[1][2][3] The title song was written for the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights and reflects not only on the actions of the activists but what suffering they had endured to get there, even referencing the murder of Emmett Till at Tallahatchie River.

Mavis Staples reprised the song in 2008 on Live: Hope at the Hideout, which was released on November 4, 2008, the same day that Barack Obama won the presidential election.

[6] Staples, joined by Jeff Tweedy, performed "Freedom Highway" on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert at Chicago's Auditorium Theater on August 22, 2024, on the occasion of the closing night of the Democratic National Convention.

The remastered LP was re-issued as Freedom Highway Complete - Recorded Live at Chicago's New Nazareth Church by Sony in 2015 A compilation of the same title was released on CD by SBME in 1991 but preserves only two of the original LP tracks.

The other tracks are a "hitlist" of favourites from the other albums made for Epic at the same period.