by Imani Perry
Lincoln, Abbey, 188
Lincoln, Abraham, 3, 6, 15, 18, 41, 47, 114, 147
Lincoln Douglass Birthday Banquet, 152–53
Lincoln Institute, Shelby County, Ky., 79–80, 100
Lincoln University, 80, 102, 103
Linked fate concept, 65
Listen Chicago, 144
Literacy: and black formalism, 12; and New Negro, 27; freedom tied to, 45, 138; and rhyming poems, 183
Little Red School House, N.Y., 54, 173
Liuzzo, Viola, 160
Locke, Alain LeRoy: “Enter the New Negro,” 25–27, 67; Thomas Gilbert Standing on, 63; on Americans All series, 113
Loesser, Frank, 118
Logan (doctor), 187–88
Logan, Rayford, 4–5
Lomax, Alan, 130
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 113
Lorraine Motel, Memphis, 172
Los Angeles, Calif., Watts rebellion, 161, 163, 167, 192–93
Louis, Joe, 129–30
Louisiana, 3
Lovely, Avie Kibble, xii
Lowden, Frank O., 33
Lowery, Joseph, 206, 219
Lumumba, Patrice, 185
Lutheran Women’s Work, 16
Lynchings, 3, 14, 31, 59, 62, 83, 139, 162
Lyons, Ernest, 37, 38
Madhubuti, Haki, 202
Magee, Gwen, 222
Maier Brewing, 192
Malcolm X, 165, 185, 188
Mandela, Nelson, 208
Manhattan Harmony Four, 50
Manor, Dorothy, 97
March against Fear (1966), 164–65, 166, 167, 200
March on Washington (1963), 141, 155, 167
March on Washington Movement (MOWM), 115–16, 125, 155
Marie, Rene, 218
Marshall, Paule, 222; Triangular Road, 200
Marshall, Thurgood, 102, 121
Marshall Plan, 126
Marxism, 29, 54, 120, 122, 127, 133
Masses and Mainstream, 134–37, 138
Mass incarceration, 223
Mass media, 112–14, 143–44. See also Black press; Radio
Matthews, Caroline, 14–15
Matthews, Victoria Earle, 14–15, 16
May Day celebrations, 9–11, 36
Mays, Benjamin, 155, 219
McBrown, Gertrude Parthenia, 101–2
McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, 136
McCarthy era, 65, 109, 126, 142, 144
McCray, Carrie Allen, 36–37
McCray, George F., 143
McDowell, Deborah E., 152–53
McDuffie, Deborah, 211
McFadden and Whitehead, “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” 197
McKay, Claude, “If We Must Die,” 56, 66, 167
McKinley, Manfred, 153
McNair, Denise, 155
McWhorter, Diane, 125
Meeropol, Abel, 139
Melton, Steve, 13
Memmi, Albert, 29
Memphis, Tenn.: W. C. Handy honored by, 50, 172; Martin Luther King Jr.’s support for sanitation workers’ strike, 171–72; Martin Luther King’s Mountaintop speech in, 172, 218
Meredith, James, 164, 165, 166, 167
Meroe, 97
Merrick Community Center, 52
Messenger, 116
Mexican Revolution, 27
Michel, Pras, 214
Middle-class blacks: and black culture, xi, 196, 214; Johnson family as, 3; Thomas Gilbert Standing on, 64; and class cleavages in black life, 65, 211
Middle-class white Christian norms, 8
Middleton, Nerissa Long, 105
Milestones of a Race (pageant), 40–41
Miller, Kelly, 55, 63, 78
Miller, May, 198
Miller, Orloff, 157
Miller Brewing, 211
Million Family March, 216–17
Million Man March on Washington, 216
Million Woman March, Philadelphia, 216
Mingo-Jones, 211
“Mississippi Goddam,” 159
Mjagkij, Nina, 6
Mobile County Training School, Ala., 81, 82
Modern School, Harlem, 99, 100, 106
Moffett, Charles, 177
Monroe School, Topeka, Kans., 104
Montgomery Bus Boycott, 139, 140, 141–42
Moon Medicine, 221
Moore, Helen Perry, 98
Moore, Melba, 211, 213
Moore, Ray Nichols, 101
Moran, Jason, xii–xiii, 19–20
Morehouse University, 208
Morrison, Toni, 215
Mossell, Sadie, 78
Motley, Constance Baker, 103
Motley, John, 83
Movement, freedom tied to, 45, 138
Mullen, Evelyn Day, 101
Multiracial social movements, xiv, 56
Murphy, George B., 57
Murray, Albert, 81–82
Mussolini, Benito, 116
