"We Shall Overcome" is a
gospel song
Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...
which became a
protest song
A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre.
Among social mov ...
and a key
anthem
An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short s ...
of the American
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
. The song is most commonly attributed as being lyrically descended from "I'll Overcome Some Day", a hymn by
Charles Albert Tindley
Charles Albert Tindley (July 7, 1851 – July 26, 1933) was an American Methodist minister and gospel music composer. His composition "I'll Overcome Someday" is credited as the basis for the U.S. Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome". Another ...
that was first published in 1901.
The modern version of the song was first said to have been sung by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during the
1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike in
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
. In 1947, the song was published under the title "We Will Overcome" in an edition of the ''People's Songs Bulletin'' (a publication of
People's Songs
People's Songs was an organization founded by Pete Seeger, Alan Lomax, Lee Hays, and others on December 31, 1945, in New York City, to "create, promote, and distribute songs of labor and the American people."People's Songs Inc. ''People's Songs Ne ...
, an organization of which
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...
was the director), as a contribution of and with an introduction by
Zilphia Horton
Zilphia Horton (April 14, 1910 – April 11, 1956) was an American musician, community organizer, educator, Civil Rights activist, and folklorist. She is best known for her work with her husband Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School wher ...
, then-music director of the
Highlander Folk School
The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West ( ...
of Monteagle, Tennessee (an adult education school that trained union organizers). Horton said she had learned the song from Simmons, and she considered it to be her favorite song. According to Horton, "one of the stanzas of the original hymn was 'we will overcome'. ... It sort of stops them cold silent.'"
She taught it to many others, including Pete Seeger,
who included it in his repertoire, as did many other activist singers, such as
Frank Hamilton and
Joe Glazer
Joe Glazer (June 19, 1918 – September 19, 2006), closely associated with labor unions and often referred to as "labor's troubadour," was an American folk musician who recorded more than thirty albums over the course of his career.
Early l ...
, who recorded it in 1950.
The song became associated with the civil rights movement from 1959, when
Guy Carawan stepped in with his and Seeger's version as song leader at Highlander, which was then focused on
nonviolent
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
civil rights activism. It quickly became the movement's unofficial anthem. Seeger and other famous folksingers in the early 1960s, such as
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
, sang the song at rallies, folk festivals, and concerts in the
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
and helped make it widely known. Since its rise to prominence, the song, and songs based on it, have been used in a variety of protests worldwide.
The U.S.
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
of the ''People's Songs Bulletin'' issue which contained "We Will Overcome" expired in 1976, but
The Richmond Organization asserted a copyright on the "We Shall Overcome" lyrics, registered in 1960. In 2017, in response to a lawsuit against TRO over allegations of
false copyright claims, a U.S. judge issued an opinion that the registered work was insufficiently different from the "We Will Overcome" lyrics that had fallen into the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
because of
non-renewal. In January 2018, the company agreed to a settlement under which it would no longer assert any copyright claims over the song.
Origins as gospel, folk, and labor song
"I'll Overcome Some Day" was a hymn or
gospel music composition by the Reverend
Charles Albert Tindley
Charles Albert Tindley (July 7, 1851 – July 26, 1933) was an American Methodist minister and gospel music composer. His composition "I'll Overcome Someday" is credited as the basis for the U.S. Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome". Another ...
of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
that was first published in 1901. A noted minister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
, Tindley was the author of approximately 50 gospel hymns, of which "We'll Understand It By and By" and "
Stand By Me" are among the best known. The published text bore the epigraph, "Ye shall overcome if ye faint not", derived from
Galatians Galatians may refer to:
* Galatians (people)
* Epistle to the Galatians, a book of the New Testament
* English translation of the Greek ''Galatai'' or Latin ''Galatae'', ''Galli,'' or ''Gallograeci'' to refer to either the Galatians or the Gauls in ...
6:9: "And let us not be weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." The first stanza began:
Tindley's songs were written in an idiom rooted in
African American folk traditions, using pentatonic intervals, with ample space allowed for improvised interpolation, the addition of "blue" thirds and sevenths, and frequently featuring short refrains in which the congregation could join. Tindley's importance, however, was primarily as a lyricist and poet whose words spoke directly to the feelings of his audiences, many of whom had been freed from
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
only 36 years before he first published his songs, and were often impoverished, illiterate, and newly arrived in the North. "Even today," wrote musicologist Horace Boyer in 1983, "ministers quote his texts in the midst of their sermons as if they were poems, as indeed they are."
