YouTube Videos "Don't You Let Nobody Turn You Around" (Spiritual) And "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round" (Civil Rights Song) With Information of The United States Civil Rights Movement (late 1950s & 1960s)

Peninsula Girls Chorus,  Jun 4, 2017

Performed by Peninsula Girls Chorus, Repertoire, Concerta & Ensemble Choirs.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcase a YouTube video of a choral group from the United States singing the African American Spiritual "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around".

This post presents information and lyrics for that Spiritual and also showcases a YouTube video of The Freedom Singers performing the Civil Rights song "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round" in 2010 at the White House when Barak Obama was President of the United States. The group known here as "the Freedom Singers" were mostly made up of the members of Sweet Honey In The Rock.

In addition, this post presents some information about the United States Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the late 1950s and the 1960s.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composer/s of the Spiritual "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round" as well as the unknown composer/s who were the first to compose the Civil Rights version of this song. Thanks to The Peninsula Girls Chorus, Repertoire, Concerta & Ensemble Choirs and thanks to The Freedom Singers for their renditions of these songs.  

Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the producer and publisher of this YouTube video.
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Click https://civilrightssongs.blogspot.com/2014/11/aint-gonna-let-nobody-turn-me-around.html for a 2014 post on my Civil Rights blog. That post showcases additional Civil Rights versions of "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round".

Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/06/aint-gonna-let-nobody-turn-me-round.html for two videos of Gospel versions of "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Round" - one by The Fairfield Four from the 1980s and one sung by Albertina Walker. The Fairfield Four first recorded this song in 1947. I'm not sure about the recording date for that Albertina Walker video. But I think it was in the early 2000s.

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LYRICS - "AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN ME AROUND (SPIRITUAL)

Traditional (African American) Spiritual

CHO:
Don't you let nobody turn you aroun',
Turn you aroun', turn you aroun',
Don't you let nobody turn you aroun',
Keep the straight an' the narrow way.

VERSES:
I was at the river of Jordan,
Baptism was begun,
b John baptized the multitude,
But he sprinkled nary a one.
The baptis' they go by water,
The methodes' go by lan',
But when they get to heaven
They'll shake each other's han'.

You may be a good baptis'
An' a good methodes' as well,
But if you ain't the pure in heart
Yo' soul is boun' for hell.

Source: American Negro Songs, edited by John W. Work, Dover Publications.
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* I follow what I think is the general rule that any song that was composed after the end of the 19th century isn't a Spiritual even if its structure is the same as or similar to the structure of Spirituals. Instead of categorizing them as Spirituals, those post 19th century Black American religious songs are considered to be "early Gospel" songs".

Most Gospel songs, including early Gospel songs, usually have a known composer/s. I've not found any information about the composer/s of "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn You Round". However, whether "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round" is a Spiritual or an early Gospel song doesn't change the fact that most versions of it are probably in the public domain

Like other civil rights songs, the words to "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me "Round" aren't fixed. However, that civil rights song was sung in unison which means that those singing it knew in advance which verses were to be sung, and in which order the verses were sung. In contrast, the earliest renditions of the Gospel song probably were sung using a call & response pattern.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE UNITED STATES CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
From https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/post-war-united-states-1945-1968/civil-rights-movement/

Presentation - U.S. History Primary Source Timeline

"The Civil Rights Movement

In the middle of the 20th century, a nationwide movement for equal rights for African Americans and for an end to racial segregation and exclusion arose across the United States. This movement took many forms, and its participants used a wide range of means to make their demands felt, including sit-ins, boycotts, protest marches, freedom rides, and lobbying government officials for legislative action. They faced opposition on many fronts and fell victim to bombings and beatings, arrest and assassination. By the end of the 1960s, the civil rights movement had brought about dramatic changes in the law and in public practice, and had secured legal protection of rights and freedoms for African Americans that would shape American life for decades to come.

