Miller 1

Tess Miller
4/28/14
ENGL 4784
Final Paper

Reality and Power of Light
Baldwin uses musical forms of transcendence in two of his works published at different
times during the Civil Rights Movement to show the timelessness of the African American
struggle and the timelessness of this music. Sonnys Blues was published at the cusp of the
Civil Rights Movement in 1957 but the two brothers in this story face similar problems to the
characters in Blues for Mister Charlie, published later in the movement in 1964. While Sonnys
Blues deals more with African American struggles in the city, Blues for Mister Charlie deals
more with African American struggles in the South, they both tell a similar tale of struggle and
trials. Both Sonny and Richard, the central characters in both works, use their music as
transcendence, to transcend their struggles and to transcend death, in the same way that Baldwin
uses these works to transcend the barriers between black and white America. Baldwin employs a
variety of different musical forms of transcendence such as blues, jazz, and freedom songs in his
works, Blues for Mister Charlie and Sonnys Blues to comment on the Civil Rights Movement
and to call his readers towards this point of transcendence that these musical forms bring its
listeners to.
The Civil Rights Movement was a social and political movement in late 1900s. The
movement was to fight for equal rights for all races especially, African Americans. William T
Martin Riches says in the epilogue of the second edition of The Civil Rights Movement Struggle
and Resistance, the twentieth century, especially the years after the World War II, has seen the
determination of African Americans to force white America to understand that cadenza, and the
remarkable voice that African American women and men have found in their struggle for
Miller 2

justice (Martin Riches 227). James Baldwin was one of these voices in the Civil Rights
Movement calling not only white America but also black America to listen. This movement
arguably lasted over a decade, therefore evolved and changed as the movement went on but some
themes remained constant like the fight for liberation.
As not only a political movement, but a social and cultural movement music played an
integral role in the Civil Rights Movement. Not only did the music during this time reflect the
goals of the movement in style and content but it added to the movement as well. Bryan Ward
explains in his article People Get Ready: Music and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s
and 1960s, that Much like the movement, black music was creative, adaptive, and eclectic: It
pressed into service any number of techniques and devices that might help to generate a potent
and moving piece of black music (Ward). The black music of the time that Ward describes
follows the patterns of the Civil Rights Movement. Musical forms like blues, jazz and soul
mirror the movement in lyrics and form. As the movement pushes forward, the music evolves
with and adapts to the events. This is most clearly seen in the freedom songs. This was a
movement of transcendence as reflected in the music of transcendence, in all of these forms.
Baldwin employs a variety of musical forms in his literary works which reflects the
variety of musical forms during the Civil Rights Movement. Ward continues to explain The
accomplishments of these musicians help to illustrate the important point that the political and
social significance of all black music, be it jazz, soul, or the freedom songs, was often encoded in
its rhythms, timbres, harmonies, and melodies (Ward). The musicians contribute their dialogue
on civil rights through their songs both in form and content. As the movement evolves politically
and socially the music evolves with the themes. Different musical forms were used at different
times to reach a particular goal. For example, gospel songs or spiritual would be used at religious
Miller 3

events. However, some themes displayed in all music stay constant throughout the movement
like liberation and transcendence. The lyrics comment on issues during this time like freedom
and equality. The rhythm and melodies reflect the themes of the movement of transcendence and
hope. These themes expressed in music unify the movement just as Baldwin expresses these
timeless themes through music in his literature.
Baldwin publishes Sonnys Blues in 1957 as the Civil Rights Movement begins.
Sonnys Blues speaks to themes of a post- World War II nation, both brothers having fought in
the war. The story is set in Harlem commenting on the struggles of entrapment that African
Americans faced in Harlem during this time. The narrator describes that Some escaped the trap,
most didnt. Those who got out always left something of themselves behind what we were
both seeking through our separate cab windows was the parts of ourselves which had been left
behind (Sonnys Blues 129). At first Sonny goes to war to physically escape the trap of
Harlem but once the war ends he turns to heroin to emotionally escape Harlem. In trying to
escape, Sonny falls directly into the trap of the city. Each brother represents a different type of
person that falls into the traps for African American men during this time. Not only does the
themes of the story reflect the time period but so does the music. In this time in the 1950s, the
blues becomes more well-known with the electric blues, especially in cities like Harlem. Sonny
is a jazz musician but he and his band play the electric blues reflecting the time period.
Blues for Mister Charlie is published later in the movement in 1964. The play is loosely
based off the murder of Emmett Till but Baldwin does not publish the play until after the murder
of Medgar Evers. Baldwin bases the victim of Mister Charlies Blues, Richard Henry off of
Emmitt Till. Till was a 14-year-old boy visiting family in Mississippi from Chicago. He was
kidnapped and then murdered for supposedly hitting on a white woman. While the two as victims
Miller 4

