{"id":476,"date":"2017-02-05T18:04:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T18:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/?p=476"},"modified":"2017-02-05T18:04:08","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T18:04:08","slug":"precis-x2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/2017\/02\/05\/precis-x2\/","title":{"rendered":"Precis x2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Envisioning Freedom: Introduction<\/em><\/p>\n

In this introduction to\u00a0Envisioning Freedom,\u00a0<\/em>Caddoo brings together a series of seemingly unrelated, but deeply connected events in order to illustrate how multiple events danced across the lives of Blanche Jarvis and her daughter Everline. \u00a0These events, beginning in 1896 and moving into the twentieth century, highlight the deep differences between the general movements of the nation, both across the country and in Mississippi locally, and the more private choices of the Jarvis’, their pains and their triumphs. \u00a0But also, that in the end, through their connections to the African American community and “efforts by African Americans to better their lives through collective racial progress” (4), Everline, now Evelyn, became central to the promotion of “racial uplift” (5) through the race film industry.<\/p>\n

In this book, Caddoo intends to focus on three main aspects of life in the late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century:\u00a0“the migration of America’s black population from rural locations to urban spaces, the emergence of mass leisure in the United States, and the growth of industrial capitalism” (5). \u00a0These aspects all work together to form a new sort of identity in this time period. \u00a0An urban populace, free, but segregated, and devoted to finding their own voices outside of the meager jobs they were allowed. \u00a0Furthermore, Caddoo does not want to limit this transition to the more often studied period of 1910-1930, but states that an earlier migration, from 1890, also played a significant role in the development of African American recreation. \u00a0But film was not only a place for leisure, but was deeply connected to, and even propelled, racial development into the mid-twentieth century.<\/p>\n

Caddoo does a good job of building this introduction from a series of primary source newspapers and then filling out the argument through secondary research and analysis. \u00a0What I find interesting, however, is her choice of Blanche and Evelyn Jarvis as central figures, without personal sources from their lives (i.e. diaries). \u00a0While these may not exist, and that is actually quite likely, it still struck me. \u00a0In any case, this piece seems well researched and outlines the forthcoming book with great detail and organization–commenting on history, but also the shortcomings of the existing secondary literature, as she sees it. \u00a0Not a simple description of facts, but a well-thought-out analogy of upheaval as defined both by the great earthquake and the social pressures of the time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Envisioning Freedom: The Fight Over Fight Pictures<\/em><\/p>\n

Jack Johnson became the first black Heavyweight Campion in boxing in 1910, upsetting the status quo by knocking out his opponent in the 15th round. \u00a0Immediately a sensation, both for his achievement and his personality, Johnson’s actions had bloody impact around the country. \u00a0Caddoo introduces this piece of history as a way to narrate the continuation of African Americans to break through the glass ceiling, but then to be folded into the existing racialized institutions in order to protect white power and racial supremacy. Film, re-categorized as commercialism instead of art, was legislated and restricted on a national and state level.<\/p>\n

Caddoo brings together several aspects of this example in order to show a world-wide, and certainly country-wide, reaction to the increasing interest in film and boxing during the 1910s. \u00a0Not only was a violent sport now a national interest, black men could dominate it. \u00a0This was dealt with as a moral issue, in newspapers and in the legislators’ assemblies. \u00a0Caddoo uses newspapers and legislative materials to powerful effect, showing the various, but largely troubled, responses to Johnson’s victory and the attempt as film rights recollection by the African American populace. \u00a0Boxing was unsettling enough to some. \u00a0A black man knocking out a white man enough for others. \u00a0A black boxing champion and a white actress enough for still more. \u00a0But the combination during the Progressive Era, when morality was up for national legislation, created a powder keg that Caddoo has illustrated in clear, but not overwhelming, detail.<\/p>\n

I think one of her most important statements, however, is: ” Black Americans would never agree on the meaning of Johnson’s image. Yet, paradoxically, in the aftermath of these controversies, a commonality was slowly emerging in the black public’s conception of the cinema. They had begun to link the meaning of blackness itself to the screen. This new way of thinking would continue to evolve, developing in dialogue with desperate efforts to establish white order over this uncharted landscape of racial meaning” (129). \u00a0Too often, depictions of certain groups come with a unitary vision. \u00a0People think similarly in history because only one voice or two voices in agreement survive. \u00a0Caddoo is careful not to compress the experience of black lives, but while crafting her narrative to show that “black” was an important identifier for a group, but not the only one. \u00a0Economic status, region, and even parenting style gave great variance to the group, which she teases out throughout this chapter. \u00a0Another compelling chapter on “fair representation and visual self- determination” (138).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Envisioning Freedom: Introduction In this introduction to\u00a0Envisioning Freedom,\u00a0Caddoo brings together a series of seemingly unrelated, but deeply connected events in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}