Civil Rights

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Dr. Dorothy Height Human Rights Champion

Dr. Dorothy Height (1912 - 2010) dedicated her life to public service, women’s rights, civil rights, and human rights.

The YMCA was the beneficiary of her talent as an Executive Director and national board member between 1944 - 1957.

She became the President of the National Council of Negro Women in 1958.  Height was named “Woman of the Year” by the Ladies Home Journal in 1974.

In 2004 Dr. Height was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 04/20 at 07:00 AM
Civil Rights • (0) Comments • Permalink

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Benjamin Hooks and the NAACP

Benjamin L. Hooks, (1925 - 2010), became the first black criminal court judge in Tennessee in 1965.  He was the first African American member of the Federal Communications Commission in 1972.

In 1977, Hooks succeeded Roy Wilkins to become Executive Director of the nation’s top civil rights organization, the NAACP.  Rev. Hooks earned his law degree from De Paul University in 1949.

Early in his career he was a public defender, a politician, a Baptist minister, and a vice president of a saving and loan association.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 03/31 at 08:00 PM
Biography • Civil Rights • (0) Comments • Permalink

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Let Freedom Sing: Songs from the Movement

If you missed the live 2010 White House Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement, here’s the next best thing.

In January, 2009, Time Life released Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement.

The outstanding 3 CD box set includes 2 pages of provocative liner notes written by Public Enemy front man Chuck D.

His comments are part of a large, colorful, 40 page booklet that includes lots of facts about all the songs.

Chuck says “there’s a reason why listening to the past 100 years of black music can bring a sense of voice, sound, meaning, joy, and pain...as well as a historical timeline."

He adds “way before an iPod, these songs rang in my head as they navigated me through my near half a century of life."

What’s great about this collection is the representation of each of the post 1930 - 20th century decades.

Historical facts acknowledging key years pertaining to the civil rights movement are also included in their own highlighted paragraphs weaved between the elaborate music notes.

The Southern Sons kick things off on disc one with “Go Down Moses,” recorded in 1941.

Six of the tracks are from the 1930’s and 1940’s.  Four are from the 1950’s, including Nat King Cole’s stirring 1956 classic “We Are Americans Too."

As you’ll see from the track list below, no decade is left out. The best songs from the civil rights movement are included.

There are some excellent alternative versions rather than hits you might expect.

Otis Redding, not Sam Cooke sings “A Change is Gonna Come.” Bob & Marcia, not Nina Simone sings “Young, Gifted, and Black."

The liner notes have all the back-stories about why these versions were selected.

Watch our 90 second video to hear clips of 3 of the songs.

Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement:


    Disc One
  1. “Go Down Moses” - The Southern Sons, 1941
  2. “Strange Fruit” - Billie Holiday, 1939
  3. “Uncle Sam Says” - Josh White, 1941
  4. “ No Restricted Signs” - The Golden Gate Quartet, 1947
  5. “Black, Brown, and White” - Brownie McGhee, 1947
  6. “The Hammer Song (If I Had a Hammer)” - The Weavers, 1949
  7. “The Death of Emmett Till” parts 1 & 2 - The Ramparts, 1955,
  8. “When Do I Get To Be Called A Man” - Big Bill Broonzy, 1955
  9. “The Alabama Bus” - Brother Will Hairston, 1956
  10. “We Are Americans Too” - Nat King Cole, 1956
  11. “Why Am I Treated So Bad” - The Staple Singers, 1966
  12. “I Shall Not Be Moved” - The Harmonizing Four, 1959
  13. “Oh Freedom” - Harry Belafonte, 1959
  14. “Ride On, Red, Ride On” - Louisiana Red, 1962
  15. “Mississippi Goddam” - Nina Simone, 1964
  16. “ Blowin’ In The Wind” - Bob Dylan, 1962
  17. “We Shall Overcome” - Mahalia Jackson, 1963
  18. “Too Many Martyrs” - Phil Ochs, 1964
  19. “Alabama Blues” - J. B. Lenoir, 1965
  20. “Our Freedom Song” - The Jubilee Hummingbirds, 1965
  21. “A Change Is Gonna Come” - Otis Redding, 1965


