Composer and jazz legend Charles Mingus' Fables of Faubus is his most political work of art. In 1957 the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, sent the National Guard to stop nine children from integrating the Little Rock Central High School.
PoliMusic Reader Jeff, from Toronto, wrote in support of Mingus:
There should be a sub-category for the bravest of the artists profiled. Mingus would make that list. Most of the contemporary agit-prop musicians didn't actually risk anything in writing their music, they were just expressing a viewpoint or (worse) scoring points. But artists like Mingus risked being dropped by labels, being blacklisted or alienating fans. Just reading the history of his "Fables of Faubus" is a welcome reminder of how far we've come and how much of a debt we owe to people like Charles Mingus.