A letter printed on the front page of February 1909, ''United Mine Workers Journal'' states: "Last year at a strike, we opened every meeting with a prayer, and singing that good old song, 'We Will Overcome'." This statement implied that the song was well-known, and it was also the first acknowledgment of such a song having been sung in both a secular context and a mixed-race setting.
Tindley's "I'll Overcome Some Day" was believed to have influenced the structure for "We Shall Overcome",
with both the text and the melody having undergone a process of alteration. The tune has been changed so that it now echoes the opening and closing melody of "No More Auction Block For Me", also known from its refrain as "Many Thousands Gone". This was number 35 in
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 22, 1823May 9, 1911) was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with ...
's collection of Negro Spirituals that appeared in the ''
Atlantic Monthly'' of June 1867, with a comment by Higginson reflecting on how such songs were composed (i.e., whether the work of a single author or through what used to be called "communal composition"):
Coincidentally,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
claims that he used the very same melodic motif from "No More Auction Block" for his composition, "
Blowin' in the Wind
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962.
It was released as a single and included on his album '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' in 1963. It has been described as a protest song and poses a series of rhetorical questions abou ...
". Thus similarities of melodic and rhythmic patterns imparted cultural and emotional resonance ("the same feeling") towards three different, and historically very significant songs.
Music scholars have also pointed out that the first half of "We Shall Overcome" bears a notable resemblance to the famous lay Catholic hymn "
O Sanctissima", also known as "The Sicilian Mariners Hymn", first published by a London magazine in 1792 and then by an American magazine in 1794 and widely circulated in American hymnals.
The second half of "We Shall Overcome" is essentially the same music as the 19th-century hymn "I'll Be All Right". As Victor Bobetsky summarized in his 2015 book on the subject: "'We Shall Overcome' owes its existence to many ancestors and to the constant change and adaptation that is typical of the folk music process."
[
]
Role of the Highlander Folk School
In October 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
, members of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America union (UCAPAWA) changed its name to Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA) in 1944.
History
The FTA sought to further organize cannery units and realized the ...
union (FTA-CIO), who were mostly female and African American, began a five-month strike against the American Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members ...
. To keep up their spirits during the cold, wet winter of 1945–1946, one of the strikers, a woman named Lucille Simmons, led a slow "long meter style" version of the gospel hymn, "We'll Overcome (I'll Be All Right)" to end each day's picketing. Union organizer Zilphia Horton
Zilphia Horton (April 14, 1910 – April 11, 1956) was an American musician, community organizer, educator, Civil Rights activist, and folklorist. She is best known for her work with her husband Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School wher ...
, who was the wife of the co-founder of the Highlander Folk School
The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West ( ...
(later Highlander Research and Education Center), said she learned it from Simmons. Horton was Highlander's music director during 1935–1956, and it became her custom to end group meetings each evening by leading this, her favorite song. During the presidential campaign of Henry A. Wallace, "We Will Overcome" was printed in ''Bulletin No. 3'' (September 1948), 8, of People's Songs
People's Songs was an organization founded by Pete Seeger, Alan Lomax, Lee Hays, and others on December 31, 1945, in New York City, to "create, promote, and distribute songs of labor and the American people."People's Songs Inc. ''People's Songs Ne ...
, with an introduction by Horton saying that she had learned it from the interracial FTA-CIO workers and had found it to be extremely powerful. Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...
, a founding member of People's Songs and its director for three years, learned it from Horton's version in 1947. Seeger writes: "I changed it to 'We shall'... I think I liked a more open sound; 'We will' has alliteration to it, but 'We shall' opens the mouth wider; the 'i' in 'will' is not an easy vowel to sing well ...." Seeger also added some verses ("We'll walk hand in hand" and "The whole wide world around").
In 1950, the CIO's Department of Education and Research released the album, ''Eight New Songs for Labor'', sung by Joe Glazer
Joe Glazer (June 19, 1918 – September 19, 2006), closely associated with labor unions and often referred to as "labor's troubadour," was an American folk musician who recorded more than thirty albums over the course of his career.
Early l ...
("Labor's Troubador"), and the Elm City Four. (Songs on the album were: "I Ain't No Stranger Now", "Too Old to Work", "That's All", "Humblin' Back", "Shine on Me", "Great Day", "The Mill Was Made of Marble", and "We Will Overcome".) During a Southern CIO drive, Glazer taught the song to country singer Texas Bill Strength, who cut a version that was later picked up by 4-Star Records.
