The Social Significance of the Blues and its Impact on Jazz To understand the part played by the blues in American society, we need to consider what psychological imprints the blacks inherited from the years of slavery as well as what cultural and artistic forms existed during those times. ...

When one hears the word spiritual, religion and faith come to mind. When one hears the word blues, naturally one thinks of depression and sadness. As words, spiritual and blues are almost entirely opposite from one another. However, when looked at in a musical standpoint the true definitions, going ...

Gayl Jones's Corregidora is not your typical response to a long and rather terrifying history of slavery in the Americas. Instead, it is an attempt to humanize the ugly experiences of older African-American generations. While on the surface, it appears another story focusing on the history of sla...

Songs play a crucial role in setting the mood of In the Heat of the Night, a film directed by Norman Jewison, starring Rod Steiger as Sheriff Gillespe and Sidney Potter as Virgil Tibbs. Through out the movie, common themes such as racism and power surface continually and are the focus of the film. ...

The poem by Langston Hughes that is intitled, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" is a very interesting one. I have come up with my own interpretation. I think that the man who is the narrator is not talking about just himself but on behalf of all African Americans. He talks about how he bathed in the Euph...