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In 1967, I wrote a-- an anti-war song

called "Handsome Johnny" for Richie Havens.

It was about what was going on in Birmingham

and elsewhere in the South.

I was fortunate to meet

some of the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement

and those who created its anthems.

Every year, their numbers grow fewer.

This film is a tribute to them

and all that they've achieved.

♪ It's the pride ♪

-♪ That you need ♪ -Yeah!

Ahh!

♪ Sock it to me, sock it to me ♪

♪ A little respect ♪

♪ Sock it to me, sock it to me ♪

♪ Oh, freedom ♪

♪ You gets up, you stand up ♪

♪ Uh-huh ♪

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud ♪

[man] Now, in order for us to know who we are,

we got to know who we was.

And once we know who we was,

then we know who we're gonna be, you dig?

Proud.

[crowd chanting]

[man] Bring 'em up with some pride.

[piano playing]

[Louis Gossett, Jr.] The Civil Rights Movement

began with the teachings and the music of the church.

[Mahalia Jackson] ♪ I'm on my way ♪

♪ To Canaan land ♪

[chanting]

♪ I'm on my way ♪

♪ Well, to Canaan land ♪

[Louis Gossett, Jr.] Even in the days of slavery,

spirituals drew a parallel

between the Israelites enslaved in Egypt

and African-Americans enslaved here.

"Go down, Moses.

"Way down in Egypt's land.

Set my people free."

[man] How important is gospel music to the soul genre?

I guess it is the genesis of it,

not only of that genre,

but I think it is the genesis of all music.

Everybody came out of the church.

That was required learning.

We had to go to church.

[Mahalia Jackson] ♪ Glory hallelujah ♪

♪ I'm on my way ♪

[dogs barking]

You have to understand that that was our survival

during all of those struggled times and that kind of thing.

It was all about our faith

and, uh, the spiritual music

that we held onto

that was so much a part of us.

Basically about having felt the pain so deeply

with no place else to go

that you only can resort to the bottom of your soul

to express the feeling.

The question is did the music affect the Movement,

or did the Movement affect the music?

And it's one of those chicken-and-egg kind of questions.

♪ If you don't go ♪

♪ Don't hinder me ♪

♪ On my way ♪

I think life governs what people are feeling musically.

The music was the soul of the Movement.

It just seemed like that's what made it happen.

♪ On my way, yeah ♪

♪ On my way Glory hallelujah ♪

♪ On my way ♪

[jazz trumpet playing]

[Gossett] In 1939,

a left-leaning New York schoolteacher,

Abel Meeropol,

wrote a song protesting the lynching of African-Americans.

He pulled no punches.

[Billie Holliday] ♪ Southern trees ♪

♪ Bear strange fruit ♪

You can do so many things with lyrics within a song,

whether it's rap,

whether it's R&B, whether it's gospel.

Even jazz.

♪ Black bodies swingin' ♪

♪ In the southern breeze ♪

[Young] I was born in New Orleans.

Your parents had to teach you

to live in a segregated South

because one misstep could cost you your life.

I was looking at a picture once

of a lynching in the paper.

My mother came, and she took the paper away from me

because I couldn't sleep from the horror of things.

Between 1889 and the year this song was written,

there were nearly 4,000 documented lynchings

in the United States.

[Holiday] ♪ Strange fruit hangin' ♪

♪ From the poplar trees ♪

[man] Because during that time, man,

they was hanging us.

They was putting us in the Pearl River.

They was doing all kinds of things to us.

[Holiday] ♪ Pastoral scene ♪

♪ Of the gallant South ♪

♪ The bulging eyes ♪

♪ And the twisted mouth ♪

[Gossett] Meeropol's song encouraged

other left-leaning singing songwriters

like Pete Seeger to funnel their outrage into music.

♪ Sweet and fresh ♪

When you sing, all that experience goes into that song.

All of those things that you lived through

goes into that song.

And I think that's where the music comes from,

and that's where the stories and the lyrics that come from.

They got to part of the underpinning

and the foundation for this marriage

between the Civil Rights Movement and music.

♪ For the rain to gather ♪

♪ For the wind to suck ♪

♪ For the sun to rot ♪

♪ For the tree ♪

♪ To ♪

♪ Drop ♪

♪ Here is a strange ♪

♪ And bitter ♪

♪ Crop ♪

[acoustic blues music playing]

[Gossett] The voice of protest

began to be heard outside the church.

♪ When I was born into this world ♪

♪ This is what happened to me ♪

♪ I was never called a man ♪

♪ Now I'm 53 ♪

♪ I wonder when ♪

[Gossett] Back in the 1930s,

Broonzy was one of the first Chicago blues stars.

But he'd grown up down south,

and he began writing about the South as he knew it.

[Broonzy] ♪ Wait till I get 93 ♪

What you really have to do is put your--

put on the 1948 glasses, as the historians say,

and look at that world in 1948.

Memphis was already 40% black,

and no one even cared about it,

and you look at the music that was being played on the radio

at that particular time.

So what you're getting is

"I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" or

♪ How much is that doggie in the window? ♪

[easy listening strings]

It was as if the African-American community was invisible,

like they didn't exist.

[Broonzy] ♪ They said I was uneducated ♪

♪ My clothes was worn, torn ♪

♪ Now I've got a little education ♪

♪ But I'm a boy right on ♪

♪ I wonder when ♪

About the years of the Second World War,

there were basically no radio stations

that played anything by black people.

You had a printed media.

African-American magazines,

those things existed for years.

But no one was pitching the programming

at the black audience electronically.

[announcer] Now WDIA presents--

[jazz organ]

...Anything Goes.

Anything Goes, the gospel show

where anything can happen.

The station started out as an all-white station.

They tried everything, all kinds of music,

various kinds of music.

And it simply wasn't working.

Uh, they couldn't do anything in the ratings.

Up until that time, you were dealing

with the old stereotypes in the media,

and so they decided to try an African-American announcer,

uh, in 1948.

Nat Williams comes on the air,

and he's put on for an hour or so,

and the station is, of course,

inundated with all these letters.

From the home of colorful old Beale Street,

the place where the blues began in Memphis, Tennessee.

[Gossett] Stars of the '50s and '60s

were influenced by WDIA.

Riley King became B.B. at WDIA,

and across town,

Elvis Presley was listening and learning.

[Louis Cantor] Suddenly they realized they'd struck a gold mine.

It was revolutionary.

it gave black people an identity.

It gave black people a radio station

that they could call their own.

I heard my first black broadcast

on the radio station WDIA.

Uh, Nat D. Williams.

[Cantor] It took them about a year.

It was about the summer of '49

before it was an all-black station.

You know, it's just like when we were coming up,

we went to all-black schools.

We didn't know nothing but that,

and we had our own little world.

But when they started to integrate schools,

we got a chance to know another culture

and another way of living.

And I think that's what happened with black music.

[man] This is Rufus Thomas ofSepia Swing.

Gonna try to make you laugh and sing.

Gonna have a ball. My all I'm giving.

Say it, sister. Say it, brother. Say it!

[man] Man, I'm really livin'.

[Rufus] That's right!

You've got to understand the enormous audience that WDIA had.

When they went 50,000 watts,

they boomed their signal directionally,

and it went due south,

right into the heart of the delta.

They were hitting 10%

of the total African-American community in the United States.

1.5 million people.

[man] Now listen, I want you to listen to me now

as I talk to you about Marble White Flour.

-Pink Pussycat Wine. -[meow]

The New York State wine.

-I repeat-- Pink Pussycat Wine. -[meow]

Not only is it tearing down the walls of segregation,

not only is it appealing to that black audience

and empowering black people,

but it's also making black music acceptable

and respectable to the white mainstream.

The more popular it got,

the more it filtered out into other areas

in other-- to other peoples

and communities.

[announcer] You've been listening

to the award-winning public affairs forum

Brown America Speaks

and to the personal opinions of informed and well-known Memphis and mid-south citizens.

Listen for another interesting forum discussion

of a controversial...

The floodgates were open. Almost immediately

you got a station in Birmingham,

a station in Atlanta,

uh, become an all-black program station.

All the radio stations across the country

began to incorporate some African-American programming

in their daily output.

You could get WLAC.

About 8:00, it would be white gospel.

And by 10:00, it became...

black gospel,

and then at 11,

it became rhythm and blues.

And that went on

till, like, about 2 in the morning.

[switching radio channels]

[Gossett] The new R&B stations

played songs that had more heart and soul

than the music on mainstream stations.

And sometimes that music had a message.

