’
E
M
O
C
R
E
V
O
‘WE SHALL
B
by Cynthia Levinson
Singing together filled
civil rights protestors with
courage and inspiration.
Emancipation is the act of setting
free. President Abraham Lincoln’s
Emancipation Proclamation freed
the slaves in the Confederacy
during the Civil War.
efore emancipation in 1863, slaves sent each other secret messages
through music. The gospel song “Wade in the Water,” for example,
taught escaping slaves how to hide when bloodhounds chased
them. In church and in the cotton fields, singing brought black people
together and gave them courage. More than 100 years later, singing
continued to give courage — this time, to civil rights activists.
Segregationists hoped that beating and arresting the Freedom Riders
would end the integrated bus rides. Instead, hundreds of people climbed
aboard. Why? Many said they were inspired by the freedom songs they
sang in church and at protest meetings and by the preaching of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., who called music “the soul of the movement.”
By 1961, King’s message of nonviolence had reached many people.
But nonviolence was not the same as not acting. “We are not engaged
in a struggle that means we sit down and do nothing,” King explained.
“Nonviolent resistance means you do resist in a very strong and determined manner.”
Freedom Riders were determined to sit down on buses and to resist
violence. Instead of fighting back when they were attacked or jailed,
they sang. They sang hymns, spirituals, bluegrass, ballads, folksongs,
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and popular tunes: “We Shall Not Be Moved,” “Oh Freedom,” “Ain’t
Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round.” They borrowed songs, too. “We
Shall Overcome,” which striking black and white Alabama coal miners
first sang in 1908, became the anthem of the civil rights movement. They
made up songs, such as “I’m Taking a Ride on the Greyhound Bus Line.”
They taunted local mayors and police chiefs by using their names in
songs, including “Oh Pritchett, Oh Kelley, Open Them Cells.” They sang
“Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” to help them focus on their cause and not
their fears. “The fear down [South] is tremendous,” one SNCC member
admitted, “but when the singing started, I forgot all that.”
A powerful strategy of nonviolent resistance, singing also infuriated
opponents. When the guards mistreated the Freedom Riders, “we protested. Our protest was organized singing,” explained one jailed member.
“We sang around the clock.” To silence them, guards removed their mattresses, toothbrushes, and food. But the riders continued singing. “Last
night they turned out the lights and heat to stop our singing,” one woman
wrote on a paper towel to her friend. “Chalk up another failure for them.”
Through concerts and rallies, freedom songs became popular around
the country, attracting students to the cause. In 1963, black children and
teenagers in Birmingham, Alabama, marched for equal rights. Their
minister told them to march quietly, but “when you’re arrested, sing your
hearts out!” In jail, they sang “Ain’t a-scared of your jail ’cause I want my
freedom” to the tune of a popular children’s song.
One civil rights worker explained the importance of music to the movement in this way: “Without these songs, we’d still be chopping cotton.”
LISTEN UP
T
o hear freedom songs, go
to www.pbs.org/wgbh/
amex/eyesontheprize/, www
.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/
music/protest.html, or www
.rhapsody.com/home.html. Or,
listen to Smithsonian Folkways
Recordings at your local or
school library. — C.L.
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