The extremists who run this country are a bunch of babies who need constant adoration. They’re so insecure that they’ve decided that not liking what they like is somehow illegal. But speaking out against injustice and hate and discrimination is our birthright as Americans. And as a nation we’ve been doing it from the start.
As some of us might be thinking about different ways to make our points, I started thinking about the role of music in the history of protest and opposition. Here’s a few examples to start, with more thoughts to come at a later date.
An area rich in songs which directly or obliquely criticize injustice is the shameful period of American slavery, and the subsequent refusal to fully grant Black Americas equality.
Here’s one whose meaning is familiar to us:
Lift Every Voice And Sing, also known as the Black National anthem, is an appeal for justice and equality with the critique of the society which refuses to grant them to Black Americans embedded in the appeals:
The classic cry against lynching:
If you don’t know the story about Josh White’s song Trouble, it’s worth reading; a straightforward critique that yielded an invitation to perform at the White House from FDR:
The US labor movement has been a rich source of free speech set tomusic:
It’s become a kind of canon to omit some of the verses because they are less “rah rah America!!” and more “eat the rich”:
The International Workers of the World, or the Wobblies, had an incredible gift in their membership: the songwriting ability of Joe Hill.
The stars of this music were the stories of working people themselves:
One of the most electrifying incidents in free speech set to music was the production of Mark Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock. It’s a fascinating story about how a “labor opera” shook up the government because of how it resonated with viewers. And I’m going to write more about it at a later date, but I wanted to include a snippet of this 1985 production, which I also will leave as the last word for this piece.
