19. Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #2, 265–267.
20. See Karen Chilton, Hazel Scott: The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist, from Café Society to Hollywood to HUAC (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010).
21. Mary Lou Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #3, Mary Lou Williams Collection, MC 60, Series 5, Box 1, Folder 3, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.
22. Max Jones, Talking Jazz (New York: Norton, 1988), 204.
23. Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #2, 290.
24. Hazel Rowley, Richard Wright: The Life and Times (New York: Henry Holt, 2001), 297, 350.
25. Jones, Talking Jazz, 205.
26. Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #2, 275.
27. Ibid., 275–276.
28. Ibid., 268–269.
29. See Dahl, Morning Glory, 115, 187.
30. Quoted in ibid., 188.
31. Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #2, 273.
32. Jones, Talking Jazz, 204.
33. Ibid., 204; telephone conversation between author and Gray Weingarten, January 11, 2011.
34. “Roots: The Little Piano Girl of East Liberty,” n.d., Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/mlw/roots.html.
35. Though Williams often appeared in the Amsterdam News, the Zodiac Suite was not reviewed there. Barry Ulanov, writing for Metronome in February 1946, found the suite underrehearsed and sloppy in places. Nonetheless, he commended Williams for the courage of her musical convictions.
36. Rosenkrantz and his wife Inez Cavanaugh endeared themselves to many musicians. Gray Weingarten remembers parties at their apartment where Billie Holiday and Langston Hughes might be in attendance. She also remembers that Rosenkrantz encouraged the musicians to play and then recorded them without their knowledge. Many of these recordings were released in Denmark.
37. Jones, Talking Jazz, 202.
38. Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #3, 374.
39. Ibid., 376.
40. Ibid., 379–380; telephone conversation between author and Gray Weingarten, January 11, 2011.
41. Mary Lou Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #4, 432–433, Mary Lou Williams Collection, MC 60, Series 5, Box 1, Folder 4, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey; Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #3, 376.
42. Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #3, 375; Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #4, 434–435.
43. Williams, Autobiographical Notebook #3, 375.
44. Ibid., 378.
45. Mary Lou Williams to Mr. Roy Norris, June 17, 1946, Mary Lou Williams Collection, MC 60, Series 5, Box 4, Folder 1, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.
46. Eleanor Roosevelt to Mary Lou Williams, September 12, 1946, Mary Lou Williams Collection, MC 60, Series 6, Box 1, Folder 8, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.
47. Joe Louis to Mary Lou Williams, September 23, 1946, Mary Lou Williams Collection, MC 60, Series 6, Box 1, Folder 8, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.
48. Governor Ellis Arnall to Mary Lou Williams, September 23, 1946, Mary Lou Williams Collection, MC 60, Series 6, Box 1, Folder 8, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey; Benjamin E. Mays to Bill Nunn, in copy sent from Bill Nunn to Mary Lou Williams, November 6, 1946, Mary Lou Williams Collection, MC 60, Series 6, Box 1, Folder 8, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.
49. Telephone conversation between author and Gray Weingarten, January 11, 2011.
50. Duke Ellington, Music Is My Mistress (New York: DaCapo Press, 1976), 169.
51. “Manners and Morals,” Time, March 8, 1948.
Epilogue
1. Jean Toomer, “Song of the Son,” in Cane (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1923).
2. Jennifer Dunning, “Pearl Primus Is Dead at 74; A Pioneer of Modern Dance,” New York Times, October 31, 1994.
3. Robert McG. Thomas Jr., “Ann Petry, 88, First to Write a Literary Portrait of Harlem,” New York Times, April 30, 1997.
4. These contexts also paid special attention to the gendered dimension of the lives and works of women artists. In so doing, they challenged our very understandings of the cultural milieus these women inhabited and the vocabularies we use to discuss them.
