by Imani Perry
Radical Republicans, 2
Radio: and advocates for educational equity, 112; and politics of representation, 113–14; black radio programs, 143–44, 152–53; black radio ownership, 197
Ragtime, 21–22
Rainbow Coalition, 208
Rainey, Ma, 22
Randolph, A. Philip, 61, 116, 143, 155
Randolph, Virginia Estelle, 77
Rasbach, Oscar, 113
Razaf, Andy, 114
Reagan, Ronald, 205–10, 212, 213
Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 149, 150
Reagon, Cordell, 150–51
Reconstruction era, 2, 3, 5, 8, 18–19, 73, 112
Red Cross, 233n21
Redford’s Variety Store, 154
Redmond, Shana, xiii
Red Summer of 1919, 31, 55, 56
Reeb, James, 157–58, 160
Reed, Henry, 108–9
Remi, Salaam, 214
Republican Party, 2, 4–5, 58, 209–10
Residential security maps, 59
Restrictive covenants, 62
Reuther, Walter, 172
Revolutionary War, 114
Rhythm & blues (R&B) music, 212
Richmond, Va., 186
Richmond News Leader, 154
Richmond Symphony Orchestra, 186
Ricks, Willie, 165
Rihanna, 224
Ritual practices: and black formalism, 7, 8, 9–10, 11, 12, 33, 35, 82, 110, 115, 223; and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” 12–13, 36–37, 40, 47, 82, 84, 87, 89, 105–6, 214; and oratorical tradition, 110; and Double V campaign, 115; and Nairobi College, 185; loss of, 194
Roach, Max, 188–89
Robertson, Carole, 155
Robeson, Paul: and Harlem Community Art Center, 68; and Negro History Week programs, 97; and Freedom’s People radio documentary, 114; and Jomo Kenyatta, 123; on Africa, 124, 129; and SNYC, 125; and Henry Wallace, 126; and leftist politics, 130, 144–45; and Jackie Robinson, 131–33; Lloyd Brown’s biography of, 134; “Ballad for Americans,” 139; and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” 144
Robichaux, John, 22
Robinson, Earl, 139
Robinson, Jackie, 130–33
Robinson, Joanne, 141
Robinson, Smokey, 223
Rollins, Sonny: Freedom Suite, 139; “The House I Live In,” 139, 191
Rome, Ga., 154
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 68, 112, 124, 125, 132
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 58, 59, 61, 94, 112, 116, 125
Rosenberg, Ethel, 139
Rosenberg, Julius, 139
Rosengard, David, 204
Rosenwald, Julius, 75, 76. See also Julius Rosenwald Fund
Rowan, Carl, 168
Rowell, Victoria, 193
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, 204
Roy Haynes Hip Ensemble, 187–88
Rumph, Roy L., “Jungle Paradise,” 117–18
Rural areas, Jeanes teachers serving, 77
Rustin, Bayard, 116, 155, 168, 171–72
St. Louis Blues (film), 50
Sales, William, 205–6
Sam, Vilburn Guillaume, 35
Samuel, Bonna MacPerine, 145
Sanchez, Sonia, 174
Saunders, Pharaoh, 177
Savage, Augusta, 67–68, 99, 138; After the Glory, 68; The Harp, 68–70, 71, 204
Savage, Barbara, 112, 113–14
Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, 68
Savor, Lonis, 9
Saxon, Camille, 106
Schlitz Brewing Company, 192
Schomburg, Arturo, 92
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 92
School desegregation, 103–6, 146, 179, 180, 181, 190, 193–94
School segregation: and frontal assault on segregated society, 72; southern requirements of, 73, 79; and equalization of expenditures and resources, 74, 102; and quality of schools, 78, 95; and daily practice of singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” 80, 88, 178–79; and separate but equal rules, 81; and black formalism, 81, 82; and lack of oversight of white elites, 88; and immersion within black community, 89; black studies in, 92–93, 195; and NAACP pursuing court cases on, 102–4; and U.S. Supreme Court, 103–5
Schubert, Franz, 144
Schweitzer, Albert, 142
Schwerner, Michael, 205
The Score, 214
Scottsboro case, 57, 124, 235n61
Second World Festival of Black Art, Nigeria (1977), 200
Seeger, Pete, 130
