Protest Through Singing This Fourth of July

by Prof.  Margaret Drew, UMass Law School

 

Independence day has been significant primarily for the powerful minority group.  White Men.

BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women, and religiously oppressed and those oppressed by religion are waiting for their time.  Should these populations want a day that is meaningful for them, it may be that they will need to create their own.  Freedom Day would celebrate when the government and those with power and privilege leave women and others alone to control their own destinies. 

Freedom from oppressors is all that is asked.  That day will come.  United we will succeed.  Don't miss the opportunity to write, revisit or recreate protest songs.

You may be interested in listening to both an interview on protest songs and songs being written or re-written after the Dobbs decision. 

You may have heard Reina Del Cid's protest to the tune of My Country Tis of Thee.  An earlier version by W.E.B. Du Bois may be found here.

And for an indigenous protest song written during the 1960s listen to Buffy St. Marie. This is her anthem to decolonization, updated in 2017.