"America Needs a Voice Like Hers": Gwendolyn Brooks in Bronzeville

In 1945, A Street in Bronzeville was published at a moment when being a good American meant supporting American troops abroad. A photograph of Brooks on the dust jacket is accompanied by an advertisement to "Buy War Bonds!" This new poet is a patriot, the publisher suggests, our own native daughter. But for African Americans, participation in the war effort was double-edged: How does one fight for democracy abroad without the provision of democracy at home? Brooks called it an "off-rhyme situation," which she addressed in several poems in the volume, including a final sonnet sequence called "Gay Chaps at the Bar." This paper will look at Brooks's language within the larger context of the literary, intellectual, and political influences of her neighborhood and national and international discourse.