The Legacy Of Jazz And The Civil Rights Movement - 1432 Words

Austin Hartshorn Mr. McQuade AP Literature May 2, 2016 Marvels of Mingus Jazz is considered America’s gift to the world. Throughout all of America’s history jazz has been there to accompany and reflect it. But jazz has had its own history that is often underappreciated and hidden from the general public. There is evidence of this covering up of the history of jazz for example in the civil rights movement. The roots of jazz started with the bringing of African slaves to the Americas. While many do not know this origin of jazz even fewer would know about the involvement of jazz in the Civil Rights movement. For the entirety of America’s history jazz has reflected the political and social climate of the current state of the country.†¦show more content†¦Interestingly, jazz also represents all of these things off the page. Therefore a harmonious combination of the two art mediums would result in a powerful piece of literature. August Wilson was an author who realized this and was able to create a fusion of music as a support of the major theme in his play Fences. The way the author uses music to highlight the main theme of discrepancies between liberalism and conservatism not only represents the 50s as a whole but offers an accurate depiction of what the jazz communities’ involvement was in the Civil Rights Movement. The 1950s was a strange time for the world. It was the decade after the second world war and there was a sense of xenophobia in society. This time period was perfect to set Wilson’s play in for a variety of reasons. First, he could use the geography of the play to his advantage. The fact that the play is set in Pennsylvania is perfect because of its location in the United States. Being in the mid Atlantic region, it served the perfect place to have influences from both the staunch grass roots ideology of the South as well as the free thinking socio-economic theories of the North. What this resulted in is the creation of the ‘tugging’ atmosphere that permeates the characters thoughts and passively asserts itself in the minds of the audience. Second the time the play is set in allows for the author to represent these