Blacks Not Considered Part Of Everyday Life By Experts During Cold War Diplomacy

 

Headline from The Ashville Times, July 14, 1959

July 14, 1959, New York, New York – The United States State Department was paying for a big propaganda blitz against Communism right in the heart of Communism, the USSR. They had worked out an event in Moscow to be called the American National Exhibition. The idea was to show the average Russian how much better life was every day in the U.S. compared to their dull lives.

The American National Exhibition was planned to run from July 25^th to September 4^th of 1959. It would give a glimpse into fashion, food, men, women, and teenagers, but it was decided on this day that it wouldn’t really include Black Americans.

At a preview of the fashion show, the State Department and the artists designing the show displayed what they thought would be a vision of America that showed just a tiny bit of equality. The thinking behind this was that since the models were also going to be guides for the Russian people who came to the Exhibition. This included four young African Americans who had been vetted by President Eisenhower and promised not to go off script and talk about civil rights and inequality. The U.S. heard. “And You Are Lynching Negros,” frequently from the Soviets whenever human rights were discussed. The American National Exhibition was supposed to be a bit of cinema showing that equality was as American as apple pie.

Except that it was about to be revealed again, America was unequal. After the live dioramas were done, more than 40 fashion editors immediately took pen to paper in a petition demanding that the scenes with Negro models be cut. These scenes included a mixed wedding party and an integrated backyard barbeque.

“We, the American Fashion Press, protest the presentation of the American Fashions to Moscow as not being representative of typical American life.” Read the petition.

To avoid controversy with the fashion show, Leonard J. Hankin, vice president of high fashion department store Bergdorf-Goodman, was the executive director of the fashion show the exhibition promised immediate changes. The changes ended up being the removal of Black Americans from the integrated scenes.

  The four Black models were allowed to go to Moscow and act as guides since they had been studying Russian, but they did not model. The prejudice of high fashion was not even remarked upon by the New York Times or other major outlets; only smaller papers or the Black press called it out honestly.

Sources:

.newyorkalmanack.com/2024/07/american-national-exhibition/#:~:text=“Immediately%20after%20the%20previews%2C%20over,History%2C%20United%20States%20Information%20Agency

https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/calendar/black-model-remembers-time-russia-during-cold-war/Bn7LICWvhdl5jjBOWwHjXI/

Press and Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, New York, Tue, Jul 14, 1959 · Page 18

The Asheville Times, Asheville, North Carolina,Tue, Jul 14, 1959 · Page 17