Easter 1906

"History is written by the victors" is a well-known quote often attributed to Winston Churchill. In war, that certainly is true, as the victors almost always write the history. In societal struggles, what seems to happen is that those who "come out on top" get to choose what is taught as history. With respect to racial matters in the United States, that decidedly has been the situation, as the struggles of people of color (whether Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, or African Americans) have, more often than not, simply not been a significant part of historical studies in American schools... Lynchings were a deeply disturbing and immoral method of dominating, primarily, African Americans and terrorizing them into submission. Lynchings were widely practiced, particularly in a dozen southern states toward the end of post-civil war Reconstruction, beginning about 1877... Behind these exercises in mob violence lay frequently-invented claims of murder or, especially, of the rape of a white woman by a black man. The image of the out-of-control, savage, and licentious man of color, especially with respect to the unassailable chastity of white women, was and is one of the most established and recurring characteristics of white supremacy. Easter, 1906 recounts one such event. It is the dramatic true story of the lynching of three innocent black men in Springfield, Missouri, over Easter weekend, 1906. Poet Robert Bode has collected material from historical documents of the period and created new poems that reflect upon this tragic event. In turn, Bode's words are here set to music for double choir, soloists, spoken narration, piano four-hands, and two percussionists..." (William Averitt)

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