The Story of the United States in 12 Songs

a Ballad of America publication Songs 1. Young Ladies in Town

2. The Wisconsin Emigrant

3. Go Down, Moses

4. Worried Man Blues

5. The Battleship of Maine

6. The Suffrage Flag

7. I Don’t Want Your Millions, Mister

8. How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

9. Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)

10. If You Miss Me From the Back of the Bus

11. Little Boxes

12. Changes

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View and download a print-friendly, text-only version of this document. I was never particularly interested in history. In high school, I halfheartedly attempted to “memorize the important identifications” from the U.S. history textbook, as my teacher instructed me to do. That all began to change when I first heard "The Anthology of American Folk Music" from Smithsonian Folkways

Recordings. The story of the United States came alive for me as I began to understand people from the past through their music: early colonial settlers through the ancient ballads, religious songs, and dance tunes they carried from their homelands; people in slavery through the spirituals and work songs born out of their suffering. Blues music, Appalachian folk songs, songs of frontiersmen, factory workers, sailors, cowboys, soldiers, railroad workers, activists, and others are all ingredients in the great cultural stew that is the United States of America.

Since this epiphany, I have been singular in my mission to share this rich musical heritage with others, both for the sheer love of the music and for its value in inspiring people to better understand each other and America’s past, present, and future. That is why my colleagues and I started the nonprofit Ballad of America,

Inc. and created "The Story of the United States in 12 Songs." The music keeps us connected to the strength and beauty that have emerged from the often troubled history of the United States. We believe that it can do the same for you.

Contributors Matthew Sabatella Matthew Sabatella John Ermer Founder and President Paula Kalakowski Ballad of America, Inc. Karen Feldner

BalladofAmerica.org A Patriotic Young Woman, illustration published in Our Country: A Household History for All Readers (c. 1877)

1. Young Ladies in Town

The origin of the United States of America is the story of three worlds - American, European, and African - meeting on one continent. As Spain, France, and England struggled for dominance of this New World, they subjugated, displaced, and reduced the Native American populations. By 1733, the last of thirteen British colonies was founded on the Atlantic coast of North America. To pay for the costly Seven Years’ War, and to provide funding for ongoing support and protection of their colonies, the British Parliament began levying taxes on the colonists.

At first, the colonists resisted these taxes and organized protests against them. As Britain began to station ships and soldiers in America to enforce payment of the taxes, tensions escalated, and violence erupted. Representatives from each colony began to meet as a Continental Congress, eventually deciding that the only solution was to declare independence from Great Britain. Not all colonists supported separation. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the colonists favored independence, one-third remained loyal to the British crown, and one-third were neutral or undecided. Nevertheless, under General George Washington and with financial and military assistance from France, the Continental Army defeated Britain in the American Revolutionary War. The Lyrics United States of America, now an independent nation, wrote and Young ladies in town, and those that live ‘round ratified The Constitution to establish Wear none but your own country linen how the government would function, Of economy boast, let your pride be the most as well as the fundamental rights of To show clothes of your own make and spinning its citizens. What if homespun they say, be not quite so gay As brocades, be not in a passion

During the time of the American For once it is known, ‘tis much worn in town Revolution, news traveled by a variety One and all will cry out, “‘tis the fashion!” of means, including newspapers, pamphlets, speeches, and songs. Many And, as one, agree, that you’ll not married be of these items were written from a To such as will wear London factory particular perspective designed to But at first sight refuse, tell ‘em such you will choose influence people to take their side or As encourage our own manufactory take action. The lyrics to “Young No more ribbons wear, nor in rich silks appear Ladies in Town” first appeared in Love your country much better than fine things newspapers in New England in 1767, Begin without passion, ‘twill soon be the fashion during the period of organized protests To grace your smooth locks with a twine string against British taxation. The song attempts to persuade women to spin Throw away your bohea, and your green hyson tea and weave their own clothing to And all things of a new fashioned duty support the “Don’t Buy British” boycott. Get in a good store of the choice Labrador As part of the Homespun Movement, There'll soon he enough here to suit ye groups such as the Daughters of Liberty These do without fear and to all you'll appear sponsored spinning bees in which Fair charming, true, lovely and clever colonial women convened to produce Though the times remain darkish homespun cloth. Young men will be sparkish And love you much stronger than ever 2. The Wisconsin Emigrant

American Progress, painting by John Gast (1872)

During British colonial rule, officials barred white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountain range in an effort to maintain peace with Native Americans. Reserving this land as “Indian Territory” offered the added benefit of creating a buffer between British North American colonies and French/Spanish Louisiana. At the start of the Revolutionary War, most Americans lived on the narrow strip of land several hundred miles wide between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. When the war ended in 1783, the Treaty of Paris granted the United States all of the land east of the Mississippi River as far north as the southern shores of the Great Lakes.

