Across generations, protest music has inspired social change, especially in the struggle for civil rights and racial justice. Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? remains a timeless classic, while Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” challenged injustice and demanded racial equality. During the Civil Rights Movement, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “We Shall Overcome” became its defining anthem. Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” also stands as a civil rights classic. In this era of MAGA-cult Trumpism, we need the old civil rights protest songs, but we also need the old spiri- tual and scriptural songs to inspire lost generations. As Scripture says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Some people find it hard to imagine what God has in store for us, both in this earthly life and in eternity. America, this world is not all there is; the best comes after physical death. On November 3, 2026, we need to usher in a new public-service song of hope and vote self-centered despair out of public office in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Hope and despair cannot occupy the same space. Hence, God never makes commitments that He is not willing to keep.
Therefore: “we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patient wait for it.” (Romans 8: 24-25). Protest music is about Hope for a better future. Just maybe President Trump should have listened to the lyrics of the song War, before initiating an unnecessary War with Iran, and then asked himself the spiritual question: “war what is it good for?” Just maybe, had Trump asked this spiritual question he might have realized that initiating a war with Iran was not worth the cost in lives and treasure.
Music and Civil Rights protest have always been inexorably linked together, especially for marginalized citizens in American society. ThThis is why there are at least (100) protest songs that span nearly a century. Protest Music decries the kind of injustice that God hates, and demands the kind of justice the Bible references, because God: “Hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6: 8).
God demands that individuals be fair, merciful, and just with each other. Prayerful, let’s hope that President Trump’s MAGA-Cult learn how to express humility in their public/ private dealings with others, and allow justice to roll down from heaven like a mighty stream, because: “surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.” (Job 34: 12). America, now we all know why President Trump employs thuggery to execute his governing exclusionary agenda. Life is about balance; not about extremes, because God is found at the center of life. Now run and tell that, because protest music has played an important role in the struggle for a just, fair, and Godly equitable American society. Finally, thanks to James Brown, we can proudly sing: “Say it loud! I’m Black, and I’m Proud! Glory to God in the highest.
