"We Shall Overcome"

[Phx_Dem]

I just saw this video on You Tube and it really hit home. Just as all of those people in the churchs, synogogues and rallies can look back at this video and recall that they were part of America's move to "overcome." We, will be able to look back at Obama's inauguration and recall that we were part of American history that did overcome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15EWSi0NZ64&feature=related

And we'll do the same for gay civil rights.
:patriot:

[Cha]

1. Absolutely! Thanks.. I just heard

Sam Cooke sing "A Change is Gonna Come".

http://www.last.fm/music/Sam+Cooke/_/A+Change+Is+Gonna+Come

Sorry, I got a different singer..I'll try and find Sam.

[Phx_Dem]

2. That's a beautiful song. I love it.

[Cha]

3. I bought the CD and played it at

work today but I didn't know Sam Cooke wrote it.. I'm all Verklempt right now just reading a little of the back story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I--3tFzyLI

<snip>

"The song, very much a departure for Cooke, reflected two major incidents in his life. The first was the death of Cooke's eighteen-month-old son, Vincent, who died of an accidental drowning in June of that year. The second major incident came on October 8, 1963, when Cooke and his band tried to register at a "whites only" motel in Shreveport, Louisiana and were summarily arrested for disturbing the peace. Both incidents are represented in the weary tone and lyrics of the piece, especially the final verse: "there have been times that I thought I couldn't last for long/but now I think I'm able to carry on/It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Change_Is_Gonna_Come

[JuniperLea]

4. I thought Pete Seeger adapted it...

with Zilphia Horton, Guy Carawan, Frank Hamilton...

snip...
"We Shall Overcome" became particularly popular in the 1960s, during the Civil Rights movement in America, after Pete Seeger picked it up, adapted it, and taught it to his audiences to sing. However, the song had a half century (or so) to evovle and expand its meaning before Seeger and Joan Baez popularized it during the folk revival.
The melody dates back to before the Civil War, from a song called "No More Auction Block For Me." Originally, the lyrics were "I'll overcome someday," which dates back to a turn-of-the-20th-century song by the Reverend Charles Tindley of Philadelphia.

The song didn't appear on a large scale until 1946, during a labor strike at the American Tobacco Company. One of the women striking that day – Lucille Simmons – began singing slowly, "Deep in my heart I do believe we'll overcome some day."

Zilphia Horton, whose husband was the co-founder of the Highlander Folk School (aka Highlander Research and Education Center), learned the song from Simmons and, a year later, taught it to folk singer Pete Seeger.


http://folkmusic.about.com/od/folksongs/qt/WeShallOvercome.htm

[Cha]

5. But, this is "A Change Is Gonna Come"

:)..that had me goin' for second there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I--3tFzyLI

Sam Cooke sang "You Send Me" and helped me through Jr High:D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqzv1ZS6uZs

Edit to put Sam in there singing his own song.

[Phx_Dem]

6. Wow. Aren't you full of information! Thanks!

I love knowing the background.

:toast:

[Clio the Leo]

7. I listened to that song.....

.... at least five times a week ... every day on the way to work as part of my "Obama" ipod playlist. Love me some Sam. For those of you not familiar with his work ... GET familiar with it.

I dont know what you call what Sam had .... and I dont know what you call what Sidney Poitier has .... and I dont know what you call what Barack has .... but I know one thing .... they ALL have it.

[Clio the Leo]

8. While I dont think we're QUITE there...

... as there is still too much social and economic ethnic disparity in this country ..... we're still a LOT closer than we ever have been. And when I hear people like my father who risked his life just so folks could vote back in the 1960s (as a member of SNCC) wax poetic about the first African American President (and my father is quite the cynic) .... well, ...... well .... I cant even put it into words.

And I know I will NEVER be able to lay my eyes on this beautiful woman.....


Without thinking about her contemporaries, these four little girls...


"May men learn to replace violence and bitterness with love and understanding."

THAT is when we will have overcome.

[Phx_Dem]

9. You're absolutely right.

We still have a ways to go, but we've overcome a great deal. We have a black man as President and that's huge, and more than many people dreamed they'd see in their lifetime.

God bless your dad. I'm happy he's here to see this incredible moment in history. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for him.

[Clio the Leo]

10. And the beauty of it is.....

... not ONCE did Barack ever say, "hey, it's me! the black dude running for President!" .... not that that would be WRONG, but you know what I mean.

Someone brings it up and he blushes and talks about how wonderful the American people are.

Now here's a theory I have ...... we all know how he likes to rock the whole "we're all greater than the sum of our parts" thing .... yes, we're black Americans and white Americans, but, in the end, we're all Americans.

Even the most well-adjusted mixed person I have ever known was always battling demons ... trying to figure out who they were really and where they fit into society.

It's almost like he needs for his WONDERFUL foundational principle to be true to justify his very existence. If he can prove that we really ARE ultimately, Americans, and not a bunch of disconnected parts, then he no longer needs choose sides. He can be many in one and one in many.

The divides are blurred and fluid. It becomes hard to tell where one group ends and another begins. If my little cousin (who is the spitting image of Harold Ford Jr.) wants to go around telling everyone he's white .... well, we can roll our eyes and laugh, but ultimately, it's his choice. One label makes as much sense as another and only those of us who are jaded by history find it odd.

I used to hold to a theory that while color-blindness was a wonderful idea, it simply wasn't practical or possible. Racism is too deeply ingrained into our society. We were better off celebrating our differences and making the best of a bad situation.

I dont think that as much as I used to.

"Hope" has so many different meanings and possibilities doesn't it?

Anyway, that's just my mindless ramblings and half assed theories. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to express them. ;)

[Phx_Dem]

11. Here's to you Clio

:toast: