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:
“Children’s liberation is the next item on our civil rights shopping list.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (b. 1939)
“[Rutherford B. Hayes] was a patriotic citizen, a lover of the flag and of our free institutions, an industrious and conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a loyal comrade and friend, a sympathetic and helpful neighbor, and the honored head of a happy Christian home. He has steadily grown in the public esteem, and the impartial historian will not fail to recognize the conscientiousness, the manliness, and the courage that so strongly characterized his whole public career.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“Love your enemies. I saw this admonition now as simple, sensible advice. I knew I could face an angry, murderous mob without even the beginning of fear if I could love them. Like a flame, love consumes fear, and thus make true defeat impossible.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)