Book Reviews

Abstract

In Jump for Joy: Jazz, Basketball & Black Culture in 1930s America, Gena Caponi-Tabery argues that African Americans used music, dance, and sports as effective forms of resistance to the challenges found in American society during the first half of the twentieth century. Specifically, it was the development of swing music in the Midwest with band leaders like Count Basie that coincided with the creation of dances such as the Lindy Hop that would be responsible for transforming and elevating African Americans and their sense of individuality and freedom, especially those newly migrated from the South. According to Caponi-Tabery, both forms of artistic expression required participants to reach for the highest of heights in their respective performances. The emphasis on “jumping” was connected to the fast-paced rhythm and beat the swing bands performed, and the “good time” being had by those in attendance (p. 72). Jump for Joy suggests that the development of black expressive culture in the 1930s was a direct result of the migration of blacks into the more prosperous North where they collectively were able to elevate themselves and their sense of freedom. Even still, the success of athletes such as Joe Louis and Jesse Owens represented examples of “stamina, skill and courage” that working-class African-American men and women could gravitate towards for inspiration within the challenging racially-charged America of