Album cover for Mavis Staples’ If All I Was Was Black. Anti- Records.
Legendary soul singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples just posted the music video for the title track off of her 2017 album If All I Was Was Black (which was one of the Top 25 Protest Albums of 2017).
The powerful video was directed by Zac Manuel. The video deals with the removing of confederate statues and what they should be replaced with. Manuel made the following statement to Rolling Stone: “The intent of this video is to highlight black excellence, and to provoke and encourage a larger public appreciation of the labor – physical and emotional – the people of color often are expected to bear. Using the symbolism of the ‘monument,’ a contemporary point of debate, I hope to steer conversation toward the acknowledgment of actual greatness; by replacing a negative and reinforcing a positive, this video will alter the image of who we often see immortalized in our country’s history.”
This video is especially poignant in light of Black History Month. It also highlights the importance of representation.