Civil Rights Anthem

Civil Rights Anthem

Civil Rights anthems is a relational concept to protest song, but one that is specifically linked to the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The songs were often sung during protests or marches related to the movement. Participants in the Civil Rights Movement referred to these songs as "Freedom Songs" rather than "anthems."

In several cases these songs began as gospel or spiritual, the most famous being

  • "We Shall Overcome" and
  • "Go Tell it on the Mountain".

Nina Simone is also known for writing of such songs, such as:

  • "Mississippi Goddam", from Nina Simone in Concert (1964).
  • "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", from Black Gold (1970), this song was also dubbed the "official civil rights anthem".

Activist Fannie Lou Hamer is known for singing songs at marches or other protests. Zilphia Horton also played a role in the conversion of spirituals to civil rights songs.

Read more about Civil Rights Anthem:  Additional Civil Rights Anthems

Famous quotes containing the words civil rights, civil and/or rights:

    “The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman’s soul.”
    —Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    “Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
    And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
    Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
    Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
    Alike reserved to blame, or to commend,
    A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;
    Dreading e’en fools, by flatterers besieged,
    And so obliging, that he ne’er obliged;
    Like Cato, give his little senate laws,
    And sit attentive to his own applause:”
    —Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    “A wife is property that one acquires by contract, she is transferable, because possession of her requires title; in fact, woman is, so to speak, only man’s appendage; consequently, slice, cut, clip her, you have all rights to her.”
    —Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)