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

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

RELATED LESSON PLANS
"South Africa, Free At Last: The Freedom Songs of South Africa and the Civil Rights Movement in America"
"Singing for Justice: Following the Musical Journey of “This Little Light of Mine"

RELATED VIDEOS
We Are Soldiers in the Army

Track Listing

101	Freedom Medley: Freedom Chant / Oh Freedom / This Little Light of Mine	The Freedom Singers	01:57
102	This Little Light of Mine	Betty Fikes	04:17
103	If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus	Betty Fikes	03:03
104	Lord Hold My Hand While I Run This Race	Mass meeting participants, Hattiesburg, MS	02:49
105	Get on Board Children	Willie Peacock	02:10
106	Calypso Freedom	Willie Peacock	06:29
107	Freedom Now Chant	Mass meeting participants, Hattiesburg, MS	00:25
108	Oh Freedom	Hollis Watkins	03:08
109	Ain't Scared of Nobody	Amanda Bowens Perdew and Virginia Davis	01:50
110	Leaning on the Everlasting Arms	Mass meeting participants, Danville, VA	01:13
111	Sermon	Rev. Lawrence Campbell	06:35
112	We are Soldiers in the Army	Mass meeting participants, Danville, VA	03:24
113	Go Tell It on the Mountain	Fannie Lou Hamer	03:03
114	Wade in the Water	Fannie Lou Hamer	02:32
115	Come Bah Yah	Willie Peacock	05:25
116	Walk with Me Lord	Fannie Lou Hamer	01:38
117	Jesus on the Mainline	Sam Block	03:33
118	Freedom Train	Sam Block	04:36
119	Don’t You Think It’s about Time That We All Be Free	Mabel Hillary	03:30
120	We're Marching on to Freedom Land	Carlton Reese	02:31
121	We Shall Overcome (1)	Mass meeting participants, Hattiesburg, MS	03:03
201	We'll Never Turn Back	SNCC Freedom Singers	03:30
202	We Shall Not Be Moved	SNCC Freedom Singers	02:11
203	Certainly, Lord	CORE Freedom Singers	02:05
204	Get Your Rights, Jack	CORE Freedom Singers	03:49
205	Which Side are You On?	SNCC Freedom Singers	01:57
206	Woke Up This Morning with My Mind on Freedom	SNCC Freedom Singers	02:31
207	Been in the Storm So Long	Bernice Johnson Reagon	03:54
208	Dog, Dog	The Freedom Singers	02:33
209	The A & P Song	The Integration Grooves	02:28
210	Oh Pritchett, Oh Kelly	The Freedom Singers	02:15
211	I Told Jesus	Bertha Gober	03:21
212	99 1/2 Won't Do	The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Choir	02:28
213	I'm on My Way	The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Choir	03:38
214	City Called Heaven	Cleo Kennedy	09:15
215	In the Mississippi River	SNCC Freedom Singers	03:38
216	Ain' Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round	SNCC Freedom Singers	02:15
217	Will the Circle Be Unbroken	Jimmy Collier and the Movement Singers	03:08
218	Governor Wallace	SNCC Freedom Singers	02:36
219	Ballad of Medgar Evers	SNCC Freedom Singers	04:32
220	Uncle Tom's Prayer	Cordell Reagon	01:09
221	Oginga Odinga	SNCC Freedom Singers	02:50
222	We Shall Overcome (2)	SNCC Freedom Singers	03:20