Has Hip Hop Displaced the Civil Rights Movement?

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As far back as the 1980-s, Public Enemy-s Chuck D called rap music -the CNN of the ghetto.- Now, students of hip-hop culture say it-s not all sex and violence, but also a forum for protest and politics. Though gangsterism and -bling-bling- materialism are staples of hip hop, so are messages about poverty, police brutality and educational opportunity. Barbershop, with derisive jokes about Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that outraged civil rights veterans Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, was a big screen hit, with a predominantly black cast that appealed to a generation of Americans who think of the 1960-s as ancient history. We look at Dr. King-s legacy and the socio-political power of hip hop with sociologist Todd Boyd, civil rights attorney Connie Rice, and civil rights veterans James Orange and Joe Hicks. Newsmaker: Are Iraqi Warheads the Smoking Gun? Yesterday, weapons inspectors found 11 chemical warheads in a bunker inside Iraq. Was Saddam trying to conceal them? Today, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer insisted they were not revealed in Iraq-s 12,000-page declaration. Robin Wright, chief diplomatic correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, says that while the warheads do not constitute a smoking gun, they do reveal the underlying disagreement about what does. Reporter's Notebook: Anti-War Advertisement Makes Comeback The most famous political commercial in TV history aired in 1964, on behalf of Democrat Lyndon Johnson-s presidential re-election campaign against GOP challenger Barry Goldwater. Well remembered as it may be today, the daisy commercial was only broadcast once. Now, its images have been resurrected. Tom Rosenstiel, of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, looks at the latest ad campaign to affect government policy on Iraq.
As far back as the 1980-s, Public Enemy-s Chuck D called rap music -the CNN of the ghetto.- Now, students of hip-hop culture say it-s not all sex and violence, but also a forum for protest and politics. Though gangsterism and -bling-bling- materialism are staples of hip hop, so are messages about poverty, police brutality and educational opportunity. Barbershop, with derisive jokes about Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that outraged civil rights veterans Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, was a big screen hit, with a predominantly black cast that appealed to a generation of Americans who think of the 1960-s as ancient history. We look at Dr. King-s legacy and the socio-political power of hip hop with sociologist Todd Boyd, civil rights attorney Connie Rice, and civil rights veterans James Orange and Joe Hicks.
  • Newsmaker: Are Iraqi Warheads the Smoking Gun?
    Yesterday, weapons inspectors found 11 chemical warheads in a bunker inside Iraq. Was Saddam trying to conceal them? Today, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer insisted they were not revealed in Iraq-s 12,000-page declaration. Robin Wright, chief diplomatic correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, says that while the warheads do not constitute a smoking gun, they do reveal the underlying disagreement about what does.
  • Reporter's Notebook: Anti-War Advertisement Makes Comeback
    The most famous political commercial in TV history aired in 1964, on behalf of Democrat Lyndon Johnson-s presidential re-election campaign against GOP challenger Barry Goldwater. Well remembered as it may be today, the daisy commercial was only broadcast once. Now, its images have been resurrected. Tom Rosenstiel, of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, looks at the latest ad campaign to affect government policy on Iraq.

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