The presence of Division of Place of birth Safety brokers in Minnesota forced many of us there to make use of songs as a method of protest. The ones songs have been from secular in addition to non secular traditions.
On Jan. 8, 2026, the day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross killed Minneapolis resident Renée Excellent on Portland Street, an nameless publish seemed on Reddit that featured an uncredited textual content obviously tailored from the lyrics of a Despair-era protest music from Appalachia, “Which Side Are You On?” The Reddit textual content criticized the new federal presence in Minnesota and implored Minnesotans to take a stand.
In our the town of Minneapolis,There’s no neutrals right here at house.You’re both marching within the streetsor you kill for Kristi NoemWhich facet are you on,Oh which facet are you on?Which facet are you on,Oh which facet are you on?ICE is a number of killerswho conceal at the back of a masks.How do they escape with this?That’s what it’s a must to ask.Which facet are you on …
For hundreds of years, songs have served as automobiles for expressing group responses to sociopolitical crises, whether or not executive repression or company exploitation. “Which Side Are You On?” resonated with Minnesotans, partly as a result of it’s been recorded by means of a large number of artists over the many years.
The music dates again to some other societal combat that came about in some other a part of america all the way through some other disaster second in American historical past. “Which Side Are You On?” has consoled and empowered numerous folks for generations all the way through struggles in crimson in addition to blue states. It has additionally impressed folks to put in writing new protest songs within the face of latest crises.
Beginning of a protest anthem
“Which Side Are You On?” used to be composed in 1931, a girl’s spontaneous reaction to a coal corporate’s effort to stop miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, from becoming a member of the United Mine Staff of The us. The ones miners was hoping the exertions union would support their running prerequisites and overturn imposed discounts to their wages.
In toughen of the coal corporate, sheriff J. H. Blair and armed deputies broke into the home of union organizer Sam Reece to apprehend him and find proof of union job. Reece used to be in hiding somewhere else, however his spouse, Florence, and their youngsters have been provide. After ransacking the home, the sheriff and deputies left.
Florence tore a web page out of a calendar and jotted down lyrics for an impromptu music, which she recalled environment to the melody of a Baptist hymn “I’m gonna land on the shore.” Others have noticed that the melody in Florence’s music used to be very similar to that of the standard British ballad “Jack Monroe,” which options the haunting chorus “Lay the Lily Low.”
Woody Guthrie, one in all The us’s maximum celebrated people singers of the 20 th century, sang many protest songs.
Al Aumuller, by the use of the Library of Congress
“Which Side Are You On?” channeled Florence’s response to that worrying enjoy. All the way through the Thirties, she and others sang the music all the way through exertions moves within the Appalachian coalfields, and the lyrics have been incorporated in union songbooks. Then, in 1941, the Almanac Singers, a people supergroup that includes Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, recorded the music, and it reached many of us past Appalachia.
Since then, a variety of musicians – together with Charlie Byrd; Peter, Paul and Mary; the Dropkick Murphys; Natalie Service provider; Ani DiFranco; and the Kronos Quartet – carried out “Which Side Are You On?” in live performance settings and for recordings. A solo are living efficiency with a live performance target market becoming a member of the refrain used to be a point of interest of Seeger’s “Greatest Hits” album in 1967.
The Academy Award-winning documentary movie “Harlan County U.S.A.” (1976) incorporated a clip of Florence Reece making a song her music all the way through a 1973 strike. “Which Side Are You On?” used to be translated into different languages – a testomony to its common theme of encouraging harmony to folks confronting authoritarian energy.
Florence Reece sings ‘Which side are you on?’ 4 many years after she wrote the music.
Protest songs of the fashionable period
Whilst the American protest music custom may also be traced again to the origins of the country, “Which Side Are You On?” served as a prototype for the modern-era protest music as a result of its lyrical directness. Many memorable, risk-taking protest songs have been composed within the wake of, and within the spirit of, “Which Side Are You On?”
Noteworthy are a large number of protest classics within the people vein, epitomized by means of a large a part of Guthrie’s repertoire, by means of early Bob Dylan songs like “Masters of War” (1963), “The Times They Are a-Changin’” (1964) and “Only A Pawn in Their Game” (1964), and by means of Phil Ochs’ mid-Nineteen Sixties songs of political critique, similar to “Here’s to the State of Mississippi” (1965).
However protest songs have hailed from all song genres. Rock and rhythm and blues, for example, have spawned many iconic recordings of protest song: Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” (1964), Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” (1966), Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” (1969), Edwin Starr’s “War” (1970) and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Younger’s “Ohio” (1970) amongst many others.
Blues, nation, reggae and hip-hop have spawned extensively inspirational protest songs, and jazz too has yielded vintage protest recordings, similar to Abel Meeropol’s “Strange Fruit” (1939), popularized by means of Billie Vacation, and Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 recording of the jazz-poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”
Certainly, there are such a large amount of enduring contributions to the American protest music canon {that a} listing like Rolling Stone’s contemporary “100 Best Protest Songs of All Time” is simplest the top of the iceberg. Irrespective of the style, efficient protest songs retain their energy to transport and inspire folks as of late in spite of having been composed in keeping with previous eventualities or instances. And protest songs from the previous are regularly tailored to lend a hand folks extra successfully reply to the disaster of the instant.
Songs for this second
“Which Side Are You On?” used to be sung – and its theme invoked – in Minnesota all through January 2026. On Jan. 24, in a while after Border Patrol brokers killed Alex Pretti on Nicollet Street, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey referred to the music’s name all the way through a public cope with to his constituents: “Stand up for America. Recognize that your children will ask you what side you were on.” That very same day, the grassroots group 50501: Minnesota posted on-line an enchantment to these in energy: “[E]very politician and person in uniform must ask themselves one question – which side are you on?”
Tomorrow, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said divisions within the U.S. all the way through a televised briefing, urging voters in his state and around the country to imagine the selection ahead of them: “I’ve got a question for all of you. What side do you want to be on?”
Other people protesting ICE and Customs and Border Coverage movements in Minnesota and somewhere else were making a song “Which Side Are You On?” and different well known protest songs, however musicians have additionally been writing new protest songs concerning the disaster. On Jan. 8, the Dropkick Murphys posted on social media a clip of “Citizen I.C.E.,” a remodeled model of the crowd’s 2005 music “Citizen C.I.A.,” augmented by means of video of the Jan. 7 deadly capturing of Renée Excellent. On Jan. 27, British musician Billy Bragg launched “City of Heroes,” which he composed in tribute to the Minneapolis protesters.
On Jan. 30, Springsteen made a marvel look on the Minneapolis membership First Street, acting his new music on the “Defend Minnesota” receive advantages live performance, arranged by means of musician Tom Morello to lift finances for the households of Excellent and Pretti.
Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ rages in opposition to the killings of Renée Excellent and Alex Pretti.
Creating a distinction
At the day Pretti used to be shot lifeless, masses of Minneapolis protesters attended a unique carrier at Minneapolis’ Hennepin Street United Methodist Church. Pastor Elizabeth MacAuley, in a televised interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, mirrored at the position of music in serving to folks cope: “It’s been a time when it is pretty tempting to feel so disempowered. … [T]he singing resistance movement … brought out the hope and the grief and the rage and the beauty.”
Cooper requested: “Do you think song makes a difference?” MacAuley responded: “I know song makes a difference.”
