The Freedom Singers

about

The Freedom Singers were founded in 1962 by Cordell Reagon, Bernice Johnson (Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon), Charles Neblett and Rutha Mae Harris. During the early 1960s the Freedom Singers, from Albany, performed throughout the country to raise funds for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and to inform audiences about the grassroots organizing campaigns expanding in communities across the South. Perhaps because it originated in the black church, where congregational singing had traditionally formed an essential part of worship, southern civil rights protest was commonly accompanied by the music of the black choral tradition. Whether sung in churches or in jails, such freedom songs as "Oh Freedom (Over Me)" and "This Little Light of Mine" helped to shape the movement and sustain it in moments of crisis. Most freedom songs were common hymns or spirituals familiar to the southern black community; the lyrics were often modified to reflect the political aims of the civil rights movement rather than the spiritual aims of a congregation. The songs not only reflected the views and values of the movement's participants but also, in the case of the Freedom Singers, helped to share them with a national audience. Nowhere was the transformative power of song more apparent than in Albany. News reports from the small southwest Georgia town highlighted the impressive range and depth of the region's singers, and even seasoned organizers expressed amazement at the force of Al

top songs

albums

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Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs

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We Shall Overcome

Studio One Early Reggae

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The Best of Broadside 1962-1988: Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine

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Trojan Records: 40 Years, 40 Tracks

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Oh Freedom - Gospels and Spirituals

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Broadside Ballads, Vol. 1

Voices Of the Civil Rights Movement

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Duke Reid Rocks Steady

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More Pressure Volume 1 - Straight to the Head

The Social Power of Music

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Boss Reggae Sounds/Reggae Popcorn (1969-1971)

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