Protest Music Since those defining years of desegregation, a new generation of Americans—both blacks and whites—have grown up with little or no personal experience of the Civil Rights Era. For many of them, it is abstract ancient history. But the Gen Xers, Millennials, and those younger are painfully learning what our generation learned: while you can and should pass legislation against discrimination, you cannot legislate a change of heart. It was one thing for America to pass legislation abolishing the Jim Crow laws that had mandated racial segregation in all public facilities. It was another issue to eradicate Jim Crow sentiments from the heart. During the Civil Rights Movement, music was used to fan the flames of social change. The protest music of folk singers and rock musicians became the prophetic voice to many in that genera-
9
