ICE OUT SING-IN Resistance Songbook

ICE OUT SING-IN

Resistance Songbook      

For more on the history of protest music, watch this video from the Resistance Revival Chorus.

About these songs:

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round is a freedom song based on the spiritual "Don't You Let Nobody Turn You Round." It became an American civil rights era anthem after Ralph Abernathy introduced it in 1962 at a meeting at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, during a time of mass arrests and demonstrations. It was sung during civil rights demonstrations in the United States including during the Memphis sanitation strike in 1967. The song's lyrics are adaptable to situations and locations.

It's Okay to Change Your Mind by Minneapolis-based community song circle leader, Annie Schlaefer in response to escalating ICE raids and authoritarian violence in the Twin Cities. It is inspired by Otpor!, the Serbian civil resistance movement who overthrew dictator Slobodan Milošević in 2000. Otpor! members were regularly arrested and beaten by police. Afterward, they would show up to police stations and officers’ houses chanting “You may not join us today, but you can join us tomorrow.” In the final hours of their revolution, hundreds of thousands of people from across Serbia marched on Belgrade. Milosevic ordered the police and military to fire on massive crowds of protestors, and they refused. They were done being on the wrong side of history.‍

Hold On by Heidi Wilson of Plainfield, Vermont — "This song is for getting through the long nights of winter, and the long nights of healing, and the long dark spells of doubt," she writes. Wilson wrote it in 2018 after a teen in her community was lost to suicide. A friend organized an outdoor winter gathering around a fire in front of the local high school the weekend after his death to pull people together and surround them with love and connection, and this is the song they sang.

This Joy comes to us through the Black Church. Composed by Shirley Caesar, a pastor and 12-time Grammy winner, known as the "First Lady of Gospel Music." Caesar was born in 1938 in Durham, North Carolina and later founded Mount Calvary Word of Faith Church, in nearby Raleigh, which she still leads today.

We Want Justice is written in the spirit of a traditional civil rights chant by Abena Koomson-Davis, the Resistance Revival Chorus's musical director from 2017-2024. It is a call-and-response song that can be customized to the needs of the moment.

Find more chants and songs focused on resistance to ICE in the Singing Resistance Songbook

SONG LYRICS

Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round

Traditional Freedom Song, as performed by the Resistance Revival Chorus

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(Ain't gonna let nobody)

turn me 'round

turn me 'round

turn me 'round.

Ain't gonna let nobody

turn me 'round

I'm gonna  keep on a walkin'

keep on a talkin'

marching up to freedom land.

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Options for additional verses

Replace the word “nobody” with:

• racism
• sexism
• injustice
• no hatred
• no jail cell
• segregation

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It's Okay to Change Your Mind - by Annie Schlaefer

Ohh, it's okay to change your mind.

Show us your courage,

leave this behind.

Ohh it's okay to change your mind,

and you can join us,

join us here anytime.

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Hold On - by Heidi Wilson

Hold on, hold on

My dear ones, here comes the dawn

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This Joy - By Shirley Caesar, as performed by Resistance Revival Chorus

This joy that I have,

The world didn’t give it to me.

This joy that I have,

The world didn’t give it to me.

This joy that I have.

The world didn’t give it to me.

The world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away.

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Options for additional verses

Replace the word “joy” with:

• Love
• Peace
• Strength
• Song

Etc…

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We Want Justice - By Abena Koomson-Davis

Lead: Everybody sing about Justice!

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Verse 1: Group 1 (Group 2)

We want Justice! (We want Justice!)

We want Justice! (We want Justice!)

We want Justice! (We want Justice!)

We want it NOW! (We want it NOW!)

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(Repeat x2)

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Lead: Everybody sing about Freedom!

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Verse 2: Group 1 (Group 2)

We want Freedom! (We want Freedom!)

We want Freedom! (We want Freedom!)

We want Freedom! (We want Freedom!)

We want it NOW! (We want it NOW!)

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(Repeat x2)

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Lead: Everybody sing about Honor!

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Verse 3: Group 1 (Group 2)

We want Honor! (We want Honor!)

We want Honor! (We want Honor!)

We want Honor! (We want Honor!)

We want it NOW! (We want it NOW!)

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(Repeat x2)

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Lead: Everybody sing about Justice!

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Verse 4: Group 1 (Group 2)

We want Justice! (We want Justice!)

We want Justice! (We want Justice!)

We want Justice! (We want Justice!)

We want it NOW! (We want it NOW!)

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(1x only)

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Lead: Ad lib while chorus repeats:

Chorus: We want it NOW! (We want it NOW!)

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Songbook compiled by the Resistance Revival Chorus, February 2026

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