[Ads-l] Antedating of "Protest Song"

[Ben Zimmer]

Perhaps worth a bracketed cite: Lawrence Gellert published a series called
"Negro Songs of Protest" in the Marxist periodical _New Masses_ beginning
in 1930. See p. 10 of the Nov. 1930 issue:

https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v06n06-nov-1930-New-Masses/page/n17/mode/1up
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1930/v06n06-nov-1930-New-Masses.pdf

The series was later compiled in two volumes: _Negro Songs of Protest_
(1936) and _Me and My Captain_ (1939). I don't see searchable versions of
these online, but the preface of the second volume mentions "protest songs":

---
What if the white man laughs and gauges the mentality of his charges by the
nonsensical doggerel and ribald parodies he's permitted to hear? Educating
him contrarywise with protest songs would proportionately diminish the
convict's life expectancy on the road.
(quoted in _African American Folksong and American Cultural Politics: The
Lawrence Gellert Story_ by Bruce M. Conforth)
https://books.google.com/books?id=B2mqs_FvabIC&pg=PA192
---

--bgz

On Tue, Mar 24, 2026 at 5:43 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> protest song (OED 1953)
>
> 1936 Daily Worker 10 July 4/7 (Newspapers.com)
>
> This Week-end at CAMP UNITY  WINGDALE, NEW YORK ... Chorus — Negro Protest
> Songs.
>
>
>

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