Black Music Month: "Summer of Soul" Shines Spotlight on 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival

 

As African-American Music Month draws to a close today, Wednesday, June 30, a new movie documentary ("Summer of Soul") is educating many about a 1969 summer concert series featuring top Black musical artists, an event that many known little about. 

The Harlem Cultural Festival is now in the spotlight as the documentary will be released on the  streaming service Hulu and in movie theaters on Friday, July 2. 

While the three-day Woodstock concert in August 1969 attracted international media attention many attendees used to protest the Vietnam War, television cameras ignored the Harlem Cultural Festival, another New York concert series held that summer featuring stars like Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Mahalia Jackson. The peaceful concert event attracted 300,000 people, but was seemingly left out of the history books and off television. 

Often called Black Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was organized to celebrate African-American culture and promote Black pride.

“Summer of Soul” is directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, drummer and leader of “The Tonight Show” house band The Roots.

"This mythical, magical festival thrown in 1969, with all these great names, and I never heard about it?" Thompson said. “When it was shown to me, I got humbled real quick!" "This is not about just me having my first directorial debut," he said. "I've been given the responsibility to correct history, which, who'd a thought, you know?" 

June was proclaimed as Black History Month in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter to pay tribute to the historical contributions to music made by Blacks, President Barack Obama renamed June as African-American History Month in 2009. 

 Check out this PBS tribute to African-American Music Month, complete with photos.