Swing Low Sweet Chariot

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The best song of 1909 was “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”. This was a spiritual often performed during the Civil Rights movement. This song was written as an African American spiritual and recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University. It became the anthem of the England National Rugby Union Team. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” is listed on the National Recording Registry and Songs of the Century. It is supposed that the song was written by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory which is know Choctaw Country near Hugo, Oklahoma. His inspiration might have come from the Red River that reminded him of the Jordan River and when Prophet Elijah was taken to Heaven by a chariot. Others have said that the song was in reference to the Underground Railways during the freedom movement when slaves were helped to escape from Southern slavery and transported to the North and Canada. When a minister heard Willis singing this song he sent the music to the Jubilee Singers at Fisk University and they popularized it during a tour of the U.S. and Europe. The song found a revival during the Civil Rights Movement and was performed by Joan Baez at the Woodstock Festival. How many of you know this song?