Iconic songs by Sam Cooke, Kim Weston, Public Enemy, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Lauryn Hill, Kendrick Lamar and more depict the fight for civil rights.

There’s an adage that goes: “The best part of the meal is the company.” And those words were never more true than in June 1958 when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to town.

No other president, Republican or Democrat, has ever used a Black History Month proclamation for such crass self-promotion.” ...