Joan Baez: the activist.

birthday thread bc she's special & her constant social engagement, from the Civil Rights movement to Trump opposition, needs to be celebrated alongside her for her 80th birthday

sit back, get comfortable & make sure to lead your lives with courage

civil rights march on Washington, 1963

Joan Baez escorting black kids to school in Mississipi, 1966

James Baldwin and Joan Baez during the Selma to Montgomery march, 1965

more pictures from the same day

visiting Hanoi, Vietnam on Christmas Eve, 1972. while she was singing for the people gathered there to greet her, USA jets started bombing the city. the bombing lasted 10 days.

Joan Baez pictured marching with Martin Luther King on multiple occasions

Joan Baez being arrested together with her mother for protesting the Vietnam War

"Stay Home For Peace". both her & her husband David Harris founded an organization called The Resistance to persuade young men of draft age to refuse to cooperate with the USA army in Vietnam. David Harris was arrested for wilful refusal to report for induction into the military

Joan Baez and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in 1975. he was a black boxer falsely accused and convicted for murder. she actively campaigned for his release.

in 1965, she founded her "Institute For The Study Of Non-Violence" in Carmel Valley, Monterey County together with mentor Ira Sandperl.

Joan Baez performs an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in London's Trafalgar Square on May 29, 1965 with Scottish folk singer Donovan.

throughout the years she attended various protests organized by UC Berkeley students demonstrating for free speech, civil rights and against fascism

during the 2000s she campaigned against the war in Iraq and will open every concert by saying "I'm sorry for what my government is doing to the world"

last but not least "make America Mexico again" and her constant opposition to Trump

here she is, dancing in the grocery store after Joe Biden won the 2020 elections

this honestly just scraping the surface of her activism. she never stopped, throughout her whole life, attending protests, marches, sit-ins etc for numerous causes. she did it all, with passion and love for the world and its people

PROTEST SONGS

I'm just gonna add a bunch of protests song she wrote with beautiful and inspiring lyrics

Luna was a Mexican the law called an alien
for coming across the border with a baby and a wife (...)
This foreigner, a brown-skin male
Thrown into a Texas jail
It left the wife and baby quite alone https://open.spotify.com/track/09dGiyUBUGQBV0I6uH0sDY?si=voRRuQwwT_W2ejNXQsjCpA

The story of Bangladesh
Is an ancient one again made fresh
By all who carry out commands
Which flow out of the laws upon which nations stand
Which say to sacrifice a people for a land(...)
when the sun sinks in the west
Die a million people of Bangladesh https://open.spotify.com/track/4oMqk48f6yFoDHXKX6a7GM?si=5K_DUGkDQBaG8UPirECh8w

But who can dare to judge us
The women or the men?
If freedom's wings shall not be clipped
We all can love again
So the choice is not of etiquette
Or finding lonesome ways to die
But liberty to ships at sea
And riders passing by https://open.spotify.com/track/79WkmbL3Labx6QCJgD6XwG?si=5bU1962dToGDshXmA78x3w

the song for Sacco and Vanzetti she sang for Ennio Morricone

"Here's to you Nicola and Bart
Rest forever here in our hearts
The last and final moment is yours
That agony is your triumph" https://open.spotify.com/track/0o7aA8TNb6zHreGzcDsSU1?si=krZXTfAxTU-2bYp_A3pYyw

"And the aching workers of the world again shall sing
These words in mighty choruses to all will bring
"We shall no longer be the poor
For no one owns us anymore"
And the workers of the world again shall sing"

SOCIALIST ANTHEM https://open.spotify.com/track/6iQYg7ndRPezoNrnz5jcHw?si=lpmqyQWbTZqFHKxZpki-uw

and finally, her Woodstock performance of "We Shall Overcome" that stayed in history forever and gave her world fame and recognition. https://open.spotify.com/track/4B6ZhZsiBgXYqBYGYbLtCF?si=ZvDzcXZwSjmvZX_khorWFQ