Did Dick Clark Overstate the Role of American Bandstand on American Race Relations? On the May 14th Left of Black
Host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined via Skype by Professor Matthew Delmont (Scripps College), author of the just published The NicestKids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock N’ Roll and the Struggle forCivil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia (University of California Press). Neal and Delmont discuss the racial politics in the city of Philadelphia in the 1950s that informed American Bandstand’s practices of limiting the presence of Black kids in the show’s early years as well as the role of the show in constructing an idealized image American youth. Delmont also highlights the role of Black media personalities Mitch Thomas and Georgie Woods in the success of American Bandstand.
Later, Neal is joined, also via Skype, by designer, curator, illustrator, cartoonist, and award-winning graphic novelist JohnJennings, author (with Damien Duffy) of Black Comix: African American Independent Comics Art & Culture. Jennings, a Professor of Visual Studies at the University of Buffalo, discusses the importance of visual literacy, the challenges within the comic industry to address race and the recent Tupac hologram.
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Left of Black airs at 1:30 p.m. (EST) on Mondays on the Ustream channel: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/left-of-black. Viewers are invited to participate in a Twitter conversation with Neal and featured guests while the show airs using hash tags #LeftofBlack or #dukelive.
Left of Blackis recorded and produced at the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University.
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Follow Left of Black on Twitter: @LeftofBlack
Follow Mark Anthony Neal on Twitter: @NewBlackMan
Follow Matthew Delmont on Twitter: @Matt Delmont
Follow John Jennings on Twitter: @JIJennings
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