Narration
for
FROM SPIRITUALS TO GOSPEL SONGS

By
Langston Hughes

*GREENING SONG: "IN THAT GREAT GITTIN' UP MORRIS"

GOOD EVENING! I'M LANGSTON HUGHES. I USED TO BE A CHICAGO
BOY---WABASH AVENUE---SO THEY'VE INVITED ME BACK HOME. AND I WAS BORN
A COLORED BOY, SO I Grew UP ON THESE SONGS.

YOU HAVE JUST BEARD A SONG THAT DATES BACK A HUNDRED YEARS,
MAYBE MORE. ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF TIME---BUT FOR US A WIDE LOT OF
HISTORY. AND BEING AS HOW THIS IS NEGRO HISTORY WEEK, FOR MY TEXT I
HAVE PICKED OUT SEVEN LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET---BEGINNING WITH F---AND
SEVEN SONGS, TO START THINGS OFF TONIGHT.

BUT FIRST LET ME INTRODUCE THE SINGERS AT THE CENTER OF THE
STAGE. FIRST THERE'S: FLEMING BROWN - WITH THE BANJO
IN THE CENTER THERE'S: BROTHER JOHN SELLERS - WITH THE TAMBOURINE
THERE THERE IS: FRANK HAMILTON - WITH THE GUITAR

BUT BEFORE I GO INTO THE FIRST PART OF THE PROGRAM, LET ME PAY
TRIBUTE TO OUR STAR---WHO WILL BE WITH US IN A LITTLING WHILE---MARALIA
JACKSON...MISS JACKSON IS A PART OF HISTORY RIGHT HERE---A VERY LIVING
PART---NOT JUST NEGRO HISTORY (ALTHOUGH SHE'S OURS) BUT A HUNDRED YEARS
FROM TODAY ALL SORTS OF BOOKS WILL RECORD HER NAME. WHY?

DON'T YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE MARALIA HAS REACHED DOWN INTO THEM
ROOTS OF SONG AND PULLED UP A WONDERFUL, SHIMMERING, SHINING, SHOUTING
TREE. A GOSPEL SINGER WITH JOY IN HER SINGING; A YRA-SAYER WITH A LOUD
YES IN HER SAVING---AFFIRMING LIFE, ITS CONTINUITY, ITS BEAUTY---AND
MOVING EVER UP A LITTLE HIGHER, WHERE "IT'S ALWAYS HOWDY, HOWDY, AND

2

anybody telling you. (Just as the world is beginning to know how wonderful
gospel songs are, without being told).

Gospel songs are not spirituals. Spirituals are by those "black and
unknown bards" that James Weldon Johnson wrote about. They are the sorrow songs
and jubilees that Dr. Du Bois describes in his "SOULS OF BLACK FOLK." Spirituals
are the great anonymous folk creations from our days of bondage. And for the
next few minutes you will hear spirituals. But gospel songs are written by men
and women of today, great too, some of them - and Chicago has the greatest of
gospel writers, Thomas A. Dorsey, who wrote, among other songs, "PRECIOUS LORD
TAKE MY HAND." Also Chicago - Theodore Frye, Roberta Martin - and the greatest
of the gospel singers, Mahalia Jackson.

Narration
for
FROM SPIRITUALS TO GOSPEL SONGS
by
Langston Hughes

OPENING SONG: "IN THAT GREAT GETTIN' UP MORNING"

Good evening! I'm Langston Hughes. I'm here, I guess, because I used to be a Chicago boy — Wabash Avenue — so they've invited me back home. And I was born a colored boy so I grew up on these songs.

You have just heard a song that dates back a hundred years, maybe more. Only a little bit of time, but for us a whole lot of history. And, being as how this is Negro History Week, for my text I have picked out seven letters of the alphabet - beginning with P - and seven songs, to start things off tonight.

But before I go into the opening of my part on the program, let me pay tribute to our star - who will be with you in a little while - Mahalia Jackson. Miss Jackson is a part of history now - a very living part - not just Negro History (although she's ours) for all sorts of books will record her name a hundred years from now. Why?