As the population in the young United States increased due to immigration and a high birth rate, land in the East became more crowded and expensive. As a result, Americans set their sights on the West. By 1848, through purchase and conquest, the United States had acquired all of the land in North America west to the Pacific Ocean north of Mexico and south of Canada. Technological advances in water and land transportation, including canals, steamboats, and Lyrics railroads, provided means for more people to travel and inhabit Since times are so hard, I've thought, my true heart new western states and territories. Of leaving my oxen, my plough, and my cart Often, Native Americans already And away to Wisconsin, a journey we'd go occupied the land they sought. To double our fortune as other folks do Through broken treaties and violent While here I must labor each day in the field confrontations, the United And the winter consumes all the summer doth yield States government repeatedly forced Native Americans to resettle Oh husband, I've noticed with sorrowful heart on less desirable grounds. You've neglected your oxen, your plough, and your cart

Your sheep are disordered; at random they run As with many folk songs, the exact And your new Sunday suit is now every day on origins of “The Wisconsin Emigrant” Oh, stay on the farm and you'll suffer no loss are unknown. It most likely For the stone that keeps rolling will gather no moss emerged in the first few decades of the nineteenth century. Many Oh wife, let's go; oh, don't let us wait families grappled with deciding Oh, I long to be there; oh, I long to be great whether to leave their home in the While you some rich lady - and who knows but I East for a possible better life in the Some governor may be before that I die? West. “The Wisconsin Emigrant” While here I must labor each day in the field documents one such conversation And the winter consumes all the summer doth yield between a husband and wife in New England as they debated this issue. Oh husband, remember that land is to clear Despite their concerns about the Which will cost you the labor of many a year uncertain conditions awaiting them, Where horses, sheep, cattle, and hogs are to buy pioneers swarmed westward to And you'll scarcely get settled before you must die occupy the land. The United States Oh, stay on the farm and you'll suffer no loss Congress created the Wisconsin For the stone that keeps rolling will gather no moss Territory on April 20, 1836, and shifted the ‘permanent Indian frontier’ further west. Oh wife, let's go; oh, don't let us stay

I will buy me a farm that is cleared by the way

Where horses, sheep, cattle, and hogs are not dear

And we'll feast on fat buffalo half of the year

While here I must labor each day in the field

And the winter consumes all the summer doth yield

Oh husband, remember that land of delight

Is surrounded by Indians who murder by night

Your house they will plunder and burn to the ground

While your wife and your children lie murdered around

Oh, stay on the farm, and you'll suffer no loss

For the stone that keeps rolling will gather no moss

Now wife, you've convinced me; I'll argue no more

I never had thought of your dying before

I love my dear children, although they are small

But you, my dear wife, are more precious than all

We'll stay on the farm, and suffer no loss

For the stone that keeps rolling will gather no moss Slaves Waiting for Sale, painting by Eyre Crowe (1853)

3. Go Down, Moses

Between 1619, when the first slave ship arrived in North America, and 1865, when the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States, hundreds of thousands of Africans were kidnapped from their homeland, sold on the open market in America, and forced to live in slavery. During the British colonial period, slavery was introduced throughout the thirteen colonies, but it only took a firm hold in the South, where the owners of expansive farms and plantations demanded cheap, exploitable labor. Many people expected that the use of slave labor in the United States would gradually dissipate. Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin significantly increased both the speed of processing raw cotton and the demand for slave labor in the South to grow and harvest it. As “King Cotton” dominated the Southern economy, the attendant increase in slave labor spurred more activism in anti-slavery and abolitionist movements. Disagreements over whether or not to permit slavery in the new Western states and territories grew more heated and violent. In 1861, disputes over slavery finally erupted in civil war. Enslaved African Americans created a Lyrics diverse body of music that included work songs, leisure songs, and chorus: religious songs called spirituals. Go down, Moses The sounds were rooted in African Way down in Egypt land musical traditions but came to be Tell ol’ Pharoah informed by the European American To let my people go music to which they were exposed in America. Likewise, African rhythms, verses: harmonies, instruments, and vocal When Israel was in Egypt land styles had a significant influence on Let my people go the music of European Americans. “Go Oppressed so hard they could not stand Down Moses” is a spiritual describing Let my people go events in the Old Testament of the Bible in which God commands Moses to Thus spoke the Lord, bold Moses said demand the release of the Israelites Let my people go from bondage in Egypt. Many spirituals If not, I'll smite your first born dead have multiple layers of meaning. Let my people go Sometimes they were encoded with messages about secret meetings or No more shall they in bondage toil escape plans. On the surface, Let my people go the songs may simply express Let them come out with Egypt's spoil religious views or contain words and Let my people go teachings from the Bible. Read on another level, they can be powerful As Israel stood by the waterside expressions of people demanding Let my people go their freedom. At the command of God it did divide

Let my people go Moses, the cloud shall clear away

Let my people go

A fire by night, a shade by day

Let my people go

Let us all from bondage flee

Let my people go

Let us all in Christ be free

Let my people go

The Lord told Moses what to do

Let my people go

To lead the Hebrew children through

Let my people go

We need not always weep and mourn

Let my people go

And wear these slavery chains forlorn

Let my people go 4. Worried Man Blues

A Southern Chain Gang (c. 1900)

Following the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union victory in the Civil War, and the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, African Americans were freed from the bonds of slavery. In 1868, the ratification of the 14th Amendment affirmed that African Americans were U.S. citizens. The ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870 established that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of race. Despite these constitutional guarantees, most Southern white people were unwilling to accept African Americans as their equals. The period of rebuilding the South, called Reconstruction, was a highly contentious and divisive time. African Americans suffered extreme prejudice and were subject to discriminatory laws, violence, murder. Many worked under systems of tenant farming and sharecropping that kept them beholden to landowners just as they had been under slavery. As southern state governments were restored, they passed laws called Black Codes that were designed to restore white supremacy and keep African Americans in subservient positions. Lyrics These included forcing black people to continue to work and live on chorus: plantations, restricting their rights to It takes a worried man to sing a worried song vote, move, get better jobs, mix with It takes a worried man to sing a worried song white people, and be treated as citizens. I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long

During this time, African Americans verses: could be arrested and imprisoned I went across the river, and I lay down to sleep (x2) for the crime of “vagrancy,” which When I woke up, had shackles on my feet meant being unemployed. Under the convict leasing system, prisoners I asked the judge, what might be my fine (x2) could be leased to the owners of Twenty-one years on the RC Mountain Line factories, farms, mines, and railroads as laborers to meet the South’s Twenty-nine links of chain around my leg (x2) demand for cheap labor after the And on each link, the initials of my name abolition of slavery. The prisoner laborers, primarily African American The train arrived, was sixteen coaches long (x2) men, sometimes lived out their The girl I love is on that train and gone lives without trial or connection to their families. “Worried Man Blues,” I looked down the track as far as I could see (x2) a folk song that emerged during the Little bitty hand was waving after me second half of the nineteenth century, appears to be sung from the If anyone asks you who composed this song (x2) perspective of one such prison laborer Tell them it was I, and I sing it all day long who was arrested for vagrancy. The convict leasing system peaked around 1880. It was outlawed over time, state by state, and finally abolished by President Franklin D.

Roosevelt in 1941. 5. The Battleship of Maine

School Begins, illustration from Puck Magazine (1899) The racist caricatures and the explicit pro-imperialist messages included in this cartoon highlight the prevailing arguments in favor of U.S. expansion that were used to justify denial of self-determination to non-white Anglo-Saxon Protestant populations. Such arguments were widely, though not universally, accepted by the American public immediately following the conclusion of the Spanish-American war and coinciding with the beginning of the Philippine-American war. This particular image illustrates in remarkable detail the racialized, ethnocentric, and paternalistic assumptions underlying American territorial acquisition alluded to in the accompanying text, which reads: "Uncle Sam (to his new class in Civilization) - 'Now, children, you've got to learn these lessons whether you want to or not! But just take a look at the class ahead of you, and remember that, in a little while, you will feel as glad to be here as they are!'"

