postwar America..."a culture of joblessness" for urban African Americans

A film and a jazz performance - both available via YouTube. And excerpts from two historical readings. These were the tools before the class today as we sat down to learn more more about the hurdles of working class African Americans after World War II. To make the lesson more meaningful and to help the students see some of the things expected in their final papers, which are due on May 3, the class was split into two teams and asked to juxtaposed Thomas Sugrue's study on Detroit and Clarence Lang's research on St. Louis against the 1964 film "Nothing But a Man," which is partly set in 1960s Birmingham, Alabama. The goal: Write a thesis statement for a paper that analyzes the movie against the readings, which reveal the structural and social impact of failed New Deal initiatives on postwar African Americans. They were given the option to focus on one of the readings if it helped them to sharpen the ideas before them. To further push their thinking, the students were also asked to consider the life of jazz singer-actress Abbey Lincoln who stars in the movie. Lincoln's real-life political views and her early 1960s performances demonstrate, among other things, how black artists were aware of the postwar challenges facing African Americans  (Ivan Dixon, who stars opposite Lincoln in the film, was also a Civil Rights activist). While the theses revealed room for improvement (for example, the students failed to engage Abbey Lincoln's black freedom politics, something they have the option of exploring by next Monday for extra credit), I was pretty impressed with the results given how much they had to review and digest before writing in a two and a half hour class.  The thesis for Group A (Roosevelt, Aaron, Alexis and Lauria) went as follows: "Detroit's postwar urban crisis emerged as the consequence of two  important interrelated and unresolved problems in American history: 1)[the ways in which] capitalism generates economic inequality [and] 2) the ways in which African Americans ...[bear] disproportionately the impact [of this] inequality."

The thesis for Group B (Tiffany, Christin, Raven, Shariyah and Shanece): "Set in Jim Crow South during the postwar era, "Nothing But a Man" unveils the marginalization of blacks. Like the [Thomas] Sugrue and [Clarence] Lang readings, it demonstrates how behavior and values of poor or 'working class' [African Americans] manifest in a culture of joblessness...It does so in the following ways: 1) status ([Duff (Ivan Dixon), the protagonist] is a railroad worker; 2) social[ly] (He refuses to abide by Jim Crow laws, which leads to his joblessness [and] 3) mental[ly] (His inability to keep a job because of his attitude and behavior affect his marriage and self worth." To  read and hear what the students read and heard, click the links and clips above. Pay close attention to the lyrics in Lincoln's performance of "Driva Man" and consider them while watching "Nothing But a Man." The entire movie is available on YouTube.

Powerpoint used in today's class

connections between "AlabamaNorth" and Brazil

Page from Kimberley Phillips' study on black urban Cleveland.

As I prepped for this coming Monday's class, I was struck by Kimberley Phillips' thoughts about an image appearing in her study on African Americans in Cleveland. In her book, which is this Monday's reading, Phillips captures how the image tells a story about the migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North during the first half of the twentieth century. She was especially drawn to the African American man who surfaces as a sort of pedestal in this image, and thus this story (as if the accomplishment of the militant African American working class she describes was entirely dependent on masculine strength). This drawing, which is housed at Cleveland's Western Reserve Historical Society, made me think of the Afro-Brazilian civil rights posters recently critiqued by the students in this class for an April 23 exhibit at the University of Alabama. Like the Afro-Brazilian posters, the image here shores up the gains to be had when an oppressed group unites to create new change. But, unlike the Afro-Brazilian posters, this sketch does not draw attention to the degree to which African American women helped create change in Cleveland (see one example of the way women are included in the Afro Brazilian story in the image to the right of this blog). The students will learn more about the gender issue as it relates to black struggle and other things including the formation of the Future Outlook League, an organization that was active in Cleveland between the years 1935 and 1952. Some of its members were migrants were from Birmingham and Bessemer, Alabama. Hence, Cleveland was known then as "Alabama North." One  aside: as Phillips tells us, little is known about the above sketch. The same is true of the Brazilians posters in question, which were found in the attic of a West Virginia home (of all places). Brazilian scholar Amilcar Pereira will present a lecture on these posters prior to April 23's exhibit. Please stay tuned for more details.

"time isn't ticking down for them"

The Throne's "Paris," a Jay-Z and Kanye West hit, won two Grammys this year.

Kelley's look at black working class resistance.

When I first heard Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Grammy Award-winning hit about the City of Lights, “Ni***s in Paris,” I loved the beat. I googled the lyrics and discovered it contained the usual profanity and misogyny. But I also saw the sentence, “We ain’t even s'posed to be here.” In saying this, West and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, two of the music industry’s most wealthy performers, were saying as African American men from Chicago and Brooklyn, they were not supposed to be in Paris.  Black men like them were not supposed to have had the success they had. The song made me made think deeply about race, but also about cities as a category of analysis and how that might work in a course. But how to get beyond the lyrics? I found some measure of relief when I learned more about the everyday hidden politics in the black working class during my  preliminary exam readings. Tying such a topic in with some aspects of hip hop music,  historian Robin Kelley urges us to develop “a nuanced understanding" of the "social relations among young people, in all of their diversity and complexity.” Well aware of the hazards of anachronistic discussions, the students in this course "in all of their diversity and complexity" indeed manifested a nuanced understanding of the West-Carter tune, a song hardly unknown to them. They even juxtaposed it against - of all things - this week's examination of race relations in antebellum Buffalo and Cincinnati, as told by James Oliver Horton and Hartmut Keil and Nikki Taylor respectively. These scholars  helped the students to discern the importance of being precise when discussing racial conflict  in the United States before the Civil War. For example, the students  learned it is not enough to simply say "whites oppressed blacks." "Which whites, when, where and why?" might be better ways to approach such a discussion. Among other things, they learned the degree to which German immigrants’ relations with African Americans, while far from perfect, seemed more peaceful during the antebellum period than black-Irish relations because the Germans often arrived in the States possessing many skills unlike the Irish who faced job competition with African Americans long  relegated to the lowest paying jobs. But how to tie this situation to  a rap song from the 21st century?  The students tackled that task with an in-class written reflection. Most reflected on how the social position of many antebellum blacks poses tensions with the wealth flaunted by West and Carter in modern-day Paris (and elsewhere). Wrote Kalynn, “We’ve looked at African Americans in [cities] ...oppressed by their social position. Ni***s in Paris” portrays the opposite of that struggle.” Chiming in, Tiffany noted how the African Americans in Taylor’s study believed Cincinnati had “more economic opportunity” and “social equality” than areas in the South that "were deeply entrenched in the institution of slavery…’Ye and Jay’s flow speaks to the potential for progress” beyond such a past. Lauria also discerned the progress African Americans like West and Carter have made since the antebellum era. She was drawn to their song's lyric, “Got a broke clock/Rollies that don’t tick tock,” saying it referred to these young men’s success and how “time isn’t ticking down for them.” However, not entirely convinced the struggle is over, Shariyah focused on the ways in which West and Carter “creatively” demonstrate the idea of resistance in African Americans. This is something she also observed in whites, especially the Irish. Said Shariyah, the Irish “were at one point classified…in the same category as blacks. [They even] lived in the same neighborhoods [until] they realized that the color of your skin meant “currency.” Roosevelt was attentive to the condition of whites, especially Germans in Buffalo including those who married African Americans.  He was reminded of such interracial relations when he recalled the "Paris"  lyric referencing “getting married” (Prince William ain't do it right if you ask me/Cause if I was him I would have married Kate & Ashley). Aaron, another student, had  yet another observation, which shall be shortly posted. You can blame his instructor for the delay. Cray.