Langston Hughes
Beaumont to Detroit: 1943
Looky here, America
What you done done--
Let things drift
Until the riots come.
Now your policemen
Let your mobs run free
I reckon you don't care
Nothing about me.
You tell me that hitler
Is a mighty bad man.
I guess he took lessons
from the ku klux klan.
You tell me mussolini's
Got an evil heart.
Well, it mus-a been in Beaumont
That he had his start--
Cause everything that hitler
And mussolini do,
Negroes get the same
Treatment from you.
You jim crowed me
Before hitler rose to power--
And you're STILL jim crowing me
Right now, this very hour.
Yet you say we're fighting
For democracy.
Then why don't democracy
Include me?
I ask you this question
Cause I want to know
How long I got to fight
BOTH HITLER--AND JIM CROW.
Beaumont to Detroit: 1943
Looky here, America
What you done done--
Let things drift
Until the riots come.
Now your policemen
Let your mobs run free
I reckon you don't care
Nothing about me.
You tell me that hitler
Is a mighty bad man.
I guess he took lessons
from the ku klux klan.
You tell me mussolini's
Got an evil heart.
Well, it mus-a been in Beaumont
That he had his start--
Cause everything that hitler
And mussolini do,
Negroes get the same
Treatment from you.
You jim crowed me
Before hitler rose to power--
And you're STILL jim crowing me
Right now, this very hour.
Yet you say we're fighting
For democracy.
Then why don't democracy
Include me?
I ask you this question
Cause I want to know
How long I got to fight
BOTH HITLER--AND JIM CROW.