In April of 1898, the United States declared war on Spain and intervened in Cuba’s War of Independence. The Spanish-American War promoted national unity as northern and southern soldiers once again fought on the same side of a war against a traditional European power. The call for war came after the February explosion of the U.S.S. Maine while it anchored in Havana Harbor. The Maine sailed for Cuba to protect U.S. interests and the property owned by U.S. citizens and businesses. In an effort to boost circulation, newspapers engaged in yellow journalism, drumming up support for war on Spain by blaming them for the Maine’s destruction. “Remember the Maine” became the battle cry as volunteer armies raced to Cuba. The most famous of these was the Rough Riders, led by future president Theodore Roosevelt. The U.S. and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, ratified in 1899, that placed Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines under U.S. suzerainty. Along with earlier acquisitions of Hawaii and Alaska, the Spanish-American War marked U.S. entry into the ranks of imperial nations. Cuba gained nominal independence in 1902, after a period of U.S. military governance. Yet the United States maintained control of a naval base and coaling station in eastern Cuba at Guantanamo Bay. Along with similar military installations at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor and Guam, this period marked the beginning of U.S. efforts to maintain a permanent military presence outside the North American mainland. With these efforts, the United States set a course for increased military and diplomatic actions. As the U.S. expanded its global presence, it would eventually assume the mantle of "the world's policemen," as global relations now had a more significant impact on vital U.S. interests. An anti-imperialist movement emerged and voiced opposition to intervention in international matters. Other Americans supported this new, more active role and enhanced global status, believing that the inhabitants of foreign nations, particularly those they considered less civilized, would benefit from American social, cultural, and religious influence.

“The Battleship of Maine” is one of many songs written about the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine and the Spanish-American War at the time the events occurred. Most of the songs are patriotic, supporting the war effort, as are some versions of “The Battleship of Maine.” This humorous version, however, is sung from the perspective of a frightened soldier stumbling through the war, perhaps unmoved by the justification that the bloodshed was “all about that Battleship of Maine.” Lyrics

chorus:

At war with that great nation, Spain

When I get back from Spain, I want to honor my name

It was all about that Battleship of Maine

verses:

McKinley called for volunteers, then I grabbed my gun

First Spaniard I saw coming, I dropped my gun and run

It was all about that Battleship of Maine

Why are you running, why you afraid to die?

The reason I am running is because I cannot fly

It was all about that Battleship of Maine

The blood was a-running, and I was running, too

I give my feet good exercise, I had nothing else to do

It was all about that Battleship of Maine

I saw the Spanish coming, I fell upon on my knees

First thing I put my eyes upon was a great big pot of beans

It was all about that Battleship of Maine

The beans they was greasy, the meat it was fat

The soldiers fighting Spaniards, while I was fighting that

It was all about that Battleship of Maine

What kind of shoes do the Rough Riders wear?

Buttons on the side, cost five and a half a pair

It was all about that Battleship of Maine

What kind of shoes do the poor farmers wear?

Old brogans, that cost a dollar a pair

It was all about that Battleship of Maine Women suffragists picketing in front of the White House (1917)

6. The Suffrage Flag

Since the establishment of the earliest European colonies in the Americas, women and men have done equal work in building their communities. Many young, poor white women arrived as indentured servants. Some African women may also have been indentured servants, but the majority lived in slavery. Regardless of their status, women had no legal identity separate from that of their fathers or their husbands. While in practice, there were exceptions to this policy, in the eyes of the law, most women, especially married women, had no economic, social, or bodily autonomy whatsoever. They could not own property, enter into contracts, or gain custody of their children in the case of divorce, and their husbands had the right to assault and beat them as a means of “domestic discipline.”

The start of women's self-advocacy occurred before the American Revolution. It was primarily on an individual basis and generally only available to more privileged women. Following the Revolution, prominent women and men advocated for the improvement of girls’ education. The cause quickly gained public support and led to significant expansion of educational opportunities for girls and women in the early to mid- nineteenth century. This new, civically-oriented role for women enjoyed relatively broad acceptance, as did women’s associations that promoted the well-being and welfare of their communities. The activism of women contributed to the rise of a diverse array of reform movements, including those committed to the abolition of slavery and the right of women to vote, also known as women’s suffrage.

The first women’s rights convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Woman’s Rights Convention launched an organized, national women’s suffrage movement. By 1915, the National American Woman Suffrage Association began to pressure President Woodrow Wilson and Congress to pass a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. The 19th Amendment enfranchising women passed in 1919 and was ratified in 1920.

Songs and group singing have long been a meaningful part of organizing for social change. “The Suffrage Flag” is based on a Civil War melody called

“The Bonny Blue Flag.” Suffragists composed new words to the song, published it in pamphlets, newspapers, and other literature, and sang it at meetings and rallies. Lyrics

chorus:

Hurrah! Hurrah! For equal rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the suffrage flag that bears the woman’s star

verses:

