Langston Hughes Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz
Langston Hughes Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz
SAMPLE CURRICULUM
INTRODUCTION:
Listening to the performance of Langston Hughes' Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz, students will learn about the impact of Jazz on American arts culture. Working independently and collaboratively on research and creative projects, students learn the value of diverse and unique ideas on their ability to solve problems and create new ideas. Using Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz as a catalyst, they will experience the spontaneity of improvisation in music and learn how to navigate between and find the common ground in music and language. Students will be evaluated on their responses to research and creative experiences.
My overall objectives for this curriculum are:
1. To increase knowledge of the range of African American literature
2. To familiarize students with the poetry of Langston Hughes.
3. To provide detailed, though not prescriptive, suggestions on how Langston Hughes " Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz" may be studied.
To encourage students to express themselves creatively through poetry and music.
Section 1: Biography
Details of biographical information on Langston Hughes.
Section 2: Liner Notes on Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz
Section 3: Preliminaries
Each section in the series can be seen as a product of a particular set of historical and cultural circumstances and much of the suggested connections with music heightens making sense of the poem. To help students understand each poem, some background information or preliminaries will provide insights under the following headings.
1. Poem
2. The setting (geographical, historical)
3. Themes
4. Language (relevant aspects and features of language at level of student’s interests.)
• Definition of terms used.
• Etymology of words used
5. Literary and musical (interdisciplinary concepts and connections)
Section 4: Study Plan
The purpose of this section is to
• Help students see and hear the connection between music and poetry in Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz
• Encourage students to write their own poetry and music,
• Help students hear how their interdisciplinary compositions (text and music) will develop listening and delivery skills.
The section has four parts:
• Research and inter curricular experiences
• Creative projects
• Questions for Clarification
• Discussion questions
• Reflective journal questions: on-going conversations between instructor and students.
Section 5: Further reading.
A list of suggested readings, and on line references for each mood.
Section 6: Bibliography
Overall bibliography of related materials.
SECTION THREE: PRELIMINARIES- Cultural Exchange
MOOD 1. CULTURAL EXCHANGE
Traditional 12-bar BLUES
into refrain of
"HESITATION BLUES"
fading out on lst line of poem.
IN THE
IN THE QUARTER
IN THE QUARTER OF THE NEGROES Rhythmically
WHERE THE DOORS ARE DOORS OF PAPER rough scraping
DUST OF DINGY ATOMS of a guira
BLOWS A SCRATCHY SOUND. continues
AMORPHOUS JACK-O-LANTERNS CAPER monotonously
AND THE WIND WON'T WAIT FOR MIDNIGHT until a lonely
FOR FUN TO BLOW DOORS DOWN. FLUTE CALL,
high and
BY THE RIVER AND THE RAILROAD far away
WITH FLUID FAR-OFF GOING merges
BOUNDARIES BIND UNBINDING into piano
A WHIRL OF WHISTLES BLOWING variations
NO TRAINS OR STEAMBOATS GOING-- on German
YET LEONTYNE'S UNPACKING. LEIDER
gradually
IN THE QUARTER OF THE NEGROES changing
WHERE A DOORKNOB LETS IN LIEDER into
MORE THAN GERMAN EVER BORE, old-time
HER YESTERDAY PAST GRANDPA-- traditional
NOT OF HER OWN DOING-- 12-bar
IN A POT OF COLLARD GREENS BLUES
IS GENTLY STEWING. \up strong
Between verses
THERE, FORBID US TO REMEMBER, until
COMES AN AFRICAN IN MID-DECEMBER AFRICAN DRUMS
SENT BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT throb
AMONG THE SHACKS TO MEET THE BLACKS: against
LEONTYNE SAMMY HARRY POITIER blues
LOVELY LENA MARIAN LOUIS PEARLIE MAE
GEORGES S. SCHUYLER MOLTO BENE fading
COME WHAT MAY LANGSTON HUGHES as the
IN THE QUARTER OF THE NEGROES music
WHERE THE RAILROAD AND THE RIVER ends
HAVE DOORS THAT FACE EACH WAY TACIT
AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE MOVIE'S
UP AN ALLEY UP THE SIDE
PUSHCARTS FOLD AND UNFOLD "HESITATION BLUES"
IN A SUPERMARKET SEA with full band
AND WE BETTER FIND OUT MAMA up strong
WHERE IS THE COLORED LAUNDROMAT for a chorus
SINCE WE MOVED UP TO MOUNT VERNON in the clear
between verses
RALPH ELLISON AS VESPUCIUS then down
INA-YOURA AT THE MASTHEAD under voice
ARNA BONTEMPS CHIEF CONSULTANT softly as
MOLTO BENE MELLOW BABY PEARLIE MAE deep-toned
SHALOM ALEICHEM JIMMY BLADWIN SAMMY distant
COME WHAT MAY---THE SIGNS POINT: African
GHANA - GUINEA DRUMS
join the
AND THE TOLL BRIDGE FROM WESTCHESTER blues until
IS A GANGPLANK ROCKING RISKY the music
BETWEEN THE DECK AND SHORE fades
OF A BOAT THAT NEVER OUT
QUITE KNEW ITS DESTINATION.
IN THE QUARTER OF THE NEGROES TACIT
ORNETTE AND CONSTERNATION
CLAIM ATTENTION FROM THE PAPERS
WHO HAVE NO NEWS THAT DAY OF MOSCOW.
IN THE POT BEHIND THE
PAPER DOORS WHAT'S COOKING?
WHAT'S SMELLING, LEONTYNE? Delicate LIEDER
LIEDER, LOVELY LIEDER, [in blues mood
AND A LEAF OF COLLARD GREEN on piano
LOVELY LIEDER LEONTYNE. continues
between verses
IN THE SHADOW OF THE NEGROES to merge
NKRUMAH softly
IN THE SHADOW OF THE NEGROES into the
NASSER NASSER melody of the
IN THE SHADOW OF THE NEGROES "HESITATION BLUES"
ZIK AZIKIWE asking
CUBA CASTRO GUINEA TOURE its haunting
FOR NEED OR PROPAGANDA question,
KENYATTA "How long
must
AND THE TOM DOGS OF THE CABIN I
THE COCOA AND THE CANE BRAKE wait?
THE CHAIN GANG AND THE SLAVE BLOCK Can I
TARRED AND FEATHERED NATIONS get it
SEAGRAMS AND FOUR ROSES now -- or
$5.00 BAGS A DECK OR DAGGA. must I
FILLIBUSTER VERSUS VETO hesitate?"
LIKE A SNAPPING TURTLE -- Suddenly the
WON'T LET GO UNTIL IT THUNDERS DRUMS ROLL
WON'T LET GO UNTIL IT THUNDERS like
TEARS THE BODY FROM THE SHADOW thunder
WON'T LET GO UNTIL IT THUNDERS as the
IN THE QUARTER OF THE NEGROES. music ENDS
sonorously.
AND THEY ASKED ME RIGHT AT CHRISTMAS TACIT
IF MY BLACKNESS, WOULD IT RUB OFF?
I SAID, ASK YOUR MAMA. Figure impishly into "Dixie"
DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES . . .. ending in high
NIGHTMARES . . . DREAMS! OH! shrill FLUTE call.
DREAMING THAT THE NEGROES TACIT
OF THE SOUTH HAVE TAKEN OVER --
VOTED ALL THE DIXIECRATS
RIGHT OUT OF POWER --
COMES THE COLORED HOUR:
MARTIN LUTHER KING IS GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA,
DR. RUFUS CLEMENT HIS CHIEF ADVISOR,
ZELMA WATSON GEORGE THE HIGH GRAND WORTHY.
IN WHITE PILLARED MANSIONS
SITTING ON THEIR WIDE VERANDAS,
WEALTHY NEGROES HAVE WHITE SERVANTS,
WHITE SHARECROPPERS WORK THE BLACK PLANTATIONS,
AND COLORED CHILDREN HAVE WHITE MAMMIES:
MAMMY FAUBUS
MAMMY EASTLAND
MAMMY PATTERSON.
DEAR, DEAR DARLING OLD WHITE MAMMIES --
SOMETIMES EVEN BURIED WITH OUR FAMILY!
DEAR OLD
MAMMY FAUBUS!
CULTURE, THEY SAY, IS A TWO-WAY STREET:
HAND ME MY MINT-JULEP, MAMMY.
MAKE HASTE! "When the Saints
Go Marching In" joyously for two full choruses with maracas
From Rampersad, A. & David Roessel. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York. Vintage Classics: The Estate of Langston Hughes. 1994. Pp.476-481.
