--- 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: 2026-04-13T07:11:08.840Z 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'  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 24, 2014 9:23 PM UTC  Susan Walsh / AP  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. ```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":"2026-04-13T07:11:08.840Z","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. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"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","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"50th-Civil-Rights-Anniversary","caption":"50th-Civil-Rights-Anniversary","creditText":"Susan Walsh / AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2918680/congress-we-shall-overcome/","name":"Watch Congressional Leaders Join Hands and Sing 'We Shall Overcome'"}}]}] ```