Notes

Throughout the civil rights movement many people were mistreated which inspired them to express their experience through music. The music deferred from each artist, but they all came together in the end though mutual thoughts about the movement. ¨A change is Gonna Come¨ by Sam Cooke impacted the values of the Civil Rights Movement by being straightforward and expressing his experience in way others understood personally themselves.
The American Civil Rights Movement was a time period social change in the deep south. Through the 1950s and 1960s racial segregation was struck down and all Americans were guaranteed the right to vote without impediment. A variety of causes were at the heart of the movement. They include hard struggles for many people for daily life. African Americans were nearly segregated out of everyday life activities, and considered second class to all whites. Others did not consider blacks having any rights or natural freedom for themselves and many were mistreated. ¨They essentially institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination, ensuring that blacks would remain second-class citizens in the South, where 90 percent of the nation's African-Americans lived at the time. Jim Crow laws were accompanied by a wave of violence by white supremacist groups against African-Americans who dared challenge this systematic discrimination.¨ (“The Civil Rights Movement”) Segregation went on for many years and highly affected many people. From the way African American were treated it impacted their lives in many ways than one. Some people acted upon their experience and wrote stories, poems and even songs. These stories, poems and songs were inspired by some of the harshest events of the Civil Rights Movement. They included Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks. ”In December 1955 Rosa Parks (1913-2005), the secretary of the Alabama NAACP chapter, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus, as was required by a city ordinance.” (“The Civil Rights Movement”) Rosa Parks felt as though she was no less of a person and should not have to give up her seat for the man. Giving up the seat would have made things simpler that day but Rosa Parks didn’t stand for the simple. She had a point to prove to the man and everyone else. She stood up for every African American that day and is now recognized for her bravery and contribution to the Civil Rights.
Along with the major figures of the movement there were also several musicians who made a contributed to the successful outcome. Music about that time was very straightforward about how people felt and was easily relatable. ¨‘‘They give the people new courage and a sense of unity. I think they keep alive a faith, a radiant hope, in the future, particularly in our most trying hours’’¨ (“Songs and the Civil Rights Movement”) The music inspired people to have hope that better times will come, and to have a voice expressing themselves.
Sam Cooke was greatly influenced by his personal experience of segregation which lead him to write his song ¨A Change Is Gonna Come.¨ This song was inspired from his experience at a hotel when him and his band was asked to leave because of their race. He was taken back by the fact they were asked to leave, he assumed his color didn't matter because he was a well known artist at the time. ¨'A Change Is Gonna Come' was a real departure for him, in the sense that it was undoubtedly the first time that he addressed social problems in a direct and explicit way." (“Sam Cooke And The Song That Almost Scared Him”) His experience in the hotel, ¨disturbing the peace,´ led to him getting arrested and going to prison. His song made a large impact on the civil rights movement and ¨become a universal message of hope, one that does not age.¨ After the song was published, “The civil rights movement picked up on it immediately, but most of Cooke's audience did not.” Although the audience wasn’t influenced shortly after the song was published, hope was still given.
Music throughout the Civil Rights Movement brought people together to share each personal experience with one another. There was a story with each and every song that greatly impacted the way the Civil Rights Movement played out.