Black History Series Part 1: Learning Black History through Music

February 5, 2019 David Childs Black History Month, Democracy & Me Blog, Lesson Plans 60

By Dr. David Childs, Ph.D.
Northern Kentucky University

A critical component in the success of the American democratic project is to embrace the diversity within the United States and its history. In this way, we can celebrate our differences, seeing diversity as a strength and an asset. Black history month is an opportune time to do so, in that it is a time to reflect upon and celebrate the complex history of African Americans in the United States. The study of Black history is a multi-faceted, varied and deeply complex subject. African American history is American history, in the sense that Black folks have been an integral part of United States history from its inception. One of the most commonly explored and researched aspects of African American history is slavery in America. Another topic that is explored often is the Civil Rights movement. Even though these aspects of Black history are of the utmost importance and have played a critical role in shaping history, other aspects of African American history must also be explored. A major back drop and cultural thread through every era of Black history has been music. It is important to understand how it has shaped Black culture and also how Black culture has been shaped by music. Music created by African Americans (Black music) is varied and complex, coming in many shapes and sizes. Indeed, African American music is a very broad phenomenon that describes a wide range of musical styles and genres.

Black music was shaped by historical conditions that was a response to a variety of emotions including happiness, joy, suffering, disappointment, despair, exhilaration and pain. Early black music from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was shaped by the terrible conditions and hardships brought on by slavery. The songs that were birthed from slavery were spirituals, work songs and folk songs. After the Civil War many African Americans became employed as musicians playing European classical music. When black musicians blended African culture and rhythms with the European classical music they developed the ragtime style of music. Ragtime would eventually become jazz; both forms of music are distinctly American, but specifically African American. Other styles of music stemming from African cultural roots included the blues and gospel, which led to more contemporary genres such as soul, rock and roll, rhythm and blues and hip-hop. Historic music from certain eras help us understand the way of life during the time it was developed.

Classrooms can come alive when teachers incorporate the rich reservoir of African American music that can now be easily accessed via a computer and the Internet. Below we share a wealth of musical resources that allow readers to explore the wide variety of music genres in black cultural history. We also include lesson plan ideas on how music can be incorporated into classroom curriculum in creative, effective and meaningful ways.

Lesson Plans

Lesson Ideas

Using spirituals to teach about African American slavery and the Civil War
Teachers can use Negro spirituals to teach about the challenges and hardships of slavery. Teachers can use the Internet to locate the words to the songs to accompany the videos, allowing students to do a text analysis of the lyrics. Students can write about the mood and tone of the songs, the religious themes, historical content, melancholy subject matter and even double meaning of the songs. Students can identify the time period in which the song was written and situate it historically, to tie it in to lectures, text book readings and primary source documents.
Hip-hop and the urban Black experience
Students can use various hip-hop songs to highlight the struggle of the urban poor and African Americans in the late twentieth century to present. Thousands of song lyrics are readily available for free on the Internet to supplement the music videos to allow students to take a closer look at the meaning behind the songs. Hip-hop is a great resource for language arts and social studies teaching because many artists address complex social, political, economic and historical issues such as poverty, abortion, racism, drugs and broken families.
Using the blues and gospel music to teach Black history
Teachers can use the blues and early gospel music to teach about southern rural black culture from the early twentieth century. Classrooms can address all sorts of topics such as the share cropping system, rural poverty, racism, southern cuisine, black families and even popular music as it relates to black musicians in the early twentieth century.

Sample Lesson Plans
Lead Belly and His Legacy of Southern Song- Lesson Plan
Blending African and Irish Sensibilities in Virginia’s Music
Songs, Sounds, and Stories from the Georgia Sea Islands A Smithsonian Folkways Lesson
The Vocal Blues: Created in the Deep South of the United States A Smithsonian Folkways Lesson
African American Music: Let’s Sing and Play Clapping Games A Smithsonian Folkways Lesson
African-American Gospel Music Lesson Plan
The History of Hip-Hop: Fresh Air Features Interviews with Some of the Greatest Names in Hip-hop

Please click on any of the links below to explore the various song selections in each genre.

