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Daniel Cepeda-Gonzalez

Student ID: 63455

BA (Hons) Music Production

Second Year: 2013 / 2014

Popular Music Culture

Richard Lightman

Assessment 2:

The Music in the Civil Rights Movement

Word Count: 3451



The American Civil Rights Movement lead by Martin Luther King and the

support of legendary musicians, made the United States of America and the

whole world a freer place. Music carried the Civil Rights ship through a sea of

blood that costs many lives during the years of the fight for freedom. Musicians

from many different genres joined the movement to stop segregation and

inequality in the USA. Some of them suffered the abuse of police officers and

racist in first person, but all together after decades of struggle and the

assassination of the leader of the cause, Mr. Martin Luther King, achieved the

goal; the same civil rights for any citizen of the United States.

The US Civil Rights Movement was an initiative to fight the discrimination

of the white society towards African-American people in the United States of

America. Prior to the equality of rights for people of any race, the population in

the United States was segregated. Restrooms, drinking fountains, Theaters,

buses, etc., were divided for white and black people. Some places, like public

swimming pools, were allowed to be used by whites only.

The main leader of this movement was Martin Luther King, a pastor from

Atlanta, Georgia, who started the nonviolent process of social change. This

consisted of black people going to places where they were banned, like

Woolworth tables, sit there in a peaceful way and wait to be served, but the only

dished that they brought to their seats was violence. Police officers would beat

them, spit on them, put out cigarettes in their hair –among other things- until

they‟d leave the place. But they kept coming back in peace, despite the



apparent non-existent success of their actions, and the violence received in

every attempt. As Lynda Lowery (Soundtrack for A Revolution, 2011) said: „You

can break my arm, you can break my bone, but you can‟t break my spirit‟, and

they did not break the spirits and the purpose of these people.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest gathering in

the American capita. It was a southern black movement made a national

multiracial event that defined the development for America at large. A quarter of

this movement consisted of white people, who supported the cause, and

together with the African-American people, made the march not only a protest

to gain equality, but also a communal celebration. Many people have died prior

to this congregation, black churches were bombed and people were being

arrested or beaten to death in the streets of the different cities where protest

about the segregation were taking place. „Going to jail was the thing to do even

for the children‟, (Dorothy Cotton, Aide to Martin Luther King). One of the most

famous speeches in American history was made by King the day of The March,

and just four years before he was assassinated. He commenced saying that he

was there to „cash a check for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness‟. His

speech continued in the line of his nonviolent movement, his themed “I have a

dream” that led to the American Dream and the religious themes, and the fact

that people should be judged by the content of their character and not the color

of their skin.

In 1964, under John F. Kennedy‟s presidency, the US Congress passed

a law forbidding racial discrimination in any public place (any place that

received public money). This was the first legal step that would finally make the

American law equal for white and black people.



As stated by John Lewis (Congressman, Student Movement Leader), „It

was the music that created a sense of solidarity‟. Black and white Jazz

musicians were not allowed to play together for a long time. They used to jam

together only after-hours, as Louis Armstrong and Bix Beirderbecke did in

Chicago in the 1920s. In the early 1940s, Boston‟s Savoy Café was the only

place in town with black and white musicians and audience. There was no law

in Boston that prohibited mixing the races, but it was seen as a bad thing

among official circles.

In the South, when black musicians in Jazz bands were booked, they had to be

put in black neighborhoods, and they couldn‟t be seated in restaurants outside

of those neighborhoods. Mixed Jazz bands were becoming more and more

common, as this genre, focused in improvisation, granted success to those who

were able to play their instruments in a virtuoso way. Stanley Crouch (Jazz critic

and historian) wrote recently in the New York Daily News; „Once the whites who

played it and the listeners who loved it began to balk at the limitations imposed

by segregation, Jazz became a futuristic social force in which one was finally

judged purely on the basis of one‟s individual ability. Jazz predicted the Civil

Rights Movement more than any other art in America‟.

African-American musicians constantly wrote songs about the discrimination

and the necessity to be able to sit and eat anywhere, to be free. Sonny Rolling‟s

“Freedom Suite” or John Coltrane‟s “Alabama”, were just two of the many clear

examples of this. Some black civil-rights activists admonished Duke Ellington

for not being involved enough publicly in the movement. And Ellington said to



Nat Hentoff (Jazz critic, historian); „People who think that of me have not been

listening to our music. For a long time, social protest and pride in the Negro

have been our most significant themes in talking about what it is to be a Negro

in this country. With Jazz being the kind of man you wouldn‟t want your

daughter to be associated with‟.

American Folk music played an important role in the Civil Rights

Movement. Artists like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan or Pete Seeger, toured the South

in truck beds and churches singing about the collective right to freedom and

equality. Those songs were built on sing-alongs and conversations, allowing

everyone to sing the “We Shall Overcome” historic tune –among others- in a

friendly environment. These artists achieved two important points in the

movement; they brought some extra media attention to the cause and proved

that white people also supported the fight for the rights of African-Americans.

