This album was created by a member of the TPS Teachers Network, a professional social media network for educators, funded by a grant from the Library of Congress. For more information, visit tpsteachersnetwork.org.
Arts and Agency in the Civil Rights Movement
Album Description
The following album was created as the final project of the TPS Civil Rights Fellowship. The TPS Civil Rights Fellowship is a collaboration between three Teaching with Primary Sources project partners: Mars Hill University, Middle Tennessee State University, and University of South Carolina. Eighteen K-12 educators from three states are dedicated to a two-year study of teaching the foundational concepts of the long arc of civil rights in the United States.
At the end of our study, the work of the fellows was determined to have largely fallen under three core themes: local matters, arts and agency, and radical joy. This album explores the theme arts and agency. Exploring how individuals used creative means such as music to express their thoughts, feelings, and desire to work for a better future is an important lens for understanding the long struggle for civil rights. It is also important to remember that individuals throughout history have had agency to respond to the things that were happening in the world around them. When we teach civil rights, it is imperative that we show how individuals used that agency to shape the decisions that they made and how they lived their lives.
Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
Teaching Notes
Source question: The Fisk Singers and how their teachings and example extended to all of the southern states as graduates left. How is this example similar to the 1960’s teachings of the fight for freedom?
'LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING by Ray Charles'
Teaching Notes
Use with this source: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/LiftEveryVoiceAndSing.pdf
Source question: Why are African American people so positive during such a negative time?
Reference note
'From THE DICK CAVETT SHOW. September 18, 1972. The Raelettes are: Vernita Moss, Susaye Green, Mable John, Dorothy Berry, & Estella Yarbrough.'
'Civil Rights: The Music and the Movement'
Teaching Notes
Source question: Do African Americans today still use the techniques in music of today? Is it effective?
Reference note
'Dr. Milmon Harrison, African American and African Studies, and singer Mavis Staples consider the role of music in the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Series: Mondavi Center Presents [4/2009] [Humanities] [Show ID: 16082]'
Birmingham and the Children's March
Teaching Notes
Source question: Why did the children sing Freedom Songs during a demonstration for Civil Rights?
'\"Keep On Pushing\" by The Impressions (Lyric Video) Presented by Cool Pepper Disc'
Teaching Notes
Source question: Why was the message of this song?
Reference note
'Publisher: Warner-Tamberlane Pub Corp.
Written by: Curtis Mayfield
Enjoy The Impression's meaningful hit featured in the movie "007: SkyFall" as well as the Samsung Galaxy commercial starring NBA All Star Lebron James . This song titled "Keeping On Pushing" off of the Cool Pepper Disc collaborative albums "Faith" and the "50th Anniversary Salute to Curtis Mayfield" is available for download (Single and full downloads included), please visit CoolPepperDisc.com or iTunes (Search: The Impressions). Thank you for watching!
http://www.coolpepperdisc.com/store/faith'
'Say it Loud- I\'m Black and Proud James Brown'
Teaching Notes
Source question: How does this song’s message different from the earlier Freedom Songs?
Reference note
''
'The Freedom Singers \"Ain\'t Gonna Let No Body Turn Me \'Round\" | In Performance at the White House'
Teaching Notes
Source question: What do you think was the goal of this song?
Reference note
'The Freedom Singers perform "(Ain't Gonna let Nobody) Turn me Around" at the White House Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement.
"In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement" is a concert hosted by President and Mrs. Obama featuring songs from the Civil Rights Movement as well as readings from famous Civil Rights speeches and writings with participants including Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and more.
The White House also hosted a "Music that Inspired the Movement" workshop for high school students from across the country. Robert Santelli, the executive director of The GRAMMY Museum, and Smokey Robinson, the legendary Motown singer facilitated the workshop with performances by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, one of the original Freedom Singers in the 1960s who traveled around the country carrying stories in song of local Civil Rights Movement campaigns to national audiences.
"In Performance at the White House" is a series of musical events created to showcase the rich fabric of American culture in the setting of the nation's most famous home.
Yaroooh! for Kids | News - Magazine http://www.Yaroooh.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/YarooohForKids'
'Nina Simone: Mississippi Goddam'
Teaching Notes
Use with this source: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/MississippiGoddam.pdf
Source question: What does this song teach you about Civil Rights?
Reference note
'"Mississippi Goddam" by Nina Simone
Recording session: Live in Antibes, July 24-25, 1965.
The sixth Antibes Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival took place from July 24 to July 29. Nina had the closing spot on the first two days.'
'Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come (Official Lyric Video)'
Teaching Notes
Use with this source: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/AChangeIsGonnaCome.pdf
Source question: Why did people believe a change was coming?
