We Shall Overcome: Information and Lyrics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

HANDOUT 1 WE SHALL OVERCOME: INFORMATION AND LYRICS “We Shall Overcome” is generally associated with the African American civil rights movement (1955–68) as a protest song and anthem of the movement. However the song has deep roots. The lyrics are derived from a gospel song, “I’ll Overcome Some Day,” by Charles Tindley. The melody is from the nineteenth-century spiritual “No More Auction Block for Me,” which dates to before the civil war. The Highlander Research and Educational Center in Tennessee was at the center of the song's transition through the decades. The adaptation began with Zilphia Horton, music director of the Highlander Folk School, which trained union organizers. By 1959, the Center was focusing on nonviolent civil rights activism. The new song director, Guy Carawan, modified the song with Candy Carawan and others and made it what we know today. Famous folk singers like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez often sang the song at rallies, festivals, and concerts in the North and helped make it widely known. Since that time, the song and others based on it have been used in protests worldwide. We shall overcome, we shall overcome, We are not afraid, we are not afraid, We shall overcome someday; We are not afraid today; Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, We shall overcome someday. We are not afraid today. The Lord will see us through, the Lord will see The truth shall make us free, the truth shall us through, make us free, The Lord will see us through someday; The truth shall make us free someday; Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, We shall overcome someday. The truth shall make us free someday. We’re on to victory, We’re on to victory, We shall live in peace, we shall live in peace, We’re on to victory someday; We shall live in peace someday; Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, We’re on to victory someday. We shall live in peace someday. We’ll walk hand in hand, we’ll walk hand in hand, We’ll walk hand in hand someday; Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, We’ll walk hand in hand someday. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Case 1:16-Cv-02725-DLC Document 87 Filed 09/08/17 Page 1 of 66
Case 1:16-cv-02725-DLC Document 87 Filed 09/08/17 Page 1 of 66 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK -------------------------------------- X : WE SHALL OVERCOME FOUNDATION and : 16cv2725(DLC) BUTLER FILMS, LLC, on behalf of : themselves and all others similarly : OPINION AND ORDER situated, : : Plaintiffs, : : -v- : : THE RICHMOND ORGANIZATION, INC. (TRO : INC.) and LUDLOW MUSIC, INC., : : Defendants. : : -------------------------------------- X APPEARANCES: For the Plaintiffs: Mark C. Rifkin Randall S. Newman Gloria K. Melwani Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP 270 Madison Ave, 10th Floor New York, NY 10016 For the Defendants: Paul LiCalsi Ofer Reger Robins Kaplan LLC 601 Lexington Ave, Suite 3400 New York, NY 10022 DENISE COTE, District Judge: The defendants The Richmond Organization, Inc. (“TRO”) and its subsidiary and imprint Ludlow Music, Inc. (“Ludlow”) (collectively, the “Defendants”) possess two copyrights in the musical composition “We Shall Overcome” (the “Song” or the Case 1:16-cv-02725-DLC Document 87 Filed 09/08/17 Page 2 of 66 “Copyrighted Song”), registered as a derivative work with the Copyright Office in 1960 and 1963. In this litigation, the plaintiffs We Shall Overcome Foundation (“WSOF”) and Butler Films, LLC (“Butler”) (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) challenge through a putative class action the validity of the Defendants’ copyrights in the Song. The Plaintiffs have filed a motion for partial summary judgment in which they principally argue that the lyrics and melody in the first verse and its identical fifth verse (“Verse 1/5”) of the Song are not sufficiently original to qualify for copyright registration as a derivative work.1 For the reasons that follow, that portion of the Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is granted.
[Show full text]
We Shall Overcome”
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ACTIVITIES MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. MARTIN KING LUTHER MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2015 2015 STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA STATE 2015 COMMEMORATION & CELEBRATION & CELEBRATION COMMEMORATION SPONSORED BY Dr. Christina King Farris is the eldest sister of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the only living member of the family of origin. Dr. Farris recently retired as the oldest member of the faculty at Spelman College in Atlanta College where she graduated in the same year her brother Martin graduated from Morehouse College. This greeting is an exclusive to the 2015 State MLK Celebration in tribute to West Virginia’s recognition of Dr. King’s birthday as a State holiday before it became a National holiday. To Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and Dr. Carolyn Stuart, Executive Director of the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs, I bring greetings to the Martin Luther King Jr., State Holiday Commission and the people of the “Mountain State” of West Virginia, where “Mountaineers are always free”. I was surprised and pleased to learn that West Virginia led the nation in declaring Dr. King’s Birthday a State Holiday before it became a national holiday. I understand that this was the result of House Bill 1368 initiated by Delegates Booker Stephens and Ernest Moore which established the King Holiday as a State Celebration in 1982—four years before it was officially declared a national holiday in 1986. I pray that God’s richest blessing be with all who diligently work for justice, equality, and peace in pursuit of my brother’s vision of the “beloved community.” Dr.
