1/11/2024 0 Comments Songs about freedome![]() The trip to the courthouse was one of the most courageous things a Southern African American could do. In addition, the most brutal violence was reserved for African Americans who dared to register to vote, as well as for those who encouraged and assisted them. Although the 15th Amendment, passed in 1870, guaranteed African American men the right to vote, Southern states, in particular, placed many obstacles in the path of voters - poll taxes, literacy tests, bogus “purgings” of voter lists. Eventually Meredith succeeded in registering, and graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1963.ģ. The governor of Mississippi blocked Meredith’s entrance to the university. In 1962, James Meredith attempted to test desegregation by enrolling at the all-white University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), transferring from the historically Black Jackson State College. The mass participation in the yearlong bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama showed the power of organized nonviolent resistance.Ģ. Here is information about historical references in the verses of the song.ġ. Reprinted with permission from the SNCC Digital Gateway profile on " Freedom Singing." “Singing was the ‘bed’ and the ‘air’ to everything,” she later reflected, “and I never heard or felt singing do that on that level of power.” She quickly emerged as a leader of the Albany Movement, using her powerful singing voice to spur the Movement forward. More than anything, freedom music was a tool for liberation–“an instrument,” Bernice Johnson explained, “that was powerful enough to take people away from their conscious selves to a place where the physical and intellectual being worked in harmony with the spirit.” Johnson was a student at Albany State College (now University) in 1961, when SNCC came to the small Southwest Georgia city. Instead of singing the regular gospel songs at mass meetings, Fikes and her friends “started changing the music, the tempo, and the lyrics.” “We would improvise right off the top of our heads,” Fikes recalled, “I was thinking about Selma’s sheriff, Jim Clark, and so I sang, ‘Tell Jim Clark, I’m going to let it shine,’ next I used the head of the state troopers, Al Lingo, and put him in the next verse.” Fikes became the voice of the Selma Movement. And while voter registration was geared towards adults who were eligible to vote, she helped form a young people’s freedom choir. Bettie Mae Fikes was a high school student when SNCC activists began organizing a voter registration drive in Selma, Alabama. comes through knowledge and power - political power.”įreedom singing also gave those who weren’t a part of the established civil rights leadership a chance to have their voices heard in the Movement. Those songs had a real message that night: Freedom. Willie Peacock witnessed this power shortly after joining Block in Greenwood in the fall of 1962. ![]() And people were carried away with the emotion and power that the singing generated. People clapped and sang along with songs that expressed freedom in the face of oppression and courage in the face of danger. Freedom singing, unlike performance-based singing, was congregational, as in church. The music culture of the Movement encouraged people to participate. “I began to see the music itself as an important organizing tool,” Block reported, “not only to bring together but also as an organizational glue to hold them together.” The songs, often borrowed from traditional church songs, helped thaw some of the fear that locals had towards the Movement. ![]() When Sam Block went to Greenwood, Mississippi, to start SNCC’s first voter registration project in the Mississippi Delta, one of the first things he did was teach local people freedom songs. Here is a description of their importance from the SNCC Digital Gateway, followed by the song “If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus.”įreedom singing was a vital part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) community organizing tradition. One cannot understand the history of the Civil Rights Movement absent the role of freedom songs. Board of Education, The Civil Rights Movement, and Our Schools
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |