Music, more than an aesthetically pleasing sound, transcends time, culture, and oppression, and teaches generations to be active. Music spoke volumes because it acted as a catalyst for social change throughout the black experience in America.

In August 1619, Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, to work as indentured servants and slaves. Even after adapting to the new culture and language Africans longed for their freedom, and learned that education is the key to freedom. Slaves knew the price for receiving an education was death, and as a result, embedded hidden messages of freedom in their music.

Songs like “Wade in the Water,” guided an escaped slave to the river because blood hounds would be unable to detect their scent and follow them any further. They instructed the slave to look for certain things that might distinguish “Moses,” who was to lead them through the ‘Underground Railroad.’ This song not only acted as a map, but as encouragement that freedom was attainable. The once common docile existence began to fade with the empowerment of these Negro Spirituals. Fleeing to the north for freedom had a domino effect that eventually led to enough opposition that slavery was abolished in 1863.

Though Abraham Lincoln “freed” the slaves in 1863 through the Emancipation Proclamation, African-Americans were denied inalienable rights for nearly a century afterward. They were forced to become sharecroppers which trapped many African-Americans to the land well into the 20^th century. Jim Crow Laws were set in motion and did nothing but institutionalize segregation, thereby oppressing African-Americans well into the 1950’s.

Instead of sitting idly and allowing their civil liberties to be compromised, powerful players like Charles Houston took legal action, and was responsible for later victories like the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision. However, despite the triumphs in legislation, several white landowners refused to abide by them. As a result, figureheads like Martin Luther King Jr. taught invaluable lessons of patience and persistence through gospel. He endorsed songs and turned them into anthems such as “We Shall Overcome,” once again perpetuating the message of ultimate freedom.

Also, the prevailing idea in American culture was that black features were less attractive or desirable than white features. The idea that blackness was ugly was highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism. So at a time when the black community needed to remember its legacy, reassert itself, and define itself, soul music channeled all of that frustration into a positive outlet. Soul music expressed a new political racial consciousness among African- Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. It taught an alternative means of combating the racism that persisted, despite the efforts of black activists during the early 1960s.

Artists like James Brown belted out soul music that created musical anthems like “Say it Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud!” “Say It Loud” reiterated X’s “Black Revolution” and empowered the community to take heed to Stokely Carmichael’s “Black Power” and John Sweat Rock’s "Black is Beautiful." Soul music publicized powerful messages that helped emphasize the themes of the new struggle. This simultaneously helped initiate the Black Power Movement.

“Say It Loud” taught assertion, and voiced the need for racial dignity and self-reliance, economic and political independence, as well as freedom from white authority. Rather than striving for complete integration, soul music proclaimed that blacks should focus on improving their own communities.

With inspirational soul music like “Say It Loud,” people learned how to dispel the widespread notion that black people's natural features were inherently ugly. Soul Music gave a generation of African Americans the courage to feel good about who they were and how they looked. This view encouraged the study and celebration of black history and culture. It also marked a monumental change; not only were blacks rocking afros but they were no longer accepting that the color of their skin was ugly or that it defined them. They refused to accept the path laid out for them, they knew there was more out there, and not only did they challenge it, but they demanded it.

Still despite the power of the messages in soul music, and regardless of the figure heads that stood behind them, the “Black Power” and “Black is Beautiful” movements were not completely embraced. With powerful tools like media becoming the new channel for racism, the black community became highly susceptible to the perceptions being portrayed. One of the fathers of hip hop, Gil Scott-Heron, realized this was the new struggle, and declared in 1970 that “The Revolution Will Not be Televised!” Scott-Heron’s album, "Message to the Messenger," is a warning to today’s rappers to take responsibility in their art and in their communities. This evoked an age of conscious hip hop that addresses issues of racial profiling and critiques the socio-political systems in which we are governed.

Dead Prez’s “Propaganda” educated its audience about racism, oppression, and poverty. “Propaganda,” urges the community to wake up to a new spiritual and political consciousness in an attempt to liberate the minds of the human race. It addresses serious issues concerning matters of disempowerment and the urgent need for a fundamental change. “Propaganda” teaches the community to utilize its tools to overcome subliminal oppression. This song forces the black community to wake up and realize what’s happening and what’s going on in the community. It paves the way for a new political movement, getting urban young adults active in ways reminiscent of the days of the civil rights movement, but this time it’s awakened the Hip Hop Movement.

“Hip hop is inherently political, the language is political. It uses language as a weapon -- not a weapon to violate or not a weapon to offend, but a weapon that pushes the envelope that provokes people, makes people think.” Todd Boyd author of The New H.N.I.C., The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop. Hip-hop is about dance, art, expression, pain, love, racism, sexism, broken families, hard times, overcoming adversity, and the search for God. Because of its power and influence the black community has not only a channel to voice how they feel, but also a channel to influence to level of awareness to those around them.

Music is a voice for the silenced and hopeful. Music has always provided a means to educate the masses about cultural and political struggles. The problem arises when a new age and era stop listening to the message in meaningful music, and decide to fill the blank space with collective unconsciousness. The overall attitude of the black community has turned passive and as a result progress is stagnant. People have grown accustomed to the minuscule freedoms that we have and think that racism is a thing of the past. Challenge yourself to be an activist in your community, take responsibility for the overall condition of your people, and have the passion to do something about it. Our ancestors used music to help redefine our community, writing us into existence; take heed to their examples, and allow music to be your voice, and your catalyst for social change.