The Freedom Singers originated as a quartet formed in 1962 at Albany State College in Albany, Georgia. After folk singer Pete Seeger witnessed the power of their congregational-style of singing, which fused black Baptist a cappella church singing with popular music at the time, as well as protest songs and chants. Churches were considered to be safe spaces, acting as a shelter from the racism of the outside world. As a result, churches paved the way for the creation of the freedom song.[1] After witnessing the influence of freedom songs, Seeger suggested The Freedom Singers as a touring group to the SNCC executive secretary James Forman as a way to fuel future campaigns. Intrinsically connected, their performances drew aid and support to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the emerging civil rights movement. As a result, communal song became essential to empowering and educating audiences about civil rights issues and a powerful social weapon of influence in the fight against Jim Crow segregation.[2][3][4] Their most notable song “We Shall Not Be Moved” translated from the original Freedom Singers to the second generation of Freedom Singers, and finally to the Freedom Voices, made up of field secretaries from SNCC.[5] "We Shall Not Be Moved" is considered by many to be the "face" of the Civil Rights movement. Rutha Mae Harris, a former freedom singer, speculated that without the music force of broad communal singing, the civil rights movement may not have resonated beyond of the struggles of the Jim Crow South. Since the Freedom Singers were so successful, a second group was created called the Freedom Voices.[5]
^Spener, David (2016). "From Union Song to Freedom Song". From Union Song to Freedom Song: Civil Rights Activists Sing an Old Tune for a New Cause. Biography of a Song of Struggle. Temple University Press. pp. 62–76. ISBN 978-1-4399-1297-3. JSTOR j.ctt1kft8ff.8. Retrieved 2023-03-30. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^Graham, Casey (2014-03-09). "SNCC Freedom Singers (1962-1966) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". www.blackpast.org. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
^"Bernice Johnson Reagon on 'This Little Light of Mine'". BillMoyers.com. 2013-05-03. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
^"Freedom Singer: 'Without Music, There Would Be No Movement'". NPR.org. 2013-08-28. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
^ abSpener, David (2016). "From Union Song to Freedom Song". From Union Song to Freedom Song: Civil Rights Activists Sing an Old Tune for a New Cause. Biography of a Song of Struggle. Temple University Press. pp. 62–76. ISBN 978-1-4399-1297-3. JSTOR j.ctt1kft8ff.8. Retrieved 2023-03-30. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
and 23 Related for: The Freedom Singers information
TheFreedomSingers originated as a quartet formed in 1962 at Albany State College in Albany, Georgia. After folk singer Pete Seeger witnessed the power...
The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000), the patriarch...
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge...
Freedom Summer, also known as theFreedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in...
activist, who in the early 1960s was a founding member of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC) FreedomSingers in the Albany Movement...
"SNCC FreedomSingers 1962–1966". BlackPast.org. 9 March 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2015. Paige Rose, Leslie. (2007). TheFreedomSingers of the civil...
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D...
named theFreedomSingers. And in 1962, Pete and Toshi Seeger assisted theFreedomSingers in organizing a nationwide collegiate tour. As a result, the civil...
Freedom Schools were temporary, alternative, and free schools for African Americans mostly in the South. They were originally part of a nationwide effort...
and the 1988 version by Pete Seeger sung at a reunion concert with Pete and theFreedomSingers on the anthology, Sing for Freedom, recorded in the field...
especially during the Civil Right Movement in the 1960's. Rutha Mae Harris, one of the four original freedomsingers from Georgia, said the song "helped steady...
others are attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan while on a freedom ride to Birmingham, Alabama. Louis participates in the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade...
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee FreedomSingers recorded a version of the latter song. Wadada Leo Smith's album Ten Freedom Summers contains a track called...
the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the...
Fariña Richard Fariña Jackson C. Frank TheFreedomSingers Gale Garnett Gateway Singers Bob Gibson Cynthia Gooding The Greenbriar Boys David Grisman Stefan...
Billy Preston the successful gospel group the COGIC Singers, with whom she recorded the album It's a Blessing. Although she remained with the group for some...
Freedom Highway may refer to: Freedom Highway (Rhiannon Giddens album), a 2017 album Freedom Highway (The Staple Singers album), a 1965 album Freedom...
American singer and activist. He was the founding member of TheFreedomSingers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a leader of the Albany...
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), also referred to simply as theFreedom Democratic Party, was an American political party that existed...
Emory was a founding member of a chapter of male Freedom Singers in the early 1960s. FreedomSingers originated in an African American congregation, Mt. Zion...
Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Excerpt) "Browder v. Gayle: The Women Before Rosa Parks", Tolerance Vanessa de la Torre, "In The Shadow of...
W. E. B. Du Bois (1903). The Souls of Black Folk. A. C. McClurg, Chicago.Sorrow Songs Sunset Four Jubilee Singers (singers), Good Time Music (Publisher)...
group, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. January 2015: The Madrigal Singers led thousands of singers in the celebrations during the Pastoral and...