View source for We Shall Overcome

{{Short description|Protest song of the civil rights movement}}
{{about|the protest song|other uses|We Shall Overcome (disambiguation)}}
{{listen |title="We Shall Overcome" |filename=Joan Baez performs We Shall Overcome Feb 09 2010.webm|description=[[Joan Baez]] performs "We Shall Overcome" at the White House in front of President [[Barack Obama]], at a celebration of music from the period of the civil rights movement.|pos=right }}

"'''We Shall Overcome'''" is a [[gospel song]] that is associated heavily with the U.S. [[civil rights movement]]. The origins of the song are unclear; it was thought to have descended from "I'll Overcome Some Day," a hymn by [[Charles Albert Tindley]], while the modern version of the song was first said to have been sung by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during the [[1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike]] in [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. 

In 1947, the song was published under the title "'''We Will Overcome'''" in an edition of the ''[[People's Songs]] Bulletin'', as a contribution of and with an introduction by [[Zilphia Horton]], then-music director of the [[Highlander Folk School]] of Monteagle, Tennessee—an adult education school that trained union organizers. She taught it to many others, including People's Songs director [[Pete Seeger]], who included it in his repertoire, as did many other activist singers, such as [[Frank Hamilton (musician)|Frank Hamilton]] and [[Joe Glazer]].

In 1959, the song began to be associated with the civil rights movement as a [[protest song]], when [[Guy Carawan]] stepped in with his and Seeger's version as song leader at Highlander, which was then focused on [[nonviolent]] civil rights activism. It quickly became the movement's unofficial anthem. Seeger and other famous folksingers in the early 1960s, such as [[Joan Baez]], sang the song at rallies, folk festivals, and concerts in the [[Northern United States|North]] and helped make it widely known. Since its rise to prominence, the song, and songs based on it, have been used in a variety of protests worldwide.

The U.S. [[copyright]] of the ''People's Songs Bulletin'' issue which contained "We Will Overcome" expired in 1976, but [[The Richmond Organization]] (TRO) asserted a copyright on the "We Shall Overcome" lyrics, registered in 1960. In 2017, in response to a lawsuit against TRO over allegations of [[copyfraud|false copyright claims]], a U.S. judge issued an opinion that the registered work was insufficiently different from the "We Will Overcome" lyrics that had fallen into the [[public domain]] because of [[copyright renewal|non-renewal]]. In January 2018, the company agreed to a settlement under which it would no longer assert any copyright claims over the song.

In 2025, the publication ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' ranked Seeger's adaptation of the song at number 8 on its list of "The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time."<ref>{{cite news |title=The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-protest-songs-1235154848/ |publisher=Rolling Stone |date=27 January 2025 |access-date=29 January 2025}}</ref>

==Origins as gospel, folk, and labor song==
"I'll Overcome Some Day" was a hymn or [[gospel music]] composition by the Reverend [[Charles Albert Tindley]] of [[Philadelphia]] that was first published in 1901.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/NSoG1900/27 |title=New Songs of the Gospel |chapter=I'll Overcome Some Day |first=C. Albert |last=Tindley |publisher=Hall-Mack Co. |location=Philadelphia |year=1900}}</ref> A noted minister of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], Tindley was the author of approximately 50 gospel hymns, of which "We'll Understand It By and By" and "[[Stand by Me (Charles Albert Tindley song)|Stand By Me]]" are among the best known. The published text bore the epigraph, "Ye shall overcome if ye faint not", derived from [[Epistle to the Galatians|Galatians]] 6:9: "And let us not be weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." The first stanza began:

{{poemquote|The world is one great battlefield,
With forces all arrayed;
If in my heart I do not yield,
I'll overcome some day.}}

Tindley's songs were written in an idiom rooted in [[African-American culture|African American folk traditions]], using pentatonic intervals, with ample space allowed for improvised interpolation, the addition of "blue" thirds and sevenths, and frequently featuring short refrains in which the congregation could join.<ref>Horace Clarence Boyer, "Charles Albert Tindley: Progenitor of Black-American Gospel Music", ''The Black Perspective in Music'' 11: No. 2 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 103–132.</ref> Tindley's importance, however, was primarily as a lyricist and poet whose words spoke directly to the feelings of his audiences, many of whom had been freed from [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] only 36 years before he first published his songs, and were often impoverished, illiterate, and newly arrived in the North.<ref>Boyer, [1983], p. 113. "Tindley was a composer for whom the lyrics constituted its major element; while the melody and  were handled with care, these elements were regarded as subservient to the text."</ref> "Even today," wrote musicologist Horace Boyer in 1983, "ministers quote his texts in the midst of their sermons as if they were poems, as indeed they are."<ref>Boyer (1983), p. 113.</ref>

A letter printed on the front page of February 1909, ''United Mine Workers Journal'' states: "Last year at a strike, we opened every meeting with a prayer, and singing that good old song, 'We Will Overcome'." This statement implied that the song was well-known, and it was also the first acknowledgment of such a song having been sung in both a secular context and a mixed-race setting.<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns"/><ref name="ars-overcomes it">{{cite web|title=Lawyers who won Happy Birthday copyright case sue over "We Shall Overcome"|url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/04/lawyers-who-won-happy-birthday-copyright-case-sue-over-we-shall-overcome/|website=Ars Technica|date=13 April 2016|access-date=13 July 2016}}</ref><ref>The United Mine Workers was racially integrated from its founding and was notable for having a large black presence, particularly in Alabama and West Virginia. The Alabama branch, whose membership was three-quarters black, in particular, met with fierce, racially-based resistance during a strike in 1908 and was crushed. See Daniel Letwin, "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and Social Equality in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878–1908", ''The Journal of Southern History'' LXI: 3 (August 1955): 519–554.</ref>

