Emilie Raymond, associate professor of history, talks about her new book, Stars for Freedom: Hollywood, Black Celebrities and the Civil Rights Movement (University of Washington Press, 2015). Americans have come to expect that Hollywood celebrities—from Oprah Winfrey to Angelina Jolie, George Clooney to Leonardo DiCaprio — will be outspoken advocates for social and political causes. However, that wasn't always the case. As Emilie Raymond shows, during the civil-rights movement the Stars for Freedom, a handful of celebrities both black and white, risked their careers by crusading for racial equality and forged the role of celebrity in American political culture.

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