Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna come” appeals to the emotions of any listener going through a period of hardships. Being that the song was written in the mid 1960’s, it has been related to the civil rights period. The civil rights movement was a mass popular movement to secure for African Americans equal access to and opportunities for the basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. Although the roots of the movement go back to the 19th century, it peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. African American men and women, along with whites, organized and led the movement at national and local levels. Sam Cooke was born on January 22, 1931in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He first started off his upcoming success when he became the lead singer of the gospel group The Soul Stirrers in 1950. Cooke was raised in a very religious household where his father was a Baptist minister. Cooke then decided to make a switch and leave The Soul Stirrers and get into pop, creating his first remarkable song, “You Send Me.”
…show more content…
According to Mark Naison, professor at Fordham University, the song, “bridged the multiple and diverse feelings about America in the black community- the portion that wants to forget about all the pain and suffering, the portion which is determined to stick together to overcome this in the face of the obstacles.” Sam Cooke really touched the despair, the anger, and the frustration that many African Americans felt in the context of persistent racism, while maintaining a hopeful
According to Mark Naison, professor at Fordham University, the song, “bridged the multiple and diverse feelings about America in the black community- the portion that wants to forget about all the pain and suffering, the portion which is determined to stick together to overcome this in the face of the obstacles.” Sam Cooke really touched the despair, the anger, and the frustration that many African Americans felt in the context of persistent racism, while maintaining a hopeful