Event
Song o' the Day-"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen"
Fee:
Free.Dates & Times
Date:
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Type of Event
Description
New Orleans JAZZ NHP’s Song o’ the Day:
“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”
Our NPS Office of Communications “Green & Gray Report” has announced “this month’s national park getaway” is the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument in Alabama. As the GG Report puts it, “BICR” “shares stories of Americans uniting to fight for civil rights despite the dangers and adversity they faced.” As Ranger Kat Gardiner’s well-worth-the-read article points out, this up & coming Monument commemorates tribulations through which one group of Americans forced another group of Americans: the humiliation of “separate and unequal”, the withholding of appreciation for WWII service rendered, the snarling & snapping K-9’s, the bruising streams from fire hoses and police batons, and, of course the bombings… such as the 1963 murders of little girls attending Sunday School. How much oppression can one society inflict upon itself? Like an autoimmune disease wherein a body’s defenses mistakenly attack its own healthy tissue, this rarely ends well. It is not too unlike a segment of our species that, by refusing inoculation, willfully provides incubation for novel and enhanced versions of viral invaders. Go figure…
Our song today is referred to in the liner notes as having been sung by “contraband” (escaped slaves), and hearing it reportedly brought President Abraham Lincoln to tears.
From: Freedom is Coming: Songs of Freedom, Resistance & the Underground Railroad
Written by: Traditional
Produced by: New Orleans JAZZ National Historical Park
Featuring: National Park Rangers Matt Hampsey (guitar) & Bruce Barnes (vocals, harmonica), Mike Harris (bass), Leroy Etienne (drums), Al Bemiss (piano, organ), Joshua Walker (vocals), Joe King Jr. (vocals), Elaine Foster (vocals)
Reservation or Registration: No
Image Gallery
NPS photo: Birmingham Civil Rights NM
NPS photo: Stephen Marc (upress.state.ms.us)