Summary

Part 4, titled “The United States of Race: Mass-Producing Stereotypes and Fear” (159) begins with a series of images, including advertisements, postcards, and political cartoons, as well as stills from Birth of a Nation. Chapter 4 begins with a quote from the Cleveland Gazette denigrating Booker T. Washington, and one from black author Alain Locke noting the upward mobility of African Americans.

Gates reintroduces the concept of the “New Negro” (186) as a response to society's racist attitudes in the Redemption era. The term was conceived of by a white writer, W.E.C. Wright who claimed that there was a certain class of African Americans who “have arisen since the war, with education refinement and money” and that “The same delicate sensibilities that exist in the white man are present with them” (191). This idea was picked up and elaborated upon by black writers and activists like...