Don't you know why? Because Mahalia has reached down into the roots of song and pulled up a wonderful, shimmering, shining, shouting tree. A gospel singer with joy in her singing! A tea-sayer with a loud YES in her saying - affirming life, its continuity, its beauty - and moving ever up a little higher, where "It's always howdy, howdy, and never goodbye," which I think is one of the greatest lines in anybody's poetry. Where "It's always howdy, howdy" - a friendly greeting - and never goodbye. No going away, no sorrow, no splitting up, no dividing lines, no Little Rock.

It's an old cliche: "she needs no introduction," but it's true here - not Mahalia Jackson. She's Chicago's own child. So she will get no introduction tonight - not from me. You'll know when she comes on, without

7

And of that time a book was born, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

GRADUALLY PADE "GO DOWN MOSES"

And a spirit was born, John Brown.

And a song was born:

GUITARS SOFTLY:

"BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC"

Mine eyes have seen the glory

Of the coming of the Lord ...

And a war was born:

John Brown's body lies

A-mouldering in the grave --

But his soul goes marching on ...

And a voice to set the nation right:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all ..."

Lincoln said:

"In giving freedom to the slave,

We assure freedom to the free ..."

MELODY OF "BATTLE HYMN" UP STRONG

And then:

"On the first day of January, in the year of our
Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all
persons held as slaves within any State, or designated
part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in
rebellion against the United States, shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever free ... (In witness thereof,
I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed.) Signed: A. Lincoln.

OPENING SONG: MEETING "IN THAT GREAT GETTIN' UP MORNING"

Good evening! I'm Langston Hughes. I'm here, I guess, because I used to be a Chicago boy--Wabash Avenue--so they've invited me back home.
And I was born a colored boy. I grew up on these songs.

You have just heard a song that dates back a hundred years, maybe more. Only a little bit of time, but for us a whole lot of history. And, being as this is Negro History Week, for our text I have picked out seven little letters of the alphabet--beginning with F--and seven songs, to start things off tonight.

But before I go into the opening of my part of the program, let me pay tribute to our star, who will be with you in a little while--Mahalia Jackson. Miss Jackson is a part of history now—a very living part—not just Negro History, although she's ours for all sorts of books will have her name inscribed a hundred years from now. Why? Don't you know why? Because she has reached down into the roots of song and pulled up a wonderful, shimmering, shining, shouting tree. A gospel singer with joy in her singing! A Yea-sayer with a loud yes in her saving, affirming life, its continuity, its beauty—and moving ever up a little higher, where "It's always howdy, howdy, and never goodbye," which I think is one of the greatest lines in anybody's poetry.
Where "it's always howdy, howdy"—a friendly greeting—and never goodbye. No going away, no sorrow, no splitting up, no dividing lines, no Little Rock.

It's an old cliche: "she needs no introduction," but it's true here--not Mahalia Jackson. She's Chicago's own child. So she will get no introduction tonight--not from me. You'll know when she comes on, without anybody telling you. (Just as the world is beginning to know how wonderful gospel songs are, without being told.) And gospel songs are not spirituals. Spirituals are by those "black and unknown bards" that James Weldon Johnson wrote about. They are the sorrow songs and jubilees that Dr. Du Bois describes in his "SOULS OF

-3-

Knee deep in troubled waters—

Death was a deep river,

And only over Jordan, Freedom—

Unless you walked the water,

Oh, night! Oh, moon! Oh, stars!

Crossed the water, swam the water

To follow, in the dark of night, a star—

The North Star! The Freedom Star!

Where is the road that leads me to that star?

Patrollers guard the road to Freedom

Bloodhounds with dripping muzzles guard Freedom!

Gun, lash, and noose guard that Freedom!

For Freedom was not just a word in slavery days—

Freedom was the dark swamp crossed,

And death defied, fear laid aside—

Freedom was when Old Riley made up his mind to escape,

runaway—walk the water:

SONG: "OLD RILEY WALKED THE WATER"
Harriet Tubman—slave—wanted to be free.
She'd heard that word with seven letters.
She could not read that word, nor spell that word—
But she smelled that word, tasted that word,
she On the North wind, heard that word.

GUITARS: SOFTLY—MELODY OF "OH, FREEDOM"
And she saw it in a star...

The North star....

Oh, freedom! Freedom over me!
Before I'd be a slave
I'd be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord
And be free!

3-a

FADE OUT GRADUALLY MELDOY OF "OH, FREEDOM"

Thousands and thousands died

Dreaming of freedom---

No chance to escape---

The auction block, the whip,

The chains of slavery

From birth to death.

