LibGuides Blog

Music and the Civil Rights Movement(s)

Throughout American history, African American music has expressed a desire, and at times a demand, for freedom and equality.  Songs known as “spirituals” referenced Biblical stories of slavery and became synonymous with Black aspiration.  Reconstruction-era audiences heard four-part arrangements sung by HBCU singing groups such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, who demonstrated a high level of artistry and elegance in contrast to minstrel show caricatures.  Later, classically-trained singers and arrangers have promoted spirituals as an art form on the concert stage from Reconstruction to the present.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose wife Coretta Scott King was a classically trained singer, frequently referenced spirituals in his speeches.  Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, a philosophical and literary movement celebrating Black culture, Black classical composers turned spirituals into art songs and incorporated them into orchestral works.  The Library of Congress' article African American Spirituals has more information.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers were among the first American performers to be recorded.  You can hear their 1909-1911 recordings online via the Alexander Street Press database. (UMU authentication required)

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a hymn composed in 1900 to honor Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.  It quickly became known as the Black National Anthem, and was adopted as an official song by the NAACP.  Read the lyrics and watch a video from an NAACP convention:    It is the first song in a modern hymnal for use in Black churches, aptly titled Lift Every Voice and Sing II: An African American Hymnal, available in the Cope Music Library hymnal collection.

In popular music of the 20^th century, artists in many genres, including classical, jazz, soul, top 40, and rap styles, expressed struggles and hopes in every decade. Billie Holiday’s 1959 hit, “Strange Fruit,” was a song about lynching.  In 1964 “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke was a message of hope in the face of disparagement.  For more information, consult these library resources (UMU authentication required for online resources):

Reference Books

• Encyclopedia of African American Music (Main Library/KHIC)
• International Dictionary of Black Composers (eBook)

Books

• Spirituals and the Birth of a Black Entertainment Culture (eBook)
• Blackface Nation: Race, Reform, and Identity in American Popular Music, 1812-1925 (eBook)
• Jim Crow’s Counterculture: The Blues and Black Southerners, 1890-1945 (Main Library/KHIC)
• May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem (eBook)
• The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States (eBook)
• A Sound History: Lawrence Gellert, Black Musical Protest, and White Denial (eBook)
• Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip-Hop (eBook)
• Black Lives Matter & Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection (Main Library/KHIC)

Streaming Videos

• American Experience: The Fisk Jubilee Singers (part 1, part 2, part 3)
• Jazz (Ken Burns PBS series)
• The History of Black Music, Part 1 (Tony Brown Productions)