    Disc Two
  1. “Forty Acres and A Mule” - Oscar Brown Jr., 1965
  2. “People Get Ready” - The Impressions, 1965
  3. “Nobody Can Turn Me Around” - The Mighty Clouds of Joy, 1966
  4. “I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free)” - Solomon Burke, 1968
  5. “Respect” - Aretha Franklin, 1967
  6. “The Motor City is Burning” - John Lee Hooker, 1967
  7. “Cryin In The Streets” part 1 - George Perkins & The Silver Stars, 1968
  8. “Abraham, Martin, and John” - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1969
  9. “The Prayer” Ray Scott, 1970
  10. “Say It Loud - I’m Black and I’m Proud” part 1 - James Brown, 1968
  11. “And Black is Beautiful” - Nickie Lee, 1968
  12. “Sock It To ‘Em Soul Brother” - Bill Moss, 1969
  13. “Why I Sing The Blues” part 1 - B.B. King, 1969
  14. “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothin (Open Up The Door, I’ll Get It Myself)” part 1 - James Brown, 1969
  15. “Stand!” - Sly & The Family Stone, 1969
  16. “Message From A Black Man” - The Temptations, 1969
  17. “Is It Because I’m Black” - Sly Johnson, 1969
  18. “I Was Born Blue” - Swamp Dogg, 1970
  19. “Yes, We Can” part 1 - Lee Dorsey, 1970
  20. “We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue” - Curtis Mayfield, 1970
  21. “Young, Gifted, and Black” - Bob & Marcia, 1970


    Disc Three
  1. “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” - Gil Scott-Heron, 1971
  2. “(For God’s Sake) Give More Power To The People” - The Chi-Lites, 1971
  3. “Smiling Faces Sometimes” - Undisputed Truth, 1971
  4. “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” - Marvin Gaye, 1971
  5. “Hercules” - Aaron Neville, 1973
  6. “Get Up, Stand Up” - Bob Marley and The Wailers, 1973
  7. “Fight The Power” part 1 - Isley Brothers, 1975
  8. “Give The People What They Want” - O’Jays, 1975
  9. “Black Is Black” - Jungle Brothers, 1988
  10. “Sister Rosa” - The Neville Brothers, 1989
  11. “The Pride” - Chuck D., 1996
  12. “Unity” - Sounds of Blackness, 2005
  13. “None of Us Are Free” - Solomon Burke, 2002
  14. “Eyes On The Prize” - The Sojourners, 2007
  15. “Down In Mississippi” - Mavis Staples, 2007
  16. “Free At Last” - The Blind Boys of Alabama, 2008

As you can see, this 3-disc box set is excellent.  Don’t know some of the artists?  Discover the songs by checking out Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 02/24 at 07:00 PM
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The White House to Host A Civil Rights Music Review

First Lady Michelle and President Barack Obama will host another “In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement."

You’ll be able to see the show on TV across the USA.

WETA television Washington, DC is producing it for PBS.  It’s scheduled for broadcast on Thursday, February 11, 2010, at 8 pm Eastern.

NPR will also air a one hour concert special of the event (for radio) during February, Black History Month.

Here’s an early list of performers:

  • Natalie Cole
  • Bob Dylan
  • Jennifer Hudson
  • John Legend
  • John Mellencamp
  • Smokey Robinson
  • Seal
  • Blind Boys of Alabama
  • Howard University Choir

Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah will be the happy couple hosting the show.

Since the theme of the event is music that inspired the Civil Rights Movement, you’ll hear plenty of songs of inspiration.

I especially like the collaboration with The Grammy Museum.

They’ll be offering a downloadable “Music that Inspired the Movement” curriculum for middle and high school teachers, available at GrammyMuseum.org.

"A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement” is the third “In Performance at the White House” program President Obama has offered.

Watch the slide show below featuring a few of the artists who will perform, and listen to 1 minute of a civil rights movement favorite, Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changing."

