Bob Dylan sang, "I feel like I'm knocking on heaven's door." Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Mahalia Jackson performed with the Freedom Singers on their initial tour. The four original singers of the Freedom Singers are Cordell Reagan, Rutha Harris, Bernice Johnson and Charles Neblett. They were a notable band that performed Mae at the March on Washington and had an impact on the civil rights movement and opened people's minds. The Freedom Singers of the civil rights movement who played at universities, elementary schools, high schools, concert halls, living rooms, prisons, political rallies and the March on Washington. The Freedom Singers were successful in their singing activities and earned SNCC nearly $50,000 to use to spread the message of civil rights. The music the band sang was as affective as it was communicative because active participation and unique sounds were part of the musical heritage of black Americans of African descent. The music symbolized the horror and truth, but also the peaceful hope of the civil rights movement. One of the folk music singers who sang with the Freedom Singers was Joan Baez. Joan wanted people to find peace through her music. Joan Baez was born in Staten Island, New York on January 9, 1941. In 1951 she spent a year in Baghdad, Iraq with her family when her father took a job there. When Joan's family returns to the United States; the family moves to California. In 1956 he listened to a lecture by Martin Luther King Junior on nonviolence and civil rights. He also bought his first guitar. In 1957 he committed his first act of civil disobedience by refusing to leave high school during an air raid exercise. Then he graduated in 1958, from Palo Alto High School. Joan Baez did a... half a job... they knew they had to change their ways and they had to do what's right. This is why the Freedom Singers were brought together and created. Works Cited Berman, Elie. Jewish virtual library. and April 24, 2014. Hatfield, Edward A. New Georgia Encyclopedia. November 2, 2007. May 6, 2013. office, Atlanta. The singers of freedom. 1963. May 15, 2014 .Rosa, Leslie Paige. Infohio. 2007. May 23, 2014. Sandmel, Ben. KnowLA: Encyclopedia of Louisiana. February 25, 2014. April 24, 2014. The archives of freedom. April 24 2014 .