"This Little Light of Mine" is a popular gospel song of unknown origin. It was often said that it was written for children in the 1920s by Harry Dixon Loes, but he never claimed credit for the original version of the song and the Moody Bible Institute where he worked said he did not write it. It was later adapted by Zilphia Horton, amongst many other activists, in connection with the civil rights movement. Harry Dixon Loes, who studied at the Moody Bible Institute and the American Conservatory of Music, was a composer and teacher. During his lifetime, Loes crafted the words to over 1,500 hymns, and created the music for some 3,000 others In June 1934 John Lomax and Alan Lomax recorded the earliest known recording of the song when they recorded Jim Boyd of Jacksonville, Texas singing at the State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. The hymn can be found in more than 50 hymnals.