Lift Every Voice and Swing: Black Musicians and Religious Culture in the Jazz Century

Winner of the 2022 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities, award by by the Council of Graduate Schools

Explores the role of jazz celebrities like Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams as representatives of African American religion in the twentieth century

Beginning in the 1920s, the Jazz Age propelled Black swing artists into national celebrity. Many took on the role of race representatives, and were able to leverage their popularity toward achieving social pr...