Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966

Various Artists

This double-CD reissue documents a central aspect of the cultural environment of the Civil Rights Movement, acknowledging songs as the language that focused people's energy. These 43 tracks are a series of musical images, of a people in conversation about their determination to be free. Many of the songs were recorded live in mass meetings held in churches, where people from different life experiences, predominantly black, with a few white supporters, came together in a common struggle. These freedom songs draw from spirituals, gospel, rhythm and blues, football chants, blues and calypso forms. The enclosed booklet written by Bernice Johnson Reagon provides rare historic photographs along with the powerful story of African American musical culture and its role in the Civil Rights Movement. "The music of the spirit with the history of the flesh." — New York Daily News

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Track Listing

101	Freedom Medley: Freedom Chant / Oh Freedom / This Little Light of Mine	The Freedom Singers	1:57
102	This Little Light of Mine	Betty Fikes	4:17
103	If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus	Betty Fikes	3:03
104	Lord Hold My Hand While I Run This Race	n/a	2:49
105	Get on Board Children	Willie Peacock	2:10
106	Calypso Freedom	Willie Peacock	6:29
107	Freedom Now Chant	n/a	0:25
108	Oh Freedom	Hollis Watkins	3:08
109	Ain't Scared of Nobody	Amanda Bowens Perdew and Virginia Davis	1:50
110	Leaning on the Everlasting Arms	n/a	1:13
111	Sermon	Lawrence Campbell	6:35
112	We are Soldiers in the Army	n/a	3:24
113	Go Tell it on the Mountain	Fannie Lou Hamer	3:03
114	Wade in the Water	Fannie Lou Hamer	2:32
115	Come Bah Ya (Kumbaya)	Willie Peacock	5:25
116	Walk with Me Lord	Fannie Lou Hamer	1:38
117	Jesus on the Mainline	Sam Block	3:33
118	Freedom Train	Sam Block	4:36
119	Don't You Think It's About Time That We All Be Free	Mabel Hillary	3:30
120	We're Marching on to Freedom Land	Carlton Reese	2:31
121	We Shall Overcome	n/a	3:03
201	We Will Never Turn Back	The Freedom Singers	3:30
202	We Shall Not Be Moved	The Freedom Singers	2:11
203	Certainly, Lord	The CORE Freedom Singers	2:05
204	Get Your Rights, Jack	The CORE Freedom Singers	3:49
205	Which Side are You On?	The Freedom Singers	1:57
206	Woke Up This Morning with My Mind on Freedom	The Freedom Singers	2:31
207	Been in the Storm So Long	Bernice Johnson Reagon	3:54
208	Dogs	The Freedom Singers	2:33
209	The A&P Song	The Integration Grooves	2:28
210	Oh Prichett, Oh Kelly	The Freedom Singers	2:15
211	I Told Jesus	Bertha Gober	3:21
212	99 1/2 Won't Do	The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Choir	2:28
213	I'm on My Way	The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Choir	3:38
214	City Called Heaven	Cleo Kennedy	9:15
215	In the Mississippi River	The Freedom Singers	3:38
216	I Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round	The Freedom Singers	2:15
217	Will the Circle Be Unbroken	Jimmy Collier and the Movement Singers	3:08
218	Governor Wallace	The Freedom Singers	2:36
219	Ballad of Medgar Evers	The Freedom Singers	4:32
220	Uncle Tom's Prayer	Cordell Reagon	1:09
221	Oginga Odinga	The Freedom Singers	2:50
222	We Shall Overcome	The Freedom Singers	3:20