Post Two: Question Two

In chapter one of “The Art of Protest” by T.V. Reed, we are introduced to the concept of music’s involvement in the Civil Right’s Movement. In the opening remarks on the subject Reed says, “While many black cultural forms contributed to the civil rights movement, most participants and most analysts agree that music was the key force in shaping, spreading, and sustaining the movement’s culture and through culture its politics” (Reed 13). Also contained within Reed’s chapter is an introduction to the decentralized aspect of the civil rights movement in contrast to the “myth” of centralized efforts of the civil rights movement (Reed 12). This leads into the explanations of the effects of music in the civil rights movement. According to Reed, “no greater cultural force played a greater role at all levels of struggle than what became known as the “freedom songs’.” In essence, Reed argues that the sustaining and unifying abilities of music were critical to the organization of the movement into more cohesive groups that were potent in protest and ultimately in enacting change. “Singing proved to have wide appeal across class, regional, generational, gender, and other wide differences” (Reed 13).

            Music therefore is a cultural force that brings people together and unifies them in a political or ideological cause and thus an integral part to the civil rights movement. Within the civil rights movement, music was used in several ways. As mentioned before, the cohesive factor of music was integral to the movement. In other ways music helped bring out leaders in a group and encouraging others to join the crusade. Contained within the many “freedom songs” of the civil rights movement was the ideological and political message contained in the words of the song. This was of great importance in conveying to blacks and their communities the message and meaning of the movement and why they should take part. Reed goes further in explaining the importance of music by stating; “it was also the perfect tool for organizing communities that were for the most part deeply rooted in oral cultural tradition” (Reed13).

            Music readily conveys the aspects that Reed argues were vital in the civil rights movement. Music moves people as if it were itself alive. When meaning is conveyed alongside the compelling sounds of music, a much more effective delivery of that meaning is achieved. This is what happened with the use of music during the Civil Rights movement in the cases of sit-downs, boycotts, and jailing of protesters. In many ways this mode of communication can deliver the thoughts and ideas of any ideological movement. Many songs are sung in war as a way of motivating soldiers as they go off to battle. Songs such as John Browns Body, were sung by Union soldiers during the Civil War and conveyed the ideas they were fighting for and unity in achieving victory. Similarly, many songs were composed in the 1960s in protest of the war in Vietnam. Personally, I have come across many different uses of music. Growing up in a traditional Christian family, I have come to listen to a lot of music pertaining to the values, ideals, and messages of the composers, most of which held Judeo-Christian values like my family. Growing up, I found music, which gave me a sense of belonging. I tended to listen to groups that were listened especially by my friends as a sort of way of creating a community and a sense of commonality. Essential things when one needs to be organize and mobilize people toward a goal such as the civil rights movement. At other times I have found the lyrics of other musical acts, such as Anti-flag, a band that attacks the politics of America and believes that capitalism is evil, of insight and potency in conveying ideas to its listeners. At the end of the day, music is the means to an end, according to the appropriator.

Response to Question Two for 9/21/10

“The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch,” highlights societies power system in the south through the personal accounts of Richard Wright. Within this system of power, a constant barrage of demeaning acts and hostility is displayed from a white governed society, justifying even the most illicit of acts on the premise of white peoples superiority over black people.

Wright’s experiences begin in childhood, where the first delineations of society were drawn upon as a young boy brawling with the neighboring white communities young boys. He exhibits innocence in the matter, even when he is fought unfairly by the white boys he remarks, “I felt a grave injustice done me.” His mother gives him a different perspective when she punishes him for the brawl while instructing Wright in “Jim Crow Wisdom”. She exclaims that Wright is never to fight white folks and ultimately he should be grateful that they did not kill him. His experiences of childhood soon come to symbolize the inferiority complex that is imparted to him through the construct of “Jim Crow” society and thus reflects the inequality and fear that perpetuates the white dominated system.

This proceeds into young adulthood, where he encounters more notions of “the Jim Crow” social structure inequality. Over time he learns a “different form” of Jim Crow. As a way of dealing with the inordinate racial prejudices of society he conforms to illicit measures. In order to take books out of a library, Wright forges a note claiming that he is just a delivery boy for a white man. In many ways his ingenuity in circumventing the injustices of Jim Crow were common to the black community. In Wrights own words he says, “…I learned to lie, to steal, to dissemble. I learned to play that dual role that every Negro must play if he wants to eat and live.”

Ultimately social structure rests upon the superstructure that initiates the formers construction. Ideologies are influenced and often swayed by the histories of the past and its ideologies. Like Wright, many others used a covert form of resistance that could not uproot the fallacies that resulted in and upheld Jim Crow society. To truly begin a counter to this system of injustice, a change in those ideologies must begin. Ideas of mans equality regardless of race would take many years to be fully fulfill. Some other structures of racial stratification, such as slavery, were removed through war many years before the experiences of Richard Wright. Yet their replacement was still subject to the same ideologies of blacks inferiority that espoused slavery in the south prior to the Civil War. Active resistance would have to advocate a different ideology, one that would be political and social, mindful to avoid instigating violence or use of subversive tactics, which only allow two conflicting differences to abide together. Only a change in the ideas that justify the social construction can a fruitful resistance be achieved.