The song that fueled protests and a legacy of hope
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The midterms are coming, and that means the news cycle, which is already intense, is about to get more intense this fall. So this summer is a perfect time to make sure your news diet is calibrated. I'm Laila Fadil. On Up First, we unpack the three biggest stories every morning so you can stay informed and get on with your day in less than 15 minutes. Follow or subscribe to Up First today wherever you get your podcasts.
This is America in Pursuit, a limited-run series from NPR and ThruLine. I'm Randa Dil Fattah. Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S. that began 250 years ago. If you listened really closely, you might have noticed, as we did, that there's a song that keeps creeping up in the background of many of our recent stories in this series. It's a song that has fueled war protests, political protests, and the fight for civil rights.
There's a little song that we sing in our movement down in the South. I don't know if you've heard it.
On this episode, we go deep into the NPR archives to share one of our favorite radio broadcasts. The story of how this song, We Shall Overcome, was passed down from farm workers to churchgoers to student protesters. How its lyrics were transformed. and how it's left a legacy of hope for so many, not only in the U.S., but around the globe. NPR's Noah Adams reported the story back in 1999 to mark the 70th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 's birth. That's coming up after a quick break.
Have you ever been so upset that you can't even think straight? When we're distressed and in high anxiety, we tend to breathe from our chest, which is actually more hyperventilating and is the opposite of relaxing. So we want to breathe from our belly area.
This week on the Life Kit podcast, tips for those painful, stressful moments. Listen to Life Kit on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Oh, hey there. I'm Brittany Luce, and I don't know, maybe this is a little out of pocket to say, but I think you should listen to my podcast. It's called It's Been a Minute, and I love it, and I think you will too. Over the past couple months, over 100,000 new listeners started tuning in. Find out why. Listen to the It's Been a Minute podcast from NPR today. These days, it feels like the news changes every hour. Well, NPR has a podcast that does that too. NPR News Now brings you a fresh five-minute episode every hour of the day with the latest, most important headlines in episodes that are clear, fact-based, and easy to digest. Listen to NPR News Now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
It is not a marching song. It is not necessarily defiant. It is a promise. We shall overcome someday. Deep in my heart, I do believe. We shall overcome something. We Shall Overcome has been heard in North Korea, in Beirut, in Tiananmen Square, in South Africa's Soweto Township.
We shall overcome something.
How did We Shall Overcome become a recurring motif in this series?
It has been a civil rights song for years now, but it began as a folk song, a work song. Slaves in the fields would sing, I'll be all right someday. It became known in the churches. A Methodist minister, Charles Albert Tinley, published a version in 1901, I'll overcome someday. The first political use came in 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina. There was a strike against the American Tobacco Company. The workers wanted a raise. They were making 45 cents an hour. They marched and sang together on the picket line, We will overcome, and we will win our rights someday. Four decades later, some of the strikers got together for a reunion. From a 1989 PBS documentary, these are the memories of Delphine Brown, Anna Lee Bonneau, and Corrine Chisholm.
When I first heard the song in my church, they sang it in the gospel fast, and people shouted. We will see the Lord. We will see the Lord. We will see the Lord someday. Deep in my heart, I do believe. We will overcome someday. And that's the way we used to sing it. In church. In church, but not when you were on the picket line. When we first started singing it, I thought it was kind of silly.
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