Day 2: Racism In the Music Industry

YWCA Racial Justice Challenge

SEGREGATED CONCERTS

The Coasters Concert Poster, 1957. Bluefield, West Virginia. Gift of Terry Stewart. Bluefield Auditorium in West Virginia was a popular venue for rock & roll acts traveling the country. Like most performance spaces in the South during the 1950s, Bluefield was segregated.

Chuck Berry Concert Poster, 1958. Bluefield, West Virginia. The concert posters for each Bluefield Auditorium show stated whether the evening’s performance was for white audiences only (“white rock ‘n roll”), Black audiences with special seating for whites (“colored rock show & dance” with a “reserved section for white spectators”), or white audiences with Black attendees relegated to the balcony.

Watch R&B legend Ruth Brown discuss discrimination in early rock & roll tours and the power this music had to desegregate and unite audiences.

Interview with Ruth Brown

PUBLIC ENEMY SPEAKS OUT

Chuck D. and Jahi of Public Enemy on "Fight The Power"

Chuck D of Public Enemy Hat, c. 1990s. Collection of Public Enemy. Chuck D and Public Enemy were instrumental in the new wave of rap music that was not only musically innovative but used lyrics to discuss issues of social justice and political importance.

“Fight the Power” by Public Enemy, 1990. Collection of Public Enemy. “‘[Our] freedom of speech is freedom of death,’” Chuck D said of PE’s political anthem “Fight the Power.” “That line is like Bob Marley or Frederick Douglass: ‘There’s no progress without struggle.”

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More Resources

"It's Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage, Hope, & Empowerment

Explore more resources on the topic of racial and social justice in music inside our virtual exhibit, Rock Hall EDU collection, and Library & Archives.

Virtual Exhibit
ROCK HALL EDU
Library & Archives