7. We Shall Overcome

1	In the late fifties, King fought for rights,
	leading bus boycotts and marches. Arrested in the fight,
	his nonviolent war, he happily went to jail.
	He made speeches urging changes without fail.

2	King moved back to his father's church.
	Working together they could do more for the rights they searched
	for, and, all the while, the movement grew
	-- across the nation, it triumphantly flew.

3	First in North Carolina, students would sit down
	at lunch counters until blacks were served; then around
	all the South, the sit-ins began near and far
	-- they'd sit until served or were put behind bars.

4	And if they were arrested, others would come
	and sit in their place to add to the sum
	of students arrested, until the jails were packed;
	and if they were released, they'd simply go back!

5	The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
	now joined the ranks with King's SCLC,
	or Southern Christian Leadership Conference
	-- SNCC led the sit-ins and professed nonviolence.

6	Soon after the sit-ins led by SNCC began,
	another organization inspired the land
	called the Congress of Racial Equality;
	CORE joined the fight to help make men free.

7	Black and white students would ride through
	the South breaking the laws that said they had to
	have black riders in the back of the bus
	-- by itself, that would have caused minimal fuss.

8	But at bus stations, they used lunch counters
	and waiting rooms and rest rooms designated for
	"white only," and many were arrested each place
	-- shaking the laws that segregated by race.

9	Riding for freedom -- these freedom rides went
	from town to town in the South in nonviolent
	protest against the segregation laws there
	in the quest that Americans all breath freedom's air.

10	And there were those buses met on the way
	by night-riders and Klansmen, who would lay
	hands on the buses, setting them on fire
	and run away in the night, as the flames grew higher.

11	And they would 'punish' the riders aboard
	or 'teach' them a lesson by beating them; absorbed,
	in the frenzy, they could not see that actually
	their attacks were helping the cause, in reality.

12	For all of the nation was watching the frey.
	And every night television would beam it their way.
	King himself joined in on sit-ins and the rides,
	and went to jail with them as a matter of pride.

13	In 1963, King took on his hardest task.
	What city was toughest on black people, he asked?
	King felt it was Birmingham -- almost everything
	in that city was segregated -- here, they would sing.

8. The Battle of Birmingham

1	Eugene 'Bull' Connor, the chief of police there
	in Birmingham, boasted that blacks would not dare
	challenge  the laws anywhere within his domain
	-- he knew how to keep 'them' in 'their' place, he would claim.

2	And King led Birmingham's black community
	in marches and sit-ins and kneel-ins. He
	organized a boycott of the downtown stores
	with segregated lunch counters and washroom. More

3	and more protests were held, and each day,
	they would grow larger. The jails would stay
	filled until no more could fit, and then, he
	himself was arrested and thrown into solitary.

4	King's wife, Coretta, was in Atlanta at home.
	She had not heard from her husband in two days. She phoned
	Washington, and spoke to the Attorney General
	who promised to help and make sure he was well.

5	Coretta's telephone rang later that day
	-- it was the President calling from Florida to say
	that he would look into the situation with haste
	to see if he could help -- there was no time to waste.

6	Both President Kennedy and his brother, Robert, who
	was the Attorney General, had promised to do
	all that they could at the request of his wife
	-- like her, they, too, greatly feared for his life.

7	Both men made calls to Birmingham,
	and soon King was allowed to call them, and
	was allowed a visit from his lawyer who had failed
	in efforts to reach him -- soon, he was out of jail.

8	But now, Bull Connor decided to get tough.
	Police began to use tactics that were very rough.
	They used clubs on marchers and police dogs, as well
	as fire hoses -- knocked to the ground, marchers fell.

9	Across the nation, people saw this brutality
	and were shocked, and joined in to call for liberty.
	In Birmingham, many whites joined in the boycotts, too.
	Before long, they had won the demands they sought to.

10	Some white racists would not give up easily
	and bombed the hotel where King was supposed to be.
	They also bombed his brother's home; neither one
	of the Kings was injured by this violence done.

11	The Battle of Birmingham had a great effect
 	as across all the nation, people stood up erect
	in hundreds of cities, demanding 'Freedom Now'
	-- they were tired of waiting and no longer would bow.

12	They wanted segregation given an immediate end.
	They wanted good jobs and to vote like other men.
	And so they marched in the streets and held
	sit-ins and  picketed -- and they were jailed. 

13	Trained police dogs had torn the clothing and flesh
	from protesters in Birmingham while all the rest
	of the nation looked on as the clubs and hoses tore
	at the nonviolent warriors, and was shaken to the core.


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