I’m walking down the street when I hear a cry
It’s the voices of my ancestors going by
“Truth Prevails,” says Sojourner Truth
Next I get a call from the telephone booth
“Hello?” I ask. “No struggle no progress,”
I recognize the voice as Frederick Douglass
Harriet Tubman yells out, “You’ll be free or die!”
And I’m thinking to myself, “She ain’t lying,”
“Character is power,” says Booker T.
“Education must teach life,” says W.E.B.
Noble says “Wild animals will roam the streets,”
“Tree without roots” Garvey tells me in a beat
“Unity is more powerful than a bomb,” says Elijah
Nothing better than hearing the voice of the Messiah
“KKK wears black robes,” says Thurgood
Went to the courts from the lily white hoods
“A made up mind stops fear,” says Rosa Parks
Oh what life do these voices spark!
Next is Fannie Lou, who’s “sick and tired of being sick and tired,”
James Baldwin says, “Dead embers don’t start fires,”
From Mandela I learn, “Education is the most powerful weapon,”
“Freedom has never been free,” Medgar Evers steps in
Malcolm X tells me “The ballot or the bullet,”
“Redistribute the pain,” says Dr. King from the pulpit
Maya Angelou says with passion, “Still I rise,”
“We ain’t running no more,” Kwame Ture cries
“As long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free,” Muhammad Ali goes on
And then all the voices converge into the voice of Farrakhan
