Following the Kennedy era, a new kind of ethnic hero emerged in African-American popular culture. Pop icons such as Mohammad Ali, James Brown and Pam Grier projected the values and beliefs of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and reflected the possibility and the actuality of a rapidly-changing American landscape. In this book, the author examines the dynamic rise of these new black champions, the social and historical contexts in which they flourished, and their powerful impact on the American scene at large. Coming from all walks of African-American cultural life, these pop heroes, in their very diversity, symbolized both the breadth and the centrality of the Black Power message: sports figures embodied drive, ability, self-assurance and the determination to succeed; creative musicians - blues, jazz and soul artists - challenged convention and celebrated diversity; and, bursting from the pages of pulp fiction or off the big screen, trickster hustlers, black revolutionaries and superstar detectives displayed "street smart" attitudes, worldly wisdom, confidence, competence and commitment.
This African-American commitment epitomized a new vision: a multi-racial society in which an individual's intrinsic human worth could be universally recognized and respected together with his unique ethnic identity. The book argues, that, ultimately, the pop medium and its new heroes played for black freedom a vital cultural role, spreading its spirit and substance to a broad audience both within and beyond the African-American community, and offering the principles of liberation, solidarity and pride to those who might otherwise have remained estranged.
