Variety for the Servicemen: The Jubilee Show and the Paradox of Racializing Radio during World War II

In 1944, Truman Gibson, civilian aide to the Secretary of War and Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis Sr., expressed great excitement toward the activities of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). Two of the most highly influential black Americans in World War II, Gibson and Davis indicated that the AFRS was making a "great contribution" regarding the operation as "easily the best from an administrative point of view."¹ This high praise is not surprising, given the achievements of the AFRS in featuring black Americans on the radio. As part of its innovative program schedule to meet the entertainment needs of American soldiers, the AFRS developed Jubilee, an all-black variety show employing the most famous musicians and comedians of the time. Acknowledging the interests of black troops and the morale-boosting potential of individuals such as Duke Ellington and Lena Horne, the AFRS asserted that racialized programming was important to radio's wartime function. Thus, Jubilee became part of the larger mission of the AFRS, as stated by Commanding Officer Tom Lewis: "Radio, by holding to the ideal of its charter—by faithfully serving public interest, convenience and necessity—can be the democratic voice of free America speaking to its own people . . . and to the freedom-loving people of the world."²

The creation of Jubilee was part of a widespread federal effort to recognize black Americans through cultural programs. At this time, state administrators believed that they could acknowledge the needs of an increasingly mobilized black population while avoiding explosive racial tensions. With the failed promise of World War I in the minds of black Americans, and as American discrimination proved as pervasive as ever, many black individuals were hesitant to support a largely undemocratic nation. Yet a congressional stalemate coupled with an official stance against promoting racial reform prevented the federal government from launching a legislative attack against discrimination and segregation. Thus, in this politically precarious environment, radio shows such as Jubilee served as an alternative method of racial policy.

Particularly in the War Department, administrators agreed that the best way to feature black individuals on the radio was to develop variety shows based mostly around music. After experimenting with the variety format in the program "America's Negro Soldiers," officials felt that popular black comedians, actors, and musicians could neutralize the subject of racial inequality. When the AFRS staff developed Jubilee they could rest easy, believing in the benign effects of entertainment. Yet in spite of producers' goals to ensure politically sanitized programming, radio paradoxically provided many black artists with the opportunity to relay political messages. Here, politics and entertainment were not so clearly separated, as musical and comedic performances featured on Jubilee made both subtle and overt references to American racial tensions. With black participation more central to the development of federally sponsored programs than to commercial films and radio, the state offered a unique cultural arena.

Although black artists understood that cultural programs such as the Jubilee radio show could not directly secure racial equality in the most important areas of their lives, they nonetheless used all cultural media to critique the status quo and to possess their own representation. The pervasiveness of minstrelesque iconography, endemic to most areas of American popular culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not only shaped white perceptions of black people, but ratified white Americans' belief in their own racial superiority.³ Thus, more so than the white administrators that shepherded these projects, black participants understood that Jubilee could reduce the perpetuation of racial stereotypes in favor of a more honest discussion of the issues they faced in their daily lives.

Broadcast to both white and black servicemen, the show legitimated music by black performers that in other settings had been "cleaned up" and covered by white artists. Furthermore, as music occupied a central position in black political consciousness, Jubilee...