The World War II era represented the golden age of radio as a broadcast medium in the United States; it also witnessed a rise in African American activism against racial segregation and discrimination; especially as they were practiced by the federal government itself. In Broadcasting Freedom; Barbara Savage links these cultural and political forces by showing how African American activists; public officials; intellectuals; and artists sought to access and use radio to influence a national debate about racial inequality. Drawing on a rich and previously unexamined body of national public affairs programming about African Americans and race relations; Savage uses these radio shows to demonstrate the emergence of a new national discourse about race and ethnicity; racial hatred and injustice; and the contributions of racial and immigrant populations to the development of the United States. These programs; she says; challenged the nation to reconcile its professed egalitarian ideals with its unjust treatment of black Americans and other minorities. This examination of radio's treatment of race as a national political issue also provides important evidence that the campaigns for racial justice in the 1940s served as an essential; and still overlooked; precursor to the civil rights campaigns of the 1950s and 1960s; Savage argues. The next battleground would be in the South--and on television.
#458409 in Books 2017-01-03 2017-01-03Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 1.20 x 6.20l; .0 #File Name: 0807164356328 pages
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