1940s - 1950s
Vera Hall – Another Man Done Gone (1940)
Alan Lomax, who recorded this performance, described Vera Hall as having “the loveliest untrained voice he’s ever recorded.” In the 1940s, many Black artists were beginning to speak out against racial injustice and the horrors of a prison system that incarcerated Blacks over very minor offenses for long periods. This a cappella performance talks about the death of a prisoner on a chain gang. Hall’s song gained posthumous exposure when Johnny Cash covered it.
Lead Belly – Duncan and Brady (1947)
“Duncan and Brady” was a folk tale about a man named Harry Duncan who was wrongly executed on the charge that he had murdered a police officer, James Brady, who was trying to break up a brawl at Duncan’s Charles Starkes Saloon. The song became popular among Black folk musicians, as it tells a story that speaks to the injustices committed by the justice system and the ongoing harassment of Black people by police. Lead Belly immortalized this song with his 1947 recording.