Tindley's "I'll Overcome Some Day" was believed to have influenced the structure for "We Shall Overcome",<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns"/> with both the text and the melody having undergone a process of alteration. The tune has been changed so that it now echoes the opening and closing melody of "No More Auction Block For Me",<ref>James Fuld tentatively attributes the change to the version by Atron Twigg and Kenneth Morris. See James J. Fuld, ''The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk'' (noted by Wallace and Wallechinsky)1966; New York: Dover, 1995). According to [[Alan Lomax]]'s ''The Folk Songs of North America'', "No More Auction Block For Me" originated in [[Canada]] and it was sung by former slaves who fled there after [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|Britain abolished slavery in 1833]].</ref> also known from its refrain as "Many Thousands Gone".<ref>Eileen Southern, ''The Music of Black Americans: A History'', Second Edition (Norton, 1971): 546–47, 159–60.</ref> This was number 35 in [[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]]'s collection of Negro Spirituals that appeared in the ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'' of  June 1867, with a comment by Higginson reflecting on how such songs were composed (i.e., whether the work of a single author or through what used to be called "communal composition"):

{{blockquote|text=Even of this last composition, however, we have only the approximate date and know nothing of the mode of composition. [[Allan Ramsay (poet)|Allan Ramsay]] says of the ''Scots Songs'', that, no matter who made them, they were soon attributed to the minister of the parish whence they sprang. And I always wondered, about these, whether they had always a conscious and definite origin in some leading mind, or whether they grew by gradual accretion, in an almost unconscious way. On this point, I could get no information, though I asked many questions, until at last, one day when I was being rowed across from Beaufort to Ladies' Island, I found myself, with delight, on the actual trail of a song. One of the oarsmen, a brisk young fellow, not a soldier, on being asked for his theory of the matter, dropped out a coy confession. "Some good spirituals," he said, "are start jess out o' curiosity. I been a-raise a sing, myself, once."

My dream was fulfilled, and I had traced out, not the poem alone, but the poet. I implored him to proceed.

"Once we boys," he said, "went for to tote some rice, and de nigger-driver, he keep a-calling on us; and I say, 'O, de ole nigger-driver!' Den another said, 'First thing my mammy told me was, notin' so bad as a nigger-driver.' Den I made a sing, just puttin' a word, and den another word."

Then he began singing, and the men, after listening a moment, joined in the chorus as if it were an old acquaintance, though they evidently had never heard it before. I saw how easily a new "sing" took root among them.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=The Atlantic Monthly |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1867jun/spirit.htm |title=Negro Spirituals |first=Thomas Wentworth |last=Higginson |date=June 1867 |volume=19 |number=116 |pages=685–694}}</ref>}}

[[Bob Dylan]] used the same melodic motif from "No More Auction Block" for his composition, "[[Blowin' in the Wind]]".<ref>From the sleeve notes to Bob Dylan's "Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3" – "...it was Pete Seeger who first identified Dylan's adaptation of the melody of this song ["No More Auction Block"] for the composition of "Blowin' in the Wind". Indeed, Dylan himself was to admit the debt in 1978, when he told journalist Marc Rowland: "Blowin' in the Wind" has always been spiritual. I took it off a song called "No More Auction Block" – that's a spiritual, and "Blowin' in the Wind sorta follows the same feeling..."</ref> Thus similarities of melodic and rhythmic patterns imparted cultural and emotional resonance ("the same feeling") towards three different, and historically very significant songs.

Music scholars have also pointed out that the first half of "We Shall Overcome" bears a notable resemblance to the famous lay Catholic hymn "[[O Sanctissima]]", also known as "The Sicilian Mariners Hymn", first published by a London magazine in 1792 and then by an American magazine in 1794 and widely circulated in American hymnals.<ref name=Bobetsky>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dT_xBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |title=We Shall Overcome: Essays on a Great American Song |first=Victor V. |last=Bobetsky |pages=1–13 |date=2015 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |access-date=October 18, 2016|isbn=9781442236035 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NsMPAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA342 |title=Drossiana. Number XXXVIII. The Sicilian Mariner's Hymn to the Virgin |first=William |last=Seward |author-link=William Seward (anecdotist) |journal=European Magazine |volume=22 |number=5 |date=November 1792 |pages=342, 385–386 |access-date=October 26, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.cdss.org/elibrary/Easmes/Source0/S000893.htm |title=Prayer of the Sicilian Mariners |editor-first=Robert |editor-last=Shaw |journal=The Gentleman's Amusement |date=May 1794 |page=25 |access-date=October 26, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.hymnary.org/tune/sicilian_mariners |title=The Psalter Hymnal Handbook |editor-first1=Emily |editor-last1=Brink |editor-first2=Bert |editor-last2=Polman |date=1988 |access-date=October 18, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://taylorhousemuseum.org/history/charles-albert-tindley/ |title=The People's Almanac #2 |editor-first1=David |editor-last1=Wallechinsky |editor-first2=Irving |editor-last2=Wallace |pages=806–809 |date=1978 |access-date=October 18, 2016 |archive-date=February 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225110157/http://taylorhousemuseum.org/history/charles-albert-tindley/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The second half of "We Shall Overcome" is essentially the same music as the 19th-century hymn "I'll Be All Right".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/birth-of-a-freedom-anthem.html |title=Birth of a Freedom Anthem |first1=Ethan J. |last1=Kytle |first2=Blain |last2=Roberts |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 15, 2015}}</ref> As Victor Bobetsky summarized in his 2015 book on the subject: "'We Shall Overcome' owes its existence to many ancestors and to the constant change and adaptation that is typical of the folk music process."<ref name=Bobetsky/>

