Womanist Musings: Black Women's Lives Matter, Too
So here is a video of Black US women who sang songs made popular in house parties. Martha Wash saw that a song producer used her vocals and had another (Black) woman lip sync without getting permission. (See this blog, The Once Hidden Woman Who Made Everybody Famous.) A "full figured" woman, Wash, sang such songs as "“Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now).” Wash, now 69, was pushed to the outer periphery of music fame while other women lip synced to her voice.
According to AmericanSongwriter.com, Wash was not given credit or royalties for her work. She and her attorney fought and received a settlement. In the video below, Wash is seated beside other singing "titans" such as Crystal Waters, describing their journeys through this attempt at erasure. These women fought against this unfair treatment because of Wash's example.
When we stand up, we don't only stand for ourselves. We stand up to make visible those rendered invisible.
That's why we may kneel in prayer as one, but we stand up as thousands.