Voices of the Civil Rights Movement Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966 (1997)

About this title: The civil rights movement used freedom songs to spread their message, adapting folk and pop tunes with contemporary topical lyrics, or writing new songs addressing social injustice in general, and injustice for African-Americans in particular. This is a two-CD, 43-song compilation of such songs, recorded live in mass meetings in churches between 1960 and 1966. The SNCC Freedom Singers, including in their ranks future Sweet Honey in the Rock mainstay Bernice Johnson Reagon (who wrote the liner notes), contribute quite a few tracks, but the majority are by less professional soloists and choirs. ... read more

Tracks:

1. Freedom Medley: Freedom Chant/Oh Freedom/This Little Light of Mine [Traditional]
2. This Little Light of Mine [Traditional]
3. If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus [Traditional]
4. Lord, Hold My Hand While I Run This Race [Traditional]
5. Get on Board, Children [Traditional]
6. Calypso Freedom [Traditional]
7. Freedom Now Chant
8. Oh, Freedom [Traditional]
9. Ain' Scared of Nobody [Traditional]
10. Leaning on the Everlasting Arms [Traditional]
11. Sermon
12. We Are Soldiers in the Army [Cleveland]
13. Go Tell It on the Mountain [Traditional/Work]
14. Wade in the Water [Traditional]
15. Come Bah Yah
16. Walk With Me Lord [Traditional]
17. Jesus on the Mainline [Traditional]
18. Freedom Train [Traditional]
19. Don't You Think It's About Time That We All Be Free [Hillary]
20. We're Marching on to Freedom Land [Reese]
21. We Shall Overcome [Traditional]
22. We'll Never Turn Back [Gober]
23. We Shall Not Be Moved [Traditional]
24. Certainly Lord [Traditional]
25. Get Your Rights, Jack [Mayfield/McKissick]
26. Which Side Are You On? [Farmer/Reece]
27. Woke Up This Morning with My Mind on Freedom [Traditional]
28. Been in the Storm So Long [Traditional]
29. Dog, Dog [Bevel/Lafayette]
30. The A&P Song [Gibson]
31. Oh Pritchett, Oh Kelly [Traditional]
32. I Told Jesus [Traditional]
33. Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do) [Traditional]
34. I'm on My Way [Traditional]
35. City Called Heaven [Traditional]
36. In the Mississippi River [Jones]
37. Ain' Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round [Traditional]
38. Will the Circle Be Unbroken [Traditional]
39. Governor Wallace [Orange]
40. Ballad of Medgar Evers [Jones]
41. Uncle Tom's Prayer [Jones]
42. Oginga Odinga [Jones]
43. We Shall Overcome [Traditional]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.