[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "We Shall Overcome"

[Jeanie Blake]

Thank you for this.

On Fri, Dec 5, 2025 at 6:46 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> I see that, according to Wikipedia, "The song made its first recorded
> appearance as "We Shall Overcome" (rather than "We Will Overcome") in 1952
> on a disc recorded by Laura Duncan<
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Duncan_(American_singer)> (soloist)
> and The Jewish Young Singers (chorus), conducted by Robert De Cormier<
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_De_Cormier>, co-produced by Ernie
> Lieberman and Irwin Silber<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irwin_Silber> on
> Hootenany Records (Hoot 104-A) (Folkways, FN 2513, BCD15720), where it is
> identified as a Negro Spiritual."
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ________________________________
> From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> Sent: Friday, December 5, 2025 6:18 PM
> To: American Dialect Society <ads-l at listserv.uga.edu>
> Subject: Antedating of "We Shall Overcome"
>
> The OED has an entry for "we shall overcome."  The generally accepted
> history of this civil rights anthem is that it traces to Charles A.
> Tindley's early-twentieth-century gospel song "I'll Overcome Some Day,"
> followed by Lucille Simmons's 1940s labor version "We Will Overcome," then
> by Pete Seeger's small but crucial rewording to "We Shall Overcome."  The
> OED's entry can be slightly improved upon in two ways.  Their dating of
> Tindley's hymn is inaccurate, and the Seeger version was at least a year
> older than OED's first citation.
>
> we shall overcome (OED, s.v. overcome, v., 1.d., 1948; 1961 with Seeger
> spelling; 1901 in square brackets)
>
> [1900 Charles Albert Tindley in C. Austin Mills & Maurice A. Clifton New
> Songs of the Gospel No. 27 (Internet Archive)  I'll overcome some day (some
> day), I'll overcome some day, If in my heart I do not yield, I'll overcome
> some day.]
>
> 1960 Commercial Appeal (Memphis) 12 Apr. 26/2 (Newspapers.com)  The
> Negroes — plus a half-dozen whites — sang a hymn, "We Shall Overcome."
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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