March Mini Courses   

**This class is a Hybrid. This section of the class will be taught In-Person**

In the Civil Rights Movement, music was vital to fueling the activism and lifting the spirits of African Americans fighting for racial justice and social change. In this three-week mini-course, soul and rock  author and historian Richie Unterberger highlights the role music played in the movement, both in the  southern sites to be visited in OLLI’s May 2026 tour and elsewhere. Filmed and recorded performances by  the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, and Marvin Gaye will be featured in this journey through Civil Rights soul (and some jazz, folk, and gospel) of the 1960s and 1970s. 

Week by Week Outline

Week One: Freedom Songs in Alabama and Georgia 

A. Gospel, blues, and folk songs are vital to firing the spirit of civil rights activism in places like Selma,  Montgomery, Birmingham, and Atlanta, including such standards as “We Shall Overcome,” “We Shall Not  Be Moved,” and “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.” 

B. Civil rights marches and demonstrations in such locations are aided by non-Southern participants like  Harry Belafonte and Bob Dylan. Sometimes they write songs about crucial incidents, like Bob Dylan’s “The  Ballad of Emmett Till” and Richard Fariña’s “Birmingham Sunday.”

C. Musicians from the region not prominently involved in activism nonetheless make their voices heard on  songs about racism and African-American pride, like bluesman J.B. Lenoir’s “Alabama Blues” and James  Brown’s “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” 
 

Week Two: Early Soul and Jazz Music of the Civil Rights Era 

A. By the mid-1960s, soul musicians like Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, and Sam Cooke are performing  songs with messages inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. 

B. Some jazz musicians, especially those in the free jazz movement, weigh in with both vocal and  instrumental pieces commenting on the Civil Rights movement and racial injustice, such as Abbey Lincoln  and Max Roach in Freedom Suite and Charles Mingus in “Freedom.” 

C. Although Motown Records for the most part takes an apolitical stance in its hugely successful hit  records, it does offer support to the Civil Rights movement by issuing Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches on  LPs. Hits from Motown Records also supply the soundtrack for the 1964 film Nothing But a Man, perhaps  the first feature film to realistically depict African-American life in the mid-‘60s South, starring Abbey  Lincoln. 
 

Week Three: Civil Rights Songs, late 1960s and early 1970s 

A. In the late 1960s, soul music with a civil rights consciousness ramps up with hits in that regard by stars  like Curtis Mayfield, Les McCann, and Marvin Gaye. 

B. Echoes of the African-American civil rights movement are heard in musical assertions of justice and self empowerment by other minority groups like Native Americans and the Latinx community, and in Jamaica  by early reggae musicians. 

C. In the early-to-mid-1970s, civil rights continue to be championed by African-American musicians,  sometimes in more militant terms than in the 1960s, and sometimes within the Black Power/Black  Panther movements.

**This class is a Hybrid. This section of the class will be taught on Zoom**

In the Civil Rights Movement, music was vital to fueling the activism and lifting the spirits of African Americans fighting for racial justice and social change. In this three-week mini-course, soul and rock  author and historian Richie Unterberger highlights the role music played in the movement, both in the  southern sites to be visited in OLLI’s May 2026 tour and elsewhere. Filmed and recorded performances by  the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, and Marvin Gaye will be featured in this journey through Civil Rights soul (and some jazz, folk, and gospel) of the 1960s and 1970s. 

Week by Week Outline

Week One: Freedom Songs in Alabama and Georgia 

A. Gospel, blues, and folk songs are vital to firing the spirit of civil rights activism in places like Selma,  Montgomery, Birmingham, and Atlanta, including such standards as “We Shall Overcome,” “We Shall Not  Be Moved,” and “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.” 

B. Civil rights marches and demonstrations in such locations are aided by non-Southern participants like  Harry Belafonte and Bob Dylan. Sometimes they write songs about crucial incidents, like Bob Dylan’s “The  Ballad of Emmett Till” and Richard Fariña’s “Birmingham Sunday.”

C. Musicians from the region not prominently involved in activism nonetheless make their voices heard on  songs about racism and African-American pride, like bluesman J.B. Lenoir’s “Alabama Blues” and James  Brown’s “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” 
 

Week Two: Early Soul and Jazz Music of the Civil Rights Era 

A. By the mid-1960s, soul musicians like Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, and Sam Cooke are performing  songs with messages inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. 

B. Some jazz musicians, especially those in the free jazz movement, weigh in with both vocal and  instrumental pieces commenting on the Civil Rights movement and racial injustice, such as Abbey Lincoln  and Max Roach in Freedom Suite and Charles Mingus in “Freedom.” 

C. Although Motown Records for the most part takes an apolitical stance in its hugely successful hit  records, it does offer support to the Civil Rights movement by issuing Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches on  LPs. Hits from Motown Records also supply the soundtrack for the 1964 film Nothing But a Man, perhaps  the first feature film to realistically depict African-American life in the mid-‘60s South, starring Abbey  Lincoln. 
 

Week Three: Civil Rights Songs, late 1960s and early 1970s 

A. In the late 1960s, soul music with a civil rights consciousness ramps up with hits in that regard by stars  like Curtis Mayfield, Les McCann, and Marvin Gaye. 

B. Echoes of the African-American civil rights movement are heard in musical assertions of justice and self empowerment by other minority groups like Native Americans and the Latinx community, and in Jamaica  by early reggae musicians. 

C. In the early-to-mid-1970s, civil rights continue to be championed by African-American musicians,  sometimes in more militant terms than in the 1960s, and sometimes within the Black Power/Black  Panther movements.

**This class will be taught In-Person**

In this 3-week course, we will expand the themes explored in Part I by looking beyond American Impressionism and the Ashcan School. We'll continue to see how artists explore the beauty of an island that expands ever upward. What we missed out on in the first part was the participation of women artists, but now we have plenty to talk about in the 20th Century. Photography will be discussed, and we'll show how important Point of View (POV) becomes when talking about photographers use of different angles. We'll then talk about the art explosion that was Abstract Impressionism, and the global impact it had. It is not necessary for you to have taken Part I.

Week One: The New York Armory Show led to the downfall of the Ashcan School, but it opened up the eyes of New York artists to modern art. We'll see how this cataclysmic event altered the type of artwork that was being produced. We will take a dive into Edward Hopper, a name synonymous with New York art. 

Week Two: Photography-how the great photographers of the early 20th century were trying to copy painting, but soon learned that the photograph itself was worthy of "Art". Stieglitz was at the heart of both the early Pictorialism movement, but then quickly came to realize that photography wasn't meant to copy painting; it had its own worth. His influence was huge on the photographers who were to follow-Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Paul Strand, and others. 

Week Three: We'll discuss how New York cemented its place as the art capital of the world, first with Abstract Impressionism, then with Pop Art. Jackson Pollock and Willem DeKooning became household names; Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein soon replaced them. We will do this all in the context of how they looked at the city itself.