Melvin "Lil' Son" Jackson - Freedom Train Blues - 1948

I hear protest in this song in a couple of ways. First of all, every single person who left the Jim Crow south to escape racial oppression left someone and something behind: a home, friends, a lover, family -- maybe even a husband or wife who refused to leave for one reason or another. You shouldn't have to abandon your home and family in order to find freedom. But that's what happens in this song: a man's woman, possibly his wife, leaves him to search for freedom.

Second, many black listeners must have heard the song as directing racial protest at the city of Chicago. And that's because the song's protagonist is lamenting losing his woman, who is leaving Chicago to find freedom in the west. Chicago, Detroit, and other northern cities weren't exactly beacons of freedom in 1948, which is the year this song was recorded. Conditions in... (continua)