They didn't know what to do with that joy.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: (Singing) I'm going to let it shine. UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: (Singing) It's all I feel. So I just broke out into 'This Little Light Of Mine.' And I do know that, you know, Pentecostals, we talk about changing the atmosphere.

OSAGYEFO UHURU SEKOU: Well, we had originally said we were going to stand silently, but the Nazis were marching past us cursing and yelling mostly homophobic slurs at us. You will not replace us.ĭEGGANS: Leading the singing was Reverend Sekou, a recording artist and activist. UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #1: You will not replace us. You can hear chants from 'alt-right' supporters yelling, you will not replace us. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Do you guys sing?ĭEGGANS: The group of clergy and volunteers who sang, including academic Cornel West, were captured in a YouTube video. Last year, Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou used 'This Little Light Of Mine' to curb passions during a counterprotest before a crowd of white supremacists and 'alt-right' supporters in Charlottesville, Va. And the song has the same impact in today's times, where demonstrators still leverage its power to push back against injustice. It's a unifying affirmation that's contagious. UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS #1: (Singing) I'm going to let it shine.ĭEGGANS: Harris's voice gives the crowd a taste of that feeling from the 1960s. It played a very important role during the movement. We'd start singing a song, and somehow those billy clubs would not hit you. 'This Little Light Of Mine' helped steady their nerves as abusive police officers with billy clubs threatened to beat them or worse. You can't just sing 'This Little Light Of Mine,' you've got to shout it.ĭEGGANS: Harris is facing a tour group at a small church next to the Albany Civil Rights Institute in Georgia, showing them how she and her fellow Freedom Singers belted out songs to get through protests in the early 1960s. RUTHA MAE HARRIS: (Singing) Oh, this little light.ĮRIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Ask Freedom Singer Rutha Mae Harris, and she'll answer plainly. SHAPIRO: 'This Little Light Of Mine' is also a spiritual, transformed by the nation's civil rights movement into something more.Įarlier this year, as part of NPR's American Anthem series, critic Eric Deggans looked at the history behind the song. UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Singing) This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

You may recognize this as a beloved children's song.

Let it shine raps