THE SETTING
Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz is set in the late 1950's and early 60's. The narrator, Langston sits in Harlem the day after the tumultuous end to the Newport Jazz festival, and coincidentally, Independence Day, 1960. He had shared the stage of the Newport Jazz festival with Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Horace Silver Quintet, Oscar Peterson, Dakota Staton, vocal jazz trio-Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Ray Charles, and Louis Armstrong. The festival came to an abrupt end when three thousand rioting fans, unable to obtain tickets, stormed the gates. The mostly young white men created so much civil disturbance that 50 people were treated in hospital and 128 were thrown in jail. Langston was asked to preside over the final more modest session, with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Rushing, as well as Sammy Price Trio in performance. Saddened by the events of the previous days Langston composed a blues poem, Goodbye Newport Blues; Otis Spann set the words to music, and Muddy Waters sung it that evening (Rampersad, 2002, p. 315).
Hughes meditated on the disturbing events of the festival, the history of Newport, Rhode Island as one built from the cargoes of slave ships, and the irony of the musical genre-Jazz, and black musicians hitherto unwelcome in this city. Moving chronologically back and forth in time, Hughes captures the Negroes life of the period against the backdrop of historical and political changes in European, African, Caribbean and South American states.
Music, language and the social interaction of life experiences inform the poetry of the poet laureate, Hughes. The setting and period is also reflected in Hughes musical annotation. In concert with the text and in call and response mode the music is central to the delivery of each mood. Hesitation blues opens the poem as the leitmotif and the old riff, "Shave and a haircut fifteen cents" punctuates the words "Ask your mama" (Wright, 1996).
A third layer of artistry is added with cinematography and new musical expressions in their performance of Hughes' Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. The historical and geographical settings and the themes remain intact.
The first mood Cultural Exchange begins in America with several African American trailblazers and moves to newly independent African, Caribbean and South American states and their leaders. Before returning to North America the mood takes a quick detour to Europe, and rests in North America where the hopes and dreams of civil rights leaders and social activists is set against slavery, imperialism and segregation.
THEMES
The first mood of Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz- namely Cultural Exchange: sets the tone for the rest of the moods. The central theme of this mood is independence or freedom and what it meant to people of color of the period. According to Rampersad, (2002), Langston writes this poem as a reaction to America's national history of racism and lies. He expresses his anger and dismay with text interpolated with jazz and other music. Wright (1996) calls the entire poem Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz "a praise poem to freedom". He writes further that for Hughes, Jazz called up visual analogues, …chaotic remembrances of past events, or dreams through montage." (Wright). The music provided metaphors through which the themes could be explicated.
Other sub themes include,
a) symbols of freedom with rivers and railroads, and barrier breaking individuals and movements,
b) symbols of violence and danger with Jack-o'lanterns, imperialists and ardent segregationist;
c) symbols of resistance to violence with civil rights leaders;
d) the ignorance of interconnected social political dynamics within and across continents; and
e) symbols of resilience and persistence in the face of societal tensions with trailblazing artists, writers and political leaders
In some lines of the mood, Hughes also refers to some universal truths or consistencies that existed and continues to exist for and connect Negroes. These include knowing one's place in society - with the search for a colored Laundromat, the universal partaking of collard greens as symbols of sustenance.
LANGUAGE - Cultural Exchange
Etymology of people and words used
Jack-o'lanterns – Carved pumpkins-symbol of a damned soul. Also used in Ku Klux Klan rituals. For the history of Jack-o'lanterns go to:
Leontyne: Refers to Leontyne Price, opera soprano born Mary Violet Leontine Price on February 10, 1927 and raised in Laurel, Mississippi. She attended Julliard and made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on January 27, 1961, as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore She was the first black singer on a television opera production. Price has won 15 Grammy Awards for vocal recordings. When Langston Hughes' play Tambourines to Glory was to be produced at the Theatre Guild, in 1959 he asked Leontyne to play a role. Unfortunately, she like many other prominent black performers declined to participate in the new style, gospel entertainment, which with hitherto untried (Rampersad, 2002, p.304). He later declined an invitation in 1965 to work with Price on her life story and completed his own anthology of black poetry Pierre Seghers (Rampersad, p.395).
Sammy: Refers to Sammy Davis Jr. born in Harlem on December 8, 1925 to vaudeville star Sammy Davis, Sr., and the Puerto Rican dancer, Elvera “Baby” Sanchez. Davies, a multitalented performer died of cancer, May16. 1990. He was a founding member of the Rat Pack with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Tap dancer extraordinaire, Davies made his film debut in 1932, Broadway debut in 1956. Davies and Hughes with other entertainers gave a Television broadcast to mark the 10th anniversary of Brown versus The Board of Education in 1964 (Rampersad, 2002, p.377).
Harry: Harold George Belafonte was born March 1, 1927 in New York City. His father was from Jamaica and mother Martinique. An actor, composer, author, producer and singer Harry owns his own music-publishing firm and film production company. He won a Tony award in 1953, a Donaldson award in 1953-1954, a Show Business award in 1954, a Diners' Club award in 1955-1956, and an Emmy award for Tonight With Belafonte. According to (Rampersad, 2002, p.392), Langston admired Belafonte for his "careful yet inspired use of folksong".
Poitier: Sidney Poitier was born February 20, 1927 in Miami, Florida and grew up in the Bahamas. He was the first black actor to win a prestigious international film award (Venice Film Festival, Something of Value, 1957), the first to be nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award (The Defiant Ones, 1958), the first to star as a romantic lead (Paris Blues, 1961), the first to win the Oscar (Lilies of the Fields, 1963), the first to become the number one box office star in the country (1968), and the first to insist on a film crew that was at least 50 percent African-American (The Lost Man, 1969). Poitier also starred in the first mainstream movies to condone interracial marriages and permit a mixed couple to hug and kiss (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 1967) and to attack apartheid (The Wilby Conspiracy, 1975).
Lena: Lena Horne was born in Brooklyn, on June 30, 1917. She began her singing careers as a chorus girl at the Cotton club in Harlem when she was 16 years old. She must have met Langston Hughes during her Harlem days for this is the period when he was in New York. Lena has starred in several roles, including, the 1938 production The Duke of Tops as Ethel, the 1942 Ann Sothern musical Panama Hattie; the all-star all-black musical, Stormy Weather in 1943 Cabin in the Sky as Georgia Brown and in 1946 Till the Clouds Roll By as Julie. She also starred in Meet Me in Las Vegas in 1956. Lena recorded Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria. It became the highest-selling album by any female artist in RCA.
Marian: Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died April 8, 1993 at the age of 96. Like many black performers of that era, she couldn’t build a reputation at home until she performed abroad. So in 1930, Anderson went overseas on a fellowship and soon took Europe by storm. Contralto Marian Anderson made civil rights history with her April 1939 concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Marian Anderson was the first black American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in January 1955. While teaching at Atlanta University in 1946, Langston heard Marian before a segregated audience.
Louis: Langston Hughes dedicated Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz to Louis Armstrong, born in New Orleans, on Aug. 4, 1901 to Mary Ann and William Armstrong. He passed away in his sleep on July 6, 1971 in Corona, Queens, New York City. He purchased his first cornet in 1907, and received instrumental instruction in 1913-14 during his residency at the Waif home for colored boys. In November 1925, after forming his own group Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, he made his first recording. Louis married his fourth and last wife Lucille Wilson in 1942. By the '50s, Armstrong was an established international celebrity. He performed in Accra Ghana in 1956. Langston listened extensively to Armstrong's recordings and responded to his performances while hosting the Newport Jazz Festivals in Rhode Island. For more information go to .
Pearlie Mae: Pearl Bailey was born in Newport News Virginia on March 29, 1918 - August 7, 1990. Singer Pearlie Mae's acting career began in 1946, when she starred in the Broadway musical St. Louis Woman. Appearing in numerous films, television, and
Stage shows from the 1950s on wards. In 1952, she married the drummer-bandleader Louis Bellson. She won a Tony Award for her title role in the all-black cast of Hello Dolly in 1967. Her autobiography, The Raw Pearl, was published in 1968. Langston was unsuccessful in casting Pearlie Mae in Street Scene and Tambourines to Glory.
George S. Schuyler: He lived from February 25, 1895-August 31, 1977. George Samuel Schuyler was born in Providence, Rhode Island, grew up in Syracuse, New York, and died in New York City. He was hired as a reporter in 1923 for socialist paper The Messenger. He later joined the staff of Pittsburgh Courier in 1924 where he remained until his retirement as editor in 1966. Some of his important works include a novel Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia (1931) based an investigations of the Liberian slave trade; a satirical science fiction novel Black No More: Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free, AD 1933-1940 (1931), an autobiography, Black and Conservative (1966), Black Empire, 1991; Ethiopian Stories, 1995. In addition to a syndicated column (1965-77) for North American Newspaper Alliance Schuyler wrote articles The Nation, Negro Digest, American Mercury, and Common Ground. Rac(e)ing to the Right, an essay collection, appeared in 2001.Langston Hughes wrote Negro Artists and Racial Mountains in response to Schuyler's The Negro -Art Hokum.
