However, their contributions have long gone unrecognised, and their songs have often been commodified for a majority white audience.

So how are musicians today working to undo that historical erasure? And how do they continue to celebrate Black performance and artistry?

On UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill sits down with Jake Blount, an award-winning musician and scholar specialising in the early folk music of Black Americans, and Mark Anthony Neal, distinguished professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University and author of several books including: What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture, to discuss the contributions and erasure of Black and Indigenous musicians.