Jazz and Civil Rights

From: With Good Reason
Length: 28:59

Musicians' impact on the Movement. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Jazz and Civil Rights
From: With Good Reason

Louis-armstrong3_small Antonio Garcia says that the personal and professional lives of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane cannot be divorced from the struggle for racial equality—they contributed in significant ways to interracial understanding and social progress. Also featured: The composers of the Civil Rights anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" also created musical theater at the turn of the century, transforming the image of African American characters and performers. Paula Marie Seniors looks at the lives of the composers Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, whose work helped break down stereotypical portrayals of black Americans.

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Piece Description

Antonio Garcia says that the personal and professional lives of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane cannot be divorced from the struggle for racial equality—they contributed in significant ways to interracial understanding and social progress. Also featured: The composers of the Civil Rights anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" also created musical theater at the turn of the century, transforming the image of African American characters and performers. Paula Marie Seniors looks at the lives of the composers Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, whose work helped break down stereotypical portrayals of black Americans.

Broadcast History

Public radio stations across Virginia - May 15 - 21, 2010

Transcript

"Jazz and Civil Rights"

(Music: Lift Every Voice and Sing)

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" has been called the African-American National Anthem. It started out as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and and then his brother, John Rosamond Johnson set it to music. In 1919, the NAACP adopted the song as its national anthem. By the 1920s, copies of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" could be found in black churches across the country, often pasted into the hymnals.

[Music continues]

The composers of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" also created groundbreaking musical theater at the turn of the century, transforming the image of African American characters and performers. I’m Sarah McConnell and this is With Good Reason.

But first, jazz music is one of America’s great cultural contributions in the modern era. And it hastened the arrival of the civil rights movement. Antonio Garcia is a trombonist...
Read the full transcript