The history of this famous song, illustrated with black & white photos. Includes a CD.

This book tells the history of the song "We Shall Overcome" which became the anthom of the civil rights movement here in the US in the 1950s and 60s. It teaches us how music can help shape and define a group and how this one song changed throughout the generations and meant several things to several different people. The song started in the 1800s and slavery songs, and was a different version than that that is sung today, but it had the same meaning. It was sung in black churches and in black schools for several years. In the early 1900s it took a different turn and was being used by strikers when unions were being created to fight for labor rights. It became a major part of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s and then in the 70s it was used in the same meaning but by antiwar protests. It has more recently been used after 9/11 and in many countries all around the world who are in circumstances of persecution. Whatever the reason the singers were using the song, the reason was always the same; to unite the singers together in a nonviolent fight against that which they did not believe in and in the fight for equality and human rights for all.