This version is performed by The Brothers and Sisters of Los Angeles.

The track is from the album, Dylan’s Gospel, courtesy of Powerhouse Radio. Visit Powerhouse Radio on Facebook.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 01/27 at 07:00 AM
Audio • Music • Civil Rights • Video • (1) Comments • Permalink

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

100 Years of the NAACP 1909 - 2009

The birthday party will last one year, and it starts on Thursday, February 12, 2009.

1,700 chapters across the USA will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NAACP through February 12, 2010.

Here is the official NAACP 1909 - 2009 timeline prepared by the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People.

A century of tenure is behind their 100 year advocacy as a leader in the fight for civil rights, dignity, and equality.

Check out our own BlackHistoryPeople.com timeline featuring 15 NAACP facts (from Empower Encyclopedia):

  1. W.E.B. Du Bois was a co-founder of the NAACP in 1909.

  2. James Weldon Johnson, (1871-1938), wrote the famous poem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” - now known as the Negro National Anthem.  He joined the NAACP in 1916, and became Executive Secretary of the organization in 1920.

  3. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875 - 1955) was a champion for education, civil rights, and women’s rights.  She worked closely with the NAACP, and founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935.

  4. An activist for civil rights and education, Daisy Bates co-founded Arkansas’ State-Press Newspaper.  In 1953, she was elected President of the Arkansas Conference of NAACP branches.

  5. Dr. Joel E. Spingarn introduced the Spingarn Gold Medal in 1914 while he was Chairman of the Board of the NAACP.  The Spingarn award represented the highest of African American achievement, (similar to the NAACP Image Awards today).

  6. Attorney Constance Baker Motley, (1921 - 2005), started her brilliant civil rights career with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1945 as a law clerk.

  7. Daisy Lampkin, (1883-1965), increased the visibility and membership of the NAACP through her fund raising leadership. She was involved in Pennsylvania State politics (1928) becoming the first African American woman from the commonwealth elected as a delegate at large to the GOP convention.  Lampkin began her career with the NAACP in 1929, serving the organization in numerous leadership roles.

  8. Thurgood Marshall, (1908-1993), became assistant special counsel for the NAACP in 1936, then chief counsel in 1938.

  9. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., (1929 - 1968), organized the Montgomery bus boycott with Rev. Ralph David Abernathy and the NAACP in 1955 after Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to whites.

  10. In the 1960’s Vernon E. Jordan Jr. was quite involved with civil rights as Field Secretary for Georgia’s NAACP.

  11. Margaret Bush Wilson was elected Chairman of the Board of the NAACP in 1975.

  12. Benjamin L. Hooks, in 1977, succeeded Roy Wilkins to become Executive Director of the nation’s top civil rights organization, the NAACP.

  13. Kweisi Mfume entered the U.S. House of Representatives in 1987. He served until the end of the 104th Congress.  After Congress, Mfume accepted the position of President and CEO of the NAACP.

  14. An outspoken critic of offensive lyrics by music industry artists, Philadelphia native C. Delores Tucker, (1927 - 2005), served as Vice President of the Pennsylvania NAACP.

  15. Dr. Fredda Witherspoon, Ph.D., was President of the Missouri NAACP.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 02/03 at 12:00 AM
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Martin Luther King Jr. Online Archive

The MLK Jr. Archival Collaborative, an online home for the electronic display of the papers of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is now live on the Internet.

Three institutions partnered to make this ‘research rich’ website happen:

  • The Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center
  • The Howard Gotlieb Archival Center at Boston University
  • The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University

You can electronically search and view Dr. King’s papers, writings, and documents housed in Atlanta, Georgia, and Boston, Massachusetts.

The Boston University Dr. King archive alone includes more than 80,000 items.

A few bugs exist in the online search system.  I searched using the keywords “nobel prize.” Several of the links that were returned were test links.  In addition, there were quite a few server errors.

I’m sure the technical problems will be resolved soon, as the site is only a day old as of this writing.

