Evan Taylor / Review of Gerald Horne’s Jazz and Justice

Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music. By Gerald Horne. Monthly Review
Press, New York, 2019. 456 pp. $27.00

Review by Evan Taylor

In Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music, Gerald Horne organizes a
timeline for jazz while addressing the political climate in which the new music was created. Over
the course of eleven chapters and 338 pages excluding notes and index, Horne untangles the
“travails and triumphs” of jazz musicians as they “sought to make a living, at home and abroad,
through dint of organizing- and fighting.” (8) Exemplified are “war, progroms, racism and
adverse working conditions,”(48) evaluated in each segment of the book, showing their
correlation in the fruition of jazz. Each of these areas influence how the musicians navigated
their chosen musical style within the cultural milieu their work was created. Horne evaluates the
“overall climate in the United States in the early twenty-first century,” commenting on an ever-
present white-supremacist culture that created discouraging barriers for black artists,
demonstrating that black artists engineered a new approach to music and corporations of
separate entity profited from their abilities.
Dr. Gerald Horne holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Professorship of History and
African American Studies at University of Houston. He received his Ph.D. in history from
Columbia University, his J.D. from University of California, and his B.A. from Princeton
University. His work addresses issues of racism “in a variety of relations involving labor, politics,
civil rights, international relations and war.” (University of Houston) Horne has published over
thirty books and over one-hundred scholarly articles and reviews. Many of his publications have
reviewed topics related to racial and political economies during the development of jazz as genre,
confronting racially motivated crime, segregation, Jim Crow laws, and other United States
historical records from the late 19th Century to the present.
An example of the effectiveness of Horne’s analytical timeline begins in chapter two
where he assesses the effect of Prohibition on the emerging music scene. From roughly 1920 to
1933 the United States constituted a nationwide ban on the manufacturing, sale, and transport of
alcoholic beverages. As jazz “migrated to emerging ‘speakeasies,’” black artists were confronted
with a difficult legal choice. Speakeasies provided an opportunity to somewhat escape the racist

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Evan Taylor / Review of Gerald Horne’s Jazz and Justice

climate and perform, though performing at these venues was in violation of the law. In turn,
artists were stigmatized by the relationship between alcohol and the underground popularity of
the banned performance spaces.
Horne’s documentation continues in chapter five when he explains the “intensely
racialized atmosphere” (145) in which black musicians sought to create better music. Jim Crow
impediments severely effected these musicians ability to create and record music within the
United States, and many escaped by taking their music to Europe. Yet, this “heightened global
engagement” (148) pressed the musicians who were still residing in the states to produce music
that fought these unjust policies. For example, Charles Mingus is documented for recording
several radical and revolutionary political responses. Though racist trends continued, songs like
“Fables of Faubus” persevered and served as a mediation of jazz and politics.
Horne deconstructs ideas of cultural understanding that have been perpetuated over time
in his Chapter Seven: Hatian Fight Song. He builds on Frank Kofsky’s critique on socio-
economic iniquities within the jazz industry. Kofsky’s portrayal of white men who have, “profited
disproportionately from” the work of black artists exemplifies a major conclusion that Horne
draws in creating this encyclopedia of events— telling the story as it has been recounted by the
artist and for the artist, rather than researching the stories told by those who did not experience
it, therefore devaluing their ability to provide accurate representations of what the musicians
actually felt.
Jazz and Justice serves as an attempt to document how unjust or corrupt the political
system was that black musicians worked under throughout history. In doing this, Horne creates a
conglomeration of events or rather, a repository of injustices that have been accounted for in
numerous autobiographies, recordings and some textbooks within the academic discipline of
jazz. Considering the density of his research, searching for sign posts is becomes challenging.
While writing in this manner composes a delicate and precise timeline, Horne’s conclusions
remain undeliniated. This may be as a result of a feeling of over-saturation with historical
content although it is also a vital catalogue of the trials these musicians endured. Horne covers
several decades of timeline while showing how racism marred the musical economy. An alternate
strategy could have been to elaborate on a selected few topics or even a select few people to
create an “informative memoir.” (8) The documentation of the hierarchal system of white
privilege that these musicians battled becomes clear, easily perceivable, and understood during

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the course of the book. However, discussions of these obstacles and their socio-cultural
implications are well covered by authors that remain un-cited in this work such as Guthrie
Ramsey’s: Race Music, and Fred Moten’s In The Break, which remain conspicuously absent.
Perhaps these texts are referenced in other works by Horne. The balance of representation of
black female artists and industry professionals who often receive less emphasis and study might be
further considered.
Horne should be commended for his training and discipline as a historian, which led to
the compilation of a work of this magnitude. His ability to weave together a historical narrative
of injustices in Black American music is admirable. The investment provides the reader an
opportunity to interpret a wealth of information. Jazz and Justice will stand as a source for jazz
scholars, ethnomusicologists, to recount historic events or increase socio-cultural understandings.

https://www.uh.edu/class/history/faculty-and-staff/horne_g/

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