The revolution will not be televised Context

Assignment

You must answer all of the following questions as you are analyzing
the poem.

As an introductory overview, summarize the poem. Your summary must

include information about the author of the document, the audience to
whom it is written, and a brief summary of the event(s) referred to in the
document. Please include dates such as when the poem was written and
when the events that are described took place. Include a brief biography of
the author, the audience for the poem, and of any major people named in
the document. (Minimum of 2-3 paragraphs depending upon how many
people you need to describe.)
Write a narrative analysis of the poem placing the events within their
historical setting. This narrative must include descriptions of the historical,
social, and economic events of the specific time period in which the poem
was written. This will require some investigation in other sources. (Minimum
of 2-3 paragraphs must be devoted to each of the above viewshistorical,
social, and economictherefore, this section should be a minimum of 6-9
paragraphs.)
Identify and write about 3 other historical events that were happening in the
world at the time that your poem was written. By doing this you are placing
the work in a wider historical context. Include an analysis of how these
events might relate to the events in your poem. (Minimum of 2 paragraphs
for each of the 3 events.)
There are 43 individual references in the poem. Your assignment will also
require you to choose seven of these and explain how they are related. Your
essay will explain the relationship of the topics you have chosen and why
these topics are significant in history and society. It is your task to
determine the nature of the impact of these topics had on American history
or society--what, how much and how?

Conclude your project with an overview that ties together the above four
sections. This section should also include an analysis of what you as a
historian learned from your research. (Minimum 3 paragraphs.)

In order to complete this project successfully, you will need to consult other
materials. Properly cite any information used in paraphrase or quotation in a
proper footnote. Include a bibliography of sources used. The use of
encyclopedias is not allowed except in the case of question number two,
since it is sometimes difficult to find concise biographical information.
Therefore, you may use a biographical dictionary if you cannot find the
information elsewhere. (No general encyclopedias or Wikipedias may be
used for this portion of the assignment.) You should include a minimum of
5-6 sources cited in your bibliography and footnotesno more than 2 of
these sources may be from the Internet. Depending upon your topic,
you may need more sources. You should be learning to use a variety of
resources and should be learning to evaluate these sources for accuracy of
information. If you have any questions about source materials please ask
me.

The revolution will not be televised

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie

Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.

The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.
There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme poem will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be right back
after a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.

The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.