1910-1956 US, Paris, Arkansas
A.k.a. Zilphia Mae Johnson
American musician, community organizer, educator, Civil Rights activist, and folklorist, born 1910 in Paris, Arkansas and died 1956 of kidney failure after accidentally drinking a glass of typewriter cleaning fluid she mistook for water. She is best known for helping to transform the song "We Shall Overcome" into a Civil Rights anthem in 1946.