1964, A Year in African American Performance History
Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies Series

This book examines the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of a single year, 1964.

The book analyses specific events that occurred in 1964 as benchmarks of the Civil Right Movement, making the case that 1964 was a watershed year. Each chapter considers individually politics, rhetoric, sports, dramatic literature, film, art, and music, breaking down the events and illustrating their importance to the social and political life in the United States in 1964. This study emphasizes 1964 as a nodal point in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, arguing that it was within this single year that the tide against racism and injustice turned markedly.

This book will be of great interest to the scholars and students of civil rights, theatre and performance, art history, and drama literature.

Acknowledgement

List of Illustrations

1. Introduction: Why 1964

2. Words of Fire: Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King, and the Rhetoric of African American Performance

3. Performing Manhood: Muhammad Ali and the 1964 Heavyweight Championship

4. Expectation, Melancholy, and Loss: Intellectualism in Dutchman & Funnyhouse of a Negro

5. Neorealism and Love: Nothing but a Man, One Potato, Two Potato, and the Working Class

6. Romare Bearden, the 1964 Photomontage Projections, and the Art of “Making Strange”

7. Dancing in the Streets: Feminism, Jazz, and Motown in African American Music

8. Conclusion: Change is a Long Time Comin’

Index

David Krasner has taught acting, directing, and theatre history for 40 years. He is currently Chair of Theatre at Five Towns College in Long Island, New York, where he oversees the BFA Program in Musical Theatre, Acting, and Design/Tech.