In honor of Juneteenth, post your favorite civil rights songs here

[Clash City Rocker]

This is my all time favorite. The great Solomon Burke, backed by the Blind Boys of Alabama.

A little church for you here. I’ve sung this song in church, but that version didn’t do the song justice. This version does.

This a sort of angry response to the Beatles, which made me rethink the original song.

[livetohike]

1. Here are a few.

[2naSalit]

2. ...

[Shanti Mama]

3. We Shall Overcome

So simple, so powerful. Another verse could be added "we shall persevere"

[link:

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[sinkingfeeling]

8. That's the one.

[Desert_Leslie]

4. Yes -- We Shall Overcome

This song always brings me to tears.

[intheflow]

5. So many great ones to choose from!

Ella's Song

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round

Oh, Freedom!

And of course, Lift Every Voice and Sing (aka, The Black National Anthem)

[Clash City Rocker]

6. I love Sweet Honey in the Rock

I first came across them on a tribute album to Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. They were the least famous performers on the album, but they held their own very well, so I bought a couple of their other albums, and later saw them perform. They’re very good.

[Mad Lib]

7. Phil Ochs

[marble falls]

9. We did an afternoon of Phil Ochs yesterday. Great songs and under appreciated folk guitarist.

[marble falls]

10. Ain't going to work on Maggie's Farm no more ...

[Tikki]

11. This:

Tikki

[pazzyanne]

12. This is the song that prompted me to get into the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

[Duppers]

17. This ⬆⬆

[TNNurse]

13. Great choices

but when I heard a whole church full of people singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" at a rally a few years ago, I was stunned. Yes, we white people had to look at the words but the others sang it from memory.

Go to YouTube, listen to a choir sing it. I think the Abyssinian Baptist Church is my favorite.

[ornotna]

15. Nice solo capella version in the video & multimedia forum

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017588525

[ornotna]

14. Here's a couple

Mississippi God Damn

Build a Bridge

[Duppers]

16. This: "Mississippi God Damn"

Raw, truthful. Expresses my anger.

[The Polack MSgt]

18. The best version of the best song? Well might be this one

Skip to 0:46 if you want to get to the song right away

[ornotna]

19. What a voice

She left us way too soon.

[The Polack MSgt]

20. She was just amazing

My brother and I saw her on a random night in Philly.

Had a chance to hang with my brother when a layover turned into a cancelation - AND- Since he had to come into the city to get my ass from PHL anyway - why not hit a club?

We went to the Sharon Jones and Dap Kings show - basically on a whim.

And we saw one of the best shows ever.

So yeah. This is a good sample of her work

[BlancheSplanchnik]

28. Love her. I'm sad I didn't discover her until pretty recently.

[The Polack MSgt]

29. You have s great catalog to discover, I feel lucky - I became a fan

Completely "on accident" as we said in coal country.

My brother described her as Neo-soul. But I don't understand the need for "NEO" in the description

This is soul music

[BlancheSplanchnik]

30. ❤️

[AmBlue]

21. Dear Mr. Man

From Prince, in2004:

What's wrong with the world today?
Things just got to get better
Sho' ain't what the leaders say
Maybe we should write a letter

Dear Mr. Man
We don't understand
Why poor people keep struggling
But you don't lend a helping hand

Matthew 5:5 say,
The meek shall inherit the earth
We wanna be down that way
But you been tripping since the day of you're birth

Who said that to kill is a sin
Then started every single war
That you're people been in?
Who said that water
Is a precious commodity
Then dropped a big old black oil slick
In the deep blue sea?

Who told me, Mr. Man
That working round the clock
Would buy me a big house in the 'hood
With cigarette ads on every block

Who told me Mr. Man
That I got a right to moan?
How 'bout this big ol' hole in the ozone?

What's wrong with the world today
Things just got to get better
Dear Mr. Man, we don't understand
Maybe we should write a letter

Listen, ain't no sense in voting
Same song with a different name
Might not be in the back of the bus
But it sho' feel just the same
Ain't nothin' fair about welfare
Ain't no assistance in AIDS
Ain't nothing affirmative about you're actions
Till the people get paid

You're thousand years are up
Now you got to share the land
Section one, the fourteenth Amendment says:
No state shall deprive any person
Of life, liberty, or property
Without due process of law

Mr. Man,
We want to end this letter with 3 words
"We tired you all!"

Songwriter: Prince Rogers Nelson

[Larissa]

22. Michael, Row the Boat Ashore (Pete Seegar)

Seegar, a man who never met a stranger, sings this song straight from his heart. It always brings the tears.

"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" -- also called "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore", "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore", or "Michael Row That Gospel Boat"-- is an African-American spiritual first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. It was sung by former slaves whose owners had abandoned the island before the Union navy arrived to enforce a blockade. Charles Pickard Ware was an abolitionist and Harvard graduate who had come to supervise the plantations on St. Helena Island from 1862 to 1865, and he wrote down the song in music notation as he heard the freedmen sing it. Ware's cousin William Francis Allen reported in 1863 that the former slaves sang the song as they rowed him in a boat across Station Creek.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Row_the_Boat_Ashore

[appalachiablue]

26. I never knew the background of the song,

thanks for posting with the info.

The Sea Islands project by Union forces and their allies, and local black people during the Civil War, 'Prelude to Reconstruction' was a valiant effort and important step toward hope for the future.

[burrowowl]

23. Sing,sing, sing!

[Tanuki]

24. We shall not be moved

[appalachiablue]

25. Stand By Me: Ben E. King, 1961

[NNadir]

27. Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit.

Traditionally, no one other then Billie was allowed to sing it.

I sang it once, as a referent to the original, when I was playing in a club. I felt sort of guilty about it, but I was worried that the song had been forgotten.