The song ‘Glory’ by John Legend in collaboration with rapper Common for the soundtrack of the movie Selma is an inspirational song that is about the civil rights marches and the countless protests and sufferings of the Black people. It is an important song as it not only documents the history of the black people’s civil rights struggle but also makes an impact given the recent spate of police shootings against black men in the country. The song is powerful too as it makes a connection between the past and what is happening now.
The lyrics seamlessly connect the struggles of the past with that of the present. The song talks about Rosa Parks sitting in the bus, refusing to move and thus sparking off the largest civil rights protests and the current Fergusson protests against the killing of unarmed black men. “Resistance is us/ That’s why Rosa sat on the bus/ That’s why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up (Legend 17-19).” It then goes on to a more optimistic and hopeful future when it talks about Glory; a situation when the Blacks are no longer persecuted and are treated like equals. Glory is when they would have won the war against racism and would not be treated as less than equals. “One day when the glory comes/ It will be ours, it will be ours (23-24).”
What makes the song a powerful is the fact that there are actual historical references used in the lyrics. Be it from a not so distant past about the civil rights, about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King or the recent past like the Fergusson shootings, the lyrics takes instances from the violent and at the same time powerful black history.
