By Langston Hughes
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