Congratulations to the 3 institutions whose partnership made this historic black history website possible.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 01/14 at 12:00 AM
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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Odetta Sang for Civil Rights

Singer Odetta Felious Gordon, (1930-2008), trained her voice for opera but decided to sing acoustic songs in the folk tradition.  The guitar playing vocalist from Birmingham, Alabama, was one of the first popular African American folk singers in the 1960’s.

Odetta used her influence to raise awareness about civil rights issues.  She passed away December 2, 2008.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 12/03 at 07:59 AM
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Arthur, Clarence, and Parren Mitchell Go to Washington

Arthur, Clarence, and Parren Mitchell, (no relationship), are three former members of the U.S. Congress who combined social activism with legislative power.

Arthur W. Mitchell, (1886-1968), was the first black Democrat elected to the U.S. Congress (1934 - 1943).

Mitchell studied under Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute.  The Congressman, representing the First Congressional District of Illinois, received his law school instruction at Columbia and Harvard.

Clarence Mitchell, (1911-1984), earned the nickname the “101st. Senator,” thanks to his effective lobbying efforts for civil rights.

His influence helped pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Mitchell helped extend a ban against voting literacy tests in 1970.

He was instrumental in gaining enforcement powers for the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) in 1972.  President Jimmy Carter awarded Mitchell the Medal of Freedom in 1980 for his lifetime battle for civil rights.

Parren Mitchell was the first African American to be elected to Congress from Maryland’s 7th District in 1970.  He became Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1976.

In 1950, he challenged the University of Maryland in the courts to become the school’s first black graduate student.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 09/24 at 07:00 AM
Civil Rights • Government • Law • (0) Comments • Permalink

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Thurgood Marshall's Mark on Black History

July 2, 2008, is the centennial of the birth of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who passed away in 1993.

For more about Thurgood Marshall, check out our feature: 20 black history attorneys take the law into their own hands.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 07/02 at 06:45 AM
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Ida B. Wells Crusades for American Justice

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, (1862 – 1931), was a crusader for African American civil rights and for equal rights for women.

Through newspaper articles, she wrote about discrimination she experienced and observed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Historian Paula Giddings has captured the essence of the life of Wells in Ida: A Sword Among Lions, a new 2008 publication.

Giddings, a Smith College professor, has written two previous books: In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement, and When and Where I Enter: The Impact Of Black Women On Race and Sex In America.

Her Wells biography is accurately documented as it rolls back the curtain on the fascinating odyssey of an American woman who fought for civil rights and justice.

Highly recommended.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 05/28 at 06:30 PM
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Martin Luther King Jr. Saluted with Song

Friday, April 4, 2008 marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Here are 2 video tributes we created using a couple of albums, now out of print, that salute the Martin Luther King Jr. legacy.

Here’s more background about this 1973 Martin Luther King Jr. Classic Soul Dream Concert.

Read the notes from playwright Tommy Butler about the Martin Luther King Jr. Selma Musical.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 04/02 at 06:30 AM
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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Fannie Lou Hamer Lights Up Democracy

Fannie Lou Hamer, (1917-1977), was the founder and Vice Chairman of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

She led the black delegates from Mississippi to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Hamer was a sharecropper with just an 8th grade education.  She was forced to leave the plantation in 1962 after unsuccessfully attempting to register to vote.

Fannie Lou then joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, (SNCC), and became a field Secretary.  Late in 1962 she was finally able to register to vote.

Her story is fascinating and inspirational.  Fannie Lou Hamer was an ordinary citizen who rose to take extraordinary action.

With the backdrop of this year’s 2008 USA presidential election, the complete Fannie Lou Hamer story is one you’ll enjoy experiencing in much more detail.

How did one woman, barred from registering to vote in 1962 America, help change the system of segregation in the South?

I highly recommend diving right into This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century), written by Kay Mills.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 02/26 at 12:02 AM
Civil Rights • Politics • (1) Comments • Permalink

Monday, February 04, 2008

5 African Americans who Changed the World

Here are 5 outstanding African Americans who made contributions during the 20th century to change our world.  These 5 black history people usually rise to the top in the spotlight during black history month.


1) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


Martin Luther King Jr. is the father of the modern civil rights movement.  He was born Michael Luther King, January 15, 1929, in Atlanta Georgia.

Dr. King earned his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955 (a Doctorate in Theology).

He married Coretta Scott King in 1953.  The young 26 year-old Martin organized the Montgomery bus boycott with the Reverend Ralph David Abernathy and the NAACP in 1955 after Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to whites.

King became the first leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.  By 1961, he was supporting freedom rides to integrate Southern lunch counters and rest rooms.

His famous “I Have a Dream Speech” was delivered on the Washington D.C. mall in 1963.  King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.  He was assassinated in 1968 as he was preparing to lead a labor protest march on behalf of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.


2) Rosa Parks


The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1956 that segregation on common carrier buses was illegal.  The decision was reached primarily because of the Montgomery bus boycott that lasted one year.

Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger (December 1, 1955).  Arrested for her act, Parks eventually found justice in the courts.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented her with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor for a U.S. civilian.


3) Thurgood Marshall


Thurgood Marshall, (1908-1993), was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  “Mr. Civil Rights,” changed history in 1954 when he successfully argued Brown vs. the Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Brown case outlawed segregation in schools.

Marshall was educated at Lincoln University and Howard Law School.  He began practicing law in 1933, became assistant special counsel for the NAACP in 1936, then chief counsel in 1938.

He was the first director/chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1940-1961).

In 1961, President John Kennedy appointed him Second Circuit United States Court of Appeals judge.  By 1965 he was appointed solicitor general in the Department of Justice.

Marshall was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 becoming the first African American on the court.

Thurgood Marshall is considered the most prominent civil rights lawyer of the 20th Century.


4) Jackie Robinson


U.S. Army Lieutenant and former UCLA football great Jackie Robinson (1919-1972), entered major league baseball in 1945 by signing a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ farm team, the Montreal Royals.

Robinson, the first ever black player at the start of the 1947 season, was one of three African Americans on the roster of a major league baseball franchise by the end of 1947 (joined by Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians, and Henry Thompson of the St. Louis Browns).


5) Muhammad Ali


Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay on January 17, 1942, won an Olympic gold medal in Rome as a light heavy weight in 1960.

He defeated Sonny Liston in 1964 to win the heavy weight championship for the first time.  Ali won the crown again in 1974 by beating George Foreman.

"The Greatest” became the first in boxing history to win the heavy-weight title three times when he took out Leon Spinks in 1978.

Ali refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army (he was a conscientious objector on religious and moral grounds).  He was stripped of his first title in 1967.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 02/04 at 12:02 AM
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

First Lady Shirley Chisholm Targets the White House

Long before the presidential aspirations of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun, Alan Keyes, Barack Obama, and others, there was Shirley Chisholm.

Shirley St. Hill Chisholm, (1924-2005), was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968.

She was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1924.  Shirley was the first African American woman elected to Congress, and the first black to wage a serious campaign for the 1972 Democratic nomination for president.

Chisholm retired from Congress in 1982.

Listen to Congresswoman Chisholm’s historic 2 minute announcement for her candidacy for President of the United States, recorded 36 years ago, in 1972, outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

What remarkable parallels can you hear between Chisholm’s diplomatic words and so many similar voices of the candidates of today?

Chisholm is truly a black history pioneer in American politics.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 01/30 at 06:00 PM
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Monday, January 21, 2008

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Saluted with Selma the Musical

In 2008, we’ll mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr.

In June of 1972, inspired by the life of Dr. King, Tommy Butler began a 9-month effort to write Selma, the musical.

After opening in a small theater in Los Angeles in 1976, Selma was brought to the attention of comedian Redd Foxx, who thought the production would be perfect for the 1976 bi-centennial celebration.

Selma the musical, who’s title comes from the famous march between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, chronicles the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as other civil rights activists of the era.

Watch the story of Selma, the musical tribute to Martin Luther King Jr, produced by BlackHistoryPeople.com for Black History Month 2008.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 01/21 at 12:02 AM
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