Songs of Selma by Genice Phillips l Selma March l Civil Rights Movement l Music of the Civil Rights Movement l Selma Film l Selma Film Soundtrack

Glory

From the Selma film, “Glory,” is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Written by Grammy-winning artists, R&B singer John Legend and hip-hop veteran Common, "Glory" connects the struggles of the past during Selma to our present day.

"It's a beautiful song like the way when you heard Bob Dylan or Stevie Wonder singing songs or John Lennon doing 'Imagine,'” explained Common. “I wanted people to really hear what was being said. We don't have a drumbeat to it. It's just vocal, piano and an orchestra arrangement. We wanted it to have an intimacy, but for it to be majestic, because it's for Dr. King."

A song of contemplation, triumph and optimism, the lyrics resound with the songs that came before, containing the same fervor and determination to change America for the better.

“Common and I wrote this song for Selma as a labor of love in honor of this magnificent film and the incredible men and women whose struggle the film chronicles,” John Legend said in a written statement. “As we continue to march for justice and equality in 2014, we are so inspired by their work." Listen to the song here.

We Shall Overcome

It reigns as the most popular anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. “We Shall Overcome” is a testimony of strength and healing, intrinsic to the cultural and musical history of black life. Passed on from the time of slavery to the picket lines in South Carolina in 1945, the song took hold of hearts demanding freedom and equality.

“We Shall Overcome” was sung by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the many people that stood beside him during the Selma march, as they were beaten, tear-gassed, and insulted by state troopers. Despite the continuum of violence, they continued to march peacefully.

From the many sit-ins and boycotts across America, to the roads of South Africa and Ireland, “We Shall Overcome” is the world’s battle cry for the importance and value of human rights.

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall stood as a symbol of the Cold War tensions between East and West Berlin in Germany. A barricade of concrete and barbed wire, it would take almost 30 years for the wall to topple.

Another symbolic “Berlin Wall” was up, in Selma, Alabama. Following the violence at Edmund Pettus Bridge, Public Safety Director Wilson Baker roped off an intersection in the city to keep demonstrators from marching, until a state judge decided on the injunction against the marchers. From the event, the protestors responded with music. “Berlin Wall” was sung by demonstrators to express their solidarity and conviction in what they wanted to achieve: the right to vote. Sung to the melody of the revered spiritual, “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho,” the words rang out:

We've got a rope that's a Berlin Wall, Berlin Wall, Berlin Wall, We've got a rope that's a Berlin Wall, in Selma, Alabama. We're gonna stand here till it falls, till it falls, till it falls, We're gonna stand here till it falls, in Selma, Alabama.

The rope was removed, but other barricades were put in their way (highway patrolmen used their cars to block off the intersection). The judge would later lift the injunction and allow the people of Selma to continue their march to Montgomery.