Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Vriend-Robinette, Sharon R.

Titel

Marian Anderson as Cold Warrior: African Americans, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Marketing of Democratic Capitalism

Ist Teil von

• American studies (Lawrence), 2019-01, Vol.57 (4), p.23-47

Ort / Verlag

Lawrence: Mid-America American Studies Association

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Literature Online (LION)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Supreme Court's decision that segregated schools were unjust was publicized within the international community. Because this decision came from the Supreme Court, foreign countries perceived that the highest echelon of the U.S. government did not sanction either de jure or de facto racism. [...]after the Brown decision, the global community often believed that while the United States had a difficult history marred by racism and racist ideology, its govern- ment and presumably its citizenry were trying to rectify this tragic, limiting social ill.4 Nonetheless, publicized incidents of racism, of which there were many, damaged the reputation of the United States, and thus the U.S. government deemed it strategic to send in African American artists such as Anderson to be U.S. cultural diplomats.5 The government sponsored Anderson because she matched the entertainment profile that the public affairs officers believed would be most suitable for USIA sponsorship. According to Anne Stavney in "'Mothers of Tomorrow': The New Negro Renaissance and the Politics of Maternal Representation," out of this defense, in the early twentieth century, there was the birth of the True Black Woman, which focused on the role of the black mother as social contributor. [...]the pro-U.S. sentiment came through in that the United States recognized Anderson's greatness and encouraged her to use her gifts even though African Americans traditionally held a less valued status in U.S. society.