Video
Grades
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B.S. Plair of Rock Hill, South Carolina, served for the Montford Point Marines in 1945, until he was honorably discharged in 1946. The Montford Point Marines were based in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina...
African American Music Appreciation Month
The month of June provides a time to appreciate and celebrate African American musicians, composers, singers, and songwriters. This observation began on June 7, 1979, when President Jimmy Carter decreed June to be Black Music Month.
The month of June provides a time to appreciate and celebrate African American musicians, composers, singers, and songwriters. This observation began on June 7, 1979, when President Jimmy Carter decreed June to be Black Music Month.
Video
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
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Episode
5
This program for grades Pre K-5th focuses on life skills using music and puppets. Topics include: Jazz Music; Sickle Cell Awareness; Financial Literacy; and Emergency Preparedness. The Auntie Karen...
Audio
Grades
- 3
- 4
Music is another important part of life on the Sea Islands. Most of the Gullah music is found in religious practices. Although spirituals had a Christian message, they were heartfelt expressions of...
Document
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
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Gullah traditions are the customs, beliefs and ways of life that have been passed down among Sea Island families. Making sweetgrass baskets, quilting, and knitting fishing nets are a few of the crafts...
Photo
Grades
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Episode
42
The number one conga player in Cuba in the 1930s was Chano Pozo. Chano was the "best of the best," and soon he was playing beside Dizzy in the United States! In the 1940s, Chano and other Cuban...
Photo
Grades
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Episode
41
During the 1920s, the sound of "rumba" music took over Cuba. Rumba was great to dance to, as it was played with many types of percussion instruments. The congas stood out as rumba's major percussion...
Photo
Grades
- 3
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Episode
40
South Carolina played a big part in the creation of Latin Jazz! From Sabor, we learned that Latin jazz music has roots right here in South Carolina. Dizzy Gillespie, a famous jazz trumpet player from...
Photo
Grades
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Episode
33
Jazz music originated in the United States. It was created by African Americans in the early 1900s. The sound of jazz was influenced by West African rhythms and music, and American folk music. A...
Interactive
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
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Students will understand how enslaved Africans created music for their worship experience. Religious meetings in “praise houses” provided the spiritual outlet for enslaved Africans on the plantation...
Interactive
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
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Students will understand that music and material culture became a mode of covert communication between slaves. Aunt Pearlie Sue is our guide as students uncover hidden messages in the work songs...
Interactive
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
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Students will understand traditional blues form that contains three four-measure phrases that follow the pattern AAB. Let Reverend Leroy show you how to express your sad feelings by composing a blues...
Photo
Grades
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This building, which was designed by Robert Mills, was constructed in 1833 for the care of sick and disabled seamen. After the Civil War, it became a school for African American children. From 1895 to...
Photo
Grades
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John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie got his nickname because he liked to make jokes and act up on stage. He was one of the greatest of all jazz musicians, and the most famous native of Cheraw, South Carolina...
Photo
Grades
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Episode
1
Langston Hughes 1902-1967 Langston's father once discouraged him from writing poetry. He believed discrimination would keep the young Langston from finding success as a poet. But Langston continued to...
Photo
Grades
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Scott Joplin was born near Linden, Texas and raised in Texarkana, Texas, the son of a railroad laborer who had been a slave. Joplin showed an early and extraordinary aptitude for music, which was...
Photo
Grades
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Hugh Masekela was born in Witbank, South Africa on April 4, 1939. He began singing and playing piano as a child and as a teenager, was encouraged to play the trumpet by the British anti-apartheid...
Photo
Grades
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Mary Lou Williams was born in Atlanta, Georgia on May 10, 1910 and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A prodigy, she taught herself to play the piano at the age of four. Williams could hear a piece...
Photo
Grades
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Celia Cruz was born and raised in the working class Santos Suarez neighborhood of Havana, Cuba on October 21, 1924. Brought up in a musical family, she began singing in local contests and later...
Photo
Grades
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Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 and raised in the Storyville district of New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child he was a street singer and learned to play the coronet while in reform school...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
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Episode
9
Blues and country music contributed to a style called rhythm and blues. This was an early form of what we now call rock and roll. It appealed to a younger audience that liked to dance to the sounds of...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
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Episode
3
Enslaved Africans sang songs as they worked to help keep the pace of the task they were doing. A leader called out a verse or yell and others responded. This is the call-and-response singing tradition...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
Episode
12
African call-and-response patterns and improvisation survived the Middle Passage and became two of the basic elements of one of today’s most popular forms of music. In the 1970s, rap music began in...
Audio
Grades
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Episode
2
European slave traders brought Africans to the New World on ships as early as the 1400s. These voyages across the Atlantic Ocean are called the Middle Passage. It was a terrible experience for the...
Audio
Grades
- Pre K
- Kindergarten
- 1
- 2
Episode
11
Reggae music is a Jamaican style of music that has roots in African music and rhythm and blues, or early rock and roll. Reggae songs are usually about social issues, politics and the Rastafarian...