The opening and title track sets the stage for this song cycle. Because of the unique American legal system and our Constitution, individuals are able to take on big corporations and governments in order to effect social change. Barack Obama famously gave a stump speech about how one voice can change the world. In America, that is completely true, and this album celebrates those voices and their achievements in civil rights and social justice. The song, One Voice, honors Oliver Brown, a welder and pastor from Topeka, Kansas, who organized a group of Black parents and sued the Topeka School District for its unlawful segregation practices. The resulting Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, outlawed school segregation and ignited a civil rights movement that truly changed the world. Musically, the song begins with a solitary and grows to a rousing gospel-tinged finale with many voices in a musical interpretation of how one voice can change the way we think, act, and live our lives.
Click to watch to Alan discuss the album’s title track, “One Voice.”
Click to watch the concert performance of “One Voice.”
Read the lyrics
One voice can start us talking,
One voice can change some minds,
One voice can change opinions, and
One voice can change the times,
One voice can make you listen,
One voice can make you think,
One voice can change the future, and
One voice can change everything.
Well let me tell you all a story ‘bout Oliver Brown,
Whose little daughter couldn’t go to school,
Unless she got upon a bus and drove for miles
Just to reach the place where black kids were allowed in school.
Well Mr. Brown knew it was wrong, and that he had to speak his
mind, A group of twelve more parents joined the cause,
We’re told that separate must be equal, but separate isn’t equal,
So we’re gonna have to change the laws.
Well they hired them a lawyer, Thurgood Marshall took the case,
Where it would end up was a mystery,
The arguments asserted and the high court finally heard it,
And now segregation’s history. One voice!
One voice can change a culture,
One voice can aid the cause,
One voice can make a nation hear,
One voice can change the law.
One voice, one voice, one voice, one voice,
One voice, one voice, one voice,
One voice, one voice, one voice, one voice,
One voice, one voice, one voice, one voice, one voice!
Well once there was a woman named Rosa,
In Alabama she rode the bus,
They told her move into the back,
She said, “I’m stayin’ where I’m at,
And a civil rights movement was born.
And Rosa had a good friend, Martin,
His voice would ring out strong and loud,
He used to tell us ‘bout his dream, we knew exactly what he means,
And then he brought the old system down.
And then there was a man named Mandela,
Who raised his voice and drew a crowd,
Twenty seven years in prison, his voice had even risen,
Aparteid’s gone, South Africa’s proud. One voice!
One voice can start a movement,
One voice you can’t ignore,
One voice that is so loud and strong,
One voice can end a war,
One voice, one voice, one voice, one voice,
One voice, one voice, one voice,
One voice, one voice, one voice, one voice,
One voice, one voice, one voice, one voice, one voice!
Well, let me tell you all a story ‘bout Barry,
From South Chicago he had learned the law,
He took every opportunity to organize communities,
And talk to people, rich and poor.
His words were so impressive that he won a Congress seat,
And two years later to the Senate he went,
His talk of change and hope connected, and he got himself elected,
President of the United States. And he said..
One voice can change a room, he said
One voice can change a town,
One voice can change a city, and
One voice can change all around. He said
One voice can change a county, you know
One voice can change a State,
One voice can change an entire nation,
One voice can change the world
One voice can change the world
One voice. Can. Change. The world!
One Voice!