Celebrating Black History Month: "We Shall Overcome" civil rights anthem

We Shall Overcome is a gospel song that has become an anthem for the civil rights movement in the US.  It is believed to have "descended" from Charles Albert Tindley's I'll Over Come Day, first published in 1901.  Tindley, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, authored about fifty gospel hymns.

In October 1945, members of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers union began a five-month strike against the American Tobacco Company.  One of the strikers, Lucille Simmons, led a slow version of the song, We'll Overcome (I'll be All Right), to keep up the spirits of the members, mostly female and African American, during the cold winter.

Pete Seeger changed the lyrics to "We Shall..." in 1947 and added a few verses.  In 1952, it was first recorded and released by Laura Duncan and The Jewish Young Singers, where it is identified as a Negro spiritual. 

In 1957, Seeger performed the song for an audience that included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said how much the song stuck with him.

Joan Baez led a crowd of 3,000 people in singing We Shall Overcome during the August 1963 March On Washington. LBJ used the phrase "we shall overcome" March 15, 1965 in a speech to Congress after the "Bloody Sunday" attacks on civil rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Martin Luther King Jr. used the lyrics from We Shall Overcome in a speech delivered on March 31, 1968, just four days before his assassination.  At his funeral over 50,000 people sang We Shall Overcome.

It has become an international phenomenon as it is sung wherever people's rights are being violated.

Here is the Turtle Creek Chorale's performance with the Women's Chorus of Dallas.  I am proud to be part of this recording.

Celebrating Black History Month: "Go Down, Moses" African-American spiritual

A Civil War-era African-American spiritual, Go Down, Moses, was first used as a rallying anthem for people who had escaped slavery sometime before July 1862. It could have originated from Virginia in 1853.  The sheet music was published under the title Oh! Let My People Go: The Song of the Contrabands in 1862, words and music by Rev. L. C. Lockwood, arranged by Thomas Baker and published by Horace Waters. 

The spiritual, also known as When Israel Was in Egypt's Land, describes the exodus of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. The lyrics discuss freedom to both Israelites and enslaved people.  

In an authorized biography of Harriet Tubman, she stated she used Go Down Moses as one of two code songs during her work with the Underground Railroad.  It is possible that the song predates the 1853 claim.  

Celebrating Black History Month: "Wade in the Water", African-American jubilee song

Wade in the Water is an African-American spiritual, a genre of music created and sung by African-Americans in slavery.  Wade in the Water was estimated to be written during the Civil War around 1863, but the lyrics were not published until 1901, by Frederick J. Work and his brother John Wesley. The first commercial recording was made by the Sunset Four Jubilee Singers and released by Paramount Records.

The song is associated with Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  It is believed that Tubman, who made thirteen trips to the South and helped free more than 70 people, used this song to warn slaves to get off the main trail and into the water to prevent the slavers' dogs from finding them.

The song has been modified, updated, and recorded many times in the past one hundred years.  Billy Preston and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass have released instrumental versions of it.