|
|
|
|
4)
Louis Armstrong (Part 1):
From
Social Emancipation to Social Justice
Now I would like to concentrate on two episodes showing how, and why, Louis Armstrong contributed to social justice with his music and his life: a childhood experience that Louis
Armstrong was born in 1901 in one of the worst parts of New Orleans called
"The Battle Field". He had to work from an early age, before and after
school, and at 7 he found himself blowing a long tin horn in a wagon to let
customers know that the coal delivery was coming.
The
Karnofskys always made sure he had dinner with them before he went home. Louis
Armstrong would never forget their kindness, and he wore a Star of David his
whole life to honor their warm and joyful memory. Mostly due to this positive
multicultural experience, he would always believe in the fundamental goodness of
all human beings, regardless of skin color, religion, or whatever else. In 1957,
on September 9 , in Little Rock Arkansas, eight black children were trying to
enter Central High School in order to attend classes, but white people became so
violent that the national guards had to come. One
would think the armed men came to protect the children against the white mob,
but not at all! What they did is to block the children from going to school,
threatening them with their bayonets. Before
we see Louis Armstrong's reaction concerning this incident, let us note that it
happened around the time when African Americans started to organize themselves
around famous figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr, a time when
the voice of the people could not be ignored any more. On
December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a
white passenger on a bus in Montgommery, Alabama. Because of this Martin Luther
King Jr. decided to organize the famous Montgommery bus boycott. It worked,
and for a while the Montgommery buses were practically empty except for a
few white passengers. African
Americans had no voice in society but jazz gave them a voice. This next song was
created on the streets, as African
Americans were marching for civil rights. It tells us that if black
and white dogs can play happily together, why should people be unable to
do so? Let us
imagine the pain of children unable to go to school, or of people unable to sit
on a bus because of their skin color, and the creation of hundreds of songs
expressing their frustration at the failure of the American dream. One of the paradoxes of jazz and blues is that when people listen to it, they feel better! Part of the lyrics say: "My dog loves your dog. I'm talking about a black dog, I'm talking about a white dog. (...) Why don't we sit under the apple tree?
5
|
|
|
