Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture, and Race in the Age of Jim Crow

258 Pages·2018·2.93 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Aaron Snyder

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Making Black History
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Making
Black History
THE COLOR LINE,
CULTURE, AND RACE
IN THE AGE OF JIM CROW
Jeffrey Aaron Snyder
The University of Georgia Press
Athens
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A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication
This publication is made possible in part through a grant
from the Hodge Foundation in memory of its founder,
Sarah Mills Hodge, who devoted her life to the relief and
education of African Americans in Savannah, Georgia.
© 2018 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved
Set in 9.5/13.5 Miller Text by Kaelin Chappell Broaddus
Most University of Georgia Press titles are
available from popular e-book vendors.
Printed digitally
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Snyder, Jeffrey Aaron, author.
Title: Making black history : the color line, culture, and race in
the age of Jim Crow / Jeffrey Aaron Snyder.
Description: Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia Press,
[2018] | “A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication.” |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2017024960| isbn 9780820351834
(hardback : alk. paper) | isbn 9780820352831
(pbk. : alk. paper) | isbn 9780820351841 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: African Americans—Segregation—History. |
Woodson, Carter Godwin, 1875–1950. |
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, inc.
Classification: lcc e185.61 .s658 2018 |
ddc 323.1196/073—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017024960
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For my father,
Melvin Leroy Snyder
(1946–1990)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on Racial Terminology xi
Introduction 1
PART 1: THE COLOR LINE, 1915–1926
chapter one “The Cause” 19
chapter two “Reverse the Stage” 46
PART 2: CULTURE, 1922–1941
chapter three Heritage:
Anthologies and the Negro Renaissance 73
chapter four The New Negro Goes to School 94
PART 3: RACE, 1942–1956
chapter five “A Revision of the Concept
of Race and of Racism” 123
chapter six “Look to the Roots”:
History Lessons for the Present 147
Epilogue 165
Notes 171
Bibliography 209
Index 233
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The origins of this book reach back to the spring of 2005, when Julie Reuben
introduced me to the wonders of the history of American education. I was a
graduate student enrolled in an educational psychology program. Julie’s sem-
inar “The Elusive Quest for Equality: Historical Perspectives on American
Education” turned me into a budding historian. Soon after, Ellen Condliffe
Lagemann convinced me that I could take my interest in educational history
and turn it into a career. My experience as her research and then teaching as-
sistant was a tour-de-force introduction to the rigorous, invigorating work of
top-notch scholarship and teaching.
Ellen, who has been both an outstanding mentor and dear friend, intro-
duced me to Jonathan Zimmerman. Jon would become my thesis adviser,
and without his generous and unflagging support, this book would not have
been possible. (Like many history monographs, this book started out as a dis-
sertation.) Over the past decade, through graduate school and beyond, Jon
has been helpful, kind, and upstanding—in short, a real mensch. I have ben-
efited enormously from his incisive feedback on my work. I consider myself
lucky to have been one of his students.
At New York University, professors James Fraser, Joan Malczewski, Mi-
chele Mitchell, Jeffrey Sammons, Nikhil Singh, and Harold Wechsler pro-
vided valuable guidance on my research project. I am also indebted to my
peers in the NYU History of Education Writing Group—Zoë Burkholder,
Diana D’Amico, Erich Dietrich, Ansley Erickson, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela,
John Press, and Afrah Richmond—all of whom offered constructive criticism
on my dissertation chapters.
I received vital financial support to fund archival research from Emory
University’s Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library (MARBL) and
the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. A
Faculty Development Endowment grant from Carleton College afforded me
the time to revise and prepare my manuscript for publication. I was fortu-
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