This record is a vinyl re-release of the avant-garde jazz album We Insist! by percussionist, band leader, and composer, Max Roach. The album contains the “Freedom Now” vocal-instrumental suite, which Max Roach and Oscar Brown began developing in 1959 with the goal of performing it in 1963 on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, various events in 1960 related to the Civil Rights Movement and African independence movements changed the scope and direction of some of the compositions and prompted an earlier release. The album cover references the student sit-in movement. - Smithsonian Music