We Shall Overcome - wikipedia We Shall Overcome Jump to : navigation , search This article is about the protest song . For other uses , see We Shall Overcome ( disambiguation ) . `` We Shall Overcome '' Play media 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 ( February 9 , 2010 ) . Problems playing this file ? See media help . `` We Shall Overcome '' is a gospel song which became a protest song and a key anthem of the Civil Rights Movement . The song is most commonly attributed as being lyrically descended from `` I 'll Overcome Some Day '' , a hymn by Charles Albert Tindley that was first published in 1900 . The modern version of the song was first said to have been sung by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during a 1945 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 ( a publication of People 's Songs , an organization of which Pete Seeger was the director ) , 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 ) . Horton said she had learned the song from Simmons , and she considered it to be her favorite song . She taught it to many others , including Pete Seeger , who included it in his repertoire , as did many other activist singers , such as Frank Hamilton and Joe Glazer , who recorded it in 1950 . The song became associated with the Civil Rights Movement from 1959 , 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 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 asserted a copyright on the `` We Shall Overcome '' lyrics , registered in 1960 . In 2017 , in response to a lawsuit against TRO over allegations of 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 non-renewal . In January 2018 , the company agreed to a settlement under which it would no longer assert any copyright claims over the song . Contents ( hide ) 1 Origins as a gospel , folk , and labor song 2 Role of the Highlander Folk School 3 Use in the 1960s civil rights and other protest movements 4 Widespread adaptation 5 Copyright status 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links Origins as a gospel , folk , and Labor song ( edit ) `` 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 1900 . 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 '' are among the best known . The published text bore the epigraph , `` Ye shall overcome if ye faint not '' , derived from 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 : 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 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 . 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 only 36 years before he first published his songs , and were often impoverished , illiterate , and newly arrived in the North . `` 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 . '' A letter printed on the front page of the 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 acknowledgement of such a song having been sung in both a secular context and a mixed - race setting . Tindley 's `` I 'll Overcome Some Day '' was believed to have influenced the structure for `` We Shall Overcome '' , 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 '' , also known from its refrain as `` Many Thousands Gone '' . 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 '' ) : Even of this last composition , however , we have only the approximate date and know nothing of the mode of composition . 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-callin ' 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 . Coincidentally , Bob Dylan claims that he used the very same melodic motif from `` No More Auction Block '' for his composition , `` Blowin ' in the Wind '' . 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 . The second half of `` We Shall Overcome '' is essentially the same music as the 19th - century hymn `` I 'll Be All Right '' and it bears a close resemblance to the aria Caro Mio Ben , attributed to Neapolitan composer Tommaso Giordani or Giuseppe Giordani ; this is another late 18th - century Italian song that became a staple of 19th - century singers . 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 . '' Role of the Highlander folk school ( edit ) 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 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 . 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 ( ... ) . '' 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 Ai n'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 . 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 ( 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 , 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 Southern African American labor union and civil rights activism . 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 ( edit ) In August 1963 , 22 - year old folksinger Joan Baez , led a crowd of 300,000 in singing `` We Shall Overcome '' at the Lincoln Memorial during A. Philip Randolph 's March on Washington . President Lyndon Johnson , himself a Southerner , used the phrase `` we shall overcome '' in addressing Congress on March 15 , 1965 , in a speech delivered after the violent , `` Bloody Sunday '' attacks on civil rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery marches , thus legitimizing the protest movement . Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr. recited the words from `` We Shall Overcome '' in his final sermon delivered in Memphis on Sunday , March 31 , 1968 , before his assassination . He had done so in a similar sermon delivered in 1965 before an interfaith congregation at Temple Israel in Hollywood , California : 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 : . 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 `` We Shall Overcome '' was sung days later by over fifty thousand attendees at Dr. King 's funeral . Farmworkers in the United States later sang the song in Spanish during the strikes and grape boycotts of the late 1960s . The song was notably sung by the U.S. Senator for 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 . 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 . 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 . The film Bloody Sunday depicts march leader and MP Ivan Cooper leading the song shortly before 1972 's 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 ! 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 . Widespread adaptation ( edit ) `` 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 : `` 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 , 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 . '' -- ' Prague Symphony ' , Praha Publishing , 2008 The melody was also used ( crediting it to Tindley ) in a symphony by American composer William Rowland . In 1999 , National Public Radio included `` We Shall Overcome '' on the `` NPR 100 '' list of most important American songs of the 20th century . As a reference to the line , on January 20 , 2009 , after the 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 . As the attempted serial killer `` Lasermannen '' shot several immigrants around Stockholm in 1992 , 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 that 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 . On June 7 , 2010 , Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame , released a new version of the song as a protest against the Israeli blockade of Gaza . On July 22 , 2012 , Bruce Springsteen performed the song during the memorial - concert in Oslo after the terrorist attacks in Norway on July 22 , 2011 . In India , the renowned poet Girija Kumar Mathur composed its literal translation in Hindi `` Hum Honge Kaamyab ( हम होगें कामयाब ) '' which became a popular patriotic / spiritual song during the 1970s and 80s , particularly in schools . In Bengali - speaking India and Bangladesh , there are two versions , both of which are popular among school - children and political activists . `` Amra Korbo Joy '' ( আমরা করবো জয় , a literal translation ) was translated by the Bengali folk singer Hemanga Biswas and re-recorded by Bhupen Hazarika . Another version , translated by Shibdas Bandyopadhyay , `` Ek Din Shurjer Vor '' ( এক দিন সূর্যের ভোর , literally translated as `` One Day The Sun Will Rise '' ) was recorded by the Calcutta Youth Choir and arranged by Ruma Guha Thakurta during the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence and it became one of the largest selling Bengali records . It was a favorite of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and it was regularly sung at public events after Bangladesh gained its independence in the early 1970s . In the Indian State of Kerala , the traditional 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 to the regional language Malayalam by N.P. Chandrasekharan , an activist for SFI . The translation followed the same tune of the original song , as `` Nammal Vijayikkum '' . Later it was also published in Student , the monthly 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 America with the struggles of African Americans in the past . The song was sung in both English and Urdu in the film , which starred Shahrukh Khan . Copyright status ( edit ) 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 arrangement by Zilphia Horton , Guy Carawan , Frank Hamilton , and Pete Seeger , of a work entitled `` I 'll Overcome '' , with no known original author . 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 did n't know Lucille Simmons ' name '' , Seeger said . 