[Show full text]
Excerpt from President Lyndon B. Johnson's Voting Rights Act Speech
Excerpt from Johnson’s Voting Rights Act Speech Excerpt from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Voting Rights Act Speech, March 15, 1965 At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed. There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self- satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight. This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal"—“government by consent of the governed”—“give me liberty or give me death.” Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives. To apply any other test—to deny a man his hopes because of his color or race, his religion or the place of his birth—is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.
[Show full text]
“We Shall Overcome and the Southern Black Freedom Struggle”
“We Shall Overcome and the Southern Black Freedom Struggle” David J. Garrow On October 22, 1945, 1,000 members of Local 15 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union (FTA) went on strike at an American Tobacco Company cigar factory in Charleston, SC, seeking to increase their pay to 30 cents-per-hour. The biracial group of strikers began picketing outside the brick factory building, and in later years surviving participants would recall two African American women, Delphine Brown and Lucille Simmons, as important song leaders who led the strikers in singing. Simmons was a choir member at Jerusalem Baptist Church, and fellow union members would remember her singing a well-known hymn, “I’ll Be All Right,” and altering it to give voice to the striking workers’ own aspirations: “We Will Overcome.”1 1. Robert Shelton, “Rights Song Has Own History of Integration,” New York Times, 23 July 1963, at 21; Robert Sherman, “Sing a Song of Freedom,” Saturday Review, 28 September 1963, at 65-67, 81; “Moment of History,” The New Yorker, 27 March 1965, at 37-39; Josh Dunson, Freedom In the Air: Song Movements of the Sixties (International Publishers, 1965), at 29; Lillie Mae Marsh in Guy and Candie Carawan, Freedom Is A Constant Struggle—Songs of the Freedom Movement (Oak Publications, 1968), at 138; Bernice Johnson Reagon, “Songs of the Civil Rights Movement 1955-1965: A Study in Cultural History,” Ph.D. dissertation, Howard 2 The strike ended without success in April 1946, but one month later, two participants, Anna Lee Bonneau and Evelyn Risher, traveled to the Highlander University, 1975, at 65, 68-75; Caryle Murphy, “The Rise of a Rights Anthem,” Washington Post, 17 January 1988, at G1, G11; Noah Adams, “Tracing the History of the Song ‘We Shall Overcome,’” All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 15 January 1999; Robert R.
[Show full text]
Annual Report 2019/20 “We Are Here, Standing Strong, in Our Rightful Place.”
Annual Report 2019/20 “ We are here, standing strong, in our rightful place.” Over the last two years, Highlander has expand our reach to tens of thousands of new is alive and well, and we have been able to persevered in the face of the intersecting and returning Highlander friends and family. thrive because we are held up by a community crises of white supremacist violence, a global Highlander’s operations continued, providing of care. pandemic, climate disaster, the failures of administrative infrastructure for a robust the state, the rise of authoritarianism, police fiscal sponsorship program, offering a range violence, and the many other interlocking forms of movement accompaniment and support of oppression that impact our staff and the services to the uprisings of Summer 2020, and people we serve. giving extra attention to building democracy in (and beyond) election season and attending to After the March 2019 fire, the outpouring of capital improvements of Highlander’s land and support from Highlander’s movement family buildings. across the region, the United States, and globe meant that we could focus on recovering even After the fire, we shared a message inspired by while continuing to welcome thousands of the song, “Solid as a Rock,” with our supporters: people to Highlander for educational work “We are here, standing strong, in our rightful and radical hospitality. The fire required us to place.” That message remains true today. The quickly adapt and practice resilience, a posture fire that destroyed our main office did not that effectively prepared us for early 2020’s destroy us or our work.