INDEX
Abyssinian Baptist Church, 22, 91, 118
ACLU. See American Civil Liberties Union
Africa, 10, 24, 25, 31, 42, 54, 57, 72, 75
African Americans. See Black Americans
Ailey, Alvin, 68, 76, 191
Allan, Lewis, 53, 64, 66, 74
America. See United States
American Bar Association, 98
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 75
American Dream, 89, 90, 108, 112
American Medical Association, 98
American Negro Theater (ANT), 101–103
American Nurses Association (ANA), 98–99
Ammons, Albert, 45
Ammons, Gene, 12
Amsterdam News, 23, 43, 85, 86, 92, 94, 118, 134, 137, 140
ANA. See American Nurses Association
Anderson, Marian, 48, 166
Angelou, Maya, 49, 131
Anna Lucasta, 102
ANT. See American Negro Theater (ANT)
Armed services. See Military
Art
for art’s sake, 116
in Harlem, NY, 32
movement in, 16
politics and, 2–3, 12, 14
Popular Front and, 5
as propaganda, 116
social justice and, 30
Asch, Moses “Moe,” 167–168, 182
Attaway, William, 114
Auden, W. H., 128
Autobiography (Franklin), 108
Bailey, Dixie, 150fig
Baker, Ella, 110
Baker, Harold, 14, 54, 147, 148
Baker, Josephine, 11–12, 176
Baldwin, James, 9, 13, 115–116, 117, 120, 127
Baltimore Afro-American, 140
Bambara, Toni Cade, 131
Bandy, Robert, 119, 124
Basie, Count, 136, 138, 139, 173
Bearden, Romare, 104
Bears-Bailey, Kim, 66–67
Beatty, Talley, 30, 31, 63, 168
Bebop. See Music
Belasco Theater, 63, 67
Benedict, Ruth, 71
Bennett, Gwendolyn, 104
Bethune, Mary McLeod, 37
Bible, 11, 116, 117
Black Americans
civil rights and, 5
class differences and, 27
Communist Party and, 20
confinement within mobility and, 17, 27
culture and, 3
dance and, 42
Double V Campaign and, 5–7
FEPC and, 20
Great Migration of, 28, 55, 119
in military, 88–89, 111–113
movement and, 16–17
New Negro and, 21–22
Second Great Migration in, 28
Second Great Migration of, 5, 7
Black Arts movement, 15
Black nationalism, 31, 32, 136
Black Power movement, 15, 197
Black press, 6, 20
black Americans in military and, 88
Double V Campaign and, 92
government interest in, 92
People’s Voice newspaper and, 84, 86, 90–96
Petry, Ann and, 113
Primus, Pearl and, 43
racism and, 92
segregation and, 91, 113
The Street (Petry) and, 13
Black women
in American fiction, 13
beauty and, 48–50
FEPC and, 21
forties and, 5
Jim Crow and, 27
“lady,” meaning of and, 27
oppression of, 115
politics and, 99
sexuality of, 96–97
stereotyping of, 96, 115
war years and, 4, 36
Boas, Franz, 70, 71
Bolin, Jane, 83–84
Bond, Horace Mann, 58
Bond, Julian, 58
Boots, Smith, 111, 112
Borde, Percival, 39, 54, 190
Bridges, Aaron, 154
Broadway, 63, 85, 102, 137
Brooks, Gwendolyn, 12, 63–64, 114, 127
Browder, Earl, 60
Brown, Claude, 173
Brown, Lloyd, 114
Brown, Sterling, 45, 114
Brown v. Board of Education, 7
Buck, Pearl S., 128
Bunche, Ralph, 45
Burley, Virginia, 143
Burnham, Louis and Dorothy, 58
Bush, George H. W., 190
Byas, Don, 166
Cacchione, Peter V., 137
Café Society, 67, 136, 139
audience of, 46
Communist Party and, 45
demise of, 74
founding of, 43
Popular Front and, 8, 45
Primus, Pearl and, 2, 44–48, 50–53, 60, 152, 153
Williams, Mary Lou and, 2, 45, 139, 140, 152–154, 160
Café Society Downtown, 46
Café Society Uptown, 47, 153, 157, 163
Cage, John, 51
Capra, Frank, 89
Caribbean, 10, 28, 29, 31, 32, 42, 43, 73
Caribbean Carnival, 67
