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Born December 31, 1930, in Birmingham, AL
Died December 2, 2008, in New York, NY
Odetta helped to bring folksongs out of the archives and backwoods and into the mainstream of popular American culture. Using her music to speak on political issues, she performed at civil rights demonstrations and peace rallies including the March on Washington in 1963. Work songs, freedom and prison songs, spirituals, ballads, and blues are part of a repertoire she sang around the world. In 1999, President Clinton awarded Odetta the National Medal of Arts, and in 2003 she was named a living legend by the Library of Congress.