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SING for FREEDOM the Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs I 2' IIII 1

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SING for FREEDOM the Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs I 2' IIII 1 The story ofthe Civil Rights Movement through its songs. ~M I THSO;\ I ANrrOLKWAYS CD SF 40032 IAIAIDI SING FOR FREEDOM The Story of the Civil Rights Movement through Its Songs I 2' IIII 1. We Are Soldiers in the Army 3 I a 9307 -40032-2 0 2. Keep Your Hand on the Plow 2: I I 3. This Liule Light 2: 12 4. You BeUer leave Segregation Alone :39 Hymns, spirituals, gospel songs, 5. Your Dog loves My Dog 1:59 prayers and speeches have been a unirying force in the struggle for 6. Ain't Gonna let obody Turn Me Around 2.30 civil rights throughout the United 7. I Woke Up This Morning with My Mind on Freedom 3:37 States. These early 1960~ field 8. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize 1 :46 recordings from campaign centers 9. Oh Pritchett, Oh Kelly 2:27 such as Montgomery and Birming­ 10. Up above My Head 1:02 ham, Alabama; Albany and Atlan­ 11. Tilis lillie Light 3:46 ta, Georgia; Greenwood, Missis­ 12. Brown Baby 1: 53 sippi; and Nashville, Tennessee 13 Which Side Are You On? 3:46 testify to the irrepressible power 14. I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table 1:53 or song in the civil rights move­ ment. 15. Mass Meeting and Prayer 3:53 16. Guide My Feet 2:06 Th ese pc,jonnan(cs WCI'C originally 17. I'm on My Way 3: 41 issued on Fo lh ways Records . Extensive notes with colllpl ;'(e discograp hical 18. Rev. Ralph Abernathy 1:3 1 inJonnaIion are enclosed. 19. Yes, We Want Our Freedom 2:23 20. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. 3:41 Smithsonian 21. Ninety-nine-and-a-halfWon't Do 2: 15 O Folkways 22. Get on Board 4:53 ~mithsoni~H\/Folkwa)s Records 23. No Danger in the Water 1:23 Center for Fo lklLfc Programs .tnd 24. Medgar Evers Speaking 1:10 Cultural Studies 25 Keep Your Eyes on the Prize I: 10 955 L'Enfa nl Plaza, Su ite 2600 Smithsonian In~ li tution 26. We Shall Overcome 2:42 W.,hmglon DC 20560 ® © 1990 Smllhsoniantrolkways Record, Pn nted in Canada Montgomery, Alabama is considered the singing for the Montgomery Improvement birth place of the modem civil rights Association. All the songs I remember SING FOR FREEDOM movement. In December of 1955, Rosa gave us strength to go on." The Story of the Civil Rights Movement through Its Songs Parks refused to give up her seat on a city Compiled with notes by Guy and Candie Carawan bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus The Montgomery Gospel trio carne to a Boycott, which carne to national atten­ workshop at Highlander in 1959. They tion. As a local movement grew in met Guy there and when a benefit concert he civil rights movement was the the civil rights movement from Mont­ Montgomery, singing became a strong for Highlander was planned for Carnegie greatest singing movement this gomery through Nashville, Albany, force in unifying people in their struggle. Hall in 1961, he invited them to take part. T country has experienced. The Binningham and MissiSSippi tracing the The churches were the meeting place for This was perhaps the first time singers songs that grew out of campaigns across development and spread of the freedom the movement and singing was a central directly involved in the civil rights the Sou th in the early 1960s built on the repertoire. ingredient of mass meetings that took movement had a hearing in the northern rich culture of African American place night after night. setting. They appeared in the concert with communities, particularly the black Sing For Freedom is also available in book Pete Seeger, Guy, Willie Dixon and Mem­ church. There were songs to fit every fonn. The book represents a reissue of Many commonly known hymns, spiri­ phis Slim and a quartet of freedom singers mood (rom sorrow to joy. from two classic collections of freedom songs, tu~ls and gospel songs began to take on a [rom Nashville. determination to irony and humor. We Shall Overcome (Oak, 1963) and new mea'hing when they were part of a Freedom Is a Constant Struggle (Oak, mass meeting:-Soon small adaptions were The three songs are traditional gospel We were fortunate to live in the South 1968). The new edition includes ll5 made which gave even sharper focus to songs with very slight adaptions to suit during those years and to be based at the freedom songs (including all the songs on traditional words. "We've got the light of the new mood of challenge and change in Highlander Center, one of the gathering this recording), over 135 stirring freedom, we're gonna let it shine ... deep the South. They were recorded in a rather places for civil