♪ Oh, we're knockin' at the Pearly Gates ♪

♪ Oh, knock-knock ♪

♪ Knock-knock ♪

♪ Ask about the rooms ♪

♪ About the rates ♪

♪ Oh, knock-knock ♪

♪ Knock-knock ♪

The media dramatically impacted the direction of the Civil Rights Movement

because it was coming over the radio.

It was coming over the TV.

♪ Well, old St. Peter was the official greeter ♪

♪ He was present to let him in ♪

♪ Some looked down because the skins were brown ♪

♪ But old Pete hollered with a great big grin ♪

♪ You're welcome, y'all come on in ♪

♪ There are no "Restricted" signs in heaven ♪

["Heck" Watkins] I watched a lot of television,

national news,

to find out what was happening in Alabama,

what was happening in Arkansas, what was happening in Georgia

and other Southern states,

and that's when realization began to set in--

off in my mind, off in my heart,

"Hey, something is wrong."

♪ They looked around, and what did they see? ♪

♪ Black angels, white angels ♪

♪ Sons of David and Chinese ♪

♪ You didn't have to look swell ♪

♪ For this hotel ♪

♪ You could even come in in your dungarees ♪

♪ You were welcome ♪

♪ Welcome ♪

[Gossett] Before long, African-American music

found an audience it hadn't counted on.

I grew up listening to Paul Robeson's songs.

I grew up listening to the Golden Gate Quartet.

♪ Brother ♪

[Gossett] Music engaged and energized

a generation of young people, black and white.

♪ Hallelujah ♪

[Gossett] They weren't going to accept the old excuse

"It's always been that way."

[woman] As an individual,

I was ready to get involved

and to participate in something to change our situations.

Ever since I can remember,

I resented our conditions.

♪ And he spoke to the young ♪

♪ In their native tongue ♪

♪ You are all ♪

♪ My guest ♪

♪ If you keep in mind ♪

♪ That there are no "Restricted" signs in heaven ♪

♪ No elected clientele ♪

♪ There are no "Restricted" signs in heaven ♪

♪ Brother, brother ♪

♪ That goes double ♪

♪ Oh, hal ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

♪ Oh, ah ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

[Gossett] White listeners were few,

but they were there.

[Paul Breines] I would go to parties,

and typically, um,

the music would be Elvis Presley

or Pat Boone.

But for me, I knew

that what Little Richard was singing

was very different from what Pat Boone was singing,

even when Pat Boone sang the same song.

What it had to do with was a kind of creativity

which was not coming from the immediate world

that I was in, of white people.

And I knew that very few people

in my class-- in high school again--

would be interested in that music.

They-- Because it was too, so to speak, colored.

It was too tainted. it was too outside.

And in some way, that's exactly what I liked about it.

And certainly there was a connection

between listening to that music

and going on the Freedom Rides.

No doubt.

[Mahalia Jackson] ♪ I'm on my way ♪

♪ To Canaan land ♪

♪ I'm on my way ♪

♪ Well, to Canaan land ♪

♪ On my way, oh, yes ♪

♪ To Canaan land ♪

[Gossett] The early Civil Rights leaders

were mostly from the church,

so it was no surprise

that most of the early Civil Rights music

was also from the church.

That would change soon enough.

[Mahalia Jackson] ♪ Goin' to Canaan land ♪

Now, Martin Luther King was part of--

he was part of the middle-class Baptist church,

and I was part

of the middle class Congregational church.

♪ Keep your eyes on me bright ♪

♪ O Lord, O Lord ♪

[man] But the Movement was by and large the masses...

and they were much closer to the spirituals...

uh, and not the spirituals

as arranged by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, see,

but the spirituals as Mahalia

and the old-time gospel singers sang them.

The Five Blind Boys of Alabama.

Uh, we used to listen to that every morning in my house,

and that's the way you started your Sunday.

♪ Well, free at last, free at last ♪

♪ Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last ♪

♪ One day, one day, I was walking alone ♪

♪ Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last ♪

♪ I heard a voice, but I saw no one ♪

♪ Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last ♪

♪ I'm free at last ♪

[Gossett] "Free at last, free at last.

Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last."

The words of that old spiritual

would stay with a young minister,

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Years later, he'd make those words

into the cornerstone of one of his most famous speeches.

♪ Free at last ♪

♪ I'm free at last ♪

-♪ Free at last ♪ -♪ Thank God ♪

♪ Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last ♪

♪ I'm free at last ♪

♪ Free at last ♪

Well, being raised up in the Baptist Church,

music is very strong,

very strong with us.

Music helps you to focus on where you're going

and the words and the beat.

Well, when you hear it...

it's like, uh, it's like a-- a-- a--

like someone gives you a pill and you're feeling bad

and this-- and-- and this pill kind of perks you up.

♪ Ah, Lord, I ♪

♪ I shall not be moved ♪

♪ Shall not be moved ♪

♪ I shall not be moved ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I... ♪

The song that stick with me is "I Shall Not Be Moved."

♪ ...shall not be moved ♪

♪ I shall not... ♪

"I Shall Not Be Moved,"

and, uh, that one helped me in a demonstration

once in Nashville. This is, uh--

This is '60. This was at, um, a stand-in

at the theaters, and this fellow walked up to me, white fella,

with a cigarette. He said he's gonna put it out on my face.

And so what was in my head then

is "I shall not be moved."

♪ I shall not be moved ♪

♪ Shall not be moved ♪

♪ I shall not be moved ♪

[Brooks] In the moment that I'm standing there,

I'm thinking about that we should not be moved

and-- and seeing it in my mind,

putting my mind strongly on that.

I think what made him turn around,

he didn't see fear.

I think he saw a strong person there.

♪ I shall not be... ♪

And he didn't see any fear on my face.

♪ ...Shall not be moved ♪

♪ One, one One thing I heard ♪

♪ Shall not... ♪

♪ I heard a voice ♪

[Paul Breines] When I was 20, Ezell Blair

and the three other young men from North Carolina A&T

in 1961 started the sit-ins.

They were my first role models.

They-- They provided me with a picture

of what it meant to be-- in effect,

what it meant to be a citizen.

When the Freedom Rides started the next spring,

I was very excited about that

and went to a fund raiser

that the Congress of Racial Equality had arranged,

and I remember looking at my girlfriend Winnie

and saying, "I'm-- I'm going."

♪ Ah, where the valleys ♪

♪ Where the valleys ♪

-♪ Go to slope ♪ -♪ They're gonna stay ♪

My parents were a young hip couple.

So the struggles that were going on

in the South at that particular time

and-- and heard about on the radio,

read about in Ebonyand Jet,

as a kid, you couldn't help

but to be kind of conscious of the fact

that there was something going on

that wasn't fun and games, that was really, you know, serious.

[man] Yeah! Yeah! Come on! Come on!

'Cause the music of that time was that of inspiration, hope.

♪ Shall not be moved ♪

♪ I shall not be moved ♪

The Freedom Rides actually was started

by CORE: Congress of Racial Equality.

The bus in Anniston was bombed,

and the Trailway Bus went to Birmingham.

That's where they were pulled off,

and the Freedom Riders were beaten.

Jim Peck had about 50 stitches

to close his wounds in his head.

And Governor John Patterson at that time

refused to give any kind of local protection

to the Freedom Riders.

[angry shouting]

[man] Help me, somebody! Help!

[angry shouting]

[announcer] Explosive demonstrations

rocked the North as well as the South

as Negroes struggled for equal opportunities.

[angry shouting]

[man] Send 'em all back!

[Brooks] And what really sticks in my mind,

which I can almost see 'em now,

is the white women with the babies

screaming "Kill them.

Kill them."

The real test of non-violence

is not how much violence is perpetrated against you,

but it's your response.

How do you respond to violence?

Make way. Get back.

CORE decided that they would respond to Robert Kennedy's request,

and that was, to, um, have a cooling-off period

rather than getting someone killed.

When CORE decided

that it was too dangerous to continue,

we said, "It must continue. We can't stop here.

We must, uh, go through."

I was ready.

♪ I shall not be ♪

♪ Moved ♪

When you're 18, you tend not to be as afraid.

We left at night because we would not

be as visible to people outside the bus.

We were not attacked en route.

The trip to the Jackson bus terminal

was without incident.

And, um, what I do remember is, getting off the bus,

the nervousness that I had begun to feel

when I got off the bus, a sudden anxiety

that I could be seriously hurt.

[man over P.A] Go home,.

Go home!

I had never felt that before.

Being black meant you felt that...a lot.

There was a paddy wagon outside. There were cops. There was a crowd.

