Movement Soul

In the early 1960's, something new happened: a genuine mass movement began in the Deep South. The "revolutionaries" were cotton-pickers, sharecroppers, domestic workers, farmers and housewives. Alongside them stood a handful of civil rights workers, mostly from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), whose reputation for courage and commitment would soon become legendary.

"Beware a revolution that comes singing," someone once said. And these people sang. They also preached, they chanted, they talked. And it was all about one thing: freedom for black people, too long bound in slavery.

MOVEMENT SOUL is a collection of live recordings from the freedom movement at a peak time: 1963 and 1964. Inspired moments have been chosen from mass meeting,s sermons, rallies, demonstrations and individual interviews. Traditionally sung prayers and passionate sayings are intermingled with songs like "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "This Little Light of Mine" and "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round."

Many of the recordings took place at times of heightened emotion, when the community was filled with fear, exhilaration, or defiance. Here's for example, are the program notes on two high points:

"19. Selma Alabama. October 1963. It is nighttime at a mass meeting inside a large church. About 300 people are led in song by a young high school girl named Betty Fikes. The words mean a great deal to Selma residents. JIM CLARK is Sheriff Jim Clark, whose posse stands outside the church just at this moment. The week before, as people were leaving a similar meeting, the posse swinging their clubs chased people off the streets and into their houses. There have been so many demonstrations and so many arrests..."

"36. Americus, Georgia. August 1963. It is afternoon at a mass meeting in a small church. Outside, the Georgia State Highway Patrol is waiting. In the past month, nonviolent demonstrations against white-only policies have filled the jails. Demonstrators bear many bruises. Now, inside the church, a new group of ten young people are about to walk to the courthouse and sit down on the front lawn. The whole church is kneeling. A woman leads them in prayer."

MOVEMENT SOUL is about a total community: its shared dreams and common demands. It is about the power of people.

Recorded and edited by Alan Ribback and David Baker.