Freedom Highway
One of the Civil Rights Movement's most powerful anthems sounds timeless, but was in fact composed to amplify events in near real-time.
Honoring Martin Luther King Jr, his legacy, and the vision and struggle of the Civil Rights Movement
“God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create, and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations. Jazz speaks for life. The blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.” — MLK, 1964
It is 54 miles from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, the state’s capital. On March 7, 1965, over 600 protestors, in defiance of segregationist repression, began marching those 54 miles along US Highway 80 as part of a voting rights movement to register Black voters in the South. They were met with deadly violence from Alabama state troopers and armed white vigilante groups in a horrific clash that became known as Bloody Sunday. The movement was undeterred and the setbacks only inspired the activists to redouble their efforts. On its third attempt, and now enjoying protection from the US Army and Alabama National Guard, the march reached the steps of the State Capitol Building on the morning of March 25. Led by Dr. King, the march had swollen over the course of three days to some 25,000 people. The months that followed would see the Selma march directly lead to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.
(more images from the frontlines of the Selma to Montgomery marches)
On April 9 of that year, one of the hottest groups in the thriving gospel scene unveiled a new song during service at the New Nazareth Church in Chicago, their hometown. Flanked by his three children, Cleotha, Pervis, and Mavis, Staples family patriarch Roebuck “Pop” Staples introduced the new song by addressing the Selma march, saying, "From that march, word was revealed and a song was composed…and we wrote a song about the freedom marchers and we call it the ‘Freedom Highway’, and we dedicate this number to all the freedom marchers."
The lyrics of the Staple Singers’ “Freedom Highway” reflect not only the actions of the activists three weeks prior. They directly reference the suffering endured that inspired the march, even calling out the Tallahatchie River, where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955.
Freedom Highway
by Roebuck “Pop” Staples
March the freedom highway
March each and every day
March the freedom highway
March each and every day
Made up my mind, and I won't turn around
Made up my mind, and I won't turn around
There is just one thing
I can't understand, my friend
Why some folks think freedom
Is not designed for all men
There are so many people
Living their lives perplexed
Wondering in their minds
What's gonna happen next
[That's why we're gonna]
March on freedom highway
March each and every day
March on freedom highway
March each and every day
Made up my mind, and I won't turn around
Made up my mind, and I won't turn around
Found dead people in the forest
Tallahatchie river and lakes
The whole wide world is wonderin'
What's wrong with the United States
Yes we want peace
If it can be found
Marching the freedom highway
We're not gonna turn around
I think I voted for right man
Who said we'd overcome
Stay on freedom highway
Until the day is done
Marching the freedom highway
March each and every day
Marching the freedom highway
March each and every day
Made up my mind, and I won't turn around
Made up my mind, and I won't turn around
Keep on marching on freedom's highway
Listen to the complete recording of the Freedom Highway LP
Listen to a podcast tracing the musical journey of Martin Luther King Jr
In 1965 I was a high-school kid in a small bible-belt town in SW Missouri. It wasn't 'officially' segregated, but there was a grand total of one black kid in my school, the child of farmers in a distant rural area. The majority black high-school was downtown. It was the oldest, crappiest high school in town. Segregated by geography and poverty, if not by 'decree.' I watched the network news every day, and knew (vaguely) about the march on Selma, but Alabama may as well have been Mars to me. I wasn't smart enough to realize the horrible injustice Black people lived with, and still live with, every single day. Then as now, racial bigotry, discrimination, hatred, and white supremacy are still very strong in the US South. The Confederate flag still, even in the 21st century, decorates simple, hateful peoples' lives. We have not yet "overcome."