are similar in the fact that they are awfully murdered due to racial discrimination but Richard as
a character is very different. Emmett Till was born and raised in Chicago while Richard was born
and raised in Plaguetown, left for New York and then returns. Both are used to the city way of
life but Richard was murdered in his own hometown. When Richard moves to New York to
pursue his music career, like Sonny, he falls into the trap of drug addiction. While discussing his
addiction with Juanita he says you get out there and you carry this pain around inside all day
and all night long. No way to beat itno way But when I started getting high, I was cool, and
it didnt bother me. And I wasnt lonely then, it was alright. And the chicksI could handle
them, they couldnt reach me (Blues for Mister Charlie 29). Just like Sonny, the drugs pulled
him further away from people unlike his music which pulled him towards people. In an attempt
to escape the pain and the trap he feels, he looks to drugs. However, both he and Sonny do not
realize at the time that their freedom lies in their music.
While Richards murder is loosely based off of Emmett Tills murder, Baldwin did not
publish the play until the murder of Medgar Evers, a Civil Rights activist. Baldwin personally
knew Evers so while Tills murder inspired him to write this play, Evers murder drove him to
make it a reality. Before the play Baldwin explains When he died, something entered me which
I cannot describe, but it was then that I resolved that nothing under heaven would prevent me
from getting this play done. We are walking in terrible darkness here, and this is one mans
attempt to bear witness to the reality and power of light (Blues for Mister Charlie xv). Both
Evers and Richard show the light of transcendence through their deaths, something they could
not accomplish in their lives. Till, Evers, and Richard all transcend death through their murders
by witnessing and showing the power of light. Through this play Baldwin himself shows the
power of light by capturing the harsh reality and showing the hope and the light beyond that. He
Miller 5

speaks to the truths of the time of racial discrimination and segregation but also to the reality of
the common human bond of all races.
Just as Baldwin uses his literature as a power of light in the Civil Rights Movement, he
uses music as well. He integrates an assortment of music into his literature including Sonnys
Blues and Blues for Mister Charlie. Saadi Simawe discusses in his essay Whats in a Sound
that Baldwins well-known experimentation with bluesification or jazzification of fiction and
style thus may be understood as genuine and ingenious attempts at liberating the soul from what
he views as one of the ideological grids the prison-house of language (Whats in a Sound 15).
Baldwin uses blues and jazz as well as other musical forms to transform his literature works in
both style and content. He bases the structure of Blues for Mister Charlie off of the structure of a
syncopated blues song with alternating melodies that move both backwards and forwards. In
Sonnys Blues he structures different characters based on different musical genres. By
integrating music into these texts, or as Simawe would say bluesifying or jazzifying them,
Baldwin expresses a key theme of the Civil Rights Movement; liberation. As music and literature
of transcendence, both works call for liberation of the soul for the readers and listeners. This call
for liberation is the light that Baldwin speaks of.
Music acts as a vehicle to express Baldwins call to liberation. He integrates music into
his texts in order to not only embellish them but to further support his statement. Simawe quotes
Baldwin saying Music acts as both guide and guardian: The key to ones life is always in a lot
of unexpected places. I tried to deal with what I was most afraid of. Thats why the vehicle of the
book is music. Because music was and is my salvation (Trouoe 26) (Whats in a Sound 17).
During a time period where many people sought salvation through transcendence, Baldwin
shares his own salvation in his literature. He speaks to the reader through music as his salvation,
Miller 6

