Rock and Roll, Desegregation Movements, and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era
An "Integrated Effort"
Beth Fowler
Rock and Roll, Desegregation Movements, and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era
An "Integrated Effort"
Beth Fowler
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Description
This book uses archival research and analyses of musical performances and original oral histories to explore the uncertain legacies of the civil rights movement and early rock and roll music in a supposedly post-civil rights era.
Beth Fowler displays a rare and admirable ability to navigate the histories of both the civil rights and rock and roll movements. She creates in the process an excellent analysis of how the two interacted. Well-researched and documented, her story concludes with intriguing post-civil rights era oral perspectives. An excellent contribution to existing literature on both movements.
Beth Fowler offers an engaging account of how popular music has provided a crucial venue for debates over racial identities and racial inclusion in America since World War II. Based on an impressive mix of archival research and some riveting ‘ear-witness’ testimony from Black and white fans, the book reveals how changing racial attitudes and social practices have been reflected in, expressed through, and enabled by developments in the world of popular music.
From Louis Jordan to Lil Nas X, via rock and roll, soul, and the British invasion, Fowler deftly unpicks the contradictory reactionary and progressive dynamics of American popular music culture and in the process tells us much about the struggle for racial justice in modern America.
The power of this book is not only in its detailed timeline of rock and roll, desegregation, and civil rights efforts from the 1950s and 1960s, but also the reflection and insights provided by the final chapter on the influences, historicisms, and societal constructs surrounding race and racism in today’s America. Readers will find interesting documentation and scrutiny around this historical time period in American history and its effect on daily messaging, commercialization, and crime in the modern-day U.S.
Beth Fowler is associate professor of teaching in the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University.