Vince Townsend, Jr. as the silent judge in “The Case of the Skeleton’s Closet” Source: Screenshot
How Perry Mason Helped Change a Nation
If you watched the Perry Mason program during its original network television run (1957 – 1966), you saw a series in which all of the principle parts were played exclusively by White actors. Yet, with one subtle casting decision, the show helped to break down racial barriers in 1960s America.
Perry Mason was one of the most popular programs of the golden age of television. Its 271 episodes made such an impact that they have been continually shown in syndication right up to today.
But during the time frame in which the original Perry Mason series was produced, the one thing you seldom saw on network television was a Black person playing any substantial role other than that of a servant or perhaps an entertainer.
That’s why I was quite surprised, while recently watching a 1963 episode of the series, to see an African American judge sitting on the bench. A Black man shown in a position of authority over Whites? That just didn’t happen in the television world of the early 1960s!
Perry Mason Makes Television History
The episode in which the Black judge appeared was “The Case of the Skeleton’s Closet,” which originally aired on May, 2, 1963. Just showing a Black judge presiding over a courtroom was, for that time, very unusual.
But what’s even more unusual is that during the entire episode, which has an extended courtroom scene, the judge never speaks. As far as I am aware, that happened no more than twice during the entire run of the Perry Mason series.
The judge is seen several times in the background as Perry and District Attorney Hamilton Burger interrogate witnesses. And once, for a few seconds, he has the screen entirely to himself in a closeup. But he never speaks or makes any ruling, not even to call a recess for lunch.
But Townsend’s accomplishments went far beyond his work on the screen. He was especially well suited for his Perry Mason role because he was actually a real judge with the Los Angeles County Municipal Court.
Admitted to the California Bar in 1943, Townsend became the first African American judge in Los Angeles County. His career as a lawyer and judge was so impactful that in 1998 the National Bar Association established The Vince Monroe Townsend, Jr. Legacy Award, which honors lawyers who “exhibit historic and continual leadership in the civil rights arena.”
And as if all that wasn’t enough, Townsend was a minister at the First AME Church in Los Angeles.
Although Judge Townsend had a number of credited roles in television and movie productions, he did not receive screen credit for his appearance as the judge on Perry Mason. This apparently was because only speaking roles were credited.
An African American in a Position of Authority on 1960s TV!
Despite the fact that the judge in “The Case of the Skeleton’s Closet” was written in the script as a non-speaking part, I believe the choice of an African American to play the role was significant. For a nationally televised program to show a Black person in a position of authority over Whites was something that just didn’t happen in mid-twentieth century America. It may well be that the producers of the Perry Mason series wanted to help overcome that barrier, but without seeming to go too far.
This was a time when the civil rights movement was at its height. Every night on their television sets viewers around the country were seeing African Americans engaging in demonstrations to demand equal rights and equal treatment. Awareness of how Black people had been unfairly discriminated against and held back from full participation in the life of the nation was growing.
TV Was Still Held Hostage by Southern Segregationists
But network television was actually behind the civil rights curve. The entertainment industry, with a large portion of its revenues coming from the South, had historically felt the necessity of putting out a product that would be acceptable below the Mason-Dixon line.
Since any show that presented African Americans in anything but the most servile positions would simply not be broadcast by local stations in the South, it was very unusual for Blacks to play roles that went beyond the maids, Pullman porters, or comedic buffoons that fit the idea many Whites had of the positions it was proper for Black people to fill.
The Lasting Legacy of the Silent Judge
By casting Vince Townsend to sit on the bench in this episode, Perry Mason featured an African American judge who would stay firmly in the background, but who made a statement just by being there. It seems as if the producers of the show were willing to show a Black man on the bench and theoretically in control of the proceedings, but were not ready to risk showing him actually exercising authority over Whites in the courtroom.
Vince Townsend’s role was not considered significant enough, at the time, to merit screen credit. But for him to be there at all, as a judge presiding over a courtroom filled with White people, was a rather timid but important step forward for network television in that era.
By portraying a Black man in a position where he would exercise authority over Whites, Perry Mason successfully challenged prevailing prejudices and helped establish a new standard of racial equity in television—and in the nation as a whole—that would continue to bear fruit for decades to come.
Note: This article is part of a revised and expanded series originally published on HubPages.
