“We Shall Overcome.”
In German, of course.
What?
Richard Harrington in The Washington Post called this song a “Hymn to Hope,” an “extraordinary song that remains at the heart of an extraordinary movement…” Rooted in American slavery, developed in the labor struggles of the '40s and counterculture of the late '60s, it became the identifying anthem of the US civil rights movement. It was the song on Viola Liuzzo's lips when she was gunned down during the march from Selma to Montgomery. It was on the lips of the young son of slain Freedom Rider James Chaney at his father's funeral, where he sang bravely while tears streamed down his face… It resounded from the war-wounded in Beirut, students in Korea, farmworkers in the American Midwest, children in the (former) Soviet Union, peace activists in England, and the disenfranchised in Northern Ireland…[ii]
And now, behold, it launches the Christmas season in one of the world's most exalted artistic venues.
At first, I felt a bit of cognitive dissonance. Did Mary dream of a White Christmas when she made her birth announcement? Hardly. Hear what she said: "He brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty."
Perhaps this is the song the angels actually sang. I like to think that "We Shall Overcome" is what “Glory to God in the Highest” really means. It's not an obsequious groveling before an autocratic Deity, but true liberation from all that oppresses, from all that weighs us down.
“We Shall Overcome!” We are not alone. We are not afraid. We’ll walk hand-in-hand. We shall live in peace. We shall all be free.
Can you think of a better song to sing over this child's manger?
Or today too? As we face Covid, climate change, and corruption in high places, is there a better song to sing? “Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, that we shall overcome some day.”
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