You know we're coming over here.

Go right ahead.

[unintelligible]

What would you like me to say? I'd like to say this is-

I thought we'd talk about, tell about the experience.

The experience of being one of the enter-educators here, durng the Eyes on the Prize Institute was very inspiring. It was a great opportunity to meet some other people who had been using Eyes on the Prize in the classroom, and we got to work together, we got to put together some things that I'm quite sure everyone's gonna be able to take home and use next year in their, in their, in their schools and maybe even, you know, get some other people to, you know, use in their schools.

[reads] "For my people everywhere, singing their slave songs repeatedly. Their dirges and their ditties and their blues and jubilees, praying their prayers nightly to an unknown god, bending their knees humbly to an unseen power; For my people, lending their strength to the years, to the gone years, and the now years, and the maybe years. Washing, ironing, cooking, scrubbing, sewing, mending, hoeing, plowing, dragging along, never gaining, never reaping, never knowing, and never understanding; For my playmates in the clay and dust and sand of Alabama backyards, playing baptizing and preaching and doctor and jail soldier, school, mama, cooking, playhouse, concert, store, hair, Ms. Choomby and company; For the cramped bewildered years, we went to school to learn, to know the reasons why, and the answers to, and the people who, and the places where, and the days when, in memory of the bitter hours, when we discovered we were Black, and poor, and small, and different, and nobody cared. Nobody wondered, and nobody understood; For the boys and girls who grew in spite of these things, to be man and woman. To laugh and dance and sing and play and drink their wine and religion and success. To marry their playmates and bear children and then die of consumption and anemia, and lynching; For my people thronging 47th Street in Chicago, Lenox Avenue in New York, Rampart Street in New Orleans. Lost, disinherited, dispossessed, happy people, filling the cabarets and taverns and other people's pockets. Needing bread and shoes and milk and land and money and something, something all our own; For my people walking blindly, spreading joy, losing time, being lazy, sleeping when hungry, shouting when burdened, drinking when hopeless. Tied and shackled, and tangled among ourselves by the unseen creatures who tower over us omnisciently and laugh; For my people blundering and groping and floundering in the dark of churches and schools, clubs and societies, associations, councils, committees, conventions. Distressed, disturbed and deceived, and devoured by money-hungry, glory-craving leeches, preyed on by facile force of state, and fad and novelty by false prophet and holy believer; For my people standing, staring. Trying to fashion a better way from confusion, from hypocrisy, and misunderstanding. Trying to fashion a world that will hold all the people, all the faces, all the Adams and Eves and their countless generations; Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second generation full of courage issue forth. Let a people loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty, full of healing and the strength, the final clenching be the pulsing in our spirits, in our blood. Let the marital [sic: martial] songs be written. Let the dirges disappear. Let a new race of man now rise and take control."-Margaret Walker "For My People"

[sings "Steal Away to Jesus"] "Steal away, steal away to Jesus. Steal away, steal away home. I ain't got long to stay here. My lord, he calls me. He calls me by the thunder. The trumpet sounds within of my soul. I ain't got long to stay here. My lord, my lord, he calls me. (calls me) He calls me by the thunder. The trumpet sounds way, way down my soul. I ain't got long to stay here.

[sings] "Steal away Steal away to Jesus Steal away Steal away home I ain't got long to stay here."

[reads] "I was born in the Congo. I walked to the fertile crescent and built the sphinx. I designed a pyramid so tough that a star that only glows every one hundred years falls into the center, giving divine perfect light. I am bad. I sat on the throne drinking nectar with allah. I got hot and sent an ice age to Europe to cool my thirst. My oldest daughter is Nefertiti. The tears from my birth pains created the Nile. I am a beautiful woman. I gazed on the forest and burned out the Sahara Desert. With a pack of goat's meat and a change of clothes, I crossed it in two hours. I am a gazelle so swift, so swift you can't catch me. For a birthday present when he was three, I gave my son hannibal an elephant. He gave me rome for mother's Day. My strength flows ever on. My son Noah built new/ark and I stood proudly at the helm as we sailed on a soft summer day. I turned myself into myself and was jesus, men intone my loving name. All praises, all praises. I'm the one who would save. I sold diamonds in my backyard. My bowels deliver uranium. The filings of my fingernails are semi-precious jewels. On a trip north, I caught cold and blew my nose, giving oil to the arab world. I am so hip, even my errors are correct. I sailed west to reach east and had to round off the world as I went. The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid across three continents. I am so perfect, so divine, so ethereal, so surreal. I cannot be comprehended, except by my permission. I mean...I...can fly like a bird in the sky...."-Nikki Giovanni "Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)"

"Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world. Troubles of the world. Troubles of the world. Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world. I'm going home to live with God. I'm gonna see my mother. I'm gonna see my mother. I'm gonna see my mother. I'm gonna see my father."

All right then.

[sings] "I'm gonna see my father. I'm gonna see my father. I'm going home to live with God. No more weeping and wailing. With the troubles of the world. The troubles of the world. The troubles of the world. No more weeping and wailing, with the troubles of the world. I'm going home. I'm going home. I'm going home to live with God."

[sings "His Eye Is on the Sparrow"] "Why should I feel discouraged? And why should the shadows come? Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven? It's my home. When Jesus is my portion, a constant friend is He. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches over me. I sing because I'm happy."

"I sing, I sing because I'm free. His eye is on the sparrow. And I know that He watches over me. Don't you know that I sing, because I'm happy? I sing because I'm free. His eye is on the sparrow. And I know He watches over me. Oh, I sing, because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. His eye, his eye is on the sparrow. And I know He watches me. Oh, I sing, because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. His eye, his eye, is on the sparrow. And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, His eye on the sparrow. And I know, He watches me. And I know He watches me. And I know, He watches over me."

[sings "Take My Hand, Precious Lord"] "Precious Lord, take my hand. Lead me on, let me stand. I am tired, I am weak. I am worn. Through the storm, through the night. Lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me home. When, when my way grow so drear, precious Lord, linger near. When, when my light is all, almost gone. Hear, hear my cry. Hear, hear my call. Hold my hand lest, lest I fall. Take my hand, precious Lord and lead me home. Oh-"

"Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me home, let me stand."

[sings] "Oh, precious Lord, take my hand, lead me home, let me, let me stand. Lord, I'm so tired. Precious Lord, I am weak. Lord, I'm worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me home. Savior to the light. Won't you take my, take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me home."

[sings] "Precious Lord, I love your name. When I look back, from whence I came. Sometimes stumbling, and sometimes all alone. Friends and loved ones, I loved so dear. They are gone, but I'm still here."

Yes, yes.

[sings] "Take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me home."

I think you know what I mean. All of the songs have a certain concept. The concept to be free, to move forward in spite of obstacles. Orator represents the total body of oral discourse styles, and of the condition of the African people. The rhetorical quality of the Black preacher is even lyrical. Black preachers are even required to use the Black intonation, because no Black man can [unintelligible] about the love, only speaking the language of the White oppressor. Jesus is my subject but Jesus is my subject.

[reads] "The important cadence that was so important during those speeches. Dr. King did it excellently. Jesse Jackson followed the tradition, Malcolm X know just, knew just when to pause. Nelson Mandela encompasses it all."

African Americans' approach to language is principally lyrical. It is the basic poetic [unintelligible] response to reality. The closer a person moves to the White community psychologically, the further he moves from the lyrical approach to the language. This is the basic force behind the civil rights movement, and the music came out of the reformed Black Baptist and Methodist churches. To many Black Baptists and Methodists, this is chanting. With the killing of the spirit, blocking the development of the Pentecostal movement, with [unintelligible] line music that was encouraged and preserved. At the turn of the century, when we put together hymn books and we immersed in reading, for a while, some of this spirit left the songs. Fortunately, it later came back as the Methodists reclaimed their rejected heritage. The Depression era produced another musical art form. Lyrical [unintelligible] groups were in Black religious experience, [unintelligible] the Gospels. Gospel music, in the words of, of Tony Heilbut, "is the good news in bad times." Gospel lyrics can sound banal, but they talk about things that matter. To quote, "When you are well off, you can write songs about individual neuroses-

-but a poor man's concerned about staying alive." [sings] "I coulda been dead, buried in my grave."

