Mobilizing Jazz Communities: the Dynamic Use of Jazz As a Political Resource in the Black Liberation Struggle, 1925-1965

MOBILIZING JAZZ COMMUNITIES: THE DYNAMIC USE OF JAZZ AS A POLITICAL RESOURCE IN THE BLACK LIBERATION STRUGGLE, 1925-1965 BY NICHOLAS L. GAFFNEY DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Orville V. Burton, Co-Chair Associate Professor Sundiata K. Cha-Jua, Co-Chair Professor James R. Barrett Associate Professor Gabriel Solis Abstract “Mobilizing Jazz Communities” presents a historical examination of the role culture has played in developing and sustaining African American socio-political movements during the twentieth century, and has a particular emphasis on the New Negro and Civil Rights Movements. Informed by the perspectives of social movement theorists describing culture’s significance in the development of sustained collective activism, this study demonstrates how culture, through the example of jazz music, was transformed into an invaluable political resource, and was effectively mobilized by African American political activists as they successfully worked to accomplish a variety of goals. The historical examples that this study highlights chronicle the political work that jazz performed as movement participants mobilized the music to help fulfill the objectives of the movements in which they were active. I explain, for instance, how New Negro era political organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the American Communist Party (CPUSA), and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) took advantage of jazz’s rapidly exploding commercial appeal during the early 1920s and staged lucrative benefit concerts featuring jazz music as a way to generate financial resources that could fund their respective political activities. During the 1930s the NAACP sought to capitalize on the elevated social perception of jazz music and transform jazz musicians into celebrated emblems of New Negro advancement. The politically repressive McCarthyist climate of early Cold War America significantly transformed activists’ approaches toward the political mobilization of jazz. As jazz musicians consciously tried to distance themselves from the ii communist and the allegedly communist organizations they once openly supported, activists’ ability to mobilize jazz music narrowed during the early 1950s. At the same time, Cold War America created the opportunity for a new wave of grass-roots activists, which included jazz musicians, to come to the forefront of black political activism and begin to mobilize jazz music in new and imaginative ways. Jazz music became a way to inspire activists’ participation in non-violent, direct action protests. Civil Rights activists mobilized jazz to broaden the scope and scale of the movement by circulating politically outspoken jazz albums within the marketplace for recorded music. Those politically conscious albums spread the reach of the movement by transforming spaces traditionally reserved for entertainment and leisure into forums for discussions of the philosophies and goals driving Civil Rights era black political activism. Jazz and the music’s artistic performance philosophy additionally provided activists with a means of critiquing American democracy, especially during the critical 1963/1964 United States Presidential Election. The evolving political mobilization of jazz music between the mid-1920s and mid-1960s, as evidenced within the sequence of historical examples detailed in this study, offers a new vantage point in the examination of African American political history. Specifically, by examining shifting trends within the political mobilization of jazz this study introduces a new opportunity to explore the themes of “continuity” and “rupture” within the context of the Long Civil Rights Movement thesis. While recognizing the long movement thesis’ ability to seamlessly join different moments within African- American political history through activists’ similar ideological focus, this study reasserts the transformative influences that the Cold War’s emergence had upon the strategic and iii tactical direction of African American collective political activism. An entirely new and unique set of political behaviors appeared during the Cold War era in regard to the political mobilization of jazz, behaviors that allowed activists to successfully maneuver Cold War America’s repressive climate. Finally, “Mobilizing Jazz Communities” illuminates the effects that overt political expression within jazz music had on its audiences, and the ramifications it had within the social discourses defining the music’s meaning. iv Acknowledgements Completing this dissertation and earning a doctorate degree are more that just professional achievements; they both mark the accomplishment of a major life goal. Getting to the figurative finish line, from the kindling of my desire to earn a doctorate to the completion of my program of study, has consumed nearly a decade of my life. The journey to this point has been long, challenging, emotionally volatile and has taken an impressive degree of endurance. While the path here has not always been easy I would, without question, take it again. I would take it again not for the end reward but for the knowledge about the past, the knowledge about myself, and the many mentors, role models and friendships that I gained along the way. One of the many things that I learned as a student at Morehouse College was that accomplishments are not the result of individual actions but are the products of collective effort. I am much indebted to the community of people who have mapped and cleared my path towards this degree and who have pulled and pushed me forward. Whatever successes there are in this project are ours to share. I am grateful to Morehouse College and Professors Delores Stevens and Melvin Rahming for giving me both encouragement and confidence as a scholar. Your classes and extra-curricular commitment to my intellectual development gave me the foundation necessary to pursue graduate study. I am equally indebted to The Ohio State University’s Department of African American and African Studies and its amazing and supportive faculty. The topic of this dissertation was developed in James Upton’s fantastic course on social movement theory. Professor Upton’s insights have shaped my approach to navigating the theory in the pages that follow. I am likewise appreciative of the time and v energy that professors Ted McDaniel and William Nelson dedicated to helping be expand my understanding of jazz studies and African American political history, the two other primary bodies of literature this study engages. I will be forever grateful to the Department of History at the University of Illinois for granting me the privilege of pursuing a PhD. In 2004 I applied to the program with an expressed interest in exploring the relationship between music and African American politics. The topic and I were warmly welcomed into the department and I found a great deal of encouragement from the faculty and staff. I truly enjoyed participating in seminars with Jessica Millward, Diane Koenker, Craig Koslofsky, and Dave Roediger. I am especially appreciative of Megan McLaughlin and Fred Hoxie’s co-taught first year research seminar. They taught me the mechanics of writing a graduate level research article and generously allowed my to use their course to compose a very early draft of the fourth chapter. I would also like to especially thank Clarence Lang for his insights, advice, support, and encouragement. His engaging seminar on post-WWII African American political history was instrumental in shaping my understanding of the liberation struggle and gave me the initial opportunity to work through the historiography on the relationship between jazz and the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Elaine Sampson who administratively managed the graduate program during my tenure. Her assistance, knowledge, supportiveness and commitment to the department’s graduate students have made navigating the administrative side of graduate study stress free. I would also like to thank my fellow colleagues in the department of history, especially Kwame Holmes, Ed Mills, Ashley Howard, and Ian Hartman. Your friendships have been one of the most vi rewarding parts of this experience and I appreciate all of your shared insights and feedback on this project. Maurice Hobson, my colleague and graduate student mentor, deserves a special thanks, not only his support and friendship, but for also helping me to navigate through life as a graduate student. The vast majority of this dissertation was written in Washington, DC. I have been extremely fortunate to find a network of colleagues and friends in Washington to make writing away from Urbana-Champaign a lot less lonely. I am very thankful for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History’s generous financial and resource support in the form a research fellowship. The museum’s collections and archival holdings were invaluable in building my understanding of the relationship between jazz and black politics, and John Hasse, Ruben Jackson, and Ken Kimery’s knowledge of the museum’s holdings made wading through them an easy and rewarding task. I am especially appreciative of Pete Daniel’s fellows’ happy hour and the sense of community it cultivated. I would also like to

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