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 . In April 2016 , the We Shall Overcome Foundation ( WSOF ) , led by music producer Isaias Gamboa , sued TRO and Ludlow , seeking to have the copyright status of the song clarified and the return of all royalties collected by the companies from its usage . The WSOF , which was working on a documentary about the song and its history , were denied permission to use the song by TRO - Ludlow . The filing argued that TRO - Ludlow 's copyright claims were invalid because the registered copyright had not been renewed as required by United States copyright law at the time ; because of this , the copyright of the 1948 People 's Songs publication containing `` We Will Overcome '' had 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 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 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 do n'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 '' . Gamboa has historically shown interest in investigating the origins of `` We Shall Overcome '' ; 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 . The WSOF lawsuit did not invoke this alternate history , focusing instead on the original belief that the song stemmed from `` We Will Overcome '' . 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 '' . 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 distinct derivative work eligible for its own copyright . On January 26 , 2018 , TRO - Ludlow agreed to a final settlement , under which it would accept the district court 's opinion that it did not own a valid copyright to the melody and first verse of `` We Shall Overcome '' , and that it would no longer assert any of its copyright claims to the remaining verses of the song . See also ( edit ) Timeline of the African - American Civil Rights Movement ( 1954 -- 68 ) Notes ( edit ) Jump up ^ Bobetsky , Victor ( 2014 ) . `` The complex ancestry of `` We Shall Overcome '' `` . Choral Journal . 57 : 26 -- 36 . Jump up ^ Lynskey , Dorian ( 2011 ) . 33 revolutions per minute . London , UK : Faber & Faber . p. 33 . ISBN 978 - 0061670152 . ^ Jump up to : Seeger , Pete ( 1997 ) . Where Have All The Flowers Gone -- A Musical Autobiography . Bethlehem , PA : Sing Out . ISBN 1881322106 . Jump up ^ Tindley , C. Albert ( 1900 ) . `` I 'll Overcome Some Day '' . New Songs of the Gospel . Philadelphia : Hall - Mack Co . Jump up ^ 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 . Jump up ^ 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 . '' Jump up ^ Boyer ( 1983 ) , p. 113 . ^ Jump up to : Graham , David A. `` Who Owns ' We Shall Overcome ' ? '' . The Atlantic . Retrieved 13 July 2016 . Jump up ^ `` Lawyers who won Happy Birthday copyright case sue over `` We Shall Overcome '' `` . Ars Technica . Retrieved 13 July 2016 . Jump up ^ 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 . Jump up ^ 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 Britain abolished slavery in 1833 . Jump up ^ Eileen Southern , The Music of Black Americans : A History , Second Edition ( Norton , 1971 ) : 546 - 47 , 159 - 60 . Jump up ^ Higginson , Thomas Wentworth ( June 1867 ) . `` Negro Spirituals '' . The Atlantic Monthly . 19 ( 116 ) : 685 -- 694 . Jump up ^ 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 a 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 ... '' ^ Jump up to : Bobetsky , Victor V. ( 2015 ) . We Shall Overcome : Essays on a Great American Song . pp. 1 -- 13 . Retrieved October 18 , 2016 . Jump up ^ Seward , William ( November 1792 ) . `` Drossiana . Number XXXVIII . The Sicilian Mariner 's Hymn to the Virgin '' . European Magazine . 22 ( 5 ) : 342 , 385 -- 386 . Retrieved October 26 , 2016 . Jump up ^ Shaw , Robert , ed . ( May 1794 ) . `` Prayer of the Sicilian Mariners '' . The Gentleman 's Amusement : 25 . Retrieved October 26 , 2016 . Jump up ^ Brink , Emily ; Polman , Bert , eds. ( 1988 ) . The Psalter Hymnal Handbook . Retrieved October 18 , 2016 . Jump up ^ Wallechinsky , David ; Wallace , Irving , eds. ( 1978 ) . The People 's Almanac # 2 . pp. 806 -- 809 . Retrieved October 18 , 2016 . Jump up ^ Kytle , Ethan J. ; Roberts , Blain ( March 15 , 2015 ) . `` Birth of a Freedom Anthem '' . The New York Times . Jump up ^ Silk , Mark ( May 8 , 2015 ) . `` Who wrote ' We Shall Overcome ' ? '' . Religion News Service . Retrieved October 18 , 2016 . Jump up ^ 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 Jump up ^ 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 . Jump up ^ Dunaway , 1990 , 222 -- 223 ; Seeger , 1993 , 32 . Jump up ^ Lyndon Johnson , speech of March 15 , 1965 , accessed March 28 , 2007 on HistoryPlace.com Jump up ^ `` A new normal '' ... Jump up ^ `` A New Addition to Martin Luther King 's Legacy '' . Jump up ^ 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. `` Give Us the Ballot , '' . Address Delivered at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom , Washington D.C. 1957 - 05 - 17 ... Jump up ^ Kotz , Nick ( 2005 ) . `` 14 . Another Martyr '' . Judgment days : Lyndon Baines Johnson , Martin Luther King Jr. , and the laws that changed America . Boston : Houghton Mifflin . p. 419 . ISBN 0 - 618 - 08825 - 3 . Jump up ^ Alan J. Watt ( 2010 ) . Farm Workers and the Churches : The Movement in California and Texas , Volume 8 . Texas A&M University Press . p. 80 . ISBN 9781603441933 . Retrieved 15 July 2016 . Jump up ^ Thomas , Evan . Robert Kennedy : His Life . New York : Simon & Schuster . p. 322 . ISBN 0 - 7432 - 0329 - 1 . Jump up ^ Dunaway ( ( 1981 , 1990 ) 2008 ) p. 243 . Jump up ^ CAIN : Civil Rights Association by Bob Purdie Jump up ^ CAIN : Events : Civil Rights - `` We Shall Overcome '' published by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ( NICRA ; 1978 ) Jump up ^ The NPR 100 The most important American musical works of the 20th century Jump up ^ `` We Have Overcome '' , Media General . January 20 , 2009 . Jump up ^ Ledarbloggens Youtubiana -- hela listan ! Svenska Dagbladet , 2 October 2008 ( in Swedish ) Jump up ^ Roger Waters releases `` We Shall Overcome '' video Floydian Slip , June 7 , 2010 Jump up ^ `` Lyrics of Hum Honge Kaamyab ( Hindi ) '' . www.prayogshala.com . Prayogshala . Retrieved 9 February 2017 . Jump up ^ Seeger , 1993 , p. 33 Jump up ^ Highlander Reports , 2004 , p. 3 . ^ Jump up to : `` 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 . '' ( PDF ) . S.D.N.Y. Retrieved 13 July 2016 . Jump up ^ `` ' We Shall Overcome ' belongs to Cincinnati '' . Cincinnati Enquirer . Gannett Company . Retrieved 13 July 2016 . Jump up ^ Gamboa , Isaias ; Henry , JoAnne F. ; Owen , Audrey ( 2012 ) . We Shall Overcome : Sacred Song On The Devil 's Tongue . Beverly Hills , Calif. : Amapola Publ . ISBN 978 - 0615475288 . Jump up ^ `` ' Happy Birthday ' Legal Team Turns Attention to ' We Shall Overcome ' '' . Billboard . Retrieved April 15 , 2016 . Jump up ^ `` Judge throws out 57 - year - old copyright on `` We Shall Overcome '' `` . Ars Technica . September 11 , 2017 . Retrieved September 11 , 2017 . Jump up ^ Karr , Rick ( September 11 , 2017 ) . `` Federal Judge Rules First Verse Of ' We Shall Overcome ' Public Domain '' . NPR . Retrieved September 11 , 2017 . Jump up ^ Gardner , Eriq . `` Song Publisher Agrees `` We Shall Overcome '' Is in Public Domain in Legal Settlement `` . Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 26 January 2018 . Jump up ^ `` Wolf Haldenstein Frees the Copyright to we Shall Overcome , the US 's Most Powerful Song '' . Wolf Haldenstein . Retrieved 3 February 2018 . References ( edit ) Dunaway , David , 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. 3 . We Shall Overcome , PBS Home Video 174 , 1990 , 58 minutes . Further reading ( edit ) 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 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 , We Shall Overcome : A History of Civil Rights and the Law . Yale University Press , 2008 . 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 -- 88 , 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. 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/ Clark , B. & Borchert , S 2015 , ' Pete Seeger , Musical Revolutionary ' , Monthly Review , vol. 66 , no . 8 , pp. 20 - 29 External links ( edit ) Wikisource has original text related to this article : We Shall Overcome ( song ) We Shall Overcome on National Public Radio Lyrics Authorized Profile of Guy Carawan with history of the song , `` We Shall Overcome '' from the Association of Cultural Equity Freedom in the Air : Albany Georgia . 1961 - 62 . SNCC # 101 . 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 . Susanne  ́ s Folksong - Notizen , excerpts from various articles , liner notes , etc. about `` We Shall Overcome '' . Musical Transcription 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 . NPR news article including full streaming versions of Pete Seeger 's classic 1963 live Carnegie Hall recording and Bruce Springsteen 's tribute version . `` Pete Seeger & the story of ' We Shall Overcome ' '' from 1968 interview on The Pop Chronicles . `` Something About That Song Haunts You '' , essay on the history of `` We Shall Overcome , '' Complicated Fun , June 9 , 2006 . `` 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 Notable events ( timeline ) Prior to 1954 Lynching in the United States Murder of Harry and Harriette Moore 1954 -- 1959 Brown v. Board of Education Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton White America , Inc . Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery bus boycott Browder v. Gayle Tallahassee bus boycott Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom `` Give Us the Ballot '' Royal Ice Cream sit - in Little Rock Nine National Guard blockade Civil Rights Act of 1957 Kissing Case Biloxi wade - ins 1960 -- 1963 Greensboro sit - ins Nashville sit - ins Sit - in movement Civil Rights Act of 1960 Gomillion v. Lightfoot Boynton v. Virginia Rock Hill sit - ins Robert F. Kennedy 's Law Day Address Freedom Rides attacks Garner v. Louisiana Albany Movement University of Chicago sit - ins `` Second Emancipation Proclamation '' Meredith enrollment , Ole Miss riot `` Segregation now , segregation forever '' Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 1963 Birmingham campaign Letter from Birmingham Jail Children 's Crusade Birmingham riot 16th Street Baptist Church bombing John F. Kennedy 's Report to the American People on Civil Rights March on Washington `` I Have a Dream '' St. Augustine movement 1964 -- 1968 Twenty - fourth Amendment Bloody Tuesday Freedom Summer workers ' murders Civil Rights Act of 1964 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches `` How Long , Not Long '' Voting Rights Act of 1965 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections March Against Fear White House Conference on Civil Rights Chicago Freedom Movement / Chicago open housing movement Memphis sanitation strike King assassination funeral riots Poor People 's Campaign Civil Rights Act of 1968 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County Activist groups Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Atlanta Student Movement Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Committee on Appeal for Human Rights Council for United Civil Rights Leadership Dallas County Voters League Deacons for Defense and Justice Georgia Council on Human Relations Highlander Folk School Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Montgomery Improvement Association Nashville Student Movement NAACP Youth Council Northern Student Movement National Council of Negro Women National Urban League Operation Breadbasket Regional Council of Negro Leadership Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Southern Regional Council Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) The Freedom Singers Wednesdays in Mississippi Women 's Political Council Activists Ralph Abernathy Victoria Gray Adams Zev Aelony Mathew Ahmann William G. Anderson Gwendolyn Armstrong Arnold Aronson Ella Baker Marion Barry Daisy Bates Harry Belafonte James Bevel Claude Black Gloria Blackwell Randolph Blackwell Unita Blackwell Ezell Blair Jr . Joanne Bland Julian Bond Joseph E. Boone William Holmes Borders Amelia Boynton Raylawni Branch Ruby Bridges Aurelia Browder H. Rap Brown Guy Carawan Stokely Carmichael Johnnie Carr James Chaney J.L. Chestnut Colia Lafayette Clark Ramsey Clark Septima Clark Xernona Clayton Eldridge Cleaver Kathleen Cleaver Charles E. Cobb Jr . Annie Lee Cooper Dorothy Cotton Claudette Colvin Vernon Dahmer Jonathan Daniels Joseph DeLaine Dave Dennis Annie Devine Patricia Stephens Due Joseph Ellwanger Charles Evers Medgar Evers Myrlie Evers - Williams Chuck Fager James Farmer Walter E. Fauntroy James Forman Marie Foster Golden Frinks Andrew Goodman Fred Gray Jack Greenberg Dick Gregory Lawrence Guyot Prathia Hall Fannie Lou Hamer William E. Harbour Vincent Harding Dorothy Height Lola Hendricks Aaron Henry Oliver Hill Donald L. Hollowell James Hood Myles Horton Zilphia Horton T.R.M. Howard Ruby Hurley Jesse Jackson Jimmie Lee Jackson Richie Jean Jackson T.J. Jemison Esau Jenkins Barbara Rose Johns Vernon Johns Frank Minis Johnson Clarence Jones J. Charles Jones Matthew Jones Vernon Jordan Tom Kahn Clyde Kennard A.D. King C.B. King Coretta Scott King Martin Luther King Jr . Martin Luther King Sr . Bernard Lafayette James Lawson Bernard Lee Sanford R. Leigh Jim Letherer Stanley Levison John Lewis Viola Liuzzo Z. Alexander Looby Joseph Lowery Clara Luper Malcolm X Mae Mallory Vivian Malone Thurgood Marshall Benjamin Mays Franklin McCain Charles McDew Ralph McGill Floyd McKissick Joseph McNeil James Meredith William Ming Jack Minnis Amzie Moore Douglas E. Moore Harriette Moore Harry T. Moore William Lewis Moore Irene Morgan Bob Moses William Moyer Elijah Muhammad Diane Nash Charles Neblett Edgar Nixon Jack O'Dell James Orange Rosa Parks James Peck Charles Person Homer Plessy Adam Clayton Powell Jr . Fay Bellamy Powell Al Raby Lincoln Ragsdale A. Philip Randolph George Raymond Jr . Bernice Johnson Reagon Cordell Reagon James Reeb Frederick D. Reese Gloria Richardson David