How Does The Music Influence The Civil Rights Movement

There wasn’t something that was more closely related to music than the Civil Rights movement of the 60s. The Civil Rights Movement was something that affected a lot of people in different ways and the prisoners of it went about to music to help keep their spirits alive. When there was racism going on the blacks and whites would both write songs in relation to the difficult life they were living. Music is something that can connect all people on different levels and can have a big impact on your views. I think music has been doing that for many decades and has been continuing to play a role in the lives of millions.

One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was written, African Americans were still fighting for equal rights in every day life. The first real success of this movement did not come until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 which was followed by many boycotts and protests. The largest of these protests, the March on Washington, was held on August 28, 1963 “for jobs and freedom” (March on Washington 11). An incredible amount of preparation went into the event to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people attending from around the nation and to deal with any potential incidents.

Around the fall of 1966, the black civil rights movement was changing its strategies and goals all overnight. Many white Americans wanted to know what was the sudden change in the blacks because they haven’t been use to seeing such a proud race that was demanding equal rights. The black movement shift became obvious to the public in August of 1965, when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act that caused all the blacks to have pep in their step. After the signing there was many chaotic events that was occurring. Just one week after the of there was an explosion of ghetto violence that resulted in35 dead, over 900 injured, more than 3,900 arrested and over $46 million in property damage. The riots and damaging didn’t just

An Intersectional Analysis of “The Feminine Mystique” When it was first published in 1963, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was very popular among women in the 1960s, and the ideas presented in the book were extremely influential to second wave, liberal feminism. In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan discusses what she believes to be the myth of the happy, suburban housewife. She also addresses the societal pressure for women to be feminine above all else, and gives examples as to why this pressure is harmful. She highlights the ways in which women are taught by society that being a wife and mother will make them happier than having a career. When educated women give up careers and other ambitions to become a stay-at-home mother, many find

Women were growing tired of playing the traditional roles that were expected of them, especially after experiencing an independent life outside of domesticity during the wartime period. Feminist writer Betty Friedan participated in the movement by publishing The Feminine Mystique in 1963 in which she “contested the post-World War II belief that it was women’s destiny to marry and bear children. Friedan’s book was a bestseller and began to raise the consciousness of many women who agreed that homemaking in the suburbs sapped them of their individualism and left them unsatisfied” (889-890). Their efforts to participate in the protest movements came with a lot of difficulty as many women experienced sexual harassment and gender discrimination, causing them to later turned to the feminist movement in the 1970s. Members of the feminist movement were focused on contributing to their cause through the achievement of important accomplishments:

As the economy expanded, more jobs were created and offered to women, particularly in the service sector. In turn, many women were struggling to maintain their roles as dutiful wives and mothers in their suburban communities while continuing to work. During the Second World War, women only composed about 25 percent of the workforce. In the post-war era, that percentage started to rise steadily. As more women were beginning to enter the workforce, it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to balance their careers and their more traditional roles at home as the caregivers. A woman’s primary role was deemed to be taking care of the household, instead of a career-driven individual. However, women during this time felt trapped by their suburban lifestyles and craved for more fulfilling lives outside of their homes. The dissatisfaction they felt eventually started to build up into a rebirth of the feminist movement in the 1960s. One significant contribution within this movement was the 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, written by women’s rights advocate Betty Friedan. In her book, she argued that the suburbs were “burying women

The book describes how complex societal dictation dominated the lives of women and left no room for growth as a unique individual with a passion other than homemaking. It called upon women to take a stand against these so called norms and “seek new opportunities for themselves” (“Betty Friedan”). It instantly became sensation and “continues to be regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century” (Michals). It struck a nerve with all women alike, leading to a “feminist explosion” (Kaplan) because of the recognition of themselves in Friedan’s work (Parry) and the familiarity shared between the women created a sense of community. It also brought public awareness to the glamorized domestication of

Motown Records was founded in 1959 by Berry Gordy who turned his music production company into history’s most successful black-owned record label company.

