We Shall Overcome: A Song That Changed the World

This book on the subject of the storied anthem “We Shall Overcome” traces its African and Christian influences through its evolution as a '60s-era protest song. Photographs and bold clip art–style illustrations capture the turmoil of the civil rights movement, with particular focus on the music that helped inspire and unite its proponents: Martin Luther King Jr., the Freedom Singers, and Joan Baez, among others. Bringing the song's significance to a poignant full circle, a 2007 photograph features then Senator Obama joining others in Alabama, to commemorate the Selma to Montgomery march. A thoughtful examination of a song that, as Stotts writes, “seems to tap into our deepest emotions.” Ages 8–12. (Jan.)