I realized a while back that while I could name quite a few pointedly political songs by white artists of the Vietnam/Civil Rights era, I could only name two by nonwhite artists - What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye and Mississippi Goddamn by Nina Simone.
Can anyone point me at some more? I know they must be out there, but I can’t think of any until the NWA era - but then I’m a gen-x white girl, so I probably wasn’t exposed to it.
ETA: Strange Fruit is before the time I’m thinking of, but it’s a good one.
Otis Redding’s version is perhaps a bit more to my taste, stylistically, but he diluted the lyrics to be less political and more spiritual. Cooke’s version is the more important.
Although it’s post-60s, I would mention that reggae first became well-known outside Jamaica in the 1970s. Many of the songs of Bob Marley and others are of course highly political (Small Axe, Burnin’ and Lootin’,Guiltiness, etc.).
From the Impressions I would cite “Choice of Colors” and “Mighty Mighty (Spade and Whitey)” from 1969. And of course Curtis Mayfield went on to do some really pointed stuff as a solo artist in the '70s.
This may not really count as the band included two white members, but in the UK the Equals had the rather upbeat song about police violence Police on my Back in 1965. The band footage is neat, but the staged scenes are fairly bizarre.
Their lead singer was Eddy Grant, who went on to have several big hits, including Living on the Front Line in the late 70s.
Love these! Listening to them as I can - keep 'em coming.
I was totally blown away by the Temptations’ Ball of Confusion. I was only familiar with the 1985 Love & Rockets version, which got pretty heavy airplay here, somehow without ever mentioning that it was a cover. Gee, wonder how that happened…