RUNNING HEAD: Arts in Social Movement and Political Change

Revolution of Courage:

The Role of Black Art in Social Movement Making

Katelyn Durst

Eastern University
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Art is the response to the world the artist hopes for and believes he or she deserves.

James Baldwin said, I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for

this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. Americans in 2017 are currently

navigating the rocky roads of Donald Trumps first month of presidency and it is quite easy to

see how people are utilizing art to comment and criticize what is going on around them. We are

fortunate to live in an era where protest art is readily available to us from Kickstarter campaigns

like We The People: Public Art for Inauguration and Beyond that raised over 1.3 million dollars

that allows any person to print off free posters from their campaign. While it was a personal

pleasure of mine to be part of the millions of participants who took part in the Womans March

on January 20th, it has not always been this easy, kind or peaceful to protest in such manners. In

fact there have been many critiques of the march including,

Once again, the labors of Black folks (in this case, the 1995 Million Man March and the

1997 Million Woman March organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam)

were being co-opted and erased by clueless White ones. And just what would this

million women be coming together to march abouttheir mothers, sisters, homegirls and

friends who elected Trump in the first place? (1)

This response was met with both respect and confusion by the participants and supporters

of the march. This could be because the nation as a whole has too quickly forgotten about the

many movements of its past where tired, marginalized folks protested, sat, sang and marched for

the most basic of human rights, the ability to be recognized for their identity as person. Native

Americans had to do it. Women had to do it. African Americans had to do it. Gay and
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transgender Americans had to do it. And they all continue to do so. So what is the history that

unites these movements and even allows people to continue soldering on in their efforts for

liberation? Perhaps the answer is art as a vehicle towards social change through transformation

of thought pattern. By creating visuals, singing songs, writing poems and performing public art

people can begin to think differently both about themselves and the world around them. Bernice

Johnson Reagon demonstrated the power of song in social awakening by claiming that, When

you get together at a mass meeting you sing songs which symbolize transformation, which make

that revolution on courage inside you. (Reed, 2005, p.23) This paper will seek to illustrate the

hard work and innovation of the art that impacted black art within the Civil Rights Movement

and how that carried through toward the Black Lives Matter movement of today as well as show

how the Civil Rights Movement served as a catalyst for movement making because of its

determination and in-the-trenches type of grassroots mindset.

In order to understand the power of these movements, we must first examine how social

movements come about. It is said that social movements ordinarily follow a sequence of events;

they emerge, coalesce, and bureaucratize leading to their success or failure.(3) That said

sequence is demonstrated through a life cycle that every social movement goes through. It is

truly phenomenal how social movements can take an ordinary person , like Dr. Reverend Martin

luther King Jr, or community , like Selma, GA, and transform them into change makers and

platforms for political and personal transformation. It would be interesting to make the claim that

the Black Lives Matter movement is really just a continuation of the Civil Rights Movement

because like Eric Goffman said in his explanation of frame transformation and how it influences

social movements by discussing,

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New values, new meanings and understandings are required in order to understand and

support social movements or changes. In other words, people must transform the way they

understand a particular social movement to make it fit with conventional lifestyles and

rituals.(2)

In this idea, the Civil Rights Movement continues through the Black Lives Matter

movement as they are both marked by the unjust deaths of black boys and the crying out for the

right to claim personhood, as talked on early on in this paper. The differences may simply be

covert and invert racism though there is certainly an argument that both forms of racism certainly

still exist just see former Imperial Wizard of Klu Klux Klan, David Dukes positive remarks on

the choices of President Donald Trumps actions in choosing cabinet members with Alt-Right

and White Nationalist connections. Though we no longer see bathrooms and drinking fountains

with the words, For Whites Only, I would claim that the social movement of Civil Rights has

transformed to the fit with conventional lifestyles of the current time period. And though just like

when Emitt Till passed away by unnecessary and unjust causes, a case that continually is being

investigated in due to lack of knowledge and occurrence of lies generated by the media is a

reflection of the death of Tamir Rice who passed away because he had a fake pistol. I bring these

deaths up because there is still no rest for these boys or their families and because of that tragedy,

black folks and allies across the country are moved into the streets to protest for life to the

fullest, which is something that Jesus believed in as well.(John 10:10) It is art that carries this

movement into the fierce beast it is today.

Of course the history of the Civil Rights Moment can be traced back to the Underground

Railroad and the art through the form of music that came from that. Many of the spirituals
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became freedom songs that spurred on the hearts of many fighters for justice. While the media

and history would like us glorify the leadership of people like Dr. King and Malcolm X, as we

should, there are many other important figures who were instrumental in the success of the

movement.

It was fundamentally radical, grassroots, decentralized, mass-based, often women-led

movement of thousands of black people (and some white lies) bent on forcing deeply racist

society to grant them freedom, dignity and economic justice, (Reed, p. 5) that empowered the

movement to become the force that it was and is. It was not an accident , it was conscious black

people making intentional strides toward liberation. As the text went on to say,

Part of the myth of the civil rights movement is that it appears suddenly, even

miraculously, and spontaneously. Perhaps that is the way it looked to some white people who had

luxury of not paying much attention to black lives.(Reed 2005, p.10) This quote is important

because it exemplifies the heart of the movement that it was not something simple but something

organized.

Music played a major role in preparing people for the battle towards liberation.

Like much else about the movement, the use of freedom songs that appears to be a

natural or inevitable development was the result of much conscious, deliberate organizing over

many years. Music did not enter the movement spontaneously, immediately, or automatically. An

amorphous freedom song legacy had to be uncovered, reworked, made into a useable tradition.

This involved planning, skill sharing, and active dissemination, not just natural evolution. (Reed

2005,p.14)
RUNNING HEAD: Arts in Social Movement and Political Change

This is said to reinforce the presence of arts in the heartbeat that drove this movement. Music

served to be a great uniter between younger activists and older church goers. Like spirituals,

many of the freedom songs were rooted in the message of Christianity which appealed in many

the rights to take of their armor to fight what seemed to be a personal, spiritual and political

battle. Freedom Songs additionally borrowed on the tradition and history that spirituals played in

communicating actions of the events of the movement. It also served as an avenue to allow for

emotional responses from people outside the movement to join in.

Another important facet of music within the civil rights movement is the positive black

identity making it had. So many of the songs had I or We statements that were sung into the

beings of folks and helped transform the narrative of how they saw themselves.

Identity making splashed into the feminist movement as well which reemerged in the

1960s. Poetry was the art form that became the revolutionary cry of this new womans

movement. It made the personal is political(Reed, 2005, p. 77) very evident.

One reason for this is that no movement has had a more sweeping need for

epistemological transformation, for transformation in the nature and scope of knowledge. In

effect, the feminist movement claims that half of the worlds population has largely been

excluded from production of what counts as knowledge about that world. Feminist poetry is

certainly not alone in bringing about this profound transformation, but it touches all these social

and cultural realms, among others. (Reed, 2005, p. 91). Because groups of women and male

allies were committed to transforming the way power was held and received, they used poetry as
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a vehicle to change the language around power and to aid them as they were empowered to

demand more rights.

In 2013, the movement for black liberation reemerged because of the death of Trayvon

Martin who was shot by police officer George Zimmerman. This event charged the black lives

matter movement and had many folks rioting in the streets. As police brutality gave way to more

unjust deaths of black men and women, it gained momentum. Artist Langston Allston uses

murals to demonstrate what police brutality has done to the community and the world. He

describes art as activism in this way,

. The visual element of any movement is always critical because it helps people

remember it, helps people identify it, and helps people plug into it who weren't previously

plugged in. (2) Black Lives Matter art is also charged by the presence of social media activism.

The hashtag #blacklivesmatter was birthed by three women. This hashtag allows ordinary

people, just like any social movement does, to post those three words and instantly be connected

with a movement that communicates the validity of the right to life as a black person. Many

artists are creating lists of police-caused deaths that have occurred during the wake of this

movement, some feature women, others feature children. One influential list that I have come

across is by Claudia Rankine in her book Citizen. The poem is unnamed but simply states In

memory of and the list continues down the page. There also blank statements where one can

write in names.

I work with black urban youth, many of whom also identify as Muslim, as we try to wrap

around our minds around the possibility and even the inevitability of the next unjust death that

could happen, we use art to process the normality of it. As a part of Childrens Defense Freedom
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Schools, the youth I work with organize a day of social action. Last year they rallied at a

community center and built a casket that was made of mirrors. The thought behind it was to

come face to face with yourself because there is a growing fear that whatever you do may not be

enough for police officers to stop from killing you. The beautiful thing is that we still get to use

freedom songs to keep us grounded in moving forward. The theme song for Freedom Schools is

Something Inside So Strong it declares that ,

Theres something inside so strong. I know that I can make it though youre doing me

wrong, so wrong. Thought that my pride was gone, oh no, something inside so strong. (3)The

power of these words continue to empower myself and the youth I work with into greater images

of self and the community.

Art has been the pillar of social movements. It has been a personal and in your face call

to action for many. Art is not shy in telling the truth or calling a certain issue into the light. We

need creativity and the presence of art making in order to give social movements the energy they

deserve to succeed. Art is not simply about gratifying one group of people, it is the thread that

reminds humans of our shared identity. It personally says this is my story and brings folks into

the journey of bringing relativity to that story. There will always be something to fight for and it

will be our art that gives us inspiration, humor and ability to advocate for whatever comes next.

As the movement for black liberation grows, it is my hope that people continue to create to art

that communicates the trauma, anger, fear and hope that continues to fester in this continued

fight for black identity. I look forward to the freedom songs that will swell in the hearts of folks

who may not acknowledge this movement and the pathway that will allow for further voices to

be added to this great narrative.

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References

1. Why I'm Skipping The Women's March on Washington [OPINION]. (2017, January 23).

Retrieved February 10, 2017, from https://www.colorlines.com/articles/why-im-skipping-

womens-march-washington-opinion

2. A Black Lives Matter Painter Explains How Art Can Be Activism. (n.d.). Retrieved February

10, 2017, from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a-black-lives-matter-painter-explains-how-

art-can-be-activism

Reed, T. V. (2005). The art of protest: culture and activism from the civil rights movement to the

streets of Seattle. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

3.Siffre, L. (n.d.). "Something Inside So Strong" Lyrics. Retrieved from

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/labisiffre/somethinginsidesostrong.html