Pete Seeger and company accompanied Martin Luther King in many of his

speeches, which made people see that they were all in it together.

Pete Seeger popularized the old gospel song “We Shall Overcome” and made it

the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. This song was derived from the one

titled “I‟ll Overcome Someday”. Even though Seeger was the one that changed

the lyrics of the song and made it popular, he shared the song rights with the

other people that he thought made it an anthem with him, Zilphia Horton,

Carawan, and Frank Hamilton, as for him singing that song was not about

cashing in, but to help with the cause.



Joan Baez sang “Oh Freedom” on the morning before King‟s „I Have a Dream‟

speech on the March on Washington, and since that moment became another

anthem of the movement. The song‟s lyrics say; „Oh, freedom! Oh, freedom

over me! Before I‟ll be a slave, I‟ll be buried in my grave‟. With this message, it

is easy to understand the success of this song in that time. Bob Dylan‟s

“Blowing in the Wind” had a great success in the movement as well. Two lines

in the middle of the song say; „How many years can some people exist before

they‟re allowed to be free?‟ This was a clear wink to the African-American

people fighting for their rights. The first line; „How many roads must a man walk

down, before you call him a man‟, could also be directed to the Civil Rights

cause. This song made a deep impact on the people suffering their lack of

freedom, as no matter what they did, they had to experience not being treated

like a man; they were treated instead as some kind of animal that needed to

wait outside restaurants or drunk from cups different than the whites used. Folk

helped spread the cause widely among non-African-American citizens, making

everyone feel that they belonged to the movement since the very beginning.

Another influential genre of the Civil Rights Movement was Soul. This

music genre combined Gospel and Rhythm And Blues. According to the Rock

And Roll Hall Of Fame, Soul music “arouse out of the black experience in

America”.

Artists such as Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Sam Cook, among others,

helped to build the identity of Civil Rights activists. Marvin Gay was one of the

significant Soul artists of the movement. In his song “Save the Children”, Marvin



talks about how he suffers seeing the future that waits for the children, in a

world that “fills him with sorrow”. He wasn‟t talking just about those mothers on

welfare that couldn‟t take care of their kids, but also about the fact that those

babies were born in an unequal society. Some people didn‟t realized at the time

about the hidden messages of the song, but those songs were in fact talking

about the injustices that were happening to the black community all over the

country.

Aretha Franklin‟s “Respect” was a massive hit in the Civil Rights era too. Aretha

stated that the song supported the feminist movement for women‟s rights and

equality. It was without a doubt a song that a woman was singing to “her baby”.

However, all the people that felt that they weren‟t getting all the respect that

they deserved felt identified with this song, and made it part of the movement.

Sam Cook‟s “A Change Is Gonna Come” also belongs to the Civil Rights song

book. Its lyrics start by saying “I was born by the river in a little tent. Oh, and just

like the river I‟ve been running ever since”. The song continues with a clear

content that talks about the inequality, like the phrase that says “I go to the

movie and I go downtown, somebody keep telling me don‟t hang around”. This

reflects the pressure that these people suffered due to the segregation. This

song was full of Civil Rights Movement messages, just like most Soul music

songs at the time were.

Some people enjoy being loud, attracting all the attention to their selves.

Others prefer to be quieter, and therefore only heard by those close by. The

latter was the case of Jazz vocalist and trumpet player Louis Armstrong. Many



people criticized Armstrong for not showing his support to the Civil Rights

Movement publicly. However, the Jazz legend did contribute to the cause

immensely on his way.

Armstrong changed the way popular music was conceived in the USA since the

moment he came to the scene. His raw vocals and trumpet virtuosismo made

the Jazz sound of the era completely fresh, as if it was a new genre. The way

he would sing the standards, the way he would interpret their melodies… it was

a personal style only able to achieve by him. Pops, as he was nicknamed,

influenced artist in the next generations such Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra, and

virtually every Pop artist that came after him. Only by TV footage we can

understand why Armstrong was the civil rights figure by default. He was

constantly teaching white Americans the virtues of the black aesthetic. Many

blacks hated him for not being a public figure in the civil rights movement, but

he was just a musician, not a politician, and whenever he had the chance to

speak, he spoke. In 1957 he criticized President Eisenhower for his refusal to

enforce school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas, what could have cost

him his career. He was the first black entertainer to be that outspoken in that

particular time.

In that era, most luxurious hotels didn‟t allow blacks from staying on them, but

they hired black musicians to play. Louis decided not to play in any hotel that he

couldn‟t stay, and he put that as a condition in his contracts. For him, his way of

helping the movement was through his music, as a silent (or loud, musically

speaking) revolutionary. There was no better way for him to help the black

community that making his great music an everlasting piece of art.



Soul pioneer Ray Charles, also contributed to the civil rights with his

amazing music and his rendition to social justic. He made countless

contributions to the movement, despite being an „all-about-the-money‟ man in

his latest years.

