I'm standing in front of the local Urban League office here in Alexandria Virginia long before it was a civil rights office it was a slave holding pen until the early 1860s and it was one of the best-known in the United States [Music] here is where we talk about spirituals those Christian hymns taught to every enslaved man woman and child as part of their new religion in America slavery was highly abusive and ripped families apart so it's not surprising that enslaved people youth spirituals to comfort themselves and they transformed those songs to plan rebellions and finally
they use spirituals to plot their escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad [Music] after slavery was outlawed in 1865 african-americans started to rebuild their lives schools were built businesses started political careers attempted [Music] by the start of the 20th century all of the u.s. was dancing to ragtime the invention of one Scott Joplin a composer and pianist who fought against criticism that music rooted in African rhythms was uncivilized [Music] eventually there was the blues and the first incarnation of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s to the world-famous youth Street in Washington DC once upon a
time it was black Broadway that's because musicians of all stripes gathered here in the 30s 40s and 50s and performed jazz turning it into what some call America's classical music cuz they go to plate will go to environments where there was totally unacceptable s they wanted bandstand but these folks would do it anyway because they could not not do something they were fueled to do this that serves an example to everyone with the civil rights movements of the 1950s 60s and 70s life in the u.s. was tense the added uproar over the US war in
Vietnam only added to the stress while some African American musicians responded with protest songs many others mixed politics with the need to dance it out to a funky beat bunks child it might be said was born in the late 1970s rap or hip-hop a mixture of pop political awareness and bravado focused on the spoken word a reflection of the concerns of millions of young African Americans making their way in the US and around the world this is a form of music that has saved early saved lives so now to have a music that's gonna put
that on Front Street as we say in hip-hop they're gonna put that on Front Street and now we can now showcase to the world that this is more than this some form of music this is a culture of people that were saved because of this for music already protesters against police brutality have adopted this song all right by Kendrick Lamar as their anthem at a time of heightened racial tensions in the US