The song made its first recorded appearance as "We Shall Overcome" (rather than "We Will Overcome") in 1952 on a disc recorded by Laura Duncan (soloist) and The Jewish Young Singers (chorus), conducted by Robert De Cormier
Robert Romeo De Cormier Jr. (January 7, 1922 – November 7, 2017), sometimes known as Robert Corman, was an American musical conductor, arranger, and director. He arranged music for many singers and groups, including Harry Belafonte and Peter, P ...
, co-produced by Ernie Lieberman and Irwin Silber
Irwin Silber (October 17, 1925 – September 8, 2010) was an American Communist, editor, publisher, and political activist. He edited the folk music magazine ''Sing Out!'' and was active in far-left politics throughout his life.
Biography Early ...
on Hootenany Records (Hoot 104-A) (Folkways, FN 2513, BCD15720), where it is identified as a Negro Spiritual.
Frank Hamilton, a folk singer from California who was a member of People's Songs and later The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs fr ...
, picked up Seeger's version. Hamilton's friend and traveling companion, fellow-Californian Guy Carawan, learned the song from Hamilton. Carawan and Hamilton, accompanied by Ramblin Jack Elliot, visited Highlander in the early 1950s where they also would have heard Zilphia Horton sing the song. In 1957, Seeger sang for a Highlander audience that included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
, who remarked on the way to his next stop, in Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
, about how much the song had stuck with him. When, in 1959, Guy Carawan succeeded Horton as music director at Highlander, he reintroduced it at the school. It was the young (many of them teenagers) student-activists at Highlander, however, who gave the song the words and rhythms for which it is currently known, when they sang it to keep their spirits up during the frightening police raids on Highlander and their subsequent stays in jail in 1959–1960. Because of this, Carawan has been reluctant to claim credit for the song's widespread popularity. In the PBS video ''We Shall Overcome'', Julian Bond
Horace Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the e ...
credits Carawan with teaching and singing the song at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southe ...
, in 1960. From there, it spread orally and became an anthem of Southern African American labor union and civil rights activism. Seeger has also publicly, in concert, credited Carawan with the primary role of teaching and popularizing the song within the civil rights movement.
Use in the 1960s civil rights and other protest movements
In August 1963, 22-year old folksinger Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
, led a crowd of 300,000 in singing "We Shall Overcome" at the Lincoln Memorial during A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...
. President Lyndon Johnson, himself a Southerner, used the phrase "we shall overcome" in addressing Congress on March 15, 1965, in a speech delivered after the violent "Bloody Sunday" attacks on civil rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...
, thus legitimizing the protest movement.
Four days before the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., King recited the words from "We Shall Overcome" in his final sermon, delivered in Memphis on Sunday, March 31. He had done so in a similar sermon delivered in 1965 before an interfaith congregation at Temple Israel in Hollywood, California:
"We Shall Overcome" was sung days later by over fifty thousand attendees at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.
The first memorial service following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, took place the following day at the R.S. Lewis Funeral Home in Memphis, Tennessee. This was followed by two funeral services on April 9, 1968, ...
Farmworkers in the United States later sang the song in Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
during the strikes and grape boycotts of the late 1960s. The song was notably sung by the U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
Senator for New York Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
, when he led anti-Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
crowds in choruses from the rooftop of his car while touring South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
in 1966. It was also the song which Abie Nathan
Avraham "Abie" Nathan ( he, אברהם "אייבי" נתן, 29 April 1927 – 27 August 2008) was an Israeli humanitarian and peace activist. He founded the Voice of Peace radio station. When he died the president of Israel Shimon Peres said about ...
chose to broadcast as the anthem of the Voice of Peace
Voice of Peace ( he, קול השלום, ''Kol HaShalom'') was an offshore radio station that broadcast in the Middle East for 20 years from the former Dutch cargo vessel ''MV Peace'' (formally ''MV Cito''), anchored off the Israeli coast i ...
radio station on October 1, 1993, and as a result it found its way back to South Africa in the later years of the Anti-Apartheid Movement
The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the policie ...
.
The adopted "we shall overcome" as a slogan and used it in the title of its retrospective publication, ''We Shall Overcome – The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968–1978''. The film ''Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday may refer to:
Historical events Canada
* Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
* Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...
