Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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ee also:

actors

KATE M.KENSKI

Jones, Quincy

b. 1933

One of the leading music and television

producers

of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as

one of America’s leading black entrepreneurs. Jones studied

jazz

as a trumpeter and

egan arranging some of the jazz greats in the 1950s. Known as Q, he began his foray

into film with the soundtrack for

The Pawnbroker

(1965), the same year he won his first

Grammy for Count Basie’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” He owns Qwest Records and a

television

production company while also producing in

Hollywood

. At the same time, he

continues to be influential in the music industry advancing the career of numerous rap

artists, including Ice T and Big Daddy Kane.

EDWARD MILLER

journalism

newspapers; news, television; Pulitzer Prize

Joyner, Florence

track and field

Jordan, Michael

b. 1963

Widely acknowledged to be the greatest

basketball

player ever and, with his ability to

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 616

soar over players, certainly the most exciting. Jordan was the beneficiary of NBA

decisions to showcase individual talent at the end of the 1970s, leading to the rise o

marquee players like Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Isaiah Thomas, all o

whom he eclipsed. Signed by the Chicago Bulls in 1984, Jordan almost single-handedly

ulled the franchise up from the basement of the NBA to six championships between

1991 and 1998, an unbroken run interrupted only by his year-long retirement and attempt

to break into major league

baseball

in 1993. Jordan’s contribution to marketing has been

as significant as his contribution to basketball. Earning more money from product

sponsorship (especially Nike) than from basketball, he was one of the best known

Americans around the world throughout the 1990s, his number 23 Chicago Bulls shirt

seen on the backs of kids from Latin America and Europe to the Philippines.

ROBERT GREGG

judicial activism

Judicial activism connotes the extent to which judges substitute their interpretations o

constitutional provisions for those of other branches of government and their willingness

to impose affirmative duties upon governmental bodies. Although applicable to judges o

all federal and state courts, it is most often used in reference to the justices of the

Supreme Court

. The term is ordinarily used in an accusatory manner to ascribe to

ustices, whose decisions one opposes, an inclination to make law through policy-

oriented judicial decisions rather than following the literal language of the constitution

and showing deference to the constitutional interpretations underlying legislative

enactments.

Judicial activism is inevitably contrasted with judicial restraint. While activism is

usually attributed to courts labeled “liberal,” most notably the

Warren Court,

it has also

been an instrument of conservative courts. The

Rehnquist Court

is seen as pursuing a

conservative political agenda through a result-oriented decision-making process that

disregards precedents and diverges from clear constitutional language. Both courts are

viewed as having moved from a judicial ideal of reaching decisions by attempting to

discern the original intent of the framers of the Constitution, determined largely through

historical sources and narrow readings of precedents, to a process that has expanded the

ower of judicial review and emphasizes the spirit of the Constitution, often in terms o

contemporary social needs. This practice opens justices to the accusation that they have

reached out to accept groundbreaking cases that they then decide in a partisan manner by

arriving at conclusions imbued with political preference.

Judicial activism is predominantly a post-Second World War phenomenon. The Court

shifted its focus from narrow economic issues to questions of

civil-rights

and liberties,

the protection of criminal defendants and the application for the provisions of almost all

Entries A-Z 617

of the

Bill of Rights

to the states through the process of incorporating them in the Due

Process clause of the 14th Amendment. This is not solely a constitutional trend. Judicial

decisions have also broadly extended tort law, especially products liability as precedents

holding gun and tobacco manufacturers liable for their products illustrate.

It is hardly surprising that the judicial activism debate flourishes; Americans feel no

constraints in second-guessing judges. Numerous provisions of the Bill of Rights and the

14th Amendment, which form the very foundations for constitutional protections of civil

liberties, were intentionally written in open-ended language. Terms such as “due process”

and “equal protection” invite varying interpretations and subjective, value-laden readings

from both judges and lay persons which underpin both activism and criticism of it.

Further reading

Abraham, H. (1998)

The Judicial Process,

New York: Oxford.

O’Brien, D. (ed.)

Judges on Judging,

New Jersey: Chatham.

JAMES KRAUS

jukeboxes

Coin-operated machines that allow the user to select and play recorded music. Offshoots

of nineteenth-century coin-operated player pianos, jukeboxes appeared in the 1930s,

although sales took off after the war. People became mesmerized by styling details,

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including animated bubble tubes, revolving color columns and a revealed recordchanging

mechanism that enticed customers to play their favorites on the Wurlitzer or Rockola.

Jukeboxes became ubiquitous in

bars

and malt shops from the 1940s to the 1960s; they

remain symbols of those eras. They have reappeared in recent years due to nostalgia,

although they now play CDs instead of 78s and 45s.

