Making Black History Month a White House Priority

Snow aside, on the evening of February 9, 2010, the President and the First Lady celebrated Black History Month with a musical tribute to one of the Civil Rights' most powerful tools and its lasting legacy...the songs and the music. White House staff must have worked hard on Wednesday evening to dig a path through the white stuff to make it possible for Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, Yolanda Adams, Natalie Cole, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon and more to make it to the White House for "In Performace at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement." If you missed the NPR bit, be sure to watch the footage of this impressive event on PBS starting on Thursday.

Rebel Music

It has been about eight years since I completed my service in Peace Corps Jamaica. The details of my projects have faded, but the sound of my experience, the lyrics and beats of the reggae music that dominates every street corner, every route taxi ride, and every community 'session' on this island and throughout the West Indies, is clearer than ever.

In every society, in every culture, music provides a mechanism for individuals and communities to describe their social circumstances. It cultivates camaraderie and solidarity around inequality and injustice. It provides a forum for social and political mobilization and resistance.

If you want to understand the issues, listen to the music...