12.2: Civil Rights -- Racial Integration

To-Do Date: Sat May 01 2021 06:59:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Civil Rights - Racial Integration

The year is 1958.

LEGO's were just invented, Crayola crayons started coming in boxes with built-in sharpeners, and the U.S. had just launched it's first satellite into space.

Also, Americans were struggling to integrate.

Nearly 100 years after the American Civil War which put an end to slavery, a policy had been in place called Segregation. Racially mixed communities were actually illegal. The Supreme Court had decided that Segregation was unconstitutional and ordered schools (for starters) to end the policy.

This process was called Integration, and it was proving hard for America.

Chuck Berry's music had  became extremely popular with white American teenagers. Notice how Berry is the only person of color in this music video. He used his musical prowess as the tip of thrust into integrating society.

Lyrics
  • "Oh my what that little country boy could play"
  • "Many people coming from miles around, To hear you play your music when the sun go down"
Music
  • Rock & Roll Guitar
  • Dancing music, upbeat, energetic and happy
Message
  • White teenagers were being shown a positive, powerful, and engaging image of a black performer.
  • No one has a monopoly on musical skill.

Interesting Side Note: When the Voyager space probe was launched in 1977, it included a golden record including some recording - Johnny B. Goode was part of them. Voyager is now in interstellar space - almost 12 billion miles away from the Earth.