Motown Records isn’t a label that most people would affiliate with politics, the anti-war movement, critiques on colonialism and imperialism, the civil rights movement and black nationalism. Sure, Marvin Gaye released What’s Going On, but it wasn’t like Motown was tackling serious issues head on via music. However, between 1970 and 1973 they released albums mainly focusing on spoken word and speeches from luminaries like Stokely Carmichael, Elaine Brown, Martin Luther King Jr. and Amiri Baraka that addressed these topics. These records were released under a Motown subsidiary label called Black Forum Records.
For more on the history of Black Forum Records, click here to listen to this episode of WNYC Soundcheck.
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Filed under: Video, Amiri Baraka, Black Forum Records, Civil Rights, Elaine Brown, Gary Bartz, James Mtume, Lonnie Smith, Martin Luther King Jr., Motown, Poetry, Protest Music, Reggie Workman, Spoken Word, Stokely Carmichael