Ray Charles showed a deep commitment to martin Luther King, and therefore

to Martin‟s cause. He helped him not only with his presence and his music, but

also financially. Nonetheless, Charles decided that there was not physical place

for him in the frontlines. Given the strength of the Klan and other racist terror

groups in Birmingham, putting your body on the line as a performer was a risky

thing to do, but he did it for King. In August of 1963, Charles also served as one

of the chief organizers of the Salute to Freedom ‟63. He was, together with his

band, the headliner of this event.

Charles refused to play in many clubs that were segregated, most notably in his

home state, Georgia, which banned him for life subsequently. However, the

state of Georgia issued an official apology in 1977 and made his classic song

“Georgia on My Mind” the official state song. Many people were very hard on

Charles for playing for the republicans. He received $100,000 for playing in

Ronald Reagan‟s second inauguration, but despite his debacle as a civil rights

activist, he did an important contribution to the movement.

Chuck Berry grew up in the center of segregated St. Louis and became

one of the earliest African- American artists to „cross over‟ onto the Pop charts.

He won the attention of white listeners even before he was allowed to dance



with them in some parts of the country. But he wasn‟t just a significant force of

the Civil Rights Movement; he was considered by many the primary architect of

the music that we now know as „Rock „n Roll‟.

The Father of Rock „n Roll often had to play in venues where black and white

people were separated by a barrier, literally. Despite the division of his crowd,

„Sweet Little Sixteen‟ was a massive hit by Berry in 1958, and made him famous

all over the United States. In 1959 he spent a night in prison for kissing a young

white girl at a show and some newspapers in the North commented that „Berry

was contributing to the struggle for desegregation down south by kissing white

girls on stage‟. Shortly after, in 1960, Berry was incarcerated on an anti-

prostitution law that forbade transporting any underage girl across state lines.

The girl stated that he was innocent of any sexual wrongdoing. But the the

charges weren‟t sexual related; the prosecutors only had to prove that Berry

drove that girl across state lines. After a trial that was declared void, and in

which the judge referred to Berry as „this negro‟, a second trial sent the Rock „n

Roll pioneer to serve three years in jail. In the wake of this, when he was out of

prison, he heard on the radio his hit song now played by The Beach Boys and

titled „Surfing USA‟. He later sued for the credits of the song, and now he owns

them.

Chuck Berry loved the Blues but also the hillbilly white singers. Nonetheless,

not everyone saw music as he did. For the majority of white people, black

singers were usually tagged as playing „race music‟, and black people didn‟t

know how to react to Chuck‟s hillbilly country sets. To solve this problem, Berry

started enunciating his words carefully for everyone to understand. He wrote

about young love, teenage live, fan culture, and created some signature dance



moves to raise his value as entertainer. But after he got out of prison, Martin

Luther King had already given his „I have a dream‟ speech, President Kennedy

had been assassinated and the Beatles or The Rolling Stones were the kings of

the Rock charts, Rock „n Roll had also changed. Little Richard, another African-

American rocker, described the change like this; „They didn‟t want those white

kids looking up at this big old greasy black guy, out of Georgia, out of

Mississippi or out of Chicago… they want their kids to see a smooth little white

boy looking pretty and on-duty and rooty‟. R&B had become what black

musicians were doing, and Rock „n Roll what the whites ones were doing.

Berry‟s song in the later years will be covered by many white artists; The Rolling

Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, etc, but his career will never be

the same after his second stint in prison. The civil rights movement brought

great change for some African-American musicians, but for Berry, the damage

was already done and he couldn‟t get his dues.

The Civil Rights Movement was a road that needed to be paved. Martin

Luther King was the man that started the work, costing him his life, but making it

worth it for the next generations ever since. Jazz predicted the Civil Rights

Movement more than any other art in America, and contributed with amazing

musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Sonny Rollings, John Coltrane, among

others. Jazz was the first music genre that allowed a mixed crowd and mixed

musicians on stage.

Shortly after, Folk music helped spread the cause to the white American

citizens, who end up joining the movement taking the logical side. Artists such



Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan or Joan Baez, were one of the most revolutionary and

committed to the cause. “We Shall Overcome”, “Blowing in The Wind” or “Oh,

Freedom”, are all considered popular anthems of the movement. Another genre

full of commitment with the cause was Soul. Many black artists wrote songs that

referred to the civil rights. Artists such as Aretha Franklin, Sam Cook, Marvin

Gay or James Brown, played an important role in the fight for freedom with

significant songs.

Some artists suffered firsthand the injustice of segregation or even were sent to

jail f or their skin color, as happened to Chuck Berry. The Father of Rock „n Roll

had to see how The Beach Boys stole his song „Sweet Little Sixteen‟ and

rename it to „Surfing USA‟. He also had to suffer seeing how the genre that he

invented had been stolen by the white bands from Britain and the USA, the new

Rock bands. Other musicians such Louis Armstrong did a more silent

revolution, although he used his music to fight for his rights, as well as other

blacks. He made the whole world realized how talented and revolutionary the

African-American musicians could be. The music was a fundamental part of the

Civil Rights Movement, an essential grain of sand to build a mountain called

freedom.



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