Langston Hughes & Margaret Danner: Writers of the Revolution [1970]

[sansradio]

Full album from the Black Forum label:


https://youtu.be/FGSAxnO_RVc

[marv2]

I remember my teacher using this album for history class when I was in the 5th Grade. Thank you Sansradio.

[sansradio]

You're welcome, marv2! Lucky you!

[marv2]

You're welcome, marv2! Lucky you!

I think she also used the Stokley Carmichael one. It's been a long time now to be sure.

[sansradio]

I think she also used the Stokley Carmichael one. It's been a long time now to be sure.

Dag, you had a progressive teacher! We considered ourselves lucky if we heard watered down plantation songs. 🙄

[marv2]

Dag, you had a progressive teacher! We considered ourselves lucky if we heard watered down plantation songs. ��

Well I'll explain. At my school at the beginning of the 1970's, we got several new teachers on the staff. They were all first year teachers out of college and they were black and very conscience of the whole "Black is Beautiful", "Black Power" movement,etc. Remember those days? So they made a very concerted effort to begin including black history, current events and African art in their curriculum. My school was 50/50 black and white students and no one, no parents, etc had a problem with it. I could have never guessed that 13 years later in my last year of college that I would have Stokley Carmichael aka Kwame Toure and his assistants in my college apartment having lunch! LOL! Life is amazing sometimes like that.

[sansradio]

Well I'll explain. At my school at the beginning of the 1970's, we got several new teachers on the staff. They were all first year teachers out of college and they were black and very conscience of the whole "Black is Beautiful", "Black Power" movement,etc. Remember those days? So they made a very concerted effort to begin including black history, current events and African art in their curriculum. My school was 50/50 black and white students and no one, no parents, etc had a problem with it. I could have never guessed that 13 years later in my last year of college that I would have Stokley Carmichael aka Kwame Toure and his assistants in my college apartment having lunch! LOL! Life is amazing sometimes like that.

Got it. Yes, I was born into that era. My oldest brother was quite the firebrand in those days, sitting in at his college president’s office in Minnesota and demanding a Black studies curriculum and more Black tenured faculty. He’s got hellifying stories. But alas, my Georgia elementary school was not exactly a hotbed of multiculturalism, if you catch my drift. Thank God for my parents and my dad’s eldest sister in particular, who steeped my siblings and me in Black history and cultural products like this album. I’m so grateful that they inspired us intellectually and instilled a sense of self-worth that carries us to this day.

[Boogiedown]

Very cool that Motown saw the value in making available through them recordings like this that likely would've been lost otherwise.