StoryCorps Chicago: ‘A Cauldron Of Activity, Of Culture And Of Anger’

Marsha Music in the door of her father’s record shop, circa 1960. (Courtesy of Marsha Music)
On left, Marsha Music in the door of her father’s record shop, circa 1960. On the right, Music’s father, Joe Von Battle, inside the shop in the mid-1950s. Courtesy of Marsha Music
Marsha Music in the door of her father’s record shop, circa 1960. (Courtesy of Marsha Music)
On left, Marsha Music in the door of her father’s record shop, circa 1960. On the right, Music’s father, Joe Von Battle, inside the shop in the mid-1950s. Courtesy of Marsha Music

StoryCorps Chicago: ‘A Cauldron Of Activity, Of Culture And Of Anger’

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In April 1968, parts of Chicago’s West Side went up in flames after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The city of Detroit had experienced similar chaos just a few months earlier, in the summer of 1967. The riots were some of the deadliest in U.S. history, lasting five days and leaving dozens dead.

Earlier this year, Chicago StoryCorps producers traveled to Detroit, where they spoke with a woman named Marsha Music, whose father owned a legendary record store in Detroit.

Marsha Music was recorded in Detroit by the StoryCorps Chicago staff. (Courtesy of StoryCorps Chicago)

This story was recorded through a partnership between the Urban Consulate in Detroit and StoryCorps Chicago.

Bill Healy produces StoryCorps for WBEZ. You can follow him @chicagoan. Northwestern University’s Natalie Escobar also helped produce this story.