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Killing “Dixie”: The NAACP, the Black Press, and the Crusade to End Black Caricature Culture in Hollywood, 1950–1969

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Abstract

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Hollywood created its depictions of African Americans. Many of the images, which first appeared in Hollywood films and then on television, were derived from “Dixie,” a term used to reference the antebellum American South, during a time when African Americans were enslaved. This article examines the account, given by the African American Press, of the ongoing dispute over black imagery between Hollywood and the NAACP. The heightened voice of the African American Press ultimately helped to push for the infusing of black presence in popular culture with the goal of depicting the possibilities of an integrated American society. The NAACP and the African American Press emerged as the leading voices in challenging Hollywood’s black caricature culture, after recognizing that harmful black representation was injurious to the burgeoning civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century.

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Notes

  1. Hans Nathan and Daniel Decatur Emmett, “Dixie,” The Musical Quarterly 35, no. 1 (1949), 61.

  2. Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, Fourth Edition (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2001), 27.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid., 4.

  6. Ibid., 9.

  7. Micki McElya, Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth-Century America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), 4.

  8. Ibid., 126.

  9. “About Uncle Tom’s Cabin 2015,” Harriet Beecher Stow Center, 2015, https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/utc/ (accessed February 1, 2015).

  10. Bogle 2001, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, 12.

  11. Stephanie Laufs, 2013, Fighting a Movie with Lightning: “The Birth of a Nation” and the Black Community (Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing, 2013), 56.

  12. Laufs 2013, Fighting a Movie with Lightning, 57.

  13. “Louise Beavers takes over ‘Beulah’ TV role 1952,” Jet, March 27, 1952.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Edward T. Clayton, “The Tragedy of Amos ‘N’ Andy,” Ebony, October 1961.

  16. Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality (New York: Hill & Wang Publishers, 2008), 55.

  17. White 1942, Letter to Dorothy Parker, February 2, 1942, NAACP Papers, Group II, Series A, General Office File.

  18. Woodley 2014, Art for Equality: The NAACP’s Cultural Campaign for Civil Rights (Lexington: University of Kentucky, 2014), 5.

  19. Ibid., 6.

  20. Hill 1944, “Film Studios Pledge Dignified Negro Roles,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 15, 1944.

  21. Starkey 2015, In Defense of Uncle Tom: Why Blacks Must Police Racial Loyalty (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 139.

  22. Peters 1979, “Clarence Muse, 89, Actor 50 years founded Lafayette Players, made 219 Films,” Afro-American, October 13, 1979.

  23. Williams 2006, “The Crisis Cover Girl: Lena Horne, the NAACP, and Representations of African American Femininity, 1941–1945,” American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography 16, no. 2 (2006), 202.

  24. Dyja 2008, Walter White: The Dilemma of Black Identity in America (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publishing, 2008), 15.

  25. Janken 2006, Walter White: Mr. NAACP (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2006), 266.

  26. “NAACP Plans New Hollywood Branch Bureau 1966,” Afro-American, July 26, 1966.

  27. Nunn 1942, Letter to Mark Sandrich, August 26, 1942, NAACP Papers, Group II, Series A, General Office File.

  28. “NAACP Plans New Hollywood Branch Bureau 1966,” Afro-American.

  29. Ibid.

  30. “Drive on ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy redoubled 1951,” The Afro American, September 22, 1951.

  31. Ibid.

  32. “Why the Amos ‘n’ Andy 1951TV Show Should Be Taken Off the Air, “NAACP Bulletin 2015, August 15, 1951. http://www.yodaslair.com/dumboozle/tmoore/naacp.html, (accessed January 4, 2015).

  33. Clayton 1961, “Amos ‘n’ Andy.”

  34. Ibid.

  35. “NAACP Bulletin 2015,” Amos ‘n’ Andy Old Time Radio Show http://www.amosandandy.org/2012/09/naacp-bulletin.html (accessed February 1, 2015).

  36. Ibid.

  37. “Speed-up move to help Negroes in movies 1961, TV,” Jet, August 10, 1961.

  38. Ibid.

  39. “Film studios pledge job increase for Negroes 1963,” Jet October 31, 1963.

  40. Ibid.

  41. “NAACP renews campaign for Hollywood jobs 1965,” Afro-American, May 29, 1965.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Ibid.

  44. “Picture brightens for Negro in Hollywood 1964, TV,” Jet, July 2, 1964.

  45. Cripps 1993, Making Movies Black: The Hollywood Message Movie from World War II to the Civil Rights Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 251.

  46. Goodykoontz 2014, “Oscar Win Proved Sidney Poitier Was Second to None,” USA Today, February 25, 2014.

  47. Perry 2012, “Sidney Poitier and The Civil Rights Movement in Hollywood,” The Great Katharine Hepburn Blog Spot, August 4, 2012.

  48. Goudsouzian 2004, Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 217.

  49. Sanders 1968, “Poitier: The Man Behind The Superstar,” Ebony, April 1968.

  50. Robinson 1969, “TV Discovers Black Men,” Ebony, February 1969.

  51. “Culp-Cosby 1966 ‘I Spy’ TV Series Renewed,” Afro-American, August 27, 1966.

  52. Bodroghkozy 2012, Interview by Henry Jenkins, September 26, 2012, The Official Blog of Henry Jenkins, http://henryjenkins.org/2012/09/television-and-the-civil-rights-movement-an-interview-with-aniko-bodroghkozy-part-two.html (accessed February 7, 2015).

  53. “Star Trek 2015,” Star Trek Tagline (1966–1969), IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title /tt0060 028/?ref_=ttqt_qt_tt (accessed March 1, 2015).

  54. Motes 2012, “Black History Month: Top 10 Black Characters in Sci-Fi,” Science Fiction, 2012, http://sciencefiction.com/2012/02/20/black-history-month-top-10-black-characters-in-sci-fi/ (accessed February 2, 2015).

  55. “‘Star Trek’ Star Nichols Inspired By M.L. King, Jr.,” Jet, December 8, 1986.

  56. Ibid.

  57. “Julia: another step in TV’s evolution 1968,” Ebony, November 1968.

  58. Ibid.

  59. Ibid.

  60. “Julia: another step in TV’s evolution 1968,” Ebony.

  61. “Lloyd Haynes and Denise Nicholas Star in Room 222 2015,” Black Classic Movies, http://www.blackclassicmovies.com/Movie_Database/tv_shows/room_222.html (accessed February 15, 2015).

  62. “Denise Nicholas makes good as star in TV’s Room 222 1969,” Jet, November 27, 1969.

  63. Robinson 1969, “TV Discovers Black Men,” Ebony.

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  1. Department of Humanities, The History Program, Coppin State University, Grace Hill Jacobs Building, Room 416, 2500 W. North Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21216, USA

    Teisha Dupree-Wilson

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Correspondence to Teisha Dupree-Wilson.

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Dupree-Wilson, T. Killing “Dixie”: The NAACP, the Black Press, and the Crusade to End Black Caricature Culture in Hollywood, 1950–1969. J Afr Am St 24, 596–610 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-020-09502-6

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