Ralph Ellison: Writer Ralph Waldo Ellison was born on March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City, OK. He was managing editor of the leftist journal, The Negro Quarterly with editor Angelo Herndon. The Negro Quarterly's review of Langston's novel Shakespeare in Harlem was predicated by the prevailing displeasure with the publisher's use of a white artist for the dust jacket. In order to pay his bills, Langston offered 6 stories he had translated in Mexico to Ralph Ellison for publication. Ellison is known for his 1952 novel, Invisible Man that won the National Book Award in 1953.
Vespucius: Amerigo Vespucci, (1454-1512) was a Florentine navigator who explored the coast of South America. He proved that America and the Indies were separate lands. He died in Seville, in 1512.
Arna Bontemps: Arna Bontemps (1902 – 1973), an African American poet, historian, novelist, children's author and educator published extensively during the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Alexandria, Louisiana on October 13, 1902. He wrote over 20 books, anthologies, plays, and children's literature. He received the Opportunity magazine Alexander Pushkin Poetry Prize in 1926, 1927; The Crisis poetry prize in 1927; Opportunity magazine short story prize in 1932; the Jane Addams Children's book Award for The Story of the Negro in 1948 and 1956 and the James L. Dow award for Anyplace But Here in 1967. Bontemps was head librarian at Fisk University from 1969 to 1972. While teaching at Atlanta University, Langston's Fields of Wonder was published and dedicated to Arna and his wife Alberta Bontemps. Hughes and Bontemps collaborated on a number of projects.
Shalom Aleichem: Solomon Rabinowitz, writing under the pseudonym Shalom Aleichem, was born in 1859 in Pereyaslav, the Ukraine. He married Olga in 1883, and decided to write in Yiddish rather than in Hebrew the preferred style of the intelligencia. "Shalom Aleichem," in Hebrew means "Peace be unto you." He immigrated to the United States in 1905 and found the Yiddish Art Theatre in New York. Langston Hughes enjoyed on Broadway the drama "The World of Shalom Aleichem" based on the writings of Rabinowitz (Rampersad, 2002, p.232). Shalom Aleichem died in 1916.
Jimmy Baldwin: James Arthur Baldwin was born in Harlem New York City, August. 2, 1924 and died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France on November 30, 1987. Considered an American classic and Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), is a story about a black boys passage to manhood. To a large extent this novel reflects much of Baldwin youth. Rampersad (2002, pp. 205-6) writes that the success of this novel was disconcerting for Langston Hughes, but did not prevent Hughes from writing a review for Knorf-the publishers. Hughes was interested in helping young writers. Other prominent writing by Baldwin includes his essay collections Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), and The Fire Next Time (1963).
Ornette Coleman: Saxophonist extraordinaire Ornette Coleman was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1930. In 1958, he recorded his first album, Something Else! With his quartet Coleman on alto sax, Don Cherry on trumpet, Billy Higgins on drums, and Charlie Haden on bass, Coleman recorded a second album, Tomorrow is the Question, and performed in New York at the Five Spot in Greenwich Village in 1959.
Nkrumah: Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister and later president of Ghana was born on September 21, 1909, at Nkroful, Ghana. He died while in exile in Bucharest, Romania on April 27, 1972. He studied at Lincoln University. Even though Langston declined Nkrumah's invitation to write his biography, a respectful professional relationship continued between the two. In addition to sending books, art and other objects to Ghana, Langston spoke at the opening of the new U.S. Library in Ghana saying that Africa and America depended on each other.
Nasser: Gamel Abdel Nasser Arab Nationalist, anti-colonialist and co-founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, was the President of Egypt from 1954 up till the time of his death in 1970. Born in Beni Morr, a suburb of Alexandria, southern Egypt on January 15, 1918, Nasser studied law at the University of Cairo before attending military college. Graduating in 1938 Nasser to join the Egyptian Army. Nasser was admired for his support of Arab Nationalism and his domestic social economic development programs. Langston Hughes visited Egypt for the first time in 1962 after the flop of Ask your mama.
Zik Azikwe: The Owelle of Onitsha Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe (1904-1966) was first civilian President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He founded the West African Pilot, a journal that served as a voice for the struggle against colonialism and reawakened a spirit of nationalism among Nigerians in 1937. Azikwe attended Lincoln University. Langston published one of Zik's poems in Lincoln Centennial. Zik later published Langston's poem in the West African Pilot. Zik invited Langston along with former schoolmates to Nigeria to attend his inauguration on November 15, 1960. Also in attendance were Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. Du Bois (Rampersad, 2002, p. 324-325).
Castro: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, on his family's sugar plantation near Biran, Oriente province, Cuba. Castro studied law at University of Havana, graduating in 1950. As a lawyer Fidel devoted himself to helping the poor. After leading the attack on Moncada Barracks, Santiago de Cuba, 1953 Fidel was captured, imprisoned, 1953-55. He went into exile in Mexico and United States, 1955-56. He returned to Cuba and led armed attacks against government of Fulgencio Batista, 1956-59 and forced Batista into exile, 1959. The United States recognized the new government for Cuba on January 7, 1959 and in February Castro became prime minister of Cuba and stayed in the position from 1959-76. He later became Head of State in 1976. While Langston was revising Ask Your Mama in 1960, Castro visited Harlem. The New York Times, and The Post published a statement to the effect that Hughes had dined with Castro (Rampersad, p.323). This did not please Hughes for Castro was already out of favor with the United States for moving towards the left. He confiscated American own properties for inadequate compensation and strengthened his relationship with the Soviet Union. The USSR, in turn, planted ballistic missiles in Cuba, creating what is know today as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the climax of the Cold War.
Touré: Ahmed Sékou Touré, the first president of Guinea, was born in Guinea in 1922. In 1945 he became Secretary General of the Post and Telecommunications (PTT) Service Workers' Union and a founding member of Houphouet-Boigny's Rassemblement Démocratique Africaine (RDA) in 1946. By 1956 Sékou Touré won the Démocratique du Guinée (PDG) seat and became Mayor of Conakry. A staunch Anti-Gaullist, Sékou Touré led the resistance to the De Gaulle Referendum of 1958. France declared Guinea a colony in 1891. Guinea gained its independence from France in 1958. Toure's attempt at African socialism failed and his repressive rule did not do much for his legacy. He died in March 1984. Langston attended a dinner held in honor of Ahmed Sékou Touré by the American Society for African Culture in November 1959.
Kenyatta: In 1938, Johnstone Kamau published his magnum opus Facing Mount Kenya - under the name Jomo Kenyatta in his view a much more appropriate African name. He was born Kamau wa Ngengi in 1889 at Ng'enda in the Kiambu District of Kenya. In 1909 he enrolled the Church of Scotland Mission, Thogoto for elementary and carpentry education. Christened John Peter Kamau in 1914 he later changed his name to Johnstone Kamau. Like the aforementioned African leaders, Kenyatta was the leader of Kenya's independence movement. As secretary of his ethnic group in 1928, Jomo campaigned for land reform and African political rights. Deemed an instigator in the Mau Mau uprising of 1953, Kenyatta was imprisoned and forced into internal exile in 1959. On June 1, 1963, Mzee Kenyatta became the first Prime Minister of self-governing Kenya. He died while in office on 22nd August 1978 in Mombassa at the age of 89 years. Langston Hughes visited Kenya in 1966.
Dixiecrats: The States' Rights party also known, as the Dixiecrats was a splinter group of Southern Democrats in the 1948 U.S. elections. During an inaugural national convention on July 17, 1948 in Birmingham, Alabama they nominated Gov. J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for president and Gov. Fielding Wright of Mississippi for vice president. Thurmond spoke against the 1957 civil rights bill for twenty-four hours, eighteen minutes thereby, holding the record for the longest filibuster in Senate history, The Dixiecrats rejected President Harry S. Truman's civil-rights program and the Democratic National Convention. Their plan to prevent either Truman or his Republican opponent, Thomas E. Dewey from obtaining a majority of the electoral votes failed. President Truman won reelection in the most significant controversy in American political history by a narrow margin. The Dixiecrats were able to take Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
Martin Luther King Jr.: Civil Rights leader, pastor, educator, and writer, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, to the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King in Atlanta, Georgia. Langston Hughes spoke of MLK's civil rights effort through Simple, a character he created in his Chicago Defender column. Hughes' Poem for a Man was read at Carnegie Hall in 1959 at a tribute to A Philip Randolph. MLK asked Hughes to write the poem (Rampersad, 2002 p.305). Langston was also very deliberate about not joining in the criticism of civil rights leaders and MLK was no exception. Thus a dinner party when MLK was criticized for using one of Langston's poems without acknowledgement, Langston did not join in the backstabbing practices (Rampersad, 2002, p.417).