Mutual Black Network, 197
“My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (“America”), 37, 102, 114, 115, 121, 141, 174
Nairobi College, 183–85
Nairobi Day School, East Palo Alto, California, 181–83, 185
Nairobi Method, 182
Namibia, 208
Nannie Helen Burroughs Training School for Women, Washington, D.C., 85
Nation, 35
National Arts Theatre, Lagos, Nigeria, 200
National Association for Negro Teachers, 73
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): as illegal organization, xii; “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as official song of, 26, 32, 34, 38, 57; and black political life, 27, 29–30, 32, 36, 55, 60, 85, 125–26; racial composition of, 28, 29, 30, 31, 55; and W. E. B. DuBois, 28, 29, 122–23, 126, 129; Amenia Conference of 1916, 29–30, 39; James Weldon Johnson as field secretary for, 30–31; growth of, 31; James Weldon Johnson as executive secretary of, 32; and East St. Louis riots, 33–34; and UNIA, 35; and black liberation, 36; integrationist philosophy of, 36, 104; on “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as national Negro hymn, 37; and Scottsboro convictions, 57, 235n61; and antilynching bill, 59; Amenia Conference of 1933, 59–60; political shift toward left, 60, 61; Thomas Gilbert Standing on, 63; and Great Depression, 66; Whitney Young Jr. as executive director of, 80; and separate but equal rules, 81; children’s branches of, 84–85; court cases pursued by, 102–3; demonstrations against racism, 116; and labor issues, 122; and racial discrimination, 122; and election of 1948, 125–26, 127; and SNYC, 127; and civil rights era, 127, 138, 162; and Rosa Ingram case, 137; and Martin Luther King Jr., 141; and All African People’s Conference, 143; and World’s Fair of 1964 mural, 161–62; silent protest march of 1917, 162; and inclusion, 185; and Max Roach, 188; and National Black Political Convention, 201, 202; and Million Man March, 216; and Ida Gibbs Hunt, 233n21
National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW), 13–14, 16, 24, 95
National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools (NATCS), 73–74, 94, 95
National Bank of Haiti, 35
National Baptist Publishing Board, 106
National Black Network, 197
National Black Political Convention, 201–2
National Black Republican Council Dinner of 1982, 209–10
National City Bank of New York, 35
National Committee to Defend Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, 129
National Conference on Fundamental Problems in the Education of the Negro (1934), 112
National Congress of West Africa, 39
National Convention of Black Lay Catholics, 186
National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), 94, 145, 217
National Equal Rights League, 55
National Federation of Afro-American Women, 13–14
National Guard, 33, 161, 172
National Housewives League, 97
National Housing Act of 1934, 59
National Jeanes Journal, 77
National Negro Congress (NNC), 60, 61, 124, 125, 133, 137
National Negro in Bus
iness League (NNBL) conferences, 22–23
National Negro Labor Council (NNLC), 134
National Notes, 16
National Playground and Recreational Association of New York, 40
National Race Congress, 55
National Recovery Authority, 59
Nation of Islam, 216, 217
Nat Turner’s Rebellion, 80
Nazi Germany, and World War II, 111
Negro Baptists of Texas, 76
Negro Club Women, 93
Negro Digest, 166–67
Negro History Bulletin, 91–92, 96–97, 98, 101
