The Songs of Freedom

Here is a link if you would like to hear the songs (Please take a listen. You won’t regret it!!)

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/african_american_history_slavery_and_civil_rights_songs.html

While reading the autobiography of Anne Moody, especially during the movement phase of her life, I constantly ran into the mentioning of freedom songs. These songs were commonly sung, as stated in her book, during protests, at the commencement of mass meetings, and at their ends. She would relate, at times, that the singing of these songs would go on for a duration of hours on end. Seeing that she took time to mention these songs, I concluded that they ran deeper in significance than just something to get the crowd pumped up or to signal the beginning and end of a meeting. They represented and spoke of a long history of struggle amongst African Americans. They also spoke of hope for a better future and were a source of strength for African-Americans and a way to lament their plight.

Freedom songs did not randomly come about during the civil rights movement. They were adaptations of the sorrowful songs sung by African-Americans during the time of slavery. These songs were used as a coping mechanism that helped slaves endure the pain and suffering of slavery. However, these songs were not always ones of sorrow; they were oftentimes, songs of strategy, with lyrics that encoded the pathway to freedom and whose decryption could only be achieved by slaves. One such song is entitled Wade in the Water. The lyrics are as follows:

           

Chorus: Wade in the Water, wade in the water children.

Wade in the Water. God's gonna trouble the water.

Who are those children all dressed in Red?

God's gonna trouble the water.

Must be the ones that Moses led.

God's gonna trouble the water.

Chorus.

Who are those children all dressed in White?

God's gonna trouble the water.

Must be the ones of the Israelites.

God's gonna trouble the water.

Chorus.

Who are those children all dressed in Blue?

God's gonna trouble the water.

Must be the ones that made it through.

God's gonna trouble the water.

Chorus.

Harriet Tubman, a prominent figure of the Underground Railroad, would use this song to signal to runaway slaves to get off the trail and into the water so that slavecatchers’ dogs couldn’t detect their scent. This method of escape is synonymous with the Israelites’ journey to freedom through the Red Sea, which is why it is referred to in the song. Slaves identified with the Israelites of the Bible, who were a people oppressed by a corrupt and evil power just as they were themselves. The similarities between the Israelites plight and their own assured them that God was on their side and gave them hope for freedom.

The freedom songs of the Civil Rights Movement are a direct result of the sorrowful songs heard frequently from the plantations of slavery. In conclusion, freedom songs are more than a nice harmony of lyric, beat, and rhythm . as stated by Martin Luther King Jr., “the freedom songs are the soul of the movement. They are more than just incantations of clever phrases designed to invigorate a campaign; they are as old as the history of the Negro in America. They are adaptations of the songs the slaves sang — the sorrow songs, the shouts for joy, the battle hymns and the anthems of our movement. I have heard people talk of their beat and rhythm, but we in the movement are as inspired by their words. 'Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Stayed on Freedom' is a sentence that needs no music to make its point. We sing the freedom songs today for the same reason the slaves sang them, because we too are in bondage and the songs add hope to our determination that 'We shall overcome, Black and white together, We shall overcome someday.

Here are some links if you would like to hear the songs (Please take a listen. You won’t regret it!!)

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/african_american_history_slavery_and_civil_rights_songs.html

Sources:

http://pathways.thinkport.org/secrets/music2.cfm

http://www.crmvet.org/info/fsongs.htm

Why are the black people so mad?

Recently we have all been hearing about the controversy surrounding the Michael Brown case in the news. African-Americans have been rallying around the murder of this young man and using it as a platform to divulge frustrations that have been festering within the souls of black people for some time now. One issue that arises is that of police brutality. Was this young man, on the verge of beginning a new chapter of his life, killed only because of the color of his skin and the stereotypes that society has attached to it? The possibility of this question being answered in the affirmative is a huge reason for why the black people are so mad.

The event is too reminiscent of that time where the murder of African-American men, or rather, African-Americans in general, was carried out without the slightest fear of punishment. The murder of African-Americans was seen almost as a sport, a popular pastime, exercised by white southerners that was socially and, at times, legally sanctioned. Often times these murders were carried out by police officers, people who were sworn to protect the public, but, instead, in the black community, were the most eminent menaces. This reminiscent quality of the Micheal Brown case is a part of the reason why black people are so mad. However,  the rage runs even deeper than this.

The Grammy winning artist, Lauryn Hill, relates the extensive depth of this rage and its origins in a song that she wrote in reaction to Michael Brown. The song is entitled, “Black Rage” and is, ironically, set to the tune of The Sound of Music’s “My favorite things.

Some of the lyrics are as follows:

         Black rage is founded on two-thirds a person


Rapings and beatings and suffering that worsens


Black human packages tied up in strings...


Black rage is founded on draining and draining


Threatening your freedom to stop your complaining…

Then call you mad for complaining,complaining...


Black rage is founded on blocking the truth


Murder and crime, compromise and distortion


Sacrifice, sacrifice Who makes this fortune?...


Black rage is founded on these kinds of things...


Victims of violence both pysche and body


Life out of context is living unGodly
…

Black rage is founded on denial of self


Black human packages tied in subsistence


Having to justify very existence


Try if you must but you can't have my soul


Black rage is made by unGodly control

In these lyrics, Hill alludes to slavery, an institution that drained the life out of black bodies and forever imprinted upon their psyche a feeling of inferiority. She speaks of black activism, or protest, which she alludes to as complaining and the threats used to stop it. She speaks finally of the unGodly control of rascist whites that ultimately is the foundation of black rage. The song is a panorama of the pains African Americans have had to endure throughout history and provides an extensive answer to the question  “Why the black people are so mad?”

The black people are so mad because in Michael Brown’s case they see the ghosts of a past where African-Americans were not treated like human beings, where they were denied equal protection under the law, and even unjustly murdered by the law. They see a terrible foreboding in his death, one that threatens a reversion to the past. In other words, they see history threatening to repeat itself. This, understandably, enrages black people because isn’t this supposed to be “post-racial” America?

If you would like to listen to the song (I would suggest it) here is the link:

http://ambrosiaforheads.com/2014/08/lauryn-hill-releases-a-chilling-dedication-to-michael-brown-audio/