In the early twentieth century, W.E. B. Du Bois wrote a book entitled The Souls of Black Folks in which he analyzed the Black traditions of musical expression. He characterized their songs as generally falling into two categories: “sorrow songs” and “spirituals.” He noted that these songs were not merely music, “…they were an expression of a life rooted in the rural past, [reflecting] an experience [a deep cultural truth] all African-Americans could recognize.” (Eyerman and Jamison, pp. 74-75.)
The South was “the land where the blues began.” (Wells, Life Flows on in Endless Song: Folk Songs and American History, p.158, quoting A. Lomax.) “…[T]he blues emerged as the musical expression of a largely illiterate rural population. It grew out of the work songs, the field hollers, religious songs and dances of the rural poor and spoke to and of their experiences.” (Eyerman and Jamison, p. 79.) The blues did not originate during the civil rights era. The musical format had existed for decades before the 1950s. The blues embody the experiences of Negroes; describe the hard times that they encountered in the South. But, because the blues was so intimately connected with the lives of the colored people, the blues necessarily reflected the racist conditions that led to the civil rights era and events of the civil rights era per se. (Wells, Id.)
“Music had long been a part of American movements including the antislavery movement in the nineteenth century and the labor movement in the twentieth century, among others, but the Civil Rights Movement brought a new level of intensity to the singing and left a legacy of ‘freedom songs’ now sung all over the world. Songs were everywhere in the movement–in meetings, on picket lines, on marches, at the sit-ins, in jail, everywhere. Songs, especially as embedded in a rich church culture and later in black pop music, formed the communication network of the movement, and they also expressed the ‘soul’ of the movement, linking its spirit to centuries of resistance to slavery and oppression.” (Reed, The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle, p. 2.)
“The Jim Crow Era is THE reason for the blues.” (Quote from listener’s comment on YouTube. “Folk music fueled the civil rights movement.” (Cohen, p. 183.) “The Civil Rights Movement was a movement sustained by music.” (President Barrack Obama, 2/9/10, on the occasion of the White House concert “In Performance at the White House: Songs of the Civil Rights Movement.”) “Songs of the Civil Rights Movement came from the Church…. [They are] Gospel based protest songs.” (Mavis Staples, the Staples Singers.)
Here is an example of what they were talking about—reflections of his own experience by legendary African American blues man, BB King. “Why I Sing the Blues.” (1969) (https://youtu.be/HJrZ1LAOLYQ)
Everybody wants to know
Why I sing the blues
Yes, I say everybody wanna know
Why I sing the blues
Well, I’ve been around a long time
I really have paid my duesWhen I first got the blues
They brought me over on a ship
Men were standing over me
And a lot more with a whip
And everybody wanna know
Why I sing the blues
Well, I’ve been around a long time
Mm, I’ve really paid my duesI’ve laid in a ghetto flat
Cold and numb
I heard the rats tell the bedbugs
To give the roaches some
Everybody wanna know
Why I’m singing the blues
Yes, I’ve been around a long time
People, I’ve paid my duesI stood in line
Down at the County Hall
I heard a man say, “We’re gonna build
Some new apartments for y’all”
And everybody wanna know
Yes, they wanna know
Why I’m singing the blues
Yes, I’ve been around a long, long time
Yes, I’ve really, really paid my duesNow I’m gonna play Lucille.
My kid’s gonna grow up
Gonna grow up to be a fool
‘Cause they ain’t got no more room
No more room for him in school
And everybody wanna know
Everybody wanna know
Why I’m singing the blues
I say I’ve been around a long time
Yes, I’ve really paid some duesYeah, you know the company told me
Guess you’re born to lose
Everybody around me, people
It seems like everybody got the blues
But I had ’em a long time
I’ve really, really paid my dues
You know I ain’t ashamed of it, people
I just love to sing my bluesI walk through the cities, people
On my bare feet
I had a fill of catfish and chitterlings
Up in Downbill Street
You know I’m singing the blues
Yes, I really
I just have to sing my blues
I’ve been around a long time
People, I’ve really, really paid my duesNow Father Time is catching up with me
Gone is my youth
I look in the mirror everyday
And let it tell me the truth
I’m singing the blues
Mm, I just have to sing the blues
I’ve been around a long time
Yes, yes, I’ve really paid some duesYeah, they told me everything
Would be better out in the country
Everything was fine
I caught me a bus uptown, baby
And every people, all the people
Got the same trouble as mine
I got the blues, huh huh
I say I’ve been around a long time
I’ve really paid some duesOne more time, fellows!
Blind man on the corner
Begging for a dime
The rollers come and caught him
And throw him in the jail for a crime
I got the blues
Mm, I’m singing my blues
I’ve been around a long time
Mm, I’ve really paid some duesCan we do just one more?
Oh I thought I’d go down to the welfare
To get myself some grits and stuff
But a lady stand up and she said
“You haven’t been around long enough”
That’s why I got the blues
Mm, the blues
I say, I’ve been around a long time
I’ve really, really paid my duesFellows, tell them one more time.
Ha, ha, ha. That’s all right, fellows.
Yeah!