Singing the Civil Rights

Civil Rights Movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. Legal and other efforts led by African Americans against racism and segregation and for the performance of legislation ensuring their full civil and human rights. Music at that time played a big role. The songs called freedom songs motivated people to continue fighting for their rights. It gave them strength and power. Music brought people together and established solidarity. Bernice Johnson Reagon said, ”One of the first things that's important when you think about freedom songs and the Civil Rights Movement is to not actually think of freedom songs as if they were created strategically by the Movement. Like the collective breath of the Movement, they were a natural outpouring, evidencing the life force of the fight for freedom.” As Bernice Johnson Reagon says, the freedom songs were the key to success.

This is the essay of Bernice Johnson Reagon

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/reflect/r03_music.html

In the Civil Rights Movement, most of the singing was congregational. In other words, freedom songs were also named congregational songs. These freedom songs were also political songs sung by people who were opposing an unfair society. These songs were sung everywhere, but people usually held meetings at the church because that was the safest place for them. As I said in the paragraph above, the songs helped people to continue fighting for their rights. It also helped them to come closer together and to realize that they are not alone. As it says in the article eyes on the prize, "Mass meetings would generally start... with people singing songs -- spiritual songs, singing freedom songs -- and it was really kind of a warm-up thing to get people involved, to get people to relax."

This is the link to this article

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/09_summer.html#music

After the big struggle that the African American went through, it finally got over and people now are seeing as equal. Government now gave them a kind of independence and everything started opening for them. The freedom songs are still living in all hearts of the African American people. It is still important because these songs remind them the hard time they had.

The White House planned a concert during the Black History Month to celebrate the music that actually tells the story of America. Here is a link which shows the White House celebrating Civil Rights Movement through music.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june10/music_02-11.html

American Labor Movement

Before 1900 people worked long hours for low wages. They were laws to protect the workers, but not good enough to protect the working conditions. The labor movement then began as people started to cooperate to improve their work conditions. They created labor unions to help workers get organized for their rights. Unions faced difficult battles. Workers died while trying to achieve their rights. Labor movement, as an author says, is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth. Joe Hill was known for making songs that talk about the feelings of workers and his opinions about the whole society. Joe Hill also was one of the workers who suffered and did not have the rights to speak out loud. His song ‘I thought I heard Joe Hill last night’ is a song about someone who saw Joe Hill in his dream. The person could not really believe that he saw him because Joe Hill got killed. Joe Hill then says in the dream that he would never die. This song actually explains us that even though Joe Hill is not present physically, he is still alive in the hearts of the workers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Kxq9uFDes&feature=player_embedded#at=20

People during the time of the American Labor Movement, needed someone or something to give them power and strength. When songs came up, workers created a big motivation to continue fighting for their rights. Joe Glazer explains us that music was the key thing to bring workers together. In other words, he said that music is a great weapon in the battle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaQ7qWo6120&feature=player_embedded
The article “Industrial and the Rise of Labor Music” has some great examples. The article says that songs, like some of Joe Hill’s songs called for direct action on the part of the laboring masses.

As I said earlier, songs gave people motivation and the strength to achieve their goals. The songs are still important for us today because they remind us how people suffered and what kind of big changes the American Labor Movement created. One of the songs is the one from Utah Phillips called “Pie in the sky.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhhzElzTZJw

Blog assignment 1

"We Are Soldiers in the Army" ft. Freedom Singers

The purpose of this blog is to get to know better for what the songs are written or what meanings these songs have. This course introduces us to the social and political changes that happened in the past and the impact the music had on them.  From the American Labour Movement Wobblies to the Singing Revolution in Estonia, and from Civil Rights freedom songs to Apartheid protest songs in South Africa, this course will explore how music has united people, raised awareness of controversial issues, and effected change in society and politics. I personally took this class because of two reasons. First, I am majoring in International Relations and I thought this kind of music will help me to know the history of different countries better. Another reason is that I never joined a music class before and I thought this one would be a good and new experience for me. As I said earlier, I hope I will get to know better what music really means and what effect it had on people and their opinions on social and political issues.

            http://www.folkways.si.edu/explore_folkways/civil_rights.aspx

           

            The group named Freedom Singers was formed in1962 in Albany, Georgia. It included four singers, Cordell Hull Reagon, Bernice Johnson, Charles Neblett, Matthew Jones and Rutha Harris. Their goals were to raise money for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and to unite other African Americans in the cause of integration. Their music became powerful freedom songs. The most important topic for them was the Civil Rights Movement. They used traditional Black American music to introduce their topic.