Dr. Rufus Clement: Rufus Early Clement was the sixth and longest-serving President of Atlanta University. Prior to becoming president in 1937, Dr. Clement was dean at Louisville Municipal College for Negroes from 1931-1937. He was elected to the Atlanta Board of Education on December 2, 1953 becoming the first black person in that position. Later in 1954, Clement was elected chair of the Southern regional council, an organization that participated in The Ashmor Project. This was a study that informed the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education. He died while still in office at Atlanta University in 1967. During Dr. Clement's term in office Langston spent a semester at Atlanta University as visiting professor of English and Creative Writing (Rampersad, 2002,116).
Zelma Watson George: Opera singer Zelma Watson George was born on December 8, 1903 in Hearn, Texas. She received a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1924, even though she was not allowed to live in the dorm rooms. Zelma later studied the pipe organ at Northwestern University from 1924 to 1926, and voice at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago from 1925 to 1927. She was a social worker, probation officer in the 1920s, and dean of women and director of personnel administration in Nashville in the 1930s. George established and directed several community development programs. She received a master's degree in personnel administration from New York University in 1943. From the late 1940s onwards, Zelma performed extensively throughout Cleveland and New York City. During the 1950s she became involved with national and international politics. Zelma completed Ph.D. in sociology from New York University in 1954. In 1960 she served as an American delegate to the twenty-fifth General Assembly of the United Nations. She died on July 3, 1994 in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Faubus: Orval Eugene Faubus was born in Combs, Madison County, Ark., on January 7, 1910. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967. He edited and published the weekly Madison County Record (1947-1967); In 1957, Faubus used the Eisenhower had to send federal troops to Arkansas to ensure that black children could go to Little Rock Central High School for Faubus had ignored a supreme court ruling on the matter. He failed to return as governor of Arkansas after the 1965 Voting Act, which made it possible for African Americans to vote. He died of prostate cancer on December 14, 1994.
Eastland: James Oliver Eastland, popularly known as Slippery Jim was born in Doddsville, Sunflower County, MS. November 28, 1904. He was U.S. Senator from Mississippi, 1943-1979, a delegate to Democratic National Convention from Mississippi, 1928, 1944, 1948, 1960. He was chairman of Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1955 to 1979. Like Faubus, he was an ardent segregationist. He died in Doddsville, Mississippi on February 19, 1986.
Patterson: John Malcolm Patterson was born in Goldville, Tallapoosa County, AL on September 27, 1921. He was major in the U.S. Army during World War II, a lawyer and Alabama state attorney general, from 1955 to 59. He was elected Governor of Alabama in 1959 a position he served until 1963.
Mint Julep: A southern drink made from sugar, branch water, fresh mint, crushed ice and Kentucky Bourbon. This was drunk from a special silver cup. 'julep' can be traced to French julep, Arabic julab, and the Persian julab, meaning 'rose water.' It is a symbol of the Southern plantation traditions.
Picture of Julep
When the Saints Go Marching In: This spiritual is one of the best known played by the Dixieland band. Originally a Sanctified shout celebrating the lives of folks who had followed Jesus all the way. Sanctified Shouts emanated from the Holiness movement, and holiness churches were the first to use musical instruments in worship previously banned as the devil's tools. When the Saints Go Marching In like typical Sanctified Shouts comprises simple repetitive melodies accompanied by rhythmic hand clapping. Langston Hughes also refers to this spiritual in his play Tambourines to Glory.
Definition of music related terms and expressions used.
Polyrhythmic: two or more different rhythms played at the same time
Call and response: This is a two-part idea, which separate groups of performer alternate or respond to each other. In its most elemental forms an individual sings or plays and is followed by a group response. The group response is sometimes called a chorus. See below.
Lieder: Plural for lied. A folksong in German.
Molto bene: (Italian) Very well.
Guira: Hand held percussion instrument. A notched gourd scraped with a stick.
12-bar Blues: Written music is divided into sections called bars or measures. In music when we move from one chord to another we have a chord change. When we move through a cycle of chords over 12 bars of music we have a chord progression. A twelve bar progression of basic chords I, IV and V is called a Blues chorus. These are usually distributed this way: Each slash represents a beat and the longer lines are bar lines.
I IV I V I
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Hesitation Blues: William Christopher Handy (1873-1958) popularized this folk melody like many others. Although known for his composition, The St. Louis Blues, WC Handy published his arrangement of The Hesitating Blues in 1915.
Chorus: There are three ways to define a chorus, a) a group of singers, b) music written for a group of singers, c) a response or refrain that follows a solo call or chorus.
Verses: In poetry this is a line of metrical writing or a larger unit like a stanza of a poem. Similarly in music, a stanza is sung or played and usually followed by a refrain or chorus. With verses, although the melody remains the same the text varies from verse to verse. In the chorus the text is repeated
LITERARY AND MUSICAL - Cultural Exchange
Compare and contrast the development of verse in Cultural Exchange and Louis Armstrong's version of When the Saints go Marching in (See text below). Give particular attention to discussion how these two are reflection of the road to independence in different contexts. Cultural Exchange is lyrical poetry in free verse; it is replete with figurative language and musical ideas.
TEXT for When the Saints go marching in Louis Armstrong version
We are traveling in the footsteps
Of those who’ve gone before
But we’ll all be reunited (but if we stand reunited)
On a new and sunlit shore (then a new world is in store)
Oh when the saints go marching in
When the saints go marching in
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
And when the sun refuse (begins) to shine
And when the sun refuse (begins) to shine
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When the moon turns red with blood
When the moon turns red with blood
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
On that hallelujah day
On that hallelujah day
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh when the trumpet sounds the call
Oh when the trumpet sounds the call
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Some say this world of trouble
Is the only one we need
But I’m waiting for that morning
When the new world is revealed
When the revelation (revolution) comes
When the revelation (revolution) comes
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When the rich go out and work
When the rich go out and work
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When the air is pure and clean
When the air is pure and clean
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When we all have food to eat
When we all have food to eat
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When our leaders learn to cry
When our leaders learn to cry
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
SECTION 4: STUDY PLAN- Cultural Exchange
Research and inter curricular experiences
• Analyze mood for dramatic interpretation. Identify word cues that suggested motifs of freedom. What did Langston Hughes reveal about freedom and cultural exchanges in this poem? Which words or expressions are metaphors? Which words or expressions evoke imagery?
• Watch Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington and discuss ethics, leadership and ethical relevance in the movie and in today's world. Consider the 23-hour filibuster.
• Cultural exchange is full of references to African and American leaders discuss the distribution and patterns of governance in your community and how this will inform the writing of your own poetry.
• Chart the decision making structure of an organization.
• Hughes closes the mood with the words “ Culture, they say is a two way street…” How are roles reversed on the different playing fields throughout the mood?
Creative projects
• Create a concept map, either hierarchical or webbed, of the key figures in Cultural Exchange to demonstrate the socio-political connections African Americans and Africans between the late 1950's and early 1960s.
• Select a sub-theme in Cultural Exchange and write a poem in free verse as your response to the theme.
• What frustrates you about your community today? Draw on Langston Hughes' use of metaphor and imagery and write a blues verse that reflects your frustrations. Set this verse to music using the structure outlined in the previous section.
• Make a list of prominent figures in contemporary American social political history. Discuss the significance of these individuals as promoters or inhibitors of independence.
• Read Hughes’s autobiographies The Big Sea and I wonder as I wander and trace Hughes' relationship with Jazz and its artists.
Questions for Clarification
• What do we learn about segregation from the reading of this mood?
• What symbols of violence and danger did Langston use?
• What does "Ask your Mama" mean in this poem?
• Where and why does Hughes create a role and gender switch towards the end of Cultural Exchange?
Discussion questions
• Compare and contrast "the quarter of the Negroes" with "the shadow of the Negroes".
• When events occur in one culture, they are usually echoed in different ways in a connected culture. Even though the connections exist, they are largely overlooked in particular context where power determines the structure of society. In Cultural Exchange, Hughes laments that while social-political activists in African states are making strides, these are largely ignored in the United States. List other literary or musical texts that remind you of the tension in Cultural Exchange.
• Read the first verse of Cultural Exchange out aloud. What do you think Hughes means by "DUST OF DINGY ATOMS BLOWS A SCRATCHY SOUND"? Note that coupled with this is the sound of scraping guiros.
