Playing the race card: melodramas of black and white from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson

Cover Page -- Half-title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication Page -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Playing the Race Card -- Chapter One: The American Melodramatic Mode -- Chapter Two: "A Wonderful, 'Leaping' Fish": Varieties of Uncle Tom -- Chapter Three: Anti-Tom and The Birth of a Nation -- Chapter Four: Posing as Black, Passing as White: The Melos of Black and White Melodrama in the Jazz Age -- Chapter Five: Rewriting the Plantation Legend: Scarlett "Totes a Weary Load -- Chapter Six: Home Sweet Africa: Alex Haley's and TV's Roots -- Chapter Seven: Trials of Black and White: California v. Powell and The People v. Orenthal James Simpson -- Conclusion Our Melodramatic Racial Fix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.