[Show full text]
African-Americans, American Jews, and the Church-State Relationship
Catholic University Law Review Volume 43 Issue 1 Fall 1993 Article 4 1993 Ironic Encounter: African-Americans, American Jews, and the Church-State Relationship Dena S. Davis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview Recommended Citation Dena S. Davis, Ironic Encounter: African-Americans, American Jews, and the Church-State Relationship, 43 Cath. U. L. Rev. 109 (1994). Available at: https://scholarship.law.edu/lawreview/vol43/iss1/4 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by CUA Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Catholic University Law Review by an authorized editor of CUA Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IRONIC ENCOUNTER: AFRICAN-AMERICANS, AMERICAN JEWS, AND THE CHURCH- STATE RELATIONSHIP Dena S. Davis* I. INTRODUCTION This Essay examines a paradox in contemporary American society. Jewish voters are overwhelmingly liberal and much more likely than non- Jewish white voters to support an African-American candidate., Jewish voters also staunchly support the greatest possible separation of church * Assistant Professor, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. For critical readings of earlier drafts of this Essay, the author is indebted to Erwin Chemerinsky, Stephen W. Gard, Roger D. Hatch, Stephan Landsman, and Peter Paris. For assistance with resources, the author obtained invaluable help from Michelle Ainish at the Blaustein Library of the American Jewish Committee, Joyce Baugh, Steven Cohen, Roger D. Hatch, and especially her research assistant, Christopher Janezic. This work was supported by a grant from the Cleveland-Marshall Fund. 1. In the 1982 California gubernatorial election, Jewish voters gave the African- American candidate, Tom Bradley, 75% of their vote; Jews were second only to African- Americans in their support for Bradley, exceeding even Hispanics, while the majority of the white vote went for the white Republican candidate, George Deukmejian.
[Show full text]
Sen. Bernie Sanders Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege
Sen. Bernie Sanders: Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege 9/30/10 3:59 PM September 30, 2010 Sen. Bernie Sanders This is the print preview: Back to normal view » Independent U.S. Senator from Vermont Posted: June 8, 2009 04:08 PM Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege Let's be clear. Our health care system is disintegrating. Today, 46 million people have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments. At a time when 60 million people, including many with insurance, do not have access to a medical home, more than 18,000 Americans die every year from preventable illnesses because they do not get to the doctor when they should. This is six times the number who died at the tragedy of 9/11 - but this occurs every year. In the midst of this horrendous lack of coverage, the U.S. spends far more per capita on health care than any other nation - and health care costs continue to soar. At $2.4 trillion dollars, and 18 percent of our GDP, the skyrocketing cost of health care in this country is unsustainable both from a personal and macro-economic perspective. At the individual level, the average American spends about $7,900 per year on health care. Despite that huge outlay, a recent study found that medical problems contributed to 62 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007. From a business perspective, General Motors spends more on health care per automobile than on steel while small business owners are forced to divert hard-earned profits into health coverage for their employees - rather than new business investments.
[Show full text]
Parker, Betty J. TITLE Myles Horton (1905-90) of Highlander:Adult Educator and Southern Activist
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 336 615 CE 059 031 AUTHOR Parker, Franklin; Parker, Betty J. TITLE Myles Horton (1905-90) of Highlander:Adult Educator and Southern Activist. PUB DATE 91 NOTE 17p. PUB TYPE W.storical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE ME01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Activism; Adult Education; Biographies; *Black History; *Civil Rights; ConflictResolution; *Folk Schools; Labor Relations; Racial Discrimination; Racial Relations; *Social Change;Social Influences; Unions; Voting Rights IDENTIFIERS *Highlander Folk School TN; *Horton (Myles) ABSTRACT As a leader of social change in theSouth, Myles Horton (1) unionized southern textile workersand coal miners and advanced civil rights through hisHighlander school;(2) conducted Highlander workshops for black leaders; (3)first popularized the song "We Shall Overcome"; and (4) initiatedCitizenship Schools to help blacks register to vote. Asa youth, he questioned racial inequality. He was dismayed at unfairlabor practices in a Tennessee factory and urged workers to organize.Horton wanted to create a school that would serve poor people inlabor and racial strife and help them to gain freedom, dignity,and justice. Studying sociology at the University of Chicago in 1930-31,Horton recognized that conflict redirected tnin'e:ing. HighlanderFolk School, inspired by Danish folk schools, was opened inMonteagle, Tennessee in 1932. Horton's wife Zilphia introducedmany cultural programs at Highlander. During 1953-61,as Highlander's civil rights activities increased, so did segregationist attackson the school. Horton is remembered for his efforts to fight fora batter world.(A "Myles Horton Chronology 1905-1990" anda 35-item bibliography are Amcluded.) (NLA) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRSare the best that can be made from the original document.
[Show full text]
Freedom Songs
OurStory: Students ‘Sit’ for Civil Rights Freedom Songs Parent Guide, page 1 of 2 Read the “Directions” sheets for step-by-step instructions. SUMMARY During this activity, you and your child will listen to some freedom songs on the Internet, and then make your own version of one of the songs. WHY During this activity, you and your child will use compassion and art awareness skills to listen thoughtfully to music and think about how it might have been used in some historic situations. These skills are useful for historical research and thinking about the personal and community meanings of songs today. TIME ■ 10 minutes to listen to songs ■ 10 minutes to sing along ■ 5 minutes for discussion ■ 5 minutes to make new lyrics for “This Little Light of Mine” ■ 10 minutes to record new lyrics RECOMMENDED AGE GROUP This activity will work best with children in kindergarten through fourth grade. CHALLENGE WORDS ■ boycott: to refuse to conduct business with a person, store, or organization, usually to express disapproval or to peacefully force changes ■ emotion: a state of feeling ■ nonviolent: a philosophy or strategy for change that opposes using violence ■ picket: to walk or stand in front of like a fence-post, often in protest ■ primary source: a historical document, photograph, or artifact written, created, or used by someone who experienced events at the time they took place ■ protest: public demonstration of disapproval ■ segregation: the practice of keeping people in separate groups based on their race or culture ■ sit-in: an act of sitting in the seats or on the ﬂoor of an establishment as a means of organized protest (see the images of boys sitting at lunch counter) OurStory: Students ‘Sit’ for Civil Rights Freedom Songs Parent Guide, page 2 of 2 GET READY ■ Read Freedom on the Menu together.