Segregation: NAACP’s challenges to, 29, 102–4, 122; and manifesto of Pan-African Congress of 1927, 39; in South Africa, 39, 207, 208–9; and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as symbol of collective will, 50; Walter Daykin on, 62; Booker T. Washington’s accommodationist stance on, 63; and W. E. B. DuBois on double consciousness of, 86–87; de facto segregation in North, 89, 119–20; and mass media, 114; and World War II, 115, 116, 122; entrenchment of, 144; and civil rights movement, 149–52, 154, 157–60; legal ending of, 207. See also Integration; Jim Crow; School segregation
Selma, Ala., 156–57, 159–61
Selma to Montgomery March (1965), 171
Semper Fidelis club, 145
Seven Principles of Blackness, 184
Seven Principles of Kwanzaa, 184, 196
Seventh World Congress of the Comintern (1935), 60–61
Sexual violence, 14, 137
Shabazz, Betty, 203
Sharecropping, 75, 77, 80
Shepp, Archie, 177
Sherrod, Charles, 150
Shore, Herbert L., 121–22
Shropshire, Louise, 147–48
Shuttlesworth, Fred, 147, 152
Simon, Charlie May, All Men Are Brothers, 1, 142
Simone, Nina, 159, 172, 197; “Young, Gifted and Black,” 197
Sit-ins, 146–47, 154, 188
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, 126, 145, 155–56
Slavery: and sexual assault of black women, 14; Marcus Garvey on, 34; in pageants, 40, 41; and African American history, 97, 98; and slave insurrections, 167
Smalls, Robert, 82
Smith, Bessie, 50
Smith, Hale, 186–87
Smith, Martha, 88
Smith, Maybelle, 166
Smith, Samuel L., 76
Snow Hill Institute, 77
Social class: and black culture, xi, 65, 196, 214; black formalism engaged across, 8, 10–12; and black women’s organizations, 24; and NAACP, 60; and black elites, 64–65, 179, 211; and class cleavages in black life, 64–65, 211; and black leadership class, 78; and racial liberalism, 120. See also Middle-class blacks; Working-class blacks; Working-class whites
Social democrats, 120
Socialists: and working-class blacks, 52, 54; and Popular Front, 54–55; from West Indies, 55; W. E. B. DuBois identifying as, 60; racial liberalism contrasted with, 120; and Pan-African Congress of 1945, 123; and Henry Wallace, 126; NAACP’s disengagement from, 127; and black radicals, 128; and Black Panther Party, 185
Social justice movement, 86, 116
Social Security Act, 59
Solimon, Angelo, 97
Somalia, 136
Sontonga, Enoch, 208
Soul: W. E. B. DuBois on, 44, 189; Gerald Westbrook on, 166–67; Kenneth Fish on, 181
South: public school system introduced in, 2; Radical Republicans in, 2; black associational life in, 8; James Weldon Johnson’s NAACP organizing tour of, 31; Communist Party in, 60; Rosenwald school program in, 75; and Anna Jeanes’s donations for teachers in black schools, 77; and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” prevalent in school programs, 88; and Brown v. Board of Education, 104; school desegregation in, 104–5; oratorical tradition in, 110; legal racial stratification in, 144; cultural resources of, 175
South Africa: racial segregation in, 39, 207, 208–9; Africa National Congress in, 135; boycott of, 206; Ronald Reagan’s policies toward, 207, 208, 209; and U.S. student antiapartheid movement, 208–9
South America, 128
Southeast Children’s Theate
r group, 101
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC): role in civil rights movement, 138, 154, 155; and SNCC, 147, 152; funding of, 148; and freedom songs, 149, 151; and voting rights, 156; and CORE, 163; Freedom Now slogan, 166; Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at 1967 convention, 169–70; and Andrew Young, 174; and inclusion, 185; and Max Roach, 188; and Jesse Jackson, 192
Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), 124–25, 126, 127, 128, 133, 147, 173
Southern Sons, 118
Southern University, 189, 198–99
Spanish American War, 114
Spanish language, 19
Spelman College, 75, 208
Spencer, Anne, 65–66
Spencer, Chauncey, 65–66
Spillers, Hortense, 11
Spingarn, Joel, 30, 59–60