In 1950 African Americans were treated, throughout much of the nation, as a despised underclass. They could legally be restricted to working in only the most menial occupations, living in only the most rundown neighborhoods, and sending their children to only the most inadequate schools. In the South, an attempt to sit at the front of a bus, or eat a sandwich at a downtown Woolworth’s lunch counter, would immediately get any Black person thrown in jail.
But in the aftermath of World War II, a time during which Blacks proved themselves just as capable as any other Americans of building tanks and airplanes in war plants, and of effectively using such weapons to defeat the nation’s enemies on the battlefield, African Americans began to reach a consensus that they would no longer allow themselves to be subjected to such unjust and intolerable treatment based on the color of their skin. Across the nation, the determination to fight for equal rights grew until its momentum became unstoppable.
The Battle for Civil Rights
But as determined as African Americans were to gain all the rights that had been so unfairly denied them throughout their history in this country, many whites, especially in the South, were just as determined to keep Blacks in their subservient “place.” And these antagonists would literally stop at nothing to ensure that Black people in America could never gain legal, social, and economic parity with whites. If African Americans wanted their freedom, they would have to fight for it.
And fight for it they did! Their determination to overcome all opposition in the struggle for full equality resulted in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s, which would eventually revolutionize life in the United States for Blacks and whites alike.
The Music of the Movement
From the early days of the civil rights movement, most of the organizing was done through churches. It’s no accident that the most influential leaders were preachers such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Black church provided both an organizing center and, more importantly, a common culture that allowed people from different generations, backgrounds, and parts of the country to come together around a common vision. And a crucial foundation of that shared culture was the music of the church. As Cordell Reagon, a founding member of The Freedom Singers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), put it: “Music was what held the movement together.” And Theresa Perry, a professor in the departments of Africana Studies and Education at Simmons College, declared in the book Teaching Malcolm X that the music of the civil rights movement “is some of the most powerful music in the history of humanity.”
“It is some of the most powerful music in the history of humanity.”
Dr. Theresa Perry, professor of Africana Studies and Education
The music that had the greatest reach and impact among participants in civil rights activities arose from three major sources, all intimately connected to the Black church experience.
Type of Song
Description
Example
Slave songs and spirituals
Songs that arose spontaneously out of the slavery experience
Oh Freedom
Aspirational songs
Songs written specifically to encourage the aspirations of African Americans as a race
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Church songs
Songs used in the worship of the church, but with lyrics changed to reflect a civil rights focus
Go Tell It on the Mountain
What follows is my list of the 10 songs (with lyrics) that I believe had the greatest impact on the civil rights movement. Although they are listed from #10 down to #1, they are not really ranked in order of importance (with the exception of #1, which I believe was, and remains, the most significant of all). Each, in its own way, made a critical contribution to the success of the movement.
10. “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
James Weldon Johnson wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as a poem in 1900. It was recited by 500 school children during that year’s Lincoln’s birthday celebration in Jacksonville, Florida. The poem was set to music in 1905 by Johnson’s brother, John Rosamond Johnson, and by 1919 was adopted by the NAACP as its official song. Widely sung in both churches and schools, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was eventually almost universally acclaimed as “the Negro National Anthem.”
In light of that fact, notice how in the following video, the audience spontaneously rises to their feet when the song begins.
Lyrics: “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Verse 1
Verse 2
Verse 3
Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of liberty; Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee. Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land.
The third verse of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was recited by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery during the benediction at the first inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.
9. “Oh Freedom”
“Oh Freedom” is thought to have been written around the time the Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect on January 1, 1863, and is reported to have been sung by Black soldiers during the Civil War. But according to legend, it has an even longer and more poignant history.
The inspiration for the song is said to have been an 1803 incident in which Igbo (or Ibo) tribesmen were captured in Africa and brought to America. When the ship unloaded them at Dunbar Creek on St. Simon’s Island in Georgia, they realized that they were about to be sold into slavery. Instead of accepting that fate, they decided that they would rather be dead than live as slaves, and drowned themselves in the creek.
