First to sing it? Hard to say, but read Joe Offer's post above relating to the changes to adapt to the CR movement....

This is a song that has been through every chapter of the civil rights movement. The words "keep your eyes on the prize" (replacing the more common "keep your hand on the plow") came from Alice Wine, one of the first proud products of voter education schools - on Johns Island, South Carolina in 1956. The song had meaning for the sit-in students who were the first to be 'bound in jail' for long periods of time. It went with the Freedowm Riders to Jackson and into Parchman, and on to Albany and all of the many other areas of struggle.

Spaw