Civil Rights Era Protest Songs

Empowering music that spurred on the movement.

Day O!: Civil Rights Era Protest Songs - Just as the Civil Rights Era was bubbling, Harry Belafonte released "Day O!" (1956), a Jamaican folk song about a worker getting his just due after a long night on the graveyard shift. This and many other songs symbolically or explicitly spurred the civil rights movement, as spirituals did to help guide slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad, and as Jay Z says that hip hop does to inspire folks out of poverty ("Do this s--t for my town/Leave the door open hoping they kick it down," he spits on "Nickles and Dimes"). But no matter how music evolves, it's important that we remember. Click on for more songs that we need to keep playing.(Photo: dpa /Landov)
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Nina Simone\r  - This singing giant was the musical voice of the civil rights movement, writing and singing such odes to the struggle as  “Mississippi Goddam,” “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” and “Young, Gifted and Black.” Shortly after King’s assassination, she penned and sang “Why (The King of Love Is Dead).”Otis Redding - Born and bred on Georgia soil, soul legend and R&B godfather Otis Redding was an integral member of the 1960s Southern soul scene. In his early days, he toured with another Georgia legend, Little Richard, and went on to become a luminary of Down South music, influencing everyone from Al Green to Christina Aguilera before his untimely death in a plane crash in 1967.(Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

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Day O!: Civil Rights Era Protest Songs - Just as the Civil Rights Era was bubbling, Harry Belafonte released "Day O!" (1956), a Jamaican folk song about a worker getting his just due after a long night on the graveyard shift. This and many other songs symbolically or explicitly spurred the civil rights movement, as spirituals did to help guide slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad, and as Jay Z says that hip hop does to inspire folks out of poverty ("Do this s--t for my town/Leave the door open hoping they kick it down," he spits on "Nickles and Dimes"). But no matter how music evolves, it's important that we remember. Click on for more songs that we need to keep playing.(Photo: dpa /Landov)

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