Sam Cooke Meaning

“A Change is Gonna Come” was one of the anthems of the Civil Rights Movement. Written by Sam Cooke and released on December 22nd 1964, the song concerned racism in America and Cooke’s own experiences dealing with it, most notably when him and his wife were turned away from a Holiday Inn in Louisiana because they were black. Often referred to as the King of Soul for pioneering soul music, Cooke first gained success as a musician by becoming the lead singer of the gospel band the Soul Stirrers in 1950. In 1957, Cooke left the band after the release of his first single, “You Send Me” came out which ended up spending 3 weeks at No 1. On the Billboard Pop chart. In 1961, along with his manager Roy Crain and J.W. Alexander, Cooke founded SAR Records

There has been a long battle over civil rights in the U.S. and many efforts have led to great changes concerning civil rights in America. One of these was adding the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution which concerned civil rights for blacks. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was another milestone concerning civil rights as it overruled the separate but equal doctrine and ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Another concept the song relates to is the Politics of Civil Rights. Milestones regarding civil rights did not happen without the use of civil disobedience. One of the most famous examples of civil disobedience was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott drew national attention to segregation and later lead to the Supreme Court ruling the segregation of buses to be unconstitutional. Another concept the song relates to is Extension of Equal Protection to Other Groups. There have been legal strides to extend equal protection to other groups such as woman and sexual orientation. One example was the Supreme Court Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886) case which ruled that San Francisco’s law requiring all laundry mats located in wooden buildings to receive city permits was unconstitutional since 90% of laundry mats weren’t given the permit because the owners were Chinese. Another stride was the Defense of Marriage Act being struck down in 2012, which allowed same sex

The song became an anthem for the civil rights movement, it told of racial tensions in America but had a message of hope that someday things will be different. In 2005, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as number 12 in the magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time issue and in 2007 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry. The song was also selected by the National Public Radio (NPR) as one of the most important songs ever recorded, the organization calling it, “one of the most important songs of the civil rights era.” President Barrack Obama referred to the song after winning the 2008 election stating, “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, change has come to