Demonstrators march on Jan. 1, 1934, in Washington against the unjust trials of nine Black men falsely accused of raping two white women.
Bettmann/Getty Images
Conservative politicians have launched attacks against the use of the word “woke.” If they knew the history of the word, they might stop wasting their time.
South African actor Hlomla Dandala as Lyons in Fences.
Fences/Joburg Theatre/JT Marketing
The pain of a brutal past and how to find healing is a theme shared between African Americans and black South Africans.
James J Kriegsmann/WIkipedia
Everyone knows the Elvis story, but what’s less known is the story of the Black women singers and musicians who forged the way.
Blues virtuoso Peter Green in 1970.
Nick Contador via Mikimedia Commons
A virtuoso guitarist and songwriter, Green’s career was blighted by drug-amplified mental health problems.
Rapper YG, center in white, at a June 7 protest over the death of George Floyd.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Rap songs from Public Enemy and Ludacris have been heard at marches over the killing of George Floyd. But the history of Black American music as a form of protest dates back to the 19th century.
Robbie Drexhage/Wikimedia
Little Richard swung between flamboyant performances and religious fervour - but he always came back to music. With news of his death at 87, musicians paid tribute to his huge rock ‘n’ roll legacy.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at Primavera Sound Festival on June 1 2018.
Shutterstock/ChristianBertrand
To quote Nick Cave, “Plagiarism is an ugly word for what, in rock and roll, is a natural and necessary … tendency … and that is to steal”.
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EPA-EFE/Vaalentin Flauraud
Mac Rebennack took the stage name Dr John and a persona based on a real-life voodoo prince.
An attorney for the Muslim enclave of Islamberg prays in a mosque in Tompkins, New York. American Muslims have a history going back 400 years.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Muslims are not new to America. The first Muslims came as slaves and left a deep influence on a host of music genres, such as the blues and jazz.
Robert Plant, the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, performs in Hamburg, Germany in 1973.
Heinrich Klaffs
How can a band so slavishly derivative – and sometimes downright plagiaristic – be also considered radically innovative and influential?
EPA-EFE/Yoan Valat
Why shouldn’t the Stones keep touring in their 70s?