I have been listening every Saturday to the podcast that accompanies The 1619 Project, a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. In particular, I thought last Saturday's podcast would engage middle and high school students. It was all about tracing the roots of American music to the music of slavery and then following those influences through American music history to today. 

Who does not recognize these names (in no particular order) mentioned in the podcast? Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, the Beatles, Little Richard, Eminem, Miles Davis, Patti LaBelle, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Prince, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, the BeeJees, Adele, Motown, Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X

But the roots go far deeper. This podcast (and an excellent accompanying essay by Wesley Morris) recounts how the term Jim Crow had its origins in minstrel music, when T.D. Rice, a "nobody actor in his early 20s," first performed in blackface in 1830. "And just like that, Rice had invented the fellow who would become the mascot for two centuries of legalized racism."

The Library of Congress holds many related primary sources from the long period when minstrelsy was hugely popular, and these sources reflect all the painful and complex issues of that time period and beyond. Perhaps the podcast and the essay from The 1619 Project could serve as an effective entry point into teaching this hard history. 

Let me end with words from the beginning of the Wesley Morris essay:

For centuries, black music, forged in bondage, has been the sound of complete artistic freedom. No wonder everybody is always stealing it.

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