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Africa and Africans have had influence upon the culture in America, our customs and ideas, music, religion, art, literature, dance , and language since the earliest settlement times dating back to the 17th century. Since the beginning of the 20th century, African American scholars, teachers and leaders have identified and recognized the link between African culture and Black American pride and power. The political unrest of the 1950's which resulted in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's is directly linked in origin to the ongoing struggle for freedom in Africa and people of color throughout the world.
In 1956, with the formation of the International Society of African Culture and the American Society of African Culture, American blacks firmly embraced African customs, traditions and culture as the dominant influence in African American society as a whole.
For the purposes of this narrative/ photo essay, I would like to explore the cultural influences that Africa has had on American music and music culture from the early times of slave songs and negro spirituals to the pre-modern forms of black music found in Ragtime and Blues music of the urban and rural south.
In 1956, with the formation of the International Society of African Culture and the American Society of African Culture, American blacks firmly embraced African customs, traditions and culture as the dominant influence in African American society as a whole.
For the purposes of this narrative/ photo essay, I would like to explore the cultural influences that Africa has had on American music and music culture from the early times of slave songs and negro spirituals to the pre-modern forms of black music found in Ragtime and Blues music of the urban and rural south.