'' depicts march leader and Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) Ivan Cooper
Ivan Averill Cooper (5 January 1944 – 26 June 2019) was an Irish politician from Northern Ireland. He was a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and a founding member of the SDLP. He is best known for leading the anti-internment march o ...
leading the song shortly before 1972's Bloody Sunday shootings. In 1997, the Christian men's ministry, Promise Keepers
Promise Keepers is an Evangelical Christian parachurch organization for men. It originated in the United States, but independent branches have also been established in Canada and New Zealand.
Promise Keepers describes its goal as "to bring abo ...
featured the song on its worship CD for that year: ''The Making of a Godly Man'', featuring worship leader Donn Thomas and the Maranatha! Promise Band. Bruce Springsteen's re-interpretation of the song was included on the 1998 tribute album ''Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger'' as well as on Springsteen's 2006 album '' We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions''.
Widespread adaptation
"We Shall Overcome" was adopted by various labor, nationalist, and political movements both during and after the Cold War. In his memoir about his years teaching English in Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
after the Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...
, Mark Allen wrote:
The words "We shall overcome" are sung emphatically at the end of each verse in a song of Northern Ireland's civil rights movement, '' Free the People'', which protested against the internment policy of the British Army. The movement in Northern Ireland was keen to emulate the movement in the US and often sang "We shall overcome".
The melody was also used (crediting it to Tindley) in a symphony by American composer William Rowland. In 1999, National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
included "We Shall Overcome" on the "NPR 100" list of most important American songs of the 20th century. As a reference to the line, on January 20, 2009, after the inauguration of Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
as the 44th President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
, a man holding the banner, "WE HAVE OVERCOME" was seen near the Capitol, a day after hundreds of people posed with the sign on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and sometimes referred to as MLK Day) is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Mond ...
.
As the attempted serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
" Lasermannen" shot several immigrants around Stockholm in 1992, Prime Minister Carl Bildt
Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affair ...
and Immigration Minister Birgit Friggebo attended a meeting in Rinkeby
Rinkeby () is a stadsdel, district in the Rinkeby-Kista borough, Stockholm, Sweden. Rinkeby had 19,349 inhabitants in 2016. The neighbourhood was part of the Million Programme.
The Stockholm metro station Rinkeby metro station, Rinkeby was also o ...
. As the audience became upset, Friggebo tried to calm them down by proposing that everyone sing "We Shall Overcome". This statement is widely regarded as one of the most embarrassing moments in Swedish politics. In 2008, the newspaper '' Svenska Dagbladet'' listed the Sveriges Television recording of the event as the best political clip available on YouTube.
On June 7, 2010, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame released a new version of the song as a protest against the Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i blockade of Gaza.
On July 22, 2012, Bruce Springsteen performed the song during the memorial-concert in Oslo after the terrorist attacks in Norway on July 22, 2011.
In India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, the renowned poet Girija Kumar Mathur
Girija Kumar Mathur (Hindi: गिरिजाकुमार माथुर) (22 August 1919 – 10 January 1994) was a notable Indian writer of the Hindi language. He is noted for his translation of the popular English song "We Shall Overcome ...
composed its literal translation in Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
"''Hum Honge Kaamyab (हम होंगे कामयाब)''" which became a popular patriotic/spiritual song during the 1970s and 80s, particularly in schools. This song also came to be used by the Blue Pilgrims for motivating the India national football team
The India national football team represents India in international football and is governed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The team is affiliated to FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Indian team, which was once cons ...
during international matches.
In Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
-speaking India and Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
, there are two versions, both of which are popular among school-children and political activists. "''Amra Korbo Joy''" (আমরা করবো জয়, a literal translation) was translated by the Bengali folk singer Hemanga Biswas and re-recorded by Bhupen Hazarika
Bhupen Hazarika () (8 September 1926 – 5 November 2011) was an Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet, actor, filmmaker and politician from Assam, widely known as ''Sudha Kontho'' (meaning cuckoo, literally "nectar-throated"). His ...
. Hazarika, who had heard the song during his days in the US, also translated the song to the Assamese language
Assamese (), also Asamiya ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-east Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language, and it serves as a '' lingua franca'' of the wider region. The easternmost Indo-Iranian langua ...
as "''Ami hom xophol''" (আমি হ'ম সফল). Another version, translated by Shibdas Bandyopadhyay, "''Ek Din Shurjer Bhor''" (এক দিন সূর্যের ভোর, literally translated as "''One Day The Sun Will Rise''") was recorded by the Calcutta Youth Choir
Calcutta Youth Choir () was set up in 1958 by Ruma Guha Thakurta with Salil Chowdhury and Satyajit Ray.
