The nicest kids in town : American bandstand, rock 'n' roll, and the struggle for civil rights in 1950s Philadelphia / Matthew F. Delmont.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Delmont, Matthew F.

Series:

American crossroads ; 32.

American crossroads ; 32

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American Bandstand (Television program).

African Americans--Civil rights--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--History--20th century.

African Americans.

Segregation--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--History--20th century.

Segregation.

Civil rights movements--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--History--20th century.

Civil rights movements.

Minorities on television.

Philadelphia (Pa.)--Race relations--History--20th century.

Philadelphia (Pa.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

University of California Press 2012

Language Note:

English

Summary:

American Bandstand, one of the most popular television shows ever, broadcast from Philadelphia in the late fifties, a time when that city had become a battleground for civil rights. Counter to host Dick Clark's claims that he integrated American Bandstand, this book reveals how the first national television program directed at teens discriminated against black youth during its early years and how black teens and civil rights advocates protested this discrimination. Matthew F. Delmont brings together major themes in American history-civil rights, rock and roll, television, and the emergence of a youth culture-as he tells how white families around American Bandstand's studio mobilized to maintain all-white neighborhoods and how local school officials reinforced segregation long after Brown vs. Board of Education. The Nicest Kids in Town powerfully illustrates how national issues and history have their roots in local situations, and how nostalgic representations of the past, like the musical film Hairspray, based on the American Bandstand era, can work as impediments to progress in the present.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Making Philadelphia Safe for "WFIL-adelphia"

2. They Shall Be Heard

3. The de Facto Dilemma

4. From Little Rock to Philadelphia

5. The Rise of Rock and Roll in Philadelphia

6. "They'll Be Rockin' on Bandstand, in Philadelphia, P.A."

7. Remembering American Bandstand, Forgetting Segregation

8. Still Boppin' on Bandstand

Conclusion: Everybody Knows about American Bandstand

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786613520692

9781280111501

128011150X

9780520951600

0520951603

OCLC:

775871101