Guy Carawan, whose rendition of the song We Shall Overcome became an anthem of the U.S. civil rights movement, has died at his home in Tennessee, The New York Times reported. He was 87.

Carawan, a white folk singer, did not write the song, which has a long oral history that can be traced back to a church hymn in the late 19th Century that was taken up as a rally cry among labour activists in the 1940s.

Carawan first performed We Shall Overcome, to a group of black students in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1960 – and it quickly became the anthem of the civil rights movement, the New York Times said on Thursday.

It was sung at demonstrations and rallies throughout the 1960s, including the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery led by slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The version of We Shall Overcome sung by Carawan was forged with the help of fellow folk artist Pete Seeger.

“We shall overcome someday. Oh, deep in my heart I do believe, yes, that we shall overcome someday”.