AS THE story goes, The Backlash Blues by the great African-American poet Langston Hughes was penned at the request of singer Nina Simone in response to the racist backlash against the freedom movement of the 1960s.After the March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jnr in 1963, the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, followed by the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Hughes wrote The Backlash Blues in 1966, and Simone recorded it in 1967 — the year Hughes died.

The victories that followed the American civil war and the 1960s civil rights era are once again under attack, echoing earlier efforts to roll back equality and redefine democracy, says JOE SIMS

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