In 1968, inspired by the reports and images from over a decade of civil rights protests in the southern US states, Paul  McCartney penned the song ‘Blackbird’, which later featured on The Beatles ‘The White Album’. A significant source  of inspiration came from the members of the Little Rock Nine group.  

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In 1957, the group were the first black students to be enrolled in, until that point, an all-white Arkansas school after the  US Supreme Court overruled segregation in America’s public schools. The group faced mob violence and protests on  entering the school but continued to attend, graduating a year later. Instead of directly mentioning the struggles  experienced during the civil rights movement, McCartney’s lyrics sympathise with the people most affected through  the imagery of a blackbird, which can then be interpreted as a ‘black girl’. In 2016, McCartney met backstage two  members, Thelma Mothershed Wair and Elizabeth Eckford, where he called them ‘Pioneers of the civil rights  movement’.