Through the development of entertainment culture, African American actors, athletes and musicians increasingly were publicly recognized. In the mainstream press, Black celebrities were often faced with the same snubs and prejudices as ordinary Black citizens, who suffered persecution under Jim Crow legislation that denied African Americans their basic civil rights. In the Black press, however, these celebrities received great attention, and as visible and popular members of the Black community they played a decisive yet often unwitting and tenuous role in representing African American identity collectively. Charles M. Payne and Adam Green use the term "critical citizenship" to describe the way in which African Americans during this period conceptualized their identities as American citizens. Though Payne and Green discussed critical citizenship in terms of activism, this project broadens the term to include considerations of community-building and race pride as well. Conceptualizing critical citizenship for the black community was an important part of the overall mission of the Black press. Black press entertainment journalism, which used celebrities as both "constellations" and companions in the fight for civil rights, emerged against the battle against Jim Crowism and came to embody the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance. The purpose of this project is to trace how celebrity reporting in the black press developed over time, distinct from yet contemporaneous with the development of yellow journalism in the mainstream press, and to understand how black journalists and editors conceptualized the idea of "celebrity" as it related to their overall construction of critical citizenship. The evidence in support of this project was collected from an inductive reading of the entertainment-related content of the following black press newspapers over the time period 1895-1935: Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, New York Age, New York Amsterdam News, Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, Cleveland Gazette, Kansas City/Topeka Plaindealer, Savannah Tribune, and Atlanta Daily World. In addition, the entertainment content of Black press magazines The Crisis, The Messenger, The Opportunity and The Negro World was included. / Media & Communication
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/3966 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Teresa, Carrie |
| Contributors | Kitch, Carolyn L., Mendelson, Andrew L. (Andrew Lawrence), 1967-, Jacobson, Susan, Washington, Linn |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 333 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/3948, Theses and Dissertations |
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