==Role of the Highlander Folk School==
In October 1945 in [[Charleston, South Carolina]], members of the [[Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers]] union (FTA-CIO), who were mostly female and African American, began [[1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike|a five-month strike]] against the [[American Tobacco Company]]. To keep up their spirits during the cold, wet winter of 1945–1946, one of the strikers, a woman named Lucille Simmons, led a slow "long meter style" version of the gospel hymn, "We'll Overcome (I'll Be All Right)" to end each day's picketing. Union organizer [[Zilphia Horton]], who was the wife of the co-founder of the [[Highlander Folk School]] (later Highlander Research and Education Center), said she learned it from Simmons. Horton was Highlander's music director during 1935–1956, and it became her custom to end group meetings each evening by leading this, her favorite song. During the presidential campaign of [[Henry A. Wallace]], "We Will Overcome" was printed in ''Bulletin No. 3'' (September 1948), 8, of [[People's Songs]], with an introduction by Horton saying that she had learned it from the interracial FTA-CIO workers and had found it to be extremely powerful. [[Pete Seeger]], a founding member of People's Songs and its director for three years, learned it from Horton's version in 1947.<ref>Dunaway, 1990, 222–223; Seeger, 1993, 32; see also, Robbie Lieberman, ''My Song Is My Weapon: People's Songs, American Communism, and the Politics of Culture, 1930–50'' (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, [1989] 1995) p. 46, p. 185</ref> Seeger writes: "I changed it to 'We shall'... I think I liked a more open sound; 'We will' has alliteration to it, but 'We shall' opens the mouth wider; the 'i' in 'will' is not an easy vowel to sing well ...."<ref name="seegar-biography">{{cite book |last1=Seeger |first1=Pete |title=Where Have All The Flowers Gone – A Musical Autobiography |date=1997 |publisher=Sing Out |isbn=1881322106 |location=Bethlehem, PA}}</ref> Seeger also added some verses ("We'll walk hand in hand" and "The whole wide world around").

In 1950, the CIO's Department of Education and Research released the album, ''Eight New Songs for Labor'', sung by [[Joe Glazer]] ("Labor's Troubador"), and the Elm City Four. (Songs on the album were: "I Ain't No Stranger Now", "Too Old to Work", "That's All", "Humblin' Back", "Shine on Me",  "Great Day", "The Mill Was Made of Marble", and "We Will Overcome".) During a Southern CIO drive, Glazer taught the song to country singer Texas Bill Strength, who cut a version that was later picked up by 4-Star Records.<ref>Ronald Cohen and Dave Samuelson, ''Songs for Political Action: Folkmusic, Topical Songs And the American Left 1926–1953'', book published as part of Bear Family Records 10-CD box set issued in Germany in 1996.</ref>

The song made its first recorded appearance as "We Shall Overcome" (rather than "We Will Overcome") in 1952 on a disc recorded by [[Laura Duncan (American singer)|Laura Duncan]] (soloist) and The Jewish Young Singers (chorus), conducted by [[Robert De Cormier]], co-produced by Ernie Lieberman and [[Irwin Silber]] on Hootenany Records (Hoot 104-A) (Folkways, FN 2513, BCD15720), where it is identified as a Negro Spiritual.

[[Frank Hamilton (musician)|Frank Hamilton]], a folk singer from California who was a member of People's Songs and later [[The Weavers]], picked up Seeger's version. Hamilton's friend and traveling companion, fellow-Californian [[Guy Carawan]], learned the song from Hamilton. Carawan and Hamilton, accompanied by [[Ramblin Jack Elliot]], visited Highlander in the early 1950s where they also would have heard Zilphia Horton sing the song. In 1957, Seeger sang for a Highlander audience that included Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], who remarked on the way to his next stop, in [[Kentucky]], about how much the song had stuck with him. When, in 1959, Guy Carawan succeeded Horton as music director at Highlander, he reintroduced it at the school. It was the young (many of them teenagers) student-activists at Highlander, however, who gave the song the words and rhythms for which it is currently known, when they sang it to keep their spirits up during the frightening police raids on Highlander and their subsequent stays in jail in 1959–1960. Because of this, Carawan has been reluctant to claim credit for the song's widespread popularity. In the PBS video ''We Shall Overcome'', [[Julian Bond]] credits Carawan with teaching and singing the song at the founding meeting of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] in [[Raleigh, North Carolina]], in 1960. From there, it spread orally and became an anthem of [[U.S. Southern states|Southern]] African American [[labor union]] and civil rights activism.<ref>Dunaway, 1990, 222–223; Seeger, 1993, 32.</ref> Seeger has also publicly, in concert, credited Carawan with the primary role of teaching and popularizing the song within the civil rights movement.

==Use in the 1960s civil rights and other protest movements==
In August 1963, 22-year old [[folksinger]] [[Joan Baez]] led a crowd of 3,000 in singing "We Shall Overcome" at the [[Lincoln Memorial]] during [[A. Philip Randolph]]'s [[March on Washington]]. [[President of the United States|President]] [[Lyndon Johnson]], himself a Southerner, used the phrase "we shall overcome" in addressing Congress on March 15, 1965,<ref>Lyndon Johnson, [http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/johnson.htm speech] of March 15, 1965, accessed March 28, 2007 on HistoryPlace.com</ref> in a speech delivered after the violent "[[Bloody sunday (1965)|Bloody Sunday]]" attacks on civil rights demonstrators during the [[Selma to Montgomery marches]], thus legitimizing the protest movement.

