From initial gospel-infused optimism to disillusionment and rage at what it means to be African American in America today, the following 12 songs have carried with them the hopes and fears, deceptions and rage of generations of African Americans, sixty years after the Civil Rights Act.
1. Odetta – Take This Hammer (1957)
“They want to feed me cornbread and molasses
But I got my pride”
You can’t see the tears and the wounds of the ones singing this prison work song, but Odetta’s voice will make you feel them in the deepest way.
While the lyrics are of hope and pride, the repetitions and rhythm are those of chain-ganged prisoners digging dry earth. This uncomfortable twinge you feel in your heart? It’s pain.
2. Odetta – Spiritual Trilogy: “Oh, Freedom”, “Come and Go With Me”, “I’m on My Way” (1957)
“And before I’d be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free”
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Hop on the train, this trilogy is taking you on a spiritual journey to freedom and liberation. The slow and emotional ‘Oh Freedom’, which was performed by Joan Baez during the March on Washington in 1963, morphs into the energetic Come and Go with me. Your head will be spinning with hope and resolution by the time ‘I’m On My Way’ finishes.
3. Mahalia Jackson – How I Got Over (1961)
“Tell me how we got over Lord
Had a mighty hard time coming on over
You know my soul look back and wonder
How did we make it over?”
Gospel legend and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson performed gospel hymn ‘How I Got Over’ at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom before an audience of 250,000 people.
She sang this powerful tale of resilience after Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech (she actually prompted him to divert from his original speech to talk about the dream). Almost five years later, Mahalia Jackson would be singing at the funeral of her friend Dr King.
4. Nina Simone – Mississippi Goddam (1964)
“Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You’re all gonna die and die like flies
I don’t trust you any more
You keep on saying ‘Go slow!’
‘Go slow!’”
Nina Simone wrote ‘Mississippi Goddam’ in response to the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1963 in Jackson Mississippi. Evers was shot in the back on his lawn, in front of his wife and children.
Do not be fooled by the upbeat pace of the song, it is an angry disillusioned song, the emotions conveyed by Nina Simone’s voice will shake you to the core. You’ll shiver to the terrifying prophetic “You’re all gonna die and die like flies” and the piercing sarcasm in “You don’t have to live next to me just give me my equality”.
It’s a song that hurts.
5. Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come (1964)
“Then I go to my brother
and I say brother please help me
but he winds up knocking me
back down on my knees”
When Cooke and his family were denied boarding in a white-only hotel in Louisiana, the seeds for ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ were sowed. The song is also a response to Dylan’s 1962 Blowin’ in the Wind.
It reflected the belief of millions that enough was enough, and that the time had come for American society to look into a new direction. ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ became an anthem for the civil rights movement.
6. Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions – People Get Ready (1965)
“People get ready, there’s a train comin’
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board”
This absolute treasure of a song, strongly influenced by gospel music, was often referred to by Martin Luther King as the unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement. Encouraging people to hop on a coming train, the song uses imagery common to many anti-slavery songs, where the Underground Railroad refers to a network of routes and hiding places used by slaves to escape to the abolitionist North of the country.
People Get Ready is a beautiful song, one that calls people to stand on the right side of history since “There ain’t no room for the hopeless sinner whom would hurt all mankind, Just to save his own”.
7. James Brown – Say It Loud, I’m Black and Proud (1968)
“There’s one thing more I got to say right here
Now, now we’re people, we’re like the birds and the bees
We rather die on our feet than keep livin’ on our knees “
Written in the year Martin Luther King died, James Brown’s funk message of self-affirmation and pride infused a new energy to the fight for civil rights, when many felt the dream had died with the dreamer. The message is not one of hope, but one of fight and determination.
8. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (1971)
Released by Motown, Marvin Gaye’s album was the first ever soul concept album. All songs on the album are protest songs, told from the point of view of a Vietnam veteran coming back to America.
The country he’s fought for is in turmoil, plagued by hatred, segregation and violence. Three years after the death of Dr Martin Luther King, the songs definitely move away from the optimism and lightness of the gospel-infused Motown sound of the 1960s.
What’s going on? is the sober observation of a society on the brink of explosion, riddled by divisions and brutality. This was 1971, and this song is today as relevant as ever.
9. Public Enemy – Fight the Power (1989)
“Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
Let’s get this party started right
Right on, c’mon
What we got to say yeah
Power to the people no delay
Make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be”
Written as the soundtrack for Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Fight the Power irrupted in the world’s charts with a simple and explosive refrain over a loop of ten samples, including James Brown’s Hot Pants.
Far from the generation of 1960s dreamers, the song called onto a whole new generation to fight the powers and institutions in place which had accepted and perpetuated discriminations for as long as they had existed.
It was no longer time to resist peacefully, it was time to fight. No one was spared, starting with American icon Elvis Presley.
10. Ben Harper – Like a King (1994)
“Make sure it’s filmed
Shown on national T.V.
They’ll have no mercy
A legal lynch mob”
In 1991, American construction worker Rodney King was beaten by police officers after he was arrested for drunk driving. Someone filmed the arrest and the assault and the footage sent to media networks.
The images showing an unarmed man lying on the ground while police officers beat him sparked outrage around the world. Almost thirty years after the wave of hope sparked by the March on Washington, the two Kings are united in the same song, as “Martin’s dream has become Rodney’s worst nightmare”.
11. Lauryn Hill – Black Rage (2014)
“Black rage is founded on draining and draining
Threatening your freedom to stop your complaining”
Lauryn Hill had performed this song live in the past, but the song was officially released in August 2014, and dedicated to the inhabitants of Ferguson, where 18 year old Michael Brown had been shot by police officers after he had surrendered. Protests turned into looting turned into a bloody cycle of riots and brutal repression.
Hill uses the familiar and happy tune of “the Sound of Music” to support her implacable lyrics, with children’s voices playing in the background (Hill recorded the song in her living room). The result is a simple short heart-breaking song.
12. Childish Gambino – This is America (2018)
“You just a black man in this world
You just a barcode, ayy
You just a black man in this world”
The song and its graphic video, with scenes of shooting and brutality, is as pleasing as a slap in the face. Tackling gun control and racial tensions, it is a sobering and painful reminder of what it means to be Black in America in 2018, thirty years after the death of Martin Luther King’s dream.
‘This Is America’ offers a grim and mad take on a society in which things no longer make sense, and guns and violence have become the blueprint for relations between people.
