Hip Hop and the Civil Rights Movement Essay -- Music

The Hip Hop movement was born while the Civil Rights movement was aging. The Civil Rights movement, at its height addressed social inequalities however, in its old age it began to demand economic equality – enter Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign. Although Black Americans were allowed to eat next to White Americans in restaurants, and were allowed to sit next to White Americans on buses and enjoy equality in terms of access, white supremacy went underground and manifested as red-lining, unequal protection under the law, and a greater disparity between once racially segregated schools that are now economically segregated. The Civil Rights Movement and the Hip Hop movement are similar, but yet are different. If oppressed individuals draw upon the strengths and weaknesses of these movements they will produce profound results 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 African American girl in 1984 during a time when Hip Hop could metaphorically be considered an adolescent. Through conversations with my grandmother, who grew up in segregated Arkansas, as well as my mother who was a teenager during the turbulent 70’s I have learned qualitative information about the Civil Rights movement. After much research, the major concern for Civil Right’s activists was the integration of schools and all public institutions. Black children had to walk several miles to school – while white students were provided transportation, Black children were given â€Å"hand-me down† textbooks and supplies and black teachers were provided a fraction of the salary that white teachers made. After the historic win of Brown v. Board of Educati... ... always been an issue, but hip hop has the power to cross economic, social and religious divisions. The civil rights movement did not 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 level where individuals will be less oppressed and more able to positively add to the legacy and values revolution of America. 10 Works Cited hooks, bell. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. New York: Routledge, 2004. Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and Crisis in African American Culture. New York: Basic Civitas, 2002. Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home To Roost: My Life as a Hip Hop Feminist. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999. Neal, Mark Anthony. Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic. New York: Routledge, 2002.