Civil Rights (e.g. U.S.) 19 th century United States was rife with political and social conflict. The country was torn by contrasting ideologies of using people of color as currency. The institution of slavery was one impetus behind the four years of civil war in America. In January of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln, along with the 38 th congress, sent to state legislature what would become the 13 th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; consequently, banning slavery in all states and territories. This measure, however, did not end the proliferation of oppression that was forced upon former slaves. Life, for African- Americans, became segregated and the dogma of racism perpetuated the social inequity that began with slavery; this status quo lasted until the middle of the 20 th century. Perhaps no art form embodies the profundity of the American Civil Rights Movement as the freedom songs of the 1950s and 1960s. This music, which had antecedents in the blues and spirituals of the previous century, provided the oppressed (and their sympathizers) with an emotive means to contest the cultural climate and its inhumanity. These songs, such as I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom, were performed at mass meetings, marches and sit-ins, and recorded by music ensembles led by civil rights activists. The music was the strongest thread in the fabric of unity and fostered the necessary strength needed in the fight for equality. Perhaps the most ubiquitous of the freedom (or protest) songs was, We Shall Overcome. The tune, which was derived from the gospel song, I ll Overcome Someday, by African-American composer Charles Albert Tindley became an anthem for the American Civil Rights movement. The origins of its popularity lie in the five-month strike that was led by the members of the Food and Tobacco Workers Union in 1945. The
strike, which opposed the unfavorable conditions provided by the American Tobacco Company, included an African-American woman with a gospel background named Lucille Simmons. Simmons performed her version of the song at the end of each day of picketing. Union organizer, Zilphia Horton, learned the tune from Simmons and, in turn, introduced it to white, folk singer and political activist Pete Seeger. Through Seeger s presence on the radio and folk concert circuits, We Shall Overcome procured nationwide exposure. Fellow folk singer and activist, Guy Carawan, performed the tune at the inaugural meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960. With the increased exposure and subsequent performances, We Shall Overcome became altered. Originally sung in the Southern white, folk tradition, the tune s structure and rhythmic sensibility was changed. During the civil rights campaign in Albany, Georgia in the early 1960s, young black activists, led by Bernice Johnson Reagon and associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), took the basic song, added an elasticity to the rhythm, included syncopation, and a slower tempo. These alterations supported the gospel aesthetic that included improvised shouts, moans, call and response, and exaltations. Most classic freedom songs like Keep Your Eyes on The Prize, Oh Freedom, Ain t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around and This Little Light of Mine were steeped in the musical tradition of the black, gospel church. However, there was something of a syncretism in other songs, like We Shall Overcome, where elements of the white, folk tradition merged with African-American sacred influences. The freedom songs performed by activists on the frontlines of the American Civil Rights battle were fundamental to the
movement s success. However, other forms of American music, specifically jazz, played an expressive and poignant role in fight for racial equality. Jazz, it has been said, objectifies America. Its historic trajectory parallels that of the black experience. Early jazz pioneers such as Louis Armstrong performed songs that proved to be precursors to the civil rights movement. In 1920 s Harlem, the northern-most section of New York City, Armstrong performed a tuned entitled, (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue. The message of the song is encapsulated by the lyric, my only sin is in my skin. Jazz singer, Billie Holiday, proclaimed that her fame was a result of her performance of an anti-lynching song, Strange Fruit, in 1939. In 1943, Duke Ellington composed a jazz suite, Black, Brown, and Beige, that he dubbed a tone parallel to the black experience in America; the first movement, Black, signified the existence of slavery in America; Brown, the second part of the suite, suggested the creolization of the black population; and finally, Beige represented the African-American population during the 1920s through the second world war. The jazz canon is peppered with songs of protest and resistance. In 1960, drummer Max Roach organized a recording session with singer Abbey Lincoln. The album was entitled, We Insist! The Freedom Now Suite, and employed an avant-garde sensibility that mirrored the harshness of the time. Perhaps the most poignant example on the record was the composition, Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace. The tune was collectively improvised, meaning it was composed spontaneously, with Roach accompanying Lincoln s vocal line. The first movement, Prayer, echoed the moans and riffs that were associated with the solo, slave song referred to as the field holler. Lincoln improvised blue or bent notes that
were a staple in African-American musical tradition. With, Protest, Roach s accompaniment intensified as did Lincoln s melody. In fact, she used screams and shouts to signify the horrific pain that the African-Americans were experiencing and the resolve they displayed in their fight for freedom. The final movement, Peace, softens in intensity and dynamics. The melodic line was exactly that melodic and lyrical. Lincoln, seemingly exhausted from her protest, performed a wordless tune that somehow evoked a sense of redemption and resolution. Similarly, jazz tenor saxophonist John Coltrane composed, Alabama, which was inspired by the 16 th Street Baptist Church bombing, perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan, which killed four black girls in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Coltrane, like many Americans, needed an outlet by which to express the profound depth of grief and outrage. This composition featured the percussive and fiery playing of pianist McCoy Tyner, the hard-driving pulse of drummer Elvin Jones, and the melodicallydriven bass playing of Jimmy Garrison. Alabama was, at times, an elegiac tribute for the loss of the four children, and other times, a spirited performance that was influenced by the eulogy given by Dr. Martin Luther King at their funeral services. Nina Simone, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, was an African-American, musical virtuoso who began her career at the age of six as the piano accompanist to a traveling evangelist. Rejected by the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, presumably because of her race, Simone chose to implement her talent in the fight for social equality. As one who was proud of her heritage, Simone had always included songs in her repertoire that drew upon her African-American origins. On her
debut album, Nina Simone in Concert, for the Dutch Philips label, she addressed the racial inequality that was prevalent in the United States. Mississippi Goddam was composed as her response to the murder of civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, who, as a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), attempted to overturn the policy of segregation at the University of Mississippi. Simone also dedicated the song to the four African-American children who were killed during the bombing of the16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The song was released as a single and subsequently boycotted in many Southern states. Included on the same album was another song of protestation, "Old Jim Crow a tune that addressed the laws of segregation. It seemed, with these examples, that Simone found the inspiration and impetus for her art. With the Philips label to support her, she chose to use her recordings and live performances as vehicles by which to advocate for the equality of all people. Simone was not relegated to spreading her message while singing at the piano. She proved to be an eloquent spokesperson at many civil rights gatherings, such as at the marches from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965. This mobile protest, known as Bloody Sunday, was initiated by slaying of a young, civil rights advocated named Jimmie Lee Jackson. Alabama State Trooper, James Fowler, murdered the African- American protester, who was only twenty-six years old and unarmed. In addition to performing her original compositions, Simone recorded Strange Fruit, in 1965. As an advocate for raising self-awareness and cultural pride among African- American women, Simone set music to the poem, by William Waring Cuney, entitled "No Images." The first verse captured the lack of pride that women of color were facing,
She does not know her beauty, she thinks her brown body has no glory. The year following her recording of No Images, Simone continued to use her compositional voice to write, Four Women, a song that illuminated the racism found in four, different stereotypes of African-American women. In 1967, she procured a record contract with the highly respected RCA Victor label. Her inaugural album, Nina Simone Sings the Blues, included Backlash Blues, a poem by the artistic force of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, and set to music by Simone. On April 7, 1968, three days after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she dedicated the song, Why? (The King of Love Is Dead), to his memory. Simone s songs, in addition to her civil stance, were a harbinger to the transition from the non-violence ideology espoused by King to the more militant rhetoric of Malcolm X and those associated with the Black Nationalist Movement. The songs of Curtis Mayfield, a pioneer of soul music and rhythm and blues, purported the ideals of a politically conscious African-American public. Referred to as message songs, Mayfield s work fused biblical messages of hope and faith with gospel-tinged vocals and the nuanced aesthetic of and rhythm and blues. With songs like Keep On Pushing, People Get Ready, Meeting Over Yonder and We re a Winner, Mayfield served as a beacon for the struggle for civil rights. His musical and lyrical lexicons appealed to wider and more diverse audiences; he consequently achieved great success in propagating the spirit of the movement. Music, irrespective of the genre, played an essential part in disseminating the message of the American Civil Rights Movement. The freedom songs provided courage and a sense of unity among those willing to fight against the tyranny of racial inequity and a
sense of hope that, as a nation, Americans shall overcome. Michael James Conklin The College of New Jersey Further Reading Carawan, Candie and Carawan, Guy. Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement through its Songs. Montgomery, AL: NewSouth Books, 2008. Hampton, Henry. Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s. New York: Bantam Books, 1991. Monson, Ingrid. Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call out to Jazz and Africa. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Seeger, Pete. Everybody Says Freedom: A History of the Civil Rights Movement in Songs and Pictures. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009. Turck, Mary. Freedom Song: Young Voices and the Struggle for Civil Rights. Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press, 2008. Conklin, 2014