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Essay / The Role of Ella Fitzgerald and Mary Lou Williams in the Black Rights Movements
The movement within the black community is brilliant and is reflected in every action and word of every individual. From the beginning of the 19th century until today, music has had a great influence on the protests and liberation of the black community. While basic human rights have been and continue to be denied to African American people, they have been forced to take a stand and through music they have the opportunity to protest in another medium for all to hear. Since the beginning of black people's arrival in America, discrimination has been a large part of their history. Throughout this history, women have played a major role in the movement against discrimination. Women in jazz, like Ella Fitzgerald and Mary Lou Williams, used their voices to express their stance on issues through sound and using their outlet to shed light on racial and gender discrimination. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayElla Fitzgerald was known in her time for breaking the boundaries of racial discrimination through her jazz poetry and overall voice in the music industry. Although people know Ella Fitzgerald primarily through her rise to fame in the jazz industry with her beautiful voice and scat singing, she is a decorated advocate of the civil rights movement. Her voice elevated her to the ranks of male jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. As she traveled the country, she visited towns that a black woman would not have even dreamed of visiting in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a time of harsh segregation and cruelty. This gave her some discomfort in theaters, but the people so prone to racism welcomed her because of her undeniable vocal talent. Throughout his career, his manager Norm Granz fought for civil rights to ensure equality for his clients and uphold the law. shows clean and without any signs of discrimination. During Ella's tour, they both ensured that labels that provided for segregated writing were removed. The small gesture to help everyone in the halls and in the different clubs feel safe and equal during the integrated show on October 7, 1955. After the show ended, the police burst into the Ella's dressing room and arrested her and the other musicians of color. . They were tossed around and were considered by the police as criminals. Ella Fitzgerald remembers that despite all this discrimination and hatred towards her and her people, the police still asked her for her autograph. That didn't stop Fitzgerald and his team from having an equal opportunity to ply their trade to the masses and use their voices to break the chains that discrimination has put the black community in. At one point, Fitzgerald had become extremely popular at what Marilyn Monroe called the Mocambo nightclub in Los Angeles and used his celebrity status to get Fitzgerald to play at that specific venue. The deal entailed that the club would allow him to perform on the condition that Monroe came to every concert and sat in the front row. The nightclub would gain the most publicity from Monroe's presence and it would counteract the blow from racial discriminators not wanting to enter the building. It helped Fitzgerald reach more people than she could have ever imagined. On a larger scale, Ella Fitzgerald received during her lifetime the American Black Achievement Award, the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People Equal Justice Award, as well as other achievements due to his fight for equal rights with the help of his supporters, friends, director and his peers in general. She is considered an icon in the black community thanks to her transformative powers through jazz. Duke Ellington was a very popular piano jazz musician, and alongside him, he and Louis Armstrong revealed an equally powerful woman named Mary Lou.Williams. As women working in a male-dominated industry, Ella Fitzgerald and Mary Lou Williams both took the global stage and used their voices as a beacon for two movements aimed at impacting the rights of women and black communities. Women have fought to have the same rights as men in the workplace throughout political eras. Women's rights movements at the time only helped white-skinned women vote and gain property rights. Black women have not been as fortunate to reap the rewards of these movements. Even though they had participated in the movements themselves, they had to fight harder than the average white woman. The exclusion gave birth to a new wave of music, jazz, and these women used it to their full advantage. The Jazz and Swing era had begun and created this voice for the black community. Mary Lou Williams fought against racial discrimination more than against gender discrimination, however, it is noticed over time that women with well-paid jobs and high incomes It is more than likely that positions in society will not be affected by sexual inequality. Especially since music at this time did not resonate as well within class systems as it did in other community movements. As the feminist movement grew, black feminists were excluded. There was a “sisterhood” of white, middle-class feminist women who did not care to include black women such as Ella Fitzgerald and Mary Lou Williams. From this perspective, most women view Mary Lou Williams as an advocate for the black community rather than the female community. She became widely known for her engagement with young people in black communities, teaching them "the lost heritage of jazz", as jazz began to die out at the end of her career. As an influential jazz musician, she could have done much more than she did, but to the black and female communities themselves, it doesn't matter whether or not you are active as an advocate, whether you are successful and Be part of the community, it's not important. is progress for all. Both of these black women have been affected by the cultural norms of their gender and have often been placed in a box, always having to show that they have the talent and can keep up with men at all times. Usually, the public opinion has always been that “women are not equal in abilities to men”. The music that Mary Lou Williams produced and composed shared her opinions and thoughts on discrimination, segregation, and Black Pride. The jazz hit The Black Christ of the Andes (St. Martin de Porres) contains lyrics singing to God about how everyone is equal and everyone is born and made of flesh just the same, but spares his people . She sings about how the black community should be spared from all this pain and suffering that they have experienced. Mary Lou Williams calls out to God by singing that He saves His people, the people God created in His image. Now called an anthem, this original jazz song spoke to thousands of people across..