There is a band of women and to our manor born

Emerging from the darkness past and looking toward the morn

Their mothers labored, waited through a night without a star

The morning shows the suffrage flag that bears the woman’s star

This band is for all reforms, war shall be at an end

Bayonets and swords shall rust; we’ll use the brain, the pen

Laden with precious freight now, thunders on the progress car

At the headlight waves the suffrage flag that bears the woman’s star

The ship of State for ages was guided by starlight

Till the cluster in our flag almost dispelled the night

‘Tis freedom’s day, our flag shall be a sun no night can mar

We’ll add the light of the suffrage flag that bears the woman’s star

Thus evolves the greatest triumph of dual human race

Church and State, the home and school, and law and love embrace

We’ll have a perfect nation, we’ll march from near and far

To glory ‘neath the Stars and Stripes, it shall bear the woman’s star Young textile mill workers, photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine (1909)

7. I Don’t Want Your Millions, Mister

The first century of U.S. independence coincided with radical changes in business and the production and distribution of goods. These developments, known as the Industrial Revolution, completely changed patterns of work, life, and society. Newly-invented machines created products that skilled craftsmen previously made by hand. As industrial capitalists built factories to house these machines, floor managers oversaw the veritable armies of laborers needed to operate the machines. Urban populations exploded as factory work lured people from rural areas. Waves of new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe also sought factory jobs. As the United States changed from a rural, agrarian nation to an urban, industrialized one, a new class of wealthy industrialists emerged. These industrial capitalists monopolized new industries such as steel and oil production. The workers who fueled these industries struggled to survive on low wages and suffered poor working and living conditions.

In the absence of minimum wage laws and workplace safety regulations, laborers, including children, could be made to work long hours under hazardous conditions. During the nineteenth century, workers began organizing labor unions to leverage their collective bargaining power with employers. Despite many losses and the risks of challenging powerful corporations, labor unions had many successes throughout the twentieth century that are still enjoyed by working people today. Their efforts ended child labor, limited work to forty hours per week, obtained higher wages, established a federal minimum wage, and earned benefits for workers, including health coverage, family and medical leave, and paid vacations. Unions also instigated many beneficial regulations regarding health and safety standards for workers. Throughout the twentieth century and beyond, corporations have successfully lobbied lawmakers to limit the rights of workers to organize. The battle between workers attempting to protect their rights and earn a living wage and corporations trying to protect what they perceive as the best interests of their shareholders continues.

As participants in other social movements have done, labor activists have written, published, and sung songs to express their grievances and goals. Songwriter and union organizer Jim Garland wrote the words to “I Don’t Want Your Millions, Mister” in the 1930s amidst the violent labor conflicts in the eastern Kentucky coal mining industry. As is common practice with protest songs and other folk songs, the lyrics are sung to a familiar melody, in this case, “I Don’t Want Your Greenback Dollar.” Lyrics

chorus:

I don't want your millions, Mister

I don't want your diamond ring

All I want is the right to live, Mister

Give me back my job again

verses:

Now, I don't want your Rolls-Royce, Mister

I don't want your pleasure yacht

All I want's just food for my babies

Give to me my old job back

We worked to build this country, Mister

While you enjoyed a life of ease

You've stolen all that we built, Mister

Now our children starve and freeze

Think me dumb if you wish, Mister

Call me green, or blue, or red

This one thing I sure know, Mister

My hungry babies must be fed

Take the two old parties, Mister

No difference in them I can see

But with a Farmer-Labor Party

We could set the people free Poor mother and children during the Great Depression, photograph by Dorothea Lange (1936)

8. How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

The U.S. economy expanded rapidly throughout the 1920s with the nation’s wealth more than doubling. Relatively few Americans enjoyed this prosperity, with 5% of the population holding 33% of all personal income. By 1929, half of American families lived below the poverty level. When the stock market crashed in 1929, many additional families plunged into poverty. During the Great Depression, which lasted from the end of 1929 until 1939, more than a million families lost their homes. Jobless and hungry men and women crowded the streets and took shelter in vacant lots and public parks. Shantytowns emerged as people pitched tents and made sheds for shelter from packing crates and cardboard boxes. President Herbert Hoover took measures to improve the economy but was ultimately unsuccessful.

Immediately after he took office in 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt started creating a series of New Deal programs. These programs, established through laws passed by Congress and by presidential executive order, focused on relief, recovery, and reform. Relief programs provided immediate temporary assistance through the Social Security Act, which gave financial security to retirees, the unemployed, dependent mothers with children, and people with disabilities. The Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration provided jobs for millions of Americans constructing and improving buildings, roads, bridges, utility systems, schools, playgrounds, airports, and more. Congress passed recovery legislation, including the National Industrial Recovery Act and Agricultural Adjustment Act, designed to help the economy bounce back from the depression. Reform efforts targeted the causes of the depression to maintain a healthy economy moving forward. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) assured that when banks failed, Americans would not lose all of their savings. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulated Wall Street and the stock market exchanges to prevent fraud and abuse by banks and corporations. While it didn’t fully lift the country out of the Great Depression, the New Deal established beneficial programs and policies that are still in effect today. It also resulted in fundamental changes in the way most Americans view the role and responsibilities of the federal government.

