In honor of Black History Month, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, hosted a concert that inspired the Civil Rights movement.
The show on Feb. 9 featuring songs that inspired and empowered the civil rights movement was performed by a diverse group of well known entertainers, including Bob Dylan, Natalie Cole, John Legend, Seal, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Howard University Choir, and The Freedom Singers.
The concert took place in the White House’s intimate East Room, with a live backup band and mood coloring lights for an enthusiastic audience of high school students and politicians.
The evening made plain just how critical music was used as the tool of strength and empowerment during the U.S. civil rights movement, which was the first nonviolent movement in U.S. history.
“Above the din of hatred, amidst the deafening silence of inaction, the hymns of the civil rights movement helped carry the cause of a people,” said President Obama in his opening address, which is featured on the White House Web site. The president said that Martin Luther King Jr. “didn’t see the real meaning of the movement until he saw young people singing in the face of hostility.”
The president said it is easy to sing when times are good, but when people sing in the face of bloodshed and hardship is “when the power of song is most potent.”
In addition to courage and strength, music was a key component of nonviolence and healing to communities shattered by hatred, violence. Natalie Cole quoted civil rights activist Diane Nash, “Nonviolence was a way to fight and heal at the same time. … Nonviolence took as much courage as hitting someone with a pipe but the results were much bigger.”
The evening kicked of with Grammy-winning gospel singer Yolanda Adams, singing Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke, followed by Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson singing People Get Ready.
John Mellencamp shared his experience as a 14-year-old seeing racism for the first time when a member of his interracial band was asked to leave the concert hall in Indiana in 1966. The group had just delighted the audience but he was still not welcome. Mellencamp then sang a heartfelt “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.”
The audience then sang along with Joan Baez in the anthem of the Civil Rights movement, We Shall Overcome.
“I know this is a show, but you have to actually sing this song,” Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon of the Freedom Singers told the audience. Audience members had trailed off a few bars into Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round.
“You can never tell when you might need it,” said Reagon.
The finale brought all performers, and President Obama dancing onto the stage for Lift Every Voice and Sing, which was first sung by a classroom of African-American children for the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. James Weldon Johnson’s hymn was famous as the Negro National Anthem.
The concert followed a daylong workshop in which John Legend, Smokey Robinson, John Mellencamp, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, and Toshi Reagon, shared the importance of music during the civil rights era with students from high schools across the country.
To watch the concert visit http://www.pbs.org/inperformanceatthewhitehouse/video.php
The show on Feb. 9 featuring songs that inspired and empowered the civil rights movement was performed by a diverse group of well known entertainers, including Bob Dylan, Natalie Cole, John Legend, Seal, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Howard University Choir, and The Freedom Singers.
The concert took place in the White House’s intimate East Room, with a live backup band and mood coloring lights for an enthusiastic audience of high school students and politicians.
The evening made plain just how critical music was used as the tool of strength and empowerment during the U.S. civil rights movement, which was the first nonviolent movement in U.S. history.
“Above the din of hatred, amidst the deafening silence of inaction, the hymns of the civil rights movement helped carry the cause of a people,” said President Obama in his opening address, which is featured on the White House Web site. The president said that Martin Luther King Jr. “didn’t see the real meaning of the movement until he saw young people singing in the face of hostility.”
The president said it is easy to sing when times are good, but when people sing in the face of bloodshed and hardship is “when the power of song is most potent.”
In addition to courage and strength, music was a key component of nonviolence and healing to communities shattered by hatred, violence. Natalie Cole quoted civil rights activist Diane Nash, “Nonviolence was a way to fight and heal at the same time. … Nonviolence took as much courage as hitting someone with a pipe but the results were much bigger.”
The evening kicked of with Grammy-winning gospel singer Yolanda Adams, singing Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke, followed by Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson singing People Get Ready.
John Mellencamp shared his experience as a 14-year-old seeing racism for the first time when a member of his interracial band was asked to leave the concert hall in Indiana in 1966. The group had just delighted the audience but he was still not welcome. Mellencamp then sang a heartfelt “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.”
The audience then sang along with Joan Baez in the anthem of the Civil Rights movement, We Shall Overcome.
“I know this is a show, but you have to actually sing this song,” Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon of the Freedom Singers told the audience. Audience members had trailed off a few bars into Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round.
“You can never tell when you might need it,” said Reagon.
The finale brought all performers, and President Obama dancing onto the stage for Lift Every Voice and Sing, which was first sung by a classroom of African-American children for the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. James Weldon Johnson’s hymn was famous as the Negro National Anthem.
The concert followed a daylong workshop in which John Legend, Smokey Robinson, John Mellencamp, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, and Toshi Reagon, shared the importance of music during the civil rights era with students from high schools across the country.
To watch the concert visit http://www.pbs.org/inperformanceatthewhitehouse/video.php
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