Reflective journal question:
• Reflect on the central theme of this mood "independence" and compare and contrast what it meant to people of color then, and what it means to you today regardless of your ethnicity.
SECTION 5: FURTHER READING- Cultural Exchange
Cornett, C E. The Arts as Meaning Makers: Integrating Literature and the Art
Throughout the Curriculum. Upper Saddle River: Simon and Schuster/A Viacom
Company, 1999.
Gridley, Mark C. Jazz History and Analysis. 6th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall. 1997.
Heilbut, Tony. The Gospel Sound: Good new and bad times. New York: Simon and
Schuster. 1971.
Lovell, John, Black song: the forge and the flame; the story of how the Afro- American
spiritual was hammered out. New York, Macmillan.1972
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume 2: 1944-1967 I Dream A
World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pp.314-340.
Wright, John. Ask Your Mama: The view and Moods of Jazz in the Work of Langston
Hughes. Pre concert commentary. Weisman Art Museum, University of
Minnesota, March 3, 1996.
RECORDINGS
When The Saints Go Marching In ALBUM · The Very Best of Louis Armstrong (1998) Label: Crimson (Dna) ASIN: B000007P27
VIDEOGRAPHY
Voices & Visions: Langston Hughes. A Documentary video series. Annenberg/CPB, 55minutes
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Starring Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, and Thomas Mitchell. Director(s): Frank Capra. Screenwriter(s): Sidney Buchman. Studio and Production company: Columbia. Running Time:125 minutes, Media Type: B&W
Arna Bontemps:
Canaday, Nicholas. "Arna Bontemps: The Louisiana Heritage." Callaloo (Feb.-Oct. 1981): 163 - 169.
Davis, Mary Kemp. ""From Death Unto Life: The Rhetorical Function of Funeral Rites in Arna Bontemps' Black Thunder." Journal of Ritual Studies Winter
1(987): 163 - 169.
Harris, Violet J. "From Little Black Sambo to Popo and Fifina: Arna Bontemps and the creation of African-American Children's Literature." The Lion and the
Unicorn (June 1990): 108 - 127.
Jones, Kirkland C. "Arna Bontemps." Ed. Trudier Harris and Thadious M. Davis. Dictionary of Literary Biography: Afro-American Writers from the Harlem
Renaissance to 1940. 51 Detroit: Gale Research Company,1987. 10 - 21.
Reagan, Daniel. "Voices of Silence: The Representation of Orality in Arna Bontemps' Black Thunder." Studies in American Fiction (Spring 1991): 71 - 83.
Sadler, Lynn Veach. "The Figure of the Black Insurrectionist in Stowe, Bouve, Bontemps, and Gaither: The Universality of the Need for Freedom." MAWA
Review (June 1986): 21 - 24.
WEBSITE
Arna Wendell Bontemps Museum:
About George Schuyler
Michael W. Peplow, George S. Schuyler. Twayne, 1980.
Kathryn Talalay, Composition in Black and White: The Life of Philippa Schuyler. Oxford, 1995.
MAJOR WORKS BY SCHUYLER
The Negro-Art Hokum (1926). Schuyler's denial of a Negro Art in America. Reprinted in The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, pp.96-99.
Black No More, Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free, A. D. 1933-1940(1931). Reprint with a foreword by James A. Miller. Northeastern, 1989.
Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia ( 1930 ).
Black Internationale: Story of Black Genius Against the World (1936-37 ). This novella and the next one have been reprinted in Black Empire. Edited, with an afterword, by
Robert A. Hill and R. Kent Rasmussen, Foreword by John A. Williams. Northeastern, 1991.
Black Empire, An Imaginative Story of a Great New Civilization in Modern Africa (1937-38 ).
Black and Conservative (1966). Autobiography.
GEORGE S. SCHUYLER CRITICAL ARTICLES.
Faulkner, Howard J. "A Vanishing Race." CLA Journal 37.3 (1994): 274-92.
Gable, Craig. "Shafts and Darts: An Annotated Bibliography of George S. Schuyler's Contributions to The Messenger, 1923-1928." Bulletin of Bibliography 59.3 (2002):111-19.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. "A Fragmented Man: George Schuyler and the Claims of Race." New York Times Book Review 20 Sept. 1992: 42-43.
Gysin, Fritz. "Black Pulp Fiction: George Schuyler's Caustic Vision of a Panafrican Empire." Empire: American Studies. Ed. John G. Blair and Reinhold Wagnleitner. Tubingen: Narr, 1997. 167-79.
Kuenz, Jane. "American Racial Discourse, 1900-1930: Schuyler's Black No More." Novel 30.2 (1997): 170-92.
Lawson, Benjamin S. "A 1930s African-American View of Liberia: George S. Schuyler." Liberian Studies Journal 20.2 (1995): 247-62.
——. "George S. Schuyler and the Fate of Early African-American Science Fiction." Impossibility Fiction: Alternativity, Extrapolation, Speculation. Ed. Derek Littlewood and Peter Stockwell. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996. 87-105.
Long, Richard A. "Renaissance Personality: An Interview with George Schuyler." Black World 25.4 (1976): 68-78.
Morgan, Stacy. "'The Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science': Race Science and Essentialism in George Schuyler's Black No More." CLA Journal 42.3 (1999): 331-52.
Nelson, Emmanuel S. "George Samuel Schuyler (1895-1977)." African American Autobiographers: A Sourcebook. Ed. Nelson. Westport: Greenwood, 2002. 323-27.
Peplow, Michael W. "George Schuyler, Satirist: Rhetorical Devices in Black No More." CLA Journal 18.2 (1974): 242-57.
Rayson, Ann. "George Schuyler, Paradox among 'Assimilationist' Writers." Black American Literature Forum 12 (1978): 102-06.
Reilly, John M. "The Black Anti-Utopia." Black American Literature Forum 12 (1978): 107-09.
Singh, Amritjit. "Racial Politics in Afro-American Literature: Reflections in a Cross-Continental Context." Journal of the School of Languages 8.1-2 (1981-82): 136-48.
Tucker, Jeffrey A. "'Can Science Succeed Where the Civil War Failed?': George S. Schuyler and Race." Race Consciousness: African-American Studies for the New Century. Ed. Judith Jackson Fossett and Jeffrey A. Tucker. New York: New York UP, 1997. 136-53.
WEBSITES
For more information go to:
Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 9: Harlem Renaissance - George Schuyler." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL: (provide page date or date of your login).
Dixiecrats
Barnard, W. D., Dixiecrats and Democrats (1974)
Garson, R. A., The Democratic Party and the Politics of Sectionalism, 1941-1948 (1974)
Grantham, D. W., The Democratic South (1963)
Ware, A., The Breakdown of Democratic Party Organization, 1940-1980 (1989)
Leontyne Price
Review Kennedy Center honor at:
Sammy Davis Jr.
For more information go to:
Sidney Poitier
For more information go to: a)
b)
W.C. Handy:
Official Website:
Marian Anderson
University of Pennsylvania Library:
Kennedy Center b)
Afrocentric voices in Classical Music:
Grace Under Fire:
Marian at Penn Library:
Louis Armstrong
Official website of Louis Armstrong: .
Catalogue of his music:
Discography :
Centennial:
Ralph Ellison
Perspectives in American Literature: A research and reference guide:
Shalom Aleichem
Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature:
James Arthur Baldwin
PBS American Masters Series:
Perspectives in American Literature: A research and reference guide:
Ornette Coleman
Ornette's Official Website:
Ken Burns Jazz series:
Europe Jazz Network:
Eyeneer New Jazz Archives:
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah Information and Resource Site:
Great Epic Books:
Nnamdi Azikwe
Read Lincoln University's account:
Gamal Abdel-Nasser
For more information go to the Nasser home page:
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
Robert Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton, 1969.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: JFK in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
James G. Blight, Bruce J. Allyn and David A. Welch, Cuba on the Brink: Castro, the Missile Crisis, and the Soviet Collapse. New York: Pantheon, 1993.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 40th year anniversary Web:
Castro- Read the CNN webpage:
Castro-Historical Archives:
Robert E. Quirk's Fidel Castro: One year:
Ahmed Sékou Touré
Review BBC News Time Line:
New Internationalist, August I984:
Mzee Jomo Kenyatta
Kenya Government History:
Africa Within:
Modern History Source book:
BBC: On this day April 8, 1953:
Dixiecrats
Reason One Line:
Univ. of Mississippi's States Rights Scrapbook:
Martin Luther King Jr.
