We Shall Overcome
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Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Mandolin Tablature
legacy / protest song
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Standard Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Song Sheet
Horton, Hamilton, Carawan, Seeger
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome
We shall overcome someday.
Oh deep in my heart, I do believe
That we shall overcome someday.
We'll walk hand in hand,
We'll walk hand in hand
We'll walk hand in hand someday.
Oh deep in my heart, I do believe
That we shall overcome someday.
We shall live in peace,
We shall live in peace
We shall live in peace someday.
Oh deep in my heart, I do believe
That we shall overcome someday.
We shall brothers be,
We shall brothers be
We shall brothers be someday.
Oh deep in my heart, I do believe
That we shall overcome someday.
Truth shall make us free,
Truth shall make us free
Truth shall make us free someday.
Oh deep in my heart, I do believe
That we shall overcome someday.
We are not afraid,
We are not afraid
We are not afraid today.
Oh deep in my heart, I do believe
That we shall overcome someday.
"We Shall Overcome" is a gospel song which became a protest song<br> and a key anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. The song is most<br> commonly attributed as having descended lyrically from "I'll<br> Overcome Some Day", a hymn by Charles Albert Tindley that was<br> first published in 1900.<br> The modern version of the song was first said to have been sung<br> by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during a 1945 strike in<br> Charleston, South Carolina. In 1947, the song was published under<br> the title "We Will Overcome" in an edition of the People's Songs<br> Bulletin (a publication of People's Songs, an organization of which<br> Pete Seeger was the director), as a contribution of and with an<br> introduction by Zilphia Horton, then-music director of the Highlander<br> Folk School of Monteagle, Tennessee (an adult education school that<br> trained union organizers).<br> She taught it to many others, including Pete Seeger who included it<br> in his repertoire, as did many other activist singers, such as Frank<br> Hamilton and Joe Glazer, who recorded it in 1950.<br> The song became associated with the Civil Rights Movement from 1959<br> when Guy Carawan introduced his and Seeger's version as song leader<br> at Highlander, which was then focused on nonviolent civil rights<br> activism. It quickly became the movement's unofficial anthem. Seeger<br> and other famous folksingers in the early 1960s, such as Joan Baez,<br> sang the song at rallies, folk festivals, and concerts in the North<br> and helped make it widely known.<br>
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