In the third episode of our series on the folk label Vanguard, we cover the story of Odetta’s My Eyes Have Seen. The 1959 record solidified Odetta’s place, both as a notable artist and as a voice and central figure in the Civil Rights Movement. 

To explore Odetta, this album and her music — and why they both deserve to be more widely recognized and discussed for their contributions — we talk to historian and professor in Yale’s American Studies program, Matthew Frye Jacobson, who also penned the 33 ⅓ book about Odetta’s One Grain of Sand.