Civil Rights Workers Sing "We Shall Overcome"

Photograph

By: Anonymous

Date: c.1962

Source: © Bettmann/Corbis.

About the Photographer: This photograph resides in the Bettmann archives of the Corbis Corporation, a Seattle-based company with a collection of over seventy million curent and historical photographs and moving images.

INTRODUCTION

Religious leaders were key organizers and leaders of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and infused the movement with a sense of spirituality. Mixed into the movement seeking political rights and humanitarian reforms were the rhetoric and songs of churches historically and centrally important to African Americans. Songs such as, "We Shall Overcome," became popular with both activists and sympathizers, each interpreting lyrics in light of their own particular struggles. For example, African American labor unions using it as an anthem representing the struggle for racial freedom. The famous singer and activist, Joan Baez, performed the song during the March on Washington in 1963, which had an estimated attendance of up to 500,000 people. At the same event, speakers urged the U.S. Congress to pass an anti-discrimination bill, and civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his now famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Songs have historically been an important part of African American communities, with African slaves bringing a diverse polyphonic style in which several voices sing simultaneously in harmony. Slaves commonly sang while working in the fields, and sometimes used songs as codes for planning escapes or slave rebellions. In African American churches, traditional hymns sung in the polyphonic manner became known as gospel music. In the twentieth century, African Americans used new songs, and adapted older well-known songs, to build camaraderie and commitment in the struggle for equal rights and an end to racism.

The lyrics of "We Shall Overcome" were adapted from a gospel song entitled "I Will Overcome Some Day," written in 1900 by Charles Tindley. The melody was taken from a pre-Civil War song, "No More Auction Block for Me," which referred to the African American slave trade in the southern United States. Many African American Baptist and Methodist church congregations used Tindley's song during their services in the early 1900s.

It began to be used as a freedom song by tobacco workers in Charleston, South Carolina, who were pushing for more equal labor rights. The song was also shared with members of a white chapter of the Charleston Food, Tobacco, and Agricultural Workers Union at a Highlander Folk School workshop.

Founded in 1932, the Highlander Folk School near Knoxville, Tennessee, was a unique place, since it allowed the meeting of both black and white workers struggling to organize labor unions. Still in existence today, the Highlander Education and Research Center has brought together community organizers, grassroots leaders, educators, and researchers to address social, economic, and environmental issues facing people of the southern states. The Center has been involved in historically significant social justice movements, including the southern labor movement, the Civil Rights movement between the 1940s and the 1960s, and the Appalachian people's movements in the 1970s and 1980s.

The music director at the Highlander Center, Zilphia Horton, incorporated "We Shall Overcome" into all of her workshops during the 1940s and 1950s. Horton taught the song to folk singer, Pete Seeger, who added new verses to produce the version most commonly perfomed today. Guy Carawan, Horton's successor at the Highlander Center, taught the song to student protestors in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1960. Shortly after that, Carawan led the song at a meeting of student sit-in leaders at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is reported that the wide acceptance of the song at this meeting led to its nationwide use as the anthem of the Civil Rights movement.

PRIMARY SOURCE

CIVIL RIGHTS WORKERS SING "WE SHALL OVERCOME"

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

As evidenced by the news photo taken from era of the Civil Rights struggle, the singing of "We Shall Overcome" united races and denominations struggling for racial and social justice. Singing became a way to express both passion and protest.

Since 1966, royalties from the commercial use of "We Shall Overcome" have gone to support the Highlander Center through the We Shall Overcome Fund. The fund supports the use of art and activism to challenge injustice within African American communities throughout the South. The fund encourages proposals from diverse communities focusing on ending racism, sexism, and homophobia, and working to end economic and environmental injustice. The center funds performance and visual arts projects, workshops and conferences, and the preservation of Civil Rights movement documents.

The National Park Service and other U.S. federal agencies have created "We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement," a travel itinerary highlighting over fifty significant sites involved with the African American Civil Rights movement. The Civil Rights movement counts as its successes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 1964 Act, signed by President Lyndon Johnson the year after the March on Washington, outlawed discrimination at workplaces, and required equal access to public facilities. The Voting Rights Act took down barriers for all African Americans to participate equally in elections.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Albert, Peter, and Ronald Hoffman. We Shall Overcome: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Black Freedom Struggle. Philadelphia, Penn.: Da Capo, 1990.

Hansen, Drew. The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.

Periodicals

Baker, Robert E. "200,000 Jam Mall in Mammoth Rally in Solemn, Orderly Plea for Equality." Washington Post (August 29, 1963).

Web sites

Highlander Research and Education Center. <http://www.highlandercenter.org> (accessed May 20, 2006).

U.S. National Park Service. "Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement: We Shall Overcome." <http://www.cr.nps.gov/nR/travel/civilrights/index.htm> (accessed May 20, 2006).