鈥淏lack Patience鈥� Named Hooks National Book Award Winner
December 6, 2023 鈥擳he Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of 糖心Vlog传媒 has selected 鈥淏lack Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation鈥� by Dr. Julius B. Fleming, Jr. (New York University Press) as the 2022 Hooks National Book Award winner. The award will be presented in February.
鈥淛ulius Fleming Jr.鈥檚 鈥楤lack Patience鈥� emerged from a dynamic collection of finalists by combining an engaging narrative of the Civil Rights Movement with stories of African American artists who used theater as a key site in moving the civil rights struggle forward, particularly in its rejection of calls for 鈥榖lack patience鈥� surrounding the end of Jim Crow segregation and voting rights鈥� says Dr. Terrence Tucker, chair and professor in the University of 糖心Vlog传媒 Department of English and chair of the Hooks National Book Award committee. 鈥�Instead of merely using the language of theater to describe black performances during this volatile, complex period, Fleming casts the work by black artists and activists as another front in which the impact of racial discrimination and African American humanity could be addressed and dramatized. The book chronicles how African American artists countered the larger historical tradition of suspending push for emancipation in 鈥榯ime and space鈥� by demonstrating the urgency of 鈥榝reedom now鈥� in the lives of African Americans and the country at large.鈥�
About 鈥淏lack Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation鈥�
Freedom, Now! This rallying cry became the most iconic phrase of the Civil Rights Movement, challenging
the persistent command that Black people wait鈥攊n the holds of slave ships and on auction
blocks, in segregated bus stops and schoolyards鈥攆or their long-deferred liberation.
In&苍产蝉辫;鈥�Black Patience,鈥� Julius B. Fleming Jr. argues that during the Civil Rights Movement, Black artists and activists used theater to energize this radical refusal to wait. Participating in a vibrant culture of embodied political performance that ranged from marches and sit-ins to jail-ins and speeches, these artists turned to theater to unsettle a violent racial project that Fleming refers to as 鈥淏lack patience.鈥� Inviting the likes of James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Douglas Turner Ward, Duke Ellington, and Oscar Brown Jr. to the stage,&苍产蝉辫;鈥�Black Patience鈥� illuminates how Black artists and activists of the Civil Rights era used theater to expose, critique and repurpose structures of white supremacy. In this bold rethinking of the Civil Rights Movement, Fleming contends that Black theatrical performance was a vital technology of civil rights activism, and a crucial site of Black artistic and cultural production.
Additional recognition for 鈥淏lack Patience鈥� includes Honorable Mention for the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present 2023 Book Prize, Honorable Mention for the 2023 John W. Frick Book Award of the American Theatre and Drama Society and Finalist for the 2022 George Freedley Memorial Award of the Theatre Library Association.
About Julius B. Fleming, Jr.
Julius B. Fleming Jr. is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Maryland,
College Park. He earned a doctorate in English, and a graduate certificate in Africana
studies, from the University of Pennsylvania. Specializing in Afro-diasporic literatures
and cultures, he has particular interests in performance studies, black political
culture, diaspora, and colonialism, especially where they intersect with race, gender,
and sexuality. Fleming has been awarded fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson National
Fellowship Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the University of Virginia鈥檚 Carter
G. Woodson Institute.
About the Hooks National Book Award
The Hooks Institute鈥檚 National Book Award is presented to a non-fiction book published
in the calendar year that best furthers understanding of the American civil rights
movement and its legacy. Finalists for the national book award were chosen from 45
books that were nominated for the 2022 award. In addition to 鈥淏lack Patience鈥� the
finalists for the award were:
- 鈥淏lack American Refugee: Escaping the Narcissism of the American Dream鈥� by Tiffanie Drayton (Viking/Penguin Random House)
- 鈥淏ertha Maxwell-Roddey: A Modern-Day Race Woman and the Power of Black Leadership鈥� by Dr. Sonya Y. Ramsey (University of Florida Press)
- 鈥淧rogressive Prosecution: Race and Reform in Criminal Justice鈥� by Kim Taylor-Thompson and Anthony C. Thompson (New York University Press)
- 鈥淭he Third Reconstruction鈥� by Dr. Peniel E Joseph (Basic Books)
- 鈥淲aging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement鈥� by Thomas E. Ricks (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Hooks National Book Award Committee
The Hooks Institute extends its gratitude to the 2022 Hooks National Book Award committee.
In addition to Tucker, it includes Dr. Beverly Cross, Lillian and Morrie Moss Chair
of Excellence in Urban Education at the UofM; Dr. Charles McKinney, associate professor
of History at Rhodes College; Dr. Ladrica Menson-Furr, assistant dean of the UofM
College of Arts and Sciences, associate professor of English and director of African
and African American Studies; and Dr. Ladonna Young, Educational Consultant.
For more information, visit .
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About the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change
The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute implements its mission of teaching, studying and promoting
civil rights and social change through research, education and direct intervention
programs. Institute programs include community outreach; funding faculty research
initiatives on community issues; implementing community service projects; hosting
conferences, symposiums, and lectures; and promoting local and national scholarship
on civil and human rights. The Hooks Institute is an interdisciplinary center at the
University of 糖心Vlog传媒. Contributed revenue for the Hooks Institute, including funding
from individuals, corporations, and foundations, is administered through the University
of 糖心Vlog传媒 Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Media Contact
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jcgodwin@memphis.edu
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