Adam Clayton Powell
African American &
Bayard Rustin
Black Power
Black Studies
cartoon
Category=JBCT
Category=JBSL
Category=NHK
Category=WH
Cecil Brathwaite
Color Us Cullud
comic
Dick Gregory
DownBeat magazine
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_humour
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Grandassa
Harlem
John Lewis
Lena Horne
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King jr
New York Citizen-Call
radical
Sammy Davis Jr.
satire
Whitney Young
Product details
- ISBN 9781496835376
- Weight: 815g
- Dimensions: 203 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 30 Oct 2021
- Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In 1963, at the height of the southern civil rights movement, Cecil Brathwaite (1936–2014), under the pseudonym Cecil Elombe Brath, published a satire of Black leaders entitled Color Us Cullud! The American Negro Leadership Official Coloring Book. The book pillories a variety of Black leaders—from political figures like Adam Clayton Powell and Whitney Young to civil rights activists like Martin Luther King, Bayard Rustin, and John Lewis, and even entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, and Dick Gregory—critiquing the inauthenticity of movement leaders while urging a more radical approach to Black activism. Despite the strong illustrations and unique commentary presented in the coloring book, it has virtually disappeared from histories of the movement.
The Artistic Activism of Elombe Brath restores the coloring book and its creator to a place of prominence in the historiography of the Black left. It begins with an analysis of Brath’s influences, describing his life and work including his development as a Black nationalist thinker and Black satirist. The volume includes Brath’s early works—illustrations for DownBeat magazine and Beat Jokes, Bop Humor, & Cool Cartoons—as well as the full run of his comic strip "Congressman Carter and Beat Nick Jackson" from the New York Citizen-Call and a complete edition of Color Us Cullud! itself. These illustrations are followed by annotations that frame and contextualize each of the coloring book’s entries. The book closes with selections from Brath’s art and political thinking via archival material and samples of his written work. Ultimately, this volume captures and restores a unique perspective on the civil rights movement often omitted from the historiography but vital to understanding its full scope.
The Artistic Activism of Elombe Brath restores the coloring book and its creator to a place of prominence in the historiography of the Black left. It begins with an analysis of Brath’s influences, describing his life and work including his development as a Black nationalist thinker and Black satirist. The volume includes Brath’s early works—illustrations for DownBeat magazine and Beat Jokes, Bop Humor, & Cool Cartoons—as well as the full run of his comic strip "Congressman Carter and Beat Nick Jackson" from the New York Citizen-Call and a complete edition of Color Us Cullud! itself. These illustrations are followed by annotations that frame and contextualize each of the coloring book’s entries. The book closes with selections from Brath’s art and political thinking via archival material and samples of his written work. Ultimately, this volume captures and restores a unique perspective on the civil rights movement often omitted from the historiography but vital to understanding its full scope.
Thomas Aiello is associate professor of history and African American studies at Valdosta State University. He is author of several publications, including The Grapevine of the Black South: The Scott Newspaper Syndicate in the Generation before the Civil Rights Movement.
