What Happened Miss Hoe Analysis

American history was radically changed when President Abraham Lincoln gave the very famous Emancipation Proclamation. This lead to the freedom of millions of African Americans who sought the same liberty and equality that was promised to everyone under the United States constitution. These liberties, of course, were not achieved right away. During the Reconstruction era, which is the decade right after the Civil War, many of the recently freed slaves did not have money, property, or credit. They could not buy the necessary things to enjoy their freedom, which lead to sharecropping, a glorified form of slavery. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner lets a tenant use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land (Sharecropping).. Added on to this, facilities were segregated to prevent the black man from enjoying the same things as the white man due to Jim Crow laws which were enacted after the Reconstruction era. The struggle for equality and rights continued during the Gilded Age (1873-1900), the Progressive Era (1900-1920s), the Great Depression (1930s), WWII (1939-1945), the beginning of the Cold War (1947), up until the Civil Rights movement (1954-1968). At this point in history, African Americans fought for their rights and changed the course of American history. Music was a very important tool used by African Americans that helped achieve this. Ever since the slavery times, music was a big part of their culture

The rise of Soul music was a product of the particular environment of that time in which the musicians who created it lived, a period much paralleled with the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and Black Power Movement (BPM) (Maultsby, 1983, 54). The objective of this research was to examine any existence of political and social messages delivered in Soul music around the civil rights movement era in America, which would lead to a better understanding of the role of Soul music having served in the process of political and social changes in the country.

Music is a creative art form that allows the artist to construct something that expresses a purpose. It evolves over time and changes as the world changes, taking on many different motivations behind the melody and lyrics. In today’s society, anger, oppression, racism, and negative opinions rule the media and popular culture. I believe that African Americans need to show their self worth and not let white people hold them back. With the music in white culture often mocking African American culture and portraying negative stereotypes, African Americans have to find ways to gain respect. In acknowledgement of the negative portrayal of their culture, African Americans respond by creating songs and videos that express their pride in their culture and heritage, react to white oppression, and communicate their independence.

African American influence in music has been an ever present and controversial subject in American history. Stemming from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds, large portions of American music was introduced by, and credited to African Americans. Although in many cases, this music was used for entertainment by the masses or majority, contrary to popular belief, black music served a greater purpose than just recreation. Dating all the way back to the beginning of slavery in the U.S. during the 17th century, music has been used to make a statement and send a message. As African American music progressed over the years, there were common themes expressed as the genres evolved. It has been an open letter to the world, documenting and protesting the ongoing oppression faced by blacks in the United States, as well as an outlet for frustration. For many African Americans, the music gave them the only voice that couldn’t be silenced by their oppressors.

Throughout African American history, especially during slavery music has been used as a coping mechanism to assist one with enduring hardship and opposition. Music specifically jazz and the blues can have many boundless effects on one’s life. In this case, in Sonny’s life, music was his only source of hope and strength to redemption.

Thesis: Despite the oppression of slavery, African Americans were able to keep their culture alive through their music and oral traditions.

Duke Ellington was a musical and political genius; he was “America’s only original musical mind.” He was not only a performer, but a composer. He learned the craft of composing by observing others instead of disciplined study. One important factor of Ellington’s music was its relation to black heritage and African American history. His symphony “Black, Brown, and Beige” displayed the African American struggle in America. Not only did Ellington use his music to portray the struggle, voice, and triumph of black Americans, he used his professionalism, originality, persuasiveness, and political performances.

Amidst the development of a private society, African-Americans had created a large music scene that aided in the raising of their spirits and creating hope. Music that was heavily inspired by their ancestors Negro spirituals. In the close-knit, southern community brought comfort to the African-Americans as well. Maya Angelou describes the use of music in her autobiography Gather Together in My Name as “Harmonious black music drifts like perfume through this precious air, and nothing of a threatening nature intrudes.” (Gilyard & Wardi, 319)

The roots of modern american rock and roll music, are firmly planted in Africa. As the native Africans were torn apart from their family’s and brought to the new world their lives were immediately and drastically changed forever. Finding themselves immersed in a completely new environment with a foreign culture, they thankfully persevered and carried on with their own traditions and most importantly to this paper, musical ones. Most American slaves originated from Western and Central Africa. The West Africans carried a musical tradition rich with long melody lines, complicated rhythms (poly rhythmics) and stringed instruments CITATION. The West Africans music was also strongly integrated into their everyday lives. Songs were preformed for religious ceremonies and dances and music was often a

The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears” (Douglass 12). Music was a way for slaves to release their anger and sorrow in hope to find relief of their oppression. During this time in history, slaves possessed little to no rights so one of their only ways to express their beliefs was through songs. Josephine Wright states that “enslaved African Americans turned to song […] to tell their histories, record experiences, articulate aspirations for justice, vent anger, and protest the institution of slavery (414). Out of fear, slaves could not openly protest against the way they were treated.

In reading Djanet Sears’ Harlem Duet, and listening to Public Enemy’s song “Fight The Power”, one can immediately notice the significance of similarities. Both texts take a stand to racism and all aspects of inequality within it. Although Djanet Sears and Public Enemy express their views on the cultural conflicts of race, opportunity for freedom and political authority/leadership inequality in these two different mediums, play and song, they both share the same message of discrimination and a demand for amendment. In making this critical analysis of how these texts use aspects of their medium to comment on social problems and cultural conflicts, this paper will first discuss the similarities in views of racism within both texts, and how the

Bobby Womack, a singer who had sang alongside Cooke in some acts said, “He went out there and started singing and people would not believe his voice.” Sam Cooke was a different breed of Gospel singer, and he changed the style, giving it an edge and a more youthful appeal. In 1955, Cooke began cutting secular songs to make it big with Specialty Records, and became a hit instantly with his hits, “I’ll Come Running Back to You,” and “You Send Me” (Gulla, 114). His short career produced many memorable hits and records, and in the midst of it, Cooke served his black community in the struggle over civil rights. In parallel to the movement and in light of his son’s tragic death and Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In the Wind,” Cooke wrote, “A Change Is Gonna Come” in 1963 (“Song Facts”). Cooke suddenly died in 1964, right before the release of the song, and black America plunged into despair because he had been a ray of light, a symbol of hope, and an emblem of equality and racial balance (Gulla, 109). He had been an icon for both blacks and whites alike. In spite of his shorted career, “A Change Is Gonna Come” affected America with is raw lyrics and unprecedented emotion Cooke displays in his song.

In addition to evoking emotion in remembrance of the suffering, longing, and hope for salvation and freedom, the citing of spirituals serves as evidence of the contribution of Black people to American society, culture, and power. These spirituals, he argues, are the only truly American music form born of African chants, cadences, and Christian hymns. His serious reflection on the evolution of spirituals in phases, where songs are communally developed and passed down develops his argument that sorrow songs are a legitimate and valuable art American form and one of the greatest gifts that Black people have given to their country. The other contributions bestowed upon America are the gift of labor and the gift of spirit (DuBois, p.

In this essay I will attempt to underscore and celebrate Simone’s activist efforts through song and demonstrate the messages in the music about race, gender, and class.

Artists like Bruno Mars, John Legend, and Alicia Keys have reflected that in their recent music by using the same melodies that were used by the slaves and civil rights activists calling for young African Americans to follow in the footsteps of those like Martin Luther King Jr. and search for the “liberty for all” that is spoken of in the Pledge of