1936, and New York City postman Victor Hugo Green publishes the first edition of the Negro Motorist Green-Book. This directory of hotels, restaurants, mechanics, and other services open to Blacks became an indispensable resource for travelers of color.

Each annual edition grew in size and detail, mapping roads relatively safe from police profiling. “Driving while Black” was a common offense, and it was not unheard of for Black motorists, especially cars full of Black musicians, to disappear while on a road trip. Victor Green also included an ever-growing list of “sundown towns” – cities both north and south not safe for Black motorists after dusk.

Black musicians kept well-thumbed copies of the Green Book close by when touring. The nation’s craving for jazz and dance bands, sadly, outpaced its open-mindedness toward the people who played the music. Drummer “Tootie” Heath recalled that it was “just normal stuff” to be shut out of hotels, not served in restaurants, or denied use of the bathroom.

Pianist Norman Simmons explained that from the Green Book, he knew which restaurants would allow his band to sit and eat, which ones would only let him order food to go, and where they could sleep for the night. Said Simmons, “Sometimes it was a long ways between friendly towns. There were often five of us in the car and we’d just have to take turns driving.”

The Negro Motorist Green-Book helped jazz musicians chart safe routes through Jim Crow America. “I lived through it,” said Tootie Heath, “but a lot of my friends did not.”

“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.

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It’s 1959 and Dinah Washington records the latest from hit-maker Clyde Otis. As she sings, she knows the song – “This Bitter Earth” – will be a classic. But neither Washington nor Otis could predict just how great an impact “This Bitter Earth” would have on American culture.

Clyde Otis wrote over 800 songs during his career. He wrote for Elvis, for Brook Benton, and for Nat King Cole. “This Bitter Earth” was another in a string of hits, peaking at Number 1 on the charts. Over the years, it was re-recorded by dozens of artists – from Aretha Franklin to Gladys Knight. It has been sampled in rap songs, and used in dance choreography and in video games. The song has never faded from the public’s ears.

It’s now 1978, and young filmmaker Charles Burnett debuts his latest creation at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Killer of Sheep follows Stan, a sensitive dreamer who fights daily against the stress and ennui of life in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles. “This Bitter Earth,” is the metaphoric catalyst, and is heard throughout the film.

The Library of Congress declared Killer of Sheep a national treasure for its “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” depiction of life in Watts. Following a recent restoration, the film screens regularly at festivals around the globe and on cable movie channels.

Over 60 years later, Clyde Otis’s “This Bitter Earth,” continues to engage the eyes, ears, and consciousness of the people.

“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.

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It’s 1994 and it’s opening night for Wynton Marsalis’s Blood on the Fields – an extended jazz oratorio on the condition of American slavery. The narrative unfolds and the music courses through elements of work songs, call and response, blues, ragtime, and jazz. The audience realizes that Blood on the Fields is far more than yet another story of racial degradation.

Blood on the Fields, as Stanley Crouch wrote, is “An epic truth-telling of the national condition of slavery, that pushes against the Constitution, disregards the Christian underpinnings of the nation. It molds our politics, our military history, our arts, the Civil War and its echoes, the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement.”

The Lincoln Center audience follows Jesse and Leona from the slave ship to the auction block to the plantation. Jesse, a prince in Africa, leans on Leona. Her great strength shows not only Jesse, but the audience and all Americans, how to face truth, how to survive, and how to be truly free. Blood on the Fields, says Wynton Marsalis, teaches, “what it takes to achieve soul: The willingness to address adversity with elegance.”

Blood on the Fields became a true cultural force and agent for change. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1997 – the first work of jazz to be so honored. Marsalis’s oratorio opened the door for previously ignored jazz works by Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane to receive posthumous recognition.

“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.

Podcast (soundtrack): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS