Thank you.
When I was
eight years old,
my mother played for me the records of Marian Anderson,
the
Black Contralto,
and I always loved her music.
And I had my first chance to sing this next song in Birmingham,
Alabama in 1963.
And I was down there like a lot of northern folks,
visiting and marching and praying and
singing with Dr. Martin Luther King and his people.
As they really walked,
tall was the great and glorious dignity of nonviolence,
and walked and sang and demanded their freedom.
As Dr. King said,
if you stand and walk tall,
a man can't ride your back when you stand tall.
And I went to church that morning,
and the preacher was young,
a young black preacher.
And the sermon was called Singing at Midnight.
And the theme was,
the white folks will see
us, they'll see our joy,
and they'll see what we're doing,
and they'll simply come and join
us in this movement,
because they'll realize that that's the only place our birds could
be right now.
And that's exactly what happened.
And then that day, children, all black school
children from all over the city filled the streets,
they left the schools,
and they filled
the streets, and they filled the churches.
Then they left the churches and filled the
paddy wagons,
and then they filled the jails in civil disobedience.
And when I was in that
church, I was asked up to sing a song.
And I decided this was the most appropriate one.
I think it called all the way back to
Marian Anderson when I was eight years old.
Let Us
Break Bread Together on Our Knees.
Let us break bread together
on our knees.
Let
us break bread
together on our knees.
And before I will be slain, I'll be buried
in my grave.!!!
And go home to my Lord and be
free.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And go home to my Lord and be free.
And go home to my Lord and be free.
And go home to my Lord and be free.
And go
home to my Lord and be free.
And go home to my Lord and be free.
And go home to my Lord and be free.