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<\/a>The second musical group they discussed was the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a prestigious African-American choral group from Fisk University in Tennessee. The article laments how the choir will be treated once they return to the United States form their English Tour (\u201cOUR COUNTRY\u2019S SHAME<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\nI was unfortunately not surprised by the level of racism that these musicians had received in the United States, but I was curious as to why it was so much better in Europe. In my search, I found an article by Allison Blakely titled \u201cThe Black Presence in Pre-20th<\/sup> Century Europe: a History,\u201d which explains that while racism in Europe existed, discrimination based on class was much more common, as a person\u2019s class was more important than their race (Blakely<\/a>).<\/p>\n In addition, a Charles Seeger article titled \u201cMusic and Class Structure in the United States\u201d explained how 18th<\/sup> century United States underwent a campaign to \u201cmake America musical.\u201d In the 1800s, the upper class began to differentiate the religious and folk music enjoyed by the lower class from the concert music of the upper classes. This concert music often satirized and sentimentalized the lowest classes, especially African Americans. According to Seeger, this served as a way for whites to \u201cthink they were socially above [African Americans], even though both were poor, downtrodden, and unschooled. It offered ready compensation to the musical and cultural superiority-inferiority complexes of the cities\u201d (Seeger<\/a>) People of color to performing\u00a0 in the prestige of the concert hall would challenge these superiority-inferiority complexes, threatening the white-supremacist attitudes of the 19th<\/sup>-century United States.<\/p>\n Blakely, Allison. \u201cTHE BLACK PRESENCE IN PRE-20TH CENTURY EUROPE: A HIDDEN HISTORY.\u201d BLACKPAST<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>9 February 2008. Accessed 10 October 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cOUR COUNTRY\u2019S SHAME.\u201d Weekly Louisianian, <\/em>30 May,1874, New Orleans. African American Newspapers<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Seeger, Charles. \u201cMusic and Class Structure in the United States.\u201d American Quarterly, <\/em>Vol. 9, No. 3, 1957, The Johns Hopkins University Press. JSTOR<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History, <\/em>Third Edition, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., <\/em>1971, New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week I found an 1874 article from the Weekly Louisianian, a black-owned newspaper that ran from 1837-1921. The article, titled \u201cOur Country\u2019s Shame,\u201d condemned the United States for the prejudice with which they treated the touring musicians of color. … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Countrys-Shame-1-272x300.png\")
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