Spirituals
Marion Williams – Mean Old World
Jubilaires- Noah
Black Delta Religion
Hold On” (Negro Spiritual)
Been In The Storm So Long [Full Compilation]

Ragtime
Maple Leaf Rag Played by Scott Joplin
Ragtime Piano : Scott Joplin “The Entertainer ” (1902)
The Definitive Jelly Roll Morton – Ragtime & Early Sounds from New Orleans
Scott Joplin – Ragtime (Full Album)

Jazz
Louis Armstrong – West End Blues 1928
Charlie Parker – I’ve Got Rhythm (Best jazz ever)
Charlie Parker – Anthropology
Miles Davis – So What
Blue in Green by Miles Davis
Herbie Hancock – Cantaloupe Island
John Coltrane – Equinox (Original)
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme [Full Album] (1965)

Work Songs
Negro Prison Songs / “Rosie” 1947
Work Songs in a Texas Prison

Blues
Etta James – I’d Rather Go Blind
Etta James – At Last
BB King on Ralph Gleason’s Jazz Casual 1968 Part 2
Howlin’ Wolf “Smokestack Lightning” Live 1964 (Reelin’ In The Years Archives)
Mississippi John Hurt – You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley (Live)
Lonnie Johnson – Another Night To Cry
Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim, Willy Dixon, Otis Spann et al – Bye Bye Blues
Leadbelly – House of the Rising Sun
Lead Belly – “The Gallis Pole”
Lead Belly – Midnight Special
Leadbelly – Three Songs 1945 – The Only One Video File with Leadbelly
BB King Called This His Best Performance
Skip James- Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues
“Devil Got My Woman” by Skip James
Lightin’ Hopkins pt 1
Soundies: Black Music from the 1940s
Robert Johnson- Crossroad

Gospel
Sister Rosetta Tharpe – This Train
Five Blind Boys of Mississippi “Lord, You’ve Been Good To Me” 1965 (Reelin’ In The Years Archives)
Mightly Clouds of Joy- I’ve Been in the Storm Too Long
The Soul Stirrers – “I’m a Soldier”
“Something’s Got a Hold of Me” (1959)- James Cleveland
The Swan Silvertones – Saviour Pass Me Not
The Swan Silvertones – Only Believe (Live)
Mahalia Jackson ~ How I Got Over
Donnie McClurkin- I’ll Trust You

Early Twentieth Century African American Music
Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come (Official Lyric Video)
Chuck Berry – Johnny B. Goode (Live 1958)
Little Richard Long Tall Sally – Tutti Frutti
Chubby Checker – Let’s Twist Again (lyrics)
Harry Belafonte – Banana Boat Song (Day-O)
Stand By Me, Ben E King, 1961
Little Eva – Loco-motion (1962)
Jimi Hendrix Experience – Hey Joe Live
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Foxey Lady (Miami Pop 1968)
Jimi Hendrix Live Full Concert 1969 Amazing Clear Footage
Jimi Hendrix “Wild Thing” 1967-05-11

Female Black Groups
Be My Baby – The Ronettes – 1963
The Shirelles Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

Ray Charles
Ray Charles – Hit the Road Jack!
Ray Charles – (Night time Is) The Right Time
Ray Charles – What’d I Say Pts.
Ray Charles – Unchain My Heart HQ
Ray Charles – Drown In My Own Tears
Ray Charles – Drown In My Own Tears
Ray Charles – Hard Times
Ray Charles – I Believe to My Soul

Temptations
Temptations – I wish It Would Rain
Temptations – My Girl & Get Ready – (1965-66)
The Temptations Papa Was A Rolling Stone 1972 Single Version

James Brown
James Brown – Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag Live 1965 (Remasterted)
Say It Loud, I’m Black & I’m Proud-James Brown
James Brown – Say It Loud, I’m Black And I’m Proud / If I Ruled The World (1968)
James Brown- The Famous Flames 1964
James Brown performs “Please Please Please” at the TAMI Show (Live)
James Brown – “Cold Sweat” (part 1 & 2)
James Brown – Out of Sight 1965 (Remastered audio)

Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson – Billie Jean Live First Time Moonwalk
Michael Jackson – Billie Jean (Official Music Video)
Michael Jackson – Beat It (Official Video)

Funk Music/Early R and B
The Chi-lites “Have you seen her”
George Clinton – Atomic Dog [Atomic Mix Long Version]
One Nation Under A Groove – Funkadelic (1978)

Hip-Hop

References
The History of African-American Folk Music Understanding the Multi-genre Influences to American Folk Music
History of Ragtime
African-American Music
History of Jazz
Roots of African American Music
The Evolution of African-American Music
Howling Wolf Biography

Regan Bernhard
February 15, 2019 at 6:14 pm

This is a great article. It talks about how the Civil War was in history but it also touches on the music and how it was. Normal history classes or books don’t talk about how music was a huge part as well. Music from the past really shows a different light on what people were going through and allows you to feel it, instead of just picture it.

