The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had an audio snippet of Fannie Lou Hamer singing a spiritual from their 1960s protests. The SNCC was founded by a group of African American College students that were refused service in Greensboro, North Carolina. They were the leaders of lunch counter sit-ins. They reminded me of the exhibition in the Civil Rights Museum here in Memphis, Tennessee where it shows clips of people preparing for the sit-ins. White allies would spew derogatory remarks to black activist to prepare for the real demonstrations. This connect brings out the national crisis of segregation against people of color and the White allies.
Spirituals can be very similar within the melody and typical flow of the song. Spirituals work within activism because they are trying to connect people. Hamer sings “I want Jesus to walk with me” and calls to a collective ‘me’. The SNCC does not give the context of the audio clip, but you can hear other voices within moments of the audio clip. The lyrics focus around Jesus Christ supporting and ‘walking’ for a cause. The spiritual calls for Jesus Christ to ‘walk’ with the singer and audience. Spirituals serve many functions to connect communities with religion in a common direction. “Be my friend” calls Christ to be on the side of revolution. When working against the normalcy of the status quo, it can be so isolating. The term friend works well here. These voice lead me to believe that the audio is from a rally or demonstration of nonviolent protest. “Make way for me” fits well with the intentions of nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. Faith can be motivation to people to work towards a goal, and Hamer relies on it to get her message. Spirituals change within different spaces and different usage. Hamer relies on her identity and mission to transform the spiritual to focus on the resistance of the Civil Rights Movement.
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