Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2018, History (Arts and Sciences)
Pride and Protest in Letters and Song is a traditional historical narrative which examines racial justice advocacy, as expressed in artistic works by several preeminent jazz musicians and the writers who allied with them during the pivotal 1955 to 1965 span of the American Civil Rights Movement. The work interrogates milestone confrontations during the civil rights movement, such as the Little Rock Nine Crisis, the African Anticolonial Movement, and the pivotal 1963 direct action campaigns waged by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC, the NAACP and SNCC. The aim of this method of historical inquiry is to determine why and how these events motivated the profiled musicians and writers to use their gifts to express opinions on the racial tumult of the era. It was found that the artistic works produced during the era had little real-world impact on the overwhelmingly Southern and church-based civil rights campaigns. However, what the profiled musicians and writers had to say about the civil rights movements is worth knowing because the historical record demonstrates they were thought leaders. Several of the observations they made and ideological stances they adopted were prescient, indicating future strategic shifts and points of view on the quest for racial justice in the United States and across the African Diaspora.
Committee: Kevin Mattson PhD (Advisor); Katherine Jellison PhD (Committee Member); Assan Sarr PhD (Committee Member); Robin Muhammad PhD (Other)
Subjects: African American Studies; Black History; History; Music; Political Science