EDWARD MILLER

junior colleges

community colleges/junior colleges

junk food

Potato chips,

candy, popcorn

and other snacks are recognized by most Americans as

high-calorie foods based on fat, salt and sugar. Yet obsessive snacking is part o

American daily mobility Use of food as individual escape as well as at parties, in sporting

events and movies or on the street contributes to widespread problems of obesity and

associated diseases. Manufacturers and marketers nonetheless make sales alluring

through market placement and

advertising;

concessions are also important money-

makers at cinemas and sporting events. Junk food, like

comfort food,

can be taken as a

guilty secret, yet its costs are both obvious and dangerous.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

Kahn, Louis

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 620

b. 1901; d. 1974

Architect most controversial for breaking away from the international style in his

designs of the 1950s. Born in the Russian Empire, Kahn designed workers’ housing and

rivate residences in the 1930s and 1940s in the form of the international style. His

mature works, including the Richards Medical Research Building (1960–5) in

Philadelphia, PA

and the

Salk

Institute for Biological Studies (1959–65) in La Jolla,

California, attempted to look to history without reviving it in the creation of distinct

“servant” and “served” spaces. This design technique made reference to both classical

and medieval

architecture,

creating laboratories of architectural note for the first time.

ISABEL KRIEGEL

Kazan, Elia

b. 1909

Greek American

director

whose career was darkened by his willingness to testify

before the

House Committee on Un-American Activities

. This sparked protests even

when he was awarded a lifetime achievement

award

at the 1999 Oscars. Kazan, a co-

founder of Actor’s Studio and “method acting,” drew superb performances from Marlon

Brando

(A Streetcar Named Desire,

1951;

Viva Zapata!,

1952; and their masterwork, the

tense, naturalistic

On the Waterfront,

1954), James

Dean

(

East of Eden,

1955) and others.

While his films pioneered adult representations of sexuality; his “social-message” dramas

(e.g.

Gentlemen’s Agreement,

1947 on anti-Semitism) have not aged as well. Kazan also

worked extensively in

theater

before devoting himself to writing and more personal

films.

GARY McDONOGH

Kefauver, Estes

b. 1903; d. 1963

Crusading Tennessee Democratic senator and unsuccessful vice-

residential candidate

(with Adlai

Stevenson)

in 1956. In the Senate, Kefauver conducted important

investigations on many social issues, including his 1951 televised attacks on organized

crime that brought government to a mass audience and won him an Emmy Later, the

generally liberal Kefauver showed equal zeal in pursuing relations between

mass media

(television, radio, comics)

and juvenile

violence,

antitrust violations and

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pharmaceuticals

. His presidential aspirations were overshadowed by images of the

South

in national politics, but his popularity and integrity paved the way for later

southern presidents.

GARY McDONOGH

Keillor, Gairison/

Prairie Home Companion

Initially a writer who gained some prominence for his contributions to literary magazines,

Garrison Keillor gained wider notice during the 1980s for the homespun view o

Midwestern

farm

life he presented in his weekly public radio show,

A Prairie Home

Companion

. First broadcast in Minneapolis and later relocated to

New York

City, NY,

the variety show’s assortment of American music acts and

comedy

sketches is built

around Keillor’s centerpiece monologue, “The News from Lake Wobegon.” Keillor’s

ortrayal of this fictional Minnesota farming town draws from remembrances of his own

childhood, and draws listeners by its loving depiction and gentle tweaking o

Scandinavian American

values and folk ways.

ROBERT ANDERSON

Kelly, Gene

b. 1912; d. 1996

Leaving Broadway for

Hollywood

in the 1940s, Kelly’s dancing, choreography and

directing revolutionized the Hollywood

musical

. He countered Fred

Astaire’s

ballroom

rhythms with a more athletic and masculine, free-flowing style (and gravelly singing). He

also incorporated symphonic jazz and ballet into movies such as the classic

Singin’ in the

ain

(MGM, 1952), which he in the latter codirected and co-choreographed. His own title

number is an artful synthesis of

dance

and the camera using long takes to create magic.

Although Kelly never received an Oscar, his lifetime achievements were recognized by

the Kennedy Center and the American Film Institute in the 1980s.

GARY McDONOGH

Kelly, Grace

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 622

b. 1928; d. 1982

American princess. Kelly born into a wealthy Irish Catholic Philadelphia family passed

through a striking albeit brief screen career (1951–6) into legend. Her roles sometimes

played off her model’s beauty and patrician heritage (

Rear Window,

1954;

High Society,

1956), although her Academy Award came for going against the grain in

The Country

Girl

(1954). In 1956 Kelly abandoned films to marry Monaco’s Prince Rainier, whom

she met while filming with

Hitchcock

. After this “fairy-tale ending,” she assumed new

roles as mother, monarch and elegant cosmopolitan icon until her death in an

automobile

accident.

