Posted inImported, Talk

Politics of the Blues

Otis Taylor is one of the few blues artists today who has explicitly addressed lynching; his song “Saint Martha Blues” tells in painful detail the story of his great-grandfather’s lynching in Lake Providence, La., who was taken from him home, hung and then torn apart limb by limb. The mob then went to his great-grandmother, Martha Jones, and told her where to find her husband.

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