“How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?” was written by singer and fiddle player Blind Alfred Reed. The Wall Street crash was still fresh when Reed recorded it on December 4, 1929, in New York City. The song tells of hard times during the Great Depression with a sense of humor. Lyrics

There was once a time when everything was cheap Prohibition's good if 'tis conducted right

But now prices almost put a man to sleep There's no sense in shooting a man 'til he shows flight

When we pay our grocery bill Officers kill without a cause

We just feel like making our will And complain about funny laws

Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live? Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?

I remember when dry goods were cheap as dirt Most all preachers preach for dough and not the soul

We could take two bits and buy a dandy shirt That's what keeps a poor man always in a hole

Now we pay three bucks or more We can hardly get our breath

Maybe get a shirt that another man wore Taxed and schooled and preached to death

Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live? Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?

Well, I used to trade with a man by the name of Greg Oh, it's time for every man to be awake

Flour was fifty cents for a twenty-four pound bag We pay fifty cents a pound when we ask for steak

Now it's a dollar and a half beside When we get our package home

Just like skinning a flea for the hide Got a little wad of paper with gristle and a bone

Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live? Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?

Oh, the schools we have today ain't worth a cent Well, the doctor comes around with a face so bright

But they see to it that every child is sent And he says in a little while you'll be all right

If we don't send every day All he gives is a humbug pill

We have a heavy fine to pay A dose of dope and a great big bill

Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live? Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live? Mexico-United States barrier at the border of Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California. The crosses represent migrants who died in the crossing attempt. Some identified, some not. Surveillance tower in the background.

9. Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

These are the immortal words of Emma Lazarus, as preserved on the base of the Statue of Liberty. Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” in 1883, as the United States experienced a wave of “new immigration” that changed the demographics of the rapidly industrializing nation. Previously, U.S. immigration came from mostly- Protestant populations in Germany, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, and the British Isles. The new immigrants who entered New York Harbor under Lady Liberty’s shadow came from points further south and east, including Italy, the Balkans, Greece, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. Through Angel Island, California saw the arrival of immigrants from Asia, particularly Chinese workers seeking jobs constructing the railroads that connected the nation’s far-flung population centers.

Many of these new immigrants, including some groups from Europe, were considered non-white and regarded with suspicion as Catholic and Jewish invaders who posed a threat to American republican institutional integrity. Painted as subversives who sought to undermine American political and social norms, many of these “huddled masses” simply sought to escape wars of unification in places like Italy and Germany, or economic decline in Qing Dynasty China. Some were seeking opportunities for private agriculture that their home countries denied them.

The white, Protestant majority sought to stem the tide of “papist invaders,” “Jewish hoards,” and the “yellow peril.” Starting in the 1880s, Congress passed multiple statutes that prohibited or restricted immigration of non-white, non-Protestant groups, including many from East Asia and Eastern Europe. The Immigration Act of 1965 allowed for increased immigration by some groups that had been excluded under the previous laws. This reopened the “golden door” to waves of immigration from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, resulting in what some have called the “browning of America.” Recently, immigration reemerged in the national discourse with President Donald Trump’s “Muslim Ban” and the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century militarization of the southern border with Mexico.

Following the 1848 signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and ceded formerly Mexican territory to the United States, Mexican laborers made circular migrations to assist with crop harvests in the United States. Until the twentieth-century hardening of the U.S. border with Mexico, young Mexican men migrated north, filled voids in seasonal agricultural labor forces, and returned home. Since the 1960s, the dynamic has changed as border hardening policies made circular migration more difficult and encouraged a trend of permanent immigration among Latin American men, and whole families, who no longer find multiple border crossings practical or possible.

The song “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” was inspired by the dehumanizing way the news media referred to Mexican migrant workers killed in an airplane crash on January 28, 1948. Woody Guthrie wrote the words as a poem, which schoolteacher Martin Hoffman set to music ten years later. Lyrics

chorus: Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane All they will call you will be "deportees"

verses: The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting The oranges are piled in their creosote dumps They're flying them back to the Mexican border To pay all their money to wade back again

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted Our work contract's out and we have to move on Six hundred miles to that Mexican border They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves

My father's own father, he waded that river They took all the money he made in his life My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees And they rode the truck till they took down and died

We died in your hills; we died in your deserts We died in your valleys and died on your plains We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes Both sides of the river, we died just the same

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves The radio says, "They are just deportees"

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit? To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil And be called by no name except "deportees"? Elizabeth Eckford attending school on September 4, 1957 - the first day Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas permitted African Americans to enroll. It was three years after the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that the segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.

