#johnlewis

"Django" is a jazz standard written by John Lewis.

Lewis wrote "Django" in 1954 as a tribute to his friend, the Belgian-born jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who died the previous year.

First recorded on December 23, 1954 by the Modern Jazz Quartet, it appeared on the group's 1955 10-inch album The Modern Jazz Quartet, Vol. 2. It was one of the Modern Jazz Quartet's signature compositions, with the group's bassist Percy Heath recalling that "If we didn't play 'Django' in a concert, we risked getting stoned. I mean in the thrown-at sense."

Miles Davis described "Django" as one of the best compositions ever, and in their book Clawing at the Limits of Cool, Salim Washington and Farah Griffin said, "It is almost like a poem in its economy and poignancy. With remarkable restraint and almost no concessions to the extroverted tendencies of jazz, the slow and dirgelike 'Django' sustains an intensity and pathos made all the more beautiful through restraint”.

Personnel:

Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ):

John Lewis – piano

Milt Jackson – vibraphone

Percy Heath – bass

Kenny Clarke - drums

On This Day in 1940: Congressman John Lewis, a proud son of the South and voting rights giant, was born. 

Even as he rests, his work to protect the rights of Black Americans to safely and freely cast their ballots continues. 

Rep. John Lewis talking with a Somali child during Operation Restore Hope, 1993 (NARA ID 6508426); President Barack Obama embracing Rep. John Lewis, 3/7/2015 (NARA ID 157649496); Photo of the two-minute warning on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. (NARA ID 16899041); John Lewis with President Obama and others at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma March (NARA ID 157649500)

We Remember Civil Rights Legend John Lewis 

There is perhaps no single figure whose own life and career embodies the promise, success, and continued challenges of civil rights for Black Americans than John Lewis. We mourn this tremendous loss and look back on his incredible history through our holdings dating back to the early 1960s, including the March on Washington and the “Bloody Sunday” Selma March.

Hear Rep. Lewis describe his meeting with JFK before the March on Washington (from his Oral History for the JFK Library).

It was in this meeting...  somehow out of the blue A. Philip Randolph says something like, “Mr. President, the black masses are restless,” in his baritone voice. “The black masses are restless, and we’re going to march on Washington.” And you could tell by the body language of President Kennedy, he just sort of moved and twisted and turned in his chair, he didn’t necessarily like what he heard. And he said, “Mr. Randolph, if you bring a lot of people to Washington, won’t there be a crisis, disorder, chaos? And we would never be able to get a civil rights bill through the Congress.” And Mr. Randolph responded and said, “Mr. President, this will be an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent protest.” And President Kennedy sort of said, “Well, I think we’re going to have problems. But we all have problems, and we can solve those problems.”

See John Lewis in The March (film of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, restored by the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab). At 23 he was the youngest speaker that day and was the last remaining living speaker.

See also:

FBI Case File #44-28492: Bloody Sunday, Rediscovering Black History blog post by archivist Dr. Tina Ligon

Selma, Edmund Pettus Bridge FBI Case File, Rediscovering Black History blog post by archives specialist Netisha Currie

Testimony of John Lewis in Court Case resulting from 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero introduces Rep. John Lewis at National Archives event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington

Video:  John Lewis on Rights and Justice in America

"NOBODY'S FREE UNTIL EVERYBODY'S FREE" —Fannie Lou Hamer

by Street Art Revolution

Born in 1917 to sharecroppers in Mississippi, and picking cotton from the age of six, Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer became one of the most important and powerful voices in the civil rights movement. in early 2021 the Black-owned @StreetArtRevolution firm and public art collective used Hamer's image and oft-quoted words to frame a new mural on one of the most highly visible walls in West Palm Beach, FL, on Clematis St facing Quadrille Blvd (Hwy 1). The new series of civil rights icons includes, Hamer, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, John Lewis, Kathleen Cleaver, Augusta Savage, and Ella Baker. The four pairs of portraits were painted (left to right) by Eduardo Mendieta; Tracy Guiteau; Nate Delinois, aka Nate Dee (painting the detail of the late great John Lewis); and Dahlia Perryman, aka The Black Dahlia.