The first time I heard the song “Wade in the Water,” I was a freshman in high school scrolling through Spotify. I came across the artist Jamie N Commons, whose voice caught my attention, and so I looked around on his page. At the time, one of his more recent covers was “Wade in the Water” and so I clicked on it and gave it a listen. Without knowing its deeper meaning, I loved the song. The way Commons sang the song with his low and raspy voice captivated me, and so I continued to listen to it.
Four years later, I found myself at Geneseo, enrolled in a multitude of different classes, including a writing seminar on the Civil Rights Movement. While sitting in class one early Tuesday morning, Dr. Crosby showed us a video on singing in the Civil Rights Movement. Lo and behold, the activists in the video were singing the song “Wade in the Water.” While it wasn’t exactly Common’s raspy, low voice I had grown accustomed to in high school, the lyrics and the beat were the same. It was undeniably the same song. Continue reading “History Through Song”