As protests grow, Luci Murphy & the People's Music Network ensure there are songs to go with them

If the world was not in the midst of a pandemic, Luci Murphy would be in the streets every day, leading Black Lives Matter activists through "Ella's Song," the Bernice Johnson Reagon classic containing this verse: "We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes/ until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons/ is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers' sons." Instead, the 69-year-old singer -- she refers to herself as “an interpreter” -- who has demonstrated in Cuba, Iraq and her hometown of Washington, D.C., and who worked alongside protest singers Pete Seeger and Hazel Dickens, has had to limit her participation in demonstrations and protests to just two or three days a week. Read more in Billboard. 
photo: L-R Ron Wallace, Luci Murphy, Mike Honey and Steve Jones photographed in 1984 demonstrating near the South African Embassy; photo by Rick Reinhard

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