Richmond Bernice Robinson Jo Ann Robinson Bayard Rustin Bernie Sanders Michael Schwerner Cleveland Sellers Charles Sherrod Alexander D. Shimkin Fred Shuttlesworth Modjeska Monteith Simkins Glenn E. Smiley A. Maceo Smith Kelly Miller Smith Mary Louise Smith Maxine Smith Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson Charles Kenzie Steele Hank Thomas Dorothy Tillman A.P. Tureaud Hartman Turnbow Albert Turner C.T. Vivian Wyatt Tee Walker Hollis Watkins Walter Francis White Roy Wilkins Hosea Williams Kale Williams Robert F. Williams Andrew Young Whitney Young Sammy Younge Jr . James Zwerg Influences Nonviolence Padayatra Sermon on the Mount Mahatma Gandhi Ahimsa Satyagraha The Kingdom of God Is Within You Frederick Douglass W.E.B. Du Bois Mary McLeod Bethune Related Jim Crow laws Plessy v. Ferguson Separate but equal Buchanan v. Warley Hocutt v. Wilson Sweatt v. Painter Heart of Atlanta Motel , Inc. v. United States Katzenbach v. McClung Loving v. Virginia Fifth Circuit Four Brown Chapel Holt Street Baptist Church Edmund Pettus Bridge March on Washington Movement African - American churches attacked Journey of Reconciliation Freedom Songs `` Kumbaya '' `` Keep Your Eyes on the Prize '' `` Oh , Freedom '' `` This Little Light of Mine '' `` We Shall Not Be Moved '' `` We Shall Overcome '' Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam `` Beyond Vietnam : A Time to Break Silence '' Watts riots Voter Education Project 1960s counterculture In popular culture King Memorial Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument Freedom Riders National Monument Civil Rights Memorial The New Jim Crow ( 2010 ) Noted historians Taylor Branch Clayborne Carson John Dittmer Michael Eric Dyson Chuck Fager Adam Fairclough David Garrow David Halberstam Vincent Harding Steven F. Lawson Doug McAdam Diane McWhorter Charles M. Payne Timothy Tyson Akinyele Umoja Movement photographers Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=We_Shall_Overcome&oldid=837442503 '' Categories : 1903 songs American folk songs American patriotic songs History of African - American civil rights Pete Seeger songs Joan Baez songs Songs against racism and xenophobia Roger Waters songs Mahalia Jackson songs Peter , Paul and Mary songs Hidden categories : Articles with Swedish - language external links Articles with hAudio microformats Articles with attributed pull quotes All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from June 2008 Articles with unsourced statements from September 2008 Articles with unsourced statements from January 2008 Articles containing video clips Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikisource Català Deutsch Español Français हिन्दी Italiano עברית ქართული Latina Magyar 日本 語 Norsk Português Русский Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe 9 more Edit links This page was last edited on 20 April 2018 , at 21 : 05 . 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who validated the civil rights movement by proclaiming we shall overcome
`` We Shall Overcome '' Play media 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 ( February 9 , 2010 ) . Problems playing this file ? See media help . `` We Shall Overcome '' Play media 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 ( February 9 , 2010 ) . Problems playing this file ? See media help . `` We Shall Overcome '' is a gospel song which became a protest song and a key anthem of the Civil Rights Movement . The song is most commonly attributed as being lyrically descended from `` I 'll Overcome Some Day '' , a hymn by Charles Albert Tindley that was first published in 1900 . The modern version of the song was first said to have been sung by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during a 1945 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 ( a publication of People 's Songs , an organization of which Pete Seeger was the director ) , 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 ) . Horton said she had learned the song from Simmons , and she considered it to be her favorite song . She taught it to many others , including Pete Seeger , who included it in his repertoire , as did many other activist singers , such as Frank Hamilton and Joe Glazer , who recorded it in 1950 . The song became associated with the Civil Rights Movement from 1959 , 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 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 asserted a copyright on the `` We Shall Overcome '' lyrics , registered in 1960 . In 2017 , in response to a lawsuit against TRO over allegations of 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 non-renewal . In January 2018 , the company agreed to a settlement under which it would no longer assert any copyright claims over the 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 1900 . 