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We Shall Overcome: Songs of the Freedom Riders and the Sit-Ins

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We Shall Overcome: Songs of the Freedom Riders and the Sit-Ins FOLKWAYS RECORDS Album # FH 5591 © 1~61 by Folkways Records and Service Corp., 121 W. 47th St. NYC USA WE SHALL OVERCOME sonlis OF THE "FREEDom RIDERS" AnD THE "'SIT -IDS" Spirituals, Gospels and new songs of the Freedom Rider and Sit-in Movement sung by The Montgomery Gospel Trio The Nashville Quartet and GuyCarawan • Nashville Quartet - Joseph Carter I making it known throUgh thefr his­ have been to jail and suffered Bernard Le.fayette, James Bevel, toric "81t-ina", "stand-iDS" and violence and abuse many times Samuel Collier "freedom rides" that they vill for the cause of freedom. They accept nothing less than first have seen the lunch counters and Montgomery Trio - Minni e Hendrick, class citizenship today in Ameri­ theatres opened to Negroes in Mary Ethel Dozier I Gladys Burnette ca. Nashville as a result of their Carter actions. Nashville Quartet Along with their serious approach The three high school girls from The four fellows attend American to life they have the ability to loklntgomery, AJ.abama. and the four Baptist Theological Seminary i n laugh and sing and entertain seminary students fI:Om nashville I Nashville. They have been key others. Their singing for and with Tennessee that are beard singing l eaders and partiCipants in the the students when they were in jail on this record are representative demonstrations there and on t he helped keep the morale up and ease of h\Uldreds of tb:lUsands of other r ecent "freedom ride" through tensi ons. As one student put i t Southerb Negro students vho are Alabama and MiSSissippi. They "it eased that k.not in th@ pit of my stomach". "My Dog La'ves Your Dog" ly the freedom of contact vith vhites of the emphasis has been put on the and parodies of Ray Charles songs vhich at present is not possible in lunch counters and the forms of about the happenings of the day are Montgomery . The morning before they demonstration that has come to be alwayS favorites when they are started bome to Nashville and M:lnt­ knovn as the "sit- in". Nevs of the clovning and cutting up. "We Shall gomery on the train Moe Asch phoned "sit- in mo vement" and its accomplish­ Overcome" is the favorite of all and asked them to come up to his ments has gone around the world and the songs they sing. It has spread studio and make this record. Though the "sit-ins" \lill surely take their so fast snd been so widely sung this they vere all tired from the week­ place in our history books as a last year that it has become the end they still felt like singing milestone in the llegro ' s struggle unofficial theme song for the move ­ and what you hear on this record is for equality in the United States . ment. Other spirituals like ''We a fairly spontaneous session of im­ Shall Not Be Moved". "I'm Gonna promptu singing and harmonizing that And it appears that this is only Si tAt the Welcome Table" and "Oh took place that lOOming before they the first chapter to be written in Freedom" have been widely sWlg by all started back to their respective this new ground svell of student them and the students at mass meet­ homes. protest. Already in Nashville. ings. social gatherings and demon­ Tennessee, the students have written strations . chapter two. After being the first About the movement : major Southern city to achieve lunch Montgomery Trio counter desegregation last year. Since Feb. 1st. 19601 hundreds of they have gone ahead this year to The three girls from Montgomery know thousands of Negro students have again become the first to achieve what it is to live in one of the demonstrated their desire and de­ desegregation of the movie theatres, most brutal Jim Crow cities in the termination to struggle for "first February Ist l 1961. the first anni­ South. They have witnessed the class citizenship" in America. In versary of the "sit-ins", vas cele­ historic happenings of the 1955 bus over three hundred Southern communi­ brated by South wide "stand-ins" at boycott, the mob violence in reac­ ties they have "sat-in" at public movie theatres denied to the NeSTo tion to the "sit-ins" and the dime store lunch counters. "stood- students. In Nashville it took "freedom ride" . Lack of police pro­ in" at public movie theatres. less than three months to again be tection from the hoodlum elements "knealt-in" at churches. "waded- in" successful. This vas about the has made it harder for students to at public beaches , visited segrega­ same arount of t1I:le it took them demonstrate in Montgomery than Nash­ ted public parks l