And then there was noise. We were pushed. We were shoved.

People tried to punch us. I was not familiar

with that kind of unbridled hatred.

♪ Ain't gonna let nobody ♪

♪ Turn me round ♪

[Gossett] It was 1960.

The white backlash was only beginning.

It, too, had music,

but it was the music of intolerance and hatred.

I recall the group

going inside the Greyhound bus station,

which was located on LaMar Street.

A friend of mine, we kinda went over to see what was happening.

I ended up inside of the Greyhound bus station,

and there I was arrested.

I was 14 at the time.

[woman] ♪ Ain't gonna let no fear ♪

♪ Turn me round ♪

[Brooks] It was in jail that 13-year-old "Heck" Watkins

and those around him learned how to draw strength from the Movement's songs.

♪ Turn me round ♪

-♪ Keep on a-walkin' ♪ -[angry shouting]

♪ Keep on a-talkin' ♪

♪ Marchin' up to Freedom Land ♪

[Watkins] It was in jail here in Jackson-- it was a 20-bed cell--

I recall the guards would come in at night

and...and throw keys

and throw different objects in the cell on us.

And we decided that "Hey, this is enough. No more. No more."

I recall quite vividly

um, a guy by the name of James Bevel,

a black, um, minister during the time,

and, um, he started off...

♪ I ain't gonna let nobody ♪

♪ Turn me round ♪

♪ Turn me round ♪

And, man, it seemed as though his voice

of the song just--

well, just energized all of us.

[woman] ♪ Ain't gonna let intimidation ♪

♪ Turn me round ♪

-[man] ♪ Oh ♪ -♪ Turn me round ♪

-♪ Yeah-eah-eah ♪ -♪ Turn me round ♪

-[woman] ♪ Ain't gonna let intimidation ♪

♪ Turn me round ♪

♪ Keep on a-walkin' ♪

-♪ Lordy ♪ -♪ Keep on a-talkin' ♪

-♪ Oh ♪ -♪ Marchin' up ♪

♪ To Freedom Land ♪

[Gossett] Over in Birmingham, Alabama,

Martin Luther King was leading the struggle.

"We had moved out of the 16th Street Baptist church,

day after day," he would write later.

"By the hundreds we would move out.

"And Police Commissioner Bull Connor would tell them

"to send the dogs forth, and they did come.

"But we just went before the dogs singing

'Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around'."

[woman] ♪ Ain't gonna let injustice, my Lord... ♪

[Watkins] We began singing the songs,

and we kinda chained ourself together.

♪ Turn me around ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let injustice, my Lord ♪

♪ Turn me around ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on a-walkin' ♪

♪ And just keep on a-talkin' ♪

♪ While I'm marchin' up to Freedom Land ♪

And we was ready for whatever came through that door.

Whatever they put on us that day,

we was gonna put it back on them.

And I really think they had a sense of something,

'cause we was singing all the time, you know.

That was basically what we did...

uh, sang songs.

Um...but this particular song

and at this particular moment,

we felt like Hercules.

[male vocalist] ♪ Oh, you don't you ♪

♪ Let nobody ♪

♪ Turn you around ♪

[Gossett] The freedom songs worked two ways.

They inspired those in jail

and irritated their guards.

When Birmingham's notorious Police Commissioner Bull Connor

let the young protestors out of jail,

he told reporters that the singing was making him sick.

♪ Marchin' up to Freedom Land ♪

And for whatever reason or reasons, they chose not to come in that day.

And I could sit back now and say, "I'm glad they didn't."

♪ Turn me around ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let no fear, Lord ♪

♪ Turn me around ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on a-walkin' ♪

There was a lot of days in jail

that, like I say, we didn't have anything to do

but, um, but sing.

♪ Ain't gonna let intimidation ♪

♪ Turn me around ♪

[man] ♪ Oh ♪

♪ Turn me around ♪

-♪ Yeah-eah-eah ♪ -♪ Turn me around ♪

And I was beaten several times in the jail,

and the only recourse we had was to sing.

I recall not being fed for several days.

The only thing we could do was sing.

I remember the water being cut off

and everybody was defecating.

But it couldn't be flushed, and there was an odor.

What could you do? Sing.

-♪ Oh ♪ -♪ Turn me around ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let this world ♪

♪ Turn me around ♪

[Watkins] And those songs,

it put you in another state of mind.

It, uh, take you away from what is at hand.

-♪ Lordy ♪ -♪ Keep on a-talkin' ♪

It just made a difference.

♪ Marchin' up to Freedom Land ♪

♪ Oh, freedom ♪

[Gossett] During the movement's early days,

very few African-American entertainers

openly associated themselves with it.

But one who supported it in person

and could always be called upon for money

was Harry Belafonte.

And Belafonte recorded many of the spirituals

that were still driving the movement.

The old gospel stuff was-- was translated,

and a lot of that was part of--

became move-- they became movement songs

and with new lyrics.

♪ And before I'll be a slave ♪

♪ I'll be buried in my grave ♪

♪ And go home to my Lord... ♪

It was poetry. They became as-- almost as common

as love songs and also direction songs.

[Pete Seeger] I think the Civil Rights Movement

was a watershed for America, for the world.

And I'm proud that music played a part in it.

I get too much credit because I introduced some songs,

uh, but I didn't write 'em.

And the people who really used 'em were heroic people

in places like Alabama and Mississippi.

♪ Here's to the State of Mississippi ♪

♪ For underneath her borders ♪

♪ The devil draws no lines ♪

♪ If you drag her muddy rivers ♪

♪ Nameless bodies you will find ♪

[Gossett] Twenty-five years after Abel Meeropol wrote "Strange Fruit,"

young folk singers like Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan

began writing topical songs

that seethed with indignation.

The folk community

and the things that were happening in America

were extraordinarily intimate for us,

and yet we were very far from it.

And there was a shyness about why--

"Why do white kids care about our stories?"

But somehow, that blew over.

When I came to B.U. theater school in 1958,

Joan Baez and I were in the same class.

Dylan was in and out of the Cambridge scene back in those days.

He sort of picked up his Cambridge tribe,

and there were about eight of us.

There was a sense of empowerment

that we were sort of handed through the music.

And we could choose to turn around

and be better people.

♪ It's a long walk to D.C. ♪

♪ But I got my walkin' shoes on ♪

[Mavis Staple] We were in Montgomery, Alabama.

Pop said "This man Martin is here.

And, um, I like his message."

He'd been hearing Dr. King on the radio.

And he said, "He has a church here.

I want to go to his 11:00 service.

Do you all want to go?"

We said, "Yeah, Dad, we want to go."

We went to Dr. King's church.

He said, "I'm glad to have Pop Staples and his daughters here."

When the service was over, Dr. King was standing at the door.

Then Pops, he stood there and talked to him for a while.

Well, after Pops finally came on,

we went back to the hotel.

He called us to his room.

He said, "Listen, y'all.

I really like this man's message.

I really like his message.

And I think that if he can preach it, we can sing it."

And we began writing freedom songs.

We joined a movement.

Then we wrote "It's A Long Walk to D.C.,

But I Got My Walking Shoes On."

♪ I got to see the president ♪

♪ No matter what it takes ♪

♪ I tell ya, it's a long walk to D.C., yeah ♪

♪ Come on, oh, yes, I am ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ But I know I'll make it someday ♪

♪ I know it's a whole lot of rocks and rivs ♪

[Siggins] And it brought home to us

a thing that has never changed in most of us,

that there were things that needed fixing in this country.

[Seeger] I don't think there was

any political movement in history

that had as much singing as the Civil Rights Movement had,

right from the start.

December 1955,

when the Bus Boycott started,

right up through the '60s.

New songs every month.

Quite often they were gospel songs with new words.

I learned "We Shall Overcome"

in 1946 or 1947

from Zilphia Horton.

However, it was a fellow ten years younger than I,

Guy Carawan,

who introduced it to the young members

of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,

known as SNCC for short.

And they said, "Oh, this is a song."

And a month later,

it was all through the country--

not just a song, it was the song.

And they gave it the gospel beat.

And they added this holding hands, crossed.

Your left hand holds the right hand of somebody to your right,

and your right hand holds the left hand of somebody to your left.

And you sway.

Ahh, the song's gone around the world.

South Africa knows it.

India-- it's sung in all the schools of India in their local language.

Astonishing.

♪ We shall overcome ♪

♪ Someday ♪

We'll walk hand in hand.

♪ We'll walk hand in hand ♪

I mean, you sang up on your nerve,

Uh, and you get knocked down,

you get back up, and you go on again.

