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Graves and Patton are best-known as blues artists, but they also performed and recorded sacred music.Ĭharley Patton "I Shall Not Be Moved" (1929) Taggart, a singer and guitarist, recorded his version the same year as Taskiana Four.īlind Joe Taggart "I Will Not Be Moved" (1926)Īfrican American singer/guitarists Blind Roosevelt Graves and Charley Patton also recorded the song in the 1920s. Rice, and Blind Joe Taggart, recorded the song in the 1920s and 30s. Other jubilee groups, gospel singers, and preachers, including Utica Institute Jubilee Singers, Reverend Edward Clayborn, Reverend D.C. Taskiana Four “I Shall Not Be Moved” (1926) Taskiana Four’s recording featured the following verses: Jubilee quartets, popular in the first half of the twentieth century, sang harmonized arrangements of spirituals as well as newer hymns. Taskiana Four, a jubilee quartet, made the earliest known recording of “I Shall Not Be Moved” for the Victor Talking Machine Company on July 21, 1926. He's the One that's leading, I shall not be moved On His word I'm feeding, I shall not be moved He will fail me never, I shall not be moved If I trust Him ever, I shall not be moved I'm on my way to Heaven, I shall not be moved In His love and favor, I shall not be moved On the Rock of Ages, I shall not be movedĮven in its purely religious form, many different sets of lyrics exist. Though the tempest rages, I shall not be moved Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved. Though all hell assail me, I shall not be moved In His love abiding, I shall not be movedĪnd in Him confiding, I shall not be moved Just like a tree that's planted by the watersĪnchored in Jehovah, I shall not be moved His arrangement of the song, with the following lyrics, became standard in many churches: Boatner was a composer and educator who arranged many spirituals for choir and vocal soloists. The earliest known publication of “I Shall Not Be Moved” in its common form is from Edward Boatner’s 1927 book Spirituals Triumphant Old and New. 2 included the title “As a Tree Beside the Water.” The song references the same Bible passages and includes the words “I shall not be moved” but differs significantly in melody and lyric. His 1906 songbook Hymns for His Praise No. Some sources attribute the song to composer Alfred Henry Ackley. Whether “I Shall Not Be Moved” originated in the context of slavery or at a later time, it is clearly rooted in the musical traditions of the spiritual. The following Bible verses provide the foundation for the text:īlessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.Īnd he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Spirituals interspersed words and phrases from scripture with personal reflections and ideas. Earlier European-based psalms set melodies to Bible verses in their entirety. The song features hallmarks of the antebellum spiritual, including call-and-response lyrics, strong rhythms, and ease with which it can be sung and remembered. Though there is no evidence of "I Shall Not Be Moved" in the hymnals and songbooks of the nineteenth century, some scholars believe that it began as an African American spiritual prior to emancipation. It journeyed back to the Americas and was the last song played on Chilean radio immediately before the military overthrew the democratically-elected government in a bloody coup d'etat in 1973. The song crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was sung as "No nos moverán" in protests against Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. In the 1950s and 60s, civil rights activists added new verses and sang it as they united for racial justice.

Aided by labor organizers in the 1930s, workers in various industries, including West Virginia coal mines, Southern textile mills, and General Motors plants, revised the lyrics and sang it as "We Shall Not Be Moved." The song strengthened them in their struggles against oppressive employers, low wages, and dangerous working conditions. The song is based lyrically and musically on the religious hymn “I Shall Not Be Moved,” which was popular with both Black and White congregations in the first decades of the century. In the United States and internationally, participants in twentieth-century social movements sang "We Shall Not Be Moved" to express unity and conviction.