Fasten your seatbelts, friends–turns out we had a lot to say in this post!
Over the years, many people have suggested various songs from the Civil Rights Movement to us, saying “You would do such a good version of _____!” We understand where these comments are coming from–there was so much great music in that era with a powerful message–but we wanted to share our thought process around choosing a song that addresses racial injustice in the context of one of our newest arrangements, The Ballad of Medgar Evers.
First and foremost, we do not want to appropriate the voice of Black people and a struggle that is not our own. Many songs in the Civil Rights era were adapted from spirituals, which often spoke of the horror and violence that enslaved people suffered at the hands of their white captors. It feels inappropriate for us, as a group of four white performers, to sing in the first-person voice as so many of these songs do, about struggles that we simply cannot understand by virtue of being white. Take, for example, the lyrics of a song like Oh Freedom: “Before I’d be a slave / I’ll be buried in my grave.” These lyrics are different coming out of our mouths because none of us, nor our ancestors, were ever enslaved, so we can only ever appreciate this sentiment metaphorically. However, for many many Black people, facing the impossible choice of death over being stripped of one’s personhood is a real generational trauma that their families carry.
We also want to draw a distinction between us as professional performers choosing our repertoire, and people who sing with their friends or in community settings. As white musicians who are making our livelihoods from performing, recording, and selling our music, we need to be very careful to avoid playacting the role of being oppressed. The reality is that we, as white people, are in the position of the oppressor when it comes to race, so it is our work to help dismantle systemic racism, not profit from the struggles of Black voices.
Are we saying that no white person should ever sing music by a Black artist? Of course not. But context and history matter, and white people need to do their homework. We need to understand where the music we’re sharing comes from, and what it means for white people to sing it in different settings.
What does it mean to do our homework? If you are in a community choir, for example, ask your director to choose pieces written by Black composers and arrangers (especially if those pieces are things like gospel music!). When you present a song, whether it’s in a pub sing or a concert, share what you’ve learned about its history and origin. You don’t have to (and probably shouldn’t) give a lecture, but just a sentence or two goes a long way in helping to break down the default assumption that white folks own everything.
Think of it this way: would you share a song in another language without, at very least, giving a translation or summary? Probably not, but it’s easy to forget that just because a song is in a language we understand, it still might not come from our own culture, and therefore it deserves the kind of sensitivity we would otherwise apply to songs from another culture. (Not sure where to start? Google is your friend! Just put in some of the lyrics plus “history” and go from there!)
(During our rehearsal retreat at the end of July, we were fortunate to attend a presentation by Dr. Kathy Bullock on the evolution of gospel music, which touched on many of these subjects. You can join Kathy and her sisters for a virtual singing workshop on Aug 22!)
So… we knew what we wanted to avoid, but what were we looking for? We wanted to find a song that critiqued racial inequality and white supremacy without speaking from the position of the oppressed. Stole and Sold (from our Song on the Times album), is an interesting example of this from the abolitionist movement–but more on that another day!
This led us to The Ballad of Medgar Evers, written by Phil Ochs and Bob Gibson. Medgar Evers was a prominent Civil Rights activist, WWII veteran, and the Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP, who was assassinated in 1963, just a few weeks before his 38th birthday. His killer was a member of the White Citizens Council, a racist group formed in Mississippi to resist school integration and other civil rights activism. This song jumped out at us because it was written to call out racism and violence against Black people, and we added our own lyrics at the end to connect Evers’ life and work to the world we see today.
We want to take you through the lyrics and share the stories we learned about Evers’ life. (We’ve also attached a pdf of the lyrics without our footnotes)
The Ballad of Medgar Evers- Phil Ochs and Bob Gibson (1963)
This song is also known as “Too Many Martyrs,” but we wanted to use Medgar Evers’ name since his contributions to the Civil Rights movement are less well known.
In the state of Mississippi many years ago
A boy of 14 years got a taste of southern law
He saw his friend a hanging and his color was his crime
And the blood upon his jacket left a brand upon his mind
As a Black boy growing up in the South, Evers experienced overt and violent racism firsthand on a regular basis, including witnessing the lynching of friends. This verse is likely referring to Evers witnessing a friend of his father named Willie Tingle being shot and hanged. The body was left hanging for months, and Evers passed it every day on his way to school.
