THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN CULTURE

by Margaret Just Butcher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 1956

This ties in with immediate interest in the Negro factor in American life, and despite its characteristic as an extremely dry study of Negro culture, it may benefit from the impetus of current concern. The material was originally gathered by Alain Locke of Howard University under a Rockefeller grant in 1951. Locke's death in '53 resulted in the final organization being done by Margaret Butcher of the same university. Most of the topics,- spirituals, music, jazz and the blues, dance, drama, and to a lesser extent Negro poets and novelists, have all been presented more brilliantly and more excitingly by white writers. That this is thorough and inclusive as a compendium of the part played by our colored population in the arts is not to be denied. The one point that is sometimes overlooked and is here stressed is the two way process in the interaction of Negro art on white culture and the reverse. Intense seriousness makes for a graceless style. The chief value of the material will be in the field of reference.

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION