The Civil Rights Movement

 The singing of spirituals in North America in
the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries was connected
to the ongoing struggle for freedom forged by
women and men in the enslaved African
community. The association between singing
and freedom began early. When newly
captured Africans were loaded like cattle into
the holds of slave ships (the voyage from the
west coast of Africa to the Americas), singing
was one of the few protest tools they had at
their disposal.

 The chief music-making instruments for slaves were
their own voices. Singing together, alone, or in call-
response patterns, slaves improvised, altered, and
embellished, creating sounds rich in tone and texture.
 Slavery Work Songs & Calls
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ewGQiN3SI
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0LZiTPTsxc
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz3m972N4xI
 Swing Low Sweet Chariot - Fisk Jubilee Singers (1909)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUvBGZnL9rE

The evolution of music in the black freedom
struggle reflects the evolution of the movement
itself. Calling songs „„the soul of the movement,‟‟
King explained in his 1964 book Why We Can’t
Wait that civil rights activists „„sing the freedom
songs today for the same reason the slaves sang
them, because we too are in bondage and the
songs add hope to our determination that „‟We
shall overcome, Black and white together, We shall
overcome someday‟‟

 On May 23, 1921, at the Cort Theatre on 63rd Street in
New York City, a musical premiered that would change
Broadway forever. African Americans produced,
created, and performed Shuffle Along, with a book by
Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, music by Eubie
Blake, and lyrics by Noble Sissle. “It was the first
African-American musical to truly succeed
commercially on Broadway”. Langston Hughes, who
saw the production, said that Shuffle Along marked the
beginning of the Harlem Renaissance.
*http://www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80260.pdf

 The Supremes debut in Detroit
 3 Aug 1959
 The Supremes, originally founded as The Primettes
in Detroit, Michigan were the most commercially
successful of Motown's acts and are, to
date, America's most successful vocal group with
12 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. At
their peak in the mid-1960s, The Supremes rivaled
The Beatles in worldwide popularity, and their
success made it possible for future African-
American R&B and soul musicians to find
mainstream success.

 Freedom Riders: Watch the Full Film
 The story behind a courageous band of civil
rights activists called the Freedom Riders who
in 1961 creatively challenged segregation in the
American South.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/
freedomriders/watch

 Group singing provided solace
for Freedom Riders facing the
constant threat of violence. It
was also an effective political
tool. "Without singing, we would
have lost our sense of solidarity“.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuZQkl0
9Jho
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p2TcmX
veOo
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRPRprE
1p1Y

 On the evening of June 11, 1963, President John F.
Kennedy made a televised address to the nation in
which he outlined a Civil Rights law. JFK had until this
point generally treated Civil Rights more as a nuisance
than as a worthy cause. But recent police brutality in
Birmingham, Alabama—all of it shown on television
sets around the nation—had grown too grizzly to
ignore. On May 2, Birmingham‟s Commissioner of
Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor, had sprayed high-
power fire hoses and sent attacking German Shepherds
at a parade of 1,000 marching schoolchildren singing
“We Shall Overcome.” Then on June 11, Governor
George Wallace literally blocked the door to his alma
mater, the University of Alabama, when it accepted
two black students.

We shall overcome, we shall overcome,
We shall overcome someday;
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
We shall overcome someday.
The Lord will see us through, The Lord will see us through,
The Lord will see us through someday;
We shall overcome someday.
We're on to victory, We're on to victory,
We're on to victory someday;
We're on to victory someday.
We'll walk hand in hand, we'll walk hand in hand,
We'll walk hand in hand someday;
We'll walk hand in hand someday.
We are not afraid, we are not afraid,
We are not afraid today;
We are not afraid today.
The truth shall make us free, the truth shall make us free,
The truth shall make us free someday;
The truth shall make us free someday.
We shall live in peace, we shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace someday;
We shall live in peace someday.

 I Have a Dream Speech
Martin Luther King's Address at March on
Washington
August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring
from every village and every hamlet, from every
state and every city, we will be able to speed up
that day when all of God's children, black men and
white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the
words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free
at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of
1964, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. The Act prohibits
discrimination of all kinds based on
race, color, religion or national origin. It also
provides the federal government with the
power to enforce desegregation.

 The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights
ended three weeks--and three events--that represented
the political and emotional peak of the modern civil
rights movement. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965,
some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of
Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the
Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state
and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and
tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days
later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a
"symbolic" march to the bridge. Then civil rights
leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale
march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery.

 Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965
making it easier for Southern blacks to register
to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes and other such
requirements that were used to restrict blacks
are made illegal.

 Born Malcolm Little in in 1925, Malcolm was the son of James Earl Little, a
Baptist preacher who advocated the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey.
Threats from the Ku Klux Klan forced the family to move. In 1931, Malcolm's
father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion, and
Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible. In 1937, Malcolm
was taken from his family by welfare caseworkers.
 In 1946, at the age of 21, Malcolm was sent to prison on a burglary conviction.
It was there he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of
the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black Muslims.
The Nation of Islam advocated black nationalism and racial separatism and
condemned Americans of European descent as immoral "devils."
Muhammad's teachings had a strong effect on Malcolm, who entered into an
intense program of self-education and took the last name "X" to symbolize his
stolen African identity.
 On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X
was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his
organization in New York City.

 Riots break out in a black section of L.A. The riots last from Aug. 11 to
Aug. 17, 1965.
 In the predominantly black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, racial
tension reaches a breaking point after two white policemen scuffle with a
black motorist suspected of drunken driving. A crowd of spectators
gathered near the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street to watch
the arrest and soon grew angry by what they believed to be yet another
incident of racially motivated abuse by the police. A riot soon began,
spurred on by residents of Watts who were embittered after years of
economic and political isolation. The rioters eventually ranged over a 50-
square-mile area of South Central Los Angeles, looting stores, torching
buildings, and beating whites as snipers fired at police and firefighters.
Finally, with the assistance of thousands of National Guardsmen, order
was restored on August 16.
 The five days of violence left 34 dead, 1,032 injured, nearly 4,000 arrested,
and $40 million worth of property destroyed. The Watts riot was the
worst urban riot in 20 years and foreshadowed the many rebellions to
occur in ensuing years in Detroit, Newark, and other American cities.

 http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.ht
ml?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=99315652&m=99
312970
 Of the many musicians who used their music to
advance the cause of civil rights, Nina Simone was
one of the most passionate, most outspoken and
most gifted. Although many of her civil-rights-era
songs had their origins earlier in the 20th
century, this song was written in 1967 by noted
jazz pianist and educator Dr. Billy Taylor (along
with Dick Dallas), and was recorded by Simone
that same year. It quickly became one of the
musical mainstays of the movement.

Martin Luther King, Jr. at the age of
39, is shot and killed on the balcony
outside his hotel room in Memphis.
Escaped convict and committed
racist James Earl Ray is convicted
of the crime.

 Black Panthers, also known as Huey P.
Newton,
Charles Garry, Armelia Newton, Bobby Seale,
James Forman, Bob Avakian, Stokely
Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and Ron Dellums
speak at Free Huey rally, February 17th, 1968,
Oakland Auditorium, Alameda, California.
Directed by Sally Pugh, American
Documentary Films
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axhhXJqJJ-U

 On December 4th, 1969, Chicago police raided Fred
Hamptons apartment and shot and killed him in his
bed. He was just twenty-one years old. Black Panther
leader Mark Clark was also killed in the raid. While
authorities claimed the Panthers had opened fire on the
police who were there to serve a search warrant for
weapons, evidence later emerged that told a very
different story: that the FBI, the Cook County states
attorneys office and the Chicago police conspired to
assassinate Fred Hampton. We speak with attorney
Jeffrey Haas, author of The Assassination of Fred
Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police
Murdered a Black Panther.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KF9xycQITo

 James Brown: Say it loud, I‟m Black and Proud
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CisfU6vkLvo
 Sam Cooke: A Change Is Gonna Come
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs
 Nina Simone: Mississippi Goddam
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppB8VdPNTSY
 Otis Redding: Respect
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvC9V_lBnDQ
 Marvin Gaye: What‟s Goin‟ on
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-5c5o85SGo
 Gil Scott Heron: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGaoXAwl9kw

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzM8fgRDI24
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypwgXe6pI_A
 Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was an American
politician, educator and author. She was a
Congresswoman, representing New York's 12th
District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1968, she
became the first African-American woman elected to
Congress. On January 23, 1972, she became the first
major party African-American candidate for President
of the United States. She received 152 first-ballot votes
at the 1972 Democratic National Convention

 Soul Train, the first black-oriented music
variety show ever offered on American
television, is one of the most successful weekly
programs marketed in first run syndication and
one of the longest running syndicated
programs in American television history.

 Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress
passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which
expands the reach of non-discrimination laws
within private institutions receiving federal
funds.

 After two years of debates, vetoes and
threatened vetoes, President Bush reverses
himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of
1991, strengthening existing Civil Rights laws
and providing for damages in cases of
intentional employment discrimination.

 The first race riots in decades erupt in south-
central Los Angeles after a jury acquits four
white police officers for the videotaped beating
of Rodney King.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OauOP
Twbqk
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW1ZDI
XiuS4

 Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduces
the Civil Rights Act of 2008. Some of the
proposed provisions include ensuring that
federal funds are not used to subsidize
discrimination and holding employers
accountable for age discrimination.

Although the election of President Barack
Obama was an achievement, it does not put an
end to the movement. There’s been a lot of
racism directed at our president. Racism is just
one of many forms of oppression that continues.
Below is a link to a list of music, new and
old, inspired by the Civil Rights Music:
http://www.npr.org/2013/07/09/199105070/the
-mix-songs-inspired-by-the-civil-rights-movement

Racism increased slightly since Obama’s election
WASHINGTON — Racial attitudes have not improved in the four years since the United States
elected its first black president, an Associated Press poll finds, as a slight majority of Americans now
express prejudice toward blacks whether they recognize those feelings or not.
Those views could cost President Barack Obama votes, the survey found, though the effects are
mitigated by some people's more favorable views of blacks.
Racial prejudice has increased slightly since 2008 whether those feelings were measured using
questions that explicitly asked respondents about racist attitudes, or through an experimental test
that measured implicit views toward race without asking questions about that topic directly.
In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent
in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of
Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last
presidential election.
"As much as we'd hope the impact of race would decline over time ... it appears the impact of anti-
black sentiment on voting is about the same as it was four years ago," said Jon Krosnick, a Stanford
University professor who helped develop the survey.
Most Americans expressed anti-Hispanic sentiments, too. In an AP survey done in 2011, 52 percent
of non-Hispanic whites expressed anti-Hispanic attitudes. That figure rose to 57 percent in the
implicit test. The survey on Hispanics had no past data for comparison.
The surveys were conducted with researchers from Stanford University, the University of Michigan
and NORC at the University of Chicago.
 *http://www.timesdaily.com/archives/article_21bc9306-3e42-553e-bc8d-
f588703949d8.html

Brother Ali - Uncle Sam Goddamn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO18F4aKGzQ
Dead Prez: Police State
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c_UdWo4Zek
Dead Prez: All Power To The People Part
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi8TaEA6aC8
DEAD Prez: PROPAGANDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMnLHmTXjgU
Lupe Fiasco: Words I Never Said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22l1sf5JZD0
Immortal Technique : Point of No Return
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igt-jW4e8ts
2pac: Changes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nay31hvEvrY
2Pac: Letter to the President
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQx4ZW9sPzk
Bob Marley: Get up Stand Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2W3aG8uizA

 Npr.og
 Pbs.com
 BET.com
 History of Spirituals:
http://ctl.du.edu/spirituals/freedom/civil.cfm
 britannica.com
 nationalhumanitiescenter.org
 newworldrecords.org (New World Records is a record label
based in New York City specializing in American music).
 An Introduction to America‟s Music
 history.com

The Civil Rights Movement

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