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Category: Folk Music

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Photographs of the Southern Freedom Movement in the Alan Lomax Collection

Posted by: Kate Stewart

Ever since the Civil Rights History Project Act was passed in 2009, archivists at the American Folklife Center have kept their eyes and ears open for items related to the Southern Freedom Movement as they process collections. Todd Harvey, curator of the Alan Lomax Collection (AFC 2004/004), recently noticed a folder of twenty-one photographs in …

Posted in: African Americans, Alan Lomax, Civil Rights, Civil Rights History Project, Folk Music, SNCC

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Tracing the Long Journey of “We Shall Overcome”

Posted by: Kate Stewart

Although folksingers Pete Seeger, Guy Carawan, and Frank Hamilton registered copyright on “We Shall Overcome” in 1960, the song has a long and fascinating history with contributions from many activist-singers. We can trace it back to two separate songs from over a hundred years ago, the lyrics from “I’ll Overcome Some Day” written by the …

Posted in: African American History, Civil Rights, Civil Rights History Project, Folk Music, Oral History, Pete Seeger