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Of Dreams and AntiWar Songs

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Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which brought roughly two hundred and fifty thousand men, women, and children, mostly African-American, to the nation’s capital. It’s best remembered for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech, though that was only a corner of the overall picture. W. E. B. DuBois had died the previous night in Ghana, and Roy Wilkins informed the crowd of this fact reluctantly, as he was violently opposed to DuBois’s Communist sympathies. The lineup of speakers at the march was controversial: James Baldwin was not permitted to address the crowd, and other than Josephine Baker, who made opening remarks but was not on the official program, there were no female speakers. The sound system secured for the event was itself an event. Bayard Rustin, one of the primary organizers, insisted on a system capable of being heard throughout the Mall, and he was willing to pay as much as twenty-thousand dollars for it (sound systems at comparable events cost a tenth of that). The evening before the march, saboteurs destroyed the system, which had to be rebuilt by the Army Signal Corps of Engineers. And then there was the music. Here are the day’s singers, along with footage (in some cases audio only) of their performances.

Mahalia Jackson

The Queen of Gospel fired up the crowd with a powerful pair of selections, “How I Got Over” and “I’ve Been ‘Buked and I’ve Been Scorned.” She was Rev. King’s opening act, in a sense, but she was more than that. During King’s remarks, which were originally titled “Normalcy, Never Again,” she spurred him forward with an offhanded comment (“Tell them about the dream, Martin”) that encouraged him to move off his prepared notes and into the improvised, immortal portion of his speech. Five years later, Jackson sang “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” at King’s funeral.

Marian Anderson

Anderson, who had performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, was scheduled to lead the crowd in the National Anthem, but was delayed; Camilla Williams replaced her. Instead, Anderson sang just after King’s speech, selecting the spiritual “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands.” In a sense, the performance was a return engagement for her: in 1939, after Anderson was refused permission to play Constitution Hall, Eleanor Roosevelt created an event for Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Here is a recording:

Joan Baez

Baez, only twenty-two at the time, sang “Oh Freedom” (also known as “Sweet Freedom”) and then led the crowd in “We Shall Overcome,” a song that became a concert staple of hers for years to come, and which she reprised in February, 2010, at the White House in front of President Obama.

Bob Dylan

Three months before the march, Dylan had released his second album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” which marked a huge leap forward from his début the year before; Dylan wrote eleven of the thirteen songs on “Freewheelin.” At the march, though, the songs he performed were both previews of his 1964 album “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” He sang “When the Ship Comes In” with Baez and “Only A Pawn In Their Game,” a retelling of the murder of Medgar Evers, solo.

Peter, Paul and Mary

Introduced as “a group of singers who have come to express in song what this great meeting is all about,” the trio sang Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer.”

Odetta

Odetta, who had operatic training, became one of the premier interpreters of American folk songs in the late fifties and early sixties. At the march, she sang “I’m On My Way,” the third part of the Spiritual Trilogy that closed her 1956 début.

Freedom Singers

It was a busy year for the six-member vocal group (Cordell Reagon, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Matthew Jones, Charles Neblett, and Rutha Mae Harris), who also appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. At the march, they sang “We Shall Overcome” with Baez; Dylan; Peter, Paul and Mary; and Theodore Bikel.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/dream-songs-the-music-of-the-march-on-washington

“WHY” supporting the Arts at time of Covid19

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Around 1930, the Great Depression period, a federal program for artists and the safeguarding of the arts was established in America. Contrary to the idea that the art sector was only playful and entertainment, jobs were created under the national direction of the Curator and art expert Holger Cahill and the presidency of Roosevelt, financially supporting writers, musicians, visual artists , directors etc. Funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Federal Art Project, since 1933, was the first of 5 “New Deal” projects, which financed art workers for 11 years. The Milwaukee Handicraft Project, a major project, was started in 1935 and became famous for employing over 5000 unemployed people, many of whom were disabled, discriminated against due to old age or poor school education. In total it is estimated that the Federal Art Project has created over 200,000 jobs, subsidizing renowned artists such as Diego Rivera and Mark Rothko, as well as some of the most important public works of art today.

At times of Covid19 spread, I am experiencing a sad reality concerning the way the artistic sector is disregarded in Italy. Indeed, politicians opted for economic strategies, that do not support the Arts, nor take under consideration the worth, and impact on the Italian society and culture, of Museums, Galleries, Art Fairs, but mainly Musicians and their Industry. Being Music a conduit for personal development and social growth enhancing the collaboration within a community as well as providing an experience of deep equality, I disagree with the current political position of my Country of origin, and I feel pretty speechless.

Maxine Greene defines the concept of regard as essential to the success of civil society: “A citizen is somebody who has regard for the integrity of other people and out of that regard, out of that feeling of kinship, a community or civil society may take shape. It’s never finished….[It] depends upon a regard for other people’s significance and potentiality.”  Being culture a “fluid reality always in construction and evolution”, I wonder, have Italian politicians consider the impact of their present choices on the future?

Hence, I can totally rely on what President Kennedy’s speech in 1963: “If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice”. I therefore, believe that by refusing to help the artists, creating a state of poverty within that sector, Politicians avoids confronting with “unwanted” forms of criticism, a tactic that in a way reminds once again of Maxime Greene’s considerations, when she says in a keynote talk at the conference Imaging Art and Social Change: “The trouble with fundamentalism or all these things, they feel they have the answer which is so frightening. It’s like what tyranny is like, people burst in. It’s not just the idea of the Nazis. It’s the idea of any kind of authority that takes you over, prevents you from thinking for yourself.”

While all over the World people are marching against racism and social injustice, fighting the continuing disparities of opportunity, Nations need to be supported most than ever by those artists that can foster social imagination, informed by values of tolerance and a skill for engaging with difference.

When commenting on Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, M. Greene suggested that he was opening the way to imagination, providing the people with inspiration and a view.

As JFK said: “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him”

Elena Arzani