Freedom Songs: The Songs and Singing that Inspired the Civil Rights Movement

On Thursday, October 23rd, 2025, Dr. Kevin Bird gave a public lecture at Christian Study Center. Kevin Bird, Ph.D., serves as the Center’s Experiential Learning Coordinator and Lecturer with the UF Bob Graham Center for Public Service.

Martin Luther King Jr. called the songs sung during critical junctures of the struggle for America’s Second Reconstruction, “the soul of the movement.” Other Black Christian activists contended the Civil Rights Movement would not have been possible without signing.

In this talk, Dr. Kevin Bird will explore the role of singing and a few representative songs in enlivening the movement, deconstructing Jim Crow, and paving the way for the most significant expansion of democracy in the history of the United States. Dr. Bird will also comment on singing and songs from an understanding of the Movement as America’s Third Great Awakening.

Lecturer Bio

Kevin Bird, Ph.D., serves as the Center's Experiential Learning Coordinator and Lecturer with the UF Bob Graham Center for Public Service. Kevin has a doctorate in history from UF with a focus on the American South. He appreciates researching and teaching on the consequential movements of change that secured modern notions of citizenship and unshackled democracy.

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