Reference note
'"A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke
Lyrics:
I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh, and just like the river I’ve been a-runnin’ ever since.
It’s been a long, a long time comin’,
but I know, oh-oo-oh,
a change gon’ come, oh yes, it will.
It’s been too hard living but I’m afraid to die
‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky
It’s been a long, a long time comin’,
But I know, oh-oo-oh,
A change gonna come, oh yes, it will.
I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep tellin’ me don’t hang around.
It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know, oh-oo-oh,
A change gon’ come, oh yes, it will.
Then I go, oh-oo-oh, to my brother and I say, brother, help me please.
But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees, oh.
There’ve been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, a long time comin’,
But I know, oh-oo-oh, a change gonna come, oh yes, it will.
Directed & Produced by: Hector Sanitizo, Robin Klein, Julian Klein, Mick Gochanour,
Video Editor: Andre Murrugarra
(C) 2016 ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.
Music video by Sam Cooke performing A Change Is Gonna Come. (C) 2016 ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.
Download & Stream here:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-c...
Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-c...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6WtxOh...
Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/albums/B01AC...
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/T5e4z...
#SamCooke #AChangeIsGonnaCome #Vevo #Soul'
Honoring black history in Wilmington: St. Stephen AME Church
Teaching Notes
Source question: In this video, one can see descendants of African Americans advocating for their history and their voice still. Why do you think that even today African Americans feel the need to remind Anglo-Americans for their struggles? Is the race prejudice still remaining?
African American Song
Teaching Notes
Source question: Here is the history of the African American song. Is the messages that the African American be come more transparent towards the Civil Rights movement and Why do you think this?
'CodedSpirituals PBS Learning Current'
Teaching Notes
Source question: The Spirituals were coded with messages, how were the songs of the 60’s and 70’s different in their approach to gain the listeners attention?
Reference note
'Hidden meanings in slave songs'
Here we are, here we are!, or Cross ober Jordan
Teaching Notes
Source question: Look at all of the lyrics to this song. How does this song portray hope for enslaved people in the early 1860s?
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200001480/
Reference note
Contributor Names
- Emmett, Daniel D. (composer)
- Keller, M. (arranger)
Created / Published
- William Hall & Son, New York, 1863.
Subject Headings
- - United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Songs and music
- - Songs with piano
- - Fugitive slaves -- United States -- Songs and music
- - United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- African Americans -- Songs and music
- - Slaves -- Emancipation -- United States -- Songs and music
- - Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Songs and music
- - Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1864 -- Songs and music
- - Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885 -- Songs and music
- - McClellan, George Brinton, 1826-1885 -- Songs and music
- - Underground Railroad -- Songs and music
- - Popular Songs of the Day
- - Songs and Music
- - War and Conflict
- - Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877)
Notes
- - Music associated with the Union side
The Diary of Nicholas W. Schenck
Teaching Notes
Source question:
As in Tenn. others were following the Fisk Singers to gain funding for educating their own people. Why do you think the Wilmington Massacre happened due to education increasing in the Wilmington area? Did one of these massacres happen near your town?
Swing low, sweet chariot
Teaching Notes
Source question: How do you think the lyrics of this spiritual inspired African Americans seeking equality?
'Go Down Moses - Let My People Go - Fisk Jubilee Singers'
Teaching Notes
Source question: In the song lyrics, why was Moses a symbol for the early African American seeking equality?
Reference note
'Go Down Moses - Let My People Go - Fisk Jubilee Singers'
Fisk Jubilee Singers
Teaching Notes
Source question: How did the Fisk Jubilee Singers contribute to the modern Civil Rights Movement?
'We Shall Overcome'
Teaching Notes
Use with this sources:
- https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/WeShallOvercome.pdf
- https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/02/tracing-the-long-journey-of-we-shall-overcome/
Source question: Listen to lyrics of this song, how do you feel? Would you see the silver lining in the face of adversity?
Reference note
'Provided to YouTube by Columbia/Legacy
We Shall Overcome · Mahalia Jackson
Let's Pray Together
℗ Originally released 1964. All rights reserved by Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
Released on: 2014-12-12
Piano: Harpo Marx
Composer: P. Seeger
Composer: Z. Horton
Composer: F. Hamilton
Composer: G. Carawan
Arranger: Marty Paich
Auto-generated by YouTube.'
'Billie Holiday - \"Strange Fruit\" Live 1959 [Reelin\' In The Years Archives]'
Teaching Notes
Use with this source: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/StrangeFruit_Blackburn.pdf
Source question: Why were people threatened by the lyrics of this song?
