By Jamie Self – jself@heraldonline.com
Rock Hill made its way into rock ‘n’ roll history through the upbeat lyrics of Chuck Berry.
But the story behind the song might have more to do with blacks’ struggle for equality than rock music – marketed to a white audience – lets on, historians say.
Released in 1964, Berry’s song “Promised Land” refers to several cities including Rock Hill where the Freedom Riders stopped in May 1961 as they rode buses through the South protesting Jim Crow segregation.
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File photos – MCT – – Rock legend Chuck Berry, whose song
AUDIO: Clip from Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land”
Berry’s experiences with racism in the South, legal troubles and awareness of racial inequality likely informed his songs, historians say, but did so in a veiled way that wouldn’t turn away his largely white audience.
The Freedom Riders made several stops on their voyage through the South. In Charlotte, some were arrested. In Rock Hill, they were attacked. In Alabama, near Anniston, one of their buses was firebombed. In Birmingham, Ala., a mob attacked another group of riders.
At that point, the riders were evacuated to New Orleans. They reassembled to continue their ride, which ended when they were arrested in Jackson, Miss. By then, the protest had spread across the South.
The song and history
On the surface, “Promised Land” is a travelogue tracing a path Berry likely would have taken on tour, musician and rock historian Barry Drake wrote in an email to The Herald.
But the speaker endures his own trials while moving through the South. Places referred to in the song are where the Freedom Riders stopped and experienced violence.
Berry’s self-described “poor boy” leaves home in Norfolk, Va., heading for the “promised land” in California on a Greyhound bus.
He stops in Charlotte, but bypasses Rock Hill, where the riders first experienced violence.
Halfway across Alabama, the speaker’s bus encounters “motor trouble that turned into a struggle,” which leaves him “stranded in Birmingham.” He escapes on a train to New Orleans, where people from Houston who “care a little” about him buy him a silk suit and a flight to California, where he calls home to let his family know he’s arrived at the “promised land.”
It makes sense for him to bypass Rock Hill, Drake said, “because that’s what the highway did. Most musicians would have been racing by to get to their next gig which was probably in Columbia, Charleston or points south.”
Berry could not be reached for comment. But his mention of Rock Hill might be telling – it was one of a few he names in the song, historian and Chuck Berry biographer Howard DeWitt said.
Rock Hill was likely an “insignificant” city to him in comparison to the popular cities he played in. Mentioning it suggests he might have been thinking of the violence that took place there when writing his song, he said.
Berry often hid references in his songs to the political struggles blacks were enduring, and the “discrimination he saw in the news and in his own personal life,” Drake said. For example, the 1956 song “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” originally was called “Brown-Skinned Handsome Man,” Drake said. “It was much easier to get radio play with the changed lyrics.”
Writing for a mainstream audience, Berry was set on “touring incessantly and making as much money as he could,” DeWitt said. Making money meant writing songs the audience would accept, songs that “crossed over to the white marketplace,” he said.
But Berry would have been aware of blacks’ struggle for civil rights, especially in the late 1950s early 1960s when he became the target of what DeWitt believes was a charge motivated largely by racism and prejudice.
His own struggles
In the years leading to the Freedom Rides, Berry was frequently detained by local police across the South, DeWitt said.
“He was stopped and never charged for anything, but he kind of flipped a middle finger in their face,” he said.
In 1960, he was charged with violating the Mann Act – or the White Slave Traffic Act – a 1910 federal law prohibiting the transport of women across state lines for immoral purposes. Though enacted to thwart prostitution, the law was often used to target people for their race or political views, critics have said.
Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, was convicted in 1912 of violating the Mann Act for transporting his white girlfriend across state lines.
The charge against Berry came after a 14-year-old Apache Indian traveled with him from Texas to Missouri. Historians say the girl claimed to be older and traveled with him willingly.
“There’s no doubt it was consensual,” DeWitt said, calling Berry a “womanizer,” who frequently had white women visiting his hotel room. But breaking rules about race and sex were part of the rock culture, commonplace at the time, he said.
Berry was a likely target, DeWitt said. “He was middle class, he was light-skinned, his attitude was ‘you can kiss my a– if you don’t like what I’m doing.'”
His experiences, no doubt, influenced his songs, which told compelling stories about America despite being written for a commercial audience, DeWitt said.
Berry was like “Bob Dylan before Dylan,” he said. “His lyrics are a history of America.”
Jamie Self 803-329-4062
Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/05/10/3054479/promised-land.html#ixzz1Lw97HhTb
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