Seattle Times:
Long Island University: A tribute to MLK:
The King Center:
Stanford University's MLK papers Project:
Dr. Rufus Early Clement
Atlanta University archives:
University of Louisville:
This Day in Georgia History:
Southern Regional Council:
Zelma Watson George
Women in U.S. History:
University of Michigan-Interview:
Ohio Women's Hall of Fame:
Handbook of Texas online:
Orval Eugene Faubus
University of Arkansas Library:
Spartacus School Net:
Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia:
Schwarz, B. 1998, "Gov. Orval Eugene Faubus" The Atlantic Monthly:
James O. Eastland
Transcript, James O. Eastland Oral History Interview I, February 19, 1971, by Joe B. Frantz, LBJ Library. Online: . (November 20, 2003).
Trent Lott: Mississippi First:
American Passages:
John Malcolm Patterson
Alabama Academy of Honor:
National Governors Association:
SECTION THREE: PRELIMINARIES- Ride, Red, Ride
MOOD 2. RIDE, RED, RIDE
MARACAS
I WANT TO SEE MY MOTHER MOTHER continue
WHEN THE ROLL IS CALLED UP YONDER rhythms
IN THE QUARTER OF THE NEGROES: of
TELL ME HOW LONG "When
MUST I WAIT? the
CAN I GET IT NOW? Saints
CA IRA! CA IRA! Go
OR MUST I HESITATE? Marching
IRA! BOY, IRA! In"
until
IN THE QUARTER OF THE NEGROES the
TU ABUELA, DONDE ESTA? piano
LOST IN CASTRO'S BEARD? gently
TU ABUELA, DONDE ESTA? supplies
BLOWN SKY HIGH BY MONT PELEE? a softly
DONDE ESTA? DONDE ESTA? lyrical
WAS SHE FLEEING WITH LUMUMBA? CALYPSO
(GRANDPA'S GRANDMA'S GRANNY joined now
ALWAYS TOOK THE OTHER SIDE.) by the
A LITTLE RUM WITH SUGAR FLUTE
AY, MORENA, DONDE ESTA? that ends
GRENADINE GRANADA OR in a high
DE SANGRE ES LA GOTA? discordant
[JSW pause 5 sec] cry.
SANTA CLAUS, FORGIVE ME,
BUT YOUR GIFT BOOKS ARE SUBVERSIVE, TACIT
YOUR DOLLS ARE INTERRACIAL.
YOU'LL BE CALLED BY EASTLAND.
WHEN THEY ASK YOU IF YOU KNOW ME,
DON'T TAKE THE FIFTH AMENDMENT.
IN THE QUARTER OF THE NEGROES
RIDING IN A JAGUAR, SANTA CLAUS,
SEEMS LIKE ONCE I MET YOU
WITH ADAM POWELL FOR CHAUFFEUR
AND YOUR HAIR WAS BLOWING BACK
IN THE WIND.
Read Rampersad, A. & David Roessel. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York. Vintage Classics: The Estate of Langston Hughes. 1994. Pp.482-484.
THE SETTING (GEOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL)
This mood, as with all the others moves from setting to setting-crossing boundaries in space and time. It opens in the Caribbean during a period of physical and political eruptions and moving to the Southern United States, specifically, Mississippi where the legitimate election of minorities in the North created much consternation among “persons in high places” (Langston Hughes in Rampersad, A. & David Roessel, 1994, p.528). Red Ride Red also makes reference to the French Revolution invoking Ça Ira the most popular revolutionary song. Around the time when Hughes wrote Ask your Mama, Cuba’s Castro expropriated American owned properties as an effort against imperialism and a movement towards communism. Hughes made a least three trips to Cuba before his death. Hughes evokes specific historical events. For example, the period of the Cuban missile crisis, coincides with the assassination of the first Prime Minister of Congo, Lumumba, is far removed from the eruption of Mount Pelée. Also, Washington’s role in the murder remains on clear, however, it played a major roll in installing the Lumumba’s replacement, Joseph Mobutu.
THEMES
The Ride Red Ride is about the road to freedom and independence for people of color. It opens with references to music of the French Revolution and this necessitates a discussion of the role music played in social movements that marked independence. A triumphant tone in Ça Ira and a hopeful tone in When the roll is called up yonder resonate in the opening lines. The French Revolution forces of 1789 were demonstrated in the protests of the working class and people seeking fundamental governmental reform. Marked by Hope, Fear, Terror and Reform the French Revolution represents a whole new way of thinking that evolved over a ten year period starting in 1789. It is interesting the Hughes makes reference to French revolution via Ça Ira. Remember that Hughes was writing this poem Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz, ten years after The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. The purpose of the declaration was to provide an authoritative list of human rights, economic and social rights that could serve as an international standard for all peoples and nations.
The title Red Ride Red suggests the gruesome, violent and bloody nature of the journey invoked in the second section of the mood. On the Caribbean Island of Martinique, several were killed in the volcano eruption of Mount Pelée in 1902. The eruptions reflect the political revolts that took place in Mississippi and around the world and the US’s response. Drawing on John Dollard’s ground breaking social theory of group violence, Hughes emphasizes the plight of the Negro off the shores of the United States. Dollard argues that frustration played a significant role in the development of aggression among groups of people. (Rampersad, 2002, p.317). For example, Castro’s initial attempts to overthrow the Cuban governments were unsuccessful and fatal for his recruits. It was not until 1959 that Castro successfully overthrew Batista. Ironically, even though Cuba was a distinctively Negroid country, Hughes during his visits to the country, did not escape the racial tensions that attended the triple color line, a stack reminder of Jim Crow (Hughes, 1956, p.10). When Hughes mentions Grenadine Granada it would seem very logical to conclude that Hughes is referring to the revolution that led to the formation of Colombia. However, the very next line is about the blood level of negritude - De Sangre es la gota? Hughes could be referring to Grenadine, a blood-red, strong non-alcoholic syrup made from pomegranates and used for coloring and sweetening many cocktails or he could be referring to St. Vincent’s La Soufriêre erupted a day before the Mount Pelée in 1902, killing 1,565 people. Hughes is not window dressing is this section is full of questions, and references to the aggressive nature of the revolutionary movement.
In the final section Hughes brings us back to the United States using irony, symbols of segregation, pretense and success on the political plain. Santa Claus provides gives, gifts that destroy the sense of self. Interracial dolls here refer to the tendency for some to pretend or turn a blind eye to the problem of the Negro in the South. Yet in the North Santa Claus represents the gift of success provided in the legitimate election of Adam Powell to congress. Even though Powell rides in the jaguar, he is the chauffeur, conveying dual meanings of servitude and leadership. The mood ends with success and freedom created by images of hair blowing back in the wind.
LANGUAGE - Ride Red Ride
Etymology of words used
Ça Ira! This is arguably the most popular song of the French revolution and is about French unity and resistance to the enemy. Ça Ira translates “we will win!” According to Rampersad (1994, p.682), the section about “hanging aristocrats from Lampposts” was added later. For more information go to the Modern History Sourcebook:
Tu Abuela: Your grandmother
Dónde está: Where is she?
Castro: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, on his family's sugar plantation near Biran, Oriente province, Cuba. Castro studied law at University of Havana, graduating in 1950. As a lawyer Fidel devoted himself to helping the poor. After leading the attack on Moncada Barracks, Santiago de Cuba, 1953 Fidel was captured, imprisoned, 1953-55. He went into exile in Mexico and United States, 1955-56. He returned to Cuba and led armed attacks against government of Fulgencio Batista, 1956-59 and forced Batista into exile, 1959. The United States recognized the new government for Cuba on January 7, 1959 and in February Castro became prime minister of Cuba and stayed in the position from 1959-76. He later became Head of State in 1976. While Langston was revising Ask Your Mama in 1960, Castro visited Harlem. The New York Times, and The Post published a statement to the effect that Hughes had dined with Castro (Rampersad, p.323). This did not please Hughes for Castro was already out of favor with the United States for moving towards the left. He confiscated American own properties for inadequate compensation and strengthened his relationship with the Soviet Union. The USSR, in turn, planted ballistic missiles in Cuba, creating what is know today as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the climax of the Cold War.
Mont Pelée: A volcano, which erupted on the north end of the Caribbean Island of Martinique. The word pelé in French means bald a reflection of the volcano. There is and has never been any vegetation on Mont Pelée. Thousands of people were killed by this lava dome, which erupted on May 2, 1902 the day after the eruption of Soufriere in St. Vincent. On the 100th anniversary, in 2002 two French government officials visit what is known as the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century. There have been no further eruptions since 1932. France colonized Martinique in 1635. It remains under French rule.
