UC Berkeley

Abstract

GI JAZZ: African Americans as Artists and Occupiers in Post-World War II Germanyby Kim Rene Nalley Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Waldo E. Martin, Jr. Chair

‘GI JAZZ: African Americans as Artists and Occupiers in Post-World War II Germany,’ examines the lives of African American Jazz musicians living in and around German military bases after 1945 until 1970. Despite Truman’s Executive Order desegregating the armed forces, the military continued to have problematic pockets of discrimination. Off base, social segregation was also persistent and its effect on the lives of these GIs is examined. The proliferation of military bases in Germany after World War II and the longevity of these occupied presences in the wake of the Cold War resulted in a proliferation of service clubs designed to entertain African American GIs. German Jazz clubs and bars sprang up around military bases that provided off-base havens for Black GIs because despite the military being desegregated officially, socially the races often were segregated. These clubs and the relatively freer conditions in Germany for African Americans compared to segregation in the United States led many African Americans to settle as expatriates, furthering our understanding of the African diaspora through the transnational history of African Americans in the United States and Europe. The political-cultural impact of Jazz GIs as artists is examined utilizing new archival documents and artifacts.This work also examines both the soft and hard power Jazz GIs had, interracial relationships between Black GIs and Fräuleins, and offers a glimpse into African American women’s reaction to male Black GIs’ new freedom to engage in interracial relationships with less fear of reprisal. Given that the United States was still segregated, the dichotomy of African Americans’ status as military occupiers of a vanquished country, or a privileged minority, while still being an oppressed minority in the United States is explored.