10. If You Miss Me From the Back of the Bus

In the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities under the "separate but equal" doctrine. In the wake of this landmark decision, state and local governments, especially in the South, passed statutes that legalized the creation of separate public accommodations based on race. Under these “Jim Crow laws,” African Americans were forbidden to enter restricted restaurants, theaters, schools, swimming pools, restrooms, and other public spaces. Pseudoscientific theories, media outlets, and popular culture propagated a white supremacist ideology and stoked fears of African Americans, as well as immigrants. Membership in the Ku Klux Klan, which carried out acts of intimidation and violence, including lynchings, peaked in the 1920s at more than 4 million people nationwide. Millions of African Americans left the South for job opportunities in the North only to face similar problems. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909, battled disenfranchisement, racial segregation, lynching, and other injustices through litigation, legislation, lobbying, and educating the public. Churches and new organizations mobilized millions of black and white Americans in the 1950s and 60s to create a civil rights movement. Their efforts culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited segregation in public places and made employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin illegal. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed many of the discriminatory voting practices that had been used to minimize the number of black voters, especially in the South, since Reconstruction.

Wherever and whenever people congregated to demand civil rights, they sang songs. Many songs of the movement had roots in the spirituals sung by enslaved African Americans. Others were gospel songs from earlier in the twentieth century. Sometimes people made up new words to reflect the current struggles. In other instances, this was not necessary. Charles Neblett, civil rights activist and founding member of The Freedom Singers, wrote “If You Miss Me From the Back of the Bus” after an African American man drowned while swimming in a local river, having been denied the right to use the public swimming pool. Lyrics

If you miss me from the back of the bus And you can’t find me nowhere Come on up to the front of the bus I’ll be riding up there

I’ll be riding up there I’ll be riding up there Come on up to the front of the bus I’ll be riding up there

If you miss me from the Mississippi River And you can’t find me nowhere Come on over to the swimmin’ pool I’ll be swimmin’ over there

I’ll be swimmin’ over there I’ll be swimmin’ over there Come on over to the swimmin’ pool I’ll be swimmin’ over there

If you miss me from Jackson State And you can’t find me nowhere Come on over to Old Miss I’ll be learning right there

I’ll be learning right there I’ll be learning right there Come on over to Old Miss I’ll be learning right there

If you miss me from the picket lines And you can’t find me nowhere Come on down to the jailhouse I’ll be rooming right there

I'll be rooming right there I’ll be rooming right there Come on down to the jailhouse I’ll be rooming right there

If you miss me from the cotton fields And you can’t find me nowhere Come on down to the courthouse I’ll be votin’ right there

I’ll be votin’ right there I’ll be votin’ right there Come on down to the courthouse I’ll be votin’ right there Suburbia, photograph by David Shankbone (2008)

11. Little Boxes

Through the course of the twentieth century, cities expanded their footprints as subways, streetcars, and the automobile allowed Americans to live further from their places of employment. Easier access to credit fueled this suburban growth in the early twentieth century, but the Great Depression dampened the previously booming credit and real estate markets. Following the Second World War, suburbs experienced unprecedented growth into urban hinterlands.

Much of this growth was a result of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill, which guaranteed home loans for war veterans. Demand for homes and rates of homeownership increased significantly. The G.I. Bill also funded college education for war veterans. Bachelor’s degrees and white-collar jobs became available to segments of the population who generally viewed post-secondary education as unattainable. Additionally, the G.I. Bill provided federal guarantees for business loans, which sparked a wave of entrepreneurship in the United States. Lyrics With cheap loans, college degrees, Little boxes on the hillside and white-collar jobs, many white Little boxes made of ticky tacky Americans fled the cities in favor of Little boxes on the hillside suburban life. The white flight from Little boxes all the same cities benefited from the building of There's a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one vast ribbons of expressways funded And they're all made out of ticky tacky by the Federal Aid Highway Act of And they all look just the same 1956, also known as the National And the people in the houses Interstate and Highways Act. Supported All went to the university by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Where they were put in boxes the Highway Act connected U.S. And they came out all the same cities to their suburbs and to each And there's doctors and lawyers And business executives other with fast, reliable roadways And they're all made out of ticky tacky that facilitated the movement of And they all look just the same people and goods across the country. And they all play on the golf course As the demand for suburban housing And drink their martinis dry increased, developers like Levitt & And they all have pretty children Sons applied factory assembly line And the children go to school And the children go to summer camp processes to the construction of And then to the university houses, resulting in similar or identical Where they are put in boxes dwellings. Malvina Reynolds’ 1962 And they come out all the same song “Little Boxes” conjures stereotypes And the boys go into business of “cookie-cutter” homes and people And marry and raise a family in a homogenous and un-adaptive In boxes made of ticky tacky subdivision marked by sprawling And they all look just the same There's a pink one and a green one lawns and cul-de-sacs. And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same 12. Changes