Essential Lyrics: “Oh Freedom”
Oh, freedom; Oh, freedom; Oh, freedom over me And before I’ll be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave And go home to my Lord and be free
No more weepin’; No more weepin’; No more weepin’ over me…
8. “Eyes on the Prize”
The Montgomery bus boycott was, in a very real sense, the starting point of the civil rights movement. From December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, Blacks in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to ride public transportation as a protest against segregation and second-class treatment on city buses. The boycott was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks for her refusal to get up out of her seat on a bus so that a white man could sit down in her place.
The organizer of the boycott was the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) which, by electing a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as its president, catapulted him to the forefront of the national struggle for civil rights.
One of the songs sung over and over during mass meetings to help keep the Black community encouraged as they walked to work on tired feet for over a year was “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.” It was based on the Gospel hymn “Keep Your Hands on the Plow” with the lyrics modified to make it a civil rights anthem.
The importance of such songs to the success of the boycott cannot be overstated. In fact, according to E. D. Nixon who was one of the leaders of the Montgomery Improvement Association, “A whole lot of people came to the MIA meetings for no other reason than just to hear the music.”
After 381 days of the Black community refusing to ride city buses, Montgomery finally gave in and integrated its bus system.
Essential Lyrics: “Eyes on the Prize”
Paul and Silas bound in jail, Had no money for to go their bail Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on Hold on, hold on, Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on
Paul and Silas began to shout, jail door opened and they walked out… I got my hand on the gospel plow, wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now…
The only thing we did wrong, stayed in the wilderness a day too long… The only thing that we did right, was the day we started to fight… We met jail and violence too, but God’s love will see us through… Only chain that we can stand, is the chain from hand to hand…
7. “We Are Soldiers in the Army”
Written in 1956 by a giant of Gospel music, Rev. James Cleveland, “We Are Soldiers In the Army” was another of the songs that were crucial in keeping up spirits during the Montgomery bus boycott. The words were typically changed from the original to replace “bloodstained banner” with “freedom banner” and “Gospel plow” with “freedom plow.”
Essential Lyrics: “We Are Soldiers in the Army”
We are Soldiers in the army, we’ve got to fight, although we have to cry We’ve got to hold up the bloodstained banner, we’ve got to hold it up until we die
My mother was a soldier, she had her hand on the Gospel plow But one day she got old, she couldn’t fight anymore She said “I’ll stand here and fight on anyhow”
My father was a soldier… I’m so glad that I’m a soldier…
6. “Go Tell It on the Mountain”
“Go Tell It on the Mountain” is an African American Christmas song that celebrates the birth of Jesus. It dates back to at least 1865. But when civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer began the difficult and extremely dangerous work of registering African Americans to vote in Mississippi in 1962, the song quickly became one of her trademarks. In one characteristic incident, when Ms. Hamer and 17 others boarded a bus to go to the county seat in an attempt to register to vote, she kept the group encouraged by leading them in singing this song.
The dangers Blacks faced if they tried to register to vote (and none of Ms. Hamer’s group succeeded in being registered) is illustrated by the fact that on the way home the bus was stopped and the driver arrested. His crime? The policeman said the bus was the wrong color—it was “too yellow.”
Essential Lyrics: “Go Tell It on the Mountain”
Go tell it on the mountain; Over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain; To let my people go
Paul and Silas bound in jail… Had nobody for to go their bail…
Paul and Silas began to shout… Jail door opened and they walked out…
Who’s that yonder dressed in red?… Must be the children that Moses led…
Who’s that yonder dressed in black?… Must be the hypocrites turning back…
I had a little book, he gave to me… And every page spelled victory…
It was normal for the lyrics of civil rights songs to be spontaneously adapted to fit the need of the moment. For example, when Alabama governor George Wallace proclaimed “segregation forever” and literally stood in the schoolhouse door to prevent Blacks from attending the University of Alabama, a special verse of “Go Tell It On The Mountain” was sung:
You know I would not be Governor Wallace I’ll tell you the reason why I’d be afraid my Lord might call me And I would not be ready to die.
5. “This Little Light of Mine”
“This Little Light of Mine” is another of the songs Fannie Lou Hamer used to encourage her little group as they rode on their bus to attempt to register to vote.
When their efforts to register were blocked and the group returned home, Ms. Hamer was confronted by the owner of the plantation on which she had lived and worked for 18 years. He told her to either take her name off the registrar’s book, or get out. Her reply showed Fannie Lou Hamer’s determination to let her light shine. She refused to comply with the plantation owner’s ultimatum, telling him, “I didn’t go register for you sir, I did it for myself.”
