"There's a little song that we sing in our movement down in the South. I don't know if you've heard it. You know, I've joined hands so often with students and others behind jail bars singing it: 'We shall overcome.' Sometimes we've had tears in our eyes when we joined together to sing it, but we still decided to sing it: 'We shall overcome.' Oh, before this victory's won, some will have to get thrown in jail some more, but we shall overcome.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

100% of profits will be donated to the equal justice initiative.

“We Shall Overcome” is a staple for civil rights protests and any kind of social-justice movement. The Library of Congress calls it “the most powerful song of the 20th century.”

The song’s history dates back to 1792, but its power and promise truly took shape in the 1960s when Guy Carawan taught the song to a large group of African American college students who came to the school to learn protest music at the “Singing in the Movement” conference in 1960.

These students would go on to stage protests in Greensboro, North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, and many other cities across the South. They called themselves SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and established themselves as young radicals who refused to wait for change. As these students endured harassment at the sit-ins, they gained strength through this new song they had learned.

On March 15, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson appeared before Congress and 70 million Americans watching on television, calling for legislation that would ensure every citizen the right to vote.

"It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life," Johnson declared in the speech. "Their cause must be our cause, too, because it's not just Negroes, but really, it's all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome."

articles cited above:

the atlantic

library of congress

NPR

Current events continue to highlight that our country’s painful past is still present today — hundreds of years later. This powerful statement ‘United We Shall Overcome’ resonated with some of us in the Nashville music industry because of its history in music, peaceful protest and a reminder that equal rights is still a dream for many. The handshake image used on the shirts was originally featured on pins during the 1960s Civil Rights movement. The Library Of Congress did not have documentation of the original artist.

Albeit selling a tee shirt is a small step, we feel it is critically important to keep moving forward toward positive change. We must not only listen and learn but take action.

believe [at] unitedweshalloverco.me