Love songs served as political counterargument to anti-Black legal codes

Evidence

The fact that the label specialized in love songs was crucial to its impact. Love was the void at the center of the country. Laws, policies, and codes both stated and implied that Black people were unsuitable for loving, that they were unsuitable for life. Now here was music—popular music, American music—that insisted the opposite was true. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1085