October 2018
In
1964, President Lyndon Johnson had pushed for the passing of the
Civil Rights act, making segregation in America illegal. The governor
of Mississippi, the law and the KKK vowed to keep doing things their
way, and continued to perpetrate violence on the local
African-American population. They also made life extremely difficult
for students from the northern states committed to the Summer Project
which was devoted to getting African Americans in Mississippi to
register to vote. The powers that be in Mississippi didn't like
"outsiders" interfering in their business. Three students,
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were all murdered
by the local law representatives.
Quite
separate from these tragic events, three young blues fans from the
east coast and three from the west coast went searching in
Mississippi for their blues heroes Son House and Skip James who had
not been heard from for many years. They were naive about the events
of the Civil Rights movement and their own danger. Their hopes were
to learn from their heroes and coax them out of musical retirement.
The
stories are part of a 2016 documentary called Two Trains Runnin’.
It’s directed by Sam Pollard and produced / written by Benjamin
Hedin. Both men have a long history in film and book relating to the
period covered in this documentary. For episode 57 of See Hear
Podcast, Bernard, Tim and Maurice were thrilled to have Benjamin come
onto the show to discuss the film and the history behind it. These
stories are parallel but converge. There are moments of terror trying
to fathom man's inhumanity to man, and there are moments of
celebration when the love of music brings people together. The film
is rivetting viewing. Make this episode a priority – it’s an
important one. We are hugely grateful for his time.
You
can purchase or rent the film
at https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/two-trains-runnin/id1412361651 (and
we highly recommend that you do).
If
you’ve been enjoying the show, please give us a favourable review
on iTunes and let your friends know that our show exists.
You
can search for See Hear podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or the
podcast app of your choice.
Send
us feedback via email at seehearpodcast@gmail.com
Join
the Facebook group at http://facebook.com/groups/seehearpodcast
Download
episode 57 from here.
Proudly
part of the Pantheon Network of music podcasts.
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