Black Lives Matter protest in New York City (November 28, 2014)

The G.I. Bill afforded the same benefits to veterans of all races after World War II. However, for most of the 1.2 million African American veterans, the promise of the G.I. Bill was an illusion. Veterans Administration job counselors often steered African Americans toward vocational training instead of universities. Through discriminatory practices known as redlining, banks denied them home loans, despite federal guarantees. Many of the new suburban neighborhoods would not sell homes to African Americans. As white families fled urban centers, inner city demographics skewed more heavily African American and Latino, while suburbs were generally white and increasingly affluent.

Interstate highways contributed to U.S. economic expansion, but they also contributed to the decline of urban neighborhoods. Construction crews often razed African American neighborhoods to build highways through city centers, as in the case of I-95 and I-395, which eviscerated Miami’s

Overtown neighborhood. While many Americans believed the civil rights movement ended with the Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and Immigration Acts associated with Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, racial minorities continued to encounter systemic barriers to economic equality and social justice.

Beginning in 1969, generations of U.S. policymakers rolled back the New Deal, Fair Deal, and Great Society safety nets that supported the expansion of the U.S. middle class across all races. Tax cuts shrank budgets for welfare programs and reduced bureaucratic oversight. The turn toward small government and supply-side economics contributed to a widening of the wealth gap and shrinking of the middle class that took place over the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries. Minority communities felt the brunt of these negative dynamics.

In his 1998 song “Changes,” rapper 2Pac (Tupac Shakur) uses audio samples from Bruce Hornsby and the Range's 1986 hit "The Way It Is" to reaffirm and bring new perspectives to the message of outrage at systemic racism and income inequality. “Changes” seems to toe a line between the radical Marxist and racial justice movements of the mid-twentieth century and recent community-based protests, like Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March. Shakur pays homage to Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party, and admits “love” for his “brother.” Yet, in multiple verses, he seems to eschew visions of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism, imploring his listeners to “share with each other” as “misplaced hate makes disgraces of races.” “Changes” offers glimpses of issues that today occupy larger places within the national discourse, including the disproportionate number of African Americans who are in U.S. prisons or victims of police brutality. Despite the challenges presented within, the song ultimately expresses optimism that change is in the hands of the people, if it is their will to make it happen. Lyrics

chorus: 'Cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight And only time we chill is when we kill each other That's just the way it is It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other Things will never be the same And although it seems heaven-sent That's just the way it is We ain't ready to see a black president Aww yeah It ain't a secret, don't conceal the fact The penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks That's just the way it is But some things will never change Things will never be the same Try to show another way, but you stayin' in the dope game That's just the way it is Now tell me, what's a mother to do? Aww yeah Bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you You gotta operate the easy way "I made a G today," but you made it in a sleazy way verses: Sellin' crack to the kids. "I gotta get paid" I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself Well hey, well that's the way it is Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?

I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black We gotta make a change My stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Cops give a damn about a negro Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live Pull the trigger, kill a n*****, he's a hero And let's change the way we treat each other Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares? You see the old way wasn't working So it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive One less hungry mouth on the welfare And still I see no changes; can't a brother get a little peace First ship 'em dope and let 'em deal to brothers It's war on the streets, and the war in the Middle East Give 'em guns, step back, watch 'em kill each other Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs “It's time to fight back,” that's what Huey said So the police can bother me Two shots in the dark now Huey's dead And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere But now I'm back with the blacks givin' it back to you Unless we share with each other Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up We gotta start makin' changes Crack you up and pimp smack you up Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers You gotta learn to hold your own They get jealous when they see you with your mobile phone And that's how it's supposed to be But tell the cops they can't touch this How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me? I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this I'd love to go back to when we played as kids That's the sound of my tool But things changed, and that's the way it is You say it ain't cool, my mama didn't raise no fool And as long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped I see no changes, all I see is racist faces And I never get to lay back Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races 'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the paybacks We under, I wonder what it takes to make this Some buck that I roughed up way back Comin' back after all these years One better place, let's erase the wasted “Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat,” that's the way it is Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right