Collective Identities, Black Girlhood and 60s Vocal Groups

in Girlhood Studies
Author:
Apryl Berney San José State University, USA apryl.berney@sjsu.edu

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8049-5642
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2022.150108
Keywords:
collective identities; girl groups; group harmony; integrated public schools; popular music; respectability; spatial entitlement; talent shows
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Abstract

Drawing on interviews with Black women who sang in all-female vocal groups during the late 1950s and early 1960s, I examine the important role played by integrated public and private schools in the formation of the 1960s girl group phenomenon. From talent shows to choir practice, locker rooms to hallways, Black girls took up audible space in institutions of higher learning whenever they harmonized with friends or acquaintances. The collective identities Black girls created in their vocal groups allowed them to challenge racial and gender stereotypes in the civil rights era while also modeling sisterhood and friendship for subsequent generations of girls.

Contributor Notes

Apryl Berney (ORCID:0000-0002-8049-5642) is a lecturer with a joint-appointment in the Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Science Department and the Department of Film and Theatre at San José State University. She is nearing completion of her doctoral dissertation, “Rock and Roll Finishing School: Sixties Girl Groups and Urban Black Female Youth Culture in Post–World War II America.” Email: apryl.berney@sjsu.edu

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Girlhood Studies

An Interdisciplinary Journal

Cover Girlhood Studies
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
16
Keywords:
collective identities; girl groups; group harmony; integrated public schools; popular music; respectability; spatial entitlement; talent shows
Print Publication Date:
01 Mar 2022
Online Publication Date:
01 Mar 2022
Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022

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