Civil Rights Hip Hop

Civil Rights' new frontier: The Hip Hop generation

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Not enough is being done to welcome black youth and hip hop culture into the modern civil rights movement, the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said.

The Rev. Charles Steele Jr. considers that a failing and vows to try changing it.

“That's where our next fight must be ... to bring in the hip hop culture, to let them know that they don't have to remain empty on the inside and feel that they're a stepchild within this society and within the movement that we believe so dearly in,” he said as the Atlanta-based civil rights group prepared to open its 50th anniversary convention in its birthplace, New Orleans, on Saturday.

The 5-day conference, expected to draw up to 3,000 people, comes at a time when YouTube videos and blogs have replaced the bullhorns and march banners that typified the early years of the civil rights.

Longstanding civil rights groups provide a “good model, but we'll do our own thing,” said Henry Davis III, 22, who's teaching in a music program for kids this summer and is pursuing a master's degree in education. “It's a new day.”

New leaders are emerging: Davis and Brandan Odums, who's teaching TV at the same camp in New Orleans, cite Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as one and credit him with helping energize their generation in a way they haven't seen.

That's also showing up in hip hop music, Davis and Odums said, though they believe many are too quick to dismiss the culture and paint it with a broad brush “gold in their mouth and tattoos,” as Davis put it.

Odums feels an “extreme lack of understanding” from the “so-called black leadership.” He believes leaders of traditional black organizations often disrespect and dismiss hip hop, what he calls the language of black youth. And some young people often tend to view lions of the movement more as adversaries than role models, he said.

“You feel like you always have to justify yourself,” the New Orleans drama and communications major said. “'How do the older cats feel about us? How do white folks feel about us?' If you listen to hip hop, rap, a lot of what Jesse Jackson is saying can be found in rap songs.”

Both Jackson and Al Sharpton are scheduled to speak at the SCLC conference.

Steele says more must be done to educate youth about the history of the civil rights movement _ its roots, challenges, successes and aims _ to train new leaders, fight complacency and keep from losing any ground.

SCLC was founded by Martin Luther King Jr. and others in 1957, when there was still an onerus poll tax on Southerners. Today, an all-too-frequent challenge is getting people to actually exercise their right to vote.

While great strides have been made, many of the concerns raised decades ago remain, including education, health care and economic opportunities, Steele and Davis say.

The issue is how best to advocate and rally support for those. Davis and Odums believe the answer lies in media by using entertainment to engage young people. Davis is part of a group called 2-Cent Entertainment, which produced the stark online video “New Orleans For Sale” satirizing bus tours through neighborhoods destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Steele said music is very powerful, and long has been, and acknowledges the excitement Obama has generated. He hopes to find ways to bridge the generational gap because much work remains, he said.

“What I'm concerned about is the fact we're leaving out a group of people called the hip-hop culture ... born after Dr. King was assassinated, and we as leaders, inclusive of myself, are overlooking that fact that we must be inclusive of the generation that's coming behind us, and I don't feel very good about that,” he said.

SCLC Web site:
http://www.sclcnational.org/content/sclc/splash.htm

2-Cent Entertainment: http://www.myspace.com/2centonline