-You don't stop. -[crowd shouting]

The message of the music

carries you forward when you don't understand,

and you can't argue it logically.

♪ We are not afraid ♪

♪ We are not afraid ♪

♪ We are not afraid ♪

[man] Today!

♪ Today ♪

[shouting]

[vocalizing]

White, black, everybody was writing songs.

When I look at my song books, they came from everywhere.

♪ How many roads must a man walk down ♪

♪ Before you call him a man? ♪

[Gossett] Just a few weeks before the March on Washington,

a folk trio, Peter, Paul and Mary,

recorded a song by a little-known singer and songwriter,

Bob Dylan.

They sang it in Washington for the hundreds of thousands there that day,

and the millions more watching on television.

It was a song that Dylan had set to an old spiritual,

"No More Auction Block For Me."

♪ The answer, my friend ♪

♪ Is blowin' in the wind ♪

♪ The answer is blowin' in the wind ♪

The music was as varied as the people.

But there was always music.

I say the reason communism failed in the South

is they don't sing.

♪ Yes, and how many times must a man look up ♪

♪ Before he can see the sky? ♪

♪ Yes, and how many ears ♪

♪ Must one man have ♪

♪ Before he can hear people cry? ♪

♪ Yes, and how many deaths ♪

♪ Will it take till he knows ♪

♪ That too many people have died? ♪

♪ The answer, my friend ♪

♪ Is blowin' in the wind ♪

♪ The answer is blowin' in the wind ♪

[harmonica playing]

One more classic came indirectly

from the March on Washington.

Sam Cooke heard the song "Blowin' in the Wind,"

and he decided that rhythm and blues

needed to catch up with the times.

So he resolved to write a song.

And, then, a few weeks later,

he was trying to register at an all-white Holiday Inn,

and he was arrested for disturbing the peace.

That song is "A Change is Gonna Come."

Sam, he never lived to hear that song come out

because he was killed just as it was released.

♪ I was born ♪

♪ By the river ♪

♪ Oh, my ♪

♪ In this little old town ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Just like this river ♪

♪ I've been running ever since ♪

♪ It's been a long, long ♪

♪ Long time coming ♪

♪ But I know, but I know ♪

♪ A change has gotta come ♪

[man] Otis Redding did a lot of other Sam Cooke songs on his albums,

but his version of "A Change is Gonna Come"

might be the most soulful of all the versions.

And there's been dozens and dozens of versions of that song,

but I don't think anyone ever made it better

than Otis Redding.

♪ Long time coming ♪

♪ But I know, but I know ♪

♪ Change has gotta come ♪

♪ Oh, yes, it is now ♪

♪ There's a time ♪

♪ I will go to my brother ♪

♪ Oh, my ♪

♪ I've asked my brother ♪

♪ Will you help me, please? ♪

♪ Oh, now, oh, my ♪

♪ He turned me down ♪

♪ And then I asked my dear mother ♪

♪ Oh, now ♪

♪ I said, Mother, I said, Mother ♪

♪ I'm down on my knees ♪

♪ It's been a time that I thought ♪

♪ Lord, this couldn't last very long ♪

♪ Oh, now, oh ♪

♪ But somehow I thought I was still able ♪

♪ To try to carry on ♪

♪ It's been a long ♪

When I hear songs like "A Change is Gonna Come,"

I reflect back to what I was doing

when that record came out.

Was I in jail?

Was I going to a community organization?

[Gossett] Change was coming.

In July of 1964,

nearly a year after the March on Washington,

America's new president, Lyndon Johnson,

signed the landmark Civil Rights bill

integrating schools and outlawing discrimination in public places.

That same year, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

[man] Well, everybody was watching TV.

Everybody saw what was happening,

particularly down South, with the water hoses

and everything else negative that was happening at that time.

So, naturally, "A Change is Gonna Come"

meant a lot to a lot of people.

[Otis] ♪ That I thought ♪

♪ Lord, this couldn't last very long ♪

♪ Oh, my, oh ♪

♪ But somehow I thought I was still able ♪

♪ To try to carry on ♪

♪ It's been a long, long ♪

♪ Long time comin' ♪

♪ But I know, but I know ♪

When we started a movement in a town,

the way we started was we went in singing

the old spirituals that they sang.

See, and then we'd gradually

switch those into freedom songs.

Songs were very important

because this is one of the ways we determined

whether or not a community was ready for a movement.

The first song that people actually sang

in Selma, Alabama,

uh, it was actually three girls--

three little girls-- started singing this song.

And these three little girls

was the thing that really inspired me

when they started singing "Freedom Is A-Comin'"

And no one taught them this song.

They made it up themselves.

And then people just continued to add to them.

It went something like...

♪ Freedom is a-coming ♪

♪ And it won't be long ♪

♪ Freedom is a-coming ♪

♪ Help us sing this song ♪

♪ Freedom is a-coming ♪

♪ And it won't be long ♪

♪ If you want to be free ♪

♪ Come and go with me ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ We are fighting for our equal rights ♪

♪ So come and join in the fight ♪

♪ We're singing along ♪

♪ I hope we're not alone ♪

♪ People get ready ♪

♪ There's a train a-comin' ♪

♪ You don't need no baggage ♪

♪ You just get on board ♪

♪ All you need is faith ♪

♪ To hear the diesels hummin' ♪

♪ Don't need no ticket ♪

♪ You just thank the Lord ♪

[LaFayette] The singing was a form of protest,

but more than that.

A song was what you'd call healing for us...

because we suffered many wounds.

[Gossett] "People Get Ready" wasn't an angry song.

It was almost blissful.

But as one civil rights activist said,

it was warrior music--

the music you listen to while preparing for a march or demonstration.

[Andrew Young] Those were the songs that the disc jockeys played,

and they selected those, see?

They could not make any announcements,

even about our mass meetings.

And they could not report,

but they always attended our mass meetings.

And they always found some way

to use some songs

uh, to let people know--

I mean, one I remember in that context was "People Get Ready."

Well, Curtis started in a gospel group.

And Jerry Butler was also in that group for a time.

And that became, essentially, The Impressions.

Curtis Mayfield was

one of the real legitimate geniuses of our time.

And it was out of his playing,

and out of his concept of music,

that The Impressions became what they were.

[man] If you listen to The Impressions' music--

"People Get Ready" or "Amen,"

"Meeting Over Yonder"--

you really hear the gospel roots

coming right out of Curtis.

He was trying to be socially conscious about the Civil Rights Movement

and the plight of his people at that time.

♪ People get ready ♪

♪ There's a train a-comin' ♪

♪ You don't need no baggage ♪

♪ You just get on board ♪

♪ All you need is faith ♪

♪ To hear the diesels hummin' ♪

♪ You don't need no ticket ♪

♪ You just thank the Lord ♪

[Gossett] Years later,

a panel of musicians and songwriters,

including Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson,

voted "People Get Ready"

one of the ten best songs of all time.

♪ There ain't no room ♪

♪ For the hopeless sinner ♪

♪ Who would hurt all mankind ♪

♪ Just to save his own ♪

♪ Have pity on those ♪

♪ Whose chances grow thinner ♪

♪ For there's no hiding place ♪

♪ Against the Kingdom's throne ♪

♪ You know, there's no hiding place ♪

♪ There's no hiding place ♪

♪ So people get ready ♪

♪ There's a train a-comin' ♪

♪ You don't need no baggage ♪

♪ You just get on board ♪

♪ All you need is faith ♪

♪ To hear the diesels hummin' ♪

♪ You don't need no ticket ♪

♪ You just thank the Lord ♪

♪ I say you just thank the Lord ♪

♪ You just thank the Lord ♪

♪ That's why I'm here to say ♪

♪ That I believe ♪

♪ I believe ♪

♪ We're gonna make it ♪

♪ We're gonna make it as a human race ♪

♪ People, I believe ♪

♪ I believe, I believe ♪

♪ I believe ♪

♪ You don't need no ticket ♪

♪ You just thank ♪

♪ The Lord ♪

♪ People get ready ♪

♪ People get ready now ♪

We were successfully doing something every day

that could not be achieved outside the studios.

Firstly, we'd integrated.

That was unique.

That is part of the life of creative people

in that we live in a place that's a little different

because what we do creatively

is try to interpret what's going on around us.

[Gossett] Until the Civil Rights Act,

it was illegal for black and white musicians

to perform together on stage in Memphis.

But they worked together in the Stax Studio

to produce hits for Otis Redding,

Sam and Dave, and many, many others.

