"I always thought that no matter what kind of work people did, they should involve themselves totally with all the discrimination they ran into. I remember once in Yugoslavia we played ‘Faubus' and 'Remember Rockefeller at Attica' and this U.S. Embassy cat came running up and told me not to play songs with titles like that. I told him, ‘You know, man, we're from a free country. We're supposed to show people over here how great our country is by telling them we're able to talk about the wrongs and the rights of our country, whereas they're not allowed to.' He wasn't nasty, but he sounded like he forgot he was from America." - Charles Mingus

Remembering Charles Mingus on his 99th Birthday

April 22, 1922 - January 5, 1979

Photo: Mingus Archives

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