Staying alive is another concept. [sings] "It's another day's journey, and I'm glad about that." It's about being well. [sings] "I been sick and I couldn't get well."

[sings] "On the stormy sea, Jesus speaks to me, And the billows cease to roll-"

Everybody say I didn't have any money. [sings] "I been down because I didn't have a dime."

[sings] "Blessed quietness, holy quietness, What assurance in my soul! On the stormy sea, Jesus speaks to me And the billows cease to roll. Blessed quietness, holy quietness, What assurance in my soul! On the stormy sea, Jesus speaks to me And the billows cease to roll."

Come on, Dennis, play the piano. Make it sound like a piano. Come on Billy, on the drums. Come on. One more time Ensemble. Whoa hallelujah.

[sings] "Blessed quietness, holy quietness, What assurance in my soul. On the stormy sea, Jesus speaks to me, and the billows cease to roll."

We're going to show you some examples of how these songs were taken, and the lyrics were slightly changed to fit the appropriateness of the bus rides and the various struggles...the various planned rebellions that took place through the South. We start out, and Miss Henrietta Robinson is gonna take us through.

[sings "Hallelujah, I'm a Traveling"] "I'm taking a ride on the Greyhound bus line. I'm riding in the front seat to Jackson this time. Hallelujah, I'm a travelin'. Hallelujah, ain't it fine? Hallelujah, I'm a travelin' along the main line."

[sings] "I'm taking a ride, on the Greyhound bus line. I'm sitting in the front seat to Jackson this time. Hallelujah, I'm a travelin'. Hallelujah, ain't it fine? Hallelujah, I'm traveling on freedom's main line. We praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love, for Jesus who died, and is now gone above. Hallelujah, thine glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine glory, revive us again. I'm taking a ride, on the Greyhound bus line. I'm riding in the front seat to Jackson this time. Hallelujah, I'm a travelin'. Hallelujah, ain't it fine? Hallelujah, I'm traveling on freedom's main line."

[sings "I'm So Glad"] "I'm so glad, I'm fighting for my rights. I'm so glad, I'm fighting for my rights. I'm so glad, I'm fighting for my rights. Singing glory hallelujah, I'm fighting for my rights."

[sings] "I'm so glad, Jesus lifted me. I'm so glad, Jesus lifted me. I'm so glad, Jesus lifted me. Singing glory hallelujah, Jesus lifted me. I'm so glad, I'm fighting for my rights. I'm so glad, I'm fighting for my rights. I'm so glad, I'm fighting for my rights. Singing glory hallelujah, glory hallelujah, glory hallelujah, I'm fighting for my rights. I'm so glad, Jesus lifted me. I'm so glad, Jesus lifted me. I'm so glad, Jesus lifted me. Singing glory hallelujah, Jesus lifted me."

[sings "Go Tell it on the Mountain"] "Go tell it on the mountain. Over the hills, and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, to let my people go."

[sings] "Go tell it on the mountain. Over the hill and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, to let my people go. Go tell it on the mountain. Over the hill and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born."

[sings "Certainly Lord] "Have you been to jail? Have you been to jail? Have you been to jail?"

[sings] "Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly, certainly, certainly Lord. Have you been to Mobile? Have you been to Mobile? Have you been to Mobile? Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly, certainly, certainly Lord. Have you marched to Montgomery? Have you marched to Montgomery? Have you marched to Montgomery? Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly, certainly, certainly Lord. Did you ride to Jackson? Did you ride to Jackson? Did you ride to Jackson? Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly, certainly, certainly Lord. Have you gotten true religion? Have you gotten true religion? Have you gotten true religion? Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly, certainly, certainly Lord. Have you been baptized? Have you been baptized? Have you been baptized? Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly Lord. Certainly, certainly, certainly Lord."

