Kings and pawns : Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America / Howard Bryant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bryant, Howard, 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities.

United States.

Robinson, Jackie, 1919-1972.

Robinson, Jackie.

Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976.

Robeson, Paul.

Blacklisting of entertainers--United States--History--20th century.

Blacklisting of entertainers.

African American baseball players--Biography.

African American baseball players.

African American singers--Biography.

African American singers.

United States--Politics and government--1945-1989--20th century.

African American baseball players--Biography--20th century.

African American singers--Biography--20th century.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

viii, 309 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Mariner Books, 2026.

Summary:

"A path-breaking work of biography of two American giants, Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson, whose lives would forever be altered by the Cold War, and would explosively intersect before its most notorious weapon, the House Un-American Activities Committee -- from one of the best sports and culture writers working today."-- Amazon.

"Kings and Pawns is the untold story of sports and fame, Black America and the promise of integration through the Cold War lens of two transformative events. The first occurred July 18, 1949 in Washington, D.C., when a reluctant Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball star who integrated the game and at the time was the most famous Black man in America, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to discredit Paul Robeson, the legendary athlete, baritone, and actor -- himself once the most famous Black man in America. The testimony would be a defining moment in Robinson's life and contribute heavily to the destruction of Robeson's iconic reputation in the eyes of America. The second occurred June 12, 1956, in the midst of the last, demagogic roar of McCarthyism, when a battered, defiant Robeson -- prohibited from leaving the United States -- faced off in a final showdown with HUAC in the same setting Robinson appeared in seven years earlier. These two moments would epitomize the ongoing Black American conflict between patriotism and protest. On the cusp of a nascent civil rights movement, Robinson and Robeson would represent two poles of a people pitted against itself by forces that demanded loyalty without equality in return -- one man testifying in conflicted service to and the other in ferocious critique of a country that would ultimately and decisively wound both. In a time of great division, with America in the midst of a new era of retrenchment and Black athletes again chilled into silence advocating for civil rights, the story of these two titans reverberates today within and beyond Black America. From the revival of government overreach to curb civil liberties to the Cold War-era rhetoric of "the enemy within" levied against fellow citizens, Kings and Pawns is a story of a moment that remains hauntingly present." -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Preface: twoness

Book one: America's No. 1 Negro

Part one: Hope

Part two: Transition

Book two: The Un-Americans

Part three: Enemies

Part four: Recognition.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-293) and index.

ISBN:

9780063308169

0063308169

OCLC:

1517230668