“We” Shall Overcome
It was staff development day at my job yesterday. This day is for faculty and staff to attend classes of their choosing. Classes range from pickleball to generative A.I. I chose two classes: Star Trek and Gothic Studies because I’m a sci-fi nerd and Songs of Protest because I’m a Black musician.
During Songs of Protest, I read over the list of songs that would be presented during class. There were a total of 59 songs. I had to skim through and see what songs I recognized. Not just that…I wanted to see what Black artists would be listed (of course). I saw Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke. Hell, I even saw YG’s “FDT” listed on there along with “F*ck the Police” by N.W.A. I was comfortable after viewing the list. The room was full of white people besides myself and another Black woman. I’m always curious how white people approach civil rights issues and what side of history they will land on. So far, so good!
We finally make it to “We Shall Overcome” by Pete Seeger. He mentions that Seeger was the creator of this song and something about that forced me to give a bombastic side eye. I had heard this song since I was a child. I didn’t know where it came from, where it originated from, who created it. I always associated it with the Black experience. It always felt like a spiritual to me, something we would sing at grammar school assemblies. I questioned why I was questioning his research or lack there of. Something told me to Google it, so I did.
I found an article from The Kennedy Center’s website…yes, I called it The Kennedy Center because fuck that other name. “We Shall Overcome” has input from many people and places tracing back to the 1700s. Parts of the melody can be related to European songs that enslaved Black people in the U.S. mixed and matched with familiar tunes from songs like “I’ll Be Alright” and “No More Auction Block for Me.”
After the 1900’s, Reverend Dr. Charles Tindley wrote the lyrics to “I’ll Overcome Someday” and then gospel arrangers Atron Twigg and Kenneth Morris arranged the famous lyrics and melody for “We’ll Overcome.” Sean McCollum writes, “We’ll Overcome” first appeared as a protest song during the 1945-1946 labor strike against American Tobacco in Charleston, North Carolina. Lucille Simmons, one of the strikers, changed the lyrics from “I” to “We” and brought the song to Zilphia Horton, who was head of the school’s cultural program at the Highlander Folk School. Horton learned it and taught it Pete Seeger, who revised the lyrics from “We will” to “We shall”. “We Shall Overcome” became the soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement.
Seeger wasn’t the creator. It was almost as if he was the arranger instead. Throughout my entire college journey of pursuing a music degree, I often find myself giving a bombastic side eye.
It took me two seconds to Google this information. Why would a professor who put together an entire presentation on songs of protest fail to do the bare minimum? Why settle on this false discovery? Maybe he just didn’t care to or didn’t really think much about it. I mean, maybe I was thinking too much into it. This isn’t a dig towards the professor. This is calling out a bigger issue.
This also isn’t a diss to Seeger who amplified marginalized voices at a time when it was necessary. He was able to bring awareness to the civil rights movement and put those in the background at the forefront. This is more so to bring awareness to the fact that Black music has been credited by white musicians or stolen throughout history, leaving descendants to track down the history through archives…or Google.
Our history is white-washed and music history is no exception. I guess my point of this article was to discuss how I felt yesterday and how I’ve been feeling for the past five years. I’m sick of this shit. If we’re going to tell the story, tell the whole story. Give credit when credit is due. If we can discuss during class that Elvis wrote “If I Can Dream” and recorded it in one take and pushed to be able to record the song live (also, Elvis is problematic on so many levels and I’m actually writing a research paper on the founders of rock and roll and the origin of the blues) then we can also talk about the roots of “We Shall Overcome”. That’s it. That’s the post.
Reference: We shall overcome. (n.d.). https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/music/story-behind-the-song/the-story-behind-the-song/we-shall-overcome/