Stand
For the things you know are right
It’s the truth that the truth makes them so uptight
Stand
All the things you want are real
You have you to complete and there is no deal
Stand! by Sly and the Family Stone
Released on the album Stand! May 1969
I go to the movie
And I go downtown
And somebody keep telling me
“Don’t hang around”
A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke
Released on the album Ain’t That Good News December 1964
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday
Appears as a single, and now on numerous compilations
Originally released 1939
Yonder stands a man in this lonely crowd
Man who says he’s not to blame
All day long I hear him hollering so loud
Just crying out that he’s not to blame
I Shall Be Released by Nina Simone
Original release info unavailable
We shall all be free one day, Lord (we shall all be free one day)
We shall all be free one day, Lord (we shall all be free)
We shall all be free, Lord, one day (one day)
We Shall Overcome by Mahalia Jackson
Original release info unavailable
We’ve been ‘buked and we’ve been scorned
We’ve been treated bad, talked about
As sure as you’re born
But just as sure as it take two eyes to make a pair, huh
Brother, we can’t quit until we get our share
Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud by James Brown
Three o’clock in the rain
And a roadblock, lord
And I a-say
And hey, mr. cop, I ain’t got no-
Herb
Hey, Mr. Cop, what you saying down there?
Hey
Hey Mr. Cop, got no birth certificate on me now
Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Roadblock) by Bob Marley and the Wailers
Released on the album “Natty Dread” 1974
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers
Drivin’ big cars, spendin’ twenties and tens
And you’ll wanna grow up to be just like them, huh
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers
You say I’m cool, huh, I’m no fool
But then you wind up droppin’ outta high school
Now you’re unemployed, all non-void
Walkin’ round like you’re Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did
Got sent up for a eight-year bid
The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Released in October 1982
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In four parts without commercial interruptions
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
Blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John Mitchell
General Abrams and Spiro Agnew
To eat hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary
The revolution will not be televised
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron
Released on the album Small Talk 1971
The drama of the world shouldn’t keep us so frustrated
I look, but it doesn’t coincide with my books
Social studies when I speak upon political crooks
It’s just the presidents, and all the money they spent
All the things they invent and how the house is so immaculate
They paid missiles, my family’s eating gristle
Then they get upset when the press blows the whistle
Stop the Violence by Boogie Down Productions
Released on the the album By All Means Necessary 1988
And when they come to march on ya
Tell ’em to make sure they got their James Brown pass
And don’t be surprised if Ali is in the White House
Reverend Ike, Secretary of the Treasure
Richard Pryor, Minister of Education
Stevie Wonder, Secretary of fine arts
And Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady
Are you out there, CC?
A chocolate city is no dream
It’s my piece of the rock and I dig you, CC
God bless Chocolate City and it’s (gainin’ on ya!) vanilla suburbs
Chocolate City by Parliament
Released 1975
To the Brothers in the streetSchools and the prisons
History shouldn’t be a mystery
Our stories real history
Not his story
We gonna work it one day
Till we all get paid
The right way in full, no bull
Talkin’, no walkin’, drivin’, arrivin’ in style
Soon you’ll see what I’m talkin’ ’bout
‘Cause one day
The brothers gonna work it out
Brothers Gonna Work It Out by Public Enemy
Released on the album Fear Of a Black Planet 1990
The President, he’s got his war
Folks don’t know just what it’s for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We’re chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God damn it!
Tryin’ to make it real, compared to what? (Sock it to me)
Compared to What by Gene McDaniels
Performed by Les McCann and Eddie Harris July 1969