MUSICIANS SET THE STAGE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS, SAYS UA HISTORIAN

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - In the decade following World War II, the American music industry branched out from traditional genres to pioneer a new type of harmony - racial harmony. Its intermixing of black and white musicians and sounds not only attracted new audiences, but it set the stage for the political struggle that would become the Civil Rights Movement, according to one University of Arkansas historian.

"Most research has focused on the political aspects of the Civil Rights Movement," said David Chappell, assistant professor of history. "But preceding that dramatic, political climax were cultural developments - less cataclysmic, less dramatic, less explicitly political - that nonetheless had profound political consequences."

Chappell recently produced a chapter for the book "Media, Culture, and the Modern African American Freedom Struggle" edited by Brian Ward and published by the University Press of Florida, in which he explores one such cultural development - the intermingling of black and white performers and the intermixing of their musical styles during the late 1940s and 1950s.

Such racial mixing represented a bold cultural move brought about, not so much by social conscience, but by equal parts inspiration and greed. In the decade following World War II, the popularity of African American musical forms swept black and white audiences alike. Further, it brought black and white musicians together in a way that previously had not been possible - on stage and in the public eye.

Images of black and white musicians performing together, intermingling both professionally and personally, had a dramatic social impact. As the images became more common, they also became more commonplace, more widely tolerated by the American public. Such increasing tolerance began eating away the confidence of those who believed that racial segregation was a necessary and beneficial social policy. According to Chappell, that represented a major step toward defeating segregation and attaining civil rights.

"It wasn’t necessary to change the hearts of every white racist - make them believe that integration was a good thing," Chappell said. "All that mattered was convincing them that it was futile to fight against something that had already occurred."

To research the subject, Chappell pored over microfilm copies of African American newspapers from the time, tracking black performers through the entertainment and gossip columns as well as through the music industry trade press. In the process, he discovered a social paradox. Despite America’s deepening racism, the post-war period provided unprecedented creative freedom to African American musicians - in the style of music they played, the venues they booked, the audiences they attracted and the partnerships they formed.

Beginning in the late 1940s, a broad exchange of musical style opened between black and white performers. Musicians of both races pioneered new sounds while simultaneously pilfering the sounds of others. Artists like Benny Goodman, Johnny Ray, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley appropriated popular African American musical forms such as R&B, "jump blues" and gospel music.

The fact that white audiences wanted to hear the music and that white musicians wanted to copy the style revealed an appreciation of black culture that had never been so openly acknowledged. After all, to steal a thing implies that it has value - a sort of backhanded compliment.

But the exchange went both ways. African American performers such as Chuck Berry and Ray Charles incorporated hillbilly music into their sets. Nat Cole and Sammy Davis Jr., meanwhile, successfully appealed to older, more sedate black and white audiences. And as musical styles became increasingly mixed, so did the bands and the listeners.

In part, this interracial exchange was driven by money, Chappell said. As the close of the Second World War sent the rest of the U.S. economy booming, the music industry found itself languishing under low record sales and an increasingly uninterested audience. They needed a new and exotic form of music to stimulate listeners, and popular African American music represented both those things. New forms like "jump blues" excited huge interest at a time when the popularity of jazz and be-bop was declining among black and white audiences alike.

But as the music industry moved to cash in on these new musical styles, it found itself at odds with mainstream social values. Industry publications began challenging such long-held institutions as the Jim Crow laws - not for the sake of justice but because those laws often impeded black musicians from performing and thereby earning money.

The recording industry may not have succeeded in gaining social freedom for its African American performers, but it made great strides toward attaining creative freedom for both black and white musicians. Inspired by the new sounds of rhythm and blues, soul, reggae, funk and eventually rock and roll, white performers pushed for integration and the opportunity to collaborate with black musicians.

"Artists didn’t want to be constrained by the limits of cultural taboos," Chappell explained. "Sinatra, by his promotion of and appearances with black musicians, conveyed the sense that racial barriers inhibited musical expression."

Performers such as Cole, Sinatra and later Presley - whose fame conferred a certain amount of social sway - found little opposition despite the racist mores of their fans. And once the precedent had been set, it became increasingly common to see black and white performers sharing the same stage. However, racial mixing in the music industry did not always present itself in such an obvious way.

Even as the stylistic exchange between black and white performers resuscitated record sales and captivated new listeners, it created a racial ambiguity that some audiences found troubling. With white musicians copying African American styles and vice-versa, it often became difficult to distinguish between the races. Without pictures, radio performances and records offered few clues to discriminating club owners.

Chappell recounts instances when African American performers like Chuck Berry arrived to play gigs, only to be turned away at the stage door because the manager had assumed they were white. Such encounters underscored the racism that continued to operate in American society but couldn’t erase the fact that black music and black musicians were changing people’s perceptions.

"That’s critical to understanding how the Civil Rights Movement unfolded a decade later," Chappell said. "By the time the political struggle heated up, those who believed most strongly in the importance of white supremacy already saw it as a lost cause."