rights activists to share photographs of the civil rights movement, down in the South, we're gonna let it impromptu session by Moe Asch of infonnation and to strategize. Particularly extensive first-hand accounts, and a new shine .. ." FoLkways Records just before the trio interested in the cultural expression of essay by Guy and Candie Carawan on the returned to Montgomery. You can hear the movement, we travelled to many role of song in this movement. This 312 The trio heard on this recording was Guy's guitar accompaniment and a bass communities and recorded peoples' songs pp. book can be ordered for $17.50 already singing together as teenagers in a voice-that of Sam Collier of the Nash­ and stories. We collected the freedom postpaid directly from the publisher, Sing youth gospel choir when they became ville quartet. repertoire into two songbooks and Out Publications, at P.O.Box 5253, involved in the movement. Mary Ethel produced six documentary albums of Bethlehem, PA 18105. It is also available Dozier explains: "I was in elementary Guy wrote in the original notes to the songs, testimonies and mass meetings. from Roundup Records, P.O. Box 154, N. school in 1954. I was ten years old. After FoLkways album: This collection is drawn from those six Cambridge, MA 02140. the first mass meetings in 1955 we started "The three teens from Montgomery know albums. It is an impressionistic history of what it is to live in one of the most brutal Songs and Testimonies: was full of humor and satire and The arrests aroused a sleeping community Jim Crow cities in the South. They have Montgomery Improvement Association especially helpful for relieving the fear and nation and revealed the seriousness witnessed the historic happenings of the trio of high school students: Mary Ethel and anxiety of students going to jail for of the problem of segregation. They 1955 bus boycott, the mob violence in Dozier, Minnie Hendrick, Gladys Burnette the first time. helped erradicate the idea that the Negro reaction to the sit-ins and the freedom Carter: was content with his second-class rides. The Montgomery Improvement 1) We Are Soldiers in the Army In the early summer of 1960, following a citizenship. " Association has Carried on the struggle in period of several months of demonstra­ spite of constant harrassment by the 2) Keep Your Hands on the Plow tions, a boycott of the downtown area by FollOWing the sit-ins of the spring of police and threats of violence from white 3) This Little Light the black community, negotiations by a 1960, young people of the Nashville hate groups. These young women who bi-racial committee established by the movement became central participants in sing spiritual and gospel songs that In 1960 Nashville, Tennessee was a mayor of Nashville, and finally some the Freedom Rides, carrying on when the express the spirit of freedom have sung center of student demonstrations against desegregation of public facilities , Guy original rides were cancelled because of often for this organization and for many segregated public facilities. The sit-in recorded a documentary album for violent attacks. During the summer of other groups in Montgomery. They are movement spread rapidly through Folkways called "The Nashville Sit-In 1961, about 350 freedom riders spent used to the fact that these meetings may southern cities. Sit-ins at downtown Story." These two selections are from that more than a month in jail together in be harrassed by police or white hoodlums lunch counters resulted in mass arres~ album. Mississippi. This was a fertile period for and that they have to be careful about and jailings and the entire black the creation and the spread of freedom where they go, what they do and what community rallied in support of the One of the-student participants, Peggy songs. Once they were released from jail, they say. Songs like "We Are Soldiers," students. Again the mass meetings were Alexander, wrote in the notes to the these singing freedom riders fanned out "Hold On" and "This Little Light" are central to the campaign. album: to their home communities or to their some of their best and have helped to lift "On February 27th students were called new assignments as organizers. the spirits of many people in Along with the church songs that were an vulgar names, cursed, kicked, beaten, Montgomery. " integral part of the meetings, some new rolled down steps and arrested. The Songs and Testimonials: freedom songs grew out of the Nashville students had strength in the belief that no N ashville Quartet from American Baptist movement. The songs included here are sacrifice was too great in order to attain Theological Seminary: James Bevel, from a talented quartet of students from freedom.
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