We Shall Overcome

Singing this song yesterday in church brought tears to my eyes. In 1965 I sung it in the Black churches of Benton County, Mississippi, a rural county where I was engaged in civil rights work.

I interviewed sharecroppers who were being kept in economic servitude by landowners and wrote affidavits that were sent to lawyers in the North who were preparing a lawsuit to redress this wrong. I taught "Freedom School" to help the kids of the Black community get ready for the integration of the schools under a court order that was to be enforced in the fall of 1965. I also documented the discriminatory practices utilized at the county courthouse to prevent Black residents from registering to vote.

All the "political" meetings concerning the assertion and protection of these civil rights were held in Black churches, and it was there that we sang songs such as "Keep Your Eye on the Prize," "I'm Gonna Do What the Spirit Say Do," "Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Set on Freedom," and "We Shall Overcome."

The faith and courage of Black American Christians sustained the nonviolence of the Civil Rights Movement and its leaders, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These faithful Christians brought our country a step closer to what Dr. King called "the beloved community," and their witness transformed my life.

With hope . . . Bob