Calcutta Youth Choir is known for their performance of folk and mass songs. Several years ago, the choir broke out with the song 'Aaj joto j ...
and arranged by Ruma Guha Thakurta
Ruma Guha Thakurta (21 November 1934 – 3 June 2019) was an Indian actress and singer primarily associated with Bengali language films. She founded Calcutta Youth Choir in 1958.
Early life
Ruma Guha Thakurta was born on 3 November 1934 to ...
during the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence
The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali n ...
and it became one of the largest selling Bengali records. It was a favorite of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( bn, শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান; 17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), often shortened as Sheikh Mujib or Mujib and widely known as Bangabandhu (meaning ''Friend of Bengal''), was a Bengali politi ...
and it was regularly sung at public events after Bangladesh gained its independence in the early 1970s.
In the Indian State of Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, the traditional Communist stronghold, the song became popular on college campuses during the late 1970s. It was the struggle song of the Students Federation of India
The Students' Federation of India (abbreviated as SFI) is an Indian left-wing student organisation politically aligned to the ideologies of Independence, Democracy and Socialism. Currently, V. P. Sanu and Mayukh Biswas are elected as the All I ...
SFI, the largest student organisation in the country. The song translated to the regional language Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...
by N. P. Chandrasekharan, an activist for SFI. The translation followed the same tune of the original song, as "''Nammal Vijayikkum''". Later it was also published in '' Student'', the monthly of SFI in Malayalam as well as in Sarvadesheeya Ganangal (Mythri Books, Thiruvananthapuram), a translation of international struggle songs.
"We Shall Overcome" was a prominent song in the 2010 Bollywood film '' My Name is Khan'', which compared the struggle of Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
in modern America with the struggles of African Americans in the past. The song was sung in both English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and Hindi
Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
in the film, which starred Kajol and Shahrukh Khan
Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor, film producer, and television personality who works in Hindi films. Referred to in the media as the " Baadshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" ...
.
In 2014, a recording of ''We Shall Overcome'' arranged by composer Nolan Williams Jr. and featuring mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves (born March 7, 1964) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.
Early life
Graves was born on March 7, 1964, in Washington, D.C., to Charles Graves and Dorothy (Middleton) Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and ...
was among several works of art, including the poem '' A Brave and Startling Truth'' by Maya Angelou, were sent to space on the first test flight of the spacecraft Orion.
The Argentine writer and singer María Elena Walsh wrote a Spanish version called "Venceremos".
Copyright status
The copyright status of "We Shall Overcome" was disputed in the late 2010s. A copyright registration
The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a cop ...
was made for the song in 1960, which is credited as an arrangement by Zilphia Horton, Guy Carawan, Frank Hamilton, and Pete Seeger, of a work entitled "I'll Overcome", with no known original author. Horton's heirs, Carawan, Hamilton, and Seeger share the artists' half of the rights, and The Richmond Organization (TRO), which includes Ludlow Music, Essex, Folkways Music, and Hollis Music, holds the publishers' rights, to 50% of the royalty earnings. Seeger explained that he registered the copyright under the advice of TRO, who showed concern that someone else could register it. "At that time we didn't know Lucille Simmons' name", Seeger said. Their royalties go to the "We Shall Overcome" Fund, administered by Highlander under the trusteeship of the "writers". Such funds are purportedly used to give small grants for cultural expression involving African Americans organizing in the U.S. South.
In April 2016, the We Shall Overcome Foundation (WSOF), led by music producer Isaias Gamboa, sued TRO and Ludlow, seeking to have the copyright status of the song clarified and the return of all royalties collected by the companies from its usage. The WSOF, which was working on a documentary about the song and its history, were denied permission to use the song by TRO-Ludlow. The filing argued that TRO-Ludlow's copyright claims were invalid because the registered copyright had not been renewed as required by United States copyright law
The copyright law of the United States grants monopoly protection for "original works of authorship". With the stated purpose to promote art and culture, copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of the ...
at the time; because of this, the copyright of the 1948 ''People's Songs'' publication containing "We Will Overcome" had expired in 1976. Additionally, it was argued that the registered copyrights only covered specific arrangements of the tune and "obscure alternate verses", that the registered works "did not contain original works of authorship, except to the extent of the arrangements themselves", and that no record of a work entitled "I'll Overcome" existed in the database of the United States Copyright Office.
