Earlier this month, I attended a panel discussion on “Art in Public Space” held in the Hamilton Garden of the Kimmel Center. As I waited for the program to start, I checked out the view from the top floor. What I saw left a hole in my heart.
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff have earned their place in history.
Sadly, the building that held the stories of the songwriters, musicians, producers and arrangers is now lost to history. For the love of money, African Americans’ cultural heritage was erased from public memory.
Gamble and Huff sold the historic building to Dranoff Properties which plans to build a luxury hotel and condos for the one percent. Three years after the demolition of “309,” there’s just a hole in the ground. The reason: Dranoff Properties is waiting for a corporate welfare check to the tune of $19 million before breaking ground on the “biggest, tallest and most expensive” project the company has ever done.
In the poorest big city in the country, spending taxpayers’ money to further enrich the rich is the sound of Philadelphia.
Today is Juneteenth, the oldest celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived at the port of Galveston, Texas with a contingent of United States Colored Troops and issued General Order No. 3 which announced that “all slaves are free.”
Freedom for Texas’ 250,000 slaves came two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on Jan. 1, 1863.
Earlier this month, the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum and the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission organized a public forum, “Just Beneath the Surface: A Public Conversation about Burial Places in and around Philadelphia.”
The purpose of the event was to increase social awareness about the existence of forgotten burial grounds, and identify legal and regulatory tools to protect these sacred sites. Archaeologist Doug Mooney, president of the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum, said:
Since 1985, more than 20 cemeteries have been stumbled upon by contractors or city workers, including the Bethel Burial Ground which in 2016 was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The discovery of the Germantown Potter’s Field stopped the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s Queen Lane project for three years.
PAF proposes a 5-point plan to protect Philadelphia’s forgotten burial places:
Establish an official policy that historic burial places are important elements of the city’s historical legacy and are worthy of preservation.
Create a database/registry of all known historic cemeteries and burial places.
List all historic burial places in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places as a Thematic District.
Pass an ordinance establishing a process for treating unmarked burial places.
Establish clear oversight and accountability roles for city agencies.
Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. In 1991, an uncivil war of words broke out when skeletal remains were uncovered in Lower Manhattan. After years of protests, meetings, hearings, etc., then-Congressman Augustus Savage told the General Services Administration that funding would be stopped until the matter was resolved. Then as now, money talks. The African Burial Ground National Monument is the final resting place for the remains of 419 free and enslaved Africans.
In the “show me” state, preservationists are dismayed by the lack of love that has been shown to Greenwood Cemetery which dates back to the Reconstruction era. In 2004, Greenwood was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Among the notables interred in Greenwood is Harriet Robinson Scott, a former slave whose husband, Dred Scott, petitioned the courts for his freedom. In the Dred Scott Case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a black person, free or slave, was not and would never be a citizen of the United States.
On June 7, 1979, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the month of June “Black Music Month.” Every president since then has recognized the contribution of black musicians to the nation’s cultural heritage. In 2009, President Barack Obama changed the month-long celebration to “African-American Music Appreciation Month.”
The tradition continues with President Donald Trump:
During June, we pay tribute to the contributions African Americans have made and continue to make to American music. The indelible legacy of these musicians who have witnessed our Nation’s greatest achievements, as well as its greatest injustices give all Americans a richer, deeper understanding of American culture. Their creativity has shaped every genre of music, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, hip hop, and rap.
[…]
We also take time this month to recognize the musical influence of two of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald, as this year marks their centennial birthdays. Gillespie, through his legendary trumpet sound and Fitzgerald, through her pure, energetic voice, treated people around the world to spirited and soulful jazz music. Their work has influenced countless musicians, and continues to inspire listeners young and old.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2017 as African-American Music Appreciation Month. I call upon public officials, educators, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate activities and programs that raise awareness and appreciation of African-American Music.
I kicked off this year’s celebration by attending opening night of Motown The Musical.
The multi-media musical recaps familiar stories about how Berry Gordy Jr. founded the Motown Record Company; Gordy’s affair with Diana Ross; self-destructive Florence Ballard; the tempting Temptations and their rivalry with the Four Tops; songwriter, singer and Motown lifer Smokey Robinson; child prodigy and history-maker Stevie Wonder; and the discovery of The Jackson 5. The Motown breakups include Mary “My Guy” Wells, Marvin Gaye, songwriting and production team Holland-Dozier-Holland, and Diana Ross and the Supremes.
The audience went nuts when Martha Reeves and the Vandellas gave “Philadelphia, PA” a shout-out in “Dancing in the Streets.” Although one knows how the stories end, the retelling is fresh and joyous. The musical culminates with a “family” reunion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Motown.
I remember like it was yesterday watching the television special, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. In 1983, I sang the songs at the top of my lungs, danced in front of the TV, and marveled as Michael Jackson debuted the moonwalk. At the Academy of Music, I danced in my seat and tried not to sing too loud.
But it wasn’t just the songs and dancing that kept a smile on my face. I love that the music is contextualized. Motown addresses racial segregation in the South and the North, the senseless war in Vietnam, the March on Washington, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Black Power Movement. By the 1970s, the “Motown Sound” was the sound of the struggle for racial justice.
Motown The Musical is playing at the Academy of Music through June 11. For ticket information, visit kimmelcenter.org.
