Difference between revisions of "Chapter 17"
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'''''Defender'''''<br /> | '''''Defender'''''<br /> | ||
The ''Chicago Defender'' was one of the most influential Black newspapers in U.S. history, and during the Great Depression (1929–1940s) it served as a voice, lifeline, and rallying point for African Americans in Chicago and across the country. | The ''Chicago Defender'' was one of the most influential Black newspapers in U.S. history, and during the Great Depression (1929–1940s) it served as a voice, lifeline, and rallying point for African Americans in Chicago and across the country. | ||
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| + | ''''Turn Lincoln's face to the wall''''<br /> | ||
| + | The "face of Lincoln" refers to Abraham Lincoln’s portrait on U.S. currency, most often the five-dollar bill, sometimes a wall portrait common in schools, barbershops, and union halls. | ||
| + | The phrase Hicks asks about meant to hide or cover up Lincoln’s image, symbolically expressing disappointment or shame in what America had become. It appeared most frequently in the 1930s–40s, especially in African-American writing and speech, and sometimes in labor or populist commentary, as a bitter irony. Lincoln — "The Great Emancipator" — symbolized freedom, equality, and the promise of America, but during the Depression, and particularly under Jim Crow segregation, Black Americans saw those promises betrayed. | ||
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| + | ==Page 124== | ||
| + | '''"Blind Blake, 'Police Dog Blues,' mind if we..."'''<br /> | ||
| + | Arthur Blake (1896-1934), known as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Blake Blind Blake], was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He is known for recordings he made for Paramount Records between 1926 and 1932. | ||
| + | {{#ev:youtube|2yPOl__CeXE}} | ||
Latest revision as of 11:44, 4 November 2025
Page 123
Depression Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh was one of the American cities most severely affected by the Great Depression, largely because its economy was so dependent on a single sector: steel. Pittsburgh’s prosperity had been built almost entirely on steel, coal, and heavy manufacturing. When the Depression hit in 1929, demand for new construction, automobiles, and machinery collapsed, all industries that consumed massive amounts of steel. So when the steel market fell, Pittsburgh fell with it.
Hoovervilles
These were the makeshift shantytowns that sprang up all over the United States during the Great Depression (early 1930s). They were named — sarcastically — after President Herbert Hoover, who was widely blamed for not doing enough to stop or relieve the economic collapse.
running a sideline in race records
the name used by the U.S. recording industry from roughly 1917 through the late 1940s for phonograph records made by Black musicians and marketed primarily to Black audiences. Wikipedia
Defender
The Chicago Defender was one of the most influential Black newspapers in U.S. history, and during the Great Depression (1929–1940s) it served as a voice, lifeline, and rallying point for African Americans in Chicago and across the country.
'Turn Lincoln's face to the wall'
The "face of Lincoln" refers to Abraham Lincoln’s portrait on U.S. currency, most often the five-dollar bill, sometimes a wall portrait common in schools, barbershops, and union halls.
The phrase Hicks asks about meant to hide or cover up Lincoln’s image, symbolically expressing disappointment or shame in what America had become. It appeared most frequently in the 1930s–40s, especially in African-American writing and speech, and sometimes in labor or populist commentary, as a bitter irony. Lincoln — "The Great Emancipator" — symbolized freedom, equality, and the promise of America, but during the Depression, and particularly under Jim Crow segregation, Black Americans saw those promises betrayed.
Page 124
"Blind Blake, 'Police Dog Blues,' mind if we..."
Arthur Blake (1896-1934), known as Blind Blake, was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He is known for recordings he made for Paramount Records between 1926 and 1932.