[reads] Black woman, striving. Climbing hills, and searching valleys. Avon, Maybelline, Jordache, and Sassoon, like monkeys on her back. Babies suckling from her breast and a feverish Black man tripping merrily along with visions of Miss White America and apple pie in his eye. Black woman, striving, Mr. Charlie and Miss Anne barking at her heels. Career, love, identity, stashed in her breast pocket like books she always meant to read. Black woman, striving. Climbing hills, and searching valleys, heading for the Promised Land. For Paula Cooper, the eighteen-year-old who waits on death row. Paula of the trembling brown cheeks and silent tears, I see you struggling and stumbling, day leaning into day, seasons and years measured by the shadows on the walls, and the final metal clang of lock-up, death, and fifteen years of abuse bearing down on you. Hungry and wanting, you plunged the knife. Like a sacrificial lamb, did you think her blood would wash clean the misery of your life? Thirty-three times, you twisted and plunged into another's life. Still, the freedom did not come, the pain did not end. Only the time of waiting continues, waiting for a kind word, waiting for the abuse to end, waiting to be wanted, waiting to be loved, waiting for a time there will be no waiting, waiting to die, convulsing in the electric chair. Paula, of the soft brown cheeks and silent tears, wishing you laughter and eighteen-year-old joy. Wishing you a decision no harder than what dress to wear to the prom. Hungry and wanting, I see you on street corners throughout the country, the same soft brown cheeks, and silent tears. I see you in the faces of a generation left waiting. Like a sacrificial lamb, I see you silent, silver streaks, flowing down baby brown cheeks, waiting.

We sometimes...we sometimes think of the civil rights movement as if it's something that's over. We speak about it in very romantically, as though reading about the French Revolution but, in fact, the issues are very contemporary, and many believe that many battles were not won. And so we sing these songs, but we don't want the impression to be that the songs were only spirited in gospel, because people like Paul Robeson, Billy Holliday and many contemporary artists raised a great deal of money through their music and also spoke to other issues. Lynching. Other things that were happening in the South, as well as, you look at brothers and sisters today on the death row. This next song we do to represent all those other artists whose music was also a part of civil rights movement.

[sings "Strange Fruit"] "Southern trees bear a strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. Black body swaying in the Southern breeze, Black body hanging from the poplar tree. Pastoral scene from the gallant South. So the bulging eyes and twisted mouth, scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh, and a sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck, for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, for the sun to rot, for the dream-"

[reads] -death, stalking a nation as we bury each other in homophobic oblivion. One more media blitz for the pus that courses through our children's veins, while a red-dressed millionairess just says, "Just say no."

No more media blitzes for the pain, and the anger, and the apathy, and the shame of an American people who are no longer willing to see a picture postcard, pretty America, that does not exist.

[reads] I am somebody's baby, the big fat beautiful one, living larger than life, Amazon woman, as bold as you get. Society's new worst nightmare, me. Bold, golden woman with too much mouth and dreams, dreams. Oh, the dreams. Words like fists, fists like battering rams knocking down stereotypes, and fat jolly fantasies of who you think I am. Big, high, proud-butted sister, struttin' my stuff. All the fat juicy babies of Africa broadenin' my hips, living large in a world much too small-minded to hold my dreams.

[sings "This, this little light of mine"] "Well, this, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

[sings] "Everywhere I go, I'm gonna let it shine. Everywhere I go, I'm gonna let it shine. Everywhere I, where I go, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

[sings] "Deep within my soul, I'm gonna let it shine. Oh, deep within my soul, I'm gonna let it shine. Deep within my soul, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

[sings] "Oh, in my home, I'm gonna let it shine. Lord, in my home, I'm gonna let it shine. Oh, and in my home, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

[sings] "Hey. This little light of mine-"

[sings] "I'm gonna let it shine. Oh, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

[sings] "Deep within my thoughts, I'm gonna let it shine. Deep in my thoughts, I'm gonna let it shine. Deep in my thoughts, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

[sings] "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

[sings] "In my daily walk, I'm gonna let it shine."

[sings] "Come on. Come on one more time."