Patrice Lumumba: Self educated poet, Lumumba was born in Katako Kombe, Kasai Province, of Congo (Zaire) on July 2, 1925. On Oct. 5, 1958 he founded the National Congolese Movement (Movement National Congolaise-MNC) and became its president. Lumumba addressed the Pan-African Conference in Accra-Ghana on December 11, 1958. He became the first Prime Minister of Congo after it gained independence from Belgium on June 23, 1960. Feared to be a communist, Lumumba was assassinated on January 17, 1961.
Morena: Young black girl
Grenadine Granada: (1831-1856) In May 1856, the Grenadine Confederation was created with eight member states (then sovereign states): Antioquía, Bolívar, Boyacá, Cauca, Cundinamarca, Istmo (Panama), Magdalena and Santander. War started in Cauca against the central government and the Leader of revolt was T.C. Mosquera, who wanted more power for his region, Cauca. Mosquera won the war and took Bogota on 18 July 1861. He became presidency of the confederacy from 1860-63. Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Grand Colombia in 1830 (the others being Ecuador and Venezuela). The official name for the South American region is the Republic of Colombia (República de Colombia). The capital is Bogota (Santafé de Bogotá).
The Grenadines: Together with Saint Vincent, the Grenadines is part of the Windward Islands chain. Created by volcanoes, the Grenadines are small islands namely, Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Palm Island, Petit St. Vincent, Union Island and Mayreau, lying within the Lesser Antilles, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The largest island is Bequia with18 square kilometers. This is still a British protectorate with the Queen Elizabeth the second as the Chief of State since 1952 and Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalvez as head of government since 2001. La Soufriêre, one of St. Vincent’s major attractions, erupted a day before the Mount Pelée eruption in 1902, killing 1,565 people.
Granada: Hughes is referring to main island of Grenada, and two smaller Grenadine islands named Carriacou and Petit Martinique, all created by volcanic action. After several battles between the French and the English, under the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, the island was ceded to the British. This was followed by the importation of African slaves to establish sugar plantations on the island. In 1877 Grenada became a Crown Colony, and later in 1967 an associate state within the British Commonwealth. Granada gained independence from the British in 1974. Jamaica, and the Eastern Caribbean States with the US “rescued” Grenada from Marxist military council is 1983. The chief of state has been Queen ELIZABETH II, since 1952) and the head of government is Prime Minister Keith Mitchell appointed in June 1995.
De Sangre es la gota? Literal meaning is Are you a drop from the blood? Idiomatic meaning Are you mixed blood?
Santa Claus: Santa is also known as: Father Christmas, Father Frost, Joulupukki, Kris Kringle, Père Noël, Sabdiklos, Saint Nicolas, Sancte Claus, Sinter Klaas, Weihnachtsmann. Dutch immigrants to the US in the 1700 brought with them Sinter Klass. For more information on the history to Santa in America go to:
Eastland: James Oliver Eastland, popularly known as Slippery Jim was born in Doddsville, Sunflower County, Miss., November 28, 1904. He was U.S. Senator from Mississippi, 1943-1979, a delegate to Democratic National Convention from Mississippi, 1928, 1944, 1948, and 1960. He was chairman of Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1955 to 1979. Like Faubus, he was an ardent segregationist. He died in Doddsville, Mississippi on February 19, 1986.
Adam Clayton Powell: United States Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 29, 1908. Powell received a B.A. degree from Colgate University in 1930, and a M.A. degree in religious education from Columbia University in 1931. In 1944, Powell became the first African-American from a northeastern state to be elected to Congress. He was committed to civil rights. He died in Miami on April 4, 1972 of prostrate cancer. Adam Clayton Powell Jr.'s second wife, pianist and singer Hazel Scott performed in Hughes Tambourines to Glory. The production began very well and was pitched for a Manhattan performance. Rampersad, (2001, p.322) writes that Scott’s manner alienated the audience and in turned negatively affected the reviews of the production.
Definition of music related terms and expressions used.
When the Roll is called up yonder: James M. Black, a Methodist Sunday school teacher, composed this gospel song in 1893. It is told that one day while calling the roll for a youth meeting in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Black noticed that Bessie, the daughter of a drunkard failed to show up. He reassured himself that “when the roll is called up yonder, she'll be there." This incident inspired him to write the text and compose the music to this gospel song. This music was played towards the end of the 1941 Academy Award movie “Sergeant York”. The movie celebrated the life and work of WWI hero Sergeant Alvin C. York.
Calypso: This is a type of song originating in Trinidad, Caribbean. It is topical and provides social commentary. Particular rhythmic organizations give calypso its signature character and these include: the cinquillo ostinato from Cuban danzón.
Maracas: Indigenous Caribbean music centered on a socio-religious ceremony called areito. Here, as many as 1000 people participate in a dancing in concentric circles around musicians. Musician sang mythological chants in call and response style, playing rattle (later called maracas) consisting of pair of hollowed gourds filled with seeds. The gourds have an attached handle, and sharp wrist motions cause the seeds to rattle against the inner wall of the gourd.
When the Saints go marching in: This spiritual is one of the best known played by the Dixieland band. Originally a Sanctified shout celebrating the lives of folks who had followed Jesus all the way. Sanctified Shouts emanated from the Holiness movement, and holiness churches were the first to use musical instruments in worship previously banned as the devil's tools. When the Saints Go Marching in like typical sanctified shouts comprises simple repetitive melodies accompanied by rhythmic hand clapping. Langston Hughes also refers to this spiritual in his play Tambourines to Glory.
Flute: The orchestral flute is a cylindrical tube closed at the upper end. Belonging to the woodwind family of the orchestra, this agile instrument is made of silver, though older instruments were made of wood. The lowest notes are thick and breathy and the higher notes bright and penetrating. Flutes are among the most ancient and widespread of all instruments.
Dixieland Jazz: Among the earlier jazz forms originating in New Orleans among parade bands and dance bands, this style played on the demand of dancers. Some people reserve the term Dixieland solely for the music of white bands. Small bands performed music originally written for large bands. Each musician had to provide more- fill out the sound with improvisations to order. The first Dixieland band to record was the Original Dixieland Jazz band in Chicago in 1917. The standard instrumentation includes cornet, clarinet, trombone, piano, drums, banjo or guitar and tuba.
Chorus: There are three ways to define a chorus: a) a group of singers, b) music written for a group of singers, c) a response or refrain that follows a solo call or chorus.
Discordant: A combination of sounds create tension, unpleasant and harsh sounds and therefore require resolution.
Up-tempo: Tempo refers to the speed of a composition, and thus up-tempo means a fast paced section or performance.
Tacit: (From Italian-Tace): Silence.
LITERARY AND MUSICAL:
Both When the Saints go Marching in (See text in Cultural Exchange) and When the roll is called up yonder (See text below) speak of the journey to freedom “ up yonder”. When the Saints go Marching in provides a sense of hope and When the roll is called up yonder resonates with the assurance of freedom. And this is reinforced with the words Ça Ira. Use When the roll is called up yonder the text of Ça Ira ( Go to Modern History Sourcebook: ) to discuss Castro, Lumumba, Eastland and Powell as portraits of the civil revolution.
When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
Refrain
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll is called up yonder I'll be there.
On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the glory of His resurrection share;
When His chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll is called up yonder I'll be there.
Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun,
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care;
Then when all of life is over, and our work on earth is done,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll is called up yonder I'll be there.
SECTION 4: STUDY PLAN- Ride , Red, Ride
Research and inter curricular experiences
• Write a three-five-page essay with the following title: “The Mount Pelée reference is a distraction and should be cut from the mood.”
• Hughes uses French as a code-switching device in Ride Red Ride. Code switching has played a significant role in the African American oral traditions and history. Research the politics of code switching with slang in African American socio-cultural history as a dual weapon of resistance and freedom.
• Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was political trailblazer. Watch the 2002 Showtime movie of his life and character- Keep the Faith, baby. Compare and contrast his political position with a more contemporary trailblazer, Condoleezza Rice.
• Read Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible and discusses her portrayal of political espionage in the Congo, America and Belgium; with special reference to the Lumumba assassination as a probable CIA plot.
• Use examples of contemporary social critical music to map the political live of Colin Powell.
Creative projects
In the Wright-McCurdy-Bailey performance, the artists sometimes play reggae (more recent tool of social criticism) instead of a calypso as they transport the listener to the Caribbean from the southern US. The legendary musician Bob Marley established reggae as one of the leading avenues of social criticism in the 60s and 70’s. Identify and comment on the parallel images in Marley’s Revolution and Hughes’ Ride Red Ride.
• Reflecting on critical social, environmental, political upheavals of the last ten years, write a poem in the style of Ride Red Ride.
• Create a theatrical performance reflecting contemporary reflections of group violence. Give emphasis to the creating the atmosphere of tension, dissention, confusion, resolution, and victory.
