Sam Cooke (1931-1964)The Soul Stirrers (1951-1956)

“Just Another Day” by The Soul Stirrers (early 1950s)

“Lovable” by “Dale Cook” (1956)

“You Send Me” by Sam Cooke (1957)

“A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke (1964)

Bob Dylan (b. Robert Zimmerman in 1941, Duluth, Minnesota)

“Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963)

“A Change is Gonna Come” S. Cooke

I was born by the river in a little tentOh, and just like the river I've been running ever since

It's been a long, a long time comingBut I know a change gon' come, oh yes it will

It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die'Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky

It's been a long, a long time comingBut I know a change gon' come, oh yes it willI go to the movie and I go down townSomebody keep telling me don't hang around

It's been a long, a long time comingBut I know a change gon' come, oh yes it will

Then I go to my brotherAnd I say, "Brother, help me please."But he winds up knockin' meBack down on my knees

There been times that I thought I couldn't last for longBut now I think I'm able to carry on

It's been a long, a long time comingBut I know a change gon' come, oh yes it will

Freedom Songs

Civil Rights = Legal rights

Freedom = human rights, liberty

Freedom Songs

Bernice Johnson Reagon (b. 1942, Albany, GA)

SNCC Freedom Singers

Student Non-Violent Coordinating CommitteeSNCC Freedom Singers (founded 1961)

Cordell Reagon, Bernice Johnson, Charles Neblett, Dorothy Vails, Charlie Jones, and Rutha Mae Harris.SNCC Field Secretaries

Civil Rights Activists used songs to• To sustain, encourage, fire up, and soothe;• To draw attention to their issues;• To recruit new people to the Movement;• To bind together and unify strangers with a

common interest;• To help to raise funds;• To claim space