[Show full text]
We Shall Overcome”: from Black Church Music to Freedom Song
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by D-Scholarship@Pitt “WE SHALL OVERCOME”: FROM BLACK CHURCH MUSIC TO FREEDOM SONG by Brandi Amanda Neal Bachelor of Arts in Music, University of South Carolina, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Arts University of Pittsburgh 2006 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This thesis was presented By Brandi Amanda Neal It was defended on February 3, 2006 approved by James P. Cassaro, Head, Theodore M. Finney Music Library/Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Don O. Franklin, Professor of Music, Music Department Mary S. Lewis, Professor of Music, Music Department Thesis Advisor: Deane L. Root, Professor of Music and Department Chair, Music Department ii Copyright © by Brandi Amanda Neal 2006 iii “WE SHALL OVERCOME”: FROM BLACK CHURCH MUSIC TO FREEDOM SONG Brandi Amanda Neal, M.A. University of Pittsburgh, 2006 The music sung by protesters in the American Civil Rights Movement was inseparable from the music in black Protestant churches. Despite the firm boundaries between the sacred and the secular in black Baptist and Methodist traditions, protesters adapted sacred hymns for secular protest use. Termed freedom songs, the music bound protesters together by shared spiritual associations with the music and by a communal performance experience. This study explores the adaptation process of the freedom song using “We Shall Overcome” as a case study. An examination of the traditions of black American church institutions and the musical and textual attributes of the adapted song genres clarifies the methods by which protesters transformed sacred hymns and songs.
[Show full text]
MISS BETSY GOES to WASHINGTON a Written Creative
MISS BETSY GOES TO WASHINGTON A Written Creative Work submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Fine Arts In Creative Writing: Playwriting by Nicole Elizabeth Jost San Francisco, California May 2018 Copyright by Nicole Elizabeth Jost 2018 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Miss Betsy Goes to Washington by Nicole Elizabeth Jost, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a Written Creative Work submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing: Playwriting at San Francisco State University. 7 Michelle Carter, M.A. Professor of Creative Writing Andrew~ Assistant Professor of Creative Writing MISS BETSY GOES TO WASHINGTON Nicole Elizabeth Jost San Francisco, California 2018 A new full length play. Synopsis: Before she became Secretary DeVos, she was Miss Betsy. A modem political history spectacle like nothing you've seen before! See Miss Betsy tango with Bernie Sanders, sing along with Orrin Hatch, and juggle with Elizabeth Warren! See her groom a young Black girl for school choice greatness! MISS BETSY GOES TO WASHINGTON draws on the real transcripts of Betsy DeVos' s Senate confirmation hearing and imagined interactions between Miss Betsy the mentor and her Grand Rapids students. A vaudeville with national questions. I certify that the Annotation is a correct representation of the content of this written creative work. S-2.-18 /Chair, Thesis Committee Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Larry and Michelle: for your guidance and your early support of this play.
[Show full text]
Rep. John Lewis First Douglass/O'connell Speech Iveagh/Dublin, Ireland April, 2014
Rep. John Lewis First Douglass/O'Connell Speech Iveagh/Dublin, Ireland April, 2014 It is a great pleasure for me to be here today to honor two champions of peace, who struggled and suffered, not just for a people or for one nation, but for the liberation of all humankind. Frederick Douglass and Daniel O'Connell lived almost two centuries ago, but their example still lights up the minds of communities today. What is it about what they gave and what they sacrificed that makes their legacy one we still honor down through the ages? After the events of March 7, 1965, what we call Bloody Sunday and named after a conflict here in Ireland in 1887 between police and demonstrators.... ....President Lyndon Johnson made one of the most powerful statements any American president has ever made about the quest for freedom and the issue of equal justice in the United States. He said, "I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.... At times history and fate meeting in a single place and a single time in man's unending search for freedom... Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country--to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.. In our time we have come to live with the moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues, issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of [a nation] itself.
[Show full text]