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Ke'Anna Lee
February 14, 2019 at 2:39 am

I LOVED this article on both a personal and educational basis. Personally, I love music and I love to dance, which I believe both tie into each other. I can definitely see myself using the abundance of resources given at the end of the article as part of my curriculum when I begin to teach. Music is just another outlet that’s creative enough to engage student’s in learning and educator’s in teaching. I haven’t seen much of this done in a classroom, but more so in a specials’ classroom, like music and maybe even art. I think music is a way that all individuals can connect.

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Emma Mancz
February 12, 2019 at 5:32 pm

This article does a great job of relating music and history. When you think of history class it seems boring. When you throw music into the lesson, no matter the age, students can have an easier time with making connections and understanding the lesson. It is especially important to understand the impact that native american history influences our music today.

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Sydney Hardin
February 12, 2019 at 3:04 pm

I love the idea of being able to use music one day in my own classroom. There are so many different types of genres of music that have came throughout the years. Many started coming from all of the hardships and difficult times whether it be throughout slavery, their civil rights and or just their everyday life. My father is a Middle School U.S. History Teacher, and once I sat and observed his classroom. He even played a song which I believe was Negro Spiritual music to help convey the message of the difficult time they had during slavery in his classroom, which I thought was very neat!

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Rian Carson
February 12, 2019 at 1:01 am

I love this connection of Black history to music and education! I have been wondering how to approach teaching Black History Month lessons in my classroom because there is so much more to history than the civil rights and slavery. This offers a way to connect all students to the content while still teaching them very important information and I love it. I think this engagement for all students will also help show, as you mentioned, that African American history is American history.

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Katelyn Hagedorn
February 11, 2019 at 11:43 pm

As a strong advocate for music education, I think that being able to integrate aspects of music into any content area is great, but particularly in social studies or history classes, I feel music has a lasting impact. Music allows individuals to share their thoughts and feelings with listeners. Music can reflect a person’s true struggles, but it can also be reflective of historical conditions or time periods. Another added bonus is that it’s a universal language that all cultures have in common. Using music in the classroom allows all students to set their differences aside for a short moment in time and become immersed in the world of another. In regard to Black History, music is EXCELLENT to help students learn about African American history and to reflect upon how historical time periods in African American history influenced their music. Listening to music that is traditionally black music gives us the opportunity to celebrate diversity and understand how some of our favorite genres today are influenced by African American history.

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Laci Quehl
February 11, 2019 at 11:29 pm

Music is such an essential part of history and a great way to get students engaged when you bring it into the classroom to teach about a particular subject. The lessons provided in the article would be helpful resources to understand how music is an essential part of black history and for students to hear the emotion within the different songs.

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Katie Adams
February 11, 2019 at 11:25 pm

I think this list of songs and lesson ideas is great to incorporate into our own classes. Having students decode a song and share what emotions and experiences they are hearing can make it so much more real to them than reading it from a textbook. As you said, it’s important to remember that African American history is American history, and we must educate ourselves and our students on this important American history.

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Amber Stieritz
February 11, 2019 at 8:35 pm

I took a “History of Music” course a few semesters ago where we learned a lot about music in black culture and how it reflected their life at the time. Music is such a great way to get students engaged, so using music to learn about black history would really help student be active in the lesson. I truly believe that we should learn about black history throughout the year, but these lessons that are provided in this article would be great tools to use during black history month, especially in schools that haven’t had as much black history in their social studies classes.

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Amanda Wells
February 11, 2019 at 3:07 pm

Music has such a huge impact on our lives. I believe you can relate to music more than you can people. When you are happy or sad, depressed or anxious, music delivers such powerful messages. Learning about Black music can be inspirational and you can appreciate the individualism. You can feel emotions and learn different backgrounds.

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