The modern version of the song was first said to have been sung by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during a 1945 strike in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1947, the song was published under the title "We Will Overcome '' in an edition of the People 's Songs Bulletin (a publication of People 's Songs, an organization of which Pete Seeger was the director), as a contribution of and with an introduction by Zilphia Horton, then - music director of the Highlander Folk School of Monteagle, Tennessee (an adult education school that trained union organizers). Horton said she had learned the song from Simmons, and she considered it to be her favorite song. She taught it to many others, including Pete Seeger, who included it in his repertoire, as did many other activist singers, such as Frank Hamilton and Joe Glazer, who recorded it in 1950.
when was we shall overcome by joan baez written
1945