Questions for Clarification
• Why would Langston write, “When the Roll is called up yonder “ in the opening of this poem?
• What do we learn about group violence or agitation in this mood- Ride Red Ride?
• What is the significance of Santa Claus in Ride Red Ride?
• Why are “gift books subversive” and “dolls interracial?”
• What role do the questions in the opening verse play in the unfolding on the mood?
Discussion questions
• In Adam Clayton Powell Jr.’s 1967 text 'Black Power: A Form of Godly Power’ he states, “Unless man is committed to the belief that all mankind are his brothers, then he labors in vain and hypocritically in the vineyards of equality.” Discuss this statement in the light of the Dollard’s social theory.
• Hughes suggests a link between the marks of the French revolution and the Black renaissance in Ride Red Ride. Discuss the role of hope, fear, terror, and reform in the Black renaissance.
Reflective journal question:
• The opening questions are words from the Hesitation Blues. They are:
I got my hesitatin’ feet in my hesitatin’ shoes.
I believe my soul I got the Hesitatin’ blues
Tell me how long
Do I have to wait?
Or can I get you now or must I hesitate?
Reflect on a dream or goal and write about some of the emotions you have experienced so far in waiting for it to come to fruition.
SECTION 5: FURTHER READING- Ride, Red, Ride
BOOKS
Hughes, Langston. I wonder as I wander, an autobiography. Introduction by Arnold
Rampersad. 1956. Reprinted New York: Hill and Wang, 1993.
Major, Clarence. Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang. Penguin USA.
1994.
Manuel, Peter. Caribbean Currents: Caribbean music from Rumba to Reggae.
Philadelphia. Temple University Press. 1995.
Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi (New York: Dell Laurel Books, 1968).
A “classic autobiography of growing up poor and black in the rural South.” Covers childhood, high school, college and the Civil Rights Movement. This book helps us focus on the experiences of people who were overlooked by Hollywood and the mass media in the 1950's.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume 2: 1944-1967 I Dream A
World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Second Edition.
Rampersad, A. & David Roessel. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York.
Vintage Classics: The Estate of Langston Hughes. 1994.
Smitherman, Geneva. Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen
Corner. Mariner Books. 2000.
WEBSITES
On Ca Ira visit Paul Halsall, 1998:
A description of Mont Pelée
Pictures Mont Pelée Volcano:
Visit USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, Washington:
Read a detailed account of the volcanic eruption:
For information on When the Roll is called up Yonder go to THE CYBER HYMNAL:
VIDEOGRAPHY
LUMUMBA a film by Raoul Peck. Filmed in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Belgium. A French/Belgian/Haitian/German co-production, 2000. 35mm | Color | Sound: Dolby Stereo SRD Aspect Ratio: 1:1.85 | Running time: 115 mins. To obtain a copy:
Adam Clayton Powell, 1989 Producers: Richard Kilberg, Yvonne Smith; Director: Richard Kilberg; Narrator: Julian Bond Format: Color; 53 minutes/Video/Study guide. Obtain a copy:
Distributed by Filmakers Library New York, NY 10016 (212) 808-4980
info@
“Keep the Faith, Baby" 2002. Showtime original movie about the life of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. It stars Harry Lennix as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Vanessa Williams as his wife Hazel Scott.
About Music of the French Revolution
Histoire de France par les chansons : s'ensuivent 306 belles chansons satiriques et historiques, Paris : M. Fourny, 1982.
Les Hymnes et chansons de la revolution : apercu general et catalogue avec notices historiques, analytiques et bibliographiques, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1904.
Music and the French Revolution, Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Raunie, Emile, 1854-1911.Chansonnier historique du XVIIIe siecle, Paris, A Quantin, 1879-84.
Rogers, Cornwell Burnham, 1898-, The spirit of revolution in 1789 : a study of public opinion as revealed in political songs and other popular literature at the beginning of the French revolution. Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, 1949.
Links on the French Revolution:
An excellent school oriented site:
Liberty, Equality Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution: The best site on the revolution.
About Mont Pelée
All About Mount Pelée: This entire website is devoted to the Mount Pelee eruption.
Pelée, Mount. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 14, 2005, from Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service.
Fisher, R.V., and Heiken, G., 1982, Mt. Pelee, Martinique; May 8 and 20, 1902, pyroclastic flows and surges: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 13, p. 339-371.
Fisher, R.V., Smith, A.L., and Roobol, M.J., 1980, Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique by ash-cloud surges, May 8 and 20, 1902: Geology, v. 8, p. 472-476.
Heilprin, A., 1908, The eruption of Pelee: Philadelphia Geographic Society, 72 p.
Hirn, A., Girardin, N., Viode, J.-P., and Eschenbrenner, S., 1987, Shallow seismicity at Montagne Pelee volcano, Martinique, Lesser Antilles: Bulletin of Volcanology, v. 49, p. 723-728.
Lacroix, A., 1904, La Montagne Pelee et ses eruptions: Paris, Masson et Cie, 622 p.
Perret, F.A., 1937, The eruption of Mt. Pelee, 1929-1932: Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication, v. 458, 126 p.
Robson, G.R., and Tomlin, J.F., 1966, Catalogue of the active volcanoes of the world, including Solfatara fields; Part 20, West Indies: Rome, International Association of Volcanology, 56 p.
Smith, A.L., and Roobol, M.J., 1990, Mt. Pelee, Martinique; A study of an active island-arc volcano: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Memoir 175, 105 p.
Thomas, G. and Witts, MM. 1984, The day the World Ended.
Westercamp, D., and Traineau, H., 1983, The past 5,000 years of volcanic activity at M. Pelee, Martinique (F.W.I.); Implications for assessment of volcanic hazards: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 17, p.159-185.
Zebrowski, E. Jr. 2002, The last days of St. Peirre.
Cuba and Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz
BOOKS
Robert Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: W. W. Norton, 1969.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: JFK in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
James G. Blight, Bruce J. Allyn and David A. Welch, Cuba on the Brink: Castro, the Missile Crisis, and the Soviet Collapse. New York: Pantheon, 1993.
WEBSITES
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 40th year anniversary Web:
Castro- Read the CNN webpage:
Castro-Historical Archives:
Robert E. Quirk's Fidel Castro: One year:
On Patrice Lumumba
BOOKS
Merriam, Alan P. Congo: Background of Conflict, Evanston Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1961.
Legum, Colin. Congo Disaster, Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books, 1961.
Hennessey, Maurice N., The Congo: a Brief History and Appraisal, New York: Praeger, 1961.
Delins, Anthony. Upsurge in Africa, (Pamphlet published by Canadian Institute of International Affairs).
WEBSITES
A detailed history of his life and work:
US News on Line:
BBC News :
Russian Univ. site:
PERIODICALS
United Nations Review, January, 1961.
Africa Special Report, October 26, 1956.
Africa Weekly Magazine, 1959 issues.
The Economics, London, July, 1959.
Arab Observer, July 17, 1960.
New York Times Magazine, August 6, 1960, January 8, 1961, July 31, 1960, August 21, 1960, February 26, 1961.
I. F. Stone's Weekly, D.C. September 26, 1960; October 10, 1960.
The New Statesman, London, December 10,1960.
The Nation, New York City, October 15, 1960.
American Magazine, August 12, 1961.
The Newsleader Magazine, March 6, 1961, November 7, 1961.
Africa Special Report, June, 1960; February, 1961; June 1961.
Drum Magazine, April, 1961.
Africa Observer, Vol. I., No. 1, (February, 1961).
PRESS RELEASES
Ghana Information Services, February 15, 1961, and March 1961.
American Universities Field Staff Reports, 1960.
The Grenadines:
The official Website:
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 14, 2005, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.
Landscape and Climate:
Grenada
The official website:
The Travel Site:
Santa Claus
Covers history of Mr. Claus:
All about Santa:
Commercial banner free, Kid safe web:
James O. Eastland
Transcript, James O. Eastland Oral History Interview I, February 19, 1971, by Joe B. Frantz, LBJ Library. Online: . (November 20, 2003).
Trent Lott: Mississippi First:
American Passages:
Adam Clayton Powell Jr.:
BOOKS
Hamilton, Charles V. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: The Political Biography of An American Dilemma. New York: Atheneum, 1991,2002
Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr. Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.. New York: Dial Press, 1971.
Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr. Marching Blacks: An Interpretive History of the Rise of the Black Common Man. New York: Dial Press, 1945.
Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr. Keep The Faith, Baby! New York.: Trident Press, 1967.
Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr. Black Power: A Form of Godly Power. 1967
WEBSITES
Profiles of Courage:
Viewing Race:
American Experience: Adam Clayton Powell TV Series:
The Family:
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