Hip Hop and the Civil Rights Movement Essay -- Music

The Hip Hop movement was born while the civilized Rights movement was aging.The Civil Rights movement, at its tip addressed social inequalities however, in its oldage it began to demand economic equality enter Martin Luther King Jr.s Poor PeoplesCampaign. Although Black Americans were allowed to eat next to White Americans inrestaurants, and were allowed to sit next to White Americans on buses and enjoy equalityin terms of access, white command went underground and manifested as red-lining,unequal protection under the law, and a greater disparity between once raciallysegregated schools that are now economically segregated. The Civil Rights Movementand the Hip Hop movement are similar, but yet are different. If oppressed individualsdraw upon the strengths and weaknesses of these movements they will produce profoundresults socially and economically in the United States and abroad.It is impossible to separate my voice from this topic, as I was born as an AfricanAmerican girl in 1984 during a time when Hip Hop could metaphorically be consideredan adolescent. Through conversations with my grandmother, who grew up in segregatedArkansas, as well as my mother who was a teen during the turbulent 70s I havelearned qualitative information about the Civil Rights movement. After much research,the major concern for Civil Rights activists was the integration of schools and all publicinstitutions. Black children had to walk several miles to school while white studentswere provided transportation, Black children were given hand-me down textbooks andsupplies and smuggled teachers were provided a fraction of the salary that white teachersmade. After the historic win of Brown v. Board of Educati... ... always been an issue, but hip hop has thepower to loan-blend economic, social and religious divisions. The civil rights movement didnot have the resources that the hip-hop movement has today however it has the resiliency,the know-how and blueprint to take our society to the next take aim where individuals will beless oppressed and more able to positively add to the legacy and values revolution ofAmerica.10Works Citedhooks, bell. We Real cool it Black Men and Masculinity. New York Routledge, 2004.Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation Young Blacks and Crisis in AfricanAmerican Culture. New York Basic Civitas, 2002.Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home To lie My Life as a Hip HopFeminist. New York Simon and Schuster, 1999.Neal, Mark Anthony. Soul Babies Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic.New York Routledge, 2002.