Though you may hear me holler, And you may see me cry-- I'll be dogged, sweet baby, If you gonna see me die.

It were depression, too. They cut my wages down once at the foundry. They cut my wages down again. Then they cut my wages out, also the job.

Americans of good-will, the nice decent church people, the well-meaning liberals, the good hearted souls who themselves wouldn't lynch anyone, must begin to realize that they have to be more than passively good-hearted, more than church goingly Christian, and much more than word-of-mouth in the liberalism.

Rest at pale evening... A tall slim tree... Night coming tenderly Black like me

I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn't, So I jumped in and sank.

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair

These feet have walked ten thousand miles working for white folks and another ten thousand keeping up with colored.