphis, she has taught both graduate and undergraduate students in a wide array of courses including English Composition, African American Literature, and Multicultural Education. Vernon J. Williams Jr. is a professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University. He is author of The Social Sciences and Theories of Race (2006), Rethinking Race (1996), From a Caste to a Minority (1989), and coeditor of the journal Black Diaspora Review. Raymond A. Winbush received his PhD in history from the University of Chicago. He is director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University and former director of the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University. His writings include Should America Pay? (2003), Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations (2003), and Belinda’s Petition (2009). Daniel Wojcik is professor of English and folklore studies at the University of Oregon. He is the author of The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America (1997); Punk and Neo-Tribal Body Art (1995); and numerous articles on millenarianism, vernacular religion, and self-taught visionary artists.
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Linda T. Wynn is the assistant director for state programs with the Tennessee Historical Commission and an adjunct faculty member in history at Fisk University. She coedited Profiles of African Americans in Tennessee and Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience. The editor of Journey to Our Past: A Guide to African-American Markers in Tennessee, her work has appeared in numerous books, historical journals, and encyclopedias. A contributor to Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times, she has also contributed a chapter on ‘‘African Americans in Tennessee’’ to the State-by-State Encyclopedia of African American History. Marilyn Yaquinto is an assistant professor of communication and interdisciplinary studies at Truman State University. A former award-winning journalist for the Los Angeles Times, she has written several books and articles on crime cinema along with media that reflects the politics of race, class, and gender.
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