Newburyport Public Library

The other blacklist, the African American literary and cultural left of the 1950s, Mary Helen Washington

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [313]-327) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

The other blacklist

bibliography

858610476

Mary Helen Washington

the African American literary and cultural left of the 1950s

Mary Helen Washington recovers the vital role of 1950s leftist politics in the works and lives of modern African American writers and artists. While most histories of McCarthyism focus on the devastation of the blacklist and the intersection of leftist politics and American culture, few include the activities of radical writers and artists from the Black Popular Front. Washington's work incorporates these black intellectuals back into our understanding of mid-twentieth-century African American literature and art and expands our understanding of the creative ferment energizing all of America during this period

Lloyd L. Brown: black fire in the cold war -- Charles White: "Robeson with a brush and pencil" -- Alice Childress: black, red, and feminist -- When Gwendolyn Brooks wore red -- Frank London Brown: the end of the black cultural front and the turn toward civil rights -- 1959: Spycraft and the black literary left -- Epilogue: the example of Julian Mayfield