African Americans and Popular Culture: Theater, film, and television

African Americans and Popular Culture: Theater, film, and television
ISBN-10
0275989232
ISBN-13
9780275989231
Category
African Americans
Pages
311
Language
English
Published
2008
Publisher
ABC-CLIO
Author
Todd Boyd

Description

The African American influence on popular culture is among the most sweeping and lasting this country has seen. Despite a history of institutionalized racism, black artists, entertainers, and entrepreneurs managed to forge deep relationships within American popular culture. Pioneers such as Oscar Michaeux, Paul Robeson, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Langston Hughes, Bill Bojangles Robinson, and Ella Fitzgerald paved the way for Jackie Robinson, Louis Armstrong, James Baldwin, Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Sidney Poitier, and Bill Cosby, who in turn opened the door for Spike Lee, Dave Chappelle, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan. Though there are still many more miles to travel and much to overcome, this three-volume set considers the multifaceted influence of African Americans on popular culture, and sheds new light on the ways in which African American culture has come to be a fundamental and lasting part of America itself. By presenting essays that are both overviews and arguments, this set will equip the public with compelling background information on central issues, along with provocative, thorough reflections on the implications of those issues in our world. In order to articulate the momentous impact African American popular culture has had upon the fabric of American society, these three volumes provide analyses from academics and experts across the country. The purpose of the volumes is to provide the most reliable, accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive treatment of key topics, works, and themes in African American popular culture for a new generation of readers. The scope of the project is vast, including: popular historical movements like the Harlem Renaissance;the legacy of African American comedy; African Americans and the Olympics; African Americans and rock 'n roll; more contemporary articulations such as hip hop culture and black urban cinema; and much more. Part of this project is to recuperate histories that have been perhaps forgotten or obscured to mainstream audiences and demonstrate how African Americans are not only integral to American culture, but how they have always been purveyors of popular culture.

Other editions

Similar books

  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    By R. Thomas Cobourn

    Recounts the life and career of the Los Angeles Lakers star, and describes his encounters with racism and his conversion to Islam The aim of the game is to get the ball and put it in the basket, and no one has ever been more successful at ...

  • Black History Makers: A Sampling of Great Men and Women from the Past and Present
    By C. Cabell Carter, Karen Bryant

    Each person pulled from history and presented in this book had unique circumstance to bring forth their contribution and role in history as well as social conditions relating to the times.

  • Spies!: David Mortimore Baxter Cracks the Case
    By Karen Tayleur

    After David receives a new game called Spy Moves he never expects to be asked to solve a realy mystery.

  • African American Heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley: A Project of the Upper Housatonic Valley Heritage Area
    By DAVID LEVINSON, Rachel Fletcher, Frances Jones-Sneed

    African American Heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley: A Project of the Upper Housatonic Valley Heritage Area

  • Martin Luther King, Jr.: Civil Rights Hero
    By Anna Claybourne

    Civil Rights Hero Anna Claybourne. Further Information Martin Luther King , Jr. Civil Rights Hero he gave. Glossary artery ( AR - tuh - ree ) A large blood vessel . assassin ( uh - SASS - in ) A killer who murders a famous person ...

  • Al on America
    By Al Sharpton

    We go into the booth and cast our vote for who we think will win , instead of the candidate that best fits our needs . People don't go into the voting booth and look at the candidates and say , “ I agree with this one , ” or “ I share ...

  • Hattiesburg: An American City in Black and White
    By William Sturkey

    American Biography, 45–47, graduation date and financial statistics on 46; Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, 181–183; William Richard Cutter, ed., New England Families. Genealogical and Memorial (New ...

  • Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston
    By William Henry Kellar

    Rupert N. Richardson, Wallace, and Adrian Anderson, Texas: Lone ... Edward L. Ayers, The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992), 156-57; Barr, Black Texans, 84-85,136-37; Brophy, ...

  • The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
    By Imamu Amiri Baraka, William J. Harris

    The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader includes poems from Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, The Dead Lecturer, Black Magic, Hard Facts, It's Nation Time, & Poetry for the Advanced; the plays Dutchman, Great Goodness of Life, & What Was ...

  • Step by Step to the Top: The Saga of a President of a Historically Black University
    By William Percy Hytche

    Autobiography by William P. Hytche, who from 1976 to 1997 was chief executive officer/chancellor then president of University of Maryland Eastern Shore.