Abstract

For more than a century after the Civil War, the system of laws and practices known as Jim Crow laws denied full freedom to African American citizens, segregating nearly every aspect of public and social life from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Scholars have curated archives to illustrate how protests and grassroots political organizing ultimately led to African American liberation. An important aspect of the movement to both reclaim and reconstruct individual and collective African American identity exhibited itself through forms of embodied activism, namely dance and performance. Research has established the crucial role of the body in navigating experiences of oppression and trauma. Through dance and embodied practices, the body translates experiences into a framework allowing for the transmutation of meaning through embodied activism. This article reviews dance as a public practice of African American identity reconstruction during the Jim Crow period and highlights the importance of archiving forms of embodied activism for historical record. Embodied performance informs important cultural shifts and serves as a public practice of African American identity beyond the Jim Crow period. Increasing the visibility of Black dance through scholarship and archives expands the conversation regarding the role the body plays in accessing forms of liberation and potential futures.