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 '' are among the best known . The published text bore the epigraph , `` Ye shall overcome if ye faint not '' , derived from 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 : 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 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 . 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 only 36 years before he first published his songs , and were often impoverished , illiterate , and newly arrived in the North . `` 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 . '' A letter printed on the front page of the 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 acknowledgement of such a song having been sung in both a secular context and a mixed - race setting . Tindley 's `` I 'll Overcome Some Day '' was believed to have influenced the structure for `` We Shall Overcome '' , 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 '' , also known from its refrain as `` Many Thousands Gone '' . 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 '' ) : Even of this last composition , however , we have only the approximate date and know nothing of the mode of composition . 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-callin ' 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 . Coincidentally , Bob Dylan claims that he used the very same melodic motif from `` No More Auction Block '' for his composition , `` Blowin ' in the Wind '' . 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 . The second half of `` We Shall Overcome '' is essentially the same music as the 19th - century hymn `` I 'll Be All Right '' and it bears a close resemblance to the aria Caro Mio Ben , attributed to Neapolitan composer Tommaso Giordani or Giuseppe Giordani ; this is another late 18th - century Italian song that became a staple of 19th - century singers . 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 . '' 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 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 . 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 ( ... ) . '' 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 Ai n'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 . 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 ( 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 , 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 Southern African American labor union and civil rights activism . Seeger has also publicly , in concert , credited Carawan with the primary role of teaching and popularizing the song within the Civil Rights Movement . In August 1963 , 22 - year old folksinger Joan Baez , led a crowd of 300,000 in singing `` We Shall Overcome '' at the Lincoln Memorial during A. Philip Randolph 's March on Washington . President Lyndon Johnson , himself a Southerner , used the phrase `` we shall overcome '' in addressing Congress on March 15 , 1965 , in a speech delivered after the violent , `` Bloody Sunday '' attacks on civil rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery marches , thus legitimizing the protest movement . Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr. recited the words from `` We Shall Overcome '' in his final sermon delivered in Memphis on Sunday , March 31 , 1968 , before his assassination . He had done so in a similar sermon delivered in 1965 before an interfaith congregation at Temple Israel in Hollywood , California : 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 : . 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 `` We Shall Overcome '' was sung days later by over fifty thousand attendees at Dr. King 's funeral . Farmworkers in the United States later sang the song in Spanish during the strikes and grape boycotts of the late 1960s . The song was notably sung by the U.S. Senator for 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 . 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 . 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 . The film Bloody Sunday depicts march leader and MP Ivan Cooper leading the song shortly before 1972 's 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 ! 