and disobeyed t he to gain access to the lunch co~~ter ville. Also the police have direct­ segregated seating signs in busses. stools last year. Now they ar e al­ ly intimidated the students but trains. depots and stations where ready discussing what their goal still they have demonstrated. The witing rooms . rest rooms. drinking should be for next year. Montgomery Improvement Association fountains and eating places are segre­ has carried on the struggle in spite gated . They have come together to The key to all this success has been of constant harrassment by the express this nev surge tovards the students use of the philosophy police and threats of violence froD freedom at mass meetings. prayer and the techniques of "non-violence" white hate groups. These girls who vigils and poster wlks. They have which they have adhered to with sing spiritual and gospel songs partiCipated in voter registration great dedico.tion. The first example that express the spirit of freedom drives and stimulated economic with­ of its great poyer and usefulness have sung often for this organiza­ draval campaigns against the business­ was the Montgomery bus boycott of tion and for many other groups in es that practice Jim Crow customs. 1955 . Martin Luther KinG applied Montgomery. They are used to the They have very effectively dramatized the ideas and techniques of Ghandi fact that these meetings may be to their communities. the country and to the situation in ~b nttomery and harrassed by police or vbite bood­ the world that they vill no longer preached them to his sixty t housand lums and that they have to be care­ accept "second class citizenship" in follovers \lho stayed off the busses ful about yhere they go, vhat they this "land of the f ree and the home and walked for eighteen mo ntns. do and vhat they say. Songs like of the brave." They have once end This was the first successful mass ''We Are Soldiers In the Army" • for all broken the Southern stereo­ non-violent campaign in the U.S . "Hold On" and "I'm Goona Let My type and disproven the idea that Since that successful milestone Rev. Little Light Shine" are some of Negroes are happy vi th segregation. King and his fellow ministers of the their best and have helped to lift Over three thousand students have nevly formed Southern Christian the spirits of many people in had -to go to jail because they Leadership Conference have been ur­ l-k>ntgomery . participated in these demonstra­ ging more mass soc'ial action cam­ tions . Many have suffered violence paigns based on non-violence to Nev York Trip at the hands of hoodlums and police­ secure equal rights for Negroes in men vho in many cases are committed the South. Also such groups as Both the girls from M:lntgomery and to enforce the customs of segrega­ COREl AFSC & FOR with leadership the fellovs from Nashville were tion. But this Msn ' t dampened the experienced in t he techniques of heard on Feb. lOth this year at spirits of the students or the non- violence have been teaching Carnegie Hall in Nev York at a effectiveness of the movement. On and vorking in the South for the benefit concert for the Highlander the contrary it has continued to last fey years. It vas a likely Folk School vhere they appeared spontaneously mushroom allover the thing for the students to have with Rev . Fred Shuttlesvorth from South where Negro student communi ­ adopted these ideas and techniques Birmingham. Alabama and vith Pete ties exist and their courageous once they came in contact with Seeger. Guy Carawan. Memphis Sl1m action has caused the older genera­ them. Once the poverful example and Willie Dixon . (It was at tion of adult Negroes (who are of Montgomery vas set and such a Highlander Folk School in the generally very cautious vhen it strong spokesman as Rev. King had Cumberland Mts. of Tennessee that comes to such radical social action) preached the gospel of non-violence Guy Caravan met both of these to act in support of them. Shocked (vhich actually represents a radi­ groups and got the idea to bring and indignant over the treatment cal fullfillment of their Christian them to New York for the concert. given the students by the hoodlum teachings) across the South the He has sung vi th both groups many elements. police and courts. the stage vas set for the Negro stu­ times at Highlander and in Nashville. adults have rallied to their aid and dents to make use of it. It pro­ He and the fellovs worked together raised great quantities of money for vided an ef.fective channel of ac­ to make the Folkways L.P. The their legal defense, partiCipated tion for them vhen the time came Nashville Sit-In Story andtbey put in ecooomic boycotts.
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