Music And Black Liberation

Music and Black liberation refers to music associated with Black political movements for emancipation, civil rights, or self-determination. The connection between music and politics has been used in many cultures and was utilized by blacks in their struggle for freedom and civil rights. Music has been used by African Americans over the course of United States history to express feelings of struggle and hope, as well as to foster a sense of solidarity to aid their fight for liberation and justice. African Americans have used music as a way to express their struggle for freedom and equality which has spanned the history of the United States which has resulted in the creation and popularization of many music genres including, jazz, funk, disco, rap, and hip hop. Many of these songs and artists played pivotal roles in generating support for the civil rights movement.

History

Before the 20th century

African American slave songs (19th century)

With the beginning of the 16th century came the Atlantic slave trade which was responsible for the enslavement and transportation of over 12 million Africans from its inception until it was disbanded in the 19th century. The slave trade involved the capture and enslavement of free African peoples of which a majority were brought to the Americas. As the descendants of an enslaved population, music provided African Americans with an opportunity to experience the idea of freedom before it became a reality with the passing of the 14th Amendment in 1868. Under the ever-present and watchful eye of their masters, slaves were forced to develop creative and clever mechanisms of masking their rebellion which was often manifested in song. Slaves would often hold private worship meetings which provided a temporary to escape from their enslavement and created a communal environment in which they could find comfort in each other. The subject of many slave songs was liberation and rebellion; however, they would conceal the true meaning of their freedom songs through references to symbols and by reworking traditional worship songs in order to illude their masters. They would play drums and dance as a way of expressing their culture and also as a way to rally their slave community together in unity. Many times music encouraged and spurred uprisings and revolts.

There have been several developments in the origins of slaves songs and their unique mixture of the African roots and European and New World influences. There are three distinct types of slave song: African music, Afro-American music, and the blending of Negro music with the songs of Caucasians. The New World slave came to constitute its own people with a separate and unique culture and experience – one of long-suffering and struggle, but also one of hope and solidarity. It is this reality that can be recognized in slave songs throughout the 18th and 19th century. These songs served as a reprieve from the sufferings of slavery, but were inherently sorrowful and riddled with pain.  Above all, the songs of the slaves reflect the passion of human sorrow and the troubled spirits of those who created and sang them.

20th Century

Civil Rights Movement

Even in the midst of Jim Crow, music provided a form of cultural autonomy in which African Americans were able to continue a tradition of accommodation and resistance. Musical tradition, such as group singing, was used to express solidarity, cultural pride, inspiration, and hope among the early activists. Many artists wrote their music to speak out against the injustice that they saw around them. There were many musical artists who added their voice to the those who sang the slave songs of the past, and many of those slave songs were the inspiration for these musical artists. Music provided a rhetorical outlet that allowed movement leaders and supporters, such as Aretha Franklin, to garner support from a large audience with diverse backgrounds. Aretha Franklin, called the Queen of Soul, championed the rights and freedoms of African Americans. In her song, "Think," Aretha sings again and again, "Freedom!" as a way to draw attention to the black freedom struggle. Throughout the 20th century, Franklin supported the Civil Rights Movement and financially donated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As early as 1939, Billie Holiday sang and popularized the song "Strange Fruit", which commented on lynchings in the south.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) used A Capella groups and popular artists like Dick Gregory to deepen bonds with local communities, embolden the fearful, and even raise money for the cause at community events throughout the South. SNCC organized a musical tour of The Freedom Singers, a quartet group consisting of the African American musicians, Charles Neblett, Bernice Johnson, Rutha Mae Harris, and Cordell Reagon. This group would hold musical concerts and a meetings to encourage people to register to vote and become informed of their civil rights. Donations collected at these concerts provided nearly $50,000 for the SNCC to be able to continue their education on civil rights across the country. In 1964, The Ku Klux Klan would sometimes burn crosses on the lawn outside the halls where the concerts were being held, but while there was great opposition to these concerts, the music gave African Americans a voice and put them on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. Activist and folk singer Pete Seeger noted the importance of music in the Civil Rights Movement and was a notable conduit of music within the movement. Seeger was known to have helped spread the song ‘We Shall Overcome” to civil rights workers at the Highlander Folk School, which became an anthem of civil justice activism. This demonstrates the power of music in the black freedom struggle, and the ways that civil rights activists utilized songs to inspire and empower the movement.

Free jazz

Overlapping with the Civil Rights Movement, jazz musicians such as Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra pushed the boundaries of jazz as a musical form, embracing free improvisation and rejecting various forms and elements previously associated with jazz music. Free jazz was seen as a reaction, not only to the strictures of jazz as a musical form, but to the political turmoil of the mid-20th century and the continued oppression of Black people in the United States. Some free jazz musicians, such as Ed Blackwell and Leon Thomas, also incorporated elements of traditional African music and other non- Western influences in their music.

Anti-colonialist and Pan-African movements

Prominent African musicians have been associated with anti-colonial movements in the 20th century, such as Miriam Makeba, Dorothy Masuka

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