Urbanization and industry transformed Midwest from agricultural to urbanized economies with trading hubs in cities like Chicago. This transformation from rural to urban sparked the Great Migration, a mass movement of African Americans from the South to industrialized cities in the North. This influx of African American communities challenged the existing racial constructs in the metropolis and gave rise to new socially constructed identities and means of self-expression. Davarian L. Baldwin examines these identities and expressions in Chicago’s New Negroes: Modernity, The Great Migration, & Black Urban Life published by The University of North Carolina Press. Baldwin argues Chicago’s “New Negroes” invested their intellectual and economic
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“Whether black expressive tradition, barnstorming showmanship, or recreational racism, black athletic style consistently incorporate the larger social context into the filed of place that included innovations within the black metropolis and exclusion of the larger world.” He demonstrates his innovation and cultural isolation through the formation of the National Negro League of baseball, basketball teams like the Harlem and Original Chicago Globetrotters, and Jack Johnson’s boxing career. Baldwin analyzes masculinity and the body in “New Negro culture. Through his analysis of athletes and their public personas, Baldwin concludes sports figures “offered New Negro expression of black ownership over body, behavior, and community”. Their success contradicted the contemporary social Darwin hierarchy of race and development and demonstrates power and independence of African Americans. Through athletics, the “New Negroes” defined their place in society and developed a narrative of equality and humanity that was contradicted by contemporary white …show more content…
Baldwin goes beyond describing the role of gender in the cultural structures like beauty, athletics, and music; he confronts and deconstructs the stereotypical views of African American sexuality though the archival sources. He shows the direct parallels between the dehumanization practices of enslavement and the gendered advertisement and newspaper publication of the early 20th century. Baldwin shows how the “New Negros” defied these stereotypes and created identities that embraced their femininity and masculinity. This also opened a platform for increased sexual freedom in the clubs and theaters of the Stroll, which provided places for sexual expression including an outlet for the LGBT+ community. Baldwin’s examinations of gender and sexual identity in Chicago adds to the conversation surrounding gender and sexuality in history opening doors for further scholarship.
Davarian L. Baldwin’s Chicago’s New Negroes: Modernity, The Great Migration, & Black Urban Life examines the multifaceted identity creation of the African American community through popular media. Thought his episodic analysis, Baldwin’s work gives insight into the gender, economic, and social culture of the era and asserts that Chicago was as significant in 20th Century African American identity formation
“Whether black expressive tradition, barnstorming showmanship, or recreational racism, black athletic style consistently incorporate the larger social context into the filed of place that included innovations within the black metropolis and exclusion of the larger world.” He demonstrates his innovation and cultural isolation through the formation of the National Negro League of baseball, basketball teams like the Harlem and Original Chicago Globetrotters, and Jack Johnson’s boxing career. Baldwin analyzes masculinity and the body in “New Negro culture. Through his analysis of athletes and their public personas, Baldwin concludes sports figures “offered New Negro expression of black ownership over body, behavior, and community”. Their success contradicted the contemporary social Darwin hierarchy of race and development and demonstrates power and independence of African Americans. Through athletics, the “New Negroes” defined their place in society and developed a narrative of equality and humanity that was contradicted by contemporary white …show more content…
Baldwin goes beyond describing the role of gender in the cultural structures like beauty, athletics, and music; he confronts and deconstructs the stereotypical views of African American sexuality though the archival sources. He shows the direct parallels between the dehumanization practices of enslavement and the gendered advertisement and newspaper publication of the early 20th century. Baldwin shows how the “New Negros” defied these stereotypes and created identities that embraced their femininity and masculinity. This also opened a platform for increased sexual freedom in the clubs and theaters of the Stroll, which provided places for sexual expression including an outlet for the LGBT+ community. Baldwin’s examinations of gender and sexual identity in Chicago adds to the conversation surrounding gender and sexuality in history opening doors for further scholarship.
Davarian L. Baldwin’s Chicago’s New Negroes: Modernity, The Great Migration, & Black Urban Life examines the multifaceted identity creation of the African American community through popular media. Thought his episodic analysis, Baldwin’s work gives insight into the gender, economic, and social culture of the era and asserts that Chicago was as significant in 20th Century African American identity formation