The suit acknowledged that Seeger himself had not claimed to be an author of the song, stating of the song in his autobiography, "No one is certain who changed 'will' to 'shall.' It could have been me with my Harvard education. But Septima Clarke, a Charleston schoolteacher (who was director of education at Highlander and after the civil rights movement was elected year after year to the Charleston, S.C. Board of Education) always preferred 'shall.' It sings better." He also reaffirmed that the decision to copyright the song was a defensive measure, with his publisher apparently warning him that "if you don't copyright this now, some Hollywood types will have a version out next year like 'Come on Baby, We shall overcome tonight. Furthermore, the liner notes of Seeger's compilation album ''If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope & Struggle'' contained a summary on the purported history of the song, stating that "We Shall Overcome" was "probably adapted from the 19th-century hymn, 'I'll Be All Right, and that "I'll Overcome Some Day" was a "possible source" and may have originally been adapted from "I'll Be All Right".
Gamboa has historically shown interest in investigating the origins of "We Shall Overcome"; in a book entitled '' We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue'', he notably disputed the song's claimed origins and copyright registration with an alternate theory, suggesting that "We Shall Overcome" was actually derived from "If My Jesus Wills", a hymn by Louise Shropshire that had been composed in the 1930s and had its copyright registered in 1954. The WSOF lawsuit did not invoke this alternate history, focusing instead on the original belief that the song stemmed from "We Will Overcome". The lawyer backing Gamboa's suit, Mark C. Rifkin, was previously involved in a case that invalidated copyright claims over the song "Happy Birthday to You
"Happy Birthday to You", also known as "Happy Birthday", is a song traditionally sung to celebrate a person's birthday. According to the 1998 ''Guinness World Records'', it is the most recognised song in the English language, followed by " Fo ...
".
On September 8, 2017, Judge Denise Cote
Denise Louise Cote (born October 13, 1946) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Early life and education
Cote was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She received a Bache ...
of the Southern District of New York issued an opinion that there were insufficient differences between the first verse of the "We Shall Overcome" lyrics registered by TRO-Ludlow, and the "We Will Overcome" lyrics from ''People's Songs'' (specifically, the aforementioned replacement of "will" with "shall", and changing "down in my heart" to "deep in my heart") for it to qualify as a distinct derivative work eligible for its own copyright.
On January 26, 2018, TRO-Ludlow agreed to a final settlement, under which it would no longer claim copyright over the melody or lyrics to "We Shall Overcome". In addition, TRO-Ludlow agreed that the melody and lyrics were thereafter dedicated to the public domain.
See also
* Civil rights movement in popular culture
The history of the 1954 to 1968 American civil rights movement has been depicted and documented in film, song, theater, television, and the visual arts. These presentations add to and maintain cultural awareness and understanding of the goals, tact ...
* Timeline of the civil rights movement
This is a timeline of the civil rights movement in the United States, a nonviolent mid-20th century freedom movement to gain legal equality and the enforcement of constitutional rights for people of color. The goals of the movement included secu ...
* Christian child's prayer § Spirituals
Notes
References
* Dunaway, David, ''How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger'', (orig. pub. 1981, reissued 1990). Da Capo, New York, .
* ___, "The We Shall Overcome Fund". ''Highlander Reports'', newsletter of the Highlander Research and Education Center, August–November 2004, p. 3.
* ''We Shall Overcome'', PBS Home Video 174, 1990, 58 minutes.
Further reading
* ''Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs'': Compiled and edited by Guy and Candie Carawan; foreword by Julian Bond (New South Books, 2007), comprising two classic collections of freedom songs: '' We Shall Overcome'' (1963) and ''Freedom Is A Constant Struggle'' (1968), reprinted in a single edition. The book includes a major new introduction by Guy and Candie Carawan, words and music to the songs, important documentary photographs, and firsthand accounts by participants in the civil rights movement. Available fro
Highlander Center
* ''We Shall Overcome! Songs of the Southern Freedom Movement'': Julius Lester, editorial assistant. Ethel Raim, music editor: Additional musical transcriptions: Joseph Byrd ndGuy Carawan. New York: Oak Publications, 1963.
* ''Freedom is a Constant Struggle'', compiled and edited by Guy and Candie Carawan. Oak Publications, 1968.