A few key moments include:

Brown v. Board of Education The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund, led by Thurgood Marshall, spent decades fighting against racial segregation in education. This long campaign culminated when the U.S. Supreme Court heard Brown v. Board of Education, which gathered together five separate cases related to school segregation with Marshall leading the arguments before the Court. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” legally ending racial segregation in public schools and overruling the “separate but equal” principle set forth in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1889.

Rosa Parks arrested On December 1, 1955, civil rights activist Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white passenger. The arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal event in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and was a defining moment in Parks' long career as an activist. The Montgomery Bus Boycott also saw the rise to prominence of a young Montgomery minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Little Rock school integration crisis After the Brown v. Board, Supreme Court decision, state and local officials in a number of states resisted school integration. In September of 1957, nine African American students attempted to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The governor ordered the state’s National Guard to surround the high school, and the Black students were harassed and kept from entering the building. President Dwight Eisenhower nationalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent U.S. troops to protect the students and enforce the desegregation order of the federal courts.

Birmingham campaign In the spring of 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., launched a large-scale campaign of sit-ins and marches in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest the city’s brutal segregation policies. Many of the protestors and leaders were jailed, and while behind bars, Dr. King wrote a long public letter that explained his philosophy of non-violent protest. This document, which became known as “The Letter from Birmingham Jail,” went on to be widely republished and regarded as a classic defense of the principles of civil disobedience.

The March on Washington On August 28, 1963, hundreds of thousands of people arrived in Washington, D.C., for the largest non-violent civil rights demonstration that the nation had ever seen: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march was organized in a few months, coordinated by veteran strategist Bayard Rustin, and was meant to demonstrate an urgent need for substantive change. The demands in the event program began with “Comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation from the present Congress” and included the end of discrimination in education, housing, employment, and more. Leaders and organizers met with members of Congress and with President John F. Kennedy, while the march ended at the Lincoln Memorial with music and speeches, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The Selma civil rights marches On March 7, 1965, a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, led by 25-year-old activist leader John Lewis, was attacked by state troopers and sheriff’s deputies as the marchers attempted to cross the city’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. Coverage of the marchers being beaten, tear-gassed, and trampled by police horses prompted outrage across the nation, and activists, religious leaders, and everyday citizens flooded into Selma to lend their support. On March 9, a second group of marchers, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., approached the bridge, prayed there, and returned to church. On March 21, thousands of marchers crossed the bridge, this time protected by federalized National Guard troops, and headed to Montgomery.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 The two most significant pieces of civil rights legislation since Reconstruction were passed within two years of each other. Between the two, these Acts outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. They banned discrimination in public accommodations, public education, and employment, and prohibited race-based restrictions on voting. Such sweeping legislation had been a longtime goal of the civil rights movement, and it brought many of the laws and practices of the Jim Crow Era to an end."...

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THE SOURCE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS SONG "AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN ME 'ROUND"
The African American civil rights song "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round" is based on an African American Spiritual or early Gospel song* entitled "Don't Let Nobody Turn Me Round". A version of that song was included in the 1940 book Negro Folk Songs (proofs from American Negro Songs and Spirituals) edited by John W. Work.
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from AI Overview [retrieved October 23, 2025]
"The term "Negro" was dropped as a referent for African Americans largely during the 1960s with the rise of the Black Power movement, though its use declined more gradually. The term was officially removed from the U.S. Census Bureau's surveys in 2013 after being deemed outdated and potentially offensive, a decision influenced by civil rights groups."...

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infomisa, Sep 16, 2012

February 09, 2010 | 3:26

The Freedom Singers perform "(Ain't Gonna let Nobody) Turn me Around" at the White House Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement.

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LYRICS: AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN ME 'ROUND (a Civil Rights version) 

(unknown composer)

Aint gonna let nobody
Turn me 'round
Turn me 'round
Aint gonna let nobody
Turn me round
I'm gonna keep on walkin'
Keep on talkin
Marchin into freedom land

[Follow the above pattern for other verses such as:
Aint gonna let (add the name a prominent segregationist or a racist public figure).

Aint gonna let no jailhouse

Aint gonna let no policeman
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*Notice that the end of the first line allows for improvisation.

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