Four days before the April 4, 1968 [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]], King recited the words from "We Shall Overcome" in his final sermon, delivered in Memphis on Sunday, March 31.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=06&year=2008&base_name=a_new_normal|title=A new normal|access-date=2008-10-01|archive-date=2011-10-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012013617/http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=06&year=2008&base_name=a_new_normal|url-status=dead}}</ref> He had done so in a similar sermon he gave previously in 1965 to an interfaith congregation at [[Temple Israel of Hollywood]], [[California]]:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hearingvoices.com/transcript.php?fID=314|title=Hearing Voices - Radio Transcript #|website=Hearingvoices.com|access-date=14 March 2022}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text=We shall overcome. We shall overcome. Deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome. And I believe it because somehow the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right; "no lie can live forever". We shall overcome because [[William Cullen Bryant]] is right; "truth crushed to earth will rise again". We shall overcome because [[James Russell Lowell]] is right:

{{poemquote|
Truth forever on the scaffold, 
Wrong forever on the throne. 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, 
And behind the then unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, 
Keeping watch above his own.}}

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day. And in the words of prophecy, every valley shall be exalted. And every mountain and hill shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This will be a great day. This will be a marvelous hour. And at that moment—figuratively speaking in biblical words—the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy<ref>From the first King had liked to cite these same inspiration passages. "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" is from the writings of [[Theodore Parker]] the Unitarian abolitionist minister who was King's favorite theologian. Compare the transcript of this 1957 speech given in Washington, D.C.{{cite web|url=http://www.mlkonline.net/ballot.html|title=Give Us the Ballot|publisher=Address Delivered at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington D.C.|date=1957-05-17}}.</ref>}}

"We Shall Overcome" was sung days later by over fifty thousand attendees at the [[funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name=Kotz05>{{cite book|last=Kotz|first=Nick|title=Judgment days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the laws that changed America|year=2005|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|location=Boston|isbn=0-618-08825-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/judgmentdayslynd00kotz/page/419 419]|chapter=14. Another Martyr|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/judgmentdayslynd00kotz/page/419}}</ref>

Farmworkers in the United States later sang the song in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] during the strikes and grape boycotts of the late 1960s.<ref>{{cite book   | title = Farm Workers and the Churches: The Movement in California and Texas, Volume 8 | author= Alan J. Watt |publisher = Texas A&M University Press |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jTw3BlZgZvYC&q=we+shall+overcome+El+Teatro+Campesino&pg=PA80 | date = 2010  | page =  80 | isbn = 9781603441933 | access-date = 15 July 2016 }}</ref> The song was notably sung by the [[United States|U.S.]] [[United States Senate|Senator]] for [[New York (state)|New York]] [[Robert F. Kennedy]], when he led anti-[[Apartheid]] crowds in choruses from the rooftop of his car while touring [[South Africa]] in 1966.<ref>{{cite book |author=Thomas, Evan |title=Robert Kennedy: His Life |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/robertkennedy00thom/page/322 322] |isbn=0-7432-0329-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/robertkennedy00thom/page/322 |date=2002-09-10 }}</ref> It was also the song which [[Abie Nathan]] chose to broadcast as the anthem of the [[Voice of Peace]] radio station on October 1, 1993, and as a result it found its way back to South Africa in the later years of the [[Anti-Apartheid Movement]].<ref>Dunaway ([1981, 1990] 2008) p. 243.</ref>

[[William Bradford Reynolds]], facing a mounting torrent of criticism for not moving fast enough on civil rights enforcement in the 1980s, sang "We Shall Overcome" hand in hand with [[Jesse Jackson]] on a trip to meet with the black communities of the [[Mississippi Delta]].<ref>{{Cite magazine| last = Dowd| first = Maureen| title = Suddenly It Was All Action| magazine = TIME| access-date = 2024-08-19| date = 1983-07-25| url = https://time.com/archive/6699675/suddenly-it-was-all-action/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title = Government Reform: Fire Them All |work=The Harvard Crimson| access-date = 2024-08-19| url = https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1992/10/26/government-reform-fire-them-all-pbibts/}}</ref>

The [[Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association]] adopted "we shall overcome" as a slogan and used it in the title of its retrospective publication, ''We Shall Overcome – The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968–1978''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/crights/purdie.htm|title=CAIN: Events: Civil Rights: Bob Purdie (1990) The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association|website=Cain.ulster.ac.uk|access-date=14 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/crights/nicra/nicra78.htm|title=CAIN: Events: Civil Rights - "We Shall Overcome" .... published by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA; 1978)|website=Cain.ulster.ac.uk|access-date=14 March 2022}}</ref> The film ''[[Bloody Sunday (film)|Bloody Sunday]]'' depicts march leader and [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) [[Ivan Cooper]] leading the song shortly before 1972's [[Bloody Sunday (1972)|Bloody Sunday shootings]]. In 1997, the Christian men's ministry, [[Promise Keepers]] featured the song on its worship CD for that year: ''The Making of a Godly Man'', featuring worship leader Donn Thomas and the [[Maranatha! Music|Maranatha!]] Promise Band. [[Bruce Springsteen]]'s re-interpretation of the song was included on the 1998 tribute album ''Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger'' as well as on Springsteen's 2006 album ''[[We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions]]''.

On March 4, 2025, [[United States House of Representatives|House]] Representative [[Al Green (politician)|Al Green]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[Texas's 9th congressional district|TX 9)]] and several colleagues sang the song acapella in protest during [[President of the United States|President]] [[Donald Trump]]'s [[2025 Donald Trump speech to a joint session of Congress|2025 speech to a joint session of Congress]]. Congressman Green was removed from the House chamber by U.S. Capitol Police for the remainder of the evening for another interruption regarding [[Medicaid]], and was subsequently censured by the House of Representatives for disrupting the President's joint address to Congress, pursuant to a resolution introduced the next morning by Representative [[Dan Newhouse]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]-[[Washington's 4th congressional district|WA 4]]).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-06 |title=Al Green censured for joint session outburst |url=https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/03/06/congress/al-green-censured-sotu-00215582 |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=POLITICO |language=en}}</ref> The resolution to censure Green officially passed the House of Representatives 224 to 198 via rollcall vote on March 6, 2025, with 'Yea' votes from all 214 House Republican members along with ten House Democrats.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rep. Newhouse |first=Dan [R-WA-4 |date=2025-03-05 |title=H.Res.189 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Censuring Representative Al Green of Texas. |url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolution/189 |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=www.congress.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=US House |first=of Representatives |date=March 6, 2025 |title=Final Results for Roll Call 62 |url=https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2025/roll062.xml}}</ref> In the aftermath, Green and several members broke out into the song again on the well.

