Against the Grain II
Do yourself a favor and watch ‘Summer of Soul’
Harlem Music Festival is an example of Black history being buried
I was unaware of the Harlem Music Festival of 1969. Thanks to producer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, I was treated to one of the most emotional documentaries I may have ever seen. “Summer of Soul” was released in July and is streaming on the Hulu platform.
I can’t remember the last time anything captivated my mind like “Summer of Soul.” It is an opportunity to have a front-row seat and backstage pass at the same time to some of the most historic performances ever in Black music. It is often said that our Black souls can be touched by our ancestors … this documentary is proof.
In 1969, there was a lot going on. The Woodstock Festival was going on in upstate New York. Meanwhile, America’s Apollo landed on the moon. We were also dealing with the atrocities of Charles Manson and his demonic followers.
The list of entertainers from the festival is a virtual A-list of talent. BB King, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, David Ruffin, the Staples Singers, the Fifth Dimension and Mahalia Jackson were some of the leading acts that performed over the course of over a month.
Jesse Jackson lent his image to the event, recanting the fateful day that Martin Luther King Jr. had died just a year earlier.
Over 300,000 are estimated to have attended the festival in Mount Morris Park in New York. The remarkable thing is with all those patrons, there were no reports of violence. The Black Panther Party assisted the event as security to ensure the safety of the artists after event organizers initially were not guaranteed New York Police protection.
On the day that Stevie Wonder and Gladys knight performed, the Apollo landing took place. It was interesting to hear patrons from the festival, asked about their reaction to the mission to the moon, criticize it as a waste of money.
“We have people starving right here in New York. That money could have been used to help folks right here,” one attendee at the concert said. It was an exclamation of the two totally different Americas that existed at the time as mainstream media praised the landing.
Black History has often been hidden, re-written, unacknowledged or simply cleansed. Great feats have been diminished over the years in order to suppress the greatness of the culture. While acts of this nature are less prevalent today because of technology, the fact that an event of this magnitude was hidden in a storage room for over 50 years is beyond belief.
If there was one moment on the “Summer of Soul,” that embraced the entire festival, it was when Jesse Jackson called on Mahalia Jackson to sing “Precious Lord,” as she had done at Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral. Jackson wasn’t feeling her best and called upon Mavis Staples to help her with the song. Staples laced the song, but the spirit hit Jackson and in true “Queen of Gospel” fashion, she finished the song as only she could.
Leave it to hip hop’s most famous drummer to understand the rhythm of our culture. Do your soul a favor and catch “Summer of Soul.”
