ABSTRACT
THE JACKSON 5 were caught between conflicting demands. As a Gordy band, they would be taught to assimilate in such a way as to make them acceptable to a mainly white market. This meant that they could not be seen to endorse the black power ethic that pervaded not only America but vast portions of the world in the late 1960s. Yet, for a black band to appear utterly devoid of political awareness would have been suicidal. The very fact that they all wore Afro hairdos suggested a minimal identification with what was going on about them. But, when a Motown publicist was asked by a magazine journalist if their hairstyles “had something to do with Black Power,” the question was met with a sharp riposte. “These are children, not adults,” the publicist snapped. “Let’s not get into that.”
