Music removes the boundaries

Aug. 20, 2009

Dear Leslie,

Doug E. Rees is a local songwriter who sings about people who meant something to him growing up, about being proud of his hometown, about what matters to him. His version of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" urging all aboard the train of social justice makes you want to hug everyone in the room.

Last week for the first time I heard Doug E. sing "Sundown Town," his song about American towns where blacks were banned after dark. Sundown towns mostly existed at the beginning of the 20th century, but some lingered beyond the demise of segregation. Black people were allowed in town to work but dared not stay beyond dark under threat of violence.

The existence of sundown towns was unknown to me. Growing up in Cape Girardeau, boundaries between blacks and whites were clearly defined. Black people and white people had their own cafes and neighborhoods and mixed infrequently. In the most recent generations some of those fences have lowered significantly.

One of the most notorious lynchings in the 20th century occurred during World War II in a town just 30 miles south of Cape Girardeau. A mob broke into the jail and killed a black man accused of raping a white woman.

Doug E. talked about a book called "Sundown Towns." In it James W. Loewen writes about whites running the 40 black families out of nearby Anna, Ill., after a similar accusation. In the 2000 census 90 years later, Anna counted one black family.

Loewen writes that sundown towns were mostly a Midwestern phenomenon. Whites-only sundown town communities numbered as many as 15,000 across the U.S by his estimate, and as recently as the 1960s they had cultural company. Iconic Mayberry, Andy Griffith's fictional TV hometown, and "Gilligan's Island" were merely de facto sundown towns.

The boundaries ran deep. I am convinced that music began the continuing process of tearing them down. Erroll Garner grunting at the piano, Ray Charles making our souls shiver, Ella Fitzgerald scatting all over the ceiling, John Coltrane reminding us that we all have favorite things, Sweet Honey in the Rock and Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing straight to our hearts, Jimi Hendrix flying us to the moon on his guitar, Richie Havens turning the word "freedom" into a mantra.

Tuesday night DC and I joined a huge crown on the banks of the Mississippi River to listen to the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, an organization composed of young musicians who travel the world performing from a riverboat. The orchestra and the river made glorious music together.

They played music by composers from around the globe. The sounds of marimbas and Japanese taiko drums mixed with bassoons and tympani. Culture traditionally has been exchanged this way along the Mississippi, by boats bringing goods and music from other places. Breaking down the boundaries. Lessening the fear of differences. Opening us to peace.

Love, Sam

sj-blackwell@att.net<I>