==Widespread adaptation==
"We Shall Overcome" was adopted by various labor, nationalist, and political movements both during and after the [[Cold War]]. In his memoir about his years teaching English in [[Czechoslovakia]] after the [[Velvet Revolution]], Mark Allen wrote:

{{blockquote|text=In [[Prague]] in 1989, during the intense weeks of the Velvet Revolution, hundreds of thousands of people sang this haunting music in unison in [[Wenceslas Square]], both in English and in [[Czech language|Czech]], with special emphasis on the phrase 'I do believe.'  This song's message of hope gave protesters strength to carry on until the powers-that-be themselves finally gave up hope themselves.
In the Prague of 1964, Seeger was stunned to find himself being whistled and booed by crowds of [[Czechs]] when he spoke out against the [[Vietnam War]]. But those same crowds had loved and adopted his rendition of 'We Shall Overcome.' History is full of such ironies – if only you are willing to see them.|source='Prague Symphony', Praha Publishing, 2008<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=Mark |title=Prague Symphony |date=2008 |publisher=Praha Publishing |page=192 |url=//worldcat.org/digitalarchive/content/server15982.contentdm.oclc.org/BSYMO/PROG/TRUSVolume6/Pub411_1959-1960_Trip_SandCam_Con01.pdf |access-date=16 October 2016}}</ref>}}

The words "We shall overcome" are sung emphatically at the end of each verse in a song of Northern Ireland's civil rights movement, ''[[Free the People (The Dubliners song)|Free the People]]'', which protested against the [[Operation Demetrius|internment policy of the British Army]].  The movement in Northern Ireland was keen to emulate the movement in the US and often sang "We shall overcome".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/derry-and-we-shall-overcome-we-plagiarised-an-entire-movement-1.2989759|last=McClements |first=Freya |date=4 March 2017 |title=Derry and 'We Shall Overcome': 'We plagiarised an entire movement'  |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |access-date=27 October 2019}}</ref>
[[File:The Obamas and the Bidens link arms and sing "We Shall Overcome", 2011.jpg|thumb|U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President [[Joe Biden]] and their wives link arms and sing "We Shall Overcome" at the dedication of the [[Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial]] in 2011.]]
The melody was also used (crediting it to Tindley) in a symphony by American composer William Rowland.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}} In 1999, [[National Public Radio]] included "We Shall Overcome" on the "NPR 100" list of most important American songs of the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/programs/specials/vote/100list.html|title=The NPR 100 The most important American musical works of the 20th century|website=Npr.org|access-date=14 March 2022}}</ref> As a reference to the line, in 2009, after the [[first inauguration of Barack Obama]] as the 44th [[President of the United States]], a man holding the banner, "WE HAVE OVERCOME" was seen near the Capitol, a day after hundreds of people posed with the sign on [[Martin Luther King Jr. Day]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090129162344/http://www.mgwashington.com/index.php/herd_washington/index/we-have-overcome/2415/ "We Have Overcome"], Media General. January 20, 2009.</ref>

As the attempted [[serial killer]] "[[Lasermannen]]" shot several immigrants around [[Stockholm]] in 1992, [[Prime Minister of Sweden|Prime Minister]] [[Carl Bildt]] and Immigration Minister [[Birgit Friggebo]] attended a meeting in [[Rinkeby]]. As the audience became upset, Friggebo tried to calm them down by proposing everyone sing "We Shall Overcome". This statement is widely regarded as one of the most embarrassing moments in Swedish politics. In 2008, the newspaper ''[[Svenska Dagbladet]]'' listed the [[Sveriges Television]] recording of the event as the best political clip available on [[YouTube]].<ref>[http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/ledarbloggens-youtubiana-hela-listan_1811227.svd Ledarbloggens Youtubiana – hela listan!] ''Svenska Dagbladet'', 2 October 2008 {{in lang|sv}}</ref>

On June 7, 2010, [[Roger Waters]] of [[Pink Floyd]] fame released a new version of the song as a protest against the [[Israel]]i blockade of [[Gaza Strip|Gaza]].<ref>[http://www.floydianslip.com/news/2010/06/roger-waters-releases-we-shall-overcome-video/ Roger Waters releases "We Shall Overcome" video], ''Floydian Slip'', June 7, 2010</ref>

On July 22, 2012, [[Bruce Springsteen]] performed the song during the memorial-concert in Oslo after the [[2011 Norway attacks|terrorist attacks in Norway]] on July 22, 2011.

In [[India]], the renowned poet [[Girija Kumar Mathur]] composed a literal translation in [[Hindi]] "''Hum Honge Kaamyab (हम होंगे कामयाब)''" which became a popular patriotic/spiritual song during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in schools.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lyrics of Hum Honge Kaamyab (Hindi)|url=http://www.prayogshala.com/poems/hum-honge-kaamyab|website=Prayogshala.com|access-date=9 February 2017}}</ref> This song also came to be used by the [[Blue Pilgrims]] for motivating the [[India men's national football team|India national football team]] during international matches.