[sings] "In my daily walk, I'm gonna let it shine. In my daily walk, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

[sings] "Lord, in the meeting, I'm gonna let it shine. Lord, in the meeting, I'm gonna let it shine. Lord, in the meeting, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. I'm gonna lay down my burden. Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside; I ain't gonna study war no more, I ain't gonna study war no more, Study war no more. I ain't gonna study war no more, I ain't gonna study war no more, Study war no more. I'm gonna lay down my burden. Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside, Down by the riverside; I ain't gonna study war no more, I ain't gonna study war no more, Study war no more. I ain't gonna study war no more, I ain't gonna study war no more, Study war no more."

[sings] "Down by the riverside. Down by the riverside. Down by the riverside. Study war no more. Study war no more. Study war no more."

[sings] "I'm gonna lay my burden down. Down by, down by, I'm gonna lay down my burden."

Before we leave you, we'd like to do the song that was our team's favorite. Before we do that, we're gonna have Jackie Moore [unintelligible].

[reads] Will the real Black people please stand?

[reads] Whose forefathers, whose forefathers worked this land together, whose heritage is undated, whose pride remains uplifted, undaunted by the White man's statistics, pushed forward by initiative, unstilled by useless chatter. Is this us? Whose cooperation we dare not trust, irresponsible to past assignments, content to beat around the bush. Stand up, Black people. Dressed in polka dot shirts and striped ties, flowered and possessed by them. Is this really us? Will the real Black people please stand?

All right now.

[reads] Those fearful of the unconventional, move towards their own Blackness, prone to influence and set trends, schooled in their times in music and folkways, dedicated to worthwhile endeavors, attentive to meaningful expression. Is this us? Uncommitted to work, driven to pleasure, preoccupied with semantic, hung up on ego projection, fooled by long talkers who say nothing, harassed by uncontrolled belligerence, cynical to the point of madness. Is this us? Will the real Black people please act?

[reads] They call me mean. I'm not mean, just very self-assured.

[reads] They say I'm hard on furniture, bustin' up what's not substantial and tossin' it away. They say I'm hard on life, ridin' it roughshod right into the ground. They say I'm hard on men, chewin' em up and spittin' out what's not real.

Whoo.

Wow.

[reads] They say I'm too heavy, flesh-heavy, word-heavy, how I make a light-headed man cry.

[reads] They call me ugly, but my mirror keeps flashing proud. They call me lazy, but I know what work best suits a queen. They call me too much, but I see myself as just plenty. They call me too hot, too cold, and too hard to hold. They keep tryin' to chip away, casting far-flung adjectives and epithets. They call me lots of things, but most of them have never met a fully grown Black woman before.

[sings "If I Can Help Somebody"] "If I can help somebody, as I travel along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody that he's traveling wrong, then my living shall not be in, in vain. Then my living shall not be in, in vain, my living shall not be in vain. If I can help somebody, as I travel on, then my living shall not be in vain, then my living shall not be in vain, my living shall not be in vain."

[sings] "If I can help somebody, as I travel on, then my living shall not be in vain, in vain."

[sings "We Shall Overcome] "I shall overcome, I shall overcome. I shall overcome, someday. Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, that we shall overcome, someday."

Everybody join together.

[sings] "We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome, someday. Deep in my heart, I do believe. We shall overcome, someday."

I want to thank you all for being with us. We've gonna sing the song, and we're gonna do it again from the top.

[sings] "Some day, I'll overcome. Some day, I'll overcome. So, some day, I'll overcome."

[sings] "I'll overcome."

[sings] "I'll overcome."

[sings] "I'll overcome."

[sings] "I'll overcome, someday."

[sings] "I'll overcome. I'll overcome. I'll overcome. You'll overcome. You'll overcome. [unintelligible]. Deep within our hearts, I do believe that we shall overcome someday. We'll overcome someday. [unintelligible]."

Goodnight. Want to tell you [unintelligible] good music. You [unintelligible] for our performers [unintelligible] for being with us. On piano, you got Mr. Dennis Potter. Miss [unintelligible] right here. [unintelligible] right here. Daisy, Henrietta, Bonnie, Terri. Yes, ma'am. My friend Jackie, my friend. Feel alright. Thank you. Thank you. Let's slow it down. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.