Art for Equality: The NAACP’s Cultural Campaign for Civil Rights

Notes

207 Notes Abbreviations JWJ James Weldon Johnson JWJ/MS James Weldon Johnson and Grace Nail Johnson Papers, followed by box and folder loC library of Congress MCN May Childs Nerney NAACP/MF Records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Microfilm Collection, followed by part and reel NAACP/lC Records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Manuscript division, library of Congress, followed by group, series and box RW Roy Wilkins WW Walter White WW/MS Walter Francis White and Poppy Cannon Papers, followed by box and folder WdBP W. E. B. du Bois Papers, Microfilm Collection, followed by reel WdB W. E. B. du Bois Introduction 1. WdB, “Criteria of Negro Art,” Crisis (oct. 1926): 290; JWJ, “Race Prejudice and the Negro Artist,” Harper’s (Nov. 1928): 769–76, JWJ/MS: 73, 376. 2. during its third annual conference, the association declared that African Americans are “the victim of race prejudice.” “Report of Third Annual Conference ,” Crisis (May 1911): 24–25. douglass quoted in Blight, “W. E. B. du Bois and the Struggle,” 52. Frederickson notes that race prejudice was the favored term in early works criticizing white supremacy and that racism did not come into general use in the United States until the 1960s. See Frederickson, Racism, 165, 167. Nevertheless, the term racism will be used throughout this study, alongside race prejudice. 3. WdB, “Editorial,” Crisis (dec. 1910): 16; Storey quoted in Zangrando, “organized Negro,” 149. 208 Notes to Pages 3–12 4. Frederickson, Black Image in the White Mind, chap. 1. See also Williamson , Crucible of Race; Hale, Making Whiteness, 7. 5. A review of the literature on images of blacks in American culture is beyond the scope of this introduction. In addition to those works referenced throughout this study, see, e.g., Toll, Blacking Up; lott, Love and Theft; Van deburg, Slavery and Race in American Popular Culture; Gossett, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture; M. d. Harris, Colored Pictures; l. M. Anderson, Mammies No More; Boskin, Sambo; McElya, Clinging to Mammy. 6. Meier, Negro Thought in America, 265; WdB, “The Talented Tenth” (1903), in Meier, Negro Problem, 45. 7. Verney and Sartain, “NAACP in Historiographical Perspective,” xx. 8. Walling quoted in lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 389; ovington, Black and White Sat Down Together, 57. 9. Kellogg, NAACP, 19–21. 10. Berg, Ticket to Freedom, 18. 11. Kellogg, NAACP, 137. 12. Schneider, We Return Fighting, 46. 13. A useful introduction to the historiography of the NAACP is provided in Verney and Sartain, Long Is the Way. This collection of essays also demonstrates the growing depth and breadth of academic research into the NAACP. on the national campaigns of the NAACP, see, e.g., Sullivan, Lift Every Voice; Kellogg, NAACP; Schneider, We Return Fighting; Zangrando, NAACP Crusade against Lynching; Tushnet, NAACP’s Legal Strategy against Segregated Education; Goings , NAACP Comes of Age; Berg, Ticket to Freedom. A number of studies focus on the NAACP at the state level. See Reed, Chicago NAACP; Cortner, Mob Intent on Death; Bernstein, First Waco Horror; Sartain, Invisible Activists. Biographies of NAACP leaders include lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race; lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality; levy, James Weldon Johnson; and Janken , Walter White. The one monograph on the NAACP and culture is Arthur, Black Images in the American Theatre. However, the book is greatly limited because Arthur did not have access to the NAACP’s extensive papers in his research. For an introduction to the NAACP’s cultural strategy, see Woodley, “In Harlem and Hollywood,” 15–27. 14. on the Black Arts Movement, see Smethurst, Black Arts Movement; ongiri , Spectacular Blackness; Collins and Crawford, New Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement; Sklaroff, Black Culture and the New Deal, 6; Savage, Broadcasting Freedom, 10. 1. The Birth of a Cultural Strategy 1. Stokes, D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation: Weinberger, “Birth of a Nation,” 92, 84. See also Cripps, Slow Fade to Black. For a detailed description Notes to Pages 12–22 209 of the censorship of Birth, see Fleener-Marzec, D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. Studies that include a close consideration of the place of race and racism in the film include Staiger, “Birth of a Nation,” 195–213; Rogin, “Sword Became a Flashing Vision,” 250–93; Rocchio, Reel Racism; leab...