Reference note
'Reelin’ In The Years Productions has available for licensing over 20,000 hours of music footage spanning 90 years. Additionally, we have more than 5,000 of hours of in-depth interviews with the 20th century’s icons of Film and Television, Politics, Comedy, Literature, Art, Science, Fashion and Sports.
To search for footage please visit our online database at http://reelinintheyears.com. Note: these clips are available on YouTube for producers, directors, researchers and clearance companies for potential use in their projects. Our website on the screen is to protect the footage from being used without our consent and so industry professionals can find us to properly license the footage.'
African American Gospel
Teaching Notes
Use with this research guide: https://guides.loc.gov/black-composers
With these two sources I would have the students form their own questions about Gospel Music and Civil Rights music and compare which ones were most effective in the change.
The resurrection of Henry Box Brown at Philadelphia, who escaped from Richmond Va. in a bx 3 feet long 2 1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft wide
Teaching Notes
Source question:
Read Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson. How does this depiction of Henry Box Brown compare to Henry in the book?
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2004665363/
Reference note
Summary
- A somewhat comic yet sympathetic portrayal of the culminating episode in the flight of slave Henry Brown "who escaped from Richmond Va. in a Box 3 feet long, 2-1/2 ft. deep and 2 ft. wide." In the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, the young Brown emerges from a crate as several figures, including Frederick Douglass (holding a claw hammer at left) look on. Details of Brown's escape, whereby he had himself shipped via Adams Express from Richmond to Philadelphia, were widely publicized in a narrative of his ordeal published under his own name in 1849. The box itself became an abolitionist metaphor for the inhumanity and spiritual suffocation of slavery. It is shown on an undated broadside published in Boston (Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Broadside Collection, portfolio 65, no. 16).
Contributor Names
- Brown, Henry Box, 1815 or 1816-, copyright claimant
Created / Published
- [New York] : Publ. by A. Donnelly, no. 19 1/2 Courtland St., N.Y. c1850.
Subject Headings
- - Abolitionism and abolitionists
- - African Americans (portrayed)
- - Brown, Henry "Box"
- - Douglass, Frederick
- - Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society
- - Philadelphia
- - Richmond, Va
- - Slaves and slavery
Notes
- - Title from print.
- - A similar lithograph with the same title, giving a slightly different version of the scene, was drawn on stone by Peter Kramer and printed by Thomas Sinclair of Philadelphia. (An impression is in the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia.)
- - "Entered ... 1850 by Henry Box Brown ... District Court of Massachusetts."
- - The Library's impression of the print was deposited for copyright on January 10, 1850.
- - Weitenkampf, p. 101
- - Annual Report of the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1975, p. 59-60
- - Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1850-4.
Repository
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id
- pga 04518 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.04518
- cph 3g04659 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g04659
- cph 3a55009 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a55009
Anthony Burns / drawn by Barry from a daguereotype [i.e. daguerreotype] by Whipple & Black ; John Andrews, sc.
Teaching Notes
Source question: How does this image portray enslaved people? What can you learn about Anthony Burns’ life from these images?
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2003689280/
Reference note
Summary
- Print shows a portrait of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 touched off riots and protests by abolitionists and citizens of Boston in the spring of 1854. A bust portrait of the twenty-four-year-old Burns is surrounded by scenes from his life. These include (clockwise from lower left): the sale of the youthful Burns at auction, a whipping post with bales of cotton, his arrest in Boston on May 24, 1854, his escape from Richmond on shipboard, his departure from Boston escorted by federal marshals and troops, Burns's "address" (to the court?), and finally Burns in prison. Copyrighting works such as prints and pamphlets under the name of the subject (here Anthony Burns) was a common abolitionist practice. This was no doubt the case in this instance, since by 1855 Burns had in fact been returned to his owner in Virginia. (Source: Reilly)
Contributor Names
- Andrews, John, engraver
Created / Published
- Boston : R.M. Edwards, printer, 129 Congress Street, c1855.
Subject Headings
- - Burns, Anthony,--1834-1862
- - Fugitive slaves--Massachusetts--Boston--1850-1860
- - Abolition movement--Massachusetts--Boston--1850-1860
Genre
- Portrait prints--1850-1860
- Vignettes--1850-1860
- Wood engravings--1850-1860
Notes
- - Title from item.
- - Inscribed in ink on verso: 230.
- - Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by Anthony Burns in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
- - The Library's impression was deposited for copyright on January 25, 1855.
- - Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1855-7.
Repository
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id
- pga 04268 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.04268
- cph 3b37099 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b37099
Nobody knows de trouble I've seen
Teaching Notes
Source question: How can this song teach us about slavery? See if you can find another primary source online to match this song.
