Fifty Years Ago Today

I was not in Washington fifty years ago today as Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous speech. My social conscience didn't really come alive until 1967-1968.

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Some two months earlier, on June 8, Pete Seeger stood in front of a packed Carnegie Hall and said:

“If you would like to get out of a pessimistic mood yourself, I got one sure remedy for you:
Go help those people down in Birmingham and Mississippi or Alabama.
All kinds of jobs that need to be done.
Takes hands and hearts and heads to do it.
Human beings to do it;
Then we'll see this song come true:

We shall overcome, we shall overcome,

We shall overcome someday;

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, 
We shall overcome someday.



We'll walk hand in hand, we'll walk hand in hand,

We'll walk hand in hand someday;

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,

We'll walk hand in hand someday.


We shall live in peace, we shall live in peace,

We shall live in peace someday;

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,

We shall live in peace someday.

The whole wide world around, the whole wide world around
The whole wide world around
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, 
We shall overcome someday.

We are not afraid, we are not afraid,

We are not afraid today;

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,

We are not afraid today


I encourage you to give a listen to Pete Seeger’s immortal version of this civil rights anthem. If a lump doesn’t rise in your throat, get thee to a doctor to find out what’s wrong with you.

(Note: this is the slightly edited version from the original vinyl album. The full version, two minutes longer, is available on disc or you can buy the single for $.99 from iTunes. You might also be able to hear it here, via my Dropbox folder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rda9ok857dat3ly/2-18%20We%20Shall%20Overcome.m4a)