The master narrative of the Civil Rights Era obscures the reality of resistance in the time. It is a narrative that places Martin Luther King as the sole focus of the movement, thus drowning out the disparate voices that made up the movement. Many groups and strategies sprang from the Civil Rights era, from militant groups to non-violent and from integrationist to black nationalist. The narrative that we are taught in schools, the narrative that begins and ends in 11 years and up-plays black non-violence and downplays white violence, however, is harmful. This narrative tells us that civil rights was a quick society and that the entire black community could agree on how to work towards freedom, but most of all, it tells us that our society was immediately fixed by the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. We know this is false. Civil Rights evolved black power and its various related movements.
Gil Scott-Heron’s most widely known song/poem is “The Revolution Will Not be Televised.” The work actively fights against this master narrative of Civil rights by calling for Americans to detach themselves from the polished package of civil rights. It is a song that includes many references to the Watts Riots of 1965, and the racial tensions of the time. There is no post racial America, Heron is saying, and it is foolish to think so. He is promoting Black power through his words and music, causing for black people to take an active role in changing society. Our society, he argues has brainwashed us into believing that revolution and change will be packaged in an easily swallowable, understandable format. Heron is promoting an affront to such existence, and it is an argument inherently tied to the ideas of black power. By rejecting the easily swallowed narrative of our society, black people are taking control of their fate. Real change in America is often violent and ugly, requiring people to dirty their hands and fight for that which they believe in. That is the purpose of stating that the revolution will be live, as Heron is attempting to shed light on more militant forms of resistance. The tendency of civil rights narratives is to shy away from focusing on figures like Stokely Carmichael and the black power movement, but real change is not easily packaged for television.
America has never been a post-racial society, and it is ludicrous to believe the master narrative that Civil rights were gained with minimal violence in a ten year period. This country is steeped in a history of white violence, from KKK to the police who continue to beat and kill black people every day. Gil Scott-Heron used his music to fight the master narrative, to wake people up to the harsh realities of America. His words were about taking action and taking control. They were words of black power. Heron is supporting the detachment from the brainwashing of american society, urging black people to get up and make their brighter day themselves. There is no easily packaged change, and while non-violence was an important tactic to the Civil rights movement, so was the militancy of Stockily Carmichael and the growth of the Black Power movement.
WC: 544
Pledged: Phillips Hutchison
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Scott-Heron, Gil. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."
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