GARY McDONOGH

Kemp, Jack

b. 1935

Republican

vice-presidential running-mate to Bob

Dole

in 1996, Kemp has a long career

in public service. Emphasizing the need for tax-cuts to stimulate economic growth, Kemp

served as US Representative for New York for nine terms from 1971 to 1989, and then

served for four years as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Kemp was a

professional

football

quarterback for thirteen years playing for the San Diego Chargers

and Buffalo Bills. He is currently on the Board of Directors of Empower America, a

public policy and advocacy group founded in 1993.

KATE M.KENSKI

Kennedy, John F.

b. 1917; d. 1963

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the first “celebrity

president

” (1961–3). After an

undistinguished career in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Kennedy

campaigned for president as a generational critic of the

Eisenhower

years, which he

linked with economic recession, educational mediocrity a missile gap and international

humiliations (for example the U-2 spy plane,

Castro

Cuba,

“Yankee Go Home” riots).

He anticipated being a foreign-

olicy leader, with Keynesian techniques sufficing to

revive and maintain economic growth.

Kennedy brought more than a touch of glamour to the White House; he was America’s

first president born in the twentieth century movie-star handsome, married to the

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exquisite Jacqueline, and with a Harvard brain trust of “the best and the brightest.” The

Thousand Days of what would be called Gamelot seemed to integrate the worlds o

Washington, Hollywood, Broadway

and Cambridge: Frank

Sinatra,

Robert

Frost

and

the Bundys.

Kennedy’s foreign policy was driven by a critique of Eisenhower’s strategy o

“massive retaliation,” a budget-tight reliance on nuclear deterrence, air power and

CIA

machinations. Kennedy offered “flexible response,” a more ambitious call for the ability

to contain the Soviets along the East-West axis, but also to rise to the challenge o

national wars of liberation with “counter-insurgency” As such, Kennedy inspired liberal

idealists to take seriously the emergence of the Third World through both the Green

Berets and the

Peace Corps

Domestically Kennedy discovered that the

civil rights

revolution—the

sit-ins

and the

freedom

rides

of 1960 and 1961—forced his administration to respond to the call for

racial justice. Partly in response to the ways in which

segregation

harmed US interests

among people of color in the Third World, partly reacting to the pressures generated by

events in the

South,

Kennedy reluctantly moved by 1963 to embrace legislative

proposals to eliminate segregation.

On other domestic issues, the Kennedy administration had difficulties in achieving

legislative victories in seeking modestly to expand

welfare

state programs; he is credited

with stimulating the economy with a tax cut and upholding the public interest in forcing

US Steel to rescind price increases. For the most part, he was a corporate liberal,

committed to technocratic solutions within a pro-business, welfare state format.

Kennedy faced his most crucial tests abroad, initially during the Berlin Crisis, which

led to the construction of the Berlin Wall and following the abortive

Bay of Pigs

invasion

of Castro’s Cuba. Kennedy’s ad hoc style of leadership, which paid insufficient attention

to issues of Castro’s strengths, matters of terrain and the role of air support, contributed

to the debacle.

Following this defeat, Kennedy continued to seek the subversion of the Castro

Revolution through the CIA’s Operation Mongoose. When intelligence discovered Soviet

missile silos being constructed in Cuba, Kennedy responded with a dramatic, televised

challenge of a naval blockade to Khrushchev, which brought the world closer to nuclear

war than at any previous moment—or any since. Khrushchev adhered to the blockade,

allowing time for compromises to be made—Soviet missiles removed, a US pledge not to

invade Cuba and a secret agreement by the US to remove its Jupiter missiles from

Turkey.

Kennedy increased US military personnel in South Vietnam from 600 to over 17,000

in response to the military successes of the National Liberation Front. Domestic

opposition finally deposed Ngo Dinh Diem in a military coup and assassination in

November 1963. Historians grapple with the “what if” regarding Kennedy and Vietnam.

The weight of evidence suggests that Kennedy was likely to increase the Americanization

of the war in the face of an impending communist victory At the same time, there were

signs of some moderation of Kennedy’s

Cold War

militancy (for example the Test-

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 624

Treaty and the Washington—Moscow Hot-line).

The legacy of this first

Roman Catholic

president remains as controversial as the

Warren Commission

Report’s conclusions about his assassination on November 22,

1963. He inspired many Americans, particularly among youth, to ask “what they could do

for their country” In that sense, Kennedy’s New Frontier—astronauts, Green Berets,

Peace Corps and VISTA volunteers—served as a contradictory catalyst to the social

challenges associated with the 1960s.