White House Celebrates Music that Fueled the Civil Rights Era

When: Originally scheduled for Wednesday, the event moved up to Tuesday night to dodge the brunt of a major snowstorm in Washington.

Who: Performances by Yolanda Adams, Joan Baez, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John Mellencamp, Smokey Robinson, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Howard University Choir, the Freedom Singers, Rutha Harris, Charles Neblett and Toshi Reagon. Speaker Morgan Freeman provided readings from famous civil rights speeches.

Strengthened by song: "It was music that was not only inspired by the movement, but gave strength in return," the president told the audience assembled in the East Room. "Let this music carry us forth, as one people. As one nation."

Message in the music: Earlier in the day, about 120 high school students from across the USA learned about the power of song at Music that Inspired the Movement, a companion afternoon workshop. The Freedom Singers, who traveled more than 50,000 miles to local civil rights campaigns during the 1960s, talked about music as an agent for social change. Although Bernice Johnson Reagon had sung the spiritual This Little Light of Mine all of her life, she said she didn't understand its meaning until she was jailed during a protest in Albany, Ga., in 1961. "It was saying 'I'm not hiding. I have a light and I'm going to use it to bring about justice.' "

'Prejudice is ignorance': Robinson told the multi-ethnic group of students that they were fortunate not to face the kind of racism he experienced traveling through the South with his fellow Motown acts in the 1960s. "There is no race but the human race. We are all the same, and we have no other place to go."

Having a little church: Gospel star Adams opened the concert with a stirring rendition of Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come and a powerful reading of the hymn How Great Thou Art.

Remembering King: After Mellencamp's rocking Keep Your Eyes on the Prize, Baez led the audience in We Shall Overcome. She recalled that when Martin Luther King Jr. began to speak out against the Vietnam War, "he knew he had to do it, but he said he was afraid, so we all raised our voices a little louder." Then she sang, "We are not afraid, we are not afraid ..."

Cole comes out swinging: Cole got in the swing with I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free, written by jazz great Billy Taylor, before soulfully segueing into Marvin Gaye's What's Going On.

Get on board: Hudson joined Robinson for an emotional People Get Ready, prompting host Freeman to say after hearing the Curtis Mayfield song, "Man, I wish I could sing." Hudson stayed on stage for a soaring take on Donny Hathaway's Someday We'll All Be Free. Dylan followed with his influential anthem The Times They Are A-Changin', before Robinson returned with a plaintive Abraham, Martin and John.

Raising the roof: The Blind Boys of Alabama gave one of the night's most fiery performances on the old spiritual I'm Free at Last.

Rising voices: All of the performers returned to the stage for the finale, leading the audience in a heartfelt singing of James Weldon Johnson's Lift Every Voice and Sing, known as the African-American national anthem.

Tune in: The concert airs on PBS Thursday (8 p.m. ET/PT, times may vary). National Public Radio will also air the event on member stations beginning Friday.