The following are short descriptions of the groups and organizations which have contributed to the shaping of African American history. These encyclopedia entries serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources. For additional information please consult the print or website sources cited in the entry.
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was an interracial, all-female jazz band active for 12 years, from 1937 to 1949. The band began at the Piney Woods Country Life School, established in 1909 to train black children in central Mississippi. The original members of the Sweethearts … Read MoreInternational Sweethearts of Rhythm Jazz Band (1937-1949)
The Kansas City (Missouri) Monarchs were the most prominent baseball team to play in the Negro Leagues. Formed in 1920, they were also the longest-running team in the Leagues, disbanding in 1965. Many famous players were on the Monarchs roster, including the hall of fame … Read MoreThe Kansas City Monarchs (1920-1965)
The Black Arts Movement was the name given to a group of politically motivated black poets, artists, dramatists, musicians, and writers who emerged in the wake of the Black Power Movement. The poet Imamu Amiri Baraka is widely considered to be the father of the … Read MoreThe Black Arts Movement (1965-1975)
COINTELPRO was a counterintelligence program run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from roughly 1956 to 1976. It combined the efforts of the Bureau and local police forces to track, harass, discredit, infiltrate, destroy, and destabilize dissident groups in the United States. COINTELPRO targeted … Read MoreCOINTELPRO [Counterintelligence Program] (1956-1976)
Charles W. Eagles, Winner of the 2010 Lillian Smith Book Award “Image Ownership: Public Domain” The Southern Regional Council (SRC) was formed in 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia. It evolved out of the earlier Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), which was established in 1919 to lessen … Read MoreThe Southern Regional Council (1944- )
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers were a musical group primarily active between 1962 and 1966, singing “freedom songs” in order to fundraise and organize on behalf of SNCC. The Freedom Singers emerged out of the Albany Movement of 1962. After witnessing the Albany Movement’s mass … Read MoreSNCC Freedom Singers (1962-1966)
Larry Steele’s touring production review, Smart Affairs, was the largest black entertainment touring group in the United States from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Steele’s review, headquartered in Atlantic City, New Jersey, featured up to 40 entertainment acts. The revue performed in major venues … Read MoreLarry Steele’s Smart Affairs (1946-1971)
Without the kind of night life entertainment that was introduced to Idlewild by Arthur Edward Braggs during the 1950s and 1960s at his Paradise Club in Idlewild, Michigan, the small community 250 miles northwest of Detroit would not have been recognized as the most famous … Read MoreThe Arthur Braggs Idlewild Revue (1954-1964)
The Lafayette Players were a dramatic stock company composed entirely of African American actors. Originally from Harlem, this first of its kind group introduced audiences to the idea that black actors were capable of taking on a variety of roles and displaying a much greater … Read MoreThe Lafayette Players (1915-1932)
During the late 1980s the Northwest Black Pioneers (NWBP) was conceived by participants of the Roots Festival, an annual African American cultural gathering in Seattle. In the summer of 1987, a steering committee formed in that same city to discuss strategies to encourage The Bon … Read MoreNorthwest Black Pioneers (1987- )
