In highlighting their stories, Sen frames a discussion on the limitations ofcurrent approaches to immigration policy and the hysteria that often accompa-nies it. She acknowledges some of the charges against immigrants hold a grain oftruth––many are undocumented. “Others are patently false,” notes Sen (66).“Immigration law was discriminatorily created and applied; wages are drivendown largely because the United States won’t enforce its own labor laws; immi-grants, even the vast majority of undocumented immigrants, do pay taxes. Andthere has been no sign that restricting immigration will have any effect onpreventing terrorism,” (66) (for a useful overview of the lack of enforcement ofU.S. labor laws around exploitation of migrant workers, see “In StrawberryFields,” a chapter in Eric Schlosser’s 2003 Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and CheapLabor in the American Black Market).

Sen and Mamdouh call for a more coherent, human rights-based approachto reform of U.S. immigration policy. In this way, bodies move across borders asfreely as ideas as possibilities, benefiting both workers and the demand for labor.Most of all, this alternative policy approach is based on the lessons of theorganizing experience of immigrant workers. Through Mamdouh’s story, wewitness a redemptive narrative of labor of immigration and citizenship. Everyperson has dignity, yet people gain power when they organize and collectivelypush U.S. public opinion and politicians to incorporate their perspectives. Thisonly comes through creativity and action. Faced with a vexing challenge,Mamdouh organized himself out of a corner for a common good. ThroughMamdouh’s story, Sen highlights the innovative organizing born of the post-9/11 immigrant debate. The response to this ugly moment points to a way outour current impasse.

Benjamin Shepard, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Human Service at New YorkSchool of Technology/City University of New York. As a social worker,he worked in AIDS housing settings from San Francisco to Chicago to NewYork, where he directed the start ups for two congregate housing programs forpeople with HIV/AIDS. He is author of Queer Political Performance and Protest(Routledge 2009); White Nights and Ascending Shadows: An Oral History of the SanFrancisco AIDS Epidemic (Cassell 1997) among many other books, articles andchapters. Address correspondence to Benjamin H. Shepard, City Tech/CUNY,300 Jay Street N-401, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Telephone: +011-718-260-5135.E-mail: bshepard@citytech.cuny.edu.

Seniors, Paula Marie. Beyond Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Culture of Uplift, Identity, and Politicsin Black Musical Theater. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2009. 368 pp. $54.95(hardcover).

Treading along the path blazed by David Krasner in Resistance, Parody, andDouble Consciousness, the award-winning study of African-American theater

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between 1895 and 1919, Paula Marie Seniors focuses upon early twentiethcentury artists and critically reads their attempts to redeem the representation ofAfrican-Americans on the stage. Seniors distinguishes her study from Krasner’smore sweeping and theoretically engaged exploration by focusing on the par-ticular: two musicals, The Shoo Fly Regiment (1906) and The Red Moon (1908),created by and starring Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson.

Beyond Lift Every Voice and Sing is essentially a historical recovery project.Seniors aims to create a space for the work of Bob Cole and J. RosamondJohnson within the history of American entertainment. The artists’ collabora-tions, especially their songs, were immensely popular throughout the nation tothe extent that their lyrics saturated the public consciousness. They were citedby prominent politicians and invoked in political cartoons. Seniors provides anoverview of select social and political events in the early twentieth century thatmay have influenced their creation. This approach not only grants the reader aprivileged glimpse into the lives of Cole and Johnson but also affirms their statusas prominent figures in American musical theater between 1906 and 1909.

Seniors’ thesis is that Cole and Johnson “used the very tools of hegemony tocreate a distinctly black theater informed by black politics, history, and culture.”Although this statement is fitting for the project, it could be misread to implythat Cole and Johnson accomplished more than they actually did. Similar toKrasner, Seniors documents how Cole and Johnson attempted to slowly revisethe representation of African Americans through a series of strategic choices:casting a darker complexioned actress to play a lead role, scripting a love storyinvolving two black characters, writing “masculine” male characters, and depict-ing the presence and value of education within black communities among others.It is these correctives, when connected with Cole’s and Johnson’s belief, accord-ing to Seniors, in the uplift ideology of Booker T. Washington that makes theirworks recognizably and perhaps “distinctly black.” However, it is important toacknowledge that the Cole and Johnson musicals featured popular, negativestereotypes and caricatures of black people. Seniors notes, “they also offeredaudiences stereotypes of the hungry Negro, a chorus of Pickaninnies, and at leastin one instance, the use of the word ‘coon’.”

The best way to describe Beyond Lift Every Voice and Sing is as a collage oftopics related to The Shoo Fly Regiment and The Red Moon. It does not attemptto be either a production history of their performances or a literary analysis/review. As a result, there is not the type of sustained attention given to audi-ence reception, changes to the scripts throughout production runs, and thedevelopment of the dramatic narrative that a person would expect in such astudy. Instead, it is a meditation on a wide-ranging list of topics that may haveinspired Cole and Johnson to script their plays. There are brief biographies ofmajor collaborators in Cole and Johnson’s productions, short histories ofselect events (Spanish American War, education at Hampton College), clip-pings from Cole’s personal journal, and accounts of the movements of promi-nent African Americans, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Washington, and boxerJack Johnson.

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Although the presentation of these elements occasionally lead to tangents farremoved from Cole, Johnson, and their time period (such as references tocontemporary actress Queen Latifah or a rap song about fugitive Osama binLaden), they, on the balance, provide context that enables the reader to appre-ciate the vast array of influences present in the musicals by Bob Cole and J.Raymond Johnson.

Beyond Lift Every Voice and Sing succeeds in making useful interventions inthe historical study of American theater, particularly American musical theater.It spotlights the reciprocal influence of Cole and Johnson on mainstream Ameri-can culture. It offers a wonderful overview of actress Abbie Mitchell, whichhopefully will inspire a future scholar to craft a full-length biography of thistremendously interesting figure.

Harvey Young is Associate Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University.He is the author of Embodying Black Experience: Stillness, Critical Memory, and theBlack Body and the coeditor of Performance in the Borderlands. Address correspon-dence to harvey@northwestern.edu.

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