It’s impossible to grasp the full scope and significance of Black History Month without first understanding the historical backdrop that birthed it. The story starts in 1916, with a man called Carter G. Woodson, a historian and writer often credited with being “the father of black history.” Born in 1875, into an America that had just passed the Civil Rights Act but was still a fraught environment for the black man, Woodson grew up with firsthand knowledge of the horrors of slavery and institutionalized discrimination of black people.
Slavery had been abolished ten years before he was born, but its aftermath still lingered through his formative years. The scars of slavery persisted, literally and figuratively. And black people remained institutionally marginalized. Not to talk of the scourge of poverty that blighted black communities. Through all of this, he realized that perhaps the greatest transgression against the black man was America’s deliberate erasure and undermining of their history and contributions to America and the world. This precipitated his founding of The Journal of Negro History, which later gave rise to Black History Month.
It’s against this canvas that we consider the history of Reggae music at the Grammys, one of the most seminal moments for Black music in contemporary history. One thing to consider when contextualizing Reggae music within the breadth of Black history is that Reggae is as much a political and spiritual movement as it is a music genre. Reggae’s journey to recognition at the Grammys stage is a story of unflinching resistance against the tethers of black oppression, a story of healing from the tyranny of black oppression and consolidation of the black diaspora. It’s also an awe-inspiring tale of the slow but inevitable acknowledgment of black traditions.
Reggae’s story starts in the 1960s when artists like Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff synthesized and distilled its distinctively entrancing rhythms from earlier sounds like Ska and Rocksteady. By the 1970s, helmed primarily by Bob Marley & The Wailers, Reggae would achieve global cultural acclaim. What was most distinctive about Reggae’s feverish proliferation was its singular emphasis on themes of love, peace, global harmony, and resistance in the face of tyranny. Reggae’s dovish disposition resonated globally because it functioned as a salve for the precarious political climate of the time: Martin Luther King had been assassinated just as the Civil Rights Movement was pushing for more Black American civil liberties. The Vietnam War was underway and with it a tide of global anti-American sentiments. Blacks in South Africa were fiercely resisting colonialism and segregation. Against this cacophony, the visions of serenity offered by Reggae felt especially powerful. Even today, when you play Bob Marley’s One Love or Redemption Song or No Woman, No Cry, you can still feel a visceral gust of total tranquility caress your soul.
Despite Reggae’s immense commercial success, as well as its cultural impacts, it would take years of pressure and clamoring, as is usually the case with things concerning Black people, before the Grammys would finally award the genre its category in 1985. By then Bob Marley, who had been the face of the genre, had been dead for four years. He’d however win several awards posthumously. This year’s award went to the soundtrack of an autobiographical musical drama film in his honor entitled Bob Marley: One Love, which features an eclectic ensemble of black artists including Wizkid, Bloody Civilian, Shenseea, Daniel Caesar, Leon Bridges, Mystic Marley and Skip Marley. In recent years, contemporary acts like Koffee and Kabaka Pyramid have won the award. Woodson, the father of black history, intended for Black History Month to be as much a celebration of black legacy, an illumination of the joys of black existence as it is a reflection of our haunting history of slavery and colonialism. And so, anytime we reflect on instances of black excellence, whether in music or sports or the arts, as we have in this retrospective of Reggae’s journey to the Grammys, we’re celebrating the true essence of Black History Month.
