August 31, 2023: Contextualizing the March on Washington: Marian, Mahalia, and Odetta

[August 28th marks the60th anniversary of the March onWashington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the single mostimportant events in 20th century American history.So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of contexts for and from thatevent—not including MartinLuther King Jr.’s iconic speech, about which I’ve written agood bit already!]

On the 1963musical performers who dominated headlines, and those we should betterremember.

Inyesterday’s post I highlighted the interracial makeup of the 1963 March’s leadership,and the same was certainly true of its featured musical performers. Joan Baez sang “We ShallOvercome” and “Oh Freedom”; Bob Dylan joined her for“When the Ship Comes In” and then performed his own “Only a Pawn in Their Game”(a controversial choice for this occasion since the song minimizesthe culpability of Medgar Evers’ then-unpunished murderer ByronDe La Beckwith); and Peter,Paul, and Mary performed “If I Had a Hammer” as well as Dylan’s “Blowin’ inthe Wind.” Folk music was a core element of the Civil Rights Movement as it wasevery part of American culture and society in the early 1960s; but at the sametime I have to agree with actor and radical activist Dick Gregory’s critique of the 1963 musicalperformances as dominated a bit more than would have been ideal by thesepopular white artists (perhaps especially since many of their chosen numbers atthe March were African American spirituals or folk songs).

They weren’tthe only 1963 performers, however, and it’s important not to deepen the problemby focusing on them at the expense of the march’s impressive and inspiring Blackartists. One of the most impressive, pioneering and prodigiously talented operasinger MarianAnderson, was actually performing at the Lincoln Memorial for the secondtime. In 1939, Anderson had the chance to perform in DC’s Constitution Hall butthe Daughters of the American Revolution refused to grant permission for her todo so in front of an integrated audience; instead she performed an outdoorconcert at theLincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 2nd, in front of anaudience of 75,000. I don’t know of any 20th century moment thatbetter captures both the worst and best of America than that one, and better rememberingAnderson’s 1963performance (she sang “He’s Got the Whole in His Hands”) can help us likewisebetter remember 1939.

Another1963 performer, Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, was also making a return to thissetting, as she had performedat the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom about which I wrote on Tuesday.Her performance of twohymns, “I’ve Been ‘Buked” and “How I Got Over,” was as stirring as everytime Jackson took any stage. But perhaps the least well-known of the 1963 March’sthree Black women musical artists is the most significant for contextualizing theevent’s musical performances overall. Folk legend OdettaHolmes (who performed simply as Odetta) was called by none other than MLK “theQueen of American Folk Music,” and was a vital influence on contemporaryartists like Baez and Dylan among others. I don’t mean to take anything awayfrom the talents nor the impacts of white artists like them when I say that therespective lack of attention paid to Odetta, then and since, is due entirely toracism and white supremacy. In a way, the responses to the 1963 March—where thewhite artists performed a number of Black spirituals and folk songs, no less—frustratinglyreplicated that trend. But we don’t have to do the same, so I’ll end this postby linking to Odetta’sstirring performance from the 1963 March on Washington.

Last Marchcontext tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?