Cultural Facts and Other Historical Information on Late April of 2020.

Long before R&B was born, its ancestors involved music like African music, jazz, and spirituals found in America. Spirituals weren't just about joy and celebration. Many spirituals back then were used a coded message to escape into the North including Canada from the bondage of slavery. Spirituals also had an oral Christian tradition with Christian themes while abhorring the evil of slavery. At first, spirituals were unaccompanied monophonic or unison song. Songs like the Gospel Train from the Fisk Jubilee Singers (who lived in the late 19th century) are very similar to the spiritual song. In fact, gospel music is a descendant of the spirituals. African Americans used the drum and the banjo as a means to express themselves. The songs from the spirituals, the drum, and the banjo came from West Africa. West African blood is within me, because as an African American my ancestors came from the Congo and Nigeria. The call and response style of preaching came from African tradition. This was when the speaker speaks for an interval and the congregation responds in unison in a continual pattern throughout the sermon. People raising up hands, speaking in tongues, and singing all have been utilized by the black community for generations. Later, it developed into more harmonized choral arrangements. R&B was born in African American communities by the 1940’s. The term rhythm and blues was used in Billboard as early as 1943. Back in the day, it was music identified, especially as shown by black Americans. R&B music during the old days had gospel influences. Really, gospel has influences throughout many genres. During the First and Second Great Migrations of African Americans, black people came into many urban industrial centers like Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, etc. Black people wanted to escape the terrorism and racism found in the Jim Crow South, so they would gain economic opportunities to provide for their families. The irony is that in the North, Midwest, and West Coast, many of the same racism and police brutality would exist. Though Jim Crow apartheid was illegal in many of those places of the North, the system of racial oppression, housing discrimination, economic exploitation and educational deprivation existed via de facto segregation. From the 1920’s and 1930’s, black people organized a lot of markets for jazz, blues, and other types of music. This music wasn’t just shown in concerts or bars. It was shown in homes, mass gatherings, and other locations. The mother of R&B was jazz and blues. To understand music in general, you have to study jazz and blues, because those art forms deal with the essence of rhythm, pitch, notes, creativity, and power involving music. Early blues artists back during the 1920’s and 1930’s were people like Lonnie Johnson, Leroy Carr, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and T-Bone Walker. Bessie was famous. As time went onward, more musicians used the electric guitar, the piano, and the saxophone.



By 1948, RCA Victor marketed black music with the name of “Blues and rhythm.” During that year, Louis Jordan dominated the R&B charts with many songs. These songs were based on the boogie woogie rhythms that were popular during the 1940’s. Jordan’s band was called the Tympany Five. It was created in 1938. It has musicians on trumpet, tenor, piano bass, drums, and saxophone. Jordan’s music was called jump blues (like the music from Big Joe Turner, Roy Brown, Billy Wright, and Wyonoie Harris). Music from Paul Gayetn, Roy Brown, and others had music called rhythm and blues by the 1940’s. Wynonie Harris remaked the Brown’s 1947 recording of Good Rockin’ Tonight. Back in the day, early R&B was criticized by some as too risqué. Some of this music had an Afro-Cuban rhythmic influence too. Jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton said that the tresillo/habanera rhythm (or the Spanish tinge) was an important part of jazz. Habanera was a Cuban genre. Tresillio is part of the duple pulse rhythmic cell in sub-Saharan music traditions. There was blues in New Orleans and music of the Mississippi Delta regions too. One of the greatest artists of jazz that influence future R&B experts was Billie Holiday. Her songs like Strange Fruit and I’ll be Seeing you were classics. Ray Charles’ Hit the Road Jack certainly was very powerful. One of the unsung artists of early rhythm and blues was Lionel Hampton. Other R&B artists of the 1940’s are the Ink Spots, Ella Fitzgerald, The Clovers, The Royales, Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, The Delta Rhythm Boys, The Ravens, Lead Belly, The Soul Stirrers, The Staple Sisters, etc. Great 1950’s R&B groups were Ray Charles, the Drifters, the Coasters, The Miracles, the Isley Brothers, The Platters, The Impressions, The Dells, The Del-Vikings, etc.