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 . `` 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 : `` 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 , 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 . '' -- ' Prague Symphony ' , Praha Publishing , 2008 `` 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 , 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 . '' 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 . -- ' Prague Symphony ' , Praha Publishing , 2008 The melody was also used ( crediting it to Tindley ) in a symphony by American composer William Rowland . In 1999 , National Public Radio included `` We Shall Overcome '' on the `` NPR 100 '' list of most important American songs of the 20th century . As a reference to the line , on January 20 , 2009 , after the 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 . As the attempted serial killer `` Lasermannen '' shot several immigrants around Stockholm in 1992 , 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 that 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 . On June 7 , 2010 , Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame , released a new version of the song as a protest against the Israeli blockade of Gaza . On July 22 , 2012 , Bruce Springsteen performed the song during the memorial - concert in Oslo after the terrorist attacks in Norway on July 22 , 2011 . In India , the renowned poet Girija Kumar Mathur composed its literal translation in Hindi `` Hum Honge Kaamyab ( हम होगें कामयाब ) '' which became a popular patriotic / spiritual song during the 1970s and 80s , particularly in schools . In Bengali - speaking India and Bangladesh , there are two versions , both of which are popular among school - children and political activists . `` Amra Korbo Joy '' ( আমরা করবো জয় , a literal translation ) was translated by the Bengali folk singer Hemanga Biswas and re-recorded by Bhupen Hazarika . Another version , translated by Shibdas Bandyopadhyay , `` Ek Din Shurjer Vor '' ( এক দিন সূর্যের ভোর , literally translated as `` One Day The Sun Will Rise '' ) was recorded by the Calcutta Youth Choir and arranged by Ruma Guha Thakurta during the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence and it became one of the largest selling Bengali records . It was a favorite of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and it was regularly sung at public events after Bangladesh gained its independence in the early 1970s . In the Indian State of Kerala , the traditional 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 to the regional language Malayalam by N.P. Chandrasekharan , an activist for SFI . The translation followed the same tune of the original song , as `` Nammal Vijayikkum '' . Later it was also published in Student , the monthly 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 America with the struggles of African Americans in the past . The song was sung in both English and Urdu in the film , which starred Shahrukh Khan . 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 arrangement by Zilphia Horton , Guy Carawan , Frank Hamilton , and Pete Seeger , of a work entitled `` I 'll Overcome '' , with no known original author . 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 did n't know Lucille Simmons ' name '' , Seeger said . 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 . In April 2016 , the We Shall Overcome Foundation ( WSOF ) , led by music producer Isaias Gamboa , sued TRO and Ludlow , seeking to have the copyright status of the song clarified and the return of all royalties collected by the companies from its usage . The WSOF , which was working on a documentary about the song and its history , were denied permission to use the song by TRO - Ludlow . The filing argued that TRO - Ludlow 's copyright claims were invalid because the registered copyright had not been renewed as required by United States copyright law at the time ; because of this , the copyright of the 1948 People 's Songs publication containing `` We Will Overcome '' had 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 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 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 do n'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 '' . Gamboa has historically shown interest in investigating the origins of `` We Shall Overcome '' ; 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 . The WSOF lawsuit did not invoke this alternate history , focusing instead on the original belief that the song stemmed from `` We Will Overcome '' . 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 '' . 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 distinct derivative work eligible for its own copyright . On January 26 , 2018 , TRO - Ludlow agreed to a final settlement , under which it would accept the district court 's opinion that it did not own a valid copyright to the melody and first verse of `` We Shall Overcome '' , and that it would no longer assert any of its copyright claims to the remaining verses of the song .
President Lyndon Johnson Lucille Simmons Guy Carawan Guy Carawan