How free is anyone, when some are still in chains

Slaves to brokenness, all this blindness

How free is anyone, when all these doubts remain

In the dead of night, no sign of the light

Child don’t grow weary, soon we will see the sun

All my brothers help each other

All my sisters walk together

No one is a stranger

We’re all sons and daughters



Join hands with everyone, don’t you hear the song we sing

Oh there might be tears, but we are more than our fears

We are marching on, but there’s a price we have to pay

For love means taking on, the weight of what was won

Child don’t grow weary, soon we will see the sun

All my brothers help each other

All my sisters walk together

No one is a stranger

We’re all sons and daughters

Help each other

All my sisters walk together

No one is a stranger

We’re all sons and daughters



We shall overcome, we shall overcome

The victory is won, oh we shall overcome

(Matt Maher, Jason Ingram, Ike Ndolo) © 2015 Sony/ATV Tree Publishing / I Am A Pilgrim Songs (BMI) / Sony/ATV Timber Publishing / Open Hands Music (SESAC) / Ike Ndolo designee

Behind the Song:
If you're following God, eventually you start loving the things He loves, and you care about the things He cares about. Moving to Nashville, the South, I encountered a greater understand that so much of the American tradition of music was born out of the slavery movement-rock'n'roll, gospel, country, R&B, hip-hop. It all goes back to a group of people who were enslaved and who desired freedom. I had been wanting to write a song based on the speech 'We Shall Overcome' by Dr. Martin Luther King. I had begun writing this song with Jason Ingram. I asked a buddy of mine-fellow worship leader and songwriter Ike Ndolo, who grew up in Columbia, Missouri-to write with me. I took what we had started, and asked Ike to, 'Draw from your experience as an African-American male living in the shadow of the civil rights movement still praying for all those things to bear their fruit.' It's really the job of the church today to finished what was started in the '60s. Just because you can outlaw racial discrimination doesn't mean you get rid of it. This heart behind this song was to inspire other people. I have to think that there are other leaders in the church right now who have a burden on their heart to help lead a movement like this. I think it's the centerpiece of the whole record; it's a really special moment. - Matt Maher