We worked quite well together.

I think that was a first, as I knew it,

the first integrated

session musicians in a studio--

uh, Stax.

It was in the forefront.

We did a lot of groundbreaking things.

Uh, I remember the first integrated band playing a nightclub

was Ben Branch.

He had a guitarist, a white boy named Charlie Freeman.

And it was a big deal. Can you believe it?

In those days-- [mock gasping]

white boy playing with a bunch of black guys, it was a big deal.

[Horne] And it was about "Be free."

"Be your own person."

How do you relate to others? How do you think about others?

How do you demand, uh,

respect for your own dignity and dignify others?

[Gossett] But progress was slow--

too slow for some.

We were tired as. We weren't going to take it anymore.

And the songs started to reflect that.

♪ Hound dogs on my trail ♪

♪ School children sittin' in jail ♪

♪ Black cat cross my path ♪

♪ I think every day's gonna be my last ♪

♪ Lord have mercy on this land of mine ♪

♪ We all gonna get it in due time ♪

♪ I don't belong here ♪

♪ I don't belong there ♪

♪ I've even stopped believing in prayer ♪

♪ Don't tell me ♪

♪ I'll tell you ♪

♪ Me and my people just about due ♪

♪ I've been there so I know ♪

♪ They keep on saying "Go slow" ♪

♪ That's what they said, "Go slow" ♪

♪ That's what they said, "Go slow" ♪

-♪ That's what's the trouble ♪-Do it slow!

-♪ Washing the windows ♪ -Do it slow!

-♪ Picking the cotton ♪ -Do it slow!

-♪ When I've been rotten ♪ -Do it slow!

-♪ You're too lazy ♪-Do it slow!

-♪ My thinking's crazy ♪ -Do it slow!

♪ Where am I going? ♪

♪ What am I doing? ♪

♪ I don't know ♪

♪ I don't know ♪

♪ Just try to do your very best ♪

♪ Stand up, be counted with all the rest ♪

♪ For everybody knows ♪

♪ About Mississippi ♪

Yeah.

[vocalizing]

[Gossett] The song is Simone's response to the murder

of civil rights worker Medgar Evers

and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church

in Birmingham.

♪ Picket lines, school boycotts ♪

♪ They try to say it's a communist plot ♪

♪ But all I want is equality ♪

♪ For my sister, my brother ♪

♪ My people, and me ♪

♪ My people and me ♪

♪ You lied to me all these years ♪

♪ You told me to wash and clean my ears ♪

♪ And talk real fine just like a lady ♪

♪ And you'd stop callin' me Sister Sadie ♪

♪ Oh, but my country's full of lies ♪

♪ We all gonna die and die like flies ♪

♪ I don't trust nobody anymore ♪

♪ They keep on sayin' "Go slow" ♪

♪ Yeah, that's what they're sayin' ♪

♪ Go slow ♪

-♪ Well, that's just the trouble ♪ -Do it slow!

-♪ Desegregation ♪ -Do it slow!

♪ Mass participation ♪

Do it slow!

♪ Reunification ♪

Do it slow!

♪ Do things gradually ♪

Do it slow!

♪ Will bring more tragedy ♪

Do it slow!

♪ Well, I don't see it ♪

♪ I don't feel it ♪

♪ I don't know ♪

♪ I don't know ♪

♪ You don't have to live next to me ♪

♪ Just give me my equality ♪

♪ Everybody knows about Mississippi ♪

♪ Everybody knows about Alabama ♪

♪ Everybody knows about Mississippi ♪

That's it!

It's just like one of those things that you can't separate

the news from the music.

You can't separate the pictures from the voices.

Why is my mother wearing a afro?

As opposed to three years ago, she was wearing a wig.

The social movements bec--

The movements of protest became violent.

Non-violence was dropped very happily

by many in the black movement and in the white movements of the 1960s.

You gonna sit in front of your television set

and listen to LBJ tell you

that "Violence never accomplishes anything, my fellow Americans"?

[Gossett] 1967.

The Civil Rights Movement is fast giving way

to the Black Power Movement.

The real problem with violence

is that we have never been violent.

We have been too non-violent!

[chanting]

[Gossett] Then next the rhetoric becomes so charged

that when Aretha Franklin records "Respect,"

which was originally intended to be a love song,

it became an anthem of black power.

[band playing]

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ What you want ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Baby, I got ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ What you need ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ You know I got it ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ All I'm askin' ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Is for a little respect ♪

-♪ When you get home ♪ -♪ Little bit ♪

-♪ Baby, when you get home ♪ -♪ Little bit ♪

♪ Just a little bit ♪

♪ Mister ♪

♪ Just a little bit ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Ain't gonna do you wrong ♪

♪ While you're gone ♪

-♪ Ain't gonna do you wrong ♪ -♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Because I don't wanna ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ All I'm askin' ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Is for a little respect ♪

-♪ When you get home ♪ -♪ Just a little bit ♪

-♪ Yeah, baby ♪ -♪ Just a little bit ♪

♪ When you get home ♪

♪ Just a little bit ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ Just a little bit ♪

♪ I'm about to give you ♪

♪ All of my money ♪

♪ And all I'm askin' ♪

♪ In return, honey ♪

♪ Is to give me ♪

♪ My propers when you get home ♪

♪ Justa, justa, justa ♪

♪ Yeah, baby ♪

♪ When you get home ♪

♪ Just a little bit ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ Just a little bit ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

[instrumental playing]

[piano plays intro]

[woman] ♪ Precious ♪

♪ Lord ♪

1968, April 4th.

I was with Martin Luther King

in Memphis.

We had a staff meeting previously in Atlanta,

planning for the Poor People's Campaign.

♪ Let me ♪

♪ Stand ♪

And they kept calling on him in Memphis,

if he'd just come to Memphis just for one day.

So we regrouped the staff, and we all went to Memphis.

♪ I ♪

♪ Am weak ♪

♪ I ♪

♪ Am worn ♪

♪ Through ♪

♪ The storm ♪

So we started talking that night-- the 3rd of April--

on the general campaign and what we're supposed to do.

Next morning, I got this thing laid out,

so we were talking after the staff meeting

about the Poor People's Campaign

and what I was gonna do in Washington, D.C.

Out of the blue, Martin Luther King said to me--

we were there alone in the room--

he says, "Now, Bernard, the next campaign we gonna have

"is to institutionalize

and internationalize non-violence."

♪ Take my hand ♪

Those were his last words.

♪ Precious ♪

♪ Lord ♪

[Gossett] At the funeral,

Mahalia Jackson,

Martin Luther King's favorite singer,

performs "Precious Lord, Take My Hand."

Just minutes before he was shot,

King had asked musician Ben Branch

to play the hymn at the meeting scheduled for that night.

[man] Burn, baby, burn.

[siren sounding]

Move out! Come on, come on.

Get 'em across.

[Gossett] The assassination touches off riots

in more than 125 cities across the country.

♪ I hear somebody cryin' ♪

♪ Mmm, mmm, mmm ♪

♪ Cryin' in the streets ♪

♪ Oh, yes, the are ♪

[sirens wailing]

[angry shouting]

♪ I hear somebody cryin' ♪

♪ Cryin' in the street ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Why they make that...♪

A sniper is only a coward, not a hero.

And an uncontrolled or uncontrollable mob

is only the voice of madness,

not the voice of the people.

Dr. King's assassination

impacted, uh, everybody at Stax.

Musically, I shut down.

I couldn't write. I couldn't do anything.

I was so bitter...

'cause they had killed my leader.

But I realized that I was better suited

in what I do best.

I could influence people with music.

[White] In 1968,

when Martin Luther King was assassinated...

...the riots started.

The mayor of Boston then, Kevin White,

decided to cancel the concert

that was scheduled at the Boston Garden with James Brown.

James got on the radio,

and he appealed to folks to calm down,

and instead of coming out to the concert,

that he'd made an arrangement with Channel 2...

a PBS station,

to broadcast the show live on television.

This country owes a great thanks to James Brown,

and we're lucky

that we have him here tonight with us.

[audience chatter]

Give another round of applause for James Brown.

[cheering and applause]

They could stay home

and watch him do the show.

Didn't have to buy a ticket.

♪ I don't care ♪

♪ I can't ♪

♪ I done fought through it ♪

♪ The funky, funky, funk ♪

[screams]

[band playing]

[White] And James Brown went on and did that show.

And it was-- it was fantastic.

It really saved the city of Boston.

Because that night was very, very peaceful.

Most everybody was home watching their TV

and watching James Brown.