Johnny Otis released the R&B mambo called “Mambo Boogie” on January of 1951. It had congas, maracas, claves, and mambo saxophone guajeos in a blues progression. The Hawketts, Ike Turner, and Other musicians made their records. Bo Didley had his music with the first true fusion of 3-2 clave and R&B/rock n roll. Johnny Otis’s Willie and the Hand Jive used the same blend of 3-2 claves and R&B. Early R&B records were sold primarily in African American markets. It wouldn’t be until the early 1950’s, when more diverse people of different colors brought R&B records on a high level. Rhythm and blues appealed to especially teenagers. Many unsung artists in this early era of R&B were Johnny Otis (with his songs like Double Crossing Blues, Mistrustin’ Blues, etc.), Clovers, and other people. Little Richard grew his popularity in the 1950’s. He influenced a wide spectrum of future artists like James Brown, Otis Redding, and even Elvis Presley. Little Richard is right to say that he originated a lot found in R&B and rock and roll culture. Ruth Brown is known as the “Queen of R&B” decades ago. She was on the Atlantic label. She made many hits in the years from 1951 to 1954 like Teardrops from My Eyes, Five, Ten, Fifteen Hours, What a Dream, etc. Faye Adams’s Shake a Hand made it to number two in 1952. Ruth Brown is important to mention, because she is a black woman that inspired future artists to have their opportunities to express their God-given talents to the world. The doo-wop group called The Orioles had the #4 hit of the year with Crying in the Chapel. Fats Domino, Ray Charles, and other people came into prominence during the 1950’s. Chuck Berry and other people had an extraordinary amount of determination and musical talent.



By the late 1950’s, culture was changing. The modern day Civil Rights Movement saw its birth with the Montgomery Bus Boycott after the evil assassination of Brother Emmitt Till. There was a large conservative culture in American society, but that would change with the rise of civil rights activists, beats, and a growing teenage youth culture that loved music (especially black music). While Eisenhower showed his capitulation to the status quo as it pertains to civil rights policies, black people and other people stood up in favor of freedom and justice. By the year of 1956, the R&B leaders of Al Hibbler, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Clark Perkins, etc. were popular among the public. Della Reese was famous along with Chuck Berry, Cathy Carr, Shirley and Lee, the Cleftones, and the Spaniels. Many of these musicians toured places like Columbia (in South Carolina), Annapolis (in Maryland), Pittsburgh, Syracuse (in New York State), Buffalo, New York City, etc. Tours were filled with crowded arenas. Movies saw artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Elvis, Joe Turner, the Treiners, the Flamingos, and the Platters. Nat King Cole with his songs like Mona Lisa and Looking Back further added to his legendary career as a musician and a TV host. A new era by 1959 was starting. This was the same year when 2 black owned record labels were created (which showed R&B music). They are Sam Cooke’s Sar and Berry Gordy’s Motown Records. Later, Motown would be part of the one of the greatest movements of musical expression in world history. Artists like Brooke Brenton was at the top of the R&B charts in 1959 and 1960 with many songs. The 1960’s saw an explosion of soul music. Motown, Staxx Records, Columbia, and other labels just had a large amount of men and women who would sing just magnificently. Therefore, rhythm and blues came from jazz, blues, and gospel. It started in many urban areas in places like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In the near future, I will show information about the soul/R&B music of the 1960’s. As we shall see, the R&B of the 1960’s influenced the development of disco, funk, hip hop, the quiet storm, and other genres of music.



