We will be celebrating the ideas and life of Dr. Martin Luther King this weekend. As we salute him and his stirring speeches, we may reflect on the civil rights movement.
Guy Carawan's Sing for Freedom : The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs, is a compilation of protest songs and gospel music of America's southern states. Harold Courlander describes the various forms of Negro music with examples in Negro Folk Music, U.S.A. The compact disc, The Best of Broadside 1962-1988: Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine, not only includes songs and music of African-Americans but political ballads pertinent to all Americans. David Margolick explores the political and social views of jazz singer Billie Holiday and her era in Strange Fruit : Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights. A meaningful, moving survey of the civil rights movement and apartheid is rendered in the compact disc by Cece Borjeson called The Cost of Freedom.
Additionally, we may listen to the powerful, sensitive voices of Marian Anderson in Spirituals, Jessye Norman in Amazing Grace, and Paul Robeson in Songs for Free Men.