A Tribute Concert Event
Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus and triggered a boycott that changed a Nation. There was singing at mass meetings and in the car pools that resulted. Brave students sat at segregated lunch counters, were dragged to the streets and beaten for their defiance. There was singing as they rode off to jail. Buses of Freedom Riders were stopped, burned and the Riders beaten. They sang as the clubs and taunts rang out. At countless mass meetings, rallies, sit-ins and marches music united, inspired and gave courage to those on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. This concert special will give voice to those songs that helped articulate the universal yearning to be free.
Songs and lyrics were sometimes composed on the spot during demonstrations, identifying issues and people at whom the demonstrations were directed. Strong and talented singers emerged in each community, usually from members of local church choirs. Folk singers joined the movement and lent their voices and their music to the cause. They were followed by Rhythm and Blues artists and some of Motown’s biggest acts who also wanted to inspire the struggle for racial justice.
These songs provide us with a feeling of what it was like to be involved in a great social movement in a way that no scholarly or journalistic history can convey with the same emotional impact. Decades after these songs were sung by people who joined hands and stared down the taunts, snapping dogs, billy clubs, fire hoses, lynchings and bombings, we feel it is a fitting tribute to honor their memory with a concert special dedicated to a movement that altered the course of American history.
THE PROGRAM
A hosted gala concert, with all of the stature of the Kennedy Center Honors, featuring the songs that helped to make the Civil Rights Movement so emotionally powerful and culturally diverse.
The program will blend performances by contemporary artists with those who took part in the Movement. It can be hosted by a notable and distinguished musician like Harry Belafonte or Quincy Jones or actors such as Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Ruby Dee or Ossie Davis. The hosts and performers will interact with special guests who'll help to bring this show alive. It’ll be structured somewhat chronologically in four or five segments. Each segment will be introduced by a host who’ll set up the time period. The host or a special guest will then read a brief moving passage that will provide us with a key that unlocks the memories of that time. For instance, for the ‘50’s, we may hear a few paragraphs from Martin Luther King’s “Letters from the Birmingham Jail.” Then we’ll segue effortlessly into the music. Each segment will end with a highly emotional song that will carry the audience back to the time when music gave people the courage to propel our country out of the darkness of hate.
In total we’ll record more than 20 songs that will give us 15 to 18 for inclusion in the broadcast. The grand finale of the evening will be “We Shall Overcome” begun by one artist (Kathleen Battle?) then joined by the entire cast of performers and special guests.
REPERTOIRE
These songs speak to the universal yearning for freedom and are relevant to everyone regardless of race, color, creed, religion, political party, sex or sexual orientation. Among the many that can help tell the story of the Civil Rights movement through song:
• Abraham, Martin And John
• Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round
• A Change is Gonna Come
• Ain’t Scared Of Nobody
• Ain’t Scared Of Your Jails
• Birmingham Sunday
• Blowin in the Wind
• Calypso Freedom
• Don’t You Think It’s About
• Time That We All Be Free
• Ella’s Song/Give Light
• Freedom Now
• Freedom School
• Freedom Train
• Get On Board, Children
• Get Your Rights Jack
• Go Tell It On The Mountain
• The Hammer Song
• Here’s To The State Of Mississippi
• If You Miss Me From The Back Of The Bus
• I’m On My Way To Freedom Land
• In The Heat Of The Summer
• Jesus On The Mainline, Tell Him What You Want
• Jim Crow
• John Brown’s Body
• Keep on Pushing
• Keep Your Eyes On The Prize
• Leaning On The Everlasting Arms
• Lord, Hold My Hand While I • Run This Race
• Medgar Evers Lullaby
• Mississippi Goddam
• Move On Up
• No More Auction Block For Me
• Oginga Odinga
• Oh Freedom
• Only A Pawn In Their Game
• Respect Yourself
• Say It Loud-I’m Black and I’m Proud
• Strange Fruit
• Talking Birmingham Jam
• Talkin’ Devil
• The Blinding Of Isaac Woodard
• The Death Of Emmett Till
• The House I Live In
• They Go Wild Over Me
• Think
• This Land is Your Land
• This Little Light Of Mine
• This May Be The Last Time
• To Be Young Gifted and Black
• Too Many Martyrs
• Up Above My Head
• Wade In The Water
• Walk With Me Lord
• We Are Soldiers In The Army
• We’ll Never Turn Back
• We Shall Not Be Moved
• We Shall Overcome
• We’re Marching On To Freedom Land
• What Did You Learn in School Today
• Which Side Are You On?
• Why (The King Of Love Is Dead)
• Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed On Freedom
ARTISTS (proposed)
Alicia Keyes
Aretha Franklin
Ashford and Simpson
Guy and Candi Carawan
The SNCC Freedom Singers
Peter, Paul and Mary
Kathleen Battle
Pete Seeger
Joan Baez
Bob Dylan
Stevie Wonder
Harry Belafonte
Neville Brothers/Aaron Neville
Mavis Staple
The Impressions
The Winans
Sweet Honey and the Rock
Three Mo’ Tenors
Odetta
Macy Gray
The Funk Brothers
ACTORS (proposed)
Denzel Washington
Ruby Dee
Ossie Davis
James Earl Jones
Sydney Poitier
Harry Belafonte
Whoopie Goldberg
Alfre Woodard
Bill Cosby
Halle Berry
SPECIAL GUESTS (proposed)
Maya Angelou
Jesse Jackson
Congr. John Lewis
Julian Bond
Myrle Evers Williams
Guy and Candie Carawan
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Kweisi Mfune
Marion Wright Edelman
Rosa Parks
THE VENUE (Proposed)
Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee
The beautiful Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee is one location for this concert. Memphis, the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King and today the home of the Civil Rights Museum, is a fitting location for this tribute concert with its deep connection to the struggle for equality in this country.
The Alabama Theatre in Birmingham
An alternative venue is The Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama. This is a location that heard the songs of freedom sung; at mass meetings of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, while Black students were dragged to the streets for sitting at segregated lunch counters and as buses carrying the Freedom Riders were stopped and burned.
The Lincoln Memorial
A final suggestion for a venue, a setting that has a strong historical resonance, would be to stage the concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This would give the program an historical connection to a musical and broadcasting event -- the 1939 Marian Anderson concert. When the management for the owners of Constitution Hall--the Daughters of the American Revolution--realized that a booking was being sought for a "singer of color," it refused to allow the performance to go forward. Public shock and outrage were so great that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the D.A.R. and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes formally invited Marian Anderson to appear in the open, singing from the Lincoln Memorial before as many people as would care to come, without charge. The event on Easter Sunday, the ninth of April, drew a crowd of 75,000 (the largest to date ever assembled at the Memorial) and was broadcast to a listening audience of millions. Although a difficult and painful incident for Ms. Anderson, it remains a touchstone for all those who have struggled to gain racial equality in the United States.
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