Michael Jackson and the Nation in the Mirror
Michael Jackson was just a few weeks shy of his ninth birthday on August 13, 1967, when he and his brothers won the amateur-night competition at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theatre. Two years later, with the release of ‘I Want You Back’, ‘ABC’, ‘I’ll Be There’, and ‘The Love You Save’, the Jackson 5 became the first recording artists in American history to actually have their first four singles released on a major recording label immediately reach the top of the music charts. Many years of hard work and perseverance had finally paid off. Their very popular afro hairstyles during that particular time have left a rather poignant iconographic witness to the vast self-determined mood of the Black community; during the very pre- dawn hours of the Second Reconstruction. The great political turmoil of the 1960s eventually created an environment where the entire nature of what it meant to be an American had suddenly been thrown open to question. Thus, the Jacksons 5 came into super-stardom at an age similar to our own day, just as the nation was once again on the verge of re-making its brand. This was their time. Read More:
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