Go Tell It On The Mountain

"Go Tell It on the Mountain" is a beloved African-American spiritual that originated among enslaved people in the American South during the mid-19th century. The song was first formally published in 1907 by John Wesley Work Jr. in his collection "New Jubilee Songs and Folk Songs of the American Negro," though it had been sung in Black communities for decades before. Work, along with his brother Frederick and wife Agnes, helped preserve many spirituals, and John Wesley Work Jr. is credited with writing some of the verses we know today. The song gained widespread popularity through performances by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who toured to raise funds for Fisk University. While primarily sung as a Christmas carol celebrating the birth of Jesus, the song took on additional significance during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, becoming an anthem of hope, freedom, and inner strength.