We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song on the Devil's Tongue: The Story of the most Influential song of the 20th Century, how it became "We Shall Overcome" an - Paperback

by Joanne Henry (Editor), Audrey Owen (Editor), Isaias Gamboa (Author)

Everything you think you know about the history of We Shall Overcome is probably wrong.
We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song on the Devil's Tongue uncovers the largely untold origins of the world's most influential freedom anthem and traces the author's decade-long search for its forgotten source.

At the center of this investigation is Louise Shropshire-a sharecropper's daughter who once described herself as a "nobody," yet through faith, perseverance, and devotion to her community, became a respected gospel composer and a trusted figure within the African American Civil Rights Movement. Closely connected to leaders such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey, Shropshire composed and copyrighted a popular gospel hymn, If My Jesus Wills, widely known in Black churches as I'll Overcome. This book presents compelling evidence that her hymn served as a crucial, long-overlooked antecedent to We Shall Overcome.

Featuring more than 100 rare and extraordinary photographs, the book documents not only the song's transformation but also the broader historical conditions that enabled its misattribution. It explores longstanding patterns of exploitation, appropriation, and erasure of Black cultural and intellectual labor in American history-forces that allowed the song's origins to be obscured for decades.

Although the Library of Congress has recognized We Shall Overcome as "the most powerful song of the twentieth century," Louise Shropshire died poor and largely unrecognized for her contribution. We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song on the Devil's Tongue seeks to restore her place in history and to challenge readers to reconsider how cultural memory is formed, preserved, and corrected.

Author Biography

Isaias Gamboa was born in San José, Costa Rica to parents of Spanish and African ancestry. In the early 1960's, his family immigrated to the US and made their home in the South-Central area of Los Angeles, California. Although born of Jewish ancestry, he was raised in both Baptist and Catholic churches - being the respective religious traditions of his parents. A faithful and passionate student of the Holy Bible, Isaias, now an ordained Christian minister, self-identifies as a follower or the teachings of Jesus Christ. Among other accomplishments, Isaias has been blessed with a fulfilling career as an acclaimed and Grammy(R) decorated music-producer, songwriter, recording engineer and arranger. He has written over 200 songs and has earned multiple RIAA platinum and gold sales awards. His production and arrangement credits include artists as diverse as The Temptations, Janet Jackson, Tupac, Gladys Knight, Bamboleo and many more. Isaias is a long standing member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and a voting-member of the Grammy affiliated National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS). As a real estate broker, Isaias owns a modest real estate restoration, brokerage and property-management firm. In 2010, Isaias founded the non-profit We Shall Overcome Foundation and remains active in humanitarian work throughout the US and Latin America. He is also the founder and director of The Brother and Sisterhood of Minority Tradesmen. For more information please visit: www.weshallovercomefoundation.org