Death, that sometimes came

Quietly in the night,

That sometimes came violently

Like a storm:

SONG: "ANOTHER MAN DONE GONE" and/or "HUSH, DEATH CAME A-CREEPIN'"

Another slave who wanted to be free

Was Sojourner Truth---Sojourner Truth, slave:

Her sons and daughters sold away.

She said, "I look up at de stars,

My chillun look up at de stars.

They don't know where I be

And I don't know where they be---

But God said, <u>Sojourner</u>, <u>go free</u>!

In those dark days of bondage

Guarding in their hearts the seed of Freedom,

The slaves made up a song:

Keep Your Hand On The Plow, Hold On!

GUITARS BEGIN MELODY INTRO

That song meant just what it said: <u>HELLO, HELLO</u>

Hold On! Freedom will come!

Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!

SONG: <u>KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW</u>

*4*

Through swamp and briar, over field and hill,
Went the runaway seekers for freedom.

By dark of night, prayer-guided, star-guided,
Guided by a word called *Freedom*---

And the deep river was not Jordan, but the Ohio,
Home was not heaven, but the North.

Frederick Douglass called his paper "The North Star."

Douglass had made his way to Freedom.

Sojourner Truth made her way to Freedom.

Harriet Tubman made her way to Freedom.

Befroe the Civil War, long before 1861,
Before Emancipation, Freedom had begun!

GUITARS BEGIN MELODY OF "GO DOWN, MOSES" AND CONTINUE UNDER WORDS

# 3 #

5/6/A

And then: "On the first day of January, in the year
of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves
within any State, or designated part of a
State, the people whereof shall then be in
rebellion against the United States, shall
be then, thenceforward, and forever free....
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand
and caused the seal of the United States to be
affixed." Signed: A. Lincoln.

CHORUS OF "BATTLE HYMN" TO BIG ENDING

But the fields still needed planting,
The cane still needed cutting,
The old mule still needed a hand to guid the plow.
People had to work, to sing, to play---
And so songs were made up to ease the burden,
To past the time away, songs just for fun---
Like MAM "The Gray Goose"---

SONG: "THE GRAY GOOSE"

- 6 -

Lincoln wrote:

"I do ordain...thenceforward and forever free."

The old mule still needed a hand to guide the plow

Up the river to Memphis, Cairo, St. Louis,

Work and song, work and song--stevedores, foundry men,

Brick lavers, builders, section hands--singing.

Freedom is a mighty word--but not an easy word.

You have to hold hard to freedom.

GUITARS REPRISE "OH, FREEDOM"

Still, it's a long step from Old Riley--slave,

From Harriet Tubman--runaway,

Sojourner Truth--seeker,

Frederick Douglass--fighter,

To Booker T. Washington building Tuskegee,

To Martin Luther King guiding bus boycott,

To Ralph Bunche building a culture for America.

It's a long step from Old Riley, slave--

To George Washington Carver.

It's a long song from:

Before I'd be a slave

I'd be buried in my grave...

To Dorothy Maynor singing, "Depuis le jour."

It's a long step from Old Riley--slave--

To Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson.

By
Langston Hughes

COMING SONG: "IN THAT GREAT GITTIN' UP MORNING"

GOOD EVENING, I'M LANGSTON HUGHES. I USED TO BE A CHICAGO
BOY—NADASH AVENUE—SO THAT'S WHEN I WAS INVITED IN BACK HOME, AND I WAS BORN
A COLORED BOY, SO I Grew UP ON THREE SONGS.

YOU HAVE JUST ARRIVED A SONG THAT DATES BACK A HUNDRED YEARS,
MAYBE MORE. ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF TIME—BUT FOR US A WIDE LOT OF
HISTORY. AND BEING AS HOW THIS IS ANGEO HISTORY WHERE, FOR MY TEXT I
HAVE PICKED OUT SEVEN LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET—BEGINNING WITH F—and
SEVEN SONGS, TO START THINGS OFF TONIGHT.

