Posted inSongs Lists
12 Protest Songs of The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers on Soul Train with Don Cornelius. From their gospel roots to secular success, The Staple Singers played an important in helping to compose the soundtrack of the…
Posted inProtest Music Hall of Fame
Protest Music Hall of Fame: Four Women – Nina Simone
Photo Credit: Nijs, Jac. de / Anefo - Dutch National Archives "My skin is blackMy arms are longMy hair is woollyMy back is strongStrong enough to take the paininflicted again and again"…
Posted inProtest Music Hall of Fame
Protest Music Hall of Fame: Mississippi Goddam — Nina Simone
Photo of civil rights activist Medgar Evers (via teachingforchange, Flickr). His June 12, 1963, assassination inspired Nina Simone to write "Mississippi Goddam”. "Picket linesSchool boycottsThey try to say it's a…
Posted inProtest Music Hall of Fame
Protest Music Hall of Fame: A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke
Photo Credit: RCA Victor Records "I go to the movie and I go downtownSomebody keep tellin' me don't hang aroundIt's been a long, a long time comingBut I know a…
Posted inSongs Lists
11 Aretha Franklin Protest Songs
1967 Atlantic Record Promo Photo. RIP (Mar 25, 1942 - Aug 16, 2018) On August 16, 2018 Aretha Franklin passed away at 76 years of age, due to pancreatic cancer.…
Posted inProtest Music Hall of Fame
Protest Music Hall of Fame: We Shall Overcome – Pete Seeger and Joan Baez
Joan Baez performing at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963. Photo Credit: Scherman, Rowland, U.S. Information Agency. Press and Publications Service "We shall live in peaceWe shall live in peaceWe…
Posted inProtest Music Hall of Fame
Protest Music Hall of Fame: Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday
August 7, 1930 photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, helped inspire Abel Meeropol to compose "Strange Fruit". Photo Credit: Lawrence Beitler "Southern trees bear strange fruitBlood on the leaves…
Posted inReviews
Review of Renegade Dreamers: A Documentary Film By Karen Kramer
Film image of folk-singer Matt Pless appearing at a peace rally. Back in the 1950s and 60s, New York's Greenwich Village played a role in establishing the counterculture with its…
Posted inDaily Dose of Protest
Daily Dose of Protest: If All I Was Was Black – Mavis Staples
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…
Posted inSongs Lists
10 Civil Rights Protest Songs of the 20th Century
Music has long been a powerful medium to protest the social injustices faced by humankind. For example, many of the anthems of the civil rights movement of the 50s and…