Student Voices
Death
There is a band that was formed in 1964 in Detroit by three brothers who ended up pioneering a genre called punk that would become popular in the late 70s and early 80s, and they were called “Death”. David Hackney was first inspired to play music when he saw the Beatles first performance on the Ed Sullivan show and found a thrown away guitar which he learned to play on. Eventually, after his brothers, Bobby and Dannis, started playing music as well, they planned to form a band together. It was originally planned to be a funk band, but after seeing The Who in concert, they decided to try and play rock. A lot of people around them criticized and questioned them for playing this kind of music because it was not popular with African Americans, especially in the late 60s and early 70s, but David had a vision and kept his mind set on it. Eventually, Death recorded seven songs at Detroit’s united sound studio, including songs like “Politicians in My Eyes” and “Keep On Knocking”, which were big predecessors to the “punk” genre. After being told by the producers that the band's name wasn’t acceptable enough for release, the band ended relations with the studio and produced and sold only 500 copies of their 7 song debut record. After an internal disagreement about the band’s name, the brothers decided to split up the band and go on with their lives. After this, the brothers went to Vermont for a few years but by 1982, David moved back to Detroit where he would eventually die of lung cancer in 2000. After the original Death record was rediscovered by vinyl collectors in the 2000s and 2010s, the album was re-released more publicly under drag city records. After doing a reunion tour and recording new music, they live on as “the band that did punk before punk.” It is important to know about this band because no matter what a lot of people say, this band was one of the first to ever play and record what is considered “punk” music and not only that, but they were the first all Black punk band and went against every norm that was pushed on them.
by Jack Henry
A History and Meaning of the Black National Anthem
Lift Every Voice and Sing
The Black National Anthem (1900)
Lyrics written by: James Weldon Johnson
Music composed by: John Rosamond Johnson
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory won.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.
A History and Meaning of the Black National Anthem:
Context:
Written by the future leader of the NAACP, James Johnson, and his brother, John Johnson, both living in Jacksonville Florida. They began writing in 1899, a post-Civil War reconstruction period, right after the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision (a supreme court case siding with the “separate but equal” clause of the 14th amendment), and when Jim Crow legislation and related fear was high.
First Performance to Present Relevance:
A choir of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School, where James Weldon Johnson was principal and John Johnson taught music, first performed the song in public in Jacksonville, Florida to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
In 1919, the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization) named it its official song; James Weldon Johnson would be appointed the organization’s first African American executive secretary a year later.
When the Civil Rights Era began in the 1950s, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was sung during organizational meetings for the Montgomery Bus Boycott and quoted in speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Beyonce performed the song at Coachella in 2018, which later aired in her highly successful Netflix special, “Homecoming”, this introduced a surge of new attention to the important song. More recently, during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the song was used as a protest by many activists including Jon Batiste who is focused on bringing more prominence to the song.
The song is a symbol of resistance and Black power, it holds a message of exciting hope and progress, as well as the story of Black pain, struggle, and linked strength. The song has been used to bring together the Black community, as safe and comforting poetry, and now is being re-entered into American relevancy with a familiar importance.
by Lara Lashus
Hoop Earrings and Black Culture
So much of new fashion styles have been credited to gen z when in fact most of these clothing items or looks stem from black culture. One of the most popular trends being gold hoop earrings, a jewelry staple for nearly everyone with their ears pierced. This jewelry piece has been worn since 2600 BC by Summarians who lived in what is now modern-day Iraq according to various reports. More recently however, black artists and activists including Dianna Ross and Angela Davis in a Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s, began wearing these earrings as a way to express their black pride. Hoop earrings are said to be a symbol of resistance for minority groups, specifically black and latina women.
But when you search “hoop earrings,” in google or any other popular search engine, only white ears appear. No symbols of black pride show up.
For decades white people had referred to hoop earrings as “unprofessional” and “ghetto,” until the late 90s when popular fashion magazines began to label them as “fashionable” and “trendy.” Black women and women of color had been criticized in and out of the workplace for expressing their black identity and suddenly these styles were stolen by white culture. Not only that but black women still endured racism for wearing hoop earrings while white people were declared “in style.” Hoop earrings cannot be a trend. They hold a place so deeply rooted in the black identity, specifically for women. The fashion industry continually profits off of black styles such as bucket hats and sneakers but always forgets to give credit when credit is due. Black and brown girls have been shamed for decades for wearing culturally important styles, where white people have been glorified for stealing their styles and claiming them as trends.
by Scarlett Q
Dear Daniel Hale Williams…
Dear Daniel Hale Williams,
Well, you do not know who I am as I lived almost 100 years after you did but I thought that I would write to you and tell you how much I respect you. After learning about who you were and what you were able to do as a black man in America at the end of the 1800s and the start of the 1900s like do the first open-heart surgery in America and open the first interracial hospital was awesome to learn. But then as I kept learning I learned that you gained even higher positions in the medical world by working at very powerful hospitals as the Chief of Staff and worked as a teacher helping teach the next generation of doctors. But then my astonishment for what you were able to do increased when you became a member of a states medical board and then became the first Black person to be on the American College of Sergangss continuing your helping of the next generations just made my respect for you and for what you were able to do in the face of nationwide racism jsut boosted my respect for you even more. I hope this means something to you even though how short this is.
Sincerely.,
Weston Booth
by Weston Booth