Feminists during this movement focused on “the typical social roles women were cast in and advocated for equal pay, sexual liberation, and breaking free from traditional gender roles” (Second). Countless organizations were created during this time period, allowing women to really fight against the oppression they faced for years. This wave was believed to have been sparked from The Feminine Mystique, a novel by Betty Friedan. While controversial, the novel really opened the conversation to what women’s roles were in and outside of their homes. Friedan argued that women through the twentieth century “neglected their own development in order to further the development of their husbands and children” and would “submerge their true identities for the sake of familial harmony” (Archer).

Many leaders arose during this time and called for a change in the treatment of African Americans such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. With the ideas of hope for a better future many African American communities decided to hold protests to change the way the government acted towards them. The government was supposed to help the people not disregard them when they are in need of help or focus on one group of people all together. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement each time they protest and it threatened the stability of the country the government gives in to them and granted them their rights such as the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The 1965 Voting Rights Act was put in place to make up for the holes in the 15th amendment which has allowed the passing of the Jim Crow laws as well as the unconstitutionally approval of the Plessy v. Ferguson case. As people saw the African Americans being hit with tear gas, being beaten, and whipped by the state troopers and still pushed forward showed the lengths they will go to achieve their dream of a new future.

Lingering inequalities and other social trends from previous decades brought forth the modern feminist movement in the 1960s. These feminists campaigned for gender equality with causes such as equal pay for equal work, abortion rights, and social parity. In 1963, author Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which contained reports from a study conducted on female college graduates during the 1950s and early 1960s, which uncovered that most women labelled themselves exclusively as mothers and housewives, and were unsatisfied with the roles forced upon them. Friedan argued fervently that women needed to discover their own identities outside the roles of a wife and mother. Many believe that the arguments made in The Feminine Mystique marked the start of the modern feminist movement (Loveday, 1)

Friedan, however, was no ordinary housewife. Before starting her family, she had worked as a newspaper reporter; even after her children came, she wrote regularly for the major women 's magazines. By 1957 she was fed up with the endless stories about breast-feeding, the preparation of gourmet chip dips, and similar domestic fare that was the staple of ‘Redbook‘, ‘McCall 's‘, and ‘Ladies ' Home Journal‘. She had noticed many women like herself who worked outside the home and felt guilty because their jobs threatened their husbands ' roles as providers or took time away from their children. Thus Friedan began to wonder not only about herself as a woman, a wife, and a mother, but also about the role society had shaped women to play.

Racial equality is one of the great challenges to the United States. Throughout its history, there have been not only unequal and unfair opportunities for African Americans, but actual violence. In mass protests, African Americans took this abuse in stride, never degrading themselves to similar acts of violence. They protested in marches, including one of the most famous and largest civil rights protests of all time, involving more than 200,000 demonstrators, which is credited with helping pass the civil rights bill in 1964, a very strong one, at that ("March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom"). It is also here that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now famous civil rights speech. It single handedly forwarded King’s ultimate goal of racial equality and tolerance more, perhaps, than anything before it, due in part to its brilliant use of numerous strategies to more effectively convey points.

In the book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan brings attention to what she calls the feminine mystique, or “the problem that has no name”. Through the use of anecdotal narratives, her own personal experiences as a journalist, editor, mother, and the interviews of many women from different backgrounds in order to unveil the truth about the women of the 1950’s. The problem which sparked the second wave of feminism in the United States is one that focuses on the inequality between men and women and the undervaluing of women in both the social and private spheres. The women of the time gave up pursuing their passions, such as getting an education or careers in science or business in order to fit the image of the stereotypical stay-at-home mom whose main goal in life is to raise her children while providing a safe and comforting home for her husband. The Feminine Mystique, as she called it, was the idea of widespread unhappiness of women, despite the preconceived notion that women were happiest when they have a family. Throughout her work, she dives into many of the problems associated with the feminine mystique and builds a powerful concept of what would eventually be labeled feminism.

Eddie James “Son” House, Jr., an American blues singer and guitarist once stated, "People keep asking me where the blues started and all I can say is that when I was a boy we always was singing in the fields. Not real singing, you know, just hollerin', but we made up our songs about things that was happening to us at the time, and I think that's where the blues started (Cohn, 1993).”