University Press of Mississippi Rough Tactics: Black Performance in Political Spectacles, 1877-1932

Product Description null Review Rough Tactics is a breath of fresh air. By showing the complex centrality of music to the politics of the post-Civil War South, Mark A. Johnson has contributed greatly to our understanding of the breakthroughs and backlashes of that pivotal period. It will be an essential addition not only to the understanding of Black and white music in US history, but also to the ways that music intersected with larger cultural, political, and social shifts.--Charles L. Hughes, director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center, Rhodes College A truly original and marvelous book! From the opening pages, when we learn that W. C. Handy, the 'father' of the blues, played at rallies for the most strident white racists of the age to an account of the fraught negotiations between Black musicians and Confederate veterans in New Orleans, Johnson reveals the nexus of politics, public spectacle, and African American music in the New South. Beautifully written and elegantly illustrated, Rough Tactics is a powerful reminder of complexity of cultural politics during the simultaneous renaissance of Black musical creativity and the zenith of white supremacy.--W. Fitzhugh Brundage, William B. Umstead Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Johnson has bridged a gap between two seemingly disparate fields of New South history: popular politics and popular music. This is an exciting intersection that helps advance the cause of regarding American musical culture as a rich storehouse of evidence for understanding myriad social phenomena, including political behavior. It's also a testament to the vibrancy of political consciousness and activity among people who were supposedly locked out of the electoral process; Johnson invites us to look with fresh eyes at African Americans' political roles in the Jim Crow South.--Rob Lawson, professor of history, Dean College About the Author Mark A. Johnson is lecturer in the Department of History at University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. He is author of An Irresistible History of Alabama Barbecue: From Wood Pit to White Sauce, and his work has appeared in such publications as Southern Cultures and Louisiana History.