AL: African-American culture contains a treasure trove of wonderful music. Yet there is this entire category of song that seems to have disappeared from history. I’m thinking about the song
In Atlanta, Georgia with the line, “I’m gonna get me a pistol and hide behind a tree / shoot everybody been messin’ with me.” This is a lyric with a far different sentiment than “We Shall Overcome,” but I don’t know that many people have ever heard it. What kind of songs did Gellert uniquely bring forward?
SG: Yes, your question called to my mind the book
We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement by Akinyele Omowale Umoja. And I certainly take your point. The strident -- I’ll use the term “radical” -- nature of the some of the lyrics in the Gellert field archive is precisely what raised eyebrows, approvingly and disapprovingly. It seemed new and different. That is, the songs appeared so distinct from a “We Shall Overcome” sentiment. In the Gellert collection, there are songs of open defiance, of disdain, and as well songs including lines threatening retribution against white oppression and exploitation.