1946

Running back Marion Motley and guard Bill Willis signed with the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in August 1946 — the same year Washington and Strode joined the NFL Rams. Coach Paul Brown proactively recruited both players. Motley rushed for 601 yards at 8.2 yards per carry in his first season; both went on to Pro Football Hall of Fame careers and four AAFC championships.

Ann Petry published The Street in 1946, a naturalist novel following Lutie Johnson, a single Black mother in wartime Harlem fighting racism, sexism, and poverty. Selling over 1.5 million copies, it was the first novel by an African American woman to sell more than one million copies. The New York Times called it 'a skillfully written and forceful first novel'; it remains a landmark of intersectional American literature.

The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington on March 21, 1946, and soon after signed Woody Strode — both former UCLA teammates — ending the NFL's 12-year color ban. The signings were conditioned by the LA Coliseum Commission, which required the Rams to field Black players. Washington and Strode were the first Black players in the NFL since 1933, integrating professional football a year before Jackie Robinson entered Major League Baseball.

Frank Yerby published The Foxes of Harrow in 1946, a historical romance set on a Louisiana plantation, which sold over one million copies in its first year — the first book by an African American author to achieve such sales. He also became the first Black author to have a novel purchased for Hollywood adaptation, when 20th Century Fox optioned it; the 1947 film starred Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara.

Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five recorded 'Choo Choo Ch'Boogie' in January 1946, releasing it on Decca Records. The jump blues track reached No. 1 on the R&B charts and held that position for 18 weeks. Jordan's run of massive hits in the mid-1940s — combining humor, groove, and accessibility — made him the best-selling Black recording artist of the era and a direct precursor to rock and roll.

Joe Louis knocked out Billy Conn in the eighth round before 45,266 spectators at Yankee Stadium on June 19, 1946, settling their celebrated rivalry five years after Conn had come within two seconds of the title. Louis's heavyweight championship reign — 11 years, 8 months, 26 total defenses — remained the longest and most successful in boxing history. As 'The Brown Bomber,' he remained an icon of Black achievement throughout the decade.

On October 3, 1946, Mahalia Jackson made her first recordings for the New York-based Apollo label, launching the most important phase of her career. Her 1947 recording of 'Move On Up a Little Higher' would sell eight million copies — still the best-selling gospel single of all time — and make her the most celebrated gospel singer in America.

Amos Milburn began his recording career in 1946 after returning from Navy service, signing with Aladdin Records. His piano-driven jump blues and 'Chicken Shack Boogie' (1947) — No. 1 for 4 weeks — made him one of the most commercially successful Black artists of the late 1940s and an important link between jump blues and rock and roll.

Amos Milburn began his recording career in 1946 after returning from Navy service, signing with Aladdin Records. His piano-driven jump blues and proto-R&B hits — particularly his later 'Chicken Shack Boogie' (1947) and a string of booze-themed recordings — made him one of the most commercially successful Black artists of the late 1940s and an important link between jump blues and rock and roll.

Romare Bearden returned from Army service in 1945-1946 and developed his figurative oil painting style drawing on Cubist influences, exhibiting at the Samuel Kootz Gallery and other New York venues. His 1940s work laid the essential groundwork for the landmark collage practice he would develop in the 1960s, making him one of the defining American artists of the twentieth century.