The civil rights era was not only a period of political revolution but of profound cultural revolution. Led by Black artists radicalized by the political and social realities of the time, the cultural revolution both captured the Black experience of ’60s and ’70s America and imagined a future free from the specters of segregation, discrimination and racial violence. Black artists continued to assert their revolutionary visions despite facing censorship and threats of violence for the political nature of their work.
In this episode, we use critical race theory to situate three pieces of art in the civil rights era: Sam Cooke’s 1963 song, A Change is Gonna Come; Faith Ringgold’s 1971 painting, For the Women’s House; and, William Eric Water’s 2014 poem, “Even a Black Poet is Considered Armed and Extremely Dangerous”. How were these pieces and the artists that created them influenced by the civil rights era? What kinds of resistance did they meet and why?
Featuring
Kendall Thomas
Nash Professor of Law, Director of the Center for Law and Culture
“I have come to realize that, for me, music making has been part of my own personal, individual freedom struggle, to claim the right to discover and to live out my own calling as an intellectual, who is committed to using ideas, argument, interpretation, all the the tools in the toolkit of the intellectual to advance the scholarly song that we need to be singing. The song that will emancipate…”
William Eric Waters
Author/Consultant/Coach E-Z Waters Consulting
“I just want people to sit with the seriousness of poetry. That [it] is telling a story and that it’s not about unicorns. At least my poetry is not. It’s not about roses. It’s not about plants. It’s not about flowers. It’s about real life matters…poetry can be relevant and revolutionary and speak to what’s happening in the moment.”
Samuel “Sam” Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1931. The son of a Baptist minister, Cooke got his start in music early, singing in the church. He and his siblings formed a gospel group called “Singing Children” when he was just six years old. It wasn’t until he turned nineteen that Cooke started gaining real popularity as the lead singer of the gospel group the “Soul Stirrers.” Cooke became something of a gospel star with dedicated fans that appreciated his stage presence and style. Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, a talent scout with Cooke’s label at the time, Speciality Records, urged him to transition from gospel to popular music.
“Bumps said I had the voice, the confidence and the equipment to work as a single…and that I ought to give it a try,” Cooke explained. “Making a living was good enough, but what’s wrong with doing better than that?”
He released his crossover hit “You Send Me” in 1957. Wildly successful the single was all over American radio and TV. An overnight sensation, Cooke made appearances on American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Making “A Change is Gonna Come”
Cooke recorded “A Change is Gonna Come” in 1963 after a tumultuous year. Racial tensions were at an all time high. The Ku Klux Klan had orchestrated the 16th Street Church Bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four black girls attending Sunday School. Medgar Evers had been assassinated outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had organized the March on Washington, giving his celebrated “I Have A Dream” speech.
Against this backdrop, Cooke continued to tour what was called the “Chitlin Circuit,” performing at concerts all through the South. One particular performance at the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana was the breaking point that convinced him to write the song that would become a civil rights anthem.
On October 8, 1963, Cooke traveled with members of the group the “Super Sonic Attractions” to a Holiday Inn in Shreveport, Louisiana ahead of their performance at the Municipal Auditoriums. Cooke arrived at the hotel with his brother and wife group were turned away. The desk clerk claimed there were no rooms available.
Infuriated Cooke allegedly blew the horn of his Maserati
Refusing to Perform to Segregated Audiences
A Friend to Civil Rights Leaders
The Judson Three
Faith Ringgold – with fellow artists Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche – organized the People’s Flag Show in November 1970 at the Judson Memorial Church in New York. The exhibition, which was explicitly anti-war and a reaction to the U.S. government’s brutality in Vietnam, followed the arrest of activist Stephen Radich for flag burning. The People’s Flag Show called on all “artists, workers, students, women, third world peoples” to represent what the flag meant to them. Ringgold, Hendricks and Toche received more than 150 submissions from both professional and amateur artists, all different representations of the American flag. There was a flag constructed of soft drink cans, a flag made of cake, and a real American flag draped over a toilet bowl. The exhibition was met with fierce opposition. The police closed the show early and Ringgold and her fellow organizers were arrested and fined $100 each. Undeterred, Ringgold, Hendricks and Toche hosted a press conference at Judson a month later. When Ringgold spoke, she reiterated her commitment to “cultural revolution for people through art.” She said, “[w]e have been convicted, but in fact it is this nation and these courts who are guilty…” The trio later became known as The Judson Three.
Faith Ringgold, Hate is a Sin, 1970.