Our Minds Were Always Free: A History of How Black Brilliance Was Exploited-and the Fight to Retake Control

An exploration of how African American innovators and artists-whose impact and financial value in American music, movies, and TV is disproportionately greater than their numbers-have fought for and often won the rights to own and benefit from their own work. When we think about the things that have barred success for African Americans, intellectual property law is hardly the first thing that comes to mind, if we even think of it all.We certainly don’t think of it as the launching pad for building generational wealth in the Black community, so it follows that we don’t see our favorite pop stars as revolutionary race warriors. African American artists have finally, belatedly, come to be the owners of their art and beneficiaries of the money their art makes, after centuries of producing life-changing art.There were hundreds and thousands of Bessie Smiths before we ever got Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar. Lisa E. Davis, one of the foremost African American entertainment attorneys in the country