Black History Month 2024

It’s 2024 and it’s Black History Month again. I tried to learn a little bit every day last year, and I thought I should try again this year. (You know, just to convince myself that last year wasn’t completely done out of some performative pat-myself-on-the-back whatever.) Anyhoo, I’m already behind since I’m starting the day of February 1st.

Questions

Here are some questions I’d maybe want to answer or topics I want to learn about.

(Not really a question but) What’s the history of African American music? There’s a whole lot of different styles from modern rap, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, to past genres like Motown (what does Motown mean, actually? Motor town? Detroit? That’s just a guess), ragtime, soul, and more. Also the influences of African Americans on music like the Amen break (the most widely used sample ever), Detroit techno. How is it that African Americans have been so successful in music compared to, uh, say, Asian Americans?
More about the history of African slave trade. I’ve read that slave trading had been present for a while with the Muslim sub-Saharan slave trade. Who were the captors and traffickers and where/who were the people enslaved?

Dates

2024-02-02

Reading a bit more of African-American music - Wikipedia
- Mentions that most slaves came from western coast of Africa
- Some songs were coded messages of subversion?
- Mentions Race records, which were recorded African American music market to African Americans.
- “Rock and roll” originally had a strong sexual connotation (see Origins of rock and roll - Wikipedia). Rock and roll comes from R&B.
Reading a bit of Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Wikipedia
- The act is available at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-78/pdf/STATUTE-78-Pg241.pdf and https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-342/uslm/COMPS-342.xml
- Seems like Civil Rights is 42 USC Ch. 21 (see 42 USC Ch. 21: CIVIL RIGHTS). Maybe specifically like Subchapter II (see here)
  - On a tangent, looked up stuff like “What’s the US legal definition of ‘religion’?”
  - There’s this page from US Customs and Border Protection
  - Religion can be non-theistic moral/ethical beliefs.

2024-02-01

Reading African-American music - Wikipedia
- Call-and-response comes from Sub-Saharan African music or cultures?
- Genres of music:
  - Soul
  - Gospel
  - Blues
  - Rhythm and blues
  - Ragtime
  - Jazz
  - Rock and Roll
  - Doo Wop
  - Barbershop music
  - Bebop
  - Modal jazz? (Didn’t know what that was, so listening to Miles Davis - Milestones. Wow, it’s really good.)
  - Free jazz or Free Form?
- Drums were banned because they could be used for communication.
- Motown isn’t a genre like I thought, but a record label from Detroit that had “Motown sound” which is a type of soul music.
  - What's Going On (song) by Marvin Gaye is an example. Didn’t know it had to do with police brutality. Apparently police brutality at People’s Park in Berkeley! Ironic since I think as of 2024 it’s not People’s Park anymore, or at least I think they’ve closed it off to develop some buildings on it.
    - Looking at People's Park (Berkeley) - Wikipedia
    - Didn’t know actually that there was a recent fencing effort on January 4th, 2024. I thought that it was already blocked several months ago. Turns out that’s not the case.
Watched How banning the African drum gave birth to American music | Chris Johnson | TEDxHudson - YouTube and Why this instrument explains Black American folk music - YouTube
- Didn’t know drums were banned and that the banjo came from African Americans. I just associated it with white southerners.