Ep 6, Black Women's Liberation Movement Music, Overview by the Author

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Episode Date: March 13, 2025

How did Black women use music to fight for freedom?

Book: Black Women's Liberation Movement Music

In this episode of The Cause: Conversations on Music, History, and Democracy, Dr. Reiland Rabaka explores the themes of his recent book, Black Women's Liberation Movement Music: Soul Sisters, Black Feminist Funksters, and Afro-Disco Divas. From the raw soul of Aretha Franklin to the boundary-pushing funk of Betty Davis, this episode highlights the Black women artists who used music as a tool for activism, empowerment, and cultural transformation.

🎧 Listen now and explore the sounds of liberation. See the Spotify playlist link below to hear the music that shaped a movement.

From the Publisher:

Black Women’s Liberation Movement Music argues that the Black Women’s Liberation Movement of the mid-to-late 1960s and 1970s was a unique combination of Black political feminism, Black literary feminism, and Black musical feminism, among other forms of Black feminism.

Read More and Buy Your Copy Today

Listen to the Black Women's Liberation Movement Music playlist on Spotify

The Breakdown - The Music That Shaped A Movement

Nina Simone (full albums):

  • Folksy Nina
  • Broadway Blues and Ballads
  • Pastel Blues
  • The High Priestess of Soul
  • Nina Simone & Piano
  • Wild is the Wind
  • The High Priestess of Soul
  • Nina Simone Sings the Blues

Nina Simone (songs)

  • Children Go Where I Send You
  • Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair
  • Under the Lowest
  • Work Song
  • House of the Rising Sun
  • Brown Baby
  • Zungo
  • Mississippi Goddam
  • Old Jim Crow
  • Strange Fruit
  • Sinnerman
  • The Ballad of Hollis Brown
  • Images
  • Four Women

Aretha Franklin:

  • Hard Times
  • God Bless The Child
  • Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning
  • If I Had a Hammer
  • A Change is Gonna Come
  • Ain’t Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)
  • People Get Ready
  • Son Of A Preacher Man
  • When The Battle Is Over
  • Young, Gifted and Black
  • Border Song (Holy Moses)
  • Bridge Over Troubled Water
  • Respect
  • Do Right Woman, Do Right Man
  • Satisfaction
  • (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
  • Chain of Fools
  • Think

Chaka Kahn:

  • Tell me something good
  • I’m a woman, I’m a backbone
  • I’m every woman

Betty Davis (full albums):

  • Self Titled album
  • They Say I’m different
  • Nasty Gal

Disco Divas

Donna Summers:

  • Love to love ya
  • Hot stuff
  • Bad girls

Gloria Gaynor

  • I will survive

Diana Ross

  • I'm coming out

Grace Jones

  • Slave to the rhythm

Did we forget something for this playlist?  Suggest additions at thecaaas@gmail.com