calling them to find their own. Baldwin speaks through music in Sonnys Blues and Blues for
Mister Charlie in many different forms. He uses this variety unified under transcendence to
speak to a larger audience.
The first and most prominent musical form that Baldwin uses in Sonnys Blues and
Blues for Mister Charlie is the blues. Ralph Ellison defines the blues in his essay Richard
Wrights Blues as an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience
alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the
consolation of philosophy, but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a
form, the Blues is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically
(Ellison). Blues for Mister Charlie is Baldwins lyrical chronicle of the catastrophe of Richard
Henrys murder, symbolic of that of Emmett Till. Baldwin keeps the brutal experience alive in
his consciousness as well as the readers consciousness. He sings/ writes these blues for Mister
Charlie, representing all white men, to keep these brutal experiences alive in Mister Charlies
consciousness as well. Sonnys Blues is Baldwins lyrical chronicle of the catastrophe of
limited opportunities for black men in Harlem often leading to drug abuse like Sonnys. The
narrator expresses lyrically the tragedy of their parents, his uncles death, the death of his
daughter and Sonnys struggles. The blues is music of transcendence which is ultimately the
reason that Baldwin uses it in both Sonnys Blues and Blues for Mister Charlie. He hopes that
both black and white readers are able to transcend racial barriers in order to recognize their
common bond.
In both works Baldwin speaks to the readers passions, not their rational minds. Rather
than using reason to voice his argument he uses music a vehicle to speak for his own emotions
and to speak to others emotions as well. Simawe says in Whats in a Sound that Baldwin
Miller 7

seems to have felt a link between his vision of himself as the incorrigible disturber of peace
and music, the medium traditionally perceived as the ideal subversive art, the one that eludes the
control of mind and rationality to appeal directly to passions and emotions, even instincts, in
order to liberate them (Whats in a Sound 12-13). Liberation and freedom originate in the
soul, not the mind. Baldwin uses music in order to better speak to the readers soul, their
passions and emotions.
Even without reading the play the reader can see Baldwins goal through the title, Blues
for Mister Charlie. Mister Charlie acts as a symbol for all white men, in the play and during
this time period. Korintha Mitchell says in James Baldwin, Performance Theorist, Sings the
Blues for Mister Charlie that Not only does Baldwin insist that Mister Charlie is plagued; he is
determined to sing the blues for him. Clearly, the play emerges from Baldwins belief that we are
all brothers and sisters. Thus Baldwin looks beyond racialized bodies, and the crimes committed
to preserve the illusions of race, to see human flesh and suffering (Mitchell). Despite the acts of
violence and hatred committed by Mister Charlie characterized by Lyle Britten, Baldwin sings
the blues for him. He tells the story of a black man in the form of a blues song to a white man,
attempting to use music as a vehicle to unify the races. Baldwin keeps the painful details and
episodes of brutal experience alive in the consciousness of Mister Charlie, all white men, as
well as his own consciousness. Baldwin calls for this liberation by singing the blues to Mister
Charlie in order to stir his passions and emotions.
While Sonny is a jazz musician, Baldwin titles the story Sonnys Blues because his
music captures his brutal experience and he and his brother together reach transcendence. Not
only is Sonny a jazz musician but as a character, Sonny represents jazz music while his brother,
the narrator, represents the blues. In this sense, since the narrator is Sonnys brother, he sings the
Miller 8

blues for Sonny. The narrator captures Sonnys brutal experience as well as the brutal experience
of their families in his blues. He allows the music to stir his passions which is uncharacteristic of
him. At the end of the story, the two brothers together reach transcendence recognizing their
struggles and burdens but rising above them, showing the power of light.
The play, Blues for Mister Charlie, begins with Richards murder but he comes alive
throughout the rest of the play through the other characters memories. In this way, Richard
transcends death through the memory of his loved ones. Music acts as a vehicle for which they
can bring him back to life. Meredith Malburne explains in her essay No Blues for Mister Henry:
Locating Richard's Revolution, that Richard's friends and family, however, present him as both
spiritual and spirited; he is remembered at first through two songs--the hymn "His Eye is on the
Sparrow" and the blues song "Midnight Special" (Baldwin 16-17). He quickly becomes rooted,
therefore, in the black church and the black blues tradition (Malburne). These songs
characterize Richard from the start of the play and the way in which his loved ones remember
him. Together they sing the song, one line at a time. Mother Henry asks You remember that
song he liked so much? Meridian replies I sing because Im happy, Juanita says back I sing
because Im free. Pete continues For his eye is on the sparrow and Lorenzo finishes, And I
know he watches me (Blues for Mister Charlie 16). This shows the transcendence that Richard
reaches through music. In his life, Richard could not recognize why he should act inferior due to
the color of his skin. He was defiant of Lyle Britten, his murderer because he refused to accept
the status quo and act inferior to anyone. Instead, he sings because he is happy and sings because
he is free. He is set free through death but kept alive through music and memories.
Again towards the end of the play Juanita allows Richard to come alive through music
transcending death. Juanita says One day, Ill recover. Im sure that Ill recover. And Ill see the
Miller 9

world againthe marvelous world. And Ill have learned from Richardhow to love. I must. I
cant let him die for nothing. (Juke box music, loud. The lights change, spot on Parnells face.
Juanita steps across the aisle. Richard appears. They dance. Parnell watches.) (Blues for
Mister Charlie 79-80). His death acts as a call to action for his family and friends. He teaches
Juanita how to love, something more powerful than the hate consuming their society. His love
acts as the light that Baldwin speaks of in all the darkness. This love through music is
transcendent and allows Juanita to dance with Richard even in death.
Even though Sonny does not die in the story, he too, like Richard, transcends death
through his music. While listening to Sonny play the narrator says I heard what he had gone
through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth. He had made it his...
And he was giving it back, so that passing through death, it can live forever: I saw my mothers
face again I saw the moonlit road where my fathers brother died. I saw my little girl again and
felt Isabels tears again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise (Sonnys Blues 148). Sonny
took the song and expressed his sufferings and played from his heart speaking to the listeners
emotions and passions. Hearing what Sonny experienced through his song helped the narrator to
understand his own experiences and to recognize their shared experience. By chronically his
painful experience and giving it back to the world he creates something that will live beyond his
own life. Through transforming his experience into a song, Sonny creates something timeless,
transcending not only time but transcending death. Even though Sonny and the narrator are
biological brothers, they share a common human experience and both endure common human
suffering, binding them to each other and to the rest of humanity.
Another form of music during the Civil Rights Movement, known as freedom songs, was
also a musical form of transcendence. The songs were sung in freedom marches, sit ins, and
Miller 10

other events and the songs ranged from spirituals to gospel music to rap songs. Bryan Ward
explains:
The freedom songs sung by activists on the frontlines of the civil rights struggle rightly
hold an iconic place in any musical history of the Southern movement. Nevertheless, the
other forms of popular music with which the freedom songs often intersectedblues,
gospel, folk, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and soulalso offer useful insights
into the entwined histories of the freedom struggle, black racial consciousness, and race
relations. (Ward)
These songs united groups of people as they sang expressing their shared suffering and their
hope for freedom. Like jazz, they would improvise on the theme of these songs. As the
movement moved forward the songs would evolve based on different events. The singers would
improvise in order to accurately capture the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience.
The freedom songs tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle towards
liberation. Through creating and evolving these songs throughout the movement, these singers
make their struggles and trials timeless, transcending time and transcending death.
Baldwin refers to specific freedom songs in Blues for Mister Charlie including, I Woke
up this Morning. As Lorenzo takes the stand at the murder trial, the scene turns to a flashback
and the song begins. The stage directions explain We discover Lorenzo and Pete, in jail. Night.
From far away, we hear Students humming, moaning, singing: I Woke Up This Morning With
my Mind Stayed on Freedom (Blues for Mister Charlie 90). This song was sung by the
Freedom Singers during the Civil Rights Movement due to its obvious emphasis on freedom.
The song uses repetition to emphasize the message of freedom. The singer describes all of their
Miller 11

