Folk Music: They Hear America Singing

Pete Seeger, Theodore Bikel and Bob Dylan are three of the most sought-after folk singers in the business. But last week they were doing the seeking. At a voter registration rally two miles out of Greenwood, Miss., all three stood on a flatbed truck parked on a dusty field beside Highway 82 and sang the gospel-like We Shall Overcome. The audience, 200 Negro dirt farmers, lustily joined in:

We shall overcome—some day,

Oh, deep in my heart,

I do believe,

We shall overcome—some day.

All over the U.S., folk singers are doing what folk...