To understand the evil done by Joseph McCarthy is to understand why he was evil. He was evil, because he wanted to eliminate the constitutional rights of Americans if he or she disagreed with his reactionary, radically anti-Communist views. It is not that people have the right to disagree with Communism. People have that right. It is that the First Amendment also gives people the right to peacefully agree with Communism if he or she desires to. I don’t agree with Stalinist Communism, but I will defend anyone the right to believe in what they want to. Joseph McCarthy executed his reign of paranoia in the 1950’s, but anti-Communist hysteria existed long before that decades. During World War I, dissidents were harassed and jailed by the federal government. Civil rights activists during the 1950’s were also harassed. The lie of Joseph McCarthy was that he felt that Communism was a monolithic scourge, and that all Communists collectively wanted to promote a totalitarian empire that tried to take over the world. This Red Scare of the 1950’s caused drills in schools, bunkers being built, and innocent people being oppressed. There were national security debates. The Cold War saw very bad policies among many sides. American imperialists were wrong in executing exploitation and oppression overseas via the CIA coup in Iran, Guatemala, etc. while hypocritically claiming to be for democracy when black people were lynched and terrorized by racism. Many pro-Stalin Communists were wrong to jail Trotskyites, to harm religious freedom, and violate democratic rights in many ways too. All of this is documented too. That is why neoliberal capitalism is just as wicked as an authoritarian form of Communism. Both seek to violate individual and collective human rights, both exploit the rights of people of color, and both are not real solutions to cause genuine revolutionary, structural change in our world. Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, who worked under anti-Communist radical Harry Truman, promoted this hysteria. McGrath viewed Communism as spreading in businesses, offices, street corners, etc. Some believed in the lie that Communists in America infiltrated the heads of the American government. The truth is that only a handful of communists were in high ranking positions of government. Trump issued the Federal Employee Loyalty Program. The FBI screened people for claims of political disloyalty. About 3,000 federal employees were dismissed or resigned after investigations. The Smith violated human free speech rights. The House Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC was created in 1938. HUAC’s job was to rid society of Communism. Many left wing or progressive directors were backlisted for even peacefully believing in Communist views which they have a free speech right to do. The Hollywood Ten were made up of progressive writers, directors, and producers who used their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The Supreme Court in 1957 said that witnesses before HUAC can’t be forced to name radicals that they knew. The HUAC used bullying tactics. J. Robert Oppenheimer was harassed because of his political views. He had ties to the Communist Party including his wife plus his brother. It would not be until the 1960’s when he was mostly left alone. Alger Hiss was accused of being a Communist. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed. We know that evidence showed that Julius was a recruiter for the Soviets (as proven by the Verona documents), but Ethel had a minor role. Joseph McCarthy said that American traitors were undermining America. So, by February 1950, he was on a crusade by accusing many State Department leaders of being communist agents. He was a Senator from Wisconsin. He claimed dozens were communist. Names on his list changed. He never publicly showed the names. One of his great lies is that he accused former Secretary of State George Marshall of being a Communist. Marshall organized the Marshall Plan to give loans to rebuild Europe after World War II. Many far right extremists supported him like the American Security Council. He was educated at the Jesuit Marquette University. Joseph McCarthy interviewed people. He was emotional and twisted the truth. Even people who were non-Communists were discriminated against and fired because of their views like the black U.S. Employment Service employee Dorothy Bailey.  Historian Ellen Schrecker wrote a book entitled, “Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America” that documented the occurrences of the time period. McCarthy accused Communists of infiltration the federal government, universities, the film industry, and in other places via subversion including spies. By 1954, much of his support declined.  McCarthy was censured by the Senate with a vote of 67-22.  McCarthy spoke out against communism and socialism forgetting the differences between the 2 philosophies. McCarthy was a violent bigot who assaulted the journalist Drew Pearson in 1950. McCarthy was allied ideologically with the Committee Counsel hypocrite Roy Marcus Cohn. McCarthy once supported Eisenhower and then attacked Eisenhower accusing him of being “soft on Communism.” Later, McCarthy accused some members of the U.S. Army of being in league with Communists. That was the beginning of the end of his political career. The Army – McCarthy hearings started on April 22, 1954. The Army’s chief legal representative Joseph Nye Welch defended Fred Fisher saying to McCarthy to show decency. Edward R. Murrow was one of the few journalists who criticized Joseph McCarthy. On March 9, 1954 at on Murrow’s show called See It Now, Edward R. Murrow said the following words: “…We must now confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrines, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men…” McCarthy later had little power in the Senate. The Red Scare started to decline by the end of the 1950’s. This event showed that free speech matters. Joseph McCarthy died in the year of 1957. We should never support the suppression of the First Amendment rights of those we disagree with.


For thousands of years, various vehicles have helped human beings with transportation, building infrastructure, and other purposes. The car for long centuries has been an example of a complex machine that helped humanity in many ways. Motor vehicles aren’t just about cars. They can exist in trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc. We live in a time in 2020 where aircraft, amphibious vehicles, ships, boats, trains, and other traveling vehicles has made travel much quicker. Still, any vehicle should have an energy source, motors, and engines. In our time, motor vehicle and trailer categories are defined in various international classifications. Category M refers to passenger vehicles. Category N refers to motor vehicles for the carriage of goods. Category O refers to trailers and semi-trailers. By 1886, the modern car was established in the world. Today, more battery electric vehicles are commonplace. Also, newer technologies are developing like wheel hub motors, wireless charging, hydrogen cars, and hydrogen/electric hybrids. Some have bone into fuel cells research too. Like always, learning about car insurance, costs, and inspections, the rules and regulations pertaining to driving, comparing quotes, and other actions are key in making the great decision in picking a vehicle to drive. Each human being is different. Some people like a small car. Others may like a truck or a minivan. Others may enjoy driving in a truck, jeep, or convertible. That is fine, because we should have the right to have our diverse tastes in vehicle driving. The autonomous car will have a very long time before they even reach commonplace usage because of the obvious reason. In 2018, over 70 million cars have been manufactured worldwide. Most cars in the world are produced by China, Japan, Germany, and India. The largest markets in dealing with cars are China and the United States of America. There are complex issues in dealing with maintaining roads, air pollution, road congestion, public health, health care, land use, etc. We realize the sacrosanct value of cars, and we will enjoy them from driving to relaxing in them.

 By Timothy