"If You Miss Me at The Back of the Bus" is a song written by Charles Neblett and recorded by Pete Seeger on his album We Shall Overcome in 1963.[1] The song was written in response to attempts to desegregate a public swimming pool in Cairo, Illinois, after a young African-American man drowned while swimming in a local river due to the pool not allowing any African-Americans to use it.[2] The song depicts the attitude of the African-American community towards the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s.[3] In his book with Bob Reiser, Everybody Says Freedom, Seeger commented that people would improvise new lyrics to the song to reflect on various situations.[4] The song's popularity grew after it began to be used as one of the anthems for the civil rights movement.[5]
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