African Americans and the Struggles Led by African American Musicians: From Defiant Blues.
1. History of Jazz. In the history of Jazz, a music born from the transplantation of Black people from Africa to the American continent through the triangular slave trade, African Americans adapted African music using Western instruments. Whenever they tried to play the piano, saxophone, or trumpet, the pull of their Black identity drew them back to the foundations of African music. However, this new music no longer resembled the original African music, nor did it sound like Western music. This music tells the history of Black people in America. But what history? Jazz is the expression of Black identity in America. The first period, called swing, was a period of assimilation. Musicians tried to entertain the bourgeois, primarily white, audience. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, etc.
2. History of African American Activism. However, the socio-economic situation of the African American community went from bad to worse. Black Africa remained under colonial domination. For years, Black people in the United States suffered immensely. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed their emancipation. Wherever racial segregation existed, exploitation took on a different form. Black people were not integrated in America. They were excluded from employment, housing, healthcare, and education. In the Southern United States, Black people were terrorized by a secret white organization called the “Ku Klux Klan.” Many Black people had immigrated to Northern cities, where they became the sub-proletariat of American capitalism. The neighborhoods they lived in were called: “ghettos.” Like the townships in South Africa, like the favelas in Brazil. In any case, their lives reflected an image of death: famine – unemployment – crime – delinquency – drugs – prostitution, simply social disorganization. We can compare the African Americans of that time to a community of prisoners, living in the open air; and the ghetto to an underground dungeon. However, they would not wait long for the situation to change on its own. They had to fight to obtain legal equality with white people. Only a minority Black elite enjoyed American prosperity. Instead of resigning and individually solving their existential problems in solitude, a part of the African American elite would raise the Black issue in the USA on a global political level, to demand comprehensive solutions. This creation of equivalence classes was the response to the question of the Negro Renaissance. Does this mean war? No!