* Alexander Tsesis
Alexander Tsesis is an American constitutional scholar who holds the Raymond & Mary Simon Chair in Constitutional Law at Loyola University.
Works
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsesis, Alexander
Loyola University Chicago School of Law ...
''We Shall Overcome: A History of Civil Rights and the Law''
Yale University Press, 2008.
by Stuart Stotts, illustrated by Terrance Cummings, foreword by Pete Seeger. New York: Clarion Books, 2010.
* ''Sing for Freedom'', Folkways Records, produced by Guy and Candie Carawan, and the Highlander Center. Field recordings from 1960 to 1988, with the Freedom Singers, Birmingham Movement Choir, Georgia Sea Island Singers, Doc Reese, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Len Chandler, and many others. Smithsonian-Folkways CD version 1990.
* ''We Shall Overcome: The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert, June 8, 1963, Historic Live recording June 8, 1963''. 2-disc set, includes the full concert, starring Pete Seeger, with the Freedom Singers, Columbia # 45312, 1989. Re-released 1997 by Sony as a box CD set.
* ''Voices Of The Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs 1960–1966''. Box CD set, with the Freedom Singers, Fanny Lou Hammer, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. Smithsonian-Folkways CD ASIN: B000001DJT (1997).
* Durman, C 2015, 'We Shall Overcome: Essays on a Great American Song edited by Victor V. Bobetsky', ''Music Reference Services Quarterly'', vol. 8, iss. 3, pp. 185–187
* Graham, D 2016, "Who Owns 'We Shall Overcome'?", ''The Atlantic'', 14 April, accessed 28 April 2017,
Who Owns 'We Shall Overcome'?
* Clark, B. & Borchert, S 2015, "Pete Seeger, Musical Revolutionary", ''Monthly Review'', vol. 66, no. 8, pp. 20–29
External links
We Shall Overcome Lyrics download in PDF
*
* Lyrics
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...
Authorized Profile of Guy Carawan with history of the song, "We Shall Overcome" from the Association of Cultural Equity
''Freedom in the Air: Albany Georgia. 1961–62. SNCC #101''.
Recorded by Guy Carawan, produced for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee by Guy Carawan and Alan Lomax. "''Freedom In the Air'' ... is a record of the 1961 protest in Albany, Georgia, when, two weeks before Christmas, 737 people brought the town nearly to a halt to force its integration. The record's never been reissued and that's a shame, as it's a moving document of a community through its protest songs, church services, and experiences in the thick of the civil rights struggle."—Nathan Salsburg, host, ''Root Hog or Die'', East Village Radio, January 2007.
excerpts from various articles, liner notes, etc. about "We Shall Overcome".
Musical Transcription
of "We Shall Overcome," based on a recording of Pete Seeger's version, sung with the SNCC Freedom Singers on the 1963 live Carnegie Hall recording, and the 1988 version by Pete Seeger sung at a reunion concert with Pete and the Freedom Singers on the anthology, ''Sing for Freedom'', recorded in the field 1960–88 and edited and annotated by Guy and Candie Carawan, released in 1990 as Smithsonian-Folkways CD SF 40032.
NPR news article
including full streaming versions of Pete Seeger's classic 1963 live Carnegie Hall recording and Bruce Springsteen's tribute version.
"Pete Seeger & the story of 'We Shall Overcome'"
from 1968 interview on '' The Pop Chronicles''.
"Something About That Song Haunts You"
essay on the history of "We Shall Overcome," ''Complicated Fun'', June 9, 2006.
Excerpt: "Key folk songs in the ROcatalog, as arranged by a number of folklorists, are 'We Shall Overcome,' 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine' 'On Top Of Old Smokey,' 'So Long, It's Been Good To Know You,' 'Goodnight Irene,' 'If I Had A Hammer,' 'Tom Dooley,' and 'Rock Island Line.'"
{{Authority control
1900 songs
American folk songs
American patriotic songs
Gospel songs
Bluegrass songs
American Christian hymns
Songs about freedom
Songs of the civil rights movement
Pete Seeger songs
Joan Baez songs
Songs against racism and xenophobia
Roger Waters songs
Mahalia Jackson songs
Peter, Paul and Mary songs
Articles containing video clips
Songs involved in royalties controversies
Slogans
American political catchphrases
1950s neologisms
Quotations from music
Protest songs