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Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage

alt="An elder woman with dark skin and short white hair holds up a framed twelve-inch gold record, smiling. Behind her is a seated crowd under a festival tent."

A Century of Ella Jenkins: Tributes to the First Lady of Children’s Music

To celebrate Ella Jenkins on her hundredth birthday in August, we asked a group of musicians how Ella has inspired them.

Barbara Dane with the Chambers Brothers at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. (Photo by Diana Davies, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives)

How Barbara Dane Carries a Proud Tradition of Singing Truth to Power

Barbara Dane’s protest music took her to Mississippi Freedom Schools, free speech rallies at UC Berkeley, and in the coffeehouses where active-duty men and women steered clear of military police and regulations forbidding protests on bases.

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