Postwar America was an era of unprecedented yet exclusive economic prosperity, stifling conformity and the reinvigoration of the question of the “Color-Line.” Despite a budding countercultural movement which responded to the evils of conservatism, war, and particularly racism, popular culture continued to be imbued with prejudice. To me, one of the most interesting forms of racial tension lies within the expansive field of American popular music. The history of American popular music is rich with talent, creativity, and innovation and has always been intrinsically linked to the musical visions of the evolving culture around it. Yet one fundamental aspect of this history has been perpetually downplayed; the role of the African American musician.At the intersection of Postwar race relations, rapidly evolving yet fragmented political ideologies, and the resurrection of Jazz music as America's quintessential genre was the meteoric rise of the contentious "Beat Generation." As perhaps the preeminent disruption to America's Postwar resurgence of conservative ideology, the "Beats" symbolized both the rebellious roots of the nation's liberal youth movement and a prolifically artistic counterculture which served as a buffer between the entrenched segregation of White and Black America. An embodiment of antagonism and individuality in a period of conformity, the "Beats" shared the disturbing, alienating sense "otherness" which had plagued African Americans for centuries. Yet the most fascinating link between these two ostracized communities was not simply their mutual exclusion from Postwar America's conservative, white-picket-fence, suburban-bliss mentality, but rather, their shared love of artistic self-expression, and most specifically, the genre of Jazz.In this paper, I focus on the development of the Postwar ideological disparity between conservative, white-dominated popular culture and the existence of an oppositional counterculture which consisted of disgruntled white liberals and the traditionally marginalized black population. This dichotomy was most clearly reflected within the realm of literature and music, as the two poles of society reflected their opposing visions of Postwar America through these expressive art forms. By supplementing my primary focus on “Beat” literature with contemporaneous viewpoints from both black and white authors, I will analyze the psychological component of race in Jazz. In examining this eclectic mix of political ideology, race relations, literature and music, I assert that Jazz and “blackness” in the Postwar era embodied the Beats' alternative vision of a rebellious, individually oriented America within the confines of the oppressive conservatism and conformity of popular culture—a vision of America that stressed staying true to the original wartime promise of a “return to America’s mythic past” of democratic virtue and the basic rights of the individual.