The Great Black Way: L.A. in the 1940s and the Lost African-American Renaissance [Hardcover]

R J Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2006

This book, like a major archaeological dig, unearths a littleknown, now vanished civilization and changes how we understand history. In the 1940s, when FDR opened up the defense industry to black workers, it inspired a massive wave of black migration to a small area of Los Angeles along Central Avenue—and cultural ferment in the arts, culture, and politics. In a neighborhood densely packed with black musicians, independent labels and after hours spots, rhythm and blues was spawned. Chester Himes fathered the black detective novel and a noir sensibility. Black comics took off minstrel blackface for the first time and addressed audiences directly with socially-tinged humor. And, Smith suggests, the civil rights movement helped get its start, as the strategy of building mass movements and giving power to ghetto dwellers gained favor in opposition to the top-down strategies of the NAACP and the Urban League. Harlem's Renaissance had been driven by the intellectual elite. In L.A., a new sense of black identity arose from street level. But when the moment was over, many hopes and lives were swept away with it. Based on original research and interviews, told through an engaging narrative, this book shows convincingly that much that we take for granted today, from hip hop and slang to modern-day street fashion, all flowed from the 1940s scene along the Great Black Way.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With stunning descriptive language (and the occasional bit of cheese), Smith paints a portrait of 1940's Central Avenue in all its glory, serving as home-away-from-home for familiar figures such as Ellington, Dandridge and DuBois, as well as more obscure L.A. figures like sidewalk fortune-teller and backroom bookie Julius Juarez, L.A.'s janitorial services chief L.G. Robinson and singer Ivie Anderson. The first chapter introduces John Kinoch, a Harlem transplant and editor of the newspaper California Eagle. Kinoch and the Eagle served as a magnet for other Harlem transplants such as DuBois and Hurston, who came looking for opportunities in Hollywood; the paper also served as a medium for those speaking out against Jim Crow. Unfortunately, Smith spends too much time rehashing the big picture-national events such as A.Philip Randolph's march on Washington connects to L.A. only through the editorial support of the Eagle-which tend to detract from Smith's search for a "lost Negro Reaissance" in the L.A. scene. Though rich in detail, this story makes a more convincing justification for Smith's own fascination with black West Coast culture and history than a meaningful comparison to Harlem's groundbreaking black arts scene.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

While the Harlem Renaissance was marked by sophistication, led by the Talented Tenth identified by W. E. B. DuBois, an emerging cultural awakening was happening in the black community of Los Angeles. This one bubbled up from the bottom by way of what DuBois called the Debauched Tenth. Drawing primarily on interviews with black Angelenos who lived through the period, Smith offers an illuminating portrait of Central Avenue, the main thoroughfare. Aware of the limits of a white man evoking the history of fabled black L.A., Smith brings an obvious affection and deep attention to details and nuances from those who lived it and trusted him enough to recall zoot suits and jazz, the outspoken black newspaper California Eagle, and strategies to integrate the workforce at the defense plants as well as the military. Smith's account is lively and captivating as he evokes the social and cultural changes that made L.A. distinctive and added to the trends that spawned major changes in music, entertainment, and politics. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (June 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586482955
• ISBN-13: 978-1586482954
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,299,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At Last!, September 13, 2006

By 

R. McRae (Saugus, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Black Way: L.A. in the 1940s and the Lost African-American Renaissance (Hardcover)

The history of our Los Angeles African-American roots have finally been given long overdue mention. With all the attention paid to Harlem, you'd think L.A.'s contributions to black American culture, civil rights, and religion pales in comparision. Hardly true!

Azusa Street, was literally the birthplace of the modern Pentocostal movement. And with certain recent documentaries on Jazz, it seemed no one had ever heard of Central Avenue's Club Alabam, or the hot and swingin' Bronzeville district of Downtown.

There was the still standing Dunbar Hotel, a black oasis for many of the well known, and not so famous, to find shelter while visiting the "City of Angels." Not to mention black L.A.'s major contributions to standup comedy, and as much as anyplace else, the jumpstart for R&B music.

Checkout the early civil rights movement here that foreshadowed such major figures as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, or the black literary community of Los Angeles. A powerful reminder of the huge and highly forgotten contributions of the black Los Angeles community, to the African-American struggles in America. R.J. Smith should receive an honorary medal of human brotherhood.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Journey into L.A.'s Past, August 12, 2006

By 

Saul Gonzalez (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Black Way: L.A. in the 1940s and the Lost African-American Renaissance (Hardcover)

If you love Los Angeles and L.A. history, this book is a fantastic read. It both honors the African-American community's struggles for justice and respect in the city and introduces the reader to an extraordinary range of people-artists, journalists, civil rights leaders- who were indispendable to the development of black life and culture in Los Angeles.

Mr. Smith also does a superb job in communicating a sense of place and time, namely the sights and sounds of L.A.'s African-American neighborhoods in the 1940s.

No matter what your color or background, if you live in L.A.'s city's limits, reading this book wil make you proud to be an Angelino.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A deliteful read..., October 15, 2006

By 

T. Jenkins "Serious" (West of Medical Center, South of Highland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Black Way: L.A. in the 1940s and the Lost African-American Renaissance (Hardcover)

The ghosts and shadows, spirits and voices long since quieted are awakened, resurrected and put on display for all to see. This is quite simply an excellent book. What the author captures is the pride and determination, intelligence and ignorance, the creative genius and social failures of a street which became an area and an area which became a neighborhood and a neighborhood and its cultures. Cultures and counter-cultures, the civic minded hustlers, businnessmen, club owners, jazz musicians, lawyers, spiritualists, con-men, pimps and whores, atheletes and common folk. Those who endured racial taunts only to serve up taunts of their own, thumbing their nose at society while making plans to kick down the door of barriers constructed to keep them in their place. The sights and sounds of black Los Angeles, the birth place of attitudes which prevail to this day. Rarely has the spirit of urban Los Angeles been captured so completely.

The recollections gathered from old newspapers, cards, letters and the fading memories of those still around leave the reader enraptured. Every page is a treat. The fantastic stories coupled with the brilliant personalities make this an enjoyable historic voyage. To understand the roots is to understand the fruit and the subject of this book is definately a root to be studied and enjoyed by all with an interest in urban Los Angeles.