Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940-1955

by Adam Green

In Selling the Race , Adam Green tells the story of how black Chicagoans were at the center of a national movement in the 1940s and ’50s, a time when African Americans across the country first started to see themselves as part of a single culture. Along the way, he offers fascinating reinterpretations of such events as the 1940 American Negro Exposition, the rise of black music and the culture industry that emerged around it, the development of the Associated Negro Press and the founding of Johnson Publishing, and the outcry over the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. By presenting African Americans as agents, rather than casualties, of modernity, Green ultimately reenvisions urban existence in a way that will resonate with anyone interested in race, culture, or the life of cities.

Genres: History, African American, American History, Nonfiction, Historical, Race

322 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Anna Flood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting historical overview of Bronzeville, the Black Chicago neighborhood that many people don’t hear much about.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never pass up a chance to dig into the more tragic and proletarian side of Chicago history and this book satisfied my desire for local color through a pop-aware history of the relation between black culture in Chicago and the idea of a national black culture during the 1940s and 50s. Most of the locations discussed in detail in Green's book are in the Bronzeville neighborhood where I work, which gave the book extra appeal for me. An interesting, if a bit over-long, search for the roots of the civil rights movement and a supposed singular african-american culture.

[Timothy Tyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chapter on the lynching of Emmett Till and Chicago's crucial relationship to that tragedy is brilliant, sensitive, eloquent and profound. It adds an entirely new dimension to what once seemed to be a familiar story and now, the more I know about it, seems virtually untold. A fine contribution and a good example of the historian's craft, too.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

a somewhat difficult read for undergraduates, who were most engaged by the chapters on Ebony and Emmitt Till.

[Aleighdavis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully put-together book.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. Also, the layout is amazing. Nice work U of C press.