Spirituals: in pageants, 40–41; and “School Improvement Day” programs, 86; and Negro History Week, 106; and black associational life, 145; and Highlander Folk School, 147; and civil rights movement, 151, 153; and Nairobi Day School, 182–83; recordings of, 204; and black culture, 211. See also specific spirituals
Stallone, Sylvester, 191
Standing, Thomas Gilbert, 63, 64, 65
Stanton School for Negroes, Jacksonville, 3, 4, 7
Star of Ethiopia pageant, 39–40
“The Star-Spangled Banner”: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” compared to, 37–38, 119, 193; “Lift Every Voice and Sing” sung with, 115, 116, 174, 178–79; and Periclean Club program, 145; and black nationalism, 184; and black power, 190–91; interpretations of, 214, 218
States’ rights, 205, 206
Stax Records, 191, 192
“Steal Away,” 41, 150, 151
“Steal Away Jesus,” 50
Stepto, Robert, 45
Stereotypes, 113
Stewart, Michael, 212
Still, William Grant, 49, 68; Afro-American Symphony, 71
Stock market crash of 1929, 26
Stokes, Carl, 201, 210
Strayhorn, Billy, 187
Stubblefield, Eleathea, 85
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC): and voter registration, 125, 149, 156; role in civil rights movement, 138, 155; creation of, 147; and freedom songs, 150–52; and black power, 164, 165, 166; and Vietnam War, 168; and Connie Curry, 174–75
Studio Museum, Harlem, 219
Swahili language, 184
Swarthmore College, 208
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” 40
Sylvia’s restaurant, Harlem, 47
Taft, Howard, 31
Talbert, Mary B., 30
Talented Tenth, 64
Talladega College, 95
Tanner, Henry Ossawa, 93
Tanzania, 199, 208
Taylor, Glen, 126
Taylor, Samuel Coleridge, 93, 96, 97
“Tell Me, Dusky Maiden” (Johnson and Johnson), 13
Temple of Progress (pageant), 41
Tennessee, 76
Terkel, Studs, 203
Terrell, Mary Church, 30, 78, 137
Thicke, Robin, 221
Thompson, James, 115
Thurman, Howard, 66, 94
Till, Emmett, 84
Time, 118–19, 120
Tindley, Charles Albert, 147–48
Tocqueville, Alexis de, 6
Toloso (Johnson and Johnson), 21
Tonight Show (television show), 191–92
Tony Brown’s Journal, 207
Topeka Plain Dealer, 16
Tougaloo College, 166
Touré, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness, 221, 222
Tourism, 2
Toussaint-Louverture, François-Dominique, 84, 91
Trade unions: and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” 56; communists active in, 61, 127; ban on racial discrimination in, 116; black membership in, 121; and Pan-African Congress of 1945, 123; NAACP’s disengagement from, 127; and Montgomery Bus Boycott, 141
Trenholm, G. W., 74
Trotter, William Monroe, 55
Truman, Harry, 126, 127–28
Truth, Sojourner, 138
Tubman, Harriet, 81, 138, 162, 195
Tubman, William, 162
Turnage, Edith, 9
Turner, Nat, 80
Tuskegee Institute, 7, 74, 75, 76, 77, 95
Tutu, Desmond, 208, 224
Unisonance, 39, 140, 146
United Auto Workers, 116, 172
United Nations, 122–23, 124
United Negro College Fund, 88, 120–21
United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), 27–28, 29, 32–35, 36
United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Motor Corps, 32
U.S. Bureau of Investigation (later FBI), 35
U.S. Constitution, Commerce Clause, 156
U.S. Justice Department, 136, 156, 207
U.S. Park Service, 216
U.S. Postal Service, 214
U.S. State Department, 129, 142
U.S. Supreme Court: and legal segregation, 3, 79; and Scottsboro convictions, 57, 235–36n61; on funding for black schools, 73; and school segregation, 103–5; and Montgomery Bus Boycott, 141
Universal Ethiopian Anthem, 32
Urban League, 61, 66, 127, 128, 201, 206
Urban League Convention of 1980, 205
Vanderbilt University, 208
Venezuela, 30–31
Vernacular form: and black formalism, 8, 10–11, 12, 22, 67, 212; and Langston Hughes, 42; and music, 48–49, 51, 148, 212–13; and black writers, 67; and black English, 184
Versailles Peace Conference, 32
Victoria (queen of England), 17