Carnegie Hall, 14, 53, 162, 167
Carpenter, Thelma, 154
Carroll, Vinette, 66
Catlett, Elizabeth, 114
Catlett, Sidney, 52fig
Chaplin, Charlie, 46
Chesnutt, Charles, 27
Chicago Defender, 24, 140
Childress, Alice, 102
Civil rights movement, 4, 7, 61, 117, 130, 197
Class, 27, 95, 102
“Close Ranks” (Du Bois), 20
Coca, Imogene, 45, 152, 168
Coker, Norman, 39
Cold War, 4, 15, 114, 116, 130, 189
Collins, James, 119
Columbia University, 71–72, 104
Common Ground, 106
Communist Party
Café Society and, 45
Davis, Benjamin J., Jr. and, 135, 138
Double V Campaign and, 20
People’s Voice newspaper and, 92–94
Petry, Ann and, 10–11, 90, 129–130
Popular Front and, 7–8
Primus, Pearl and, 10, 60, 62, 74, 75
racism and, 62
Robeson, Paul and, 23, 37
SNYC and, 59
Williams, Mary Lou and, 9, 10, 20, 139–140
Cooke, Marvel, 93, 94, 99, 129–130
Cooper, Esther, 110
Cortor, Eldzier, 55
The Crisis, 20, 81, 106, 127
Cullen, Countee, 136
Culture
African Americans and, 3
American, 3
dance and, 72
in Harlem, NY, 32
in New York City, NY, 2
Popular Front and, 5, 8
Cuney, Waring, 23
Dafora, Asadata, 29, 39, 53
Daily Compass, 94
Daily Worker, 30, 54, 60, 61, 62, 93, 98, 135
Dameron, Tadd, 149, 150fig
Dance
African, 24, 25, 29, 31, 42, 43, 44, 72
ballet, 25, 38, 44, 47
black American, 42
black concert, 76
Caribbean, 29, 31, 32, 42, 43, 55
contemporary black vernacular, 25
cultural, 38
culture and, 72
education and, 31, 42
folk, 29
jazz, 47, 53
Lindy Hop, 35, 37, 46
modern, 24–25, 29–31, 38, 39, 44, 47, 70
politics and, 23–25, 27, 32, 38, 53
segregation and, 25, 27
social, 29, 35
social justice and, 30
social protest and, 29–31, 53
tap, 38, 47
See also Primus, Pearl
Daniels, Billy, 136
Davis, Angela, 59
Davis, Benjamin, 120
Davis, Benjamin J., Jr., 133–139
Davis, Ben, Jr., 99
Davis, Miles, 12, 160, 164
Davis, Ossie, 102
Davis, Sallye Bell, 59
Delmer, Judith, 39
Democracy, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 20, 29, 54, 59, 76, 89, 98, 109
Democratic Party, Democrats, 90
Dickens, Charles, 84, 114
Dinkins, David, 112–113
Discrimination, 6, 7, 19, 69
Dodson, Owen, 51
Dorham, Kenny, 12
Double V Campaign, 5–7, 19, 20, 30, 53, 59, 61, 92, 94
Douglas, Aaron, 103
Dreiser, Theodore, 84, 114
Drug use, 130, 133, 158–159, 164, 169
Du Bois, W. E. B., 20, 27, 55, 57, 75, 130, 148
Duke University, 148
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 64
Dunham, Katherine, 12, 13, 23, 30, 31, 39, 40, 42–44, 48, 54, 63, 68, 70, 72, 153, 168, 175
Ebony, 49, 113
Eckstine, Billy, 12, 159–162
Education, 7, 8, 31, 42, 91, 98, 114
Ellington, Duke, 147, 148, 152, 162, 173
Ellison, Ralph, 13, 62, 106, 117, 120, 122–123, 127, 157, 173
Embree, Edward, 72
Emma Ransom House, 85
Emperor Jones, 67
Employment, 7, 22, 35–36, 91
Equality, 4, 6, 7, 9, 19, 76, 94, 98
Executive Order 8802, 6, 36
Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC), 20, 21
Fascism, 6, 7, 19, 20, 22, 30, 32, 61, 62, 135
Fast, Howard, 37
Fauset, Jessie, 11, 95
FBI. See Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 3, 17, 45, 58, 59–62, 68, 73–76, 129, 130
Feminist movement, 15, 197
FEPC. See Fair Employment Practices Commission
Fiction. See Literature
Fisk University, 72
Fitzgerald, Ella, 12, 137, 139, 173
Five Dancers, 39–40, 44
Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, 137
