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Driving While Black: African Americans and the Automobile

Peoples & Things

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The Role of the Car in African American Songwriting

Ike Turner's 1951 track Rocket 88 and Chuck Berry's Maybelline. Automobiles have been a big subject in African American songwriting. So many musicians spent a lot of time in their cars. And so I think it only makes sense that they write about their cars, because the car becomes a metaphor for freedom.

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