The Civil Rights Singer Who Used Her Voice To Fight Back
Black History Year
PushBlack
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2023
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nobody could stop them in their tracks like Rutha Mae Harris. She stood on the frontlines with nothing separating her from them but the gun barrel she stared down. Then, Harris opened her mouth and began to sing.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Nobody could stop them in their tracks like Ruth of May Harris. |
| 0:07.2 | She stood on the front lines with nothing separating her from them, but the gun barrel she |
| 0:12.0 | stared down. |
| 0:13.8 | Then Harris opened her mouth and began to sing. |
| 0:18.4 | This is two-minute black history, what you didn't learn in school. |
| 0:32.1 | Nothing separated Ruth of May Harris and the police but a gun pointing in her face. |
| 0:37.4 | She stayed two toes down ready to fight oppression in the way she knew best. |
| 0:43.6 | Harris belted out, we shall not, before her group, the freedom singers joined her in using |
| 0:51.0 | the song to tell the stories of our people. |
| 0:55.1 | Their powerful voices covered the crowd, inspiring hopes of liberation and halting anti-black |
| 1:01.6 | terror even for a second. |
| 1:05.2 | It's always been deeper than just music to us. |
| 1:08.4 | The civil rights movement wouldn't have been what it was without the soundtracks that |
| 1:12.9 | inspired change and the will to fight for another day, attend another march and risk it |
| 1:18.9 | all for freedom. |
| 1:32.2 | The freedom singers were considered the voices of the movement and with that came arrests |
| 1:38.4 | and the terror of policing. |
| 1:41.1 | But Harris knew their creativity was crucial once saying without those songs I don't believe |
| 1:48.6 | that would have been a movement, it took away a lot of fear. |
| 1:53.6 | Ruth of May Harris's voice carried her to Washington DC for the 1963 march on Washington |
| 2:00.4 | where she sang her heart out for the people. |
| 2:03.6 | Her story reminds us that we all have a role to play. |
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