h, in the early twenth century was Billie Holiday, a female jazzsinger. Holiday’s singing career began in the 1930’s when she started singing in New Yourknight clubs. Holiday sung for over twenty-five years in the United States and Europe. Holidayalso sung about the plight of African Americans. One of Holiday’s most well known songs forexample is “Strange Fruit”, which describes lynching in the American south.Sourthern trees bear strange fruitBlood on the leaves and blood at the rootBlack body swinging in Southern breezeStrange fruit hanging frome the popular trees.Billie Holiday also co-wrote and sung “God Bless the Child”, which speaks poverty in theAfrican American community.Rich relatives give crust of bread and suchYou can help yourself but don’t take too muchMomma may have, popa may haveBut God bless the child that got his ownThat’s got his own.Holiday used her music to speak out against the societal issues facing African Americans.The 1960’s sparked a movement for social change in the African American community. In the 1960’s, conditions in the United States were still not good for African Americans. AfricanAmericans were still experiencing inferior positons compared to European Americans. AfricanAmericans acquired the worst housing, schooling, the lowest paying jobs, and segregation wasstill a major part of Sourthern life. The conditions of African Americans in the 1960’s sparkedthe Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was where African Americansparticipated in bus boycotts, sit-ins, and long marches and other forms of portest in the pursuit ofequality.The revoluntionary female singer of the 1960’s was Aretha Franklin. Franklin, known asthe queen of soul, was born in Memphis Tenesse in 1942. Franklin was the daughter of a worldfamous preach; the Reverend C.L. Franklin. In the 1960’s, Franklin became one of the biggestinternati...