James Brown said it all for me when I was young,

"Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud."

He said it all.

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud ♪

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud ♪

♪ Some people say it's malice ♪

♪ Some say it's a lot of nerve ♪

♪ Someone can't quit movin' ♪

♪ Till we get what we deserve ♪

♪ I've been 'buked ♪

♪ And I've been scorned ♪

♪ Talkin' about, baby ♪

♪ Sure as you're born ♪

♪ Just as sure as it takes two eyes to make a pair ♪

♪ We can't give up the ship ♪

♪ Till we get our share ♪

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud ♪

Let me hear you.

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud ♪

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud ♪

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud ♪

[screams]

♪ Get down ♪

♪ Get down ♪

♪ Get down ♪

[screams]

♪ Get down ♪

♪ Get down ♪

[Gossett] Before "Say It Loud," "black" was an insult.

After "Say It Loud," black was all about pride.

One song made all the difference.

♪ Get on the train ♪

[screams]

Come on!

Come on! Get it!

Get it! Get it! Get it!

[Gossett] In Motown's early days,

the company had shied away from political songs.

But by the early '70s,

it was America's most successful ever black-owned record label.

And its artists were ready to take a stand.

♪ Heaven help the child ♪

♪ Who never had a home ♪

♪ Heaven help the girl ♪

♪ Who walks the streets alone ♪

♪ Heaven help the roses ♪

♪ If the bombs begin to fall ♪

I think that we could do better.

I think that races, blacks, and whites

can start getting along together.

[crowd cheers]

♪ Heaven help the black man ♪

♪ If he struggles one more day ♪

♪ Heaven help the white man ♪

♪ If he turns his back away ♪

♪ Heaven help the man who kicks ♪

♪ The man who must crawl ♪

♪ Heaven help us all ♪

♪ Heaven help us all ♪

♪ Heaven help us all ♪

♪ Heaven help us ♪

♪ Lord, hear our call ♪

♪ When we fall ♪

-♪ Ohh, oh, yeah ♪ -♪ Help us all ♪

♪ Heaven help the boy... ♪

[Robert Kennedy] What has violence ever accomplished?

What has it ever created?

[Gossett] In 1968,

the country lost Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

And outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago,

police brutally attacked the demonstrators

protesting the Vietnam War.

[crowd yells]

[man] Mr. Chairman,

most delegates of this convention do not know

that thousands of young people

are being beaten in the streets of Chicago.

[indistinct shouting]

[man] With George McGovern as President of the United States,

we wouldn't have to have Gestapo scare tactics

in the streets of Chicago.

[crowd cheering]

[Gossett] And then, in 1970,

during an anti-war demonstration

at Kent State University in Ohio,

National Guard troops shot and killed four student protestors.

♪ Keep hatred from the mighty ♪

♪ And the mighty from the small, yeah ♪

♪ Heaven help ♪

♪ Us all ♪

[Gossett] Now it was time for musicians

to try to pull the country together.

Artists like Stevie Wonder cried out that survival in America

didn't have to mean bleaching your soul

or sacrificing your humanity.

But there was no getting around the fact

that the country had abandoned

some of the movements of non-violent ideals.

♪ We need ya, Lord ♪

-♪ And we need ya now ♪ -♪ Heaven help us all ♪

[vocalizing]

♪ Don't ya know, don't ya know, don't ya know ♪

♪ Don't ya know Don't ya know Don't ya know it? ♪

♪ We need ya down here, Lord ♪

♪ To help us ♪

♪ Heaven help ♪

♪ Us all ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, yeah ♪

[Gladys] The times were reflected in the music.

We sang about some of our experiences,

and that's what a lot of the music was about,

some of the times we had come through,

and what people needed to be doing.

Curtis Mayfield and "Keep On Pushing,"

Otis Redding and "R-E-S-P-E-C-T,

Find out what it means to me."

And then you come down to, uh,

Marvin Gaye, even.

[Butler] And the album was What's Going On.

It is, to my mind,

one of the most soulful,

poignant messages

about the world and its situation

that I've heard from any singer

at any time.

♪ Mother, mother ♪

♪ There's too many of you crying ♪

♪ Brother, brother, brother ♪

♪ There's far too many of you dying ♪

♪ You know we've got to find a way ♪

♪ To bring some loving ♪

♪ Here today ♪

♪ Father, father ♪

♪ We don't need to escalate ♪

♪ War is not the answer ♪

♪ For only love can conquer hate ♪

♪ You, you know we've got to find a way ♪

♪ To bring some loving ♪

♪ Oh, here today ♪

♪ Picket lines ♪

♪ Picket signs ♪

♪ Don't punish me ♪

♪ With brutality ♪

♪ Talk to me ♪

♪ Honey, so you can see ♪

♪ Oh, what's going on ♪

♪ What's going on ♪

♪ Yeah, what's going on ♪

♪ Tell me what's going on ♪

♪ Woo ♪

♪ Come on, honey ♪

[Gossett] Marvin Gaye's brother had come back from Vietnam a bitter and disillusioned man.

Marvin began looking outside the cocoon of his life.

"My blood started to boil," he said.

"I had an anger, an energy, an artistic point of view."

What's Going On was a suite of songs

that addressed the world as he saw it.

"Hypocrisy, callousness, racism,

can we not do better than this?"

What had happened to the idealism of just a few years earlier?

♪ Everybody thinks we're wrong ♪

♪ Yes, they do ♪

♪ Oh, but who are they to judge us ♪

♪ Simply 'cause our hair is long ♪

♪ People, you, you, you know ♪

♪ We've got to find a way ♪

♪ To bring some understanding ♪

♪ Here today ♪

♪ Picket lines ♪

♪ Picket signs ♪

♪ People, don't punish me ♪

♪ With brutality ♪

♪ Talk to me, talk to me, talk to me ♪

♪ So you can see ♪

♪ What's going on ♪

♪ What's going on ♪

♪ Hey, what's going on ♪

♪ Wanna know what's going on ♪

♪ All right ♪

♪ I wanna know ♪

♪ Know what's going on ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ Yes, I wanna know ♪

♪ Yeah, what's going on right now, people ♪

[Ruth Brown] It's music that has transcended

and gone above everything that society said we were not allowed to do.

Black people, white people, all colors of people

have enjoyed this music.

And no matter what comes and what goes,

they're not ever gonna really get rid of it.

It's too basic.

It's too real.

♪ I know a place ♪

♪ Oh, a-- ♪

♪ Ain't nobody crying ♪

[Gossett] The Staples Singers had been there from the beginning.

Moving to Stax Records in Memphis,

they came back with something new--

a little bit of gospel, a little bit of soul,

even a little bit of reggae.

But they were still calling for a re-made America

where "ain't nobody crying."

♪ Jump on, jump on ♪

♪ Somebody help me here ♪

♪ I'll take you there ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, help me now ♪

♪ I'll take you there ♪

♪ Oh, boy, help me now ♪

♪ I'll take you there ♪

♪ Oh, help me ♪

♪ I'll take you there ♪

♪ Oh, mercy ♪

♪ I'll take you there ♪

♪ Oh, oh, let me take you there ♪

♪ I'll take you there ♪

♪ Oh, oh, let me take you there ♪

♪ I'll take you there ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ There it goes ♪

♪ Oh, play your-- ♪

♪ Play your piano now ♪

♪ All right ♪

♪ Do it now, do it now ♪

♪ Jump on now ♪

♪ Play on it, play on it ♪

♪ Help me, Daddy, now ♪

♪ Daddy, Daddy, Daddy ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

[Gossett] It was 1972, and "I'll Take You There"

became one of the records of the year.

♪ Whoa, oh ♪

♪ Somebody do it now ♪

The music has, uh,

been the lifeblood of the movement.

It runs throughout the veins of the movement.

So you don't just hear the songs with your ears.

But-- But music is...

one of the forces for the soul.

And it empowers people.

♪ You gets up, you stand up ♪

♪ Uh-huh ♪

♪ Stand up for your rights ♪

♪ You get up, you stand up ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

[Gossett] In Jamaica, Bob Marley grew up

listening to Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions,

Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding.

In 1966, he worked at a Chrysler plant in Delaware.

And when he went home, he brought the music

and the message of Civil Rights to his own music.