BUT FIRST LET ME INTRODUCE THE SINGERS AT THE CENTER OF THE
STAGE. FIRST THERE'S: FLESHING BROWN - WITH THE BANJO
IN THE CENTER THERE'S: FROTHER JOHN SELLEES - WITH THE TAMBORINE
THERE THERE IS: FRANK HAMILTON - WITH THE GUITAR

BUT BEFORE I GO INTO THE FIRST PART OF THE PREGORAN, LET ME PAY
TRIBUTE TO OUR STAR—SO WILL BE WITH US IN A LITTLE WHILE—SAMALIA
JACKSON...MISS JACKSON IS A PART OF HISTORY RIGHE ENOUGH—A VERY LIVING
PART—NOT JUST ANGEO HISTORY (ALTOUGH ONE'S OURS) BUT A HUNDRED YEARS
FROM TODAY ALL SONGS OF OURS WILL RECORD HER NAME. WHY?

DON'T YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE SAMALIA HAS REACHED DOWN INTO THE
ROOTS OF SONG AND PULLED UP A WONDROUS, SHIMMERING, SHINING, SHOUTING
THERE. A GOSPEL SINGER WITH JOY IN HER SINGING, A VIRTUOUS WITH A LOUD
TONGUE IN HER SAYING—AFTERTHOOD LIFE, ITS CONTINUITY, ITS BEAUTY—AND
HOW CAN I EVER UP A LITTLE HIGHER, WHEN "IT'S ALWAYS BETTER, BETTER, AND

- 3 -

NO PART OF LIFE, OR SELF, BELONGED TO RILEY---SLAVE.
TO RILEY---SLAVE---ONLY A DREAM BELONGED.
SEVEN LETTERS SPELLED THAT DREAM:
F---R---E---E---D---O---M.

Melody gradually
FADES OUT...

BUT SOMETIMES IN THE CANE FIELDS, IN THE RICE FIELDS,
IN THE BONDAGE OF THE COTTON,
IN THE DEEP DARK OF THE CAPTIVE HEART,
SOMETIMES FREEDOM SEEMED TO FAR AWAY,
FARTHER AWAY THAN THE PARTHEREST STAR,
SO FAR---SO FAR---THAT ONLY OVER JORDAN
WAS THERE A DREAM CALLED FREEDOM.

AND DEEP WERE THESE WATERS OF SORROW TO BE CROSSED.
BUT FAITH KEPT ALIVE THE KNOWLEDGE THAT
SOME DAY GOD WOULD TROUBLE THE WATERS:

**SONG** "WADE IN THE WATER"

SLAVERY---TROUBLES WATERS---
KNEE DEEP IN TROUBLED WATER;
DEATH WAS A DEEP RIVER,
AND ONLY OVER JORDAN, FREEDOM---

UNLESS YOU WALKED THE WATER, CROSSED THE WATER,
SWAM THE WATER, RAN AWAY
TO FOLLOW IN THE DARK OF NIGHT A STAR---
THE NORTH STAR; THE FREEDOM STAR;

FREEDOM WAS WHEN OLD RILEY MADE UP HIS MIND
TO ESCAPE, TO RUN AWAY---TO WALK THE WATER:

**SONG** "OLD RILEY WALKED THE WATER"

- 7 -

"OH, FREEDOM"

..................

FREEDOM IS A MIGHTY WORD---BUT NOT AN EASY WORD.

YOU HAVE TO HOLD HARD TO HOLD ON TO FREEDOM.

STILL, IT'S A LONG STEP FROM OLD RILEY, SLAVE,
A LONG STEP FROM HARRIET TUBMAN, RUNAWAY,

FROM SOJOURNER TRUTH, SEEKER,

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, FIGHTER,

TO BOOKER TO, WASHINGTON BUILDING TUSKEGEE,

TO MARTIN LUTHER KING GUIDING A BUS BOYCOTT,

TO RALPH BUNCH GUARDING A CULTURE FOR AMERICA.

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER.

IT'S A LONG SONG FROM:

BEFORE I'D BE A SLAVE

I'D BE BURIED IN MY GRAVE......

TO DOROTHY MAYNOR SINGING "DEPUIS LE JOUR."

IT'S A LONG STEP FROM THE POETRY OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY

TO THE POETRY OF LORRAINE HANSPERRY'S "RAISIN IN THE SUN."

TO JOE LOUIS, JACKIE ROBINSON, ALTHEA GIBSON.

FADE MELODY

and OUE......

