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Public Enemy: Songs Of The Civil Rights Movement

709 Words3 Pages

In the social class division in America, there has always been a weakling at the bottom, struggling to survive. African Americans, in this case were thrown into a ditch, where they were isolated from society, stripped of their basic rights as U.S. citizens, which is what the Civil Rights Movement fought to give them: equal access to opportunities in America. In the 1960s racial oppression continued to give struggles to Blacks, which led to protests to create black political and cultural institutions that repressed their heritage. The main issue that is still being fought for to this day is police brutality and racial profiling, which has caused 1,147 deaths; 25% of those being African American. Although the movement to end discrimination between races has not ended, famous musicians and artist continue to release music based on their own thoughts on these issues. A song is only seen as lyrics that are put together with a beat to sound good and entertain others, but they also tell a story in a few minutes that make their listeners feel what it’s like to be discriminated, putting them into the shoes of African Americans in this time period. This then …show more content…

The song begins with what Blacks need, they “ Gotta give us what we need Our freedom of speech is freedom or death We got to fight the powers that be()” in order for African Americans to feel like equals in America. Throughout the song, Public Enemy advocates listeners to not be afraid of speaking up and fighting against the people in power, “What we need is awareness, we can't get careless()” because then there is no reason of having a movement. The line “Mental self defensive fitness()” encourages listeners to think on their own and create opinions on issues in America. The strongest asset that people have is their voice; when they are used appropriately, others will respectively

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