Claim the Sky: We Shall Overcome

Description

The US Library of Congress named We Shall Overcome “The most powerful song of the twentieth century,” and in a 2014 Atlantic Magazine article titled “The Big Question,” music-industry mogul Clive Davis named the global protest anthem We Shall Overcome; “THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SONG OF ALL TIME.” The world, however, knows virtually nothing of the song’s true, hidden history. In 2016, the We Shall Overcome Foundation, led by music producer and documentary filmmaker Isaias Gamboa, filed a landmark class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit produced documents and other evidence unearthed by Gamboa proving that Pete Seeger and others and his powerful music publishing company committed fraud on the copyright office when they filed 1960 and 1963 copyrights for We Shall Overcome. After a nearly three-year legal battle, in 2018, WSOF won its case and liberated We Shall Overcome from 60 years of unlawful control and exploitation, dedicating it forever to the public domain. This four-part documentary follows writer/director Isaias Gamboa on an unexpected ten-year journey that leads him to the remarkable discovery of African American hymn writer Louise Shropshire (a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), folk-music icon Pete Seeger, the FBI, and an historic, landmark lawsuit that makes the front page of the New York Times and exposes Pete Seeger and his powerful associates for concealing the true history We Shall Overcome for more than 60 years.