YET TO SOME, FREEDOM IS STILL ONLY A PART OF A WORD:

SOME OF THE LETTERS OF THAT WORD ARE MISSING IN MISSISSIPPI,
IN TRUMBULL PARK, IN BIRMINGHAM, IN HARLEM.

YET FREEDOM IS ENOUGH OF A WORD TO LAY HANDS ON AND HOPE.

IT'S ENOUGH OF A WORD TO BE A STAR---A UNIVERSAL STAR---
NOT JUST A NORTH STAR ANYMORE.

IT'S ENOUGH OF A WORD TO MEAN---

"THENCEFORWARD AND FOREVER---FREE!"

IT'S ENOUGH OF A WORD TO SAY:

I, TOO, SING AMERICA.

I AM THE DARKEST BROTHER.

- 7 -

INTO THAT PURROW THE FREEDOM SEED WAS DROPPED.

FROM THAT SEED A TREE GROW, IS GROWING, WILL EVER GROW.

THAT TREE IS FOR EVERYBODY,

FOR ALL AMERICA, FOR ALL THE WORLD.

MAY ITS BRANCHES SPREAD, AND ITS SHELTER GROW

UNTIL ALL RACES AND ALL PEOPLE'S KNOW ITS SHADE.

KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW; HOLD ON!

**FINALE**"KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW"

END

- 4 -

Oh, freedom! Freedom over me!
Before I'd be a slave,
I'd be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord
And be free!

Another was Sojourner Truth--slave.
She wanted to be free.
Her sons and daughters sold away,
Still she wanted to be free
She said:

I look up at de stars,
My chillun look up at de stars.
They don't know where I be
And I don't know where they be--
But God said, Sojourner, go free!

Through swamp and brier, over field and hill,
By dark of night, prayer-guided, star-guided,
Guided by that human will that makes men love
A word called Freedom--
And the deep river was not Jordan, but the Ohio,
Home was not heaven but the North.

Frederick Douglass called his paper "The North Star"...
Douglass had made his way to freedom.
Sojourner Truth made her way to freedom.
Harriet Tubman made her way to freedom--

*OPENING SONG: "IN THAT GREAT GITTIN' UP MORNIN'"

GOOD EVENING! I'M LANGSTON HUGHES. I USED TO BE A CHICAGO
BOY---WABASH AVENUE---SO THEY'VE INVITED ME BACK HOME. AND I WAS BORN
A COLORED BOY, SO I GREW UP ON THESE SONGS.

YOU HAVE JUST HEARD A SONG THAT DATES BACK A HUNDRED YEARS,
MAYBE MORE. ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF TIME---BUT FOR US A WHOLE LOT OF
HISTORY. AND BEING AS HOW THIS IS NEGRO HISTORY WEEK, FOR MY TEXT I
HAVE PICKED OUT SEVEN LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET---BEGINNING WITH F---AND
SEVEN SONGS, TO START THINGS OFF TONIGHT.

BUT FIRST LET ME INTRODUCE THE SINGERS AT THE CENTER OF THE
STAGE. FIRST THERE'S: FLEMING BROWN - WITH THE BANJO
IN THE CENTER THERE'S: BROTHER JOHN SELLERS - WITH THE TAMBOURINE
THEN THERE IS: FRANK HAMILTON - WITH THE GUITAR

BUT BEFORE I GO INTO THE FIRST PART OF THE PROGRAM, LET ME PAY
TRIBUTE TO OUR STAR---WHO WILL BE WITH US IN A LITTLE WHILE---MAHALIA
JACKSON...MISS JACKSON IS A PART OF HISTORY RIGHT NOW---A VERY LIVING
PART---NOT JUST NEGRO HISTORY (ALTHOUGH SHE'S OURS) BUT A HUNDRED YEARS
FROM TODAY ALL SORTS OF BOOKS WILL RECORD HER NAME. WHY?

DON'T YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE MAHALIA HAS REACHED DOWN INTO THE
ROOTS OF SONG AND PULLED UP A WONDERFUL, SHIMMERING, SHINING, SHOUTING
TREE. A GOSPEL SINGER WITH JOY IN HER SINGING! A YEA-SAYER WITH A LOUD
YES IN HER SAYING---AFFIRMING LIFE, ITS CONTINUITY, ITS BEAUTY---AND
MOVING EVER UP A LITTLE HIGHER, WHERE "IT'S ALWAYS HOWDY, HOWDY, AND

- 3 -

F--R--E--E--D--O--M.