In [[Bengali language|Bengali]]-speaking India and [[Bangladesh]], there are two versions, both of which are popular among schoolchildren and political activists. "''Amra Korbo Joy''" (আমরা করবো জয়)”, is a literal translation by Bengali folk singer [[Hemanga Biswas]], re-recorded by [[Bhupen Hazarika]]. Hazarika, who had heard the song during his days in the United States, also translated the song to [[Assamese language|Assamese]] as "''Ami hom xophol''" (আমি হ'ম সফল).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Dutta|first=Pranjal|title=The African American Bhupen Hazarika|work=[[The Sentinel (Guwahati)|The Sentinel]]|url=https://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/the-african-american-bhupen-hazarika-509971}}</ref> Another version, translated by [[Shibdas Bandyopadhyay]], "''Ek Din Shurjer Bhor''" (এক দিন সূর্যের ভোর, literally "''One Day The Sun Will Rise''") was arranged by [[Ruma Guha Thakurta]] and recorded by the [[Calcutta Youth Choir]] during the 1971 [[Bangladesh War of Independence]], becoming one of the bestselling Bengali records. It was a favorite of [[Prime Minister of Bangladesh|Prime Minister]] [[Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]], and it was regularly sung at public events after Bangladesh gained its independence in the early 1970s.{{Citation needed|date=January 2008}}

In the Indian [[States and union territories of India|state]] of [[Kerala]], a traditional [[Communism|Communist]] stronghold, the song became popular on college campuses during the late 1970s. It was the struggle song of the [[Students Federation of India]] (SFI), the largest student organisation in the country. The song translated into the local [[Malayalam]] as “''Nammal Vijayikkum”'' by SFI activist [[N. P. Chandrasekharan]], using the same tune of the original. Later, it was published in ''[[Student (SFI newspaper)|Student]]'', the monthly magazine of SFI in Malayalam as well as in ''Sarvadesheeya Ganangal'' (Mythri Books, Thiruvananthapuram), a translation of international struggle songs.

"We Shall Overcome" was a prominent song in the 2010 [[Bollywood]] film ''[[My Name is Khan]]'', which compared the struggle of [[Muslims]] in modern [[United States|America]] with the struggles of [[African Americans]] in the past. The song was sung in both [[English language|English]] and [[Hindi]] in the film, which starred [[Kajol]] and [[Shah Rukh Khan|Shahrukh Khan]].

In 2014, a recording of ''We Shall Overcome'' arranged by composer [[Nolan Williams Jr.]] and featuring [[mezzo-soprano]] [[Denyce Graves]] was among several works of art, including the poem ''[[A Brave and Startling Truth]]'' by [[Maya Angelou]], were sent to space on the first test flight of the spacecraft [[Orion (spacecraft)|Orion]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Siceloff |first1=Steven |title=Orion Flight Test to Carry Mementos and Inspirational Items |url=https://www.nasa.gov/content/orion-flight-test-to-carry-mementos-and-inspirational-items |website=NASA |access-date=22 October 2021 |date=25 Nov 2014}}</ref>

The [[Argentines|Argentine]] writer and singer [[María Elena Walsh]] wrote a Spanish version called "''Venceremos''".<ref>{{cite news |title=Maria Elena Walsh, Argentine writer and singer, dies at 80 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/maria-elena-walsh-argentine-writer-and-singer-dies-at-80/2011/01/11/ABIM4JJ_story.html |access-date=7 August 2022 |newspaper=Washington Post |agency=Associated Press |date=11 January 2011}}</ref>

[[Celtic punk]] band [[Dropkick Murphys]] released their version of the song as a single and music video in 2022. Their version can also be found on the expanded edition of their 2021 album, ''[[Turn Up That Dial]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dropkick Murphys "We Shall Overcome" (Music Video) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsrYA28CtYQ |access-date=10 March 2023 |newspaper=YouTube |date=15 March 2022}}</ref>

==Copyright status==
The copyright status of "We Shall Overcome" was disputed in the late 2010s. A [[copyright registration]] was made for the song in 1960, which is credited as an [[Derivative work|arrangement]] by Zilphia Horton, Guy Carawan, Frank Hamilton, and Pete Seeger, of a work entitled "I'll Overcome", with no known original author.<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns"/> Horton's heirs, Carawan, Hamilton, and Seeger share the artists' half of the rights, and The Richmond Organization (TRO), which includes Ludlow Music, Essex, Folkways Music, and Hollis Music, holds the publishers' rights, to 50% of the royalty earnings. Seeger explained that he registered the copyright under the advice of TRO, who showed concern that someone else could register it. "At that time we didn't know Lucille Simmons' name", Seeger said.<ref>Seeger, 1993, p. 33</ref> Their royalties go to the "We Shall Overcome" Fund, administered by Highlander under the trusteeship of the "writers". Such funds are purportedly used to give small grants for cultural expression involving African Americans organizing in the U.S. South.<ref>''Highlander Reports'', 2004, p. 3.</ref>

In April 2016, a lawsuit was filed against TRO and Ludlow by the We Shall Overcome Foundation (WSOF), a group led by producer [[Isaias Gamboa (music producer)|Isaias Gamboa]] that was denied permission to use the song in a documentary on its history. The suit alleged that the TRO-Ludlow copyright claims were invalid because the copyright had not been renewed as required by [[United States copyright law]] at the time, and that the copyright of the 1948 ''People's Songs'' publication containing "We Will Overcome" had therefore expired in 1976. Additionally, it was argued that the registered copyrights only covered specific arrangements of the tune and "obscure alternate verses", that the registered works "did not contain original works of authorship, except to the extent of the arrangements themselves", and that no record of a work entitled "I'll Overcome" existed in the database of the [[United States Copyright Office]]. The WSOF was working on a documentary about the song and its history, and were denied permission to use the song by TRO-Ludlow. The suit sought to have the copyright status of the song clarified, and the return of all royalties collected by the companies from its usage.<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns">{{cite web |last1=Graham |first1=David A. |title=Who Owns 'We Shall Overcome'? |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/04/we-shall-overcome-lawsuit/478068/ |website=The Atlantic |date=14 April 2016 |access-date=13 July 2016}}</ref>

