FREEDOM RIDERS
Words & Music © John Morton 1997.
Freedom
Riders.
From Washington DC,
To win equality,
We’re going to New Orleans
On the Trailways bus.
There’s standing room inside,
(That is, unless you’re white)—
No dignity or pride
For the likes of us—
Freedom
Riders.
Confrontation at the store,
Accusation from the law,
Provocation at the door
Of the library.
Exploitation wall to wall,
Discrimination across the board,
Segregation at the core
Of society—
Freedom
Riders.
When they meet us, we won’t hide,
When they beat us, we won’t fight—
No, we sure don’t take this ride
For the scenery.
Forty acres and a mule
Was a hundred years of bull
If they keep us out of school
This centenary—
Freedom
Riders.
Aggravation from the man,
Deprivation across the land
Where cremation by the Klan
Gets impunity.
Situation out of hand,
Legislation must demand
A multi-racial masterplan
Of community—
Freedom
Riders.
Freedom
Riders.
Carolina’s ’gainst the wall,
And Atlanta’s set to fall,
When Alabama, best of all,
Gets democracy.
No Magic City gate
Can save Magnolia State
From a future free of hate
And hypocrisy—
Freedom
Riders.
Liberation is the prize,
Education, civil rights,
Emancipation and franchise
Smile on everyone.
Demonstration here tonight!
Integration, Black and White,
’Cause the nation can’t hope to rise
Till we’ve all become—
Freedom
Riders.
“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today!…
“…Let freedom ring—from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring—from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring—from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’”
(Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, 28 Aug 1963.)
Freedom’s coming and it won’t be long,
Won’t be long,
Won’t be long.
Freedom’s coming and it won’t be long,
It won’t be long,
It won’t be long.
(Rpt. ad lib)
sung by samuel ‘hutch’ hutchinson