Flynn, Errol, 46
Fort, Syvvilla, 70
Foulkes, Julia L., 70
Founding Fathers, 108, 111
Franklin, Benjamin, 108, 115
Frazier, E. Franklin, 45
Freedom, 9, 24, 31, 98, 136
Freud, Sigmund, 116
Gangs, 97, 133, 169, 173–174
Garland, Phyl, 49
Garner, Erroll, 146
Garvey, Marcus, 32
Gary, Johnnie, 154
Gender, 95, 115
Gillespie, Dizzy, 111, 119, 149, 150, 150fig, 160, 166, 168, 173, 193
Gold, Ben, 136
Goodman, Benny, 147, 166, 181–182
Gordon, Dexter, 12
Gottlieb, William P., 149
Graham, Martha, 29, 38, 69
Great Depression, 5, 7, 36, 114, 128
Greatest Generation, 4
Great Migration, 28, 55, 119, 128
Greenwich Village, NY, 43
Hackett, Bobby, 52fig
Haig, Al, 166
Hairston, Jacqueline, 68
Hall, Edmund, 165
Hammerstein, Oscar, II, 22
Hammond, John, 45, 174
Hansberry, Lorraine, 131
“Hard Time Blues,” 23, 50, 55, 63, 65, 66, 67, 77
Harlem, NY, 9
art in, 32
artists in, 1, 11–12
Black Americans in, 28
black urbanites in, 79
Caribbean immigrants in, 33
changes in, 189–190
culture in, 32
drug use and, 130, 133, 158–159, 169
in forties, 11
gang violence in, 133, 169, 173–174
Harlem Renaissance and, 11–12
housing in, 81
“latchkey” children in, 97
nightlife of, 86, 127, 133, 169–170
Petry, Ann and, 81, 89, 90–91, 98, 110, 170, 189
Petry, Ann in, 2, 9, 79
politics in, 32
Primus, Pearl and, 95
Primus, Pearl in, 2
racism and, 79
segregation and, 79
The Street (Petry) and, 170
urban renewal and, 130–131
Williams, Mary Lou and, 9, 168–175, 189
Harlem Arts Center, 96
Harlem Community Art Center, 104
Harlem Housewives League, 99
Harlem Nocturne (Neel), 188fig, 189
Harlem Quarterly, 106
Harlem Renaissance, 11–12, 21, 95
Harlem Riots (1943), 17, 90, 118–127
Harlem Riverside Defense Council, 98, 110
Harlem Youth Center, 60
Harrington, Ollie, 95
Hadassah, 68
Hawkins, Coleman, 135, 136
Helman, Lillian, 74
Herndon, Angelo, 135
Herskovitz, Melville, 70
Hill, Abraham, 101–102
Hindemith, Paul, 162–163
Hines, Earl “Fatha,” 12
Hitler, Adolf, 19, 94, 116
Holder, Geoffrey, 39
Holiday, Billie, 45, 46, 47, 48, 118, 135, 136, 138, 146, 157, 158, 163
Holiday magazine, 131
Hollywood, 43, 89, 104, 129
Holm, Hanya, 69
Homzy, Andrew, 164–165
Hoover, J. Edgar, 45, 61, 74, 92, 130, 176
Horne, Lena, 12, 45, 46, 47, 54, 74, 112, 118, 136, 154, 173
Houghton Mifflin, 81, 107, 113
House of Representatives, U. S., 21
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), 74, 75, 103, 129
Housing, 7, 22, 81, 91, 94, 109, 130
Housing Act of 1949, 130, 189
Houton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, 81
Howard, Jack, 144
HUAC. See House Un-American Activities Committee
Hughes, Langston, 24, 37, 45, 51, 53, 55, 87, 114, 120–121, 126, 136, 149, 173
Humphrey, Doris, 38
Hunter College, 34, 35, 36, 47, 50
Hurston, Zora Neale, 11, 55, 70, 72, 117, 192
In Darkness and Confusion (Petry), 103
“In Darkness and Confusion” (Petry), 118, 122–127
in New York City, NY, 31
International Theatre, 67
Invisible Man (Ellison), 62, 120, 122–123
Ivy, James, 127
Jackson, Ada B., 99
Jackson, Esther Cooper, 58–59
Jackson, James, 58, 59
Jackson, “Lassido,” 31–32
Jackson, Red, 174
Jamaica, 40
Jamal, Ahmad, 146
James, Anna Louise, 82, 83
Jim Crow, 6, 17, 19, 20, 23, 27–28, 29, 30, 55, 88, 89, 98, 112, 120, 175, 177
“Jim Crow Train,” 23, 27–28, 65, 77
Harlem Nocturne Page 20