The suit acknowledged that Seeger himself had not claimed to be an author of the song, stating of the song in his autobiography, "No one is certain who changed 'will' to 'shall.' It could have been me with my [[Harvard University|Harvard]] education. But Septima Clarke, a Charleston schoolteacher (who was director of education at Highlander and after the civil rights movement was elected year after year to the Charleston, S.C. Board of Education) always preferred 'shall.' It sings better." He also reaffirmed that the decision to copyright the song was a defensive measure, with his publisher apparently warning him that "if you don't copyright this now, some Hollywood types will have a version out next year like 'Come on Baby, We shall overcome tonight{{'"}}. Furthermore, the liner notes of Seeger's compilation album ''If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope & Struggle'' contained a summary on the purported history of the song, stating that "We Shall Overcome" was "probably adapted from the 19th-century hymn, 'I'll Be All Right{{'"}}, and that "I'll Overcome Some Day" was a "possible source" and may have originally been adapted from "I'll Be All Right".<ref name="suit-pdf">{{cite web |title=We Shall Overcome Foundation, C.A. No. on behalf of itself and all others similarly situated v. The Richmond Organization, Inc. (TRO Inc.) and Ludlow Music, Inc. |publisher=[[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|S.D.N.Y.]] |url= https://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/We.shall_.overcome.complaint.pdf|access-date=13 July 2016}}</ref> 

Gamboa had shown interest in investigating the origins of "We Shall Overcome";<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns"/> in a book entitled ''[[We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue]]'', he notably disputed the song's claimed origins and copyright registration with an alternate theory, suggesting that "We Shall Overcome" was actually derived from "If My Jesus Wills", a hymn by [[Louise Shropshire]] that had been composed in the 1930s and had its copyright registered in 1954.<ref name="cincicom-belongstocincy">{{cite web |title='We Shall Overcome' belongs to Cincinnati |url= http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/02/01/shall-overcome-belongs-cincinnati/22593805/ |website=[[Cincinnati Enquirer]] |publisher=Gannett Company |access-date=13 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last2=Henry |first1=Isaias |last1=Gamboa |first2=JoAnne F. |last3=Owen |first3=Audrey |title=We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue |date=2012 |publisher=Amapola |location=Beverly Hills, California |isbn=978-0615475288}}</ref> The WSOF lawsuit did not invoke this theory, focusing instead on the original belief that the song stemmed from "We Will Overcome".<ref name="theatlantic-whoowns"/><ref name="suit-pdf"/> The lawyer backing Gamboa's suit, Mark C. Rifkin, was previously involved in a case that invalidated copyright claims over the song "[[Happy Birthday to You]]".<ref name="billboard-weshalllawsuit">{{cite magazine |title='Happy Birthday' Legal Team Turns Attention to 'We Shall Overcome' |url= http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7332976/we-shall-overcome-public-domain-lawsuit-copyright |magazine=Billboard |date= 12 April 2016 |access-date=April 15, 2016}}</ref>

On September 8, 2017, Judge [[Denise Cote]] of the Southern District of New York issued an opinion that there were insufficient differences between the first verse of the "We Shall Overcome" lyrics registered by TRO-Ludlow, and the "We Will Overcome" lyrics from ''People's Songs'' (specifically, the aforementioned replacement of "will" with "shall", and changing "down in my heart" to "deep in my heart") for it to qualify as a [[threshold of originality|distinct]] derivative work eligible for its own copyright.<ref name="Ars Technica">{{Cite news |date=September 11, 2017 |title=Judge throws out 57-year-old copyright on 'We Shall Overcome' |language=en-us |work=Ars Technica |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/the-most-famous-civil-rights-song-we-shall-overcome-is-no-longer-copyrighted/ |access-date=September 11, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/09/11/550209220/federal-judge-rules-first-verse-of-we-shall-overcome-public-domain|title=Federal Judge Rules First Verse Of 'We Shall Overcome' Public Domain|last=Karr|first=Rick|date=September 11, 2017|website=Npr.org|access-date=September 11, 2017}}</ref>

On January 26, 2018, TRO-Ludlow agreed to a final settlement, under which it would no longer claim copyright over the melody or lyrics to "We Shall Overcome".<ref>As published in copyright registration numbers EU 645288 (27 October 1960) and EP 179877 (7 October 1963).</ref> In addition, TRO-Ludlow agreed that the melody and lyrics were thereafter dedicated to the public domain.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gardner|first1=Eriq|title=Song Publisher Agrees 'We Shall Overcome' Is in Public Domain in Legal Settlement|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/song-publisher-agrees-we-overcome-public-domain-legal-settlement-1078906|access-date=26 January 2018|work=Hollywood Reporter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whafh.com/case/wolf-haldenstein-frees-copyright-shall-overcome-uss-powerful-song|title=Wolf Haldenstein Frees the Copyright to we Shall Overcome, the US's Most Powerful Song|access-date=3 February 2018|website=Whafh.com|archive-date=22 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922085951/http://www.whafh.com/case/wolf-haldenstein-frees-copyright-shall-overcome-uss-powerful-song|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.whafh.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wso-stipulation-and-order-filed.pdf |title=Stipulation and Order of Dismissal With Prejudice|website=Whafh.com|access-date=March 14, 2022}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Civil rights movement in popular culture]]
* [[Timeline of the civil rights movement]]
* [[Christian child's prayer#Spirituals|Christian child's prayer § Spirituals]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Dylan, Li''How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger'', (orig. pub. 1981, reissued 1990). Da Capo, New York, {{ISBN|0-306-80399-2}}.
* ___, "The We Shall Overcome Fund". ''Highlander Reports'', newsletter of the Highlander Research and Education Center, August–November 2004, p.&nbsp;3.
* ''We Shall Overcome'', PBS Home Video 174, 1990, 58 minutes.

