--- title: Congress Leaders Hold Hands Sing We Shall Overcome: Video description: Members of Congress held hands and sang "We Shall Overcome" during a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. canonical: https://time.com/2918680/congress-we-shall-overcome/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-24T21:23:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:57:39.092Z og:title: Congress Leaders Hold Hands Sing We Shall Overcome: Video og:description: Members of Congress held hands and sang "We Shall Overcome" during a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. og:url: https://time.com/2918680/congress-we-shall-overcome/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd474b52f058840a/69869914e53aba737b4d34e3/50th-civil-rights-anniversary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: 50th-Civil-Rights-Anniversary og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Congress Leaders Hold Hands Sing We Shall Overcome: Video twitter:description: Members of Congress held hands and sang "We Shall Overcome" during a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd474b52f058840a/69869914e53aba737b4d34e3/50th-civil-rights-anniversary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Congressional Leaders Join Hands and Sing 'We Shall Overcome' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5c35839c-66eb-4609-9220-aa35a039c4ab&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Congressional Leaders Sing [Watch (HLS stream): Congressional Leaders Sing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NaCavYUw.m3u8) (0:42)  _Published 2014-06-24. Congressional Leaders Sing_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 24, 2014 9:23 PM UTC Congressional Leaders Sing  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 24, 2014 9:23 PM UTC In what looked like a rare moment of bipartisanship, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders joined hands Tuesday and sang “We Shall Overcome” during a ceremony that honored the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964\. Lawmakers also posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King. The members of Congress swaying from side to side are Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). And no, Boehner isn’t [crying](http://time.com/2861469/eric-cantor-announces-departure-republican-congress/) in this clip. ## Transcript [00:35] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2918680/congress-we-shall-overcome/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2918680/congress-we-shall-overcome/"},"headline":"Watch Congressional Leaders Join Hands and Sing 'We Shall Overcome'","datePublished":"2014-06-24T21:23:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T08:57:39.092Z","description":"It's exactly as awkward as you'd expect","url":"https://time.com/2918680/congress-we-shall-overcome/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd474b52f058840a/69869914e53aba737b4d34e3/50th-civil-rights-anniversary.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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