Melody gradually
FADES OUT........

BUT SOMETIMES IN THE CANE FIELDS, IN THE RICE FIELDS,
IN THE BONDAGE OF THE COTTON,
IN THE DEEP DARK OF THE CAPTIVE HEART,
SOMETIMES FREEDOM SEEMED SO FAR AWAY,
FARTHER AWAY THAN THE FARTHEREST STAR,
SO FAR---SO FAR---THAT ONLY OVER JORDAN
WAS THERE A DREAM CALLED FREEDOM.

AND DEEP WERE THE WATERS OF SORROW TO BE CROSSED.
BUT FAITH KEPT ALIVE THE KNOWLEDGE THAT
SOME DAY GOD WOULD TROUBLE THE WATERS:

**SONG** "WADE IN THE WATER"

SLAVERY---TROUBLED WATERS---

KNEE DEEP IN TROUBLED WATER!

DEATH WAS A DEEP RIVER,

SWAM THE WATER, RAN AWAY

THE NORTH STAR! THE FREEDOM STAR!

- 6 -

AND A WAR WAS BORN:

JOHN BROWN'S BODY

LIES A-MOULDERING IN THE GRAVE--

BUT HIS SOUL GOES MARCHING ON............

AND OUT OF THAT TIME A VOICE WAS BORN TO SET THE NATION RIGHT:

"WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE, WITH CHARITY FOR ALL....."

LINCOLN SAID:

"IN GIVING FREEDOM TO THE SLAVE,

WE ASSURE FREEDOM TO THE FREE....."

LINCOLN SAID:

"NO MAN IS FIT TO GOVERN ANOTHER MAN

WITHOUT THAT MAN'S CONSENT........"

Melody UP STRONG

AND THEN: "ON THE FIRST DAY OF JANUARY, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE" it was written, "ALL PERSONS HELD AS SLAVES WITHIN ANY STATE, OR DESIGNATED PART OF A STATE, THE PEOPLE WHEREOF SHALL THEN BE IN REBELLION AGAINST THE UNITED STATES, SHALL BE THEN, THENCEFORWARD, AND FOREVER FREE......" SIGNED: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

**CHORUS**"BATTLE HYMN" UP STRONG TO BIG ENDING

BUT THE FIELDS STILL NEEDED PLANTING,

THE CANE STILL NEEDED CUTTING,

THE OLD MULE STILL NEEDED A HAND TO GUIDE THE PLOW.

PEOPLE HAD TO WORK, TO SING, TO PLAY---

AND SO SONGS WERE MADE UP TO EASE THE BURDEN,

TO PASS THE TIME AWAY, SONGS JUST FOR FUN:

**SONG**"HA! HA! THIS A-WAY"

UP THE RIVER TO MEMPHIS, CAIRO, ST. LOUIS,

WORK AND SONG, WORK AND SONG---STEVEDORES, FOUNDRY MEN,

BRICK LAYERS, BUILDERS, SECTION HANDS---SINGING.

- 7 -

"OH, FREEDOM"

YOU HAVE TO HOLD **HARD** TO HOLD ON TO FREEDOM.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, FIGHTER,

TO BOOKER TO. WASHINGTON BUILDING TUSKEGEE,
TO MARTIN LUTHER KING GUIDING A BUS BOYCOTT,
TO RALPH BUNCH GUARDING A CULTURE FOR AMERICA.

IT'S A LONG STEP FROM OLD RILEY, SLAVE,
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER.

IT'S A LONG SONG FROM:

BEFORE I'D BE A SLAVE

IT'S A LONG STEP FROM THE POETRY OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY
TO THE POETRY OF LORRAINE HANSBERRY'S "RAISIN IN THE SUN."

IT'S A LONG STEP FROM OLD RILEY, SLAVE,
TO JOE LOUIS, JACKIE ROBINSON, ALTHEA GIBSON.

FADE melody
and OUT......

YET TO SOME, FREEDOM IS STILL ONLY A **PART** OF A WORD:

IT'S ENOUGH OF A WORD TO MEAN**---**

IT'S ENOUGH OF A WORD TO SAY:

I, TOO, SING AMERICA.

I AM THE DARKER BROTHER.