Activists saw popular culture as a central battleground in the wartime fight for equality. With the involvement of black soldiers in the war effort, the inclusion of black advisors in the federal information bureaus, and the opportunities for leading black cultural figures to display patriotism, the war provided black leaders with an unprecedented opportunity to launch a propaganda campaign. They campaigned with vigor, yet, for the most part, in vain. The indifference of state officials and media moguls, and the opposition of southern censors, meant that-with a few tantalizing exceptions-African Americans did not break into mainstream popular culture as either good soldiers or everyday men and women. The only wartime breakthrough came as entertainers. The major legacy of the war with regard to popular culture, then, was not an improved place for African Americans, but the lessons black leaders learned about the importance of manipulating the black image.
