Music was an integral part of the Civil Rights movement. But how important is it today? Is the tradition being carried forward? And how? That was the topic of “Freedom Singers Then and Now,” a virtual panel hosted by DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton on Wednesday night.
Every American has seen the iconic images of the Civil Rights movement and read the stories of the courage of facing down the racists of the former Confederacy.
But there’s a reason the definitive history of that movement — “Eyes On the Prize” — is named after a song. Music was an integral part of the movement. But how important is it today? Is the tradition being carried forward? And how?
That was the topic of “Freedom Singers Then and Now,” a virtual panel hosted by DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton on Wednesday night.
“Without the songs of the Civil Rights movement, there wouldn’t have been a movement,” said Rutha Harris, one of the original Freedom Singers.
Carol Maillard, one of the founders of Sweet Honey in the Rock, said her group was originally directed by another Freedom Singer, Bernice Johnson Reagon, who focused on “giving us a full expression of the voice, full expression of us as children in church , on the political scene, growing up, whatever.”
They formed in 1973 at the Last Colony Theatre, in DC — so named because of the District’s lack of home rule — “And at that point in time, we weren’t thinking of ourselves as a group that was going to go on and have social consciousness. We weren’t thinking like that. We just wanted to sing together. … There was just culture and beauty and Black folks, just everywhere.”
Eventually, “We realized that the music that we offer is music that really does heal the soul. It’s music that propels people into action.”
The music of the Freedom Singers, Sweet Honey and more inspired the next generation, such as Dr. Eric Poole, the director of Howard University’s choir and bands. “These songs are forever relevant,” Poole said, “because we would take these wandering verses and wandering refrains” from spirituals and folk songs and fit them to the current events, gaining and spreading perspective and strength.