Booth Shares Title

What role did art play in the quest for equality and the affi rmation of black identity in segregated America? The book pays tribute to the African-American artists and thinkers who contributed, during a century and a halflong struggle, to blurring this discriminatory “color line”. Although the end of the Civil War in 1865 brought an end to slavery, the racial demarcation line continued to have a lasting impact on American society. The Color Line looks back on this dark period in the United States through the cultural history of its black artists, the prime target of this discrimination. From the racist themes of American vaudeville and the Minstrels shows of the 19th century to the cultural and literary vitality of the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century, from the pioneers of black activism (Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington) to the indictment of the singer Billie Holiday (Strange Fruit), almost 150 years of artistic production – painting, sculpture, photography, cinema, music, literature, etc. – testify to the creative wealth of black protest.