A couple of months ago, the news hit the internets: The “Happy Birthday” song was in the public domain. That same legal team just filed a complaint that “We Shall Overcome” has been falsely copyrighted by Ludlow Music Inc.
According to the lawsuit, the song is much older than that. The plaintiffs say the song is based on "an African-American spiritual with exactly the same melody and nearly identical lyrics from the late 19th or early 20th century."
At most, they say, the defendant companies own specific arrangements of the song, or additional verses that were added in 1960 when the song was copyrighted and again in 1963.
The complaint is a purposed class-action lawsuit to get the Ludlow Music company to refund ill-gotten licensing fees over the past few decades. This is the same tact taken in the “Happy Birthday” song litigation, forcing the settlement that set it into the public domain. While the lawyers say that the song is probably from well before the 20th century, they have tangible evidence that it is no less than 107 years old.
The African-American spiritual may date to the 19th century, but the plaintiffs say the song was first printed in the February 1909 issue of the United Mine Workers Journal. "Last year at a strike [in Alabama], we opened every meeting with a prayer, and singing that good old song, 'We Will Overcome,'" the journal stated on the front page.
We shall overcome someday.