Mary and We Shall Overcome

Our musical offering today comes again from our tenor section leader, Darrius Pugh. He sings the great spiritual “We Shall Overcome”, which can be found in our Episcopal hymnal Lift Every Voice and Sing II: An African American Hymnal at #227. Here are the verses:

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

2. We’ll walk hand in hand, today.

3. God is on our side, today.

4. We are not afraid, today.

5. We shall live in peace, someday.

Many of us remember this powerful song from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, when it first came to national attention, spread by Civil Rights marchers, quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson, and sung by Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and countless others. It spread across the globe and has been heard in many nations dealing with injustice: at Tiananmen Square, in South Africa’s Soweto Township and in Northern Ireland, to name just a few. Its text still resonates today as we continue to battle inequalities in our nation.

This spiritual probably began life in the fields of the South, sung by African American slaves: “I’ll be all right someday”, becoming known later in churches. The first example of this gospel song in print comes from a collection of 50 gospel hymns published by the Reverend Charles Albert Tindley, a noted minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1900. It was originally known as “I’ll overcome some day”. Here is the first verse from that hymn:

The world is one great battlefield,
With forces all arrayed;
If in my heart I do not yield,
I’ll overcome some day.

The power of this great spiritual continues to resonate today as we face the challenges of life amidst isolation and need brought on by the current pandemic. May we continue to believe deep in our hearts that we shall overcome, that God is on our side, that we will walk hand in hand again, that we will live without fear and live in peace someday SOON.