Negro History Week programs: and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” 89, 93, 95, 96–97, 98, 105; creation of, 91; resources for, 92, 93, 105; African American studies as outgrowth of, 92–93; and black women, 93, 94–95; at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, 93–94; community involvement in, 96; and “Let Our Rejoicings Rise” pantomime, 97; and black formalism, 105–6; and radio broadcasts, 114; and white supremacy, 134–35; and sit-ins, 146–47; and Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, 171; purpose of, 195–96. See also Black History Month
Negro Literary and History Society of Atlanta, 15
Negro National Anthem. See Black National Anthem
Negro Publishers Association, 114
Negro Rural School Fund, 77
Negro Sanhedrin of 1924, 55
Negro Society for Historical Research, 92
Nemiroff, Bob, 148
Nengudi, Senga, 221
Neocolonialism, 169, 199
Neoliberalism, 196–97
New Africa, 135
Newark, N.J., 167, 186
Newark Boys Choir, 203
New Deal policies, 58–59, 61, 66, 68, 100, 120
New England Conservatory, 4, 22
New Guinea, 117
New Masses, 134
New Negro era: Alain Locke on, 25–27; and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” 26; and work of black writers, 26, 42–45; and pageants, 41; and black institutions, 66; generation of, 103; and Langston Hughes, 149
Newton, Huey P., 176–77
New York, 2. See also specific cities
New York Age, 31
New York Music School Settlement for Colored Children, 90
New York Times, 156
New York University, 99
New York World’s Fair (1939), 68–69, 71
New York World’s Fair (1964), 161–63
Niagara Movement, 233n21
Nicaragua, 30, 31
Nigeria, 135, 136, 200
Nigerian Independence Day, 185
Nixon, E. D., 141
Nixon, Richard, 204
“Nkosi Sikeleli iAfrica,” 208
Nkrumah, Kwame, 123, 135, 143
“Nobody’s Looking but the Owl and the Moon” (Johnson and Johnson), 13
Norman, Jessye, 215
Norris, Clarence, 236n61
Norris v. Alabama (1935), 236n61
North: black educational life in, 88–90; access to “Lift Every Voice and Sing” in, 88–90, 173; black formalism in, 89; de facto segregation in, 89, 167; settlement schools of, 90; violent responses to residential integration in, 119–20; economic inequality in, 144
North Carolina, 73, 80, 146–47, 152
Nubia, 97
Obama, Barack, 218–19, 223
Obasanjo, Olusegun, 200
Occidental University, 208
Odetta, 159
O’Jays, 203
Oklahoma Negro Education Association, 74
Olantunji, Babatunde, 188
“Old Black Joe,” 40–41
“Old Time Religion,” 40
Oliver, Beulah Rucker, 80–81
Olsen, Clark, 157
Olympio, Sylvanus, 162
Open Housing marches, 166
Opportunity, 66, 91, 124
Oratory, 8, 12, 31, 50, 90, 110, 141
Out of the Dark (pageant), 42
Owens, Clifford, 221–22
Pace, Henry, 49
Padmore, George, 123
Pageantry: and black formalism, 8; and Star of Ethiopia pageant, 39–40; “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as processional and recessional for, 40, 41, 42; and black educational life, 40, 86, 97, 184; black women’s writing of pageants, 40–42; and Kwanzaa, 184, 196. See also Ritual practices
Palmer, Alice Freeman, 94–95
Palmer Memorial Institute, 95, 100
Pan-African Congress (1919), 31–32, 233n21
Pan-African Congress (1923), 233n21
Pan-African Congress (1927), 39, 51, 123
Pan-African Congress (1945), 123–24, 125
Pan-Africanism, 42, 85, 123, 135, 142, 167, 176, 200, 208
Parker High School, Birmingham, 174
Parks, Rosa, 140, 185, 215
Parliament Funkadelic, “One Nation under a Groove,” 197
Patillo, Lois, 146
Patillo, Melba, 146
Patterson, Haywood, 236n61
Payne, Larry, 172
Peace Information Center, 129
Pearl Harbor attack, 118
Peerman, Joanne, 180–81
Pendarvis, Leon, 211
Penllyn Elementary School, 98
