ABSTRACT
In support of his argument that U.S. cultural democracy is nothing more than pretense, Harold Cruse compellingly reminds us that Duke Ellington was turned down for a special Pulitzer Prize citation in 1965. Cruse writes that this “turndown indicates that the same old, ethnic-group war for cultural supremacy in American music is still being waged” and that “Ellington could be denied this kind of cultural recognition only because of the undemocratic way the cultural machine in America is run.”1 This startling snub of Ellington allows Cruse to write eloquently about developments (or the lack thereof) in American and African American cultural criticism that would allow such a judgment to stand without aggressive rebuttal. The question of Ellington’s reputation-at least as understood by the Pulitzer trustees-is for Cruse the occasion to develop some of his most pointed remarks as to the need for informed cultural leadership.