Chorus: Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies, too many empty words were said
Too many times, too many angry men
Oh let it never be again
His name was Medgar Evers and he walked his road alone
Like Emmett Till and thousands more whose names we’ll never know
They tried to burn his home and they beat him to the ground
But deep inside they both knew what it took to bring him down
Evers served as the Mississippi state field secretary for the NAACP, fighting for desegregation, voting rights, and investigations into violence against Black people, including the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. He was constantly receiving threats, and his house was firebombed shortly before his death. He even trained his children to hide in the event of an attack at the house.
(chorus)
The killer waited by his home hidden out of sight
The police that always followed Evers disappeared that night
The killer squeezed the trigger, the bullet left his side
It struck the heart of everyone when Evers fell and died.
Original lyrics: The killer waited by his home hidden by the night / As Evers stepped out from his car into the rifle sight / He slowly squeezed the trigger, the bullet left his side /It struck the heart of every man when Evers fell and died
We edited this verse slightly to emphasize the complicity of law enforcement in Evers’ death. Because of his high profile, he was often followed home by police–perhaps to protect him, monitor him, or both. However, that police presence was conspicuously absent the night of his murder.
Evers’ was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens Council and the KKK. He was tried twice by all-white juries in the 1960s but not convicted until a third trial in 1994, after Evers’ wife Myrlie asked prosecutors to reopen the case.
(chorus)
They laid him in his grave while the bugle sounded clear
Laid him in his grave when the victory was near
While we waited for the future for freedom through the land
The country gained a killer and the country lost a man
Evers was a veteran of WWII and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The outrage around his death helped garner support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
(chorus)
Windborne’s additional lyrics:
We waited for that future for that liberating day
We ignored our own complicity and didn’t change our ways
Some claim that they are colorblind but color’s still a crime
And the victims of the violence leave a brand upon our mind
Their names were Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Sandra Bland
Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, George Floyd and Joseph Mann
Eric Garner and so many more who cannot breathe
Each name not just one person but communities bereaved
Final chorus:
They were not martyrs but victims of hate
Dismissed, dehumanized, no justice from the state
Killed at the hands of too many angry men
Oh let it never be again
We hope that the sentiment in our verses is largely self-evident, though there is one word we want to call attention to: martyr. A martyr is someone who dies in the fight for a cause, like Medgar Evers and so many others in the Civil Rights movement. However, we chose to use the title The Ballad of Medgar Evers (instead of Too Many Martyrs) and change the line in our final chorus to say, “They were not martyrs but victims of hate” because the people we named (and so many more who have lost their lives at the hands of police) did not die fighting for anything–they were just trying to live their lives. Regardless of any political activity they may have engaged in, these people were killed for the crime of being Black in America. Many of them continued to suffer the effects of white supremacy after their deaths through character assassination in the media and lack of meaningful consequences brought against their killers.
It is far past time for us to wake up and take action. We four, like all white people, have benefited from and been complicit in perpetuating systems of white supremacy, and we invite you to join in the work to change that. We shared some anti-racism resources in a previous post, but we are linking them below again–we hope this song inspires you as it has inspired us to take further steps in your own journey towards anti-racism. In the words of author and self-proclaimed Internet Yeller Ijeoma Oluo:
“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.”
Anti-racism Resources
1. This document is a scaffolded, structured journey through anti-racism work. In the words of the document’s authors: The goal is to facilitate growth for white folks to become allies, and eventually accomplices for anti-racist work. These resources have been ordered in an attempt to make them more accessible.
2. This Google doc is another incredible collection of resources for anti-racism work–books, podcasts, articles, videos, and TV/movies, as well as a list of organizations to follow and support. It includes specific resources for parents who want to raise anti-racist kids. (Some of the resources overlap with the Scaffolded Anti-Racism document)
3. Whether you’re shopping online or in person, look for Black-owned businesses: WeBuyBlack, The Black Wallet, and Official Black Wall Street can help you!
