Here is a video of Paul McCartney singing the first recording of Blackbird. Enjoy!

Victoria and I chose the song Blackbird by the Beatles. The inspiration behind the Beatles’ song was about the Civil Rights struggle for blacks after Paul McCartney read about the race riots in the U.S. The song was written not long after Little Rock. “we were totally immersed in the whole saga which was unfolding. So I got the idea of using a black bird as a symbol for a black person. It wasn’t necessarily a black ‘bird’, but it works that way, as much as then you call girls ‘birds’; the Everly’s had the Bird Dog, so the word ‘bird; was around. ‘Take these broken wings’ was very much in my mind, but it wasn’t exactly an ornithological ditty; it was purposely symbolic.” Paul McCartney had said in interview from 2008

We feel that the Beatles wrote this song to in a way give strength to the black people when no one was helping them. By the Beatles writing this song, they contributed in the fight against racism and that they wanted to show people that you could stand up without being violent. The Beatles felt strongly about the issue and wrote the song to express their feelings on the subject without being violent and striking out.