She has been inducted into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame, and is now credited with what the Library of Congress calls "the most powerful song of the 20th century."Shropshire would always end the night by playing hymns on the piano; after she played "If My Jesus Wills" one night, King reportedly asked her if he could use the song, and if he could change "I'll overcome" to "we'll overcome."In fact, it was the high cost of film and television usage that led to the song being place in public domain and Shropshire at last getting credit for her work."She could sing well, she could play well, she could cook well," Patricia Massengill, one of Shuttlesworth's daughters, said."And so I can sing anew, 'We shall overcome' and we shall overcome because Carlyle is right, 'No lie can live forever,'' King said. About We Shall Overcome. The first political use came in 1945 in Charleston, S.C. … The song they emerged with was titled "We Will Overcome." However, their version was a much slower song, drawn out and emphasizing every single word, with a sort of lilting melody that was verging on a meditation.The melody dates back to before the Civil War, from a song called "No More Auction Block For Me." Originally, the lyrics were "I'll overcome someday," which links the song to a turn-of-the-20th-century hymn that was written by the Reverend Charles Tindley of Philadelphia.The adaptation of the song to its current lyric is often attributed to Pete Seeger, but Seeger shares the copyright with Horton, Carawan, and Frank Hamilton. Lyrics of "We Shall Overcome" We shall overcome, We shall overcome We shall overcome someday She worked as the music minister for Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati, and wrote a number of songs for her church that went on the be sung in houses of worship across the country.Although the song had a prominent place in civil rights history, it was rarely used in film or television, because the Ludlow Music and the Richmond Organization, which held the rights to the song, habitually asked for high fees for its use.Butler Film, which produced The Butler, and nonprofit the We Shall Overcome Foundation sued the Ludlow Music and the Richmond Organization and won. As a result, the song is now in the public domain, and is free for anyone to use.King would go on to use the phrase in his speeches, like in the one he gave in 1966 at Southern Methodist University.Although she died in 1993, Shropshire is at last getting her due. A Methodist minister, Charles Albert Tindley, published a version in 1901: "I'll Overcome Someday." Horton was cagey about the provenance of "We Shall Overcome," saying that it was first sung by African-American strikers in Charleston, S.C. in … The song was recorded by Joan Baez in 1963 and became a major anthem of the Civil Rights movement. When the Reverend Charles Albert Tindley first wrote "We Shall Overcome," he had no idea of the far-reaching and enduring impact his song would have on people all over the planet seeking basic human rights and freedom. in 2012, after studding Louise Shropshire's hymn in detail, Pete Seeger admitted (on film) that it's very probable that Louise Shropshire's hymn was the song from which We Shall Overcome was derived. President Obama leads a group walking hand-in-hand, with many singing "We Shall Overcome," as they cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 2015, commemorating Bloody Sunday. Martin Luther King himself was a fan of Shropshire's music, singing and her cooking as well. It was 1946, however, before the song evolved into some semblance of the tune we've come to know as the unofficial anthem of the American Civil Rights movement. In 2006, Bruce Springsteen included this song on his album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, which contained his versions of various songs written by Pete Seeger, who like Springsteen, championed the working class and fought against institutional oppression.