Civil Rights Movement - Tumblr Posts

rough draft of new intro

In the public mind, the civil rights movement exists as a phenomenon that revolutionized the still-rural U.S. South between 1954 and 1965, led by courageous and deeply moral men who confronted violent racism with nonviolence and civil disobedience, driven by their belief that the time for African-American rights had finally come. But in the last two decades, professional historians have begun to challenge this categorization, pushing the temporal, geographic, tactical, institutional and gendered boundaries of the traditionally drawn movement. Long civil rights scholars such as Jacqueline Dowd Hall, Peniel Joseph and Martha Biondi have all explored black freedom struggles outside the South and before its rhetorically nonviolent battles for integration. Meanwhile, urban historians like Thomas Sugrue, Robert O. Self and Matthew Lassiter have re-injected black activism into the narrative of post-WWII urban growth. However, none of these works have addressed the central question of what these struggles for equality might mean in the nation’s capital, where its residents of all races have long been constitutionally denied the right to vote.

Despite much excellent work on relevant themes such as grassroots and cross-racial coalitions, the role of federal intervention, and the distinctiveness of Northern and Western movements, scholars examining the long civil rights movement and post WWII cities have not fully explored the District of Columbia and its century-old battle for voting rights. Yet without such an understanding, we are left with an inadequate analysis that ignores both the Mid-Atlantic region between North and South and the federal government’s remarkable power to decide who should have rights.

This study will remedy the gap in the literature by examining post-WWII racial politics in the District in order to more fully elucidate the city’s previously unrecognized relationships with national civil rights organizations and the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. This study will focus particularly on Washington in the years between 1945 and 1973, when the U.S. Congress finally granted residents some means to home rule. Through a close analysis of the role played by African-American activists in the District’s extended battle against Congress for voting rights, I will show that in contrast to previous assumptions about the exceptionality of the District, in fact the work of these activists should be considered one piece of the larger nationwide push for black political power.

Introduction

hi! american folk revival is my special interest and i wanted to make a blog dedicated to it. I'm mainly going to talk about american folk music between the years 1940-1979, and im mainly going to talk about music that addressed social injustices or was influential in the civil rights movement or if it was good old union music.

I LOVE DOING RESEARCH ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF FOLK SONGS OR COUNTRY SONGS!! it is like enrichment to me and i say yippee! whenever anyone asks about it, so you should ask me about the origins of folk/country/blues songs 😁 i will make a post about it

genres you can expect to see

-blues

-jazz

-bluegrass

-soul

-gospel

-old country

-traditional folk

-folk

resources

folk history archive list

Roud Folk song index

Smithsonian folkways

Spotify master playlist

YouTube master playlist

ok!! thanks for reading!!

my plan is to post aesthetic pictures of Bob dylan for fellow queers to reblog to lure them into following my blog, where they will have to learn the history of folk music as a a traditional tool for protest and labor and the many leftist origins of folk and the ways this is often overlooked and erased especially when it comes to black artists

oh hey, unrelated, check out this cool song by paul robeson in 1924 :)

or this rendition of Strange Fruit by Josh White (1964)

or this song by Odetta in 1957

or this song by lead belly in 1936

or this Gospel song by the Freedom Singers in 1961

or this song 1961

or this song by Nina Simone in 1965

Nina Simone - Symphony Hall, Boston, Mass. - 1969, Smithsonian Institution

Song of the day

"Free and Equal Blues" Josh White, 1940s

this song was also covered by Earl Robinson here in 1957

Paul Robeson on colonialism

Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest, ep. 5, 1965 "O' Mary Don't You Weep" Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie, Bernice Reagon

Song of the day

(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)

"Joshua" Odetta, 1956

"Joshua fit De Battle Of Jericho" is an encredibly old song created by african enslaved people in America sometime prior to the Civil War. Like many Old Testament songs in black gospel music, it alludes to a longing for freedom and victory against persecution. The song was first recorded in 1922 by Harrod's Jubilee singers,

and in 1925 by Paul Robeson.

the combination of this historic freedom song, the emerging civil rights movement, and the "Queen of Folk" (dubbed by Martin Luther King Jr.) lead to the best possible cover of this song by Odetta.

Tribute to Elizabeth Cotten with Odetta

paul robeson, abc interview "on colonialism " 1960

"I would say unquestionably, i am an American,

born there

my father, a slave there

upon the backs of my people was developed the primary wealth of america"

Joan Baez performing "We shall Overcome" at the march on Washington, 1963

Song of The Day

"Mississippi Goddam" Nina Simone, 1964 "Mississippi Godamn" was written in 1963 in response to the Baptist Street Church Bombing, when the KKK bombed a church and killed 4 black young girls. It also contains references to other racist murders, like the death of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers.

She considered it to be her first Civil Rights song and her debut in the Civil Rights movement. She first performed the song live in Los Angeles, and then again in NYC in 1963. it was released in 1964. She said

"And I was beginning to get angry then. First you get depressed and then you get mad. And when these kids got bombed, I sat down and wrote this song. And it’s a very moving, violent song cause that’s how I feel about the whole thing."

This song is one of the best songs ever written.

cool version of "Which side are you on?" i found

University of Massachusetts Archives, 1963

Nina Simone Flier

Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest, ep 5, 1965 "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" Bernice Reagon

#OTD in 1960: Ruby Bridges became the first Black child to attend William J. Frantz Elementary School after a court order mandated the desegregation of schools in New Orleans, Louisiana.

At just six years old, Ruby and her story became a symbol of the civil rights movement 🤎

I’ve never seen this video.