Essay on Civil Rights, Equality and the Music of Nina Simone

African American women are stereotyped as the “Jezebel” archetype. African American women’s historical background causes the

This chapter is an effort to amplify the understanding of African American women survival with communal bond or relationship in and out of her community. The survival specifically concentrates on female companionship, motherhood, ancestral worship, activism, subversion of stereotypical image and redefinition in American society in the textual discourse of Barbara Neely. The chosen texts are: Blanche on the Lam (1992), Blanche Among Talented Tenth (1994), Blanche Cleans Up (1996), Blanche Passes Go (2000). Barbara Neely through her protagonist Blanche White and other characters, made readers to understand the self- conceptualization and perceptions of Black women is been regarded, unspoken and illuminated in diverse way in her series. Blanche White admits community of women and proves that unity will help to stand up against brutality and injustice to women in society.

replacement of stereotyped images of black womanhood with those that are self defined, 4) black women’s activism, and 5) sensitivity to black sexual politics. The first three themes correlate to black motherhood and living in a binary environment, one in which black people are the oppressed and white

African American women have long been stereotyped, discriminated against and generalized in this country. They have had to face both being black in America while also being a woman in America. African American women encountered and still do encounter double discrimination of both sex and race (Cuthbert, 117). Women like Elise Johnson McDougald, Marion Vera Cuthbert and Alice Dunbar-Nelson all tried to shed light on what it was like to be an African American woman living in the 20th century yet literature often portrayed them as emotional, hypersexual, unintelligent and of lesser worth. The literature highlighted that African American women have to serve both their employer and their husbands and families. They are not supposed to have an opinion or stand up for themselves, especially to a white man. ***Concluding sentence?

Patriarchy’s Scapegoat: Black womanhood and femininity – A critique of racism, gender inequality, anti-blackness, and historical exploitation of black women.

Women’s music came from radical, grassroots origins in the 1970s thanks to contributions by brave women, mostly lesbians (Mosbacher, 2002). These women used non-violent, peaceful force to forge their own way into the music industry. It was a peaceful yet political revolution of togetherness and liberation. It brought together women of different backgrounds who produced easy-listening, mellow harmonies played with lyrics filled with tumultuous

According to Brewer (2000), “Centering gender simultaneously with race and class would be the conceptual bedrock of a Black women’s/Black studies for a new century., (p 67).

By expressing this with the African American society of women who are continuously torched by the demanding words of men, McLune appeals strongly to all American women’s intellect of equality and respect. Women should not have to be judged by men and expect to be treated as if they owe anyone something, let alone have to be mistreated and belittled, if that were to be the case then men should be treated the same, therefore McLune’s audience, should understand that that is not how you define a black woman in any terms.

The 1960s marked a period of social unrest and frustration over civil liberties for black Americans. The dominant figures of the Civil Rights movement were often male political and social leaders such as Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. However, during this period music became an inseparable part of the Civil Rights movement. The civil rights and protest music had a remarkable influence on the freedom movements by spreading the political and social messages rooted in the movement. Consequently, musical artists also became dominant sources of leadership and influence. Nina Simone led an influential and successful life as a musical artist, especially during the civil rights movement. Her music fused genres of classical, soul, rhythm and blues, and jazz to create a completely unique, uncategorizable style of music. Her contralto voice and distinguished musical style made her easily recognizable and popular to a diverse, global audience during the 60s and 70s. Although Simone is often omitted from historical recounts of the civil rights movement, her songs are incredibly significant to the turbulent times as they promoted a sense of black pride and projected the frustration and anger over the oppression of black Americans, especially black women. Simone had dreams of becoming a classical pianist which were never reached. Despite these unobtained goals, Simone was able to become an eminent musical artist that always carried herself with the utmost honesty, dedication, and

To be a feminist is such a broad classification therefore it is divided into various subsections, in which Ruth Nicole associates herself with a group of feminism known as hip-hop feminism, in which I will thoroughly discuss within this essay. Ruth Nicole is a black woman that categorizes herself as a girl, by her definition a girl is far from independent. As well as a detailed discussion about the lived experiences of being and becoming in the body, which has been marked as youthful, Black, and female, along with the memories and representations of being female. As a result, Ruth Nicole wrote Black Girlhood Celebration in order to share her personal and political motivations of working with black girls within the community. A conversation

Any artist uses their surroundings as inspiration. An African American female artist deal with being the underdog. The situations they were placed in, ended up being inspirational moments. These moments became inspirational because they were personal stories, life learned lessons, and life changing moments. This essay only mentions three strong, powerful, monumental women. However, there are many more females who have helped the African American woman artist culture. They are still hidden. It is essays like this that help spread their stories, and their art

Nina Simone was one of the most unique, influential, and gifted singers of her generation. She was born on February 21, 1933 as Eunice Waymon, in Tryon, North Carolina. Her mother was a preacher and she started playing piano at an early age, around 3 or 4 at her mother’s church, as she was playing piano at a local recital she caught the eye of an older white woman willing to give her lessons. Nina went on to studying classical piano for 5 years with the woman, learning the stylings of the classical greats such as Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, and Brahms. As a child she felt so isolated, spending up to 7 hours a day practicing the piano, and growing up in the south in the segregation era, she felt as she could not fit in neither with the white or black community, even when surrounded by other children all they wanted to

The exclusionary aspects of feminist activism in the 19th and 20th centuries are fundamental topic of the Sojourner Truth and The Combahee River Collective. In these two readings some of the concerns arisen are very similar, and they are both from the prospective of black women. In both readings they talk about how they would like to see equality between men and women because there is no reason why women and men can’t be equal.

She loved Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven, and Schubert. She trained nearly 8 hours a day to become a classical pianist. She would go on to become the ‘High Priestess of Soul’. Eunice Kathleen Waymon, or as the world famously knows her, Nina Simone, never wanted to be a jazz musician. She believed that her role in society was to be the first African American classical pianist in America. Durkheim’s theory of forced division of labor can be used to explain why this never became true. Anomie played a major role in shaping the life of someone who would later fight against it.

Patricia Hill Collins addresses the issue of how focussing on the naming of particular struggle can become a “political distraction” from gendered racist and sexist oppression that Black Women face (Alexander-Floyd & Simien 2006) Collins contends that womanism “exaggerates out group differences and minimises in group variation by assembling a stable and homogenous racial group identity” (Alexander-Floyd & Simien 2006) potentially, this comes with the ubiquitous essentialisation of Black Women struggles, which denies varied experience of Black Women who align with various social-culture heritages.