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

I was watching an excellent documentary last night called Pete Seger: Power of Song, and I remembered a great triple-LP Folkways collection I have called Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966. The documentary showed clips of Pete playing at civil rights gatherings that featured the SNCC Freedom Singers – a group that has nearly a dozen tracks on the Folkways collection. Listen to them sing “Governor Wallace” in the player below:

Never one to back down from his beliefs, Seger was blacklisted for years because he refused to sign loyalty oaths and/or denounce the communist party in the United States. His involvement with the civil rights movement and the Newport Festivals helped bring about the 1960s folk revival.

I managed to hunt down the Folkways boxset after the film and began reviewing what tracks I might offer up for Black History Month. Like most Folkways releases, the collection is made up of field recordings, often from mass gatherings, so there is little engineering, just a mic in the right place at the right time. I was pretty sure this had never been re-issued on CD, but I decided to troll around the net to see what I could find. As it turns out, it was re-issued in 1997 as a double-CD set: CD1 | CD-2, and it has been posted over at Zero-G Sound, where you will find one of the best online collections of social justice themed recordings.

The 2-CD set is still available from Smithsonian Folkways and you can download the liner notes in pdf format.

There probably isn’t a better audio document that captures the incredible spirit of these mass meetings, and both discs are fascinating to listen to. The second disc is a must-have and features nearly a dozen tracks by the amazing SNCC Freedom Singers.

Learn more about the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on this historical site:

On February 1, 1960, a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. This sparked a wave of other sit-ins in college towns across the South. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC (pronounced “snick”), was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh two months later to coordinate these sit-ins, support their leaders, and publicize their activities.

Over the next decade, civil rights activism moved beyond lunch counter sit-ins. In this violently changing political climate, SNCC struggled to define its purpose as it fought white oppression. Out of SNCC came some of today’s black leaders, such as former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis and NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Together with hundreds of other students, they left a lasting impact on American history.

Disc 1

1. Freedom Medley: Freedom Chant/Oh Freedom/This Little Light of Mine
2. This Little Light of Mine
3. If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus
4. Lord, Hold My Hand While I Run This Race
5. Get on Board, Children
6. Calypso Freedom
7. Oh, Freedom
8. Ain’ Scared of Nobody
9. Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
10. Sermon –
11. We Are Soldiers in the Army – Cleveland, J
12. Go Tell It on the Mountain
13. Wade in the Water
14. Come Bah Yah –
15. Walk With Me Lord
16. Jesus on the Mainline
17. Freedom Train
18. Don’t You Think It’s About Time That We All Be Free – Hillary, M.
19. We’re Marching on to Freedom Land – Reese, C.
20. We Shall Overcome

Disc 2

1. We’ll Never Turn Back – Gober, B
2. We Shall Not Be Moved
3. Certainly Lord
4. Get Your Rights, Jack – Mayfield, Curtis
5. Which Side Are You On? – Farmer, J.
6. Woke Up This Morning with My Mind on Freedom
7. Been in the Storm So Long
8. Dog, Dog – Bevel, James
9. The A&P Song – Gibson, B
10. Oh Pritchett, Oh Kelly
11. I Told Jesus
12. Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)
13. I’m on My Way
14. City Called Heaven
15. In the Mississippi River – Jones, Marshall “Ro
16. Ain’ Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round
17. Will the Circle Be Unbroken
18. Governor Wallace – Orange, J.
19. Ballad of Medgar Evers – Jones, Marshall “Ro
20. Uncle Tom’s Prayer – Jones, Marshall “Ro
21. Oginga Odinga – Jones, Marshall “Ro
22. We Shall Overcome