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.

"Silent Running" released 1972

One of my favorite 70's sci-fi movies, Silent Running, was released March 10, 1972.  This was shortly after the EPA had been formed so environmentalism and saving the forests were huge messages in the movie.  Bruce Dern stars as an astronaut on board one of several ships carrying the last of Earth's forests and plants, since our planet had become so polluted, all the flora and foliage died off.

When the order comes from Earth to destroy the bio-domes and return, Bruce takes matters into his own hands.  It has some suprisingly touching scenes with Dern and the robots, Huey, Dewey and Louie, who were played by several multi-amputee actors.

Joan Baez lends her voice to the songs featured in the movie.