daily actions but their mind is always stayed on freedom. The repetition of this line in the song
emphasizes the importance of freedom and the strength of their hope. In the scene this song is
used Lorenzo and Pete are literally in bondage as they are in jail but also, metaphorically, their
race is enslaved by the ways of society. Despite these two forms of bondage their minds do not
give up on the idea of freedom and liberation. The stage directions say that the students
hum[med], moan[ed], s[ang] this song showing that so much more is put in to the song than a
persons voice, it shows their passion and emotion put into their music. Just as Sonny put his
passion into his music and the Freedom Singers their passion into the freedom songs, so do these
students. This determination for freedom comes from their hope and vision of light, as gained
through music.
Baldwin does not use any specifically identified freedom songs in Sonnys Blues but
one scene in the story mirrors that of the freedom songs. This shows the timelessness of this idea;
Baldwin creates a scene that reflects something that would develop later in the movement. The
narrator witnesses what he calls an old-fashioned revival meeting (Sonnys Blues 140). AT
this meeting a group of people gathered on the street and three sisters began to sing. The narrator
describes the scene saying, Tis the old ship of Zion, they sang, and the sister with the
tambourine kept a steady, jangling beat, it has rescued many a thousand! (Sonnys Blues
140). The song is not specifically identified as a freedom song during the Civil Rights Movement
but this scene mirrors such songs in terms of the effect it has on the listeners. The narrator goes
on:
Not a soul under the sound of their voices was hearing this song for the first time, not
one of them had been rescued As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces
underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within; time seemed to soothe a
Miller 12

poison out of them; and seemed, nearly to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered
faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their
last. (Sonnys Blues 140-141)
Some of the freedom songs were not newly released songs rather they were older songs revived
in a more contemporary way such as this one. This further shows the timelessness of the African
American struggle through the timelessness of music. Just as Sonny and Richard transcend time
through their music so do these sisters. They take an old song and by singing through their own
passions and emotions, speaking of their own struggles, they make it current. They are able to
instill a sense of peace in all those around these through their music, much like the freedom
singers do later in the movement.
Freedom songs were most well-known for being sung on freedom marches. Evers
murder acted as a catalyst for the 1963 march, which became known for Martin Luther King Jr.s
I Have a Dream speech. Similarly, in Baldwins play, Richards murder catalyzes a march.
After the trial and Britten is found not guilty, Richards family and friends begin to sing as they
march. Mother Henry says Come on, children. (Singing) Pete stammers Are you ready,
Juanita? Shall we go now? and Juanita replies Yes. Lorenzo says Come here, Pete. Stay
close to me. (They go to the church door. The singing swells.) (Blues for Mister Charlie 121).
Their singing transcends life and brings them all together through their common suffering.
Baldwin again reminds the readers of their common humanity despite race when Parnell says
Can I join you on the march, Juanita? Can I walk with you? (Blues for Mister Charlie 121).
Juanita replies Well, we can walk in the same direction, Parnell. Come. Dont look like that.
Lets go on on (Blues for Mister Charlie 121). Despite the racial barrier Parnell joins their
Miller 13

march in same direction, reaching for the same transcendence above racial separation. The music
reminds them of what they share, instead of what they do not.
Baldwin does not specify the song that the characters sing on this march. At other points
Baldwin uses specific songs to relay a certain message whereas here the ambiguity relays a
different message. All music speaks to people differently whether it is a gospel song, spiritual,
blues song or jazz. A variety of these types of songs were sung at the 1963 march. The song
Only a Pawn in Their Game was written and sung by Bob Dylan and like Blues for Mister
Charlie was written about the assassination of activist Medgar Evers -- the catalyst for the 1963
march (Gunderson). The characters could be singing this song, or it could be no song in
particular, the important aspect is that the singing swells (Blues for Mister Charlie 121). As
they march their singing transcends all racial barriers, all of their struggles. This song is the
blues for Mister Charlie. Richards friends and family lyrically express their personal struggles
and transcend them.
Not only does Baldwin employ these musical forms in his works and refer to specific
examples of musical forms, but he structures these works based on these musical forms. In
Sonnys Blues each character represents a different musical form based on the different
generations. The mother represents the spiritual because in the little time the narrator talks about
her in the story, she talks about God and His promise, saying but I praise my Redeemer
(Sonnys Blues 133) and she hums Lord, you brought me from a long ways off (Sonnys
Blues 131). The elder brother, the narrator, represents the spirituals secular counterpart, the
blues. As a school teacher providing for his family, he works hard representing the work songs
aspect of the blues. He is the narrator or the singer of this story, thus the title being Sonnys
Blues. Finally, Sonny, as the youngest generation, represents jazz. He improvises on the theme
Miller 14

