It has always been my impression that the use of singing and chanting, as well as the marches, sit-ins and other protest activities were drawn directly from the labor movement. Highlander Folk School played a critical role in training labor activists in the 30's and 40's and it went on to train the civil rights activists, such as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Stokely Carmichael in the 50's and 60's--

Guy Carawan was there, as was Pete Seeger, and they worked with Zilphia Horton, who was a folklorist/labor activist, and who had been collecting songs and adapting them for use in the movement since the 30's--

The person who really knows about this all is Frank Hamilton--who was there---