A Playlist for the Movement – w/ Charles L. Hughes
Teaching Hard History
Learning for Justice
4.2 • 588 Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2020
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Music chronicles the history of the civil rights struggle: The events, tactics and emotions of the movement are documented in songs of the era. From The Freedom Singers to Sam Cooke, historian Charles L. Hughes explains how your students can use music for both historical insight and evidence in the classroom.
For more movement music, check out this episode's Spotify playlist.
And you can find useful resources—like how to bring Beyoncé into your classroom with "Pop Music as Critical Text"—along with a full transcript on our website.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A couple of years ago, on March 23, 2018, to be exact, I had a chance to sit with, listen to, and learn from Charles Chuck McDew, |
| 0:17.9 | the second chairperson of the student nonviolent coordinating committee or SNCC. |
| 0:22.6 | The occasion was a gathering of SNCC veterans in Durham, North Carolina for a conference on preserving |
| 0:28.6 | and promoting SNCC history. McDoo wasn't on the official program, but that didn't keep him |
| 0:34.6 | from holding court between panel presentations and during meals. |
| 0:38.3 | His personal recollections of the movement were always poignant, |
| 0:42.3 | capturing the fierce urgency of then as well as the fierce urgency of now. |
| 0:48.3 | One reflection he often shared was especially moving. |
| 0:53.3 | It was about freedom songs. |
| 0:56.0 | There was one song that we'd always sing after SNCC meetings, which was this may be the last time. |
| 1:05.0 | This may be the last time. |
| 1:08.0 | This may be the last time, maybe the last time, brothers, this may be the last time. It's maybe the last time, maybe the last time. Brothers, this may be the last time. |
| 1:15.1 | It may be the last time. I just don't know. Maybe the last time we all sing together. |
| 1:21.7 | It may be the last time. I don't know. This may be the last time. This may be the last time, |
| 1:28.3 | This may be the last time, children, this may be the last time, it may be the last time I don't know. |
| 1:42.3 | Even when I hear it today, I can remember times I've heard it in the past when it was the last time. |
| 1:53.0 | I saw somebody whose hand I was holding alive. |
| 1:59.0 | Maybe the last time we fell Maybe the last time we fell |
| 2:03.6 | a lot |
| 2:06.6 | time I don't know. |
| 2:08.6 | One of those somebodies was Herbert Lee, |
| 2:12.6 | a black Mississippi farmer who was gunned down in |
... |
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