==Further reading==
* ''Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs'': Compiled and edited by Guy and Candie Carawan; foreword by Julian Bond (New South Books, 2007), comprising two classic collections of freedom songs: '' We Shall Overcome'' (1963) and ''Freedom Is A Constant Struggle'' (1968), reprinted in a single edition. The book includes a major new introduction by Guy and Candie Carawan, words and music to the songs, important documentary photographs, and firsthand accounts by participants in the civil rights movement. Available from [https://archive.today/20070619072824/http://www.highlandercenter.org/r-b-songbooks.asp Highlander Center].
* ''We Shall Overcome! Songs of the Southern Freedom Movement'': Julius Lester, editorial assistant. Ethel Raim, music editor: Additional musical transcriptions: Joseph Byrd [and] Guy Carawan. New York: Oak Publications, 1963.
* ''Freedom is a Constant Struggle'', compiled and edited by Guy and Candie Carawan. Oak Publications, 1968.
* [[Alexander Tsesis]], [http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300118377 ''We Shall Overcome: A History of Civil Rights and the Law''].  Yale University Press, 2008.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160314093213/http://www.weshallovercomebook.com/overcome_book/Home.html ''We Shall Overcome: A Song that Changed the World''], by Stuart Stotts, illustrated by Terrance Cummings, foreword by Pete Seeger.  New York: Clarion Books, 2010.
* ''Sing for Freedom'', Folkways Records, produced by Guy and Candie Carawan, and the Highlander Center. Field recordings from 1960 to 1988, with the Freedom Singers, Birmingham Movement Choir, Georgia Sea Island Singers, Doc Reese, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Len Chandler, and many others. Smithsonian-Folkways CD version 1990.
* ''We Shall Overcome: The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert, June 8, 1963, Historic Live recording June 8, 1963''. 2-disc set, includes the full concert, starring Pete Seeger, with the Freedom Singers, Columbia # 45312, 1989. Re-released 1997 by Sony as a box CD set.
* ''Voices Of The Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs 1960–1966''. Box CD set, with the Freedom Singers, Fanny Lou Hammer, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. Smithsonian-Folkways CD ASIN: B000001DJT (1997).
* Durman, C 2015, 'We Shall Overcome: Essays on a Great American Song edited by Victor V. Bobetsky', ''Music Reference Services Quarterly'', vol. 8, iss. 3, pp.&nbsp;185–187
* Graham, D 2016, "Who Owns 'We Shall Overcome'?", ''The Atlantic'', 14 April, accessed 28 April 2017,  [https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/04/we-shall-overcome-lawsuit/478068/ Who Owns 'We Shall Overcome'?]
* Clark, B. & Borchert, S 2015, "Pete Seeger, Musical Revolutionary", ''Monthly Review'', vol. 66, no. 8, pp.&nbsp;20–29

==External links==
{{wikisource|We Shall Overcome (song)}}
* {{National Public Radio|1031839}}
* [[s:We Shall Overcome (song)|Lyrics]]
* [http://www.culturalequity.org/alanlomax/ce_alanlomax_profile_carawan.php Authorized Profile of Guy Carawan with history of the song, "We Shall Overcome" from the Association of Cultural Equity]
* [http://www.eastvillageradio.com/modules.php?name=evrsearch ''Freedom in the Air: Albany Georgia. 1961–62. SNCC #101''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012010027/http://www.eastvillageradio.com/modules.php%3Fname%3Devrsearch |date=2019-10-12 }} Recorded by Guy Carawan, produced for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee by Guy Carawan and Alan Lomax. "''Freedom In the Air'' ... is a record of the 1961 protest in Albany, Georgia, when, two weeks before Christmas, 737 people brought the town nearly to a halt to force its integration. The record's never been reissued and that's a shame, as it's a moving document of a community through its protest songs, church services, and experiences in the thick of the civil rights struggle."—Nathan Salsburg, host, ''Root Hog or Die'', East Village Radio, January 2007.
* [http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/w/weshallo.html Susanne's Folksong-Notizen], excerpts from various articles, liner notes, etc. about "We Shall Overcome". <!-- This led to [Dunaway, 1990] and [Seeger, 1993] -->
* [http://gersic.com/writing.php?id=18 Musical Transcription] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922052545/http://gersic.com/writing.php?id=18 |date=2013-09-22 }} of "We Shall Overcome," based on a recording of Pete Seeger's version, sung with the SNCC Freedom Singers on the 1963 live Carnegie Hall recording, and the 1988 version by Pete Seeger sung at a reunion concert with Pete and the Freedom Singers on the anthology, ''Sing for Freedom'', recorded in the field 1960–88 and edited and annotated by Guy and Candie Carawan, released in 1990 as Smithsonian-Folkways CD SF 40032.
* [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5362968 NPR news article] including full streaming versions of Pete Seeger's classic 1963 live Carnegie Hall recording and Bruce Springsteen's tribute version.
* [https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19769/m1/ "Pete Seeger & the story of 'We Shall Overcome'"] from 1968 interview on ''[[The Pop Chronicles]]''.
* [http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/2006/06/something_about.asp "Something About That Song Haunts You"], essay on the history of "We Shall Overcome," ''Complicated Fun'', June 9, 2006.
* [http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4609485-1.html "Howie Richmond Views Craft Of Song: Publishing Giant Celebrates 50 Years As TRO Founder", by Irv Lichtman, ''Billboard'', 8, 28, 1999]. Excerpt: "Key folk songs in the [TRO] catalog, as arranged by a number of folklorists, are 'We Shall Overcome,' 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine' 'On Top Of Old Smokey,' 'So Long, It's Been Good To Know You,' 'Goodnight Irene,' 'If I Had A Hammer,' 'Tom Dooley,' and 'Rock Island Line.'"

{{Civil rights movement}}
{{Authority control}}

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