♪ Stand up for your rights ♪

♪ So get up, stand up ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight No ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪

♪ We're sick and tired of your ism-schism ♪

♪ Dyin' and go to heaven in a ism-schism ♪

♪ We know and we understand ♪

♪ Almighty God is a living man ♪

♪ You can fool some people sometimes ♪

♪ But you can't fool all the people ♪

♪ All the time ♪

♪ Now you see the light ♪

♪ Stand up for your rights ♪

♪ Woo, oh ♪

♪ Woo, oh, yo, yo, yo ♪

[audience] ♪ Woo, oh, yo, yo, yo ♪

♪ Whoa yo ♪

[audience] ♪ Whoa yo ♪

♪ Whoa yo, yo, yo, yo ♪

[audience] ♪ Woo, oh, yo, yo, yo ♪

♪ Whoa, yo ♪

[audience] ♪ Whoa yo ♪

♪ Whoa, yo, yo, yo, yo ♪

[audience] ♪ Woo, oh, yo, yo, yo ♪

♪ Whoa yo ♪

[audience] ♪ Whoa yo ♪

♪ Whoa, yo, yo, yo, yo ♪

[audience] ♪ Woo, oh, yo, yo, yo ♪

♪ You can stand up for your rights ♪

♪ Stand up for your rights ♪

♪ Stand up for your rights ♪

♪ Stand up for your rights ♪

Artists have to be encouraged to really feel it out.

Have to also be aware of history and geography,

which most Americans have been kept away from.

You know, they wait for history

to be packaged and sold to them.

You'll end up waiting forever.

[Gossett] Half a world away,

a revolution in four-part harmony had been underway for years.

This one to liberate millions of black South Africans

from the yolk of Apartheid.

♪ Bring back Nelson Mandela ♪

♪ Bring him back home to Soweto ♪

♪ We want to see him walking down the streets ♪

♪ Of South Africa ♪

♪ Tomorrow ♪

♪ Bring back Nelson Mandela ♪

♪ Bring him back home to Soweto ♪

♪ I want to see him walking hand in hand ♪

♪ With Winnie Mandela ♪

♪ No more borstal ♪

[Gossett] In 1948, the British colony of South Africa institutionalized racism

under a system called apartheid.

In many ways,

it was more discriminatory than segregation in the American south.

Decades of harsh oppression followed.

Musicians who had left South Africa,

like Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba,

helped tell the world what was happening there

and helped to make South Africa a pariah state.

[band playing]

[singing in native language]

[Gossett] It would take a violent struggle and many deaths

before apartheid could finally be brought to its knees,

and it could never have been done without music.

Nelson Mandela, who'd come to symbolize resistance to apartheid,

was finally freed from jail in 1990.

He'd been in prison since 1964.

Apartheid crumbled soon after.

♪ Home to Soweto ♪

♪ I want to see him walking down the streets ♪

♪ Of South Africa ♪

♪ Tomorrow ♪

♪ Bring back Nelson Mandela ♪

♪ Bring him back home to Soweto ♪

♪ I want to see him walking hand-in-hand ♪

♪ With Winnie Mandela ♪

♪ No more borstal ♪

[trumpet solo]

[Gossett] Back in the United States,

the gains of the Civil Rights Movement

hadn't made much difference to the lives of many African-Americans.

The mean streets of America's ghettos

would soon echo to a new sound.

I didn't start getting involved in creating music

and being involved in the playing of music

until I was about 19 and 20.

I saw a lot of people around me

being kind of swept in

from another musical point of view

that just didn't let them get the goods.

So I saw that change come on

of music kinda like saying nothin' to people.

Anything can be soulful...

if it's done with the spirit from here.

What kind of spirit...

can...

be a question here

because it doesn't all the time have to be a positive spirit

that we're dealing with.

You can do so many things with lyrics,

you know, within a song.

And I think if they are there,

we can take those lyrics over into our daily life,

our daily activity, even at work, at play.

["The Message"]

In the beginning, rap music is protest music,

born in the streets and ghettos of urban America.

Many early rap performers took their cue

from James Brown and classic funk.

[man rapping] ♪ Broken glass everywhere ♪

♪ People pissin' on the stairs ♪

♪ You know they just don't care ♪

♪ I can't take the smell ♪

♪ Can't take the noise ♪

♪ Got no money to move out ♪

♪ I guess I got no choice ♪

♪ Rats in the front room ♪

♪ Roaches in the back ♪

♪ Junkies in the alley ♪

♪ With a baseball bat ♪

♪ I tried to get away ♪

♪ But I couldn't get far ♪

♪ 'Cuz a man with a tow truck ♪

♪ Repossessed my car ♪

♪ Don't push me ♪

♪ 'Cuz I'm close ♪

♪ To the edge ♪

♪ I'm tryin' not ♪

♪ To lose my head ♪

♪ Uh huh ha ha ha ♪

♪ It's like a jungle sometimes ♪

♪ It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under ♪

♪ Standin' on the front stoop ♪

♪ Hangin' out the window ♪

♪ Watchin' all the cars go by ♪

♪ Roarin' as the breezes blow ♪

♪ Crazy lady Livin' in a bag ♪

♪ Eatin' outta garbage pails ♪

♪ Used to be a hag ♪

♪ Said she'll dance the tango ♪

♪ Skip the light fandango ♪

♪ A zircon princess ♪

♪ Seemed to lost her senses ♪

♪ Down at the peep show ♪

♪ Watchin' all the creeps ♪

♪ So she can tell her stories ♪

♪ To the girls back home ♪

♪ She went to the city ♪

♪ And got Social Security ♪

♪ She had to get a pimp ♪

♪ She couldn't make it on her own ♪

♪ Don't push me ♪

♪ 'Cuz I'm close ♪

♪ To the edge ♪

♪ I'm tryin' ♪

♪ Not to lose my head ♪

♪ Uh huh ha ha ha ♪

♪ It's like a jungle sometimes ♪

♪ It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under ♪

♪ It's like a jungle sometimes ♪

♪ It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under ♪

♪ My brother's doin' bad ♪

♪ Stole my mother's TV ♪

♪ Says she watches too much ♪

So when I'm first hearing "Fight The Power"

in the '70s as a young teenager,

I'm struck by the fact

this is the first record I heard a curse word in,

but the curse just isn't just said for no reason.

The curse is applied to a condition

that was happening at that particular time

that people were tired of.

♪ I try to play my music ♪

♪ They say my music's too loud ♪

[Gossett] It was The Isley Brothers lead singer, Ronald Isley,

who told the world that was goin' down.

♪ I got knocked on the ground ♪

♪ All this goin' down ♪

He said, "That's what everyone needed to hear."

♪ Got no guarantee ♪

♪ Smile in a makin' ♪

♪ What we gotta do ♪

♪ Fight the powers that be ♪

[music fading]

I made "Fight the Power"

with my team in 1988

for the Spike Lee Do the Right Thingsoundtrack.

Uh, we wanted to be just as jarring.

♪ 1, 2 ♪

♪ 'Cause it's 7, a number ♪

-♪ Another summer ♪ -♪ Get down ♪

♪ Sound of the drummer ♪

♪ Music hittin' your heart ♪

♪ 'Cause I know you got soul ♪

-♪ Brothers and sisters ♪ -♪ Hey ♪

♪ Listen if you're missin', y'all ♪

-♪ Swingin' while I'm singing ♪ -♪ Hey ♪

♪ Givin' what you can ♪

♪ Know, I know it ♪

♪ While the black band's sweatin' ♪

♪ And the rhythm rhymes rollin' ♪

♪ Got to give us what we want ♪

-♪ Unh ♪ -♪ Gotta give us what we need ♪

-♪ Hey ♪ -♪ Our freedom of speech ♪

[Gossett] From the beginning, Public Enemy was known

for politically-charged lyrics,

criticism of the media, and a fierce allegiance

to the African-American community and its history.

Myself and Hank Shocklee were hanging a flier...

of a-- of a-- of a gig that we were promoting.

And we put the picture of Malcolm X

on the-- on the front of the flier

with him looking out the window with the carbine.

This guy came up to us as we were stapling this flier on the pole,

and he says, "Yo, I'm down to check y'all out.

Who's this Malcolm the Tenth?"

And we looked at each other like,

"This dude don't even know who Malcolm X is?"

So we have to kinda, like, reconnect the dots here.

