Benny Goodman in Red Square, From http://www.meridian.org/jazzambassadors
Trying to literally sway the world to the advantages of democracy over communism, the United States launched a massive worldwide propaganda campaign to help win the hearts and minds of those who may have been apt to side with the Soviet Union. As part of this effort, cultural diplomacy became a mainstay of Cold War foreign policy. As part of this cultural diplomacy initiative President Dwight D. Eisenhower commissioned jazz musicians’ goodwill tours across the globe beginning in 1956. Serving as ambassadors for the United States, these musicians were appointed the task of showing the world that jazz was a “democratic art form” that would help “others to understand the open-minded and creative sensibility of our country.”[1] Heavily promoted by civil rights advocates at the time, the State Department created a program that would “portray an image of racial harmony” and “prove to the world that the capitalist system bestowed cultural as well as material benefits upon those who embraced it.”[2]
At first glance, the Jazz Ambassador Program appears on the surface to be a major victory in the Civil Rights Movement. Set in the context of events such as the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision, Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, as well as Little Rock; the conscious choice of the U.S. government to be represented in a cultural, political, and economic sense by these musicians seems an incredibly bold move in the fight against segregation and unequal treatment. While in many respects the Jazz Ambassador Program was successful in promoting civil rights, the specific experiences of three musicians in the program, namely Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Dave Brubeck, confirm that the project was indeed a positive force in the fight for racial equality, yet full of hypocrisies and contradictions. Often times enjoying far more success and openness to African American musicians and racially integrated bands in foreign countries than in their own backyard, these musicians fought not only for global acceptance of race, but their own struggle for acceptance of their music as well. Often viewed in isolation of one another, the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement in this sense become connected and intertwined, heavily influencing one another, as opposed to separate, unrelated events.
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[1] Curtis Sandberg, “Does Jazz Have a Healing Role in a World Divided by Conflicting Ideologies?” Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World, http://www.meridian.org/jazzambassadors/ (accessed February 2, 2013).
[2] David M. Carletta, “’Those White Guys Are Working For Me’: Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz, and the Cultural Politics of the Cold War During the Eisenhower Administration,” International Social Science Review 82, no. 3/4 (2007): 115 – 134, http://www.biomedsearch.com/article/Those-white-guys-are-working/175180579.html (accessed March 17, 2013).
At first glance, the Jazz Ambassador Program appears on the surface to be a major victory in the Civil Rights Movement. Set in the context of events such as the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision, Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, as well as Little Rock; the conscious choice of the U.S. government to be represented in a cultural, political, and economic sense by these musicians seems an incredibly bold move in the fight against segregation and unequal treatment. While in many respects the Jazz Ambassador Program was successful in promoting civil rights, the specific experiences of three musicians in the program, namely Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Dave Brubeck, confirm that the project was indeed a positive force in the fight for racial equality, yet full of hypocrisies and contradictions. Often times enjoying far more success and openness to African American musicians and racially integrated bands in foreign countries than in their own backyard, these musicians fought not only for global acceptance of race, but their own struggle for acceptance of their music as well. Often viewed in isolation of one another, the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement in this sense become connected and intertwined, heavily influencing one another, as opposed to separate, unrelated events.
.
[1] Curtis Sandberg, “Does Jazz Have a Healing Role in a World Divided by Conflicting Ideologies?” Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World, http://www.meridian.org/jazzambassadors/ (accessed February 2, 2013).
[2] David M. Carletta, “’Those White Guys Are Working For Me’: Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz, and the Cultural Politics of the Cold War During the Eisenhower Administration,” International Social Science Review 82, no. 3/4 (2007): 115 – 134, http://www.biomedsearch.com/article/Those-white-guys-are-working/175180579.html (accessed March 17, 2013).