We Shall Overcome is an album by American politician Bernie Sanders , recorded and released in 1987. The album combined folk music and spoken word , narrated by Sanders. He was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont , at the time of the album's release. The album was remastered and rereleased in 2014 and gained wide exposure during Sanders' presidential campaign . [1]

In 1987, Burlington-based music producer Todd Lockwood was sipping coffee at Leunig's Bistro when he came up with the idea to approach the city's mayor, Bernie Sanders, to record a musical project at his studio, White Crow Audio.[2] Lockwood wrote a letter to Mayor Sanders and a meeting was arranged at the mayor's office. Lockwood originally imagined the album as an audio portrait of Bernie Sanders, but Sanders saw it as an opportunity to tell a much larger story.

Sanders made a list of ten songs he would be willing to record, five of which made the cut for the album.[3]

Once word of the project spread among the Vermont music community, musicians began lining up to be part of it. The studio sessions were reminiscent of the Michael Jackson - Lionel Richie recording, "We Are the World".