This Island

Ida B. Wells...

Nothing but truth between her margins.

Threatened to never return to Memphis because to save her life, that was a bargain.

And Martin Luther King?

Oh how he had my people marching!

Fighting for the right to live freely...who could stop him? Not even a sargent.

So if I were stranded all by my lonesome on an island,

I would want to preserve my history in a photo album bejeweled in black diamonds,

To remind me of the times when my ancestors grew sick and tired...

So they threw themselves overboard before they could ever reach the islands.

See, I don't need to be deserted on an island to feel alone.

I carry that burden everyday knowing my people were violently taken from their home.

And just to get an education I have to plee and I beg.

All because the government doesn't want me to get ahead.

You see, my people were brought here for working for others, not for a promising future.

So the government wants to know, "Why should we ever give you a booster?"

"But we will give you guns to kill your brothers, and you can patriotically enlist to be a trooper."

They try to hold me back but I tell you they will NEVER succeed...

For I have the faith of God and my ancestors flowing through me.

Flowing as deep as the ocean engulfing this island with all her angry waves,

To fight to live in "The land of the free, and home of the brave."