Motown's Role In The Civil Rights Movement

Motown Motown didn’t just make great music, they made an impact in the civil right movement. Though you can’t see the impact as much as you see the impact of Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, they did play a role in the movement. Motown was started by Berry Gordy in 1959. He didn’t only care about making money through his music, he wanted to help out in the movement of civil rights. Motown was started in Detroit, Michigan and soon had 75% of the music released on the top 10 pop charts (Berry Gordy). With Motown’s music rising to the top of the charts, that helped with being even more influential because the music was out there. Motown was started in 1959 by Berry Gordy. He scraped up $800 from his family to start this record label. After starting Motown Records in Detroit, he signed mostly black artists. He wanted to make music that was accepted by white Americans.

The artists attracted white people to their music which was only a step in the movement of whites starting to accept blacks in their communities. Berry Gordy made sure his artists were presentable and that their music would sell to the majority of the population. Whites started listening to Motown’s artists in their homes which helped with the acceptance because whites wanted to see these artists and actually listen to them even though they were black. “Gordy’s self-made ‘rags to riches’ story is a positive example among the usual bleak and unjust stories of African-Americans”(Motown). Berry Gordy used his label for not only music but for his community, he didn’t only care about the money he cared about others. He made sure his artists always looked their best and talk very proper. He made sure that there was no way that people could dislike his artists. “Gordy’s main ambition was to produce the ‘Sound of Young America’, no matter what