Penn State University, 208
People’s Songs, 130, 147
Perez, Rosie, 212
Periclean Club, 145
Perry, Fredericka Douglass Sprague, 47
Perry, Theresa, 74–75, 85–86
Peter, Paul, and Mary, 159
Peterson, Hannibal, 187
Philadelphia, Miss., 205
Phillips, Wendell, 102
Phyllis Wheatley YWCA, Little Rock, 142
Phylon, 121–22
Pigmentocracy, 5
Pitts, Clara, 23
Pittsburgh Courier, 44, 115
Plantation economy, 75
Plessy v. Fergusson (1896), 3, 13, 81
Poetry magazine, 66
Poitier, Juanita, 148
Poitier, Sidney, 148
Police brutality, 161, 163, 171, 206, 210, 212, 223–24
Politics of respectability, 8, 70
Poor People’s Campaign, 172
Poor People’s March on Washington, 170–71
Popular Front, 54–55, 61, 133
Populism, 27
Postblackness, 219–20
Postracial formulation, 219
Potter, Dave, 153–54
Poverty: poor blacks, 8, 14; and racial liberalism, 161; Martin Luther King Jr. on, 169, 172; and neoliberalism, 197; Ronald Reagan on, 209; and class cleavages, 211; and Bill Clinton’s welfare reform legislation, 215; and vulnerabilities, 223; and black political leaders, 224
Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr., 121, 124, 125, 154
Powell, Richard, 67
Powell v. Alabama (1932), 57, 235–36n61
“Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” 118
Pratt, Geronimo Ji Jaga, 173
Prince, 221, 224
Progressive American Labor Party, 129
Progressivism, 120, 126
Prophets of the Hood (Perry), 220
Pryor, Richard, 193
PTA, 24, 86
Public Enemy, 212
Rabbit Foot’s Company, 22
Race men and women, 6, 19, 45, 102, 211, 220
Race relations, 4–5, 15, 117, 121–22
Racial discrimination: in New Deal policies, 59; in visual arts, 68; in defense industry, 116, 117; and racial liberalism, 120; and NAACP, 122
Racial equality: demands for, 64, 65, 102–4, 116, 117, 127, 219, 222, 225; and politics of respectability, 70; and promise of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” 84; support for, 112; and black press, 115; and militant integrationism, 117; and Hubert Humphrey, 127; Ronald Reagan on, 209
Racial injustice, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as spiritual shield against, 24
Racial liberalism: rise of, 109, 112, 120–21, 128; and mass media, 112–14, 144; and black participation in representation of black people, 113–14; federal government’s public commitment to
, 115, 124; mainstream of, 127, 136–37, 142; and politics of distinction, 133; failure of, 161
Racial uplift: and black writers, 5; and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” 22–23, 40, 45; and black organizations, 36; pageants focusing on, 40, 42; and Jackie Robinson, 130; and Tony Brown, 207
Racism: freedom circumscribed by, 14; of working-class whites, 34, 193; analogies between antifascism and antiracism, 114, 115, 128, 129–30, 136; NAACP demonstrations against, 116; imperialist foreign policy connected to, 165; Martin Luther King Jr. on, 169, 170; internalized racism, 175; structural racism, 196, 210, 222; displacement of, 209; and postracial formulation, 219
Racist violence: tourism mediating effects of, 2; in Reconstruction era, 3; and lynchings, 3, 31; and nadir of black civic life, 5; black formalism as refuge from, 8; and Jim Crow, 8–9, 20; sexual violence, 14, 137; toward black servicemen of World War I, 31; and Red Summer of 1919, 31, 55, 56; and East St. Louis riots, 33; and school desegregation, 104; and residential integration, 119–20; and Selma to Montgomery March, 159; and black citizenship, 167; and civil rights movement, 174–75; public refusal of, 225