♪ People, people ♪

♪ Say no, we're not the same ♪

♪ 'Cause we don't know the game ♪

♪ What we need is awareness ♪

♪ We can't get careless, South By Southwest ♪

-♪ You say, what is this? ♪ -♪ My beloved ♪

♪ Let's get down to business ♪

♪ Mental self-defensive fitness ♪

-♪ Bum rush the show ♪ -♪ Hey ♪

♪ You gotta go for what you know ♪

♪ I'll make everybody see in order to ♪

-♪ Fight the powers that be ♪ -♪ Let me hear you say ♪

-♪ Fight the power ♪ -♪ Y'all got to fight ♪

-♪ Say what, y'all ♪ -♪ Fight the power ♪

-♪ Let me hear you say ♪ -♪ Fight the power ♪

-♪ Y'all got to fight, say what, y'all ♪ -♪ Fight the power ♪

-♪ Let me hear you say ♪ -♪ Fight the power ♪

♪ You go to fight, say what, y'all ♪

-♪ Fight the power ♪ -♪ Let me hear you say ♪

-♪ Fight the power ♪ -♪ Hey ♪

[Chuck] The language is in context

of pointing to a situation

that we thought that needed to be dealt with.

You know, you know, oh, wow, you know,

uh, rock 'n' roll king is Elvis,

so black people don't count.

And then-- then, you know, there's this thing

as American heroes will always have to be white.

Yeah, you can be a hero, but you gotta come through this doorway

to be a hero.

♪ Fight the power ♪

♪ You got to fight, say what, y'all ♪

-♪ Fight the power ♪ -♪ Let me hear you say ♪

♪ Fight the power ♪

♪ Y'all got to fight Say what ♪

♪ Fight the power ♪

♪ Fight the power ♪

♪ You got to fight ♪

♪ Fight the power ♪

[Chuck] The most beautiful thing about hip-hop

is the fact that hip-hop's use

of the combinations of sights and sounds

and reminders from the past,

with its vocal approach,

give it the possibility to go and do things

that other musics might not be able to reach.

We have that to replace

what the radio stations and the radio deejays used to do

and, uh, what they should be doing.

We created a darkness

around this generation of young people in big cities.

Bob Marley, for instance, in the islands,

writes another genre of freedom songs.

And he can write "One Heart, One Love,

let's get together and feel all right."

Our kids have not gotten there yet,

but I see them growing up, see,

and they started out mean,

and they started out mad,

and they started out going for bad, see?

Now they're mellowing a little bit.

♪ I used to flow ♪

♪ They used to call me a rhyme animal ♪

♪ Some of them don't call me no more ♪

♪ So I try a new style ♪

♪ Refuse to get wild on the B-side

♪ Because I still got my pride ♪

♪ The pride comes from another time ♪

♪ My father and mother ♪

♪ Plus God bless the rhyme ♪

♪ Born in 1967 ♪

♪ Suckas quizzin' me what was it like ♪

♪ Before everybody tried to be like Mike? ♪

♪ Back in the day when our peeps had to fight for our rights ♪

♪ To make the day feel all right ♪

♪ But there is no is without a was ♪

♪ No about to be, buts or because ♪

-♪ It's my pride ♪ -♪ Oh ♪

-♪ If you need ♪ -♪ Ah ♪

-♪ It's my pride ♪ -♪ Keep the pride to keep you sly ♪

♪ Keep the pride to keep you sly ♪

-♪ It's my pride ♪ -♪ Oh ♪

-♪ If you need ♪ -♪ Ah ♪

-♪ Got to have my pride ♪ -♪ Keep the pride to keep you sly ♪

-♪ Yeah ♪ -♪ Keep the pride to keep you sly ♪

♪ Reminiscent of another time ♪

♪ Dashikis, bells To straight legs ♪

♪ Platforms and picks ♪

♪ See, it wasn't just about the 'fro ♪

♪ It was what was underneath that 'fro ♪

♪ Black power for the powerless ♪

♪ Deuce and quarters Caddies 442's ♪

♪ It's the pride ain't you wanna ride? ♪

♪ Pride ♪

The music was going in a direction

where the content of the music

had so dramatically changed

that there was a lessened appreciation

for the sound of my generation.

But in the last decade, that seems to come around

because now what we're finding

that in hip-hop and pop music,

uh, producers, artists,

they're finding that there's a void

in that evolution

where the music lost

not only its substance but its content.

♪ Keep the pride to keep you sly ♪

-♪ It's my pride ♪ -♪ Oh ♪

-♪ If you need ♪ -♪ Ah ♪

♪ Gotta give 'em pride ♪

♪ Keep the pride to keep you sly ♪

♪ Keep the pride to keep you sly ♪

♪ Flamboyant man ♪

♪ Free Eldridge, Bobby, Angela ♪

♪ Woodstock to Kent State ♪

♪ Music of the time before the minds ♪

♪ Before the vibes ♪

♪ Aretha, Four Tops ♪

♪ Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes ♪

♪ Assassinations, presidents ♪

♪ Yes ♪

♪ '60s soul ♪

♪ Now in order for us to know who we are ♪

♪ We got to know who we was ♪

♪ Then once we know who we was ♪

♪ Then we'll know who we're gonna be ♪

♪ You dig? ♪

♪ Pride ♪

♪ Bring 'em up with some pride ♪

All artists are not the same.

There are some who's-- out there--

who, uh, trying to, uh, recap

what we had in the '60s or in the movement.

I think they're beginning to realize

what has-- has gone wrong

for the last 15 or 20 years,

and they're trying to make amends to this.

And I think music will be the key

because we all love music.

People told our story with music,

and so we will find some way of using music.

That's why blues is like--

it carries a heavy load.

Spirituals carries a heavy load.

Soul carries a heavy load.

See, the one thing about great songs

is that they have great messages--

messages that transcend time

and race and ethnicity.

Rather than try to write a country's laws,

I'd like to write a country's songs.

You may snap your fingers to one beat.

I may snap my fingers to another one.

But in essence, you know,

the music touches everybody.

They're looking for music to be deeper in content,

deeper in meaning and purpose.

It's everywhere.

More than ever before,

music is the soundtrack of our lives.

[Aaron Neville] ♪ I was born by the river ♪

♪ In a little tent ♪

♪ Oh, and just like the river ♪

♪ I've been runnin' ♪

♪ Ever since ♪

♪ Oh, it's been a long ♪

♪ A long time comin' ♪

♪ But I know ♪

♪ A change is gonna come ♪

♪ Oh, yes, it will ♪

♪ It's been too hard livin' ♪

♪ But I'm afraid to die ♪

♪ 'Cause I don't know what's up there ♪

♪ Beyond the sky ♪

♪ Oh, it's been a long ♪

♪ A long time comin' ♪

♪ But I know ♪

♪ A change is gonna come ♪

♪ Whoa, yes, it will ♪

♪ Oh, when I go ♪

♪ To my brother ♪

♪ And I say "Brother" ♪

♪ "Help me, please" ♪

♪ But he winds up ♪

♪ Knocking me ♪

♪ Right down on my-- my knees ♪

♪ Oh, oh ♪

♪ There's been times that I thought ♪

♪ I couldn't last for long ♪

♪ But now I think I'm able ♪

♪ To carry on ♪

♪ Oh, it's been a long ♪

♪ Long time comin' ♪

♪ But I know ♪

♪ A change is gonna come ♪

♪ Oh, yes, it will ♪

[saxophone playing]

♪ Oh, it's been a long ♪

♪ It's been a long ♪

♪ Long time comin' ♪

♪ But I know ♪

♪ A change will come ♪

♪ Oh, yes, it will ♪

♪ Oh, it's been a long ♪

♪ A long ♪

♪ A long time comin' ♪

♪ But I know ♪

♪ A change is gonna come ♪

♪ Oh, yes, it will ♪

No movement before or after

ever had songs like "People Get Ready,"

"We Shall Overcome,"

"Respect," "Blowin' in the Wind,"

"A Change is Gonna Come."

They were such powerfully emotional songs

that came at one of those rare moments

when the passion of the movement

connected with the music of the times,

and they gave birth to a brand-new generation--

my generation.

Sometimes it seems like the pace of change is slow,

but then there'll be an event

like the election of Barack Obama in 2008.

Thirty, 40 years ago, and never mind 70 years ago,

when "The Strange Fruit" was recorded,

it was inconceivable.

Change has come,

much slower than we'd like.

The Civil Rights battle is not over.

It isn't over here.

It isn't over elsewhere in the world.

But in some ways, in many, many ways,

we live in a more equitable society.

But we can always make it better.

♪ You've been away ♪

♪ I don't know where ♪

♪ Lord, you sure been good to me ♪

♪ Lord, you been away ♪

♪ I don't know where ♪

♪ Lord, you sure been good to me ♪

♪ Lord, you been away ♪

♪ I don't know where ♪

♪ Lord, you sure been good to me ♪

♪ Lord, you've been better to me ♪

♪ Than I've been to myself ♪

♪ Been to myself ♪