10 Essential Civil Rights Songs

The Anthems and Ballads That Fueled the Movement

Soldiers at Civil Rights Protest

Bettmann Archive / Getty Images

Hundreds of tunes have been written about civil rights in the United States and around the world, and the struggle for equal civil rights is far from over. The songs on this list don't even begin to capture them all. But they are a good place to start for anyone who wants to learn more about music from the height of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s in America.

Some of these songs were adapted from old hymns. Others were originals. All of them have helped inspire millions.

'We Shall Overcome'

Pete Seeger

Sony Music Entertainment 1963

When "We Shall Overcome" first came to the Highlander Folk School via the Food and Tobacco Workers Union in 1946, it was a spiritual titled "I'll Be Alright Someday."

The school's cultural director, Zilphia Horton, along with those workers, adapted it to the struggles of the labor movement at the time and began using the new version, "We Will Overcome," at every meeting. She taught it to Pete Seeger the next year.

Seeger changed the "will" to "shall" and took it around the world. It became the anthem of the civil rights movement when Guy Carawan brought the song to a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee rally in South Carolina. It's since been sung around the world.

"Deep in my heart, I do believe. We shall overcome some day."

'When Will We Be Paid for the Work We've Done?'

Staples Singers - We'll Get Over Album Cover

Stax

This Staple Singers classic encapsulates African American history from systemic enslavement to the construction of railroads and highways and demands payment and reparations for the horrors and exploitation of working-class African Americans.

"We fought in your wars to keep this country free for women, children, man. When will we be paid for the work we've done?"

'Oh Freedom'

Joan Baez - How Sweet the Sound
Razor & Tie

"Oh Freedom" also has deep roots in the Black community; it was sung by enslaved Black people dreaming of a time when there would be an end to their bondage.

On the morning before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., in August 1963, Joan Baez started the day's events with her rendition of this tune, and it quickly became an anthem of the movement.

The refrain ("Before I'll be a slave...") also appeared in an earlier tune, "No More Mourning."

"Oh, Freedom! Oh, Freedom over me! Before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave..."

'We Shall Not Be Moved'

Mavis Staples - We'll Never Turn Back Album Cover

Anti - Records

"We Shall Not Be Moved" took root as a song of liberation and empowerment during the labor movement of the early 20th century.

It was already a staple in union halls—integrated and segregated alike—when folks started working it into civil rights rallies in the 1950s and 1960s. Like many of the period's great protest songs, it sings of the refusal to bow to the powers that be and the importance of standing up for what you believe in.

"Like a tree planted by the water, I shall not be moved."

'Blowin' in the Wind'

Bob Dylan - Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Columbia

When Bob Dylan debuted "Blowin' in the Wind," he introduced it by clearly indicating it wasn't a protest song.

In a way, he had a point. It wasn't against anything—it simply raised some provocative questions that had long needed to be raised. It did, however, become an anthem for some folks who couldn't have said it better themselves.

Unlike folk songs like "We Shall Overcome," which encourages a collaborative, call-and-response performance, "Blowin' in the Wind" was an assertive, solo tune that has been performed by some other artists throughout the years, including Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary.

"How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?"

'This Little Light of Mine'

Sam Cooke - This Little Light of Mine
ABKCO

"This Little Light of Mine" was a children's song and an old spiritual that was reintroduced during the civil rights era as a song of personal empowerment.

Its lyrics talk about the importance of unity in the face of adversity. Its refrain sings of the light in each person and how, whether standing up alone or joining together, each little bit of light can break the darkness.

The song has since been applied to many struggles but was an anthem of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine over the whole wide world, I'm gonna let it shine."

'Going Down to Mississippi'

Phil Ochs - A Toast to Those Who Are Gone
Phil Ochs

One of the most dangerous places to be a Black person (or a White civil rights activist) at the height of the movement was Mississippi. But students and activists alike poured into the Deep South to lead rallies and sit-ins, work toward registering people to vote, and provide education and assistance.

Phil Ochs was a songwriter with a fierce canon of protest songs. But "Going Down to Mississippi," in particular, resonated with the civil rights movement because it talks specifically about the struggle that was happening in Mississippi. Ochs sings:

"Someone's got to go to Mississippi just as sure as there's a right and there's wrong. Even though you say the time will change, that time is just too long."

'Only a Pawn in Their Game'

Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changing
Columbia

Bob Dylan's song about the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers talks about the greater issue at hand in Evers' murder. Dylan homed in on the fact that the murder of Evers wasn't just an issue between the assassin and his subject but a symptom of a greater problem that needed fixing.

"And he's taught how to walk in a pack, shoot in the back, with his fist in a clinch, to hang and to lynch.... He ain't got no name, but it ain't him to blame. He's only a pawn in their game."

'Strange Fruit'

Billie Holiday - Lady Day the Very Best of Billie Holiday
Legacy

When Billie Holiday premiered "Strange Fruit" in a New York club in 1938, the civil rights movement was just beginning. This song, written by a Jewish schoolteacher named Abel Meeropol, was so controversial that Holiday's record company refused to release it. Luckily, it was picked up by a smaller label and preserved.

"Strange trees bear strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."

'Keep Your Eyes on the Prize'

Freedom Songs - Selma, Alabama
Smithsonian Folkways

"Keep Your Hand on the Plow and Hold On" was an old gospel song by the time it was revisited, reworked, and reapplied within the context of the civil rights movement. Like the original, this adaptation talked about the importance of endurance while struggling toward freedom. The song has been through many incarnations, but the refrain has remained much the same:

"The only chain that a man can stand is the chain of hand in hand. Keep your eyes on the prize and hold on."

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Ruehl, Kim. "10 Essential Civil Rights Songs." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/essential-civil-rights-songs-1322740. Ruehl, Kim. (2023, April 5). 10 Essential Civil Rights Songs. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/essential-civil-rights-songs-1322740 Ruehl, Kim. "10 Essential Civil Rights Songs." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/essential-civil-rights-songs-1322740 (accessed March 28, 2024).