Keep Your Eyes on The Prize by Pete Seeger

1955

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Montgomery, Alabama

5th December, 1955 - 20th December, 1956

This was a protest against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system in Montgomery, Alabama. This happened the Monday after Rosa Parks was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person on a bus. The protest ended by the U.S Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.

During mass meetings for the protest, one of the songs sung over again to lift spirits was 'Keep Your Eyes on the Prize'

Listen to Keep Your Eyes on The Prize

By Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger · Keep Your Eyes on The Prize
Artist Pete Seeger
Release Date 1963
Album We Shall Overcome
Label Columbia
Genre Folk
Producer(s) Lawrence Cohn
Writer(s) Alice Wine
Duration 2:00
Language English
Country USA
Some notable versions:

The Limeliters (1963)
Bob Dylan (1962)
Bruce Springsteen (2006)

Check out more versions here


Had no money for to go their bail
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Paul and Silas thought they was lost

Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Freedom's name is mighty sweet
And soon we're gonna meet
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

Won't take nothing for my journey now
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Soozie!
Only chain that a man can stand
Is that chain o' hand on hand
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
I'm gonna board that big greyhound
Carry the love from town to town
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hey!
Hey!
Now only thing I did was wrong
Stayin' in the wilderness too long
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
One, two!
(The only thing we did was wrong)
(Staying in the wilderness too long)
(Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on)
Woah, woah!
(The only thing we did was right)
(Was the day we started to fight)
(Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on)
Hold on, hold on
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on
Ain't been to heaven but I been told
Streets up there are paved with gold

About Keep Your Eyes on The Prize:

Pete Seeger recorded this song for his album 'We Shall Overcome' but the song was orginially based off of the hymn 'Keep Your Hands on the Plow' with lyrics modified. Alice Wine, who earned her living cleaning linen for a white family in Charleston, taught Guy Carawan how to sing 'Keep Your Eyes on the Prize' in 1960. Carawan later introduced the lyrics to activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Bibliography and more sources here