Rock and Roll, Desegregation Movements, and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Beth Fowler

doi:10.5771/9781793613868

Summary

The rock and roll music that dominated airwaves across the country during the 1950s and early 1960s is often described as a triumph for integration. Black and white musicians alike, including Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis, scored hit records with young audiences from different racial groups, blending sonic traditions from R&B, country, and pop. This so-called "desegregation of the charts" seemed particularly resonant since major civil rights groups were waging major battles for desegregation in public places at the same time. And yet the centering of integration, as well as the supposition that democratic rights largely based in consumerism should be available to everyone regardless of race, has resulted in very distinct responses to both music and movement among Black and white listeners who grew up during this period. Rock and Roll, Desegregation Movements, and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era: An "Integrated Effort" traces these distinctions using archival research, musical performances, and original oral histories to determine the uncertain legacies of the civil rights movement and early rock and roll music in a supposedly post-civil rights era.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-1385-1
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-1386-8
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 364
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
1. Notes No access
1. Early Desegregation Movements, 1830s–1940s No access
2. A New Postwar Movement, 1945–1953 No access
3. Consumerism and the Rise of the Black Middle Classes No access
4. Corporate vs. Independent: Racial Distinctions within a Growing Music Industry No access
5. Crossing Over on the Charts, 1951–1953 No access
6. Notes No access
1. Respectability Politics from the Progressive Era to World War II No access
2. Respectability Politics and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955–1956 No access
3. Crossover Records and the Origins of Rock and Roll, 1954–1956 No access
4. R&B Becomes “Respectable” No access
5. Notes No access
1. Rock and Roll and Teenage Consumerism No access
2. School Desegregation Movements and the Brown Ruling No access
3. On the Front Lines in Desegregated Classrooms No access
4. Rock and Roll Goes to High School No access
5. Rock and Roll and Race on Television No access
6. Desegregation on the Hot 100 Chart No access
7. Notes No access
1. Neighborhood Segregation in the Early 1960s No access
2. Desegregated Charts, Motown, and the British Invasion, 1961–1964 No access
3. SNCC and Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigns, 1960–1964 No access
4. Tensions over Desegregation, Voting Rights, and Nonviolence, 1964–1965 No access
5. Desegregation of Music and Space during Rock and Roll Performances No access
6. Notes No access
1. Black Power, Post-Civil Rights Politics, and Soul No access
2. BLM, the Trump Administration, and Shifting Racial Politics, 2012–2020 No access
3. Notes No access
1. I. Archival Collections No access
2. II. Oral History Interviews No access
3. III. Court Rulings and Policies No access
4. IV. Films and Film Clips No access
5. V. Recordings No access
6. VI. Digital Projects and Other Online Sources No access
7. VII. Public History Sources No access
8. VIII. Newspaper and Magazine Articles No access
9. IX. Books, Journal Articles, and Dissertations No access
Index No access Pages 353 - 362
About the Author No access Pages 363 - 364