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Article: Soundtrack to struggle: the Last Poets are still making music about what is happening in the streets, using the language of streets.(culture)
- Article from:
- Colorlines Magazine
- Article date:
- December 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Color Lines Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By 1968, hopefulness in black communities was fading away. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program was undermined by the high cost of the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated, and the country was spiraling into a chaos fueled by racism, poverty, and violence. Eleven cities rioted after King's assassination. The black community felt deeply betrayed by the white political establishment. With its most powerful and prominent leaders cut down in their prime, there seemed to be a political as well as a cultural void in the black community.
Enter The Last Poets, a group of creative activists who, in the eyes of many, are the ...