Their songs and music played an important role in the Civil Rights movement because the people in this group were participants in the Civil Rights Movement. Their lyrics described the experiences of the Nashville Freedom Riders. Some songs used humor and irony to make their point. The song “We Shall Overcome” is referred to as the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. Many singers were singing this song, including the Freedom Singers. This song and many others of the Civil Rights Movement speak deeply of the nonviolent resistance, and spirit of this turbulent time. The Freedom Singers songs wrote lyric to give hope to people who went through this and to make them walk hand in hand and not feel alone, no matter what will happen. Therefore, people while listening to these songs became stronger and had more confidence. The freedom songs also reflected their roots in African American cultural tradition.

http://www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com/freedomsingers.shtml 

I was drawn to this group because of their issue they addressed which was The Civil Rights Movement. By listening to their songs, I got a better view of how people suffered and what made them continue to belief in their dreams and hopes. As I said before, I am interested in knowing better what effect music had on people and this group really showed me that freedom songs were a great help at that time to keep the society together and unite African Americans in the cause of integration. As a member of the group explained; sometimes it is hard to change inside. Sometimes love is a hard thing to get back, but we are soldiers in the army and we will not stop fighting.

Blog assignment 4

Diversity appreciation is important in the 21^st century because one has to understand the opinions and beliefs of others.  Diversity strengthens society and gives people room to expand their thoughts, traditions, and beliefs.  Staten Island suffered from the pain they had. Therefore, they decided to bring people together. They worked with the Mediation Center and educated people on how to communicate and resolve conflicts without using violence.

In the beginning they brought together many Islanders with different backgrounds for a ‘pot-luck’ dinner. They had different people, such as political leaders, religious leaders and more who shared their feelings with interested Islanders. Later, they planned to make activities that actually are for children. They read out loud of children’s book, made a puppet show which represented one culture and etc. Then they created the Mosaic Coalition, which was a ‘’education through interaction’’. This helped to educate each other. In order to achieve this goal, they needed volunteers. Therefore, they decided to sent e-mails to college faculty and staff, college students, and community schools. By doing this they finally created  Celebrate Diversity. Many project came up, such as cooking project, documentary project, and so on.

Diversity appreciation is important at Westminster College because we have so many different cultures. As we realized in class, people are not collaborating with each other so well. Diversity appreciation would be the best solution for Westminster College. People with different culture, beliefs, and opinions could meet with each other and share their knowledge.  They could play games, which has to do with culture. They could meet once a months and talk about things that happened. This would make it easier for everyone to live freely and happy. A better relationship would have been created.

Broadside Ballads were songs intended to reflect contemporary events of social and political nature such as wars, crimes, executions, or disasters. In other words, these songs were made in a simple ballad form, which were sung in public places and about social and political issues. They came out after the invention of printing in the 15th century and were spread out in streets and marketplaces of Europe into the 19th century. The song I chose is a song from Pete Seeger named Bring ‘Em Home. Pete Seeger was born in 1919. His parents were both professional musicians. Pete Seeger joined the Harvard College with a scholarship, but lost it later on because of his grades. He developed interests in music during his teens and became later on an American folk singer. Pete Seeger created many songs about political issues, such as the song ‘Bring ‘Em Home’ which was a song about the Vietnam War. This song was one of Pete Seeger’s most outspoken songs. He wrote the song in 1965 to protest US involvement in Vietnam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4-w2FYIJbw&feature=related I personally like the lyric of this song because it shows how much these people missed their friends, family members and colleagues who participated the Vietnam War. I truly can understand why people wanted to bring them back home. When the war in Kosovo started all my uncles were there trying to fight for their country. I was glad that my father was in Switzerland and decided to stay there, but when I saw my cousins crying for their fathers to come back, I felt abysmal. This song brought back my emotions I had during the war in Kosovo. I am sure it does not only bring my emotions back, it also does the ones who actually were part in the Vietnam War, which were the soldiers. This song gave inspirations to all soldiers and showed them that back home there are people who are thinking about them and missing them. Not only this song, but all Broadside Ballads raise the awareness of what people think and feel about the different social political issues that bothered them.