KEVIN McCORRY, HOST: I’m Kevin McCorry and this is ‘Jukebox Journey.’
This week: a nod to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, with a look at the building blocks of American protest music.
Think “protest music” and it’s easy to conjure a certain type of iconic song.
[MONTAGE: “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke, “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan, “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy]
KM: Lesser known are the songs from prior generations that paved the way.
[MUSIC: “Get Off the Track” by The Hutchinson Family Singers, (modern recording)]
KM: One notable example comes from the Hutchinson Family Singers in the 1840s. A popular act of their time, the Hutchinsons were a white group from New Hampshire who sang four-part harmony, traveled with Frederick Douglass, and promoted the abolition of slavery.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: In the pre-civil war era, such messages could be incendiary, and in 1847, Philadelphia played its part in the ugly history. Mayor John Swift said the group could only perform at a venue at 8th and Locust if they barred Black people from attending and omitted songs that promoted abolition.
[MUSIC: “Slavery is a Hard Foe to Battle” by The Hutchinson Family Singers, as sung by Peter Janovsky]
KM: The Hutchinsons decided instead to cancel the event and never played in town again.
Before widespread sound recording, many songs of protest survived as oral folk tradition.
[MUSIC: “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” as sung by Paul Robeson]
KM: This song, as recorded by Paul Robeson in Camden in January of 1926, is believed to have been written in the early 1800s. It later became a mainstay of the civil rights era with versions by artists including Odetta in 1960.
[MUSIC: “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” as sung by Odetta]
KM: Some Black spirituals of the 1800s are believed to have been covert signals… In one of Harriet Tubman’s early biographies she recounts using this song as a call to follow her on the underground railroad to freedom.
[MUSIC: “Go Down Moses,” as sung by Marian Anderson]
KM: This version, also recorded in Camden, was sung by Philadelphia’s own Marian Anderson in 1924.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: From the mid 1800s through the turn of the century, the push for greater civil rights was often intertwined, sometimes messily, with other causes — including women’s right to vote…
[MUSIC: “The Suffrage Flag,” as sung by Elizabeth Knight]
KM: Also, the temperance movement…
[MUSIC: “The Lips That Touch Liquor, Shall Never Touch Mine,” as sung by the Women’s Choir at Concordia College]
KM: And organized labor…
[MUSIC: “Which Side Are You On?” by Florence Reece]
KM: Florence Reece was the wife of a union coal miner in Harlan County Kentucky. She wrote and sung this song in 1931 amid a tense battle over wages and layoffs.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: Fast forward to Alabama 1965: Martin Luther King Jr. helped organize the famous series of marches from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery to demand full access for Black people to register and vote without hurdles or harassment.
In the first two gatherings, protestors faced intimidation and brutal violence at the hands of official forces — and one participant was killed by an angry mob.
On the third attempt, the group made the 54 mile trek over 5 days, and the attention forced Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act later that summer.
Along the way, the marchers built community and found resolve in the power of singing.
[MUSIC: “Which Side Are You On, Boy?” as sung by protesters during the third march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama in March of 1965]
KM: In documentary recordings from the march, it’s a song that arises over and over again. From Kentucky to Alabama and beyond, it takes on different verses, but sticks to a simple question that transcends time.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: I’m Kevin McCorry and this has been a Jukebox Journey on WHYY.
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