Black Culture and the New Deal

Cover

Download PDF (67.4 KB)
 

Title Page, Copyright Page

Download PDF (375.3 KB)
pp. i-v

Contents

Download PDF (355.9 KB)
pp. vii-ix

Acknowledgments

Download PDF (58.8 KB)
pp. xi-xiv

In his classic, Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White writes, “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer” (184). I am unusually fortunate to have so many people in my life that fit this description. While a graduate student at the University of Virginia, I was lucky enough...

Introduction

Download PDF (76.1 KB)
pp. 1-14

Four years after Franklin Roosevelt’s death, Eleanor Roosevelt remembered her frustrations when racial issues, such as the antilynching bill and the abolition of the poll tax, reached her husband’s desk. “Although Franklin was in favor of both measures, they never became...

1 Ambivalent Inclusion

Download PDF (128.6 KB)
pp. 15-32

During the first week of June 1939, Washington, D.C., avidly followed news of the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. “A crowd as enthusiastic and large as ever greeted an American President on inauguration day turned out today to watch and take part in the pomp,” the...

2 Hooked on Classics

Download PDF (730.1 KB)
pp. 33-80

“Drama is culture, and the culture of the race portends its advancement,” John Silvera wrote in his foreword to a list of “representative plays” of the Federal Theatre Project’s (FTP) Negro Units, “a new era is dawning for the Negro artist.” For a black administrator such as Silvera, the Negro Units...

3 The Editor’s Dilemma

Download PDF (232.4 KB)
pp. 81-122

In a speech delivered to the National Negro Congress in October 1937, the renowned writer and poet Sterling Brown, national editor of the Negro Affairs division of the Federal Writers’ Project from 1936 to 1939, relayed the many obstacles facing black authors: “The Negro writer is faced by a...

4 Constructing G.I. Joe Louis

Download PDF (571.4 KB)
pp. 123-158

In 1940, Franklin Roosevelt underscored the importance of African American patriotism when democracy was under siege. “The European conflict with its spread of the Nazi and Fascist influence makes a challenging appeal. . . . This is a time for national unity and I am strengthened in my hope...

5 Variety for the Servicemen

Download PDF (584.7 KB)
pp. 159-192

In 1944, Truman Gibson, civilian aide to the secretary of war, and Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis Sr. expressed great excitement over the activities of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). Two of the most influential black Americans involved in the war effort, Gibson and Davis indicated...

6 Projecting Unity

Download PDF (697.0 KB)
pp. 193-240

In 1943, a number of prominent black film actors including Hattie Mc- Daniel, Mantan Moreland, and Ben Carter participated in a roundtable discussion on the role of black Americans in the motion picture industry. The Baltimore Afro-American sponsored the event, declaring that these...

Epilogue

Download PDF (81.0 KB)
pp. 241-252

After he received the seminal civil rights report, To Secure These Rights (1947), President Harry Truman expressed outrage towards the prevalence of racial violence and discrimination in America. After discovering that African American veterans had been murdered in several southern states...

Notes

Download PDF (154.8 KB)
pp. 253-286

Bibliography

Download PDF (91.9 KB)
pp. 287-300

Index

Download PDF (770.9 KB)
pp. 301-312