Vietnam War: Stokely Carmichael on, 165; Martin Luther King Jr. on, 168, 170, 172; and antiwar activists, 194, 209
Village Gate, N.Y., 148–49
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, 215
Virginia Avenue Elementary School, Louisville, Ky., 93
Virginia Negro Education Association, 74
Virginia State University, 95
Visual arts: and Afro-American modernism, 26, 67–68; “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as inspiration for, 51–52, 68–70; and collective spirit of black America, 138; and postblackness, 220. See also specific artists
Von Eschen, Penny, 133–34, 135
Von Suppé, Franz, 16
Voting rights: and black civic life, 3, 4–5, 125, 156, 158–59; and voter registration, 125, 149, 156, 206
Voting Rights Act (1965), 158–59, 161, 164, 206
Walker, Clara Leticia, 85
Walker, Kara, 221
Walker, Margaret, “For My People,” 66–67
Walker, Vanessa Siddle, 85
Wallace, Henry, 125–26, 130
Ware, Virgil, 155
Ware High School, Augusta, Ga., 106
Waring, Laura Wheeler, 51
Warrick, Meta, 93
Washington, Booker T.: and black educational life, 7, 87, 89; and National Negro in Business League conference, 22–23; and Marcus Garvey, 27–28, 29; funeral of, 28; and James Weldon Johnson, 30; and pageants, 41; and black political life, 63–64; on industrial education, 74; Negro Education Association established by, 74; and funding for school development, 75; and Anna Jeanes, 77; portraits of, 81; and Negro History Week, 96; political alignment of, 128; Tony Brown compared to, 207
Washington, Harold, 203–4
Washington Welfare Association, 233n21
Waters, Ethel, 49
Waters, Maxine, 100
Watson, Bobby, 187
Watts rebellion, Los Angeles, 161, 163, 167, 192–93
Wattstax, 192–93
Watts Writers Workshop, 177
“We Are Americans, Too,” 114, 115
Welfare reform legislation, 215
Wellington, Muriel, 98–99
Wells, Ida B., 14
Wendell Phillips High School A Cappella Choir, 204
Wepner, Chuck, 191
“We Shall Not Be Moved,” 116, 153
“We Shall Overcome,” 82, 147–48, 153–54, 158–59, 168, 174�
��75, 177–78
Wesley, Cynthia, 155
West Africa, 40
Westbrook, Gerald, “The Essence of Soul,” 166–67
West Indies, 55, 123, 128
Weston, Kim, 191–92, 193
Westside Missionary Baptist Church, St. Louis, Mo., 224
White, Charles: “Ingram Case,” 137; “Toward Liberation,” 137; “Life Every Voice . . .” series, 137–38; “The Living Douglass,” 138
White, Stella, 202–3
White, Tall Paul, 152
White, Walter, 31, 60, 63, 122, 126
White primaries, 3
Whites: white elites, 46; white scholars on black political life, 61–64, 65; accessibility of public education for, 76; funding of public education for, 82; resistance to school desegregation, 104, 105; resistance to residential integration, 119–20; protests on hiring of black workers, 120
White Stadium, Roxbury neighborhood, Boston, 173
White supremacy: “redemption” of, 3; state constitutions asserting, 3; black formalism as refuge from violence of, 8; stringency of, 14; and Crisis, 29; dangers of, 83–84; assaults of, 109; ideology of, 134, 145; and Negro History Week programs, 134–35; black activists’ confrontations with agents of, 157; commitment to, 164; generational struggles with, 199; global system of, 209
Whitney Young Classic football game, 189
Wilkerson, M. L., 174
Wilkins, Roy, 168, 171–72
Williams, Bert, 41
Williams, Deniece, 211
Williams, Mary Lou, 167
Williams, M. Mikel, 96
Williams, Serena Warren, 101
Williams, Vivian, 190
Williams and Walker Glee Club, 22–23
Willis, Ruth White, “Let Our Rejoicings Rise,” 97
Wilson, Darren, 224
Wilson, Flip, 191–92
Wilson, Valerie, 177
Wilson, Woodrow, 29, 31
Wise, Stephen S., 38–39
WMAL, 113
Woman’s Loyal Union, 14
Women’s Committee for Equal Justice, 137
Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom, 233n21
Wonder, Jerry, 214
Wonder, Stevie, 214
Wood, Abraham, 155–56
Wood, Virgil, 173
Woods, Sylvia, 47
Woodson, Carter G., 62, 78, 91–92, 93; African Heroes and Heroines, 92