Jazz and Civil Rights

The personal and professional lives of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane cannot be divorced from the struggle for racial equality. Antonio Garcia says they contributed in significant ways to interracial understanding and social progress.

The composers of the Civil Rights anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” also created musical theater at the turn of the century that transformed the image of African American characters and performers. Paula Marie Seniors looks at the lives of the composers Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, whose work helped break down stereotypical portrayals of black Americans.

Newbery Medal-winning children’s author Meg Medina talks about the power of writing in Spanglish and relates her own childhood to her book Merci Suárez Changes Gears.

Nishaun Battle talks about the historic “adultification” of young black girls. Her book is Black Girlhood, Punishment and Resistance: Reimagining Justice for Black Girls in Virginia.