Folkways Collection – The Civil Rights Movement

Adam has written before, here, here, here , here and here, about this marvellous series from the Folkways Collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C., originally done in conjunction with CKUA Radio in Canada, being broadcast on National Radio just after the 11 pm news on Friday Nights. Podcast available here.

WARNING: If you open the link to National Radio using Firefox, you may find your browser closes unexpectedly. The site seems to work better with IE7.

Episode 14: Music and the Winds of Change: The Civil Rights Movement

The second of three programs on music as an instrument of social activism, this episode pays particular attention to material in the Folkways collection which documents and reflects the civil rights struggle, especially through the ten year period between 1955 and 1965. The program draws on such Folkways albums as “Voices of the Civil Rights Movement (Black American Freedom Songs, 1960-1966) and an audio-verite recording of the 1963 civil rights march on Washington entitled “We Shall Overcome.” Original interviews with Bernice Johnson Reagon of the SNCC Freedom Singers and one-time Black Panther activist Angela Davis blend with archival interviews from Smithsonian Folkways to recapture the spirit of the struggle and to provide contemporary context to its meaning.

Smithsonian Folkways Mission:

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. We are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound. We believe that musical and cultural diversity contributes to the vitality and quality of life throughout the world. Through the dissemination of audio recordings and educational materials we seek to strengthen people’s engagement with their own cultural heritage and to enhance their awareness and appreciation of the cultural heritage of others. Our mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document “people’s music,” spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world. The Smithsonian acquired Folkways from the Asch estate in 1987, and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has continued the Folkways commitment to cultural diversity, education, increased understanding, and lively engagement with the world of sound.

This week in my post on this series I have added a couple of You Tube videos, the first is If I Had A Hammer by Peter, Paul & Mary which was an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement .

From Wikipedia:

“If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)” is a song written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays. It was written in 1949 in support of the progressive movement, and was first recorded by The Weavers, a folk music quartet comprised of Seeger, Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, and then by Peter, Paul and Mary.

It was a Civil Rights anthem of the American Civil Rights movement and covered by dozens of major artists, including Sam Cooke, who recorded the song in concert. It also was a common selection for “folk masses” in Catholic Churches.

The second is Bob Dylan singing Only A Pawn in their Game

From Wikipedia here and here::

“Only a Pawn in Their Game” is a song written by Bob Dylan about the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers in June of 1963. It is also about the racism long ingrained in the Mississippi judicial system and throughout society in the Southern United States which, for many years, allowed Evers’ killer to remain free. The song was released on Dylan’s 1964 The Times They Are a-Changin’ album.

Dylan first performed “Only a Pawn in Their Game” at a voter registration rally in Greenwood, Mississippi. The song refers to the murder of Medgar Evers, who was the Mississippi leader of the NAACP. Civil rights activist Bernice Johnson would later tell critic Robert Shelton that “‘Pawn’ was the very first song that showed the poor white was as victimized by discrimination as the poor black. The Greenwood people didn’t know that Pete [Seeger], Theo[dore Bikel] and Bobby [Dylan] were well known. (Seeger and Bikel were also present at the registration rally.) They were just happy to be getting support. But they really like Dylan down there in the cotton country.”