blog#5 revision

The Spiritual Trilogy Medley are three traditional songs that I think mean the same to every African American who wanted freedom. The song I chose to write about is titled “Oh Freedom”; it’s a traditional song so no one knows who wrote it. I think it was sung in churches to pray to god for freedom; not just from the white man’s injustice, not just from their sticks but from the body that endured the white man’s beating. It was sung at rallies or at protests to resist violence and to portray nonviolence because it’s never easy to “turn the other cheek” when someone hits you right on your face. I think this is when the song “oh freedom” was sung to resist nonviolence from the beat downs blacks took from the police men at rallies so they would stay true to the words of Dr. King that “...nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time”.
The song starts off by “oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me...”, I think whoever wrote it and whenever it was written the artist is calling out for freedom to come to him. I think the artist is so tired and sick from all the fighting; that he can’t fight back physically to obtain his freedom so he wants freedom to come to him and surround him; like clouds surround a crop field on a rainy day and slave get to go home. Than the song goes on saying “...before I'll be slave, I'll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord And be free...” The artist wants freedom “by hook or by crook”, I think he is suffocating, literally by the thought of being a slave of someone; he wants to die before someone makes him a slave and go to his creator to whom with he can be free. The song keeps going saying “ no more weeping, no more shooting”; meaning no more crying, no white man shooting at you and no more white man’s injustice because at gods feet everybody is equal and there only be “...singing”.
I think this songs purpose was to give hope of freedom to the ones who were weak mentally and were willing to be slaves before the Civil War nd to the ones who thought they deserved to be treated injustice and to those who were being brainwashed;during the Civil Rights Movement. I think this song give courage, longing and the desire to die for ones freedom and ones you do that and if you die; you'll be free because you would be next to god where there's only “...singing”. This songs purpose was to make people realize if you can’t get freedom on earth you'll get it in heaven. The article “BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON”, which is a interview between Claire Peeps a reporter and Bernice Johnson a “...activist, singer, composer, scholar and producer”. She also was one of the leaders on the group called Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC). Johnson says in her interview that “...collective action invites people to step across internalized societal lines, and how when you cross that line, you're free”. What the song “Oh Freedom” want people to do is it wants the black men to realize that freedom at any cost, it can be obtained by crossing that line which the song speaks off “...before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave...”, so the whites can take a “...collective action...” cross those racial barriers and realize that African American are willing to die for their freedom., they will die before being a slave or treated injustice and that we need to help them in their fight for equal rights.
The article is basically Johnson describing how life was during the civil rights movement. She explains the struggle for freedom during that time for African Americans. For example she says in her interview that “two students were arrested for buying tickets at the white window of the Trailways bus station. Four others were also arrested for joining in...”, this was the kind of stupidity that was carried out by whites during the civil rights movement and obviously before that. What I mean by stupidity is the way whites acted or reacted when blacks interfered with white man’s way of life. They arrested the students just for buying tickets at white man’s window. The four students who bailed themselves out were NAACP group members so they did a sympathy demonstration around their campus to support their fellow victims for the injustice that our American Constitution allowed during that time. They had to run away from their march because college's administrators were “...very hostile to activism”. This is the same kind of stupidity that I was talking about before in the paragraph and this is how whites reacted; with hostility when blacks tried to change the way they were being treated; that was to keep the blacks down, to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do to, with no legal punishment. So the protester from the march went to the nearest church where they sang the songs of freedom just like the song “Oh Freedom”.

I think this songs reception at the time it was written might have been a sigh of relief. I think when people sung this song it gave them courage, hope and satisfaction. Courage to run from the fields; for putting their lives on hand while running away for the hope of freedom, and satisfaction of giving their lives for freedom from the dreadful injustice that whites had on the blacks. There were basically two types of listener the blacks and the whites. The way I think the blacks reacted to this song was probably with a purpose do achieve freedom and whites may have reacted with violence they probably thought if you want death we'll give you death.