Essential Lyrics: “This Little Light of Mine”
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
Everywhere I go, Lord… I’ve got the light of freedom… Jesus gave to me, now… Oh, shine, shine, shine, shine… All in the jailhouse…
Like “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” this song had its own Governor Wallace verse:
Tell Gov. Wallace, I’m going to let it shine…
4. “Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Freedom”
This song is an adaptation of the Gospel song “I Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Jesus.” It was introduced by Rev. Osby, a minister from Aurora, Illinois, in the summer of 1961 when more than 250 Freedom Riders spent 40 days in the Hinds County, Mississippi, jail. “Woke Up This Morning” was a favorite that helped keep the group’s spirits high, and it soon became a theme song for voter registration drives in the state.
Essential Lyrics: “Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Freedom”
I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom Hallelu, hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, hallelujah
3. “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called Birmingham, Alabama, “probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.” It was also probably the most hate-filled. Between 1945 and 1962 there were 50 race-related bombings, earning for the city the nickname “Bombingham.” Then on a Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four little girls who were attending Sunday School.
The struggle for civil rights in Birmingham was intense. In the spring of 1963 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized daily marches to protest segregation. When the marches began to falter because so many protesters had been jailed, the SCLC called out the school children. They, in their turn, were arrested by the hundreds. Eugene “Bull” Connor, the city’s Commissioner of Public Safety, didn’t hesitate to turn fire hoses and police dogs on the children. His tactics backfired, as a worldwide television audience was repulsed by nightly scenes of police viciousness toward children.
As the children gathered at the 16th Street Baptist Church and went out to face the hoses and dogs, a favorite song they sang to keep their courage up was “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”
Essential Lyrics: “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around”
Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around Keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’, marchin’ up to freedom land
Ain’t gonna let no jailhouse turn me around… Ain’t gonna let segregation turn me around… Ain’t gonna let race hatred turn me around… Ain’t gonna let Mississippi turn me around…
2. “We Shall Not Be Moved”
“We Shall Not Be Moved” is adapted directly from the Gospel song, “I Shall Not Be Moved,” with the lyrics reworked to refer to the struggle for freedom rather than the personal holiness the original song emphasized. It came into the civil rights movement by way of a labor organization, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU). After Black members of the racially integrated union introduced the song, the STFU changed “I” to “We” and adopted it as the union’s official song.
In this video, the Freedom Singers perform the song at the 1963 March on Washington.
Essential Lyrics: “We Shall Not Be Moved”
We shall not we shall not be moved; We shall not we shall not be moved Just like a tree that’s standing by the water; We shall not be moved
1. “We Shall Overcome”
It’s probably no surprise that my pick as the #1 song of the civil rights movement is “We Shall Overcome.” It’s the song that animated the entire civil rights era, and is still sung by people seeking their freedom around the world. The Library of Congress has called it “the most powerful song of the 20th century.”
The melody of “We Shall Overcome” is based on the slave song, “No More Auction Block for Me.” Like “We Shall Not Be Moved,” it came into the civil rights movement by way of a labor union. It was picked up by folk singer Pete Seeger and soon spread to union gatherings around the nation. In 1960 Black students involved in the sit-in movement started singing it, and it quickly became the theme song of the entire civil rights movement.
Such was the power of this song that it eventually reached the White House itself. When President Lyndon Johnson addressed the nation on television on March 15, 1965, to urge passage of the voting rights act, he included this powerful statement:
It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because it’s not just Negroes, but really it’s all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.
And we shall overcome.
President Lyndon Johnson, March 15, 1965
In the first video below, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks of the significance of “We Shall Overcome” to the struggle for freedom and dignity.
Essential Lyrics: “We Shall Overcome”
We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day
We’ll walk hand in hand, we’ll walk hand in hand, we’ll walk hand in hand some dayOh, deep in my heart, I do believe, that we shall overcome some day
We are not afraid, we are not afraid, we are not afraid today Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, that we shall overcome some day
10 Greatest Hits Motown Initially Rejected Motown became a hit-making machine by refusing to put out songs that didn’t meet the highest standards of excellence. But sometimes it almost rejected songs that later became huge hits.
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