that his brother follows. Throughout these different musical forms act as competing melodies but
are unified at the end through transcendence.
In Blues for Mister Charlie, Baldwin structures the play much like a blues song. Waters
E. Turip says in James Baldwin A Critical Evaluation The play has no direct plot line; rather its
scenes weave in and out of one another like the segments of a night mare from which one awakes
screaming, yet which seizes one immediately as one attempts to recapture sleep. Or again these
scenes flow like the turgid, repetitive rhythms of a syncopated blues that has no end (Turpin
195). Rather than following a chronological plotline, Baldwin structures the play in such a way
that each characters moves through time between the past and the present in the same way a
blues melody moves. Different characters recount memories of Richard causing some repetition.
Just as the characters in the play recount their tragic experience lyrically through the blues, the
play as a whole is Baldwins way of lyrically expressing his own tragic experience, this play is
his own blues song.
In both these works, Baldwin calls his readers to a point of transcendence. In Sonnys
Blues the narrator says He and his boys were up there were keeping it new in order to find
new ways to make us listen. For while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and
how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isnt any other tale to tell; its
the only light we have in all this darkness (Sonnys Blues 147). This is what Baldwin does in
his literature. He tries to keep it new so to find new ways to make his readers listen. He writes
in different forms such as drama, short stories, essays, etc. as well as uses different musical
forms such as blues, jazz and freedom songs in order to tell the same tale in new ways. The tales
that he tells speak to the common humanity of all people but he tells them in different ways in
Miller 15

order to keep readers engaged, to keep them listening. Just as the narrator suggests, that the tale,
or the song, is the only light in so much darkness, Baldwin suggests at the start of Blues for
Mister Charlie. He says We are walking in terrible darkness here, and this is one mans attempt
to bear witness to the reality and power of light (Blues for Mister Charlie xv). In both works,
Baldwin tells the same tale in a different form bearing his own light in the movement amidst the
darkness of the Civil Rights era and calling his readers towards this light.
Baldwin tells the same tale in different ways in order to make his statement heard through
music and literature in the Civil Rights Movement. In the same way the freedom singers changed
their songs as the movement went forward, they tried new ways to make people listen. Baldwin
in these works keeps it new just as Sonny and his boys did in order to make people listen
because he needs people to listen. By inserting musical forms into his literary works in both
content and structure, Baldwin speaks to his readers passions and offers to them his own form of
salvation and liberation. Baldwin unifies the different types of music through transcendence and
calls the reader to this through the music in Sonnys Blues and Blues for Mister Charlie.
During the Civil Rights Movement when all sought liberation and freedom, Baldwin offered it to
them through musical forms of transcendence. Amidst the protests and riots, Baldwin uses music
in his literature to transcend this struggle, to transcend death itself. Through music, literature and
the characters Baldwin creates a timeless statement, acting as his light in the darkness of the
world.

Miller 16

Works Cited
Baldwin, James. Blues for Mister Charlie: A Play. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.
Baldwin, James. Sonnys Blues.
Gunderson, Edna. "Music Propelled This Movement." USA Today (2013): n. pag. Web. 30 Mar.
2014.
Malburne, Meredith M. "No Blues for Mister Henry: Locating Richard's Revolution." Reading
Contemporary African American Drama: Fragments of History, Fragments of Self. Ed.
Trudier Harris and Jennifer Larson. New York: Peter Lang, 2007. 9-57. Rpt.
in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J.
Trudeau. Vol. 229. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Mitchell, Korintha. "James Baldwin, Performance Theorist, Sings the Blues for Mister
Charlie." Project MUSE. Johns Hopkins UP, Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Riches, William T. The Civil Rights Movement Struggle and Resistance Second Edition.
New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillion, 2004. Print.
Ward, Bryan. People Get Ready: Music and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and
1960s. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The Gilder Lehrman Institute
of American History, 2007-2014. Web.

Ellison, Ralph. Richard Wrights Blues
Whats in a Sound
Ex: Hill, Charles A., and Marguerite Helmers, eds. Defining Visual Rhetorics. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Print.