POP/ROCK - Sept. 26, 1989

Rock ‘n’ roll and rap musicians rallied across the street from the White House on Monday to protest groups they say want to censor their music. Attending the rally, held on the 200th anniversary of Congress sending the Bill of Rights to the states for ratification, were Joseph Simmons of the rap group Run-DMC and guitarist Vernon Reid of Living Colour. Statements from Frank Zappa and Bruce Springsteen were read. The musicians’ principal target was the Parents’ Music Resource Center, a nonprofit group that has been critical of what it considers violent and suggestive lyrics. Living Color’s Reid said the parents’ group was involved in “an attack on the creative impulse.”