Spain's Queen of Soul
Donna Hightower and Black Women's Internationalism during the 1960s-1980s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3623924 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tiana U Wilson (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 106 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 650-681 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1548-1867 • E-ISSN: 2153-5086 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/716493 |
| OpenAlex | W3211740990 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
Donna Hightower (1926–2013) was an African American jazz expatriate who emigrated to Spain in the late 1960s and settled there until the mid-1990s. At first glance, Hightower’s international tours and musical career in Spain seem unrelated to the broader Black Freedom Struggle. She independently traveled throughout Europe without assistance from other Black jazz expatriates and intentionally disassociated herself from major civil rights and Black Power organizations. However, a closer examination of her life and influence in Spain highlights the diverse ways Black women participated in global politics and cultural diplomacy in the late twentieth century. This article argues that Hightower engaged in three forms of Black internationalism—political activism, public self-fashioning, and Black religious expression—in order to challenge existing social structures in the United States and Spain. In the process, she denounced American racism, uplifted African American religious practices, and presented alternative representations of Black womanhood on a global scale
Americanization · Art history · Black music · Black Power · Civil rights · Jazz · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Gender Studies · History · Law · Music History and Culture · Race, History, and American Society
Righteous discontent
Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field
Land of Hope
Veiled Testimony
This Worldwide Struggle
Radicalism at the Crossroads
How It Feels to Be Free
The Politics of Revenge
Set the World on Fire
Tourism and Dictatorship
The Impact of American Jazz Diplomacy in Poland During the Cold War Era
Satchmo Blows Up the World
Following Franco
Chicago’s Renaissance woman’
Impurity of blood. Defining race in Spain, 1870–1930
I Don't Trust You Anymore
Spain Transformed
The theology of the lyric tradition in African American spirituals
American Military Interests and Economic Confidence in Spain under the Franco Dictatorship
Gandhi's India and Beyond
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |