Performing Justice: Music, the Arts, and Social Resistance in the Civil Rights Movement

This panel explores music and the arts as a category for liberation and social justice. Music was integral in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. He was surrounded by musicians and grew to have a great appreciation for the power of music to mobilize and inspire. From spirituals to freedom songs, from gospel to jazz, King understood music as a source of hope. Within the larger civil rights movement, too, music was an important element in the lives of social activists and demonstrators. This panel consider the role of music and the arts in civil rights movement. It explores the arts as a category of interpretation in the civil rights movement, especially in the life Martin Luther King, Jr. More broadly, this panel provides new resources or ways of thinking about the spirituals, jazz, and, gospel music as significant freedom tools as evidenced among freedom fighters in this period.